Mental Health Fundraising: How to Strengthen Your Campaign
Planning a mental health fundraiser? We've got you covered with tips and insights to ensure the success of your campaign. Read on!
Jamy-Lee Holt
Planning a mental health fundraiser? We've got you covered with tips and insights to ensure the success of your campaign. Read on!
Did you know that 23% of adults in the U.S. struggled with mental illness in 2024? Mental health fundraising is crucial for breaking barriers around mental illness, whether you’re aiming to increase awareness or help fund mental health services in your community.
In this article, we share key insights and tips to help you take your mental health fundraising efforts to the next level.
Use the helplines below for immediate assistance if you or someone you know requires mental health support:
For every 340 people in the United States, there is only 1 mental health provider available.
Equally alarming, 27% of Americans say they may be discouraged from seeking support for mental illness due to shame or embarrassment, indicating the widespread issue of stigma around mental illness.
Mental health fundraisers play an important role in combating this stigma by raising the funds necessary for public awareness, education, and advocacy.
Mental health charities like yours can fundraise to improve access to essential mental health resources, treatment, and support within communities.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when fundraising for your mental health campaign.
Ensure that your fundraising efforts are connected to your mission.
For example, if your mission is to raise mental health awareness through educational materials, consider allocating donations to their creation and distribution. If you’re running a mental health advocacy campaign, decide how those donations will help promote open discussions around mental health.
By aligning your fundraising efforts with your organization’s core objective, you’ll achieve greater success while increasing awareness around your cause.
Outline clear and measurable objectives that will help track your campaign performance and focus your efforts on the end goal. Use the SMART method to define and create realistic goals and track your progress within a certain timeframe for greater success.
For example, you might set a goal to raise $15,000 over the next three months by launching a monthly giving program. These funds will go toward improving access to mental health services in your community. Since last year’s campaign raised $10,000, this target is realistic and achievable, as it builds on the success of your previous fundraising efforts.
By leaning on insights from your previous campaign, you’ll be able to set a tangible fundraising goal and optimize your strategy for success.
Performing market research helps you reach the right focus group for your mental health fundraiser, increasing the success of your outreach strategy.
Conduct research in line with your campaign objectives and your organization’s mission. By leveraging data or statistics, you’ll be able to define your audience better and ensure greater campaign success.
Segment supporters based on their preferences and traits, and make sure your messaging is tailored to your focus group to maximize engagement. Then, use email marketing to share your campaign with your audience. Don’t forget to include your fundraising goal!
If you’re looking to boost engagement, use social media to your advantage. Share a testimonial video in line with your campaign, or create a compelling social media post that links to your donation page.
Pro tip: Send out a survey to your mailing list and ask donors for feedback about your outreach once your campaign ends. Segment donors into groups based on new donors who donated, along with existing donors who gave, and those who did not. This level of insight will inform your future campaign outreach and messaging.
Donorbox’s donor management tools let you segment donors by campaign, or use the New Donors reporting template to gather a list of new supporters for outreach.
Storytelling has the power to connect people to your cause. Here are some ideas for using storytelling effectively:
Whichever approach you take, remember to add an emotional connection that tugs on the heartstrings of your supporters and inspires them to give to your mental health fundraiser.
When fundraising for mental health, make it easy for people to show their support. There are many ways to ensure your mental health fundraiser engages your audience successfully.
Let’s look at some ways to increase participation and engagement:
Crowdfunding campaigns elevate donor engagement, boost donations, and accelerate momentum for your mental health fundraiser.
Donorbox Crowdfunding allows you to create a brand-aligned crowdfunding page that includes your fundraising story, attractive visuals, a goal meter, and a compelling donation form with multiple giving intervals and payment methods.
Including a donor wall adds social proof to encourage even more donations to your cause!
Supporters can easily share your crowdfunding campaign on their social media channels, helping you expand your outreach. Plus, they can stay in the loop by subscribing to receive email updates about your mental health fundraising campaign.
Want to take your mental health fundraising campaign to the next level? Empower your friends, family, and community to fundraise for you with a peer-to-peer campaign.
By allowing your biggest supporters to advocate for your cause, you give them the opportunity to feel more connected to your mission.
Donorbox Peer-to-Peer campaigns give supporters the freedom to create their own customizable campaign pages that can be shared with their individual networks, boosting your donation potential. All funds raised will go directly to your main campaign.
Invite supporters to fundraise for you by sending out email invites privately. Or, add an “I want to fundraise for this” button to your campaign page to encourage anyone to get involved!
See how Tell’s Move for Mental Health 2025 crowdfunding campaign has peer-to-peer enabled:
Fundraise for Mental Health with Donorbox Peer-to-Peer
Bonus resource: Learn how to set up a Donorbox peer-to-peer campaign in this blog post.
Did you know that 81% of supporters attend nonprofit fundraising events? Events encourage people to learn more about your mission and can be fun to attend, too!
Use an intuitive event ticketing tool to promote and sell tickets to your event online. Donorbox Events automatically calculates the tax-deductible amount for each ticket when you supply the fair market values, minimizing your workload. Create multiple ticket tiers, assign individual tickets, and easily check in guests at your in-person events.
See how Wise & Rooted used Donorbox to sell tickets for their gala, raising funds for the inpatient treatment of youth at their Southeast Texas treatment center:
Sell Tickets to Your Mental Health Fundraiser
Want to ensure your campaign is as engaging and impactful as possible? Here are some ways to elevate your mental health fundraiser:
Whether you engage your audience online or in person – or decide to host a hybrid event – make it as interesting and engaging as possible.
Pro tip: Keep your supporters’ interests in mind when deciding on your approach. For example, if they’re into mental well-being and nature, host a “Mindfulness in Nature” event with guided meditation or outdoor yoga. You could accept in-kind donations like books on mindfulness or yoga mats to sell at a community fundraising event!
Let’s spotlight some fantastic examples of mental health fundraising campaigns that were hugely successful.
The Great Lakes Bay Region Mental Health Partnership works with stakeholders to improve and enhance mental health for residents in the region. They work with communities to destigmatize mental health issues, grow workplace mental health programs, and enhance access to mental health services.
They’ve raised more than $100,000 through their crowdfunding campaign hosted on Donorbox in support of mental health education and awareness in their community.
Hakini is on a mission to provide mental health support and services to those in need through online sessions and expertly prepared self-help and meditation programs curated by psychologists, counselors, and mental health doctors.
They’re fundraising to provide mental health support to people in Gaza. So far, their campaign has garnered close to $110,000 in donations:
Fundraising for mental health is essential for increased public awareness, destigmatization, and access to mental health support. With the right strategy in place, you can accelerate donations to your cause and scale your impact.
At Donorbox, we’re passionate about creating intuitive fundraising features that empower organizations like yours to raise critical funds that drive your mission forward.
For more fundraising tips and ideas, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog and YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe to our monthly newsletter for a specially curated list of fundraising insights and resources sent to your inbox.
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