fundraising solutions

Poor Donation Forms Losing You Revenue? 7 Changes to Make

Guest Blogger

Online donation forms don’t just offer a convenient avenue for donors to support your mission. These pages anchor your nonprofit’s entire online fundraising presence. Donation forms are used in all online fundraising drives, from crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns to annual events like Giving Tuesday. In other words, they’re one of the most utilized points of connection between your nonprofit and your supporters. 

As technological advances and social-distancing restrictions force nonprofits to find ways to connect with supporters using modern tech tools, you can’t afford to have a messy, confusing, or poorly-designed giving page. Streamlining and optimizing your donation forms attracts more supporters to your cause and encourages donors to give more, increasing your online fundraising revenue. 

At Donately, we’ve helped plenty of nonprofits improve their online fundraising strategies using our dedicated donation pages. We’ve identified several improvements to make to your organization’s online giving page, so you can maximize your revenue. To optimize your donation forms, be sure to: 

  1. Share your story.
  2. Optimize your forms for all devices.
  3. Improve user accessibility.
  4. Adhere to your organization’s branding and style guidelines.
  5. Add suggested donation amounts.
  6. Include recurring giving options.
  7. Reassure donors with a secure giving process.

With just a few relatively simple adjustments, your digital donation forms can be transformed to drive your organization’s online fundraising. To help make these adjustments, be sure to start with an online donation platform that makes it easy to create a well-designed donation page, even without any coding experience. Let’s jump right in!

1. Share your story.

The heart of your nonprofit is your mission’s story. Since your donation form is one of the most visible donor-facing aspects of your online fundraising strategy, be sure to share your organization’s story in a concise yet powerful way to appeal to both long-term and casual supporters alike. 

Work with your team to construct a compelling description of your nonprofit’s mission that captures the essence of your organization, commands reader attention, and motivates supporters to give. Place this summary alongside or above your donation form fields to catch readers’ attention as soon as they click your form. 

The best nonprofit donation forms capture the attention of not only dedicated donors and volunteers but also those donors who encounter your site via a peer-to-peer or social media crowdfunding campaign. They might not have as much information on your organization’s purpose and work, so your donation page can be an effective gateway to get more people on board with your cause. 

2. Optimize your forms for all screens. 

These days, supporters aren’t just reaching your nonprofit’s website on their desktop computers. They’re using phones, tablets, and other devices to browse the internet and their social media feeds. In fact, according to Double the Donation’s nonprofit fundraising statistics page, half of last year’s nonprofit website traffic came from people using a mobile device or tablet. 

Therefore, you must take critical steps to optimize your organization’s donation forms with formatting that’s responsive to all digital screens. Plenty of donation page platforms allow you to view how your page will look across desktop, mobile, and tablet screens. Take a look at these different versions to ensure everything looks normal and that the formatting is correct for each screen. 

When you optimize your donation forms for all screens, you’ll improve:

  • Responsiveness. Your donation page will be responsive and automatically adjust to fit mobile, tablet, and laptop screens. This allows you to avoid any frustration from your supporters when they attempt to navigate your donation forms. Otherwise, their frustration could lead to less support for your mission. 
  • Convenience. When donors can quickly give to your cause from their favorite devices, it enhances the convenience of your donation forms and ensures donors won’t abandon the form because they can’t read it or because the formatting is wonky on their device. 
  • Shareability. In addition to donating, you want to make it as easy as possible for supporters to share your donation pages as well. Optimizing donation pages so they can be shared on any screen and any digital platform (such as social media and email) ensures supporters can easily spread the word about your mission.

Today’s donors are increasingly on-the-go and will appreciate being able to support your cause from wherever they are. By taking the necessary steps to optimize your forms, you’ll also ensure you aren’t excluding anyone who wants to give to your organization online, which boosts digital fundraising revenue. 

3. Improve user accessibility.

Not only is it important to improve your donation form’s responsiveness to ensure people using any device can read your page, but it’s also important to improve accessibility all-around. That way, people of any ability can access and use your donation forms. 

Improving the accessibility of your online donation forms and pages ensures your website is inclusive and can be used by everyone. To boost the accessibility of your donation forms and ensure your website complies with the specifications of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), there are a few design improvements you can make right now if you haven’t already:

  • Give the page a clear title, and ensure form fields include proper instructions or labels.
  • Provide alternative text options for any images on your donation page so those using screen readers can understand what’s being displayed.
  • Avoid low-contrast color palettes that make it difficult or impossible for users with visual impairments to interpret your page.
  • Organize your page logically using a hierarchical structure with heading tags.

This is just a brief overview of everything that goes into website and web page accessibility, so be sure to check out DNL OmniMedia’s overview of nonprofit web accessibility for more information. According to the guide, “the single biggest benefit of creating a compliant website is that accessibility and usability go hand in hand.” In the process of creating a more inclusive website, you improve the user experience for all supporters by making your website easier to navigate and interact with. 

The more you focus on inclusiveness and accessibility, the more people will be able to interact with your forms, and the more useful your forms will be for soliciting online donations. 

4. Adhere to your organization’s branding and style guidelines.

Your volunteers and other long-time supporters are already familiar with your organization’s brand specifics such as your logo, font styles, and colors. Use this familiarity to your advantage by designing your online donation page with your nonprofit’s brand guidelines in mind. 

This reassures supporters that their donations are going to the right place. Plus, it creates a uniform, professional page to draw in a wider audience. Casual supporters or people who encounter your site on their social media feeds will be more likely to interact with your donation page if it’s streamlined and polished. 

When creating your donation page, make sure that: 

  • Your page uses the same font styles as your marketing materials or other communications. 
  • Your introductory paragraph includes eye-catching, useful images or graphics that illuminate your mission and use your organization’s brand colors. 
  • Any copy is written in your organization’s tone/voice. 

Paying attention to these details ensures your page is primed to appeal to both long-time supporters and those who randomly encounter your page in the course of their internet browsing. 

To maximize your donation page for online fundraising success, there are a few simple tips and tricks that influence donors to give more. One tip is to add suggested donation amounts to your online form. 

5. Add suggested donation amounts.

According to Donately’s online fundraising guide, including suggested donation amounts within your donation page form fields streamlines the process for donors and boosts fundraising support.  

Without suggested donation amounts, supporters won’t have a good idea of what kinds of donations you’re looking for, which can lead to a wide range of donations that mostly fall on the lower end. It also can discourage supporters from giving in larger amounts. On the other hand, adding a few pre-filled suggestions to your form encourages donors to give in those exact amounts. 

Be sure to also include a custom donation field so you don’t discourage those who can’t give as much right now or those who’d like to make an even larger donation. These small changes to your forms speed up the giving process for donors, encouraging them to stick around and follow through with their donation.

For example, you could allow supporters to choose a donation amount of $25, $50, $250, or $1,000. Here’s what your form could look like (image to the right):

6. Include recurring giving options.

Another way to maximize the impact of your donation page is to make it easy and convenient for donors to sign up for your monthly giving program. Recurring gifts provide your organization with a more reliable revenue stream and give donors more flexibility in how they choose to give to your organization. 

Use your donation form as a jumping-off point to introduce donors to the program and encourage them to get involved. Create a section on your form that allows donors to turn their one-time donation into a monthly, quarterly, or yearly donation. Don’t forget to include a brief description of your monthly donation program, including information on what the donations go toward (whether it’s a specific program, project, or your organization as a whole). 

Be sure to also provide supporters with a way to manage and update their monthly donations themselves to save your staff time and effort. In turn, you’ll strengthen your relationship with supporters by making it as easy as possible for them to deepen their commitment through your monthly giving program. 

7. Reassure donors with a secure giving process.

According to this page of fundraising statistics, 63% of donors in the U.S. and Canada prefer making an online donation using a credit or debit card. That means you must facilitate a secure process for donors to input their payment information and reassure them that their information will remain safe. 

To help in this process, invest in dedicated nonprofit payment processing tools that streamline the process on your end and protect donors’ information. Find a system that:

  • Offers flexible payment processing options.
  • Handles data securely and generates reports for your staff to review.
  • Is simple to start up and operate. 

Your payment processor will protect donors’ credit and debit card information via a payment gateway. Donation processing tools can optimize these donor-facing aspects of your fundraising process to ensure your donation form is equipped to facilitate a greater fundraising effort. 

Don’t let a poor donation form slow down your fundraising efforts. Bring better fundraising practices into this year with an effective donation page that drives revenue to your nonprofit and ultimately enables you to help more people through your organization’s work. And remember, a strong giving form starts with the right technology and a dedicated platform to take your online fundraising efforts to the next level. Good luck!

About the Author: Andrew Berry

Andrew is the head of marketing and customer success for Donately. After getting involved with nonprofits at a young age, he discovered a passion for helping the organizations that are making the world a better place. Knowing how vital online fundraising has become, his goal is to help nonprofits raise more money online each year! In his spare time, you will find him cooking up dinner, playing with his dog or cheering on Boston sports teams.

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3 Steps to Begin Planning Your Capital Campaign

Andrea Kihlstedt

Capital campaigns are intensive, game-changing undertakings for nonprofit organizations. These major campaigns raise significant amounts of funding for specific expansion projects, like constructing new facilities, investing in new equipment, or creating an endowment fund. As major investments in your organization’s ability to grow, these campaigns require tons of strategic planning to be pulled off successfully.

At the Capital Campaign Toolkit, we believe that planning is doing. Simply put, this means that the early planning stage of your campaign should accomplish more than just outlining the steps you’ll follow later. Instead, effective capital campaign planning should be a more active process, one that begins engaging the board members and key donors who’ll be integral to your overall success.

Let’s discuss three steps you can take now—before outlining specific fundraising tasks, writing letters to donors, or diving into the world of virtual galas—to give your capital campaign a strong footing from the get-go.

The first three steps you should take when planning your campaign are:

  1. Clearly define your campaign’s purpose.
  2. Plan with a focus on your top donors from the start.
  3. Actively speak with your key donors.

We’ve helped equip countless nonprofit development teams with all of the tools and support they need to conduct a successful capital campaign, and we’ve found that one of the best ways to set up any campaign for success is to make the most of the planning process. Let’s dive in.

1. Clearly define your campaign’s purpose.

Capital campaigns aren’t dreamt up in a day. They’re massive fundraising efforts that go above and beyond any other campaign, far surpassing your annual fund in dollars raised.

Capital campaigns are driven by a very specific need or project that require an infusion of resources to build capacity. The identification of those needs often grows out of a strategic or long-range plan that spells out what it will take for the organization to reach the next level of operation. 

This means that the first step in planning your capital campaign should be to specifically define what you’re raising funds for. To convince people to rally behind your organization and give generous contributions, you must clearly articulate why you’re seeking their support and what difference their support will make. The purpose of a capital campaign will be composed of two parts:

  • Objective: This is what you’re raising funds for. So, for a nonprofit organization that provides after-school programming for students, this might be constructing a new gym or art room.
  • Goal: This is the specific financial amount you need to raise in order to complete your objective, like raising $10 million to construct the new gym.

When setting this goal, work with your board from the start. This early collaboration serves two purposes:

  1. It builds excitement across your board and obtains their buy-in to the process, getting them invested in the campaign and ready to contribute when the time comes.
  2. It gives you additional perspectives to consider, allowing you to set an objective and goal that’s informed by your board’s knowledge of your nonprofit and current fundraising capacity.

Of course, your board will need to approve any major fundraising efforts and campaign spending anyway, so don’t overlook this step. Take this first task a step further by asking your board to assist with crafting your case for support or case statement—a document that clearly communicates why you’re raising funds, how you’re going to use those funds to meet your objective, and why prospective donors should give. 

When developing a case statement, we recommend conducting a “Features and Benefits” exercise with your board to discover the features of your campaign (what your campaign will fund) and the benefits of each feature. For example, a soup kitchen raising funds to build a new eating hall would list their new building as a key feature of their campaign. Its benefits would be the many more constituents that the organization would be able to feed. 

Working with your board members in the early planning phase of your campaign will build the trust you will need for them to approve the campaign. So be sure to give them an active hand in shaping your campaign and laying the groundwork for a powerful case for support. Here are some tips to help you improve communications with your board.

2. Plan with a focus on your top donors from the start.

Once you’ve identified what you want to accomplish with your campaign—your objective and working goal—then you can begin planning with a focus on your top donors.

Capital campaigns are top-heavy by nature. You should plan to raise at least half of your total campaign gifts from the top 10 donations during the initial quiet phase of your campaign. Keep this in mind from the start of your campaign and begin identifying who those key donors are once your plans start taking shape.

The standard way to keep your efforts donor-centric is to anchor your plan with a gift range chart. This guiding document will be an invaluable resource throughout the entire duration of your campaign. When examining prospects in your donor database and beyond to identify potential contributors, consider the following:

  • Who has the financial capacity to make multi-thousand to million-dollar gifts?
  • Who has a strong existing relationship with your organization and cause?

Focus the majority of your cultivation and solicitation efforts on donors with this winning combination of capacity and inclination to give.

A quick tip to make sure you’re planning with a spotlight on these critical supporters: Block out at least two hours per week during your campaign to personally meet with or talk with major donor prospects.  

This doesn’t mean that you’re going to solicit gifts each week but rather that you’ll plan from the start to intentionally focus on building relationships with your top donors. That will generate buy-in from prospects and strengthen their attachment to your cause. Successfully soliciting a large gift takes time and persistence.

3. Actively speak with your key donors.

You’ve planned to meet with prospects for at least two hours each week—excellent! Begin these conversations with your key donors by interviewing them as part of your feasibility study. 

A feasibility study is an important early step in any capital campaign, and it involves discussing your plans with key stakeholders to gauge their thoughts on your goals and interest in potentially giving. If feasibility studies are a new concept for your organization, check out our complete guide for an overview.

An effective feasibility study will aim to answer a few key questions. Do your key stakeholders and prospects believe your nonprofit is prepared for a campaign of this magnitude? Do they have advice that you can use to drive your campaign to success? These answers will be extremely useful for shaping your strategies as your campaign plans come into sharper focus.

If you’ve encountered feasibility studies before, you might think that nonprofits should only ever bring in third-party consultants to conduct them. However, we encourage you to consider speaking with your key donors yourself.

Remember, planning is doing. While a feasibility study is seen as part of the broader planning phase of your campaign, these conversations are invaluable opportunities for you to begin actively building relationships with the donors who could potentially make or break your success. Don’t wait to start building and strengthening those relationships!

Ask your prospects and stakeholders overarching questions about what they think of your organization, leadership, and case for support. This will give you insight into your campaign’s feasibility, as well as signal to the donor that you value their views. You may find that they believe that you’re well prepared, or you may find that they believe you need to hit the books to better prepare for the endeavor. Either way, seeking their advice will let them know that you respect and value their perspectives.

After you’ve already introduced your campaign and gauged their interest, take this opportunity to begin directly asking prospects about potential involvement. Try questions like:

  • Among your philanthropic priorities, where is our organization?
  • Do you see yourself making a gift to the campaign when the time is right? 
  • Would you consider volunteering for the campaign? 

With these questions, you can better understand your prospects’ expectations of your campaign and their involvement in it. These insights will immediately benefit your cultivation efforts, helping you quickly get a sense of where to focus attention. You may even secure early gift commitments from your most dedicated supporters!

Feasibility studies are a critical part of any capital campaign, but don’t assume that the entire process will have to be completely out of your hands. These interviews and discussions are your first major chance to begin developing the relationships that will drive your campaign to success, so take an active approach. There are resources available (such as our Guided Feasibility Study) to help your team select donors, train to conduct the interviews, and prepare reports for your board.

Planning a capital campaign is a months-long process. After all, you’re raising more funds than your nonprofit likely ever has before and mapping out years of stewardship and fundraising strategies to reach what is often a multi-million-dollar goal.
However, you don’t have to wait until the planning process is complete to begin acting on those plans. By taking an active, intentional approach and collaborating with key stakeholders early, you can begin building valuable relationships that will fuel your campaign down the line. Wishing you a hugely successful campaign!

About the Author: Andrea Kihlstedt

Andrea Kihlstedt, Campaign Expert & Co-Founder, is the author of Capital Campaigns: Strategies that Work, now in its 4th edition, as well as How to Raise $1 Million (or More) in 10 Bite Sized Steps, in addition to several other fundraising books. She has been leading successful capital campaigns for over 30 years.

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4 Tools to Boost Your Next Crowdfunding Campaign

Lomesh Shah

In the midst of a global pandemic, it’s easy to get discouraged. Most of the world is stuck at home, and organizations are struggling to engage prospects and secure sufficient funding while keeping a safe social distance. Many donors are facing major economic hardship due to staff furloughs and for many nonprofits, the future is wildly uncertain.

If one thing’s for sure, it’s that nonprofits have to get creative if they want to keep serving their communities and successfully come out of the other side of this pandemic. After all, what sets successful nonprofit professionals apart is their determination in the face of adversity.

Crowdfunding is one of the most popular ways to reach today’s donors, and for good reason! These campaigns allow prospects to continue giving to your cause from the comfort of their own homes without putting their health at risk. Crowdfunding offers organizations like yours refuge in economically uncertain times, but only if you take the vital steps to set your campaign up for success.

As you ramp up planning for your next crowdfunding campaign, take every step possible to make the most of your fundraiser. Incorporate these four tools to take your efforts to the next level:

  1. An Effective Platform
  2. Photos and Videos
  3. Social Media
  4. Matching Gift Tools

It’s natural to feel hesitant about launching a fundraiser during the pandemic. After all, you don’t want to seem insensitive to supporters who may be facing tough financial circumstances right now. But crowdfunding can offer much-needed economic stability in challenging times. Many prospects are willing to step up to the plate; you just have to ask. 

Let’s dive into the top four tools that will help your crowdfunding campaign reach (and hopefully succeed!) its fundraising goals.

Crowdfunding Tool #1: An Effective Platform

A vital first step to any crowdfunding campaign is to select a platform. Otherwise, you won’t be able to share your story, promote the fundraiser, and collect supporters’ generous donations.

Not all fundraising platforms are created equal. If you want to maximize your revenue, you need to take the time to locate a crowdfunding website that suits your organization’s needs and is backed by sufficient tools. As you explore your options, encourage your team to keep an eye peeled for these core features:

  • Customization and visual appeal. Ensure your platform enables you to add your personal story and customize the visual appearance of your crowdfunding page. You should be able to incorporate your nonprofit’s color scheme, logo, and other familiar branding elements in order to make your campaign appear trustworthy to donors.
  • Mobile accessibility. Setting your campaign up for success means making it available to as many prospects as possible. With an ever-growing dependence on mobile technology, this means ensuring that your campaign is available on mobile devices. That way, anyone can absorb your story and donate when motivation strikes — no matter if they’re using a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
  • Secure payment processing. Ensure your platform comes equipped with safe payment processing tools. Otherwise, you risk deterring donors if the platform appears untrustworthy. You should be able to access your account and immediately accept donations. Be wary of how long the processing period is as well. Ideally, you should be able to withdraw donations within a week.

While there are plenty of features that can increase success, these three serve as a fantastic foundation for kickstarting your search. Once you’re equipped with a sufficient platform, you’ll be able to move forward with planning and executing your campaign.

Crowdfunding Tool #2: Photos and Videos

Multimedia has the power to supercharge your crowdfunding campaigns by helping prospects connect to your cause. In fact, research has found that campaigns with personal videos raise 105% more than those without them. This is because it adds a relatable face to your cause and keeps users on your campaign page for longer, ultimately leading them to donate. 

Effective videos and images get prospects invested in your campaign because they can physically see what they’re financing, rather than just reading about their potential impact. 

When creating your promotional materials, develop high-quality images and videos that resonate with prospects by keeping these two tips in mind:

  • Tell a story. Images and videos put your organization in a unique position to tell its story beyond what words can. Visual storytelling has the power to connect with prospects on an emotional level and motivate them to donate, so put a face to your campaign by sharing videos and pictures from your staff, board members, volunteers, and those impacted by your work.
  • Get the video length right. Go for short and impactful. As a general rule of thumb, keep your videos around 2.5 to 3 minutes. With short attention spans and plenty of other information to distract users, people tend to lose attentiveness and click away, so this provides enough time to get your message across without losing their interest. 

Fundly’s guide to crowdfunding explains that a crowdfunding campaign can’t survive on just words alone. You should create a schedule and post an image or video to social media and other marketing outlets either once a week or every few days. 

Making consistent, repeated asks in a multimedia manner helps to bring your cause to life, which can push prospects who are on the fence toward donating to your cause. Take sufficient time selecting emotionally-charged photos and creating impactful videos that accurately depict your cause. In the end, this extra effort will show in your campaign results.

Crowdfunding Tool #3: Social Media

Social media’s impact on the nonprofit community is undeniable, and crowdfunding is a prime example of its potential. In fact, the majority of crowdfunding donations tend to come from social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, so you’ll need to take the time to develop a comprehensive social media strategy in order to connect with your younger generation of supporters.

As described in Crowd101’s guide to crowdfunding, you can harness the power of social media by incorporating the following tips:

  • Embed your campaign directly onto your social media posts. The more convenient it is to donate, the more donations your campaign will receive. Embedding your campaign simplifies the donation process for anyone who stumbles across your profiles, so ensure your platform offers integrations like this.
  • Update multiple social media pages. Sharing your campaign across multiple platforms increases its visibility. While it’s time-consuming to send social media blasts manually, some platforms empower you to automatically update every platform at once or schedule posts for the future.

What’s more, you should encourage followers to share your campaign online, even if they’re unable to donate themselves. Social shares ultimately expand your crowdfunding campaign’s visibility by getting it in front of more prospects. Plus, this allows those who are unable to give to contribute to your campaign and feel like they’re making a difference.

Overall, you’ll want to develop your social media strategy and solidify a schedule before launching your campaign so you know exactly what needs to be posted and when. In turn, you’ll maximize your social impressions and donations.

Crowdfunding Tool #4: Matching Gift Tools

For nonprofits, matching gifts represent an incredible source of untapped potential. In fact, matching gift research indicates that 84% of donors are more likely to donate if their employer offers one of these programs. Plus, 1 in 3 surveyed donors indicates a propensity to make a larger gift if matching will be applied. 

In other words, these programs have the power to substantially boost your fundraising efforts, so long as you take the time to effectively promote them.

That being said, it’s a smart move to incorporate matching gifts into your campaign materials. First, iterate the availability of these programs, spelling out what they are and how they work. Then, take it a step further by telling them how to research their eligibility. Your best bet is to share access to a matching gift database where they can easily type in their employers’ names and be greeted with all available information regarding their program (e.g. eligibility requirements, forms, etc.).

Be sure to share this information in your announcement posts and your follow-up messaging to make as many people aware as possible. When donors have the potential to multiply their contributions without reaching back into their pockets, they’re very likely to do so. By making donors aware of these opportunities, you’ll increase the chance that you’ll get this bonus funding from your supporters (and maybe some initial donations that you wouldn’t otherwise receive).

So long as you devote sufficient time and effort, crowdfunding campaigns have the potential to substantially increase your funds and maximize your reach online. Not only do these campaigns enable you to engage your community in times of crisis, but they’re also highly effective for reaching larger audiences under normal circumstances.

In any case, make sure you start with an effective crowdfunding platform that prioritizes the donor experience and makes it easy to fully customize your campaign. Then, expand your efforts to adhere to best practices, such as incorporating multimedia, sharing your campaign on social media, and promoting matching gifts. In turn, you’ll create a highly-impactful campaign that stands out to supporters and garners donations. Good luck! 

About the Author: Lomesh Shah

As CEO of Fundly, Lomesh spends much of his time immersed in the nonprofit industry both as an industry leader, speaker, and in service to several organizations as a board member and volunteer. Outside of the industry, Lomesh is a technology junkie and will give anyone willing to listen an assessment of the latest trends in anything from espresso makers and mobile gadgets to electric cars and wind power.

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4 Tips for Building a Flexible Fundraising Strategy

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:

  1. Assess your current fundraising strategy.
  2. Lead with a strong case for support.
  3. Diversify your revenue streams.
  4. 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.

  1. 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. 

  1. 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.

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5 Strategies for Smarter Fundraising While Working from Home

Salsa Labs

Traditionally, the idea of working from home conjured images of lounging in sweatpants and less-than-stellar productivity. But as we’ve learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s possible to still accomplish key goals and drive missions forward outside the office.

With the right tools and processes, all kinds of organizations have been able to adapt to the work-from-home (WFH) environment with great success, and the nonprofit sector is no exception. Fundraising professionals have navigated uncharted territory to engage supporters, raise critical funds, and conduct day-to-day operations all from the comfort of home offices. 


As the year draws to a close, it’s time to take stock of your WFH plans and make adjustments to align with best practices. After all, the end of social distancing isn’t on the horizon anytime soon, and you don’t want to lose momentum. With powerful technology and data-informed strategies, you can still achieve your online fundraising goals while working from home.

At SalsaLabs, we specialize in helping nonprofits leverage technology to work more efficiently and boost their fundraising potential. We’ve seen how nonprofits in the field incorporate innovative tools into their WFH routines with great success. So, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help drive your virtual fundraising efforts forward:

  1. Use data to drive more effective communications.
  2. Explore diverse revenue streams.
  3. Host engaging virtual events.
  4. Leverage machine learning technology.
  5. Make use of marketing automation. 

While a remote work environment may not facilitate in-person conversations, there are still plenty of opportunities to connect with supporters through virtual means. Technology can help you build on your existing donor data for time-saving and informed outreach, which can create even more effective fundraising processes. Let’s jump in.

1. Use data to drive more effective communications.

When you can’t connect with your community in person, your online communications are even more critical. If a donor’s primary touchpoint with your nonprofit this year is via email, your messaging needs to make each individual feel recognized, appreciated, and capable of making an impact.

The best way to accomplish these goals is to leverage supporter data when crafting your campaigns. Instead of sending impersonal emails to everyone on your mailing list, you can target groups or even individuals for a more relevant and personalized message.

You can use available donor data to:

  • Create segments of donors. Create segments, or groups, based on key characteristics, then use these groups to send targeted messages. Studies show that segmentation can lead to up to a 760% increase in revenue! While the options for categorizing donors are nearly endless, you can sort groups by engagement type, giving preferences, or demographic information. For instance, you could start a campaign specifically targeting Gen Z supporters, or craft separate end-of-year thank-you emails to address volunteers, major donors, event attendees, and first-time donors in different ways.
  • Personalize messages to individuals. Adding a personal touch to outgoing messages can help your supporters feel seen and recognized. While adding the donor’s name to the subject line or greeting is a great start, you can go even further. Try incorporating details like a recent donation amount, event attendance history, or information specific to your mission (like a pet’s name if you work with an animal shelter). Marketing automation tools (which we’ll discuss in further detail later in this article) allow you to address each individual supporter without anyone needing to manually write in the information on individual messages.

These strategies allow you to take advantage of the valuable information in your donor database software for more engaging messaging and fundraising appeals. However, make sure you’re only using clean and well-organized data to execute these tasks. An email subject line addressed to the wrong supporter is worse than a generic one!

2. Explore diverse revenue streams.

This era of social distancing and economic uncertainty has proven the importance of diversifying your nonprofit’s revenue streams.

If you only rely on one fundraising platform, like an in-person event or a handful of major donors, you’ll be more vulnerable to unexpected changes.

A diverse range of revenue streams will help ensure your fundraising strategy is resilient, sustainable, and less susceptible to risks.

A few creative options worth exploring are:

  • Recurring gift campaign. Encouraging supporters to schedule recurring gifts can help you create a predictable stream of revenue. You may even consider providing branded items as a thank-you for their ongoing support as part of a membership program.
  • Grant opportunities. In the wake of COVID-19, grant-seeking institutions and corporations have both pledged to make funds more readily available to nonprofits. You can conduct research to look for opportunities in your area or look for large-scale programs by national funders.
  • Corporate philanthropy. Matching gifts programs are a remote-friendly way to maximize revenue from your supporters. According to this Double the Donation roundup of matching gift statistics, between $4 and $7 million dollars in eligible matching gifts go unclaimed every year! By focusing your efforts on matching gifts, you’ll unlock new opportunities for funding without much extra work for your team. To do this, you can create a campaign to spread awareness about matching gifts among your supporters, manually screen donations for matching gift eligibility, or use a comprehensive matching gift automation platform to streamline the process.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising. Even though you can’t get together in person, your supporters can still use virtual strategies to share your organization with family and friends. This strategy allows you to leverage the networks of your supporters and reach an even larger audience.

By incorporating one or more of these strategies alongside your current fundraising efforts, you’ll be more prepared to survive if one of the streams dries up.

3. Host engaging virtual events.

While you may not be able to gather donors together in person, you can still create an exciting and community-focused virtual event. 

Not only can virtual events be powerful fundraisers, but they’re also opportunities to share your work with supporters, foster connections between supporters and your mission, and encourage supporters to form bonds amongst themselves. 

As this guide discusses, virtual events are often more economically feasible and widely accessible. Therefore, your organization will be able to engage even more attendees for a lower cost, boosting your profit.

You can host a fundraising-focused event like an online auction or virtual walk, or you can host virtual stewardship events. Any kind of virtual event can be used for stewardship if you don’t charge an admission fee—consider a virtual happy hour, book club, or dinner party as a few potential ideas.

While the primary goal of a stewardship event won’t be to raise money, it’s still an important component of a relationship-based fundraising strategy. Forming deeper connections now will prepare you for making more effective asks in the future.

If you decide to host a virtual event, be sure to plan ahead for potential technical issues. Share connection information with supporters well in advance, provide plenty of tech support for potential questions, and troubleshoot your virtual event platform ahead of time.

4. Make use of marketing automation. 

Marketing automation has been a growing nonprofit trend in recent years, and for good reason: it enables teams to work more effectively with limited resources. Marketing automation can help you level-up your remote fundraising efforts.

While marketing automation isn’t a substitute for a solid foundation of data, it unlocks the ability to contact the right person with the right message at the right time—without a staff member needing to hover over the send button. As long as you start with a solid understanding of your supporter base, automation can help you accelerate your outreach.

You can automate many aspects of your marketing strategy, including posting to social media, capturing leads via your website landing pages, or sending emails. One of the most popular ways to utilize automation technology is through an email stream, also known as a drip campaign.

Here’s how an email stream would work, with the example of a potential donor named Jack:

  1. Jack lands on your nonprofit’s website and signs up for your email newsletter.
  2. Jack receives a “welcome series” of emails once per week with more information about your nonprofit’s mission, current programs, ways to get involved, and how to donate.
  3. The series runs at a specified cadence until Jack completes the desired action (making a donation) or until a certain period of time has elapsed.

Your series could be just a few emails or it can be 10 emails over the course of a few months. All of those messages are sent without anyone on your staff actually pressing the send button, and, if crafted in a compelling way, can generate significant funds for your organization.

Beware, automation can’t fix a message that’s not relevant or interesting to your audience! Make sure each element of your automated campaign is based on the data you have available. Incorporating some of the other tips on this list (like personalization and segmentation) will help you do this.

5. Leverage machine learning technology.

Another powerful way tech can boost your fundraising while working from home is through machine learning. Essentially, machine learning allows computers to make sense of large data sets (like the information in your donor database) to find patterns and make predictions.

For example, machine learning can help you to:

  • Identify potential major donors.
  • Tailor ask amounts to a donor’s giving history.

One of the most advantageous aspects of machine learning is that it continues to improve over time. As more data is available, the analysis and predictions become more accurate. After all, it’s called machine learning for a reason!

To consider a specific example, Salsa’s SmartEngagement technology uses machine learning to power predictive analytics for donation pages. By taking into account all of the historical data you have on a supporter, the program can display optimized ask amounts on your donation form. This helps to increase conversion rates and to avoid the risk of missing out on funds from an ask that was too low.

If you have a large quantity of supporter data to sift through, consider looking for a CRM that offers machine learning capabilities so you can draw insights more efficiently. 

This year, nonprofit fundraisers have needed to adjust their plans and reinvent traditional strategies. While normal in-person fundraising is unlikely to resume for the time being, there are still plenty of ways you can raise money for your mission while staying safe. With these tech-savvy tips, your fundraising staff will be well-positioned for success. Good luck!

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4 Sustainable Models to Strengthen Your Nonprofit

Isabel Reed

Nonprofit teams have a lot on their plates. First and foremost, there is the mighty task of carrying out the organization’s mission. Plan events, gather feedback, keep the community engaged! Volunteer coordinators hustle to organize their volunteers, and fundraising directors dance circles around monthly and yearly fundraising goals.

As with any busy, passionate team, it can be difficult to work as one cohesive unit. Or, perhaps, it might be challenging to maintain the overarching perspective of the organization’s goals. The work nonprofit teams do is important and impressive, so we organized a list of 4 sustainable models that could serve to simplify the complicated and facilitate organic growth.

Volunteer Leadership Roles

A common assumption in small nonprofit teams is that the volunteer coordinator must assume all the weight and responsibility of volunteer program. Volunteer coordinators truly make magic happen each day on the job, but there are ways to responsibly and sustainably distribute the weight of the work. Doing so will lead to a more impactful volunteer coordinator, a more empowered volunteer team, and better outcomes for the organization as a whole.

Let’s examine the details of volunteer leadership roles. You might wonder what it means, how it works, and how to establish such a structure. While everything can (and should) be adjusted to meet the unique needs and available resources of your nonprofit, here are some ideas to get started.

Volunteer leadership roles might include:

  • Recruiting new volunteers
  • Leading volunteer orientations
  • Conducting volunteer evaluations
  • Supervising daily volunteer programs/groups

Volunteer leadership roles are best reserved for volunteers who:

  • have shown excellent performance and dedication over time
  • have professional experience/expertise in a skill that is relevant to the volunteer program at large
  • have shadowed or worked closely with the volunteer coordinator in the past

Implementing a volunteer leadership model:

  1. Identify a few volunteers who might fit the bill. Introduce them to the idea and gauge their reaction. If the reaction is positive, time for step two!
  2. Outline the scope of their role in writing, and share that document with them. The document should include what is expected of them, what is not expected (aka, what they are not allowed to do), the duration of their role, and who they should report to.
  3. Express the benefits of taking on this responsibility, and be accountable to them. For example, college student often need examples of leadership in their resumes and CVs. Express that as a benefit and ensure them that you’ll advocate for them when they look for jobs if all goes well.
  4. Introduce this leadership structure to the volunteer program at large. This will keep everyone on the same page, ensure that everyone knows what to expect and from whom, and maintain an appreciated level of transparency. This program might even inspire other volunteers to work diligently towards the opportunity for themselves, over time.

Free Public Events

With fundraising at the mental forefront of most nonprofit teams, there certainly must be a cautious balance between free services/events offered and paid services/events offered. However, there are vast benefits of free public events, and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Rather, examine them more closely to understand how to get the greatest return on investment. You might just find that it becomes a sustainable model for fundraising, community engagement, and growing your volunteer program.

Benefits of free events/services:

  • Increased and sustained positive perception of your nonprofit by the community as a whole. You put goodwill out, you’ll get goodwill back. This is a longterm investment in a positive relationship with the community.
  • Increased and sustained brand/nonprofit awareness. It might be hard to track, but free public events draw larger numbers and more diverse crowds. Over time, this translates to a larger volunteer program, more donations, a larger audience to serve, and more interest in involvement of all kinds (you might receive more job applications or even valuable networking opportunities/introductions).

Safeguards for sustainability:

  • Free events should not put a dent in the organization’s budget. Think “lean but lovely”.
  • Free events should not take much time to prepare for. Think “rinse and repeat”.

Strategies for even bigger impact:

  • Let the local press and media know about these events! Keep them in the know, and be ready to loop them in every time.
  • Get yourself a hashtag. If your event happens in any repeated fashion — weekly, seasonally, or annually — create a catchy hashtag! This will make it easier for the community to share their experiences at your event and, in a way, advertise for you at no cost (a savvy term known as “user generated content”).
  • Offer ways to donate and/or submit an interest in volunteering.

Donation-Matching Partners

Fortunately for fundraising coordinators, philanthropists orbit the nonprofit space closely. To strengthen the financial model of your nonprofit, pull those philanthropic entities close and develop genuine relationships with them.

This relationship can flourish beyond simple, one-time donations. With each of your donors – especially the larger ones – consider how you might ignite more excitement (and therefore, more funds) from the partnership. A great example of this is by establishing a donation-matching partnership with one or more of your larger donors.

Donation-matching is as straight-forward as it sounds. For each donation received from the public, this chosen partner/donor would match the amount. For example, if your neighbor donates $50 to your organization, this donation-matching partner would match that donation and also commit to a $50 donation.

Depending on the comfort level of this partner, you can decide together on an appropriate donation-matching ceiling (the maximum dollar amount they’ll match) and/or floor (the minimum dollar amount they’ll match). You can also decide the duration of this initiative — whether that is over the course of one fundraising weekend, or even a whole year.

Before inviting a donor to be a partner in this initiative, consider the following:

When will the donation-matching initiative start and end, ideally?

Reflect on the psychology of your audience – the people who you’d like to encourage to donate in various quantities (not the donation-matching partner). What conditions will make this most exciting for them?

  • Start this initiative during a fundraising event. It could end at the close of the event, or continue on in perpetuity.
  • Close this initiative at the year end. People love reaching year-end goals together. Consider leveraging the holiday season from November-December to reach your year-end fundraising goals.

Will your donation-matching partner need (or perhaps appreciate) anything in return?

Even if it is a symbolic gesture, acknowledgement of the partner’s gift could go a long way. In addition to recognizing them in the public announcement of this initiative, you could also send them a special thank-you note or symbolic gift.

Recurring Donation Options

When collecting donations, encourage recurring donations! Although one-time donations are appreciated, recurring donations make a much larger impact.

Why donors like it:

  • With various websites available to facilitate recurring donations, donors won’t run into any hassles getting set up. (Check out ActBlue, GivingFuel, DonorBox, PayPal)
  • It works behind the scenes, collecting funds monthly/yearly without effort from the donor.
  • Even if the donation is only $5/month, recurring donors have skin in the game and will feel like a more integral supporting member of the organization.

Why organizations like it:

  • Organizations can generate more accurate financial forecasts when recurring donations can be accounted for in advance. Better forecasting = better management of funds.
  • Reach funding goals more easily and predictably. By knowing how many donations can be expected each month, organizations can prepare fundraising initiatives accordingly to fill in any gaps.

Let us know if there are other sustainable strategies and program models that you’ve discovered along the way. We would love to add them to the list!

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