The end of the year is fast approaching, and with it comes one last push to get donations and support for your nonprofit organization.
As you go through your end of year fundraising campaign, keep the following mistakes in mind to prevent your organization from meeting its annual fundraising goal.
7 Reasons Your Nonprofit Fundraising Campaign Is Failing
1. There is No Strategy
Some may think that a fundraising campaign is easy and that there is no need for a strategy. But without one, how do you know often you’ll be sharing on social media? And what will you be sharing to attract people to donate? And who exactly are you targeting so you can tailor your posts to their interests and way of thinking? All of this comes together when you create a strategy.
In addition to organizing your content (social, email, website, etc.) strategy, you should also track how well each medium is performing. This will give you more insight into your audience, and allow you to fine tune your content throughout the campaign.
2. Outdated List
Before beginning any type of campaign, it’s important to make sure your email, phone, and address list are updated. Check to make sure that information on the list is accurate, and that the people on the list are still interested in hearing from you.
3. Your Story Isn’t Compelling
Your story should hook your audience, enticing them to read more about the positive things your organization is doing, ultimately getting them to donate. However when your story isn’t compelling or even shareworthy, readers will skip over your story and move on to the next item in their newsfeed.
4. There is No Clear Call to Action
What do you want potential donors to do? If you want them to donate, tell them. If you want them to share a post, tell them. Give people clear instructions so they can support you the way you want/need them to.
Rule of thumb – Have one call to action per page. Don’t include a request to donate, a newsletter sign up form, and a social media share request all on the same page. This will confuse your potential donors, and will most likely result in them donating elsewhere.
5. You’re Asking the Same Donors
While having a loyal donor pool is awesome, it’s not a good excuse to continually ask the same group for large donations every year. For long term fundraising growth, it’s important that nonprofits find new donors, and cultivate relationships with those donors so they become loyal as well.
6. You Aren’t Flexible
Things are bound to come up during your fundraising campaign – whether it’s an email blast that didn’t work or an issue with the donation functionality of your website – not everything is going to go 100% according to plan.
By being flexible and open to change, you’ll be able to take a proactive stance, rather than a reactive one – allowing you to adjust with ease, and without your donors/audience knowing the difference.
7. Your Fundraising Software Isn’t Set Up Properly
You could be doing everything right – using a strategy with a compelling story to attract old and new donors to support your cause, giving them clear instruction on what you want them to do, and adjusting your strategy based on baby milestones and feedback – yet the donations still aren’t coming. Maybe the answer is your fundraising software?
Check to make sure your fundraising software is set up correctly, and that funds are being directed to the right place.
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Capital Business Solutions is an integrated financial software and training solutions provider, helping nonprofits organize their accounting and fundraising processes so they can spend more time focusing on the mission. We offer training and consulting for a variety of Blackbaud software products, including The Raiser’s Edge, The Financial Edge, and The Education Edge.
Learn more about our nonprofit training and consulting by contacting Andy Thorson: athorson@capitalbusiness.net |call 919-821-1244| fill out this form