6 Year-Round Fundraising Ideas to Drive You to Success

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6 Year-Round Fundraising Ideas to Drive You to Success

Your organization’s most recent fundraising campaign may have ended, but that doesn’t mean that your efforts to motivate your donors need to slow down! Your fundraising can be successful all year long if you provide your donors with reminders of the good work you do and easy ways to support its continuation.

Ready to revitalize your strategy for successful fundraising all year long? In this post, we’ll show you how to: 

  1. Use text-to-give to make donating convenient.
  2. Refresh your online donation page.
  3. Update your social media presence.
  4. Host a fun community event.
  5. Understand your donors better using prospect research.

Organizations of all types and sizes can implement these ideas at any time to build stronger relationships with donors and encourage new supporters to contribute. If you’re ready to see increased success meeting your fundraising goals this year, let’s get started!

1. Use text-to-give to make donating convenient.

Your donors already spend a significant amount of time on their mobile phones each day, and mobile giving has increased dramatically over the past few years. Meet your donors where they are with text-to-give service, one of the quickest and easiest donation methods out there! 

While text-to-give ties in well with community fundraising events and certain social media platforms, you can offer this option to your donors year-round. To get started, your organization will select fundraising software that offers text-to-give service. Once you have it set up and ready for your donors to use, the simple process is as follows:

Step 1: Your text-to-give service provider assigns your organization a unique text-to-give number. You can share this number with your supporters at fundraising events, through an email update, or on your favorite social media platforms.

Social Media Tip: If your organization has an Instagram presence, share a photo of a sample text that shows your organization’s text-to-give number and illustrates the donation process. Your followers will see just how easy it is to donate this way!

Step 2: Your supporters will receive a confirmation text with a link. They will simply click on it and select their preferred donation amount. First-time donors will need to fill out a short donation form with their payment information. Repeat donors just click “donate.”

Step 3: Clicking on “donate” in the text message will open a pre-written email that confirms the transaction.

Text-to-give service is valuable for its accessibility and simplicity—your donors won’t get bogged down in unnecessary information and abandon the process before completing their donations. On your website, however, you’ll want to provide your donors with more detailed information on the work your organization does to illustrate your need for their essential contributions.

2. Refresh your online donation page.

With several online donation tools now available to make the process seamless for both you and your supporters, it’s easy to see why your website and online donation page are popular giving locations.

The ideal online donation page is designed to build trust in your organization and facilitate the giving process. Whether you’re updating your website’s donation page or creating a new one, here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • Your donation page should look like the rest of your website.The form should look just like a page on your website, featuring your organization’s name and logo as well as its familiar color scheme and any other characteristic branding elements.
  • Make it easy for donors to create accounts. Offer them the option of saving their credit card information for future giving so that they can complete their donations using two-tap technology. Saving information encourages future giving by making the process faster for donors.

Bonus Tip! Offer preset donation amounts to save donors time and minimize indecision and uncertainty, but don’t forget a custom amount option for those who have made up their minds already.  

  • Don’t forget to thank your donors! Online donation provides the opportunity for instant thanks, which donors value. Personalize their thank-you with their preferred name and the amount they gave. 

Now that your online donation page is updated and easy to use, encourage more donors to give online by linking to the page on social media. You’ll attract new donors and engage your current supporters when you take advantage of these popular platforms.

3. Update your social media presence.

While social media is popularly associated with the millennial generation, almost everyone has a profile or two these days. Meet your donors where they are by updating and expanding your social media presence to illustrate the great work your organization does and encourage online donation all year round.

Diversifying your approach is a key component of a strong social media strategy. Because each of the popular platforms excels at a different form of sharing, it would be ideal for your organization to have a presence on each of the sites your donors frequent.

For a more focused social media strategy, use donor data to identify the sites your supporters use the most and those that best suit your organization’s strengths. If your organization tends to attract younger donors, for instance, consider an Instagram account. 

Social media sites are excellent places to share updates on your organization’s latest projects, introduce members of your team and volunteers to your followers, and offer personalized thanks to your supporters. Take advantage of these sites’ multimedia capabilities by sharing photos and videos in addition to text posts. 

All of your social media profiles should feature prominent links to your donation form, as should some of your posts. Additionally, ensure that your website contains links to your social media profiles so that donors can follow your organization to stay updated on your progress. 

4. Host a fun community event.

Fundraising events connect your organization’s work to the interests of your specific community and allow your team to get to know the members of your community. At your event, you’ll get to know new supporters and strengthen relationships with current donors. You’ll also be able to teach attendees more about the work your organization does on a daily basis.

Attendees of your event will associate your organization’s name and brand with the fun time they had, encouraging them to continue their involvement with you and your cause. 

Your attendees will likely donate to your organization as part of their registration for your event, but the giving doesn’t have to stop then! Events present the perfect opportunity for text-to-give donations. You can even combine event management and mobile giving capabilities in time for your next event. 

5. Understand your donors better using prospect research.

Prospect research is the process of gathering information on your current and potential donors to develop stronger outreaches with the goal of initiating or increasing their donations. Prospect research allows you to tailor your approaches toward different groups of donors, increasing the success rate of your asks.

Your team can conduct prospect research on your own, use software to obtain more results and manage your data more easily, or hire a consultant to bring professional experience to the process.

However you choose to conduct prospect research, you’ll collect donor data that falls into two broad categories: wealth markers and philanthropic indicators. Wealth markers measure a potential donor’s capacity to give, while philanthropic indicators evaluate their likelihood of doing so. 

Wealth markers include:

  • Real estate ownership
  • Stock holdings
  • Career and business affiliations
  • Political giving history

Philanthropic indicators include:

  • Past giving to nonprofits, including yours
  • Other involvement with nonprofits, such as volunteering
  • Activities, hobbies, and interests

Your organization can use prospect research data to reevaluate your approaches toward your current donors and identify new contributors who would likely appreciate the work your organization does. Prospect research provides insight into your donors that will positively impact your fundraising efforts at any time of the year.


Your organization’s fundraising efforts don’t begin and end with a single campaign, no matter how successful. To continue and expand the good work that you do, you need to find new donors and increase your current contributors’ support throughout the year. With these strategies to make donating easier and more enjoyable, you’re sure to succeed.

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