During the economic downturn, raising money for even the best cause seems like a challenging undertaking. As a result, many philanthropic and nonprofit institutions, which rely on sponsorship and donations, face major challenges in funding their annual events. Despite their best efforts, nonprofit fundraisers may not end up amassing enough money for themselves. However, we have provided a detailed discussion of ways you can contact potential donors, even during tough economic times.
Spread the message of your nonprofit through social media
Today, many people spend hours browsing social networking sites. Therefore, using these sites, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., helps you reach a larger number of audiences, also without investing a lot of time and money. You may not get a huge influx of donors during the recession, but you will end up attracting at least some of them to support you.
Create awareness by showing the value of your cause
The anxiety of not having enough funds often makes people wary of contributing to even the most noble cause. As an organizer, you need to make people aware that they are donating money to a good cause. You can reference your past success stories and make people aware of your purpose and goal.
Let people donate easily
Provide maximum convenience for people to make donations to ensure maximum collection. Use cloud-based registration software and let people donate using PCI-compliant payment platform securely. Attendees can donate using their PayPal account or via credit and debit cards seamlessly with a single click.
Stay in touch with board members
The recession is the time to do strategic planning and look for ways to get help from board members. These members are committed and invested in your organization. If you have a healthy relationship with them, you can ask them to donate more during tough times.
Reallocation of Resources
During the recession, most nonprofit organizations suffer from a shortage of resources, such as money, staff, technology, time, etc. Therefore, you must learn to reallocate your limited resources to your fundraising venture so that you can generate profitable returns on your efforts.
Ask existing donors for help
Attracting new donation sources becomes difficult during the recession. Therefore, you should try to explore the existing ones for the same. It’s time to go through your database and find the list of all those donors, who have always been a great support for your organization. You can approach them directly for funds during the financial crisis.