As 2019 barrels toward us at an alarming speed, it’s only natural to go into panic mode.
Will we meet our year-end fundraising goal?
How do we make our nonprofit stand out?
Why hasn’t Mrs. White made her gift yet? She’s later than usual this year!
Sure, you may experience this year-end frenzy time and time again, but it’s still overwhelming regardless of how many times you’ve been through the rigamarole!
However, we sometimes make it harder on ourselves, especially when it comes to asking for and accepting donations. For example, if you’re collecting donations from multiple sources: online, offline, email, donation button, donation page, online fundraising campaign, it’s easy to lose track of where you are compared to your goal.
See? Things get unnecessarily complicated.
However, you’re not alone. Year-end is hectic, but there are ways to make the process more efficient and less stressful using CauseVox’s online fundraising platform.
Here are nine different ways you can streamline your year-end fundraising efforts using a fundraising platform.
1. Maintain Your Branding
“The campaign and fundraiser pages are beautifully laid out and perfectly match our brand. When donors and fundraisers navigate between our website and our CauseVox pages – there is brand coherence.” —Amanda at 21 Liters
If your branding doesn’t stay consistent across all your donation avenues, donors are left confused. This leads to you fielding questions and doing extra administrative work.
The solution here is a simple one: maintain consistent branding. Yes, even on your online fundraising campaign and donation pages! The good news is that custom branding on donation pages yield upwards of 6x more money than non-branded pages, so it’s well worth the effort.
CauseVox’s platform is designed for you and allows you to:
- Add your logo
- Customize colors
- Include brand-specific media
- Link back to your website
- Use a custom URL
2. Funnel Donations Through One Place
“I was surprised at how we had been “talking” about this campaign for a year, and yet when we started the CauseVox campaign, we suddenly got the attention of a whole new audience. It seemed to add a level of legitimacy to our efforts.” —Delta at California Automobile Museum
Missing out on thanking a donor in a timely, personal way is my biggest fear. Unfortunately, if you offer your donors multiple ways to give at a single time, this fear can become a definite reality.
CauseVox’s platform removes this hurdle by helping to funnel donations through one location.
Whether you choose to direct all your website and social media followers to your fundraising campaign page or a donation page, you’ll guarantee a more streamlined giving process for everyone involved.
3. Create Donation Pages
“We started just for one campaign but now we are going to be utilizing the donation page feature and using you all for an entire year! Looking forward to it!” —Floyd at Volo City Kids Foundation
Speaking of donation pages, many online fundraising platforms equip nonprofits to use a permanent page to capture donations throughout the course of the year, not just during campaign times.
These donation pages make it easy for anyone, anywhere to give on whatever device they’re using. If you’re looking to capture year-end donations during November and December, but aren’t running a full-fledged campaign, a donation page is a simple solution.
Just make sure your donation page is customizable, you can embed it on your website, and that your supporters can share it among their online networks.
4. Use Communication Features
“We take pride in our authentic engagement and CauseVox allowed us to turn these real-life connections into tangible dollars. CauseVox is not just another giving site – it is a powerful and interactive storytelling tool.” —Lauren at The Motherhood Collective
Chances are, you’re sending out emails, direct mail, and social media posts, along with making phone calls and scheduling last-minute meetings with major donors as the year comes to a close.
There’s so much communicating to do!
If your online fundraising platform has communication features that are purposely simple, such as blog function, you can save valuable time while getting your point across. It’s the perfect tool if you’re looking to communicate directly with your online fundraising campaign supporters and drive traffic directly to your fundraising website.
5. Ask For Monthly Gifts
“CauseVox’s team was extremely helpful in guiding us through setting up the campaign, as well as advising us on best practices.”—Anjal at Asian American Arts Alliance
Year-end fundraising efforts may bring in all those last dollars before the close of the calendar year, but development is a year-round job. Set yourself up for success in 2019 by giving your donors the option to give more than once.
According to the 2018 Global Trends in Giving report, 45% of donors are choosing to become recurring donors. That’s phenomenal news for your retention efforts!
Find an online platform that gives your nonprofit the option to ask for monthly gifts. Most of the time, it’s an easy addition to the donation form.
6. Dig Through The CRM
“One of the biggest features that led us to choose CauseVox as our fundraising platform for Women Build is the team functionality.” — Blaise at Habitat for Humanity
Nonprofit CRMs are an essential way to track donation and donor data. If you haven’t yet invested in a standalone CRM program, look at the options available from your online fundraising platform.
For example, CauseVox CRM tracks every touchpoint with a donor, whether they’re donating, sharing, or creating their own personal fundraising website.
Have one solid CRM program linked directly to your online fundraising website streamlines the process, meaning fewer spreadsheets, data mining sessions, and data input when you’re already strapped for time.
7. Do Peer-to-Peer
“This year, because CauseVox was so much easier to use and you all supported our plungers, we were able to put much more time and effort into supporting our plungers’ fundraising efforts.” —Kelly at Chesapeake Climate Action Network
If you’re interested in raising money (of course you are), engaging your supporters (yep) and bringing new donors to your cause (sign me up), then focus on peer-to-peer fundraising via your online fundraising platform.
Peer-to-peer fundraising mobilizes your community of supporters and leads them on a path as vocal advocates for your cause. These supporters become personal fundraisers, setting up their fundraising websites and sharing with their own networks of friends and family.
This fundraising technique also combines many of the tasks you’re already doing into one. Are you ramping up donor cultivation practices, looking for year-end engagement opportunities, and in the process of setting up an online fundraiser? Peer-to-peer does all of this.
8. Try Integrations
“With a small staff and a large fundraising goal it’s easy for things to become overwhelming. With CauseVox, we are able to streamline things and not worry about sending thank yous to the hundreds of donors who give during a campaign, and feel confident our data/tracking is secure and accurate.” —Cara at Look What SHE Did!
Between communications and donations, nonprofit professionals deal with a lot of moving parts.
For starters, consider how you’re processing gifts. Online fundraising platforms partner with companies like Stripe and PayPal to process payments in the way that best meets your needs. Look for platforms that offer options that work for you.
Another consideration is integrations. Let’s say you use Eventbrite to manage event participation, MailChimp for newsletters, and Quickbooks for your bookkeeping. Each of these programs requires you to export and input data– which is time-consuming and opens you up for errors down the road. Online fundraising platforms like CauseVox now offer Zapier integrations, meaning you can seamlessly transfer data from one program to the other without any extra work.
Phew!
9. Encourage Social Sharing
“CauseVox was really easy for people to use and for them to share, and this allowed us to reach out to other people, and it was surprising just how quickly it took off, where people we didn’t know were making donations.”–Delta, California Automobile Museum
The faster word spreads about your year-end goals, the sooner you’ll meet them. Social sharing, the process of sharing content across social media platforms, is a surefire way to get your message to those who will do something that that information.
Encourage your supporters to boost your social media posts and engage with your content by liking, reTweeting, commenting, and sharing.
CauseVox’s platform has built-in social sharing mechanisms to make it easy for your donors to share content such as your blog posts or your campaign page. You can’t underestimate the power of a personal recommendation via social sharing from a loyal supporter. Remember, community-driven efforts grow your impact!
Make it easy on yourself by using online fundraising platform that helps streamline your workload. Ensure it doesn’t just collect donations but can help rally supporters, and encourage new ones all at the same time.
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If you want to see just how impactful an online fundraising platform can be, schedule a one-on-one demo with the CauseVox team.
CauseVox makes it easy for you to manage relationships with your supporters and create personalized fundraising sites, peer-to-peer campaigns, and donation pages, all in one place, while also providing a remarkable giving experience your supporters will love.
With CauseVox you get more than a tool. We combine powerful fundraising tools with best practices and an experienced team to guide you to success.
