GUEST POST // 5 Year-End Virtual Fundraising Ideas
By Jacob Spencer of Donately
The end of the year is the perfect time to amp up your fundraising strategy. With so many holiday-themed opportunities and giving days, your nonprofit can significantly increase its revenue and finish out the year strong.
As a nonprofit professional, you understand how much work and planning can go into an event fundraiser, from booking a venue to coordinating catering. Plus, with so many people traveling during the holidays, it can be hard to nail down a time when the most people would be able to attend. But, did you know that you can make the process much easier by planning a virtual campaign?
A virtual fundraiser can be just as—or even more—engaging than an in-person event and offers your supporters the flexibility to participate from anywhere in the world. This way, you can expand your nonprofit’s reach and make the fundraising process more convenient for you and your donors.
In this post, we’ll discuss virtual fundraising tips and ideas that will excite your supporters and boost your revenue. Consider adding these virtual fundraising campaigns to your year-end agenda:
Walk-a-Thon
Email Campaign
Social Media Challenge
Giving Tuesday Campaign
Live-Streamed Holiday Concert
No matter your nonprofit’s size, these ideas can help you appeal to more people and build support for your organization. As a result, you’ll be able to better meet your nonprofit’s year-end fundraising goals. Let’s dive in!
Walk-a-Thon
Empower supporters to fundraise on your behalf with a walk-a-thon! A walk-a-thon is a fundraiser that gets people up and moving for a good cause, all while raising a significant amount of revenue for your organization. A great way to build excitement for your walk-a-thon is by making it a peer-to-peer fundraiser—in this type of fundraiser, supporters will tap into their own networks to raise money.
According to Donately’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide, having supporters advocate on your behalf is a great donor acquisition and retention strategy because supporters create and share personalized campaign pages with friends and family, introducing your organization to tons of new people.
To get started, set up a fundraising campaign webpage. This page should give a brief overview of your organization’s mission so site visitors can learn more about your nonprofit (and become passionate supporters!). Then, boost supporters’ excitement by providing updates on how close you are to your campaign goal.
Make sure there’s an option for supporters to create their own individual fundraising pages. This can be easily done by investing in peer-to-peer fundraising software. You can then conduct outreach to active supporters, asking them to make personalized pages to jumpstart your campaign. To further incentivize supporters to get involved, offer prizes for supporters who raise a certain amount of money.
Email Campaign
Your donors are likely feeling generous at the end of the year, and you can make the most of this holiday spirit by reaching out directly with email appeals.
An email campaign is a cost-effective fundraising strategy and an easy way to reach hundreds of donors at once. However, nailing down the right messaging can be tricky. If your email comes off as too demanding or impersonal, donors will be less likely to give. Use these tips when composing your email appeals:
Be personal. Your supporters appreciate human connection, so your letter should be addressed to each specific donor. Avoid using a generic greeting such as “Dear Valued Donor.” Instead, use their names and reference relevant personal details. For example, if they’ve donated before or volunteered at a specific event during the year, be sure to thank them for these contributions.
Share an impact story. Your letter should be emotional so donors feel compelled to give. Share a story of someone who directly benefited from your nonprofit. Include a visual of this person to help people connect with your mission. This story should bring attention to the importance of your work and how donors’ contributions make it possible.
Explain what you have achieved. Give donors a summary of the great work your organization achieved this past year, like the number of programs you launched, people you impacted, funds raised, etc. This helps build your nonprofit’s credibility and shows you’re an organization worth giving to.
Share a link to your donation page. Make it as easy as possible for donors to give by linking to your donation page. Make sure your donation page is easy to navigate, accessible, and engaging. Since people may be opening your email on their phones, make sure your donation page is optimized for mobile devices.
Highlight matching gift opportunities. If you have a matching gifts tool on your donation page, make sure to let donors know that their donations may be matched if their employer has a matching gift program. Provide any necessary directions for how to apply for a matching gift, and send reminders to supporters who qualify but have yet to complete their matching gift application. This can incentivize them to give more since their donations may be doubled (or even tripled!), maximizing their impact.
You’ll also want to include a strong call to action. Create a sense of urgency by emphasizing why they should give before the end of the year. When requesting a donation, suggest a donation amount tailored to each donor based on their past giving trends.
Social Media Challenge
With so many people spending time on social media, your nonprofit can develop an effective social media fundraising campaign that reaches hundreds (or thousands!) of people. Social media is a great way to share your nonprofit’s mission with prospective donors and engage current supporters with fun trends.
Although this strategy is made easy by the powers of the Internet, you’ll need a plan. Follow these steps to maximize support for your campaign:
Consider your audience. Think about the audience you want to reach with your social media campaign. This will help you decide which platform to use for your challenge. For example, if you’re interested in reaching young adults, you may want to use TikTok or Instagram. Older demographic groups may be more receptive to a campaign on Facebook.
Create a challenge. Think about what you want to ask your audience to do. Feel free to get creative and tie in the holiday theme as much as possible! One fun challenge is to get supporters to post pictures in their silliest holiday costume. Or, you can create a challenge that relates directly to your organization, such as having donors post a short video clip explaining why they support your nonprofit.
Decide on a unique hashtag. A custom hashtag can help expand your reach and let viewers know that this challenge is associated with your nonprofit. As a result, you’ll be able to build brand visibility. Ideally, your hashtag should include your nonprofit’s name or acronym.
Use peer-to-peer tools. Encourage people to share personalized donation pages when they post content for your challenge. For example, if you host a challenge on Instagram, supporters can include their unique donation links in their bio.
Make sure to market your challenge on your nonprofit’s social media account so more people can learn about it. You can even post a sample photo/video of a volunteer completing the challenge so your followers will know what to do.
Giving Tuesday Campaign
If your nonprofit hasn’t taken part in #GivingTuesday, it’s missing out on a huge opportunity to raise funds. This global day of generosity takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. According to 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics report, Giving Tuesday continues to grow each year, raising nearly $2 billion last year.
Here are some tips to make the most of Giving Tuesday and maximize support:
Create a designated landing page. Add a webpage to your site that explains your organization’s mission and why you’re taking part in this day. Embed your donation form in the page or include a bolded link that will easily take donors to your donation page. Make sure to brand this page so donors know that it belongs to your organization.
Use donation tools. Incorporate engaging online donation tools that streamline the giving process. A great way to elicit more support is by offering text-to-give. Text-to-give allows your donors to text a donation amount to a designated phone number. This makes the giving process as convenient as possible by allowing supporters to give at any time.
Communicate on multiple channels. Use email, social media, mail, and other relevant marketing channels to get the word out about your #GivingTuesday fundraising campaign. Create engaging graphics and share stories of impact to get people excited about your campaign and eager to give.
Don’t let people know about your campaign for the first time on the day-of! Market your Giving Tuesday campaign at least two weeks in advance so people know that your nonprofit is participating. Set a reasonable but ambitious goal, and share it with supporters so everyone can work together to reach it.
Live-Streamed Holiday Concert
With a virtual concert, people enjoy great music all from the comfort of home! Your nonprofit doesn’t have to book a space to make this event possible—instead, you’ll just have to set up a live-stream. This way, anyone from anywhere in the world can participate and feel like they’re a part of your nonprofit’s community.
There are a few steps your nonprofit has to take to make your concert a success:
Create an easy registration process. Develop a sign-up form on your website where donors can easily purchase a ticket to attend. This form should be easy to navigate and mobile-friendly.
Book the entertainment. Choose an act that will appeal to the majority of your audience. Reach out to local singers or groups in your area that would be willing to perform. You can even conduct outreach to volunteers with musical talents and invite them to perform.
Invest in filming equipment. You’ll need a way to film the concert in good quality. You can buy or rent a professional video camera or simply have your musical act film themselves using their own equipment.
Set up a live-stream. You’ll need to set up a live-stream that allows your audience to see your concert in real-time. Consider using an external live-streaming platform or embedding a live-stream directly into your website if your site has this ability. There are many free live-streaming services you can use, such as YouTube and Facebook Live.
Add engagement opportunities. Help your donors feel connected with other concert attendees by making “Like” or “Applause” buttons available and allowing them to join a live chat. Donors can cheer on the act and talk with other attendees, helping to build community around your nonprofit.
You can also add donation opportunities during your concert. For example, have your musical act perform song requests for donors who give additional funds. Or, your musical act can put on a special encore for donors that give more during the concert. Make sure your donors feel engaged so they’ll be more likely to give!
By adding any one of these ideas to your year-end fundraising agenda, you’ll see an increase in engagement and giving. Remember to keep in mind your audience and plan a virtual fundraiser that will best appeal to them. With a strong digital fundraising strategy, you’ll end the year on a positive note. Good luck!
This guest post was written by Jacob Spencer
Customer Success / Account Manager at Donately
I strive to make every step of our customer journey as enjoyable as possible. My goal is to turn everyone that trusts Donately into a raving fan! Raising funds can be daunting, but we know that with the right tools, it can and should be easy.
Throughout my career, I've been able to help sales and success teams tackle new markets, grow and expand.
Leading with empathy, listening to actually solve problems, and remembering that we are all human are the key elements to growing any business in a meaningful way.
When I'm not working you can find me spending time with my wife, 2 boys and our Border Collie, Abbie. Family>Everything.
