This blog post is about reintroducing concepts that were exposed in a previous blog post by Mr David Ancor while adding a little new spice to the four circles. This is about breaking down thousands of campaign into those famed four circles of friends and family. There is a procedure an athlete or team can follow to reach a wider audience and get better crowdfunding results. Each circle is of differing proportion to the other and is of significant importance. One circle is very much of symbiotic importance to the other. However the one extra ingredient is how a member of a circle can break off and start his own set of circles with the same campaign and ideas.

The First Circle - The Family / BFFs

This circle is both your line of attack and defense for success. The people in this circle are the first ones to know about your campaign and they are the ones to offer contributions and assistance. You simply have to ask kindly to the people in this circle to get them on board with your campaign. Starting your campaign with them is simply about picking up the phone or writing an email or even a personalized letter. The personalized letter goes a very long way and adds a personal touch. DO NOT jump to social media without your family already on the team , you can’t afford to not have them onside. Make sure that your family and BFFs have contributed to you. The first 24hrs of your campaign is crucial and if you can reach the 20% benchmark then you are well on the way to reaching your goal.

Second Circle - The Colleagues/Teammates and Friends

This circle consists of the people you went to school, university or work with. You can reach them through social media, a phone call, an email and even again a personalized letter ( though the personalized letter is a slower mechanism of communication). Co-workers and colleagues can easily be contacted through social media and email so don’t hold up or wait to contact them.

Use Facebook and Twitter to your advantage and don’t hold back from expressing emotions or convey a sense of perseverance and motivation in your respective sport. Get everyone on the first two circles to share your message on social media and through friends orally. Once the campaign has gone viral through your friends you try and break the 30-50% of your total goal with your contributions.

Third Circle - Friends of Friends

This crucial third circle has to be based on very strong foundations. The promotion has to be strong enough to get to the 100,000 views. Once you reach friends of friends then it is not hard to get more views and increase to 75% of your total goal. Make sure you are still in touch with your contributors. Also don’t forget common courtesy and say thank you.

Fourth Circle - The Crowd

Once you reach this circle you are hitting the holy grail of audiences. You can reach this circle by making sure you didn’t skip the first three circles in successive order. Always try and inspire so don’t be afraid to speak honestly and clearly. That is key for contributors to trust you and support you in your venture. Rewards are another key aspect that you should look into. A way of giving back to contributors something unique and personal that can form a special bond between you and the contributor.

You can use sponsors to make rewards irresistible for some. Also the sponsor benefits by getting exposure and also can get. Reach out to the media such as bloggers and , journalists and sports organizations. Media can gain you extra exposure and also attention.

What you shouldn't do

As mentioned earlier do not skip a circle as you are growing your audience. A successful crowdfunding campaign is procedural and you can’t skip steps. It is not an to instant A to Z expansion. It is done progressively. Also do not invert the process, do not try the crowd first and your family and close friends last.

Building your army or supporters and crowds

Once you have you have completed those four steps do not think its over. It is far from over. What you can then do is get an individual that fits into one of the circles to repeat the process on their own and expand from first to fourth circle. This allows you to go from a single crowd to a number of crowds and truly optimizes your outreach. In Diagram form it would look like multiple circles intersecting and expanding.

Check out the initial blog post by David Ancor here: https://makeachamp.com/blog/the-four-circles-of-your-makeachamp-campaign

If you need any fundraising ideas for sports or any help with your sports team crowdfunding campaign, please don't hesitate to contact us.