Nonprofits, schools and foundations are always looking for the best ways to raise money for their cause or event. Fundraising is the lifeblood of success for helping to achieve nonprofit missions and objectives. Some of the old-fashioned ways to raise money have included soliciting, events, sales, endorsements, direct mail, radio, and word-of-mouth.
With inbound marketing, there is a world of possibilities to make fundraising easier and more effective by swapping traditional methods for digital efforts, including having a good website, videos, emails, blogs, and an amazing call-to-action. 
The opportunity to market to individuals online is crucial in that 72% of all charitable contributions are made by individuals. One of the newest audiences to target for donations are millennials in that 84% of millennials said they prefer to give on a website, while giving in person came in a distant second with 48%. Be sure you have the correct tools to engage with all audiences; you might be missing out on some fundraising opportunities!
First things first
Your organization MUST have a good website. One of the first things people do is research! Make your website interactive and informative! Let people know what you’re about, where to find you, what events you are having or attending, and most importantly, where and how to make donations. For every 1,000 website visitors, a non-profit raises $612. Imagine how much your foundation could do! Another important factor of having a website is making sure that it is mobile friendly. Google actually penalizes websites that are not optimized for mobile phones by moving them down in searches. You may need a website revamp, if that’s the case! According to ExactTarget, 54% of consumers believe that it is easier to find information on mobile-optimized sites.
Building Your Story
On your website and in social media, build your story by creating remarkable content. Your content should assist people understanding your mission and purpose, who they are donating to and what kind of organization you are. There are various ways you can do this task, whether it’s through blogging or videos. People love to read stories about volunteers, participants, or those that are receiving the gifts. This makes you transparent. Sharing stories also makes you relatable; there might be other people in the world looking for a cause or organization just like yours. Blogging about your topic or things that are related also builds credibility and a type of forum for people to share and engage with you. Blogs and videos are shareable! People can share your stories on their social media and tell their friends, which in turn will raise awareness and donations for your organization!
Newsletters?
Email marketing can be extremely beneficial to your fundraising efforts when working with inbound marketing. Emails result in roughly one-third of online fundraising revenue. Sending emails can help by once again sharing stories from your website, helping to nurture leads for donors and sponsors, and providing valuable information. Newsletters work the best because they can provide monthly updates and aren’t difficult to maintain. They are easily monitored and keeps people updated about what’s happening. When people feel like they are a part of something and know where their money is going, they are more likely to stay involved, volunteer, and donate!
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Last, but most importantly, your website, emails, newsletters, and social media platforms should all have the almighty call-to-action! This is the place that allows you to ask for people to donate, volunteer, or anything you might want to “call people to do”. You make these as buttons with an action verb. A few verbs we use are “click here,” “donate here,” and “sign up here.” This gives people a sense of direction of what to do next and also helps you explain where they can sign up or donate on your website. When providing this option, you will be able to gather people’s information when they click on your CTA by sending them to a landing page, where they can submit a form with their donation amount, email, name, and any other piece of information you might need. By getting their email, you can include them in the newsletter, as mentioned above. Having a CTA, landing page, and finally, a thank you page, can keep things organized, easy to use and trackable!
Keeping your end goal in mind is extremely important when fundraising, but make things easier on yourself and your organization by having an amazing website. Don’t forget, that on this website, your stories should be shared (videos are helpful) and CTAs should be included to help people easily navigate their way to your donation page or newsletter sign-up page! Keep your newsletters informative, engaging, shareable, and up-to-date to keep your followers in the loop about what’s going on. Fundraising through the internet can be easy with the help of a social media or marketing team and can be managed by a few people versus a large team. So save money and time but putting some of your fundraising and marketing efforts into inbound!
