Boost Your Nonprofit Fundraising with These 4 Tips

If you run or work in (or even volunteer at) a nonprofit, I don’t have to tell you about the struggles of fundraising. It’s a challenge every nonprofit faces, and while it’s true there are outside factors that can affect your nonprofit fundraising efforts, I don’t ever want my clients to have to rely on outside factors. You should be able to take control of your own success, and that’s exactly what I help my clients do in their business, whether it’s a nonprofit or a for-profit business. Let’s take a look at some things you can do to boost your nonprofit fundraising efforts, regardless of what’s going on in the world.

Get Your Nonprofit Tools in Order

Making sure you have the right tools is key to achieving any goal you set for yourself, whether it’s nonprofit fundraising or anything else, so the first thing you need to do is make sure you have the right tools in your toolbelt. Are you using the right software to schedule and promote events? To keep in touch with your sponsors? To track your volunteers?

Not only do you need to use the right tools, you also need to make sure the tools are synced whenever possible so you don’t have to enter the same information in multiple places. For example, if you sync your calendar with your newsletter, you can let your donors know about a new event you’re hosting as soon as it’s scheduled without having to take the extra steps of going into your email system, writing an email, and scheduling it to go out. You can let your technology take care of it all for you.

Gather (and Use) Donor Data to Improve Your Nonprofit Fundraising Efforts

​The more you know about your donors, the more effectively you can convince them to give, so gather as much information about them as you can when you enter them into your system.

​Once you have a cache of donors in your system, you can group them by different qualities, such as how much money and how often they’ve donated, when they last donated, geographical area, gender, income level, etc. Knowing when they’ve donated in the past can tell you when they’ll be more likely to donate again, which should inform your decision about when and how to reach out to them to improve your chances of getting them to help your nonprofit fundraising efforts.

Use Different Platforms for Your Nonprofit Fundraising Efforts

​While calling and emailing your donors are both great ways to get directly in front of them and convince them to give, it’s important to take advantage of all the platforms at your disposal, including social media. Strategic use of social media can help you stay top of mind with your donors between events and major giving seasons, so when you’re ready to reach out to ask them to donate, they’ll be more likely to oblige since they’ll have seen all the good work you do from your posts on social media.

Ask About Matching Gift Programs to Improve Your Nonprofit Fundraising Efforts

Many companies offer to match donations made by their staff up to a certain dollar amount, so once you get a donation from someone, ask if their company has a matching gift program. They might not even know if their company has a matching gift program, so if you ask them to check, you’ll be much more likely to get that extra donation.

​You can also invest in a matching gift database so you can know before you even reach out to a donor whether they’re part of a matching gift program. If they are, then once they agree to donate, let them know about the matching gift program and ask them to submit their donation to the program.

As a marketer and Strategy Rockstar who spent years helping nonprofits boost their revenue before going into business for myself, I have all the tools to help you take your nonprofit fundraising to the next level. Whether you need help identifying and using the right nonprofit tools (which is one of my specialties), or making the most of the revenue you have coming in, I can help. Schedule a FREE clarity call now to see how I can help you be more strategic, intentional, and successful in running and raising money for your nonprofit.