Social media is a handy marketing tool, but you don’t own your social media community. The visibility of your posts is at the mercy of social media algorithms. In other words, just because you publish a status update, doesn’t mean people see it. Furthermore, if the gods of digital decide to fold a platform, that’s your hard-earned followers gone in a blink.

Crowdfunding is the art of rallying your community to fund your project.

Events can raise awareness of your campaign, raise money, reward your core crowd and create opportunities for media coverage.But they can be time-consuming to organise, so if you can piggyback on existing events where you can make an ask, or have a supporter ask for you, even better.

Social media fuels discovery and discussion. “Saw it on the gram” is the new word of mouth. Encourage your social networks to inspire a wider group of givers by giving them content worth sharing.