Fundraising for nonprofits – How to run successful campaigns every time.

Fundraising is an extremely important activity for nonprofits. Funds are what make it possible for nonprofits to carry on with their good work and give shape to their campaigns. Therefore, it makes it imperative for nonprofits to put their best foot forward. But before starting your efforts it is important to have a well thought out strategy. The ideas below could be used to learn from and have a successful fundraising for nonprofits.

STEPS

1) Set the goal for your organization. One should be clear about what one is set out to achieve. Therefore, this has to be where one starts with their campaign. By clearly defining their goals and deciding on their targets. It would get much easier for one to proceed once they have a clear picture of where they are trying to reach.

2) Be sure about your budget. Once you have decided your goal, you need to calculate the amount of funds that would be needed to achieve it. Look at all the resources that your organization has at hand. The shortfall has to be raised from outside. Once you have a clear view of how much more money is required for your organization, you could devise your strategy to achieve it.

3) Share a great story. To motivate people to donate to your organization, you need to connect with them. And the best way to do that is by telling a great story. Data suggests that people relate better with stories rather than numbers. Once people feel passionately about your mission, the donations would just pour in.

4) Use Social Media. Using the Social Media to market your campaign would take your cause to a huge number of people spread across a large geographical area. Using the various communication channels that the different social media platforms offer would allow you to reach a wide range of audience.

5) Taking help from your volunteers and supporters. Ask all your volunteers and supporters to spread the word about your campaign. Craft persuasive messages for them to share on their individual social media platforms. That could connect you to a lot of new potential donors and supporters.

6) Use a donor management software. This would take care of a lot of activities like accounting, keeping a track on funds, generating various reports, etc. It would not only reduce your burden and make you more efficient but would also allow you the time to build better donor relationships. The data analytics feature that it offers could help you to study the donor preferences and target them better in terms of their needs.

7) Go for mobile giving options.  By adopting mobile giving, a nonprofit would allow its donors to give on the go, as per their preferences. The easier a nonprofit makes it for its donors to give, the more the amount of funds that it is set to receive. Not only that, it could have a huge impact on donor retention too.

Update: Bonus tips !

• Set your campaign goals.
• Decide on a concept.
• Go for demographic profiling of your target group.
• Decide on the budget, communication ideas and pick up the medium to promote your fundraising campaign keeping in mind the resources you have at your disposal.
• Test your campaign before you launch. Make sure the website links, account details, the date of the nonprofit fundraising event are correct, etc.
• Track campaign development and make necessary changes.