Technological advancements, donor trends, and the current pandemic have all changed how donors give and what tools a nonprofit needs to collect those funds. Choosing the right fundraising tool for your organization will depend on cost, usability, and growth prospects. When researching fundraising tools, it’s essential to keep some key points in mind before making a final decision. Read on to determine how your donors like to give, why you may need a new fundraising tool, and how it can grow with your organization. 

How Do Your Donors Like to Give?

Donors are as different as you’d expect. Some would rather mail a check or give a cash donation during an event, but many donors find giving online at a regular interval a more accessible and safer option. 

In 2020, online giving saw an increase of 20%. While that may seem like an unimaginable increase, online donations have increased every year, so 2020 was simply following that trend. Interestingly, charitable giving only increased by 2% in 2020, so most of the new online giving came from the current donor base.

The difference was that nonprofit events were canceled, and because of this, many nonprofits had to find new ways to connect with and appeal to their donors. Luckily for them, donors were willing to change their behaviors.

Nonprofits and donors have continued their interest in using online donation tools and a new trend of hybrid events has started. This does not mean you should stop your in-person events or direct mail pieces. It means is that to keep up with your competition, you must include more donation options for your donors.

Why Do You Need an Online Fundraising Tool?

The only way to collect online donations is with an online fundraising tool. Some nonprofits have used PayPal to collect these donations, but there are limitations to what this company can offer. To ensure you are choosing the right tool for your organization, you must find a donation tool that gives you the following options.

1. Collect donations from anywhere

The primary purpose of an online fundraising tool is to collect donations. Companies do this by offering nonprofits donation forms or pages to add to their websites. When choosing your online fundraising tool, it’s vital to find one that is mobile-friendly. In 2020, 28% of online donations were made with a mobile device. This number is likely to increase.

Thanks to that hunger for convenience, more donors are giving online and jumping at options to give through social media platforms, text giving, and recurring donor apps.

Features like QuickDonate let donors repeat donations quickly, without having to refill a donation form. It allows donors to save payment details, easily look at their past donation history, and download receipts—giving them complete freedom to set up and manage their donation plan.

2. Capture more donor information

Cash is always nice, but any fundraiser would agree that they’d rather have a check or online gift. The main reason is that a cash donation usually means there is no way to contact the donor in the future. An organization is only as strong as its donor database. If your nonprofit hasn’t collected information from your donors or only uses a company like PayPal to collect online donations, you are at greater risk of losing the donor.

Fundraising is all about relationship building. Donor management systems are a crucial tool to help with this pursuit. Nonprofits can use donor management to separate donors by interest and giving ability. They can track donor activity and send personal appeals and acknowledgments that have a better response rate.

When researching online fundraising tools, it is essential to learn if and how their management system integrates with email and other online marketing tools. These integrations give nonprofits a seamless option to send targeted email appeals.  

3. Increase visibility and awareness 

Another benefit to online fundraising tools is the chance to connect with a larger audience. Most online fundraising tools integrate their fundraising pages with the leading social media platforms. When donors give online, you can ask that they share their donations and promote the organization with their online community. 

Peer-to-peer campaigns are the best way to leverage the power of your supporters’ network and acquire more donations as well as new donors. Donors can create personalized pages (image below) to share their experiences with the organization and raise funds from their people. 

With crowdfunding, nonprofits can collect small amounts of funds from a large crowd of supporters over a limited period of time. This especially helps when you need funds on an urgent basis, maybe for a new facility, for treatment of your beneficiaries, getting new equipment, mission trips for churches, and more. These campaigns (image below) help you spread the word about your nonprofit among potential donors more easily than anything else.

4. A cheaper and safer way to collect donations

Once again, cash is nice, but there is a much better chance of losing cash and checks than an online donation. More donors realize the same thing, and safety is a primary reason people have moved to online donations. Online fundraising tools offer fraud detection and SSL/TLS Encryption to protect donor information.  

According to Supporting Advancement, direct mail costs around $1 to $1.25 per dollar raised. The price of direct mail is so high because it includes things like design, print, mail, and even donor prospect lists. Online donation appeal fees are much cheaper depending on the fundraising tool. Since most online donation processors include email marketing, the only cost for these appeals is the platform fee and credit card payment fees. 

Nonprofits must be careful when purchasing an online fundraising tool because the costs can add up and may not pay off right away. If your organization does its due diligence, though, you can find affordable online fundraising tools that offer several fundraising options. For example, Donorbox is free to get started and there are no monthly contracts/fees.

5. Integrate online tools in one place

Most online fundraising tools include integrations that help nonprofits raise more money online and maintain an effective database. Thanks to partnerships with other companies, these features are either part of the fundraising tool or offered as integrations.

Data maintenance and automation tools

The integration with Salesforce NPSP is a low-maintenance one that helps nonprofits maintain the complete donor history. It helps you have insightful analytics into donors and donations data, and you can plan ahead with more confidence. Integration with tools like Zapier helps nonprofits utilize their donor data with other popular online platforms like Slack, Google Sheets, Hubspot, ActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, Airtable, Quickbook, etc.

Communication tools

Tools like Mailchimp help you customize and improve your communications with your donor base. With these tools, you can sync your donors’ list with your mailing list. It’s also easy to send personalized emails to your supporters without much effort and time spent at your end.

Matching gift programs

Double the Donation is the most popular tool for matching gifts, and many donation processors have formed partnerships with this organization. Nonprofits can add double/triple the donations to their online donation pages through these programs. They also give donors an easy way to see if their company offers matching gifts. 

6. An event registration system

Fundraising events remain an excellent way to raise funds. Event registration is one of the primary reasons nonprofits look for online fundraising tools. These tools will provide online ticket sales and registration, maintenance of purchaser details, ticket management, and more. These integrations make event fundraising more manageable and more cost-effective for smaller nonprofits.

How to Find an Affordable and Customizable Fundraising Tool

Now that you understand why to purchase an online fundraising tool, it is time to find the right one for your organization.

Affordable 

Cost is the first thing many nonprofits look for when researching fundraising tools. Some fundraising tools charge a monthly fee that increases with the benefits. Other companies offer online fundraising services for a small platform fee. Plus, there will be payment processing fees. 

It is advisable that you choose one that has no upfront monthly fees/ signup costs. It will help you get accustomed to the tool for some time and figure out if the platform fee and extra integration costs are worth it after all. You can always switch to another tool if not.

Customizable

The best online fundraising tools are easily customizable to your nonprofit’s branding and marketing needs. When donors click on the donate link, you want them to feel like they’re still on your website. Online fundraising tools that allow nonprofits to match the color and font of their website and make other changes help the donor know it’s you. 

Will It Grow with Your Organization?

There will be times when your organization feels stuck. There will also be times when your donors are active and it’s exciting to look at your budget. Nonprofit growth is rarely linear, so your fundraising tool should be there to help your organization reach the highs but not cost more than you can afford. 

When choosing a fundraising tool, you’ll want options that can be used when essential. Donor management and donation forms will always be necessary. But some fundraising campaign types may not suit your organization. You’ll want the ability to try different fundraising techniques for no or little extra money to find the ones that work best. As your nonprofit learns which campaigns bring in the highest revenue, you’ll better know where to spend additional funds.     

Final Thoughts

Technology has increased the options and lowered the cost of nonprofit fundraising tools. Organizations can try different fundraising techniques without investing in costly and confusing software. Your nonprofit also doesn’t have to spend extra funds on IT staff with online tech support.

 

*This spotlighted blog post is courtesy of Donorbox

A nonprofit’s end-of-year campaign is often its largest fundraiser of the year. The generosity of the season benefits many organizations, and they depend on these campaigns to help finish the year strong. Planning for a year-end fundraising campaign can start with your annual budget, but there are other methods and tips to put into practice. It’s also important to start planning early, so keep some ideas in mind this year to help you get ahead in 2022.

Need some input? Here are a few steps nonprofits can take to streamline their campaigns and effectively raise funds for the organization.

Build on past year-end fundraising campaigns

Creating a year-end campaign has many steps. But the goal of year-end is to build a fundraising campaign that’s designed to attract more donations and makes giving very easy for your supporters. Start with some research. How many donors have given in the past for this type of fundraiser? What benefits can your nonprofit gain? It’s best to start by examining past year-end campaigns to see how they performed and where you can improve.

You should also analyze past donation information to see the number of donations and the amounts. From here, you can decide on the programs that you should promote and the amounts you can include on your donation form. Once you get an idea of which programs gained the most attention in the past campaigns, you can convince donors to give more by adding the reason for giving along with each suggested amount.

For example, if your donors are interested in providing education to children, give them an opportunity to donate specific amounts to pay for educational materials or teachers’ salaries. By attaching an amount to a cause, donors can see where their gifts are going. This could make them feel more inclined to give.

Pro tip: It is best to start with the average amount and increase amounts from there by reasonable degrees. For instance, if most of your donors gave $100 last year, your options for donations could be $100, $150, $200, $250, $300, and $500. This grouping encourages donors to give more if possible. Always remember to give donors the option to add their own amounts.

Clean your database and prepare your mailing list

Now is the time to clean up your database system and track and segment donors. Before sending out any campaign material, you need to better understand which donors are more likely to give and at what amount. Use your donor management tool to analyze the donation data. For instance, by segmenting donors by donation amount or programs they find interesting, your year-end communication to them should be personalized to have a greater effect. 

To help clean up your database, you can ask several questions:

• How often does the donor give?
• What is the general amount they give at one time and throughout the year?
• Do they give to a specific program?
• Have they volunteered or shown interest in volunteering in the past?
• Do they follow the nonprofit on social media?

The answers to these questions can help you segment the donors into groups and send out customized marketing campaigns to gain their attention. 

Pro tip: Automate your year-end receipts ahead of time since your donors will be looking for year-end receipts for tax purposes. Donorbox helps you automate this process so you can focus entirely on your fundraising efforts.

Write year-end fundraising appeal and message

Now that your donors are segmented into groups, it’s time to create targeted appeal letters toward each group. Be specific when creating these pieces and look for different ways to encourage giving. Some of your donors would rather give offline, so make sure you include the information like your address. Others will feel better donating online, so when creating your appeal letters and emails, include a link or description of how donors can give on your website.

When writing your appeal letters or creating marketing material, you may also want to include other ways donors can get involved with your organization. Do you have any upcoming events? Do you need volunteers for a program or activity? By including these in your end-of-year campaign, you are letting people know there are several ways they can support your organization. During the planning stage, you also may have a better idea of what you hope to gain from each group of donors in the future and can include a hint or request in your acknowledgment letter.

Take the time to write an acknowledgment letter for each donor segment. In addition, consider adding a donor wall to your online fundraising page. This will show recognition for your donors and show remembrance for their gift.

Connect with donors looking to play a larger role in your work

Year-end is the ideal time to mobilize your supporters. With the giving season at its peak, donors are as likely to give as they are to raise funds for your organization. This might be especially true for donors who are looking to play a larger role in your nonprofit’s mission.

Instead of simply asking for a donation, ask your donors and supporters to join your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Your appeal letter can give them information on how they can join your fundraising campaign.

Peer-to-peer campaigns are easy to start. Choose what program you want to raise funds for through peer-to-peer. From there, you can create your main peer-to-peer campaign page. Start inviting your donors and supporters to become fundraisers for your cause. If you have specific donors with a large social media following and have shown interest in doing this, now is the time to connect with them. 

In addition to sending them an appeal letter, give them a call and walk them through how easy it is to raise funds for your nonprofit. To encourage their involvement, send them all the details about your cause and the campaign. Make sure you become easily reachable as they will need you to provide them with any new information that can help them run a highly successful fundraiser.

Share your progress

Keep donors aware of your fundraising efforts and successes during your year-end campaign. Donors want to know how the organization is doing and are willing to help nonprofits reach their goals. Remember to let donors know how close you are to meeting your annual goal. Let them know the amount needed to meet that goal by the end of the year. To encourage even more action, it’s helpful to include your plans on how you will meet your goal and how they can help.

Did you mention your fundraising goal in the appeal letter and marketing material you sent out? It’s a great idea to keep donors updated on how well it’s going. One way to do this is with a donation thermometer. 

Final thoughts

Year-end campaigns can be highly successful if well-planned. Nonprofits that take the time to research their donor base and find the ideal way to reach each group will have better success than others. By analyzing your past fundraising trends and understanding your donor base, you can create a truly effective year-end campaign in 2021. This year is all about mobilizing your existing supporters to spread the word and acquire more support.

 

*This spotlighted blog post is courtesy of Donorbox

 

About the Author

Raviraj heads the sales and marketing team at Donorbox. His growth-hacking abilities have helped Donorbox boost fundraising efforts for thousands of nonprofit organizations.