How To Increase Online Donations In 5 Easy Steps

Gone are the days of simply sending a postcard or making a phone call to acquire donations for your organization. In today’s increasingly tech-based economy, it is crucial to embrace online giving as a primary way of collecting donations. Not only is technology fueling the world we know today, but by accepting online donations, your fundraising is accessible. It can become a state-wide, national, and even global fundraiser. The best part about online giving is that it is extremely simple to implement with the right tools. So, let’s lay the foundation to increase your online donations with these five easy steps.

One: Understand Your Donors

The best first step in online donor acquisition and online fundraising is getting to know your donors. And it all begins with a little research, well, a lot of research. Let’s face it. Your organization needs to understand your donors’ demographic details, financial signals, affinities, and interests. Then, you can garner great results from your fundraising efforts. The good news is that there are companies to do all this work for you by delivering donor details you never knew were possible. 

You might be asking yourself, but why is all that information important? Surely I know everything there is to know about my donors, right? It’s true. You have a plethora of detailed information about your donors. But it’s impossible to know each one on a personal level. Knowing just what makes them tick will guide your outreach. It will land you amongst the donors who genuinely care about your cause. They say knowledge is power. In this case, it’s power that will help your organization reach new levels of donor retention and acquisition. 

One of the million dollar questions, quite literally, is, “how do I know the appropriate ask amount for my donors?” Sure, you can base it on their past donations. But what if you could formulate a plan to ask for more, and they delivered? By knowing more about your donors, you could end up like one of our clients who received a $20,000 donation from a donor who had regularly made $100 donations. If they had remained under the assumption that this donor only wanted to give $100 per year, they would have missed out on a huge opportunity to make a difference for their cause. They partnered the power of AI with their donor data to determine that this donor had characteristics that matched those who had donated at much higher levels. Therefore, it allowed them to approach the individual with a higher ask amount and experience astounding results. 

However, it’s not just about the “ask.” Yes, that is important. But how you approach your donors is just as important as the question you ask them. Knowing how to reach them, what messaging would appeal to them, and when is key to a successful campaign. One message and one mode of delivery will not fit each of your donors’ needs. Segmenting them into groups of individuals with similar qualities is key to ensuring successful delivery and receipt of your message for optimal engagement. 

Two: Get A Pool of Ideal Prospects

Ok, so now you know your donors, what is next? Well, why not try to find more people like them? You already know all the traits of what a great donor looks like based on the exercises you did in step one. Now it’s time to expand your reach using affinity-driven donor prospecting. This will enable you to focus solely on your target audience rather than spending time and effort casting a wide net and hoping that something resonates with someone. Not only does this give you confidence in your outreach when looking to engage new prospects, but in the end, this will save you time, money and reduce wasted effort for the long haul. 

You can start by looking within your network or purchasing prospecting lists with individuals with similar qualities to those already committed to your cause. At first, this might seem like a daunting task. However, getting your feet wet will make you find your groove and become a powered-up prospect detector in no time. If you ever get overwhelmed, there are organizations that specialize in this work and can find your best donor lookalikes in no time. 

Three: Utilize Digital Advertising

Once you have your target audience, it’s time to decide how you want to reach them. Great tried and true ways such as direct mail, calling, or texting have become staples for nonprofit outreach. But with electronic devices becoming the focal point of every eyeball these days, fundraisers would greatly benefit from dedicating themselves to digital advertising. 

Non-profits should use platforms like DialMyCalls to leverage texting for donations due to its immediacy and directness, which foster real-time engagement and a sense of urgency with donors. The convenience of texting also broadens donor accessibility, facilitating easier and potentially more frequent contributions.

There are various types of digital advertising available. Something tells me that the list will keep growing over the next several years. Top digital advertising methods are banner ads, video ads, social media ads, and over-the-top ads (or streaming ads). Each one will help get your message in front of your target audience easily and efficiently. When you use an omnichannel approach to marketing your organization, you are far more likely to garner greater support through your online donation page. 

How would this omnichannel marketing strategy look exactly? Try delivering advertisements to your prospects and donors using multiple channels throughout their donation cycle. This will keep your organization in their mind for the giving season or a time when they are ready and able to give. It will also aid in meeting your audience where they are to improve their overall experience with your organization. Creating these more personalized touch points over time will attract more donations and enhance your donors’ lifetime value. Ultimately, it gives you a better return on your investment. 

Four: Create Effective Messaging and Eye-Catching Creative

Your messaging and creative is one of the most critical parts of the equation. When beginning the process of producing these for each of your different ad placements, it is important to consider the following: 

1. The interests of my target audience
2. The story that will resonate
3. The creative sizes needed 
4. The length of video desired (if video ad) 
5. The donation page the audience is sent to (this is covered in step 5 below)

Your work in steps one and two is now ready to pay off. With the detailed interest, affinity, financial signals, and demographic details, you will be able to know who you are looking to reach with your messaging and creative. For example, if you are a nonprofit whose mission is to educate children in arts and sciences, you may find your supporters interested in museums. The audience’s average age is 45-60, and they have an average household income of $60,000. This would help you determine the type of imagery, the ask, and the message you put in front of them on the various channels you are using.  

Regarding the creative you deliver, there are some overarching rules you should follow. One, make the graphic simple and clean. While simple, still ensures that the image is relevant and will pop in a sea of ads to attract your donors’ attention. Two, pay attention to the details. What do you want the outcome to be? Deliver a clear and concise story to your viewers that make them want to take the next step. Three, ensure there is a clear call to action. Whether that’s “Donate Now”, “Learn More”, or another relevant next step, make sure that it is prominent on the ad. Lastly, ensure that your ads are in the appropriate format, size, and length (for video) for the shared platform.

When you have all these parts set up, you are on track to increasing your online donations and awareness for your cause. To further prove the importance of knowing your donors, creating a multi-channel marketing strategy, and crafting a compelling advertisement, one of our clients has seen some amazing results using this method for elevated online giving. They raised $34,970 in donations from 55 new donors through a $2,750, three-week campaign. That’s a 12X return on their investment! These were terrific results, and their conversion rate was 88.7% on their digital ads – well above the industry average.

 

Five: Set Up a Donation Page That Converts

Your donation page is the face of your organization and has the final say before a completed donation. So, set up a strong donation portal. As you begin to lay out your giving page, consider the following advice: 

1. Tell a compelling story
2. Keep the page clean and simple
3. Use imagery that makes the viewer “feel”
4. Donation form is prominent
5. Offer multiple gift amounts 
6. Offer a recurring donation option

 

As you go down this list of advice, remember always to keep your donors’ interests and needs in mind. For example, if your donors have an average giving capacity of $300, you should not suggest $10, $15, and $20 as your gift options. That would be selling yourself short and limiting the support you will ultimately receive. But on the opposite end of the spectrum,  offering $500, $750, and $1,000 would turn them away from giving completely.

Always remember that your donors need to be able to quickly and easily donate with as little friction as possible. Grab their attention and hold on! Deliver a compelling story that makes people feel a need and desire to support your cause. Once you have their attention, ensure their eyes are where you want them to act – your donation form.

One way to increase your average online donation amount is to make a “middle of the road” ask amount stand out. This will encourage people to give just a little more before donating. I.e., They planned on giving $20 to your cause, but you had the next highest option of $40 highlighted as “most frequently given.” This would aid in persuading them to give just a little more. Therefore, you may double their intended initial gift. Before they leave your donation page, you should always ask if they would like to make their gift a recurring one. This will help increase the overall lifetime value of your donors by helping your organization retain them from the first donation. It will save you the time and effort of asking for another donation in the future. 

Now, The Real Fun Begins

Once you have all these steps in place, you are ready to launch your campaign and reap the rewards of your labor. Watch those donations come rolling in! But remember, don’t get sidetracked by the shiny penny. Begin tracking your outcomes as your campaign runs. By the end of the campaign, you will have the data you need to refine your messaging, engage your new donors, and deliver an even better experience with each campaign going forward. 

As you begin these steps, there are people who can help you increase your online donations with great ease. boodleAI’s giving pages put all of the above steps into one easy-to-use platform. It helps you set up the donation page you need to get the donors you want. It delivers the insights, prospects, and reporting you can use to create digital ads that will ramp up your online giving for good. So check it out by scheduling a demo to explore your organization’s needs and start on the right path to amplified online giving. 

6 Easy Steps to Boost Donor Acquisition

 

If you have been in the fundraising arena for any amount of time, then you know that donor acquisition is the topic that keeps nonprofit professionals up at night. The fact is only 20% of first-time donors become recurring donors. This leads to database decay if you don’t have a constant stream of new donors to fill those gaps. But how are fundraisers supposed to keep bringing in new donors and keep their database fresh? How can you effectively put your mission in front of those people who are most likely to become a donor and, fingers crossed, donate again? And better yet, how do you and your organization keep your costs at a minimum while maximizing your donations?

There’s a certain comfort in doing things as they have always been. You can’t deny that. But, the problem is that the old ways simply aren’t working as well as they could be. While charitable giving has gone up since the pandemic’s beginning, organizations are not retaining these new donors. They are losing money because of it. According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, acquiring a new donor costs $1.25 just to raise $1. Meanwhile, the typical cost to raise the same amount from a current donor is just .20 cents! So it’s time to look at donor acquisition and donor retention through a new lens in the hope of more effective and efficient fundraising.

 

Donor Acquisition Outreach Methods

 

The nonprofit fundraiser always had go-to tools in their outreach toolbox. Those main tools are often advertising, events, phone solicitation, and word of mouth. While these are all considered effective outreach methods, they could all be doing just a bit more in terms of acquisition. Let’s take a look at each of these. Then, we can explore ways to aid your mission in achieving higher donor acquisition and donation levels, all while elevating donor retention. 

Let’s start with advertising. This is a highly sought-after way of getting your message out into the world. However, it can be ineffective and extremely costly. Most advertisements are delivered to the masses in hopes that maybe, just maybe, the message will resonate with someone. No matter what, everyone gets the same information in the same way. The problem with this method is that people are different. Not everyone belongs to your specific target audience. Putting your advertising in front of someone who doesn’t align with your mission wastes time and money. This is because they have a very low chance of converting to a donation.

Fundraising events are also a staple of the fundraising guru’s donor acquisition toolbox. Every large nonprofit has its big events that are considered essential to yearly fundraising. However, it is vital to take a closer look at the actual profitability of these events. The truth is they historically aren’t very profitable. The high costs of planning and executing these events can take a huge bite out of the funds raised. Although it’s nice to see that you raised $50,000 during an event for your nonprofit, it is also imperative to understand your event’s true ROI. No one wants to talk about the $25,000 used on the event space, food, valet, entertainment, and the time your staff spent planning and executing these events. Some might even respond, “But we are raising awareness for our mission!” However, there are other ways to raise awareness without using a big chunk of your fundraising budget. There are even ways to yield a greater ROI for those staple events you host yearly.

Different Methods

Phone solicitation is yet another outreach method often utilized by nonprofit professionals. And it makes sense. It’s a low-cost way of getting your message in the hands –  or ears – of potential donors. Does it work, though? When was the last time you answered a call from an unknown phone number? With the advent of phone scams and the ability to block unwanted calls, phone solicitation took a hit in the commercial and nonprofit sectors. The ROI just isn’t there unless you really get lucky. 

The last tool in our fundraising toolbox is word of mouth. This always seems like a tried and true method because we trust our friends and colleagues to steer us in the right direction regarding where we want to spend our money, whether a planned donation or a large purchase. However, it often takes significant time and effort to spread your message. Honestly, there are only so many people you can reach this way. It’s not necessarily a tactic to eliminate, but nonprofits cannot rely on word of mouth alone to make a difference in their fundraising efforts. 

It might be disheartening to hear that many tools in your fundraising toolbox aren’t quite what they used to be.

So how can you supercharge your outreach while decreasing the time and effort it takes to reach fundraising nirvana? Here are six easy steps to help you boost your donor acquisition.

 

Step 1: Define Your Goals

 

You should always begin with the end in mind. Set an actual goal and make it measurable. Much like the KPIs you might set for your staff, you should set KPIs for your fundraising goals. For example, you can set goals for donor retention, average donor growth, and rate of donation growth. Meeting your fundraising goals and working toward your nonprofit mission becomes much more attainable by beginning with the end in mind.

 

Step 2: Find Prospects Who Care

To meet your fundraising goals, your organization needs to find prospective donors that care about your mission. Often, development and fundraising teams dedicate their time to prospect research to accomplish this task. They look into information like demographics, wealth, and past nonprofit work to determine who could be interested in giving to their organization. The truth is, this is a time-consuming process. It is often far more costly than anyone wants to admit. This is where you might want to look into purchasing or renting donor prospect lists from list buying services that are privacy compliant and can deliver affinity-driven donor prospects. By doing this, you can hopefully find many more prospective donors who have an affinity for your cause. In turn, you can convert them into lifetime donors. 

 

Step 3: Get to Know Your Prospective Donors

 

Once you have created a list of people you know will be interested in giving to your cause, you should dive deeper into understanding what will speak to them. Whether you are planning an annual gala, a direct mail campaign, or another outreach method, this is key to sending the right message to the right person and ultimately winning over that prospect’s heart – and gift. 

We aren’t just talking about intent or demographic details either. None of that shows affinity or immediate action potential. You need to get down to the nitty-gritty of who these people are. You should define characteristics such as preferred contact method, interests, and giving potential. Knowing more about your prospects will put you in the driver’s seat and make your campaign much more successful.

 

Step 4: Plan Your Asks and Segment

All prospective donors are not alike. Some can give a single high-value gift, while others can give more frequently in smaller amounts. So it becomes imperative that you know the appropriate amount for each individual to achieve the best results.  

The best way to prepare for the big ASK is by segmenting your list of prospective donors. In doing so, you can define the unique message received by each prospect to ensure that it resonates and yields a greater return. Doing this ensures that you reach them how they are most likely to consume your message and act. It may be direct mail, a phone call, social media advertising, or another preferred method. 

 

Step 5: Perform Targeted Outreach

 

Once you have your ready-to-give donor prospects segmented, you need to consider how you will perform your outreach. The good thing is that there are far more options available now than there have been in the past. Gone are the days of “spray and pray” marketing tactics. More targeted advertising methods are available for nonprofit fundraisers to reach their donor prospects and surpass their fundraising goals. This can include direct mail, social media, and digital ad placement. With this kind of advertising, you can be intentional about the viewing audience and share your mission with those most likely to donate. Even better, you can choose where your audience sees these ads. Social media, banner ads on websites, and even advertising on streaming services, such as Netflix, are new options to update your donor acquisition toolbox. 

 

Step 6: Track Outcomes and Measure Success

 

Last but certainly not least, track the outcomes of each campaign so you can truly measure success. Remember those goals we talked about a few minutes ago? This is where you determine if you’ve reached them. Or maybe you found that you haven’t contacted them effectively, and it is time to improve your message. 

This can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as complex as hiring a service to get real-time conversion data from your campaign. Either way, measuring your campaign results and knowing the fruits of your labor are of utmost importance. You will begin to understand what worked and what didn’t in the campaign. From there, it will allow you to make conscious changes and improve outcomes over time. 

While these steps may take some time to implement, remember that each little move counts. Make one or two simple changes to your campaign strategy at a time, and before you know it, you will be attracting new mission supporters destined to last.

 

This spotlighted blog is courtesy of our friends, boodleAI.