With charitable giving expected to fall, demand for services rising, and “donor inequality” increasing, many nonprofits are looking for something new in the year 2021.
Nowadays smaller nonprofits are finding success with peer-to-peer fundraising by taking advantage of social media and supporting smaller-scale programs. Innovations include personalizing campaigns to match the interests of new donors and moving what used to be highly-physical fundraising activities into an online space.
Facebook Fundraisers has its critics, it definitely holds promise to power fundraising for less well-known nonprofits. In the context of fundraising trends, it is interesting to note that – as with the super-successful ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge a few years ago – a nonprofit did not initiate that fundraiser: individuals did.
With Facebook Fundraisers, a donor never has to leave Facebook because the donation function is integrated into Facebook. This also means that a fundraiser you “Like” is visible to all your Facebook friends and can very easily be spread to their friends, and so on.
Virtual Reality
Things as technology are now more affordable and VR is becoming common in other aspects of daily life, especially video games. UNICEF has demonstrated that VR can be a compelling tool for immersive storytelling because VR helps donors empathize with a cause. For example, the VR app, A walk through dementia, helps to deepen people’s understanding of the complexities of dementia. How could VR transform your fundraising?
Planned Giving
Planned giving is not just for large nonprofits and/or wealthy people! Even though planned giving is as old as the hills, it’s new to the majority of charitable nonprofits.
Even if your nonprofit is small and your donors are of modest means, your loyal supporters and board members are good planned giving prospects. Have a conversation with them that strengthens their relationship with your organization and includes the possibility of their leaving a legacy through their will, retirement account, or life insurance policy.
This type of gift can have a lasting impact on your nonprofit’s sustainability and ability to advance its mission – and help your donors feel that they have made a true difference.
Rapid Response
Natural disasters are the thing that happens from time to time. Hurricanes, floods, and wildfires occurring with increased frequency and ferocity as weather-related events intensify. To address these and human-made disasters, you may already be aware of the growth in “rapid response philanthropy.”
If you’re a nonprofit and your mission includes disaster response, make sure you focus on cultivating strong, authentic relationships with funders (as well as government officials and community leaders) year-round, so that when they’re looking for trusted partners in a crisis, they turn to you. Of course, you should always make sure your nonprofit shows up as effective and trustworthy via its website and social media, and don’t neglect search engine optimization so that when individuals are looking to donate after a disaster, they find your organization.
