We click. We tap. We swipe. Everything, including fundraising, is faster thanks to technology.
Online fundraising has become contagious. People can donate from home, the barber shop, work (procrastinating much?), the kitchen (pay attention to those peas!), and the versatility is endless. Just don’t donate and drive, please.
The simplicity and speed of online donations appeal to younger donors who won’t mail checks. The option to give online can get them involved and excited to give to your nonprofit.
Just don’t think that online fundraising will be the magic elixir that cures all your achy ask amounts, sore retention rates, and that lingering headache from always falling just short of your fundraising goals.
40.5% of nonprofits said that less than 10% of their fundraising revenue comes from online donations. The goal of this article is to help you to increase that number, but online fundraising should still be a part of a holistic fundraising solution, as opposed to a magic cure-all.
THE CHALLENGES OF ONLINE FUNDRAISING
Most nonprofits stand to benefit from some online fundraising.
However, three complaints stand out reasons why nonprofits have historically avoided online fundraising.
1 — “I DON’T KNOW HOW TO GET STARTED.”
Fundraising is hard, and the internet is a big place. Which fundraising tools should you use? Is email more important than social media? How do you grow your email list? With a bevy of problems to solve, it’s not easy to know where to start.
2 — “I NEED A BETTER WAY TO PROCESS DONATIONS.”
You want the donation process to be as simple and straightforward as possible. It’s also important to have systems in place to properly store and manage donor information. Without an efficient donation process, your nonprofit wastes time, resources, and likely loses out on a good bit of money.
3 — “I WISH I COULD GET MORE OUT OF ONLINE FUNDRAISING.”
Like many nonprofits, you feel like online fundraising could provide a bigger portion of your revenue. It can, but it’s not as easy as throwing up a crowdfunding page and waiting for donors to find your awesome cause.
STRATEGIES TO SOLVE YOUR ONLINE FUNDRAISING PROBLEMS
Got a little glitch in your online fundraising? We can fix that. Below are ten strategies to help improve online fundraising.
1 — MARRY YOUR DONATIONS TO YOUR DONOR MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
It’s tough to date someone who doesn’t speak your language. You’ll experience similar compatibility issues if your donation system doesn’t know how to talk to your donor management software.
A healthy marriage between your donations and donor software allows your nonprofit to:
- Quickly process donations
- Store donor information
- Track giving trends
- Share data with relevant staff
- And more
2 — BUILD AN EMAIL LIST
What can’t be overlooked is how important it is to reach out to people through the medium through which you want them to donate.
An online donation could be as simple as getting someone to click a link, but you can’t send a link through a phone conversation.
Make sure to track donor emails when you receive donations. If you’re going to raise big money, then you need to ask a large amount of people to help.
You can manage a lot of people by implementing effective donor segmentation strategies.
Do be careful with how frequently you ask for donations. You don’t want to overwhelm people, and you don’t want them thinking that they’re getting spammed. You’re asking for money for a good cause, so be good about it.
3 — REQUEST CONTACT INFORMATION
Donor retention is a struggle for most nonprofits. It’s not easy to keep donors after their initial donations. Nonprofits also should encourage repeat donors to increase their donations over time, which makes retention a long, difficult process.
Don’t make retention any harder than it should be. Ask for your donors’ basic contact information.
You don’t want to waste time calling wrong numbers, sending mail to the wrong addresses, and tweeting at someone who has no idea what in the world your nonprofit is.
Updated contact information saves time that fundraisers should be using to talk to donors.
Contact information can easily be managed with a nonprofit CRM.
4 — IMPROVE SUGGESTED DONATION AMOUNTS
It’s one thing to request donations and another thing to ask for proper amounts. Ask for too little and you won’t receive as much as you could. Request too much and donors might laugh or be offended by your boldness.
When you ask for the right amount, it not only sounds like a reasonable proposition to donors, but donors will realize that you’ve taken the time to understand who they are and not just how much they could give, but how much they’d like to give.
Diving into giving histories helps to determine appropriate ask amounts.
Again, giving history data can be stored and easily used by fundraisers with help from a CRM.
5 — SEEK RECURRING PLEDGES
One donation is good. Two donations is great. When a donor starts giving again and again and again, then you’re in business.
Recurring pledges happen when you successfully retain donors, which can be accomplished when you employ a donor stewardship program.
A stewardship program aims to show care and appreciation for donors in an attempt to gain the all important recurring donations that supply your nonprofit with consistent funds and dedicated supporters.
6 — CREATE EVENTS OPTIMAL FOR ONLINE FUNDRAISING
Ideal online fundraising campaigns include:
- Crowdfunding
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- E-book giveaways
- Event fundraisers
A good online fundraiser allows donors to give quickly and easily while providing instantaneous gratification. That gratification could be an e-book, some other electronic gift, or a thank you email.
Online fundraising is all about efficiency.
Let people give, and let them know that you received their donations, and thank them as soon as possible.
7 — ADD ONLINE FUNDRAISING TO YOUR ANNUAL PLANNING PROCESS
People will not find you. Just because you set up an online fundraising campaign does not mean that people will discover your campaign.
There are a ton of nonprofits running a ton of campaigns on a ton of platforms. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to place yourself in front of donors.
This means that online fundraising needs to be a part of your annual planning process. Include online fundraising in your emails, conversations with donors, and budgetary considerations. There is money to gain online, but only if you plan accordingly and execute effectively.
8 — EXPERIMENT WITH CROWDFUNDING
The people matter! They’re the folks with money to give to your nonprofit. How do you reach more of them?
Crowdfunding lets nonprofits get social with their fundraising efforts. People can give online and then share your campaign with friends through email, social media, and other wireless ways that can help with new donor acquisition. Crowdfunding is putting fundraising in the hands of the people. When the people have the power, some beautiful things can happen.
Crowdfunding is putting fundraising in the hands of the people. When the people have the power, some beautiful things can happen.
The key is to spread word of your campaign to people who will actually reach out to friends and family. It’s also best to use timely campaigns, such as raising money for a specific event or purpose.
9 — TREAT PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE, NOT ROBOTS
When you do reach out to people, talk to them like they matter.
It’s easy to default to template emails and stock scripts when communicating with donors. That strategy might work on some people, but it’s unlikely to land you the major gifts and repeat donors that your nonprofit really needs.
Learn about donors. Write down their information. Use donor data to craft individualized communications. Prospect research can help you find the information you need to make better asks.
When you reach out to people and they feel like you actually know them, chances are that they’ll be more likely to log onto their computer and give you a gift.
10 — APPOINT AN ONLINE FUNDRAISING LEAD
So much stuff goes into online fundraising! How will you ever manage it all?
You might not, but your online fundraising lead will.
Select someone to spearhead all of your online fundraising efforts. From building email lists to setting up campaigns to sending thank you emails, make sure that you have the people in place to both execute and maintain a successful online fundraising program.
It can be tough to raise money online. There’s a ton of competition, and it’s easier said than done to get campaigns up and running.
However, if you’re dedicated to raising more funds to help your cause, online is as good a place to look as any. Play your cards right, and you could be the next online nonprofit fundraising success story.