Manual

Choosing your cover picture

It’s easy to tell people not to judge a book by its cover, but in reality, we very often base our reading choices on esthetics. The same goes for campaigns!

Grab a contributor’s attention with a stunning action shot or an inspiring team picture.

Your picture should be:

• High-quality and high resolution
• Attention-grabbing

Writing a title

After being drawn in by your awesome cover photo, a contributor will then read your title and decide whether they want to read on. First impressions count, so make sure your title is interesting and accurately reflects your athletic goal. People want to make a difference in your life now, so make sure your goal is relevant and realistic to your current situation.

When writing your title, remember the three Cs – Clear, Concise, Catchy.

Clear: What is the event, competition or ultimate goal of your campaign? Avoid being vague or talking about a goal that is too far away.

Concise: You want your contributors to be able to tell other people about your campaign in one sentence.

Catchy: If people are going to share your campaign, they need to remember it, so be creative (oops, that’s the 4th C!).

Present your campaign as a chance for supporters to be a part of something bigger than themselves, so avoid words like help, donate or charity, and use words like join, take part, and follow.

Here are a couple good examples:

• Let's get GOLD at the 2014 IFMA World Muay Thai Championships
• Send Me to Japan to Chase My Judo Goals!
• Travel to California to become the first BJJ World Champion in my region.

Share your story

So you’ve hooked the crowd with your cool picture and catchy title, but you need to show them who you are and what you can do. Use your video and description to clearly communicate why you’re running this campaign and what you will accomplish with their support. This is your chance to inspire supporters and get them excited about joining your journey!

Here are some tips from one of our successful campaigns: http://makeachamp.com/blog/fundraising-like-a-champ-how-athlete-eseroghene-omene-raised-136-of-her-goal-to-go-to-the-pan-am-games

If you’re not sure how to make a video or upload it to Youtube or Vimeo, check out our step-by-step guide.

Written story:

Even if your video is incredible, you have to assume that some people will still not watch it. Here you can elaborate on the points you touched on in your video, provide more details about your past, present and future experiences and why you’re running the campaign. We have couple of built in templates to make this process even more easier.

Your text should:

• Be captivating and emotional: make people root for your success!
• State your athletic goals clearly, provide a good overview on how far you’ve come, and explain why you’re committed to this sport!
• Be specific and transparent: to make contributors trust you and feel like they’re supporting something tangible, explain the breakdown of exactly what the money will be used for (travel, equipment, coaching, physiotherapy, event fees, etc.)
• Refer to rewards: explain what the contributor gets in return (other than satisfaction of knowing they helped)
• Show gratitude: conclude in a positive and powerful manner, and don’t forget the call to action and a bit of gratitude.
  • Ex: “any contribution, big or small, is greatly appreciated”
  • Ex: “thank you for sharing my campaign with your friends and family”

Choosing a Language:

It’s best to write and record your video in your mother tongue.

Since MAKEACHAMP is a global platform, which allows you to share your story with people around the world, we also suggest having an English translation of your text and English subtitles in your video. You can read more about choosing a language and adding subtitles to your video, in this blog post.

4. Deciding on duration

Did you know that the length of your campaign could greatly affect your chances of success? The MAKEACHAMP team has found that the most effective campaigns run for 30 to 45 days.

Here’s why:

Momentum: your campaign should be long enough to generate buzz, but not long enough that people forget about it.

Engagement: the longer your campaign, the harder it is to keep people interested.

Urgency: knowing that your campaign is ending soon creates a sense of urgency for the contributor – they are more likely to contribute immediately, before it’s too late.

Focus: running a campaign takes a lot of time and energy, so the longer you spend campaigning, the more time you’re taking away from your training and the less focused you are on your sport.

Now that you know what the ideal length is, you need to think about when to start and end your campaign. There are a few items to take into consideration for this decision:

• It can take up to 10-15 days to receive the funds once your campaign ends.
• If you do not need the funds before your event, we recommend utilizing the buzz around your competition to get more media coverage and rally your supporters throughout. Fans enjoy being part of your success while you’re competing, therefore running your campaign during one of your events can help boost your results.
• If your campaign picks up momentum towards the end and you think it would benefit from running longer, you can send us a message requesting to extend your campaign, and we’ll be happy to set that up for you.

5. Calculating a funding goal

The first thing you should know is that you get to keep the money that you raise during your campaign, whether or not you hit your goal. Now, you may be thinking about setting a really high goal because you have “nothing to lose,” but this could actually do you more harm than good.

Benefits of having a realistic goal:

• They seem achievable - People like being part of a success story.
• When people contribute, they will feel like they made a significant impact on your life, even if it was a small contribution. With positive feelings towards your campaign, they’ll be more likely tell their friends about it.
• Contributors will trust you – they will understand that you’re not trying to steal money, but that the money has a real, legitimate purpose.

How do you set a realistic goal?

1) Estimate a budget: make a list of every possible expense relating to your sport and your campaign – from training and travel, to packing and shipping rewards. Add them all up. You now have a rough budget and a very good starting point for your funding goal.

2) Think about your reach: MAKEACHAMP is a great place to share your campaign with a global audience. That being said, most of your contributions will come from your friends, family and community, so your goal should be based on your network size. Your should be able to raise 30% of your goal in the first week, just from your close friends and family, so you need to know how much support you can really expect from them.

3) Give yourself a buffer: When your campaign is over, the money you raised will be subject to a PayPal or a Stripe processing fees (2.9% +0.30$), so we suggest setting your campaign goal a bit higher in order to account for these. View the pricing page for more details.

Here’s an example of how to make that calculation:

• Sports cost: $900; Rewards cost: $100; Fees: 3%
• Amount needed to cover costs: $900 + $100 = $1000
• Goal (accounting for fees): $1000 x 0.3 = $1,030

If after doing that math, you think that your goal seems unachievable or so high that it may scare people away, then we suggest breaking it into multiple consecutive campaigns. Between campaigns, you can, and should, update your athlete page to keep your fans engaged, informed, and ready to contribute to your next campaign.

6. Rewards

Rewards are offered to contributors in exchange for their support. Rewards are not obligatory, but your chances of reaching your goal (especially big amounts) will increase with having them.

Campaigns that offer rewards tend to be more successful than those that do not. Rewards offer a way for the athletes to form long-lasting relationships with their fans, they make the contributor feel valued for their support, and they help you spread the word about the campaign (if they’re interesting).

The more creative you are with your rewards, the more buzz you’ll be able to generate around them. We provide some templates, but we suggest tweaking them a bit to make them your own, and adding a description of what that money could help you buy: equipment, travel, coaching fees, lodging, etc.

Here are a few types of rewards you can offer:

• Shout-out: A public shout-out and thank you message on your social media channels.
• Souvenirs: Sending or bringing back an item or postcard from one of your sports-related travels, such as a competition abroad.
• Crafts: Handmade items you can send to a contributor, such as a knitted hat or scarf.
• Experience: An opportunity to train with you or see you compete.
• Merchandise: Clothing, equipment, signed photographs or posters
• Challenges: Promise to do 20 push-ups for every $200 contribution
• Lessons: With you or the coach
• Visibility: An opportunity for sponsors to put their logo on your gear or clothing, have you participate in promotional events, and so on.
• If you already have a sponsor, they can offer products you can use as rewards.
• Don’t forget to add pictures in your rewards section!

Pricing rewards:

Would you pay $100 for someone to say thank you on Facebook? I didn’t think so. Try to price your rewards fairly and strategically, and offer many price ranges. Remember that typically people contribute $25, so offer many rewards around that or a little bit higher to encourage people to contribute a bit more.

7. Sponsors

Companies are looking for visibility to promote their products and services. Crowdfunding campaigns and athletes can be very popular, especially on social media. Your campaign can be a great way to showcase existing sponsors, and also attract new ones. Discuss with your favorite gear provider, gym, travel agent or local business!

If you already have a sponsor, you can add their logo, link to their website, and description to your campaign page to give you more credibility.

If you acquire a sponsor during your campaign, go ahead and add their logo! The more, the merrier! In one of your rewards, you can even mention that you will showcase their logo on your campaign page.

Your sponsor’s logo will also appear on your athlete profile. You can delete and add more sponsors at any point.

8. Receiving payments

If you have a bank account in USA or Canada you will have to fill out the "payment information" section of your campaign creation and funds will be sent to you via our payments processor partener, Stripe.

In order to receive the funds you raise, you’ll first need to set up a PayPal account. Don’t worry, PayPal is free and provides secure online transactions!

If you already have one, then you simply need to provide us with the associated email address when you fill out the campaign form. If you don’t have one, click here to create one.

Once you create your account, Paypal will invite you to connect to your bank account. Follow the steps to prevent a delay in receiving payments.

Our policy is to send you the funds within 10-15 days after your campaign ends, so make sure to take this into account when you decide on the end-date of your campaign!

If you’re a team manager, connect your PayPal account and we will send you all the funds at the end of the campaign. It will be up to you to distribute the funds to your athletes, but we can provide you with a list of the breakdown.

9. Preparing for early momentum

Most successful campaigns raise 30% of their funds in the first few days, from their close friends and family. These immediate contributions are essential because they give your campaign credibility, and make people feel comfortable contributing. Early momentum can also be leveraged for marketing and press, which in turn will bring in more contributions.

To create this early momentum:

• Add an offline contribution to show how much you are personally contributing to show everyone that you are investing in your own project too. (Log in, click contributors on the black bar, and then "add offline contribution.")
• Make a list of the top 5 people who can and want to contribute to your campaign right at the beginning. Make sure to spend time with them a few days before the campaign and discuss how they can contribute the moment you launch.
• Talk about your campaign before you launch: Post a short "teaser" preview video on social media. You can post messages/photos on social media, in blogs, and send out personal emails pre-promoting your campaign.
• One major recommendation would be a face to face with any of your supporters. Preferably face to face with supporters that are not members of your family. This is a very strong method that can definitely get people on board with your campaign. Also if you can use Skype for some face to face time with any supporters. It is recommended you do so.
• Keep track of who committed to contributing and follow-up with them when you launch
• Come up with a campaign hashtag and use it for the duration of the campaign in all communications and on social media. Come up with something trendy and catchy that can be replicated across the various social media platforms.
• Email potential supporters before the launch of your campaign.

10. Strategize

Early momentum is key, but keeping that momentum up throughout your campaign is just as important. Before launching, take some time to think of a strategy to keep people engaged.

Start by collecting pictures and videos of you training, competing, or receiving awards. Once you have a collection of media, you can then decide when you would like to share them and how.

Creating a team campaign

In order to have the option to invite your team members and manage their campaigns, you first need to identify yourself as the Team Manager in the “I am A” section.

Inviting your team members

In the “Team” tab, you may then invite your team members to join your campaign. There are several ways to create a team campaign that vary in terms of how much time and energy they require from you. Below we will list them from most involvement, to least:

• Using the bulk import feature, you will import all the members of the team using their email addresses. This will create a profile for each athlete, which you can then edit: change photos, text, funding goal, etc. The athletes will be able to log into their accounts and change things as well.
• Print out the step-by-step guide on how to join your team and create an athlete profile, and hand it out to your athletes. They will then create their own profiles.
• Send out an email with the unique URL we provide you. Your team members will simply have to click the URL and create their profiles.

In all three of these cases, you will have to provide us with the funding goal per person, which will appear on their profile when they or you create it. You will have the ability to edit or delete any of these profiles at any point.

Contacting your team members

Once your campaign is running, check on your page frequently to see how your athletes are doing. If you need to contact any or all of them regarding their campaigns, you can use our mail feature to send them a quick message.

1. Launch

When your campaign goes live, send the link to everyone in your first circle (close friends and family) and ask them to be the first to contribute and share your campaign. This will help you generate momentum.

Follow-up with personal emails, phone calls, Facebook messages, or better yet, do it face-to-face! This increases the chance that they will contribute and makes them feel valued and appreciated!

Remember to write a short description of your goal and your rewards, and include a link to your campaign in your online messages. This will be helpful when they want to share the information with their friends.

2. Spread the Word Online

Once you’ve shared your campaign with your first circle, it’s time to share it far and wide! Lucky for you, MAKEACHAMP provides you with many tools to help you do just that!

1. Sending Emails:

Emails are the best way to reach your supporters, and the MAKEACHAMP email tool makes this really easy. We’ve broken down the emailing section into three separate parts :

• First Circle (Close Friends and Family)
• Second Circle (Acquaintances, Friends and Friends of Friends)
• Third and Fourth Circles (Crowd, Press, Businesses)

Learn more on how you can leverage your circle by reading this blog.

Go to your inbox, whichever it may be – Gmail, Outlook, etc – and see if you have a relative or close family member that you have interacted with via email. Write them a personal email with your campaign link and a small description – ask them to help you reach your goal by contributing and sharing it with as many people as they know.

If done properly this will dramatically increase the chances of success for your campaign. This is because your relatives are your biggest fans and with this email, not only are they able to be your first contributors but they can also forward this email to other relatives and help you get more contributions.

Your older family relatives such as grandparents, great uncles and aunts are much more likely to be using email as a communication tool. Sending your campaign link to their inbox allows them to reach into their “deep” network of connections to get you more support. For example, a grandparent or parent will be able to forward your email colleagues or friends.

Your second circle of supporters is made up of acquaintances, friends and friends of friends. This circle of supporters needs a bit more persuasion. However just in sheer size, this circle includes A LOT more people than your first circle. However, the amount per contribution is smaller, but this may not always be the case. This is important to consider because if you do this properly you might be able to rack up a lot more smaller contributions.

This circle of supporters wants to be a part of your success. However in order to contribute they want to know a little bit more about you and what it is that you do. As a result, you should use pictures, images, videos and any other mediums to tell your story – entice them into joining you!

To help you with this process, we’ve added an easy to use updates system that allows you to update your supporters. What this means is on Step 4 (Promote) of your campaign creation you are able to add potential supporters and on step 5 you are able to craft an update with text, pictures and videos that will be sent to the supporters you’ve added and published on the selected social networks.

Reaching out to the media is a really great way to spread the word about your campaign, it gives you credibility, boosts your momentum, and it’s good for your athletic image. We suggest contacting your local newspapers, freelance journalists ,magazines and TV stations about your story and your campaign. They’re often happy to do a short piece on an aspiring athlete in the community.

We provide tips about how to contact the media in our campaign creation process, as well as templates and a tool to track who you’ve contacted and whether or not they responded.

Tips for finding journalists:

• Take a look at your local newspapers, magazines, tv shows, and see who covers stories like yours (sports-related or human interest mostly)
• Make a list of the names of the journalists who cover your sport in your area
• Do some digging to find contact information: check LinkedIn, company websites, Twitter, etc.

Tips for contacting journalists:

• Either introduce yourself as an expert in your field or pitch your campaign as a story (it adds something new to the sports, reveals something new about your career, your attempts to do something you have never done before…)
• Provide pictures and material to build trust, reveal your past experience, show how hard you’re working, and show the importance of your goal
• Find an angle and explain why your campaign is part of a bigger story
• Add that this is a time-sensitive story and the journalist needs to take action before your campaign ends

If you have a great story and do not know how to find journalists, contact us! We will help you get press and blog coverage.

2. Sharing on Social Media:

Promoting your campaign on your social media channels is one of the BEST way to reach your extended network. When you go live, use the update box to announce your campaign on Facebook and Twitter and send a message to your list of supporters (Step 4 of your campaign creation). Throughout your campaign you can either use the built in update box or social media by themselves.

Tips on Social Media:

• Photos: Regularly post a training or competition photo about yourself and your campaign goals. Don't forget to include the direct MAKEACHAMP page url. Post messages about milestones and sporting achievements ( such as making the podium) you’ve reached in your campaign – "We hit 30 percent of our goal today thanks to you!" or “I made the podium and came second today”.
• Use a collage tool to improve the quality of your posts - we have found Pablo as being very good.
• If you have Instgram, don't forget to add your MAKEACHAMP direct link into your Bio.
• Rewards: You can show off your rewards on social media.
• Thank-you's: These are crucial. Read our blog post to learn more.
• Contest: Have a mini contest for a day to raise $XXX and the winner will get a reward of sorts. You can pick as many winners as you like but no more than three.
• Facebook advertisements: Concider it as you can reach a much larger audiance. We recommand it for larger campaigns.

You can also use our share buttons to post a link to your campaign on all of your social networks. You can keep track of how much your campaign is being shared throughout your campaign too.

Though not everyone has the money to contribute, they all have the ability to share your campaign. Reach out to some of your friends with the most followers on Facebook or Twitter, and ask them to post about your campaign (and of course include the link). You can try creating a unique hashtag that your friends can use when they post about you as well!

3. Facebook event

You might be posting updates on your Facebook wall every day, but that doesn’t mean people are seeing them! MAKEACHAMP has found that the best way to make sure people know about your campaign and see your updates is to create a Facebook event and invite all your Facebook friends. Be sure to include a link to your MAKEACHAMP campaign, as well as a description of your rewards and your goal.

Not only will they receive all your updates, but it also provides them with a way to give you feedback and encouragement. Don’t forget to add a link to this Facebook event on your campaign!

4. Sport Associations

Your local, provincial, and national sport organizations are the perfect mediums to amplify your fundraising efforts. Write them a quick email to let them know about your campaign. Remember you have an amazing story, people want to hear about it. Also ask them to use their resources such as social media, their website, and newsletters to help you spread your campaign. Remember to always be polite and respectful.

3. Spread the Word Offline

While sharing online is a great way to build awareness about your campaign, face-to-face communication is still one of the best ways to get more funding. When you take the time to explain your campaign to someone in person, they feel more connected to you and your goals, and are more likely to contribute. This doesn’t have to be complicated, it can actually be fun!

Here are some ways to spread the word:

1. Organize a dinner or get together

We’re not talking about a big fancy party, but inviting some friends and family over for dinner when you launch your campaign can go a long way. Take some time to introduce them to the platform and show them your video you worked so hard on!

2. Tell your coach, club, gym and team

These are people you see all the time, and they see how hard you’ve worked and how far you’ve come; these are the people who want you to succeed. They would be happy to spread the word and contribute.

Ask your club or gym to mention you in an email to all club members and other members in person. If you’re a coach, tell the athletes you train; they love being a part of your journey and feeling like they made a difference. You can also print out posters that you can leave at your training facility or club.

3. Engage your parents

Your parents can be one of the biggest resources in your campaign. They’re your number one fans, and what parent doesn’t love talking about their child to their friends. What’s more, is that your parents’ friends actually have the means to contribute financially (unlike some of your Facebook friends). You can print out posters or flyers that they can hand out, or send them an email with the link to your campaign that they can forward to their friends, colleagues and extended family.

4. Deliver rewards personally

Instead of sending rewards, try delivering them in person during your campaign. This makes the contributor feel appreciated, forms a bond between you and your supporter, and makes them a more loyal fan. Do you know what loyal fans do? They spread the word! Be sure to take a picture of you and your supporter with the reward and post it on your campaign as an update.

4. Updates

Updates are an important way to drive new people to visit your campaign and keep supporters informed about your progress. An email can be sent to all your supporters on the list, this multiplies your outreach to your acquaintances. Also you can post a message on your facebook page and both personal and public to further increase your outreach.

Tips and Tricks:

• Use our update box to share photos, videos and messages with your supporters. Our tools allow you to post these updates on Facebook and Twitter, and send them to your supporters by email.
• Post frequently (at least every 5 days) about your your travels, competitions, results, rewards, progress or more. Bring your suporters along for the ride. The more connected they feel, the more driven they will be to help you succeed.
• Find a theme that you can post about each week - this will create loyal fans who check back frequently. For example: create a weekly video tutorial about a subject related to your sport (training, nutrition, tips and tricks) Record a thank-you video update from time to time. People like seeing your face and it gives you an opportunity to highlight the financial aspect of your campaign.Here’s a great example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEB_HABAIFI

5. Promote your rewards

You took the time to come up with creative rewards, now use them to encourage people to visit your campaign by talking about them on your social media pages.

If possible, start sending out rewards before the end of your campaign. Contributors are likely to share their rewards and experience with their friends, which will be great publicity for your campaign. You can ask your contributors to send you pictures of themselves with the reward so you can post it on your campaign as an update!

You can also add rewards at any point in your campaign to generate more buzz. Go into the “Contributors” tab during your campaign to see which rewards are most popular and try to create improved versions of those rewards.

6. Show gratitude

When you get a contribution, you will get an email notification with the name of the person that contributed. If you’re not already friends with them on Facebook or Twitter, go find them and add them. Next, write a public thank you message to them by tagging them in by name (don’t forget to include a link to your campaign).

Not only is this a great way to give your contributor the recognition they deserve, but it also helps increase awareness about your campaign. Your message will appear on their wall so their friends will see your campaign, which may lead to a ripple effect of contributions - Read more.

7. Getting sponsors

Having a MAKEACHAMP campaign can actually make it easier for you to find a corporate sponsor. If you’ve been sharing your story and contacting the press, then you’ve probably created a buzz around yourself and your campaign and have generated a lot of visitors to your page. This is the type of visibility a sponsor looks for, but you need to show them why it’s worth it for them.

In your rewards, offer different options that companies of various sizes would be interested in. Here are some examples:

• $500: Put their logo on your MAKEACHAMP campaign and athlete profile, as well as do online promotions for them.
• $2000: put their logo on my training outfit, personal website, MAKEACHAMP campaign and profile, equipment bag, and do online promotions.
• $5000: Put their logo on your competition outfit, personal website, MAKEACHAMP campaign and profile, equipment bag, put a banner in your school/gym, do promotional events and promote online.

Next you need to bring these rewards to their attention. Write an email or go to a company in person and explain your athletic goals, why you’re the right person to sponsor, what benefits they would get and so on. For a guideline on what to write in an email or letter to a company, click here.

Note: You can add as many logos as you want on your campaign page and athlete profile.

1. Fulfill rewards

Once your campaign is over, you need to thank your contributors and send them the rewards they requested. It’s best to send them in the first 2 weeks after your campaign ends in order to maintain a relationship with your fans and keep their trust.

In the “Contributor” tab, you will see a list of all the contributors and what rewards they requested. In this table, you can keep track of which ones you’ve sent and you can contact your supporters if you require more information (size, address, etc.)

For team campaigns only: If you’re a team manager, in the “contributions” tab you will be able to keep track of the rewards each athlete must fulfill.

2. Collect your money

We will send your funds to your bank account (USA & Canada) or PayPal account (rest of the world), 10-15 days after your campaign ends. You can then connect your bank account to your PayPal account and transfer the money between accounts.

For more details about connecting your bank account, watch this.

If you’re a team manager, we will send you all the funds at the end of the campaign. It will be up to you to distribute the funds to your athletes, but we can provide you with a list of the breakdown as needed.

3. Maintain your online presence using your FanPage

Just because your campaign is over does not mean that you have to disappear until your next campaign. We have created new fan pages that serve as your own personal website. It’s free to use and will never be taken down (unless you ask us to).

With our fan pages, you can:

• Keep posting stories, blog posts, pictures and videos as updates to keep your fans informed and engaged (an email is being sent to them everytime you post)
• Get additional funds by showcasing sponsors and monthly contributions with our "Contribute monthly" feature
• Creating a store inside your fanpage in order to sell rewards
• Convert visitors into followers. They will be notified of updates and new campaigns you launch
• Create a timeline of your achievements
• Showcase your previous campaigns
• If you want to find out more, check out our product page.

4. Continue campaigning

Having a successful campaign will not solve all your funding needs. We know that you will need more the following season or year, and we encourage you to launch another campaign, but we suggest taking a 6-9 month break between campaigns (unless your goal is really low). People need to feel like you’re contributing to your own goals and not just living off what they give you.

You can also send private messages to followers to see if they are willing to contribute to a new campaign. If it you receive positive responses, then it may be a good time to launch a new campaign!