Chances are you've participated in a Zoom meeting. This incredibly popular online meeting platform offers tons of great features and tools nonprofits can use to connect with donors and raise more. But did you know your nonprofit is also eligible for some major discounts? Read on to learn how much you can save!
Zoom is a wildly popular platform for hosting online meetings. In fact, Zoom reports they have over 300 million active users a day – that’s a lot of connection!
But you might not realize all Zoom has to offer for nonprofits. From discounted rates to special nonprofit features, Zoom has thought of ample ways to serve the nonprofit community.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about using Zoom as a nonprofit.
Nonprofits know the importance of saving money wherever possible on the administration side of their organizations. That’s why it’s key to hunt for discounted pricing for all of your tools, including Zoom.
Discounts for Zoom are available to nonprofits through TechSoup. If your organization meets the eligibility criteria outlined below, you can receive one discounted product (i.e., one discounted premium Zoom account) per fiscal year (July 1 to June 30).
Note that Zoom will only distribute products to qualifying organizations, and not to individuals.
So what does the discount look like?
It’s up to 50% off whichever Zoom pricing plan makes sense for your organization. Here is what that discount might look like for each level:
When you’re running a nonprofit, every penny counts. It’s so important to find smart discounts on powerful tools that can only improve the way you operate day-to-day and open the door to virtual fundraising opportunities you might be missing out on.
If you’ve ever used Zoom, you know how intuitive its interface is. The added bonus is that someone doesn’t even have to join or make an account to access your meeting. A meeting link – which you can password-protect for security – is their key.
This feature can help you connect with your volunteers and board members who may not be using Zoom regularly. This is also helpful when you’re hosting an online event and want your supporters to join virtually. Without knowing how many have an account on Zoom, you can easily share the link and password with them.
When you call someone over video instead of just on the phone, you get to pick up on expressions that make your communication –and your relationship-building – all the more meaningful.
Since working in the nonprofit world is all about building relationships with communities, volunteers, donors, and sponsors, having the option to make a virtual connection is important.
If you have found a potential major donor through your prospect research and want to connect with them but an in-person meeting isn’t possible, Zoom is a great option. Schedule a meeting beforehand and make sure you’re well prepared to make an appeal before you connect on Zoom.
Let’s say your nonprofit has a global network or it aspires to have a global network. Maybe there’s an organization doing similar work in another country, and you’ve always wanted to collaborate on an awareness-spreading event. With tools like Zoom, that collaboration is made easy and financially possible. All you have to worry about is finding a time that works for both time zones!
Zoom has excellent event-hosting capabilities. Depending on which level of Zoom account you choose (the choices are either basic, pro, business, or enterprise), you can host at least 100 and up to 500 participants per Zoom event.
You can get creative and try out different kinds of virtual events, like a virtual trivia night, online silent auction, online raffles, virtual walk-a-thons, and more to keep things interesting. You can also hold an online event to thank your volunteers and donors and to reward your fundraisers.
Using an online ticket page is a great way to sell tickets for your virtual event. Check out how this organization sold tickets to their virtual bingo event! They simply shared their Zoom access info right on their event page.
With Donorbox Events, you can also ask for additional donations on top of ticket sales to raise even more for your organization.
Every staff member and volunteer needs training upon joining your nonprofit. Training can be easily done online via Zoom meetings or recorded webinars. If you have occasional webinars and training sessions by industry experts, board members, and senior volunteers, you can easily record these sessions and reuse them.
This cuts down on time spent training new employees while still offering them a great training experience!
When you take your meetings virtual, there’s no more flying to annual board meetings, resulting in costly airfare and worse, significant carbon emissions. You can make your organization greener both environmentally and in the bank by turning any major shareholder meetings into virtual ones. Your board members will thank you, too!
Zoom has plenty of benefits to make day-to-day work easier for your nonprofit. But with online and hybrid events becoming the new norm, nonprofits are looking for more and more ways to engage their audience and raise more money on Zoom events.
In this section, we’ll go over some great Zoom features and fundraising add-ons you can use, along with real-world examples of how nonprofits are powering their Zoom events.
Zoom Events was created to help offer your attendees the best virtual experience that there can be. You can create multi-day events, manage ticketing and registration, help your attendees connect with each other via chat, and get data to analyze event performance.
It comes with two modes so you can build a virtual event that perfectly fits your nonprofit needs.
Zoom Events can help you easily sell tickets and earn revenue through your online event. But if your goal is to raise funds, you’ll need an easy way to collect donations during your event, too! Check out how Donorbox can help you create simple and fast recurring donation forms to raise money with your Zoom event. Remember to share the link to your donation page with your attendees while the event is running.
While Zoom doesn’t have a built-in donation button (yet!), Pledge is a Zoom Events technology partner and has made an app that integrates with your Zoom account so people in your Zoom meetings can donate without even leaving the page.
You can also acknowledge their donations in real time with an “I donated” virtual background.
Learn more about Pledge and the donate button in this guide by Zoom.
When it’s time to plan an event on Zoom, think outside the box! Everyone may not be very excited about online events. They may even be unwilling to pay for tickets unless you have some engaging games or activities worth the ticket price. Your event could be an online class your community loves or a party that kids, as well as parents in your neighborhood, would love to participate in.
Chester Upland Youth Soccer did it with their Zoom Singalong Party for kids. They hosted a fun event and asked for donations in return. Their crowdfunding campaign includes details on the online event and a story to inspire people to make donations. If you have a lot of kids in your community or you’re a school or a PTA, this is a great – and easy! – online fundraiser.
You can also conduct online Zoom classes to raise funds like Leading Yoga did! This is an easy way to provide convenient programming that doesn’t require your participants to show up in person. They can do yoga with you from anywhere – even in their pajamas!
Whatever you decide to do, provide clear connection instructions so your participants and supporters can join easily. Try out some different ideas to see what works best for you, your donors, and your sponsors. Here’s a blog to help you come up with unique and fun ideas for your fundraising events. While some of them are best for in-person events, many can easily be turned virtual or hybrid with some creativity and planning!
You should add different ways to make a donation during your Zoom events. The younger generations are more familiar with texting and making quick payments. Share a campaign ID with them and a simple number to text in order to donate.
This also makes your events more interactive than simply sharing a link to make a donation. When you receive a donation, call out the donor’s name to thank them in real time.
Donorbox Text-to-Give comes with two plans: basic and shortcode. The shortcode plan gives you a simpler number that’s easier to remember and a customized keyword for your campaign. Share them with your online attendees with an appeal to donate. Donorbox also makes repeating a text donation super easy. Here’s how it looks.
Ask your online event host to share inspiring stories of people you’re helping. Share the impact of donations throughout your event to drive more giving.
Before the day of the online event, ask your best supporters to help you raise more funds. Donorbox makes it a breeze for you and your potential fundraisers. All you have to do is toggle a switch on an online campaign on Donorbox to enable peer-to-peer fundraising. Then, invite your supporters (volunteers, board members, donors, and staff) from your account to create and customize their own fundraising pages.
During the online event, call out your fundraisers’ names and thank them. You can also choose to reward the ones who raised the most donations. This simple act will encourage other supporters to come forward the next time you’re planning an event like this.
If you’ve decided that Zoom is the right tool for your nonprofit, and you’re eligible for the Zoom discounted nonprofit pricing, then all you have to do is get started! Remember to make the most of your Zoom fundraising events by hosting unique, fun, and creative fundraisers–in addition to saving time and money through virtual meetings. The ways we’ve shared above are some of the most effective ones you can use. But if you happen to know other good ones to liven up Zoom events, let’s talk about them and help other nonprofits benefit from your experience in the Donorbox Knowledge Community. Here you can learn from other organizations, share your knowledge, and grow your network!
When it comes to online fundraising, nothing gives you more ease and power than Donorbox’s simple-to-use and affordable features. We’ve helped 50,000+ nonprofits across the globe boost donations and gain and retain more donors with features like Recurring Donations, customizable Donation Pages, Peer-to-Peer fundraising, Crowdfunding, Events, Memberships, QuickDonate, etc. Moreover, Donorbox Premium helps you unleash your full donation potential – you receive expert coaching, a dedicated account manager, high-powered add-ons, and adept tech wizards. The pricing is personalized for each nonprofit. To learn more, click here.
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Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower