Spot the difference: Cheetah Conservation Fund’s campaign a huge success

The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) recently ran a campaign with Fabrily featuring an incredible design… an illustration of KhayJay, one of their current resident cheetahs, filled with the names of 25 years worth of cheetahs that the CCF has saved. The campaign smashed its goal of 20, in the end selling over 440 items! It was so successful in fact that the CCF decided to relaunch the campaign for 7 days only which has already sold 50+ items in the first 24 hours.

The original CCF tee.

Heather Ravenscroft, Chapter Liaison and Communications Assistant at the CCF was kind enough to sit down with us and explain her campaigning experience with Fabrily:

Can you tell us a little bit more about the work the Cheetah Conservation Fund does and how the funds raised will be used? Cheetah Conservation Fund is a non-profit based in Namibia with a very small office in the US and some volunteer run affiliates in Europe, UK, Australia, Canada, and an energetic start-up in China.

CCF Namibia uses multiple different strategies to help cheetahs and other predators live side-by-side with human populations. We have a campus located in Otjiwarongo where we have a genetics and veterinary lab, visitor centre, model farm, a cheetah run for exercising our cheetahs, and both staff and visitor housing with a campsite to accommodate school groups. Our work with local farmers is particularly important to ensure a sustainable strategy for increasing the cheetah population, as Namibia has a lot of livestock farming.

While our primary mission is to keep the cheetah in the wild, we can’t always return every rehabilitated cheetah. We have 36 cheetahs on CCF grounds at the moment that cannot be released and will be cared for throughout the remainder of their lives. The shirt we decided to make was a representation of the individual cheetahs we have cared for in the past 25 years of CCF.

How did you initially hear about Fabrily? Why did you decide to use the platform? Fabrily had heard of the great work we were doing and contacted us directly. We had just held a sock campaign with a different company and had some success with it. In an attempt to minimise the expense of fulfilment and keeping stock for sale, we are always looking out for innovative ways to sell merchandise.

How did you promote the campaign so that it reached its goal? Did one marketing channel work better than another? We used Facebook, and an email campaign. Facebook did very well but our email campaign was the most effective. We got so many responses right after an email went out.

 

An example Facebook post the CCF used to help promote their campaign.

What fundraising methods have you used in the past (if any)? Was there anything that really stood out to you about using Fabrily? We primarily raise funds using mailing campaigns and holding events. We do sell merchandise through an online retailer and we sell merchandise at events. Fabrily was easy to use and the support was great, even down to help with setting up our page. They even helped us with the design!

Overall, how was your campaigning experience with Fabrily? Would you recommend it to other small charities? It has been great so far. Yes we would.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers? Support the cheetahs!

Interested in launching your own Fabrily campaign? Visit fabrily.com and click “start a campaign”! If you need assistance or have any questions please contact us at campaigns@fabrily.com

Fundraising with Fabrily: How to write the perfect campaign description

You’ve got your design idea and are in the process of setting up your first Fabrily campaign…now what? It all starts with a great campaign description! Below we’ll offer tips and examples on writing a great description and explain why it’s so important to the success of your campaign.

Campaign Description DO’s and DON’Ts

Your campaign description is more important than you think! Having a good campaign description adds creditability to your campaign, provides people with a way of contacting or connecting with your organization, and offers you the opportunity to ask your supporters for help promoting the campaign. Here are the DO’s and DONT’s of writing your campaign description:

DO:

• DO write 1 – 2 paragraphs about the organization & how funds raised will be used
• DO include inks to your website, social media accounts, etc.
• DO make sure to thank people for their support and ask them to help you promote the campaign through their social media accounts

DON’T:

• DON’T make your campaign description too long – this is something we see a lot and it is a big NO-NO! When your description is super long it makes viewing different styles/colours very difficult. Also having the “buy now” button clearly visible increases the chances of people making a purchase.
• DON’T leave out links to your website or the website of the organization where the funds will be sent – the absence of this information can make a campaign look less credible; people want to know where the funds raised are going.

REAL CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES:

1. Marie Curie Fundraiser

Vicki wrote up a great description for her campaign – she explains why she is raising funds, how the funds will be used, included links to her social media accounts, as well as asked supporters to help her promote the campaign via social media. Also notice the shirt styles and colour options are clearly visible.

2. Blackfish Brigade

Blackfish Brigade is a perfect example of a good campaign description – all the information is clearly visible, they have included links to their social media accounts, and they thank their supporters as well as explain exactly where the funds raised will be sent.

3. MSA Awareness

This campaign description by MSA Awareness is short but it tells us the main things we need to know– who the fundraiser is for, how the funds will be used, and where we can find more information about the organization. Notice the colour options are clearly visible as well as the green “buy now” button.

For more tips please visit our Success Stories page where we provide video tutorials, campaign insight, advice from past campaigners, and promotions guides for Facebook, Twitter, and post-campaign promotion.

Post-Campaign Promotion: what to do once your Fabrily campaign ends

Many people don’t realize just how important post-campaign promotion is. If you’ve launched a successful Fabrily campaign chances are you’ll launch another one! So what is the secret to boosting sales for your next campaign? Selfies! Yes you heard us correctly…”selfies” are a great way to keep buzz going about your previous campaign and create social proof to reassure uncertain customers about the quality of items you’ll offer in future campaigns.

How does social proof work?

Imagine a satisfied customer from your campaign shares a “selfie” on your Facebook page with their new item. They include a comment about how much they like their new item and how great it is…if someone was uncertain about purchasing an item from your previous campaign, now that they see their peer is satisfied with their purchase, the uncertain customer is more likely to purchase an item from your next campaign…see how this works?

SharkAid International shared a Facebook post with their followers asking them to submit a photo once they received their shirts.

By encouraging supporters to share selfies you achieve several things:

1. You add credibility to your campaign and encourage creation of social proof to persuade uncertain customers to purchase (other followers will see that their peers purchased an item and are happy with the product – this makes them more likely to purchase a shirt if you run another campaign in the future)
2. Your followers create and share digital content (user generated content) about your organization on social media which boosts your organization’s exposure and reach online
3. You can also use these photos/content for your own website, newsletters, etc.
4. The extra exposure and interest in your campaign items can help you sell more the next time you launch a campaign!

Bat Conservation Trust took advantage of the interest in their supporter’s selfies to share their re-launched campaign!

The Bikepsyche Facebook group created an album to share their pictures with fellow page fans and promote their latest campaigns. They’ve sold hundreds of shirts to date! 😉

We have created a special Facebook album”My Fabrily #FabTees” for campaign supporters – we encourage all of our non-profits and other groups to share these photos with us and have them added to the album; this will give your group even more exposure via Fabrily’s social media pages.

We’re also running a “Fabrily Fan of the Month” selfie contest this March which presents a great opportunity for you to gain more exposure for you website and social media accounts as well as grant your supporters the chance to win some fab prizes!

For more promotional tips visit our Free Promotional Tips page