What fundraising tools do you use on an everyday basis?
If you’re like most fundraisers, your fundraising tool belt is pretty full. You probably have a website, possibly a Facebook “Donate” button, physical pledge cards for in-person events, and more. Each tool you use plays an integral role in bringing in those much-needed dollars—they’re all part of the puzzle.
But many nonprofits are finding that a good portion of their donations are coming from donors giving online. In fact, over 7% of all giving occurs online!
So, ask yourself: What online donation tools do you have in your toolbox?
Let’s break down the 2 online donation tools you need to use in 2018. By incorporating one or both of these tools into your fundraising plan, you’ll help to boost your online reach, and hopefully, your online donations.
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Website
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a pillar of community-driven fundraising, a type of fundraising that involves mobilizing your nonprofit’s community to impact change. When you use your loyal supporters such as current donors, board members, volunteers, and even the people you serve to fundraise on behalf of your cause, you’re using the power of their influence to raise money.
This fundraising technique has been around forever, but it looks a bit different today. Instead of asking donors to go door-to-door collecting donations, fundraisers can now set up their own personal fundraising website in a matter of minutes. Then, they simply share it with friends, family, coworkers, etc. through email and on social media.
What’s your organization’s role in this? When the time comes to run your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, you’ll need to set up the main website, recruit supporters to volunteer as personal fundraisers, and provide support and encouragement to your mobilized troops throughout the campaign.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to raise money, engage supporters, and bring new donors into the fold. To create your own peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, start here.
Himalayan Stove Project Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser
Donation Pages
While peer-to-peer fundraising is usually done during a formal campaign (not always, but most of the time), you also want to make sure donors have a place to donate outside of your regular fundraising campaigns.
An everyday donation page is the ideal solution if you want to streamline your donations to one central spot and collect those donations anytime, anywhere, from any donor, on any device. Even though many donation pages are powered outside of your own website using well-known payment processors, you can customize the page with similar colors and your logo so donors never know they’re not on your website.
Donation pages aren’t just good for collecting everyday donations, they also work for campaigns as well.
The key is to cater your donation page to your donor. Make it easy for them! Here’s how:
A Simple Donation Form
One of the fastest ways to lose donors is to make giving hard. Start out on the right foot by setting up a simple donation form.
What does “simple” mean? Basically, avoid adding extra questions or form fields. Ask for just the minimum amount to process the transaction, such as name, address, email address, and payment information.
Don’t worry, you can reach out at a later time to learn about things like interests and communication preferences!
Boost Options For Giving
You may think that online fundraising is fairly impersonal— that somehow the donor to fundraiser experience isn’t quite the same as in traditional fundraising techniques like special events and phone calls.
Thankfully, that’s not the case.
With advances in technology, online fundraising has adapted to meet the particular needs of your donors.
Take the time to learn how your donors like to give, then, incorporate some of those options into the donation form. Use your donation form to promote donation tiers equating gift amounts to impact, running an online recurring giving campaign, or something completely out of the box.
Within minutes, you can have a custom, safe, effective donation page using CauseVox Everyday Donation Pages.
Remember, online donation tools such as donation pages and peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are the new normal in the industry. Before you start preparing your 2018 fundraising plan, think about how you plan to capture online donations. If you’re new to these online donation tools, there’s no better time like 2018 to try them out.
Check out these resources for more information:
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- The Ultimate Guide to Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
- Donation Page Best Practices for Nonprofits + 5 Tips to Perfect Yours
