6 Fundraising Ideas for Nonprofit to Get More Donors All Year

Philanthropy, at one time, was thought to be a domain of the extremely affluent class of the society. The middle class was not very inclined towards it. However, the approach of the middle class towards philanthropy has undergone a radical change in the recent past. The stats would have us believe that in the U.S itself citizens contribute 1.7% of its GDP to nonprofit despite the fact that these donations don’t necessarily yield tax benefits for the donors.

Why is there a rising awareness of fundraising?

• People tend to donate when they feel strongly towards a cause for which the fund is being raised.
• People may donate if there is a personal relationship between them and the fundraiser. This is because it gives them the confidence that their funds will not be misused.
• Participating in non-profit gives the donor satisfaction that he is a part of something good.

Fundraising Ideas for charity all the year:

1. Find out more about your donors

Just like in any venture that you are planning, the first and foremost step is to find out about your donors. This will help you plan and strategize your fundraising efforts such that they are customized for your donors resulting in favorable outcomes.

If you are looking to raise funds for a specific cause, it is beneficial to understand your target audience and create fundraising campaigns that are customized for them. A study by Campbell and Company at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University reveals an interesting fact that irrespective of factors such as income, education, and religiosity, donors across all generations donate the same amount to charity.

The good news for nonprofits is that the overall giving has grown by 4.1% in the past year as per 2018 Global Trends in Giving Report. Most donors prefer online methods for donation. Donors across all age-groups are inclined to donate by social media.

Stats also reveal that besides contributing funds, 67% of donors also choose to volunteer locally in their communities. The popularity of fundraising events has increased with 56% of donors attending them (2018 Global Trends in Giving Report).

If you know your donor, you can plan your marketing strategy according to the channels that are relevant to them.

2. Refresh your online content

The donor behaviors are constantly evolving. Hence, it is imperative to develop a methodology of continuously checking the needs of your audience and developing an appropriate content strategy.

Refreshing your existing content is one of the best ways of keeping your audience engaged. It helps you keep your content calendar full and enables you to maximize the benefits from good content that has already been created.

However, refreshing of the online content should be done in a planned manner:

• Firstly prepare a content calendar according to relevancy, timing, and the sequence along with the fresh content you will be posting.
• Understand your current audience and modify the content to meet their needs
• Optimize the content being refreshed according to current keyword research.
• You can make your content dynamic by presenting them news items about your non-profit. This ensures that your audience keeps coming back for more and also helps in search engine optimization.
• Ensure that your content is responsive.

3. Keep Social Media Updated

Social Media has impacted our lives in more ways than one. And, non-profits are not bereft of this influence. It is a platform through which you can engage with your donors by posting relevant content, emotion-inducing videos and images. Social media helps to increase the exposure of your non-profit manifold. It serves as one of the best avenues to boost referrals.

There are various social media channels that have proved to be effective for fundraising:

• According to The Non-Profit Times, Facebook‘s charitable giving tools have topped a whopping $ 1 billion in 2018 since its introduction three years ago.
• Instagram hit a staggering 1billion active users in 2018. According to Megan Cotter, Social Media Manager, with the rising users of Instagram in all age groups, it is expected to become one of the most popular platforms for non-profits in 2019. In fact, Instagram can be effectively leveraged to provide donors and volunteers a glimpse of the impact of their gifts every day.
• As per Hootsuite, 1.9 billion logged in users visit YouTube monthly! And Cisco would have us believe that 82% of all internet traffic will be video by 2022! It is no wonder that fundraisers are using this platform for inviting donations. In addition to the popularity of the platform, YouTube is also rolling out a new suite of giving tools for non-profits.
• Twitter has proved to be one of the best channels for establishing ongoing and authentic engagement with your donors. Because of its incredible speed in spreading information, it helps mobilize supporters and interact with your audience.
• In addition to these, there are other social media platforms such as LinkedIn, etc. which offer their own set of benefits to non-profits.

An effective social media strategy non-profits can adopt is:

• Communicate important information, send updates, and connect with potential donors using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
• You can create a needs board on Pinterest where you can specify the items you need for the immediate functioning of your charitable organization. You can share this needs board on Facebook and Twitter.
• Online crowdfunding has also been found to be effective in raising funds for charities.

4. Host Events

One of the best ways to raise funds for a cause is by hosting an event. Events could be charity picnics, dinners, walkathons, 5km runs, polar plunges, etc. In fact, recent times have witnessed events such as head shaving being hosted for fundraising. The good news for non-profits is that 56% of donors participate in fundraising events.

Although a well-executed event has the potential to bring in a lot of funds, hosting an event is demanding both as far as the efforts and resources of the organization are concerned.

However, with proper planning, hosting an event can benefit an organization significantly.

Steps for hosting an event:

• Define the objectives of your event
• Who is your Target Audience?
• Estimate how much you expect to raise from the event
• Estimate your budget for the event
• Set up a committee which includes your internal personnel and volunteers from the local community
• Assign tasks such as marketing, operations, logistics, etc. to specific groups
• Look for Corporate sponsorship for your event
• Don’t forget to thank everyone who was involved with the event such as donors, volunteers, staff, vendors, etc.

5. Make it easy to donate

For getting donors to contribute to your non-profit, it is essential to simplify the process of donating.

Here are some tips on how you can make it easy to donate:

• Simplify your donation form
  Make the donation form on your site easy to navigate so that the donors find it easy to donate.
• Suggest giving amounts
  Instead of asking your donors to type in the amount they want to donate, include tabs with suggestions of specific amounts to contribute.
• Encourage monthly donations
  Instead of asking for one big donation from your donors, encourage them to contribute monthly to your non-profit as this not only grows your long-term fundraising performance but also enhances monthly revenues.
• Mobile first
  As per CIO Drive 2018, up to 70% of web traffic takes place on mobile devices! Since most users are looking at mobiles for accomplishing most tasks, having a responsive donor form is vital. Ensure that your donation form opens easily on the mobile making it easy to donate.
• Add CTA in your Social media pages
  One of the ways to make it easy to donate is by adding a “Donate Now” Button in your fundraising social media pages such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

6. Join iConnectX

If you are looking to be a part of a non-profit, join iConnectX! iConnectX is a social platform that enables professionals to connect with executives and experts for a fee that is donated to non-profit organizations registered with us.

The process of functioning of iConnectX is simple wherein professionals and executives connect through a private bridge. A private bridge is a paid meeting between the user and the executive. The user pays the executive for the meeting based on the executive’s bridge price. After the completion of the meeting, the fee will be given to a charity of the executive’s choice.

It is an innovative concept where the power of networking is successfully leveraged to raise donations and support causes. These registered organizations manage direct donations, host events, auctions, etc. For your convenience, we are available both on the web and mobile.

This platform offers complete transparency to the donors and is easy to use in addition to providing networking benefits to the user.

Although not exhaustive, these are some ideas that can help your fundraising throughout the year.