Raising US$ 12,000 in 12 Days: A Success Story

This story is about a small American non-profit organization Smoky Mountain Meals on Wheels. It cannot boast a large budget or extensive experience, but still it does have at least one success story to tell.

This charity organization started activities last October on their Facebook page, believing Facebook to be the most progressive social network. Today, they have gathered a little more than 200 likes. These are not too many, are they? )))

Meals on Wheels is target-focused on delivering meals to the housebound elderly or disabled. Noteworthy, this category benefits from a quite developed public welfare system in the USA, but even there this mechanism often falters. When it happens, such people face problems and need to be placed on a “queue” for assistance.

Solving this kind of problems was undertaken by Smoky Mountain Meals on Wheels. So, on the Christmas Eve, they announced a new campaign “12 Happy Seniors by Christmas” in social networks. Every new post on their Facebook page was supposed to tell a story of one out of 12 aged people facing difficulties and waitlisted for receiving assistance. As a rule, these stories were about seriously ill and lonely seniors, suffering from all kinds of diseases and handicaps, from diabetes mellitus to Alzheimer’s disease, many of whom were wheelchair-bound and living in hard-to-reach areas.

The organization found that only US$ 60 per month were needed to remove one ill person from the waiting list for social aid.

Therefore, within 12 days, by posting just one story a day, the Meals on Wheels campaign raised online donations for the amount sufficient to cover needs of at least 12 elderly people from the waiting list for one year. The amount reached as much as US$ 12,000 and was raised within 12 days.

Without much fundraising experience, extensive coverage, advertising or newfangled marketing strategies, without having spent a dime, the organization raised this substantial sum of money within mere days.

Why did it work out so well?

Firstly, powerful and true stories that focused on a person rather than on the commercial aspect.

Secondly, a well-defined target to achieve: remove people from the waiting list. For this purpose, only US$ 3 per day or US$ 60 per month were needed.

Thirdly, a clear call for action such as a link to the website with the DONATE NOW button.

Fourthly, regular posts.

Fifthly, frequent information updates.

And of course, really high involvement of Americans in charity activities.

This is just one example showing that literally ALL non-profit organizations, not only the most well-known ones, can achieve high results and reach out to potential philanthropists. It’s just always important to tell YOUR OWN story.