Many individuals, groups, and organizations initiate a fundraising campaign, which involves collecting money from potential donors for a cause such as helping charitable institutions. The person who raises donations is called a fundraiser who’s responsible for creating strategies and events for a successful campaign. The fundraiser should identify and present goals so people would donate.
Fundraiser Revenue 101
A fundraising event aims to generate revenue for a specific purpose. It’s crucial to maximize the revenue in a fundraising campaign to support more people who need help financially or those at the poverty line. Besides helping the poor, fundraisers can seek donations for other purposes such as supporting scholars and funding a school or community project.
But how does one ensure a good flow of donations in a fundraising campaign? Below are some tactics to help maximize fundraiser revenue.
1. Research The Best Fundraising Platform
Whether you’re an individual fundraiser or you belong to a non-profit organization, the first step to maximize fundraiser revenue is to find the best fundraising platform. You can take advantage of online fundraising platforms to provide you the tools you need to carry out your fundraising campaign digitally.
It’s relatively easy to create an account, upload photos and videos, and share your fundraising campaign to potential donors on social media using the right fundraising platform. For instance, here’s the story of successful fundraising activity—a research foundation for a one-year-old patient with a muscle-wasting disease was sufficiently funded as many people saw the initiative online.
2. Set Up A Recurring Fundraising Program
One of the effective ways to maximize fundraiser revenue is setting up recurring donations. It’s easier to make monthly donations to help drive up a predictable fundraiser revenue. But how do you set up such a program? Here are some of the best practices you can implement:
- Give donors several options, including making their donation as a recurring gift via an online donation form or text to give options like the one from Rally Corp.
- Provide options to set the schedule for recurring gifts weekly, monthly, or annually.
- You can collect recurring payments automatically through a credit card or automated clearing house (ACH).
- You can set up a system to receive donation notifications and correct donation errors.
- Give donors a chance to handle their recurring donations themselves. Allow them to update their profile information via an online portal.
3. Think Of New Fundraising Events
Holding the same fundraising events could look and feel dull for members and donors. So, why not create new fundraising strategies that are new and more fun?
By implementing new fundraising events, people will find more good reasons to donate and avoid doubts about the legitimacy of your campaign. You’d be able to encourage more people to attend your fun activities, but make sure to ensure proper crowd control to avoid facing any problem.
Check the following suggestions of cool fundraising events you can try:
- Hold an auction or bidding for an art painting or sculpture made by one of your foundation’s beneficiaries.
- Hold a photo, article, or video post sponsorship contest, showing the charity works and virtues of an individual or company.
- Sell digital tickets for a live webinar wherein people can learn new knowledge or skill with certification.
- Sell items made of recyclable materials to show your foundation or group also cares about the environment.
- Launch a digital raffle draw and offer prizes such as an e-book or a movie.
4. Promote Healthy Team Competitions
It’s a good idea to have a healthy competition in your fundraising event to maximize revenue. This tactic will help motivate team members by going the extra mile. Team captains can provide their support because they have personal connections with their members, helping achieve your common goals.
You can use a fundraising platform or software program and ask participants to join a team. By doing so, they can share and read personal stories to feel part of the worthwhile journey together wherever they are across the globe.
5. Cultivate Donor Relationship
One of the fundraising mistakes being committed is the failure to establish a consistent and good relationship with donors. You can’t just accept money, thank them, and go on to the next donor or project.
While people give money or donate the first time, you want them to be part of your advocacy throughout your fundraising journey to help maximize your revenue. That’s why it’s crucial to cultivate and automate donor relationships. Here’s how you can go about this endeavor:
Identify The Fundraising Lifecycle Stage
An important step to accomplish this goal is to identify where the donors belong in the fundraising life cycle. For instance, a donor could be a prospective donor, a one-time donor, or a repeat or monthly donor. By identifying the donor’s life cycle in your fundraising campaign, you can create targeted and personalized communication strategies to help nurture your relationship.
Use A Reliable Fundraising Platform
With the help of a fundraising platform or software program, you can automate each step of donor relationship management activities, helping you save time and effort. In this way, you can concentrate more on creating the right donor cultivation strategies to drive up your revenue.
Leverage Donor Data
You can raise money more effectively by considering your members as donors. Therefore, you need to keep a donor profile for all your members. Don’t forget to include a comprehensive view of the touchpoints, communications, past campaigns, and the giving history of your members.
6. Include Everyone
A fundraising campaign is more successful if you include all significant people. Charity work is a collaboration of passionate, motivated, and capable individuals. If you include more people in your event, you’ll encourage teamwork and come up with fruitful rewards, accelerating your revenue. Check out these tips to realize this goal:
- Ask followers, members, and donors to share your posts on social media to spread the word.
- You can conduct a survey and ask some suggestions from your donors and members about possible fundraising events you can initiate in the future.
- Don’t feel bad if you hear some negative comments from donors. Take them as positive criticisms to improve your next event.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to maximize fundraiser revenue. You can think of creative ideas to maximize yours by using the best fundraising platforms and having the right attitude and perspective. Brainstorm with your team and come up with the best fundraising events that can wow your target audience and prospective donors.