Macro-ops: These 6 Tips Can Help You Succeed in Your Next Fundraising Campaign

Planning a fundraising campaign for a nonprofit organization can be overwhelming. There’s a seemingly endless number of details to cover, boxes to check, copy to right, and emails to send. While every fundraising campaign is a bit different. There’s a number of key macro strategies and best practices that apply across the board. And if implemented will ensure you’re next campaign is a huge success. 

Here are the 6 tips that will help you succeed in your next fundraising campaign.

1. Start With A Soft Launch

The start of a new fundraising campaign can be a slog. There’s a lot of unknowns and plenty of kinks to work out. To break through this difficult period, you need positive momentum. There’s no better way to do that than reaching out to your most eager audience with a soft launch. These are past repeat donors, supporters, and those that have shown a very active interest in your cause. 

This enthusiastic group is most likely to donate again and can serve as a good testing board as they’re willing to look over or help iron out the initial kinks. In addition, a fundraising campaign that’s already raised some money finds it easier to raise more.

Send your fundraising funnel to your eager audience and ask them for feedback. Good questions to give them are: Would they change anything in the copy? Is the pitch and call to action compelling? Does the messaging clearly communicate the directive of the campaign? With this invaluable feedback, you’ll be able to iterate and make sure your messaging and fundraising funnel are in top shape when it gets sent out to the entire list.

2. Multi-Channel Social Sharing Strategy

This one is important. Donating to your campaign shouldn’t only be easy, it should also be fun! Anybody who’s run a number of successful fundraising campaigns knows that having a well thought out multi-channel social sharing strategy is crucial. 

There are three aims to this (1) people are more likely to donate when they get to proudly and publicly share their selfless gift (2) combining a donation along with a fun challenge/activity dramatically increases the odds your campaign will get shared — remember the 2014 ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge? (3) great fundraising campaigns are ones that fully utilize ardent supporters, turning them into fundraisers as they reach out to friends and families allowing the campaign to benefit from network effects. 

Social media is your organization’s megaphone. Use it.

    • Twitter: Provide timely updates on events and fundraising goals

    • Instagram: Show fun images that promote an upcoming event or highlights from the previous year

    • Facebook: Connect with supporters and share important information

    • Website: Great for deep-dive blog posts into the organization’s aims and goals

3. Create Annual/Recurring Events.

There is perhaps no better way to create dedicated loyal donors than to create a sense of connection between them, the organization, and the cause. One of the best ways to do this is through regular physical gatherings and events. 

Organized foot races, golf tournaments, dinner balls, etc… Fun recurring physical events provide some of the highest ROI for fundraising campaigns. Not to mention they create a reliable source of recurring cash inflow for the organization which make long-term planning so much easier to carry out. 

4. Incentivize Your Top Fundraisers

Warren Buffett’s long-term investing partner Charlie Munger once famously said “Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.” Incentives aren’t everything, but they’re pretty close. 

A successful fundraising launch starts with your team. They’re the ones who are closest to the donor source and most capable of identifying opportunities and coming up with creative strategies for boosting funding. To better align and motivate them you might want to consider offering them fun incentives… These could be paid vacations, cool gifts, or even cash for hitting certain fundraising goals.

Large organizations such as hospitals and universities pay top dollar for fundraising professionals. They do it because it works. So why shouldn’t you? 

5. Marketing and Advertising

Marketing and advertising are not just for corporations. Top charities and fundraising organizations wisely have large marketing budgets. Again, it’s all about your ROI (return on investment). Do you get back more dollars than you put in? If so, then it’s a positive for your organization and will help you accomplish your fundraising goals. 

Here are some key points to consider when thinking about marketing and advertising: 

    • Build brand awareness

    • Utilize both traditional and new (social media) sources of media

    • Develop a strong Call For Action

Developing a sophisticated marketing and advertising campaign will help raise awareness of your organization along with helping to build powerful network effects, increasing your potential donor pool. 

6. Fundraising Digitally

Almost  ALL fundraising nowadays is done digitally. Most supporters won’t even consider sending a check or cash in the mail or dropping one off in person. Because of this, it is critical that your campaign has a solid digital fundraising strategy. Some of the things you’ll want to think about are: 

    • Ease of user: You want to reduce friction as much as possible when it comes to donors giving you money. Making sure you have an easy to find and easy to use online payment processor is key.

    • Video: short quality videos that tell your organization’s story, educate on its cause, and ends with a strong call to action, will go a long way in boosting conversion rates on your website and through your social media platforms. 

    • Be Mobile Responsive: More than half of your mobile traffic is likely to come from mobile phones or tablets. So it’s important that your website is mobile responsive so visitors can easily find the info they need and make donations using their phones. Again, it’s all about lowering friction!

There’s a number of other steps you can do to help ensure your fundraising campaign is a major success. These though are the essentials and as long as you do these 6 things well, you’re sure to hit your fundraising goals.