How to Get a Crowdfunding Campaign Up in 10 Minutes

Picture this: you’re working on a project, and then someone asks if you’ve got any good appetizer recipes. The conversation spirals from great appetizers, to why they need the recipes, to a discussion about their family visiting this weekend who love appetizers.

Before you know it, you’ve spent 10 to 15 minutes talking, and on top of that, now you’re hungry too (thanks, appetizers). The point is that distractions at work can come at us at any time and from any place, and they can interrupt your flow.

Along the way, maybe little distractions have halted progress on your fundraising campaign (it’s OK, we won’t tell anyone). That deadline which seemed so far away and manageable is now right in your face.

The good news is that we can help you get a fundraising campaign up faster than that fast-approaching deadline. In fact, according to our customer support experts, you can build a crowdfunding campaign in 10 minutes.

In the video below, we call out a few 10-minute distractions that might arise in your day-to-day at the office to look out for, so you can squash them and instead spend the time getting that campaign up and running. Then, read on to get extra details, strategies, tips, and tricks for your campaign.

How Fast Can You Go?

When it comes to a crowdfunding campaign, our team estimates that you can get a page up in about 10 minutes. Still, there are a few required fields you should prepare details for ahead of time, such as your:

• Campaign name
• Fundraising goal
• Start and end dates
• Featured media
• Donate button text

Outside of that, Classy has pre-populated text in other sections of the campaign, like the “about” and “thank you” sections:

According to our customer support team, the element that takes the most time in this process is getting the proper digital assets together, like your logo and hero image. Know what size images you need, and where they will be displayed on your crowdfunding campaign. If you need help, Classy has the best-fit dimensions displayed in the campaign builder:

When speed is the goal, it pays to be prepared and have these assets on deck. Keep in mind that you can always launch a campaign and start accepting donations, then go back and tweak it to perfection later.

Pro Tips and Strategies From Our Experts

Even when you set a campaign page up quickly, there are still several things you can do to ensure it stands out and commands attention.

Make Your Headline Pop

The headline is the first thing people notice about your campaign. If you want it to really stand out, decrease the opacity of your hero image to let the dark background color show through a bit more.

Then, make your headline text a lighter color that pops against the darkened background. This will immediately grab someone’s attention and draw them into the rest of your crowdfunding campaign page.

There’s also the headline image feature that can be used to infuse more of your organization’s branding into the headline area. For example, your headline image could utilize a custom text graphic with your organization and campaign name or logo:

Use Your Words

While the pre-populated text can be useful when you need to get your page up and running, it’s important you return to flesh out your text later. Go through and ensure the copy suits the specific needs, voice, and wants for your campaign.

Depending on how much you want to customize the page, refining the text can take longer to nail down. After your page is published, take some time to consider:

• What’s the most important message to this campaign?
• How can you share your story through additional page elements, like impact blocks?
• Is there a creative and fun way to thank your supporters?

This information can help you make the most of the real estate on the crowdfunding campaign page and take your supporters on a journey from headline to donation button.

Think About the Future

If you want to take a more proactive approach, versus being reactive to timely events as they unfold in our world, you can create campaign templates ahead of time. This way, you prepare in advance and can quickly spin up pages when you want them in the future.

For example, build a branded template that incorporates standard colors, logos, and text. This will serve as a great starting place for the next campaign you build. Then, when you need to get a page up quickly, you can duplicate this page with all of your preferred auto-populated fields:

You can fill this template out with generic information and photos that can be minimally updated from campaign to campaign. This way, when you need to create a page, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to get something published.

While it’s important to give every campaign page you create a lot of attention, there are times when you need to get a page up quickly. Regardless of why you need a page in a timely fashion, it’s important you’re prepared to strike while the iron is hot.

Though it only takes about 10 minutes to get a crowdfunding campaign page up and running, you can spend a little extra time to build out templates to further reduce that time and increase the level of detail in your pages. This templated approach also lends itself well to peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns or Classy Events Registration with Fundraising, which tend to require a bit more attention.

The name of the game is speed, and the faster you can get a striking campaign up and out to the public, the more you can raise to fuel your mission.