7 Digital Fundraising Strategies for Nonprofits
What is Digital Fundraising?
Nonprofit organizations have many options for fundraising strategies – direct mail, events, grants, fee-for-service, and many more choices. Based on our experience working with local, national, and global nonprofits, digital fundraising should be one of the fundraising strategies that nonprofits pay the most attention to. Digital fundraising, sometimes also referred to as online fundraising, is a technique that encourages supporters to donate to your nonprofit using digital or online channels like your website, phone, social media, etc.
At its core, digital fundraising is about leveraging technology to reach a broader audience, make giving more convenient, and build a strong community of supporters—all while saving you time and money.
The Benefits of Digital Fundraising
Still on the fence about going digital? Here are some compelling reasons why your nonprofit should dive in:
Broader Reach: Digital fundraising allows you to increase your nonprofit’s brand awareness and reach a wider audience beyond your local community. Potential supporters can donate with just a few clicks across the country or the world.
Cost-Effective: Digital fundraising is a budget-friendly way to maximize donations. Many digital fundraising strategies, such as email and online ads, cost a fraction of non-digital fundraising strategies, like direct mail and events.
Convenience for Donors: With mobile-friendly donation pages and automated receipts, supporters can contribute anytime, anywhere, just by inserting their credit or debit card details. Plus, donors like the added benefit of receiving points on their credit cards when donating.
Data-Driven Decisions: Digital fundraising tools allow you to collect real-time data to understand what is performing well and what needs improvement and update as appropriate. Digital allows you to quickly test and learn what marketing messages resonate, which you could expand into other marketing channels.
Better Engagement: From social media to email campaigns, digital fundraising lets you build deeper relationships with donors, turning one-time givers into lifelong supporters.
7 Digital Fundraising Strategies That Work
Now that we’ve convinced you to embrace the digital world (you’re welcome), let’s discuss the strategies for setting your nonprofit up for fundraising success.
1. Build a High-Converting Donation Page
Your nonprofit’s donation page is usually the centerpiece of your online fundraising strategy. Whether supporters end up on your donation page from a social media post, Google ad, or email, it will be where most of your online revenue occurs.
Keep It Simple: The quicker supporters can complete their donation, the better. No one wants to jump through hoops to donate. Only ask for the necessary information to complete the transaction. Studies have shown that adding unnecessary, required fields (like a phone number) can prevent supporters from completing the transaction.
Mobile-Friendly Design: If your donation page isn’t optimized for mobile, you lose potential donors. There are free online tools that you can use to test your webpage's mobile friendliness.
Multiple Payment Options: Give donors a choice in how they want to make their payments. Credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay are all fair game.
Recurring Giving Option: Include an option for donors to make their gift a recurring gift. You can add a “monthly” giving option or a checkbox that asks the donor if you can automatically charge their credit card for the same month a year from the date of their initial donation.
2. Recurring Giving - A Subscription Service for Good
Why settle for one-time donations when you can have ongoing support! Recurring giving, sometimes called monthly giving or sustaining giving, is like a subscription service for good. Recurring giving can provide a sustainable source of revenue for your nonprofit, increase your donor retention rate, and help you weather fundraising fluctuations.
Make Monthly Donations the Default: Test making monthly donations the default when supporters land on your donation page. Tests have shown that it doesn’t hurt the conversion rate.
Show the Impact: Explain how a monthly donation helps sustain your nonprofit’s mission and allows donations to be used around the clock.
Brand Your Monthly Giving Program: Create a brand name for your monthly donor program. While this isn’t a requirement, it can help create a sense of community and increase donor engagement. We had the pleasure of making “The Freedom Funders” monthly donor branding and fundraising strategy for The Bail Project.
3. Leverage Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is basically Black Friday for nonprofits—except instead of buying stuff, people are donating. It takes place the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving and is a global day of giving. Since people are already in the mood to donate to their favorite charities this day, it is a great opportunity that your nonprofit can tap into.
Plan Ahead: Start marketing at least a month in advance. Use your social media, email newsletters, and website to inform supporters that GivingTuesday is coming up. These gentle reminders can prepare them for the big day.
Set a Fundraising Goal: Clear targets motivate donors. Try equating your goal with the tangible difference the donation will make. For example, if your goal is to raise $30,000 on GivingTuesday, your goal could be “Help us raise $30,000, which could provide meals to 3,000 families in need.”
Use Urgency: Highlight the urgency of Giving Tuesday. Let your supporters know that their contributions on this specific day will have a more significant impact. You can even set a goal and showcase progress throughout the day.
Engage on Social Media: Be sure to amplify your Giving Tuesday campaign on social media using both organic and paid media. Consider investing in paid ads (via boosting posts or dedicated ads) to reach more people with your message.
Encourage Matching Gifts: A great way to boost your fundraising results on Giving Tuesday is to encourage your donors to look up whether their gift is eligible for a matching gift, using a matching gift search tool. Donors are likelier to donate if they know their donations will be matched.
4. Take Advantage of Google Ad Grants
One of the most effective digital marketing tools is Google Ads. Best of all, Google provides a free option for eligible nonprofits through Google Ad Grants. Google Ad Grants provides eligible nonprofits $10,000 a month to promote their nonprofit—$120,000 a year in free advertising!
Research keywords: Research keywords that your target audience may be using, but avoid industry jargon. For example, an animal nonprofit may use the term “animal sanctuary” to describe its services, but a more common search term that most people could use may be “animal shelter.” Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to research the search volume for different terms and what phrases they are using.
Optimize Landing Pages: Ensure your ads direct users to a landing page that reflects the search terms. Test sending users to blog posts, gated content where you can capture their email addresses, and donation pages.
Create Different Ad Groups: Develop different ad groups for each goal you try to achieve. For example, you could develop one ad group to collect new email addresses while another could be focused on driving donations.
Track and Analyze Your Results: You can use Google Ads or Google Analytics to track what supporters do once they click on your ads and arrive at your site
5. Empower Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Let your supporters do the fundraising for you! Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising turns donors into advocates who bring in their friends, family, and colleagues. Not only can it increase your revenue, but it can also help you raise your nonprofit’s brand awareness. Our CEO develop the peer-to-peer fundraising strategy at the American Red Cross, helping grow it into a multi-million dollar program.
Make It Easy: Provide fundraisers with toolkits and templates that they can use to create their fundraisers. Offer to provide hands-on training for fundraisers who may need a little more help.
Gamify the Experience: Everybody loves a little friendly competition! Leaderboards and incentives boost participation.
Promote it Across Channels: Highlight peer-to-peer fundraising in your emails, newsletters, social media, and website.
Show Appreciation: Celebrate top fundraisers and donors publicly. Consider treating your top fundraisers the same way you would treat an individual major donor.
6. Supercharge Fundraising With Email Campaigns
Email is one of the most effective fundraising tools. Many donors cite email as their preferred form of communication. Plus, your email list is a key asset that your nonprofit owns and is not subject to the whims of social media algorithms.
Segment Your List: Tailor messages to different audiences. Factors like events attended, previous donation amounts, and actions taken on your website can all be considered when sending emails to help make sure you are not over-emailing your donors.
Tell Stories, Not Just Stats: Feature stories of the people your nonprofit has helped to help drive an emotional connection, which increases donations.
Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Make it obvious where and how to donate. Include the donate button in multiple places in your email as supporters may need to see it multiple times before donating.
7. Maximize Donations With Matching Gifts
Did you know that 65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs? Approximately $2 - $3 billion is donated through matching gift programs. Yet, nonprofits leave an estimated $4-7 billion unclaimed because donors aren’t aware of these opportunities.
Use a Matching Gift Tool: Services like Double the Donation help donors check their eligibility.
Promote Matching Gifts: Highlight them on your donation page and emails.
Follow-Up: Send reminders to donors about submitting their match requests.
Conclusion
By leveraging the right digital fundraising strategies, your nonprofit organization can expand its reach, acquire new donors, achieve its fundraising goals, and create a seamless giving experience that keeps supporters wanting to give again.
Ready to take your nonprofit’s fundraising game to the next level? Start implementing these strategies today and watch the donations roll in!
At Market Me Consulting, we use our real-life experience working with large and small nonprofits to help them achieve their fundraising goals. If you’re seeking expert guidance on developing an online fundraising strategy, please contact us.
Check out our other blog articles for marketing and fundraising best practices and tips.