Fundraising is the bedrock of any charitable organisation. Even with tax breaks and government funding, without public donations, your charity will be limited in the amount of support it can deliver.
For charity leaders, that means that fundraising is often the core focus, and looking for new ways to increase donations is always at the forefront of your mind. That’s probably more true in 2023 than in previous years, as the cost of living crisis means over 63% of UK residents have cut down on their charitable donations this year.
Despite this drop in donations, the rapid increase in prices and rampant inflation means almost every charity, in any niche has seen a rise in demand or their services throughout the past few months. This looks set to continue moving forward, as the poorest among us continue to struggle to cope with ever-rising costs.
If you’re leading a charitable organisation and need to find new ways to raise money, integrating technology into your fundraising strategy could be the perfect solution.
Here are some of the many ways you can make the most of the latest tech to save time and improve charitable donations, so that you can deliver the services your charity’s users so desperately need in 2023 and beyond.
Add Online Donation Options to Your Site
To make it simple for potential donors to give money to your organisation, you should set up user-friendly and secure online donation platforms on your website. This makes it easy for supporters to contribute and allows for various payment methods, meaning it’s quick and easy for anyone to give money to your cause.
Offer Mobile Giving
As well as online donations, consider ways to make it easier for people to use their mobile phones to give money to your charity. You can enable mobile giving through text messages or mobile apps to make it even easier for anyone to donate on the go. Supporters can make quick donations using their smartphones, which is convenient and can encourage impulse giving.
Raise Awareness with Video Marketing
Spreading the word is key to getting more donations. You need to make sure that potential supporters understand your work and how their donations could help. While writing this down is one option, you could also consider methods of communication that are easier to digest quickly, like video marketing. Working with charity video production specialists like Digital Finch, you can create engaging videos that will attract a wide range of potential donors and make them more likely to give you the cash your organisation needs.
Find the Right Donor Management Software
Managing all the many donations you get, and where they come from, can be incredibly difficult, especially as a busy charity manager. One solution is to invest in donor management software to efficiently track and communicate with donors. This software can help personalise interactions and improve donor retention without adding too much to your already hectic workload. Using this software, you could try and send personalised thank-you messages to donors, acknowledging their contributions and mentioning them by name to make them feel like they’re investing in your cause.
Try Gamification to Encourage Donations
Everyone loves a good game, so you could incorporate gamification elements into your fundraising efforts. That doesn’t mean sending out board games or sponsoring video games. Instead, you can create challenges, leaderboards, or rewards to encourage healthy competition among donors and encourage them to give more cash to your charity. Gamification can also help you to make your charity seem fun and grow your brand awareness.
Save Time with AI and Chatbots
Managing hundreds of messages from donors and dealing with their queries can take you and your staff away from your valuable work. To save time and ensure that potential donors understand how they can help, you can implement chatbots on your website or messaging platforms to answer donor queries, provide information, and guide them through the donation process. Using these tools can reduce the amount of time you and your volunteers spend answering the same basic questions and dealing with simple queries. While AI chatbots can’t fully replace human support, they can reduce the amount of human hours needed to deal with your supporters and potential donors.
Provide Virtual Tours
If your charity has physical projects or locations, it might be a good idea to offer virtual tours to showcase your work. This approach can help donors connect more deeply with your cause and feel like they’re getting something in return for their support. There are plenty of free virtual tour software options that you can use to easily create a virtual tour to entice potential supporters and help them understand the vital work your charity undertakes.
Keep Adapting
Overall, when you’re adding tech to your fundraising strategy, the key is to align your technological efforts with your charity’s mission and the preferences of your donor base. That means you need to regularly assess the effectiveness of your strategies and be willing to adapt as technology and donor behaviour evolve. You’ll then be able to ensure that you’re always at the cutting edge of new tech and able to give your supporters the access and information they expect.
