Asking for donations
Fundraising no doubt depends on how to expand knowledge on many subjects. It is an area where donor solicitation, communications and marketing intersect.
If you are a member of a nonprofit organisation, you must understand that the limitations of face-to-face interactions due to Covid-19 made your organisation scramble to take the best steps in searching for fundraising initiatives. For instance, video meetings have become a new alternative for fundraising. For more than a year, many donation and volunteer events have been organised virtually. The Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 situations show that traditional fundraising actions can shift to virtual. While the way to generate funds changed, planning of donation campaigns stayed the same.
Preparing gift range charts
Hope is not a plan. Praying to reach your goals is not a strategy. Therefore, all donor outreach strategies start with planning.
Gift range charts will clarify your campaign goals and how to achieve them. First, write down your campaign goals. Then start by generating a list of donors and donations from the past year. Organise your chart in a way that the biggest donations are on top. This way, you can fill in your chart downwards, based on what you know about your benefactors and their capacity. Contribution amounts should also be in diminishing order.
Apply the same technique to each donor. If you want, you can also repeat the same structure for small donations which is to make up the second bulk of your fundraising. Giving alternatives will offer you other types of opportunities that you have perhaps not considered yet. Try to group your donors based on what else they can offer besides money. They can, for instance, have access to other groups which then generate a networking opportunity for the association; some others could offer a comfortable location to organise your events. Think about what else you can ask from them. Write it down and do not hesitate to ask for some help also for catering or logistics. Once it is done, email your donors a personalised message. You can also release the needs of your organisation on social media channels.
A gift range chart, in the end, is just a guide. That is why you need to use your knowledge of your nonprofit to decide what is fair to ask for among your donors.
Gift tables usually look like lined pyramids. They allow you to break down a fundraising goal by defining contributors based on their gifts. For example, you start by writing donor outreach channels like e-mail or social media and placing your donors on the pyramid.
Example of a donor pyramid
A lean call to action
Fulfilling the goals of a donation campaign generally requires creativity, resourcefulness and marketing skills. If we look at common strategies, often fundraising campaigners publish inspiring and interesting campaigns to raise awareness and spread their messages. There are many ways to call people to action. One of which is called “peer-to-peer” fundraising. It is a fundraising method in which your supporters fundraise on your behalf. Peer-to-peer fundraising prospects do not require direct transfer of liquid assets from volunteers. Rather indirectly you create a source of income such as instead of receiving wedding or birthday gifts, you ask them to donate for a cause. Alternatively you can do the action by yourself. For instance, you can sell lemonades, walk, run or cycle. For example, AIDS Walk/Run raises money every year to fight against the illness. Same way if you are a musician, you can easily organise your online concert and donate the income to the charity.
Another tool is YouTube. That is one of the basic steps to see how far your channel can go from diffusion to fundraising with the help of social media. YouTube is a good example of how to support creators in charitable causes. All you need to do is add a donation button on your YouTube channel. Unfortunately only eligible channels can fundraise for nonprofits by adding the donate button to their videos and live streams. Keep the design of the donate button simple because one thing that you should avoid while fundraising is sending your supporters through many different screens to complete their gift. That can tire the viewers. When you add extra links to your site, make sure that you give donors the option to click right away and ditch the counter process altogether. Multiple steps and long texts only annoy your supporters making them less likely to donate. Try to apply the three click rule: it should take everyone visiting your website no more than three mouse clicks to make a donation. This video explains how you can activate donations on your Youtube channel.
The same system can be copied to the main pages of your association so that your viewers can donate directly on the video watch page or during live chat. This is another example of software which can be helpful in online fundraising.
Following up with donors and volunteers
Having an active database of volunteers facilitates honing their skills and streamline your actions. According to non-profit fundraising statistics, 67% of worldwide donors prefer to volunteer locally in their neighbourhoods, and 56% regularly attend fundraising events. Finding new resources will take time and effort. Fostering relationships with your existing volunteers is more cost-effective than investing in finding new ones. Your volunteers have a lot to offer to your nonprofit, whether it is time or talents. They are, moreover, likely to turn into donors down the line.
After your volunteers have donated time to your cause, it is kind to send them a thank you message just as you would for a donor to help maintain your relationship and lay the groundwork for future engagement. To communicate effectively with your donors and volunteers, you need to understand who they are and how they are connected to your cause. Surveying donors and volunteers will assist you to learn more about the intent of commitment. You can either organise an online questionnaire or prepare a donation form to learn more about their motivation for giving.
Donors also like to hear about the demonstrable results of their contributions. Your donors are allocating to you their hard-earned money, so they should know what it is going to achieve. The fundraising video below explains how the money raised was spent. Even if this year’s donors cannot offer the help you demanded right away, it is still a good idea to show appreciation for the support they’ve given in the past.
Remember your donor outreach efforts will not be perfect overnight and strengthening relationships with supporters is no easy task. That is why we should debrief and share the lessons learned after each fundraising campaign.
Three tips to improve your fundraising
Plan your fundraising campaign with gift range charts.
Increase your conversion rates by following the three-click rule.
Strengthen relationships by illustrating the impact of donations.
- written by Elif Akyüz, elif[at]thedandeliongroup.eu
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