Boosting Online Conversions: Tips for a Donor-Centric Site

April 6, 2021 Guest Blogger

At the same time that in-person fundraising efforts were put on hold, the need for donations grew. Further, as new generations gain giving power, online giving and digital connection are becoming key outlets for supporting nonprofits. Because of this, your nonprofit’s website has stepped into the limelight as a primary channel for collecting donations.

This is where the conversion rate of your website comes into play. Conversion rate describes the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, whether making a donation, signing up for an email list, or another type of online engagement. To optimize your site and bring in more donations, it’s important to track and understand how certain elements of your website can impact your conversion rate.

In one 2019 study, only .17% of website visitors made donations. If your nonprofit’s website conversions stayed at this less-than-one-percent rate in 2020, you may have felt the impact on your bottom line.

However, there are a few impactful changes that you can make to your website to create a stronger donor experience and boost conversions. We’re going to cover these updates in the following categories:

Design Elements
Call-to-Action (CTA) Strategies
Technical Streamlining

At Cornershop Creative, we’re experts in nonprofit web design and development. While working with organizations just like yours, we’ve seen the difference that effective design can have on conversion rates and nonprofits’ abilities to grow their missions over time. Let’s dive in.

Design Elements

A bland, dated website will do little to motivate site visitors to donate to your cause. As you can see in this Cornershop Creative guide to the best nonprofit websites, your site’s overall design should be fresh, attractive, and motivating to inspire site visitors to give.

Balance informational copy with visually appealing elements, such as impactful imagery of donations at work, video testimonials of volunteers, modern typography, and subtle animation. This will draw users in, keep your nonprofit’s “big picture” mission front-and-center, and push them closer to conversion. But, be mindful not to overdo it, as you don’t want to overwhelm users and distract from the rich informational content about your cause.

Beyond being attractive and motivating, the overall design of your website should be straightforward and simple to follow. Your website’s main navigation menu should follow an intuitive content hierarchy, ensuring donors can find the most pressing pages (such as your donation form) with ease.

Last, but certainly not least, all of your site elements should be mobile responsive. This means that regardless of the screen size (mobile phone, tablet, desktop monitor), the page elements should adapt to be clearly displayed. This doesn’t mean simply resizing to fit smaller screens but actively transforming. For example, less essential elements (such as a sidebar navigation menu) may be disabled altogether on smaller screens to preserve space for more essential elements.

Designing an effective donation form

Beyond the design of your website overall, we’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss the actual form through which your site visitors donate— your online donation form. This form needs to balance the needs of your organization and its donors, collecting the right amount of information without creating an inconvenient giving process.

The design of your donation form should prioritize user experience (UX), providing both a streamlined and secure giving experience. Follow these best practices:

Set suggested donation amounts. Determine your average online donation amount and use that information to provide convenient suggestions to web donors. Use a tiered model to set suggested amounts. So, if your average donation is $25:
- One tier that’s slightly lower, at $20.
- One tier that’s slightly higher, at $30.
- One tier that’s even higher, but still reasonable based on the data you’ve gathered, at $50.
- One tier that’s well above average, at $100, with the goal of encouraging donors to give more than they would normally.
Use multi-step donation forms. Essentially, multi-step forms visually simplify your online donation form by breaking the process out into click-through stages. It’s a more sleek, modern design and asks donors to answer one to two questions per step, rather than including multiple questions on a single form page. Check out the example below to see what we mean:

Directly embed the donation form. Linking donors out to a third-party page to process their donation can lead to distrust in your online giving procedures. Just as you want your donation form to be integrated with your donor database for easy access to data, your supporters want to give to your organization directly on your website.
Streamline donation information. One in four donors gives via a mobile device. Streamline the giving process for smartphone and desktop supporters alike by limiting the number of fields required on your donation form, prioritizing essential contact and payment information.

And, if you’re unsure of whether you’ve designed an effective form, A/B test your donation page. A/B testing involves providing two different versions of your form to online donors and seeing which has the more positive response. You can test and fine-tune elements like:

The wording of your fundraising ask
Suggested donation amounts
Number of required fields
Images or other visuals included
Multi-step form or one-page form

But remember, you should only alter one element at a time to understand which elements are truly having an impact. If you’re changing more than one, it will be challenging to discern which is the deciding factor for donors.

Call-to-Action (CTA) Strategies

CTAs, or calls-to-action, are elements that encourage visitors to take a specific action, such as making a donation, signing up for volunteer opportunities, or contacting their local political representatives. In the case of increasing online donations, the goal of your CTAs is to encourage donors to give and give them a clear way to do so (like by linking directly to your donation form).

CTAs should be clear, concise, and attention-grabbing. Here are a few strategies we’ve found that can shine a clear spotlight on your giving opportunities:

Eye-catching donation buttons. Donors should always be a click away from giving opportunities on your website. Across your website, such as on your homepage, blog, and About Us page, include bold “Donate Now!” buttons.
Lightboxes. A lightbox is an attention-grabbing pop-up that greets web visitors once they take a specific step on your website, such as navigating to your homepage or submitting a donation. These boxes should be visually appealing, use impactful imagery, and present straightforward next steps. Consider this CTA strategy on your homepage to direct prospective donors to your giving form, and on your donation page after a gift has been secured to encourage upgrading to a recurring gift. Check out the example below, pulled from Cornershop Creative’s guide to digital fundraising:

This lightbox stands out due to a few best practices, including an eye-catching, vibrant image and straightforward next steps.

Links in multichannel communications. Whether you’re using social media, email, texting, or even direct mail to reach supporters, include links (or printed URLs) directing them to your website. Note that readers can learn about your nonprofit and make secure donations through the site so that opportunity isn’t overlooked.

Giving through your donation form is the final step for a site visitor— or is it? Securing that first donation is a breeze compared to securing the second one, often referred to as the “Golden Donation.” In fact, only 19% of donors give again after their first gift, but 63% of those who make it to the golden donation continue to give repeatedly over the long run.

Create a donor-centric website with features that engage the donor long after they hit “submit.” Outline clear next steps for your donors to follow post-donation, whether in a lightbox confirmation pop-up or an automated confirmation email. Each of the following tactics can help your website turn a one-time donor into a long-term supporter:

Joining your email list to stay in-the-know with upcoming events and campaigns.
Upgrading the one-time donation to a sustaining, recurring gift.
Telling a friend (through social media) about the gift.
Reviewing other engagement opportunities, such as volunteer and advocacy efforts, located on other pages on your site.

Or, you could use this opportunity to deploy one of the strategies for smarter fundraising while working from home— corporate philanthropy. Encourage donors to research their eligibility for matching gift programs in which employers will financially match donations made by employees. Bonus points here if you have a dedicated matching gift database embedded on your website so that donors can search their eligibility with ease!

With CTA language outlining clear next steps post-donation, your website becomes an engagement-generating machine.

Technical Streamlining

Technical streamlining refers to the behind-the-scenes updates that make your website operate in a more efficient manner. For example, rather than thinking only about the images that site visitors see, you should pay just as much attention to how fast those images load on visitors’ browsers.

Optimize the following technical elements to provide an inclusive, trustworthy, and efficient experience for all of your site’s visitors:

Accessibility. Your website should be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure that all visitors, regardless of ability, can engage with the site. A few highlights include providing alternative text for multimedia elements, including alt-text in all form fields, and following a logical content hierarchy. These considerations empower site visitors using screen readers to access your site with ease.
Security. Your website should have a secure HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) certificate. Most modern web hosts offer a free SSL certificate, but your site should actively enforce SSL— meaning visitors cannot access the insecure version. Additionally, you should work with a payment processor that ensures your data is encrypted and safe. Generally, if you’re working with a third-party, nonprofit-specific provider (think: EveryAction, Blackbaud, SalsaLabs, etc.), then you’re good to go.
Page load speed. Your donors are looking for instantaneous information, not a 10-second wait time for the page to load. Use a tool (like GTMetrix or Google’s PageSpeed Insights) to measure how long your website takes to load and then take direct action to speed up the process. Pay attention to multimedia elements, such as images, to ensure the files are sized optimally for quick loading. Check that your web pages are caching effectively, which can reduce the work for your web host by loading cached versions of static pages. Finally, ensure your web host is prepared for spikes in traffic to your site and able to allocate resources effectively.

Technical streamlining of your website shouldn’t be a one-and-done effort. Conduct ongoing maintenance checks of your site to resolve any small issues before they snowball into big challenges. Something as straightforward as resolving broken links and optimizing design segments can go a long way toward providing a streamlined experience for potential donors. If your organization has an outdated website or you’re unsure of any of the concepts discussed above, you’ll likely benefit from working with a tech professional.

Streamlining the technical aspects of your website can have benefits beyond increasing donation conversions. For example, according to this Charity Engine guide, your website can be an impactful player in your multichannel marketing strategy. However, that’s only if it’s relevant, navigable, and accessible to all.

In conclusion, your website’s design, CTA strategies, and technical elements all play central roles in determining your ability to convert visitors into donors. So, what should your team’s next steps be to give it the best chance of success?

Evaluate your website using these recommendations to discover gaps in its performance.
Do additional research or consider working with a consultant to bring each element of your website up to standard.
Maintain your website over time, rather than conducting annual one-time tune-ups.

Taking a proactive approach to using and maintaining your website will prevent a poor conversion rate from affecting your bottom line. Good luck!

Guest Author: Ira Horowitz

With 15 years’ experience, Ira is an expert in nonprofit online communications and online fundraising. His work has resulted in increased funds and resounding supporter engagement for hundreds of organizations.

Ira oversees our project management team and works with clients to provide our clients with the best possible final product. He also manages all of our strategic engagements and helps guide nonprofits to determine their long-term strategy goals for online communications.

Integration Announcement: VolunteerLocal Chooses Double the Donation for Integrated Volunteer Grant Solution

March 12, 2021 Guest Blogger

A warm thanks to Julia Beltran and our integration partners at Double The Donation for this guest post!

Double the Donation is proud to debut its integrated partnership with VolunteerLocal, one of the most powerful volunteer management platforms. This duo has come together to offer 360MatchPro to nonprofits, event planners and volunteer coordinators of all types through its seamless integration.

“Our volunteer grant integration with 360MatchPro will take the mystery out of volunteer grant submissions,” said Brian Hemesath, Founder of VolunteerLocal. “Volunteer coordinators can expect a simple way to contact eligible supporters and encourage them to submit their grants – leading to more funds for qualifying organizations.”

Through this new and innovative solution, organizations can now use 360MatchPro to identify volunteer grant-eligible supporters and guide them to their employer’s volunteer grant guidelines and submission steps directly after a volunteer shift. This technology helps organizations take advantage of corporate volunteer grant programs, which are offered by 40% of Fortune 500 companies.

“VolunteerLocal offers a range of features that are essential to an effective volunteer management strategy, and we are so excited to add volunteer grant outreach to their platform.” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “This robust solution will help organizations everywhere take advantage of corporate volunteer grant opportunities.”

While volunteer grant opportunities are significant, many organizations miss out on these funds because of a lack of donor awareness and outreach. This solution can now educate supporters and help organizations take advantage of this revenue stream.

“Our organization is so excited to integrate 360MatchPro with our VolunteerLocal account,” said Lin Lu, Web Developer at AnitaB.org. “We now have a simple way to tailor volunteer grant outreach to eligible supporters. This valuable integration will help us raise more without any extra effort.”

With around 63 million Americans volunteering each year, the value of volunteerism is worth an estimated $175 billion annually. Using 360MatchPro and VolunteerLocal, organizations can educate their supporters and guide them to submit a volunteer grant application.

Activate in Seconds and Start Raising More from Volunteer Grants!

The 360MatchPro and VolunteerLocal integration process is simple, allowing your organization to quickly enhance your volunteer grant fundraising initiatives. To get started, just enter your API keys within your VolunteerLocal account to activate the integration, and then add the 360MatchPro search field to your event or application forms.

This process allows your volunteers to enter their employer information as they sign up for a volunteer shift. The search tool provides suggestions as the user types, ensuring the volunteer enters their correct employer. This tool even takes spelling errors, parent companies, and subsidiary companies into account. 360MatchPro then automatically checks to see if this volunteer could be eligible for a volunteer grant through their employer’s corporate philanthropy program. This means your supporters can identify themselves as volunteer grant-eligible simply by entering employment information during their natural sign up process.

Your organization can then sync this information into 360MatchPro to kickoff automated outreach streams. These messages are completely customizable, and they allow your supporters to learn more about their volunteer grant programs alongside actionable instructions to submit a volunteer grant request. Using 360MatchPro and VolunteerLocal, you can learn valuable volunteer insights and encourage your supporters to submit volunteer grant requests, leading to greater revenue for your organization without any unnecessary effort!

Drive More Volunteer Grant Submissions to Completion with 360MatchPro!

360MatchPro and VolunteerLocal use their innovative solution to fuel support for your organization.

With these features, you can:

Identify more volunteer grant revenue opportunities: 360MatchPro enables you to automatically collect volunteer grant eligibility from supporters using email domains, within donation forms, on confirmation screens, or by email. The more volunteer grant opportunities 360MatchPro discovers and shares with donors, the more volunteer grant requests your donors will successfully submit.
Drive more grant requests to completion, from form submission to corporate payment: Direct supporters to their volunteer grant submission process after their volunteer shift is complete. Then, provide the right information to the right supporters at the right time with custom emails based on eligibility. Target follow-ups drive more completed submissions than ever before, bringing exponentially more volunteer grant checks from companies through your door.
Reallocate your time from routine follow-up to your top opportunities: Your time is valuable, so why spend it chasing volunteer grants? Let 360MatchPro automate your volunteer grant outreach while flagging your highest-value opportunities, allowing your team to personalize follow-ups to the most valuable volunteer grant-eligible supporters. Rest easy knowing that 360MatchPro can handle the rest.

Ready to learn more or get started? Schedule a personalized demo to see how 360MatchPro can fit your organization’s needs and drive donations through company gift matching.

About VolunteerLocal: VolunteerLocal is a user-friendly volunteer management platform used by nonprofits, event planners and volunteer coordinators of all types. This powerful software is designed to help your organization schedule volunteers, recruit groups, collect supporter data and more to ensure your volunteer management system is both efficient and effective. Interested in learning more? Check out their website.

About Double the Donation: Automate your matching gift and volunteer grant fundraising with the industry-leading solution from Double the Donation. The 360MatchPro platform provides nonprofits with tools to identify match-eligible donors, drive matches to completion, and gain actionable insights. 360MatchPro integrates directly into donation forms, CRMs, social fundraising software, and other nonprofit technology solutions to capture employment information and follow up appropriately with donors about matching gifts.

4 Important Donor Data Practices to Bring into 2021

February 16, 2021 Guest Blogger

This past year has shaken up the efforts of even the most experienced fundraisers. No one could have expected a global pandemic and the resulting mass social distancing guidelines, let alone their effect on how nonprofits connect with supporters and solicit donations.

With most face-to-face interactions paused, nonprofit leaders had to modernize their fundraising efforts and communicate with supporters in creative digital ways. Virtual events have now become the norm, and there’s been a major shift of organizations moving to remote work.

Because of digital advancements like these, nonprofits also saw an increased dependence on management tools and communication tech, as well as the data they produce and collect. As we prepare for 2021, it’s important to remember this: Taking a data-based approach is invaluable and is the best way for nonprofits to reach their supporters in meaningful ways and further their fundraising goals.

Using data to back up your nonprofit strategies and donor engagements has been a reliable method of growing organizations for a while now. Since most of your nonprofit engagements are currently limited to digital communications and other virtual tools, you likely have more data available to you than ever before.

This guide will walk you through some of the most important donor data practices you should follow, especially as you head into this new year. You’ll be exploring the following tips:

Ensure your donation forms collect key information.
Use your donor data to create targeted marketing content.
Regularly analyze your donor data.
Take necessary steps to protect your donor data.

Donor data is valuable when the methods to obtain it are organized and accurate. This will likely rely on the tools you use, so investing in a dependable online donation tool and nonprofit payment processor is key. Ready to learn more? Let’s begin.

1. Ensure your donation forms collect key information.

To build an arsenal of rich and valuable donor data, you will need a donation form that asks for that information. This seems like a basic tip, but ensuring your donation forms are optimized and collecting the right information is the first step to getting your donor data in tip-top shape.

The donor data that your organization considers relevant will depend on your unique mission, goals, and engagements. For instance, if your organization often hosts ticketed events, a relevant field that you’ll want to include is ticket amount and ticket type. In general, the key information you want your donation form to collect will include:

Name
Address
Email address/Phone number
Donation amount
Payment information

Pulled from iATS Payments guide to donation form best practices, here’s an example form that asks for the essentials:

Make sure your online donation form is integrated with your donor database. This way, all of your critical supporter information is directed to centralized and comprehensive donor profiles. Having an integrated nonprofit tech solution is crucial for many reasons, especially to ensure that your data is accurate and can be used for any engagement, like in your marketing efforts.

2. Use your donor data to create targeted marketing.

Now that your donation form is collecting the right donor data, let’s discuss how you can use it. A best practice that you should definitely continue in 2021 is using donor data to create targeted marketing campaigns and content.

According to AccuData’s data marketing guide, “the main benefit of data marketing is the specificity the strategy offers, improving your ROI and the overall success of campaigns.” In simple terms, using data to inform your marketing strategy allows you to focus on high potential supporters as well as create content that is most likely to increase engagement. But how do you do so?

First, look at your donor and fundraising database. Take note of any key spikes in engagement and if a particular marketing campaign caused it. This gives you a clear idea of successful past strategies and what might work again.

You can also use your donor data to learn more about your nonprofit audience. For instance, see if there are any common metrics that your donors share. This could be something like age, location, past engagement type, and more. Then, segment your supporters by these common metrics and create personas for them. This gives you a concrete “target” for any marketing strategies and content that you create.

Let’s use an example: Segment your major donors in your nonprofit database. You might define these supporters as those that donate over $10,000 each year. These individuals respond most positively to personal phone calls and hand-written letters. Using this persona information, draft targeted messages and main points to cover during phone conversations,

This targeted information along with a fundraising appeal will inspire the supporter to give again more so than a generalized email asking for a gift. This way, the recipient is reminded of how much their previous contribution was valued, enticing them to be a part of this high-impact group and give again.

3. Regularly analyze your donor data.

A huge benefit of collecting donor data is its ability to help you improve future processes and optimize nonprofit strategies. That’s why it’s essential that you regularly analyze your donor data.

Using your donor database, compile key reports on relevant metrics and fundraising data in order to track a campaign’s process. This might depend on the type of database you use, but many of them will compile these types of reports for you. For instance, after your organization hosts an event, you should compile reports and analyze key data points from it. Include metrics like many attendees there are, how many of those attendees made an additional gift, and so on.

A good practice to keep is compiling a nonprofit annual report. Not only should you compile data for your team to analyze, but pulling key information into an annual report allows you to distribute insights to your supporters as well. This will summarize your organization’s progress for the year and present it in a visually pleasing and digestible format for supporters and other stakeholders of your mission. This shows them your progress, as well as the goals that you will tackle in the new year.

4. Take necessary steps to protect your donor data.

As your nonprofit expands and takes on additional software solutions, you are able to collect more information through online interactions with supporters. However, this increased transfer of information could also increase your vulnerability to hackers and fraud if you’re not careful.

When someone gives to your organization, they’re submitting sensitive information and financial details all in the name of supporting your cause. They’re putting a lot of trust in your organization. Show that you value this trust and work to keep it by taking the necessary steps to protect donor data.

The top area of concern is likely your online payment tool. It’s critical that you invest in a payment processor that:

Is PCI compliant
Has data portability
Offers 24/7 security assistance
Has experience with nonprofits

Along with the above, your payment provider should incorporate additional fraud protection tools. Taking some insight from this article on online fraud protection for nonprofits, some common fraud protection tools are an address verification system (AVS), bank identification number (BIN) blocking, and a card verification code requirement (CVV2).

Wrapping Up

Donor data is a valuable resource that all nonprofits and fundraisers should be taking advantage of. Not only does it make your tools and internal processes more efficient and streamlined, but it can also definitely aid your fundraising efforts and donor engagement strategies. As you compile additional donor data, make sure you’re keeping it safe so that you maintain the trust of your supporters and can continue growing, especially as we head into a new year. Good luck!

About the Author: Matt Dunne

Driven by his desire to support numerous charitable causes in his home country of Ireland, Matt joined the iATS Payments Team in March 2016 to leverage his entrepreneurial experience in support of the non-profit industry. He empowers partner organizations to provide impartial, accurate and valuable payments information and knowledge to the Nonprofit community.

4 Tips for Building a Flexible Fundraising Strategy

November 24, 2020 Aly Sterling

Take a moment to think of your fundraising strategy like a rubber band.

If pressed, how much could you stretch this band?

A rigid, unyielding rubber band might snap under tension. In this scenario, a lack of flexibility in your fundraising plan could make it much more difficult to bounce back from a crisis. Instead of quickly adapting to change, you’re forced to pick up broken pieces before starting from scratch.

In contrast, a flexible fundraising plan will be more resilient. This rubber band can stretch and move to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances.

We’ll go ahead and drop the analogy. An adaptable fundraising strategy will enable you to respond gracefully and creatively to unexpected challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Aly Sterling Philanthropy, we partner with nonprofits to power strategic planning, fundraising, and board leadership solutions that allow them to thrive. Based on this extensive experience and our belief in the power of positivity, we recommend the following tips to enhance the flexibility of your fundraising strategy:

Assess your current fundraising strategy.
Lead with a strong case for support.
Diversify your revenue streams.
Offer versatile giving options.

While these suggestions are particularly applicable to the current circumstances, a strategic approach to fundraising will always be relevant. By embracing a fundraising plan that is adaptable, diverse and intentional, you’ll be well-positioned to drive your mission forward. Let’s get started.

Assess your current fundraising strategy.

The best place to start when building a new fundraising strategy is evaluating the plan you currently have in place.

Is your current strategy sustainable and effective? Is it enabling you to reach your fundraising goals? Is it rigid and formulaic, or does it allow for adjustments as needs arise?

Dive into the data your nonprofit has collected from recent campaigns. If you already have a solid data management system in place, it should be simple to pull a report and evaluate the overall trends. Even if you have to take a little more time to compile a report manually, a deeper understanding of your current strategy will be well worth the effort.

This assessment will clarify which tactics are working well and which are underperforming or need improvements. Then, you can refocus your efforts on the most critical activities and make adjustments as needed.

While a full feasibility study isn’t practical unless you’re planning for a capital campaign, your data can still reveal a variety of actionable insights. For example, consider the following questions:

What is your donor retention rate year-over-year? What about campaign-to-campaign?
Have your recent fundraising goals been set at an attainable level?
What percentage of your supporters participated in your last campaign? How does this differ across different types of campaigns?
On what platform are your supporters most likely to engage with you? Do you have more success with email, direct mail or social media?
Do you have a defined donor recognition policy? How do you convey appreciation to different categories of donors?

These are just a few of the questions to get you thinking about the state of your fundraising strategy. As you answer them with respect to 2020, take into account any challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you experienced setbacks, what would have made the adjustment process run more smoothly?

Then, use this information to set your goal. Even a flexible fundraising plan needs a target! With an ambitious but achievable fundraising goal, your team will be energized and motivated to make it happen.

Lead with a strong case for support.

Whether you’re preparing for a massive capital campaign or simply refreshing the text on your online donation page, you need a strong case for support.

This statement is what convinces donors why your nonprofit deserves their attention and contributions. Specifically, it should communicate your unique value proposition and share what sets your work apart from other organizations dedicated to similar causes. It should also align with your overall mission statement and strategic plan.

As you prepare your case for support, be sure to articulate the following elements:

A clear vision. Do you have a well-defined plan to solve a demonstrated problem?
A sense of urgency. Why should the prospect give now?
An investment proposition. What results will the prospect’s gift be able to generate?
A call to action. How can the prospect help you achieve your vision?

Overall, a strong case for support builds trust and faith in your organization. When your donors trust that you’ll use their gift wisely, they will continue to have confidence in your work even if you need to make a change.

Additionally, it will be easier to adjust your fundraising strategy if you have a strong foundation to build upon. Your case for support can act as your north star, guiding your efforts even in a turbulent environment.

3. Diversify your revenue streams.

One sign of an inflexible fundraising plan is total dependence on just one or two funding sources.

If your plan includes just a handful of major donors or relies on a large fundraising event, that could lead to a disastrous halt in your work if something falls through. Putting all of your fundraising eggs in one basket leaves you vulnerable to crisis or even just a change of heart.

By diversifying your revenue streams, your nonprofit will be more resilient and sustainable.

If the evaluation of your current fundraising strategy revealed little variation in your revenue streams, do your homework to explore new sources of funding.

For example, funding from foundations, government entities and other grant-giving institutions can make a huge difference in your bottom line. However, since they can be extremely competitive, it’s best to treat grant funding as unpredictable. In other words, don’t count your grant dollars before they’re in the door!

You could also consider exploring donor-advised funds (DAFs) as a potential source of revenue. A donor-advised fund is a giving vehicle that holds charitable assets for future contributions. These accounts are attractive to donors due to their financial benefits, as well as for being a hands-off approach. DAFs are managed by sponsoring organizations including community foundations and commercial sponsors. If your nonprofit forms a relationship with one of these sponsors, you may be connected to dozens or even hundreds of donors.

As you target one or more of these sources, be sure to tailor your ask appropriately. While you should tie each request for funding back to the same case for support, the language and appeals you use should be customized to the recipient. Then, after you’ve secured the funding, create a plan for intentionally stewarding this new relationship.

If this feels overwhelming on top of your usual workload, consider consulting an expert to help you identify and pursue new funding opportunities. As you start the consultant search, the Aly Sterling Philanthropy guide to hiring a fundraising consultant offers some helpful tips to find the right partner for your organization’s specific needs.

4. Offer versatile giving options.

In addition to diversifying your revenue streams, you should also diversify the opportunities that individual donors have to give.

As you approach each fundraising conversation, you should have a number in mind based on your previous prospect research, gift range chart, and overall goal. But if the answer to that request is a no, come armed with alternatives.

Think of these options less like a back-up plan and more as a solution for donors who are passionate about your mission but currently unable to make a major gift. You might present the following alternative giving opportunities:

Recurring gift program. Consider amping up your recurring gift program to create a predictable revenue stream. Even small monthly gifts can make an impact when multiplied over the course of the year, and they’re often more accessible to a wider range of your supporters.
Matching gifts. Many companies will match employee gifts to eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, but sometimes these programs are underutilized. According to re:Charity’s guide to matching gifts, somewhere between $4 and $7 billion dollars in matching gift revenue goes unclaimed every year. To maximize this potentially valuable funding source, spread awareness of matching gifts among your supporters or use a dedicated database to identify gifts that could be submitted for a match.
Pledged gifts. Allow donors to commit to supporting your cause at a future date without needing to pull out their checkbooks just yet. By counting on pledges of a certain amount later in the year, you can better plan for future funding while giving the donor time to plan for the gift.

Loyal supporters will appreciate this flexibility if they experience any financial setbacks. And when the economy recovers (as it always does), your relationships with these supporters will still be thriving.

Bonus Tip: Consider bringing in a consultant to provide expertise and perspective as you develop your flexible fundraising strategy. Most importantly, the right consultant can help you prioritize relationships with supporters and facilitate even deeper connections. This list of nonprofit consultants includes firms in different areas of expertise, including stewardship. Even if your exact plans for gift solicitation need to change, you’ll still need to rely on relationships to pursue your mission.

As we move into 2021, it’s time to refocus your efforts and create a fundraising strategy that can weather any storm. By leading with relationships and a flexible approach, you’ll be better able to reach your fundraising goals. Good luck!

About the Author: Aly Sterling

Long before Aly Sterling founded her eponymous consulting firm, she was solving the unique yet similar problems encountered by nonprofit organizations.

Her decision to start her own business in 2007 was driven by her belief in leadership as the single most important factor in organizational success, and her determination to work with multiple causes at one time to scale societal change.

Aly’s expertise includes fundraising, strategic planning, search consultation and board leadership development for the well-positioned nonprofit. She is regularly sought for comment by trade and mainstream media, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy and U.S. News & World Report. She has contributed to publications of BoardSource and The Governance Institute, as well as the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and The Giving Institute.

4 Tips for Choosing Your Nonprofit Donor Database

October 27, 2020November 17, 2020 Gerard Tonti

Choosing a donor database is a lot like hunting for the right romantic partner with online dating tools.

You are likely working from a long list of characteristics and browsing potential matches from brief descriptions and a few images. If you find something (or someone) that checks many of your boxes, you may schedule a demo—kind of like a first date. If the date goes well and the conditions are right, it could lead to wedding bells and a happy union between your sustainable nonprofit and a powerful CRM.

While choosing a donor management solution may not be an “until death do you part” level of commitment, but it’s still the first step in a long and successful relationship.

At SalsaLabs, we take on the role of matchmaker by helping nonprofits leverage powerful technology to meet their goals. To help you find a donor database that can be your team’s “other half,” we’ve compiled the following list of tips:

Create a project team, plan, and timeline.
Evaluate core functionality.
Consider compatibility with the rest of your tech stack.
Determine what additional features are essential for your organization.

The right donor database will support many aspects of your organization, from fundraising to volunteer management. So before tying the knot, make sure it’s meant to be!

Create a project team, plan, and timeline.

Selecting a software solution is no small undertaking. This is true for any type of software, but considering the immense impact that your supporter database has on your organization and mission, it’s especially important to follow an organized procedure.

Before diving into the decision-making process, you’ll probably have a general idea of the features your nonprofit is looking for—after all, there’s a reason you’re in the market for a donor database!

Establishing a plan upfront will give you clearer guidelines for evaluating the available databases and ultimately narrowing down your options to a few top contenders.

Assemble a team. Make sure you have all of the right people on board to make the decision. Depending on the size of your organization, you’ll want to invite anywhere from 2 to 10 people to weigh in on the decision. You’ll want to include the individuals who are directly impacted by the new system, the biggest consumers of information from the system, and anyone else who will have valuable input. The team reviewing the software will also help determine who will be using the software, which, depending on the system you choose, may factor into the budget decision.

Set a budget. Donor databases are built with a range of organizations in mind. Consider data like your number of donors, annual fundraising capacity, and major gift revenue to come up with a price point that makes sense for you. Be sure to establish this financial metric early on so you don’t waste time considering tools that are out of reach. However, if you’re a small nonprofit, you should choose a donor database that can scale up as your organization grows. Finally, it’s important to look for any additional customization or implementation costs when evaluating the price tag of each option.

Create a requirements document. You’ll want to develop a list of major functions and features that the donor database needs. As you create this document, try to limit yourself to the essentials and stay away from hyper-specific items. In general, it’s best practice to focus on what you need to accomplish rather than exactly how. The rest of this article will outline some characteristics you may want to consider.

As you go through this process, insist on defining your project plan in writing. This will ensure you stay on track and find a donor database that meets your needs and expectations.

Evaluate core functionality.

When considering expectations for your potential donor database, there are some core features you should look for.

You’ll want to keep the following core features in the back of your mind throughout the process, even if your primary focus is more specific:

Donor profiles and contact information. In addition to standard fields like name, address, and geographic location, look for a system that allows for custom fields. This will ensure you can record details that are specific to your organization’s audience; for instance, if you’re looking for a donor database for an animal shelter, you may want to record whether each supporter is a dog or cat person as well as the names of their current pets.

Analytics and reporting. The goal of your donor management software is to be able to store and use data effectively. While virtually all CRMs will offer reporting and visualization features, the complexity and flexibility of these can vary. This one place where your project team will have invaluable input since the people who need to access these reports should be represented.

Both of these functions will come standard in most of the donor databases available on the market, but with a wide range of variation. The size of your organization and the required detail level of your donor profiles will help you determine how you need these features to operate. Consider what your organization needs to accomplish to decide the scope of features you need from a solution.

Consider compatibility with the rest of your tech stack.

Your donor database should integrate with the other tools your nonprofit relies on. If it’s incompatible with the other elements in your existing nonprofit technology ecosystem, it may not be a good fit for your organization.

Your donor database should track every engagement metric you have with supporters. As such, you’ll want to consider the systems that track different types of engagement opportunities. For instance, if a supporter signs up to attend an event and donates to your most recent event, you’ll want to be sure all of these metrics are recorded and analyzed by your nonprofit. While some databases may have one or more of these functions built-in, others will require separate solutions.

Consider whether your organization uses the following tools, and if they are compatible with the donor database of your choice:

Fundraising software. Since one of the core purposes of your donor database is to inform your fundraising strategy, you’ll want a software solution that integrates seamlessly with your fundraising software. As this article explains, some fundraising systems pair well with CRMs, and some don’t, so you’ll need to consider the capabilities of your fundraising software as well.

Volunteer management software. If a supporter volunteers regularly with your nonprofit, you want to record that information alongside your other donor data. To avoid manual input, look for a donor database that syncs with your existing VMS.

Matching gift software. Corporate matching gifts can be a huge source of revenue for your organization if you know how to take advantage of the programs. According to Double the Donation, an estimated $4 – $7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed every year. If you connect your donor database with matching gifts software, you’ll be better able to identify supporters who are eligible for matched contributions.

Event registration tools. Whether you’re hosting in-person, online, or hybrid events, you’ll want accurate records of every attendee. It’s helpful to have CRM and event solutions that are well-integrated. Then, you’ll be able to segment and target supporters more specifically based on whether or not they attended a past event.

Communications technology. Make sure your CRM can integrate with the tech you’re using to connect with supporters. This includes more traditional methods like email marketing as well as newer practices such as texting and social media outreach. If your communications platform and CRM are well-integrated, you’ll be able to automate outreach based on other interactions in the database, ultimately increasing supporter engagement.

When all of your supporter data can flow freely throughout your tech stack, you’ll be equipped to build well-rounded relationships with each donor. Take stock of your existing software systems and find a donor database that pairs well with each, then add that information to your requirements document.

Determine what additional features are essential for your organization.

Once you move past core features and software integrations, you’ll want to start on a list of features that are critical to your nonprofit’s operations. This list will be the most important part of your search, but it will also take the most thought to develop.

Consider what processes you have in place that are a drain on your team’s time, then look for a donor database that allows you to automate them or even skip steps completely.

Here are a few examples of tools from Salsa’s nonprofit CRM to give you some ideas of additional features that may save your team time:

Communication tools. Fundraising campaigns and other outreach efforts are more efficient when they can be accomplished directly from your donor database.

Automation and scheduling. Automated marketing tools allow you to contact the right supporter, with the right message, at the right time.

Comprehensive donation tracking. You’ll likely want a donor database that can manage both online and offline donations, avoiding manual input.

Smarter engagement strategies. Based on the interaction data you have available, your CRM can recommend optimized engagement methods. These can even be queued up automatically with automation tools.

Of course, your organization’s needs are unique, so your project team should brainstorm and collaborate to determine your must-have features and add them to your requirements document.

With so many options available, choosing a donor database to meet your needs can feel like an arduous and overwhelming process. A CRM solution will help you get organized and better engage your supporters, so it’s wise to invest the time and energy upfront so you can reap the benefits for years to come. With these strategies in mind, you and your donor management software will be able to live happily ever after. Good luck!

About the Author: Gerard Tonti

Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits.

Gerard’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.

Developing Donor Relationships: Top 5 Best Practices

August 26, 2020 Jay Love

Nonprofits tend to have a bad habit of viewing their donors like piggy banks or ATMs, reaching out to them only when the organization needs funding for their newest project or impending shortfall.

While your donors are happy to help a good cause, in order to advance your mission through effective funding, you need to take your interactions with donors to the next level by building relationships. This is especially important during the age of COVID-19.

Continuing to show your supporters during difficult times (especially during economic hardship where they may not be able to contribute) that you still care about their well-being shows that you’re willing to stick by supporters’ sides through thick and thin. It’s the opposite of treating them like a personal piggy bank. They’re more likely to stick by your organization’s side for the long-haul in return.

Why is it important to develop relationships?

Developing relationships with your donors is the first step to enhancing your long-term fundraising strategy.

Having a relationship with supporters will help you cultivate lower-level supporters for higher giving levels, show your appreciation for support, and collect feedback about your services.

But how do you start this process? We’ve compiled our top five tips to developing relationships with your nonprofit’s supporters. These tips include:

Get donors involved with organizational activities.
Keep track of key donor metrics.
Ask your donors for their advice.
Don’t always ask for money.
Keep interactions personal.

The first step to developing effective relationships is investing in a donor database designed for enhancing engagement. This will help you compile a donor-centric strategy from the outset of your interactions with supporters. From there, you can dive deeper into our strategies for relationship development.

1. Get donors involved in organizational activities.

Getting donors involved with the various activities and opportunities your nonprofit offers is our first tip to develop healthy relationships. It’s hard to build a relationship with an organization that supporters only interact with online. You miss out on heartfelt human interaction.

That’s why it’s important to encourage this human connection as much as possible. Donors should meet your key nonprofit players, such as your major gift officer, volunteers, board members, and executives.

To create these opportunities, we recommend that your nonprofit try the following strategies:

Provide volunteer opportunities. Supporters are more likely to feel connected to your cause when they get to see it up close. Leveraging volunteer opportunities creates strong connections as supporters meet other passionate staff and volunteers. Plus, you’re accomplishing goals for your mission.
Invite supporters to events. Pre-coronavirus events provided in-person opportunities to meet your team while everyone gathered together for a fun experience. Now, virtual events are all the rage! Your nonprofit can create these personal experiences and engage your supporters while they tune in from the comfort of their homes.
Create engaging conversations. Simply talking to your donors is a great way to get them involved with your organization and help them feel more connected. We recommend calling your supporters so that they have a personal interaction and back-and-forth conversation with your team members. Ask for feedback, invite them to participate in virtual events, or simply inquire about their well-being in these conversations.

Make sure to keep track of your interactions with your supporters to help guide future communications. In order to do this, you’ll need access to a comprehensive donor database. You should be able to build out donor profiles with information about their event participation, donations, volunteer hours, feedback provided, and any and all communications. This will help guide communications and opportunities promoted in the future.

2. Keep track of key donor metrics.

As much as we wish we could provide the same level of attention to each and every one of our donors, many times we must prioritize. There’s just not enough time in the day to frequently engage in one-on-one conversations with every single supporter of your organization.

That doesn’t mean your engagement strategy shouldn’t incorporate outreach to every one of your supporters. Your mid-tier and major donors may simply demand more of your attention and virtual face-time than lower-level donors.

To understand who your top-priority donors are, you need access to some key donor metrics. For instance, you may look at data in a donor’s profile to indicate metrics like:

Donation growth. Look to see how a supporter’s engagement has changed with your organization over time. Has their donation amount increased as they’ve gotten more involved?
Engagement score. Some donor database software will provide an engagement score for each supporter, which takes into account their frequency of engagement, latest interaction, and more to show how involved they are with your nonprofit.
Generosity score. A generosity score is calculated using prospect research. It provides an indication of the gift level a donor could reach based on wealth metrics like stock holdings, real estate, and business affiliations.
Average gift size. While the generosity score is great to measure prospective donations, you should also be sure to look at the current average giving level to better understand where they are in their giving now.
Gift frequency. Even if a donor is only giving you $5 or $10, the fact that they are doing so multiple times a year, or even monthly as a part of a recurring donation program, is a stronger engagement metric than a single annual gift of an equal amount.

Keep in mind that your lower-level donors now might have more capacity to give in the future. Therefore, they shouldn’t feel forgotten. Set up engaging email campaigns and invite them to engaging, community-wide virtual events to keep them involved with your initiatives.

Be sure to also conduct prospect research about your supporters. This will provide additional information that you can use to identify high-priority donors with great affinity to give. If you’re interested in learning more about research analytics that indicate a donor’s affinity to give, check out this guide.

3. Ask your donors for their advice.

Donors give to nonprofits because they value the work that the nonprofit does. However, you can’t expect this value to be one-sided. Just as your donors value your nonprofit, you need to show that you also value your supporters.

One key way to show that you value the input and opinions of your supporters is to ask for their advice and feedback.

This helps supporters get involved on another level because they have a say in the internal operations of your organization.

Plus, you may have supporters with skills that will fill some gaps in your nonprofit’s strategy. Consider the following examples:

If your donors have ample marketing experience, they may be able to provide advice about your nonprofit’s outreach campaigns. Just be sure to maintain your brand in these campaigns.
Maybe you have some tech-minded supporters who can help you revise and improve your website design for better visitor engagement.
Donors may work as writers or designers, in which case you may recruit them to donate some time helping you edit promotional materials and communications for your nonprofit.

Discover details like this in conversation with your supporters or by analyzing their business affiliations. When you learn about this supporter information, be sure to save the data in the donor profiles in your nonprofit’s CRM.

If you’re looking for fundraising software that goes past raising money and will help guide your nonprofit through this key information, check out this buyer’s guide by Bloomerang.

4. Don’t always ask for money.

When nonprofits consider their interactions with supporters, they frequently only think about the last time they asked for money. Asking for donations over and over again may exhaust your donors.

When you’re reaching out to your supporters and really focusing on building relationships, you’ll have other goals for conversation besides just asking for more and more money.

Get creative with the types of communication you send to donors. For instance, you might choose to send messages about:

Success stories. Tell those who give to your nonprofit about the impact their involvement has made for others. Success stories appeal to the emotional connection supporters have with your nonprofit.
Advocacy opportunities. Ask for a different type of involvement. By signing a petition or participating in a click-to-call campaign, your supporters are helping your nonprofit without dipping into their wallets. For a guide on advocacy, check out Double the Donation’s resource.
Relevant news. If there’s something in the news that directly pertains to your nonprofit’s mission, tell supporters about it! Make sure they feel good about supporting a nonprofit whose mission relates to a newsworthy cause.
Upcoming events. Remind your supporters about upcoming virtual events and activities. If you are hosting a virtual event, tell supporters about the unique experience it will bring and how they can access your live streamed video.
Volunteer opportunities. Tell supporters about the opportunities you offer to contribute time rather than money. This is an especially important strategy to engage your Millennial supporters, who tend to view contributions of time equally valuable as monetary contributions.

Asking for things other than money emphasizes to your supporters that your nonprofit prioritizes engagement first. It’s easy to view organizations that prioritize money as greedy or rapacious. However, those who focus on the engagement of supporters come across as more humane and caring about those who support them.

5. Keep interactions personal.

When you get into the nitty-gritty of communication with your supporters, one of the best ways to show them that you care is to make sure all messages have a personal touch.

This means that rather than sending the same message out to all of your supporters, you should make sure to include details in the communications that signal to the supporter that the message was intended specifically for them. Some strategies to incorporate these details include:

Address donors by name in all communications. Make sure your software supports this idea. There’s nothing less personal than addressing a letter or email, “to whom it may concern.”
Make personal notes about donors to pull into conversations. Keep notes in their profile in your donor database about family members, pets, and past interactions. This shows that you remember personal details about each individual supporter.
Consider the trends in giving and marketing response so that when you reach out to supporters, you can offer them their preferred method of communication and preferred platforms for giving.

Personal interactions are how you show your supporters that you care about their individuality. While sometimes supporters may overlook these little steps, they’re sure to notice if you miss the opportunities for personalized messages.

Your supporters are much more than just piggy banks for your nonprofit. They provide the tools and support that you need to succeed. Building a relationship with them is a two-way street. Just as they work to get to know your nonprofit and your mission, you need to work to get to know them.

With these five tips, your organization is on its way to better functioning relationships with donors. Good luck!

About the Author: Jay Love

Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang

He has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.

Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.

He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.

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