Nonprofits rely on donations heavily to keep their doors open. As a result, they should always be looking for ways to boost funding by implementing new tactics. Because donations are so vital to ensuring the success of nonprofit organizations, here are five easy tactics to boost funding through donations:

  1. Pay attention to those who have given several years of support to your organization. Spend time and resources to reach out to current donors and build relationships with them. Getting new donors is important but it is even more important to retain these donors. Engaging current donors and trying hard to get them to give gifts again is important, even during challenging times. A recent survey on nonprofit effectiveness showed a strong return on its fundraising efforts of repeat donors. The data suggested that retention of repeat donors is much higher than that of new donor retention (22.7% versus 6.7%). This simple shift in priority can have major implications on future funding.
  2. Prioritize reaching out to major gift donors. Even though gifts from individuals are declining, organizations should be constantly looking for ways to engage their major donors. Simply put, depending on small and medium donors to sustain your work is not going to cause your organization to become financially viable long-term. Nonprofits will have to continue to solicit donations from major donors in order to create sustainability. In a recent report, philanthropists cited the importance of focusing on engaging the big donors who make big donations. Researchers found a strong link in the importance of building strong relationships with the most important donors to entice them to make larger donations. Communication with these donors is key. If nonprofits fail to clearly communicate what they are trying to accomplish, donors will not know the need and are not incentivized to give more. This requires you to develop powerful campaigns to explain to potential donors what the organization is all about and how donors can give to it.
  3. Personalize fundraising efforts to build meaningful connections with your donors. Giving to a charity or a non-profit is one of the largest financial commitments that people make. As such, nonprofits should go out of their way to build relationships with their donors. Donors give because they believe in what the organization does. This fact alone creates common ground for prioritizing relationships with donors. Donors should feel genuinely valued and understood because each donation or gift helps you accomplish what matters most. The relational equity you build with your donor should be one of the primary indicators of the success of your organization.
  4. Maintain clarity and transparency about funding use. A lot of charities offer donors a range of donation amounts that they recommend they give to their supporters. If a donor decides to make a particular donation level, you will be able to explain why his or her donation will benefit which program or cause. The clearer and simpler your donor communications are, the higher the likelihood that supporters will increase their gift because they know the value of their donation.
  5. Track your donors gifts through a database. Utilizing a donor database often gets overlooked as a luxury for nonprofit organizations. However, this investment in being able to easily access, track and maintain donor records is so important to the effectiveness of your organization. If you build a detailed list of donors with facts about what donors give you, the amount of money they give, and how often you communicate with them, it gives you a good idea of how your donors feel about your organization. These data points will help you define the best way to reach out to donors and motivate donors to give more.

It is not possible for a charity to be satisfied with its fundraising efforts by doing nothing at all. Continue to actively engage donors and increase the amount that they give. If nonprofits follow the tactics in this article, they will have the opportunity to raise more funds from their supporters.

MyDonors is an effective and affordable nonprofit donor database that will help track all of this information. MyDonors is part of MyCommunity, which exists to build relationships and tools that equip organizations so that they can maximize their impact. Our suite of tools is designed to help organizations of all sizes focus on their mission without worrying about the logistics. We understand the importance of building strong relationships, so we provide the necessary tools to maximize impact and make a difference like our easy-to-use platforms MyDonors and MyVolunteers. Likewise, MyNonprofitCoach equips nonprofits with the training they need to be successful. Schedule a demo for any of our solutions here.

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Source: https://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/boost-donor-acquisition-online-fundraising/