Setting and meeting the right goals is essential to nonprofit fundraising success. Drive campaign results with these simple tips for setting actionable goals.
Are your fundraisers centered around getting results? While it may seem obvious, many institutions don’t approach their fundraisers with concrete goals in mind. And without clear goals, it’s nearly impossible to tell if you’re succeeding.
Setting goals enables you to track progress and provides you with the information you need to adjust your strategies as you go. So how can you be sure that you’re setting effective goals?
We’ve worked with a range of causes to reach their fundraising goals. After overseeing thousands of campaigns, we have a strong idea of what works (and what doesn’t) when selecting and progressing toward goals. Using this firsthand experience, we’ve pulled together four actionable steps to help set and meet objectives. Ready to enhance and exceed your campaign goals? Let’s dive in.
One of the most popular goal-setting methods is the SMART framework, which many industries have adopted. As your institution creates its fundraising goals, walk through each part of the five-step model below to make sure your objectives are clear and actionable to inspire your supporters. Here’s what criteria your goals should meet:
Walking through this framework will allow you to create actionable goals that help your cause reach new fundraising heights, rather than goals that don’t quite get the job done.
SMART Goal Example
Now, let’s discuss an example so you can gauge what a SMART goal looks like. Let’s say you work for a local nonprofit that provides school supplies to children in need. Your annual campaign is coming up, and during last year’s campaign, you raised $12,375.
Based on last year’s results, you decide on an ambitious yet reasonable goal of $16,000 to supply 600 students with new school supplies. Your campaign will begin on August 4th and run through September 1st, giving you one month to reach the goal.
Notice how there are specific, measurable criteria in place that allow you to track progress. There’s also a clear start and end date to motivate your community to contribute.
A goal like this effectively communicates your mission and need for support. In turn, people are much more likely to participate than if your goal is to “raise money to buy supplies for students.”
Once you’ve set your primary campaign goal, it’s time to plan how you’ll meet (and hopefully exceed) those objectives. Every dollar you inspire donors to give adds up, and setting strategic giving levels is one effective strategy that nonprofits use to accomplish this.
When setting your suggested giving levels, base them on your past campaign results and set amounts that are marginally higher than the average donation amount. Go one step further by pairing incentives with each giving level so supporters can envision their impact.
Consider that you work at an institution that feeds children through an afterschool program. Take the following campaign incentives for example:
Tying tangible outcomes to donations will effectively demonstrate the impact that each donation can make. In turn, this can inspire prospects to potentially increase their contributions.
According to Fundly’s crowdfunding statistics, campaign owners who update their supporters at least every 5 days raise an astounding 3 times more in donations than less communicative campaigns. That’s because keeping your supporters in the loop allows them to take action.
The key is transparency. Of course, everyone wants to hear that the campaign is in line with the goals you set, but they also need to know if you’re facing roadblocks and what they can do to help. If you’re falling behind, donors will know to step up their efforts, whether that means donating again or proactively sharing your campaign with friends and family.
One of the easiest ways to remain fully transparent with supporters is by featuring a fundraising thermometer. Donation thermometers help users visualize progress toward fundraising goals. Take a look at this example from Current Builders:
Notice how the thermometer is prominently displayed and effectively conveys progress. In addition to donation thermometers like this one, be sure to provide general updates on social media and your website to keep donors informed. If you’re hosting a crowdfunding campaign, you can also post these updates on the campaign page itself.
Setting up a system to update donors is crucial for success. According to 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics, 48% of nonprofits use an editorial calendar to organize their campaign outreach. Whether you set a schedule to provide timely updates or share progress when you reach certain milestones, consistent updates convey that you’re personally invested in your campaign and encourage donors to do the same.
Your campaign isn’t quite over until you analyze the results. As you finish up, take the time to record what went well and what to improve for future campaigns.
Start with your data. Did you reach your campaign goal? If you fell short, how far off were you? If you exceeded your goal, how much more did you raise than anticipated? How many new donors did you gain?
Then consider why you received the results you did. For instance, did you notice surges in giving after you shared updates? Did you sufficiently tie your campaign back to your mission? Did you run into any unforeseen obstacles?
Strategize with your team to figure out how you can implement them in your nonprofit fundraising strategy. And don’t forget to share these results with your donors. After all, they’re the ones who donated their hard-earned money to your cause.
Beyond a statistical analysis, it’s also smart to also gauge your audience’s perspective on the matter. This is a prime opportunity to develop stronger relationships with donors one last time through your campaign by sending a survey to donors and anyone else who contributed to the success of your campaign.
Ask what they liked about the campaign, what could’ve been done to motivate them to give more, and any other suggestions they’d like to share. Not only will they appreciate that you’re asking for their opinion, but they can provide an outside perspective and help you pinpoint improvement opportunities that you might otherwise overlook.
To wrap things up, every campaign should start with a SMART goal. From here, you can effectively move forward with a plan to achieve those objectives, such as setting suggested giving levels and providing consistent updates on progress. Keep in mind that every campaign finds success in different methods, so keep a close eye on what works during and after your campaign.
With these tips at the forefront of your strategies, you’ll be more likely to inspire donors to step up their giving to reach the concrete goals you set. Good luck!
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See how modern advancement teams bring alumni engagement and fundraising together.
As part of the higher education sector, your university likely depends on social campaigns like peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding to fund its projects and initiatives. While these campaigns have the potential for a wide reach, they require effective promotion to maximize alumni support.
How can you retain alumni support long after they receive their diplomas? Let’s explore the top marketing practices your university should employ when planning your outreach strategy.
Your alumni may be eager to support your university, but many are unaware of the opportunities available to help them maximize their contributions—namely, matching gifts.
Matching gifts are a type of corporate social responsibility initiative wherein businesses match donations made by their employees. Double the Donation defines corporate social responsibility as “a company’s efforts to improve society” in a multitude of ways, from directly donating to supporting employee giving. Matching gifts combine both of these efforts and represent a major revenue opportunity for universities.
Identify match-eligible alumni by looking into your existing donor base. Specifically, take a look at your alumni and major donors who represent your largest match opportunities. Then, secure matching gifts from alumni by promoting the opportunity to match-eligible individuals through:
As you solicit matched gifts, maintain an open line of communication with major employers who offer matches. Periodically review their policies and ask them to notify you if any changes are made to their matching gift program. Both universities and donors should stay on top of employers’ match guidelines to avoid missing out on matching gift revenue.
Communication is the foundation of a successful fundraising campaign. While some approaches are more effective than others, the best results come from incorporating multiple channels—especially for larger donor bases.
There are two types of marketing your university can leverage, and each type has a plethora of channels you can use to spread the word about your campaigns:
Remember, communication is a two-way street. You won’t just want to send messages to alumni, but to stay in touch with them over time. Ensure that alumni and any volunteer fundraisers feel free to voice their feedback or concerns.
Effective communication is about more than just an open line of communication—it’s about powerful storytelling, too. Stories encourage alumni to form stronger connections with your university’s mission, students, and impact.
As part of your marketing approach, implement the following storytelling strategies into your content:
Storytelling and powerful imagery compel users to share content with their networks, so it’s crucial that you make your storytelling components shareable. For example, you might place a “Share” button next to the content on your alumni website that makes it easy for viewers to repost an article or video to their social media channels.
In all your digital marketing materials, make it easy for viewers to take action by directing them to your donation page. Make the most of clear calls to action, prominent buttons, and QR codes across all the channels you use. To ensure shareability, use an effective social campaigning platform and the right social media platforms.
Additionally, when alumni land on your fundraising page, they should be able to take action easily. Check to ensure your donation form can be quickly completed and doesn’t require any unnecessary steps. With a compelling marketing strategy and simple form, your university can seamlessly convert alumni into dedicated supporters.
Now that you know the best marketing practices, share this information with your fundraising team, and plan your best campaign yet! Then, as donations start to roll in, be sure to show your appreciation for donors’ support and continue to engage them by offering additional involvement opportunities. The more active your donors are in your university’s activities, the more likely they’ll be to continue their support.
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.
Double the Donation's robust solution, 360MatchPro, provides nonprofits with automated tools to identify match-eligible donors, drive matches to completion, and gain actionable insights. 360MatchPro integrates directly into donation forms, CRMs, social fundraising software, and other nonprofit technology solutions to capture employment information and follow up appropriately with donors about matching gifts.
4 Marketing Strategies University Fundraisers Need to Know
Universities depend heavily on social campaigning to generate revenue. To enhance your fundraising approach, consider these crucial marketing strategies.
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Picture this: You’re the director of fundraising and development at a well-known higher education institution. You’ve recently had a ton of money coming in to support your larger-scale initiatives. A private grant-giving foundation is providing your team with the money required to open a high-tech computer lab, and a major donor is funding the building of a new wing at the school.
But what about your other day-to-day operations? You need funds to keep your institution above water, continue paying staff salaries, and invest in behind-the-scenes technology that allows your university to continue running smoothly. Oftentimes, major gifts and grant funding don’t cover those needs.
And that’s where your annual fundraising strategy comes in! In this guide, we’ll explore four powerful tips for boosting this particular type of fundraising. As you begin planning your upcoming campaign, be sure to:
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All sorts of mission-driven organizations rely on annual fundraising to help manage their in-between needs—and when it comes to university and other education-based institutions, your alumni are likely to be your biggest supporters!
Are you ready to uncover how you can position your school for the greatest annual fundraising success going into 2022? Let’s get started.
Fundraising organizations have learned a lot about effective fundraising strategies (and the way that they’re always changing) from the highs and lows of 2021. And before that, 2020. Going in 2022, reviewing efforts and results from previous years can give you a head start toward success.
To get started, take a look at where your fundraising flourished in the past year, as well as where you see room for improvement. If you notice that your efforts in the corporate giving arena could use some extra work, for example, consider prioritizing corporate fundraising in the upcoming year.
Here are some other key performance indicators (or KPIs) you might look at:
As you craft your newest annual fundraising strategy, make sure to prioritize the avenues that have historically been your most profitable while also giving extra care to channels that may be lagging behind.
A significant element of successful fundraising involves setting fundraising goals beforehand. Otherwise, how will you determine “success” in the first place?
You’ll want to choose lofty objectives that inspire donors and fundraisers alike while ensuring you don’t aim too high that it can seem unrealistic or like a “lost cause.” To find the perfect medium between the two, the best and most effective goals often follow the SMART framework.
As you craft your upcoming objectives, make sure they are:
Here’s an example of a SMART goal for an upcoming campaign - “To collect $10,000,000 in individual contributions to fund university operations by 12/31/2022.”
To contrast, a poorly crafted goal might look like this - “To raise a lot of money in the next few months.”
The former sample is much clearer and will ultimately result in greater success, while the latter is subjective and vague. When your annual fundraising objectives incorporate each element listed above, you can ensure your team is positioned for success.
The more fundraising strategies and tools develop, the more comprehensive your campaigns are expected to be. As a result, organizations are encouraged to integrate multiple channels to spread the word about their annual fundraising efforts far and wide.
The particular avenues you choose to leverage for your annual campaign can vary depending on your donors’ preferences and your team’s strong points. However, they will likely incorporate a combination of the following:
Several years ago, you may have been able to reach your goals solely through phone and in-person solicitation efforts. Now, it’s essential that you take a multichannel approach—both to meet donors where they already are and to stand out from other organizations seeking your audiences’ attention.
Did you know that more than 26 million people work for companies with corporate matching gift programs? It’s likely that many of these individuals are your alumni, donors, and other key supporters.
Before you can expect a solid flow of corporate matches coming in, however, you’ll need to enact specific matching gift marketing strategies to raise awareness of this powerful opportunity. Because although 26+ million individuals are eligible for company matches, more than 78% of this group is completely unaware.
To incorporate corporate matching gifts into your annual fundraising strategy, consider these best practices:
For you, matching gifts mean that your school has the potential to collect two donations for the cost of soliciting one. And for your donors, they get to know their contributions went twice as far.
You can’t do the big things (like your overall mission impact) without being able to fund the little things as well. An effective annual fundraising strategy allows your team to collect the dollars you need to bankroll every part of your school’s operations—from the most glamorous of tasks to the most mundane.
Luckily, integrating these best practices into your strategy will allow you to raise more funding for your institution and better situate your team for ongoing success. Good luck!
4 Tips for Your Annual Fundraising Strategy
Effective annual fundraising is critical for universities and other donation-driven institutions. Explore four easy tips to set your school up for success.
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December 30, 2021
12 minutes
Online fundraising can be a deceptively tricky subject. While the term simply refers to the process of raising money online, making the most of this strategy requires a dynamic approach on the part of your school.
When it comes to engaging with alumni, in particular, it’s doubly important to have a robust online fundraising strategy in place.
For this reason, your team should take a look at how you fundraiser online right now and decide whether or not you’re getting all you can out of this strategy.In this article, we’ll help you begin this process by discussing:
1. How your alumni engagement strategy can benefit from online fundraising
2. Online fundraising trends you should be using
3. Ways to boost alumni giving through online fundraising
4. Fundraising software tools that can improve your alumni engagement.
Ready to master online fundraising and improve your alumni engagement tactics? Let’s dive in!
Making the most of your online fundraising capabilities should be your first priority when perfecting how you engage with alumni!
As a school, your institution's fundraising needs and limitations likely look very different from other nonprofit organizations. For one thing, your core donor base (your alumni) are often spread far and wide across the country.
This means that to connect with alumni supporters, you’ll have to go the extra mile to meet them where they are.
The best way to do this? By fundraising online, your team can easily reach geographically-diverse alumni. This starts with accepting donations online, but also allows your school to regularly interact with your supporters via email, social media and more!
When your school makes the effort to interact with supporters online, you avoid the trap of remaining “out of sight and out of mind” to these individuals.
Through frequent online interaction, alumni are more likely to donate on a regular basis, as well as more likely to encourage their friends and family to give to your institution.
In addition to strengthening ties between your school and your alumni, online fundraising has several other key benefits:
1. Low overhead cost: After your initial investment in online fundraising software, online fundraising proves to more than make up for its upfront cost. Since everything is virtual, your team can allocate less personnel to manage your online fundraising efforts, as well as save money on physical marketing materials.
2. Simple setup: Once you pick the right software, your team can easily set up your online fundraising tools with little stress. Many services offer consultation during the implementation process, or you might lean on your fundraising consultant during this time for their expertise.
3. Increased donor knowledge: Another reason why online fundraising tools are so effective is because they can provide unmatched insight into your supporters. With every interaction your school has with alumni online, you will collect important data that can inform your engagement tactics moving forward.
The bottom line: By investing time and energy into perfecting your school’s online fundraising strategy, you’ll have an easier time reaching alumni donors while saving money and effort. Even better, when you do connect with these donors, your interactions will be more streamlined and more informative than traditional methods allow.
With the right strategy, your school can benefit from powerful new trends in online fundraising that simply can’t be matched by traditional fundraising methods.
In this section, we’ll highlight tactics that make the most of online fundraising’s dynamic potential by going further than simply accepting donations.
First, we’ll go over social fundraising techniques like crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns, and then we’ll show you how online fundraising can be paired with on-site events to help your school make the donation more accessible to your alumni supporters.
1. Crowdfunding. With the right crowdfunding software, your school can grow your donor base while raising money. Look for tools that allow you to easily brand donation pages, share campaigns across social media and email, and ones with team crowdfunding capabilities.
2. Peer-to-peer: Tapping into your alumni’s social network, donors can help your school reach more eyes online. By associating campaigns with your alumni fundraisers, potential supporters are more inclined to give since they’ll more closely associate your school with their friend, family member, or colleague.
1. Kiosks and card swipers: By investing in an on-site donation kiosk or card swiper, your team can accept donations from those who prefer to pay with a credit or debit card. Gifts are then transferred online to your bank account, so you never have to worry about depositing checks or keeping track of cash donations. You might use a kiosk or card swiper at events like walkathons, talent shows, charity auctions etc.
2. Live event streaming: Another dynamic way to raise money for your cause is to stream fundraising events online. Alumni who can’t make it will be able to participate in the festivities from their computer or mobile device, and because of your online donation tools, giving will be as easy as the click of a button.
The bottom line: As part of your fundraising strategy, your school shouldn’t discount tactics that marry the best parts of in-person fundraising methods with the functionality and ease-of-use that online fundraising provides.
Looking to optimize your online giving channels to boost alumni donations?
What’s so unique about online fundraising is that your team can truly customize the giving experience to make donation as seamless as possible for your alumni donors.
Check out some of these online fundraising best practices to maximize your alumni’s donor potential:
1. Offer simple donation forms: You don’t want to lose out on potential alumni gifts because your online donation form was too lengthy, confusing, or required too much effort to complete. Be sure to make your online donation forms as streamlined as possible and don’t require givers to register for an account to make a donation.
2. Encourage recurring giving: The quickest way to make sure you’re able to get the most out of your fundraising efforts? Prompt alumni to opt-into recurring giving when they make a donation. Give them the freedom to set the gift amount and the donation schedule so that they’re able to tailor the process to their preferences.
3. Match alumni gifts: With the right software, your school can increase your fundraising potential by receiving matched gifts from alumni who work for corporations that have a matching gift program in place. One convenient way to do this is to direct alumni to a matching gift database tool on your school’s website or to implement an automated matching gift software to streamline the process for your school’s team.
The bottom line: Offering online donation channels to your alumni donors will boost giving, but only if your school is able to make the most of these dynamic giving tools.
One of the most important parts of perfecting your school’s online fundraising strategy is picking the right online fundraising software to help you get the job done.
With all the options out there, it can be tricky to know what software to invest in and what kind of functionality you’ll need to stay on top of your online fundraising game.
Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of all the tools you need to look out for when picking your software!
Donation pages are the bread and butter of your online fundraising efforts. To make sure you reach the maximum number of alumni donors, your team should be sure to invest in online fundraising software that provides you with dynamic tools to customize your pages.
Invest in a software solution that allows you to:
1. Brand pages to your school with colors, logos, pictures, video, etc.
2. Integrate donation pages with social media to make them easily shareable
3. Customize donation pages with suggested giving amounts, recurring giving opt-ins, and more.
Having a successful communications strategy in place is the first step to boosting your alumni fundraising online. If your team isn’t able to get the word out to your supporters, your online fundraising efforts will falter.
When choosing which online fundraising software to invest in, keep an eye out for a solution that enables :
1. Automated constituent email that can be customized to your different alumni donor segments
2. Engagement tracking and analytics to help you learn all you can about what strategies work for your supporters
3. Social share buttons that enable your donors to easily broadcast to their social networks once they give
The vast majority of your alumni use their mobile devices as their primary way to access the internet. Don’t miss out on all of these potential alumni donors!
As part of your online fundraising strategy, your school should be sure to have functional mobile giving tools in place. These can include:
1. Donation pages that are optimized for mobile devices
2. Embedded donation pages across your various social media platforms
3. Text giving tools that allow donors to give simply by sending you a customizable keyword.
The bottom line: When choosing online fundraising software, your team should select a platform that offers dynamic tools to meet your alumni engagement needs at every level.
When it comes to alumni engagement, having a next-level online fundraising strategy in place is crucial With these tips in mind, there’s nothing stopping your school from making connections with alumni and raising more than ever before!
Online Fundraising: What You Need to Know to Engage Alumni
Are you ready to master online fundraising and improve your alumni engagement tactics? Take a deep dive into this blog post to get your process right.
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