Increasing donations to your organization is an obvious strategy that any cause needs to get off the ground. Donations are sometimes an integral part of some organizations and they may be used to benefit other fundraisers. Regardless of why your organization asks for donations, asking people to donate money to your organization is no easy task.

What to Keep In Mind

Asking for donations is not the easiest process for raising money for your organization, but it doesn't need to be the hardest.

One simple fact of the matter is that the first step of each donation you receive comes with capturing your audience’s attention.

In our fast-paced, short attention span society, this is not an easy task, however, there are strategies involved to capture your audiences’ attention and keep them interested.

The more donors you keep interested and attract, the more donations you will be receiving.

Quick Reads

• Text Message Campaigns
• Snail Mail Campaigns
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Blog
• Donation Software
• Multiple Platforms
• Compelling Stories
• Recurring Donations
• Charity Events
• Personalized Messages
• Thank You Notes
• Peer-to-Peer
• Share Reviews
• Share Stories
• Share Progress

Email & SMS Campaigns

Written fundraising campaigns are important because they are able to spread a larger quantity of information regarding your donation campaign in one letter.

Recurring written campaigns can also consistently remind potential donors about current campaigns as well as future ones.

This can help remind your donors to give donations, increasing the number of donations you accept.

1. Email Campaigns

Email Campaigns to subscribers can help inform donors of past/current/future campaigns.

Using this platform you can write emails that can educate and motivate your donors to make donations. Different email formats can include:

1. An email about a new campaign coming up
2. Updates on a current campaign
3. End of campaign
4. Past campaign success stories
5. Weekly emails to keep donors engaged between campaigns

Ensure that your donation link always includes somewhere easily visible for your donors when they open their emails.

In addition, verify that the format can be read in both mobile and desktop because around half the population reads their emails on a mobile device.

2. Text Message Campaigns

Text messages are the best way to reach people in today’s day and age.

Since people check their phones once every 12 minutes, it is the best way to capture your donor’s attention and ensure that they see your messages.

If you have a CRM database you will likely have all your previous donor’s phone numbers so it will be easy to send an automated text to ask for donations.

3. Snail Mail Campaigns

Snail Mail has been in decreasing use over the past few years as technology, email, and instant messaging have been used in a higher volume.

However, this does not mean that sending campaigns through snail mail is not a useful strategy.

Your donors are receiving less snail mail now so this means you will have less competition if you send your campaigns in this format.

This will mean that your donors are more likely to have their attention captured when you send them a donation campaign through this medium.

Social Media Campaigns

Social Media is prevalent in our society today.

People spend around 144 minutes on social media per day.

This high volume of time spent on social media means that your potential donors could be attained through this platform, increasing your donations.

4. Facebook

With over 2.6 billion monthly users on its platform, Facebook is a great way to spread the word to your donors on your campaigns.

You can host a page for your organization and with Facebook’s integrated donation widget, you can accept donations straight through Facebook.

However, it can be hard to be seen by your donors through all the clutter on Facebook. To clear the clutter and be sure to show in people’s feeds, you can create a Facebook ad that integrates your donation request.

5. Instagram

Instagram, unlike Facebook, can be overlooked when creating social media campaigns.

However, Instagram has over 1 billion users and continues to grow. Using Instagram Donation Sticker in the stories function for your organization can not only promote your campaign but collect donations straight from the platform as well.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a separate account for non-profit organizations. Using this account you can use their fundraising tools to capture new donors as well as convincing you donors to give you increasing donations.

7. Blogging

Utilizing a blog can attract new donors as well as update your current donors about the progress in your campaigns.

Write multiple blog posts throughout the campaign and incorporate photos or videos that can influence your donors' emotions to donate more.

This keeps your donor base active and updated on the progress of your campaigns and organizations

Internal Strategy

Changes in your internal strategy can also increase the donations you accept. Making the right strategic choices can benefit your organization greatly.

8. Use Donation Software

Using donation software not only helps you manage your donations and contacts but also helps you pick up new leads on potential donors that are likely to be more philanthropic.

With a large amount of donation software out there, you need to pick the right one for your needs. Using the right donation software you can increase the number of donations you receive in an automated fashion.

9. Multiple Donation Platforms

Using only one platform such as email campaigns is not conducive to spreading the word and collecting large amounts of donations.

Using multiple donation platforms can attract different demographics and spread the word about your campaign in different ways.

Users of Instagram and Snail Mail would be very demographics, but reaching out to both expand the number of potential donors, which then increases the number of donations you receive.

10. Tell Compelling Stories

Compelling stories that your organization can tell can drive donors to donate more.

Spreading these stories can create an emotional response for people to feel the need to donate in order to feel better about themselves.

Use these stories on your campaigns that illustrate how the donations can end up helping those in need.

11. Recurring Donations

Having a donor sign up for recurring donations is an easy way to increase your donations.

With many businesses today switching to subscriptions for their entertainment, people are used to paying for things on a monthly basis, so why not donations.

Recurring Donations will make it easier for your organization because each month the donation will automatically come without any additional campaigns that you would need to spend your time on.

This gives your organization time to devote to finding new donors to increase donations

12. Charity Events

Hosting Charity Events is a great way to increase donations in person.

These events put people in the mindset of being in a giving mood when they arrive, and so when asking for donations when they are already in the set mood, they will be a higher chance for them to contribute a larger donation.

Personalize the Donation Process

Personalizing your donation process can help your donors feel more connected to your organization.

This sense of connection can increase sales and donations and improve relationships with current donors.

13. Personalized Messages

Personalized messages will help increase donations because they are directed at the specific donor.

This overrules the bystander effect which leads people to believe someone else would help so they do not need to.

When being addressed directly, people are less inclined to avoid giving a donation.

14. Thank You Notes

Thank you notes show gratitude to your donors in supporting your organization.

These types of notes show that you value your donor’s contribution which will give them more reason to keep on giving.

Word of Mouth

Why do all the work if your donors can also spread the message of your campaign for you?

Letting your donors spread the word and fundraise for you give your organization more time to search for new potential donors.

15. Peer-to-Peer

Peer-to-peer fundraising allows your donors to fundraise on your behalf.

This allows them to spread the word about your campaigns without your organization needs to put in much work.

This way more potential donors see the campaign and will be more likely to donate.

16. Supporters Reviews

Posting supporter reviews is another way to let the donors do the talking.

This allows future potential donors to see the positive experiences previous donors had, to convince them also donate to your organization

17. Share Stories

Sharing stories about where the donations go and who they help makes the donations feel more real.

This allows the donors to make a connection to the difference they are making in the world. This convinces donors that donating to your organization actually is making a difference.

18. Share Progress

Sharing the progress of your donors’ donations will incentivizing your donors to help you reach your goal.

This gamification strategy for donations creates a fun way for your donors to donate more because they can see the donations slowly reaching your goal, and could low-key implant an endorphin-inducing visual that could make a few key donors donate more to reach the goal if you're ever-close to it.

Wrapping It Up

Each of these strategies can be implemented to increase donations for your fundraising campaigns, however, some may work better than others for your specific organizations.

Look for what your organization is missing and what it needs to pick the best strategies to improve your campaigns.

If you come up with any other tips let us know! We hope you all the best in your fundraising campaigns!

If you're looking for an all-in-one software that not only helps manage and promote your donation campaigns, but set up events, webinars, manage contacts, and more, consider booking a demo with Glue Up to see how our platform has helped organizations like yours run amazing events and make smarter decisions.