People generally want to help. There are over 1,130,000 charities and
foundations registered with the federal government in the United States
alone and individuals donated approximately $300 billion to these
charities last year. If there are all of these funds out there, why do
some nonprofits struggle to make ends meet? Are these organizations
contributing to their own financial detriment? What are they doing
wrong?
The first way to get the dollars rolling in is to get your name out
there. It’s like the old saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.”
Public relations and fundraising go
hand in hand; without a PR strategy in place, your bank account is
going to suffer dearly. Is your name clearly on your building? Do you
have a leadership representative mingling in local mixers and
participating in town hall meetings? Are you resting on past laurels and
not pursuing current media attention for present projects? Are you
up-to-date with your social media campaigns?
The second way to prevent a loss donations is
to let your supporters know what your needs are and what they can
specifically do to help. For example, don’t just say, “We need money to
add on to our building.” Be practical in your ask. “Can you give $50
towards our John Doe Memorial Building program so that we can reach our
goal of $100,000 by May 1? Our afterschool program desperately desires
to keep kids off the street and in a healthy environment. ” Present your
needs as urgent, necessary and attainable; skip any one of these
qualities and your donor will just move on by.
Are you making it too hard to give? Yesterday I was shopping online
and pop-up appeared asking if I would take a survey. I had a few minutes
and I liked the website, so I was ready to dedicate five minutes of my
life to share my opinions. After two pages of extensive questions and a
glitch when I tried to input one answer, I gave up and closed the
window. I didn’t have the extra time or patience to deal with this
malfunctioning website. So here’s the bottom line: how well does your
website function? How many clicks does it take from spotting the
“donate” button to seeing the receipt in the donor’s inbox?
The final way to appeal to your donors is to take advantage of all of
your available resources. Online fundraising is the fastest growing way
to garner funds. Do you have a Facebook account? Do you check and
answer your e-mails regularly? As mentioned above, is your website easy
to maneuver without long loading times or a maze of pages to navigate
through? Have you looked into Fundly as
an option to connect with your current and potential donors?
Fundraising is ever changing and by not keeping up, you may be leaving
donors behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment