Looking for innovative strategies and powerful tools that help you effectively fundraise and inspire donors to give more generously? In this article, we'll walk you through 12 easy and effective ways to raise money for your important cause.
![12 Simple Ways to Raise Money for Your Nonprofit [2025]](https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/GUIDE-18-2.png.webp)
Learning how to raise money for a nonprofit organization can sometimes feel intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re not sure where to get started, you’ve come to the right place!
Let’s explore 12 simple steps to follow to raise more for your nonprofit.
Your first step in any solid fundraising strategy is to get your donation page in shape. Your page should be secure, up-to-date, and on-brand – with minimal effort required from your end!
To make the process hassle-free, use fundraising software like Donorbox for an all-in-one donation page solution, helpful resources, and lightning-fast customer support.
Getting started with Donorbox takes just four simple steps. Sign up for free, create your donation form, customize your Donorbox-hosted donation page to add branding, and connect your payment processor (Stripe or PayPal). That’s it!
We love how Giving Tree Books added multiple colors to their form and eye-catching visuals on their donation page.
Create a Branded Donation Page
Bonus resource: Read more best practices in this blog post.
Pro tip: Be sure to test your page on a mobile device! Half of U.S. citizens alone spend approximately 5-6 hours on their smartphones every day. Choosing the right fundraising software will ensure you have a mobile-ready strategy!
Not everyone has cash on them these days. Roughly four in 10 Americans claim they don’t use cash for any of their regular weekly purchases. That’s why savvy nonprofits are modernizing the way they accept in-person donations.
Enter the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app. Use this app to easily turn your tablet and card reader into a powerful donation kiosk that collects donations from credit cards, smartphones, and smartwatches.
You can station this around your building or use it to work the crowd at events. Each donation flows into your Donorbox account so you can easily track the success of your campaign – perfect for analyzing your nonprofit fundraising strategy.
Best practices for a donation kiosk:
Where is your mobile phone as you’re reading this? Chances are you’re either reading this on your phone or it’s within reach. That’s why text giving should be a vital part of your modern fundraising strategy.
Text-to-give allows donors to donate to your cause simply by sending a text message with their mobile phones.
With Donorbox Text-to-Give, all you have to do is share your campaign ID or unique keyword and number with your supporters. Once a donor sends a text, they’ll receive a mobile-friendly fundraising page link to make their donation. Repeating their gift is even easier – no need to fill out a donation form again.
Plus, enabling UltraSwift™ Pay on your donation form allows donors to checkout using their preferred digital wallet. This means they don’t have to enter their contact information – which saves them time and effort!
Bonus resource: Become a text-to-give whiz with our free guide.
Raising money doesn’t end once your organization has received a donation. In fact, many fundraisers believe that this is where the true work of fundraising begins – stewarding those relationships so your donors give again and again. Donor retention is a key metric all nonprofits should track to measure the effectiveness of their donor engagement. For most nonprofits, this is around 40%.
But…what practical steps can you take to steward relationships and increase your donor retention rate? Having the right tools is the first step.
Donorbox CRM is a robust, AI-driven solution that helps you manage donor information, automate engagement, and turn one-time donors into long-term supporters. With a built-in Mail Center for small group or individual emails and Email Marketing platform for mass communications, you can communicate with and manage your donors all in one place.
Learn more about everything Donorbox CRM has to offer, then reach out to our product experts for a demo!
Build Better Donor Relationships
Everyone likes getting mail, but many nonprofits are moving away from the traditional direct mail method. However, there are some compelling reasons why you shouldn’t remove it from your fundraising strategy entirely.
Did you know that 90% of direct mail gets opened? You may have a unique opportunity to connect with donors and all it takes is a stamp!
Get creative and send out new types of mailers, including postcards with QR codes to your online donation form. Just be sure to include supporting materials that might interest prospective donors. For example, share a brief success story about your most recent project or something else that demonstrates value to your donors.
A direct mail campaign can be as simple or as complex as you wish. Print fundraising letters on your letterhead and put everything together in-house. Or outsource any parts of this project you might need support with, especially if your mailing list is large. This might include a graphic designer, copywriter, printer, and/or mail house.
Bonus resource: Looking for more guidance on how to do a mailed letter fundraising campaign? Check out this blog post.
A crowdfunding campaign harnesses the power of a crowd to fun a specific project or program. Each person contributes a small amount toward an overall goal. A crowdfunding campaign is great for urgent projects such as funding a new facility, brand-new equipment, mission trips, or renovation work.
This popular nonprofit fundraising type isn’t going anywhere. In fact, the current average donation to a crowdfunding campaign is $66 – which can significantly add up. If crowdfunding isn’t a part of your fundraising strategy, the time to add it.
Donorbox makes it easy to create a crowdfunding page, post dedicated updates to your campaign on a separate tab, add a donor wall to build social proof, add social media sharing buttons, and much more.
Black Girls Code has raised over $400,000 through their Donorbox crowdfunding campaign. We love how they added a video to engage their supporters!
Best practices for crowdfunding campaigns:
Bonus resource: Learn the art of creating the perfect crowdfunding page in this blog post.
One revenue stream many nonprofit fundraisers miss out on is selling tickets to fun, brand-focused fundraising events. These events provide an opportunity for prospective and current donors to engage with your cause.
Whether you host an in-person, virtual, or hybrid event, selling tickets can help you meet your fundraising goals for the year and should be an important part of your fundraising strategy.
And Donorbox Events can help you do it! Build your event page online with as many ticket tiers as you need. Mark both the fair market and tax-deductible amount for each ticket type to encourage ticket purchasers to buy at higher levels. Plus, ask for additional donations on top of ticket sales to boost your event’s success. They’ll get their receipts and tickets delivered automatically via email.
Check out this example of an event page created using Donorbox Events.
Bonus resource: Create an event page and make it live for your potential attendees in just three steps. Learn more here.
Raising money for nonprofits can be more effective and efficient when your supporters help champion your cause. After all, nonprofit fundraising is all about connecting people with the causes they’re most passionate about! Choose your best supporters – volunteers, donors, friends, family, colleagues, board members, etc. – and invite them to try peer-to-peer fundraising.
A common example of peer-to-peer fundraising is a charity walkathon. A donor signs up to support the cause. Then, they raise money from their network of family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors. The fundraising software you choose for your nonprofit should make this process as simple for you and your fundraisers to use as possible.
With Donorbox Peer-to-Peer, you can create a peer-to-peer campaign and invite your supporters right from your account in just a few minutes. Your fundraisers will then be guided to create and customize their own fundraising pages. It’s the most effective way to boost your outreach as a nonprofit and multiply donations through the power of your supporters’ network.
We love how this organization allowed anyone to sign up to fundraise for their campaign. This makes it super easy for donors to multiply their impact!
Get Started With Donorbox Peer-to-Peer
Bonus resource: Just starting out with your first peer-to-peer campaign? Check out this step-by-step guide to using Donorbox Peer-to-Peer.
Also sometimes called “sustaining donations,” these are gifts that a donor agrees to give on an ongoing basis. Recurring donations provide donors with an easy, hassle-free way to support causes they love. Recurring giving programs are the bread and butter of nonprofit fundraising, as they provide nonprofits with a consistent, steady, and predictable source of income.
The Donorbox Recurring Donations feature is easy to add to your campaign. While creating your donation form on Donorbox, simply check the recurring intervals you’d like to have on the form and you’re done. You can choose four of the following intervals: one-time, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Then, embed your form on your website or host it on Donorbox.
Plus, recurring donors can log in to their own Donorbox account at any time to change their donation – saving you time on the backend.
Here’s an example of a nonprofit using a Donorbox recurring donation form on their website. With Donorbox, you also have the option to highlight your preferred recurring interval on your donation form (like in the example below – a tiny heart icon next to the interval).
Create a Recurring Donation Form
The latest report by Double the Donation shows that 57% of donors are now enrolled in recurring giving – an increase of over 11% from the previous year.
Bonus resource: Turning your one-time donors into recurring donors seems daunting. Here’s a blog post to help you get started.
Corporations with corporate social responsibility programs have agreed to devote resources to making the communities they operate in better. Often, this leads to opportunities for nonprofits to seek out sponsorships or partnerships with these companies.
Consider whether you have an upcoming event, program, or initiative that might be appealing to a corporate funder. This is the perfect time to solicit event sponsorships. Partnerships can include ongoing programming and support in a variety of ways.
In exchange for supporting your organization, these companies receive free advertising and reputation boosting through recognition on digital and print materials, signage, invitations, and more. There are also sometimes tax incentives associated with in-kind gifts.
Bonus resource: Learn how to secure corporate sponsorships with a step-by-step approach.
This effective fundraising strategy involves connecting with donors the old-school way – by picking up the phone!
During a phone-a-thon, you place calls to donors and ask them to support your cause. You may ask for a specific amount, or ask them to match or increase their gift from the previous year.
Organize a phone-a-thon in-house using your existing staff members to save money. Or engage a company to handle the heavy lifting (and the calls) for you.
While the goal of the call might be to secure a donation, you can learn a lot in the process. During a phone-a-thon, you might ask donors why they choose to support your work. You might also ask them what other causes they support.
One favorite question is: “What is the most meaningful gift you’ve ever given, and what was so special about it?” You’ll learn a lot about your donor’s philanthropic values from this question! And you’ll form a genuine connection that can lead to greater long-term support.
Pro-tip: Record this information in your Donorbox donor management database. You can add communication records so you know exactly what you talked about and when. This helps you build donor relationships – and keeps you from reaching out too much and becoming a nuisance.
Bonus resource: Need help getting started? Check out this guide to running a successful phone-a-thon.
Membership programs have many benefits. They ensure a predictable revenue for your nonprofit organization, help you create a loyal supporters base, and ensure you’re able to offer benefits to your members. These benefits may include exclusive access to your updates and newsletters, member-only events to help raise more money and acknowledge their support, and special programs to make them feel a part of your mission.
Donorbox Memberships is our easy-to-use membership tool that helps you build more connections with your donors. Add unlimited membership tiers to the form to fully customize your program for monthly or annually recurring memberships. Plus, you can create a form that aligns with your brand and even embed it right on your website.
Your members can also log in to their accounts on Donorbox and manage their membership plans. And you can easily manage member data and membership payments on the backend!
Check out the monthly membership campaign below created on Donorbox.
Start Your Membership Campaign
Bonus resource: Here’s everything you need to know about running a successful membership program.
Looking for fundraising ideas?
Check out our playlist to discover fresh ideas to inspire your fundraising. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get practical tips and advice from nonprofit experts.
With a variety of ways to raise money for your nonprofit, your biggest challenge might be deciding which fundraising ideas to pursue first!
Remember, nonprofit fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time to build a strong giving program over the long term. With persistence, optimism, and the right tools, you can take your fundraising efforts to the next level!
Donorbox is an online fundraising solution that helps nonprofits raise money and boost outreach through its advanced solutions such as crowdfunding, peer-to-peer fundraising, recurring donation forms, text-to-give, memberships campaigns, event ticketing, and more. Learn more about our features here.
At Donorbox, we specialize in making nonprofit fundraising logistics easy for busy professionals. Check out our Nonprofit Blog for more free resources and fundraising ideas. Subscribe to our newsletter for fundraising tips and tricks delivered to your inbox every month.
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