If you’re currently struggling with your fundraising efforts, don’t despair. Fundraising is part art, part technique, and the charities that do the best with fundraising are great on both fronts. As a charity, you need to use the right tools and know-how to connect with people if you want to get results. And, if you’re having trouble, it might simply be that you’re doing a few things wrong or need to learn a few new tricks. Here are some tweaks that will boost your fundraising efforts.
Use Nonprofit CRM
If you’re not using a nonprofit CRM or don’t know what that is, then you need to start looking into them right away. Donor CRM platforms allow you to keep a repository of your donors and keep all the information about them in one place. You’ll be able to see at a glance how much they’ve given to your organization, how often they donate, the average donation amount, and the interactions you had with them.
But what makes CRMs great is that they allow you to rank and prioritize certain donors over others. You can then tailor your interaction with them and automate some tasks. For instance, you could automatically send messages to top donors after they haven’t made donations for a certain while. You could even set your CRM to send gifts automatically after the donor has made a sizable donation.
Use a Goal Thermometer
Goal thermometers have been used since forever for fundraising campaigns and the reason why they’re so popular is that they work. Most people are visual by nature and seeing the goal on a thermometer and how much there is left before you reach your goal will act as a motivator. So, if you don’t have a goal thermometer on your website somewhere, you need to include one right away.
Ramp Up Your Content Marketing Efforts
A lot of charities make the mistake of focusing mainly on asking for donations when they should be spending more time trying to build awareness about the issues they’re trying to fix. People will not give to a charity if they know nothing about the problems they’re trying to solve, so try to spend as much time as possible educating people about your cause.
This can be done by releasing written content or videos, but it can also be done through traditional methods like print. Charity brochures and flyers can be very powerful if used properly and distributed in the right places, so don’t overlook them.
Show Your Face
If you’re the founder of the charity, do not make the mistake of staying behind the scenes. If you’re truly passionate about your cause, it will show when you speak, and this is something that you can use to build an emotional connection with your audience. So, don’t be afraid to go out there and plead for donations, as you might get a better result than you expect.
These are all tricks that you can use to get more donations when fundraising and get them faster. Use as many of them as you can and constantly learn ways to maximize your efforts.