One of the core truths of being a nonprofit is that, sooner or later, you'll have to start a fundraiser. Whether that's a fundraising event or a full-fledged online fundraising campaign, we're here to help with tips and tricks to raise more. Along the way, we'll share tools that will help you bring in funds for your cause and connect with new donors.
More than half of all high-wealth donors who give over $200,000 prefer giving online. It is easy, effective, and secure – and if your organization isn’t running an online fundraising campaign, you could be missing out big time.
There are many types of online fundraising campaigns ranging from Giving Tuesday, capital campaigns, peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, text giving, and beyond. The donors that each campaign targets are equally varied and finding the right donors for each campaign is half the battle.
This article will give you a breakdown of the different types of online fundraising campaigns and how you can successfully run them.
Fundraising campaigns are a significant part of a nonprofit’s strategic plan. They are initiatives with specific goals, sometimes fundraising for a certain cause or issue. For example, a year-end fundraising campaign might have a goal of $10,000, but a less specific cause or issue in mind. A capital campaign might have an even larger monetary goal, but a specific cause – to purchase land or a new building.
Ultimately, a campaign is a project launched to raise money for a nonprofit. How you choose to launch your campaign is entirely up to you!
First, we’ll look at the many different types of fundraising campaigns. With online giving quickly becoming most donors’ preference, there are more options for fundraising campaigns than there used to be!
Capital campaigns fundraise for specific causes or projects, like building a new location. Those that are most successful target an organization’s major donors to raise enough funds in a short amount of time. These campaigns are huge undertakings and often require significant planning and strategy, along with robust tools to help you make the most of your campaign.
Check out how Marian Homes is using Donorbox to raise funds for their capital campaign! We love how they use a goal meter to illustrate how close they are to their goal.
Giving Tuesday is a giving event that takes place on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the U.S.
Using online resources and promoting your Giving Tuesday campaign in advance will help your nonprofit get the most out of it. Giving Tuesday has a website with tons of resources and a hashtag that enables nonprofits to promote their organization to millions of people outside their donor base.
Many organizations take advantage of the charitable feelings at the end of the year – and the last-minute tax donations – with robust year-end campaigns.
These campaigns typically include an appeal letter, mailed or sent via email, with multiple easy ways to give.
Text-to-give campaigns are increasingly popular. While a donor may be less likely to carry cash these days, they almost always have their smartphone! With text-to-give, donors simply text a number to receive a link to an online giving campaign. Then they can quickly give online.
Donorbox Text-to-Give is easy and effective! We have two plans to fit your needs. All your donors need to do is send your campaign ID to 1 855 575 7888 (basic plan) or a custom keyword to 801801 (short code plan). Once your donors send the campaign ID, Donorbox will send them your mobile-friendly campaign link and there they can make donations using a variety of payment methods, including digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay. With our repeat donation feature, your donors can quickly repeat this donation in the future without having to fill out any forms.
Here’s a quick video that will help you understand this easy mobile-giving feature better!
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to get your biggest supporters personally involved in the work of your organization. This type of campaign involves your supporters creating their own fundraising pages to raise money on your behalf.
Donorbox Peer-to-Peer allows you to either invite supporters via email or allow anyone to sign up to fundraise on your behalf. They’ll receive an email guiding them through the process of setting up their donation page that’s linked to your campaign, so any funds they raise automatically flow to your Donorbox account.
This is a great way to boost the reach of any campaign and interact with new donors!
Crowdfunding is an incredibly powerful type of fundraising – and it’s very popular, too. In these types of campaigns, you harness the power of the crowd to make a big impact. Several people coming together to give five dollars can help you smash your fundraising goals!
Donorbox Crowdfunding offers a ton of features to keep the momentum going. Post regular updates, enable a donor wall to build social proof, and allow easy social media sharing buttons.
Black Girls Code used Donorbox to raise over $480,000 with 1,963 donations. We love how they included a compelling video on their campaign to boost participation!
Build Your Crowdfunding Campaign
Will your campaign be raising funds for a specific initiative or project? Or are you trying to close the gap in your contributed income with a robust year-end campaign?
Understanding exactly what your organization needs is a great way to start your campaign planning. It will guide your messaging, goal-setting, and fundraising methods.
Setting a fundraising goal, and keeping donors informed about how close you are to reaching it, will excite your donors. It will also increase the chance of more donations as you get closer to that goal.
Download our free SMART Goal Setting Worksheet to help you set realistic, attainable fundraising goals.
It is human nature to wait until the last minute to get something done. Waiting to donate is no different. Successful campaigns include a limited time to give. Keeping donors aware of how little time they have to make a difference will drive donations.
This will also help you plan your outreach schedule – and you can always extend the deadline to get more of those last-minute donations.
Why does Ayesha need money to go to school? Do other girls in her community get an education? How do women in her community live without an education? What inspired her to want to become a doctor?
The answer to these questions is how you convince donors to give. Telling this one girl’s story is a doorway to thousands of other people’s lives. Your donors will want to learn more about Ayesha and more about the other girls in her community. The more stories you tell, the more they will want to give.
Need some help crafting the perfect fundraising story for your campaign? Check out this blog!
Which marketing channel has performed well for you in the past? Consider the following channels and try to pull data to analyze the effectiveness of each one:
A great fundraising campaign should be shared on all available marketing channels, but understanding how each has performed for you in the past can help you determine how to divide your campaign resources.
Once you have found out how your donors give and split them into subgroups, you can start writing emails, appeal letters, or social media posts. The way you tell your story will need to be different for each of these groups and communication channels.
Social media campaigns can find great success with videos. Donor letters and cards can have a personal touch. Emails can quickly connect your donors to online donation forms.
As you plan your next fundraising campaign, there are ways to reach more people and raise more funds. If you are still having trouble increasing your campaign donations after writing a compelling story, here are a few more tips and tricks to help.
How many times have you given up buying an item because their online system was too complicated? Too many nonprofits have antiquated online systems and are losing money without knowing it.
Donorbox makes donating online easy for every size organization. With pop-up donation forms and donation pages you can customize to match your organization’s branding, your supporters can enjoy a smooth donation process.
Plus, UltraSwift™ Pay allows your donors to use their preferred digital wallet like Apple Pay and Google Pay to check out without adding their personal information. This makes the checkout on Donorbox forms up to 4x faster than competitor forms.
Recurring donations are automated gifts that occur at a set interval, allowing donors to give a larger amount over the course of a year than they would as a one-time donation. These gifts ensure steady contributed income for nonprofits and can be excellent ways to build strong donor relationships.
Donorbox makes securing more recurring donations a breeze. Choose up to four donation intervals (from one-time, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual donations) and add them to your donation form. You can also select a default interval and mark your preferred interval with a heart, the way FISH Hospitality Pantries did.
While one-time is the default interval, they’ve shown their donors that monthly is their preferred interval. And with good reason – recurring donors give 42% more a year on average than one-time donors!
Your organization’s mission is the end goal, but you will reach smaller goals as the years go on. When your organization reaches one of these goals, like building a new school or reaching a milestone in the community services you offer, send a celebration email or card and invite your supporters to celebrate with you. Post about your success on social media, noting how crucial your donors are to reaching your next goal.
Understanding the impact donations have on your ability to fulfill your mission will inspire more donations.
Fundraising videos are one of your most potent tools for connecting with modern audiences. As more and more donors find you directly through social media, accessing educational and entertaining videos about your mission will help encourage new audience members to join in with a donation.
If you’re not a professional videographer, don’t stress! You don’t have to be. These days, almost everyone has a high-tech camera in their smartphones. These more informal, personal videos (think TikTok) are often more persuasive to donors than highly polished videos.
Your donors have different interests in your organization. They also have different financial abilities, contact preferences, demographics…the list goes on! When you speak to your donors, you cannot talk to them as if they are one person.
Instead, it is best to include each donor’s interests and donor ability in your database. You should also include how they want to be contacted and how they wish to donate. This will allow you to properly segment your donors to ensure your campaign reaches the right people in the right way.
Do you have major donors who regularly give larger amounts? Why not work with them to see if they will match the donations of your other donors? This way, you can excite your major donors and entice other donors to give more. Learn more about how you can double your donation with Donorbox.
If you want to learn about the Matching Gift programs & how you can enable them to increase your donations, read our in-depth blog post on the Matching Gifts Program.
Any marketing professional will tell you the best campaigns happen when you create a sense of urgency.
For a Limited Time or One Day, Only are time-honored phrases used in commercials of for-profit companies. Nonprofit marketing is not any different. Your supporters don’t want to miss out on making a difference with your organization, but it is human nature to wait until the last minute.
With a donation goal meter on your campaign page, you can show your donors how close you are to reaching your goal. You can also remind them they only have a limited time to be a part of it! Learn more about How to Use a Fundraising Thermometer of your own.
Check out how effective this goal meter for the Friends of the Teton River fundraiser was. They surpassed their goal of $500,000 in just 56 donations.
Has an ad on Facebook or YouTube ever caught your eye and encouraged you to visit their website? The same happens for donors who see the right content about your nonprofit at the right time.
Using social media means more than just posting during your fundraising campaign. A steady stream of content will create a better experience for your followers and build up a relationship beyond making an ask.
Social media platforms, like Instagram, have made donating to nonprofits even easier with donate buttons.
Using social proof is another way nonprofit organizations can learn from for-profit companies. Customer testimonials are more powerful than high-priced ads any day. They tend to cut through hesitations faster than anything else.
Nonprofits can get the same effect by adding a donor wall to their campaign. This shows prospective donors that many have already given to your cause. With Donorbox, donors can leave comments as well, showcasing how important the cause is to them.
The Paul Watson Foundation added a donor wall to their peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to bring in even more donations.
These days, online fundraising campaigns are the norm. In order to stand out from the crowd, it’s crucial to take your campaign to the next level with tools to boost your success and a powerful strategy to reach your donors at the right time.
We hope these tips have helped inspire you to launch your next campaign. Donorbox is here to help! Whether you’re a seasoned fundraising pro or are just getting started, we have the tools, resources, and support to ensure you bring in the funds you need when you need them. Learn more about all of our features and sign up today!
For more fundraising tips, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the best resources and tips directly in your inbox.
Raviraj heads the sales and marketing team at Donorbox. His growth-hacking abilities have helped Donorbox boost fundraising efforts for thousands of nonprofit organizations.
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Raj