Introduction
Running for public office costs money. Targeting voters through television, online, or in person costs money. Unfortunately, nobody will donate to a campaign or organization unless they are asked. This is the purpose of fundraising.
Fundraising engages individuals and organizations to raise money for a political campaign. It is the lifeblood of every campaign as, without funds, the political candidate will not be able to fully engage with their supporters and get their message to the masses.
Candidates employ various methods to assist them to meet this important goal, they include;
Door-to-door visits
Peer-to-peer campaigning
Raffles
Pledges
Mobile fundraising
Challenges
Numerous challenges arise while implementing fundraising campaigns.
Settling on the right fundraising platform that is reliable, to help them achieve their financial goals. Frequent service disruptions or downtimes can contribute to a donor’s reluctance to complete their donation.
Monitoring & tracking of collections; being able to view all funds that have been received over time in a seamless manner.
Expense/ budget; affordable options that can assist the candidates to lower fundraising costs, as they should save as much as they can while getting all the premium quality features to align your funds with their donors.
Trust and safety; a platform that will enable the donors to submit their funds and not have their privacy infringed on.
Easy access; providing options that are easily accessible for your donors to be able to send in their donations.
Large traffic; payment options that can enable the collection of funds from as many donors at the same time.
The Solution
Mobile fundraising uses digital tools to run collection activities, candidates can borrow a leaf from organizations such as non-profits that use mobile channels to engage their donors. These mobile channels include USSD ( Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) a technology that can support such endeavours.
Why you should incorporate USSD in your fundraising campaigns.
These USSD features fulfill many different objectives and needs for your candidate. These include;
Maximum reach – USSD works on all GSM standard mobile phones. Since no smartphone is required, you are guaranteed to reach a wider audience as not everyone owns a smartphone, especially those in emerging regions.
Accessibility across networks – USSD can work across all mobile networks as the application only needs a connection to the GSM network, which is a global system, to work for mobile communications as it is not mobile or SIM card based.
High customization – You can build different USSD applications to target your unique customer segment needs and requirements.
Enhanced customer experience – USSD is highly interactive, and the fast messaging allows subscribers to get the information they need fast, efficiently, and anytime from anywhere. It also provides ease of use.
Cost-effectiveness – a USSD application is extremely cost-effective to run and is a free service that subscribers can use, enhancing customer experience.
Introducing Mteja
A USSD builder platform for any business. Mteja offers a simple platform for users to design and deploy complex USSD applications, with zero technical knowledge required. Mteja offers the ideal USSD solution for any organization looking to launch any service quickly over USSD.
Benefits of using Mteja’s USSD solution
Mteja’s USSD application allows you the following benefits as you run your fundraising engagements.
Fast setup - the platform allows users to launch any USSD application easily using the flows feature.
Time-saving - reduced launch timelines as the application deployment happens within minutes. This allows you to set up donation applications within your campaign timelines.
Cost-effective - our solution can be built without the need to invest in additional physical infrastructure, as the platform is hosted virtually on the cloud.
Integrations - the Mteja platform offers various APIs that can integrate with other business applications and run a seamless end-to-end service. This allows you to integrate payment service providers, making the collection process easy and straightforward for your donors.
Real-time analytics - users can monitor and measure trends from their campaigns which allows you to determine and measure the success of your engagements.
Scalability - no throughput limitations affect the USSD channel, allowing it to process as many customer sessions at any time. A guarantee that the service can serve your business effectively regardless of the audience size.
Easy configuration - any changes to the USSD menu are implementable in real-time, without requiring you to take the service offline to your customers because the process requires no coding or infrastructure changes.
Personalized experience - you can collect relevant information about your customers, e.g. their names to allow you to send a thank you message after each donation is received.
Privacy - your donors can be assured of security, as the session with your donation application ends immediately after the process has been completed.
Conclusion
Looking for a simple, effective, and economic way to field proceeds for your fundraising needs, reach out to the Mteja team at info@mteja.io and we’ll be happy to guide you on the next step.