Top 10 Best Practices For Online Fundraising

Present-day fundraising methods are not complete without full-fledged online campaigns. To achieve success, we recommend you incorporate the best practices we’ve highlighted here for your reference.Best Practices For Online Fundraising

1. Select A Great Fundraising Vendor

Select a fundraising vendor, preferably one that uses Web 2.0. Web 2.0 allows for various tools integration, such as Facebook Causes, Razoo and Change.org. That apart, Web 2.0 provides for a highly customizable and user-friendly interface, which takes care of half your needs.

2. Put Up A Large “Donate Now” Button

Your “Donate Now” button should be large, visible, and should link directly to the web page where the donor is prompted for contact and credit card information. Avoid other generic navigation from your Donate Now button, and be sure to add the button to your Facebook Page.

3. Pitch For Donation In Every Communication

Make sure your “Donate Now” button and your donation pitch is present in every page on your website, your blog, your FaceBook pages, your email newsletters and so on.  Include a link to your pitch that takes the donor to a page where donors can donate in numerous ways.

4. Provide Various Ways To Donate

It’s not enough if you allow only credit card donations. Allow for credit and debit cards, bank transfers, PayPal accounts and other eWallets. Also allow for recurring donations, where a donor can enable a certain deduction every month for a specified period.

5. Provide A Physical Address For Donations

Make sure that there’s a viable physical address where checks will be accepted, and physical receipts

will be issued along with tax deduction scripts. Place this address in your “Donate” and “Contact Us” pages, along with a map location.

6. Allow Donations In Third Party Name

If a person is not willing to have their name appear in donor lists, you should allow them the privilege of donating anonymously. Again, if a person wants to make a donation in someone else’s name, such as a lawyer donating for their employer, it should be allowed.

7. Know How To Use Social Media Professionally

Obtain training on how to leverage social media to sustain a successful fundraising strategy. For example, there are many FaceBook and Twitter tools that you can use to pitch, spread the word, and launch side campaigns and so on.

8. Spell Out Why You Need The Money

It’s not good enough just to ask for funds. It’s necessary for your target audience to understand exactly why you need the money. Spell out what the money will be used for, and how it will benefit your cause. Create descriptive videos of your cause and the changes money has made so far.

9. Track Everything

For example, email subscription rates, click-throughs, open rates, donations, and list growth rate and so on. Analyze the data to spot trends, so you get an idea of what’s working and what’s not. This will help you fine-tune your language, create more effective visuals, and modify your pitch.

10. Develop A Fundraising Calendar

A detailed fundraising calendar should include an email and online content calendar, event schedules, promotion schedules, PR and much more. Keep the calendar flexible to make room for unplanned events.

Author Bio

Stephen Cambra is a blogger, writer and business student. He writes various articles for Go Get Funding articulating the benefits of online fundraising.