B a c k   T o   T h o u g h t s

Nonprofits do essential work in shaping a better community for everyone, yet limited budgets and resources mean that you must also focus on fundraising to accomplish your organization's mission. 


Fortunately, fundraising is easier than ever for nonprofits, thanks to the rise of the internet and social media. With so many tools to choose from, which platforms and services do the most to help nonprofits connect with committed donors? Here are our favorite digital fundraising tools for more efficient and successful fundraising campaigns.

1. Donation Matching

Many companies offer donation matching, but too often this benefit goes untapped simply because employees don’t know about it. Double the Donation helps nonprofits of all sizes maximize this revenue source. This digital fundraising tool lets donors easily see if their employers offer a match and provides easy access to forms, guidelines, and instructions that simplify matching donations.

2. Social Media

Viral successes like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and the Movember Foundation’s mustache-growing challenge are great examples of the power of social media to spread awareness and raise funds. For best results, creative and visual fundraising campaigns that promote participation should be integrated with your overall marketing strategy so your organization can target the right audience on social media. When done well, you’ll maximize your nonprofit's exposure, earn donations, and encourage engagement with the rest of your online content.

3. Facebook’s Charitable Giving Tools

While all social media platforms help advertise your fundraising efforts, Facebook has created integrated tools that allow you to encourage giving directly on your posts. With a few extra clicks, you can add buttons to collect donations to your nonprofit’s Facebook page, individual posts, live videos, and ads. Facebook also enables people to fundraise on your behalf. These fundraising tools can help your nonprofit organization capitalize on a moving post or video through the power of social connections.

4. Blackbaud

Blackbaud offers cloud-based solutions specifically designed to streamline nonprofit operations, including fundraising and program delivery. Their tools help save time by providing easy ways to manage payment services, marketing, and fund accounting. Blackbaud's Raiser’s Edge NXT also provides deeper insights, analytics, and features to help you develop more effective campaign strategies, understand what motivates your contacts, and find new supporters and prospects.

5. Salesforce

The world’s number one CRM is also committed to helping nonprofits manage interactions with their donors. Salesforce’s robust AI helps you measure campaign impact in real time, and communicate with donors, prospects, and volunteers in one central location. These nonprofit tools can also help you to seamlessly fundraise, manage grants and events, and take every constituent on their own personal journey. Also, by integrating your nonprofit’s website forms with Saleforce, your organization can easily manage and track successful engagements with donors.

6. Crowdrise by GoFundMe

GoFundMe makes it easy for anyone to build a beautiful campaign page that connects to social media to tell their story to a wider audience. ​Crowdrise takes GoFundMe’s biggest successes and scales it for nonprofit organizations. Crowdrise offers online fundraising solutions via social media, peer-to-peer fundraising, and fundraising events like galas, walks, runs, marathons and cycles.

7. One Cause

In today’s age of mobile apps, nonprofits have found many ways to raise money without the use of checks and cash. One Cause brings fundraising into the digital age with online giving tools that allow donors to engage directly from their smartphones. Mobile charity auctions, text2give functions, and online management of event ticketing are just some of the tools that make frictionless fundraising a reality.

Final Thoughts: Focus on the Mission

Nonprofits do vital work to make the world a better place, so your organization deserves a break when it comes to the manual tasks that go along with fundraising efforts. By choosing one or more of these digital tools, you can build on your nonprofit's website to reach your full fundraising potential, save a great deal of time and effort, and grant your organization the ability to truly focus on fulfilling its mission. If you ever feel overwhelmed, stuck in a rut, or in need of additional help, don’t stress! Give our digital agency a call. We love partnering with organizations that seek to make a difference in the world, and we’re always ready to help.

Sources:

https://doublethedonation.com

http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/edau/ibc-progress-infographic.html

https://us.movember.com/about/foundation

https://donations.fb.com/giving-tuesday/

https://www.blackbaud.com/who-we-serve/nonprofit-organizations

https://www.salesforce.org/nonprofit/

https://www.crowdrise.com

https://www.onecause.com