The history of collecting donations dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Such collections of donations were carried out in the form of club fees, charity bazaars, lotteries, subscriptions. When implementing such events, the most difficult thing was to gather a large number of collectors and organize the calculation of the collected amount. And donations are still relevant. But like a few centuries ago, many need advice on fundraising
Find a Modeling Organization
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Find a non-profit organization that works on your topic, just a couple of steps ahead of you, and see what they’re doing.
Even if you can’t meet any of the fundraisers in person or talk on the phone, just see how they work. What do they write to donors, how is this work done? To do this, subscribe to the newsletters of the selected organization, make a minimum donation and watch how the organization communicates with donors, see available statistics, the results of a particular campaign. Take the best!
Transformational vs Transactional Fundraising: Make Your Choice
There are two types of fundraising: transactional, where the donor gets something with their money, and transformational, where the donor gives money simply because they want to support the good work of your non-profit organization. It is common for young non-profit organizations to gravitate towards what they have seen before, but these are usually events and activities such as fairs, races, concerts. And they are all transactional.
If the majority of your fundraising is transactional, it is not sustainable. Events and fundraising take a lot of time and effort. At some point, you feel like a squirrel in a wheel.
So focus more on the transformational feed. This will require you to think about your donors and communicate with them regularly. Keep a balance between the two types, or even better, use a transformational rather than a transactional approach.
Here’s a simple test to see how you’re doing: make a list of everything you’ve done in the last 12 months to raise money. Tag all fundraisers with X events and tag all fundraisers with mailings, calls Y. You must have more Y than X. If not, you will need another plan for the next 12 months.
Study the experience of other event funds and do not just copy, but try to find out more about how much time and human resources have been spent, how many private donors participated, how many corporate ones, what is the average donation. Your task is to understand the effectiveness of a particular type of event. Recently, fundraising has been used as a PR tool to show the success and effectiveness of the organization. But a closer examination shows that one or two large/corporate donors have made “volume”, and the amount is given without taking into account costs. Believe me, if you learn all the nuances, you definitely won’t want to run and do a concert.
Highlight your unit of service and use it to explain what you are doing
First, figure out what your charitable service unit is. It could be an hour of tutoring, or a hot meal, or an overnight stay at a shelter. To do this, divide last year’s total service units by the total expenses for the same year and see what you get.
Harness the power of social connections
Sit down with colleagues and write a list of people who can be potential donors, trustees, help with stars, public authorities. Do an audit of your contacts. This is always useful for experienced organizations too!
Use video
Video is by far the most popular means of communication, and it’s easy and affordable to use. If you have a smartphone, you can shoot videos. Nobody expects a video to be polished and of high quality, so grab your phone and make a really short video (one to two minutes) about your non-profit organization.Video can provide a virtual experience for your donors and potential clients to see for themselves how your nonprofit is making a difference.
Fit into existing processes
Embed in existing events and online projects. Take advantage of what’s already happening. There are many events in your community that you can take advantage of to represent your organization and raise funds. Why waste money, your human and time resources, when there are already events with their audience, interesting content.
For example, get involved in city events, events of partner companies.
Focus on fundraising for one program and monthly charges
So it is worth doing in the first years of the foundation. This is a great way to generate monthly income for your small non-profit organization. Keep in mind that the unit of service should be inexpensive, and the name of the program should be simple and understandable. Once you have everything ready, share it everywhere on different sites.