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Fundraising Tuesday: Improving Donor Affinity–3 Event Ideas for Nonprofits

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A guest post by Sarah Tedesco, DonorSearch

Donors contribute to your nonprofit because they are passionate about your cause. However, with so many worthy causes out there, you need to nurture each donor’s personal interests in your nonprofit in order to retain their support.

This natural interest in your cause or nonprofit is called donor affinity. Cultivating donor affinity is an effective way for your nonprofit to maintain engagement and ensure donors remain connected to your cause.

So how can you encourage donor affinity? One great way to ensure your donors continue to care about your organization is to host an event that sparks their passion. Here are our top three event ideas for improving donor affinity:

  1. Charity Auction
  2. 5K Run or Walk
  3. Educational Webinar

Each of these events will allow your organization to connect with donors and build a stronger community among your supporters. By growing your community and reminding donors of their impact, you can improve donor affinity and ensure that your supporters remain engaged. Let’s take a closer look at each of these events and how you can plan them successfully.

1. Charity Auction

Auctions are not only a great way to raise money for your nonprofit, but they’re also a very engaging event for your supporters. Auctions provide an opportunity for your donors to support a cause they care about while also purchasing something they truly love. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when planning your auction:

  • Determine what type of auction you’ll host early on. Before you dive into the details of planning your auction, you’ll need to determine what type of auction you’d like to host. Will it be a traditional or silent auction? In-person, virtual, or hybrid? Once you determine the type of auction you’ll host, you can adjust your planning and marketing strategy accordingly.

 

  • Connect with local businesses. Local businesses can have a huge impact on your local community and how involved they become with your work. Consider reaching out to local businesses to see if they’d be interested in donating items to your auction to demonstrate their support for your cause. Local businesses can also connect you with patrons of their establishments who might already have an interest in your cause.

 

  • Emphasize the impact of bids. To cultivate donor affinity, you need to demonstrate how your donors are making an impact. During the auction, be sure to emphasize how donations and bids will help your nonprofit achieve your goals, launch new initiatives, and forward your mission.

While an auction doesn’t explicitly draw on a donor’s natural interest in your nonprofit, there are plenty of opportunities to nurture donor affinity. Because auctions are such engaging events, your donors will likely already be paying close attention to the event, meaning it’s the perfect chance to share important information about your cause.

2. 5K Run or Walk

One reliable way to improve donor affinity is to build community. A strong community of supporters can motivate, inspire, and educate each other, and there’s no better event to build community than a 5K race. These races can gather many of your supporters together and rally everyone around your cause. When planning your 5K run or walk, you should:

  • Encourage teams. Teams are a great way to add some friendly competition while getting more supporters involved! For instance, if you have an active alumni network, encourage them to form their own teams and see which alumni groups can raise the most funds.

 

  • Share content about your nonprofit and mission. In the registration process, follow-up emails, and on the actual day, be sure that you’re reminding participants why they’re there: to support your nonprofit. Consider having beneficiaries of your nonprofit speak at the event and share their story to deepen the personal connection that your donors have to your cause.

 

  • Host a celebration at the end. When the 5K run or walk is over, host a big celebration with food, games, and a ceremony to celebrate your fastest runners and most effective peer-to-peer fundraisers. A celebration will ensure that your participants enjoy their time and associate your nonprofit with happy memories!

To help your event run as smoothly as possible, invest in nonprofit software that allows you to register participants, track their donations, and identify relationships between donors (such as members of the same family who joined the same team). With this information, you can identify opportunities to grow donor affinity even after the event is over.

3. Educational Webinar

In many instances, donor affinity can grow out of newfound awareness or education. Perhaps a potential donor had no idea about the cause that your nonprofit is supporting or they were recently affected by the issue you’re trying to address. They will turn to your nonprofit to provide answers to their questions and knowledge about the issue.

With the right approach, your nonprofit can make supporters care even more about the issue, improving donor affinity across the board. To raise awareness about your cause, host an educational webinar featuring informed speakers and representatives of your nonprofit.

To host a successful webinar, you should:

  • Discuss topics that are interesting to your donors. Each donor’s interest in your nonprofit likely grew out of different circumstances, but they probably want to learn more about similar topics. Design your webinar around certain topics that are the most interesting to your donors. And if you’re unsure which topics your donors might be interested in, don’t be afraid to ask!

 

  • Emphasize how your nonprofit has made a difference. While donors may be interested in your cause, they might not have a full understanding of how your nonprofit is making a difference. During your webinar, emphasize the difference that your nonprofit has made and how donations can help you further your impact.

 

  • Host a Q&A session. A great webinar likely prompts questions from your audience, so give attendees the chance to ask speakers their burning questions. Creating a dynamic and engaging conversation will also help donors feel like an integral part of your nonprofit’s dialogue.

Hosting an exclusive webinar is also a great way to nurture affinity among major donors. According to DonorSearch’s guide on major donor fundraising, creating events specifically targeted towards major donors can effectively deepen their engagement and encourage them to donate more. A webinar is the perfect way to combine education with your long-term fundraising strategy.

Cultivating donor affinity is crucial for any nonprofit. Not only can it help you better tailor your nonprofit’s marketing strategy, events, and programs, but it can also help you deepen each donor’s relationship with your nonprofit. Good luck!

Sarah TedescoSarah Tedesco is the Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction. She collaborates with other team members on a variety of issues including sales, marketing and product development ideas.

Fundraising Tuesday: Crowdfunding vs. Traditional Fundraising, A Quick Guide

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A guest post by Lomesh Shah, Fundly

Traditional fundraising activities like nonprofit events are well-known to many of us, but other forms of fundraising, like crowdfunding, may be less familiar.

Regardless of what kind of fundraising you’re used to, this quick guide will explain the benefits and drawbacks of traditional fundraising and crowdfunding campaigns. Thoroughly understanding both of these types of fundraising activities will ensure that you engage in the most effective strategies for your organization, whether you use only one type or a combination of both. Let’s dive in!

What Is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a typically online fundraising activity that relies on social sharing and many individual donations to meet fundraising goals. These campaigns usually consist of

  1. A main online campaign page that describes the fundraiser’s purpose,
  2. A donation button for donors
  3. A fundraising thermometer or a similar feature to visually track the fundraiser’s progress.

Individual donors can share the link to the page with their friends, primarily on social media, to spread the word. On the campaign page, donors make a one-time donation with their credit card. Usually, these donations can be anonymous or choose to have their name attached, and their information will not be added to your donor database.

According to Fundly’s crowdfunding statistics, most crowdfunding campaign donors are aged 24-35, so this is a great way to reach new and younger donors.

What are the benefits?

Crowdfunding is a great digital-first form of fundraising that any nonprofit can engage in. If you’re considering trying crowdfunding, consider some of these benefits: 

  • You can reach more first-time donors. Because this is entirely online and your supporters will be sharing it on their own personal social media pages, your exposure to new donors is much higher.
  • It has a very low cost. Many crowdfunding platforms, like Fundly, have very low platform fees that make it easy and affordable to start your crowdfunding campaign in just a few minutes.
  • It requires less planning than an event. In order to be successful, some planning will still be required. However, not having to plan an entire event to raise money can save you a lot of time.

What are the limitations?

Despite the many benefits, it’s also important to consider the potential limitations of crowdfunding: 

  • Individual donations are often small. The average individual donation is $66, which simply means you need to ensure you receive more individual donations than you might in a traditional fundraiser.
  • The platform you use is important. Picking the right crowdfunding website that is affordable, mobile-friendly, and has all the features you need can make or break your campaign. Do your research and offer a great user experience to your donors.
  • You will need your community’s help to spread the word. While you will do some marketing of your own, in order to be successful, your community members must spread your campaign far and wide on their own social media channels. After all, 12% of Facebook shares convert to donations!

What Is Traditional Fundraising?

Traditional fundraising involves many of the activities we associate with fundraising, such as silent auctions, bake sales, galas, and other fundraising events. These fundraisers used to be exclusively in-person, but now also take place in hybrid and even fully virtual formats.

While first-time attendees and donors are always welcomed and encouraged at these events, you are likely to see many more familiar faces of dedicated supporters. However, other types of traditional fundraising activities, like pledge fundraisers, can garner donations from many different people, while the actual participants are often still your existing supporters.

Traditional fundraising is a great way to engage your supporters and secure larger gifts or recurring donations while hosting an exciting fundraising event.

What are the benefits?

You’re likely more familiar with traditional fundraising, but you may not have considered all of the benefits that it brings, such as: 

  • Traditional events can reinforce donor loyalty. Seeing your donors in-person or even connecting during a hybrid or virtual event is a great way to grow their sense of community and dedication to your specific organization.
  • You can use prospect research to secure larger donations. When it comes to finding major donors, prospect research is the “perfect tool” according to Double the Donation. This can help you reach your fundraising goals, even with a smaller donor pool for a specific campaign.
  • You have more control over the marketing efforts. Unlike crowdfunding, you won’t have to rely on your supporters sharing your campaign for success. You’ll be able to use email marketing, direct mail, social media marketing, and more to reach all of your existing supporters and potential new donors.

What are the limitations?

While traditional fundraising has a longer track record, it still does come with some limitations that are important to consider: 

  • Events take much more planning. While events can be very impactful, they do take a lot more planning to be successful and ensure a great experience for everyone who attends. There are many more moving pieces to consider when planning an event.
  • The cost of an event is higher. In addition to more planning, you’ll also have to spend more to host an exciting event. Depending on how much you raise, the cost can be more than worth it, but this is a factor to consider when deciding on what kind of fundraiser to host.
  • You will likely reach fewer new donors. This does not mean that you won’t reach any new donors. It simply means that with traditional fundraising, your established supporters are often much more likely to participate.

Both types of fundraising can be very successful for your organization with the proper planning and preparation. Take your budget, staff, goals, and current donor base into consideration when deciding which fundraising activity will be best for you.

 

Lomesh Shah head shot for crowdfunding

Lomesh Shah has over 25 years of experience in international corporate leadership with a strong emphasis on marketing technology and data management systems. Lomesh has worked with small to mid-size businesses, privately-held companies and Fortune 500 corporations in various capacities; from sales and marketing to overseeing automation and re-engineering of processes and operations.

As CEO of Fundly, Lomesh spends much of his time immersed in the nonprofit industry both as an industry leader, speaker, and in service to several organizations as a board member and volunteer. Outside of the industry, Lomesh is a technology junkie and will give anyone willing to listen an assessment of the latest trends in anything from espresso makers and mobile gadgets to electric cars and wind power.

Troubleshooting Your Year-End Giving Challenges

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A guest post by Carl Diesling, DNL OmniMedia

The final three days of December are some of the most significant fundraising days of the entire year. But, when December comes around, will your nonprofit be looking back upon a successful year-end giving season or a series of challenges that prevented you from reaching your full fundraising potential?

Year-end giving in 2021 is rife with challenges both new and old, but that shouldn’t hold your organization back from funding your mission.

In this guide, we’ll cover two challenges that nonprofits are facing with the 2021 year-end giving season, as well as solutions to help your nonprofit confront them. For more tips, explore DNL OmniMedia’s guide to year-end giving.

Let’s get started.

Challenge: Balancing in-person, virtual, and hybrid events

Last year, in-person fundraising events were either pivoted to the virtual sphere or canceled outright as COVID-19 safety protocols prevented in-person gatherings beyond individual households. Now, with vaccinations widely available, in-person events are an option for your nonprofit once more.

While some thought the return of in-person events meant a return to normalcy, that has been far from the case. Instead, your nonprofit is facing a complicated year-end event atmosphere in which all of your supporters are seeking different experiences. For example, you’ll have groups that:

  • Feel safe returning to in-person events.
  • Feel unsafe and uncomfortable with the return to in-person events.
  • Enjoyed digital fundraising events and would like to continue with that format, regardless of safety concerns.
  • Are eager to return to in-person events as soon as possible.

Now, your nonprofit has to decide whether to host virtual, in-person, or hybrid events (or, a combination of all three). Only hosting one of the three puts you at risk of isolating a segment of your supporter base.

Solution: Create a strategy that incorporates a variety of event types to appeal to all supporters.

Incorporate virtual, in-person, and hybrid events into your year-end fundraising strategy to ensure you offer opportunities that appeal to all. Consider the following ideas for each event type:

  • Virtual Events: Livestream a comedy show, concert, or cooking course and raise funds through ticket sales.
  • In-Person Events: Host an outdoor walk-a-thon in which participants raise peer-to-peer funds in anticipation of their efforts during the event itself.
  • Hybrid Events: Host an in-person auction event and allow virtual participants to attend and place bids via virtual auction software.

Note that some of these events may require an investment into new virtual fundraising software solutions, such as livestreaming software, general virtual events software, or even event-specific software such as virtual auction software. You can also turn to your current event software to see if there is existing functionality to support new event types. For example, TeamRaiser, Blackbaud’s peer-to-peer solution, can be used to support virtual and hybrid events alongside in-person events.

Challenge: Decreased team capacity for intensive fundraising efforts

The year-end fundraising season represents the busiest time of the year for your nonprofit in all senses— you have more donations coming in, marketing communications that need to be shared, and events to host.

At the same time, nonprofits aren’t known for having an abundance of staff resources. You likely have a few team members who wear many hats, each of whom is responsible for crucial aspects of your fundraising effort. It can be challenging to cover the basic functions of your nonprofit, let alone try new efforts, like innovative new fundraising opportunities that can diversify your fundraising revenue and add stability to your mission overall.

The last thing you want is for your year-end fundraising campaign to stagnate due to limited staff capacity. However, it wouldn’t make sense to increase the size of your team permanently for the year-end season alone.

Solution: Partner with a nonprofit consulting firm to fill any gaps in your team’s capacity.

A nonprofit consultant can extend your team’s capacity during the year-end season, helping you maximize this valuable fundraising opportunity and optimize your strategy for the future. DNL OmniMedia’s guide to nonprofit consulting firms discusses a variety of consultant types that your organization can partner with for specific aspects of your strategy, such as:

  • Technology Consultants: This team can conduct a nonprofit technology assessment, help you choose new software solutions to invest in, implement any new solutions you purchase, and optimize your current technology to perform at its highest level.
  • Marketing Consultants: This team can develop branding materials and key messaging for your year-end campaign, design marketing materials, and analyze the success of your outreach efforts to continue improving them going forward.
  • Fundraising Consultants: This team can help you research prospective donors, develop fundraising goals and calendars to achieve them, and pursue innovative fundraising opportunities to diversify your revenue streams.

It’s important to find a consultant that not only specializes in the specific service you need but also in the type of organization you are. For example, DNL OmniMedia specializes in nonprofit technology consulting for mid-sized and large nonprofits. However, other consultants specialize in small and growing nonprofits as well.

The 2021 year-end fundraising season is rife with challenges new and old. However, these obstacles don’t need to hold your nonprofit back from reaching great heights in the year-end season. Whether investing in new fundraising software and diversifying your calendar or bringing in a new team member for the season, there are strategies to help your nonprofit troubleshoot your year-end giving challenges.

Carl Diesing DNLCarl Diesing, Managing Director – Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.

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