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Fundraising Tuesday: Diversify Your Fundraising

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A guest post by Carey Aron, Fun Pasta Fundraising

No matter what the endeavor, it’s never a good idea to have “all of your eggs in one basket.” When it comes to fundraising for nonprofit organizations, multiple avenues for generating revenue means less risk of interruptions in the donation stream. The global pandemic certainly exposed the importance of a diverse fundraising portfolio.

When you make an effort to diversify, peace of mind is just one of several important benefits:

BENEFITS OF DIVERSE REVENUE STREAMS

  • You’ll broaden your supporter base
  • You’ll boost and protect revenues
  • You’ll mitigate unexpected risks to your dollars

GIVE SOMETHING, GET SOMETHING

An interesting and rewarding way to supplement your fundraising is to connect with supporters by running a product fundraiser. Generous people love to give but getting a little something in return is an added treat!

Here are some clever ideas for “product fundraisers”:

  1. Food: small-budget items that can generate significant dollars; fun pasta, pizza kits, candy, or frozen foods
  2. Outdoor Greenery: the perfect “homegrown” community fundraiser; flower bulbs or Christmas trees – every house needs both!
  3. Home Accessories: great for meaningful gifts or inspirational décor; you can sell candles, kitchen gadgets, home accessories and other items for the household

Product fundraisers are a great way to get your creative juices flowing! Nowadays most product companies offer online ordering and home delivery, so distribution is simple and hassle free.  If you need a dose of inspiration, here is the story of a young man who thought inside the box to create a successful pizza fundraiser during the pandemic.

 

CONNECTING WITH UNTAPPED SUPPORTERS

Upscale annual fundraising events are an effective way to attract deep-pocketed supporters, but unique product fundraisers offer an affordable option for countless untapped donors at every level.

A wide variety of products can be offered throughout the year. (Some items can be tied to the holidays; others will entice participants no matter when they are presented.) What a great way to develop a year-round connection with people through products!

  • Reach new supporters with low price-point affordable offerings
  • Create an opportunity to have fun and interact with supporters
  • Give supporters a way to secure a gift for themselves or to those they love

GENERATE EXPOSURE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Consider this: No one is going to post a photo of a check they’ve written to a nonprofit on their social media platforms. But, they may very likely show off a fun product they received through your fundraiser!

Let’s revisit the ideas presented earlier and imagine the social media possibilities:

  1. Food: lots of posts featuring kids eating fun pasta or colorful lollipop “bouquets” and cute snaps of adults enjoying a childhood treat for a good cause
  2. Outdoor Greenery: your supporters can share photos of their new bulbs on Instagram and follow up with each other about their plants’ progress
  3. Home Accessories: neighbors alert each other on Facebook about where to buy cute candles for friends and family

 In our own fundraising business, we find that fun, unique products spark positive conversations not only on social media but also at the dinner table. Talk about a rewarding combination! We are honored to not only help organizations generate donations, but to also strengthen family and community relationships.

Whatever your nonprofit’s fundraising approach has been in the past, take a minute and review these possibilities.  This year, like no other before, is a time to consider diversifying!

Carey AronCarey Aron is President of The Pasta Shoppe & the Fun Pasta Fundraising team.  For more than two decades, they have been creating innovative, healthy, fun pasta for families!  Fun Pasta offers a unique, online, and contact free product fundraising program for groups of all sizes.

When not in the kitchen whipping up a pasta recipe, Carey can usually be found hiking in local parks, ripping recipes out of food magazines, or binge-watching Netflix with her husband and 8-pound Maltipoo.

 

What Bernie Sanders Can Teach Nonprofits about Fundraising

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Bernie SandersWhat do you think of Bernie Sanders’ surprising presidential campaign? Whether you “feel the Bern” or not, your nonprofit organization can learn seven lessons from his fundraising–and use them in your own appeals.

The Sanders campaign sent me an email on Wednesday, October 14, the morning after the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

Lesson 1: be timely. Ask for support when you and your issues are on people’s minds.

The subject of the email was “We are off and running.” What a positive tone! Who wouldn’t want to be part of a campaign that was already “off and running”?

Lesson 2: be positive. People want to give to success.

The salutation of the message said “Dennis.”

Lesson 3: call your supporters by name. If it said, “Dear friend,” I probably would have deleted it then and there.

The first sentence of the email said, “I want to talk with you about last night — but not what happened in Vegas. I want to talk about what happened across the country.”

Lesson 4: help your donors feel they are part of something bigger. When I give, I don’t want to be a lonely outsider. I want to feel that I’m part of a movement making change.

A big piece of the email was quotations from Sanders supporters who watched the debates together. In fact, the subject line of the email–“We are off and running”–came from one of those supporters, Diane in Colorado.

Lesson 5: give your donors a voice. Make them feel it’s not about you, the organization–it’s mainly about them.

The “ask” included in the email was clever. “Your contribution of $25.55 — the average donation we’ve received this week — will help us continue to build a movement that will win the White House for the people.”

Lesson 6: ask for a specific amount. Seeing that amount, if I thought of donating $25, I’d probably raise it to $30, just so as not to be below average!

All in all, the email echoed Sanders’ campaign theme that building a movement to oppose corporate power with people power is more important than any specific candidate.

Lesson seven: make your fundraising consistent with who you are. People say about Bernie Sanders, “He’s always stood for the same things.” Make sure they can say the same about your nonprofit and its communications.

Have you received an especially good fundraising appeal from Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, or some other candidate? What did they do that you could do too?

How Do You Say “Content Marketing” in Nonprofit?

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You’re working so hard for a cause you believe in.  You wonder: Why aren’t more people paying attention?

cute cat

Can your communications compete with this cat?

You’re not alone.  In the internet age, nonprofits and businesses are all in the same boat.  We’re not only competing with each other for people’s time and interest.  We’re also competing with online games, viral videos, and cute cat photos.

What did you do the last time a commercial appeared on your TV screen?  Chances are, you muted the volume or changed the channel…if you weren’t already using a tool to “zap” the commercials right out of what you were watching.

The people your nonprofit is trying to reach are just like you.  The ways that nonprofits usually try to reach people are even easier to ignore than commercials.  It’s so easy to delete your email, ignore your press release, toss that annual report or printed newsletter or appeal letter into the recycling bin.   Most people will do just that–IF they see your outreach as just another claim upon their time.

But what if they saw you as an answer to their prayers instead?

 

Giving People What They Want through Content Marketing

People don’t like to be interrupted.  They like to be helped.  If you want to be heard, you have to give people something they want, so that they are actually grateful to hear from you.  The term for this approach that puts the audience at the center is content marketing.

Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.

(Substitute “nonprofits” for “businesses” and “supporters” for “customers, prospects, buyers.”  The strategy is the same: give people information that matters to them and you will draw them closer to your cause.)

 

What Do People Want?

To attract people’s attention, interest, and ultimately support, you must know what they want.  Not just guess: know.  Not just a general idea: you must know them in depth and in detail, like you know a good friend.  If you don’t know that yet, stop reading this blog and go find out.

Let’s say you have done your homework and you do really know your audience.  Here are a few ways you can give them information that will make them keep coming back to you.

  • Online tools.  Give your supporters a way to do something they couldn’t do before.  A real estate company might give prospects free access to the Multiple Listing Service.  An organization for low-income families might give potential donors and partners a way to calculate the minimum a family needs to get by in a specific town.  [What will your supporters use?]
  • Blogging. In a personal voice, tell stories and give behind-the-scenes information about something you know they care about.  [Will your readers quote you in conversations with friends?]
  • Training.  Be a guest speaker.  Hold workshops.  Do webinars.  Teach other people what you know that they want to learn, and gain their loyalty and respect.  [What does your organization know better than anyone else that other people would line up to learn?]
  • Curation.  This is the current term for finding useful content that other people have produced and sharing it with your supporters–through mail, email, or social media (including Youtube for sharing video).  The key is that it has to be useful to them.  [What will they put into practice right away?  What will they find valuable enough that they will forward, post, retweet, pin, or otherwise share it with others?]

You don’t have to do all of these content marketing.  Certainly not at the start.  Perhaps not ever.  You are who you are, and your supporters are who they are, and maybe there’s another approach that makes them sit up and pay attention.

What you have to do is to find that approach.  Until you find it, the cat videos win.

 

 

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