Your Personal Network

The foundation of a successful fundraising campaign is a strong personal network. This tends to surprise entrepreneurs because they often feel that they have already tapped out any relationships or opportunities to raise money from their immediate contacts.

It may surprise you to know that most successful fundraising is done within 2 degrees of connections to the founders.

Start with your Closest Supporters

Chances are that you've already approached your closest supporters to discuss the potential of raising funding, and in some cases they may have chosen not to support you.

That's ok. Your fundraise campaign on Fundable may ignite new opportunities to garner support. By lowering the threshold to participate, to as little as $1 in the case of a Rewards campaign, you can reduce the cost threshold significantly, and allow anyone in your network to show support without having to sacrifice a lot of capital.

Spread the word

Aside from making contributions financially, your closest supporters can also spread the word to their own networks, which is where things really get interesting.

We often hear from entrepreneurs launching campaigns discover a close contact that they would have never thought about approaching has agreed to participate, or make an important introduction to someone who can help.

The value of a public fundraise is the ability to raise awareness through every possible channel you have available.

Use Every Channel

There are several ways to let your friends and family know about your crowdfunding campaign. You can post links to your campaign and related media coverage on social platforms, send emails, and even arrange good old fashioned face-to-face meetings.

Social media. While social media has the potential to reach many members of your network at the same time, it has an inherently short lifespan. Due to the quick cycles that social media messages experience, you'll need to post about your startup frequently.

Email blasts. Because your friends and family are the recipients of your email blast, you won't need to come up with a terribly clever subject line. Instead, write a warm (but succinct) message about your startup and your crowdfunding campaign- be sure to include a link to your profile.

Face to face. There are a variety of face to face methods you can use to let your personal network know about your crowdfunding campaign. You can hold a campaign launch party to let all of your friends and family know about your awesome new startup, or you can meet individually with those closest to you to share your great news.

Tailor messages to each contact

If you choose to email or meet with your friends and family on an individual basis, it's important to tailor each message to the recipient. A generic message may leave someone confused or dissatisfied with the presentation. For instance, you wouldn't pitch your father the same way you're pitch your best friend and might offend him by doing so.

Have a specific ask

Regardless of the method(s) used to reach out to your network, it's important to have a specific dollar amount in mind when reaching out to your network. An ambiguous or unclear ask will result in less pledges, whereas a specific request will give your contacts a basis off of which to act.