KnowledgeThinking Outside the Donations Box

When folks think of fundraising campaigns, often the first thing that comes to mind is a webpage soliciting donations, with a marketing campaign to let their community know about a fundraising need. While this is a good way to reach donors and collect donations (and raisin’s mobile-responive Donations module tools provides you the with power to create engaging and compelling sites), fundraising can be so much more than a donation form.

Looking to get creative and short on time? Here's three easy-to-implement ways to take your fundraising outside of the "donations box":
 
Incorporate cards on your donation module campaign
 
Incorporating eCards or physical trubute cards is a wonderful way to add value to your basic donations page, allowing donors to turn their donation into a meaningful ‘gift’ to honour a loved one. Offering to sending personal cards also allows you to get your brand and message out to more people, and help build community as your constituents begin to make it a tradition to mark special occasions and honour moments by sending a meaningful donation card from your organization, instead of a basic commercial greeting card.


 
eCards are a great option with little to no overhead cost for your organization and while physical cards involve higher costs, they are a nice touch, especially around the end of year holidays. The costs of offering physical cards can also be offset by setting a minimum donation amount that covers the costs and provides worthwhile revenue for your organization.
 
Let your supporters fundraise for you
 
Allowing members of your community to do some fundraising for you is a great way to reach new people and increase your donations. Folks are much more likely to donate, and donate more, if someone they know personally is asking and especially if the ask is tied to a special event such as a birthday, mitzvah, or wedding.
 
The raisin platform has a bunch of tools that allow your supporters to take the initiative and fundraise on your behalf:
 
With the Donations module, you can create a separate campaign for a supporter with a link they can share with their social circle. This gives you control of the look and messaging of the campaign site while providing your supporter with a unique link they can use for their special event.
 
The Donations module also allows you to create an unlimited number of funds which can be named for specific community members and their special events. This allows donors to come to your main donation campaign site and select the fund of the person they would like their donation to support. As mentioned above, people are often more inclined to give, and give more when they feel like they’re supporting someone they know personally. Combine a specially named fund with the option to include a card, and you’ve got a valuable combination for your organization and your donors.
 
The Peer-to-Peer Fundraising module is a powerful tool to let your community members get involved by creating and hosting their own DIY (Do-It-Yourself) fundraisers and takes much of the work off your organization admins.
 


A DIY fundraising site is easy to set up and once in place, allows visitor to register themselves as a fundraiser, set up an even page using a template created by your organization, and gives them access to the participant centre tools. The Participant Centre is easy to use and sets your fundraisers up for success with access to email tools, social media sharing, and reporting where fundraisers can measure their success. Best of all, funds from online donations go directly to your organization, so fundraisers never have to worry about how to get the donations to you, and donors feel confident that their money is going directly to the organization.
 
While this option takes much of the admin work off your plate by allowing participants to take on most of the responsibility for creating the event ad soliciting donations, you always have control. Participant accounts can be disabled, and fundraising pages taken down at any time and you can also edit a participant’s event page yourself from the administrative back end.
 
DIY fundraising pages are a fun and personal option for your community members to create their own campaigns, as well as celebrate special events and life milestones in lieu of gifts or to honour and remember loved ones in a meaningful way.
 
Symbolic Giving
 
The Peer-to-Peer module contains Store functionality to allow you to ‘sell’ symbolic gifts. If your organization’s mission involves providing goods or services to your community, allowing donors to ‘purchase’ those items for people in need is a creative and compelling way to solicit donations, especially around the holidays. Using the store functionality allows you to include images and descriptions that include impact statements. This additional information is a powerful way to compel visitors to give by allowing them to see first-hand, the impact of their donation. For donors, ‘purchasing’ a specific ‘gift’ that a real person will receive, can feel more personal and meaningful than a cash donation and they may be inspired to give more by ‘purchasing’ multiple of an item or ‘purchasing’ a more expensive item. Funds collected through the store flow into the same payment account and funds as regular donations and donors can still receive a tax receipt.
 
Providing fun ways for supporters to help you fundraise and compelling donation options for donors can increase your revenue and help you do more, raise more, and help more.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how the raisin platform can help you get creative with the way you fundraise.