Fundraising is traditionally a face to face activity.
With relationship-building at the core of every dollar raised by a charity, the popular precedence towards digital fundraising can leave many with the misunderstanding that technology has the potential to damage relationships and stop donors from choosing you.
While face-to-face and community fundraising in the form of events is always going to exist in some capacity, technology is advancing the way charities do things.
Remember to add your website or fundraising page to every social media post because you never know who’s screen your content is going to land on. Maximise every opportunity to encourage support from anyone who views your website and encourages them to donate or support in some way.
Myth #2: Digital fundraising gets instant results
You simply can’t wave a digital campaign in front of a supporter and expect them to donate any more than you could with an offline campaign. To help a donor reach their maximum giving potential, relationships must still be built and nurtured organically, and you must appeal to their reasons for giving.
Digital fundraising requires as much of a relationship-building investment as offline fundraising. Nurture these relationships with automated communication sequences and in-depth data analysis surrounding the types of appeals donors give to.
2) Identify giving habits to help donors reach giving potential
With online donors leaving a digital footprint, you can learn more about them than is possible through offline fundraising. A thorough analysis of data can help you identify specific information such as the following: • How much they like to donate • The time of year they like to donate • The kind of stories they respond to • The time of day they like to donate • Preferred donation method
All of this information based on hard facts can form the foundation for your next campaign to ensure you target donors in line with their preferences making them more likely to donate.
3) Find out how you can meet donors needs with online surveys
Online surveys give charities the luxury of learning exactly what their donors want. While much of the relationship has been left to guesswork in the past, it’s now possible to ask donors valuable questions and get to know them on a deeper level.
When requesting feedback, it’s important to action all deliverables and acknowledge the responses to make sure supporters feel heard. Upload all survey responses into the CRM so you can refer to it in future communications.
4) Build better relationships with personalisation
Technology allows you to easily personalise all correspondence so donors feel like they’re hearing from someone who knows them. Using someone’s first name, referring to past donations and even inserting tangible asks above the usual giving level can all build relationships and encourage a donor to continue giving to your cause.
SupporterHub provides advanced communication modules with the ability to personalise on many levels.
5) Take fundraising online in the wake of COVID-19
The global pandemic has all but halted face-to-face events leaving a significant gap in income usually raised through raffles and auctions. SupporterHub features advanced modules allowing charities to run online auctions and raffles so that incoming doesn’t need to be dependent on physical events giving supporters more choice in how they can support you while boosting community spirit.
6) Create a strong online presence with branded fundraising pages
Branded fundraising pages make it easier than ever to showcase your appeal to encourage online donations. While a website is essential to create brand awareness and help people find out about your mission in the community. Fundraising pages created through SupporterHub can be specific to each appeal or campaign and really target the donor’s needs encouraging them to choose you.
SupporterHub is an integrated platform that uses technology to help charities create and deliver campaigns, analyse results and get to know donors on a deeper level to help them reach their giving potential.
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