Sustainable Support: 4 Year-Round Fundraising Ideas
If your nonprofit is like most, you probably bring in most of your individual donations in waves. Whether you’re hosting a fundraising event or launching your year-end giving campaign, there are a few times during the year when you can bank on receiving many gifts in a short period. Knowing this is helpful for planning significant projects—for instance, you might choose to start a new program in May with the funds you raise from your April gala.
However, your nonprofit still has to run its existing programs and pay its bills year-round. So, you also need consistent revenue coming in between larger campaigns and events to achieve financial stability and ensure your organization can thrive in every season.
In this guide, we’ll discuss four easy year-round fundraising ideas that your nonprofit can add to its strategy for a more sustainable revenue model. Let’s get started!
1. Online Shopping Fundraisers
Online shopping fundraisers allow supporters to contribute to your nonprofit by making purchases from participating e-commerce businesses. Whether they’re buying household essentials or holiday gifts, a portion of their sales totals go directly to your mission at no additional cost to them or your organization.
As ShopRaise’s guide to shopping for a cause explains, your nonprofit can launch this year-round fundraising campaign in three easy steps:
- Register with an online shopping fundraiser platform. Choose a program that works with a wide network of businesses and handles all retailer negotiations for participating organizations. Once you sign up, their team will walk you through a simple onboarding process, answer any questions you may have, and create a branded landing page and other promotional materials for your campaign.
- Spread the word to your supporters. While actually running an online shopping fundraiser is fairly hands-off, you’ll need to actively market your campaign to maximize participation. Leverage your nonprofit’s website, email marketing, social media, and print communications to share instructions for getting started and remind supporters to continue shopping for your cause.
- Track your fundraising results. This is the other hands-on aspect of online shopping fundraisers—analyzing the real-time data tracked by your fundraising platform. The insights you gain will help you thank your top supporters individually and hone your marketing strategy as the campaign continues.
On your supporters’ end, all they need to do is download your fundraising platform’s app or browser extension and use it as they make purchases. This is the only difference between shopping for your cause and regular online shopping—participants pay the same prices for items and have access to the same discounts they normally would. Ensure your platform also protects their privacy by only showing you their names and fundraising totals, not their specific purchases.
2. Gift Card Fundraising
Another way supporters can shop for your nonprofit’s cause is through gift card fundraising. Similarly to online shopping fundraisers, a portion of each gift card purchase goes directly to your nonprofit at no additional cost to you or the buyer.
Choose a gift card fundraising platform that provides digital gift cards so they’re delivered to supporters’ inboxes within minutes of purchase. From there, the buyer has a few options for what to do with their gift card:
- Forward the email to a friend or family member to give them the card as a gift.
- Use the card for their own online or in-person purchases so they can give back while shopping or eating out.
- Pay for their purchases through your online shopping fundraiser with a fundraising gift card, thereby contributing even more to your nonprofit!
For the most success with this fundraiser, consider launching your campaign in November. Gift card sales are among the best holiday fundraisers, and this allows plenty of time for supporters to buy gifts in support of your cause. However, there are plenty of other occasions for which supporters may need to buy presents, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and other seasonal occasions, making this a strong year-round campaign idea as well.
3. Monthly Giving Programs
Your nonprofit may already have an annual giving program that allows you to raise unrestricted funds and retain donors year-to-year. However, focusing on monthly giving in addition to your annual efforts maximizes these benefits while providing even more consistent revenue for your organization.
Here are some tips to make the most of your nonprofit’s monthly giving program:
- Make opting in as easy as possible. All donors should have to do to join the program is click one button on your online donation page to activate automated recurring giving. This could be a checkbox that says something like “Make this gift a monthly donation” or a toggle where donors can switch between a “One-Time” and “Recurring” option.
- Invite annual donors to give monthly. For instance, if one supporter has given $200 every year for the past three years, send them a personalized donation request asking if they’d consider donating $20 per month instead. They’ll be able to donate more conveniently thanks to automation, and you’ll receive $40 more from them each year.
- Use a secure payment processing tool. Look for a processor that is PCI-compliant or PCI-certified to keep monthly donors’ credit card and bank account information safe while it’s on file with your organization.
While you don’t have to send a tailored thank-you message every time a monthly donation is processed (an automated confirmation email is sufficient), monthly donors deserve additional recognition for their generosity at least once a year. This could take the form of a handwritten card, a small gift of branded merchandise, or an invitation to a donor appreciation dinner that builds community among your recurring supporters.
4. Text-to-Give
Many nonprofits use text-to-give as a supplement to their other fundraising campaigns. For example, since four in 10 people don’t regularly carry cash with them, organizations are starting to replace donation jars at in-person events with appeals for mobile contributions.
However, text donations can also function as a standalone, year-round fundraiser. According to Tatango’s text-to-give guide, here are the basic steps to get started:
- Sign up with a text-to-give provider. Once you’re registered, they’ll assign your nonprofit a five-digit shortcode or 10-digit longcode that supporters will text to donate.
- Choose keywords for your campaigns. Pick a general phrase for regular giving as well as unique keywords for each event or campaign you plan to supplement with text-to-give so you can track where your donations come from.
- Share the keywords with your supporters. Texting a keyword to your shortcode or longcode will trigger an automatic SMS message with a link to your online donation form where they’ll complete their gift.
Before you launch a text-to-give campaign, ensure your online donation page is optimized for mobile use (i.e., it should automatically resize for different screens, and all form fields and buttons should be large enough to tap without accidentally clicking something else). This way, it’ll be as easy as possible for supporters to fill out the form on their smartphones.
Not only do these year-round fundraisers provide your nonprofit with consistent revenue, but they can also boost donor engagement. When supporters contribute on a recurring basis, your mission remains top of mind, and they’re more likely to feel a sense of loyalty to your nonprofit. In turn, this leads them to get involved with your work in other ways—and to stay involved long-term.