{"id":1055,"title":"How to run a viral charity t-shirt fundraising campaign","description":"Charity fundraising is adapting into our modern online world of selfies, influencers and hashtags, with some impressive results. If you're looking to run an online charity campaign, Teemill is the tool to get you started.","content":"

Charity fundraising is adapting into our modern online world of selfies, influencers and hashtags, with some impressive results. If you're looking to run an online charity campaign, Teemill is the tool to get you started. In this blog, we'll take a journey into how charities are using the power of the internet to take their campaigns viral.<\/p>

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Choose Love used t-shirts to take the charity campaign from 1 to 100.<\/strong><\/p>

Choose Love are a startup charity that began as a small team with little more than an internet connection. Unless you've been living under a rock with no internet connection, you've probably seen someone wearing a Choose Love tee somewhere on social media. The Choose Love campaign by Help Refugees reached millions of people in their first months, and because of the way they used their Teemill store, they raised \u00a3100 for every \u00a31 raised by the average charity.<\/p>

Think about that for a second. Tiny charities launched overnight are out-raising household names by 100X with a smarter way to engage the internet and social media. The charities of the future will be built on hashtags, t-shirts and tech.<\/p><\/blockquote>

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If you look around, everybody is now phone-first, and social media is where we spend a huge percentage of our time. Charities of the future know they need to win social media, and in particular keep people engaged with the campaign. What Choose Love did is show everyone exactly how to do that. They used the t-shirt, the hashtag, selfies and user generated content. If you\u2019re a big charity, this is the next natural evolution to stay current. If you\u2019re a tiny one, there\u2019s never been a better time to be alive.<\/p>

The best campaign tees have a simple, easy to understand slogan.<\/strong><\/p>

To start with, online is far more visual, and it\u2019s a lot faster. Your fundraising design needs to be clear for people scrolling fast through their social media feeds. What you\u2019re looking for has to be thumb-stopping stuff, and to be heard online that means a shout, not a squeak.<\/p>

Visually, it matters to start with a simple slogan that says everything people need to know about the issue, because if you want to reach a new audience, it has to make sense the first time a new person looks at it. That means potentially letting go of your logo and making the tee about the issue.<\/p>

Bold, clear campaigns with short, snappy messages are the ones that stick.<\/p><\/blockquote>

You don't need 500 designs. You can make one design work 500 times by putting it on a variety of products and varying through the seasons, like hoodies for Winter, tees for Summer and tote bags for gifting.<\/p>

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Selfies are the magic to take your charity t-shirt campaign viral.<\/strong><\/p>

Design is important, but where the best social media campaigns focus their time is in their content feed - the videos and pictures they post on social media, on their site, and in their newsletters. This means getting photos. You can give products away to influencers,<\/a> but it\u2019s the photos that hold the real value.<\/p>

An influencer might post to their audience once, but possessing that image means you can use it on your website, your social media feed, repost it again as a throw-back, put it in newsletters, or in ads. The list goes on and it all begins with one image. Imagine what you could do with 5, or 10.<\/p>

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Photos of people wearing your campaign tee is your digital currency. Influencers are gold, but on social media, everybody has a presence, not just the well known. Choose Love turned their tee into a hashtag, and used selfies to start a conversation on social media. Staff, friends, friends of friends, and early customers were asked to send in photos for them to repost. Because people bought the tee after seeing so many selfies, they started taking selfies and posting too, leading to an exponential increase in reach and sales. Sure, some influencers posted too. But the Choose Love guys didn\u2019t wait for them.<\/p>

The start of the campaign was seeded with selfies, helped with hashtags, accelerated with ads, and made permanent by pure momentum. They aimed to post pictures as much as possible. And that meant getting pictures.<\/p><\/blockquote>

If you have an existing database, or staff at your charity, that\u2019s even better. Make sure your team wears your own slogan tees, and use your existing database of supporters to kick off your campaign.<\/p>

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It's about the issue, not the product.<\/strong><\/p>

Here\u2019s the important bit. Be clear about how the product is linked to the issue. Show people on social media the work you\u2019re doing to combat it. Your team wearing your tee working in your environment on your issue is the kind of real life, fly-on-the-wall stuff that people want to follow on social media.<\/p>

People like social media because it's real, and if you clearly show the work you are doing, your audience can see what they are supporting and the work they are funding.<\/p>

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If you have powerful images that clearly show the reality of what you\u2019re trying to prevent, lead with it, post it and make it clear how your fundraising campaign can change the outcome, and frame your products as part of that solution. If people\u2019s purchases make a meaningful difference to an issue, that\u2019s not just buying something, it\u2019s making a difference. Don\u2019t ask for a purchase, ask for their support.<\/p>

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For the customer, the product isn\u2019t about the t-shirt. It\u2019s about the issue. Your customer is far more interested in the message and the issue than the product. If you invite them to share the story on social media, and surprise them by re-posting, they will feel part of something.<\/p>

For many charities, that\u2019s the start of a fundraising cycle where people feel the most connected with an issue, because they have a physical connection to it in real life. Their t-shirt acts as a memento or reminder each wear, that can lead to a connection your charity that\u2019s far more resilient than just a donation.<\/p>

It's all about repetition.<\/strong><\/p>

The most successful campaigns of all time are the ones that have a simple visual message on social media and in their communications and get one thing right. The repetition.<\/p><\/blockquote>

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Trillions of images are posted on social media daily and that fast speed means your posts only have moments to be noticed. Whilst you and your team may feel fatigue at showing your fundraiser campaign more than once, your customer probably won\u2019t take any notice until the 8th, 9th or 10th time they come across it. After all, if people don\u2019t know about your campaign, and can\u2019t see how your tee makes a difference to the real issues, they cannot help you.<\/p>

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A simple way to think about this is to ask yourself one question - can you remember everything you saw on social media last night?<\/p><\/blockquote>

So, you need to go for a bold tee and consistently share photos of people wearing it, link it clearly to the reality of the issue and never give up banging that same drum. Social media will reward you with massive results - big or small charity, people just want to get involved and support what you are doing.<\/p>

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The biggest brands and most successful campaigns are the ones that get a clear message on a t-shirt and make it their story. The images may change, you may start from the issue or the selfie or the influencer but the message stays the same. If you're ready to get started, head over to Studio<\/a> to create the tee to take your charity campaign viral.<\/p>

Images: Help Refugees, Katharine Hamnett, Save the Elephants, WWF International, Ecosia, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, War Child<\/em><\/p>","urlTitle":"viral-charity-tshirt-fundraising-campaign","url":"\/blog\/viral-charity-tshirt-fundraising-campaign\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/viral-charity-tshirt-fundraising-campaign\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/teemill.com\/blog\/viral-charity-tshirt-fundraising-campaign\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":true,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1565604611,"updatedAt":1707545042,"publishedAt":1707472949,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":12,"name":"Teemill"},"tags":[{"id":44,"code":"socialmedia","name":"socialmedia","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/socialmedia\/"}],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5e8743635a7951.30540280.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5e8743635a7951.30540280.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5e8743635a7951.30540280.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"","metaDescription":"How to do charity fundraising in our modern world of selfies, influencers and hashtags, with some impressive results.","keyPhraseCampaignId":4320,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":1130,"title":"How to get featured on Teemill's social media","url":"\/blog\/feature-social-media-shoutout\/","urlTitle":"feature-social-media-shoutout","division":12,"description":"Learn about what we look for and what to do if you want us to get behind your brand and help you with some free publicity via Teemill.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5da980f932c8c8.66924686.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5da980f932c8c8.66924686.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":1135,"title":"How to sell your products on social media","url":"\/blog\/sell-products-social-media\/","urlTitle":"sell-products-social-media","division":12,"description":"We asked members of our team that work directly with some of the hottest accounts on Teemill for the inside scoop on social media success. If you're serious about building your brand, find out our top strategies for selling your products on social media.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/dijz3xksbskbg6zbo1quuegkse3slqismgwnqwvqbs87u8dr.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/dijz3xksbskbg6zbo1quuegkse3slqismgwnqwvqbs87u8dr.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":1301,"title":"Set up your brand for shopping on social media","url":"\/blog\/facebook-instagram-social-media-shopping\/","urlTitle":"facebook-instagram-social-media-shopping","division":12,"description":"Shopping on social media is making a huge impact in online retail, and it's only getting more important. It's the place tomorrow's brands need to win.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5da744e134db87.11208009.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5da744e134db87.11208009.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}