About $449 billion — that’s how much American individuals, foundations, and corporations donated to U.S. charities in 2019, according to a study by Giving USA.
Getting a piece of that nearly half a trillion dollars in donations is no small feat, but it can be done through effective donor attraction. Let’s take a look at eleven of the best ways to attract new donors and get your nonprofit on the map.
1. Social Sharing
Some nonprofits overlook the power of social media, but research has shown that a great number of people use these platforms to follow brands and companies.
Having social media share buttons at the end of your donation experience is a great way to encourage sharing, which will increase exposure and serve as social proof to attract new donors.
Social proof is a powerful tool for charitable organizations to use, as some donors may need a little nudge to take the leap and donate, and seeing others support your cause can help them make their decision.
This social sharing functionality can be easily added to GiveWP by using the multi-step donation form template or the free Simple Social Shout add-on with your legacy forms. With one of these, you’ll be able to:
- Create a custom prompt for your donors to share their donations.
- Enable or disable the ability to share from each form.
- Encourage donors to share their donation right after they give.
2. Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers
In a similar fashion, peer-to-peer fundraisers encourage friends and family to give the same way that social sharing does. Except, that it’s much more powerful.
Peer-to-peer campaigns allow your supporters to raise money for you with some elements of gamification. For example, top fundraisers and teams are shown on the leaderboard on your main campaign page. This, among other elements, encourages your fundraisers to raise more money for you.
Essentially, peer-to-peer fundraising helps you recruit volunteer fundraisers for your cause. The best part is that these people can reach new donors that you would have had a hard time reaching yourself.
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3. eCard Campaigns
There’s something to be said about receiving a personalized card addressed to you. Someone took the time to think of you and pick out a card they think you’ll enjoy — this goes above and beyond a quick text message.
But this doesn’t only make the person receiving the card happy. It also brings joy to the sender. In fact, research has shown that engaging in acts of generosity makes us happier.
What if you could make a supporter happy about donating, put a smile on the faces of their loved ones, and attract new donors all at once?
With an eCard campaign, this is more than possible.
Donation eCards will create a personal experience by allowing supporters to donate while sending out a message to friends, family, or business acquaintances. The recipient will get a personalized eCard with your nonprofit’s branding, which will pique their interest and raise awareness about your cause.
4. Facebook Ads
We live in an era dominated by social media, so it’s not surprising that the most popular platform is a great tool to attract new donors. Not only does Facebook have the largest user base, but also the widest demographic reach — about 54% between the ages of 18-34, and 39% are over 35.
About 84% of social media users share to show their support for a cause and highlight issues that are important to them.
This makes Facebook ads a key part of any nonprofit’s growth strategy. An effective way to increase your donor pool with Facebook ads is by setting up a retargeting campaign.
Have you ever visited a product page but didn’t buy anything and then began seeing ads for that particular product on Facebook or other platforms?
Well, that’s how retargeting works. Basically, people who visit your donation landing page but didn’t make a donation will begin getting relevant ads of your nonprofit on Facebook.
With GiveWP’s free Facebook Pixel tracking add-on, you can easily build custom audiences in your Facebook ad manager based on how users interact with your website, which will allow you to build a powerful retargeting campaign.
While there’s a lot that has to come together to make a Facebook ad successful — targeting the right audience, adding engaging images, and understanding bidding — it is the ad copy that will play the biggest role to convince people to donate.
5. Participate in Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving, fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.
Just like Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday has become a huge event on the nonprofit calendar. According to Giving USA, $2.47 billion was raised on Giving Tuesday 2020 alone.
Running a Giving Tuesday campaign is a great way to attract new donors because it brings your nonprofit into the spotlight on a day that everyone will be talking about online.
Here are some tips to help you get ready for this action-packed day:
- Plan your campaign at least two months in advance. This way, you can create a proper marketing strategy and allow your nonprofit enough time to prepare for the increase in online activity.
- Build a landing page (Gutenberg, Elementor, Beaver Builder)
- Run email campaigns to remind people about your #GivingTuesday campaign, but don’t just limit this to one day. Continue running it throughout December to get donors who might have accidentally missed the day.
- Push live updates of the campaign to your followers and encourage them to donate.
- Keep track of all the donations throughout the day so you can properly thank donors and gauge how successful your campaign was.
- Reach out to other nonprofits who participated in #GivingTuesday and collaborate with them.
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6. Ask Current Donors to Refer Friends and Family
People tend to trust referrals from others they already know, which is why word-of-mouth is such a powerful marketing strategy. In a 2018 survey, 83% of Americans mentioned that a word-of-mouth recommendation from a friend or family member makes them more likely to purchase a product or service.
Many for-profit businesses and course creators use strategies to get their customers to do their marketing for them, so why can’t you apply this in your own nonprofit? Basically, your current donors are your best source for attracting new donors.
Here are a few tips to encourage supporters to refer friends and family:
- Offer a special perk for those who refer others.
- Run a contest and reward the referrer and the referred with an entry into a raffle.
- Create a custom landing page that donors can send their friends and family. (Or allow for peer-to-peer fundraising!)
- Thank people who have referred new donors to show them that their efforts are much appreciated.
- Acknowledge all donations made through referrals in your email newsletter.
- Use Tributes to have donors send eCards to friends and family in a “challenge” campaign.
7. Host and Attend Local Events and Networking Opportunities
Your local community is a great way to attract new donors because people love giving locally. You can host or attend networking opportunities like charity happy hours, charity dinners, panel discussions, and lectures, where you can meet potential donors who are involved in local communities.
This is a great way to establish your presence in the community, start building connections with people, and even get coverage from local media or bloggers that are covering the event.
Here are some tips to help you find local events and networking opportunities:
- Search for networking groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- See if any of your Facebook friends have upcoming events.
- Post in online forums or local Facebook groups asking people to let you know about their upcoming gatherings.
- Follow local news outlets on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
- Search for hashtags that include your city, such as #WeAreNYC or #ILoveFrankfurt.
8. Matching Gifts
Corporate matching is a giving initiative in which a company matches their employee’s contribution to your nonprofit.
This is a great way to not only get new donors but also to double or even triple your revenue with little effort since you only need to market to one person.
Nonprofits should always include information about matching gifts on their donation forms. If you don’t, then the potential donor will never know that your organization is eligible to receive additional money from their employer, which is one of the reasons organizations don’t reach their gift matching potential.
With GiveWP’s free Double the Donation add-on and a 360MatchPro subscription, you can add a company search field on your form for your donors to see if their company will match their donation. If they do, the company will then receive an alert from Double the Donation.
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9. Connect With Influencers
Influencers might not be donors themselves, but they do influence the purchasing decisions of thousands of people. In fact, research has shown that influencers are more influential than traditional celebrities.
By connecting with influencers and telling them about your mission, you can create buzz around your nonprofit and reach an audience you might not have had access to otherwise.
Remember, your influencers don’t need to have a huge following. in fact, you can use “micro influencers” and recruit them as brand ambassadors for your cause. Choose your influencers wisely.
To find influencers in your niche, here are some places to start:
- Search YouTube for popular videos related to your cause
- See who’s been featured on the biggest blogs in your niche
- Look at the most popular posts on Quora related to your cause
- Search hashtags related to your cause
10. Launch a Blog
Blogging is a great way to attract new donors because the content you produce will be found in search engines like Google. By blogging about your cause, you’re also giving potential donors a window into what you do and why it matters in a non-salesy way.
However, you don’t want to just post any content. Publish content that’s valuable for your readers and use storytelling in your articles, so people can resonate with your cause, then give them a good and easy way to donate.
Here are a few topics you can write about in your nonprofit blog:
- Share the success of your volunteers and their experience
- Share details about an upcoming event
- Share how the event went and what was achieved
- Explain where donations go
- Share success stories from some of your organization’s clients
- Feature partner organizations
- Highlight the impact made in the community
- Answer questions potential donors might have
If your nonprofit doesn’t have a website yet, check out our guide on how to use WordPress. Then, make sure you schedule a demo with our team to learn the best ways GiveWP can help you and your cause.
11. Guest Post and HARO
Guest posting and Help a Reporter Out (HARO) are great ways of getting your content published on popular blogs and having quality backlinks to your website.
With guest posting, you write an article on someone else’s blog and include a link back to your website. This will allow you to increase web traffic and spread awareness about your nonprofit without spending a single cent.
HARO is a free service where journalists can send out queries to find experts who will be willing to answer their questions for an upcoming article. This is a great way to get your nonprofit featured in popular publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur.
Become a New Donor Magnet
Any fundraiser needs to be creative in order to attract new donors. You need to use several marketing tactics and never pin their success on one strategy alone because it might not work for you as it does for another organization.
With a diversified approach, you’ll attract more people and make a bigger impact in the world.
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