Animal Rescue League of Berks County raised 82% more YoY for its annual Valentine’s campaign
Mission
Protect animals, provide a safe haven, and promote innovative programs and services to help both people and animals in need throughout Berks County
Challenge
Raising more every year for a Valentine’s campaign during a relatively slow fundraising period
Solution
Animal Rescue League of Berks County created a fun and visually appealing campaign in Studio that resonated with donors and raised 82% more year over year
“We get to be a lot more creative with GoFundMe Pro, and our donors are starting to learn and appreciate that. Not only is there more information on one page, but we can make it a fun experience to interact with us and make a donation.”
– Stacey Cole, Chief Development Officer
Results with Studio:
82% increase
in dollars raised year over year
61% increase
in donors year over year
89
new donors
Upleveling an annual Valentine’s campaign
Animal Rescue League of Berks County (ARL) has been running a Valentine’s campaign, Smooches for Pooches, for a few years, but this year was the first time using GoFundMe Pro. The team decided to create the campaign using Studio, which gave them more design flexibility and allowed them to add fun elements, like pictures of animals and impact tiles offering to deliver a hug or a kiss for $10 or $20.
Building the Smooches for Pooches campaign in Studio was much easier, thanks to the drag-and-drop functionality, and took only minutes compared to previous years. This year, the giving experience was much more user-friendly with a streamlined giving process and mobile-friendly, with a majority of donors choosing to give on their mobile phones.
Compared to last year, the Smooches for Pooches campaign raised 82% more, saw a 61% increase in donors, and brought in 89 new donors!
Getting creative with campaign designs and internal resources
For every appeal, ARL creates a new donation page to ensure the continuity of what supporters see in the mail and on social media. Without an in-house designer, the ARL team has been using Canva, a graphic design platform. The free subscription includes countless templates that bring incredible value to their campaigns, including Smooches for Pooches. The Canva design assets could be easily uploaded to the Studio campaign and dropped into any section seamlessly.
With a small team of only three people, we have to get creative, not only in our designs but in how we use our team’s time and internal resources. Tools like Canva have been really helpful for us design-wise, but using GoFundMe Pro has been instrumental in all aspects of our day-to-day work.
Stacey’s GoFundMe Pro tips:
- Try new things, and don’t be afraid to break your campaigns.
- It’s the best way to learn how all the different pages work, and since building campaigns on Studio is so easy, it doesn’t take too much of your time to experiment.
- Trust and use GoFundMe Pro’s customer support.
- If I do break something, I can always reach out to them to help me fix it.
- Take the chance on GoFundMe Pro
- I am confident you’ll see an improvement in your fundraising and have more fun making campaigns!
