After the whirlwind of #GivingTuesday, many nonprofits find themselves wondering how to maintain the momentum of generosity—and make the most of corporate matching gifts in their efforts. While donations tend to surge on Giving Tuesday, organizations can amplify their impact by making the following day just as powerful. And that’s why we’re introducing the idea of Matching Wednesday.
By strategically focusing on matching gifts the day after Giving Tuesday, nonprofits like yours can create an additional wave of support that builds on the previous day’s success.
In this guide, we’ll share everything you need to know to get started with this unique and impactful campaign idea. This includes:
Matching Wednesday can help nonprofits capitalize on donors’ enthusiasm, encourage more employees to seek corporate matches, and double (or even triple) the support for their causes.
Ready to find out how? Let’s get started with the basics.
What is Matching Wednesday?
Matching Wednesday is a strategic fundraising initiative in which nonprofits can participate immediately following #GivingTuesday.
While Giving Tuesday sparks a boost in donations from individuals eager to support their favorite causes, Matching Wednesday aims to keep this momentum going by encouraging donors to double (or even triple) the impact of their contributions through corporate matching gift programs.
Here’s how it works: on Matching Wednesday, nonprofits reach out to donors who gave on Giving Tuesday (or even before) and remind them to submit their gifts for matching through their employers. They can also highlight matching gift opportunities to new donors, underscoring the added impact their support can have.
The idea behind Matching Wednesday is simple yet powerful—leveraging the enthusiasm generated on Giving Tuesday to unlock even more funding for the cause. By making matching gifts easy and front-of-mind, nonprofits can turn a single day of generosity into an extended period of amplified giving, helping them reach their goals and maximize their mission impact.
Following Up With #GivingTuesday Donors
Giving Tuesday sees some of the highest rates of charitable giving each year. In 2023, 34 million adults in the U.S. alone participated in Giving Tuesday festivities, contributing a total of more than $3.1 billion. And while a lot of those gifts were matched by donors’ employers, the truth is that a lot of matchable gifts went unclaimed. And that’s where Matching Wednesday steps in!
Following up with Giving Tuesday donors come Matching Wednesday is essential to capture the full potential of corporate matching gifts. Many donors may not realize that their contributions can be matched by their employers, effectively doubling or even tripling their impact on the cause. But when they do know, they’ll be eager to get involved.
Here are a few things your team can do to engage these donors and make the most of Matching Wednesday:
1. Send a Personalized Matching Gift Reminder Follow-Up.
The day after Giving Tuesday, send a follow-up message reminding donors who gave about the chance to make an even bigger difference with a matching gift.
Start with a heartfelt thank-you for their Giving Tuesday support, expressing gratitude for their contribution and sharing the impact it will make. Then, (re)introduce the concept of matching gifts, highlighting that many employers will match their donations at no additional cost to them. This gentle reminder can spark interest and motivate donors to check if their employer participates in a matching gift program.
2. Educate Donors About the Ease and Benefits of Matching Gifts.
Many donors may be unfamiliar with how matching gifts work. Use Matching Wednesday as an opportunity to educate them on the process. Provide clear, easy-to-follow, and company-specific instructions on how they can request a matching gift from their employer, and offer assistance for any questions or concerns donors might have about matching gift submissions.
3. Establish a Sense of Doubled Impact.
Use Matching Wednesday to create a sense of amplified donation impact by highlighting how beneficial matched gifts can be. Let donors know how their contributions, when doubled, can address specific needs, such as providing additional meals, funding critical programs, or expanding highly demanded services. This approach makes the matching gift feel like an extension of their Giving Tuesday contribution, deepening their connection to your cause.
Engaging Supporters Who Gave Earlier in the Year
While the idea is centered around the better-known global giving day, it’s important to note that Matching Wednesday doesn’t have to be exclusive to Giving Tuesday donors, either. In fact, it’s also an ideal time to engage supporters who donated earlier in the year but, as far as you know, haven’t submitted their gifts for matching.
By reaching out with a timely reminder to submit their matches, nonprofits can turn previous contributions into a new wave of support on Matching Wednesday.
Here’s how to maximize engagement with these past donors:
1. Segment and Personalize Your Outreach.
Identify donors who gave earlier in the year but may not have submitted their gifts for matching. Send a personalized email acknowledging their previous support and sharing how impactful it would be if they submitted their gift for a match—and how Matching Wednesday is the perfect time to do it. After all, a tailored message makes supporters feel valued and motivates them to take the extra step, knowing that their contributions are still on the nonprofit’s radar.
2. Create a “Last Call for Matching Gifts” Campaign.
Use Matching Wednesday as a final push for matching gift submissions, presenting it as a time-sensitive opportunity. Explain that this is a last chance to double or triple their support this year, especially for those who might have forgotten or overlooked the option earlier. A sense of urgency can inspire action, as donors may be more likely to submit a match if they know it’s the final opportunity for the year. Many companies establish year-end request deadlines, too, meaning time is of the essence.
3. Provide a Simple, Step-by-Step Guide for Matching Gifts.
Many supporters might hesitate to submit their gifts for matching due to uncertainty around the process. Include a quick guide in your Matching Wednesday email to help simplify it. A “Check Your Eligibility” button leading to a matching gift search tool can be particularly effective, allowing donors to quickly confirm if their company offers matching and access any necessary forms.
Re-engaging past supporters for Matching Wednesday allows nonprofits to revive donations from throughout the year and turn them into even greater impact. This last-call reminder serves as an easy and effective way to connect with donors, ensuring their gifts stretch further and help end the year on a high note for the cause.
Best Practices for Matching Wednesday Success
To maximize the impact of Matching Wednesday, nonprofits can implement several best practices to ensure their outreach is compelling and effective. From targeted follow-ups to clear messaging, here are strategies that can help nonprofits make the most of this post-Giving Tuesday initiative:
Mention matching gifts leading up to and on Giving Tuesday, too.
Matching Wednesday is all about matching gifts. But it shouldn’t be the first time your audience hears about the opportunity. In fact, it’s best to begin highlighting matching gifts alongside Giving Tuesday promotions leading up to and on the big day.
By promoting matching gift opportunities early and often, nonprofits can begin building familiarity with the programs. This can substantially boost the day’s revenue, motivating more donors to give—and encouraging them to make their contributions go further when the time comes.
Not to mention, knowing that their donation could be matched can even inspire donors to contribute in larger amounts. Matching gifts allows donors to double or triple their contributions, which is a compelling reason to increase their initial support. Research shows that fundraising appeals—such as those for Giving Tuesday—see a 71% increase in response rate and a 51% increase in average gift size when matching gifts are mentioned.
Take a multi-channel approach to engaging donors.
When it comes to marketing matching gifts, you want to make sure your message is getting across far and wide. Luckily, a multi-channel approach engages donors on multiple platforms, making it easier for them to take action and get involved.
Not to mention, each donor has preferred ways of receiving information. Some may respond best to email reminders, while others are more likely to engage on social media or through text. By reaching out across multiple channels, you can ensure you’re meeting donors where they already are.
Leveraging a combination of email, social media, SMS, and even phone calls empowers nonprofits to create comprehensive, engaging Matching Wednesday experiences that keep matching gifts at the top of donors’ minds.
Highlight matching gift success stories.
Social proof is a powerful tool. On a big giving day like Giving Tuesday (or the subsequent Matching Wednesday), incorporating success stories regarding corporate matching gifts can go a long way toward inspiring action.
For the best results, we recommend supplying specific examples to illustrate the power of matching gifts. Try sharing stories or metrics that showcase what matching funds have previously achieved for your organization. For instance, you might say, “Last year, matching gifts helped us provide meals for 500 additional families.” Impact-driven messaging like this can inspire donors to act, as they can directly see how their matched gifts contribute to the mission.
Alternatively, consider sharing a brief story or example of a past donor whose gift was matched. You can even source a quote from a previous matching gift donor to act as a testimonial! After all, real-world examples can serve as powerful motivation, helping donors see the tangible outcomes of submitting a matching gift.
Invest in matching gift software before Matching Wednesday.
Leading up to Matching Wednesday (or Giving Tuesday, for that matter), you’ll want to conduct an analysis of your existing tech stack and decide if you have what you need for success. If you’re currently missing a matching gift software, we highly recommend getting up and running with such a solution prior to the start of the giving season.
After all, this kind of tool simplifies the matching process by enabling donors to quickly find their employer’s matching gift policy, forms, and submission instructions. The easier it is for donors to confirm eligibility and access forms, the more likely they’ll be to follow through—so this is not something you want to overlook. Not to mention, an automation platform like Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro can streamline the entire process from start to finish, so your team doesn’t have to lift a finger!
After Matching Wednesday concludes, maintain the matching gift momentum by sharing the campaign results with your supporters. For example, highlight the total number of submitted matches and the impact they’ll have on your programs. This kind of transparency fosters trust and shows donors that their efforts to secure a match made a concrete difference, setting the stage for continued engagement.
From there, you’ll want to track key metrics, such as the number of matching gifts secured, total matched revenue, and engagement rates, so you can adjust and improve your efforts for the next year. After all, a successful Matching Wednesday can become an ongoing part of your end-of-year fundraising efforts, extending Giving Tuesday’s impact well beyond a single day in the years to come.
6 Sample #MatchingWednesday Promotions
Ready to get started promoting Matching Wednesday but not sure where to begin? We’ve created a few sample promotions your team can use to engage its donors leading up to and on to the big day.
Matching Wednesday Text Message
Text message copy: Thank you for supporting us on #GivingTuesday! 🎉 Did you know your donation could go twice as far? Today is #MatchingWednesday—click here to see if your employer matches: [Matching Gift Page URL]
Matching Wednesday Email Template
Subject line: Have you given to [nonprofit] this year? Double your impact today—on #MatchingWednesday!
Body:
Dear [donor’s first name],
Thank you for being part of the [nonprofit] family! Your support means the world to us, and today, on #MatchingWednesday, there’s an exciting opportunity to make your impact go even further.
If you’ve donated to [nonprofit] this year, you might be able to double or even triple your gift through your employer’s matching gift program! Many companies offer to match their employees’ charitable donations, but these matches often go unclaimed. Submitting a matching gift request is a simple way to amplify your impact and ensure your generosity reaches even more people in need.
Here’s how you can participate in #MatchingWednesday:
Check if your employer matches donations – Use our matching gift search tool here [Matching Gift Page URL] to see if your company offers matching gifts.
Follow the provided steps – If your employer participates, complete a matching gift request through their system by following the instructions our tool provides.
Watch your impact grow! Every matched dollar helps us bring hope and resources to even more individuals and families.
Why submit your gift for a match today? Matching Wednesday is a limited opportunity to help us close out the year strong and make a difference for the communities we serve. Your support matters, and by taking just a few minutes to check your match eligibility, you can double the power of your donation at no extra cost!
Thank you for your continued generosity. Together, we can make an even greater impact.
Caption: Many employers match donations to [nonprofit], doubling (or even tripling!) your impact at no extra cost to you. Take a moment today to check if your gift qualifies for a match by visiting the Matching Gifts page on our website: [Matching Gift Page URL] #DoubleYourImpact #MatchingGifts
Matching Wednesday Instagram Post
Caption: It’s #MatchingWednesday! 🎉 Did you know that thousands of companies match employee donations? That means your gift could go twice as far—just by submitting a matching request!
Don’t miss this chance to maximize your support and make an even bigger impact. Visit our Matching Gifts page to learn more. #GiveMore #AmplifyYourImpact #MatchingGifts
Matching Wednesday LinkedIn Post
Caption: #GivingTuesday was just the beginning! 🌟 Did you know that your donation could go even further? Many companies offer matching gift programs, meaning your contribution can be doubled or even tripled at no extra cost to you.
Now, Matching Wednesday is the perfect time to take advantage of this opportunity! If you gave to [nonprofit] yesterday or at any point this year, check to see if your employer will match your donation. It’s an easy way to maximize your impact and support the causes that matter most to you.
Not sure if your company participates? Don’t worry—just use our matching gift search tool to find out: [Matching Gift Page URL]
This #MatchingWednesday, let’s make every dollar count for even more. Thanks again for helping us create lasting change. #DoubleYourImpact #EmployerMatching #CorporateGiving #SocialGood #GivingTuesday
Matching Wednesday Twitter Post
Caption: #MatchingWednesday is here! 🎉 It’s the perfect chance to make your #GivingTuesday gift go even further. Check to see if your employer will match your donation and double your impact today! [URL]
Next Steps & Additional Giving Season Resources
Establishing a Matching Wednesday campaign following Giving Tuesday is a smart way for nonprofits to extend their outreach—and make every gift count twice. By promoting matching gift opportunities immediately after a major giving day, organizations can reinforce their message, reach new donors, and deepen their impact overall.
This strategic timing leverages the global popularity and extensive goodwill of Giving Tuesday and engages donors further, reminding them that their support can do more. Embracing the idea of Matching Wednesday can ensure the season of giving extends beyond a single day, unlocking new possibilities for funding and growth in the year-end season and beyond. Just don’t forget to equip your team with the right software going into it!
Interested in learning more about matching gifts heading into a period of holiday giving? Check out these additional resources:
Are you looking to increase matching gift revenue but don’t have much time to invest in the programs?
If you can find just 30 minutes in your schedule, there are small adjustments that have the potential to significantly elevate your organization’s matching gift strategy. These enhancements may include:
After all, maximizing matching gift revenue doesn’t need to be a lengthy or complex process. Many nonprofits miss out on this opportunity simply because they assume it will take too long or require significant resources to implement. But in reality, there are many effective and simple strategies that can drive substantial results in just a few minutes.
Let’s begin!
Method #1: Publish a matching gift post on social media.
Do you maintain Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter accounts for your organization? More than likely, you have some combination of all four. And if so, odds are donors and members are scrolling through your messages on a regular basis, making it a particularly impactful tool when it comes to fundraising.
Take a few minutes to create a post about matching gifts. Not only will it appear on your fans’ walls today, but your matching gift post will linger on your organization’s page forever.
For a headstart, Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro users can access customizable marketing samples within the platform at no additional cost. Just choose a templated graphic, personalize it to your organization, and post it to your social accounts!
And don’t forget, if you use a service to schedule messages in the future, go ahead and create a few matching gift messages to post automatically over the coming months. Regularly sharing matching gift information is key to building familiarity with—and participation in—the programs.
Time Investment Required: Ten minutes
Method #2: Implementing a matching gift CTA on your confirmation screen.
Immediately after donors hit “submit” on their gift, they’re likely redirected to a confirmation screen or thank-you page on the website. This page generally thanks individuals for their support, and often offers suggested next steps to get further involved with the organization. One key way to do so is with matching gifts.
Therefore, we recommend incorporating a prominent CTA, or call to action, on your confirmation page that encourages donors to submit a matching gift.
Highlighting the opportunity so close to the point of donation allows you to pick up on the donors’ heightened momentum and engagement with your cause, translating that into more matching gift submissions overall.
Time Investment Required: Ten minutes
Method #3: Modify your donation acknowledgments to promote matching gifts.
More than likely, your organization sends an acknowledgment letter or email to each individual after they give. If so, this is a great place to promote matching gifts. And since acknowledgments are generally automated, all you need to do is plug a quick blurb about matching gifts into your template or workflow. Then, it will be automatically triggered to all donors once they submit their initial gifts—driving awareness and visibility of the opportunity across your dedicated supporters.
However, more impactful than simply adding a section to your existing acknowledgment letters is sending dedicated post-donation matching gift emails. After all, acknowledgments are often discarded as not requiring additional action, while separate matching gift outreach can be just what you need to grab your audience’s attention. These messages can even be automated using 360MatchPro, making it quick and easy for supporters to receive tailored matching gift insights straight to their inboxes.
Time Investment Required: Five minutes
Method #4: Add a blurb about matching gifts to your staff email signatures.
Email is likely one of your most essential communication channels when it comes to engaging with individual donors. As a result, your email signatures—and those of your entire fundraising team—offer valuable real estate for donor-facing promotions. And we recommend utilizing the space as an easy way to remind donors about matching gifts.
For the best results, you’ll want to link directly to your organization’s dedicated matching gifts page, complete with an embedded matching gift search tool. Otherwise, you can ask donors to “please check with your company to see if they’ll match your donation.”
Time Investment Required: Ten minutes
Method #5: Share information about matching gift companies in your area.
Promoting matching gifts to your external audience often starts with getting your internal team on board, too. While there are a ton of training resources available, one thing you can do in 30 minutes or less is send a list of top matching gift companies to your fundraising staff. You might be surprised to find out that some of your colleagues have never heard of employee matching gift programs—let alone have familiarity with the companies offering them.
While you’ll only be able to include a handful of companies representing a small percentage of companies in your area that will match donations, it can be a good way to raise awareness about the potential of matching gifts.
To kick off your research, this guide from Nonprofit Source provides an insightful look at different matching gift companies across the globe. Plus, it includes a breakdown of popular matching gift hubs by geographic region.
Time Investment Required: Fifteen minutes
[Bonus] Method #6: Send an email to all “Eligible but Not Submitted” donors.
Note: While the previous ideas could be completed with or without Double the Donation’s matching gift software, the next several methods focus on tools within 360MatchPro. Interested in getting started? Request a demo now!
If you subscribe to Double the Donation’s tools, there are a number of ready-built reports available within the 360MatchPro platform. One of these, called the “Eligible but Not Submitted” report, is designed to identify those who have been marked as matching gift eligible by their employer name but have not yet submitted their matching gift requests. Those are your best matching gift prospects, and they’re currently letting their gifts go unclaimed.
Luckily, there’s even an easy way to bulk send emails right from the dashboard, meaning you can select this segment of recipients, trigger a pre-written email, and drive submissions to completion.
Time Investment Required: Twenty minutes
[Bonus] Method #7: Follow up with unclaimed repeat matching gifts.
Donors who have secured a matching gift in the past are going to be significantly more likely to do so again in the future. And if they haven’t yet submitted a match for their repeat gift, a little nudge can go a long way.
Fortunately, Double the Donation has a tool for this, too! All you have to do is quickly navigate to the Repeat Donors report, select the intended recipients from the provided list, and send a bulk email letting them know that they can amplify their impact just like they’ve done before.
Time Investment Required: Twenty minutes
Take your matching gift efforts even further.
In just 30 minutes or less, your organization can make significant strides toward increasing its matching gift revenue—and making an even greater impact overall. By implementing these quick, targeted strategies, you not only maximize funds but also build awareness among donors about how easy it is to amplify their contributions.
Matching gifts represent a valuable yet often underutilized source of revenue. With these small, time-efficient efforts, you’ll ensure that more donors are aware, more gifts are matched, and your organization benefits more from every dollar.
Don’t let time constraints hold you back. By setting aside a bit of time to prioritize matching gifts, you’ll be able to unlock untapped funds, motivate donors to double their impact, and strengthen your organization’s overall giving strategy—all with minimal effort.
Interested in learning more about matching gift fundraising and beyond? Check out these additional resources:
Get to Know the Basics of Corporate Matching Gift Programs. Understand the ins and outs of matching gifts with this educational guide. Access insights regarding the top companies matching gifts, program guidelines and criteria to know, and more.
Become an Expert: Access 10 Steps to Matching Gift Success. Get the free downloadable resource to utilize our 10-step matching gift fundraising checklist. Implement these practices to increase matching gift revenue more easily than ever before.
Marketing Matching Gifts | A Guide for Avid Fundraisers. Uncover even more matching gift marketing tips and tricks in this complete guide. While some practices may require a larger investment of time, the revenue growth will be substantial!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/DTD_How-to-Increase-Matching-Gift-Revenue-in-30-Minutes-or-Less_Feature.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-11-05 11:00:232024-11-07 15:24:36How to Increase Matching Gift Revenue in 30 Minutes or Less
In today’s digital age, text messaging has emerged as one of the most powerful and effective ways to connect with supporters—especially when it comes to matching gifts. However, many donors remain unaware of these opportunities, resulting in missed revenue for nonprofits. Lucky for you, that’s where matching gift text marketing comes into play!
By spreading the word about matching gifts via SMS, your organization can quickly inform supporters about the potential to multiply their contributions, boost engagement, and drive more funds toward your cause.
In this post, we’ll explore the key benefits of using text messages to promote matching gifts, share best practices for crafting compelling messages, and provide examples to help you get started. Specifically, we’ll cover:
Whether you’re new to SMS marketing for matching gifts or you’re looking to optimize your existing strategies, we’ll guide you through making the most of this channel to maximize your matching gift revenue.
Let’s dive into how matching gift text marketing can help spread the word, drive action, and unlock more fundraising potential for your nonprofit.
The Importance of Marketing Matching Gifts
Corporate matching gifts offer significant fundraising potential for nonprofits and schools. Many companies offer matching gift initiatives where they match employees’ donations to eligible nonprofits, essentially doubling or even tripling the original contributions. Not to mention, donors are more likely to give—and to give in larger amounts—when they know a match is available.
However, a lack of awareness regarding the programs has ultimately led to billions of dollars in matches going unclaimed each year. So, what does this mean for your cause?
It all boils down to this: taking a proactive approach to marketing matching gifts is essential.
Promoting matching gifts effectively helps bridge the awareness gap and motivates donors to take advantage of these corporate giving programs. By educating your audience on how matching gifts work, establishing social proof, and providing easy access to information and forms, you can create a streamlined process that encourages participation.
Why Market Matching Gifts Via Text Message?
Once you’ve established the general importance of marketing matching gifts, the question to answer is this: What is the best channel, or combination of channels, to get the job done?
With high open rates and immediate reach, SMS has the potential to significantly enhance your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts—especially when it comes to promoting matching gifts.
As a result, marketing matching gifts via text message is an incredibly effective way for nonprofits to reach their supporters wherever they are, at any time. In today’s fast-paced world, people are always on the go, with their phones close at hand. Text messaging allows organizations to offer a direct and personal touch that other communication channels can’t quite match.
With just a few taps on their phone, donors can learn about matching gift opportunities and take action immediately, making the giving process simple and convenient.
The effectiveness of text marketing for matching gifts is further underscored by its exceptionally high open rates. On average, text messages boast open rates of around 98%, far surpassing those of emails or even social media viewership. This means that when a nonprofit sends a text message about matching gifts, it’s almost guaranteed to be seen by the recipient.
By leveraging text marketing, organizations can ensure that their message isn’t just delivered but actually read—significantly boosting the chances of donors following through with a matching gift request.
Additionally, text messages create a sense of urgency and immediacy, prompting donors to act without delay. This makes it a perfect tool for time-sensitive fundraising efforts, such as year-end campaigns or giving days, where matching gifts can significantly amplify the impact of donations. With mobile-friendly links and information at their fingertips, supporters can easily access resources to complete the matching gift process, leading to more submitted requests and increased funding.
Best Practices for Innovative Matching Gift Text Marketing
In the rapidly evolving landscape of nonprofit fundraising, text marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for engaging donors and maximizing the impact of matching gifts. As organizations look for innovative ways to connect with supporters, leveraging SMS to spread the word about matching gift opportunities can significantly enhance outreach efforts.
This section will cover best practices for implementing effective text marketing strategies specifically tailored to matching gifts.
Personalize your engagement.
Personalization is key in any marketing strategy, and text messaging is no exception. When communicating with supporters about matching gifts, it’s important to add a personal flair. This can mean addressing them by their name, referencing their past contributions, or providing employer-specific matching gift information.
By personalizing your messages, you show each donor that they are a valued individual rather than just part of a larger audience, increasing the likelihood that they will engage with your content and take the intended action.
Keep your messages short and sweet.
Text messages have a character limit—and are often read on the go—so brevity is crucial. Aim to convey your message in as few words as possible while still providing the essential information.
A well-structured, concise message will ensure that your audience can quickly grasp the purpose and act accordingly. A straightforward approach respects your supporters’ time and enhances the chances of them responding positively, as they won’t feel overwhelmed by lengthy texts.
Send a link to your dedicated matching gifts page.
When it comes to matching gift text marketing, establishing a clear and specific CTA (or call to action) is a must. For the best results, we recommend sending text traffic to a dedicated matching gifts page on your nonprofit’s website.
Including a direct link to a centralized resource hub simplifies the process for donors, providing clear information on how matching gifts work, program benefits and criteria, and instructions for involvement. Not to mention, your match page should have an embedded matching gift search tool, making it easier than ever for donors to uncover their matching gift eligibility and kick off the request process.
Incorporate visuals and emojis.
While SMS is primarily a text-based medium, incorporating visuals and emojis can grab your audience’s attention while enhancing your message’s appeal and clarity. A well-placed emoji can add personality and emotion to your message, making it feel more engaging and friendly. 💝 Meanwhile, branded graphics or images can be incorporated into multimedia messages (or MMS) to illustrate your matching gift campaign in a visual manner.
These small touches can make a significant impact, helping your messages stand out in an often overcrowded inbox.
💡 Top tip: Use Double the Donation’s free matching gift marketing templates (available for clients to use within the 360MatchPro platform) to create and distribute beautifully branded, professional-level graphics.
Track and analyze performance metrics.
Performance metrics are essential to any marketing campaign, allowing your team to measure its success with tangible goals and insights. When it comes to tracking and analyzing your matching gift text marketing, monitoring data such as open and click rates, matching gift conversion rates, and more is crucial.
By analyzing these matching gift marketing indicators, you can gain insights into what resonates with your audience, allowing you to evaluate, refine, and adjust your strategies over time.
Bonus: Utilize 360MatchPro’s enterprise text functionality.
In addition to hosting a dedicated matching gift awareness campaign, another way to use text marketing involves following up with donors after they give to your cause. This allows you to target individual givers with personalized messaging at the height of their engagement with your cause, increasing the likelihood that they’ll take the next step for a matching gift.
It doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking, either. In fact, eligible 360MatchPro users can enable SMS follow-ups in a few clicks, ensuring donors receive applicable messaging throughout their journey. While this feature is currently available only for Enterprise accounts, it provides a powerful opportunity for an organization to bring its automated outreach to the next level.
25 Sample Text Messages to Market Matching Gifts Well
With the convenience of mobile communication, text messages provide a direct line to your supporters. However, crafting the perfect outreach can be a challenge.
To help your nonprofit effectively promote matching gifts and make the most of this communication channel, we’ve compiled a number of sample text messages below.
Text message #1:
“Did you know your donation could be doubled? Many companies offer matching gifts for employee donations. Check if yours does and make an even bigger impact: [link].”
Text message #2:
“Double your impact today! Many employers will match your donation to [Nonprofit Name]. See if your company participates here: [link].”
Text message #3:
“You gave. Now your employer can, too! Find out if your company matches donations to [Nonprofit Name] and increase your gift’s impact: [link].”
Text message #4:
“Matching gift alert 🚨 Your employer may be able to match your recent donation to [Nonprofit Name]. Find out here: [link].”
Text message #5:
“Stretch your support further! 💪 Your donation could be matched dollar-for-dollar through your company’s matching gift program. Check eligibility: [link].”
Text message #6:
“Great news! Many companies will match employee donations to [Nonprofit Name]. Double your donation today by checking here: [link].”
Text message #7:
“Want to make an even bigger impact? 💥 Your employer might match your recent donation to [Nonprofit Name]. Learn more about matching gifts: [link].”
Text message #8:
“Thank you for your donation! Did you know it could go twice as far with a matching gift from your employer? See if you’re eligible: [link].”
Text message #9:
“Help us reach our goal! 🎯 Your donation can be doubled with a matching gift from your employer. Check your eligibility: [link].”
Text message #10:
“Double your donation without giving twice. 💸 Many employers match employee gifts. Find out if yours does here: [link].”
Text message #11:
“Don’t miss the chance to double your impact! Many companies match employee donations. See if your gift is eligible for a match: [link].”
Text message #12:
“Multiply your generosity! 🌱 Your donation could be matched by your employer. Find out if your company participates: [link].”
Text message #13:
“Did you know? Your employer might match your recent donation to [Nonprofit Name], making your gift go even further. Check now: [link].”
Text message #14:
“Double your support for [Nonprofit Name]! Many companies will match your donation. It only takes a minute to check if your employer participates: [link].”
Text message #15:
“Your impact could be twice as great! 🔍 See if your employer matches donations to [Nonprofit Name] and submit your request here: [link].”
Text message #16:
“Your generosity inspires others. Did you know your donation could be doubled by your employer? Learn more about matching gifts: [link].”
Text message #17:
“Thank you for supporting [Nonprofit Name]! 🙏 Your employer might match your donation. Double your impact here: [link].”
Text message #18:
“Matching gifts are a great way to increase your donation’s value. See if your company will match your recent contribution to [Nonprofit Name]: [link].”
Text message #19:
“Maximize your donation! 🏆 Find out if your employer will match your gift to [Nonprofit Name] and help us do even more good: [link].”
Text message #20:
“Make your donation go further this Giving Tuesday! Many companies will match your gift to [Nonprofit Name]. Check if yours does: [link].”
Text message #21:
“Matching gifts = double the impact! See if your employer matches employee donations to [Nonprofit Name] today: [link].”
Text message #22:
“You’ve already made a difference. Now, double it! See if your employer offers matching gifts to increase your donation’s impact: [link].”
Text message #23:
“Make your donation work twice as hard! 👐 Many companies will match employee gifts to [Nonprofit Name]. Check your eligibility here: [link].”
Text message #24:
“Did you know your gift could be doubled at no extra cost to you? See if your company matches employee donations to [Nonprofit Name]: [link].”
Text message #25:
“Your support means the world to us. 🌍 Take it a step further by submitting a matching gift request if your company participates: [link].”
By leveraging text marketing as a direct communication channel, your team can quickly and effectively remind donors about matching gift opportunities, keep them engaged, and inspire them to take action.
Just remember: the key is to tailor your messaging to resonate with your supporters, encourage participation, and ultimately help your organization maximize its matching gift potential.
Case Study: How One Organization Implemented Matching Gift Text Marketing
Save the Children, a large-scale, global humanitarian organization, decided to enhance its matching gift efforts by employing a text message marketing campaign. The goal was to raise awareness about matching gifts among their supporters while sending traffic to their newly renovated workplace giving page.
The text message marketing effort spanned several weeks and included targeted deployments to different segments of Save the Children’s subscriber base. The two key text messages in the campaign were sent on November 17 and December 2, the latter being just after Giving Tuesday.
Let’s take a look:
“Your donation to Save the Children may be eligible for a matching gift from your employer. Learn more: https://savetext.us/mgift?mk=61090499
Reply STOP to Quit”
The first message was sent to approximately 57,000 subscribers who had engaged with Save the Children over the past year. With no specific donation request included, the message aimed to raise awareness about matching gifts, encouraging recipients to learn more about the opportunity. Despite not featuring a direct fundraising ask, the campaign achieved an impressive click-through rate (CTR) of 2.7%, translating to about 1,500 unique clicks. As a result, the text message helped raise $2,700 in donations, demonstrating that even subtle reminders can drive meaningful engagement.
“THANK YOU for supporting children this Giving Tuesday…and always! Thanks to your generosity we’ll be able to make a significant impact in the lives of countless children. Now, do you want to see if you can make your gift go twice as far? Check if your employer offers a matching gift program: https://savetext.us/TY-mgift?mk=33219057
Save the Children
Reply STOP to Quit”
The second text message was targeted at a much smaller segment: around 3,200 subscribers who had made a donation within the four days surrounding Giving Tuesday. This message saw a strong CTR of 2.6%, well above the average of 1.6% for similar mass-market text campaigns. The success highlighted the effectiveness of targeting recent donors, especially during high giving periods such as Giving Tuesday.
Save the Children’s text message marketing efforts proved to be an effective way to increase awareness of matching gifts, achieving above-average click rates and directly raising funds through minimal outreach. This illustrates the potential of using text message campaigns for nonprofits like yours, showcasing that personalized and well-timed texts can boost engagement and revenue alike.
Looking to learn more? Access the on-demand webinar recording here to hear directly from Save the Children.
Wrapping Up & Additional Matching Gift Marketing Resources
Incorporating matching gift text marketing into your nonprofit’s outreach strategy is a game-changer for maximizing fundraising results. Given the immediacy and high open rates of text messages, this channel can help your organization capitalize on matching gift opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed—all in a timely and convenient manner.
Ultimately, matching gift text marketing can help bridge the gap between supporters and the corporate philanthropy opportunities available to them, ensuring that your nonprofit captures as much matching gift revenue as possible. Start implementing SMS into your matching gift promotion strategy today, and watch as it helps unlock more funds, increase donor engagement, and elevate your organization’s mission.
Ready to learn more about strategic matching gift marketing efforts? Check out the recommended resources below:
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/DTD_Matching-Gift-Text-Marketing-Spreading-the-Word-Via-SMS_Feature.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-10-16 19:13:212024-10-16 20:11:53Matching Gift Text Marketing | Spreading the Word Via SMS
According to recent payroll giving statistics, 59% of survey respondents have no familiarity with payroll giving initiatives. Fortunately, however, marketing payroll giving opportunities to your nonprofit supporters can significantly boost participation in the programs—and enhance your overall fundraising efforts.
After all, payroll giving programs allow donors to contribute a portion of their salary to your organization automatically, providing a steady stream of income with minimal effort. However, many potential donors remain unaware of this giving method or how easy it is to participate.
In this post, we’ll explore seven practical strategies to help you market payroll giving and make it a core component of your fundraising plan.
By implementing the right marketing strategies, you can educate your supporters, promote the convenience of payroll giving, and inspire long-term donor engagement.
Let’s begin!
1. Create a Payroll Giving page on your nonprofit website.
Starting off, you’re going to want to market payroll giving programs prominently throughout your nonprofit or school’s website. A dedicated payroll giving page on your nonprofit’s website is a powerful tool for educating potential donors about this giving option, serving as a centralized hub where supporters can easily learn about the benefits, process, and impact of payroll giving.
Start by explaining what payroll giving is, highlighting how it allows employees to contribute to your cause directly from their paycheck on a recurring basis. Ensure the page features clear instructions on how to enroll in payroll giving, too, such as through their employer’s CSR platform or by contacting their HR department.
You’ll also want to emphasize the convenience of payroll giving. Once donors sign up, they don’t have to worry about making regular donations manually. It’s a simple, consistent, and tax-efficient way to support the cause they care about.
2. Incorporate payroll giving in your email marketing.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your nonprofit’s supporters, and incorporating payroll giving into your email campaigns can significantly boost participation.
Start by crafting a compelling email that educates your audience on the advantages of payroll giving, emphasizing its ease, convenience, and long-term impact. Highlight the benefit of steady, recurring donations for your organization, personalizing the message to show supporters how their payroll donations can drive meaningful change in the community or cause they care about.
Include clear calls-to-action in the email, encouraging recipients to enroll in payroll giving through their employer. You can link directly to your nonprofit’s payroll giving webpage or provide detailed steps for contacting their HR department to inquire about the program. It’s also helpful to include examples of companies that offer payroll giving or suggestions for how donors can advocate for the program if their employer doesn’t currently provide it.
For the best results, we recommend regularly mentioning payroll giving in different types of email communications—such as newsletters, thank-you emails, or special campaign updates. This keeps the option top of mind for donors while reinforcing the importance of their continued support.
3. Promote payroll giving initiatives on social media.
Social media is a powerful channel for engaging with your nonprofit’s audience, and it can be a highly effective tool for promoting payroll giving programs, too.
Use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to share posts that explain what payroll giving is and how supporters can participate. Share success stories, testimonials, or case studies from current payroll donors to demonstrate the program’s real-world impact. Not to mention, visual content like infographics or short videos can be particularly effective in grabbing attention and communicating key messages.
Regularly include payroll giving in your content rotation, using relevant hashtags to increase visibility when appropriate. Remember: the goal is to ensure supporters are consistently reminded about this giving option and can easily find the information they need to get started.
4. Collect and leverage employment information in your outreach.
The more you know about your donors, the better you can engage them in workplace giving programs like payroll deductions and more. Specifically, having access to accurate and up-to-date employment data can go a long way.
But how can you collect this information? Start by incorporating questions about employment during the registration or donation process. Ask supporters to share the name of their employer, as well as whether they are aware of any workplace giving programs like payroll giving, matching gifts, or volunteer grants.
Once you’ve collected employment data, segment your donor list by company and customize your communications based on the giving opportunities available at those businesses. For example, if you know that a particular company offers payroll giving, you can send targeted emails to employees at that company, providing detailed instructions on how they can enroll in the program. If their company doesn’t currently offer payroll giving, encourage those donors to advocate for it within their workplace.
Top tip: If you lack quality employment information about your donors, consider utilizing a data enhancement service. This will allow you to fill in some gaps and provide the information you need to identify the best workplace giving programs in your network!
5. Consider donors already eligible for other workplace giving programs.
When it comes to workplace giving, most participating companies offer more than one way for employees to get involved. For example, statistics indicate that nearly two-thirds of companies report matching employee payroll contributions, and many of the top matching gift companies offer volunteer grants, too.
But what does that mean for your team?
Supporters who already participate in other workplace giving programs, such as matching gifts or volunteer grants, may be ideal candidates for payroll giving initiatives. To target this segment, begin by identifying donors who have previously submitted matching gift requests or applied for volunteer grants. These individuals already have a relationship with their company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, which makes them a strong target audience for payroll giving.
In your outreach, emphasize the complementary nature of payroll giving to other workplace programs. You’ll want to acknowledge their previous participation in workplace giving programs and thank them for their ongoing support. Then, introduce payroll giving as a way to streamline their contributions and make an even greater difference. You can even highlight how their regular contributions through payroll giving can be further amplified through matching gift programs, doubling, or even tripling their impact.
6. Collaborate with corporate partners to highlight the opportunity.
Nowadays, more and more organizations are beginning to take an increasingly proactive approach to marketing payroll giving programs to their supporters. Still, many companies choose to promote the opportunity to their employees, too. And for that reason, collaborating with the businesses offering the programs can go a long way in heightening visibility and participation.
Start by reaching out to companies that already support your nonprofit through donations, sponsorships, or volunteer programs. Ask if they have a payroll giving program in place and discuss ways to promote the initiative to their employees. This could even involve co-branded marketing materials, such as email templates, flyers, or social media posts that both the company and your nonprofit can share with their audiences.
7. Offer exclusive incentives for payroll giving donors.
To encourage supporters to participate in payroll giving, consider offering exclusive incentives that reward their commitment to ongoing contributions. This can make the process more appealing and demonstrate your nonprofit’s appreciation for their support.
While it will likely vary based on the wants and needs of your particular audience, potential incentives may include…
Public recognition, such as listing names on a dedicated “payroll giving wall” on your website or donor newsletters. (Top tip: Public recognition can foster a sense of pride and community among payroll donors, motivating others to join, too!)
Access to exclusive events, such as virtual meet-and-greets with your organization’s leadership or tours of your facilities.
Branded merchandise, like T-shirts, tote bags, or water bottles, as a thank-you for committing to payroll giving.
Consider tying incentives to donation milestones, such as offering a special gift to donors who have contributed for a certain number of months or reached a specific donation amount. This not only encourages initial sign-ups but also helps retain donors over the long term.
Wrapping Up & Additional Resources
Effectively marketing payroll giving can transform the opportunity into a powerful, recurring revenue stream for your organization. By leveraging digital and other marketing tactics to educate supporters and partner with companies in your network, you can unlock the full potential of workplace giving and build stronger, more consistent donor relationships.
As you implement the seven strategies above, you’ll not only raise awareness of payroll giving but also encourage long-term contributions that help sustain your nonprofit’s mission. Don’t let the opportunity go to waste!
For more information about effectively marketing payroll and other employee giving opportunities, check out the following resources:
The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Matching Gifts. Discover the most effective strategies for promoting corporate matching gift programs to your nonprofit’s supporters. This comprehensive guide walks you through the key tactics to increase donor engagement, raise awareness of matching opportunities, and maximize the impact of employer-matched donations.
Marketing Corporate Volunteerism | A How-To Resource For Orgs. Corporate volunteerism is a powerful resource for nonprofits, but how do you encourage businesses and their employees to get involved with your organization? This guide provides actionable steps for creating compelling volunteer opportunities that align with employee interests and CSR goals.
Tracking Payroll Giving: A Nonprofit’s Step-by-Step Guide. Payroll giving can be a valuable and consistent source of funding, but tracking those donations is essential for success. This guide outlines the process nonprofits should follow to track payroll giving contributions efficiently, from registering with payroll platforms to monitoring and reporting on giving patterns.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/DTD_7-Strategies-for-Marketing-Payroll-Giving-to-Your-Supporters_Feature.png6001600Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-09-19 14:56:442024-09-20 18:53:097 Strategies for Marketing Payroll Giving to Your Supporters
Collecting data is essential for being able to contact your supporters. From giving habits to communication preferences, every piece of data you gather about your donors can be leveraged to secure gifts, earn long-term support, and expand your donor base.
One piece of basic but vital information is demographic data. From how old your supporters are to their family status to their average income, demographics help you better understand your audience. However, you may not have any natural opportunities to outright ask supporters details about their lives without coming off as invasive.
Fortunately, you can fill in missing data and correct outdated information with data appending. In this guide, we’ll take a deep dive into demographic appends and how your nonprofit can leverage them to cultivate stronger supporter relationships.
What is a data append?
“Append” means to supplement or amend something, so a “data append” is the process of supplementing and amending your nonprofit’s data. Along with demographic information, nonprofits can purchase appending services for all kinds of donor data, including:
These are just a few types of data nonprofits are likely to request to complete their donor profiles. For instance, for-profit companies often invest in customer appends related to internet search history and past purchases.
For nonprofits interested in data appending, look for services that specialize in working with nonprofit and charitable organizations. These service providers understand the unique types of supporter data that will actually be beneficial to nonprofits, so they can avoid cluttering your donor database. We’ll go over the characteristics of a reliable data append provider later.
What data is included in demographic appends?
Demographics are a catchall term for a wide variety of data, including:
This information is gathered from multiple databases the append service has access to. If you give your donors’ names and email addresses to your append service provider, they would compare that information against the data in their various databases to find corresponding demographic information.
While some demographic details might seem sensitive, remember that data appending is a normal and widespread practice. For example, when you register to vote, you likely receive many political messages from your preferred party despite never providing any political groups with your phone number or email.
Why do nonprofits need demographic appends?
Demographic appends provide a wide range of data about your donors, but you might not be sure exactly how knowing your supporters’ ages or family sizes will help your nonprofit.
Demographic appends benefit nonprofits in a few ways, including:
Understanding your audience. When you know your supporters’ interests and lifestyle, you can better appeal to them. Use your demographic information to refine your donor segments. For example, you might create a donor segment for young, unmarried college students who likely have a low giving capacity but lots of time for volunteering. Then, you could create another segment for middle-aged donors who are married, have children, and live in a two-income household. This group might have little free time but can give higher donations.
Identifying major giving prospects. Some demographic information, such as age, net worth, and income can help you identify major giving prospects. Plus, for major giving candidates you’ve already discovered, a demographic append can help fill in details about their interests and lifestyle, which can be useful for building a relationship with them.
Conducting market research. Knowing who your average supporter is helps you analyze your nonprofit’s branding and expand your audience. For example, you might discover that the majority of your donors are retirees with religious leanings and adult children. With this information, you can make educated guesses about where your current and potential new donors who share these characteristics likely are and what types of messages will resonate with them.
Keeping information up to date. While some demographic information is static, such as ethnicity and date of birth, others can change over time. Regularly appending your data helps you stay up-to-date with your donors as they change careers, get married, change their buying habits, or make any other number of lifestyle changes.
Collecting data unobtrusively. Your donation forms, volunteer sign-ups, and event registrations should all be short and concise to encourage supporters to complete them. However, this means missing out on opportunities to gather data about your supporters. A demographic append can fix this and also fill in information that may be awkward to ask for outright.
The more you know about your donors, the better you’ll be able to communicate with them. Demographic data empowers you to create content your current supporters and prospective donors will find interesting, leading to increased engagement.
The Data Appending Process
When a nonprofit purchases a data append, almost every step of the process will be taken care of by the service they hire. However, understanding how this process works can help you choose a trustworthy data appending company and make better use of the data you receive.
We’ve touched on the appending process briefly, but let’s break it down in full here:
Send your data to your append provider. You don’t need to clean up your database before conducting an append, but doing so will ensure your data is organized and usable. Plus, requesting additional data when you have a disorganized database will only expound any current data hygiene issues. As such, prepare your data by ensuring donor profiles are standardized and removing duplicate entries.
Provider searches their database. Using the data you provide, data append services will search their various databases to find matches. Data append services usually have access to many publicly available and private databases. This allows them to append a wide range of data types and ensure the information they provide is accurate.
Provider updates information. Once a data append provider finds data they think is accurate, they will add it to your donor profiles. Many providers will add confidence ratings to each entry which indicates how sure they are the information is accurate.
Receive the appended data. After the requested data—in this case, demographic information—for all of your shared records is added, the append service will provide your nonprofit with the corrected data. From there, you’ll need to sync the information to your donor database to update your records and avoid a manual data migration.
Ultimately, your nonprofit will have little involvement in the actual appending process, but if you have any questions about how the process will be conducted or what your nonprofit should expect, be sure to ask your specific append provider.
What to Look for in a Data Append Provider
Data append providers help supplement your data, but they can vary in speed, accuracy, and range of services. When you’re ready to hire a data append provider, assess top candidates on the following qualities:
Trustworthiness and security. To gather demographic information about your donors, you’ll need to share identifying details about them with your append service. As such, conduct a background check on the append provider you plan to work with by checking their reviews, how long they’ve been in operation, and what their data security measures are.
Accurate data. For your appended data to be useful, it needs to be correct. Talk with append providers about their data collection and verification processes to ensure they prioritize accuracy and have measures in place to indicate when there are doubts about a record’s correctness.
Fast turnaround time. While you want your data to be accurate, you also need to receive it within a reasonable timeframe. Discuss append timelines with your service provider. While most nonprofits only need batch appends—an append where a given set of data is corrected and supplemented—you can also consider a real-time append—an append where your data is continually updated in real-time.
Reasonable pricing. Different appending services have different pricing models. Some charge based on the number of records appended, whereas others have a subscription model, which can be a useful option if you intend to append your data regularly moving forward.
Additional appending services. If you find a provider for your demographic appends that you like, you may want to purchase additional appending services from them. For example, nonprofit append services also often provide appends for email addresses, geographic locations, employer information, and more.
When it comes to append services, we have to recommend ourselves! Double the Donation is a trusted name in the nonprofit sector, and we’re happy to provide data enhancement services to nonprofits.
Our team can provide appends for email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and addresses. But where we shine the most is employer information. With our comprehensive corporate giving database, nonprofits can easily find their donors’ employers and discover their eligibility for a range of corporate giving programs, including volunteer grants and matching gifts.
More Appending Resources
Demographic data lets you know who your supporters are. With this information, you can better market to your current audience, identify potential supporters, and improve your donor relationships. Demographic appends empower you to gather this information easily and stay updated on your supporters, no matter how your audience grows or changes.
For more resources related to appending, nonprofit data, and supporter relationships, check out these guides:
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/demographic-appends_feature.jpg7602000Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-08-13 13:24:382024-08-13 13:24:38Demographic Appends: Does Your Nonprofit Need One?
Corporate volunteerism refers to the practice of businesses encouraging employees to volunteer their time and skills to charitable causes. This can take a number of forms, including company-wide volunteer days, paid time off for volunteer activities, skills-based volunteering, and volunteer grant programs.
For nonprofits and schools, corporate volunteerism is a vital tool that can significantly enhance their capacity to achieve their missions. How? Corporate volunteer programs provide these organizations with increased manpower, diverse skill sets, enhanced visibility, and even the potential for financial support and long-term corporate partnerships.
Meanwhile, the companies offering the programs see increased employee engagement and enhanced CSR. However, for each group to reap the rewards of these programs, it’s essential that the efforts are marketed well. And that’s where this guide comes in!
Corporate volunteerism provides nonprofits, schools, and similar fundraising groups with easy access to skilled volunteers and other invaluable resources. Understanding the types of programs available to your organization and its supporters through their employers allows you to better target lucrative opportunities, deepen engagement with volunteers, and achieve your goals overall.
We recommend familiarizing yourself (and the rest of your team) with the following types of corporate volunteer initiatives:
Individual Volunteer Grants
Volunteer grants, also known as “Dollars for Doers,” are corporate programs where companies offer monetary donations to nonprofits where their employees volunteer. Typically, an employee must spend a set number of hours at the nonprofit for the organization to qualify for a grant, which may be paid out as a lump sum or based on a predetermined hourly rate.
Benefit for nonprofits: This program incentivizes volunteerism and rewards nonprofits with additional financial support!
Team Volunteer Grants
Similar to individual volunteer grants, team volunteer grants provide funding for the organizations at which their employees volunteer. The difference, however, is that team volunteer grants are awarded when a group of employees from the same company volunteer together. Team grants are generally larger in amount, too, providing lucrative funding when groups of employees get involved.
Benefit for nonprofits: This program incentivizes group volunteering among corporate staff and provides generous financial support.
Paid Volunteer Time Off
Paid volunteer time off (or VTO for short) is a corporate benefit where companies provide their employees with a set number of hours they can spend volunteering for nonprofits or community service activities. In other words, employees are encouraged to engage in volunteer work during regular work hours without sacrificing their regular pay.
Benefit for nonprofits: This program provides a powerful incentive for volunteer recruitment, engagement, retention, and more.
Skills-Based Volunteerism
Skills-based volunteerism involves employees offering their professional skills and expertise to nonprofits rather than general volunteer work. For example, a marketing professional might help a nonprofit develop a communications strategy, or an accountant might assist with financial planning.
Benefit for nonprofits: This program allows nonprofits to benefit from specialized knowledge that can significantly advance their mission.
Company-Sponsored Volunteer Days
Company-sponsored volunteer days are organized events where companies designate a day for their employees to volunteer as a group at a specific nonprofit, school, or community project. The company often arranges the logistics, and employees participate during work hours, incentivizing involvement with a free day out of the office!
Benefit for nonprofits: This program empowers organizations to rally corporate employees in group activities, allowing significant progress to be made on large-scale projects in a short amount of time.
Identifying Corporate Volunteer Programs in Your Network
Before you can market corporate volunteerism to your audience, it’s a good idea to uncover the best opportunities in your network. We recommend following these practical tips to do so:
Before you can market corporate volunteerism to your audience, it’s a good idea to uncover the best opportunities in your network. We recommend following these practical tips to do so:
1. Collecting Employment Information From Supporters:
Start by gathering employment details from your donors, volunteers, and other supporters. This can be done through surveys, event registration forms, or during volunteer sign-ups.
Knowing where your supporters work allows you to explore potential corporate volunteer programs they have access to, which could benefit your organization.
2. Researching Employers with Well-Known Volunteer Programs:
Once you have a list of where your supporters are employed, research whether these companies offer volunteer programs. Many large corporations, like Disney, Microsoft, Google, and thousands of others, have established volunteer programs.
Plus, there’s a significant overlap between companies offering matching gifts and those offering volunteer programs. If you already know of businesses in your network that match employee donations, it’s worth investigating whether they also offer volunteer grants or other volunteer opportunities.
Leveraging this database can help you quickly identify which companies have programs your organization could benefit from!
4. Conducting Manual Research:
Sometimes, a simple online search can yield valuable information. Try searching for a specific company’s name along with keywords like “volunteering” or “volunteer programs” (e.g., “Home Depot + Volunteering”).
While it will be a more time-intensive approach, this idea can help you discover details about a company’s volunteer initiatives, including opportunities they offer to their employees.
5. Encouraging Supporters to Check with Their Employers:
Lastly, be sure to motivate your supporters to inquire about volunteer programs within their workplaces. Many employees might not be aware that their companies offer volunteer grants or paid volunteer time off. By encouraging them to ask, you can uncover opportunities that might have been overlooked.
Marketing Corporate Volunteerism to Supporters
Marketing corporate volunteerism to individual supporters involves educating and motivating them to participate in and promote these opportunities within their workplaces. Here’s how you might approach this:
Educate Supporters on Corporate Volunteerism:
Start by informing your supporters about what corporate volunteerism is and how it works. Use newsletters, emails, and social media posts to explain the various types of corporate volunteer programs, such as paid volunteer time off, volunteer grants, and team volunteer days.
You’ll also want to include a section about corporate volunteer incentives on your Volunteers page—and embed a company search tool so supporters can easily uncover their available programming.
Communicate the Impact of Corporate Volunteerism:
Share stories and testimonials that demonstrate the positive impact corporate volunteerism has had on your organization. Show how previous corporate volunteer efforts have helped achieve specific goals, whether it’s through completing a project, raising funds, or expanding your programs. This helps supporters see the tangible outcomes of their potential involvement.
Encourage Inquiries at Work:
For those who don’t find corporate volunteer information in your database widget, encourage them to check in with their employers about any available programs.
Many employees may not be aware of the opportunities available to them, so you’ll want to provide them with language they can use to approach their managers or HR leaders about the programs, making it easier for them to initiate the conversation and drive impact for your team.
Regularly communicate the volunteer opportunities available at your organization that are suitable for corporate teams or individuals looking to volunteer through their workplace programs. Highlight any upcoming events or projects where corporate volunteers could make a significant difference and make sure these opportunities are well-advertised through your existing channels.
Offer Recognition:
Recognize and celebrate individual supporters and companies that engage their companies in corporate volunteerism. You can even publicly acknowledge their efforts through newsletters, social media, or at events.
Recognition not only makes the individual feel valued but also serves as an example to other supporters who might be inspired to take similar actions.
Leverage Peer Influence:
Encourage supporters who have successfully engaged their employers in corporate volunteerism to share their experiences with others. Peer recommendations can be very persuasive, so consider featuring these stories in your communications to inspire others to take similar steps. You can even encourage eligible volunteers to organize team events with their colleagues to support your cause!
Marketing Volunteerism to Corporate Partners
Marketing corporate volunteerism to corporate partners—both new and existing—requires a strategic approach that highlights mutual benefits, aligns with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals , and fosters long-term relationships.
Here’s how you can effectively market these opportunities to companies.
Understand Corporate Goals and CSR Objectives:
Before reaching out to corporate partners, research their CSR goals, values, and past volunteer initiatives. Tailor your pitch to show how partnering with your organization can help them achieve these objectives.
Emphasize how corporate volunteerism aligns with their brand, enhances employee engagement, and contributes to community impact. If possible, provide data that demonstrates how other companies have benefited from similar partnerships with your organization in the past.
Develop Tailored Volunteer Packages:
Create customizable volunteer opportunities that align with the company’s needs and interests. Offer a range of options, from one-day events to ongoing projects, and include both skills-based and general volunteer opportunities. Tailoring these packages makes it easier for companies to see how they can get involved in a way that suits them and their teams.
Highlight the Impact of Volunteerism:
Quantify and communicate the impact of corporate volunteerism on your organization. Provide reports that show how corporate volunteers have contributed to your mission, including metrics like the number of hours volunteered, projects completed, and the overall community impact. Why? Companies are more likely to invest in programs where they can see measurable outcomes.
Recognize Corporate Support:
Publicly recognize and celebrate the contributions of your corporate partners. This can include awards, mentions in your annual report, shout-outs on social media, or hosting a special recognition event. Acknowledging their efforts not only strengthens your relationship but also encourages continued contributions.
Facilitate Employee Engagement:
Make it easy for companies to involve their employees in volunteer opportunities. To do so, you can provide them with promotional materials, sign-up sheets, and detailed information on how to participate. Offer flexibility in scheduling and types of volunteer work to accommodate different levels of employee engagement and interest, too!
5 Organizations Marketing Corporate Volunteerism Well
As you look to revamp your own team’s corporate volunteerism marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to solicit inspiration from other organizations’ efforts. For this reason, we’ve selected a few nonprofits with standout promotional strategies to consider.
The NFED, or National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias, is a nonprofit devoted to research, education, and support for those affected by ectodermal dysplasias. In order to supercharge their efforts, the organization promotes Dollars for Doers (also known as volunteer grants) as a key way for supporters to enhance their impact.
Take a look at this snippet of the blog post below:
Here’s what this marketing example does well:
Defines the importance of corporate social responsibility
Mentions and links to a matching gifts page for additional information
Encourages volunteers to look into volunteer grant opportunities through their employers
Emphasizes the value and doubled impact of matching gift and volunteer grant programs
United Way of the National Capital Area is a branch of the United Way organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. This nonprofit understands the value that volunteerism can offer its cause, and it promotes Volunteer Time Off as a key way to recruit, engage, and retain supporters.
Take a look at this snippet of the blog post below:
Here’s what this marketing example does well:
Uses research to demonstrate the prevalence and widespread availability of Volunteer Time Off programs
Highlights the benefits for companies, their employees, and the organization itself
Provides powerful insights into where VTO programs can be found, including by sector and geographic location
Showcases top opportunities for companies offering volunteer time off for their employees
LLS, or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, is a medical research-based nonprofit dedicated to leading the fight against blood cancers. The organization receives generous support from a wide range of volunteers, and the team provides a number of resources, including a corporate database search tool from Double the Donation, to streamline and increase participation in volunteer incentive programming.
Take a look at the landing page below:
Here’s what this marketing example does well:
Offers an embedded company search tool for volunteers to quickly locate program details, instructions, and forms
Provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the volunteer grant process
Shares important information volunteers may need to complete their volunteer grant applications
Highlights an easy way for supporters to get in touch with additional questions or inquiries
Habitat for Humanity is a largely volunteer-based organization dedicated to ensuring every person has a place to live. As a result, the team does a lot to promote corporate volunteer incentives.
Take a look at these resources below:
Here’s what this marketing example does well:
Uses multiple communication channels to promote corporate volunteer programs to their audience
Highlights both volunteer grants and volunteer time off programs, demonstrating a range of opportunities in which individuals can participate
Speaks directly to companies that are considering implementing corporate volunteer programs
Actively drives engagement with a call to action button leading users to a volunteer sign-up page
Florida State Parks is a nonprofit organization that works with local governments, park users, researchers, and more to ensure maintenance and upkeep of more than 175 award-winning state parks, trails, and historic sites across the state. A big part of its mission involves empowering volunteers to play a role, and it often leverages corporate volunteer opportunities as a way to do so.
Take a look at the landing page below:
Here’s what this marketing example does well:
Highlights recent companies and teams that support the parks with corporate volunteer programs
Provides contact information for companies or individuals interested in organizing a company-sponsored volunteer event
Enlists photos of real corporate volunteer teams to leverage social proof
Provides examples of various types of volunteer projects companies could host to get involved
Bottom line: Spreading the word about corporate volunteerism is essential, and an organization’s website is one of the best opportunities to do so.
Wrapping Up & Next Steps
Successfully marketing corporate volunteerism requires a thoughtful and strategic approach that highlights the benefits for your organization, its supporters, their employers, and your community as a whole.
By effectively communicating about available initiatives, you can build a stronger, more engaged volunteer base that’s increasingly incentivized to give back to your cause. And you might even get some extra funding out of it all!
Ready to learn more about marketing corporate volunteerism? Check out our recommended resources and further reading:
Matching gifts hold an incredible yet often untapped potential in the world of nonprofit and educational fundraising. To shed light on this powerful tool, we’re excited to present a matching gift Q&A session with Tom Mansmith, consultant and renowned expert in workplace giving and matching gifts.
With more than 20 years of experience in the field as the former Senior Director of Workplace Giving and Matching Gifts for the American Cancer Society, Tom offers invaluable insights and first-hand experience into how nonprofits can maximize their matching gift revenue, engage donors more effectively, and overcome common challenges to drive success.
Whether you’re a seasoned fundraising professional or new to the concept of matching gifts, this conversation is packed with practical advice and actionable strategies. Feel free to watch the video mini-series and read through the transcript below!
1. What are corporate vendor platforms, and what role do they have in matching gifts?
There are a number of corporate vendors who facilitate employee philanthropic giving. These technology providers work on behalf of businesses to streamline and to integrate the employee giving programs, which can include payroll deduction, matching gifts, volunteer grants, cause cards, and incentive programs.
Generally speaking, these providers supply an online platform where companies are able to manage their employee programs. They allow employees to give to accredited nonprofits, log their volunteer hours, pledge their payroll deductions, etc.
On the backend of these sites, nonprofits are able to verify the original contributions for matching gifts, see donor details, and confirm volunteer hours.
These platforms really are an integral part of the matching gift program. It’s not a company’s core business, but it’s part of their core value in employee engagement, so these corporate matching gift vendors play a vital role in the matching gift process.
2. What is the general processing flow when you receive a matching gift payment?
Most matching gifts your organization receives will come from a corporate matching gift vendor who processes the payments on behalf of a company.
Here’s how it works:
→ You’ll navigate to a third-party corporate vendor platform.
→ Go to the “Giving” section, where you’ll see a section for payments and transactions.
→ Once there, it’s going to give you a list of all of the payments your organization has received. Now, it’s a good idea to have the check number, the amount, and whether it was a check or a direct deposit.
→ When you’re on that page, search with the payment ID or date so you get the exact payment.
→ Once you’ve located the payment, you can go through all the donor details, including which employees the company was matching specifically.
This information can be viewed online, but you also have the option to download the reconciliation sheet. I recommend that you download the reconciliation sheet, as it will allow your finance department or yourself to process the payment accurately.
3. What are some common roadblocks for nonprofit organizations trying to earn more matching gifts?
That’s a long list, but let’s try to tackle a couple of them.
Leadership buy-in
You should make a real case to your organization’s leadership that matching gifts is a vital part of their overall revenue strategy.
When it says Double the Donation, it truly means doubling a donation.
So, I would make a strong case to leadership that matching gifts is a vital part of their overall strategy, and what that unlocks for you, hopefully, is additional marketing and FTEs, which are critical for processing and marketing for matching gifts.
Lack of staffing
I think everyone has been struggling with this, but if you’re someone who’s handling all of the matching gifts for your organization, you know what I’m talking about.
As you begin to scale, you’ll likely need additional staff. Without leadership’s buy-in, that’s a tough thing.
However, having the appropriate amount of staff for the scale of your matching gift revenue stream is essential. I don’t know about your organization, but I imagine that for small or medium organizations, one or two people can do the job. And for larger organizations, many are stretched, but I would say that more than three people is appropriate for payroll deductions, volunteer grants, and matching gifts as they continue to grow.
Marketing dollars
I think it’s a real roadblock not to look at this both internally and externally. So, communication dollars should be used to socialize matching gifts internally to development staff that are running peer-to-peer events (gala, golf, other types of fundraising) and your corporate development staff, if you have that.
They really all should know something about matching gifts so that when they see an opportunity, they’re able to talk about matching gifts to the decision-makers in companies.
Lack of employment data
Many organizations hesitate to ask for and retain employment information. If you don’t know that someone works for a corporation that has a matching gift program, however, you miss the opportunity to tie their original contribution to that matching gift.
And I know that you can get pushback from your IT team or your event staff, for instance, that they don’t want something else on the registration page. But I’d argue that because it allows you to actually fundraise for the staff, adding “Who do you work for?” is critical for registrations for peer-to-peer events and on the main URL of your fundraising page.
Not taking advantage of technology
For the best matching gift results, you want to really take advantage of all the technology that Double the Donation has to offer in matching gifts.
What I mean by this, one, is that you have a matching gift activation on all of your fundraising pages. And, secondarily, that you’re utilizing 360MatchPro to data-mine contributions that hadn’t been matched, but you find meet the criteria for matching.
There are probably three things that I’d tell you. Here’s the first:
Socialize the impact of matching gifts with your developmental team.
Show them the impact and the dollars that donors are leaving on the table by not matching gifts. In fact, I’d even point out some key donors who didn’t take advantage of their matching gift program. That’s a really powerful motivator.
One of the best ways to do so is by providing your team with access to the Matching Gift Academy, which is free for Double the Donation clients to use ($199/year value).
Take full advantage of Double the Donation’s technology.
Make sure all of your donation pages have the DTD matching gift activation on them so employees can take full advantage of that.
Note: Double the Donation integrates with nearly all leading fundraising solutions, donation tools, and CRMs to make it increasingly easy to do so! Check out our integration partners here to see if you can connect your platform!
Regularly check your database through 360MatchPro.
Look for those donors who were eligible for matching gifts but didn’t take advantage of it in the first round. That’s a goldmine for your organization to be receiving additional revenue!
5. How do you recommend getting matching gift buy-in from your team?
Making an internal business case with different stakeholders will advance matching gifts across your organization. Here are three teams you should consider engaging and getting on board with matching gifts.
Corporate development staff
Those are the individuals who go out and talk to corporations about grants and cause marketing. The third area that they really ought to be talking about is employee engagement, whether that’s payroll deductions, matching gifts, or other programs.
One of the things that matching gifts does is provide specific corporate information about employee engagement. Usually, the decision-makers don’t have a good idea of the level of affinity or employee participation in your cause.
What matching gifts will do is provide that corporate development staff member with some very specific talking points about your organization and the affinity of their employees.
It’ll show increased employee affinity, corporate engagement, and more. There’ll even be some great impact stories that you can research and provide for your corporate development team. Whether those are specific or anecdotal, that storytelling can be a huge part of your corporate development meeting.
And then finally, it provides an opportunity for your corporate development team to upsell. If there’s a big engagement with that company’s employee base, the company is going to be more likely to consider corporate grants or even a cause marketing deal.
Peer-to-peer staff
Whether you’re hosting a golf event, a gala, or a fundraising walk, all of those gifts are matchable for the participants who work for corporations that have matching programs. We’re talking about 65% of Fortune 500 companies.
And so, what does that do for peer-to-peer? Well, #1, it’s a lower cost of fundraising.
That doubled dollar, that second dollar you receive, lowers their overall event fundraising cost. And for most organizations, that’s a metric that leadership is looking at, so matching gifts is the way to do that.
You can even show the dollars that are left on the table. So, a good project is to do a little deep dive on those participants who were eligible for matching gifts. Then, show the potential dollars that could have been collected had matching gifts been presented. Those are dollars that are left on the table, and that’s probably the biggest motivator for peer-to-peer teams: to see what they could have had. And, of course, you’re offering what they can have, so that’s super important.
Then the final thing with peer-to-peer is that matching gifts allows for a deeper dive into that donor or employee profile. Now that you know who they work for, that can lead to more teams coming to support your cause from that corporation, maybe not just localized but a national team.
IT staff
For a lot of organizations, that main donation page URL is managed by the IT staff, so one of the things that I found when we had point of contribution activations for matching gifts is that we saw a greater conversion rate because when individual donors who work for companies think about the fact that their company would double that donation, they’re more likely to give.
We saw an increase in the original contribution, which was great. We also saw people going back in and raising their contribution, then going forward with the matching gift.
And then again also, those donor profiles, knowing who the individual works for, is very important for establishing a good CRM. Not to mention, increased security and API transfers is important to your IT staff, and Double the Dontion’s technology is highly secure with seamless data integrations, too.
6. What are your top 3 tips for communicating matching gifts to your donors?
Communicating the matching gift opportunity is essential for fundraisers such as yourself. Here’s what I recommend doing to get the message across in the most impactful way possible.
Storytelling
I’m a big proponent of storytelling, and I think this is both true for pre-donation and post-donation. A very concise story about the impact of matching gifts should be provided, where the employer acknowledges the donor’s original contribution and recognizes the philanthropic choices of their employees. That’s a great partnership inside of that company, and I think you can tell a story about what those partnerships do to advance your cause. Be concise; I don’t think you have to be too specific but tell the story about their impact.
Generational appropriateness
I’m a Baby Boomer, and I consume information in a way that might be, or is, different from Millennials or Gen Z. I think that you ought to take the time to learn about generational communication differences. What do I mean by that? When you’re creating communications, you should do something more than just send an email, a flyer, or a leave-behind. Instead, you ought to, for example, do TikTok. Maybe you have Instagram or social media posts that can tell that story but in a generationally appropriate way.
Acknowledge the employee-employer partnership
The final thing, and I talked about this a little in the storytelling section, and this may be more true for your development staff that are engaging with corporate decision-makers, but making sure that they have the information available to them to acknowledge the partnership and the impact that it made on your cause.
In this sense, I think that you can be specific, so look at total matching gift dollars raised by employees, total matching gift dollars raised by that employer. Then, put that information in the hands of staff going out to corporations so that they can tell a story about the impact.
7. What other fundraising opportunities can matching gifts uncover?
I think there’s probably three, maybe four. So, let’s take a look at those.
Corporate teams
My guess is that most of you have peer-to-peer fundraising. I would look for an individual who’s on a team, maybe it’s not a corporate team, but you have their employment information. Let’s say they work for a Fortune 1000 company, or that they donated online on your main web page. When they ask to have their gift matched, you uncover that they work for a major corporation.
Those are leads for developing teams within corporations. They obviously have an affinity toward your organization, and I wouldn’t shy away from recruiting from that pool of matching gift donors. Maybe they weren’t on a corporate team, but I would ask them next year to form one for your next big peer-to-peer fundraising event.
Cause marketing and corporate grants
I know this can seem like a stretch; you got a matching gift for $25 or $100, and now you’re going to go ask for a cause marketing deal or a corporate grant. But hear me out—in scale, let’s say you had 50 employees who contributed to your organization, perhaps through a peer-to-peer event, and they all matched. Maybe they’ve even been doing it for a couple of years.
What you have in that organization is a group of employees who have an affinity for your cause. And I think it’s safe to say that the people who make the decisions within the company’s community development or corporate citizenship teams don’t have any idea that that’s going on. So, raising that with those decision-makers is the first step to start talking about other things that the corporation can do. It’s their corporate dollars that make a matching gift. It may not be the meeting, but it’s the knock on the door for upselling in corporate grants and in cause marketing.
Because you can show the affinity of their employees, which, by the way, companies hold very highly, you can begin to hold conversations about how else your organization could partner with a corporation.
Major gifts
How does a $100 matching gift get a major giver? Well, I think you’ll find that if you look in your database, you may have people who are giving much more than $100. Anyone who gives a $500 gift and has asked to match it could be a candidate for a major gift—certainly to pursue it or to investigate it. One of the things I would do is, in your database, look at not just single donations but total annual giving.
If you have people who are giving more than $1,000, and then having that gift matched, I think that those are good candidates for larger gifts. They are obviously people who work for corporations, they may or may not have higher incomes, and those could be pursued by your major gift staff.”
Tom’s expertise underscores the immense value that matching gifts can bring to any organization or fundraising strategy. By understanding the nuances of these programs and effectively communicating them to donors, teams like yours can unlock a significant source of additional funding.
We hope this matching gift Q&A has provided you with the knowledge and inspiration needed to enhance your matching gift fundraising efforts. By implementing these insights, your organization can not only boost its success but also deepen its connection with donors who are eager to maximize their impact.
Good luck!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DTD_Matching-Gift-QA-with-Workplace-Giving-Expert-Tom-Mansmith.png10801920Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-08-07 17:46:312024-10-01 15:50:39Matching Gift Q&A with Workplace Giving Expert Tom Mansmith
Picture this: Your wildlife conservation foundation is gearing up for an email marketing campaign. Your marketing team composes an engaging series of emails, complete with stories about real beneficiaries you’ve helped, statistics that illustrate your impact, and testimonials from donors and volunteers. Once the materials are ready, you send out the first batch of emails to your supporters.
However, when you check the open and click-through rates of your email, they’re much lower than you anticipated, and your bounce rate is way too high. What could have gone wrong?
While it’s possible your email didn’t catch your audience’s attention, it’s perhaps more likely that many of your supporters didn’t receive your email in the first place due to typos in your saved email addresses, switches to new email addresses, or a multitude of other reasons.
This scenario demonstrates the importance of keeping your database organized and up-to-date through data hygiene best practices. In this guide, we’ll equip your team with the skills they need to clean up your constituent data by covering the following topics:
With these tips, you’ll be prepared to maintain a clean database filled with information that can help you get in touch with your audience and earn more support.
What Is Data Hygiene?
Data hygiene refers to the process of cleaning your database. In this context, “cleaning” refers to updating, verifying, and supplementing the supporter information you’ve stored so it’s accurate and actionable.
While clean data is error-free, up-to-date information, “dirty data” refers to outdated, incomplete, duplicated, or incorrect information. During the data hygiene process, your team will remove and correct as much dirty data as possible to ensure you’re basing decisions on accurate information and preserving resources for the right people with viable contact information.
In the case of our opening example, the organization’s email address data was “dirty” because it contained outdated and incorrect supporter email addresses, preventing their messages from reaching supporters and limiting their fundraising potential.
Data hygiene best practices provide a framework for fixing errors and filling in gaps so you have your database is a comprehensive, reliable source of truth for supporter information.
Benefits of Following Data Hygiene Best Practices
Most organizations know that data is a useful tool for making decisions and reaching supporters. Even so, this information is only helpful to your nonprofit’s team if it’s accurate and up-to-date, and data can quickly become outdated.
In fact, data decays at an average rate of 30% per year. This means that every year, nearly a third of the information you have stored about your supporters, finances, marketing efforts, fundraising campaigns, and any other area of your nonprofit is no longer viable.
That’s why it’s so important to keep your data clean. By updating outdated information and removing incorrect data, you can prevent data decay. The benefits of following data hygiene best practices include:
Improved decision-making. When you regularly update your database, you can be confident you’re basing decisions on accurate information. Without following data hygiene best practices, you’re more likely to launch campaigns that don’t reach your audience, resonate with them, or generate a positive return on your investment.
Higher engagement. Not only does clean data help you personalize your campaigns to your current audience, but it also encourages your supporters to interact with your content as it’ll be more relevant and engaging to them. For instance, if the nonprofit in the opening example were to append email addresses to their database, segment supporters into groups based on shared characteristics, and send targeted communications, they could potentially increase their open rate by 82% and their click-through rate by 75%.
Enhanced stakeholder relationships. Data-driven campaigns can help you build stronger relationships with prospects, donors, volunteers, and sponsors. Targeted, personalized messages make people feel seen and heard as individuals, enticing them to continue supporting your organization long-term.
Increased fundraising efficiency. Just like a for-profit organization, you have to spend money to make money, expending resources on marketing materials and staff member time. With clean data, you’ll reach the right people the first time, allowing you to reserve time and resources for those most likely to convert.
Reduced costs. With more efficient fundraising operations, you’ll naturally save on costs associated with dirty data, such as sending materials to the same people multiple times and managing returned mail.
Compliance with data regulations. Following data hygiene best practices ensures compliance with data laws and regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). You can highlight your compliance with these regulations on your website to build trust with donors and demonstrate your commitment to protecting their sensitive information.
More accurate reporting. Updated, organized information makes it easier to compile accurate reports about your programs’ impact and share them with stakeholders like donors and board members.
Streamlined internal collaboration. Keeping your database up-to-date improves internal communication and team member collaboration. For instance, if your fundraising team determines your organization’s major gift range based on recent fundraising data, your marketing team can develop branded outreach materials that are aligned with your major donors’ giving capacity.
Leveraging clean data creates a better experience for everyone involved in your nonprofit—from donors to staff members to sponsors to beneficiaries to volunteers.
Top Data Hygiene Best Practices for Your Nonprofit
Now that you understand the importance of proper data hygiene, it’s time to dive into some data hygiene best practices your nonprofit can implement.
Audit your database or CRM.
You can’t start fixing data errors if you’re not sure what’s wrong. Start your data hygiene process strong with a database audit.
An audit provides an opportunity to survey your database or CRM and identify potential problem areas. It allows you to focus your data hygiene efforts and establish a clear plan of action.
During your audit, make sure to follow these steps:
Clarify your goals. Your current fundraising campaign or marketing initiative’s goals should guide your data hygiene process. For example, if you’re running a direct mail campaign, focus on updating your supporters’ mailing addresses. This way, the process is more manageable, especially if you’re tackling data hygiene for the first time.
Move all data to a central location. If you have any information stored in spreadsheets or physical forms, consolidate it in one platform for easier organization and analysis.
Seek out inaccuracies. Lastly, identify any data inaccuracies, and form a plan for how you’ll resolve them.
Once your audit is complete, share the results with your team to get everyone on the same page about your data priorities and data hygiene plan.
Assign data responsibilities.
Once you have a clear data hygiene plan, it’s time to assign specific responsibilities to your team members. You may select a main data steward in charge of overseeing all data hygiene procedures and separate supporting roles amongst your staff.
For example, you may have team members responsible for verifying supporter mailing addresses, merging duplicate records, researching mailing address append services, and segmenting your supporters into relevant groups. As a result, you’ll streamline the data hygiene process and complete your objectives more efficiently.
Reevaluate your data collection strategy.
You likely collect data from your supporters through multiple methods, such as donation forms, surveys, and newsletter signups. Additionally, your organization generates data from its fundraising, marketing, and program activities.
While much of this information is helpful, more is not always better. Prioritize what information you need to collect and store to fuel your mission. This way, you’ll prevent unnecessary data buildup and make your database easy to navigate.
Common types of data you’ll likely gather include:
Supporter information. When you know who your supporters are, you can personalize your messages to them. Supporter information you collect may include name, age, gender, employer data, and contact information.
Giving data. Basing donation requests on donors’ giving history can help you retain their support and encourage them to make larger contributions. Store information related to donors’ giving amounts and frequency so your communications match their level of commitment to your organization. Additionally, identify whether any of your donors are also involved in your nonprofit as volunteers, event attendees, or cause advocates so you can reference their nonmonetary contributions to your organization as well.
Campaign metrics. Keep track of the outcomes of your marketing and fundraising campaigns so you know which techniques resonate with your audience. This data may include event attendance rates, fundraising revenue, campaign conversions, and donor and volunteer retention rates.
Financial data. Planning a feasible budget depends on storing and analyzing accurate financial data. Pay attention to the revenue you generate from donations, membership fees, merchandise sales, sponsorships, and other revenue streams, as well as the expenses you incur for costs like staff compensation, marketing material production, and program expenses. Updated, accurate financial data is also important for filing your Form 990 correctly to maintain your 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Marketing metrics. Assess your marketing strategy with data like email open rate, ad click-through rate, website engagement rate, and social media likes, comments, and shares. Storing this information helps you identify successes and establish appropriate benchmarks for future campaigns.
When discussing your data priorities with your team, review each data category and which metrics are essential to monitor. For example, if you’re running an email marketing campaign aimed at recurring donors, you’ll likely want to focus on tracking gift amounts and email open rates.
Develop data standards.
To avoid data errors and disorganization in the future, create data standards that determine how team members should input information. These rules will ensure everyone is on the same page and make it easy to find the data points you need within your CRM.
For example, you may develop standardization rules for inputting:
Mailing addresses. While some organizations may like to use the abbreviations “St,” “Rd,” and “Ln,” others may spell out “Street,” “Road,” and “Lane.” Neither option is wrong—it just depends on your team’s preferences!
Phone numbers. You may put parentheses around the area code or use dashes between each number sequence. Additionally, nonprofits with international constituents may opt to add the country code while local organizations may omit that detail.
Titles and abbreviations. Job titles or name titles like “Chief Financial Officer” or “Senior” can also be entered as their abbreviations “CFO” or “Sr.”
In addition to data input rules, you’ll also need to develop standards for how to fix problems as they arise. For example, would you like your staff to merge duplicate records or just delete extraneous entries? When everyone knows exactly how to respond to different data errors, they’ll work more efficiently and effectively.
Continuously update and validate your data.
Considering how often people move, change email addresses, and switch jobs, it’s essential to stay on top of your data and develop a plan for regularly updating it. This is the best way to ensure your database reflects your everchanging supporter base.
One of the most common ways to update your database is through data appends. A data append involves supplementing your current database with supporter information from third-party sources. Organizations use data appends to keep their supporter data up to date and fill in gaps in their CRM.
While the types of data you can append with depend on your provider, most data append companies will offer:
Address appends. With an address append filling in missing or outdated postal addresses in your database, you can be confident that your direct mail will reach your supporters, whether you’re sending newsletters, thank-you notes, fundraising appeals, or event invitations.
Employer appends. Appending employer data to your CRM can help you identify corporate giving opportunities and encourage your supporters to help you earn more for your cause.
Email appends. As we mentioned before, email addresses can quickly become outdated, between supporters switching email addresses, changing jobs or schools, or even inputting their addresses wrong. An email append ensures you can reach your supporters via this channel.
Phone number appends. Soliciting donations via text-to-give, running phone-a-thons, and thanking major donors through phone calls all require updated supporter phone numbers. Through a phone number append, you can fuel these outreach efforts.
Date of birth appends. When you know how old your supporters are through date of birth appends, you can segment them by age and send them relevant communications through their preferred channels. Additionally, you can send them birthday messages and well wishes to build strong relationships with them.
When investing in data appending, seek out a provider that works with nonprofits. That way, you can be confident they’ll understand your organization’s needs and work diligently to help you reach your goals.
How Does Nonprofit Data Hygiene Relate to Matching Gifts?
At Double the Donation, our specialty is helping nonprofits like yours earn more in matching gift revenue. If you’re not familiar, matching gifts are contributions that employers make when their employees donate to a charitable cause. They’re called “matching” gifts because companies typically match their employees’ contributions at a 1:1 ratio, but they may have a higher or lower match ratio depending on their matching gift policies.
You may be wondering, “How exactly does nonprofit data hygiene relate to matching gifts?” When you adhere to data hygiene best practices, you’ll see the following benefits for your matching gift process:
Easier identification of matching gift opportunities. Storing accurate, updated employer information in your database simplifies the process of assessing your supporters’ eligibility. Using a combination of precise employer data and Double the Donation’s matching gift software, 360MatchPro, you can help donors recognize matching gift opportunities and how they can act on them.
Timely follow-up. When you already have up-to-date donor contact information, you can quickly follow up with them about matching gift opportunities and encourage them to send matching gift requests to their employers. Additionally, 360MatchPro automates these communications so you can focus on your mission.
Maximized matching gift revenue. With more donors checking their matching gift eligibility and receiving communications about matching gifts, you’ll increase your matching gift revenue. As a result, you’ll unlock valuable funding for your organization at no additional cost to your supporters, helping you strengthen your mission and donor relationships.
Overall, clean data streamlines the matching gift process from beginning to end and ensures you get the most out of this giving channel.
Wrapping Up and Additional Data Hygiene Resources
While you might have once thought data was the key to a successful marketing or fundraising strategy, it should now be clear that clean data is the true driving force behind powerful nonprofit communications. Remember that nonprofit data hygiene is an ongoing process. Continue following data hygiene best practices, and update your procedures as needed.
If you’re looking to learn more about nonprofit data management, check out these additional resources:
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Data-Hygiene-Best-Practices_Feature.png3751000Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-07-22 18:20:592024-07-22 18:20:59Top Data Hygiene Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations
Strapped for resources but still want to make a big impact? Effective nonprofit marketing doesn’t have to break the bank. There are so many exciting marketing ideas for nonprofits that can attract supporters, raise awareness, sell your offerings, and grow your impact.
In this article, we’ll share over 40 budget-friendly nonprofit marketing ideas to help you maximize your existing resources and discover new, affordable tools. Get ready to elevate your marketing game with these creative and cost-effective strategies. Here’s a sneak peek at the categories we’ll cover:
At Double the Donation, we connect nonprofits with matching gift opportunities. Since we work with organizations looking to maximize their fundraising potential, we know just how important every last penny in your budget is. That’s why we’ve created this guide of marketing ideas for nonprofits that will help you promote your organization at little to no cost.
Now, let’s jump right into these proven marketing ideas for nonprofits!
Nonprofit Marketing Basics
What Is Nonprofit Marketing?
The term “nonprofit marketing” refers to the marketing strategies you use to amplify your organization’s mission, attract donations, promote your products and services, and recruit volunteers.
To achieve your organization’s mission, you need help. It takes donors, volunteers, board members, event attendees, sponsors, and other constituents to ensure that your nonprofit can serve its community and beneficiaries.
Letting others know about the great work you’re doing requires a combination of proven nonprofit marketing ideas. From emails to search ads, choosing the right marketing strategies, tools, and channels will empower you to promote your cause to your target audiences.
The Benefits of Effective Nonprofit Marketing
It’s easier said than done to pull off a nonprofit marketing campaign. As part of your marketing plan, you’ll need to consider your organization’s unique needs, goals, and available resources to ensure the most effective outreach possible.
Despite the challenges that come with nonprofit marketing, the resulting benefits will help your organization soar. Effective nonprofit marketing can empower your organization to:
Rally support for your cause. Educating people about your mission is a crucial part of nonprofit marketing. It allows people to understand not only the work your organization does but also why you do it and how they can help.
Fundraise. Perhaps the most concrete way to measure your organization’s success is by the amount of money raised for your cause. Raising awareness for your nonprofit will help your fundraising efforts immensely.
Foster donor relationships. One-time donations are not a sustainable fundraising source for your organization. Resources indicate that recurring donations are better for maximizing your fundraising potential since they have a compounding effect. The best way to ensure regular donations is to curate good relationships with donors through consistent marketing.
Recruit other supporters. While donors are great assets to your organization, they’re not the only people who can help. Volunteers, board members, and event attendees all serve important roles in your organization. Marketing your nonprofit effectively will allow you to gather all the support you need.
Promote your products and services. Effective nonprofit marketing can help you promote your organization’s products and services, drawing more attention and boosting sales.
It’s clear that nonprofit marketing offers many advantages. However, you might be wondering where to start in the marketing process. To help you out, we’ll go over the best marketing ideas for nonprofits.
Top Nonprofit Marketing Idea 1) The Google Ad Grant
When looking for more information about a nonprofit, a cause, or truly anything, most people turn to Google first. That’s what makes the Google Ad Grant program so powerful. If you’re a qualifying nonprofit, Google will give your organization $10,000 per month in ad credits for free. With these funds, you can create Google Ads promoting any of your website’s content, including:
Educational content
Upcoming events
Volunteer registration forms
Advocacy activities
Donation and sponsorship opportunities
Nonprofit products and services
Your educational content and involvement opportunities are likely to see the best results, because these types of content attract individuals interested in information about and getting involved with your cause. Promoting informative content and available opportunities will position your nonprofit as a trusted resource and encourage deeper engagement.
Making The Most of The Google Ad Grant
Of course, you can promote more than just that content, and most nonprofits using the Google Ad Grant do! Google Ad Grant campaigns allow nonprofits to create ads targeting multiple goals at once. Here’s a breakdown of the Google Ad structure:
As the image depicts, each Google Ad Grant account can run multiple campaigns. Each of these campaigns has an overarching goal, like educating supporters, attracting volunteers, or raising funds. In each of these campaigns are ad groups. Each ad group focuses on a specific keyword, like “volunteer opportunities,” “pet adoptions,” “Chicago homelessness,” and so on depending on the ad campaign’s goal.
Finally, each ad group contains multiple ads which are different messages targeting the ad group’s keyword. Individual ads use different language and strategies to appeal to different audiences, helping you attract a variety of supporters searching your target keyword
To get started with Google Ads, all you have to do is apply and follow the program requirements.
If you need help wielding this amazing resource, reach out to a Google Grants agency. We recommend Getting Attention! They’ll assist you with every step of the process, including applying for the program, choosing keywords to target, and making sure your account complies with all requirements.
Top Nonprofit Marketing Idea 2) SEO
If you’re looking for an organic way to reach supporters and beneficiaries, experiment with search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. This nonprofit marketing idea involves optimizing your website’s content to rank higher in search engine results, allowing you to connect with people searching for keywords related to your nonprofit. This approach involves:
Creating high-quality, informative, and multimedia-rich content related to your cause and services
Researching and using relevant keywords
Ensuring your website is user-friendly and mobile-responsive
Building links back to your SEO content from relevant, trustworthy sites
When done effectively, SEO drives organic traffic to your website without the need for significant advertising spend. This increased visibility will boost cause awareness, sales for revenue-generating programs and services, registrations for annual events, and overall support for your work. Plus, SEO will help build credibility with both search engines and users, as higher-ranking websites are often perceived as more authoritative and reliable.
The ROI for this channel is exceptionally high, because it allows you to target highly qualified audiences. Let’s say someone searches for a niche service or program you sell. If your content related to that offering is optimized for search engines and has built backlinks from external sources, your nonprofit will ideally appear toward the top of search results. Then, potential customers can click through to learn more.
Making The Most of SEO
While it’s possible to make big SEO gains for free, many organizations partner with SEO agencies to reduce their workload and skip the learning curve. We recommend the nonprofit SEO experts at Nexus Marketing!
Unlike generic marketing agencies, Nexus Marketing specializes in the unique challenges and opportunities nonprofits face and has marketing strategies tailored to meet these specific needs. Their team of experts is skilled in optimizing content to resonate with nonprofit audiences and leveraging industry knowledge.
To improve search engine rankings and drive organic traffic, they use proven best practices, such as:
High-quality content creation: The Nexus content team crafts SEO content that delivers results based on extensive keyword research. Between years of experience in writing for the mission-driven sector and a deep understanding of your brand, their content captures attention and converts visitors into supporters.
Connections in the mission-driven space: Nexus has a proprietary network of 500+ partners in the nonprofit, association, faith-based, education, and healthcare sectors. By tapping into this existing network, you can say goodbye to cold emailing authoritative websites and instead scale your organization’s authority-building strategy.
Focus on ROI: Their client engagements are designed for immediate results and long-term success by growing revenue through search engines, industry promotion, and near-term demand generation opportunities. With Nexus, most organizations see qualified leads within 3 to 6 months and achieve a 2x – 5x ROI within 12 to 18 months.
Why You Can Trust This Agency: Nexus Marketing has a proven track record of success. For example, one of their nonprofit clients ranked for only 5 tracked keywords before the partnership began. Today, they rank for 185+ of their most important tracked keywords. As a result, they’ve experienced steep growth in organic search traffic and have sold more of their online curriculum. You can read the complete case study to learn more.
Note that they specifically help nonprofits looking to raise money via revenue-generating programs, services, products, revenue streams that pay royalties, and annual events that attract broad audiences.
By continuously staying up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and best practices, Nexus Marketing ensures that nonprofits not only increase their online visibility but also effectively boost product and service sales. If you’re ready to harness the power of SEO, reach out to our friends at Nexus Marketing.
Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Building Their Missions
As we’ve mentioned before, your nonprofit’s mission is central to its goals and aspirations. It should also be one of the main focuses of your marketing efforts. Since it lays the groundwork for your organization’s values, your mission should inform your branding, outreach tactics, and promotional content.
If you don’t have a well-developed mission or want to give yours a refresh, try some of these nonprofit marketing ideas for building your organization’s mission:
Write a powerful tagline. When it comes to marketing, people absorb more information when it’s concise. Your mission is one of the most important aspects of your organization, so you’ll want prospective supporters to understand it right away. Take the time to condense your mission into a short tagline that you can use in your marketing materials.
Establish standards for design, personality, and attitude. Make a good first impression with cohesive branding. From the way your website looks to the way your employees act, every aspect of your organization should work together to form a perfect picture of your nonprofit.
Rework your nonprofit’s appearance. Speaking of branding, changing yours up can bring new life to your organization. A funky new logo or elevated graphics can entice potential supporters and demonstrate your willingness to improve your nonprofit. You can even reach out to a graphic design company for help with your organization’s new look.
Be upfront about your organization’s goals and results. People interested in your organization want to know what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’ve been able to achieve so far. Being open about your nonprofit’s operations lays a solid foundation for great supporter relationships.
Share what you do well. Don’t be afraid to brag a little! Your organization is doing amazing work, and people should see that. If you show confidence in your nonprofit and highlight its strengths, people will be more eager to get involved.
Use storytelling. Giving people specific examples of individuals you’ve helped fosters deeper connections between your supporters and your organization. Stories make your marketing more personal and digestible for prospective supporters.
Create a marketing plan. To stay focused and organized, you’ll need a comprehensive marketing plan. That way, you’ll have all of your goals and intentions in one place for you to easily go back and reference.
Your mission is the foundation of your marketing efforts, but now it’s time to expand them! Head to your nearest computer or phone to start sharing your incredible organization with others.
Bonus Tip: Include your nonprofit’s values in all your marketing efforts, including ads, to ensure your messaging reflects your mission and resonates with potential supporters.
Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Advertising Their Services
Letting others know what your organization does is essential to earning their support. Your nonprofit does great work, so why not show it off? Advertise your services with the following online and offline marketing ideas for nonprofits.
Online Advertising Ideas
The internet allows you to share your services with the click of a button. Whether you want to invest in paid advertising or create eye-catching merchandise, there are endless ways to stand out in the digital space. In addition to the Google Ad Grant, try these online marketing ideas for nonprofits:
Optimize your website content for search engines. Your search engine advertising and SEO campaigns can support one another. By incorporating SEO best practices into your content, you can increase your nonprofit’s visibility and attract organic traffic before you even start advertising. That means you’ll build a sustainable, cost-effective foundation for long-term audience engagement. Use relevant keywords, create high-quality content, and ensure your website is user-friendly to rank highly on search engine results pages. Plus, following SEO practices gives you high-quality content you can use as landing pages for your ads.
Track your analytics. Data is the key to figuring out which of your marketing efforts are effective. Use Google Analytics or another similar tool to track and review website traffic and the actions people take on your site. That way, you can see if there are any patterns or areas where you can improve. For example, if a certain landing page on your site has a high bounce rate, it might be time to refresh it to make it more worthwhile for your supporters.
Sell branded merchandise. Turn your supporters into walking advertisements with branded merchandise! It’s a win-win situation where you raise more for your cause and receive free advertising, while your supporters get to show the world what they believe in. Branded t-shirts are always a great idea, but you could also go with hats, tote bags, or mugs depending on your audience’s preferences. Once you work with a graphic design company to bring your merchandise to life, you can set up an online store and let your supporters know all about it!
Advertise your products and services. If your nonprofit sells products or services, leverage digital advertising to promote these offerings. Showcase them prominently on your website. Then, also turn search engine traffic into a revenue-generating channel with high-value content targeting the keywords your customers are searching for, driving additional revenue and expanding your reach.
Online advertising is a proven way to connect with larger audiences than ever before. Break down geographical barriers by leveraging these marketing strategies.
Digital marketing is all the rage these days, and for good reason. However, that doesn’t mean that more traditional offline marketing efforts should go extinct. While online marketing can expand your reach, offline marketing can help create a personal experience for your supporters. Use these offline marketing ideas for nonprofits in conjunction with your online ones:
Create flyers. A good old-fashioned flyer is a great way to grab potential supporters’ attention. It allows you to fit an abundance of information about your organization into a small, foldable, and engaging handout. You can send fundraising flyers in your direct mail campaigns, hand them out at events, or keep them in your organization’s office for walk-ins. People will love the opportunity to learn about your organization’s services in an easily digestible format.
Recruit brand ambassadors. Influencer marketing is a fairly new yet powerful way to promote your organization. Finding people with an online presence who truly care about your nonprofit’s mission and are willing to spread the word can help you reach new audiences quickly. These brand ambassadors can also help you host in-person events or sell your branded merchandise to get people excited about your organization.
Research larger organizations. If you want to be the best, you’ll have to learn from the best. Look into what larger, more experienced nonprofits are doing and attempt to replicate it. You can even reach out to a team member at an organization you admire and ask if they’d be willing to give your nonprofit some advice.
Personalize your outreach. Reaching out to people using offline methods allows you to establish more personal connections with them. For example, you could go up to a volunteer at an event to learn more about them or promote matching gifts to your donors in a customized postcard. People will appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into these outreach methods and associate that quality with your organization.
For the best results, use a combination of online and offline marketing ideas. That way, you’ll reach different audiences and see which methods work best for which supporter segments.
Your mission is the foundation of your marketing efforts, but now it’s time to expand them! Head to your nearest computer or phone to start sharing your incredible organization with others.
Bonus Tip: Use your Google Ads to support other marketing efforts! Direct traffic to your peer-to-peer ambassador page and merchandise store, increasing visibility and engagement for these initiatives.
Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Leveraging Technology
These days, there’s so much technology to help us improve and innovate our everyday lives. For nonprofits, leveraging technology appropriately can expand impact and help reach new audiences through different channels.
To make sure your nonprofit knows how to use each type of technology effectively, we’ve split our technology nonprofit marketing ideas into three separate categories.
Website
Like all organizations, nonprofits use their websites to teach others about what they do, what they stand for, and how visitors can get involved. Ensure your organization’s website is the best it can be with these website nonprofit marketing ideas:
Update your nonprofit’s website. From Squarespace to Wix to WordPress, there are so many website building platforms that make updating and maintaining your site easy. Include information about current events and initiatives and provide the latest updates on your service offerings to entice potential supporters to get involved with your organization.
Make SEO a habit. For nonprofit websites, SEO is crucial for increasing visibility and attracting supporters. Even if you’re leveraging the Google Ad Grant, optimizing your website is essential for a strong ad strategy, helping searchers find your content and inspiring them to convert (AKA donate, register for an event, buy your products, and so on). Regularly research and create content targeting relevant keywords to stay current with trends. Additionally, ensure your website is mobile-friendly to improve rankings in mobile search results, making it easier for users to access your information on any device.
Start a blog.Keeping an up-to-date blog allows you to display news about your organization and industry with long-form, informative content. Writing blog content about nonprofit-related topics also establishes your organization as a reputable source of information in the field.
As you create informational pages and blog articles for your nonprofit’s website, focus on quality content creation. Make sure your copy is clear and concise, and break text up with graphics wherever possible to create a user-friendly experience.
If you have the resources, hiring a qualified copywriting team will help make sure the copy across your site is strong and cohesive. For instance, working with a nonprofit marketing agency that fully understands your brand and is knowledgeable about the nonprofit sector can ensure your messaging is both impactful and focused on generating high-quality sales leads.
Event Landing Pages
Your nonprofit may already use event management software to plan and execute its fundraisers. Depending on the type of fundraiser and the software you use, you’ll be able to use different features to promote your fundraising initiatives.
Oftentimes, these platforms can help you build customized event landing pages to spread the word about your upcoming events. These pages can include:
Information about the event: This can include anything from the fundraiser’s date and time to event-specific details. For example, where will your annual walk-a-thon be held this year? Will your charity auction involve mobile bidding or physical bid sheets?
Forms to take action: Registration and donation forms can easily be embedded into your event landing page. This way, supporters can immediately commit to a donation or participation in your event.
Information about your nonprofit: Include your mission or vision statement, a synopsis of your work, and other information about your nonprofit on your landing page. This draws visitors in and urges them to continue exploring your nonprofit’s website to learn more about the cause they’ll support by participating in your event.
Plus, the customizable nature of these landing pages allows you to incorporate your nonprofit’s branding, reinforcing supporters’ trust in your organization. By associating your brand with your fundraising events, you’ll attract attention to the heart of your fundraising and outreach efforts: your mission.
Social Media
Social media is not only how people stay connected to their family and friends, but also to the companies and organizations they care about. With nearly every organization maintaining a social media presence, it’s important to understand how you can make yours stand out. Here’s what we suggest:
Use different platforms. To connect with as many people as you can, your organization should create social media accounts on several different platforms. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are great places to start. X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Snapchat also offer unique ways to engage with your younger supporters.
Participate in trends. Perhaps the most important part of your social media presence is playing into current trends like using humor and short videos over images. That way, your content stays fresh and engaging for your supporters.
Create marketing videos. While images can be very informative, videos are better for eliciting emotion. Creating and sharing videos about your mission on social media will allow you to connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Take advantage of social media advertising. If you don’t feel that you’re reaching the correct audience organically, you can create ads on the social media platforms you’re using. For example, Facebook’s advertising platform allows you to set up campaigns that target people based on a variety of factors such as age, gender, location, and interests. This approach can help you segment your supporters into different groups and communicate with them accordingly.
Connect your online assets. To promote your online presence, make it easy for people to jump from platform to platform. For example, you can create a social media post about a new blog article and add a link to the article in your social media account’s bio. That way, you’ll drive traffic from your social media page to your website’s blog. Doing so can allow people to interact with your organization in a different way and perhaps learn more about what your nonprofit does.
Your nonprofit’s website and social media accounts are your biggest online assets. Now that we’ve covered them, it’s time to learn some general online marketing ideas for nonprofits.
General Online Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits
To get the most out of your online presence, it’s important to follow general digital marketing best practices. Check out these marketing ideas for nonprofits looking to rule the marketing game online:
Leverage multi-channel marketing. To increase your online visibility, tap into digital marketing channels like search ads, social media, and texting. Use these channels alongside traditional marketing methods such as emails, phone calls, and direct mail. This will increase your chances of reaching supporters on their preferred communication method.
Encourage your supporters to take action. Informing your supporters about your organization is great, but what exactly do you want them to do to help you out? Use calls to action across your marketing materials to work towards your goals. For example, include the link to your donation page in your Instagram bio and create a post encouraging people to contribute. To help promote your events, add your event registration link to your regular email newsletter. Note that the most effective calls-to-action start with determining what actions you want your supporters to take and making it easy for them to do so.
Host virtual events. Hosting events online, such as webinars and panels, allows more people to participate than ever before. Since no physical space is required, guests can easily participate in virtual events from wherever they are, presenting a unique opportunity to engage with all different types of supporters at once.
Learn more about supporters with data appends.Data enhancement services add information to your existing database, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and demographic details, to create a more comprehensive profile of your contacts. This enriched data helps improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by allowing you to better segment your audience. With detailed insights about your supporters, you can personalize your outreach, enhance engagement, and ultimately drive higher conversion rates.
Leveraging technology effectively allows you to reach your intended audience and rally support for your cause. We know that your nonprofit is likely working with a tight marketing budget, though. To make sure your organization has the resources it needs to create the best online content possible, we’ll teach you how to save money in other marketing areas.
Bonus Tip: Leverage content marketing to enhance your nonprofit’s online presence. Create high-quality, informative, and engaging content that addresses your audience’s interests. By consistently publishing valuable, keyword-optimized content, you can boost your organic search rankings, attract more visitors, boost sales, and increase support for your cause.
Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits On a Budget
Marketing can get expensive. However, there are ways that nonprofits can promote their organizations while still keeping costs low. Maximize your marketing potential while minimizing your spending with these marketing ideas for nonprofits on a budget:
Determine your marketing budget. It’s easiest to keep costs down when you have a clear budget in mind. That way, you’ll know exactly how much you can spend on your nonprofit’s marketing and allocate your resources accordingly. Include costs such as those for physical marketing collateral, marketing software, and staff time.
Plan your printing. Printing can get expensive very quickly. Besides, there are so many digital marketing methods your organization can leverage. Only print what needs to be printed, and try to print double-sided and in batches.
Use unbranded envelopes for direct mail. If you do need to print materials for a direct mail campaign, there are ways to keep your costs down. Sending unbranded envelopes will help you save money. Just remember to indicate that the mail is from your organization in a different way so recipients don’t mistake it for junk mail.
Add a “Donate Now” button to your Facebook page. As we mentioned before, calls to action are key to motivating your supporters to contribute to your cause. Adding a “Donate Now” button to your nonprofit’s Facebook page is an easy way to encourage donations. The best part is that it’s free as long as your nonprofit qualifies for Facebook’s fundraising tools.
Work with a local business. Many companies are happy to pair up with a nonprofit, helping you out financially. While you get extra funding or resources for your marketing efforts, they get to give back to their community and improve their reputations. Before you look for a local business willing to work with you, determine what you want to get out of the partnership. Examples of corporate philanthropy include companies donating money directly to your organization, keeping a donation bucket in their store, or contributing food or supplies for your event.
It’s important to create a marketing budget and try to conserve resources when possible to save up for more expensive marketing efforts. These budget-friendly marketing ideas for nonprofits are a great place to start to maximize every dollar your organization earns!
Bonus Tip: The Google Ad Grant provides free ad credits, making it a low-cost way to attract attention to your website. All you need to do is put in the initial effort to get your site up to Google’s quality standards and complete the application process. From there, you’ll just need to create and maintain your ads.
Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Forming Stakeholder Relationships
There are so many different stakeholders involved in your organization. Donors, corporate partners, volunteers, board members, sponsors, and event attendees all play a huge role in your nonprofit’s success. With that, it’s important to form good relationships so you can build a strong support network.
In this section, we’ll go over some marketing ideas for nonprofits starting and stewarding relationships with their stakeholders.
Starting Stakeholder Relationships
Building a good foundation for your relationships with stakeholders is essential to making sure your connections are long-lasting. Here are some marketing ideas for nonprofits beginning new stakeholder relationships:
Look for opportunities to form new connections. Finding stakeholders to work with can be tough, especially for newer nonprofits. Leverage any connections you may already have and form new ones by reaching out on social media or attending a nonprofit conference in your industry. That way, you can start to meet people who may be potential stakeholders and have their own network of potential stakeholders they’re willing to share with you.
Create a welcome package. Once you initiate a relationship with a new stakeholder, it’s time to make them feel welcome in your community. Curate a package of information and branded merchandise to introduce new stakeholders to your nonprofit. You can include items as small as stickers of your logo to yard signs they can display to show their support for your organization. No matter what you send your new stakeholders, you’re showing them that you care.
Treat them to a meal. To form a more personal connection with a stakeholder, take them out to lunch or coffee. Teach them more about your organization, answer any questions they have, and gather feedback about their work with you so far. Not to mention, this is a great opportunity to learn more about who they are and what drives them to support your cause.
Inform new donors of matching gift opportunities. Some of your new donors may not know what matching gifts are or if they’re eligible to participate. Make it easy for donors to identify matching gift opportunities by providing matching gift software that shows if their employers are willing to match their donations. That way, you can earn more, and your new donors can feel good about making an even bigger impact on your organization.
Now that you know how to start your stakeholder relationships off strong, it’s time to learn how to keep them that way with effective stewardship.
Stewarding Stakeholder Relationships
Maintaining relationships with your stakeholders requires care and commitment. You must communicate with them well and respond to their needs. That way, you can build long-lasting connections that drive your work forward.
Practice good supporter stewardship with these marketing ideas for nonprofits:
Communicate regularly and strategically. Like with any relationship, maintaining supporter relationships requires communication. Establish effective communication habits with your stakeholders by reaching out to them individually, sending email newsletters, and reconnecting with them at conferences and other events. You may want to assign different people to manage different stakeholder relationships so you don’t overwhelm any one person on your team. Additionally, you’ll want to choose an opportune time to communicate. Factors that might influence the messages, timing, and platforms you use might include their age, career, lifestyle, or time zone.
Reach out to lapsed donors. Sometimes, donors will only contribute to your organization once. If so, you can encourage them to continue their support, or inform them of different ways they can still support your nonprofit without contributing monetarily, such as by volunteering or sharing your social media posts. For recurring donors who haven’t contributed in a while, try sending them a gift or explaining new features of your donor program to spark that relationship once again.
Collect feedback. Listen to your stakeholders and any feedback they give you, whether it’s solicited or not. Stay true to your organization’s stakeholder guidelines, but also hear your stakeholders out. You want to provide them with a positive experience with your organization, and they may have some valuable suggestions for how to improve that experience.
If you’ve learned anything from this section, it should be that stakeholder relationships require effective communication. In the next section, we’ll dive into more nonprofit marketing ideas specifically focused on improving your organization’s communication skills.
Bonus Tip: Google Ads are an opportunity to make a first impression on a large number of potential supporters. Start off on the right foot with strong ad copy, high-quality content, and a modern website.
Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits Staying in Touch with Their Supporters
It takes a lot of effort to maintain relationships with your supporters. With effective and regular communication, your nonprofit can keep supporters around and continue to grow your network. We’ll give you some marketing ideas for nonprofits working on their communication style and supporter involvement.
Communication Style
You already know that the messages you communicate to your supporters are vital, but how you communicate those messages is just as important. Here are a few pointers to make sure you send the right messages to the right people in ways that will resonate with them:
Be timely. Simply responding to your supporters’ messages quickly shows that you care. Not only does it communicate that you want to address their concerns, but also that you want to respect their time.
Stay positive. Keeping a positive attitude in your communications will help supporters form a positive association with your nonprofit. Besides, it’s always more enjoyable to interact with organizations that have an optimistic outlook and kind employees.
Store individuals’ preferences in your supporter database.Organizing your supporters’ information in a database not only helps you learn more about them but also how they like to communicate. If you ask for supporters’ communication preferences and store that information in your database, then you can interact with supporters in the ways they prefer.
Create supporter segments. Segmentation is when you divide your supporters into categories based on shared characteristics in order to communicate with each group more effectively. There are various ways to segment your supporters. You may choose to divide them by stakeholder type with categories like donors, partners, clients, and board members. Another way to group supporters is by age, location, or length of involvement with your organization. That way, you can send relevant messages to the right people without flooding their inboxes with unnecessary messages.
Communicating with your supporters effectively will create a better reputation for your organization and lead to stronger stakeholder relationships.
Supporter Involvement
Communication goes both ways. You inform your supporters about what’s going on within your organization, but they report back to you with their thoughts and feelings about your nonprofit. These marketing ideas for nonprofits will help you get supporters more involved in your organization:
Survey your supporters. Your staff can brainstorm ways to make your organization better, but you’ll never know what more your supporters need unless you ask them. Sending out a survey will allow you to collect valuable feedback and show that you care about improving your supporters’ experiences with your organization.
Engage supporters on social media. Social media is built to help people create connections with each other. Strengthen your bonds with your supporters by making your social media presence interactive. For example, take advantage of polls, live stream capabilities, and Q&A features in the platforms you use.
Host events. What better way to get people involved than by gathering together in person? Hosting an event allows you to show off your organization and get your supporters excited about it. Deck out your event in branded materials such as table runners for a cohesive look. You can also plan activities such as raffles and games to make the event fun for everyone involved.
Interview supporters. As we discussed before, storytelling is a great way to make your marketing personal. For storytelling to work, you’ll need to collect stories from real people involved in your organization. Interview interested supporters so you can learn more about their experiences with your organization and use their quotes to promote your nonprofit across different channels.
Peer-to-peer fundraising. Your supporters can help fundraise, engage supporters, and market your nonprofit in the process. With peer-to-peer fundraising, people raise money by collecting donations from their friends and family. To encourage your supporters to participate, teach them how to set up a peer-to-peer fundraising page. An even easier method is to leverage the built-in peer-to-peer fundraising options on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. This fundraising option is especially popular around holidays and birthdays, so if you know your supporters’ birthdates, you can proactively reach out and encourage them to create a fundraiser on your nonprofit’s behalf.
Treating your supporters with the utmost care and respect begins with proper communication. You should use a give-and-take approach in which you update supporters about your organization and they give you feedback about your nonprofit in response. That way, you can work together with your supporters to constantly improve your organization.
Bonus Tip: As part of maintaining your website, continue posting high-quality content. Valuable research reports and blog posts are likely to get shared around, improving your nonprofit’s search ranking placements. And be sure to incorporate SEO best practices, to get that content in front of as many people as possible!
Conclusion & Additional Resources
Nonprofit marketing encompasses a range of considerations. In addition to the regular business concerns of how to promote your organization effectively, nonprofits must also worry about how to do so on a budget. With these marketing ideas for nonprofits, we’ve given you a head start on your marketing strategy to save you time and money.
This guide explored a ton of marketing ideas for nonprofits, but there may be some that you want to learn more about. To help you out, we’ve provided some resources that will allow you to dive deeper into some of our favorite ideas, including:
Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits: The Complete Guide. The Google Ad Grant program is a proven way to push your cause forward. Learn more about marketing your cause using paid advertising with this guide from Getting Attention.
SEO for Nonprofits: Crash Course & Get-Started Guide. SEO is one of the most effective nonprofit marketing ideas for enhancing your online presence. Discover how to optimize your website’s content and dominate search results pages with this comprehensive guide from Nexus Marketing.
12 Best Nonprofit Graphic Design Tools. A huge element of nonprofit marketing is creating a cohesive experience for your supporters. Using the right graphic design tools will allow you to create images that align with your organization’s branding and design standards.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Marketing-Ideas-for-Nonprofits_Feature.jpg3801000Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2024-06-12 10:00:012024-07-25 14:25:2240+ Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits to Spread Your Mission
From marketing to cultivation, it’s no small effort to drive supporters to your donation page. But when they get there, are they making the impact your nonprofit needs? If your average donation amount is falling short, there are strategies you can use to maximize support right on your donation page.
Donation levels are one of the most important factors in determining gift amounts as they guide your supporters into giving an amount that’s right for them and your nonprofit. When used strategically, they frame your nonprofit’s impact and encourage donors to increase their support.
To help your nonprofit better use donation levels, this guide will explore:
Let’s clarify exactly what we mean by donation levels before jumping into tips for how to create the best donation page possible.
What are Donation Levels?
Donation levels, also known as donation tiers, are suggested giving amounts that appear on donation pages. For example, a nonprofit might have donation levels of $20, $50, $100, and so on.
These amounts help guide supporters in how much to give when donating by providing examples of what is considered a low donation amount, a medium amount, and a high amount. Donation levels are especially helpful for first-time donors who may be unsure how much an average donation should be.
While donation levels can contain the gift amounts and nothing else, many nonprofits seek to increase donations by characterizing their donation levels with names, impact examples, and other descriptors.
What’s the Difference Between Donation Levels and Donation Types?
While the names are similar, “donation levels” and “donation types” are different concepts. Donation levels are suggested giving amounts on a donation form, while donation types are different kinds of gifts.
For example, donation types include major gifts, recurring gifts, in-kind donations, and corporate support. There is some overlap in that the donation types of low, moderate, and major donors may correspond to donation levels.
For example, recurring donors may give $50 monthly or $200 monthly. A donor who contributes $50 and one who donates $200 are both recurring donors but at different donation levels. However, whether this is the case depends on your nonprofit and average gift amount.
5 Strategies for Creating Effective Donation Levels
Donation levels are easy to add to your donation form, but to use them to their fullest potential, follow these strategies.
1. Calculate average donation amounts.
Donation levels are not set at random. These amounts are strategically calculated based on average gift sizes, supporters’ giving capacity, and fundraising goals.
Your first step to setting your donation levels should be calculating your nonprofit’s average donation amount. When calculating this amount, it may be appropriate to exclude some donations, like gifts from major donors. While these contributions are certainly important, it’s unlikely a supporter using donation levels to gauge their gift amount will make a major donation right off the bat.
Additionally, consider dividing your donors into two groups: one-time and recurring donors. Most donation pages that use donation levels divide suggested giving amounts along these guidelines, creating two sets of donation levels donors can consider. In general, the amounts for recurring donations will be much lower than one-time gifts but add up over time.
Once your donation data is properly curated, calculate your donation levels by dividing the total amount of donations in a year by the number of donors. With this information, you now have to decide how your average donation should impact your donation levels. A few options include setting the average donation amount as:
A lower donation level. To increase your average donation amount, set the median donation amount as a lower level. This may decrease your total donors but make each supporter who does give more valuable.
A middle donation level. Setting your average donation amount as your median donation level should be considered by nonprofits looking to maintain their current levels of support.
A higher donation level. This is a more unorthodox option but may be useful for nonprofits looking to increase donor acquisition by making entry-level donation amounts more accessible.
Assess your nonprofit’s donor acquisition and lifetime donor value rates to determine which of these options best fits your unique situation. Then, create subsequent donation levels that follow a logical progression. For instance, if your average donation amount is $25 and you want to set it as a low-tier amount, you might make the following levels $50, $75, and $100.
2. Link donation amounts to specific outcomes.
When a donor is choosing which donation level to give at, they may ask what the tangible difference between each option is. After all, why should a donor give $75 over $15?
Your donation levels can answer this question by briefly describing the types of outcomes that will result from each donation amount. For instance, here are some hypothetical outcomes from the example nonprofit Cat Rescue Club:
$25: Enrichment toys and bedding to keep our shelter cats happy and healthy.
$50: A week’s worth of food for our shelter cats awaiting adoption.
$75: Support for our network of over 100 foster families.
$100: Adpotions for 10 cats, helping them find their forever homes.
$200: Lifesaving surgery and medical treatment for cats in need.
These outcomes not only encourage supporters to move to higher donation levels but also increase their emotional investment in your nonprofit. After all, if they know they are providing essential support, donors are likely to stick around to see how their contributions helped, leading to increased retention.
3. Consider donor psychology.
Donation levels are ultimately a tool to guide donors’ giving behavior. While many supporters approach nonprofits’ donation pages with a clear idea of how much they want to give, many are also receptive to the cues and suggestions your donation levels provide.
When crafting your donation levels, try reading up on the basics of giving psychology. A few key insights to consider include:
Most donors will choose the second lowest donation level.Ultimately, donors are parting with their money when they give. As such, many want to donate an amount that doesn’t make them feel cheap, but they still want to be conservative about how much they spend. With this in mind, consider basing your donation amounts around the second-lowest donation level.
Low donation levels are encouraging to on-the-fence donors. This is useful for attracting new and first-time donors who are interested in but cautious about supporting your nonprofit.
High donation levels encourage loyal supporters to give more. However, this comes at the cost of driving away the on-the-fence donors.
Think of your donation levels as a general parameter of how much is acceptable to give. Donors who fall outside of that range are more likely to conform to the range (if they planned to give a higher amount than the highest donation level) or not give altogether (if they planned to give less than the lowest amount).
4. Name your donation tiers.
To help your donors develop a connection with your nonprofit, consider naming your donation levels. This can help donors to not only think of themselves as supporters of your nonprofit but as part of an exclusive group.
These names can reflect the hierarchical structure of your donation tiers. For example, you might name your levels bronze, silver, and gold. Or, instead, choose names that reflect your nonprofit’s cause. For instance, the Cat Rescue Club might name their donation levels Calico, Tuxedo, Tabby, and so on.
Nonprofits often employ this strategy during crowdfunding campaigns. These campaigns tie donation levels to specific rewards donors receive in exchange for their support. Naming these tiers not only helps donors form an identity related to your campaign but also makes organizing and distributing rewards easier since each category has a specific name rather than just a number.
You can also apply this reward strategy to your normal donation page, especially if your nonprofit has a membership program. For example, check out these tiers from Sarasota Orchestra:
Names like “musician circle” and “maestro circle” not only reflect the benefits these tiers provide but also make higher-tier donors feel like a core part of the orchestra.
5. Always provide a custom giving option.
In addition to your tailored donation levels, always add the option for supporters to write in and give any donation amount they want. While many supporters will default to using suggested giving amounts if they are provided, others will approach your donation form with a clear idea of exactly how much they want to give and they should be able to do so.
This also allows donors to give outside your donation range (on either the high or low end).
To ensure your donation tiers are as effective as possible at driving valuable gifts and acquiring donors, here are a few more donation page tips.
1. Promote matching gifts.
Envision a world where you double all of your donation levels and supporters can contribute those increased amounts with no issue. With matching gifts, this world is possible for at least some of your donors.
Matching gifts are a type of corporate giving program wherein businesses match employee donations to nonprofits, usually at a 1:1 rate. However, many supporters are unaware of these programs, let alone how to participate in them.
Providing a brief explanation about matching gifts. For supporters who are unfamiliar with matching gifts, a one or two-sentence explanation on your donation page can encourage them to check their eligibility and submit a match request. This explanation can be as short as something like: “You may be able to double your impact. Check if you’re eligible for matching gifts with your employer.”
Adding a matching gift search tool to your donation page. Consider investing in matching gift software, which allows you to embed a matching gift database search tool right into your donation page. Supporters can use this tool to check if they are eligible for a matching gift during the donation process.
Encouraging supporters to check their matching gift eligibility on your confirmation page. If supporters opt not to interact with your matching gift search tool while donating, give them one more chance to start the matching gift process by adding a message to (or even embedding your matching gift search tool) into your donation confirmation page. Using our hypothetical nonprofit example from above, consider what a matching gift database tool might look like on Cat Rescue Club’s page:
These gifts come from donors’ employers, meaning you can earn twice your regular donation levels at no extra expense to your supporters. Be sure to emphasize this and the potential impact these additional gifts can have when promoting matching gifts to supporters.
2. Encourage recurring giving.
Donation levels apply to both one-time and recurring gifts. All of the strategies we’ve discussed so far apply to both categories, but let’s dive deeper into tips for encouraging recurring giving now:
Adjust your recurring giving donation levels.Your donation levels should be less for recurring gifts than the corresponding ones for one-time gifts. For example, if your lowest donation level for one-time gifts is $25, you might make the recurring donation level $10. While this amount is less than half of the time-one gift, it will outpace it in three months’ time, and more than quadruple the amount in a year.
Display recurring giving and one-time donation options next to each other.Position your recurring giving and one-time donation tiers next to each other or allow supporters to easily toggle between them. This allows donors to make a direct comparison when deciding what to give. Plus, recurring gifts are less of an initial commitment, which makes them seem like a better deal to donors when placed next to high one-time donation levels.
Update any relevant text.Recurring gifts impact nonprofits differently than one-time gifts, and your donation levels should reflect this. If a one-time donation level promises to support a certain number of beneficiaries for a week, consider how the impact changes when it’s a smaller recurring gift.
To calculate your recurring donation levels, use the same strategies as discussed earlier, only this time, focus on just your current recurring donors. Additionally, of the strategies discussed, consider adding donation tiers below your average recurring gift amount. Recurring donors are likely to stick around long-term and you can persuade them to increase their donation amount over time once they commit to making their first gifts.
3. Keep your donation page short.
When trying to include all of these tips in your donation page, it’s easy for your page to bloat in size. However, lengthy donation forms are likely to turn off potential donors, especially the new and on-the-fence donors we discussed earlier.
When designing your new donation page, consider how to keep each element concise and easy to understand at a glance. For example, if you want to go with a button approach to donation levels, you might try a page layout like this:
Or, if you want all information to be visible for easier comparison, an approach like this maintains a minimalist design:
4. Brand donation page to your nonprofit.
Your donation page is arguably the most important page on your website. Ensure supporters who land on it—especially those who navigate there from an external source like social media—know without a doubt that it belongs to your organization.
You can accomplish this by maintaining consistent branding across your website and ensuring your donation page specifically has a few key visual brand elements. These include:
Your logo
Brand colors
Key brand visuals
From the mobile version of your donation page, consider how you can ensure brand elements are present but unobtrusive. For example, you might remove key brand visuals, such as a photograph of beneficiaries, but keep your logo. This minimizes scrolling for mobile users without sacrificing branding consistency.
5. Continue adjusting your donation levels.
Your audience, donors’ giving behaviors, and economic circumstances change, and so should your donation tiers. To determine your donation levels’ effectiveness, keep an eye on key metrics, such as:
Average donation amount
Donor acquisition
Donor lifetime value
Total number of donations
Analytics tools can help you track these metrics and specific donors’ behaviors over time. After implementing new donation levels, take note of new trends in donor engagement. Additionally, consider experimenting with different donation level amounts by creating unique donation levels for various campaigns. For example, you might set lower donation levels for a crowdfunding campaign to encourage new donor participation.
More Donation Level Tools and Tips
Your donation page is an essential tool for earning the funds that keep your nonprofit going. With donation levels, you can encourage more donors to give and increase donation amounts. To get started, calculate your average giving amounts and make strategic decisions about your donation goals.
For more information on how to attract and retain donors, explore these resources:
Building Trust and Loyalty: Mid-Level Donor Program Basics. Mid-level donors are a core supporter group that is influenced by donation levels. Discover how to build trust with this group and encourage them to move to higher donation levels.
