RUNNING A PTA – Digital fundraising
bar at the summer fair. It’s also useful for bake sales, uniform sales and event ticket sales. A new card reader costs around £20-£30, but should pay for itself quickly.
How can a PTA encourage donations on social media? Social media has huge potential for promoting events and sharing your successes with parents and the local community. It’s also a great way to direct people to your group’s online fundraising platform. However, winning a donation
typically requires people to feel an emotional connection with a cause, and a PTA can use storytelling techniques to encourage this. The key is to keep stories short and engaging. Focus on the problem – for example, the pressing need to renovate an old playground – and describe the solution you need people to help with. Make sure your story seamlessly
fl ows into fundraising. Having built compassion in your audience you want to make it as easy as possible for them to act on it, so give them several routes to donate.
When promoting an event by email, where is the line between getting the message out and bombarding people with information?
Email marketing, the act of sending emails to users with a specifi c purpose, is perhaps the most popular and successful form of marketing. However, it is tricky to achieve the right balance. To begin, set a standard frequency with which to send your emails.
Using the school’s email removes the need to seek consent before emailing parents, but means you can’t track user behaviour. Mailing software, such as MailChimp, will help you to monitor and report on your efforts. Adapt your frequency depending on the responses you receive from your audience. For example, if you are seeing a poor click-through-rate, or loads of people unsubscribing, perhaps you’re contacting people too often. If you are seeing a positive response, try a few additional emails.
30 AUTUMN 2022
pta.co.uk
How can a PTA make digital communications more accessible to different audiences? Use plain and simple language. It’s important not to confuse your audience with jargon because unfamiliar words can, unintentionally, form barriers that exclude sections of your audience. If you use photographs, videos and
GIFs in your social media posts, there are small changes you can make to boost accessibility. Use simple fonts and alt texts for images wherever possible and explain GIFs and videos in the text. For hashtags, always use Camel
Case (capitalising each new word), particularly on social media.
What are the best ways for a PTA to thank volunteers digitally? Whether you send out simple thank you emails or throw an elaborate digital event to celebrate volunteers, it is essential to show them you appreciate and acknowledge their hard work. You could make a video to show supporters what you’ve achieved over the year and demonstrate the impact your volunteers have had on the end result. Keep it personal. Given the
small size of PTAs and school communities, this is especially
important. Use your website and social channels to thank individuals by mentioning them in the text of your post rather than tagging them. If you’re using email, don’t write
the same thing to everyone. No one likes to feel as if they are being thanked via copy and paste!
What’s trending in the world of digital fundraising? One thing that I’ve noticed, perhaps anecdotally, is a drive for more creative and quirky fundraisers. People are throwing all kinds of interesting events that are raising loads of money for charities. Our recent 50 Incredible Fundraising
Ideas article contains videos, podcasts and hyperlinks that show what a wide world of fundraising there is out there – sure to provide inspiration for your next events. Read the article at
charitydigital.org.uk/ topics/50-incredible-fundraising- ideas-10004
●Charity Digital’s mission is to help good causes achieve more with digital technology. It also runs the Charity Digital Exchange platform, partnering with leading technology companies to offer charities substantial discounts on hardware and software.
charitydigital.org.uk/home
INTERVIEW: ANNA SCOTT; IMAGES: ANTON VIERIETIN/
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
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