Do you have an effective donor strategy?
Do you have any donor strategy at all?
Recently, this blog posted an article explaining how much it costs to start a TV channel.
We often post articles informing entrepreneurs about the importance of finding donors to help you pay for your startup costs.
However, this blog post explains how to actually convince donors to invest.
You’ll have a hard time finding a nonprofit organization that doesn’t want to have more donors.
The only issue is that many of these organizations are headed by people who don’t have a good understanding of marketing.
Even if your organization’s main goal isn’t to make a profit, you still have to run it as you would a business, and that includes marketing it using the right methods and outlets.
By reading this post, you discover a four-step donor strategy that works.
Let’s take a look at a few simple ways that you could increase your donor base in 2022 with a powerful donor strategy.
Allow Donors to Pay Using a Wide Variety of Methods
You might come across people who want to give to your organization, but still don’t know it enough or trust it 100%. If you make it extra hard for them to donate on top of this and only offer options that require them to give lots of personal information, some of them will change their minds and give their money elsewhere.
This is why you need to allow people to pay using less intrusive and more convenient methods, such as Venmo, for instance. If you want to learn how to start accepting Venmo donations, you should check out Givebutter.
They explain the process of accepting Venmo donations step-by-step and explain why you should give donors this option. They also look at what differentiates Venmo from other payment solutions and recommend tools that will allow you to integrate Venmo payments more easily.
Sweeten the Deal
If you want to attract big donors, you have to give them incentives to give and keep giving. This is why you should find a way to honor big donors publicly, give them a valuable gift for their donations, or give them more access.
You can do that by enrolling them in a VIP program the minute they donate past a certain threshold. You could allow them to have access to special events or allow donors to see the effects of their efforts on the ground.
You could also look at ways that you could honor them in your facility. This is where things like donor bricks could help, but you could also set up a recognition wall for your biggest donors.
Editor’s Note:
I live near the Los Angeles Music Center. There are gold bricks on the wall with the names of the donors engraved. I know a donor who also received free premier parking for contributing to cultural events. Sweetening the deal is an effective donor strategy.
Have a Recurring Event
You cannot be a charity without holding some sort of local fundraising and brand awareness event once in a while. And, if you want to get the maximum impact, you should make the event annual and get as much local press coverage as you can.
Your goal should be to get new donors, but you have to show people a good time first and foremost. Concerts work, but so do food events, celebrity games, and contests.
Other types of events you could try include bingo or poker nights, book sales, carnivals, or fun runs and walkathons. So, look at what kind of event would work the best for your charity and the logistics before you start one.
Improve Your Website
If your website plays a major role in your fundraising efforts, you will have to test it and find ways to improve it. If you’ve never tested your home page or donor page, you need to check your site’s metrics immediately and see if there could be something wrong there.
Hopefully, you at least have Google Analytics set up on your website. If you don’t, then install it right away. You don’t need to invest in expensive analytics tools to understand your site’s traffic and how visitors behave when they get to your website. Google Analytics will be more than enough here.
You’ll be able to see things such as how many people bounce out of your website when they get to your homepage, which pages they visit and which ones they exit from, and how many people perform specific actions when they land on crucial pages.
If you notice that a lot of people leave your homepage immediately after landing, then it might need a revamp. The only way to know what works and doesn’t is by making small changes to your page and doing some A/B testing.
You can switch things like the color scheme around, as well as the navigation, pop-ups or pop-unders, or the complexity of donation or contact forms, among others.
Once you notice improvements after switching one element, you can move to other elements and see if you can make improvements there. After a while, these changes will add up and you’ll see a significant increase in the number of people you can retain and turn into donors.
Donor Strategy: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you create a donor strategy?
You predict what your would-be investors would like and give it to them in exchange for a donation. For instance, giving perks that your organization can provide would go a long way toward establishing the goodwill and rapport needed to be a donation recipient.
How do you approach donors for funding?
Have a donor-centered approach by considering what is best for the donor and offering it to them. For instance, have a varied means of payment and invite potential investors to events,
Wrapping Up: Donor Strategy
As a result of reading this post, you have an action plan for when you are trying to increase donors for your nonprofit.
If you have been struggling to find new donors lately, you should use some of the tips in this article.
Every charity is different, and some things will work better than others, but these tips will work for most charities, so try implementing some or all of them starting today.
Readers, please share so startups in need of investors discover these actionable strategies.
I look forward to your views in the comments section. Do you have any effective methods of getting investors to help fund your startup that should be added to a donor strategy?
This post was contributed and made possible by the support of our readers.
