Your backers are the lifeblood of your crowdfunding campaign – the more you keep them engaged, the greater chance you have of hitting your target!
Your backers care about the outcome of your campaign and case so let them know about the success of your crowdfunding and any developments or important milestones with your case.
These email updates will build excitement and momentum around your case's progress, and might also result in extra pledges from existing backers!
A few tips on writing great updates
1. Send updates regularly
Your backers will want to hear about the success of your crowdfunding and developments with your case. Most successful cases post updates around once a week.
2. Always say thank you!
Whether it’s your first or fifteenth update, new backers will appreciate being thanked.
3. Explain how your backers can help you
Your supporters want your case to succeed, so let them know what they can do to help.
4. Keep them up to date with how your legal action is proceeding
E.g. "Our lawyers delivered written statements this week."
"We have been granted permission for a judicial review! Our hearing is expected to be heard in court in January."
5. Explain any legal jargon!
Remember your supporters won’t know the detail as well as you do – so explain any legal jargon and language that they might not be familiar with.
Here’s some ways you might want to ask you backers to help:
Share!
After pledging, sharing is the next best thing your backers can do to help.
Approximately 35% of pledges to CrowdJustice pledges come from Facebook, so be sure to ask your backers to post to their Facebook page.
Ask backers to post a link to your case page to Facebook – if you can, include an example post in your update so that if they’re feeling lazy they can copy and paste! E.g. here would be an example:
“I’ve just donated £35 to back John’s campaign to save the New Forest! You can join me – pledge your support here: www.crowdjustice.org/case/judicial-review”
It’s proven that people are much more likely to take an action that someone they know has already done, so letting their friends know they’ve supported you and asking them to pledge too is a powerful way to boost pledges to your case.
Pledge (again)
Your backers have already shown they're willing to give to help you raise your funds.
In general, 10% of backers to CrowdJustice campaigns give to a campaign twice, so if you’re close to your target, you might want to ask the people who’ve already given if they can give a little extra.
E.g. "We're 90% to our target. If you're able to give an extra £10 we'll be able to hit our goal tomorrow!"
Email people they know
Everyone that has supported your campaign will most likely know other people who will also support it. Ask your backers to email a link the campaign to their friends, family or colleagues who might also want to pledge.
If you’re asking supporters to email five friends, it’s brilliant if you can include example email text for them to use. Then if they’re short on time or feeling lazy, they can copy and paste what you’ve suggested!
Template email
Subject: Only 10 days to go
Hi,
Thank you so much for all your support – over 150 backers have helped us raise almost £7,000 already!
We’ve now got just 6 days to go to get to our first target of £10,000.
We're so close – can you get us to our deadline in time? Here’s how you can help (again!):
– Pledge again to our fund. Every pound gets us closer! www.crowdjustice.org/case/your-case-here
– Share the link to our page on your Facebook page or email it to 5 friends. Include a short message, such as “I’ve supported the campaign to save our local park. They only have 10 days left to hit their target – join me: www.crowdjustice.org/case/your-case-here“
We have to make sure we’ve got the funding to go to court and win. Please continue to support us in whatever way you can!
Thank you so much,
You can update your backers now via your Case Dashboard here >>