How Supporters Can Personalize Your Nonprofit’s Fundraiser
Galas, auctions, fun runs… any nonprofit that hosts frequent fundraisers sometimes feels they’ve exhausted all their fundraising options. How can nonprofits revitalize their fundraising ideas?
Encourage creativity with a fundraiser your supporters can personalize. Since fundraisers are about gaining support, it only makes sense that you’d consider what your contributors want out of a fundraising campaign. We’ll look at four ways to let your supporters personalize their experience with your fundraiser:
Peer-to-peer campaigns
Custom pledge campaigns
Follow up
Feedback
Whether you’re following a step-by-step fundraising plan or coming up with your own ideas, your supporters are at the heart of every campaign. Their preferences should be your top consideration, and incorporating their unique input can make any fundraiser successful.
Peer-to-peer campaigns
Peer-to-peer fundraisers allow supporters to create their own donation pages for your campaign or event, which they can share on their social media platforms. There are several ways they can personalize these pages:
Storytelling: Your supporters can incorporate their personal experiences with your nonprofit or its cause. For example, maybe they’re personally affected by your cause and believe your organization can make a change.
Social media posts: Supporters can share their donation pages in social media posts, where they can get even more creative. For example, they might post pictures of their previous volunteer work with your organization and give insight into the work your nonprofit does.
Peer-to-peer experiences are efficient ways to get supporters’ social circles involved in your cause. If you’ve struggled to reach new audiences, encourage your supporters to reach out to their family members and friends. For example, an elementary school might ask students and their parents to donate to its fundraiser. Then, those parents can reach out to friends and extended family members that the school otherwise wouldn’t have contacted.
When existing supporters personalize their message and advocate for your organization, the campaign will be more meaningful to their friends and family members who see it. This is called social proof, and it increases the likelihood that your supporters’ contacts will decide to get involved.
2. Custom pledge campaigns
In custom pledge campaigns, supporters commit to a donation that they’ll make in the future based on the outcome of an event. Not only does this give donors the ability to customize the amount they give, but it also allows participants to promote the campaign and take ownership of the fundraiser’s results.
A popular way to raise pledges for your organization is through contests, where donors pledge money for certain competitors. You can also host a-thon events, like walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, dance-a-thons, or other events where donors give money based on the activity.
For example, a read-a-thon is a school fundraising idea where students receive pledges from family members or friends in exchange for reading a certain number of pages, books, or hours. This gives students some control over the fundraising process and helps them feel more responsible for the outcome of your fundraiser.
The delayed payment model of a pledge campaign makes it easier for donors to give more. Plus, this can strengthen your nonprofit’s community since donors might feel like they’re directly supporting participants.
3. Fundraiser follow up
According to Double the Donation, “only 14% of nonprofits prompt donors to make their donation a recurring gift during the donation process.” Even if you don’t ask for recurring gifts specifically, follow-up after a fundraiser is a huge opportunity to further engage supporters.
The key is offering several options in the follow-up so that supporters can further personalize their engagement with your organization. End your campaigns with potential next steps to keep your audience engaged. For example, you might send messages about:
Volunteer opportunities: Immediately following a fundraising event, let your previous volunteers and other supporters know about future opportunities to be involved.
Upcoming events: Let supporters know about future events so they can go ahead and mark their calendars.
Other project updates: If your donor contributed to a specific project that your nonprofit has been working on, let them know what else you’re working on and provide specific information about how they can help.
When you provide a wide variety of ways to continue involvement, your supporters can decide how they’d like to continue their relationship with your nonprofit. For example, a supporter might sign up for a volunteer opportunity and donate to another project after receiving your follow-up message. You can use a variety of platforms to spread the word:
Direct mail: Handwritten letters or cards show that you put a lot of effort into communicating with your supporters.
Email newsletter: Organize information about other involvement opportunities into an email newsletter for an eye-catching summary of important details.
Social media: You might show your appreciation for supporters by including volunteer work highlights or other contributions in your social media strategy. Take this a step further by sending them a direct message that explains their different options for continued involvement.
Text: Reach out to your supporters via text for their convenience. Just be sure to link to your website or social media page for more details about involvement opportunities.
Donor involvement can be a customizable experience for any fundraising strategy when a nonprofit offers options in its follow-up. No matter what medium you use to reach out to the supporter, ultimately direct them back to your website. This is where they can find all the information they’ll need about different ways to give and the varying needs of your organization.
4. Feedback
The most straightforward way to get more information about what your supporters want in a fundraiser is by asking them!
According to Read-a-thon, when trying to choose a fundraiser for your organization, it’s important to ask what incentives there are for people to participate. After all, if you don’t know what motivates your supporters, how will you know what campaigns and events to host that will maximize results?
Send a survey that asks supporters for their opinions on previous fundraisers, future fundraising ideas, or anything else about your nonprofit’s work. For example, your survey might ask the following questions:
Would you rather attend an in-person or online event?
How important is it to you that you connect with other people at fundraising events?
What is your favorite campaign that our nonprofit has hosted?
Is there a particular fundraising event you’d like for us to host this year?
Think about soliciting feedback as the flipside of prospect research. You’re not looking to find out who might donate by searching through your own records and public sources, but how they’d like to contribute by directly asking them what they think. Keep this information organized to ensure it serves its purpose. Ideally, you should record survey responses in your CRM and associate them with individual supporters’ profiles.
As you consider ways to make your fundraisers more flexible, be sure to organize your donor research and any information you gain from connections with your supporters. After all, your work wouldn’t be possible without their help. It’s important to keep their preferences, priorities, and convenience in mind when you provide fundraising options.