60 Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies to Help You Raise More

A diverse and holistic fundraising strategy is crucial to a nonprofit’s success. Whether you are fully dependent on donations or utilize various revenue sources like government grants, corporate partnerships, major contributions, or membership fees, successful fundraising is key to maximizing your impact.

But with so many elements to modern fundraising—both online and offline—it can be tough to keep up. That’s why we’re starting with the basics and sharing nonprofit best practices that cover the most important elements of your fundraising strategy. Keep reading for an overview or use the links below to skip to the topic where you need the most help.

• General Fundraising Strategies
• Online Donation Form Strategies
• Email Fundraising Strategies
• Fundraising Event Strategies
• Website Fundraising Strategies
• Social Media Fundraising Strategies

Nonprofit Fundraising Best Practices

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Before we dig into fundraising strategies by channel, it’s important to set a few reminders for nonprofit fundraising best practices.

• Donor Data is a Top Priority
• Track Performance Using KPIs
• Prioritize Donor Stewardship
• Use Technology to Automate Processes
• Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals
• Start a Recurring Giving Program

1. Donor Data is a Top Priority

When conducting any sort of fundraising campaign, you need to make sure you are working with data about your donors. To do otherwise would be like flying a plane without radar: Sure, you might get where you’re going, but the odds that you crash and burn are way too high.

A number of the items in this article refer to ways you can collect, analyze, and act on donor data. But, right here at the top, we just want to make sure we state how important it is that you have a database of donor information to analyze and act on in the first place.

The more data points you have on your donors—from email and street addresses to job titles and company names, giving capacity, philanthropic history, contact preferences, and general interest—the more you will be able to target your asks and create fundraising campaigns that speak directly to them.

2. Track Performance Using KPIs

Before any fundraising campaign begins, you should set goals and track them with key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs give your organization a way to measure the success of campaign-specific goals and your nonprofit’s long-term goals. 

Common examples of nonprofit KPIs include average donation size, number of recurring or repeat donors, new donor acquisition rate, and donor attrition rate. 

Depending on your organization’s focus, you can track KPIs like number of event registrants, number of third-party donors, and the number of peer-to-peer fundraisers

3. Prioritize Donor Stewardship

Donor stewardship is the practice of building strong, long-lasting relationships with your donors. Any good stewardship plan involves consistent and strategic engagement with your donors through a number of channels and with a variety of touchpoints.

For example, you don’t want to only reach out when you’re making an ask. Be sure to share impact stories, campaign progress, and program updates to keep your community in the know. Creating organic channels of communication versus a one-sided slew of asks is how you turn a first-time donor into a long-term supporter. 

Even small adjustments like sending a thank-you the day after a donation versus three days later can have a great impact. Above all, be sure that, as a team, you have created organization-wide expectations for how often and when you will be communicating with donors so that everyone knows it’s a priority.

4. Use Technology to Automate Processes

Take advantage of the tools and technology that you have—especially those that are built specifically to handle fundraising for nonprofits. Whether you are tracking donations, organizing volunteers, or communicating with members, automation is key. The more you can automate tasks like email sends, donation receipts, and event registration confirmations, the more bandwidth your team will have to focus on donor stewardship.

Conversely, if the technology your nonprofit uses is actually making things harder for your team, it may be time to evaluate a new solution. Many nonprofits start out by tracking donors in an Excel spreadsheet. Eventually, though, they’ll grow to a size where they need something better: They need a nonprofit CRM.

Neon CRM has helped many nonprofits transition from simple spreadsheets to a robust donor management system (you can read about how we helped Chicago Repertory Ballet make that transition here). If you’re a nonprofit that’s still using spreadsheets, these donor database templates we created for Google Sheets and Excel will help you manage your supporters’ data, track their gifts, record campaign performance, and more!

5. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

S.M.A.R.T. goals are goals that follow these five criteria: They are Specific, Measurable, Attainable/Ambitious, Relevant, and Timely. When setting your fundraising goals, make sure that they meet each and every one.

The purpose of S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting is to help you determine your success or failure in meeting your objectives. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time figuring out where your tactics fell short and where they exceeded expectations. 

Learning from past campaigns is key to fundraising success. By setting S.M.A.R.T. goals for all your different objectives—total dollars raised, number of donors, number of new donors, etc.—you’ll have all the data you need to refine and improve with each successive ask.

6. Start a Recurring Giving Program

Recurring givers are some of the most valuable donors for nonprofits. Not only do they give more over the span of their relationship with an organization than the average one-time donor, but this is also one of the few categories of giving that has seen growth in recent years while other types of giving have declined. S

How do we know? We did the work, that’s how. In 2024, our team here at Neon One dug into data from over 100,000 to over 2,000 nonprofits during a five-year span and produced The Recurring Giving Report: Data-Backed Strategies for Sustainable Generosity. 

Download the report today for brand new findings on the potential of recurring donations—including special breakdowns for small, medium, and large nonprofits—as well as expert insights for how to set up a recurring giving program that works. 

Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies by Channel 

There is no one right way to raise money for your nonprofit. When choosing how to make your fundraising ask, one of the first questions you should answer is which channels you’re going to use. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “channels” refers to the different platforms you’ll use to reach your supporters. Common channels include email, direct mail, social media, phone calls, your website, etc.

Each channel has different pros and cons, and many fundraisers take a multi-channel approach to reach as many of their supporters as possible. We suggest using several channels for each campaign and ensuring your platforms are all updated so that you have a cohesive brand. This could mean updating your donation form to match your email ask or leading with a social media campaign and a corresponding social advertisement. 

Don’t forget: Different types of donors often prefer different kinds of channels. An older donor might prefer direct mail, while a younger donor might prefer being tagged in an Instagram post by a fellow supporter, and then checking out your donation form on their phone. The best way to know which donors prefer which channels is to leverage your existing donor data to create separate donor segments.

No matter what you choose, don’t forget to consider your target audiences and the resources you’ll need to have available to put that plan into action.

General Fundraising Strategies

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There are tons of fundraising strategies that don’t fit neatly into the traditional channels we’ll cover more in-depth later on. If you’re looking for a list of solid nonprofit fundraising tactics that will take your organization to the next level, look no further. 

Let’s get started!

• Go for Small Donors
• Leverage Matching Gifts
• Try One of These 100+ Fundraiser Ideas
• Enlist the “Martyrdom Effect”
• Create an Annual Event
• Use Direct Mail to Stand Out
• Use QR Codes
• Follow the Donor Cultivation Cycle
• Build Relationships With Local Press
• Ask Your Volunteers
• Use Google Ad Grants
• Demonstrate Impact
• Focus on Individual Stories
• Always Thank Your Donors

7. Go for Small Donors

It can be tempting to rely on a couple of big-dollar donors for the majority of your fundraising needs. But it’s a temptation you should resist—relying on a handful of large donors means you can experience significant revenue shortfalls if one of those donors chooses not to renew their support. By building a base of small donors, you will create a revenue stream that is way way way more resilient than one built on a few big donors. Not only will you be less likely to experience a shock revenue loss if you lose a major donor, but small donors who give regularly are demonstrating real passion for your cause: All those “small” donations add up to a lot of support over time!

8. Leverage Matching Gifts

Matching donations are a powerful way to amplify your fundraising efforts and encourage more generous giving. By partnering with a corporation or a major donor, you can offer to match contributions from other donors, effectively doubling their impact. And even if you don’t have a partnership, you can help your donors find out whether or not their employer has a matching gift program and submit a request after they donate.

9. Try One of These 100+ Fundraiser Ideas

There are so many different kinds of fundraising events that your nonprofit could hold to raise money and build broader awareness for your cause. That’s why we created a list of 118 nonprofit fundraiser ideas that your organization can—and should—consider. Check it out!

10. Enlist the “Martyrdom Effect”

Here’s an event that everyone remembers: the Ice Bucket Challenge. While that fundraiser went crazy viral in a way that no one could ever have expected (and that you shouldn’t hope to replicate), there is one important lesson you can take from the challenge to use in your own fundraising: The “Martyrdom Effect” states that people feel better about something if they had to undergo adversity to achieve it. Even if it’s something as simple as holding a local 5k charity run, asking your supporters to conquer some kind of physical or mental challenge to raise money can yield great results. 

11. Create an Annual Event

Here’s a way to supercharge your nonprofit’s events. Rather than holding a series of one-off events where you’re almost starting from scratch each time in terms of planning and awareness, create an annual event where you can leverage your prior experience and your community’s existing awareness. Planning a nonprofit event is hard. This is a good way to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze. 

12. Use Direct Mail to Stand Out

Compared to digital channels like email, social media, and websites, direct mail is really expensive. But there are still ways to use direct mail strategically that will maximize the bang for your buck. Target your direct mail towards lapsed donors and rekindle the reasons they had for once supporting your nonprofit. You can also use direct mail pieces to stand out to young people (that’s right!). In a digital-first world, a great piece of direct mail can really set you apart. Make every stamp count!

13. Use QR Codes

QR codes became a lot more popular during the pandemic, and they can be a great way for your nonprofit to easily shepherd offline donors to your online donation pages. Your nonprofit can produce QR codes that store your organization’s website or donation page; when someone scans the QR code using the camera function on their smartphone, the code will open that page on their phone. Neon CRM has a feature that allows users to instantly generate a custom QR code in their system.

14. Follow the Donor Cultivation Cycle

The donor cultivation cycle is a recurring five-step process that guides you as you take someone from a prospective donor to a first-time giver to a longtime supporter. The cycle can provide a helpful skeleton on which you build your donor prospecting, fundraising, and stewardship efforts. Read more about the donor cultivation cycle in the article below!

15. Build Relationships With Local Press

Getting people’s attention for your organization in your cause is always hard. But one way that you can help your message get heard above the din is by appearing in local news. That includes newspapers, television, and radio, or even local blogs. Cultivate relationships with local members of the press that go beyond simply sending them press releases. You’ll reap the benefits in the long run. As a good first step, add a press resources section to your nonprofit’s website. This ensures that, once a local journalist does become interested in your work, they’ll have everything they need at their fingertips to spread the word. 

16. Ask Your Volunteers

Did you know that 76% of people who volunteer for a nonprofit also donate? If you aren’t asking your volunteers to also make financial contributions, you’re leaving fundraising dollars on the table. Of course, you should always treat volunteers like their own donor segment, with targeted asks that acknowledge all they do for your nonprofit already. Oh, and make sure you never ask a volunteer to give right after they’ve volunteered for an event. That tends to rub them the wrong way. 

17. Use Google Ad Grants

With Google Ads, eligible nonprofits can qualify for up to $10,000 a month in grants for search ads. Google Ads allow you to target specific search phrases and pay to have your organization’s ad displayed at the top of that phrase’s search results. Google Ads can be a great way to increase your nonprofit’s online presence—-and did we mention these grants mean that it’s effectively free? Once you’ve set up your Google Ads account and campaigns, check out this Q&A on Google Ads for nonprofits for tips on how to run your campaigns effectively.

18. Demonstrate Impact

A few weeks or a month after someone has given, send them a message demonstrating the impact that their gift has had. When a donor understands just how their donation is making a difference to a cause they support, they are more likely to continue donating in the future. By releasing annual impact reports, your nonprofit can more broadly reinforce how your work is creating positive change. If you haven’t done so already, add those impact reports to your website; if someone’s interested in your organization, you want to make it easy for them to learn more and decide to give. 

19. Focus on Individual Stories

When writing fundraising appeals, you should tout the wide-ranging impact that your nonprofit has on the community, right? Surprisingly, no! Research shows that it’s far more effective to describe the positive impact to a single person. This is called the identifiable victim effect. Focus on how your nonprofit has positively impacted the life of a single client (or composite character) and it will help donors understand the difference they can make by giving.

20. Always Thank Your Donors

This is a really important one. Always remember to thank donors for their support. Include a thank-you message in their automated donation receipt followed by a more detailed thank-you message a few days later. Take a good long look at your staff’s bandwidth and see where you can work in some extra time to add a personal touch. A handwritten note in the corner of a type-written letter can work wonders. And there’s data to show that calling to thank your donors can make a big impact as well! If you aren’t taking the time to thank your donors, you can’t be surprised when they don’t stick around. 

Neon CRM gives you the tools to automate receipts and thank-you emails once donors submit a gift online. For large gifts (or first gifts!), you should add another form of outreach like a phone call or direct mail. 

Online Donation Form Strategies

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Your online donation form is the key player when it comes to facilitating online donations. When your donation form is user-friendly and accessible, your donors will be far more likely to give to your organization. You’ll then see higher digital retention and conversion rates. That means improved nonprofit fundraising results both now and in the future.

• Brand Your Donation Form
• Use Unique Forms for Each Campaign
• Include Compelling Images
• Only Ask for What You Need
• Use a Multi-Step Form
• Provide Suggested Donation Amounts
• Offer Several Payment Method Options
• Include Trust Indicators

21. Brand Your Donation Form

The design of your online donation form should mirror the look and feel of your website. When branding a form, you should use the same font, colors, imagery, and language included on your website. And don’t forget to include your logo! An unbranded form can reduce a donor’s confidence in the security of their data—especially if they’re visiting the form directly from an email or social link.

22. Use Unique Forms for Each Campaign

Each of your nonprofit fundraising campaigns has unique goals and appeals. Creating individualized online donation forms for each of your campaigns allows you to better target your intended donor segments, tailor your appeals, and increase your conversion rates. In Neon CRM, users can create an unlimited number of donation forms, which is great for creating individualized forms specific to each campaign.

23. Include Compelling Images

Including compelling images that evoke emotion is a simple but effective way to make your forms more impactful. On a purely aesthetic level, photos make your forms more visually appealing, but their emotional impact can move donors and convince them to give.

The most captivating images will be original to your organization, so try to include photos that either one of your staff (this includes hired photographers) or your constituents have personally taken.

24. Only Ask for What You Need

A long or complicated form can prevent donors from completing their donation, so keep your form as simple as possible while still collecting the information you need. 

While it’s a good idea to capture more in-depth information on your donors, your donation form is not the time to do that. Instead, send them a donor survey soon after they’ve submitted their gift. They’ll still be basking in the warm glow of their decision to give, and they’ll be more likely to fill it out!

25. Use a Multi-Step Form

A donation form that breaks the process down into multiple pages will encourage more donors to complete their gifts. By making each individual step of the process seem quick and painless, you’re helping your donors make it through to the end. Neon CRM’s donation form uses a three-step process that results in visually shorter forms that increase conversion rates.

Check out the following resources to learn more about donation form best practices:

• Donation Pages for Nonprofits: The Ultimate Guide + Checklist
• 10 Donation Page Best Practices to Wow Your Donors (With Examples!)
• How to Set Up a Donation Form in 7 Steps
• Donation Form Best Practices Within Neon CRM

26. Provide Suggested Donation Amounts

Including a range of suggested gift sizes can help encourage a larger donation. Many donors aren’t sure how much they’re expected to give, so being presented with options can make them more confident about donating. But make sure to always include an option for the donor to choose their own donation amount.

27. Offer Several Payment Method Options

Many donors will want to pay with their credit card, but tech-savvy donors may want to use mobile wallet options like Google Pay and Apple Pay (both of which come standard with Neon Pay). Mobile wallet offers the most convenient experience for donors because they can give anywhere, anytime. Others might prefer to use their PayPal account for donations. Make sure to have several options, including a few that don’t require them to type in their credit card information. This can help remove a barrier to entry and increase your donation form conversion rate.  

28. Include Trust Indicators

Anytime you’re asking someone to make a donation online, you’re also asking them to trust you. By adding trust indicators as simple as a padlock icon to your donation form, you can help reinforce to donors that their payment and information are secure. Don’t believe us? An experiment from NextAfter found that adding a security indicator to a donation form resulted in a 126% increase in donations!

With Neon CRM, you can easily build your own donation forms that come with best practices built in. Our drag-and-drop donation form builder uses modern, branded templates and a clean, multi-step process to help you capture more donations. To learn more about building donation forms in Neon CRM, take a tour of our donation form builder!

Email Fundraising Strategies

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Email is one of the primary channels that nonprofits use to keep up with their donors. Organizations use emails for sending program updates, newsletters, volunteer opportunities, campaign progress updates, and of course, sending appeals. 

However, since donors have to leave their email and visit your website to submit a donation, convincing them to give over email definitely takes a bit of strategy.

Read on to learn how you can write more engaging nonprofit emails that result in more donations.  

• Split Test Subject Lines
• Experiment with Days and Sending Times
• Be Direct and Concise
• Make Your CTA Stand Out
• Keep Your List Clean
• Engage Before Asking
• Segment Your List
• Ask for a Small Favor

29. Test Your Subject Lines

Your subject lines are the first thing that donors see when they receive your emails. Achieving the highest email open rates with attention-grabbing subject lines means getting more donors to read your content. Try running two different email campaigns and compare their performance, then use that comparison to inform future campaigns.

Open rates are an important nonprofit email benchmark that your organization should always be tracking. In Neon One’s Nonprofit Email Report: Data-Backed Insights for Better Engagement, we analyze the different kinds of words nonprofits use in their email subject lines and how those affect open rates. This comprehensive report surveyed 37,472 email campaigns sent by 1,495 Neon One clients, both large and small. Check it out!

30. Experiment with Days and Sending Times

One of the most surprising findings in our Nonprofit Email Report was that nonprofits emails sent on Wednesdays and Fridays saw the best overall engagement. This is notable because for-profit email studies have consistently identified Tuesdays and Thursdays as the best days for email sends. With this new statistic in hand, try changing up your “best practices” and give Wednesdays and Fridays a shot. The same holds true for time of day. Maybe you find that noon on weekdays is the best time for your donors, or maybe it’s Saturday morning at 10 a.m. You won’t know until you test! 

31. Be Direct and Concise

Your donors are busy people, and chances are, they’re constantly flooded with emails. Being direct in your emails makes your donation asks more explicit.  Aim for two to four concise paragraphs that focus on sharing impact statements, creating a sense of urgency, showing gratitude for their previous gifts, and including a clear call to action.

When formatting, try to make your messages as scannable as possible; avoid using big blocks of text and bold the points that you want to highlight most. When donors know exactly what you’re requesting, they’ll be more likely to help.

32. Make Your CTA Stand Out

When a donor opens an email from you, they should quickly be able to discern what action you are asking them to take. So make your “donate now” call to action a bright, easily clickable button that your donor can’t easily miss. Here’s another great benefit to making your CTA a button: It will be easily clickable on mobile devices. If you’ve ever tried clicking a tiny little hyperlink in your phone’s email app, you know what a hassle it can be. 

35. Segment Your List

Segmenting your list simply refers to splitting your email list into smaller groups based on certain criteria. By doing so, you can ensure that your organization will always send the most relevant content for the greatest chance of engagement. Most nonprofit CRMs come with features that help you build audience segments.

33. Keep Your List Clean

In our Nonprofit Email Report, we found that the average email bounce rate for nonprofits was 1.72%. While you should always be keeping your list clean, a consistent bounce rate that is well above that should be cause for special concern. Check out your list and update it as needed, whether that’s fixing typos or removing undeliverable addresses. Higher bounce rates over time will increase the likelihood that your emails get sent directly to spam. 

If you’re a Neon CRM user, we’ve handled this for you. Your system will automatically unsubscribe any email addresses that have returned three consecutive hard bounces, which will help you keep your bounce rate low and your deliverability high. 

34. Engage Before Asking

Remember when we talked about donor stewardship and how you should reach out with messaging other than appeals? We’re bringing it up again because it’s just that important. Your team should make relationship-building the overall focus of your outreach, with appeals as your secondary focus. Sharing content through email is an excellent way to give back to your donors by providing them something valuable and to start (or keep) building those connections.

36. Ask for a Small Favor

The Benjamin Franklin effect describes how people have a more positive attitude towards someone after having helped them. After someone has made a donation, use your thank you message to ask a small favor of them like sharing that they donated on social media or filling out a brief survey. Over time, these small favors will add up and help your nonprofit further its larger organizational goals.

Fundraising Event Strategies

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Events are a great way to kill two birds with one stone: They get people excited about your organization—the kind of excitement that can translate to future support—while also raising money to put towards your mission in the here and now. By incorporating the 10 strategies listed below into your nonprofit’s events, you can enhance the attendee experience, increase engagement, and ultimately raise more funds for your cause.

• Live and Silent Auctions
• Ticket Sales
• Sponsorship Packages
• Send a Post-Event Survey
• Sell Merchandise
• Set Up Donation Stations
• Offer Raffles and Door Prizes
• Add a Livestream Option
• Send a Follow-Up Campaign
• Hold Classes

37. Live and Silent Auctions

Auctions are a tried-and-true method to raise funds and add excitement to your event. Live auctions, led by a charismatic auctioneer, can create a lively bidding atmosphere. With silent auctions, on the other hand, bids are written down, offering a more subdued (but equally competitive( environment. To really get your event attendees excited for the bidding, be sure to include a mix of unique items, experiences, and services that cater to various interests—and budgets.

38. Ticket Sales

Don’t forget that your event’s ticket sales are a direct source of fundraising revenue. You’ll want to offer a wide array of ticket packages and prices to ensure that every one of your supporters can find the option that works best for them. Offer tiered pricing with early bird discounts, group rates, or VIP packages for added perks. When devising your ticket pricing strategy, make sure you’re balancing the need to cover event costs with the goal of remaining accessible to your target audience. For more strategies on boosting your fundraiser ticket sales, check out the post below:

39. Sponsorship Packages

Partnering with businesses for event sponsorships can significantly offset costs and boost your fundraising efforts. Create sponsorship packages with varying levels of benefits, like special logo placement, speaking slots, or VIP access. This not only provides value to sponsors, it also strengthens your relationships within the community When you’re ready to take a sponsor relationship to the next level, encourage them to match donations made during the event or to unlock additional funds when certain fundraising milestones are reached.

40. Send a Post-Event Survey

Gathering feedback from attendees after any event is crucial for continuous improvement. Use post-event surveys to ask your attendees about their experience, what they enjoyed most, and what could be improved. This feedback can help you refine future events and maintain engagement with your supporters. You can also send a survey to your volunteers to see what could be improved from the operations side of things.

41. Sell Merchandise

Selling branded merchandise, such as t-shirts, hats, or reusable bags, can be a great way to raise additional funds and increase brand visibility. Choose items that resonate with your audience and align with your cause. Offer these items for sale at the event or through your online store. You can learn more about what kinds of apparel nonprofit supporters like to wear in this blog post with insights from Bonfire PR Manager Josh Kelly. 

42. Set Up Donation Stations

Donation stations are pretty much what they sound like: They’re specially designated spots at your event where attendees can make a quick and easy contribution on the spot. Equip these stations with tablets or mobile devices for quick and secure donations. Clearly display suggested donation amounts and explain the impact of each contribution level.

43. Offer Raffles and Door Prizes

Raffles and door prizes can add an element of chance and excitement to your event. Sell raffle tickets for a chance to win donated prizes, and offer door prizes to encourage early arrivals. Ensure that your raffle complies with local regulations and promote the prizes to boost ticket sales.

44. Add a Livestream Option

Expand the reach of your event by offering a livestreaming option for those who can’t attend in person. Use platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube, or Zoom to broadcast your event and include a link for online donations. Engage with your virtual audience by responding to comments and encouraging participation. If you see enough success with your livestream, consider adding fully digital events to your schedule. 

45. Send a Follow-Up Campaign

After the event, continue your fundraising efforts with a follow-up campaign. Send a thank-you message to attendees, share highlights from the event, and include a call-to-action for further engagement—whether that’s donations, volunteer opportunities, or invitations to a future event. Use this opportunity to maintain momentum and keep your cause at the forefront of your supporters’ minds.

46. Hold Classes

Offering classes or workshops related to your cause can provide value to attendees while raising funds. Charge a registration fee for classes like cooking, art, or fitness, and consider inviting experts or local celebrities to lead them. This can attract a diverse audience and provide a unique experience. Neon CRM’s events management functionality has a bunch of features that are great for setting up recurring classes. You can see that tool in action by taking this self-guided tour!

Nonprofit Website Fundraising Strategies

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Your nonprofit’s website is the cornerstone of your digital fundraising efforts. It’s where many supporters will first come into contact with you, and it’s where people will make a donation. Follow these tips to maximize the potential of every site visit.

• Keep Your Website Updated
• Make Your “Donate Now” Button Stand Out
• Tell Your Nonprofit’s Story
• Make Your Website Accessible
• Promote Volunteer Options
• Personalize Your Website Experience
• Create an SEO Content Strategy
• Include at Least One CTA per Page

47. Keep Your Website Updated

It sounds simple because it is! Keep your website up to date with your most relevant information, recent photos from the field, and program highlights. Make sure your mission statement, about us page, and user experience are optimized so that users can easily find what they’re looking for. An up-to-date website will establish greater credibility with your donors and extend their site visits, both of which result in more online donations.

And don’t forget to remove as many roadblocks as you can. If your donors have to pinch, swipe, and zoom to view your pages, they’ll be far less likely to submit a donation. Use a vertical, one-column layout and a large, easy-to-read font (sans-serif fonts look best on screens) to optimize your website for mobile. The best way to make sure that your website is mobile-responsive is to view it on your smartphone or tablet.

48. Make Your “Donate Now” Button Stand Out

If you want visitors to donate, then you have to make it easy for them! Place your “Donate Now” button in a visible spot on every page of your website to make it easier for your donors to give.

Add your donate button to the right-hand corner of your primary navigation—the top menu that appears on every page of your site—so that users will have easy access to it no matter what page they’re on.

Use a standout color that really sets your button apart from the rest of your content, and make sure that your language is clear, concise, and actionable.

49. Tell Your Nonprofit’s Story

The main reason donors give to organizations is that they feel a personal connection to the cause. One of the best ways to share your story with supporters is to include it on your website. Remember to keep your story focused on your beneficiaries and how donors make your work possible.

A modern, professional digital presence is essential for storytelling. When Sustain Charlotte updated their digital experience with Neon One, they saw immediate results. Donor Specialist Krissia Bonilla noted that their interface now looks “sleek” and “modern,” which is “what people are expecting nowadays.” This shift helped them exceed their fundraising goals by 13%.

50. Make Your Website Accessible

You want your nonprofit’s website and content to be accessible to everyone, and that means removing potential barriers that a person with disabilities might encounter. There are so many different factors to website accessibility that we can’t begin to scratch the surface here. For an overview of the basics, check out our blog post on creating an accessible donor experience online.

51. Promote Volunteer Options

Including non-financial ways to support your nonprofit lets visitors know about alternative ways to contribute (volunteering, in-kind donations, attending events, etc.) and will give them the information they need to get involved. When people can choose how they get involved, there’s a greater chance that they’ll support you.

52. Personalize Your Website Experience

When you create a personalized website experience for visitors, you are tailoring their experience on the site depending on certain factors like their location, their number of visits, or the time of day. You can show brand-new visitors a video explaining your impact while return visitors are pointed towards your latest blog post. During a week-long fundraiser, you can display special content that encourages people to give. By personalizing your nonprofit’s website, you’ll overcome people’s short online attention spans by curating a unique experience.

53. Create an SEO Content Strategy

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art (and science) of making your website more visible in search engine results. A good SEO content strategy will help people interested in your cause discover your organization. Identify search terms (like, for example “Des Moines Food Banks”) that are relevant to your mission and then create pages that are targeted to answer those search queries and rank for those terms. This will not only help bring in donors, it will help your beneficiaries as well. 

54. Include at Least One CTA per Page

The life of a nonprofit fundraiser means finding the Goldilocks Zone for CTAs—not too many, not too few. Here’s a good way to manage that balance: Every page on your site should involve at least one CTA, whether that’s to donate, volunteer, sign up for a newsletter, or read a customer testimonial. Use your best judgment, but don’t be overly afraid of asking people to get involved. They’re already on your site, which means they’ve expressed an interest in your mission. Be bold!

Social Media Fundraising Strategies

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Social media has quickly become one of the most popular ways for people and organizations to connect with one another, and it can be an excellent outreach channel for nonprofits.

When used strategically, social media can help your organization raise money and expand your reach in a short amount of time.. All it takes is a concerted effort to engage your supporters and patience to try different types of content to see what your audience connects with. 

Check out some of our tips to see how you can make the most out of your social media presence.

• Spend 15 Minutes per Day per Platform
• Use Video (With Captions)
• Run a Peer-to-Peer Campaign
• Include Social Share Buttons on Your Website and Emails
• Recruit Social Influencers
• Participate in GivingTuesday

55. Spend 15 Minutes per Day per Platform

It can be hard to keep up with your organization’s social media pages, especially when you have a million other efforts running simultaneously. Setting aside at least 15 minutes per day for each site ensures you’ll be able to maintain your pages, reply to comments and messages, and engage with followers.

56. Use Video (With Captions)

Video is a powerful tool in the nonprofit fundraiser’s toolbox, and it works especially well on social media. Make your video short (approximately a minute) and remember to use captions. Most people watch videos with the sound off when viewing on social media apps and captions will make sure that your message still gets through. Make sure that you also include a clear call-to-action at the end of your video telling people how they can get involved.

57. Run a Peer-to-Peer Campaign

Peer-to-peer campaigns allow nonprofits to mobilize their supporters to ask for donations on their behalf, often over social media. It’s an effective strategy because it can help you reach a fundraising goal more quickly and grow your network exponentially.

58. Include Social Share Buttons on Your Website and Emails

By incorporating social sharing buttons into your website and email donation confirmations, you encourage donors to share their contributions, which will naturally expand your base!

59. Recruit Social Influencers

Social influencers are people outside of your organization who have a prominent social media presence and post positive messages about your organization. When you recruit social influencers, you’ll be able to create a more consistent and varied social media presence and provide more trust in your organization.

60. Participate in GivingTuesday

GivingTuesday is a global day of giving that takes place every year on the Tuesday after Black Friday. In 2023, GivingTuesday falls on Tuesday, November 28. The event challenges your donors to meet a fundraising goal in 24 hours and often kicks off year-end campaigns. If you’d like some help launching your GivingTuesday 2023 fundraising campaign, check out Neon One’s GivingTuesday Resource Center by clicking the image below.

Strategic Fundraising Helps Your Nonprofit Raise More

We’ve covered fundraising strategies that extend to your website, email, social media channels, donation forms, and advertisements. We hope that you learned some new tips to try out to improve this for your upcoming nonprofit fundraising campaign.

Putting your new fundraising strategies into action is going to require a lot of hard work. But if you have a powerful, easy-to-use nonprofit CRM, it can save you boatloads of time and effort. Neon CRM has tools to let you build your own donation forms, collect and analyze donor data, and automate functions like emails, receipts, and event registrations. It will help you increase your giving, excite your supporters, and take your mission to new heights. 

See how Neon CRM can help your organization today by joining one of our regularly scheduled 30-minute group demos.