Musician’s Guide to Charity Fundraising

If you’re one of the many artists who don’t feel comfortable with self-promo, you’re going to love this post.

One super easy way to mix things up while still building your brand, fanbase, and recognition is by hosting a charity fundraiser. You’re bringing attention to a cause you care about while also bringing awareness to you and your music/message. By aligning your art with a cause you care about, your social media becomes an incredible community hub. It’s not just about your latest music anymore and constantly asking fans to listen; it’s about rallying your fans for a cause that matters. Plus, if it matters to you, odds are it will matter to them.

Here’s how to turn your social media game into a force for good, where your music and message can help make a positive impact on the causes you care about.

Ways to Garner Support & Gather Your Tribe

Whether you believe it or not, you as a performer, are a person of influence. Your role as a *gasp* influencer carries the potential to make a serious impact by raising awareness and rallying support for the charities or causes that resonate with you. In doing so, you might discover that you’re also helping yourself along the way.

By leveraging your platform to shine a spotlight on charities that you care about, you not only contribute to a greater cause, but also forge a deeper connection with your fans, and show them a little about you.

First Choose Your Charity

We put together a list of 23 Charities that help artists in need if you need some inspiration. There’s something for everyone on there, from charities that empower female artists, help musicians in need, help with healthcare, a focus on music education and youth outreach, and those that work within ending hunger and international outreach and support. Choose one that resonates with you as your first step.

Adding A Charity Angle To Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Don’t leave the money you raise up to chance! Sites like Go Fund Me and Paypal allow you to set a goal and track your progress and see who is donating. Sort of like crowdfunding, but for your favorite charity. You can even consider setting up giving levels–offer something of value in return for support.

GoFundMe: One of the most popular websites people use for fundraising especially when donating to charities.
PayPal: While often used for regular business transactions PayPal can also be used to receive donations for non-profit organizations

Benefit Concert

This is a great way to get people involved in your cause and get your music heard! It’s also a great way to network and mingle with other local musicians, giving you a boost of networking along the way!

A great guide on how to effectively program and execute a benefit concert is: How To Do A Benefit: Guidelines for Performing Artists and Others Who Want to Make a Difference by Jen Chapin

A couple other ways to make the most of your fundraising:

Make sure there is a clear way for people to donate at the concert and your audience knows just how your concert will benefit or contribute to your cause.
Consider connecting with other artists and working together to even more effectively reach your goal.
Offer prizes or merchandise giveaways to incentivize attendance

Social Media Campaigns

Social media is, as always, going to be your best friend as you set out to get people on board with supporting your cause; Some platforms, like Facebook, have streamlined ways for you to do so. Here are a few things that you may want to keep in mind as you get started.

- Be clear and conscience in your mission and goal with the fundraiser. People should know why you support this cause and, more importantly, why they should too.
- Make sure a way for people to get involved is obviously displayed, such as a link to a crowdfunding site or directly to the charity’s website.
- Make sure to occasionally recognize donors and other supporters of your cause. It’s always to say Thank you!
- Keep people up to date on the progress of the fundraiser
- Make use of relevant hashtags and if necessary start your own hashtag campaign
- You can always schedule posts to take out some of the work of remembering to post
- When you can Boost your posts to put it in front of more people
- Make sure to invite friends and family to support and share
- Don’t be afraid to work with other artists and organizations
- Use similar strategies that may have worked for your peers
- Create a video of yourself talking about the campaign
- Include in posts, newsletters, etc.

Threads

Threads can be an essential tool for your charity fundraising efforts because, unlike Facebook, it’s acceptable to post more frequently throughout the day. So It means higher engagement and higher visibility for you and your charity. Plus, you can tag different organizations, musicians, and of course, the charity that’s involved which further amps up visibility.

Writing Your Threads:

Use relevant keywords and Pin your most informative thread to the top of your profile.
Ask your followers to share your fundraiser to aid your efforts and thank them when they do.
Focus your posts around statistics, lists, how-to’s, or quotes when you aren’t promoting your fundraiser. Stats can be about your fundraising goal status or stats relevant to your cause. Sticking to these four categories will help you create consistent content that provides value to your followers.
Re-post from the charity’s IG or Threads account or from accounts relevant to the cause to let your fans know what you’re supporting. This is good for connecting your audience closer to the cause as well as supporting others involved.
Re-post directly from your IG so you don’t double up on the work
Add a Threads Poll to encourage interaction

Facebook

Thankfully Facebook makes fundraising very simple! Like any crowdfunding site, they allow you to create a fundraiser with the ability to set a goal and track progress. This makes it SUPER simple (and user-friendly) to set up. The benefit of this being through Facebook is that you can share it with your followers so that they can donate directly to the organization as they scroll through their feed and it’s very simple to create and connect with a charity.

To create a fundraiser for a charitable organization on Facebook follow these steps:

Click Fundraisers in the left menu of your News Feed.
Click Raise Money.
Select Nonprofit/Charity.
Select a charitable organization, choose a cover photo, and fill in the fundraiser details.
Click Create.

- Make sure to share the fundraiser and invite your friends and family to support.
  - Notice! Facebook does NOT have a limit to the number of friends that can be invited to support your fundraiser so go crazy!

Instagram

Instagram makes raising money super easy! Not only are you able to utilize the platform for posting about the charity, but you can raise money directly through the app as well. You can find directions for both Android and iPhone here but it’s pretty simple. Just hit the plus symbol on Instagram, choose your image tap next, and then tap “add fundraiser.” That’s it! The fundraiser will also appear on your profile under your bio.

Another thing to consider when using Instagram for fundraising is taking advantage of the shopping feature on Instagram. You could start a promotional campaign where profits from your merchandise sales go to the charity you are supporting.

Here’s How to Start Using the Shopping Feature on Instagram

Shopping feature on Instagram
- You can use this feature in conjunction with your campaign by simply monitoring your sales and donating a portion of your profits to the charity you have chosen to support.
- To use this feature your account must first be approved for shopping on Instagram
- Start by looking over their merchant agreement and connecting your profile to a Facebook catalog.
- Approval may take a few days as they review your profile but once you’re approved you just follow a few easy steps:

Tap to go to your profile
Tap the Get Started alert at the top of your profile
If you don’t see the alert in the image above, tap
Tap Shopping
Tap Continue
Select a product catalog to connect to your business profile
Tap Done

Here is an article that showcases some artists who are very strong on Instagram for some inspiration.

Mailing List

You know we love our mailing list here! As a musician, you should already have a newsletter and mailing list to keep your fans up to date on tour dates, new music, and other news relevant to your music career. Use your mailing list to your advantage and plug your fundraiser in your newsletter to your fans. Your fans may share the same interests as you, therefore may value the similar causes and may feel compelled to donate since it is something you care about.

Here’s How You Can Use Your Mailing List for Fundraising:

Have an enticing subject and heading to make your fans actually want to read about the cause your supporting. You know your audience best, you know how to grab their attention.
Include the link to the platform you chose for your fundraising, such as GoFundMe and Facebook. Another option would be to use PayPal’s donation button feature, which is easy to embed but fans may feel less compelled to donate if it looks like they’re just sending money to a PayPal and not an actual cause.
Include stories of impact from the organization’s successes. It provides context for your fans in regards to what their donations will be going towards. Linking to outside sources, such as blogs covering the cause or charity, provide another way for your fans to learn more about what you’re fundraising for and make them feel obligated to donate.
Structure and format your newsletter with our best practices