5 Online Fundraising Tips You Can Start Today
Nonprofit Connect recently hosted Jay Love, CEO/Co-founder of Bloomerang and Jay Wilkinson, Founder/CEO of Firespring, in Kansas City for a sold out professional development training. This program was a part of the Fundraising Fundamentals series, offered in partnership with Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Mid-America Chapter. 6 Steps to Never Losing Another Donor covered tips for an engaging website, strategies for fundraising metrics, donor database best practices and keys for driving donor retention.
Bloomerang and Firespring provided a wealth of knowledge, and the full presentation is available to Nonprofit Connect members on ResourceLink. Here we compiled five of the program’s easiest online fundraising tips that your organization can begin working on right now. As Jay Wilkinson stated, the best strategy for better fundraising is to start today!
1. Follow the 3-click rule.
No matter what page you’re viewing on your organization’s website, you should be able to navigate to another page in less than 3 clicks. Does your top navigation menu have less than 8 clickable items? Do you provide a comprehensive sitemap in your website’s footer? The more an individual has to click through your website, the less likely they are to navigate to your donation and call-to-action pages.
2. Make sure that your website is ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.
Did you know that blind people may use screen reading software to read your website? This software often reads the HTML code for websites, including Tags for site images. It is important for the photos on your site to be labeled appropriately, possibly with a photo description on the back end, so that blind visitors can still access the full content of your site. For a full checklist on how to easily create an ADA-compliant website, click here.
3. Test your donation page on a mobile device.
Your website may be mobile friendly, but is your donation page? 50 to 70% of people who begin filling out a donation form online don’t complete it for various reasons. Make sure that your donation page is optimized for those donors giving from their cell phones. Also consider reducing the number of fields on your form to include only necessary questions, and try not to send your donors to a third party site to give. Visit your own donation page today on your phone. Is it easy to donate?
4. Give another staff member access to your donor database.
Is your donor database on one computer in the corner of the office, accessed by only one or two staff members? You’re setting your organization up for disaster. What happens if that staff person suddenly leaves abruptly, or the computer’s hard drive crashes? Diversify your database usage and make certain that multiple staff members are trained and actively use the database. Also consider integrating your database with your website, and back it up to the Cloud for security in case of technical malfunction.
5. Update your automated response to donations and email sign-ups.
When was the last time you updated your automated response? Have you ever? Often the automated response is the first contact point with an interested individual, or the first communication to a donor after giving. Customize your automated response by adding your organization’s voice and brand. Make the message unique and memorable, rather than boring. Think of your automated response as one more opportunity to communicate with your donors and potential donors.
6. BONUS Become a thought-leader.
Bonus tip! When someone in the community thinks about your cause, do they think specifically about your organization? Position your nonprofit so that you are not only providing community resources around your mission, but information and data as well. A simple way to cultivate thought-leader status is to add a blog to your website. Posting stories and information relevant to your cause at least once a week is a proven strategy to add vitality to a website. Worried that your small staff may not have time to write a weekly blog post? Consider asking a volunteer or board member to be a guest writer.
Thank you again to Firespring and Bloomerang for sharing their donor relations knowledge. Make sure to check out Firespring and Bloomerang for a wealth of nonprofit resources.
Are you a nonprofit fundraiser or grantwriter? Don’t miss our next program in the Grant Writing series, focused on applying carefully planned framework to your grant writing process. By using a logic model, grant writers can easily prepare for grants in advance, monitor program activities and evaluate success.
Logic Models: Sweat Now or Bleed Later
Friday, February 13
8:300 to 10 a.m.
Register Now
