Digital fundraising for nonprofits is a quickly-growing practice that many organizations embrace these days, but it’s not always easy to think outside the box for exciting ways to maximize donor engagement. Rest assured: there are endless possibilities to add a fun twist to already-known fundraising tactics.
Here are five innovative ways to leverage digital fundraising for nonprofits and take your donor engagement to new heights:
1. Gamify your fundraising campaign.
Gamification is the method of applying rewards and incentives to heighten excitement and drive engagement around your fundraising campaign.
Consider hosting a giveaway where randomly-selected donors can be selected for raffle prizes. (This is an especially great way to encourage small-dollar donors!) Tools like Custom Forms on Impactive can help you spotlight your incentive and mark each donation pledge as a raffle entry. Launching a competitive digital fundraising campaign for your nonprofit can help you maximize donor action.
2. Harness the power of peer-to-peer outreach.
Peer-to-peer fundraising encourages your supporters to activate their networks for your cause. By leveraging supporters’ networks, you’ll increase your reach organically and via a trusted messenger.
There are several ways to apply peer-to-peer tactics to digital fundraising for nonprofits. You can encourage supporters to set up Facebook or Instagram fundraisers, or even invite them to directly text or call their friends and family for donations.
However, the easiest way to harness the power of peer-to-peer outreach is to use a tool like Friends & Family Messaging to provide supporters with the necessary resources to send messages. A relational outreach tool for digital fundraising allows supporters to sync their contacts and send scripted messages that you’ve crafted for them. You can even combine peer-to-peer outreach with a gamified approach by offering raffle entries for supporters that share your fundraising form with their friends and family.
3. Broadcast a message from community influencers, like a well-known donor.
Just as your supporters can be trusted messengers for their friends and family, community influencers can be trusted messengers for your supporters.
According to a Nielson study, 71% of people trust opinions from influencers — which means a broadcast text from an influencer may be a convincing reason for your supporters to contribute to your fundraising campaign.
You can think outside the box to find the best partnership for your organization. A celebrity or social media influencer partnership seems the most appealing and exciting, but don't count out other options! You may have a supporter that’s well-known in your community who could sway donors; you can also reach out to micro-influencers with smaller but highly engaged audiences. These partnerships can be a win-win for both parties since influencers often want to contribute their reach to a cause they believe in.
4. Capitalize on unconventional holidays for fundraising appeals.
#GivingTuesday and the holidays are the prime times of year to promote digital fundraising for nonprofits, but you can use other unconventional celebrations to appeal to donors.
For example — you can request donations of $3.14 for Pi Day (March 14th), $5.40 for Star Wars Day (May 4th), and so on. Plus, holidays specific to your cause are a great occasion to launch fundraising campaigns, like World Environment Day (June 5th) for environmentally-focused nonprofits.
Reaching out to donors on lesser-known holidays can help you stand out from other donation requests that flood in during more popular fundraising seasons.
5. Encourage friendly competition between two or more teams.
Most people have a naturally competitive spirit, and bringing this trait out with friendly competition can lend a bit more urgency to your fundraising campaign.
You can set up teams based on commonalities like location, or even reference teams in pop culture or sports to rally donors. (For example, Los Angeles Rams vs. Pittsburgh Steelers or #TeamJacob vs. #TeamEdward from Twilight.) Then, see who can gather the most donations! Creating a sense of camaraderie can help build communities in your supporter base and increase donor engagement. And of course, appealing to what motivates your donors can bring a light-hearted approach to digital fundraising and drive donors to fully engage with your campaign.
Digital fundraising for nonprofits offers abundant opportunities to creatively maximize donor engagement. Try these innovative ways to expand your reach - you might just raise more!
