by Firefly Partners • 06.19.2018
As a growing nonprofit, your team surely understands the huge role that digital solutions can play in strengthening your operations, especially when it comes to boosting your fundraising efforts. You need a multi-pronged approach, but it can be hard to know where to start. We recommend assessing your needs first and then finding the right digital tools to achieve your goals. There are many strategies you can use to be more successful at fundraising, but here are five to get you started. Once you know what you need to do, you can investigate the right tools to make it happen.
Embrace Donor Data Insights
One major benefit of implementing fundraising software at your nonprofit is how these tools make it easier to learn from your donor data. Find a donor database software (like Salsa Labs) that completely integrates with your fundraising tools to ensure that your team never misses important insights about your community.
You can leverage effective donor data solutions to:
- Build robust donor profiles. When your donor database and fundraising software work hand-in-hand, you can automatically flow information from places like your fundraising forms, event registrations, and online donations into comprehensive donor profiles.
- Stay on top of giving trends. Not only can insightful donor data tools help you learn more about who your donors are, but they can tell you a lot about your community’s giving trends and preferences through fundraising analytics and reporting.
- Track meaningful metrics. Your nonprofit is unique, so it makes sense that you’ll have unique priorities when it comes to fundraising metrics. Choose a donor data platform that allows your team to customize the metrics you track so your data stays relevant.
Our takeaway: When your fundraising software is backed up with powerful data management tools, your nonprofit can start strengthening your fundraising strategy from the ground up. Find a robust data management platform that cleanly integrates with your fundraising tools.
Send Segmented Emails
Making connections with your nonprofit’s supporters is important, and one of your most effective resources for sustaining relationships is email. That being said, managing your email output can be really challenging, especially if your nonprofit is communicating with a wide variety of supporter segments.
Consider some of these ways your team can strengthen your email strategy with smart software:
- Create segmented templates. With the right tools, your team can build email templates for different segments and subscriber lists. Then, you can automatically input fields like supporter names and donor statuses to take the guesswork out of email engagement.
- Track segment trends. Different segments will interact with your email engagement differently, so learn from their trends. Track metrics like open rates and click-through rates to find out what interests your different supporters.
- Offer tailored giving opportunities. Once you learn from your segmented email trends, you can start offering unique giving opportunities to different email lists, including recurring gift subscriptions, peer-to-peer fundraising opportunities, or matching gifts.
Our takeaway: Email isn’t just a useful tool for connecting with supporters. With powerful email management software, you can learn from different segments and create smart fundraising strategies tailored just to them, so your efforts never go to waste.
Design Inspiring Donation Forms
Your nonprofit’s giving forms are the bread and butter of your fundraising software tools and one of the central factors that determine whether or not supporters complete gifts. If they arrive on a bland, uninspiring fundraising form, your organization risks losing out on their support. Luckily, though, smart online giving tools can make it easier than ever to create impressive fundraising forms for all of your campaigns.
With donation form design tools, your team can:
- Create branded forms. Customize your fundraising forms to match the brand of your organization by using your signature colors and logos. Include compelling imagery of your community and make sure your forms match the tone of your online presence.
- Make them mobile-responsive. There’s nothing worse for smartphone users than opening up an unoptimized fundraising form. Be sure your fundraising form design tools include mobile optimization so all of your supporters can easily give. Include inspiring calls-to-action.
- Instead of simply including a “Donate” or “Submit” button, choose a donation form solution that lets you customize your calls-to-action. Use powerful language and the 2nd person to capture donors’ attention.
Our takeaway: The more power your nonprofit has over how your donation forms appear, the more you’ll be able to perfectly tailor your forms to your supporter community. When your donation forms respond to your community’s unique needs, supporters will be more inspired than ever.
Promote Peer-To-Peer Fundraising
Directly donating through your fundraising forms shouldn’t be the only way supporters can help raise money for your cause. With peer-to-peer fundraising software, your nonprofit can empower supporters to fundraise on behalf of your organization and spread the word about your mission.
We love peer-to-peer fundraising technology because:
- It offers an affordable giving alternative. Not every member of your community has the capacity to give to each of your campaigns, but peer-to-peer fundraising offers supporters a meaningful way to make a difference for your cause that everyone can afford.
- It amplifies the profile of your organization. The more individuals who share your peer-to-peer fundraising pages, the larger your community will grow. Not only is peer-to-peer fundraising a tech-savvy fundraising strategy, but it’s also a great promotional tool.
- It promotes community connections. When your nonprofit enables team fundraising for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, supporters can get together to raise money for your cause. Or, you might encourage friendly fundraising competition among volunteer fundraisers.
Our takeaway: With so many different ways to implement peer-to-peer fundraising at your organization, there’s no reason not to invest in this effective fundraising software option. Give supporters the tools they need to fundraise their way and introduce your cause to new eyes. Looking to learn more ways to improve your peer-to-peer fundraising strategy? Check out Salsa’s guide to peer-to-peer fundraising strategies for a deep dive into this effective fundraising method.
Connect With Supporters on Social Media
Even the least text-savvy of nonprofit professionals understand that making connections on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be crucial to your fundraising success. Yet, many individuals are still unaware of the different software tools out there for nonprofits that can help make your social media engagement efforts more efficient.
For example, your team can use social media software tools to:
- Publish and schedule posts. Choose a software platform that empowers your team to write and schedule consistent posts across platforms from a single interface. This helps streamline your social media strategy and strengthen your voice online.
- Promote social media-friendly fundraising. Certain fundraising methods play better on social media channels than other. Be sure to promote methods like peer-to-peer fundraising that thrive on social channels, or mobile giving since most social media users access those sites via smartphone.
- Include social sharing tools. When supporters complete a donation form or register for an event, prompt them to share the form with a social media call-to-action button. Offer up a template for their post so all it takes is a few clicks to get the word out.
Our takeaway: If social media engagement isn’t a key part of your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy, you’re missing out. With smart social media software empowering your team, your organization can easily connect with key supporters on this powerful channel.
With such a wide variety of fundraising software available, some nonprofits struggle to understand which tools can really make a difference in their strategy. Now that we’ve reviewed these essential tech-savvy strategies, your organization can get started making fundraising software a core resource in your fundraising arsenal.
This blog post was written in partnership with Salsa Labs. Dan Quirk is the Marketing Manager at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits. Dan’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization, and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.
