Squeezed all your donors to the max? Got all the grants covered? Still need more? Then go online! Expanding your bank of donors is all about knowing where donors are and what information they’re after.
Submitted
6/1/2010
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actnow
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Updated
6/1/2010
We’d all love to have a bit more dough about to help make our programs the best they can be. But where on earth do you find it? If you’ve squeezed your donors to the max and have got all the grants covered but still need more, head online. The internet has a wealth of opportunities for fundraising. Expanding your bank of online donors is all about knowing where donors are and what information they need.
Targeting the willing
There are plenty of people out there who are loyal or interested in certain causes, rather than any specific charity in particular. Take disaster relief, for example. Often you’ll hear donors talk of having given to the Haiti relief effort or to the Victorian bushfires. The particular charity they gave to isn’t always the focus. By adding yourself to charity databases and lists and letting people know about your cause, you’re increasing your chances of tapping into this large pool of online ‘cause givers’. Though not all these pages may accept donations directly, they can channel potential donors straight back to your website.
These pages seem to be really taking off in America, and there is plenty of opportunity for organisations to jump on board with websites like CauseCast and Change.org. However, if your work is particularly focused here in Australia or if Australian donors are more your target market, here are a few of the more popular online databases you might like to join:
If you have community groups or members running individual fundraisers for your organisation, encourage them to take their drive online as well. By setting up a donation page through sites such as Everyday Hero or My Cause, they can easily spread the word through their online social networks while they fundraise. These pages are fantastic suggestions when people approach you looking to set up a fundraiser for you during special occasions like birthdays or weddings. They also work really well for events with a lengthy lead up, like motor cycle rallies.
When you join these groups, spend the time adding as many tags to your charity as you can. This will help more users find you in searches. And make sure your contact details are correct!
Do the hard work for your donors
Many individuals and smaller community groups are keen to run fundraisers for non profits in their area, but may not know how. Searching out and suggesting ways for people to fundraise is a great way to give people a push in the right direction. It’s important that people look at your ideas and say, ‘I could do that.’ Try and include a broad scope, everything from fun runs, to skydives, to cake stalls. The broader the scope, the more people you’re likely to net. My Cause has a great database of events all around the country that can be used as excuses for fundraising. If you’ve already got an event running, make sure you add it to the My Cause list and the Australian calendar.
Remember to spread the suggestions around. Market them on your website and on your other fundraising pages as well (like My Cause). Adding ideas of how people can fundraise or links to events on your website may seem time consuming at first, but once you’ve got a solid database of ideas, it will be easy to update in the future.
Expanding your online presence for donation purposes shouldn’t take long and will be easy to maintain. According to Network for Good, a leading donation portal for US charities, online donors are really rather generous generally forking out around $100 each time they gift, so it’s worth the little bit of extra effort!
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© 2008. First published on actnow.com.au
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