T-Shirt Fundraising: A New Take on Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding with T-Shirt Fundraisers: 4 Common Questions

Crowdfunding campaigns bring your community together to fund one major project, program, or event. With hundreds of individual donors pitching in, you can create something bigger than any one average supporter would be able to fund on their own. 

While being a part of an inspiring crowdfundraiser might be its own reward, you can bring even more supporters on board by offering them something in exchange for their support. For example, you might turn your crowdfunding campaign into a crowdfunding t-shirt campaign. 

This creative spin on a classic fundraiser can supercharge your crowdfunding activities, raise awareness for your cause, and even help you continue to raise funds long after your campaign wraps up.

If you’re new to t-shirt fundraising for nonprofits, we’ve outlined everything you need to know below to get you started.

What is T-Shirt Fundraising?

T-shirt fundraising is a type of online fundraising where your organization sells custom apparel to donors to raise money and awareness for your cause. You get the funds you need to keep your organization running, and your supporters get an awesome shirt to show their passion for your cause!

You can pair a t-shirt fundraiser with a crowdfunding campaign by creating donation tiers. Essentially, when a supporter contributes a certain amount, they’ll earn all the rewards in that tier. For example, a nonprofit selling merchandise as part of a crowdfunding campaign might have a tier system that looks like this:

• $20+ Supporters receive a free branded t-shirt 

• $50+ Supporters receive all previous awards, as well as a branded tote bag and water bottle

• $100+ Supporters receive all previous awards, as well as free tickets to our annual gala

• $500+ Supporters receive all previous awards, as well as a private tour of our nonprofit’s facilities and program site
• $1,000+ Supporters receive all previous awards and will have their names featured on a donor wall honoring those who contributed to the campaign 

Another approach is to run a separate t-shirt fundraiser in support of your crowdfunding campaign. Through this method, you would heavily promote your online merchandise store and share that proceeds at this time will go to your crowdfunding goal. To drive sales, you might: 

• Feature your online store and items for sale on your crowdfunding page
• Offer limited specials on items contributing to your crowd fundraiser
• Encourage multiple purchases rather than limiting prizes to one t-shirt per supporter 

Both approaches have their merits, and both rely on your nonprofit producing genuinely valuable merchandise that supporters will want to keep in their wardrobes. 

Why Hold a T-Shirt Fundraiser?

Before online t-shirt fundraising, it was difficult to offer your supporters a tangible item in return for their online donations. Fortunately, with advances in technology, nonprofits can deliver physical gifts like t-shirts with ease and experience a number of benefits in return, including:

• Ability to incentivize giving. Normally, nonprofits have the challenge of requesting financial contributions in exchange for no benefits to the donor. With a t-shirt fundraiser, donors on the fence about giving can be swayed by knowing they’re not only supporting a good cause but also getting something in return.

• Access to passive revenue streams. T-shirt fundraisers shouldn’t begin and end with your crowdfunding campaign. Instead, use your crowdfunding campaign as an opportunity to launch or draw attention to your merchandise store and encourage continued sales. This can create an additional revenue stream, diversifying your funding to help your nonprofit continue to bring in donations even during uncertain economic times.

• Improved donor appreciation. Giving out t-shirts as part of a tiered-rewards crowdfunding campaign is ultimately a way to show appreciation to your supporters for their generous contributions. 
• Increased marketing reach. Merchandise fundraisers not only bring in revenue with every sale, but they also help promote your nonprofit. When a supporter buys a t-shirt and wears it out in public, your supporters turn into walking billboards for your nonprofit, helping increase brand recognition and cause awareness. 

Also, use your t-shirt fundraiser as an opportunity to assess your nonprofit’s branding and merchandise strategy. Rather than just selling t-shirts with your logo slapped on them, consider how you can get creative to offer merchandise donors will want to wear not just because it supports a good cause but because it is a genuinely high-quality piece of clothing.

Experiment with designs and styles to create clothing that represents your cause, appeals to supporters’ sense of fashion, and can be worn long after your campaign wraps up.

What Should Nonprofits Look for in a T-Shirt Fundraising Website?

When it’s time to pick a t-shirt fundraising site for your nonprofit, you want a platform that works in your favor. Find a tool that takes care of logistical details like order processing and shipping so you can simply focus on sharing your campaign with your community and collecting the profits. 

To make sure you pick the t-shirt fundraising website that’s best for your nonprofit, we recommend choosing a site that offers the following:

• No Inventory Costs or Platform Fees: Use a t-shirt fundraising website that doesn’t require you to pay up front for the shirts or charge a platform fee. Instead, choose a site that offers a risk-free way to maximize your profits from the t-shirt fundraiser so that you never have to worry your merchandise sales will come out at a loss.
• Allows Additional Donations: To maximize your crowdfunding potential, use a t-shirt fundraising site that lets donors add an additional donation to your nonprofit at checkout. This way, supporters can buy what they want and also give your campaign an additional boost. 
• Discounts or Reduced Pricing: A lot of companies, especially fundraising websites, offer discounts for nonprofits. Research sites that have reduced costs for payment processing and administration fees to help you increase your profits.
• Excellent Online Reputation: Make sure the t-shirt fundraising website has a history of excellent customer service. This way, if something doesn’t go as planned, you know their team will be there to help your supporters.
• Variety of T-Shirt Styles and Colors: Don’t limit your t-shirt fundraiser to one t-shirt style in minimal colors. Give your supporters options to choose from so they can pick the style and colors that fit best with their personal sense of style.

Think of your t-shirt fundraising platform as not simply another piece of software but a potential long-term partner. Ultimately, you should select a vendor to whom you feel comfortable outsourcing the production, shipping, and sales experience of your fundraiser. All your nonprofit should need to do is design your t-shirts and promote them.

How Can Nonprofits Create T-Shirts Supporters Love?

T-shirt fundraising is a fresh fundraising strategy that gives your nonprofit an opportunity to create something your community of supporters will be really excited about. To design t-shirts your supporters will rush to buy, be sure to:

• Consider audience needs. What type of t-shirts do your supporters want? This includes both basic dimensions of your merchandise, such as whether to create long-sleeve shirts and sweaters or t-shirts and tank tops, as well as style preferences. Is your audience more likely to buy minimalist designs, or will they gravitate toward colorful merchandise with bold patterns? If you’re unsure about your audience’s fashion sense, consider sharing mock-up designs with your supporters and letting them vote on their favorites to decide what designs and products you’ll sell. 

• Infuse your branding. Supporters should be able to tell your merchandise represents your cause and nonprofit at a glance. Ensure every t-shirt features your logo, brand colors, or nonprofit’s name in some way so your merchandise can easily promote your organization. 
• Relay a message. While you should definitely get creative with your designs, ultimately, your merchandise should represent your cause. Determine what idea you want your t-shirts to communicate and artful ways to impart that message. This might take the form of a slogan, a graphic design, or a mix of words and pictures. 

To create must-have designs, consider hiring a graphic designer. Research professionals who are used to making merchandise and share your goals, branding, and design ideas. 

For example, let’s say you are running a crowdfunding campaign to raise start-up funds to launch a new afterschool program for underprivileged youth. As such, you would want to create t-shirts that represent your nonprofit’s brand but are also designs that your volunteers and the teenagers your program supports would want to wear.

With this in mind, you meet with a graphic designer and share your brand assets and relevant details about your target audience, such as local schools’ dress codes, to ensure your merchandise can be worn on a day-to-day basis. You might also share any design ideas, such as how you want your logo to be incorporated or if there are specific graphic design elements you would like to see. 

Your graphic designer would then create several mock-up designs for you to review and offer targeted feedback. This should provide your graphic designer with enough direction to create finalized versions of your designs.

From there, upload your designs to your t-shirt fundraising platform to make your merchandise a reality. 

Crowdfundraisers involve your entire community, and you can give donors a bit of extra motivation with a t-shirt fundraiser. Launch your t-shirt fundraiser by creating compelling designs and partnering with a platform that lets you promote, distribute, and market your merchandise.

 

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