Whether you’ve been fundraising for a while or are just getting started, online fundraising is more important than ever. As you fundraise more and more, you’ll learn more about your nonprofit’s donors and how to tailor your online fundraising efforts to their preferences. However, there are some best practices to help you get started.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when fundraising online:
1. Keep Your Supporters in the Know
It’s crucial that you frequently communicate with your supporters to keep them in the know. However, you don’t want to overwhelm your supporters or send them messages that aren’t a good fit. That’s where email segmentation comes in!
With the same advanced email marketing tools available to corporations, nonprofits can set up a welcome series for new donors, a separate update campaign for volunteers, and so much more. Make sure your fundraising platform integrates with your email marketing tools, and your nonprofit will be celebrating new wins in no time!
2. Offer Recurring Gifts
Speaking of monthly donors, did you know that they give 42% more in one year than one-time donors? It’s true! Recurring donations can help your nonprofit retain donors and maintain a reliable revenue stream too.
Rather than trying to convert your supporters after the fact, make it easy for them and offer recurring options right there on your form.
3. Encourage Matching Gifts
Up to $7 billion dollars in matching gifts funds go unclaimed every year, even though 65% of Fortune 500s offer them. If you want to use some of those billions to support your mission, integrating a matching gifts tool into your donation form is one simple step to take.
Embedding a widget makes it easy for donors to check their eligibility and take the steps needed to get that money to you, their nonprofit of choice! Double the Donation and HEPData are two options making it easy for nonprofits to get started.
The Special Olympics USA Games use a matching gifts widget to encourage their donors to see if their employer will match their gift.
4. Keep Your Nonprofit Branding Consistent
Your nonprofit is likely engaging with supporters on a variety of platforms, from your website to your social media. Maintaining consistent branding is imperative if you want donors to feel secure and comfortable giving a donation.
Using the same logo and same color scheme can take you far in keeping your nonprofit’s branding consistent. Using some of the photos featured on your website on your social media accounts is another key indicator, as is using a similar tone and phrasing across various platforms.
How important is consistent branding? Donations made on a branded donation form average 38% larger than contributions made through a generic page.
5. Use It With Your Fundraising Events
Whether you’re hosting a virtual, hybrid, or in-person fundraiser, using online fundraising tools can help your event be a success. For example, you can boost excitement (and attendance) for your fundraising event by hosting a fun online campaign that leads up to an in-person event.
You can also use online fundraising tools like mobile apps and text fundraising to encourage in-person donors. Want to use social proof to encourage more in-person giving during your event? Use a FundHub to highlight new donors live at the event as they give.
6. Make Good Use of Social Media
Social media is one of the most useful tools in a nonprofit’s toolkit. It’s the first place most of your supporters check for updates (81% of donors check social first!), and social media posts were actually the #1 driver of charitable contributions in 2020.
Whether your supporters prefer Facebook or Tiktok, social media is one place nonprofits need to be in order to succeed online!
7. Show the Impact of Donations
Your donors give to you because they support your mission, and they love seeing their fundraising dollars at work. Show impact before they’ve even given a gift by using your form to tell donors what their donation will do, whether that’s with text like this great example from Helping Up Mission, or with visuals.
After the donation, share their impact immediately by making good use of your donation receipts. You can also keep supporters updated long-term using the social media and email tips offered above.
8. Help Your Supporters Give on the Go
Your donors are busy people and always on the move, just like you are!
Make it easy for them to give in the way that’s most convenient for them, whether that’s by mobile-optimizing your online donation form or by using text fundraising. Over a quarter of donations are processed on a mobile phone, and nonprofit text messaging audiences have grown by 26%… multiple years in a row.
Giving on the go is the way your donors want to give, so make it easy for them!
9. Keep it Simple
Last, but certainly not least, one of the most important tips we can give you is to keep it simple.
Why?
Because a short, clear impact statement can be far more powerful than a winding essay that your donors don’t have time to read. Pictures and videos can sometimes be more powerful than words entirely, yet too many can be distracting. And most importantly, keeping your donation form simple and easy-to-find encourages more donations.
Additional Resources
Want to do some additional research before you get started? Check out the following resources:
- How to Get Donations: Try These 20+ Tips!
- Get the eBook: Fundraising Fundamentals.
- 49 Online Fundraising Ideas to Help You Raise More
