Fundraising

Spring may not strike you as the perfect time for fundraising, but in many ways, the longer days and warmer weather lends itself to creative fundraising events and activities. The holidays may be the peak donation time for many nonprofits, but spring may be equally as busy if you can maximize the fundraising opportunities.

Raise 4X more this Spring with MobileCause. Learn about our online Fundraising solution for Community Brands or schedule an online demo today. 

Spring Fundraising Ideas

Depending on your nonprofit, you may come up with other ideas. Feel free to pick and choose from among this list to find an appropriate fundraising idea that matches the spirit, tone, and brand of your organization.

Make sure you know the three most common fundraising pitfalls and avoid them as you plan.

Outdoor Fundraisers

With the warmer weather, people want to get outside. Indulge their need for fresh air and outdoor activities by hosting outdoor spring fundraisers. 

• Garden parties offer an elegant outdoor event that can double as a fundraiser. A themed garden party, such as Derby Day (for the Kentucky Derby) or an afternoon tea may appeal to different groups. Event ticket sales, raffles, and door prizes are all great ways to add fundraising opportunities to the event.
• Donation drives may be held outdoors for organizations collecting tangible goods. Animal shelters and charities can find willing partners to grant the space to set up tables and bins to collect dog and cat food, cat litter, bleach (always needed at shelters to clean the kennels), old towels, and related items; other charities can collect clothing, canned goods, or whatever they need using a similar strategy.
• Sell outdoor products such as seeds, gardening tools, and plants. Plant sales are a great fundraising activity in the springtime as peoples’ thoughts turn to their gardens.

Adjust the Timing 

Fundraising solicitations may also be sent out to coincide with various spring holidays. Easter, Mother’s Day, and Earth Day are all opportunities to organize donation campaigns around a theme. Use your creativity and imagination. Time the communications so that they arrive several weeks before a holiday, especially if you are asking for donations to be given in honor of someone,  like a memorial plant for Easter, a gift honoring Mom, or planting a tree for Earth Day or Arbor Day.

Be Aware of School and Vacation Schedules

School and vacation schedules tend to be different across the nation, with some schools dismissing for the year as early as May and others much later. As the season draws closer to summer, their minds turn to trips, vacations, time at the pool, beach, or barbecue. Send email donation campaigns and snail mail donation campaigns out well before the end of the school year and the start of peak vacation time in your area.

Manage Fundraising Campaigns with Ease Using the Right Software

Manage your fundraising campaigns with ease using the right software. It’s difficult to track, monitor, and measure fundraising activities using spreadsheets. They can be cumbersome, and one error can throw off the entire spreadsheet and drive you crazy looking for it among all the cells. 

Instead, try fundraising and donor contact management software. It allows you to track and manage fundraising campaigns and donor contacts to ensure transparency and accountability. With the right fundraising software integrated into your accounting system you’ll find it easier to track, manage, and measure fundraising campaigns.

Spring is in the air, and with it, change. If it’s time to change how you conduct your fundraising activities, we invite you to explore fundraising and donor contact management software. Contact Welter Consulting for a free consultation.

Nonprofits are always seeking funds. Entire departments are established for fundraising. Yet some funding opportunities aren’t a good idea. Learning which ones to turn down and which ones to accept can save your organization a lot of time and debate later on.

Why Say No to Funding Opportunities?

Why turn away money? After all, aren’t all opportunities for funding good opportunities?

Alas, no. Here are some reasons why you may wish to turn down a funding opportunity:

1. It’s a significant amount – but unlikely to be continued another year: Although a large amount of money may be useful to fund a major project, the lack of it the following year may cause a great deal of stress for your organization. It may be better to scale slowly than to use a windfall for a major advance, just to have it stall for a while.
2. It is government-funded, but it is an election year: While that may not necessarily indicate change, if the incumbent loses the election and the funds are part of a controversial project, the funds may evaporate. The sudden loss of funding may negatively impact your nonprofit.
3. Funds are restricted: Restricted funds have their place in any nonprofit, but if all sources are restricted funds, this can hamper the organization’s ability to achieve its mission. Without funding for overhead, marketing, and similar needs, programs do not have adequate support. All the funding in the world for a program won’t make a big difference if you can’t support it long-term.
4. The funding source goes against your mission: You may not have pursued the opportunity, but it arrived on your doorstep. Alas, it contradicts vital aspects of your organizational culture or mission. That’s a good reason to say “no” to an opportunity, tempting though it may be. You must remain true to your mission for long-term stability and growth or risk alienating donors who also believe in your mission.

Saying no can be difficult. It’s hard to turn down opportunities, especially if you’ve been working hard to find new ones. Rather than worrying about turning down opportunities, focus instead on the better step ahead: preparing guidelines for funding sources so that your staff knows where to look, what to look for, and how to develop the right sources of funding.

Now Say Yes – Prepare Funding Guidelines

To prepare funding guidelines, you’ll need to work out which opportunities align with your mission. Then, examine how the opportunity impacts the bottom line, both short and long term.

• Speak with your accounting team and finance professionals to discuss what, if any, impact specific types of funding make on the long-term finances of the organization.
• Decide what portion of restricted funds should be pursued, and for which types of programs. Include this in the guidelines.
• Examine how government-funded opportunities may or may not align with your organization’s mission. Then, develop written guidelines about the types of opportunities that are acceptable and those that are not.
• Develop a plan for “gray area” funding opportunities. How should these be evaluated and by whom? Do you want to pursue them and then decide later on what to do if they should come through; or discuss as a team which ones to approach and which to decline?
• Share guidelines throughout your organization. Review annually to ensure they continue to align with the values your organization holds dear and with the current plans, financial forecasts, and information at hand.

Passing up an opportunity may feel frightening, especially if your organization is desperately in need of funds, and whose isn’t? By focusing on the “yes, let’s do this” and preparing funding guidelines, you can decrease the times you must decline funds and instead, spend energy wisely on pursuing valuable funding opportunities.

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact Welter Consulting at 206-605-3113 for more information.

Fundraising ranks high on the list of a nonprofit’s priorities. Everyone wants to get better at fundraising; after all, the better you are at this critical task, the more funds you have to support your work!

Creative fundraising campaigns tend to get the publicity with writes up in your favorite nonprofit journals or marketing magazines. However, there are times when too much of a good thing can be confusing, underwhelming, or just plain wrong for your nonprofit.

As you consider your next fundraising campaign, keep in mind these three lessons from the world of fundraising. Keep them in a file of “what not to do,” so you don’t repeat the mistakes of others. Learn, grow, explore, and yes, test new concepts, but beware of these three fundraising pitfalls.

The Big 3 “What Not to Do” in Fundraising Marketing

Pitfall #1: Being so clever you miss the point and confuse donors.

It’s easy to get lost in a clever campaign. Perhaps you’re tired of the same-old fundraising campaign your organization has used successfully for the past several years, or you feel the need to try something different. That’s fine, but make sure the cleverness doesn’t outweigh the point of the campaign.

A too-clever campaign may rely heavily on puns, graphic gimmicks, or similar ideas to deliver its purpose. What ends up happening is that donors glance at the advertisement, experience momentary confusion, and set it aside. Instead of motivating them to donate, the ads gets tossed in the bin or ignored.

Avoid the too-clever trap: To avoid this pitfall, you can test the “clever” campaign against the tried-and-true response piece. See if the smart piece outperforms the stalwart marketing piece. Mail or send the same number of pieces to a split of your audience. This is called an A/B test and pits A, the clever campaign, against B, the tried and true one. Since you already know the average results of your tried and true campaign, you can see easily if the new piece outperforms it.

Another and simpler method is to show the piece to five random people, perhaps friends, family, or those unaffiliated with your nonprofit. Ask them questions: would they donate? Do they understand the point?

These two steps can save you from wasting time, money, and resources on something that won’t get you the results you desire.

Pitfall #2: Going overboard with design or enclosures.

Yes, it’s a time-tested nonprofit marketing tactic to include a small gift item to entice people to send money back. Stickers, stamps, a notepad, a pen, these are all fine…to a point.

But if your charity is asking for money, consider the impression these gifts make. Are they useful items? Are they expensive items? If so, they might be perceived as frivolous expenses instead of a simple gift.

Another way in which nonprofits sometimes go overboard is by using paper or design that appears expensive. “What!” you may argue. “That paper was much less expensive than the other kind we used to use, and it looks so elegant!”

That may be true, but potential donors only see the surface. They understand what appears to be a very expensive mailer and may perceive that you are ‘wasting’ money on marketing. Err on the side of caution and ensure that your designs reflect the spirit of your nonprofit.

Pitfall #3: Amateurish design.

Design is more than adding photographs or using fonts to punctuate a mailer for effect. Too many colors, competing fonts, a smattering of graphics, and you could end up with a marketing piece that confuses rather than motivates people to act.

A professional graphic designer understands the impact that color, visuals, and type make on the page. Designers know where to put the call to action (the request for donations) and how to set up a mailing panel appropriately. Hiring a professional nonprofit marketing agency or graphic designer, skilled in designing for nonprofit fundraising is a worthwhile investment.

Nonprofit Fundraising the Right Way

Don’t let the mistakes of the past weigh you down. If, as you’re reading this, you see errors that your nonprofit has made in the past, note them and move on.

At Welter Consulting, we act as the bridge between your nonprofit and the software that you need to succeed. This includes fundraising software to track, manage, and measure the impact of donor contacts. We are here to help you with software selection, implementation, training, and audit preparation. Contact us at 206-605-3113 for a consultation today.