Nonprofit fundraising often involves many events and campaigns that have no connection. However, digital fundraising has become a lifeline in the last two years. With it came opportunities to reach new and larger audiences, the ability to integrate and automate campaigns with stewardship practices. This enabled new means to find new audiences, nurture new donor relationships and create stronger relationships with current donors.

Here we will review why digital fundraising is necessary for nonprofits and strategies to improve your organization’s donor base and funding.

Here are six great digital fundraising strategies for nonprofits:  

  1. Create a branded donation page
  2. Launch a crowdfunding campaign
  3. Focus on local SEO
  4. Run a text-to-give campaign
  5. Form a strategic partnership
  6. Up your social media game

Before we take a deeper dive into these strategies, let us review digital fundraising and why it is valuable for nonprofits.

What is digital fundraising? 

Digital fundraising incorporates online fundraising tactics and applications to reach a wider audience, nurture relationships with new donors, and build relationships with the current donor base. It is an ongoing process that begins with online outreach using emails, websites and social media. Following a donor’s first donation, a nonprofit can craft an automatic reply for your organization to steward their gift. As your nonprofit maintains a relationship with that donor, continue to reach out to that donor; watch how their actions change to build a deeper connection. The goal is to develop a long-lasting donor relationship that benefits your organization in the long term.

Why is digital fundraising critical for nonprofits? 

It used to take a significant amount of time and work to build donor relationships. Many smaller nonprofits have smaller staff and volunteers to maintain donor relationships and connect with them personally. Digital fundraising makes outreach and stewardship easier for these smaller nonprofits.

In addition to that, digital fundraising:

Raises awareness – digital fundraising helps organizations reach more people through social media and online fundraising. Nonprofits can create exciting fundraisers that grab donors’ attention and boost their involvement; examples include crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising. When a donor becomes increasingly involved in fundraising campaigns, their community learns about the organization and will probably act on its behalf.

Nonprofits use digital fundraising methods beyond crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns to improve donor retention. To improve donor involvement and retention, digital fundraising techniques like text-to-give, recurring donations and matching gifts are ways donors can support a nonprofit easily. The convenience of these methods encourages donors to remain involved and keep giving.

Reduces the workload – thanks to technology, automated online fundraising and donor management are simpler and more affordable than before. With fundraising platforms like iConnectX, nonprofits can send automatic gift acknowledgments and track donations.

Increases donations – donors are grateful for the convenience of digital fundraising – it helps them feel like valued contributors.

Top Digital Fundraising Strategies for Nonprofits

Digital fundraising boosts nonprofits’ efforts by increasing revenue. It may be overwhelming with many types and means of online/digital fundraising. Here we’ll cover techniques to allow for understanding digital fundraising.

Awareness

  1. Create a branded donation page

Everything begins with the website. Branding makes an organization memorable; consider large corporations like Nike or nonprofits like the Susan G. Komen Foundation (think: pink ribbon.) It may seem like nonprofits could face a challenge branding in such a manner, but they can! Digital fundraising platforms like iConnectX offer branding capabilities on landing and donation pages. Branding builds trust and awareness.

  1. Crowdfunding

Donors want to feel appreciated and valuable. Crowdfunding campaigns allow organizations to fundraise for specific programs by reaching out to donors who take a particular interest in said programs. There are several crowdfunding options available. iConnectX offers such an option that offers social media integration and email updates for donors.

  1. Google advertising

Some small nonprofits consider Google ads out of their price range. However, Google recently created Google Grants. With Google Grants, nonprofits have an opportunity to receive $10,000 worth of Google advertising. This is a massive opportunity for nonprofits to reach wider audiences than ever, and it’s often the only way to rank close to the top of the Google search results.

  1. Increase social media activity

Social media provides many people with news and connections to the world. It’s an error for nonprofits to ignore this fact – social media offers an opportunity to reach broad and outlying audiences. Using social channels gives nonprofits the chance to connect with donors and the community through social sharing.

  1. Focus on SEO

Many nonprofits are small and medium-sized local organizations that directly benefit the community near them. Sometimes, crowdfunding may not make sense for these groups. Rather than crowdfunding, small-sized, locally-focused nonprofits may want to focus on SEO tactics that target their local area. Keyword use and digital applications that connect nonprofits with area donors help these nonprofits reach online audiences.

  1. Create a text-to-give campaign

Text to give campaigns grow increasingly popular thanks to the number of platforms that offer them. These campaigns give nonprofits a chance to receive donations by text in only a few steps:

  • Set up a text campaign and gets a unique campaign ID
  • Share that ID and text number across online platforms
  • Donors text that campaign ID to the phone number or short code; they receive a link to the donation page

This is an easy campaign to run, and it’s convenient for donors. iConnectX offers text-to-give – it is simple to set up and easy for donors to use.

The Final Word

Investing in a solid digital fundraising platform is key to success. iConnectX is free for nonprofits to use – the only charges incurred are transaction fees. With iConnectX, nonprofits can plan and manage live, online and hybrid events, handle online ticketing, hold auctions, etc. We are here to help you raise more funds for your mission!