I’m standing in line waiting to pay at the store, and I can hear the cashier asking each customer ahead of me, “Would you like to make a $2 donation?”
I’m not a huge fan of being asked to donate at checkouts.
Sure, it’s only a couple of dollars being asked—but sometimes, it just doesn’t sit well with me.
It doesn’t help that the brief interaction between the cashier and me feels forced. Plus, I’m always left wondering how much of my donation goes directly to the organization. A question that comes to mind often is, “Is the store taking a cut?”
What matters to me the most is knowing a bit more about how my donation will be used to make a difference. As a donor, transparency is key.
In order to increase the transparency of donations, your nonprofit or charity needs to elevate its online fundraising campaigns. This translates to setting up a designated fundraising page for each initiative, tracking donations along the way, and sharing where you are allocating this donation money—arguably the most important part.
We discuss 5 ways on how you can take kick your online fundraising campaigns up a notch:
Highlight the Impact of Donations
Donors want to know how their hard-earned money made an impact on the cause(s) they financially supported.
Think of donation giving as a full circle. Donors give money, then see the impact of their donation, and because this action makes them feel appreciated and valued, they oftentimes give more.
How can you highlight the impact of donations?
- Add a leaderboard to your donation page- What is the goal of your online fundraising campaign? And, how close are you to achieving this? As every donation comes in, this should update in real-time.
- Share stories- When someone donates, can you turn this into a storytelling opportunity? Think beyond numbers here. Share on your social networks and group fundraising page (if applicable) what initiative you will allocate these donation dollars toward.
- Reach out to local media- Is there a story so heartwarming that you want to share with a wider audience? Reach out to the local media companies in charge of newspapers and press releases to see if you can share a powerful giving story with the public.
Build a Personal Connection
There’s a saying that “your best customers are your current customers.” If someone buys from you once, it’s far more likely they’ll buy from you again. It takes far fewer resources (i.e., time and money) to appeal to past donors than it does to find and convince someone new.
Build personal connections with your network of donors. Beyond highlighting the impact of their donations, reach out to see if they have any suggestions on how your nonprofit or charity could grow. Is there a new initiative or program they want to see developed? Is there a new type of fundraising event they think you should tackle?
Make your donors active members of your cause, beyond utilizing their financial contributions.
Encourage Social Sharing
After someone donates, you should be encouraging them to easily share their act of kindness on social media.
Social is one of the most effective marketing channels, allowing you to significantly increase reach and spread the good word about your mission.
Sometimes, you need to provide a little incentive if you want to encourage your donors to share their acts of kindness. Organize a monthly giveaway where you reward one selected donor who shares their good deed on social media (can be randomly selected) with a small prize.
Own the Data
Consider this scenario: You are running a campaign to support a new initiative. You’re running some ads on social media, sending out emails, and directing people to your fundraising page.
Just one issue. Not all donation buttons are integrated.
In most cases, when donations are made through these types of add-ons, they aren’t given a receipt. You’d then need to retrieve those details and manually issue tax receipts for each donation. It doesn’t sound like much fun to me.
Having donor details is critical to maximizing your ability to convert monthly contributors. There are still major third-party tools and fundraising platforms in wide use that don’t even share any data with you.
Finding a platform where you can execute your fundraising campaigns and have first-hand access to all your donor data is critical.
Customize Your Donation Form
You want to maximize conversions—both the number of donations made and the amount made.
Customize your donation form with your own branding: logos, colour, and slogan. Everything that you would put on a paid ad should go on your custom donation form.
When a donation form is customized, brand recognition will increase. You don’t want donors to just remember the name of your charity. You want them to remember all of the unique elements of your online fundraising campaigns and associate your cause with those features.
Remember what we talked about in the beginning? Setting us a fundraising page for each initiative, tracking all of your donations along the way (enter the donation leaderboard), and sharing where you are allocating this donation money towards.
This can all be done within Kambeo’s powerful fundraising platform.
