How to Increase Donations for Nonprofits

There is a lot of advice out there on how to increase donations for a nonprofit organization, but if you read through most of those articles you’ll find a lot of suggestions that aren’t actionable, don’t make sense or seem inconsequential. This is a problem if you are tasked with coming up with ways for your nonprofit to increase the number of donations or amount of donations you receive.

So we put together a list of the most successful tactics we’ve used and seen used by nonprofits as well as read through all of the articles, to find the few tips that were good, then put them all in one place for you to execute on.

1.Engage Emotionally Using Strong Imagery

Connect with your audience using images that elicit strong emotions.

Depending on what type of nonprofit you are, it’s easy to use images that show visually caring for someone, creating a sense of nostalgia by showing things like an Alma Mater, or showing images of friends and family living their best lives.

2.Keep the Message Simple

The easier the message is to quickly see and understand, the more likely it is that the potential donor will engage with that piece of content. This goes for the call to action as well, if it’s easy to read, see and act on then you will get more engagement and an increase in donations.

3.Create a Sense of Urgency

It’s common for new and existing donors to “put off” making a donation until a later date and later can sometimes turn into never. 

By creating a sense of urgency in your message for donation requests, you can inspire those who want to donate, to donate sooner.

4.Use Mobile Giving Solutions

Creating more than one avenue to give donations will increase donation volume because you are catering to the behaviors of more than one donor segment. Mobile payments have become commonplace now and will make a big impact on your donation growth.

5.Show Supporters Where Their Donations Go

It’s rare for someone to want to just give money to an organization without knowing where their contribution is going to. Share where their gift will go or how it will impact the organization. It’s also common for nonprofits to provide suggested donation amounts when reaching out to their supporters. If they know where and how their money will be used, it’s highly likely they will increase the value of their gift.

6.Include Donation Tiers or Levels

By creating levels of giving you make it easy for a donor to just pick and give instead of contemplating how much they will give. Tying the level of donation to an idea or literal gifts that are shared will induce higher levels of giving.

7.Utilize Monthly Giving Subscriptions

By having the option to give monthly and promoting that you can easily get recurring donations that add up quickly. The more of these the better because you will create a predictable source of donation revenue. You can also market to increase those monthly amounts from recurring donors in the future.

8.Exercise the Power of “You”

One of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make when asking for donations is focusing on themselves. A powerful way to increase donations is by pointing to the donor. Using “You” words singles them out, empowers them and makes them the hero.

9.Market to Existing Donors

This is a big one. By reaching out to those who’ve already made donations to your nonprofit you can get them to give more, give more frequently or for those who’ve stopped giving, get them to restart their donations.

10.Ask for Donations When People Are Ready to Give

Different times throughout the year are more opportunistic when it comes to asking for donations. Many nonprofits know this and are very good at it, but if you’re not doing this then you should start. In general you can get more donations when asking around Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. And some studies have shown that Tuesdays around 11am is the best day and time to ask.

11.Turn Donation Verbs Into Nouns

Studies have shown that when you turn action words into “things” you can get more participation. For example, instead of donating you are “giving a gift”, the gift being the donation. Instead of helping, you are a “helper”. So get creative with the words in your messaging.

12.Make Your Outreach Efforts Personal

When someone decides to support a charitable cause or organization is a personal decision that most people don’t take lightly. They usually believe in the cause and want to see it succeed for years to come. With this in mind, it’s critical that every direct mail piece, email and communication is tailored to each supporter. 

An example of this is referencing a prior donation amount and how that impacted the organization with a request to increase the gift and the difference that will make. It’s important to show donors that their continued support is appreciated and the more personal their experience is, the better. 

13.Send Thank You Gifts or Letters to Supporters

It’s good practice to always thank donors for their contributions to your organization. A letter is customary, but a thank you gift can make a supporter feel really appreciated. A common thank you gift is branded nonprofit apparel or accessories. A more creative gift would be something that truly aligns with your cause. Whether that’s artwork from children at the children’s hospital you work with or a picture of the animals you’re working to save, a thoughtful thank you gift goes a long way with donors coming back to support your organization.  

14.Engage Major Donors

A recent fundraising trend is the decline in small and medium gifts over the last decade. It’s not a wise strategy for nonprofits to rely on those smaller contributions for the long term. Time and effort should be spent actively engaging and building relationships with the major donors because research has shown that the closer relationships organizations have with those donors, the more likely they are to increase their contributions. This can be done by meeting up with those donors in person to even just reach out to them on a consistent basis to further the relationship.

If you were to implement even just one of these fourteen tactics it’s a guarantee that you will see an increase in donations for your nonprofit. We definitely recommend that you do more, but starting somewhere is most important.

The great thing about all of these is that they are fully translatable into every marketing medium and channel. Print Included! So if you are wanting to increase donations we can help by providing you printed collateral and solutions that can support you in your effort to engage donors.

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