Contents

Introduction

Learn about the free sticker tactic from the European Center for Digital Action and how it was used by an organisation in the Czech Republic.

What is it?

A free sticker tactic is a campaign strategy that uses free stickers to spread a campaign message, build brand recognition, grow a supporter base and generate donations.

What is its Purpose?

The ‘free sticker tactic’ is an increasingly successful fundraising & public relations tactic that has been deployed by progressives around the world. We have seen examples in the USA, Czech Republic, Ireland, Canada Poland & Hungary.

The tactic begins with a simple ask to supporters ‘Would you like our new stickers?’, followed with a form to enter their mailing address and, upon completion ‘a thank you page’ and email asking supporters to pitch it a few euros so more stickers can be printed and sent to even more supporters.

The free sticker tactic has three purposes

Fundraising
Brand building
Supporter growth

This tactic is best suited for civil society, political parties and trade unions (of all sizes!) with the necessary pre-requirements mentioned below.

What you need before launching the free sticker tactic:

A Customer Relationship Management CRM & email tool to manage the form and email communications.
A trusted printer & distributor who can print and distribute the stickers reliably and at a good price.
Supporters: This tactic works best with both an email list and strong engagement on social media/messaging apps. The tactic is possible with just one but having both ensures both growth (social media) and fundraising (email).
A compelling sticker design that is very ‘cool’ and/or offers a timely reaction to a political moment.

How To

How to deploy the free sticker tactic –

Step 1: Make a plan

Prepare a timeline from when you will launch the tactic until when you will close orders for the stickers. Before launching, it’s critical to confirm what printer & distributor you will use and obtain cost estimates for different scenarios (if 500/1000/5000) on how many orders you receive. Ç

Step 2: Design the stickers

This is important and will be a big factor in how well the tactic performs. No one wants an ugly sticker on their water bottle/phone/laptop. It’s important that your stickers are visually appealing, have great slogans that people want to show off, remember they offer high visibility for your campaign and cause.

Step 3: Launch

Launch the tactic via email and social media as per this flow:

Ask supporters via email and social media to ‘Get your stickers’ using the designs as the visual hook. Direct them to a form to fill out their mailing address.
After completing the form, add a re-direct taking supporters to a donate page (via Lunda) confirming the sticker order was made and asking them to chip in a few euros to send stickers to someone else.
Set up an auto-email after supporters complete the form that also encourages supporters to chip in to print and send more stickers.

Step 3: Monitor the data (2-48hrs post launch)

At this point you need to assess the initial performance and calculate how many stickers you might need to print and deliver with the distributor. You should also monitor the cost per sticker and check that against donations to ensure both streams are in balance. The more stickers ordered, the lower the costs will become, this is why knowing the estimates for scenarios is important to have before launching. This way you can determine how much you are likely to fundraise (minus costs) over the entire campaign.

Step 4: Share the tactic everywhere (week 1-2)

Share your sticker tactic (again) across all of your channels including email, social media, messaging apps etc. Ask your volunteers to share it with their friends and any like-minded influencers or allies to also share the graphics and form on their channels.

Step 5: Last push & distribution (week 3)

Share a final reminder to your supporters via email and all other channels that its the last opportunity to order their free stickers.

Step 6: Send the stickers! (week 3-4)

Close the final order with the printer and distributor.

Step 7: Follow up and amplification (week 6)

Once stickers start arriving to your supporters, ask your supporters to send in their photos and videos with the stickers that you can re-share on your social media channels. This is a great way to engage directly with supporters on social media.

Tips

Make your stickers irresistible by collaborating with well-known designers.
This is a brand exercise, so make sure your stickers reflect your organization or party brand and aesthetic (unless you are doing a collab with a different designer).
Use a distributor and use a trusted distributor you have used before to save any headaches. Without a distributor, this is a very time consuming task that is impossible to scale in order to fundraise effectively.
Test the email first with a small segment of your list to better estimate how the tactic will perform.
Include a disclaimer such as ‘while supplies last’ in case you can not fill the order for whatever reason.
Try it as part of a regular giving ask. For example, become a regular donor and get a free sticker pack.
Not just stickers! You can do this tactic with other merchandise in a similar price range, for example: posters, hats, pins, etc. Just be sure to calculate costs and estimates of orders beforehand.

Example

Konsent is a Czech NGO dedicated to sex education across the country. The team decided to launch this tactic in October 2025 for the first time inspired by another feminist NGO in the US. The tactic was so successful, they had 9x sticker orders than they planned, massively boosting donations and led to many new contacts for the organization.

Konsent deployed a free sticker tactic in late 2025 with the goals of:

Fundraising;
Community engagement; and
Building the brand of Konsent.

What they did

Konsent sent an email to their full list of supporters sharing the stickers and offering them a free pack. Upon completing the order form (via an Action Network form), supporters are re-directed to a fundraising page (via Lunda) confirming their order and asking for a small donation so they can print and send more stickers and spread the messages further across the country. An automatic email was also sent to everyone who completed the form encouraging them to pitch in.

Screenshot from the fundraising page. Translated from Czech using Google Translate.

The tactic was shared on their instagram account on posts and reels to their 68,000 followers.

A final email was sent to supporters with a last change call to action.

Example of last reminder email. Translated from Czech using Google Translate.

Results!

This tactic resulted in over 2,300 supporters ordering Konsent sticker packs and 30% of those supporters donated to the organization.

Of those 2,300 supporters, 30% were new supporters.

Tips from Konsent

Don’t let early nerves derail your plan! We felt nervous as we saw so many orders come in with the lag of donations coming in after. It is natural to feel “day-one jitters” or even consider pulling the plug when things feel uncertain. Stay the course; it was one of our most successful fundraisers even with that short moment of doubt.
For any undelivered stickers that are ‘returned to the sender’, arrange a pick up at your office (if you have one that is staffed) or in the case of Konsent, they used a a local community center where supporters can collect them.

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Sticker Tactic Guide (PDF)

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Tactic: The Free Sticker