Whether you’re fundraising for a school, a community nonprofit, or a healthcare institution, keeping up with donor needs and expectations is key to reaching your funding goals.
The strongest fundraising strategies are dynamic—factoring in the current economic landscape, giving trends, and donor preferences. For many organizations, this means exploring new fundraising technologies and opportunities as they crop up, from donor-advised funds to corporate giving to online fundraising.
If you’re looking to expand your donor base, save money, and increase your return on investment (ROI), hosting an online fundraiser is the way to go. These fundraisers allow donors to support your organization, regardless of where they’re located, at their convenience. In this guide, we’ll discuss popular online fundraising ideas to inspire your planning and level up your strategy.
1. Read-A-Thons
Your organization, no matter its mission, exists to make the world a better place. A Read-A-Thon is the perfect online fundraiser for any nonprofit that wants to do more than just raise funds. By nurturing a love of reading within your community, you can enrich young lives by promoting lifelong learning, increased empathy, and academic success.
According to Read-A-Thon, hosting one of these fundraisers involves just six simple steps:
- Outline the timeframe, goal, and key details. Decide on a start and end date for your online fundraiser. Typically, Read-A-Thons should last around two weeks to maintain high momentum and provide enough time for readers to participate. Then, set a specific fundraising goal to work toward.
- Sign up for a free Read-A-Thon account. The Read-A-Thon platform makes it easy for readers, donors, and your fundraising team to interact with your fundraiser. Participants can log their reading minutes, donors can support them with donations through individual reader pages, and administrators can track fundraising progress on a real-time dashboard.
- Come up with reader incentives. Give your readers a little extra motivation by creating incentives for top performers. By opting into the prize store model, you can allow participants to earn points that they can spend on over 200 toys, school supplies, and books that Read-A-Thon will package and ship at no additional cost.
- Promote your Read-A-Thon. Spread the word by posting flyers, sending emails, and texting updates to your community members. Take this opportunity to explain your fundraising purpose and highlight compelling incentives to encourage participation.
- Measure your fundraising progress. Read-A-Thons require less than one hour per week to manage. On the platform dashboard, you can review total donations earned, total minutes read, and top readers.
- Celebrate the end of your Read-A-Thon. Once your Read-A-Thon concludes, remember to celebrate and appreciate everyone who contributed to your success. Send personalized thank-you emails to donors and explain everything that you’ll be able to accomplish with their donated funds.
Whether you’re a public school or an environmental group, one easy way to get people excited about your Read-A-Thon is to brainstorm a theme. While a middle school might have an “Around the World in Books” theme to expose students to new cultures and ways of thinking, a wildlife protection agency could set a “Reading for Rainforests” theme that encourages readers to explore books related to nature and conservation.
2. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
A peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraiser is a classic way to harness the power of your nonprofit’s community and expand your reach to new donors. Before the event, recruit fundraisers who are passionate about your mission. These individuals, who often have a personal connection to your cause, can become loyal ambassadors, P2P fundraising participants, and even major donors for your organization.
During your P2P fundraiser, participants will set up individual fundraising pages with a personal goal and details about their involvement with your nonprofit. Then, they’ll share their page with their family and friends to collect donations on your behalf. To set your P2P participants up for success, keep these tips in mind:
- Encourage participants to share their personal stories to build emotional connections to your mission.
- Add suggested giving amounts to fundraising pages to guide donors and inspire more generosity.
- Provide marketing materials and brand resources for participants to use, such as email templates and eye-catching images.
- Offer small incentives, such as gift cards or branded t-shirts, to motivate participants.
- Create a real-time leaderboard to foster friendly competition among P2P participants.
- Designate a staff member for participants to contact for individual questions or support.
You can even pair your P2P fundraiser with a virtual event to make it more engaging for participants and donors. For example, let’s say you’re planning a back-to-school fundraiser. Before classes begin, you might host an online scavenger hunt, challenging students to take pictures of school supplies or complete tasks related to preparing for the school year, such as organizing a study area at home. They can then collect donations from friends and family for every item they complete in the scavenger hunt.
3. Social Media Challenges
Social media is a powerful tool for fundraising and building an active community around your nonprofit. Thanks to the global reach of these platforms, it’s easier than ever to connect with donors and raise money for your cause. A viral social media challenge can spark interest in your mission and direct more donors to your online donation page.
The process of launching a successful social media challenge looks something like this:
- Plan your challenge details. How long will your challenge last? What activity will you ask participants to complete? Ensure that it’s relevant to your organization’s mission. For example, a school might create a 30-day Read Across America social media challenge that encourages students to read for one hour every day and report their progress along the way.
- Come up with a memorable hashtag. To maximize participation and engagement surrounding your social media challenge, create an easy way for people to share it with their friends and family. Continuing with the example above, the school and its students could use a hashtag like #LostinLiterature or #30DaysofReading to spread awareness of the Read Across America challenge.
- Partner with influencers. Reach out to social media influencers with a strong online presence, focusing on individuals whose values and content align with your organization’s mission. For instance, the school hosting the Read Across America challenge could connect with children’s book authors and BookTubers, asking them to share the challenge with their followers.
No matter what type of challenge you go with, start by having your fundraising team participate to get the ball rolling and build excitement throughout your social media community.
4. Matching Gifts
A matching gifts fundraiser can supplement your other fundraising activities and help you raise funds long after its initial launch. Many companies, as part of their corporate philanthropy initiatives, will match the donations their employees make to nonprofits, typically at a 1:1 ratio. Through this type of online fundraiser, your nonprofit can generate more revenue without asking your donors to give more!
re:Charity describes several additional ways your organization can benefit from matching gifts, including:
- Fundraising event matching gifts, where companies match all the money their employees raise when they participate in an event.
- Corporate volunteer matches, where companies donate to organizations with which their employees regularly volunteer.
- Matching gift challenges, where a company or major donor agrees to match all donations made during your fundraiser, as long as you meet the fundraising goal.
- Matching gifts for board members, where a company offers a higher match ratio or maximum donation amount for employees who serve on a nonprofit’s board.
Promoting these opportunities is essential to the success of your matching gifts fundraiser. Encourage donors to check their matching gift eligibility by creating a dedicated informational page on your website and including brief explainers in your social media posts or email newsletters.
5. Text-to-Give
When deciding on your next fundraiser, consider what you know about your audience. How do they prefer to connect with your organization online? If they’re like many people in today’s society, then they likely spend a lot of time on their phones. A text-to-give fundraiser provides a convenient way for donors to support your cause without having to stray from their normal routines or habits.
Start by choosing a text-to-give platform that suits your organization’s specific needs. Then, optimize the experience for both your nonprofit and its donors by:
- Using memorable keywords. Have donors text a short keyword related to your mission to your organization’s number. For example, if a school is raising money to expand its library’s book collection, it might use “TEXT4BOOKS” as its keyword so donors can immediately understand the fundraiser’s purpose.
- Encouraging donors to spread the word. Ask some of your passionate donors to share your text-to-give number and keyword with their friends and family. Doing so allows you to broaden your reach and expand your contact list.
- Crafting clear and concise messages. With text messages, you can reach donors no matter how busy their schedules are. However, to inspire action, keep your messages short and straightforward so donors know what steps to take to support your organization.
Monitor and assess metrics such as your open rates and click-through rates to learn how well your messages are performing. Then, make gradual adjustments to secure more opt-ins and earn more text-to-give donations.
Online fundraisers can transform the way your organization raises money and engages its donors. By cutting down on event costs and reducing the need to recruit volunteers, these fundraising ideas can help you allocate more resources toward your mission. Keep an eye on which fundraisers result in the most participation from your community to identify the best ones to host year after year.
Author: Stephanie Davern is the VP of Sales and Marketing for Read-A-Thon, helping 5,000+ schools every year raise funds and foster a love of reading among students. With 20+ years of professional experience in education and fundraising, Stephanie is dedicated to bridging educational gaps and empowering communities through the power of literature.