Nonprofits: 5 Tips to Help Your Fundraising
Nonprofits face one of their most challenging financial environments in years — just when people need them most. Many face the prospects of donations dwindling thanks to rising unemployment and pay cuts among some of the still-employed.
A study conducted by fundraising services firm Dunham & Company illustrates a troubling picture for nonprofits. A majority (53%) of 630 U.S. donors say “they plan to continue giving, but more carefully than before” amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Another 20% said they would stop giving altogether until the economy is back to normal. Just 28% said they would continue giving as is.
That means for there’s less room for error than ever before.
If you’re a nonprofit looking for every edge you can get in this environment, here are five fundraising tips to help you continue your vital mission.
5 Nonprofit Fundraising Tips
- Go Virtual: If you haven’t already figured out ways to organize online and mobile campaigns, you don’t have another minute to waste. Even as states lift their stay-at-home restrictions, many people still remain wary of large, public gatherings. Online campaigns should have staying power for quite some time. For example, you could try an online “happy hour” hosted by someone who can teach viewers how to make a cocktail or two. Or you could do a formal virtual event. Everyone dresses up for the presentation … even if they have nowhere to go.
- Be Positive: An overwhelming amount of research shows that donors can sour on highly negative and/or traumatic campaigns. It also shows that donors respond better to positive language as well as messaging that explains the positive outcomes of their volunteering time and donations. Words demonstrating positive traits – caring, generous, helpful – can be effective when used in a giving campaign.
- Target Your Volunteers: A Fidelity Charitable survey of its donors found that 87% of volunteers said “there is an overlap between their volunteer and financial support.” The organization says 79% of its donors also volunteered. It also says that 50% explicitly said they give more financial support because they volunteer. So as you’re looking to make the most of limited resources, think about who you’re targeting. Talk to your biggest donors, sure. But also consider amplifying your messaging to people who already give their time to you.
- Encourage Routine Giving: The obvious benefit of having recurring donors is knowing that money is coming in routinely. But recurring donors also are more valuable, according to a report from online fundraising platform Classy. The report, which leveraged data from more than 2.5 million donations across 3,5000 organizations of varying sizes, finds that “recurring donors are 42 percent more valuable than fundraisers, and a whopping 440 percent more valuable than one-time donors.”
- Find Inspiration in Other Successful Campaigns: Also consider examining at what has wowed before. WiredImpact, for instance, shares eight fantastic nonprofit marketing campaigns. These include a great Instagram-heavy, year-end fundraising campaign by Stray Rescue of St. Louis, as well as a matching gift campaign for Teton County Search and Rescue that used powerful storytelling to fund a helicopter and trained team.
We can’t necessarily help you come up with your next great fundraising campaign. But we can help with the financial “back end,” so to speak. McManamon & Co. offers a customizable suite of nonprofit services that can help you optimize your performance, attain compliance, mitigate risk and reduce operating costs.
So if you’re looking to steady the ship during this difficult time, get in touch today. Give us a call at 440.892.8900, or contact us online.
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