Want to know if your online fundraiser will successfully spark action? Before you launch, make sure your campaign has these engagement-boosting characteristics.
Linda N. Spencer
Updated:
April 16, 2026
Summary
• Streamline your donation process: Make sure your online giving form is short, mobile-friendly, and offers multiple payment options, as a friction-free experience is essential for boosting donor participation in any online fundraiser.
• Clarify your campaign's purpose: Donors need to instantly grasp what their contribution will achieve; define SMART goals and clearly communicate the impact to inspire support for your fundraising campaigns.
• Leverage inspiring visuals: Use high-quality photos, videos, and consistent branding to tell your story and build emotional connection, which significantly enhances alumni engagement.
• Offer diverse ways to participate: Beyond financial contributions, encourage sharing on social media, volunteering, or even becoming a fundraising ambassador to deepen alumni engagement and keep all supporters involved.
• Develop a multi-channel promotion plan: Tailor your messages across email, social media, and alumni portals, and use urgency tactics like countdowns, to maximize reach and drive greater donor participation.
• Track your progress for future insights: Don't forget to track campaign data to learn what resonated, helping you refine your approach and optimize future fundraising campaigns based on real CRM data.
If your institutiion or nonprofit has been thinking of expanding its digital strategy, an online fundraiser is a great place to start. It’s a particularly powerful tool for schools and higher education institutions to engage local communities and alumni groups. But success requires more than just setting up a donation page and waiting for contributions to roll in.
In an increasingly noisy digital landscape, fundraising professionals at schools and campuses must work harder than ever to capture attention and inspire action. So how can you tell if you’re on the right track? Let’s discuss five signs that your online fundraiser will drive the engagement you need to build momentum and drive meaningful support.
If your audience doesn’t immediately understand what your campaign is about and why it matters, they’re not likely to engage further. A clear purpose is the first indicator that you’ll capture and earn support.
Start by defining your fundraising goals using the SMART framework: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Describe how you’ll use the funds so potential donors immediately understand your campaign's impact.
For instance, if your Christian school needs funding to purchase curriculum materials for its summer Bible school, your goal might be: “We want to raise $2,500 by next March through our online fundraising campaign to fund our purchase of curriculum materials for our summer school, which starts next July.”
Then, weave this purpose throughout all of your campaign materials. Your community members and supporters should understand why you’re hosting your campaign when they check out your donation page, open your emails, or interact with your online fundraiser.
Canva’s report on visual communication reported that 91% of survey respondents believe visuals communicate better than text, and 76% reported losing interest in text-heavy content. This study suggests that your messaging will gain more traction when it incorporates visual storytelling to communicate emotion and legitimacy.
Here are a few ways to incorporate inspiring visuals into your campaign materials:
You’ve likely created plenty of campaign materials for previous online or in-person fundraisers. Evaluate the success of these materials and recreate or reuse them, if possible, to spark further engagement. For example, if you’ve noticed that your community reacts best to a specific email template or flyer design, reuse that for your online campaigns.
Unlike in-person fundraisers, which allow donors to give through various means (including cash and check), online fundraisers rely entirely on your online donation page. As Funds2Orgs says, “This page serves as the foundation of your digital approach, as it is where you’ll drive traffic to any of your school’s fundraising campaigns.”
Your online donation process should be friction-free to encourage donors to give without becoming discouraged. Follow these best practices to create a smooth experience:
Remember to add call-to-action (CTA) elements, such as buttons and banners, throughout your educational institution’s website and communications to guide web visitors to your donation page. The easier it is for your community to get to your donation page, the more likely you’ll raise the funds your mission needs.
Although the goal of every fundraiser is to generate revenue, not all of your supporters will be open to donating for various reasons, such as financial troubles or donor fatigue. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to help you. Inspire greater engagement through your online fundraiser by outlining alternative ways for your community members to get involved with your mission and build energy around your campaign.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
Your online fundraiser presents a valuable opportunity to deepen relationships, so don’t squander it! Even if a supporter doesn’t want to donate today, that doesn’t mean they won’t be open to the idea in the future. Keep them involved in your mission and show them the value you offer their students to secure their support in the future.
Campaigns that drive results don’t just happen—they require clear communication across various channels. A strong promotion plan also builds momentum with timely reminders, urgency messaging, and public recognition.
Your marketing communications should span multiple channels. Here are a few ideas to maximize your online fundraiser’s marketing reach:
For best results, you can also create a sense of urgency by adding countdown timers, using deadline-driven messaging, or promoting limited-time matching or challenge gifts. These practices reinforce the importance of your campaign and emphasize your upcoming deadline, inspiring donors to give now.
If your online fundraiser checks these boxes, you’re on the right track to building a campaign that connects emotionally, moves people to act, and strengthens alumni ties. But don’t stop there—set up a system for tracking your campaign data so that post-campaign, you can learn which channels drove the most engagement, what messages resonated, and where you can refine your approach for next time.
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Linda N. Spencer
2024 was an interesting year for fundraising professionals. Persistent and emerging challenges in the nonprofit landscape coincided with some. While some issues carried over from previous years, new dynamics reshaped the way organizations navigated their work.
Last year was a year of highs and lows for fundraising and advancement professionals. From staffing struggles to shifts in donor behaviors, the year brought challenges that tested the resilience of nonprofits across sectors. However, these hurdles also paved the way for innovation, collaboration, and strategic rethinking, setting the stage for what 2025 might bring.
The donor landscape in 2024 presented an interesting problem. While overall donations increased, the donor pool continued to shrink. According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), there was a 2% increase in total donations but a 4.5% decline in the number of individual donors. This trend posed a significant challenge for nonprofits reliant on a broad donor base for smaller, recurring contributions.
Staffing shortages and high turnover rates continued to be among the most pressing concerns for nonprofits in 2024. According to a study by NonProfit PRO, nearly 70% of nonprofits reported struggling with staffing challenges, citing underfunding and burnout as primary drivers.
This crisis was compounded by the competitive job market, which made it difficult for nonprofits to attract and retain talent. High turnover negatively impacted team morale and operational efficiency, forcing many organizations to stretch already limited resources to achieve their goals.
The rise of AI and other tech tools has been both a blessing and a challenge for nonprofits. While AI offers powerful capabilities—from predicting donor behavior to automating administrative tasks—it also requires significant investment in training and implementation. Many teams struggled to fully integrate these tools due to lacking technical expertise or financial resources.
The use of AI also brings forward some ethical concerns that increasingly became relevant throughout the year. There exists the risk of over-automating donor communication, which could lead to a loss of the personal touch that is central to alumni engagement. For smaller organizations, the hype around AI could also lead to investments in tools that did not align with their needs, diverting funds from more pressing priorities.
Despite the challenges, nonprofits showcased remarkable resilience. Many embraced hybrid fundraising models, combining virtual and in-person events to engage a broader audience. Charity Digital reported that organizations leveraging digital tools for storytelling and donor engagement saw significant returns on investment.
Additionally, DonorBox emphasized how nonprofits that invested in robust donor communication tools experienced improved retention rates, especially during year-end campaigns.
As we move into 2025, nonprofits more than ever need to build on the lessons of 2024 by focusing on sustainable growth and strategic innovation.
Resilience emerged as a defining characteristic in 2024, and nonprofits should ideally look to build upon it by adopting sustainable strategies and scalable practices, to better navigate uncertainty and a world that’s throwing a lot of innovations at us without leaving us much time or resources to consider our approach to each of them. With all that being said, we’d like to explore some broad focus areas that teams and institutions alike should watch out for in 2025:
The excitement surrounding AI and other technologies in 2024 often led to unrealistic expectations for nonprofits. A research paper published by Lauri Goldkind, Joy Ming, and Alex Fink critically assessed AI’s role in human services, questioning whether it offered genuine value or was simply a trend driven by hype. The study concluded that while AI holds transformative potential, it requires proper alignment with an organization's size, mission, and resource constraints to be effective.
Throughout 2025, Nonprofits should be shifting focus toward scalable and budget-conscious technology solutions. For example, a hypothetical smaller team that only needs a CRM and basic analytics could leverage low-cost digital tools and achieve better outcomes if these tools are customized to their specific workflows and objectives, as opposed to trying to cover all their bases and wasting both resources and time spent on upskilling.
The staffing crisis doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon with 68% of organizations reporting difficulties with recruitment and retention in 2024. Common challenges include toxic work cultures, burnout, uncompetitive salaries, and insufficient training opportunities. Increased investment in professional development, equitable pay structures, and supportive workplace cultures have been big talking points for a while but now they need to become key priorities. Policies aimed at reducing burnout, such as flexible work schedules and mental health support should be a good starting point.
Additionally, peer mentoring and community-building efforts are gaining traction. Nonprofits can leverage mentorship programs and peer support networks to foster a sense of community within their teams, leading to improved job satisfaction and retention.
At the heart of every nonprofit is its people—the staff, donors, and volunteers whose collective efforts drive change. By fostering positive internal cultures and focusing on impactful strategies, nonprofits can inspire trust and loyalty, ensuring their mission thrives in the years to come.
Nonprofits have responded to the recent donor market shifts by focusing on deepening relationships with existing donors. Strategies such as targeted communication and personalized outreach have since become standard practice. 2025 should be a good year for teams to consolidate knowledge of their tools and long-term goals so that they continue fostering donor loyalty seamlessly. A key area of focus will be on small and medium-sized donors and how teams can turn them into loyal donors moving forward.
With federal budget cuts for nonprofits and institutions seeming likely on the horizon, advancement and nonprofit teams especially in the US will need to explore sustainable alternatives to reach their goals.
That’ll just about do it for now but with 2025 seeming a difficult year to predict, there should certainly be a lot more to talk about in the coming months.
Key focus areas for fundraising in 2025
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Alumni are key participants in your school’s fundraisers, but they also have busy lives and aren’t always aware of your funding needs or deadlines. Even when they do contribute, they may not keep up with campaign progress or understand the tangible impact of their gifts. In the long term, this lack of information could lead to disengagement and cause donors to unintentionally lapse.
Fortunately, there are plenty of creative solutions to this common challenge. Let’s explore six strategies for keeping alumni informed and engaged throughout all of your fundraising efforts.
Text messages are the perfect way to share quick updates and reminders with alumni without taking up too much of their time. SMS messages are short, direct, and much more likely to be opened by recipients than emails. They also feel more personal than emails, and they’re easy for alumni to engage with—all they have to do is click a link or text back.
But did you know you can make your texts stand out more by incorporating multimedia? MMS (multimedia messaging service) enables you to send photos, GIFs, videos, and more. Mogli’s MMS marketing guide breaks down the benefits of multimedia messages over plain texts:
You can use MMS messages to highlight campaign milestones, share event reminders, send urgent appeals, and more.
Plus, these messages are easy to create and track with a higher education texting solution. These platforms facilitate bulk sending and two-way conversations so alumni can respond directly. They also provide features like segmentation and automation to help you personalize messages as much as possible.
Fundraising updates feel more compelling and tangible when you incorporate real impact stories. To boost engagement and retention, regularly feature alumni or student testimonials in your communications.
You might share a quote from a current student, compare "before and after" visuals to show progress on dorm renovations, or create infographics that quickly communicate how many students will receive scholarships this year thanks to alumni donations. Include an impact statement in every fundraising update so donors always understand the good their gifts are doing.
With the amount of emails your alumni get, it can take a lot to make your fundraising communications stand out. Put yourself in their shoes—they likely receive hundreds of promotional emails, news alerts, and advertisements in addition to your fundraising updates.
To get and keep recipients’ attention as they read your emails, you need new, creative strategies. For example, you might try:
Since these ideas focus on the content of your emails, remember that it’s still important to optimize your subject lines—alumni need motivation to click into your emails, after all. Consider incorporating emojis, numbers, urgent language, and donor first names to get their attention.
You likely already use surveys to gather donor information and feedback, but do you use them for stewardship? What about fundraiser promotion? Experiment with different types of surveys and questions to take full advantage of this interactive strategy.
For example, you might ask alumni to vote on which project gets funded next, then share the outcomes with a message like, "You voted, we funded! Here’s what happened next." Or, ask them to vote on which class they think will win a fundraising challenge. You could even have donors vote on a prize for top peer-to-peer fundraisers.
Once you have an idea, make the survey as easy and quick to complete as possible. This might look like:
Track engagement as alumni respond, and don’t forget to follow up later about the survey results and what action you took.
The best way to keep alumni up to date is to meet them where they are, on their preferred platforms. Analyze engagement data and past survey results to identify which social media sites different groups of alumni are most active on. Then, create content that taps into the strengths and trends of each channel.
Depending on the platform, you might post interactive Instagram stories, share LinkedIn updates, or use trending sounds on TikTok to engage alumni. Go live for key moments like campaign launches and groundbreaking ceremonies, and don’t be afraid to chime in on relevant online conversations.
No matter what type of content you post, encourage alumni ambassadors to share it or post their own updates relating to your fundraiser. For example, you might ask an alum who serves on your board to comment on and share your LinkedIn posts with their own network.
Plenty of alumni love receiving your newsletters and learning about all the latest happenings in your community. But whether they’re digital or physical communications, alumni newsletters tend to be long and content-heavy. Avoid overwhelming your donors by giving them an easier way to catch up: mini-newsletters or alumni digests.
Format these digests as one-page PDFs, simplified emails, or even a microsite—as long as it’s easy to skim and share with peers. In your mini-newsletters, you can share information about:
Although you have limited space, links and call-to-action buttons don’t take up much room. Include a few prominent links alumni can follow to donate, register for events, or access the full newsletter to dive deeper into each topic.
As you try out these strategies, monitor and analyze your donor data. Determine which channels and outreach methods generated the most donations, and reflect on ways to replicate those strategies going forward.
6 Engaging Ways to Keep Alumni Up-to-Date on Fundraisers
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Christina Marmor
September 15, 2025
12 minutes
Fundraising is a necessity for any school to support its educational activities.
It seems you can never fundraise too much or accept too many donations, but you don’t want to bore your supporters with the same fundraisers year after year. Is your school tired of the same old fundraisers and looking for new ideas that are guaranteed to work?
Your search ends here! Follow these 7 proven fundraising ideas for schools to raise money for your students:
1. Walkathon
2. Partner with a local restaurant chain
3. Multicultural fair
4. Car wash
5. Coffee Drive
6. Trivia Night
7. Envelope Fundraiser
Want something focused specifically on fundraising for private schools? Look to DonorSearch’s 5 Steps to A+ Private & Independent School Fundraising.
Read on to boost your mentoring skills and learn about these school fundraising ideas!
Typically annual, a walkathon event is a long-distance walk meant to fundraise for a cause.
Walkathons are usually encouraging and successful events because they support:
1. Health: All participants walk around your designated course, encouraging a healthy habit.
2. Community: Usually hosted on a public field or in a public park, walkathons are open to the public for the most exposure and therefore, evoke a sense of community and develop relationships as they bring people together.
3. Accessibility: Participants will be at different levels athletically, and that’s fine. Some will be participating to challenge themselves, and some will just be participating for fun. The more the merrier.
4. Affordability: Walkathons are fairly inexpensive fundraising events.
Pledges are placed on participants and how far they’re able to walk the day of the event. For example, if Sabrina pledges $5 for every mile Alex walks and Alex walks 7 miles, you’ve raised $35 for your school.
There’s a list of things to do when organizing your walkathon event.
1. Determine a location. You’ll need to decide if you want a course that gets you from Point A to Point B or a circular course that starts and ends at Point A, a straight course or a circuit course, respectively.
2. Pick a date and rain date. Make sure you pick a date in a warmer season, but not a hot one. Try May instead of August. And select a rain date, just in case!
3. Recruit sponsors. Approach previous gala sponsors to see if they’d like to run tents or water stations.
4. Promote your event. You can look into merchandise providers to customize your own t-shirts and water bottles. Promote your event through flyers and word-of-mouth, as well.
For a more extensive description on organizing a walkathon, check out Booster’s walkathon guide.
There are plenty of restaurants that partner with schools and educational clubs to help create awareness and raise money. These restaurants will have school fundraising nights, during which a portion of the sales from the night are donated to the school.
Everyone has to eat. The partnership between restaurants and your school converts a daily task into a charity event.
All you have to do is:
1. Pick a participating restaurant. Many fast food places like Chick-fil-a or Moe’s Southwest Grill have fundraising programs. Just contact your local restaurant for more information. Be sure to check with your local small-business restaurants, too! Many of their owners’ kids have gone through your school system and will be open to help you fundraise.
2. Promote the night. Send out email blasts, create flyers, even make t-shirts, if you’d like. Your fundraiser’s success will depend on your dedication to promotion.
Turn your community’s next good meal into a successful fundraising idea by partnering with a restaurant!
A multicultural fair allows students to showcase their heritage and learn about their peers’ heritage.
Students get a chance to perform cultural demonstrations and sell their culture’s products and food. On top of being a great fundraising opportunity and satisfying the mentor in you, it’s educational and a fun way to immerse the students in different cultures.
There’s a bit of planning that goes into organizing this fair:
1. Pick a location. This fair will be easiest if you have an accessible field if weather permits. If it doesn’t, try a gymnasium.
2. Set a date. If it’s outside, choose a rain date, too.
3. Recruit students to participate. Start a discussion and sign-up sheet to see which students would like to hold a booth at the fair. Ask which foods they’ll be making and selling and which cultural performances they’d like to display.
4. Promote! Post flyers. You might try to schedule the fair during lunch periods to reach the most students and/or during the evening to reach parents, too.
No matter what, make sure your students will have fun during the event–they need to be excited enough to sell and excited enough to learn.
Your school can put together a group of students to organize a car wash. Besides being a quick and simple fundraising idea, it gets your students outside (and away from tablets, phones, and the tv).
A car wash is an easy fundraiser to set up. Plus, everyone needs the pollen rinsed off their cars in the spring so who can pass up just $5 for a car wash?
There are just a few basic planning steps before you hold your car wash:
1. Pick a location. The school’s parking lot is probably your safest bet, just make sure it’s close to a hose!
2. Gather the materials. You need minimal supplies for this event. Invest in some soap, sponges, towels for drying, buckets, and of course, make sure you have a hose!
3. Promote and Advertise. Charge $5 per car and spread the word. You can advertise the day off by having students holding signs at the closest busy road.
Now that you have everything to start, pick a sunny day and hold your fundraiser.
With 83% of American adults drinking coffee, a coffee drive is bound to be a successful fundraiser. Partnering with a fair trade roaster can let you sell both packaged coffee beans and hot cups of joe.
Your students can sell beans to their peers, family, and others, while your school sells cups of coffee during lunch periods. Local coffee shops may partner with you and sell your school coffee at a discounted rate.
You’ll need to find a wholesaler to work with. Do your research and decide which blends at what prices work for your school’s community. Once you’ve found a supplier, all that’s left to do is promote and sell!
Get the word out and recruit students to sell.
Depending on how you want to organize sales, you can have students directly sell the product or keep a sales and orders sheet, like how girl scouts sell cookies.
Be sure to plan out your fundraiser and promote your coffee drive!
A trivia night will spark a friendly sense of competition among your students. You can have students register as teams or individuals.
Again, this fundraiser brings your students together to form a community. It works because who doesn’t love a little bit of rivalry and healthy competition?
Pick a location to host your trivia night. Your school’s gymnasium is a great option, but you can always try to partner with a local restaurant for space.
Make sure you have a plan for advertising and promoting your event to draw a crowd! Charge a small admission fee to trivia teams who want to compete. Plan out how your trivia game will start and finish. You don’t want an unorganized game.
Your trivia night can easily be an exciting and successful fundraiser as long as you plan ahead and organize.
An envelope fundraiser is a super inexpensive and simple way for your school to raise some extra dough. You’ll need 100 envelopes numbered 1 through 100, which you can easily find in your school’s office. Then, supporters who pass by the envelopes will choose one and donate that amount. For example, if Sally picks up envelope 13, she’ll give $13.
Easy, easy, easy. A fundraiser can’t get much more simple than this one. Plus, the envelope fundraiser doesn’t pressure supporters to give!
Get a pack of 100 envelopes and number them. From there, you can pin them to a corkboard in your school’s lobby or front office so students, parents, and others will see it and can make their donations.
All you need is 100 envelopes and a place to hang them and with the generosity of your supporters, you can accept donations.
Just remember to spread the word about your envelope fundraiser so people know where and when they can give because you’re relying directly on individual supporters’ donations.
Throughout your fundraising event, whichever idea you decide to go with, you can build a relationship with your students, like a mentor should. Don’t put too much pressure on them to sell and raise money, but instead encourage them to have fun with the fundraiser.
Still, want more ideas? Check out this list of fundraising ideas for schools and education.
Adam Weinger is the President of Double the Donation, the leading provider of tools to nonprofits to help them raise more money from corporate matching gift and volunteer grant programs. Connect with Adam via email or on LinkedIn.
7 Proven School Fundraising Ideas
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