Donate a Birthday
Support Crisis Text Line by creating an online fundraiser for a friend or family member’s (or even your own!) birthday. It’s a simple way to get your community excited about a cause you care about.
Set Up Your Account
Sign up for GoFundMe. It’s fast, free and safe.
Follow this link to donate a birthday and build your own fundraiser for Crisis Text Line.
Create a new campaign with your personal fundraising goal. Setting a target goal for how much you’d like to donate provides clarity for family and friends and build momentum for donations. While you can set your goal as high as you like, an achievable goal actually encourages more support. You can always raise your goal later if you reach your milestone!
Name your campaign. The most effective titles are personable, short, descriptive, inspiring, and easy-to-find when people search for it on GoFundMe. Include the first and last name of the individual’s birthday in the title. Something like, “Anthony Mason, Birthday for Crisis Text Line.”
Choose a personal cover photo or video to represent your fundraiser. We recommend bright, clear, colorful photos that reflect the cause. You can also use the default image of Crisis Text Line’s logo. You can find more Crisis Text Line graphics here.
Tell your story! Add a personal description to your campaign page. It’s an opportunity to tell people why this birthday fundraiser is important to you. Generally, you want to be clear, concise, and heartfelt. In the first few sentences, make it evident why you’re fundraising, and elaborate from there so people with more time can continue to read. Use bold and italic distinctions, and break your text into paragraphs so it's more easily readable. For more tips, explore this awesome GoFundMe guide.
Share with friends, family, and coworkers. Check out the ‘manage’ page of your GoFundMe campaign for quick and easy sharing methods, and encourage your supporters to do the same!
Email or text your community directly.
Post on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Copy and paste the link to your fundraiser page anywhere you see fit to distribute your campaign.
Tips to Maximize Your Impact
Make it clear that Crisis Text Line is the beneficiary. Telling donors who will handle the money you raise and how it will be used helps build trust and encourages generous donations. Since your campaign will send money directly to Crisis Text Line, a 501(c)(3) charity, mention it! A few great facts to provide:
$19 supports 1 texter in their time of crisis.
$57 supports 3 texters in their time of crisis.
$193 supports 1 day of technology needed to keep the Crisis Text Line Platform up and running.
$238 supports 1 hour of supervision on the Platform in times of highest traffic.
Share your fundraiser often. Every time you share your fundraiser, you’ll bring in an average of $43 in donations—so share it often through email, text, and social media, and encourage others to do the same. Sharing on Facebook alone can increase your total donations as much as 350%!
Update your supporters. Update posts lead to new donations. When you post an update to your fundraiser from within your account, you can choose to email it to your donors to re-engage them. Get creative and post different kinds of updates every few days or every week. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Gratitude for the support you’ve received so far
Shout-outs to certain donors
New videos and photos
Ask people to donate and share your campaign
Say thanks! A simple thank you goes a long way towards showing donors that you appreciate them and to keep the momentum going. You can send thank you messages through your GoFundMe account by taking the following steps:
1. Sign in to your account at gofundme.com/sign-in and navigate to your campaign
2. Scroll down to "Donations"
3. Select "Say Thanks" under the donor's name to send a thank you
Have questions about GoFundMe? Contact their customer support, 24/7.