Starting a CaringWays campaign is a valuable way to ease patients’ stress, which allows them to focus on healing. Starting a campaign or becoming a CareChampion for a loved one to help alleviate the financial stress of treatment is a powerful way to show patients and their families how much you care about their medical journey.
Optimizing your CaringWays campaign page is one of the most important ways to maximize the success of your medical fundraising campaign. Everything you do to promote your campaign will lead people to this page. Your CaringWays campaign page is where people can read your story and learn how they can offer support to your loved one at this time.
If you’re wondering how to create a campaign page that is compelling and inspiring, here are a few tips we’ve found from other CaringWays fundraisers over the years:
1. Be Honest About the Obstacles & Challenges You or Your Loved One is Facing
We know it can be difficult for patients to share their stories and make themselves vulnerable. However, it’s important to remember that people truly care and want to help. Writing your fundraising story as honestly and thoroughly as possible will help people connect with the campaign. It’s also important that you provide a clear breakdown of how much you’re hoping to raise. This is where our CareCalculator can help you determine the right fundraising goal.
Need some inspiration? Here’s an example of a CaringWays campaign that provides an honest and compelling description.
2. Tell Your Story Through Compelling Photos
Photos that visually share your story can be powerful fundraising tools that take your campaign to the next level. While it may be difficult to post photos of your medical journey, pictures allow readers to build an emotional connection with your campaign. It’s a way for donors to see the specific and measurable impact they can have through giving generously.
For an example of a campaign that uses images to tell a story, here is an example from Jaydeen’s CaringWays campaign. It’s evident that the life-threatening car accident she experience impacted her life. She also shared a more recent photo that highlights her recovery process.
3. Provide Regular Updates to Supporters
After you launch your campaign, supporters will want to know how you or your loved one are doing. How have their donations been helpful during recovery? How are the medical treatments going? Providing regular updates is incredibly important for maximizing your campaign and sustaining momentum.
Here is an example of a powerful update from Scott William’s CaringWays campaign. Scott and his family did a great job of sharing frequent updates to keep supporters in the loop and help contributors understand how they made a difference.
October 2021 – “In coming weeks, I will be undergoing further treatments to keep the glioblastoma at bay, which is likely to include more targeted radiation, oral chemo, and clinical trials. Between the surgery and the treatments, we will be incurring a great deal of medical out-of-pocket expenses through the end of 2021. Would you consider making a donation to help us with these expenses? And would you pray for continued good health so that I can continue to use my days to offer help and hope to fellow glioblastoma sojourners from across the nation and world?”
4. Find a CareChampion to Help Tell Your Story
If you’re a patient in need of financial support, we realize that asking for help can be difficult during a stressful time. That’s why we encourage patients to partner with a CareChampion who can help. If you’re a CareChampion, consider bringing in additional people to help you tell the story on behalf of your loved one.
You can look at this CaringWays campaign page to view an example of a campaign that was started by a CareChampion and generated significant momentum.
5. Express Gratitude Whenever You Can
The final way to optimize your CaringWays campaign is to include content or updates that express how thankful you are for their support. Thanking donors is one of the most important things you can do during your CaringWays campaign. These updates can be as simple as commenting on a donation or highlighting one donor each week in your updates.
As you set up your page and launch your campaign, our CaringWays team is here to help. Our weekly updates will let you know how much you’ve raised and what you can do to increase the impact of your campaign. Whether you’re a patient or CareChampion, we are here to help you raise the support you need during this difficult season.