Shoe drive fundraising is quickly becoming one of the most popular fundraising options for schools and clubs of all sizes! As an incredibly simple and effective fundraising method, shoe drives are a fantastic way to engage your community, set a great example, and raise some serious funds.
Check out our quick guide to starting and directing your own shoe drive fundraiser! Use this table of contents to navigate the page and find some quick answers:
Shoe drive fundraising is a great choice for practically any group or organization that heavily interacts with its members, constituents, or other stakeholders at the ground level.
This means that shoe drive fundraisers are especially well-suited for community-based organizations, particularly schools, school-based clubs, and youth organizations.
Schools of all sizes can host extremely successful shoe drive fundraisers!
Kids outgrow shoes so quickly! Families tend to have plenty of gently used pairs of shoes lying around that no longer fit. A shoe drive fundraiser is not only an easy fundraising idea, it also lets parents cut out some clutter while helping support their local school.
Clubs can also hit their fundraising targets with shoe drive fundraisers!
A shoe drive fundraiser will generate interest all around your school, but, depending on your club’s focus, these fundraisers also offer wonderful opportunities to raise awareness about a number of social and environmental issues!
During a time when both public and private schools around the country face budgetary struggles like never before, it’s important that schools remain aware of all their fundraising options. Shoe drive fundraisers are among the easiest fundraisers for schools to conduct, as facilitator services will typically provide schools with the materials they need and then collect the donated shoes.
Plus, this stress-free fundraising model makes shoe drive fundraisers and ideal choice for any small organization:
With the right shoe drive fundraiser facilitator, the entire process is incredibly simple. They’ll help you set some realistic (but ambitious) fundraising plans. You’ll start reaching your shoe collection goals in no time!
1. Recruit some volunteers.
Find the individuals in your school or club willing to help lead your shoe drive fundraiser, and invite them to get involved! They’ll mostly be needed for collecting shoes, identifying partners, and promoting the campaign.
2. Promote your shoe drive fundraiser.
Explain the shoe drive fundraiser to your school or club members, then ask them to bring their spare pairs soon. Share your campaign on your social media page and in your newsletter emails. Shoe drive facilitators like Funds2Orgs will even provide you with free marketing and fundraising tools for the length of your fundraiser.
3. Collect shoes.
Provide your donors with easy opportunities to donate their pairs of shoes. Set up a dedicated donation bin in an open location, or provide each classroom or chapter meeting with its own donation bin. As you collect the shoes, fill the special bags or containers provided by the facilitator.
4. Reach your goal and contact your facilitator.
After you’ve reached your shoe collection goal, contact your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator to arrange a time for them to collect all your shoes. The process is simple and stress-free!
5. Receive your check!
The shoe drive fundraiser facilitator will calculate the value of your collected shoes and issue a check for the funds you raised. Shoe drives can raise some major funds! For example, some schools and organizations have raised thousands of dollars after just six weeks!
What are the benefits of a shoe drive fundraiser?
Shoe drive fundraisers are an ideal fundraising solution for schools, school-based clubs, and community organizations for a number of reasons, mainly these 4 key benefits:
Minimal Costs
It takes very little money to host and promote a shoe drive fundraiser. With Funds2Orgs, there are zero out of pocket costs!
Fast Funds
Receive a check for your raised funds in as little at 2 days after your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator collects them!
Global Philanthropy
Your donated shoes will be provided to entrepreneurs to re-purpose and resell in developing economies, stimulating organic growth.
Environmental Stewardship
Discarded shoes are notoriously hard on the environment. Recycling them in a shoe drive fundraiser is a productive way to be responsible!
Shoe drive fundraisers represent a low-cost, high-impact fundraising option for schools and organizations of all sizes! Plus, the most engaged shoe drive fundraiser facilitator services offer great learning opportunities on the environment and the global economics of philanthropy.
What are some ways to conduct a shoe drive fundraiser?
Shoe drive fundraising is an extremely versatile fundraising method!
They work great as standalone fundraising campaigns. It’s easy to organize a campaign and set some goals with your shoe drive fundraiser facilitator, who will then provide you with some marketing ideas and tools.
Promote your shoe collection drive to your classes, chapters, or anyone else. Then be sure to provide collection bins or bags to your volunteers or classrooms. You might be surprised how quickly you can reach your collection goal!
Shoe drive fundraisers also make an effective additional component to any of your other campaigns or events!
If students or parents will be gathering for an event to benefit your school or club anyway, it’s easy to incorporate shoe drive fundraising into your planning and promotions.
If you host any of the following types of school fundraising events, think about the ways that a shoe drive could be integrated into your fundraising:
Game Nights or Tournaments
Maybe two pairs of donated shoes could replace a registration fee for your casual competition events!
Raffles
Offer free raffle or auction tickets as an incentive to encourage shoe donations!
Online Fundraising Campaigns
Your crowdfunding or peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are perfect opportunities to add shoe drive fundraising as additional challenge elements.
Service or Product Sales
Think car washes and bake sales. Why not offer shoe donations as a payment option?
Fairs or Festivals
Larger festival events are perfect for promoting or incorporating your shoe drive fundraiser!
If you’re conducting a shoe drive fundraiser as either a standalone fundraising project or alongside a larger campaign, it’s crucial that you spread the word and encourage your students, members, and community stakeholders to make donations!
As a unique fundraising concept, shoe drive fundraisers are fairly easy to promote.
There are a number of key promotion strategies that work great for shoe drive fundraising:
1. Printed Materials
Creating printed materials to explain and promote your shoe drive fundraiser is essential, especially for schools! Flyers, letters, collection tracking charts, and door hangers are necessary tools for clearly labeling and explaining your fundraiser to students and their parents.
Some shoe drive fundraiser facilitators will even provide you with handy templates to quickly create your own printed promotional materials.
2. Social Media Promotions
Your school or club probably already relies on at least one social media platform to promote events or stay in touch with parents or members.
Be sure to promote your shoe drive fundraiser on your social media pages, especially Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Upload some pictures of your volunteers collecting shoes, or maybe even record a video to explain how the fundraiser works!
3. Promote with Your Other Events
If you choose to incorporate your shoe drive fundraiser into other events that you host, it’s important to clearly communicate this in all your promotions!
Invite attendees at your sporting events, sales, community service projects, and festivals to bring some pairs of shoes to donate. Be sure to offer some creative incentives, too!
4. Promote with Your Partners
Reach out to any community partners who might want to get involved! Local businesses and other community-based organizations make great partners for shoe drive fundraisers.
Similarly, if you’re a school considering a shoe drive fundraiser, be sure to get your PTA involved (and vice versa)! The more volunteers and donors, the easier it’ll be to promote your fundraiser and reach your goals.
Additional Fundraising Resources
When beginning a new fundraising project or setting new goals for your school or club, it’s important to do your research! Start with these resources to find the best options and strategies to help you succeed.
15+ Best Crowdfunding Websites
Crowdfunding has quickly become one of the best ways to raise funds online.
Be sure to find the platform best suited to your needs by using this handy guide from Double the Donation!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svg00Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2018-03-26 13:40:312023-09-20 19:59:14Shoe Drive Fundraising: A Mini Guide for Schools and Clubs
Your nonprofit’s fundraising plan is the backbone of your success as an organization.
Without a solid fundraising plan in place, there would be nothing to guide your fundraising efforts and no way to tell if your nonprofit is on track to meet your goals.
Before implementing any change in fundraising strategy, you need to have an official fundraising plan in place. To get you started, here are 6 simple tips to consider:
Ready to get started on your fundraising plan? Let us break these tips down into a bit more detail.
1. Gain fundraising plan input from key stakeholders.
Stakeholders are an important part of your nonprofit’s team. Not only do they help fund your organization’s philanthropy, but they typically have final say over big-picture fundraising decisions.
Since a fundraising plan outlines a nonprofit’s key activities, it is important to get support from these board members and other key stakeholders.
There are a couple of ways you can gain input from your stakeholders:
Experiential input. You can ask stakeholders directly about what fundraising strategies have worked well for your nonprofit in the past. Inquire about past fundraising activities, strengths and weaknesses. Take their feedback into consideration and be sure to demonstrate to them how you address their input.
Consultant interviews. You might find it helpful to bring in a fundraising consultant. They can conduct stakeholder interviews to determine what is most important to your board and how to get everyone on the same page when designing your fundraising plan.
Remember: Your nonprofit’s board members are just as passionate about your organization’s mission as you are. Do not think of their approval as a bureaucratic hurdle to overcome, but rather an important step towards improving your fundraising plan.
2. Develop goals (and challenges)!
When designing your fundraising plan, your final product should reflect your nonprofit’s primary goals above all else.
It is easy to fall into the trap of vaguely fundraising without an endpoint in sight, but to stay on track your nonprofit needs to actively work toward a defined set of central goals.
Before designing your fundraising plan, your nonprofit needs to sit down and agree upon what goals to prioritize across all levels of your organization. Your goals should be:
Specific, actionable, and measurable. Do not just decide to increase fundraising revenue, or plan to retain more donors. Set numeric benchmarks and timelines, and decide how you will tackle these goals.
Evaluated against metrics. You cannot accurately assess your progress towards achieving a goal without having metrics in place to track your success. Diligently monitor consistent metrics so you can see how well you are improving and when you need to make changes to your fundraising plan.
(Bonus tip! Be sure to collect valuable data when carrying out your fundraising plan to help evaluate these metrics and shape your future fundraising plans. Check out Fundly’s guide to nonprofit CRMs for an idea of how your nonprofit can maximize the power of your donor database to improve your fundraising strategy.)
Additionally, one way to help your nonprofit stay on track is to identify upfront what potential challenges or obstacles you will face in the process of achieving your goals.
Some obstacles you might encounter could be:
Seasonal fundraising dry spells
Low donor retention
Failure to obtain major gifts
Poor fundraising event attendance
Inadequate online engagement
For example, an animal shelter that wants to increase donor retention by X% over the summer months might identify the challenge of supporters being less engaged during this season since they may be traveling or caring for children on summer vacation. To reach their goal, they’ll need to recognize this challenge and develop strategies to overcome it.
Remember: Use your nonprofit’s history to guide you in identifying roadblocks and deciding on goals. Every nonprofit has its unique strengths and weaknesses and when designing a fundraising plan, it is important to know going in what is reasonable to expect from your organization.
3. Set a fundraising plan timeline.
Staying on top of your goals also means staying on top of your fundraising plan’s timeline.
Fundraising plans typically plot out a 3-5 year timeline for your nonprofit, with the first year being very detailed and the following years becoming less defined.
Your fundraising plan’s timeline should be developed into an annual fundraising calendar that details the year’s worth of activities for your organization.
When developing your timeline, keep a few things in mind:
Milestones. Structure your timeline around a set of core milestones. These will both guide your progress and help you regularly assess your fundraising strategy.
Accountability. Your timeline (and subsequently, your fundraising calendar) should clearly identify what departments are responsible for individual fundraising activities. This will help keep the different arms of your nonprofit on track and help your departments prioritize tasks throughout the year.
Accessibility. Your timeline and calendar should be easily accessible to all members of your team, regardless of their department or role. Every team member should be aware of what other departments are up to; this way, they will have a better sense of the big picture of your organization and how your core fundraising goals are being achieved.
Remember: During the design process, your fundraising timeline should be as specific as possible and you should hold yourself to the timeline as much as you can. However, if you find you are not progressing as quickly as you had planned, identify the roadblock and always give yourself room to edit the timeline if necessary.
4. Determine your fundraising methods.
A common thread among these tips has been specificity and when plotting out your fundraising plan, it is doubly important to specifically determine your fundraising methods.
It is not sufficient to simply say you will raise $XXX by such-and-such date. You need to plan out how you will raise that money and from whom you will solicit donations.
Fundraising is not a one size fits all process, and you should curate your fundraising methods with your prospects in mind. For example, consider these fundraising methods and how they serve prospects:
Online donation pages. If your donors cannot all come to you, meet them where they are. Online donation is simply convenient; for nonprofits interested in prospects in varying geographical locations, utilizing optimized online donation tools is a must.
P2P fundraising. For nonprofits seeking to grow their network of donors, P2P fundraising is a great way to engage constituents online and leverage the power of their social network to help your organization reach a broader audience.
Text-to-give. Mobile giving is a fundraising style that has been growing in popularity over the last several years. Like online donation pages, text-to-give fundraising makes it convenient for donors to give. Additionally, because donors are not tied to a desktop, they may consider donating more frequently.
Fundraising events. A strategic fundraising event help you engage donors and bring in major donations, too! Just make sure you plan out your fundraiser well in advance so you have plenty of time to consider important elements, such as the type of event, when and where to host it, and what technology you’ll need to pull it off.
Remember: You should consult your nonprofit’s existing data when determining which prospects to pursue and which fundraising methods best serve your prospect pool. Consider past data and metrics when determining fundraising methods, as well as what has worked for other nonprofits of a similar donor makeup and mission as yours.
5. Build corporate partnerships into your fundraising plan.
Corporate partnerships can be important sources of revenue and support for nonprofits.
When designing your fundraising plan, develop a strategy that will help you achieve corporate partnership so that you do not bypass such a valuable asset.
If you already are partnered with a corporation, consider these ways to leverage that relationship during the fundraising plan design process:
Event sponsorship. Your corporate partner could agree to sponsor a fundraising event for your nonprofit. With their name and notoriety attached, prospects may be more inclined to participate in your fundraiser.
Challenge grants. Your corporate partner might be amenable to offering your nonprofit a challenge grant. With a challenge grant, your organization and your partner agree upon a specific fundraising goal. If the goal is met, they might match the amount of funding raised or commit to donating an agreed-upon sum.
Matching gifts. One of the simplest ways to incorporate corporate philanthropy into your fundraising strategy is to seek out a matching gift tool. In a matching gifts program, a corporation agrees to match the donations of their employees either to a certain percentage of the donation or to a consistent maximum value. With a tool like this one offered by Double the Donation, donors can quickly determine whether their donation might be matched by their employer.
Take a look at DTD’s matching gift tool in action! The donor simply types the name of their company into the tool, and then DTD searches their database to see if they are matching gift-eligible.
Remember: Every nonprofit has unique needs and that extends to any relationship you have with corporate sponsors. You do not have to go after a partnership with a multi-million dollar company if that does not suit the scope of your organization. Partnering with small local businesses can get the job done, especially for regionally-focused nonprofits.
6. Tailor your case for support.
Your case for support underpins the success of your nonprofit, but it is often taken for granted when designing fundraising strategy.
Organizations and hospitals often create cases for support when they launch a capital campaign. These documents outline every detail of the campaign from how the funds will be used to the ways supporters can contribute.
Moreover, the case for support acts as an effective promotional tool to help educate potential donors on the importance of your cause. The content in your case for support can easily be posted on your website or published in a brochure.
While they’re common practice for capital campaigns, organizations should create a case for support as a part of any fundraising strategy.
Donors will not give to your organization unless you have a compelling case for support, so you need to take the time to thoughtfully develop your case.
Your case for support should answer these important questions:
What is our mission?
Why should donors give to this cause?
Why should they give to our organization in particular?
How much should donors give?
What specifically will our nonprofit do to achieve our mission?
At all levels of engagement, your nonprofit should actively communicate with donors the ways that your fundraising strategy addresses your case for support. The more compelling your case, the more likely it is that donors will give to your organization.
Remember: Your case for support should govern your fundraising strategy. Just as you should choose fundraising methods that target your prospects, you should similarly design your fundraising plan with your case for support as a foundation.
Your fundraising plan is the single most important tool in your arsenal when enacting a new fundraising strategy. Get closer to achieving your nonprofit’s fundraising goals by designing a detailed fundraising plan today!
Additional Resources
Conduct a Fundraising Feasibility Study: 6 Steps to Success. Capital campaigns can help your nonprofit reach larger goals as part of an effective fundraising plan. But first, you need to conduct a capital campaign feasibility study before your campaign can begin. With our step-by-step guide, your feasibility study is sure to give you the information you need to succeed!
Top 5 GoFundMe Alternatives. After developing a fundraising plan, your nonprofit may decide to pursue crowdfunding as a way to meet your fundraising goals. You might initially consider GoFundMe as a crowdfunding host, but don’t make your choice so quickly. There are many other crowdfunding sites just like GoFundMe (but better)! Check out our guide for some awesome alternatives.
14 Charity Auction Tools. Similarly, your nonprofit might choose to hold a charity auction as a fundraising event. Not only are auctions great ways to raise funding, but they’re also useful events to strengthen your donor relations. Be sure to consult our guide to the 14 best charity auction tools that are perfect for nonprofits of any size!
We all know that online fundraising is quickly taking the nonprofit world by storm. More people than ever are making their charitable contributions via online avenues. That’s why we’ve compiled 11 of the best online fundraising ideas that can help your nonprofit raise more money in the digital age!
Let’s take a look at each of these online fundraising ideas in more detail.
Online Fundraising Idea #1: Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is proving to be one of the most popular ways for nonprofits and individuals alike to raise money for causes, projects, or events that they care about.
For those new to the term, crowdfunding essentially makes use of a nonprofit’s or individual’s existing network of supporters, friends, family members, coworkers, peers, and even acquaintances.
Nonprofits and individuals can set up crowdfunding pages and then share those pages on social media sites and via email.
A typical nonprofit crowdfunding page looks like this:
Interact with your supporters: Your donors want to know how your online fundraising campaign is going! Keep them in the loop by posting updates and responding to their comments on your crowdfunding page.
Post at least 4 photos or videos: Media gives your donors some context and allows them to see exactly what they’re donating to. Make sure that your photos look professional and highlight the people, animals, or communities that your nonprofit serves.
Set up giving levels: Including donation tiers or giving levels on your campaign page allows donors to select the one that they prefer. To create an even bigger impact, you can list out the specific actions that your nonprofit can accomplish with each donation amount.
Main Takeaway: Crowdfunding is one of the best online fundraising ideas for nonprofits. Most crowdfunding platforms enable you to get up and running in just a few minutes, and you can start raising money from your supporters in no time!
Online Fundraising Idea #2: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Peer-to-peer fundraising or virtual events are a type of fundraising that many nonprofits pair with fundraising events like walkathons, marathons, and in-person events that need to be transitioned to virtual.
Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns typically follow this structure:
A nonprofit sets a goal, determines a timeline, and plans a peer-to-peer event.
The nonprofit reaches out to loyal supporters and asks them if they want to participate in the fundraiser.
If supporters are willing to participate, they then set up their own online fundraising pages (with the nonprofit’s help). These individual pages link up to the nonprofit’s main peer-to-peer fundraising page.
Individuals reach out to their networks to ask for donations on the nonprofit’s behalf.
Supporters’ friends and family members make donations via the individual’s peer-to-peer fundraising page.
The nonprofit collects the donations, acknowledges and thanks supporters and donors, and hosts the (typically active) event.
This individual peer-to-peer fundraising page is linked to the nonprofit’s primary fundraising page.
This peer-to-peer campaign follows a few best practices that we’re a huge fan of:
They include several images: Both the nonprofit’s main page and the individual’s campaign page have images and videos that allow supporters to see exactly what their donations are going toward.
They describe what the contributions will help accomplish: Each page highlights the need for homes and volunteer time in Austin. Both pages have giving tiers that describe what a donation amount will be able to buy. For example, $300 will buy a stove, while $500 will buy a roof.
Each description is detailed: A good peer-to-peer campaign description is the key to encouraging people to donate to your cause. Without it, people won’t know why you’re raising money! This campaign has listed out the reasons for fundraising and lets people know why building homes in Austin is important.
Main Takeaway: Peer-to-peer fundraising is a type of online fundraising that enables your nonprofit to raise more money and acquire more donors. As your supporters reach out to their networks, your nonprofit can introduce more people to your cause and mission.
Take online giving one step further by encouraging your donors to search for the matching gift programs for which they might be eligible. Companies of all sizes will often match (or more than match) their employees’ donations to nonprofit organizations!
There are even useful tools you can embed directly onto your websites or campaign emails. Here’s how the National Audobon Society incorporated a user-friendly search tools directly into their ways to give page:
For a fundraising campaign, create some buzz by asking a local company or major donor to match donations made on a particular day. Time sensitive drive campaigns work well because they create urgency, a good motivator for supporters. Plus, since each donation goes twice as far, donors will be more likely to participate.
Best of all, and unlike ongoing corporate matching gift programs that apply to eligible employees, matching gift drives don’t have restrictions on who can participate!
The key to a prosperous matching gift drive is promotion. Get the most people to participate by sending emails to your donors on the days leading up to the event.
Social media is also an effective place to promote your online fundraiser. If your museum is running a matching gift drive, for example, you can publish posts on Facebook and Twitter that tell donors any tickets purchased or contributions made during your drive will be doubled by your sponsor.
Also, let donors know about the many ways they can contribute. Provide your donors convenient ways to give, such as:
Donation pages.
Text-to-give.
Mobile-responsive forms.
Crowdfunding pages.
The more fundraising options donors have, the more likely they are to make a donation.
Additionally, if you’re hosting a giving day, but only accept donations through a form on your website, this limits the number of people that can contribute to your cause.
Always ensure that you have a variety of ways to collect donations before launching your matching gift drive.
Main Takeaway: Knowing that their gifts will double for a limited time is a great motivator for donors. Use that knowledge to your advantage and host a matching gift drive.
Bonus: For matching gifts year-round, check out another example of how Mercy Corps helps their supporters determine if their employer matches donations on their branded matching gifts page from Double the Donation.
Online Fundraising Idea #4: T-Shirt Fundraising
Another effective way for nonprofits to fundraise online is by selling t-shirts. Your nonprofit can deisgn t-shirts as merchandise for your organization and sell them online to your supporters.
T-shirt fundraisers are a fun, engaging way to raise money for your nonprofit because they allow supporters to show their love for your organization while still getting something back in return.
For supporters who many not be able to donate as much as they would like due to financial limitations, t-shirt fundraisers offer them the opportunity to contribute to your cause without breaking the bank.
Your nonprofit can get started by promoting t-shirt sales in conjunction with different fundraising campaigns. For example, you might sell holiday-themed t-shirts during year-end giving to capitalize on the seasonal spirit.
Even further, the t-shirts you sell can double as marketing materials for your nonprofit’s brand. When people see their friends wearing your organization’s shirts, they may get inspired to start contributing to your nonprofit.
When choosing an online host for your t-shirt fundraising initiative, select one that:
Offers plenty of t-shirt customization options.
Allows you to upload original designs for your shirts.
Gives you the freedom to set your own t-shirt prices.
Charges a low-overhead fee so you can keep more of your profits.
Gives you the ability to customize your nonprofit’s t-shirt sales page.
As your organization starts selling t-shirts, remember that customization is key! Supporters are more likely to buy your organization’s shirts if they feel the product (and sales process) reflects the brand they have come to know and love.
What if you could raise money by having supporters do something they were probably going to do anyway? Gift card fundraising is an innovative way to bring in revenue online, and it’s convenient for supporters because they get to contribute to your cause simply by buying a gift card for a friend or family member.
Digital gift cards tend to work best for these types of fundraisers, as they can be delivered to supporters’ inboxes within minutes of their purchase. Then, supporters can forward their email to the loved one they want to give the card to as a gift.
Every time someone buys a gift card through your fundraiser, a percentage of the sale automatically goes back to your nonprofit. The exact amount varies depending on the retailer who provided the gift card, but it’s often around 5.5%. However, these contributions add up over time to make a major difference for your organization!
To launch a gift card fundraiser through a gift card fundraising platform (like ShopRaise), follow these three easy steps:
Register your organization. The experts who run your fundraising platform will walk you through a simple onboarding process, answer any questions you may have, and provide the app your supporters will use to purchase their gift cards.
Spread the word. Marketing is essential to a successful gift card fundraiser. Leverage all of the communication channels your nonprofit uses to make supporters aware of your fundraiser and provide instructions for getting started. The platform you partner with may be able to provide some marketing materials to help you with this step.
Track results. Your organization’s dashboard will display real-time fundraising data to help you thank your top supporters individually and encourage them to continue buying gift cards to support your cause.
Consider starting your gift card fundraiser at a time of year when people are likely to be buying a lot of gifts. For instance, you could launch in November to prepare for the holiday season or in April as your supporters start thinking about Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, peak wedding season, and upcoming graduations. Just make sure to leave your fundraiser open year-round so supporters can buy gift cards for their loved ones’ birthdays in between these busy seasons.
Main takeaway: Gift card fundraisers are an easy virtual idea that can be run year-round. They’re free for your organization to launch and convenient for supporters as they can contribute to your cause by buying gift cards they were going to purchase anyway.
One of the most traditional ways to raise money online is through the tried-and-true online donation form. In many cases, donation forms allow you to brand your page and create special fields to capture specific, related information.
Best of all, online donation forms can be mobile-friendly so even more of your supporters have access.
Since there are many customization capabilities available, your organization can create a form that is completely unique to your brand.
There are many vendors available that offer both free donation forms and paid donation forms.
Here is an example of what your online donation form could look like:
As you can see, the Water Project does a lot of great things with their donation form:
First, the donation form has preset giving buttons, making it easy for the donor to choose a gift amount.
Secondly, donors have the option to set recurring gifts.
Last, the option to share contributions on Facebook and Twitter is predominantly displayed.
All these features not only help boost your awareness and funds, but they also make the giving process convenient for your donors.
Of course, if your organization wants all of these features (and more!), you’ll have to choose an excellent fundraising software provider.
Look for a vendor that has a responsive technical support team and an easy-to-use interface; you shouldn’t have to be an expert in CSS and HTML to create a professional-looking form. With a simple donation form builder, your organization should be able to drag and drop the elements you want to use and customize them to fit your needs.
If you’re using a fully customizable platform, you’ll be able to create a form that is unique to your organization or recruit a technology consultant who can design a form catered to your needs.
When creating your online donation forms, be considerate of your donors’ time and keep your donations quick and simple.
Main Takeaway: Creating a convenient and beautifully designed donation page starts with finding the right software. Find a provider that offers the features that will make donating quick and easy.
Online Fundraising Idea #7: Online Giving Days
The most common online giving day is #GivingTuesday, a national day of charitable giving started a few years ago by the 92nd Street Y in New York.
While your nonprofit might already participate in #GivingTuesday, that doesn’t mean that you can’t organize your own online giving day for your supporters!
Just so we’re clear, an online giving day is a 24-hour period where a nonprofit tries to raise as much money as possible from its supporters.
An online giving day has to have a lot of digital promotion and advertising to make it effective. Reach out to your supporters:
With emails.
Over social media.
Via text message.
On your website.
With videos.
These digital outreach methods should contain information about your giving day such as the time, ways to donate, what the funds will go toward, and how supporters can get more involved.
Here’s an example of an animal nonprofit that promotes #GivingTuesday on Twitter:
Of course, Twitter has character limitations, so this tweet had to be short and sweet. Your other digital promotions for your giving day can go a bit more in-depth and include more specific information about your online fundraiser.
Whatever route you take, make sure that you explain what the funds are going toward and provide supporters with a link to your online donation page.
Main Takeaway: An online giving day can be an energetic and fast-paced way to raise money for your cause. Electrify your donor base with lots of digital promotions and encourage them to give as much as they can in just 24 hours!
Text-to-give came on the scene as a digital fundraising method in 2010 when millions of dollars were donated to the American Red Cross to support victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Since then, text-to-give (or text-to-tithe for churches) has become a mainstream way to raise money for any organization or cause!
Today, text-to-give tends to work like this:
A donor will text a keyword to a specific number that has been assigned to a nonprofit.
The donor will receive a link as a text message.
The link takes the donors to a mobile-responsive donation page where they can make a contribution.
It’s that easy!
When choosing a text-to-give tool, look for a provider that is PCI-compliant, which means the company follows strict rules to ensure a high level of security.
Many nonprofits, schools, and churches use text-to-give technology as an online fundraising avenue throughout the year, but it’s also a popular donation method during fundraising events. One of your speakers can make a live appeal and ask people to give with their cellphones (all of your attendees will likely have their phones in their pockets or purses!).
Main Takeaway: Text-to-give is quickly becoming one of the most popular online fundraising ideas. Don’t get left behind by this fundraising trend!
Online auctions are essentially digital silent auctions that are more cost-effective and are open to all your supporters, increasing fundraising potential even more.
For your digital venue, you can opt to use auction software or an online marketplace like eBay to host your online auction.
Just like with any charity auction, you’ll need to procure items and experiences that excite your guests and encourage them to place bids.
Look for unique items that your guests won’t be able to find anywhere else. Look at the following suggestions to help you get started:
Sports memorabilia.
Backstage passes to a concert.
Tickets to an exclusive museum exhibit.
And so much more!
Generate excitement before your event by creating an auction catalog with images and a description of each item (or experience) and teach registered guests how to place bids to prepare them for the big day. Plus, with dedicated auction software (like OneCause) you can track the progress of your online auctions in real time:
Main Takeaway: Online auctions make it possible for supporters from all over the world to participate and are cost-effective so that you can raise the most money from your event.
Online Fundraising Idea #10: Viral Fundraising Campaign
You’ve likely heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, but you may not know just how successful that particular viral fundraising campaign was.
In just a month and a half, the ALS Association was able to raise $115 million (and tons of awareness!) for ALS research by asking people to pour cold water on their heads.
Another example of a viral fundraising campaign is “Movember.” For this viral campaign, men grow out their facial hair during the month of November and make donations in support of men’s health.
These are just two of the many viral fundraising campaigns that nonprofits have started. Why not start your own?
Keep these tips in mind before trying to launch a viral fundraising campaign. And remember, it might take a few months or even more than a year for your campaign to go truly viral.
Don’t ask for too much. You aren’t going to receive a ton of donations if you ask for $500 every time. Instead, ask people for small contributions like $5, $10, or $20. Once a campaign goes viral, all of those little donations will add up!
Create a memorable hashtag. Hashtags help group your social media posts and make your nonprofit’s message easier to find on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Create a memorable and punchy hashtag. Use it in all of your social media posts and encourage your supporters to use it, as well!
Get to the point. A viral campaign has to be focused and targeted. It’s not the time to explain every single detail of your nonprofit’s mission. Instead, boil down your vision to a few key points and use them interchangeably throughout the duration of your campaign.
Make use of all of your digital channels. Post on Facebook. Tweet out a promotional message. Snap a picture and post it to Instagram. Start a Pinterest board. Send out emails. Use every digital communications channel at your disposal!
Main Takeaway: It might take time to get a viral fundraising campaign off the ground, but if you can do it, your nonprofit’s mission and vision will be made known to supporters across the country and even around the world!
Online Fundraising Idea #11: Online Cashback Websites
Online cashback sites can be used by nonprofits as well as individuals who are looking to raise a little extra money while doing something that nearly everyone loves: shopping online!
Let’s break down how most online cashback websites work:
Someone in your nonprofit needs to buy office supplies or something else online.
The staff member begins their search for office supplies at an online cashback site.
Once the items have been purchased, a percentage of the total amount is deposited into a cashback account.
Your nonprofit can withdraw the cashback amount at regular intervals (typically monthly or quarterly).
While cashback sites aren’t going to help your nonprofit break any fundraising records, they are an easy way to raise more money from online shopping. Signing up for most of these cashback sites is easy, and everyone in your nonprofit can participate!
Main Takeaway: Online cashback sites can supplement your existing fundraising efforts. If your staff does a lot of online shopping, sites like Ebates and Amazon can be an easy way to raise extra funds!
Online Fundraising Idea #12: Donation for a Vote
The donation for a vote online fundraising idea gets your supporters engaged in a silly challenge in return for their contributions.
Here’s how this fundraiser works:
Create a list of silly challenges that your staff or volunteers are willing to complete.
Create a poll, asking your supporters to vote (with a donation) for the challenge they’d like to see your team complete.
At the end of the poll, record your team completing whatever challenge received the most votes and post it on social media.
The challenges you pick should be interesting and if possible, related to your cause in some way.
In the video, thank your supporters for their contributions, and mention how the funds will be used to further your cause.
Supporters will get a kick out of seeing you do a silly task, and you’ll raise more money for your cause!
Not only will donors like seeing a hilarious video, but they’ll also appreciate that you want their opinion and input. Plus, supporters will encourage their peers to vote so they can see their favorite challenge win.
Main Takeaway: Donation for a vote is a fun (and potentially viral) way to raise money for your cause. Makes sure to choose your challenges and continue to encourage your supporters to vote.
We hope that these online fundraising ideas have inspired you to go out and try some different fundraising techniques.
For more ideas and tips, check out these helpful resources:
80+ Fundraising Ideas. Couldn’t find what you were looking for with our online fundraising ideas? Check out our full list of ideas. You’re sure to find the perfect fundraiser for your cause!
Church Fundraising Ideas. If you’re looking for ways to raise money for churches and other faith-based organizations, we’ve got a list of ideas that will help you reach your goals.
School Fundraising Ideas. Schools need to find family-friendly ways to raise money and engage their students. Check out this list of top ideas from Fundly to get started!
Top Online Donation Tools.If you want to start fundraising online, you’ll need software to accept donations. Use this list of top tools to find online donation software for your organization!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/online-fundraising-ideas_feature-1.jpg6001350Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2016-11-28 16:36:002024-09-16 11:58:2810+ Online Fundraising Ideas: Raise Money in the Digital Age
