Donations to a non-profit organisation are a tool for activating citizen solidarity, enabling nonprofit organisations to raise funds to finance projects that contribute to mitigating inequalities, to address natural or humanitarian disasters or to help improve the situation of vulnerable groups.
Eleanor Roosevelt said: “You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude”. So why not change your attitude and change the circumstances of others?
There are many different types of donations: recurring donations, one-off donations, micro-donations, sales of solidarity products, solidarity inheritances, private campaigns, etc.
In this blog post we are going to learn about one of these types of donations, the one-off donations and provide some tips fornonprofits to implementthem through digital fundraising.
The one-off donations allowdonors to make a timely and concrete donation, for example, to alleviate the effects of a natural disaster or to help launch a specific solidarity initiative. Therefore, for one-off donations we have a specific case, a very specific action that we want to develop. But we also need the right message, a good storyand to take advantage of the resources of our website and social media.
- Tell a good story.
- Use the web to call for action.
- Social networks are key to energizing action in communities.
The easiest way is to use the website and social media to campaign for one-off donations.
Creating a Landing Page can be a useful tool for online donations
Potential donors come to this website after clicking on a link in a guide, a portal or a banner or text ad placed on another website or on social networks. In most cases it is an extension of an advertisement, explaining in more detail what we are trying to promote. It is necessary to take into account some tips to design it, but it is simple and there are specially prepared platforms, and many free ones to design the landing page, as the following:
Unbounce: www.unbounce.com
Leadpages: www.leadpages.com
Instapage: www.instapage.com
Why a Landing Page can be useful in digital fundraising?
- It is the place where potential donors go thanks to the promotional actions of a fundraising campaign.
- It is the place where the decision to donate will be made.
- It is a place to reaffirm the awareness-raising message related to the cause that is part of the mission and vision.
Keys to a good Landing Page
- Graphic design; proper placement of all elements; texts, images and videos. It is very important to have an adequate visual flow.
- Contents: Reminder of the solidarity cause and entrepreneurial initiative for which the contribution is requested.
- Call to action; how to ask the visitor for what we want. In this case, asking for a donation.
Creating online campaigns are another good mechanism to get one-off donations
Crowdfunding is a collective financing network, usually online, which through financial or other types of donations, manages to finance a specific project in exchange for rewards, altruistic participations, etc. It can be a simple mechanism to implement and different online platforms can be used to create campaigns to support the organisation’s projects.
To choose the platform that best suits us, we must take into account:
- Some platforms allow a project to be active for many months and even to have several projects active simultaneously. It is advisable to limit the project in time and focus only on one project, in order to concentrate efforts and be more successful
- The platforms receive commissions on the funds raised. It is also necessary to take into account bank fees (transfers, payment by PayPal, etc.) that are deducted from the donations raised. They are not usually very high but should be kept in mind.
- “All or nothing”: donors are only charged and the donated money is only transferred when the economic objective of the project has been achieved on time. “Everything counts” : everything that is collected is given to those who ask for it, even if the target amount is not raised.
- Some platforms are based on the project promoter offering rewards (mentions, tickets, copies of books, etc.) to those who contribute.In these cases the donor will normally not be entitled to a donation certificate for tax deduction. If a reward system is chosen, the cost of fulfilling the commitments made to donors must be calculated in advance.
Have a look into the ultimate guide to choose the right crowdfunding platform for your organisation.
How much to ask and how to ask
One of the biggest mistakes in online campaigns by small and medium-sized non-profits is at this point. We need to be clear about the amount we need and how we are going to individualise the request. Take into account that:
- The most important thing is to offer the donor closed figures to help him/her make the decision.
- The figures should allow us to calculate the number of donors we need and the average donation.
- Linking the donation to something concrete can help us to make the donor’s contribution clearer.
Use of donation buttons on the website
They are direct calls to action. They can be strategically placed at different levels of navigation and are very useful for those people who have already decided to collaborate, either because they have visited the website before and are convinced, or perhaps because they already know the NGO or have seen campaigns on another channel. Prepare your strategy:
- Choose a relevant place on the web
- Take care of the appearance
- Clearly define the action
Use of social media
Facebook allows direct donations to be made to an entity through a donation button, and people can create a fundraiser that goes to that entity. Learn how to set up the Facebook donate buttom.
Instagram has recently included a donation button similar to Facebook’s.
Youtube and Twitter can be complementary tools to disseminate donation campaigns, inform potential donors, thank them for their collaboration, etc.
Google nonprofits. Check www.google.com/nonprofits/
Evaluation and closure
Finally, mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of results are necessary. They should be integrated into the strategy from the very beginning, forming part of the design as basic components of the strategy. It is necessary to verify the state of implementation of the activities.
It should be checked periodically whether and how the objectives have been achieved. Therefore, it is necessary that the objectives have been clearly defined and measurable, as indicated in the design and planning phase.
It is important for a good evaluation to do a good job in the implementation phase. Changes, problems or successes in the economic and environmental conditions observed during implementation must be taken into account in order to be able to adapt, improve and evaluate correctly.
To conclude the process, it is necessary to work on the loyalty of the funders or donors. This is essential:
- Informing donors
- Thanking donors
- Transparency
- Coherence
Having one off donation options for donors is clearly a win-win for non- profit organizations and their donors.
Non-profit organisations can adapt their fundraising approach to fit their donor’s needs, and develop an ongoing, sustainable process to grow their fundraising. Non-profit organisations can also benefit from the technological innovations and the different possibilities of digital fundraising.
