With increased competition and shifting donor preferences, traditional approaches may no longer suffice.
To stay relevant and resilient in 2024 and beyond, adopting a strategic, data-driven, and donor-centric mindset is essential.
We've curated 20 game-changing tips to help you optimize your fundraising efforts, build stronger relationships with supporters, and maximize your impact. Whether you’ve just started with fundraising or you’re facing a mid-campaign slump, these strategies are for you.
20 Effective Fundraising Tips for Nonprofits
- Set SMART Goals For Your Fundraising Campaign
- Create an Effective Fundraising Plan
- Use Multichannel Fundraising Approach
- Optimize Your Donation Form
- Promote Your Fundraiser Through Multiple Channels
- Set Up Donation Boxes
- Post Regular Updates to Your Fundraiser
- Focus On Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
- Choose a Fundraising Platform to Raise Money
- Be Direct and Create Urgency When Making Appeals
- Host a Community Event
- Use Compelling Imagery
- Prioritize Donor Relations
- Send Fundraising Letters to Donors
- Share Out Impact Reports
- Keep an Eye on Donations
- Send a Post-Event Survey
- Focus On Volunteer & Leadership Training
- Offer Recurring Donation Options
- Pledge Fundraising
1. Set SMART Goals For Your Fundraising Campaign
A concrete aim keeps you motivated and offers direction for achieving your target.
With your aim in mind, you can set benchmarks to measure progress against. From here, you can determine your success in meeting your objectives.
Setting SMART goals can help you work toward your aim. These goals are:
- Specific:
Your goal should be well-defined and clear to focus your efforts. Example: Raise $10,000 to finance the renovation of the animal shelter.
- Measurable:
Make your goals measurable to track progress easily and decide when you’ve reached the finish line. Example: Gain or reach 100 individual donors, encouraging them to contribute an average of $100 to meet the $10,000 goal.
- Attainable:
Your goal should be realistic and achievable. It should be stretched enough to challenge you but not be out of reach. Example: Organize three fundraising events and create a social media campaign to attract donations.
- Relevant:
Your fundraising goal should align with your nonprofit's mission and vision. Example: Raising $10,000 is essential to upgrading the animal shelter, directly supporting your mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome animals in crisis.
- Time-Bound:
Every fundraising campaign should have a beginning and end. If your goal is not time-constrained, it will lack focus and urgency. Example: Raise $10,000 within six months by November 30, 2024.
2. Create an Effective Fundraising Plan
When organizing a fundraising event, a plan provides a clear roadmap for how the nonprofit will achieve its goals. It outlines specific objectives, target audiences, and the initiatives that will be used to reach them.
A fundraising plan makes allocating resources and assigning roles and responsibilities easy. It keeps everyone on the same page, avoids conflicts and overlaps, and provides clarity.
Here are the general elements found in every fool-proof fundraising plan:
- Executive Summary:
Brief overview of the whole fundraising plan, including the goals and strategies.
- Mission and Vision Statements:
Clear articulation of the nonprofit’s purpose to ensure that all efforts are aligned with the overall goal of the organization.
- Fundraising Goals and Objectives:
SMART goals that outline the fundraising amount to be raised, timelines, and other relevant objectives.
- Target Audience:
Specifying key donor groups, including individual sponsors, corporate sponsors, foundations, and other potential fundraising sources.
- Fundraising Strategies:
Detailed description of the activities and campaigns to use to reach fundraising goals. This can include annual campaigns, capital campaigns, events, nonprofit grants, and peer-to-peer campaigns.
- Budget and Resource Allocation:
Breakdown of projected expenses and revenue for each fundraising initiative. This covers staffing, event costs, technology, marketing, and any other resources needed.
- Timeline and Action Plan:
Map out key activities and milestones to achieve throughout the year.
- Roles and Responsibilities:
Defining who is responsible for the different aspects of fundraising. This includes board members, staff members, volunteers, and any external partners.
- Marketing and Communications:
Strategies for promoting fundraisers and engaging with donors.
- Evaluation and Metrics:Decide how you will track and evaluate the success of your fundraising efforts. This includes key metrics such as average gift size, donor retention rate, return on investment, and overall effectiveness.
Here’s our guide to crafting a successful fundraising plan for your nonprofit →
3. Use Multichannel Fundraising Approach
Your supporter group is probably pretty diverse. They will have different needs and interests, and they will be comfortable on different platforms.
Not everyone will respond to the same fundraising strategy, so it's crucial to focus on multichannel fundraising that incorporates both online and offline methods. Leveraging a diverse mix of methods broadens your reach and allows you to meet donors where they spend most of their time and in ways that they find suitable.
Using a multichannel approach mitigates the risk of relying on a single source of donations. It opens up various avenues for revenue, ensuring a more stable funding base.
Don't spread yourself too thin by using every possible method. Instead, choose those with the highest potential for exposure to maximize your fundraiser's visibility.
Consider each channel's unique features and benefits to create your multichannel fundraising approach.
4. Optimize Your Donation Form
Your page should be branded, secure, and up-to-date, making it simple for potential donors to support you. Ensure you offer several payment options, from credit and debit cards to digital wallets to PayPal.
Make sure that your donation page is easy to spot on your organization's website. You can include a link to the form directly within your main navigation or make it appear as a pop-up on your homepage. This way, donors visiting your website looking for ways to support your cause will find it easy to contribute right away.
Some of the best practices to optimize your donation form or page are:
- Add a range of suggested gift sizes to present supporters with options for raising funds.
- Include impact statements to show supporters what their gifts have the potential to do.
- Ensure that the donor's choice to add their own amount is always included.
- Offer the option to set recurring giving.
- Include social media sharing options on the donation page. Make it straightforward for donors to share your campaign with their family and friends.
- Customize the page with the organization colors, fonts, and banner image.
5. Promote Your Fundraiser Through Multiple Channels
Sharing about your fundraiser, whether it's an online or offline venture, helps enhance its visibility and attract more people, allowing you to raise more funds. Some ways to promote your fundraiser are as follows:
Use email marketing
Emails are ideal to connect with dedicated supporters, local business partners, community members, and past event attendees. Create targeted messages that include details about upcoming events and take readers to an event form to register for the fundraiser.
Invest in Paid Ads
Using paid ad platforms like Google Ads helps raise awareness about your fundraiser to a particular target audience or demographic.
With its help, you can reach out to new supporters unaware of your nonprofit but aligned with your ideal donor base. You can choose Google Ad Grants for nonprofits to get discounts.
Leverage word-of-mouth
Encourage your supporters, volunteers, team members, and leaders to contact their families and friends and inform them about your cause and its upcoming nonprofit fundraising campaign.
Rely on Social Media
Anyone who follows your organization on social media has an affinity for your cause. Create a specific fundraiser page on Facebook, post eye-catching visuals, or share event details with social media groups to get them involved in your fundraiser.
Add donation buttons on your social media posts to give your donors a chance to support you prior to the event.
6. Set Up Donation Boxes
Setting up donation boxes at your fundraising event is a simple yet effective way to drive more funds. Once they're positioned in the right place, they serve as a passive fundraising tactic. Even if your event is ticketed, some people can choose to put small donations in these boxes.
Remember to place your donation boxes at places where plenty of guests or attendees will often pass through. These could include the reception area, food or water stations, and, besides the stalls, near-sitting arrangements.
- Make certain that your donation box is aligned with your branding elements and the theme of the event.
- Add eye-catching visuals to direct attendees' attention towards the box.
- Include a short and powerful caption related to your mission to elicit a response.
- Include hard-hitting statistics that push people to donate their loose change.
- Adding QR codes on boxes helps take guests straight to your online donation form more conveniently.
7. Post Regular Updates to Your Fundraiser
Providing regular updates keeps donors informed about your fundraiser's progress while indirectly reminding them that you still require their continued support. Posting effective and frequent updates can help your fundraiser pull out of a donation slump.
- Highlight any significant milestones. If the event has made it halfway to its goal, it's great news to share, cultivating a sense of accomplishment that leads to further donations and participation.
- Express gratitude to donors who have already donated and publicly recognize the top five or six donors.
- Post photos related to your fundraiser to show how people are supporting your cause or how your volunteers are working for the mission
- Share updates on your social media channels and add a donate button to these posts. Ask supporters to send these social media posts to their network or connections.
- Add a fundraiser thermometer on your website fundraising pages to clearly represent the fundraiser's progress toward its goal.
8. Focus On Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a strategy in which supporters raise money on behalf of your nonprofit. Contributions are made through an individual donation page linked to your organization's main form.
This kind of fundraising is typically tied to events like fundraising walks, bike rides, and marathons. Peer-to-peer fundraising involves supporters tapping into their network to ask for donations.
When supporters fundraise on your behalf, it generates momentum for your campaign, extends its reach, and attracts new donors - ultimately bringing more fundraising dollars.
Check out our guide on how to host P2P fundraisers →
9. Choose a Fundraising Platform to Raise Money
One of the most effective fundraising tips to boost the performance of your fundraiser, whether offline or online, is investing in a fundraising platform. It is a solution that brings all fundraising activities under one roof, making the entire fundraising and giving process more convenient for staff and donors alike.
Fundraising platforms allow nonprofits to create branded and customized donation pages, accept gifts online, organize donor information, and send donation receipts. They also help with several fundraising campaigns, such as peer-to-peer, crowdfunding, silent auctions, and more.
Zeffy is a realiable fundraising platform for nonprofits that is completely free of cost! With other platforms, you’ll pay platform or transaction fees, but with Zeffy, you can receive 100% of your donations without any hidden charges.
10. Be Direct and Create Urgency When Making Appeals
Define exactly how donations will help your nonprofit and emphasize the deadline. It's very common for people to put things off.
On the fundraising page, define different tiers of donation and state what each will help to achieve. For instance, a donation of $200 will help to feed two to three families, while $2000 can help to feed the whole community.
You don’t have to break down the whole plan; just offer enough transparency on where the donation is going to build trust and encourage donation.
Including a fundraising thermometer is also a great idea to engage and entice donors.
11. Host a Community Event
Consider hosting a community event, like a scavenger hunt, talent show, bake sale, or art show. Organizing fundraising events brings together your local community, offers a chance to network and build connections, and enhances awareness for your cause while raising money.
The success of your community event depends upon how well you promote it and engage with the supporters. Social media channels, emails, and direct mail are great ways to spread the word about your event and sell tickets.
Include event activities that inspire immediate action, bring about maximum participation, and inspire your attendees to dig deeper into their pockets.
12. Use Compelling Imagery
Adding high-quality, compelling, and personal photos to your fundraiser page and campaigns can appeal to supporters. Most people respond better to visuals than language. Photos immediately help capture attention, illustrate your story, and build sympathy for your mission.
Ensure you select images or videos that reinforce your message, tell a tale, and are of high quality.
Find pictures original to your nonprofit – perhaps of another fundraising initiative, your volunteers in action, or your mission impact. Images that include people will help to humanize your fundraising campaigns.
13. Prioritize Donor Relations
Donor stewardship is developing strong, long-lasting relationships with your donors. Any good stewardship plan will involve consistent engagement and nurturing through different channels and touchpoints.
The main purpose of stewarding your donors is to encourage them to give again. Building a connection with your donors will make them feel loyal to your nonprofit. When they see how much your nonprofit appreciates their efforts, it increases donor retention and inspires recurring giving.
When it comes to stewarding donors, send thank you letters after your campaign and fundraising events come to an end. Major and mid-level donors should remember their birthdays and special days and reach out to them with incentives or heartfelt messages on these notable occasions.
Share project updates, offer a membership program, and send unexpected gifts to continue to nurture a bond. When you keep up with donors and show that you see them as more than a source of revenue, they feel good and strengthen their ties with your nonprofit.
Check out our guide on how you can improve donor relations →
14. Send Fundraising Letters to Donors
Sending a handwritten letter via direct mail is a good way to add a personal touch to your fundraiser and connect with donors on a more intimate level. A handwritten note takes time and effort to prepare, making the donors feel special and eliciting positive emotions.
Your nonprofit can create handwritten letters ahead of any fundraising campaign. For instance, if you’re organizing a community event, you can write a letter inviting the receiver and share a QR code that leads to the registration page. Or write a donation letter signed by your organization's president or founder.
Check out how to write donation letters with templates →
15. Share Out Impact Reports
Encourage donors to contribute or make them feel valued by showing them how you’ve used previous donations. An impact report is a way for a nonprofit to highlight how exactly it’s using donations and the results of its work.
Create impact reports for every fundraising campaign – not too long – simply two to three pages will do. A few weeks or months after the campaign ends, share this report demonstrating the impact their gift has created.
Give specific examples, like how a new project, building, or program was funded through donations. Better yet, if applicable, focus on how the donation impacted the life of an individual, say, sent a child to school.
When donors understand how their contribution is making a difference, they’re more likely to continue donating.
Share your annual reports via monthly newsletters, add them to your website, and repurpose them on social channels to show how you’re creating a positive impact with donations collected.
Check our guide and templates on impact report for nonprofits →
16. Keep an Eye on Donations
Tracking your donations is important for a couple of reasons. It helps to remember who donated, when, and how much, which helps personalize future outreach and sheds light on major donors, mid-level donors, and new donors. It also helps segment donors based on their retention and engagement levels to develop targeted strategies.
Regular monitoring informs you how close you are to the fundraising goal, whether you need to make any changes to the original plan, and whether you're on the right track. It also brings to attention the platform that brought the most donations and has better completion rates.
Zeffy is a 100% free donation management software that helps you manage your donors' information and transaction history in one place. It offers many filters, such as transaction amount, donated data, campaign contributed to, and more.
17. Send a Post-Event Survey
One of the most effective fundraising tips is to gather feedback from your guests after the fundraiser ends. This helps determine what went well and what fell short. With those insights, refine your future campaigns and events by replicating the successful elements.
For instance, if you organize a charity gala to raise money for your church renovation and find that selling raffle tickets created a lot of engagement and contributions, make it a part of another event. As opposed, if you find that people did not enjoy the guest speaking sessions, eliminate or make changes to keep the fundraiser interesting.
Use post-event surveys to ask your attendees about their experience, including what they loved the most, what could have been better, and what they did not enjoy. Create a multiple-choice questions form to make it easy to fill out. Share it with thank you notes through email or direct mailing.
18. Focus On Volunteer & Leadership Training
The leaders and volunteers significantly influence the success of a fundraising campaign. Effective leadership provides clear goals and strategic direction, and volunteers take care of the fundraiser logistics, plan everything to the T and keep track of operations.
Well-prepared volunteers serve as campaign ambassadors in the community, encouraging participation and donations.
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Investing in leadership development and volunteer training will help you empower your team and better prepare them for their unique roles and responsibilities, ultimately driving fundraising success. It will create a culture of growth and learning within your organization.
Your nonprofit can set up monthly sessions to reinforce the skills of your volunteers. Organize seminars and workshops on various aspects of board governance, including strategic planning, financial oversight, risk management, and fiduciary duty.
19. Offer Recurring Donation Options
Do you know that recurring donations bring in 42% more donations annually compared to one-time donations?
Building a recurring giving program is an invaluable tactic to create a steady and reliable source of revenue. Recurring giving is when a donor chooses to make regular and ongoing contributions to your organization. These consistent gifts, also known as recurring donations, can be tied up with your fundraising campaign to convert new donors into recurring ones.
When creating the donation page for your campaign, highlight the recurring donation option and offer details on how these funds will be utilized. Since 94% of recurring donors prefer to give monthly, offer the choice to set up monthly giving. Give them the freedom to manage their contributions and pause or cancel their donations.
Once you have recurring donors, remember to nurture them during and after the campaign. To maintain a connection with donors, send monthly newsletters, personalized thank-you notes regularly, and exclusive content.
Provide updates about the progress of projects or initiatives their funds are supporting. To make recurring donors feel appreciated, offer incentives such as free event invites and public recognition.
20. Pledge Fundraising
Pledge fundraising is a great way to build momentum for your fundraising campaign. Attract the attention of a wide range of supporters to raise funds.
Nonprofits typically use pledge drives for campaigns built around urgent projects or fundraising events. These could include disaster relief, advocacy works around a certain social issue, or events like walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, bike rides, and more.
The idea behind it is pretty simple: Your supporters commit to making a certain donation at a later date. The pledge is fulfilled when a certain action is completed or a milestone is achieved. For instance, donors will donate $2 for every 2 miles walked.
Give your supporters pledge forms or set up an online donation page where they can collect pledges. The page should include the supporter's details, the amount pledged, and pledge terms.
Wrapping Up on Top Fundraising Tips
Fine-tune your fundraising approach with the given tips and tricks to attract supporters, engage with them, and drive more donations.
Build out your fundraising strategy by combining different offline and online fundraising initiatives. Let your donors engage with your nonprofit and contribute in the way they're most comfortable and according to their preferences.
Using Zeffy, you can launch successful fundraising campaigns that will bring your nonprofit closer to its goal. You can start a fundraiser and get 100% of the donations without any hidden charges.
FAQs on Best Practices for Nonprofit Fundraising
What is the 80-20 rule in fundraising?
This principle states that 80% of a nonprofit's funding is contributed by particularly the top 20% of their donors. Although not every organization fits perfectly into this model, there's no doubt that major gifts are important for any nonprofit's funding.
Analyze your donor data to determine which donors have contributed the most support to the nonprofit in the past. These major donors should receive a little more attention, and extra efforts must be made to maintain relationships with them.
Do nonprofit fundraisers have any rules?
When it comes to fundraising, understand it’s a regulated activity, specifically at the state level. Before you decide to solicit donations, research the state laws where your nonprofit operates to maintain compliance.
In the US, 40 out of 50 states require registration. Though there is no standard form to fill out, 32 of those states will accept a Unified Registration Statement. Additional paperwork, such as IRS Form 990, audited financial statements, articles of incorporation, and bylaws, is also required.
Your nonprofit will need to offer a written acknowledgment, such as a donation receipt, to claim tax returns for single contributions of $250 or more. In general, it’s a good idea to share donation receipts.
What kind of nonprofit game activities are regulated?
Fundraising games are a nice way to raise funds and get donors involved in your cause. But before you begin planning for a gaming night, you should understand that certain types of activities have strict laws attached.
One category that is highly regulated is "games of chance." Games that fall under this category are raffles, auctions, gambling, and gaming like bingo, poker tournaments, and more.
You will have to check with your state's laws to see if you can host these events. In most cases, you can do so after acquiring a license. Currently, 41 states plus the District of Columbia need a state license to hold charitable gaming events.
