Starts January 28! Earn a 2026 Certificate in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Marketing & Fundraising 18 Oct 5:20 PM (4 days ago)

The 2026 Certificate in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Marketing & Fundraising program provides an honest, practical approach to using AI for nonprofit marketing and fundraising—and illuminates why AI literacy is a must-have skill for 2025 and onward.

6 High-Impact Upgrades for Your Next Golf Fundraiser 16 Oct 4:39 AM (7 days ago)

By Jen Wemhoff, Communications Manager at GolfStatus – the leading event management platform for golf fundraisers.

Charity golf tournaments have long been a go-to fundraising choice for nonprofits of all types and sizes. They offer a unique mix of fun, networking, and philanthropy that’s hard to replicate with other fundraising events. Golfers get a day on the course, sponsors gain visibility and engagement, and your organization raises critical funds and awareness for your mission.

The beauty of golf as a fundraising tool is its inherent flexibility. There’s plenty of room to add creative, cost-effective extras that not only elevate the player experience and generate excitement, but also, and perhaps most importantly, boost revenue. Whether you’re planning your first charity golf tournament or you’ve been running one for years, these six high-impact add-ons can help take your event to the next level.

1) Professional Event Website

First impressions matter. A polished, professional event website builds credibility and makes it easy for golfers, sponsors, and supporters to learn more about your tournament and get involved with just a few clicks. With the right event management platform, your golf tournament website can:

• Showcase your mission
• Provide an easy, intuitive registration and payment process
• Offer sponsor visibility and exposure
• Get participants excited for on-course games, contests, auctions, or raffles
• Share event details, updates, pairings, and results

Having everything available in one central place keeps golfers and sponsors informed and engaged while streamlining planning, promotion, and registration. Plus, the online visibility opens doors for attracting teams and sponsors beyond your immediate network.

2) Live Scoring

Live scoring brings an element of excitement and interactivity to your tournament. Golfers can track their performance, view the leaderboard in real time, and stay engaged throughout the round.

From an organizer’s perspective, live scoring allows you to track the round’s progress and eliminates the hassle of tallying paper scorecards. You’ll have instant results and will know when you need to be ready for awards ceremonies or other post-golf festivities. Plus, you can even display leaderboards on screens in the clubhouse or on-course comfort stations.

Live scoring also opens new sponsorship opportunities and digital exposure. The live leaderboard is prime real estate that commands the attention of every golfer, and in-app hole sponsor exposure adds value without extra costs.

3) Digital Sponsorships

Golf tournaments naturally come with opportunities for on-course recognition, but digital sponsorships expand the possibilities—with little to no cost to your tournament. Think sponsor logos on the tournament website, live scoring app, and live leaderboards. These types of digital placements add additional value for sponsors looking for extra visibility and give tournament organizers more options to build in exposure.

You might also build in digital perks like sponsor spotlights on social media, mentions in event day app push notifications, or clickable links on your organization and tournament websites. These options are low or no-cost to implement but add significant ROI for your event’s sponsors.

4) Custom Pin Flags

Pin flags give your tournament an unmatched professional look and feel. Replace the standard golf course flags on the greens with custom flags that feature sponsor logos and messaging, your nonprofit’s branding, or a combination of the two. Sponsors will love the broad exposure they get across the golf course, which can be sold at a premium.

And better yet, the flags can be offered as keepsakes to sponsors, beneficiaries, volunteers, or donors after the event or used as a raffle prize or auction item. Flags are a tangible, lasting reminder of their support of your nonprofit and golf event, and a great incentive for them to return for next year’s tournament. The pin flag add-on raises extra revenue while strengthening relationships.

5) Hole-In-One Contests

Few things generate more buzz on the course than hole-in-one contests. By purchasing contest insurance, you can offer exciting, high-value rewards—like cash or golf trips—without the risk of having to cover the cost of the prize yourself if someone gets an ace. Offer one contest on a single par three hole or include multiple contests across the course. Promote the contest and prizes in your tournament marketing to get golfers and sponsors excited about it and eager to participate.

These contests energize golfers and give sponsors a chance to associate their brand with a high-stakes, high-fun challenge and engage with golfers. They’re a proven way to enhance the golfer experience while creating more sponsorship options.

6) Hole Signs

Hole sponsorships are one of the most common (and profitable) add-ons for charity golf events. They’re simple to set up and sell, offer clear visibility for businesses, and can even be sold at multiple price points to appeal to a wider range of sponsors. Post hole signs bearing sponsor logos and/or messaging about your nonprofit on tee boxes for the greatest visibility. You might even give sponsors the option to set up a booth or activity on the hole to further engage with golfers.

Take your hole signs up a notch by incorporating QR codes that link directly to sponsor websites, social media pages, special offers, or your donation page, or pair hole signs with in-app sponsor exposure. These ideas help bridge the gap between on-course visibility and real-time engagement, giving sponsors measurable value beyond event day.

2025 Online Fundraising Statistics for Nonprofits 11 Oct 8:37 PM (11 days ago)

A supplemental post to 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, the statistics listed below can guide your nonprofit in creating and maintaining a successful online fundraising strategy.

Online Fundraising Strategy

• 93% of nonprofits believe that a strong brand identity has a positive impact on donor engagement. [99designs]
• 75% of donors look for concrete information about a nonprofit’s achievements before making a decision to give. [DonorDirect]
• 48% of donors cite email as their preferred method of hearing updates and appeals from the organization. Direct mail was the second most preferred channel at 21%, followed by social media (17%), text messaging (8%), and phone calls (2%). [Neon One]
• 72% of individuals say that the presence of a charity rating badge increases their likelihood of giving. [Great Nonprofits]
• 84% of online donors are more likely to give if their donations are matched by their employer. [Double the Donation]
• The current donor retention rate is 41.9%. [Fundraising Effectiveness Project]
• Frequent, consistent communication with online donors results in a 41.5% increase in revenue. [NextAfter]
• The average return on ad spend (ROAS) for fundraising ads on Meta platforms is $0.50 USD. [M+R Benchmarks]

Online Giving

• The average gift made on desktop devices is $194; for mobile users, the average gift is $94. [M+R Benchmarks]
• 25% of online donations were made on a mobile device in 2022. [M+R Benchmarks]
• 30% of all online giving occurs in December and 10% occurs in the last three days of the year. [Bonterra]
• 33% of online donors give tribute gifts to family and friends. Donors are most interested in giving tribute gifts as memorials (43%), birthday gifts (25%), and for religious holidays (10%)
• $222 is the median amount raised by one-time peer-to-peer fundraisers; $501 is the median amount raised by return fundraisers. [Classy]
• GivingTuesday 2023 raised $3.1 billion—only 0.6% higher than 2022—and 10% fewer people participated. [GivingTuesday]

Monthly Giving

• The average monthly gift is $25. [M+R Benchmarks]
• Monthly giving accounts for 28% of all online revenue. [M+R Benchmarks]
• 16% of nonprofits use pop-ups to prompt one-time donors to become monthly donors. [Nonprofit Tech for Good Report]
• ACH monthly donors are retained for 20% longer because there is no expiration date like credit cards. [Classy]

Website Fundraising

• Visitors on desktop devices make up the majority of donation transactions (63%) and revenue (75%). [M+R Benchmarks]
• 0.23% of organic website visitors made a donation, generating an average of $0.77 per visitor.[M+R Benchmarks]
• 68% of online donors most trust websites and email addresses that use the .org domain. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• 50% of online donors will opt-in to pay credit card processing fees. [Classy]
• 72% of individuals say that the presence of a charity rating badge on a donation page increases their likelihood of giving.

Email Fundraising

• 26% of donors say that email is the tool that most inspires them to give (25% social media, website 17%, print 13%). [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• 45% of online donors say that email is the communication method most likely to inspire repeat donations (25% social media, 13% print, 10% a handwritten note, 7% a phone call). [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• Email messaging results in 14% of all online revenue in 2022. [M+R Benchmarks]
• For every 1,000 fundraising messages sent, nonprofits raised $90 in 2022.  [M+R Benchmarks]
• Email revenue on Giving Tuesday declined by 18% in 2022. [M+R Benchmarks]
• Donor retention increases by 29% for offline donors when you have their email address. [NextAfter]

Social Media Fundraising

• Giving through Facebook Fundraising Tools resulted in 1.1% of all online revenue for nonprofits in 2022. [M+R Benchmarks]
• 89% of donors who have donated through Facebook Fundraising Tools say they are likely to do so again. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• 93% of donors who have donated through Instagram Fundraising Tools say they are likely to do so again. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• The average Facebook Fundraiser has four gifts that average $34 USD. [M+R Benchmarks]

Online Donors

• 54% of US households donate to charity. [YouGov]
• 51% of donations are made by women and 63% of GivingTuesday donations are made by women. [Women’s Philanthropy Institute]
• 88% of the Silent Generation gives to charity, donating an annual average of $1,367 across 6.2 organizations. [AARP]
• 72% give to charity, donating an annual average of $1,212 across an average of 4.5 organizations. [AARP]
• Gen X donates an average annual gift of $732 across four charities and leads in annual volunteer hours served. [Nonprofit Pro]
• 84% give to charity, donating an annual average of $481 across 3.3 organizations. [AARP]
• 8% of donors give stock or mutual funds to nonprofits and 4% donate to Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• 66% of donors worldwide volunteer with nonprofits. Of those, 73% donate to the nonprofits they volunteer for. [Global Trends in Giving Report]
• Affluent households give an average of $34,917 to charity. [Bank of America Study of Philanthropy]

Our Certificate in Digital Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of website design, email marketing, online fundraising, and social media for nonprofits.

The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. To earn the certificate, you can attend the webinars live or view the recordings – or a combination of both. Learn more & register!

[Free Mini Webinar] How Nonprofit Professionals Can AI-Proof Their Careers 5 Oct 7:26 PM (17 days ago)

Early adopter marketing and fundraising professionals are experimenting with generative AI, but as we speed towards achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), working with predictive and agentic AI are also must-have skills of the future.

Join this free 20-minute webinar to become AI-literate in the concepts most immediately to impact your career so you can start the process of upskilling now and thrive in your career for years to come.

10 Online Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits 5 Oct 4:52 AM (18 days ago)

This is the fifth post in a blog and webinar series called 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, written and presented by Heather Mansfield. Please sign up for Nonprofit Tech for Good’s email newsletter to be alerted of new posts. Thank you!

Related Webinar: Online Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits

The first “Donate Now” button was released in 1999 by a project of the Tides Foundation called Groundspring (acquired by Network for Good in 2005) and for the next two decades, nonprofit professionals have embraced the study of inspiring people to give online to good causes. Innovation in online fundraising was driven by the release of new technology, such as email marketing services like MailChimp in 2001, the launch of WordPress (a content management system now used by 44% of nonprofits worldwide) in 2003, and social networking websites beginning with Myspace in 2005.

Today, nonprofits worldwide have access to online fundraising tools that could not have been imagined at the turn of the millennium, and current best practices are shaped by 20+ years of innovation and experimentation.

1) Implement donation page best practices.

Even though billions of dollars have been raised online since 1999, it’s surprising how many nonprofits make the donation process more complicated than it should be. As a general rule, donations pages should be simple, optimized for mobile giving, and ask for the minimal amount of information required to make a donation and to capture a donor’s contact information.

The third post in this series, 10 Donation Page Best Practices for Nonprofits, provides detailed advice, but its worth reiterating that the first step in being successful in online fundraising is having well-designed, data-driven donation pages.

Launched in 2002, GlobalGiving.org is a crowdfunding platform for NGOs, charities, and nonprofits worldwide which has raised nearly $500 million online. Likely a sign of best practices to come, their donation pages simply ask for credit card information and an email address (not a mailing address) and have an extensive offering of different ways to donate. A pioneer of crowdfunding and online fundraising, GlobalGiving.org is a site to study and learn from.

To make a credit card donation on GlobalGiving.org, donors do not need to enter a mailing address:

GlobalGiving.org offers multiple ways to give in order to accommodate donors worldwide:

2) Proactively promote your monthly giving program.

According to the 2020 Benchmarks Report, revenue from monthly gifts increased by 22% in 2019 and now accounts for 17% of all online revenue for nonprofits. Also, data from the 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report reveals that 45% of online donors worldwide are enrolled in a monthly giving program. An ever-growing consistent revenue stream, nonprofits would be wise to proactively and enthusiastically promote their monthly giving program.

To begin, create a page on your website that explains the benefits of your monthly giving program and that includes a donation form where monthly giving is the only option. For example, Alley Cat Allies’ Cat-alyst Society – Monthly Giving Program:

This page should have a URL that can be easily promoted in print newsletters and postcard campaigns, such as alleycat.org/givemonthly. Another option is to register a domain name and have it redirect to your monthly giving program page, such as JoinCat-alystSociety.org or GiveMonthlytoAlleyCat.org. This can be easily done at a low-cost through any domain registrar. If you want to name your monthly giving program or its members, here are 30 ideas to spark your creativity.

Once you have your page set-up, the success of your monthly giving program depends upon how you promote it. Here are a few ideas:

• Print: Create and publish an ad for your monthly giving program in every edition of your print newsletter that includes the URL. It’s also worth sending a postcard campaign to your one-time donors asking them to become monthly donors. Every fundraising appeal sent should also include a pitch to become a monthly donor.
• Email: In e-newsletters, regularly include a pitch to become a monthly donor. Be sure that your pitch is visual whether that’s a graphic or image in the body of the email, or a header or footer banner. In email fundraising appeals, send a pitch to one-time donors asking them to upgrade to become a monthly donor. And don’t be shy about sending emails! Most small to medium-sized nonprofits send too few emails which is a lost opportunity. For detailed best practices on how to use email effectively, see 10 Email Marketing Best Practices for Nonprofits.
• Social Media: To effectively promote your monthly giving program on social media, you’ll need to create a series of promo graphics that are properly sized for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. (2021 Social Media Size Guide). Also, with organic reach at an all-time low, your nonprofit should invest in social media advertising. Facebook has the highest ROI and it is worth investing $100-500 in a test advertising campaign for your monthly giving program.
• Your Website: According to NextAfter, a pop-up on your one-time donation page can result in a 64% increase in monthly donations. Add a pop-up! Also, if your nonprofit’s website has empty space on its sidebar, create and embed an ad for your monthly giving program. Finally, be sure to list your monthly giving program on your “Ways to Give” page. Please see 10 Website Design Best Practices for Nonprofits for further inspiration.

All that said, here’s some very useful advice on monthly giving programs from Funraise: Have a process in place for when credit cards expire and a well-planned strategy for monthly donor retention.

3) Launch a tribute giving program.

A good fundraising platform will offer the ability to add an honor or memorial gift option to a nonprofit’s primary donation page, but as discussed in 10 Donation Page Best Practices for Nonprofits, a good fundraising platform will also allow nonprofits to create multiple donation pages. For example, the Nature Conservancy offers both honor gifts and memorial gifts – each with their own donation page.

Nature Conservancy Honorary Gift Donation Page:

Nature Conservancy Memorial Gift Donation Page:

Both gifts are then featured on page dedicated to Tribute Giving:

And then their Tribute Giving page is listed on their “Other Ways to Give” page:

This website structure for featuring honor and memorial gifts works well for all nonprofits, but of course with your branding and promotional text.

Launching a tribute giving program is worth the investment of your time. According to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 33% of donors worldwide give tribute gifts. To grow your tribute giving program, use the advice above for promoting your monthly giving program and ramp up promotion during holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid al-Fitr, etc.). Let your supporters know year-round that tribute gifts make great birthday gifts too.

4) Know the power of email fundraising.

A telltale sign that a nonprofit does not understand the power of email fundraising is visiting their website and not finding a prominently featured email opt-in. If a nonprofit is not actively promoting thus growing their email list, then there’s a knowledge gap at that organization. Despite the popular myth which asserts that email is dying, the truth is that email use is growing with all age groups worldwide.

The power of email is detailed in 10 Email Marketing Best Practices for Nonprofits, but it is worth mentioning again: according to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 27% of online donors say that email is the tool that most inspires them to give (social media 29%, 18% website, 12% print). More interesting is that 63% of donors worldwide say that regular email communication about the impact of their donation is what inspires them most often to give again. Compare that to 36% that said social media and 19% that said print. Using email for fundraising and donor retention is cost-effective and its power is backed up by data:

5) Prioritize a matching gifts strategy.

Announcing to donors that their online gift will be matched by a major donor or a corporation (or small business) can increase revenue by as much as 19%. Matching gift fundraising appeals also significantly increase the probability that an individual will donate – by 22%. If your nonprofit is not currently integrating matching gifts into your annual fundraising plan, then you’re missing an opportunity to raise more online with relatively little effort.

Odds are you already have a major donor in your network willing to allocate their donation towards a matching gift campaign. Corporations can be solicited to match up to the first $10,000 in donations made (or more) in exchange for mentioning their company in your email campaigns, on your website, and on social media. They also get a tax write-off, so it’s a win-win for both. A matching gift strategy could also be applied to local nonprofits on a smaller scale. For example, secure five local community sponsors that will give $2,000 each and create a $10,000 matching gift campaign.

To begin, make of list of potential donors and sponsors and then invite them to participate through one-on-one stewardship. That’s the traditional way to do it. You may be surprised, however, that actively seeking matching gift donors and sponsors publicly works as well. Create a page on your website with a call-to-action and a list of the benefits of becoming a matching gifts sponsor and then promote this page in email and on social media. A public search has a way of getting in front of new eyes, thus new donors and sponsors. Other ideas for promotion include an ad in your print newsletter and listing the opportunity on your “More Ways to Give” page.

The Audubon Society uses a matching gift strategy to grow its monthly donors. They send multiple emails and promote the campaign on social media:

Oxfam America communicates a sense of urgency surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and lists a short deadline to give and have gifts matched:

Another type of matching gift strategy is using a service like Double the Donation which allows online donors to search for their employer directly from a donation form to see if their company matches their donation. Double the Donation is only open to U.S. nonprofits and performs best for large national organizations or for local organizations located in cities where major corporations are based who embrace workplace giving. For example, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society:

Customized for small nonprofits on a limited budget, the Online Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits webinar highlights current trends in online fundraising, such as monthly giving, tribute giving, crowdfunding, and donation page best practices.

6) Experiment with crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising.

Crowdfunding is when a nonprofit creates an online fundraising campaign to fund a specific project or program. They promote the campaign to their supporters and donors and aim to reach a fundraising goal. For example, a crowdfunding campaign created by the Orange Country United Way on GoFundMe Charity is raising fund for their Pandemic Relief Fund:

The primary concept is that many donors come together to fund one project or program. Donors can leave comments and share the crowdfunding campaign with their networks on social media. It’s worth noting that GoFundMe has found that 1 out of every 5 donors will share the campaign following their donation and that the average amount generated by a donor’s share was $15.

If your nonprofit is new to crowdfunding, start with a $5-25,000 fundraising goal, promote the campaign via email and on social media, and learn and improve as the campaign develops. Often, setting a deadline to fund the campaign will help your nonprofit reach its goal.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is when a nonprofit asks many individuals to help fundraise by creating their own fundraising pages. Fundraisers ask their friends and family to donate to their fundraising pages and all funds go to support the nonprofit. Here’s a good visual from Classy.org on the difference between crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising:

Peer-to-peer fundraising is very powerful for endurance events (walk, run, etc.), birthday campaigns (Facebook Fundraisers), and for timely, news-driven events (Black Lives Matter). First-time fundraisers raise an average of $222 while return fundraisers raise an average of $501.

Nonprofits have many peer-to-peer fundraising platforms to choose from that allow custom campaign pages and a suite of features. Or, if you use a premium fundraising platform, such as Funraise or Classy, peer-to-peer fundraising is often included in your suite of fundraising tools – or offered through a third-party integration, such as DonorPerfect.

That said, advances in fundraising technology are merging the two concepts together. Nonprofits can create crowdfunding campaigns for a specific project or campaign and in addition to collecting online donations, offer the ability for individuals to create fundraising pages to help crowdfund the project or campaign. For example, the American Cancer Society on GoFundMe Charity:

7) Sign up for Facebook & Instagram Charitable Giving Tools.

People have donated over $3 billion through Facebook Charitable Giving Tools and according to the 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report, of those who have donated through Facebook, 89% said they would do so again. Not all donors trust giving through Facebook, but for those that do, it is worth taking the time to sign up. Once approved, you’ll be given access to four Facebook Charitable Giving Tools:

1. A “Donate” button for your page and posts
2. Page Fundraisers
3. Fundraiser Stickers for Facebook Stories
4. A Live Video “Donate” button

Nonprofits that use Facebook Charitable Giving Tools do not pay fees, however, the tools are not available in all countries. Learn more about Fees and view a list of countries where nonprofits are eligible. To sign up, you’ll need 3 things to complete an application to receive donations on Facebook:

It’s worth noting that fiscally-sponsored nonprofits can not sign up for Facebook Charitable Giving Tools. Your organization does need it’s own EIN number. Also, Facebook says the process takes 2-3 weeks, however, some nonprofits have said it can take 2-3 months.

It is worth noting that Facebook does not provide the mailing addresses of donors to nonprofits – only the email address if the donor opts-in to provide their email address through Facebook Pay > Settings > Email. That’s a deal-breaker for some nonprofits, but with the rapid shift to digital, nonprofits that embrace multiple channels for giving will raise the most in the coming years. To learn more and begin the sign-up process, visit (and bookmark) socialgood.fb.com/charitable-giving.

Because Facebook owns Instagram, it’s easy to sign up for Instagram Charitable Giving Tools. Simply:

1. Enroll and be approved to use Facebook Charitable Giving Tools.
2. Switch to an Instagram business account, if you haven’t already.
3. Link your nonprofit’s Instagram business account with your nonprofit’s verified Facebook Page.

Once completed, your nonprofit will be able to add a “Donate” Sticker to your Instagram Stories and a “Donate” button to your Instagram Profile, such as the YMCA of NYC:

Instagram has not released any information on how much has been raised through Instagram Charitable Giving Tools, but according to the 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report, of those who have donated through Instagram, 92% said they would do so again – a higher rate than Facebook donors.

8) Embrace cause awareness and giving days.

Nonprofits, regardless of their size, can tap into the power of cause awareness and giving days. Your nonprofit can create your own cause awareness day or giving day campaign, or build one around those that already exist, such as Earth Day (#EarthDay), International Youth Day (#YouthDay), and #GivingTuesday. For the campaign to be successful, your nonprofit needs at least six weeks to effectively create and launch a digital strategy for your campaign. To begin:

• Create a campaign landing page on your website (or a microsite) that prominently features the date and hashtag of the cause awareness or giving day and describes why the cause is important. It should also detail as least three actions that your donors and supporters can take on the awareness day, such as make a donation, sign a petition, share the page with their social networks, become a volunteer, and so on. Your landing page should also prominently feature a donate button, an email opt-in, and social media icons.
• If fundraising is central to your campaign, also create a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to encourage others to raise funds for your nonprofit during the campaign. If you do so, add a “Fundraise” button and pitch your awareness day landing page.
• Consider hosting a Tweet Chat, Facebook Live Video campaign, or webinar on the day of the campaign. Promotion for these online events should be integrated with your landing page and included in email promotions.
• Design a set of promotional images and graphics using a tool such as Canva in order to maximize promotion and sharing on mobile and social media. Be sure to embed your avatar or logo and embed hashtag for the campaign on the images and graphics.
• At least one month before the cause awareness or giving day, send out a save the date email announcing the campaign and ask donors and supporters to follow you on social networks so they can help promote your campaign to their social networks. If you will be running a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, encourage donors and supporters to create their fundraising pages in this email. In addition, send an email reminder one week before the cause awareness or giving day and again on the morning of.
• In the weeks and days before the cause awareness or giving day, send out countdown tweets, updates, and posts on social media. Always include the campaign’s hashtag and a link to your landing page.
• On the morning of the awareness day, your first tweet, update, and post should announce that it is a cause awareness day. For example, “It’s #WorldWaterDay! Help us provide clean water to the 780 million people worldwide who go without: yourlandingpage.org” These are consistently the most popular tweets and updates on social media. Pin, post, and retweet this announcement multiple times throughout the day for those in different time zones.
• On the day of your campaign, tweet and retweet a wide variety of content at least twice per hour and link to your landing page and use the campaign hashtag as often as possible in your tweets. For other social networks, post four to five times throughout the day. Investing in social ads in a wise investment on cause awareness and giving days Also, be sure to thank donors and supporters in real-time on  social media.
• In the days following the campaign, update your landing page. Summarize the campaign’s success and thank donors and supporters for their participation. In addition to fundraising totals, you could list the number of page views, retweets, and shares received as well as the number of petition signatories, volunteers, and so on. You should also announce the date of next year’s campaign, if known.

A good example to learn from is the website for World Oceans Day, however, it is worth noting that that the date of Worlds Oceans Day (June 6) is not prominently featured. It’s a somewhat confusing, yet very common omission. Nonprofits more often than not do not prominently feature the date of their cause awareness or giving day campaign on their landing pages or microsites.

9) Host virtual fundraising events.

COVID-19 has resulted in many nonprofits taking their in-person events online (conferences, panel discussions, concerts, dance parties, run/walks, cooking classes, galas, etc.). After COVID-19, many of your supporters will want to reconnect in-person, but virtual events are likely here to stay. Your nonprofits can use Facebook Live Video with the “Donate” button for real-time fundraising or create a more formal live online event using Zoom or GoToWebinar, and Eventbrite for online ticketing. Or if your nonprofit uses a service like MobileCause, you can easily set up online ticketing, an event website that comes with a fundraising thermometer, text reminders, and text-to-pledge.

Another idea is to embrace online auctions. The ability to launch online auctions may be included with your CRM & fundraising suite. If not, services like Auctria are affordable and easy-to-use.

All that said, if you are a small nonprofit with limited resources, keep it simple and do your research. WildApricot offers some advice on getting started with virtual fundraising events and MobileCause provides a very useful Virtual Fundraising Events Checklist & Planner. Also, Wired Impact lists virtual event success metrics for nonprofits to track and measure.

The Rainforest Alliance’s virtual global house party, Guardians of the Rainforest, raised $44,579.

See Hope Grow raised nearly $460,000 for TreeHouse teens.

10) Invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

A CRM is a database that captures information about your donors, members, and volunteers and enables your nonprofit to track donations, create fundraising reports, and analyze and compare fundraising campaigns. Today’s most effective CRMs are cloud-based to allow for easy management and remote access and integrate with commonly-used third-party tools, such as MailChimp, Facebook Charitable Giving Tools, and Apple Pay.

If your nonprofit is spending a lot of staff hours and financial resources maintaining an out-of-date CRM, then it may be time to research and select a new CRM that is better suited to modern fundraising trends. To get started, view this list of CRMs recommended by Nonprofit Tech for Good. In addition, when comparing CRMs, add Funraise and Keela to your list. A good first step is to download Keela’s CRM Buyer’s Guide:

A Final Word: Study and mimic large organizations similar to yours in mission and programs.

Small and medium-sized nonprofits can learn a lot by studying how large nonprofits fundraise online. Large nonprofits have expert staff and the resources necessary to embrace and test emerging trends. To begin, select five nonprofits similar to yours in mission and programs and analyze their website and donation pages. Be sure to subscribe to their email list and study their “Welcome Series.” Follow them on social media and pay attention to which posts get the most engagement. Also, make a small donation and study their “Thank You” landing page, their “Thank You” email, and subsequent follow-up emails.

101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits is a blog and webinar series (written and presented by Heather Mansfield) on website design, email marketing, online fundraising, and social media best practices for nonprofits, NGOs, and charities worldwide. Those who register and attend all three webinars in the series will earn a Certificate of Completion in Digital Marketing & Fundraising from Nonprofit Tech for Good.

5 Advantages Direct Mail Offers Nonprofits 20 Sep 7:35 AM (last month)

By Jessica Fox, writer at Eventgroove – a one-stop, integrated platform for events, fundraisers, and e-commerce driven to help its customers amplify their brand and reach their goals.

Inboxes (and the world) are more overwhelming than ever. So how do you get your cause to stand out?

Direct mail. Seriously. 

According to research, our brains process physical mail 21% faster than digital advertisements, requiring less cognitive effort to understand the message. On top of that, Canada Post’s neuromarketing studies found that brand recall was 70% higher for physical mail compared to digital ads. So, while our inboxes are overflowing with unread emails a postcard mailer or letter gets our attention.

This doesn’t mean your nonprofit needs to stop all its online outreach and put all its eggs in mail’s basket. Social media and email are extremely powerful and should be employed. But, by using all the tools available, you’re better able to increase engagement.

Here are five advantages direct mail offers for building stronger donor relationships.

1) Better Visibility

By its very nature physical mail demands attention in ways that online messaging cannot. You pick it up, hold it, toss it on the counter. That tactile, in-person quality is what makes it work so well. 

One way to incorporate it into your outreach is to send thank-you postcards right after donations. After all, your appreciation is genuine, and it will hit that way since your thanks are promptly received. 

Print excels at creating atmosphere, so another natural fit is seasonal campaigns. A beautifully designed holiday appeal or spring fundraiser postcard feels more intentional than the twentieth holiday email decked with festive emojis.

2) Bring Physical and Online Together

Effective direct mail campaigns don’t exist on an island. In fact, they work extremely well when combined with your online presence. QR codes are an excellent way to connect the two. Since you want supporters to act when they have your postcard in hand or see it sitting on their kitchen counter. Adding a QR code linked to a specific url lets supporters donate instantly while giving you tracking data to see what’s working.

A simple strategy: Use one QR code per campaign that links directly to your online fundraising event or volunteer registration. If you’re testing two different postcards, create two different landing pages so you can compare which approach gets better results. Just add a UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) to your url and use Google Analytics to track the results!

Want to get more sophisticated? Create URLs with UTMs for different segments of your mailing list – one for major donors, one for regular supporters, one for lapsed donors. This lets you see which groups respond best to direct mail and tailor future campaigns accordingly.

An example mailing sequence: Mail a postcard with a QR code linking to your donation page, follow up with an email a week later mentioning the card, then send a final, low-key reminder to anyone who hasn’t yet donated. Research has shown that doing so can boost response rates by 70% compared to direct mail alone.

3) Connection

In exchange for ease of use and lighting fast delivery, social media and email sacrifice human touch. By physically connecting, direct mail can feel genuine even when sent to hundreds of supporters.

Donor appreciation postcards work particularly well here. To make your mail feel even more personalized, include a brief, handwritten note, signature, reference their specific gift amount or the program they supported. 

Event invitations are also great for the tactile, person-to-person reason. The experience of receiving a beautifully designed postcard for your annual gala or fundraising walk somehow feels more real.

4) Thriftier Than You Think

One concern about direct mail is cost, but when used judiciously the return on investment is terrific. Studies show postcard mailers typically achieve 4.25-9% engagement rates, significantly higher than most email marketing benchmarks.

To make the most of what you spend, first try sending postcards to your most engaged donors. The people who consistently give, attend events, or volunteer are more likely to provide feedback, helping you to refine your strategy. From there, you can move on to testing letters or even printed brochures.

5) Nurturing Relationships

Like any kind of ask, it’s best to stay in touch rather than sending out a mail when you need something.

For new donors, send an immediate email receipt, then follow up with a welcome postcard that arrives 3-5 days later. After 30 days, send an impact email (maybe with link to a reel) showing what their donation accomplished. Follow that up with a printed newsletter or update every quarter. 

Physical mail can be particularly effective at helping you reconnect with donors you haven’t seen in a while. A letter that acknowledges their previous support and updates them on current results can get a better response than email, especially if they’ve stopped clicking on your messages.

Major donors appreciate printed annual reports, personalized impact statements, or special updates about specific programs they’ve supported.

Making Direct Mail Work for Your Organization

The wonderful thing about direct mail lies in its adjustability. You don’t need massive budgets or complex campaigns to get started. Begin with simple donor thank-you postcards or event invitations, track the results, then gradually expand what works.

Remember that direct mail works best as part of an integrated approach. Use it to complement your online efforts, not replace them. 

10 Blogging Best Practices for Nonprofits 15 Sep 5:18 PM (last month)

This is the third post in a blog and webinar series called 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, written and presented by Heather Mansfield. Please sign up for Nonprofit Tech for Good’s email newsletter to be alerted of new posts. Thank you!