Most people don't want to sit idly by while their direct debit helps a charity. They want to be involved. They want to push themselves and feel that their efforts are directly helping others.
But they want to do it when they choose, at a time that suits their schedule, with minimal time wasted signing up.
Offer this and you'll raise money from people who've never supported your charity before.
The tricky part is doing this consistently, at scale. To do this, you need to do four things well:
1) Pick the right challenges for your cause.
2) Choose what social media platforms to use.
3) Decide how much you can spend on media, profitably.
4) Challenge people in fresh, new ways.
Our consultants, copywriters and photographers spend all of their time on these four things. This sustained focus has generated these returns for our clients:
Client ROI updated: August 2023
The clients we work with are knowledgeable and experienced. They continue to work with us, year after year, because we maximise the money they can raise from their challenges calendar.
If you’re a senior fundraiser, and you're interested in working with us, please do let us know.
“The income has been spectacular. I kept asking if we should aim lower than €150,000, but that’s what we raised on Facebook in a month. We’re a small domestic violence charity and I can already see the difference the money is making. We’ve added to our frontline services. Suggestions that have been a ‘No’ for years are now a ‘let’s have a meeting about that.’ It’s amazing to see.”
“12 months ago I wouldn't have believed we could connect with so many dog-loving fundraisers and donors on Facebook. You have to be willing to give things a try. We've learned a lot about the algorithms and how the platform actually works. I'm blown away by our success. The income has been phenomenal and it's helping us save more dogs.”
“With my experience in community fundraising I felt that Facebook would be a natural fit for recruitment and developing supporter relationships. We decided to give it a real go. We were confident that it would work but the scale surprised us... when you crack something you can scale it rapidly. As a result, we've funded a new ECMO Life Support Machine and refurbished a ward.”
The methods we are using will seem strange to you, at first. You will have to leave your comfort zone. But they work.
They were developed gradually, over time, by trial and error. Most of this was done by Adrian O’Flynn who started Get Your Stories Straight.
“I spent 7 years banging my head against the digital acquisition problem, both in-house and as a freelancer. Retention was easy. Acquisition was not. But the good thing about being a freelancer is that fundraisers mainly want you to work on acquisition. So when SEO, PPC, display ads, inbound marketing and organic social didn’t work… I just had to keep on going.”
“I found refuge in paid social, specifically Facebook Ads. Here was something you could work on and improve, which had scale. You could test and learn. And when you found something that really worked in the newsfeed, the algorithm had your back. You’d get more results, for a lower CPA. Then when Facebook Fundraisers came along... the results were just astounding.”
Get Your Stories Straight is a digital agency based in Dublin, Ireland.
Our methods we use were developed by trial and error. This process was started by Adrian O'Flynn, Head of Creative & Innovation.
“I spent 7 years banging my head against the digital fundraising problem, both in-house and as a freelancer. Retention was always easy. Acquisition was always painful.”
“I found refuge in paid social. You can run cheap tests and get learnings and make progress. These learnings led to Facebook Challenges, an avalanche of income and a mild obsession with the impact which innovation can have.”
We'll be working solely on challenges for the foreseeable future.
So some of our best campaigns, ad copy, tactics and insights are available for free in the eBooks below.