Dear GlobalGiving team and Accelerator colleagues, we fulfilled the challenge by raising $5.3k from 72 donors by 31st/Dec (and our project was ranked #69), let me share here about the strategy we used for that fundraising, with a list of thoughts learned on the process (our project link is here for review: http://goto.gg/43861):

1. It was not easy! On the contrary, it was hard work from our team (6 people contributing in it). Many more hours than expected, dedicated to reach our Accelerator goal.
2. We attended the webinars, and sure we learned some from it. Learning came also & mainly by doing though.
3. Our team contacts were key. Both national and foreign (mainly foreign though). To have a good network out there to get in contact with, is a result of nearly 10 years of patient work from our NGO, of having a volunteering program, and of being part of a few international networks related to what we relate to: wetlands, lakes. As a general rule others have taught, what we get or have today is usually a connection of many prior dots.
4. Local (national) donations counted only ~10%. Very little for our expectation. It gaves us the message that our community is keen mostly on "liking", but rather not on giving... and this may be cultural, but also from other factors.
5. Family was first to react on donating (not counted on that 10% mentioned above though). We got 2 donations from them, and one more cash in hand (used on our ongoing needs during the Accelerator process).
6. One close friend (& prior volunteer from our NGO) and her family, they alone gave us 26% of our funds raised. Without them it's clear we don't know if we would be able to cross the $5k minimum. Crowdfunding is not only about the "crowd" or multitude out there, but also about the closest of our contacts. Both sides are necessary.
7. We used numerous approaches to comunicate and convince our mapping network: Calls, mails, whatsapp (both individual & groups / lists), facebook (both public & private), twitter, instagram, local events, video production, postcards, stickers, media contacts. And we were persistent! (direct / personal contacts worked better than others).
8. We produced 3 reports along the way on GG, having key dates in mind for that (BonusDay & ending week).
9. For ending Accelerator week we used a promoted post on Facebook. It increased significantly our project visibility (e.g. from 20 likes before promotion to 400+ afterwards, and from 10 shares to 160+), although I fear it did not help on donations. None counted from it, as far as I am concerned.
10. We used every positive news related to our project, visible and public.
11. Inside GG's project visibility we uploaded a decent number of images and documents related. In the "additional documentation" we put a doc containing our project's timeline and detailed budget.
12. Because our native language is Spanish, we produced a translation of GG's project into our language plus two more: German and French - our network to contact had all those languages then we showed that minimum of respect for native speakers. Note: Most of our local / national contacts do not speak English, then besides our project's link we made sure our destinations had texts explained in Spanish to understand clearly about it all.
13. We made a direct & visible link to 'donate now' in our website at first sight, also kept (and keep) a blog inside our site for our project for tracking and transparency: http://fundacionmontecito.org/suety
14. Donation´s procedure was dificult for some donors, direct calls were compulsory for us to ensure they were able to proceed. Yet I fear we lost a few of them, who gave up on following the process. Concerns included pre-activated add-up to give GG a percentage, automated addition from previous intents, and generic understanding (language).
15. Following this FB group helped us on clarifying topics, and emails with GG's team were helpful too. Thank you all at GG, your work is very supportive!
16. In our case, donors were on average a third from people we know, a third from our team contacts, and a final third from unknown & anonymous.
17. A key portion of our final fundraising came on last two days. And to increase engaging we prepared a special video to personally explain the project and its context - it was widely shared and I guess it worked well to capture the final lane attention! https://youtu.be/tajrg_-FOPQ
18. We made sure to thank all of our donors on the very same day, or next day as the latest. On top of thanking them from GG's platform, we also made it more personal when possible (personal call, message, a complementary email, or even meeting in person when local). To our best donor we prepared a well deserved thankful video.
19. As said in the beginning, it's not easy, in fact is tough work and requires team effort in multiple ways. From the whole work done, only a small percentage seems to be effective... but learning by doing is a must.
20. I will copy this post in our project's blog, I believe it may help for people out there to understand what kind of work is this, also for donors to receive once more our gratitude, and for other organisations to hopefully learn some tips when entering into this fundraising challenges. We have learned a lesson and are able to share, but I feel it's much more what we still need to learn and practice, to become more effective on this. I hope other Acceletaror graduates could share about their strategies too!
🙏
That's all folks! :)

Now we have a bigger challenge to come with our project, since our fundraising goal is set on $14,120, that is nearly 3x times the Accelerator minimum. And we will certainly go for it with our best possible effort!

Best wishes to all of you, and I hope this new decade comes very positive for all of us, planet included! 💦🐦

Felipe Velasco
01.1.2020
Fundación Montecito
Colombia

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Summary of SueTy's fundraising as to 15th/Dec, 2019

Summary report 15.12.2019 09:20h

Resumen del financiamiento SueTy al 15/dic, 2019

Reporte resumido 15.12.2019 09:20h

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About the PBNF - source: pbnf.nl

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Bonus-Day

Fundación Montecito, Sogamoso 10/dic 2019

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Álbum de Recuerdos

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