Most charitable organizations and non-profits have had to tweak their fundraising efforts and marketing tactics due to the safety restrictions brought about by the covid-19 pandemic. But as you might well know, the fundraising for your community food outreach must go on.
But you also need to recognize that you can’t just go about your fundraising strategies “as usual.” In the last couple of months, organizations, whether large, small, renowned, or upcoming, have tweaked their fundraising practices to pursue funding during a pandemic. To follow suit, here’s what you need to do.
Make Giving As Flexible and No-fuss As Possible
To ensure easy and fast giving, consider the following guidelines:
- Accept different payment methods. Instead of accepting physical checks or cash, consider accepting donations via ACH payments and debit or credit cards. This will enable donors to pick the most suitable and easiest payment method for them.
- Make certain that your donation forms are as streamlined as possible. Abandonment of donation forms is a huge issue for non-profits. In general, the fewer fields donors need to complete, the better.
- Encourage mobile fundraising. This way, potentials donors can send their donations even while they’re on-the-go and whenever the charitable spirit hits them.
Remember that prospects and donors can have all sorts of reasons for declining your requests for donations, whether due to lack of funds because of job loss or other things. With this in mind, don’t give them more reason, even inadvertently, to avoid donating by requiring a complicated and/or lengthy donation process.
Educate Prospects and Donors About Matching Gifts
Are you aware that many of your donors’ financial contributions are probably qualified for employer matching contributions? More importantly, do your prospects and donors know? Take a look at these powerful statistics about matching gifts when adapting your fundraising plan:
- 1 in 3 individuals would be willing to donate more when a matching gift is applied.
- 84% of individuals are more likely to donate when there’s a match offer.
- $4 up to $7 billion of revenue from matching gifts remains unclaimed every single year.
- Over 18 million employees work for companies and organizations that have matching gift programs.
To leverage this underused funding source, look for updated and comprehensive matching gift databases to determine viable prospects. Via matching gift programs and other corporate charity programs, any organization could make a significant impact on your fundraising efforts and recipients.
Level Up Your Appreciation For Your Donors
You probably use some tool that could be set to send auto-generated thank you email messages with donation receipts automatically. This is an excellent way to show your appreciation to your donors without requiring lots of effort and time. But during a pandemic, generic thank you messages might not be enough.
In this light, try to find more personal ways, besides automated emails, to thank your dedicated donors and convey your appreciation for their contributions. For instance, consider personally writing and sending out thank you letters or cards to your loyal donors who have continuously supported your cause even in very trying times.
Allotting sufficient time to pursue more personal relationships and deeper connections with your loyal donors will help you forge a natural and solid foundation for long-time alliances. Additionally, donors would be more likely to talk about your cause to their friends and connections not just because they truly believe in your cause but also because they feel your genuine appreciation for them.
Yes, fundraising amidst a pandemic is definitely harder than usual. It is, however, not impossible. By applying the practical guidelines suggested above as you tweak your fundraising tactics, you’ll be setting up your team for success.
