Imagine what your organization could accomplish in 2022 if you began each initiative with clean, streamlined donor records that record donations from your online forms and update automatically, an arsenal of canned reports to track key metrics, and a solid plan to prioritize each donor segment individually.
This guide is meant to help you prepare for each season in your fundraising year. When you’re able to set the stage with analytics and donor attributes – like their wealth rating, public giving records, and personal interests – you can strengthen your understanding of each donor segment, and position your asks to speak to specific audiences.
Winter 2022
1. Implement a multichannel fundraising strategy with plenty of different opportunities to give.
You may be surprised to learn that multichannel donors contribute four times as often as online-only or offline-only donors. They follow you on social media, rally their friends through crowdfunding, and participate in your events. To make the most of this continued trend, try to reach your donors on as many platforms as possible.
Revenue from Facebook fundraisers alone grew by 14% last year. Social media is known for its generous donations, enthusiastic volunteers, and passionate advocates. In fact, 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media decide to support them in some way. Match their energy by providing volunteer opportunities, hosting giving challenges, offering peer-to-peer fundraising opportunities, and encouraging community chatter. Of course, if your organization has the bandwidth, photos and videos are a major plus.
► Related Resources:
Social Media best Practices for Nonprofits
Transformative Multichannel Online Fundraising Ideas
Spring & Summer 2022
2. Continue to embrace virtual events and digital fundraising for a more flexible strategy.
You already know that it’s quite common for time and resources to be limited in the nonprofit sector. That’s why your creativity is critical to boosting fundraising revenue. In 2022, your organization will have more freedom to tap into post-pandemic flexibility as face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual events are all possible. At least half of all donors attend fundraising events, no matter their generation, so why not celebrate your community through a festive fundraising event that will engage diverse donor groups?
That said, donors who are out and about this summer still might not make it to in-person events – it is vacation season, after all. They’re itching to travel, but if they have money to spend on plane tickets, it’s quite possible they have some leftover for online giving. That’s why online forms are the best way for you and your donors to do business during the warmer months.
Not to mention, online fundraising revenue grew 32% in 2021. However, even if your form is mobile-friendly, branded with your logo, and tells a compelling story, what if no one sees it? Instead of solely relying on your homepage to spotlight your donation form, take this time to try some new and creative strategies to ensure your mission gets the attention it deserves.
► Related Resources:
How to Host a Virtual Fundraising Event (with Checklist for Nonprofits)
25 Ways to Spotlight Your Donation Form
Autumn 2022
3. Rally multichannel supporters through monthly giving, crowdfunding, and Giving Tuesday initiatives.
Monthly giving
Nonprofit monthly giving revenue has increased by 40% in recent years as more and more donors elect to budget out their giving on a recurring basis. And as the holidays draw near, many donors will make the smart move to spread out their donations instead of waiting until crunch time.
These automatic monthly transactions are easier on the donor physically and financially, so they can keep their relationship with your organization going strong without much work. In fact, you can immediately acknowledge each gift through your fundraising CRM. This is one of the reasons that nonprofits who create a monthly giving program with DonorPerfect see a whopping 90% retention rate.
Crowdfunding
Socially-driven crowdfunding solutions equip donors to raise more money for their organization, simply by asking their family, friends, and colleagues to give to their page. Donors can choose the option on your online form to create their own crowdfunding page, then the funds and information from their page are sent directly to your database. Donors who set up a DonorPerfect crowdfunding page raise an average of $568 individually!
Giving Tuesday
Millions of people participate in Giving Tuesday, and billions of dollars are raised annually. It’s also a day when donors decide to give to an organization for the first time. With several billion mentions on social media each year, it’s hard for them to miss. Early autumn is a good time to plan how your organization will cut through the noise while capitalizing on the biggest giving day of the year, and keep the momentum going.
► Related Resources:
Start Your Monthly Giving Program in a Few Simple Steps
Tips and Templates to Get Started with Nonprofit Crowdfunding
Tips, Templates, and Best Practices for Your Giving Tuesday Campaign
Winter 2022-2023
4. Use insights to get ahead of year-end goals and maximize your major donor potential.
Major donors represent two-thirds of total dollars raised, and on average, they contribute more than $56,000 per year. This is why major donors have an enormous impact on your organization’s overall revenue and success. Their sizable gifts are what get your projects off the ground, so it’s important to prioritize them all year long, but also bear in mind that almost one-third of total annual giving happens in December.
In order to prioritize the right people, it’s imperative that you know who they are as people and where to find them. When donor insights are added to your existing donor records, you can pay special attention to their past philanthropic efforts and determine their capacity to give to your organization.
As mentioned, a large chunk of your annual giving happens at the end of the year. Your EOY fundraising initiative could very well be the most influential campaign you’ll launch this year. If you start early, you won’t have to scramble when your time and attention to the campaign become critical. Early winter is ideal for using your fundraising CRM to set goals, assign tasks, tidy up your database, and create donor segments.
► Related Resources:
How to Find and Engage Major Donors
End-of-Year Fundraising Dashboard
Start the year with a solid fundraising strategy already in place with DonorPerfect’s 2022 Fundraising Calendar to help you set actionable goals for improving your organization’s most key metrics – donor retention, conversion rate, return on investment, and cost per dollar raised.
