How to Write Effective Campaign Titles + 7 Catchy Fundraising Titles

Congratulations—you’ve made the life-altering decision to spend time abroad! Your experience is going to be stimulating, enlightening, and about 100 other adjectives that you’ll have to go ahead and determine for yourself. In the midst of all the excitement, unfortunately, comes the reality that traveling abroad never comes free (and if you’ve somehow proven that to be untrue, let us in on your secret, please!). We know, it’s a harsh truth. Whether international travel is an item on your bucket list, a requirement for your graduate studies, a gift you want to give your family, or a way to volunteer your time, there’s going to be some out-of-pocket expenses.

Lucky for you, we’re living in the digital age: AKA, the time of personal fundraising websites. Reaching out to family, friends, your family’s friends, whoever you could think of to aid in supporting your travel, used to be an arduous process of writing letters and hoping they mailed a check back to you in time. With a viral fundraising campaign, you can wave goodbye to the backlogged personal fundraising ideas of your predecessors and get started on raising money right now. There’s one major thing you’re going to need in order to jump off the computer screen and into the psyche of online browsers, first, though, and that’s a glittering campaign name. Don’t stress! We’re here to help, and ready to provide you with some cool GoFundMe campaign title examples.  

Steps for creating catchy titles on FundMyTravel

• Know your why. Have a broad sense of what you’re doing abroad before you snip it down into something more digestible: Are you studying, honeymooning, celebrating retirement?
• Get specific. Starting zooming in on the W’s: where are you going and why? And why should the general audience care?
• Add some pizazz. What would grab your attention if you were browsing? Is your campaign about pure excitement, achieving a challenge, or pulling on the heartstrings? Get creative!
• Add some personality. Who the heck are you, anyway? What makes you, you—and how will people connect with YOU and the cause that you’re fundraising for?
• Splash it in confidence. The audience isn’t going to believe in it unless you do, too!

7 campaign title examples we love

1. Small Step for Cam, Giant Leap for Cystic Fibrosis ~$26,745 raised

Fueled by a personal connection to Cystic Fibrosis and a fervor to raise awareness for the disease, Cam’s catchy GoFundMe title jam packs his mission into a digestible blurb. Incorporating his own name alongside a lesser-known disease, the reader gets the punch that this individual means awareness-raising business, and gets you clicking to learn how.

2. 30 marathons in 30 countries before I turn 30! ~$5,587 raised

This is one of our favorite GoFundMe title examples: Liz tells you exactly who she is and exactly what she’s working towards. Plus, it’s easy to get hyped for goal-crushing, globe-trotting, empowered women, is it not? This title is descriptive, it’s alliterative, and it’s fun! Don’t you want to help get those 30s checked off her bucket list?

3. Love Needs No Translation ~$1,775 raised

Together, four Child and Youth workers decided to set out on a journey of advocacy on behalf of children in Kenya. Despite the succinctness of this campaign title, it’s still densely packed with heart, and the universal truth that lets you in on the secret of this mission: it’s going to be a selfless one. Indeed, the funds raised in this campaign went exclusively to community work, which is a big crowd-pleaser with personal fundraising websites. If your own personal fundraising idea involves benevolent giving, you’ll want to consider using some of this simple-but-powerful language that will resonate with the reader as worthwhile and true.

4. Mr. Pennell’s Surprise Trip of a Lifetime ~$9,193 raised

Brimming with buzzwords, this is one of those catchy GoFundMe title examples that hits us in all the right, happy places. Mr. Pennell: we’ve got a name that indicates the website creators might just be kids and this guy might just have been an influential educator in their lives. We’ve got the excitement of a surprise, and the gravity of a lifetime. Plus, you get the vibe that you’re being let in on a secret. Doesn’t that grab at your interest in this viral fundraising campaign even further?

5. Helping My Dad Fulfill His Final Dreams ~$3,330 raised

Erin’s personal fundraising website title does something beautiful: it puts on an edge of urgency on a selfless deed. Her language is both evocative, as it creates wistfulness in the form of final dreams, and it is clear: her motive is helping her father. We love this title, because while it’s not specific, it has not only personality, but raw, personal touches that are getting her to her fundraising goal and her dad a trip to Africa.

6. The Dream I Dreamed as a Child Finally Comes True! ~$0 raised

Don’t let the “$0 raised” discourage you—this is one of those personal fundraising ideas that just got started and truth be told, we have high hopes. This campaign title is brimming with excitement and confidence. Her travel will presumably take place at a later date, but the unknown isn’t stopping her; she’s decided to be master of her fate and has already transformed those future dreams into her present reality.

7. Cakes for Apes ~$75 raised

Boy does this pithy and unique viral fundraising campaign title have personality and intrigue! The best part is that it’s vague enough to draw interest, but that at the same time it’s also completely representative of the mission at hand—Esteban took it upon himself to sell cakes to raise funds for the critically-endangered orangutans of West Borneo. This fundraising campaign features a title that gets you clicking, and a webpage that depicts a clearly outlined, original mission, as well as some heart-melting monkey faces. With these steps in place, can you blame us for following the banana-trail and wanting to contribute to these sweet little creatures?

You’re one step closer to creating a viral fundraising campaign!

A quick internet search can get you noticing how many personal fundraising websites are out there. Meaning, an attractive title is MORE than necessary—it’s just about the only way to get those clicks that will lead to getting those funds.

When your personal fundraising ideas revolve around international travel, this concept becomes even more amplified. Many people are seeking to spend time abroad, and many of these people are banking on crowd-sourced fundraising help to get themselves there. Marketing your plan to a general audience is requisite in attaining your fundraising goals, and that all begins with an effective campaign title. Through the represented title examples, you can better recognize the objective of putting forth a clear, personal, captivating campaign name.

You’ve got this. Make that title, build that site, grab that audience, raise those funds, and get yourself going!

Don’t wait to get started on raising that money. Go create your viral fundraising campaign now!

This article was written by Samantha Harper. Samantha’s quest to learn about her family heritage in Prague ignited the travel flame within her. A Wisconsin native and Pitt alumna, Samantha’s insatiable appetite for the world led her into an International Relations master’s program in Italy. Still not feeling like she’d seen enough, she finagled her way into spending a summer in Spain and teaching for a year in Thailand. She is (temporarily) settled in Washington, D.C.