Snowball Fundraising

3 Reasons Your Church Should Support a Nonprofit Cause

Snowball Fundraising — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:53:39 +0000

As a church leader, you know the importance of community and serving others. In the same way that your congregation gathers to fulfill your church’s mission, other nonprofit organizations depend on a community of donors and volunteers to better society. In fact, the very donors who are stewarded by nonprofits may be members of your church!

By supporting a nonprofit organization, your church can make a greater impact on members and in the community. In this guide, we’ll explore three reasons you should support another nonprofit cause. Let’s begin!

1. Nonprofit support sets an example to members of your church.

When choosing a children’s curriculum or planning a sermon series, your church likely aims to align with biblical principles. Nonprofit support gives your church opportunities to act on the lessons you teach about service, giving a practical example of what biblical teachings look like in practice.

Through nonprofit support, your church can demonstrate:

Servitude: Servitude is a core element of the Christian faith, and what better way to put service into action than by getting out in the community? Nonprofit missions are centered around serving the community in some way, so your church’s involvement will set a positive example of what it means to serve others.

Generosity: By giving freely, your church demonstrates the importance of caring for others above oneself. Whether congregants give large gifts for a nonprofit cause or sacrifice free time on the weekend to volunteer, they’ll have the opportunity to put others’ needs ahead of their own. And what makes it even better is doing it together as a church body.

Good stewardship: With finances, time, and abilities, Christians are called to be good stewards of the resources God gives them. Donating funds, time, and skills to a nonprofit cause demonstrates good stewardship of the church’s resources to make a difference in the community and the lives of others.

You can reinforce the value of congregants’ support by showing your gratitude for their involvement. For example, you might show volunteer appreciation by giving a thank-you gift to members of your church who volunteer. This shows that your church values volunteers’ support and encourages them to continue volunteering.

2. Your church can minister to others by supporting a nonprofit.

Whether your church hosts its own fundraising event, participates in Giving Tuesday, or volunteers around the community, your efforts will inevitably introduce you to new people. This valuable time gives you space to build relationships with people you may have never met otherwise. Nonprofit support offers awesome opportunities to meet new people and minister to them.

Through nonprofit support, your church could encounter:

Beneficiaries: A beneficiary is anyone who benefits from the services of a nonprofit. And by supporting a nonprofit, your church is either directly or indirectly impacting the organization’s beneficiaries. For example, people experiencing homelessness might be beneficiaries of the local food bank. Church members might interact with beneficiaries through volunteer roles, during which they can connect with people of all ages, backgrounds, and circumstances. In these situations, volunteers might share children’s curriculum lessons with young kids or their personal testimonies with adults.

Nonprofit leaders: Depending on the type of support your church provides, you might build close relationships with nonprofit board members, volunteer coordinators, and other leaders. As you get to know them and their passion for nonprofit work, you may identify ways that your two missions overlap. Then, you can build relationships as you encourage and partner with one another!

Local businesses: According to AlySterling’s corporate philanthropy guide, our purpose-driven economy encourages businesses to consider their social purpose and impact. Many businesses contribute to nonprofits through corporate giving programs, and this can be a great way for your church to connect with local companies.

Think of these interactions as part of your church’s outreach ministry efforts. You may already aim to spread hope in the community, and partnership with a nonprofit is one avenue to do this. These connections can be a platform to connect with those around you and maybe even invite newcomers to your church.

3. Nonprofit support can strengthen relationships among church members.

Your work with nonprofit organizations is not just an opportunity to minister to others, but a way for church members to grow closer together. And cultivating a close-knit congregational culture is key in building the faith community!

Consider the following examples of how nonprofit support could strengthen relationships between members of your church:

Volunteer: Spending time together is an obvious way to strengthen relationships, but working together toward a common goal can build especially strong connections. When your church encourages members to volunteer together, they’ll learn the spiritual importance of encouraging and uplifting fellow believers.

Text-to-give: Hosting a mobile giving campaign is an easy way for your church to raise money on behalf of a nonprofit. This opportunity gives space for your church to grow together as they work for a common cause. It’s amazing what can take place when people come together to make a difference!

Raise awareness: Think about a nonprofit advocate like a sports team fan. When you support a team by wearing their merchandise or talking about the team, you start to feel connected to other fans of the team. In the same way, when members of your church advocate for a nonprofit, they’ll begin to feel connected to the cause and to the other people involved.

Continue building on the importance of relationships as you gather in your church’s life groups, such as in men’s prayer groups or your church’s youth group. Wonder Ink’s guide to choosing children’s curriculum recommends selecting teaching resources that put “loving your neighbor” into practice, which could help set the stage for connecting with other believers through nonprofit support.

The post 3 Reasons Your Church Should Support a Nonprofit Cause first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

Top 25 Charity Auction Websites For Better Fundraising

Snowball Fundraising — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:02:02 +0000

As a nonprofit leader, you know the right fundraising ideas can drastically increase your organization’s funds. Charity auctions have the power to do just that with a 50 to 65% average rate of return on auction items.

96% of nonprofits held at least one online fundraiser in 2023, and your auction fundraiser could follow suit if you leverage the right tools. Charity auction websites are a must-have for planning and executing such events. There’s nothing a top online charity auction site can’t handle, from event registration forms and ticketing to auction item payment processing.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about charity auction websites, including:

What are online charity auctions?
Why are charity auction sites important?
How to choose the best charity auction website
Top 25 charity auction websites for nonprofits

As we discuss these top providers, note the benefits and drawbacks of each. That way, you’ll be able to find a solution that makes sense for your organization’s upcoming charity auction and equips your team with the tools they’ll need to succeed.

But before we dive in, let’s answer a few simple questions to guide your research.

Looking for the best-in-class auction features?

What are online charity auctions?

Online charity auctions are fundraising auctions that list all of the items on a website or app and allow participants to bid virtually or from their mobile devices. Nonprofits can host both silent auctions and live auctions online.

Charity auction websites are the tools that facilitate these events. They offer features such as:

Auction item catalog builders
Online and mobile bidding functionality
Real-time notifications for participants
Streamlined checkout tools

With the increasing popularity of online giving, virtual charity auctions are a prime solution for raising more. In fact, 24% of donors give through online auctions, meaning your nonprofit urgently needs the right tools to take this fundraiser online.

Why are charity auction sites important?

Your nonprofit needs to leverage online fundraising, but why are charity auction websites crucial for this approach? These tools can:

Simplify fundraising
Help you plan and execute the event
Keep supporters engaged

Plus, charity auction sites can help you prepare for future events by collecting data based on your fundraiser’s performance. After tracking your auction’s key performance metrics (KPIs), you can adjust your approach next time to raise more. For example, you might track attendance and bidding activity to identify ways to grow your next auction.

How to choose the best charity auction website

To choose the best charity auction website for your nonprofit, follow these simple steps:

Determine your goals: Establish your goals for leveraging a charity auction website, including the features you’ll need to streamline planning and the tools that will serve your unique audience.

Set a budget: How much can your nonprofit spend on a charity auction website? Keep in mind that an all-in-one platform can serve your online auction needs and streamline your other fundraisers. Instead of investing in numerous tools with varying capabilities, invest in one platform that can handle everything.

Consider features: Make a list of the features you’re looking for in your charity auction software. For example, do you need a solution that offers text-to-bid? What do you consider to be non-negotiable, must-have features?

Research providers: Look for charity auction websites that check all of your boxes. This is where our list comes in! We’ve done the research for you by rounding up the 25 best charity auction sites.

Before committing to a provider, get a demo or consultation to test out the software for yourself. Now that you know what to look for, check out our charity auction website recommendations below!

Top 25 charity auction websites for nonprofits

Although the “best” of anything is subjective, the best online auction site will be the one that provides the highest level of functionality for the lowest price. That way, you can raise more for your cause while spending less of your fundraising budget. Let’s analyze the features and pricing packages offered by some of the top auction sites in the industry to help you find the right fit.

1. Snowball

Snowball is known for its powerful suite of free and low-cost fundraising software, and its package has recently expanded to include complete charity auction website functionality. With our silent auction toolkit in hand, your team can pull off successful fundraising events without having to worry about whether you’ll earn back the price of your software.

Snowball’s auction tools include several standout features to help your team raise funds and engage your audience. Here are a few of our favorites and how they compare to other providers:

Online and mobile (text-to-bid) functionality: With Snowball, your nonprofit can maximize its fundraising potential by leveraging additional features like text-to-bid. Not all charity auction website providers offer text-to-bid, much less the streamlined ability for bidders to participate using their phones.

Real-time notifications when a guest wins or is outbid: Ready to spice up the competition? Snowball provides real-time notifications when a guest wins or is outbid to make your online charity auctions more exciting and encourage participants to keep bidding!

Ability to add photos and descriptions of an unlimited number of items to an online catalog: While some charity auction websites offer item catalogs, no platform is as flexible as Snowball. Our item catalogs can be categorized to better organize your auction items, and you can even bulk import items for your team’s convenience!

Compilation and easy-to-read reports of fundraising data: Every nonprofit leader knows that data can guide your fundraising success, which is why Snowball compiles easy-to-read reports of your auction’s data!

Streamlined checkout and payment processing tools: Allow bidders to pay for their items easily and securely with Snowball’s streamlined checkout tools. They’ll automatically be notified if they won (and prompted to donate if they didn’t), and will receive instant receipts for their purchases or donations.

In addition to these auction-specific functions, investing in a Snowball plan unlocks other powerful features such as text-to-give, online donation pages, fundraising thermometers, event ticketing, and registration.

Snowball offers its charity auction website functionality as an affordable add-on package to any Snowball account, including both the Essential and the Premium plans. Even better, we won’t charge you additional platform fees, penalties, or hidden charges.

Connect with the Snowball team today for a detailed quote.

2. Handbid

Handbid is a dedicated auction and event software platform for mid-sized to large organizations. With various packages, Handbid accommodates various organizations and their needs.

For example, each year-long subscription plan comes with a certain number of online charity auctions it can support. This means you can choose the plan that most closely resembles your event calendar and pay for additional upgrades if needed.

Handbid’s auction packages include the following features:

Live video streaming tools
App and web-based bidding
A remote auction management system

Handbid offers several auction plans with pricing beginning at $792/year, with additional packages going up to more than $2,496/year.

3. OneCause

OneCause offers a high-quality charity auction website with mobile bidding and auction software to simplify your fundraising event. From item procurement to emailed donor receipts, their online charity auction site can help your organization manage almost every aspect of your online charity auction.

The OneCause platform allows you to:

Send notifications to donors
View previous receipts
Track your donations

OneCause offers four different auction packages, ranging from a “Do-it-Yourself” package to a “Full Service” plan. Prices vary depending on the level of functionality you’re looking for.

4. Qgiv

Qgiv provides a robust toolkit for online charity auctions, including a silent auction website, mobile bidding app, and event management software.

Qgiv’s online auction platform provides the following features:

Real-time bidding
Guest registration
Simplified checkout

Qgiv’s auction package begins at $259/month, or you can bundle it with their other packages. Other packages can include data reporting, mobile giving, and peer-to-peer fundraising.

5. CharityBids

CharityBids’ charity auction site will help your team optimize its strategy by understanding your target audience and acquiring the right software package to drive bids. Their concierge team works with your auction winners after your event to schedule their auction trip packages at their convenience!

CharityBids’ charity auction website allows you to:

Consult with fundraising experts during the planning process
Select from their extensive auction packages
Utilize their full-service travel concierges

CharityBids provides nonprofits with risk-free auction consignment packages, meaning that they don’t take a cut until after you’ve collected your revenue. At that point, they take a percentage of the item price as payment.

6. ClickBid

ClickBid’s easy-to-use charity auction website specializes in mobile bidding at silent auctions. This tool allows donors to compete in online charity auctions entirely using their mobile devices, offering capabilities such as:

Mass messaging
Event QR codes
Custom event landing pages

Plus, a subscription allows nonprofits to collect year-long donations, meaning the fundraising doesn’t stop after your auction concludes!

ClickBid’s annual event license, which offers access to their mobile bidding software, starts at $795.

7. Givergy

Givergy’s mobile-friendly auction platform allows donors to browse your catalog, place bids easily, and promote your auction on social media. Their auction software is all about making bidding easier for your donors with remote and mobile bidding.

Givergy’s online auction site offers the following features:

Auction item procurement
Ticketing and event check-in
Sealed bidding functionality

This charity auction site’s design is fully customizable, allowing your nonprofit to add all of its key branding elements. You can also keep the page as a standalone event or tack it onto a more extensive campaign!

Givergy offers multiple packages and collects 15% of the total revenue collected through your charity auctions, which includes transaction fees.

8. Benefit Events

Benefit Events originated as an art auction service for nonprofits. They’ve since kept their creative vision while broadening their solutions to include online auctions for a spectrum of nonprofits. Their team helps your organization promote and market your event to improve your fundraising efforts.

Benefit Events provides the following key features:

Custom winning bidder notifications
Direct donor data entry
Secure payment processing through Stripe

Benefit Events’ pricing depends on the amount of revenue brought in through your online charity auction.

9. WeDo Charity Auctions

WeDo Charity Auctions takes your online charity auction to the next level with the ability to host pre-bidding before your event and create and manage guest lists. Plus, they offer real-time reporting so you can stay up-to-date with bidding throughout your event.

WeDo Charity Auctions provides the following features:

Convenient in-event messaging
In-person or live-streamed mobile bidding
Streamlined check-in and checkout

WeDo Charity Auctions’ pricing depends on the functions you’ll need for your event, beginning at $1,800.

10. SchoolAuction

SchoolAuction’s cloud-based silent auction site simplifies the planning and hosting of your online charity auction. Their software allows you to set table arrangements, log items into your catalog, and check up on bids from your laptop, phone, or tablet.

Additionally, SchoolAuction lets you mix paper auctions with mobile bidding so your event can cater to each bidder! SchoolAuction provides the following features:

Customizable auction website creation
Online and mobile bidding
Speedy self-checkout process

SchoolAuction offers multiple subscription packages. Their Plus option costs $1,500/year and the Professional is $3,000/year.

11. MaestroAuction

Text2Bid by MaestroAuction, a dedicated charity auction site, gives your organization the tools needed to plan and execute your online charity auction. With this tool, your organization can track and document every procured item by adding descriptions, restrictions, and monetary values.

MaestroAuction’s charity auction site includes the following features:

Virtual auction management functionality
Live and virtual auctioneers
Auction item procurement resources

MaestroAuction pricing depends on the length of the subscription you’re seeking. Contact their team for a more detailed price estimate.

12. Qtego

Qtego markets itself as “America’s #1 mobile bidding platform,” offering easy-to-manage events, resulting in satisfied guests and increased donations. Their intuitive interface simplifies your event’s key aspects such as registration, event management, and the checkout process.

Qtego’s charity auction site includes these key features:

Text-to-bid solutions
In-person, virtual, and hybrid event management
Live-streamed video tools

Upgrade your auction from paper bid sheets to a streamlined online experience with Qtego’s software solutions.

Qtego offers a variety of features at different price ranges. Contact their team to learn more about their pricing packages and get a quote.

13. GoCharity

GoCharity, while not strictly a charity auction website, provides effortless, hassle-free options for auction items. With over 40 years in the auction industry, GoCharity’s team will provide support throughout your entire event to ensure your online charity auction runs smoothly.

GoCharity provides the following auction website features:

Front-door delivery services
A comprehensive catalog of auction items
On- and off-site auction management

GoCharity has three different auction plans, each with its own fees—off-site involvement, on-site auction management, and on-site mobile bidding management.

14. 32auctions

32auctions’ user-friendly interface lets nonprofits set up their auction websites, then sit back and relax. But it’s their customizable packages that make it stand out. From a free base kit to a complete works set and everything in between, your nonprofit can choose the exact features it wants.

32auctions offers features such as:

Consolidated sales summary review
Custom auction link creation
Support for exact bids, proxy bids, and Buy Now purchases

32auctions’ base price is free, and all feature upgrades are priced individually. Use 32auction’s price calculator to create a package that fits your budget.

15. GalaBid

GalaBid’s free fundraising software can flexibly manage both online-only and live events, giving your nonprofit more ways to fundraise. With their pre-event bidding tools, instant payment systems, and mobile bidding features, your guests will also have increased control over how and when they bid.

Galabid’s silent auction software comes equipped with:

Leaderboard displays
Custom design tools
Mobile alerts and invoices

If GalaBid’s silent auction platform works for you, they also offer support for raffles and donation drives!

GalaBid is free. In exchange for their services, they ask all fundraisers to make a one-time donation to keep their platform available to support great causes.

16. Bidding Owl

Bidding Owl’s auction management software allows nonprofits to build their charity auction websites within minutes to hit the ground running promoting their event. Bidding Owl’s fully customizable websites empower nonprofits to brand and edit their event pages however they want.

Bidding Owl comes with a variety of features, including:

Online bidder check-out
Volunteer management tools
Rotary, radio, and TV auction interface

When you host an auction or use the mobile bidding tool, Bidding Owl charges a 5% performance fee, taking 5% of the winning bid on each item sold.

17. BiddingforGood

BiddingForGood by FontStream lets nonprofits present their auction items to a vast community of bidders on BiddingForGood’s website. There, your items will be organized into categories such as dining, travel, designer, and more, allowing visitors to search for items they actually want and then make a bid.

This doesn’t mean your nonprofit won’t have control over your online charity auction. While items are displayed on BiddingForGood, you’ll still be able to manage and track your event from beginning to end.

BiddingForGood’s unique platform allows nonprofits to:

Have their auction items viewed by a wide audience
Set up their event in under half an hour
Keep information centralized

BiddingForGood is accessible through three FrontStream plans: a free yearly subscription, a $600/year plan, and a custom option for enterprise organizations.

18. Silent Auction Pro

Silent Auction Pro aims to save your nonprofit time by simplifying your auction management process. Along with automatically generating supporting materials such as program guides, bidding sheets, and invoices, Silent Auction Pro allows your entire team to sign in to your auction software from any computer.

Silent Auction Pro includes key features such as:

Real-time data tracking
Streamlined check-in features
Customizable print and email correspondence capabilities

With Silent Auction Pro’s tracking tools and thank-you email templates, nonprofits using this platform will be supported from start to follow-up.

Silent Auction Pro has two packages for virtual fundraising solutions, starting at $749/year. Two in-person event solutions are also available, starting at $449/year and 2% of auction sales.

19. Charity Auctions Today

Charity Auctions Today allows nonprofits to build their own charity auction website by answering a few simple questions about their event. Their software’s assistive tutorial then guides nonprofits through adding items in bulk, populating your website within minutes.

In addition to its mobile-friendly features, Charity Auctions Today offers:

Donor management tools
Event ticket sales
Expedited check-out process

Charity Auctions Today also has extensive support features, so your nonprofit can reach out for help if you ever find yourself stuck setting up your charity auction website.

Charity Auctions Today charges a 5% fee for completed auctions and offers a prepaid plan for $297 with a reduced 3% fee. You can also get in touch with them to get a quote for a custom plan.

20. Accelevents

Accelevent’s simple, easy-to-use interface allows nonprofits to set up their auction websites quickly, so they can focus on fundraising. This is where Accelevent’s custom messaging features come in, allowing your team to promote your online charity auction through customizable emails.

Accelevent comes with important auction features, including:

Instant analytic reports
Seamless checkout with multiple payment options
Mobile and online bidding

Accelevent also features extensive ticketing, registration, and other virtual event tools that your team can add to your package.

Accelevent has separate prices for its fundraising, ticketing, and virtual event packages. Auctions are priced at $1 per ticket with a $249 activation fee.

21. ReadySetAuction

ReadySetAuction is a flexible provider that works for all nonprofits, from schools to humanitarian organizations to workplace giving campaigns. This cloud-based software also supports any kind of auction you could want, including silent, live, mobile, and online.

ReadySetAuction comes equipped with:

Guest and event management tools
Website customization capabilities
Item showcase and sponsor leaderboard slideshow creation

When your event is done, ReadySetAuction also gives your winning bidders multiple payment options—all of which can be accessed from their phones!

ReadySetAuction’s Essentials plan starts at $1,099/year and allows you to manage auction prep, cashiering, and data collection all in one place.

22. Auctria

Auctria allows you to track every part of your online charity auction in extensive detail. Additionally, Auctria helps nonprofits build their professional charity auction websites for their events, creating a dedicated space for bidders and donors to connect with your event while also lending your auction credibility.

Auctria’s features include must-haves such as:

Item procurement tracking
Detailed dashboard overview
Mobile-friendly bidding catalog

Auctria comes in three tiers: its free Explorer plan, its $300/year Emerald plan, and its $600/year Diamond plan.

23. CausePilot

CausePilot supports auctions of all sizes with its virtual fundraising suite. CausePilot lets your nonprofit create your auction your way by choosing which items are available for online bidding and which are saved for your in-person event while seamlessly managing both!

CausePilot comes with crucial features such as:

Item procurement tracking
Volunteer sign-up and management tools
Customizable text and email communication

Prices for CausePilot’s virtual fundraising tools vary based on your nonprofit. Some organizations can even use CausePilot for free! Check out their plans and price calculator to find a price point that matches your nonprofit.

24. DoJiggy

DoJiggy’s auction software gives your nonprofit options. Connect with your supporters during your event with text and live-streaming tools while automatically sending notifications and receipts. Plus, DoJiggy offers two ways to bid: proxy bidding and increment bidding.

DoJiggy comes equipped with:

Unlimited auction item listings
Text-to-bid functionality
Live-streaming options

DoJiggy can also help your item procurement team get started with an assortment of charity vacation packages. Your organization can purchase DoJiggy’s auction software in exchange for 4.9% of each credit card transaction.

25. GiveSmart

GiveSmart’s silent auction program is an industry leader for a few key reasons. Their comprehensive toolkit allows your nonprofit to handle every aspect of your virtual events, all in one place. GiveSmart also integrates with many other software providers, meaning it’s ready to grow with your nonprofit.

GiveSmart’s auction service includes:

Mobile bidding
Real-time insights
Item catalog

In addition, GiveSmart offers hybrid and virtual fundraising tools, peer-to-peer support, and event management software to help your charity auction run smoothly.

Additional Resources for Charity Auction Sites

Now that you have the inside scoop on some of the most popular charity auction websites, you can choose a solution that will lead your nonprofit to success. Remember that, while you focus your event on raising money, you should also focus on the donor experience. Choose a software solution that doesn’t just make things easy on the backend but creates a fun and memorable auction experience for your participants.

If you’re interested in learning ways to improve your fundraising results, check out these additional resources:

Virtual Auctions: How to Plan A Fruitful Event in 5 Steps. Virtual auctions bring a favorite charity event to the digital realm. This guide walks you through the main steps for pulling off a successful event.
Mobile Donations Made Easy: The Ultimate Text-to-Give Guide. Looking for more information on mobile fundraising? Check out our complete guide on text-to-give tools.
How to Master Mobile Giving: An Actionable Nonprofit Guide. Mobile giving is a crucial tool for fundraising in the nonprofit space. Our guide explains best practices for implementing mobile giving and why it’s necessary.

Ready to take your charity auctions to the next level?

Look no further than Snowball!

The post Top 25 Charity Auction Websites For Better Fundraising first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

From Planning to Profit: How to Master Your Silent Auctions

Snowball Fundraising — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 14:33:22 +0000

As a fundraising professional, you likely know that effective charity auctions can raise awareness for your cause, further engage your supporters, and help you solicit critical funding. But perhaps you’ve never hosted one yourself, or you’re looking for a refresher before planning your next big event.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide to pulling off a successful silent auction. We’ll cover the following topics to prepare you for hosting your own auction and bringing in the big bucks for your organization:

What Are Silent Auctions?
How Do Silent Auctions Work?
How to Run a Silent Auction
Best Practices for Silent Auctions
Top Silent Auction Software

Ready to take your fundraising efforts to the next level with a silent auction? Let’s jump in!

What Are Silent Auctions?

Silent auctions are a type of charity auction in which bidders can browse, bid on, and purchase items without the supervision of an auctioneer by placing their bid electronically or on a physical sheet of paper.

Auctions are highly praised fundraisers because of their flexibility. Everything from item displays to bid formats can be completely customized, which is why there are several different types of auctions. The two most common types are silent auctions and live auctions:

In silent auctions, guests can browse items on display and place their bids via bid sheets. Live auctions, in contrast, are hosted by an auctioneer. Attendees place their bids by raising their hands or a bid card while the auctioneer is talking.

Both types of events are powerful fundraisers that can bring in substantial revenue for your organization, but silent auctions are particularly advantageous for the following reasons:

They’re inexpensive. All you’ll need is a venue, the auction items, and bidders! You can easily set up enticing item displays at low costs and raise even more revenue by selling concessions.
Bidding is kept private. More people will be likely to bid on items when they don’t have to engage in a bidding war in front of a large crowd. Silent auctions allow bidders to privately place their bids for items and wait to find out if they’ve won.
Supporters are more engaged. As opposed to a live format, silent auctions allow guests to mingle with each other and your nonprofit’s leaders or volunteers. This creates more opportunities for you to communicate your cause, connect with potential donors, and cultivate a healthy community of supporters.

Plus, silent auctions allow for mobile bidding, which can help your nonprofit reach a larger audience. Whereas guests have to attend a live auction in order to participate, silent auctions can be hybrid by accepting bids on a virtual platform. All you need is an event management tool that offers mobile bidding features. Then, more supporters can participate and donate to your cause!

Are you ready to plan your best auction yet?

How Do Silent Auctions Work?

Before you can start planning your event, it’s a good idea to first understand the way silent auctions function.

For this event, items are typically set up throughout a physical space with a sheet of paper, called a bid sheet, at each one. When participants find an item they’d like, they simply write their bid amount (in dollars) with their anonymous bidding number that they receive upon registration or check-in.

Nonprofit auction software provides a streamlined, tech-based alternative in which attendees can quickly and easily bid from their phones instead. Users can then be notified when they’ve been outbid and decide to raise their bid to stay in the game.

As participants explore your available items, individuals continually one-up each other by placing a slightly higher bid than the person before them. After the event, the individual with the highest bid “wins” the item in question, pays the agreed-upon amount, and is gifted the item. Proceeds from bids are then collected and go toward funding your mission.

How to Run a Silent Auction

Now that you know the basics of silent auctions, you’re ready to walk through the steps involved in planning and hosting the event itself.

Like any fundraiser, extensive preparation is crucial for ensuring a successful event. An auction may require more planning than most events, so here are three key stages to keep in mind:

1. Procure auction items

Donors cherish the opportunity to support your cause while also receiving a tangible item in return—it’s a win-win!

Your auction items are the star of the show, so it’s crucial to get started with this step as early as possible—typically, 3-6 months before your planned event is a reasonable time frame. Build a procurement team of five or six dedicated individuals—preferably a combination of nonprofit staff and volunteers—who are willing to solicit auction items from family, friends, community members, and local businesses.

Your revenue collection can be directly impacted by engaging and high-demand auction items, such as:

Local favorite restaurants: Consider which eateries in your community are fan favorites and secure a gift your participants are sure to want. Think about prizes like gift cards, private dinner parties, or tasting events with the head chef.
Valuable virtual experiences: Plan a virtual cooking or cocktail-making class with a chef. You might even be able to have a virtual meet-and-greet with an athlete or celebrity!
Exclusive items. What items are of high value to your participants? Consider items such as expensive wine, an autographed jersey, or perhaps a piece of high-end jewelry.

Consider what establishments in your area could offer an item or experience to contribute. When you form partnerships with local businesses, you can solicit gifts for free and low costs, ensuring maximum revenue for supporting your mission.

Remember to choose items that appeal to your specific audience. For example, a local school will have a much different supporter base than a large-scale nonprofit, and auction items should be adjusted as such. Include items of various price ranges so that all bidders can opt for something they’d reasonably be able to afford.

2. Promote your event

Your promotion strategy is one of the most important elements of your silent auction prep. After all, your dedicated supporters must first be made aware of your event plans beforehand to attend and participate. Here are a few easy marketing tactics to get the word out about your auction:

Create an event landing page. Use your website as the main source of information for your auction, including event details and a registration form on a dedicated landing page for the event. Your website might already receive a lot of traffic, but you can also use marketing resources like Google’s Ad Grant program to promote the page and draw more attention to your site.
Invite donors via email. Email is a favorite for donor communications. For one, you can easily invite thousands of individuals in just a few clicks. Plus, email marketing software allows you to personalize invitations and address each donor by name without sending a separate invite to each. Once a supporter receives your invitation, they can quickly navigate to your registration page with a bright and eye-catching call to action.
Send physical invitations. Everyone loves getting mail, especially when it’s not a bill. That’s why sending invitations via direct mail can be an effective way to inform supporters of your upcoming event and boost excitement from the beginning. Plus, your physical invite can serve as a powerful reminder for individuals who might hang it on their refrigerator or leave it around the house.
Share on social media. This is a great way to spread the word far and wide, including potential guests you may not have on your email or mailing lists. Share posts including the date, time, and if applicable, a location and registration link for your auction. Encourage current supporters to interact with and share your posts with their own social media networks, effectively expanding your reach and introducing you to new avenues of support.

While your outreach strategies will likely be adjusted to your particular supporter base, it’s a good practice to implement multiple of these key suggestions. In fact, studies show that 72% of consumers would rather connect with brands through a multichannel approach.

3. Follow up after the auction

Post-auction operations play a considerable role in whether your attendees return for future events. Be sure to have a carefully organized, streamlined checkout process for your winners so that they can pay, receive their items, and head out without complication.

A few days later, be sure to thank all of your guests for participating and ask them to fill out a quick survey. This way you can get a feel for what your attendees really thought about your event, including what can be improved for next time.

Each of these is a crucial element in a successful auction and something you don’t want to leave to the last minute—or to chance! When participants and attendees can tell you put a lot of time, effort, and thought into pulling off the event, they’re more likely to get involved.

Are you ready to plan your best auction yet?

Best Practices for Silent Auctions

Even if this is your first time planning a silent auction, the good news is that thousands of organizations before you have helped pave the way for a successful event—and can provide some best practices to ensure yours gets off without a hitch. Let’s walk through some tried-and-true tips to get you started.

1. Set a theme and consider other entertainment

While not every auction has to be a themed one, choosing and sticking with a particular theme is a great way to boost excitement and pull off a seamless event. Depending on when your auction will fall in the calendar year, you may consider planning an event around a major holiday such as:

Valentine’s Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas

Another creative idea would be aligning your silent auction theme with your organization’s mission. For example, if your nonprofit supports wildlife conservation, you could decorate the venue like a rainforest with related items available for bidding.

2. Limit the number of items

It may be tempting to collect and auction off as many items as you can. After all, more items to bid on means more money, right?

In reality, an overabundance of auction items can spread out bids too thinly and reduce the competition for top items that end up driving prices through the roof. Select a few big-ticket auction items that will be in high demand (such as an automobile or vacation package), supplemented by some smaller and mid-sized items like gift cards, local experiences, and artwork.

3. Offer “buy now” options

Bidding is a great way to drive prices up on valuable and high-demand items at your auction. However, some attendees prefer the convenience and certainty of “buy now” options.

In addition to your top auction items, provide some items available for immediate purchase. Be sure to set the price high enough to make a decent profit—a good practice is to set the price at twice the item’s retail value.

4. Leverage gamification strategies

In the same way that competitive bidding can spur donations, gamification techniques can boost your auction’s fundraising capabilities. Popular methods include:

Displaying a fundraising thermometer
Creating leaderboards
Giving away prizes

A great way to implement such a strategy into your silent auction planning is by alerting participants when they’ve been outbid. Provide a countdown clock to motivate users to make their next move before they lose the item.

5. Encourage additional donations

The vast majority of funds raised through your silent auction will likely come from auction item sales. However, that doesn’t mean it has to be your only source of revenue!

Consider asking for additional donations across multiple points of contact, including pre-registration donation pages and day-of opportunities to give. This way, you can provide an easy way for dedicated supporters to go above and beyond for your organization and bring in more funding for your mission.

6. Use comprehensive auction software

The right software makes any fundraiser run smoothly. Your silent auction is no different! Effective silent auction software allows you to:

Accept additional donations
Provide mobile bidding options
Streamline the checkout process
Add photos and descriptions of items
Send an email and/or text notifications
Compile all your auction data in one spot
Implement a countdown when the auction closes

Auction software comes in handy whether you’re running an entirely virtual experience, a hybrid event, or even a traditional in-person auction. Be sure to do some research and find the right auction software for your event and your cause.

Top Silent Auction Software

Whether you’re planning a virtual silent auction or just want the help of an event management tool, you’ll need effective auction software. This tool will streamline every step of the auction process—including registration, bidding, and payment.

At Snowball, we understand that the auction software you choose should help things run smoothly, which is why our auction software offers:

Item catalog: Advertise the items that bidders can win with an item catalog that features photos, descriptions, and starting bids of your prizes.
Text-to-Bid: Optimize auction engagement by moving the bidding online and opening the bidding window for several days. This longer bidding period can help your event get as many bids as possible!
Automated donor communications: Send an automatic email or text to all participants telling them if they won and prompting them to donate if they didn’t. You can also send instant receipts to winning bidders for their donations.

Use our platform to streamline your silent auctions and any other fundraising events you plan after your auction concludes! From text-to-give to pledge campaigns, our software can manage it all.

Additional Resources on Silent Auctions

Virtual Auctions: How to Plan A Fruitful Event in 5 Steps. Want to take your auction completely online? Learn how to plan a virtual auction in this guide!
Text-to-Give | Complete Guide for Nonprofits and Fundraisers. Looking for other fundraising options that leverage the power of mobile donations? Check out our guide to text-to-give fundraising.
Pledge Fundraising | The Complete Guide [with Tips]: Are you hosting a traditional fundraiser or a pledge campaign? Learn the difference (and more!) with our ultimate guide to pledge fundraising for nonprofits.

Are you ready to plan your best auction yet?

The post From Planning to Profit: How to Master Your Silent Auctions first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

How to Master Mobile Giving: An Actionable Nonprofit Guide

Snowball Fundraising — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 15:49:46 +0000

Due to the prevalence of cell phone and tablet use, mobile giving is gaining in popularity. After all, it requires little effort on the donor’s end; support is just a tap away and can be done from anywhere!

In this guide, we’ll cover all of the bases of mobile giving and how to make the most of it through the following topics:

What Is Mobile Giving?
Types of Mobile Giving
Text-to-Donate Trends
Benefits of Mobile Giving
How To Start a Mobile Giving Campaign
Mobile Giving Best Practices
Examples of Text-to-Donate Campaigns
Snowball’s Mobile Giving Platform

We’ll unpack everything you need to know about mobile giving from vocabulary to future projections. It’s a crucial aspect of any nonprofit organization’s fundraising strategy, especially in the digital age. Let’s jump in.

Ready to raise more with mobile giving?

What Is Mobile Giving?

Mobile giving refers to donors using their phones and tablets to give to nonprofits, churches, and other organizations they care about. This way of contributing funds is becoming increasingly relevant as smartphones allow donors to give from anywhere, at any time.

If you’ve never heard of this type of fundraising, there are a few terms that you’ll need to know before you can start leveraging mobile giving. Explore these key vocabulary terms:

Mobile-friendly: Mobile-friendly refers to how content comes across on a smartphone or tablet. Mobile-friendly pages are visually appealing and fit within the confines of a mobile device’s screen, providing an easy user experience.

Mobile-responsive: Mobile-responsive donation pages are forms that look and function well on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. These pages are typically designed with larger buttons and are set up vertically as opposed to horizontally.

Native texting application: Native texting apps are the text messaging portals that come standard on a person’s phone. For example, iPhones provide iMessage for texting capabilities. This is important in reference to mobile giving because organizations can send fundraising appeals and donation links in texts for easy mobile giving.

Text-to-donate: At its most basic level, text-to-donate is a type of mobile giving that involves donors texting a donation amount to a nonprofit’s number directly from the native texting app on their phones.

Text-to-tithe: Another name for text-to-donate, text-to-tithe is a term commonly used by churches that promote text-to-donate during their services and events. Despite the name, text-to-tithe can be used by religious organizations to collect not only tithes but also offerings and other charitable gifts.

Information capture: When donors use mobile giving to contribute to nonprofits, they must input certain information for the donation to be processed. Nonprofits can use their mobile giving platforms to capture data such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, billing addresses, and engagement history.

Short code/Long code: Short codes and long codes each refer to a type of mobile giving phone number an organization might be assigned when they register with a text-to-donate platform. Short codes are 5-6 digit numbers that donors can use from anywhere in the nation. They’re used to facilitate app-to-person communication. On the other hand, long codes are traditional phone numbers. Unique to each person, they consist of 10 digits that start with an area code.

Trigger word/Keyword: Also known as a keyword, a trigger word is an easy-to-remember word or phrase that donors can type into their phones and send as a text to trigger a link to their phones. An example of a trigger word would be ‘GIVE’ or the name of your organization.

Mobile giving is steadily rising in popularity and has cemented itself as a fundraising strategy here to stay! Let’s take a closer look at the different types of mobile giving.

Types of Mobile Giving

Mobile giving encompasses four types of fundraisers, which each require unique planning and execution to become part of your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy. Consider each of the following mobile fundraisers.

Text-to-Donate

Text-to-donate involves donors texting a donation amount and keyword to a number set up by the nonprofit organization. Here’s how it works:

Your organization promotes its specific number and keyword.
Donors text the keyword to your number to send a specified amount.
Your organization receives the amount.

It’s as easy as that! In just a few simple steps, your nonprofit receives the funding it needs to fulfill its mission.

Mobile Fundraising Pages

Your nonprofit may already have an online donation page, but mobile giving takes digital fundraising a step further by making it accessible to mobile devices. Mobile fundraising pages are donation portals made to work well on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

Here, supporters can take action by donating to your cause from any device. Whether they sign up for recurring gifts of $5 or submit a one-time major gift, they can do it all from their phones with mobile-friendly form fields, optimized design elements, and more.

Email Fundraising

Marketers who use segmented email campaigns witness nearly a 760% increase in their revenues. With 54% of nonprofit email messages opened on mobile devices, there is a huge advantage to offering donors a way to give through their mobile inboxes.

Mobile email campaigns use compelling visuals and mission-driven content to drive supporters to mobile fundraising pages. This way, you can present donors with an easy way to give from one of their preferred channels of communication.

Mobile Giving Apps

Mobile giving apps enable organizations to design branded donation pages that donors can give through after downloading the app on their mobile devices. After creating a mobile giving app, nonprofits can share the download link across their promotional channels to encourage supporters to get the application on their smartphones and tablets. Once donors have access to the app, they can quickly contribute gifts via the app’s donation page as often as they’d like.

Text-to-Donate Trends

It’s no mystery that mobile giving is an increasingly popular fundraising strategy. Here are some factors contributing to the popularity of text-to-donate and the insights we can draw from these statistics:

There has been a 50% increase in the number of transactions completed through mobile devices. Mobile giving is becoming increasingly popular and will continue to grow as the technology becomes more standardized.

84% of millennials give to charities and nonprofits but prefer to donate through online platforms. Nearly an entire demographic sees the value in mobile giving, and future generations will follow suit as its popularity expands.

To discover new nonprofits, 1 in 4 donors use mobile devices. This means mobile fundraising can help new supporters find your nonprofit, even if they were previously unaware of your organization.

As mobile device usage increases, it’s clear that mobile fundraising is the future of charitable giving. In fact, Millennials and Generation Z are some of mobile giving’s primary demographics. Seeing as they’re the next generation of donors and mobile fundraising is their preferred giving channel, promoting this innovative giving method will allow you to secure the support you need for decades to come!

Benefits of Mobile Giving

Mobile fundraising is not only beneficial for nonprofits, but streamlines giving for donors as well. Let’s walk through how nonprofits and donors both benefit from mobile giving.

Mobile Giving Benefits For Nonprofits

Aside from increased fundraising potential, nonprofits can also receive the following benefits from mobile giving:

Valuable data insights: Mobile giving provides your nonprofit with an additional way to measure donors’ giving habits, which can help you choose the best communication channels, craft target appeals, and connect more deeply with supporters.

Cost-effective fundraising: Mobile fundraising is easy to implement, especially with self-sustaining methods like text-to-donate. This saves your nonprofit important staff time and allows you to collect donations by simply marketing your fundraiser.

Increased donor retention: Successful donor retention is built on effective communication. Consistent interactions strengthen the bond between your nonprofit and its supporters, which mobile giving can enhance by saving card information and encouraging recurring gifts.

To access these benefits, all your nonprofit needs to do is implement mobile giving into its fundraising strategy. As your organization collects increased donations, donors will also become more engaged with your fundraising efforts.

Mobile Giving Benefits For Donors

Donors can benefit in the following ways from mobile giving:

Ease-of-use: Mobile giving reaches donors where they already are, making it convenient for them to give to your nonprofit. Plus, mobile giving technology relies on platforms that donors are already familiar with, such as text and email. Because they won’t have to learn a new technology to participate in mobile giving, donors can get set up quickly and easily.

Secure payments: Donors can rest assured that their payment information is safe when your nonprofit leverages PCI-compliant tools to accept mobile donations.

Accessible giving: Many mobile giving platforms offer increased accessibility for all of your various donors. This makes mobile giving methods like text-to-donate more widely available to the largest audiences possible.

Equipped with a convenient and secure giving process, donors will be more eager to give to your cause.

Ready to raise more with mobile giving?

How To Start a Mobile Giving Campaign

In five simple steps, your organization can plan and implement a successful mobile giving campaign to help meet your fundraising goals.

1. Evaluate your mobile fundraising logistics.

Introducing a new fundraising channel requires a reallocation of your organization’s resources. Prepare for your text-to-donate campaign by carefully planning logistics, such as:

Which of your staff member(s) will oversee this strategy
What you’ll be using the new platform for
What the timeline will be for implementing mobile giving
How you’ll let donors know about your new giving channel(s)

With a solid plan in hand, your organization will be ready to incorporate mobile giving into your fundraising plan.

2. Choose mobile giving channels.

Not every mobile giving channel is right for every nonprofit. It’s important to know which strategies you can easily implement and which ones your donors will most positively respond to.

To determine which channels work best for your organization, consider the following:

What existing online/mobile fundraising strategies do you have in place? If you already have an online donation page, it might be easier to start with mobile-responsive donation forms than a mobile giving app.
What channels have your donors expressed interest in? Poll your supporters and ask them what they think. You can send out an email survey to get opinions from your donors and plan accordingly.

Remember, you don’t have to just choose one mobile giving channel. There are a whole host of options to pick from. Find what works best for your organization and your donors.

3. Select a mobile giving provider.

Once you know exactly which mobile giving channels you’ll be using, look for a mobile giving provider whose services align with your needs. For example, you might want a text-to-donate provider that offers unlimited inbound text messages.

To identify the right provider, ask the following questions:

What is our budget?
What do available providers offer?
How will this platform integrate with our other software?
What platforms best suit the needs of our donors?
Will we need training and support?

Use your responses to guide your search and narrow down your list of potential providers. Anytime you bring new technology into the mix, you have to be proactive about selecting your organization’s best fit.

Don’t just focus on the now. Look for a scalable mobile giving platform with the capacity to grow with your organization.

4. Incorporate mobile giving into your fundraising plan.

Most mobile giving campaigns, like text-to-donate, are meant to be used in conjunction with your other fundraising strategies. For example, you might decide to:

Promote text-to-donate at your annual fundraising event.
Let direct mail donors know that they can give via your mobile-responsive donation page.
Encourage new donors to try out your mobile giving app by mentioning it in your welcome email.

The most successful nonprofits recognize the value of letting their various fundraising techniques inform one another. Be sure to use the data gathered through your mobile giving technology to learn more about donors’ giving habits.

5. Track and adjust your strategies.

To maximize your mobile giving results, it’s important to keep track of your campaigns and goals. Monitor some key performance metrics (KPIs) such as:

Average donation size
Donation frequency
Donation growth over time
Frequently used giving channels
When donations are being made

As you’re executing your campaign, note which strategies are working and which aren’t. Over time, you should adjust and correct where necessary.

Mobile Giving Best Practices

Mobile giving, when done correctly, can be a significant source of donations for your mission. Here’s how to make it happen.

Partner with the right provider.

When setting up a mobile giving campaign, your nonprofit’s main focus will be on promoting the fundraiser. You won’t have to facilitate donations since supporters will send them in from their phones, but you will need mobile giving software you can trust.

Make sure you choose the right provider for your mobile giving campaign depending on your nonprofit’s needs. For example, if you’re launching a text-to-donate campaign alongside your fundraising auction, an all-in-one tool will best serve your various fundraising needs.

Offer different giving levels.

When a donor arrives on a mobile-responsive donation page, they might not know how much they should give to your nonprofit. Rather than leaving the gift amount as a blank field, provide donors with a listing of suggested giving levels.

Offering specific donation amounts adds to the mobile-friendliness of your page since tappable form fields are easier to use on mobile devices than manually typed responses. Also, by including giving levels within your donation pages, you can encourage donors to give within a specific range and help increase your average gift size.

Optimize your digital marketing strategy for mobile.

One of the best ways to launch and market your mobile giving campaign is to optimize your digital strategy. Promote your campaign via:

Social media: Luckily, most social media platforms make it simple to integrate links to your mobile donation pages—just be sure to learn the key distinctions and optimize your tactics accordingly.

Search engines: 95% of mobile organic search visits come from Google, making the search engine a great place to spread the word about your mobile giving campaign. Apply for Google’s Ad Grant to promote your donation page for free and drive more traffic to your nonprofit’s website.

Text reminders: Promotional text messages are a great segue into text-to-donate campaigns specifically, but can be a convenient way to market any mobile giving initiative. Keep these messages short and actionable.

Don’t be afraid to promote mobile giving through other mediums, like direct mail or in-person at a fundraising event. Just remember that the easiest way for donors to get involved is to click on a link from a text message, email, or social media bio, making digital marketing a highly successful strategy.

Explain the mobile giving process to supporters.

Your supporters want to contribute to your mission. But to do so, they need to know how! It’s your responsibility to provide them with concise instructions for how to give.

Depending on how you reach your donors, tailor your explanation by:

Providing verbal instructions at live events
Including infographics in your emails
Posting a how-to on social media

Campaigns such as text-to-donate are so straightforward that instructions should be easy to disperse. This step is often overlooked, but the simpler the process is, the more inclined people will be to contribute.

Craft emails with mobile in mind.

With 85% of users using smartphones to access email, your team should craft emails that:

Display information vertically rather than horizontally.
Feature larger text and fewer images.
Load well on 3” by 5” screens.
Don’t require zooming to read.
Include clear calls-to-action.
Incorporate easy-to-use email donation buttons.

If you keep these best practices in mind, you’re sure to see your email fundraising revenue increase significantly.

Pair mobile with offline strategies.

When paired correctly, mobile fundraising and offline strategies can do a world of good for your nonprofit, as you’ll reach a wider audience on their preferred platform.

For example, you can:

Include the URL to your mobile-responsive donation page in your direct mail appeals.
Send out a hardcopy newsletter with instructions for text-to-donate fundraising.
Use a billboard to advertise your new mobile-giving app.
Create t-shirts for your event staff with your nonprofit’s text-to-donate phone number on the front and back.

Mobile fundraising doesn’t have to exist in an online vacuum, so make the most out of your resources to spread the word effectively.

Include a clear call to action.

Your donors want to contribute to your cause, so let them know how they can help! Providing donors with a clear call to action in all of your mobile fundraising campaigns ensures that they’ll know exactly what the next steps are for donating. Display your call-to-action prominently so that when donors are ready to contribute, they can.

Incorporate multiple mobile giving options.

Some of your donors prefer text-to-donate campaigns. Others would rather access a mobile-responsive donation page.

The key to mobile giving is to offer something for everyone. Assess what giving channels your donors prefer and offer them those options.

Examples of Text-to-Donate Campaigns

Text-to-donate campaigns are not just easy and flexible, but they can be used by nearly any type of organization! Let’s take a look at a few examples of different text-to-donate campaigns.

Churches

Churches sometimes leverage mobile giving technology to offer text-to-tithe capabilities to their congregation. Consider how Passion City Church presents text-to-donate on its website alongside other tithing options:

Universities

Institutions of higher education can also use text-to-donate to make the giving process easier for busy students or disengaged alumni. For example, check out Wayne State University’s text-to-donate page, which clearly outlines the process for potential donors.

Disaster Relief Organizations

Text-to-donate first became popular in 2010 with the viral Red Cross text-to-donate campaign for Haiti earthquake relief, bringing in millions. Now, the organization accepts text donations to support its Disaster Relief program:

Snowball’s Mobile Giving Platform

Snowball is an all-in-one online fundraising platform with several features that make giving on the go swift, simple, and secure.

These features include, but aren’t limited to:

Text-to-donate technology
Mobile and online giving portals
Responsive fundraising thermometers
Donor management systems

These solutions touch on just about every aspect of mobile giving out there. If you’re interested in a comprehensive answer to your mobile fundraising needs–look no further.

Not only does Snowball offer all of these services in one neat package, but we also have a unique spin on mobile giving that makes it even easier and more convenient than it already is. Unlike other services, Snowball allows that same donor to give through an email or mobile donation page without having to type in their credit card information all over again.

That information is securely stored in a safe, 3rd-party vault and tokenized to eliminate the risk of identity theft and fraud. Plus, donors also never have to create an account or remember a password.

Above all, it’s affordable! Our software features a free online donation page and a low-cost premium plan for text to give. With this host of benefits, Snowball’s mobile giving option can help your nonprofit organization reap the benefits highlighted throughout this guide.

Final Thoughts On Mobile Giving

Mobile giving is an essential tool for nonprofit organizations in the 21st century, as your donors are highly likely to be smartphone owners. Meet your supporters where they are and offer the most straightforward option for contributing funds! Besides, your organization will have a secure and easy method of fundraising in your toolkit.

Virtual Fundraising Ideas: 60+ Campaigns for Online Success: Virtual fundraisers have the potential to increase mobile giving. With these ideas, your attendees don’t have to be geographically near your organization or event to give money to your cause.
Boosting Conversion Rates: A Quick Guide for Nonprofits: To get more mobile donations, ensure that your donor journey provides an intuitive giving experience for your donors. This guide will help you evaluate your current strategy.
Auction Software: What To Look For + 14 Provider Reviews: Ready to make your other fundraisers mobile? Learn how you can manage your auction with top-of-the-line software in this guide.

The post How to Master Mobile Giving: An Actionable Nonprofit Guide first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

You Don’t Need a Wealthy Board for a Capital Campaign

Snowball Fundraising — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 16:38:55 +0000

You might think that before you dive into a capital campaign, your organization will need wealthy people on your board. As you look around your board table, it may be abundantly clear that your board is not a “fundraising board.” Does that mean that you can’t have a successful campaign? No!

Many organizations don’t have wealthy “fundraising boards.” Boards are often designed intentionally to have a mix of people that reflects the nonprofit’s community and the people they serve.

Your organization’s board might include alumni and family members of people you serve, in addition to community leaders and neighbors. It might include people with program expertise. It may also include a few people who have the resources to make significant gifts. But overall, your board is more likely to reflect the make-up of your organization than it is to be a powerhouse board of the wealthiest people in your community.

For most organizations, that kind of representative “working board” is appropriate.

But what happens when your organization needs a new building, for example, and you must raise $15 million through a capital campaign? Then, your wonderful board doesn’t look like it’s the “right” board. While your board may have one or two people who can give large gifts, most of the members are modest donors who give generously within their means but whose collective giving is not likely to amount to more than 20% of the campaign goal. In fact, recent research by Capital Campaign Pro found that on average, only 14% of capital campaign funding comes from board giving.

No matter your board’s particular giving capacity, the truth is that you can still have a successful capital campaign! Let’s explore how embracing ad hoc campaign committees and allowing your board to thrive in its governing duties can help you cross the campaign finish line.

The Power of Ad Hoc Campaign Committees

In a recent successful campaign, the organization was tickled pink when board giving reached $1 million—less than 10% of the campaign goal! That amount represented a stretch gift from every single board member.

But, of course, that board wasn’t constituted to be the driving force for raising most of the campaign funds. That was the task of the ad hoc campaign committees!

Most capital campaigns rely on a succession of committees to support the work of the campaign. Campaign planning and campaign steering committees are usually created to do the heavy lifting for the campaign that a “working board” can’t do.

These committees are intentionally designed to include people in the community who have the financial capacity and community credibility to help the campaign move forward successfully. They are opportunities to involve philanthropic leaders in the campaign even though they don’t serve on the board.

While those committees are ad hoc groups with no official governance responsibility, they can make campaign recommendations to the board. Committees of that sort include a small group of board members among other community members who bring philanthropic power to the campaign.

Philanthropic leaders are often not inclined to serve on the boards of community organizations that require long-term commitments. However, those leaders may be willing to serve on campaign committees that require shorter-term engagements and through which they can help a worthy organization conduct a successful campaign.

Add a campaign leadership team (consisting of an honorary chair and campaign chair(s)) to the mix, and even an organization that does not have a fundraising board will be well-set to have a very successful campaign.

Roles of the Governing Board

Even though the work of the campaign will be conducted by volunteers who serve on campaign committees, the work of the board is still vitally important.

In its governance role, the board oversees and approves the strategic plan that usually leads to the campaign. The board determines whether the organization will conduct a feasibility study, and if one is done, the board reviews and accepts the resulting report and recommendations.

But once the board votes to move forward with the campaign, the actual work of the campaign shifts to the campaign planning and steering committees, supported by staff.

Every board member will be asked to make a personally significant gift to the campaign, but the overall success of the campaign will depend on the philanthropic leaders recruited for the campaign committees.

So, don’t think that just because your board isn’t a “fundraising board” you won’t be able to conduct a successful campaign. Your campaign may provide a wonderful opportunity to reinforce the important governing role your board plays and strengthen relationships with some of the philanthropic leaders of your community through creating ad hoc campaign committees.

The post You Don’t Need a Wealthy Board for a Capital Campaign first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

Mobile Donations Made Easy: The Ultimate Text-to-Give Guide

Snowball Fundraising — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 16:00:57 +0000

Enable donors to give to nonprofits via their mobile phones.

Inside: The Basics of Text-to-Give, Text-to-Give Pro Tips, and Text-to-Give Platforms and Tools

Nonprofit leaders are tasked with capturing the attention of potential supporters and creating a convenient experience that invites them to continue donating. That’s why fundraising methods like text-to-give are so popular!

In addition to boosting revenue, text donations enable nonprofits to improve donor engagement and retention, helping them secure long-term support for their cause. In this guide, we’ll cover all the must-know information and vital tips for better text-to-give fundraising, including:

What is Text-to-Give Fundraising?
Benefits of Text-to-Give
Text-to-Donate FAQs
How to Launch a Text-to-Give Campaign
10 Text-to-Give Fundraising Tips
Snowball’s Text-to-Give Platform and Tools

Text-to-give is an effective giving vehicle that organizations shouldn’t overlook. Ready to enhance your fundraising plan and boost donor engagement? Let’s dive in!

What is Text-to-Give Fundraising?

Text-to-give enables supporters to give to nonprofit, faith-based, and political organizations through text messaging. It allows donors to give anytime, anywhere in only a few seconds.

The process is simple:

Your organization is assigned a phone number by its text-to-give provider.
A supporter texts a keyword and donation amount to your organization’s phone number.
You designate these donations to go toward your annual fund or to a specific campaign.

That’s it! Mobile giving is easy for both your organization and your donors. Let’s look at a few other ways this modern fundraising approach can transform your fundraising.

Benefits of Text-to-Give

As one of the most effective donation methods, text-to-give empowers nonprofits of all sizes to reach new fundraising heights. Since so many of your supporters own mobile devices, incorporating text-to-give into your fundraising strategy allows your nonprofit to tap into the growing influence of mobile usage:

97% of Americans own a cell phone, making it the preferred method of communication. Because text-to-give uses technology that most donors and fundraisers already use on a daily basis, they’ll be more inclined to take the time to send a quick donation to their favorite organization.
57% of nonprofit website traffic came from mobile devices last year, meaning mobile giving aligns with the way potential supporters are already engaging with your nonprofit’s information. In fact, 1 in 4 donors use mobile devices to discover nonprofits they were previously unaware of.
Since 91% of Americans look at their cell phones around 80 times a day, mobile giving is an easy way to keep donors involved and excited without slowing them down. Plus, donors are more likely to pay attention to mobile giving requests because 90% of text message reminders are read in 3 minutes.

Mobile fundraising is one of the easiest ways donors can contribute to your organization. It completely streamlines the donation process by eliminating the need to use a desktop, a laptop, or even direct mail. Donors can even opt to set up recurring donations and continue showing their support.

The simplicity of text-to-give also makes it a great way to run concurrent fundraising initiatives. For example, you can promote and accept text donations at your in-person auction to maximize fundraising revenue and awareness of your nonprofit’s programs. This fast, easy, and engaging donation process lays the groundwork for stronger donor relationships.

Ready to raise more with Text-to-Give?

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Text-to-Donate FAQs

Want to learn even more about mobile giving? Let’s take a closer look at what all it entails by answering some common questions:

How much does text-to-donate cost?

The cost varies per platform, but typically, it’s based on a flat fee amount in addition to a fixed processing rate for credit cards. For the most cost-effective investment, choose a platform that gives you unlimited text and text-to-give keywords and bypasses mobile carrier fees (like Snowball!)

How much is a standard text-to-give gift?

According to Nonprofit Source, the average donation size for text-to-donate campaigns is $107. Not only can these donations be substantial, but text-to-give enables easy setup for future recurring donations. In other words, you may encourage ongoing support and gifts from donors without making additional donation appeals.

Is text giving secure?

With a PCI-compliant text-to-give provider like Snowball, your mobile gifts will be in safe hands. We use authentication and tokenization to protect your donors’ sensitive information, such as billing information and addresses.

What types of nonprofits use text-to-give tools?

Countless nonprofits use mobile fundraising and text-to-give to drive support for their causes, including:

Faith-based organizations: Most religious organizations pass around collection plates for those who still wish to give traditionally, but they also encourage their members to take out their phones and use text-to-tithe.

Health and wellness organizations: Healthcare organizations can use mobile fundraising as part of their grateful patient programs and annual funds.

Animal rights organizations: Animal rights charities inspire supporters to give via their mobile devices by sending out cute pictures, GIFs, and videos of animals.

Educational advocacy organizations: With the increase in popularity of text-to-donate and mobile giving software, one of the best ways teachers can improve their classrooms is to launch their own online fundraisers. It’s also a great resource for PTAs looking to launch a new school fundraiser.

Environmental awareness organizations: Less paper usage is more environmentally friendly, meaning environmental awareness and advocacy groups are increasingly imploring donors to use their mobile devices.

Arts and cultural organizations: Museums, theaters, zoos, and galleries tend to use methods like ticket sales and membership programs to raise money. A growing trend toward using mobile donation software provides more convenient solutions to interested donors.

Any type of nonprofit can benefit from mobile fundraising and any type of supporter can leverage the convenience of donating from their cell phones.

How to Launch a Text-to-Give Campaign

If you’re sold on text-to-give fundraising and ready to get started, you may be thinking, “What now?” Let’s look into the steps you need to take to launch your campaign.

1. Implement a text-to-give strategy.

First, you’ll need to determine the logistics of your fundraiser. To implement text-to-give in your fundraising strategy, answer the following questions:

Who will be in charge of running your text-to-give campaign?
What will the donations support? Are they for a specific project?
When will you launch and close your text-to-give campaign? When do you expect to reach your donation goal?
Where will you promote your campaign and post updates?

The answers to these questions will guide the rest of your planning. For example, knowing what project will be supported by text-to-give donations can help you craft compelling marketing materials to promote your mission.

2. Set attainable goals.

Donors should know exactly how their hard-earned money is helping, and so should your nonprofit! Clearly define goals for your text-to-give campaign to determine where the money will go. Use the SMART goal framework to structure your goal and lay out your plan for the campaign:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound

After you determine your objective and launch your campaign, you’ll need to keep your supporters updated on its progress. Use a fundraising thermometer to show how donors’ gifts contribute to the bigger picture, incentivizing their participation. Feature your thermometer on your donation page and website and share updates on social media.

3. Put a marketing plan in place.

Once you’ve straightened out the fine fundraising details, it’s time to share your campaign with the world! Regularly update your supporters and encourage them to share your text-to-give campaign with their networks. To spread the word, consider the following:

An email newsletter with simple guidance on how donors can get started.
A press release emphasizing your organization’s role in the community.
An announcement on your website such as a video from your nonprofit’s team.
Search engine marketing to draw attention to your campaign page.
Social media posts that supporters can share with their followers.

Seek out influencers to help boost the visibility of your text-to-give campaign. By recruiting influential advocates, you’ll inspire new donors to trust you and contribute.

4. Collect data on campaign progress.

Just like any other campaign, you need to track (and act on) key analytics. Remember to track the following:

Individuals’ text-giving frequency
Average text donation size
Marketing channel engagement (website click-through rate, social media engagement rates, etc.)
Donor information (name, mailing address, etc.)

By tracking this data, you’ll gain a better sense of what’s working and what’s not. Which marketing channels are receiving the most engagement? What about the least engagement? Is your campaign messaging actionable enough? Make strategy adjustments according to what you learn.

10 Text-to-Give Fundraising Tips

As you become more experienced with mobile giving, employ a more advanced approach to yield the best results. Consider these tips to make the most of your campaign:

1. Focus on clear campaign messaging.

Before you can explain how to give, you’ll need to convince donors why they should give. Be clear about the need for your campaign and its goals by providing:

Specific and actionable reasons for your campaign
The importance of your cause (and why it’s worth supporting)
A sense of purpose through the act of giving

Take the Red Cross’s disaster relief efforts for example:

The organization gives numerous, specific examples of its disaster relief efforts, even giving a specific example of an individual beneficiary. Then, it explains what is accomplished with donor gifts and even gives some impressive statistics about the nonprofit’s reliance on volunteer work.

2. Feature it on marketing tools.

Across all your communications, actively promote your organization’s number and keyword. Adjust your tactics according to the platform:

Direct mail will need eye-catching inserts to capture the attention of recipients. You can also include QR codes to encourage supporters to move online.
Emails can highlight the number and keyword subtly in your email signature or loudly with a pop of color.
Social media posts provide opportunities to use visuals, such as compelling photos and videos.

Feel free to get creative! Most importantly, vary your approach across platforms so that your text-to-give campaign appeals to all of your different audiences.

3. Input collected donor data into your CRM.

Make sure to input donors’ names, phone numbers, email addresses, and billing addresses into your existing database. This way, you can incorporate them into your future fundraising efforts.

4. Track and analyze your data.

As with any fundraising activity, you should keep track of your performance. Track text-giving frequency and average text donation size to help inform your future donation appeals. Make note of any trends as well as any shifts away from those trends.

5. Host it with an event.

Incorporate text-to-give into your other fundraising events to maximize revenue. For example, you might hang engaging flyers with your text-to-donate number and shortcode around the venue at your auction.

The right event management software will streamline multiple capabilities, making it easier than ever for you to host concurrent campaigns. That way, you can keep your event tasks and text-to-give fundraiser information all in one place.

6. Try a peer-to-peer campaign.

A peer-to-peer campaign isn’t just a great way to spread the word about your cause; it’s a great way to spread your text-to-donate number, too. Encourage your volunteers to create their P2P pages like they normally would. Then, when they share their fundraising pages with their social networks, they can advertise your text-to-give number and shortcode.

7. Assign someone to be in charge of new donor data.

When you run a text-to-give campaign, you’ll be flooded with new donor information. Assign a staff member to take charge of the data. Then, put processes in place to account for common concerns, such as what to do if new data differs from old data and how to handle duplicate information.

8. Host a pledge campaign.

A pledge campaign is a great twist on traditional text-to-donate campaigns. Since the average mobile donation pledge for fundraising events is $167, your organization stands a good chance of boosting donations.

Have volunteers create their pledge pages. Then, they can share your organization’s text-to-donate information. Supporters will have the option to pledge their support with the pledge page or donate right then by texting their gift.

9. Incorporate matching gifts.

To give via text, donors will have to give you their contact information. This is the perfect opportunity to email them about matching gifts because their text donation might be eligible for a match through their employer.

Reach out to your text-to-donate participants and encourage them to explore matching gift opportunities through their employer. Once supporters submit a request for their employer to match their gift, your nonprofit could receive another donation!

10. Make text-to-give part of your Giving Tuesday efforts.

Giving Tuesday (and other time-based initiatives) represents a great chance to encourage donors to expand their giving as a result of an urgent push. Because there’s a limited time frame, donors are motivated to act fast, and texting their donations is the fastest way to give.

With Text-to-Give, your nonprofit can receive donations anytime, anywhere.

Partner with Snowball for the best Text-to-Give software.

Snowball’s Text-to-Give Platform and Tools

Snowball Fundraising is a mobile-optimized fundraising suite for any organization, nonprofit, or church. With Snowball, you’ll receive more than the basics. Streamline all your fundraising efforts with these Premium features:

Unlimited campaigns
Unlimited text-to-give
Unlimited fundraising thermometers
Donation pages
Event ticket management
Comprehensive reporting

At Snowball, we have a simple solution for giving on the go—one that doesn’t require donors to have a credit card handy 24/7. Our text-to-give platform enables donors to give wherever they are, whenever they want. All it takes is a couple of taps: one to send a text with the donation amount and another to confirm the payment. With our PCI-compliant technology and single-factor authentication, you’ll know your donors’ information is completely protected.

Unlike other platforms, once a donor enters their information for the first time, they never have to enter it again—even if they’re donating through another online or mobile avenue. Best of all, our platform is highly secure, allows donations to reach your nonprofit within a few business days, and integrates seamlessly with your other fundraising initiatives.

Additional Resources on Text-to-Give Fundraising

Remember, the great thing about a text-to-give campaign is that it can be hosted on its own or in coordination with your other events and campaigns. You’re sure to boost funds so long as you take a strategic approach and keep the donor experience front of mind.

Here at Snowball, our mission is to provide nonprofits with the intuitive tools they need to maximize fundraising success. No matter your organization’s mission, we’ve got you covered.

Check out these additional resources for more information:

4 Top Strategies to Boost Your Mobile Giving Potential. Looking for more tips on maximizing your mobile giving success? Check out these strategies to help your organization reach more potential supporters and increase engagement easily and quickly.
Free Fundraising Software for Nonprofits: 15+ Providers. Digital tools can streamline crucial nonprofit fundraising tasks, but software can get pricey. Check out our favorite affordable fundraising software providers!
Donor Stewardship: 3 Fundamentals for Growing Nonprofits. Want to explore more ways to engage your supporters and strengthen donor relationships? Learn how to effectively steward donors in this guide!

Enable donors to give to nonprofits via their mobile phones.

Inside: The Basics of Text-to-Give, Text-to-Give Pro Tips, and Text-to-Give Platforms and Tools

The post Mobile Donations Made Easy: The Ultimate Text-to-Give Guide first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

Starting a Nonprofit Org: Raise Money Now

Snowball Fundraising — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 16:34:05 +0000

How to Start a Nonprofit Organization: 12 Steps + Checklist

Inside: Getting Set up, Getting Official & Getting Started

If you’ve decided to start a nonprofit, congratulations! You’re about to embark on a fulfilling journey with an incredible purpose: to do good things in this world. Working in nonprofits is extremely rewarding, but founding your own organization can be a major challenge.

Building an effective, long-lasting organizational structure takes determination and planning— and the right tools. Yet being fully prepared and understanding every aspect of nonprofit work goes a long way to help ease the process.

The following steps are key to establishing and growing your new nonprofit organization.

Use this list to jump to a specific step, or follow along from the top:

As you read through these essential steps, remember that while some may be pursued in whatever order you see fit, others should follow this particular order. For instance, you must write your initial bylaws before applying for 501(c)(3) status, and you must set up your online donation page before you start any fundraising campaigns.

Starting a nonprofit organization is among the most admirable work you can do. You owe it to yourself and your mission to be fully prepared. Follow these essential steps for building an organization that will benefit its community for years to come.

1. Define your nonprofit’s mission.

What first inspired you to start a nonprofit organization? What issue or need do you see in your community that drives you to act?

You already understand your motivations and the goals of your nonprofit’s work, but transcribing and communicating them to others can be more challenging that you might initially assume.

A strong mission statement should accomplish all of the following:

Clearly express the mission of your nonprofit.
Focus your organization’s work and relationships.
Guide your nonprofit’s growth and development.
Explain your purpose to constituents, donors, and funding bodies.

Remember, a mission statement doesn’t need to explain everything about your nonprofit and its work, but it does need to clearly evoke the essence of your drive and purpose.

Try to keep your mission statement short and sweet— one or two sentences at the most. We walk through more best practices in our longer guide to writing a mission statement.

Taking the time to draft an effective mission statement moving forward is a smart move. Establish a clear mission that defines your driving passion, the actions you’ll take, and the impact you’ll have. This will act as a guiding light as you work through all the steps for starting your nonprofit organization— and it’ll keep your vision focused on the bigger picture.

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

2. Build your nonprofit’s leadership team.

Next, build a strong team of leaders to help guide the creation of your nonprofit organization. You may already be part of a group that shares a vision and has decided to found a nonprofit together.

If you’re driven by your own individual mission, you’ll need to find partners who share it. Creating a reliable leadership structure composed of passionate, committed individuals is the only way to ensure that your nonprofit’s operations will be sustainable.

The founding participants of a nonprofit organization should include:

Members of a board of directors
An executive director
Other volunteers.

Nonprofit organizations tend to grow out of existing networks of individuals who are brought together by a common goal or interest. If you’re part of a group working together to found an organization, this is where you’ll find these key individuals.

Once your organization has gained its footing, you’ll be able to take on dedicated staff members, compensate your executive director, and create a more extensive leadership structure. You’ll establish an official board of directors comprised of at least three members, and preferably an odd number of individuals.

In the meantime, it’s important to accept help wherever possible but also refrain from taking on too many individuals!

And you must make it easy for your team to work together. This means regular, open communication and easy-to-use systems with multi-user access. Everything should be an open book, and everyone should be on the same page!

Nonprofit organizations tend to operate on extremely slim budgets, especially when they’re young. This, combined with the inherent challenges of founding a nonprofit, means that you must remain focused on your mission and vision.

3. Get up and running with online fundraising tools.

Fundraising software: An ideal fundraising toolkit will include an online platform for accepting gifts, pledge fundraising options, event planning and registration tools, and data reporting features.
The thousands of available fundraising tools might seem intimidating at first to the new fundraising professional. Juggling numerous systems will likely complicate, rather than simplify, management of your nonprofit— so look for an all-in-one platform for donations, events, and reports.
Online donation page: Next, it’s a good idea to get set up with online fundraising tools.
Having your online donation page ready to go when it’s time to start fundraising is a smart way to save time and money.
Many nonprofits struggle to gather momentum throughout the process of initial operations and applying for 501(c)(3) status. This creates the risk of a gap period when you’re in a position to begin fundraising but don’t yet have the basic tools in place to process donations. Since your online donation page will serve as the foundation of your fundraising campaigns, it’s a good idea to start there.
Text-to-give tools: Now that your fundraising platform is in place, you’ll want to offer easy ways to give and accept donations. In addition to online giving, text-message-based donations are a great way for your nonprofit’s supporters to give on the go.
Donors text a keyword (such as “give”) to your nonprofit’s text-to-give phone number and then confirm the amount they’d like to give. First-time donors fill out a short donation form with their credit card information. The first-time process takes under a minute; repeat donations take just two clicks.
A marketing strategy: You will need to think deeply about how to position yourself in the nonprofit—and wider—world. Think about how your nonprofit compares to similar ones, and what sets yours apart.
Branding isn’t just for commercial businesses. It defines how any organization expresses its goals and conveys its mission. Key tools to market your new nonprofit include your website, social media profiles, and press outreach.
Matching gift software: One smart way to support your nonprofit’s long-term goals from the start is to embed corporate philanthropy into your fundraising strategy early on. Do this by investing in a matching gift database that embeds into your donation software and website.

The main reason that donors don’t use their matching gift power is simply that they don’t know it exists. Include educational resources in your email newsletters and on your website, and then encourage them to use your database to look up their own eligibility and complete their matches.

With access to these key tools, you’ll be able to collect and store critical donor data, build your support base, and establish long-term relationships. The best part is that many of these fundraising platforms have free tools that are perfect for a newly incorporated nonprofit, with potential upgrades available for your organization as it grows.

4. Legally incorporate to start your nonprofit organization.

In order to move forward with starting your nonprofit, you’ll need to write up a draft of your official charter. Also known as the articles of incorporation, your charter is what defines your new nonprofit as a legal entity.

Officially incorporating your nonprofit is required for eventually receiving 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, accepting donations, and essentially functioning as a legal nonprofit organization.

Though it may sound intimidating, creating and filing nonprofit articles of incorporation is actually one of the easiest steps in the entire process. Do some quick research on your state’s nonprofit laws, then simply complete the incorporation document with the following information:

The legal name of your organization
The official location of its operations
The names and addresses of all initial trustees, or board members

Each official board member identified in your bylaws then needs to sign the articles of incorporation. Submit this document to your state’s secretary of state office, and you’ve legally incorporated your nonprofit organization!

For more specific guidance, check out this handy template from the IRS that can guide your team as you draft your own founding charter. Of course, this process varies slightly from state by state, so do your research before starting.

5. Write your new nonprofit’s bylaws.

Next, build a strong team of leaders to help guide the creation of your nonprofit organization. You may already be part of a group that shares a vision and has decided to found a nonprofit together.

The founding participants of a nonprofit organization should include:

Members of a board of directors
An executive director
Other volunteers.

In the meantime, it’s important to accept help wherever possible but also refrain from taking on too many individuals!

6. Apply for and receive 501(c)(3) status.

Next, build a strong team of leaders to help guide the creation of your nonprofit organization. You may already be part of a group that shares a vision and has decided to found a nonprofit together.

The founding participants of a nonprofit organization should include:

Members of a board of directors
An executive director
Other volunteers.

In the meantime, it’s important to accept help wherever possible but also refrain from taking on too many individuals!

For a more thorough explanation, be sure to read our complete guide to the 501(c)(3) application process.

7. Secure some startup funding for your organization.

Nonprofit grant writing can be a major challenge, especially in the earliest days of your organization. However, finding and applying for nonprofit startup grants is extremely important to the launch of your organization.

First, you’ll start by researching the different sources and types of nonprofit startup grants. Funds can be secured from corporations, private foundations, and federal, state, or city governments. Without some initial funding, it can be difficult to reach and engage with the donors who will support your work in the future.

Next, you’ll need to familiarize your team with the grant writing process. If most or all members of your team are new to grant writing, doing some research beforehand will go a long way toward boosting your chances of success. Put generally, the steps of grant writing are:

Understand your goals.
Identify grant opportunities and research the sources.
Build a grant writing team.
Get started on the proposal, refining your strategy as you go.
Build a strong case for support.
Review and submit.

Securing some initial funding early on is the best way for your nonprofit to start pursuing its mission. Continue researching and applying for startup grant funds as you work on the next step, too.

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

8. Identify local partners for your nonprofit.

Next, identify a few local partners in your community who can help support your launch. At this point in the startup process, deliberately cultivating a local network of partners is beneficial because it builds momentum and keeps everyone excited.

Your community partners will become essential once you actually start reaching out to constituents and donors. It can be very difficult to engage new stakeholders without already having a shared connection.

Think about the local partners who might be interested and useful to your mission, like:

Local businesses
Schools and local universities
Other nonprofit organizations
Local municipal offices or agencies

Reach out to these partners and emphasize what you have to offer in the arrangement— such as free publicity and boosted corporate social responsibility.

Remember, you’re founding a nonprofit organization to better your community and address a specific problem. Your founding leadership is likely already well connected, but expanding your local network is always a good move. The right connections will unlock new donor bases, marketing outlets, and opportunities to directly pursue your mission.

9. Get started pursuing your mission.

You’ve been excited to get started bettering your community, and now all the official startup processes are out of the way. If you’ve already begun identifying local partners who can give you a foothold in the community, start leveraging those relationships.

You might begin reaching out to donors and engaging constituents in all kinds of ways, including:

Events: Organize an event with a community partner. Maybe an established local nonprofit also focused on improving the community would be willing to help you host and promote a kick-off event. This is a great chance to meet new donors, hear from your neighbors and civic leaders, and promote your first projects.

Pro tip! Before your first event, make sure you have event software set up, so you can sell tickets (if applicable) and collect information about who will be attending.

Donations: In the digital age, it’s crucial for nonprofits to accept both in-person and online donations in various ways. In the last few years, online giving has taken over as the most popular way to give. According to Double the Donation, 55% of millennial and Gen X donors prefer to give online, so you have to meet them where they are.

Pro tip! If you haven’t set up your donation platform yet, now’s the time. You don’t want to lose out on the initial momentum your nonprofit is building.

Relationship building: One of your overarching goals at this point in your nonprofit life should be to build relationships. Developing and nurturing initial relationships with donors and partners will form a strong foundation of support from which your nonprofit can grow. Keep outreach as a top priority, and be sure to nurture any relationships that are already underway.

Pro tip! Set up social media pages and begin building an audience. Ask supporters to share your content, and be sure to invite your following to participate in fundraising events.

10. Begin building a base of support in your community.

Next, build a strong team of leaders to help guide the creation of your nonprofit organization. You may already be part of a group that shares a vision and has decided to found a nonprofit together.

The founding participants of a nonprofit organization should include:

Members of a board of directors
An executive director
Other volunteers.

In the meantime, it’s important to accept help wherever possible but also refrain from taking on too many individuals!

11. Build your nonprofit’s professional network.

As your nonprofit gets to work pursuing its mission, you and your team will discover the immense value of developing an extensive professional network.

Building a professional network for your nonprofit can have some major benefits early on— particularly because others who believe in your mission will be happy to promote your work to their own audiences.

Important individuals and groups to connect with might include:

Other nonprofits in your area of any size or mission
Nonprofits in the wider region with missions similar to yours
Digital outlets, such as blogs or news channels, that focus on nonprofits
Other media outlets related to your mission
Networks or associations that work in your field

Expanding your network will help to increase visibility for your work, attract new donor bases, and connect your nonprofit with essential resources.

12. Lay some foundations for future growth.

You’ve put in plenty of hard work to get your new nonprofit organization up and running. That’s a real testament both to your passion and the value of your mission.

Now’s the time to plan ahead and invest in your nonprofit’s growth. Having smart development plans in place will greatly reduce any growing pains or internal friction as your hard work continues to pay off.

In addition to building scalable methods into your structures from the very beginning, go ahead and identify some tools that you’ll need in the future, like:

An adaptable CRM or database system
New digital donation tools and platforms
Automated marketing systems
Volunteer, member, and staff management tools
Matching gift automation software

Consider how your staffing and leadership strategies will adapt to growth as well. Have strategic plans in place for officially growing your board, instituting membership programs, and creating new staff positions.

Planning for your nonprofit’s successful future is the best way to invest in its stability and healthy growth!

No one works in the nonprofit sphere because it’s easy. Nonprofit organizations are founded for one key reason: to better the world and the communities that comprise it.

If you’ve made the admirable decision to start your own nonprofit, familiarize yourself with the entire process and be prepared to learn as you go! Always be on the lookout for useful resources that can provide you with new insights and resources, like these:

Best Nonprofit Software to Raise Money Fast. Choosing and managing a digital platform for collecting donations is essential for modern nonprofits.
Digital Asset Management Software for Nonprofits. Easily define and maintain your nonprofit’s brand and mission with your donors.
Innovative School Fundraising Ideas. Learn some unique fundraising strategies perfect for new nonprofits with educational missions.
Fundamental Grant Proposal Template: 8 Crucial Components. Here’s what to know when you’re applying for external funding.
Nonprofit Digital Strategy: How to Maximize your Online Presence. These key tips will help you establish an effective strategy for your nonprofit organization’s digital marketing.
Donor Retention: Attracting and Retaining Supporters. Find out how to get your donors returning time and time again.

How to Start a Nonprofit Organization: 12 Steps + Checklist

Interested in other ways to raise money?

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The post Starting a Nonprofit Org:
Raise Money Now first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

Pledge Fundraising | The Complete Guide [with Tips]

Snowball Fundraising — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 19:25:00 +0000

Fundraising is an important (if not the most important) activity that nonprofit organizations must conduct on a continual basis. Yet finding new strategies, donation tools, and engagement techniques can be a struggle— especially while adapting to changing times.

Even as you attract and retain a pool of devoted donors, volunteers, and supporters, it’s crucial that you continue to grow your base of support. After all, reaching new donors is an essential part of pursuing and expanding your mission.

That’s where pledge fundraising comes in! Launching a pledge campaign can generate a lot of support for your cause quickly, but it does require forethought and planning. That’s why we’ve created this ultimate guide to prepare you for your first (or next!) pledge campaign. Here are three of the most-asked questions to get started:

What’s the Difference Between Pledges and Donations?
What are Some Pledge Campaign Best Practices?
How Do I Choose the Right Pledge Fundraising Software?

Feel free to skip around to the sections that interest you most, or read along from the top as we walk through basic terminology, best practices, and suggested tools for a powerful pledge fundraiser. Let’s jump in!

1. What’s the Difference Between Pledges and Donations?

Getting started, it’s important to have a solid understanding of the similarities and differences between fundraising pledges and typical donations. Both types of gifts are made by supporters who believe in your mission and the goals of your campaign, and both can financially support your nonprofit’s operations.

However, the ways in which you structure your campaigns and solicit each type of donation are fundamentally different, as illustrated by this diagram:

Fundraising pledges:

Are promised support of pledged funding to be paid and processed in the future.
Require carefully-developed pledge campaigns that include specific timeframes and conditions.
Work best for urgent needs such as disaster relief, unexpected expenses, and advocacy work.

Traditional donations:

Are accepted immediately, all across the duration of the fundraising campaign.
Can usually be accepted at any time, but most typically during a campaign with clearly-defined goals.
Work well for evergreen needs such as classic fundraisers and general programming expenses.

What unites these two donation styles— fundraising pledges and traditional donations— is the need for a compelling case for support. Donors must feel emotionally compelled to give you their support either as a pledge or a direct donation.

However, this is especially important for pledge campaigns. Since the idea is to quickly collect promises of support, maintaining energy and momentum is key. An emotionally or socially compelling mission will encourage quick action and take your pledge campaigns to the next level.

Your mission, project, fundraising goals, and time constraints will all play into the development of an effective pledge campaign by boosting urgency and creating compelling pledge conditions.

After all, it’s easier to convince supporters to pledge a donation rather than ask them to immediately part with their money. And since the majority of pledges are fulfilled, by offering pledges as an option you’ll secure more gifts overall than if you only accepted immediate donations.

Look at it this way:

Out of 1,000 potential donors, 900 chose to pledge a donation using a pledge-style fundraising page. Of those 900, 85% of them followed through to complete their pledged donations. That’s 765 completed donations!

Compare this to traditional donation pages — only about 250 out of 1,000 potential donors actually bother to complete the donation process at all. You leave a ton of money on the table that way.

Let’s say each of these donors makes a gift of $125. With traditional donation pages, that gives you $31,250. With pledge software, you raise a whopping $95,625.

2. What Are Some Pledge Campaign Best Practices?

If this is your first time hosting a pledge fundraiser, it may seem a bit overwhelming. However, by implementing a few simple best practices, you’ll be ready to get started in no time. Let’s check out our top seven tried-and-true pledge fundraising tips!

1. Ensure a streamlined user experience.

Hosting a pledge campaign requires pledge-specific tools designed to help nonprofits like yours meet their goals. Be sure to focus on providing a streamlined user experience and flexible options. That’s because making it faster and easier to pledge support is the key to success.

A streamlined user experience allows you to keep your donors in the giving mood, shows respect for the individual’s time and effort, and reduces the opportunities for donation form abandonment. On the other hand, slowing the process down by requiring any more data input than necessary will actively harm your campaign.

2. Allow users to complete the donation on the spot.

Make sure your donation and pledge platforms offer the option to complete an immediate donation if your supporter chooses to do so. For example, Snowball’s pledge fundraising platform allows each donor to decide whether to make a quick pledge or complete their donation right then and there— providing an increased sense of control over the entire experience.

3. Focus on a concrete goal or project.

Pledge campaigns are the most effective when built around a specific goal or project. This allows donors to know exactly where their gifts are going and provide a sense of urgency for your organization to reach your goal.

Examples of central goals or projects that regularly motivate pledge supporters include:

Disaster relief for local, national, and international crises, like hurricanes or the COVID-19 pandemic
Fundraising for advocacy or community work around a specific social or political issue
Buying your nonprofit’s rented facilities or offices to secure your future
Covering surprise major expenses your nonprofit has experienced
Raising support for a new major program or community project

It helps to have a specific number as your fundraising goal, and allow donors to keep up with your progress with tools like your fundraising thermometers.

4. Make use of a donor’s emotional connection.

Of course, nonprofits of all sizes also find success using pledge campaigns to boost their annual fund drives. It’s always possible to build a pledge campaign around a less urgent or high-stakes goal, but it requires a slightly different approach.

In these cases, make sure that your annual fund pledge drive taps into an emotional connection that your donors feel with your organization. Compel your donors to pledge their support out of a sense of responsibility, love for community, and attachment to your work.

Get creative when highlighting your recent accomplishments! An annual drive focused on sustaining your growth could be a strong motivator for your devoted base of support.

5. Set up engaging pledge campaign conditions.

Pledge campaigns can come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s important to set clear guidelines beforehand. For example, you’ll want to arrange:

A tight deadline. A definite endpoint within sight is essential for keeping up campaign energy. Use your fundraising thermometer on your campaign page and email communications for sustained impact.
Pledge triggers. Pledges are activated and eligible for collection only when specific goals are met, like reaching a total amount pledged, signatures received, or major gifts secured. Creating a strong sense of group effort in this way can really bring your community together.
Matching periods. Discuss arranging a special gift matching period with one of your major donors or corporate sponsors. Every pledge you receive during a chosen short period of time will be matched for double the impact.

This will allow your organization to plan a better fundraiser and your supporters to understand what they’re agreeing to.

6. Keep your campaign data as organized as possible.

Every fundraising campaign requires some tidy data practices, but this is especially true for pledge drives. After all, your wealth of campaign data can assist you in tracking your fundraising progress, following up and collecting funds, reaching out to new donors, and analyzing trends.

However, you don’t want to get too caught up in data collection that you slow down the pledge process. Make sure that you’re only asking supporters for the bare minimum needed to follow up later— such as their name, email address, phone number, and pledge amount.

Using effective fundraising software for your pledge campaign ensures your data is collected and sorted properly as it’s generated, which will dramatically simplify collecting your pledges later!

7. Follow up with your pledge campaign donors.

Your team’s ability to follow up with supporters at the conclusion of your fundraiser is what ultimately results in a successful pledge campaign. After all, even if you hit your pledge goal, you have to actually collect the funds to make an impact.

When it’s time to follow up, be sure to take a systematic approach to collect pledges. A standardized script for letters, emails, and phone calls will yield better results than an ad hoc or individualized process. Past due pledges are often the result of forgetfulness, so a polite reminder or two can go a long way.

Now that you know how to get started with a pledge fundraiser, it’s important that you select the right tools to bring about desired results.

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

3. How Do I Choose the Right Pledge Fundraising Software?

If you’ve never conducted a pledge drive before, you might be unfamiliar with what to look for in an online or mobile pledge tool. There are a few key characteristics to prioritize during your search— speed, ease of use, and flexibility.

Pledge fundraising software should provide a fast, streamlined process.

Remember that the core purpose of a pledge drive is to secure pledged support and contact information — that’s all you need. Asking for anything more than that will drive away potential supporters right off the bat. The faster the process, the fewer opportunities for your donor to drop out and abandon the pledge.

Effective pledge software will help you quickly secure support while strengthening your pledger’s emotional connection with your cause. For best results, look for software that lets you secure a card on file and set up a recurring donation for continued support.

Pledge fundraising software should be easy-to-use for you and your donors.

Just like too many required fields and a lengthy donation process can lead to increased donation form abandonment, so can an unnecessarily complicated or difficult to navigate one. That’s why it’s just as crucial that your fundraising software employs an easy-to-use pledge process.

Be sure to optimize both the initial pledge process as well as the follow-up and payment collection processes. For example, automatic donor communication tools should provide each user with step-by-step instructions and a link to the final payment form.

Pledge fundraising software should offer flexible options.

When you employ a pledge fundraising tool with increasingly flexible capabilities, you allow your supporters to personalize their own donation experience to what suits them best. For example, make sure your supporters have the choices to:

Complete the donation right away. Never force your pledgers to complete their donation — that would defeat the whole purpose. However, offering the choice to enter their payment info after submitting the pledge is an easy way to secure more support and boost donor engagement.
Select a method of payment. Offering multiple choices for payments provides an increasingly convenient donor experience. That way, each supporter can choose the form that works best for them— the most popular being credit card and ACH payments.
Set a communication preference. When you encourage donors to select their preferred method of communication right off the bat, you increase the likelihood that you’ll be able to keep in touch with them after the fundraiser ends.

Ideally, your pledge software will come as part of a larger suite of donation tools that can be adapted for different purposes. Look for a donation platform that offers core donation functions, pledge fundraising options, and even text-to-give tools. With more features available, you can fine-tune your strategies to keep the process focused on the donor’s experience.

The Best Choice for Pledge Fundraising Software

Here at Snowball, our mission is to provide more nonprofits with the tools they need to build relationships with new and existing donors. We prioritize speed and optimized user experience to ensure that supporters stay focused on your mission rather than get distracted or turned off by the process itself.

Our core fundraising philosophy boils down to 3 core steps:

1. Don’t kill the donor’s buzz.
2. Master the art of securing a card.
3. Focus on recurring donors.

Pledge drives and pledge software are perfectly suited for the first step — don’t kill the donor’s buzz.

That’s why Snowball’s mobile fundraising pledge software is a great example of a flexible tool that prioritizes user experience. Built on Snowball’s complete suite of lightning-fast 2-click giving platform, this pledge tool secures support for your campaign quickly and easily. Plus, it automatically follows up and allows supporters the option to easily complete their pledged donations afterward!

Wrapping Up

Hosting a pledge fundraiser is a great way to drum up support for your organization— from new and existing donors alike. By leveraging an emotional connection to your organization and the urgency surrounding your mission, you can engage with supporters in a unique and exciting way.

For more information, check out our top fundraising resources for nonprofits like yours:

Free Fundraising Software For Nonprofits: 15+ Top Providers. Getting up and running with effective fundraising tools doesn’t have to break the bank. Check out our favorite free providers here.
Text-To-Give | Complete Guide For Nonprofits And Fundraisers. Mobile giving tools allow donors to give on-the-go anytime they want. Find out how to use text-to-give to bring increased convenience to your donors and increased funds to your organization.
Virtual Fundraising: The Complete Guide For 2020 & Beyond. As nonprofits everywhere shift to increasingly digital practices, it’s important that you don’t get left behind. Learn more about modern virtual fundraising strategies here.

The post Pledge Fundraising | The Complete Guide [with Tips] first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

4 Top Strategies to Boost Your Mobile Giving Potential

Snowball Fundraising — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 14:33:16 +0000

A top priority for all nonprofits, regardless of the campaign, is boosting donor engagement to reach their goals. One of the best ways to do this is to promote mobile giving to your supporters. Mobile giving is a convenient and powerful way for your supporters to give to your organization, whether it’s during an event, for a specific campaign, or simply because they’re inspired to give.

Using text messaging to reach your supporters can be exciting and immediate, so to help you make the most it, we’re sharing four top strategies will take your donation acquisition from mobile sources to the next level:

Create mobile-optimized donation forms
Start a text-to-give campaign
Include a social media button
Try mobile bidding

If you’re ready to take your mobile giving to the next level, this guide will help you get started connecting with donors on their mobile devices.

1. Create mobile-optimized donation forms

An overwhelming number of donors now use different online donation platforms to submit their donations. Make sure they can continue this practice even when they don’t have access to a computer by making your donation page accessible from any device. Mobile optimization is the practice of building an online giving page so that it is easily navigable from a smartphone or tablet.

Here are a few ways your nonprofit can ensure its digital giving pages are optimized for mobile devices:

Build your donation forms on a platform that automatically optimizes for mobile. This is the most straightforward way to ensure that your forms are always mobile-friendly.
Make sure the images you include are properly sized and responsive. Responsive images “respond” to the screen they’re being viewed on and automatically adjust to fit the screen. This ensures that your donors won’t have to zoom or scroll to view your image.
Keep any text to short paragraphs and bullet points. When this text is condensed onto a smaller screen, this will make it easier to read. It also just makes your content more easily skimmable, whether it’s being viewed on a smartphone or large computer screen.
Use easy-to-read text. This means using a standard font in a readable size, with good color contrast against your background. If your text is difficult to read, donors who are visually impaired may not be able to donate.

You’ve already convinced your supporters to visit your nonprofit’s donation page, so make sure the donation page is convincing and easy to use. If not, you’ll risk losing donors after having worked so hard to bring them to the page.

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

2. Start a text-to-give campaign

While some people might find your donation page through your website on their mobile devices, others would prefer a more direct method to reach it. Text-to-give technology allows for this direct connection.

Text-to-give is a perfect donation method to promote during fundraising and stewardship events. It enables you to collect donations quickly, easily connect with donors, and confirm transactions through email.

Once your nonprofit has found the right text-to-give software for your needs, you can begin promoting your text-to-give campaign. You’ll receive a unique phone number for your donors to text and the process will look like this:

Step 1: Your donors will text your nonprofit’s phone number.

Donors initiate the transaction by texting the pre-selected keyword to an organization’s phone number. Intuitive software will accept the donation even if there’s a typo.

Step 2: Your donor will follow the link they receive.

Within a few seconds, they’ll receive a confirmation text with a link. Once they click it, they’ll need to select your preferred donation amount. First-time donors will also need to fill out a short donation form with their payment information. Repeat donors just click “donate.”

Step 3: Press send.

Clicking on “donate” in the text message will lead them to a pre-written email that authenticates the transaction. They simply press “send” to submit your donation. It’s as simple as that!

With the right software, all your donors have to do is follow these easy steps to donate to your cause!

3. Promote social sharing

From viral videos to campaigns with nonprofit influencers, social media is a powerful way of getting your message across. Posting about mobile giving on your own social media accounts is great for informing your followers, but it may not reach as many new potential supporters.

To work around this obstacle, your organization should add social sharing buttons to your website and donation forms. This encourages your supporters to share their contributions with their personal network. By posting about their contribution, they’re promoting your organization’s brand and inviting others to also give to your organization.

Because many donors will be donating from their phones and view social media posts on their phones, this form of free marketing allows supporters to directly click back to your donation page from their friend or family member’s post. Harness the power of social media as part of your digital campaign and see how it can boost your mobile giving rates!

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

4. Try mobile bidding

Whether you’re hosting a traditional in-person, silent auction, a hybrid auction, or a fully virtual event, mobile bidding can help you streamline and expedite your bidding process.

With mobile bidding, supporters can view your digital catalog and bid from anywhere. Not only that, but monitoring competitor bids and checking out if they win will be quick and easy for your winners. The process works just like text-to-give, with supporters texting in their bids for items and checking out directly from their phones.

Adding mobile bidding software to your tech stack can help you increase competition, widen your bidder pool, and make it easy for everyone to participate. For ease of use, it’s best to find a mobile bidding tool that is built into or integrates directly with your auction software.

If you’re looking for a way to modernize and up your donations, mobile giving is a great avenue to explore. So many organizations could boost their donation amounts heavily through the implementation of simple mobile giving methods. Reach your organization’s full potential by implementing these four strategies today!

The post 4 Top Strategies to Boost Your Mobile Giving Potential first appeared on Snowball Fundraising.

24+ Tried-and-True Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas

Snowball Fundraising — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 16:03:03 +0000

Political campaigns play a huge role in ensuring a successful democratic process. After all, it’s how we’re able to elect representatives who we feel are able to best portray our wants and needs on a grander scale. This is true whether it’s concerning the president of the United States right down to local officials such as your city mayor or town council members.

That being said, this process can become quite costly for the officials looking to get their names on the ballots. That’s where political fundraising comes in.

Here at Snowball, we know all about effective fundraising ideas—and how to raise more with limited resources. So we’re here to help! We’ve put together this practical guide to political fundraising with a list of some of the most effective political campaign fundraising ideas.

Our 24+ ideas are divided among the following categories:

Our Favorite Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas
Virtual Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas
Easy Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas
Fundraising Event Ideas for Political Campaigns
Product Fundraising Ideas for Political Campaigns

Feel free to skip around to the sections that most interest you or read along from the top to walk through all of our best ideas.

Ready to jump in? Let’s get started!

Our Favorite Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas

With so many possible fundraising ideas to choose from, we thought we’d make things a little easier for you by picking out our top suggestions. And best of all, these campaigns can also work very well alongside other fundraisers mentioned throughout this list. Feel free to mix and match to find the best combinations to raise more for your political campaign.

Without further ado, these are our all-time favorite political campaign fundraising ideas:

1. Online donation pages

An optimized online donation page should be the foundation of any fundraising campaign—political or otherwise. That’s because it’s an extremely easy way for interested supporters to make the jump to invested donors!

Just be sure to invest in an online giving platform that emphasizes mobile-friendly donation pages so you don’t have to worry about excluding potential donors simply because of the device they’re using.

And here’s another key tip: Make sure to keep your online donation pages short and sweet so that the entire process can be completed as quickly as possible—thus decreasing the likelihood of donation form abandonment.

Then, it’s important that you link back to your online donation page in any supporter communications such as email, social media, and on your campaign website, of course.

2. Text-to-give

Text-to-give and other mobile fundraising efforts are extremely popular among both donors and fundraisers because of the ease with which funds can be raised. Supporters simply text a predetermined keyword (such as DONATE or [CANDIDATE NAME]) to your dedicated mobile giving number.

Then, the individual receives an automated text response with a link to a brief mobile-friendly giving page to fill out and confirm their donation.

Even better, once an individual has completed the donation form, they can make repeat gifts to your campaign in just two clicks! It’s a super simple process, plus it can be completed on-the-go from wherever they are.

3. Pledge campaigns

A pledge fundraising campaign is a unique type of fundraiser in which you attempt to collect promises of future donations to be collected at a later date rather than the funds themselves. While this might seem counterintuitive, it’s actually a fantastic way to secure support without becoming bogged down by all the details upfront.

To get started simply ask potential supporters if they’d be willing to pledge their support for your political campaign. If they’re interested, they then move on to complete a super short online form requesting only their name and basic contact information. Then, either after reaching a pledge goal or a set amount of time, you’ll follow up with each individual via the contact information they provided to collect the donation they had promised.

4. Advocacy campaigns

Advocacy campaigns often go hand-in-hand with political campaigns—whether the bottom line is to collect funds for your cause or not. An advocacy campaign tends to focus on lobbying for (or against) a particular public policy or proposal. If you’re currently running for office, it can be a good idea to host an advocacy campaign in support of an issue that’s near to your heart. That way, community members can get a feel for the type of causes you care for and start to see you in action even before you’ve been elected.

Popular advocacy ideas include online petitions, click-to-call, and Tweet-a-rep campaigns—all of which are made possible by top advocacy software.

5. Major donor solicitation

Major donor fundraising is a great way to collect hefty-sized gifts from a select few of your most prominent supporters. These gifts can make up a significant portion of your campaign revenue, so it’s important that you take a strategic approach when requesting major gifts. Where you might use email or direct mail to solicit the average donation, it’s more important to consider face-to-face discussions (in-person or through live-streaming tools) with your prospective major donors.

If you’re choosing to go this route, we definitely suggest you implement prospect research before diving in. By researching prospects’ ability and affinity to give before making your donation requests, you can go into each conversation better prepared. For example, it’s a good idea to look into not just wealth markers (such as real estate, business affiliations, stock ownership, etc.) but also social and emotional connections like political leanings.

Then, you’ll be more likely to target qualified prospects and reel in additional major gifts from your dedicated donors!

Virtual Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas

If you’re fundraising in the midst of the pandemic, you likely already understand the importance of virtual campaigns. However, even before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, virtual fundraisers offer unique and powerful benefits to fundraisers—such as the ability to widen your reach and expand beyond geographical boundaries.

These are some of our top favorite virtual ideas for political campaigns:

6. Email donation requests

Email donation requests are a popular and simple way to collect donations from your existing supporters. With an effective email marketing strategy, you can automate messages to send to a large group of recipients simultaneously. Then, be sure to conclude each email with a prominent call-to-action directing the readers to your online donation page to give.

Here’s a bonus tip: your email campaigns are more likely to thrive if you take the time to personalize messages to each recipient. For example, including the individual’s name in the email subject line can increase open rates by up to 50%!

7. Social media fundraising

The rise of social media fundraising is largely due to the power of social proof. When people see their friends and family members are supporting a campaign, they’re more likely to do so as well, rather than if you had reached out yourself.

Facebook fundraisers are extremely popular among donors with its built-in fundraising capabilities, while Twitter and Instagram are each fantastic platforms for sharing your campaigns even further.

That being said, make sure to encourage your supporters to share your virtual fundraisers with their own personal networks—even if they can’t give themselves! Social media fundraising is a great way to raise both money and awareness for your campaign at the same time.

8. eCard campaigns

An eCard campaign is another excellent way to reach new supporters and widen your audience. For this fundraiser, existing supporters are encouraged to send electronic postcards with personalized messages to their friends and family members. You can think of it as a virtual candy gram fundraiser (minus the candy, unfortunately).

To get started, you’ll have to come up with a set of images that will go on the eCards. It’s a good idea to choose something visually appealing that also relates to your campaign. You can also include a cute or catchy saying to go alongside the picture.

Then, promote this campaign to your supporters, who can pay a set fee (around $5-$10) and submit the email address for each recipient to which they’d like to send a card.

Easy Political Campaign Fundraising Ideas

Running a campaign can be hard work in and of itself, so it’s understandable if you’re looking for some easy fundraising ideas to bankroll your efforts. These are some of our most low-tech, high-ROI political campaign fundraising ideas:

9. Direct mail fundraising letters

Email fundraising requests are great, but there’s something special about an old-fashioned letter campaign for raising funds effectively.

Be sure to include a pre-addressed reply envelope with your letter along with detailed instructions for online donations. That way, your direct mail recipients can know exactly what to do to support your campaign—and will be more likely to take the next step.

Plus, when you partner with a dedicated direct mail fundraising company like GivingMail, they’ll even do all the hard work of printing and shipping your fundraising letters!

10. Phone call requests

Donation requests via phone call are both popular and effective. That’s because it’s harder to say no when you’re speaking verbally with a real person! And while you certainly don’t want to bully anyone into donating to your fundraiser, it is a good idea to leverage that human connection for your campaign.

Be sure to provide each team member with a basic script to use when requesting funds, but encourage them to personalize it for themselves to provide a more genuine phone conversation experience. Then, make sure each individual you talk with knows how to support your fundraiser—whether that’s taking their payment information over the phone or directing them to your online donation form.

11. Door-to-door fundraising

Door-to-door fundraising is a popular and long-held political campaign fundraising idea—especially for smaller towns and tight-knit communities. Although it may seem a bit “old-school,” the results can be astounding!

For this type of campaign, it’s a good idea to recruit some dedicated volunteers to help you better canvas your local neighborhoods. Then, equip each individual with the resources they’ll need (i.e. collection bucket, printed materials, etc.) and send them off in groups to drum up support for your fundraiser.

While this fundraising idea may be taking a backseat this election season due to social distancing guidelines, many face-to-face fundraising companies are taking a strategic approach to keep fundraisers and donors safe.

12. Restaurant partnerships

A restaurant partnership is a fundraising favorite—and for good reason. Many participating restaurants are willing to donate a percentage of revenue from an agreed-upon night to a good cause.

Be sure to partner with a local favorite in your area. Big chains like Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and IHOP are well-known for their fundraising partnerships, although your local mom-and-pop stores might be willing to participate as well.

Then, encourage all of your supporters to visit the restaurant that evening—making sure to get the word out via text blast, email, social media, etc. The more business the restaurant gets that day, the bigger your payout will be!

13. Change drive

A change drive, which is sometimes known as a penny or coin drive, is a great way to earn some extra funding for your campaign in a very passive and low maintenance way. Change can add up very quickly, and, despite the name, you’re sure to collect some paper bills as well.

For best results, place collection buckets all around town with eye-catching signs explaining what you’re fundraising for. Be sure to reach out to local businesses and restaurants and see if you can keep a collection jar by their register. You might be surprised at how many people will donate their loose change when there’s a receptacle there!

14. Pie the Politician

Pie the Politician is a simple and fun political fundraising idea—all you need to get started is an easy-going candidate, a group of excited supporters, and, of course, a pie. (Pro tip: you can actually just fill a pie tin with whipped cream. It makes a bigger splat and it’s not a waste of a delicious dessert!)

Be sure to display your digital fundraising thermometer prominently on your website and social media pages so that donors can easily see how close you are to reaching your goal! With each donation, you get closer to your fundraising goal. And when you reach it, the politician gets a pie to the face!

Then, you can host a community event so all can view the finale of your fundraiser, or even live-stream it on social media.

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

Fundraising Event Ideas for Political Campaigns

Fundraising events are highly regarded campaign ideas because they allow you to spread awareness and raise funds for your campaign simultaneously. And if you’re worried about adhering to social distancing guidelines when planning and holding your political fundraising events, most (if not all) of these favorite ideas can easily be transitioned to the virtual realm.

Let’s take a closer look at some popular political event fundraisers:

15. Political rally

Rallies are very popular fundraising events for political campaigns of all shapes and sizes. Gathering a large number of supporters together for an event is a great way to boost both awareness and excitement for your campaign.

You may sell tickets for a price, or opt to accept donations of any size instead. If you do choose to sell tickets, you can even put them on sale ahead of time online. And thanks to top-notch live-streaming software, it’s even possible to host a virtual rally! That way, you can raise money and engage with your supporters remotely.

16. Meet and greet

A meet and greet is a lot like a political rally, only on a much smaller and more intimate scale. It’s a great opportunity for donors to get to meet the face behind the campaign they’re supporting. This is especially important for meeting some of your major donors—those who have significantly contributed to your fundraiser.

Also like a rally, a meet and greet can be held both in-person or online using top live-streaming tools. Give your supporters a chance to meet the candidate running for office, ask questions, and generally get to know you as a person.

17. Dinner party

Hosting a meal as a campaign fundraiser is a great idea. Dinner is the most popular, although pancake breakfasts have also seen huge successes. For this fundraiser, you can choose to charge a flat fee for the food served or collect donations on a sliding scale. This event provides an opportunity for supporters to mix and mingle with other like-minded individuals and have a good time.

This is the most difficult to bring to the online fundraising space due to the natural constraints of food-based events. However, feel free to turn this into a virtual gala instead!

18. Event-a-thon

An event-a-thon is any fundraising event based on activity that participants take part in for pledged donations. For example, you could host a walk-a-thon, dance-a-thon, bike-a-thon, etc. These are each great ways to raise money for your campaign, engage with your supporters, and encourage your community to get out and stay active! And if your supporter runs 10 miles at $10 a mile, they’ll bring in $100 for your campaign.

For a successful event-a-thon fundraiser, you’ll need a group of dedicated supporters who are willing to fundraise on your behalf. They’ll reach out to their own friends and family members to request donations for their personal campaign. On the day of the event, each supporter will partake in the specified activity and receive donations that were pledged on their behalf.

19. Silent auction

Silent auctions are very popular fundraising ideas for all sorts of causes.

At a silent auction, your supporters will browse the items on display and bid anonymously on the items they’d like. Then, as other supporters go around and place their own bids, the going price will continually rise until the bidding closes.

Additionally, new auction technology makes virtual silent auctions plausible and engaging events for both participants and fundraisers. In that case, attendees browse an online auction item catalog and bid virtually via mobile or online bidding tools.

20. Live auction

Just like silent auctions, live charity auctions are a great way to raise money for your political campaign. Plus, they offer the increased benefit of being an extremely engaging, high-energy event that your supporters will love to participate in. Rather than browsing items on display and bidding at their leisure, guests will bid for one item at a time as narrated by a personable auctioneer.

One of the most important components of this fundraiser is the auctioneer—so be sure to bring in the best. After all, that’s the person that will be convincing attendees to spend all their money!

21. Benefit concert

Benefit concerts are popular fundraising events for all sorts of causes—including political campaigns! That’s because they’re a fun experience for the community and a great way to gather support.

To get started, you’ll need to locate a talented artist who is willing to donate their time to support your campaign. Try finding a local musician or band that’s previously been vocal about community issues that you also care about. You might even want to reach out to more famous and big-name artists to see if they’ll perform at a benefit concert for your campaign—the worst they can say is no!

Take a Personalized Tour

Schedule a demo with one of our fundraising consultants. We’ll show you how the Snowball platform has benefited other nonprofit organizations, and how it can help you.

Product fundraisers are one of the most-used political campaign fundraising ideas. That’s because once you make the sale, that supporter goes on to become free advertising for your campaign. Whenever they sport their branded merchandise in public, they’re essentially functioning as a walking billboard saying, “Vote for [candidate]!”

Here are just a few of our favorite sale ideas for a political campaign (although the opportunities are endless):

22. Custom t-shirts

T-shirt sales are a favorite political fundraiser for obvious reasons. For one, it’s a practical and useful item that supporters will be able to make use of time and time again. That means it’s a win-win: donors get a high-quality, nicely designed t-shirt promoting their favorite candidate in the upcoming election while your campaign gets a financial boost!

Plus, when you partner with a dedicated t-shirt fundraising platform like Bonfire, all you have to do is design your t-shirt and they’ll help with the production and distribution.

23. Cookie Dough

Cookie dough may not be the first product to come to mind when you think of political fundraisers, but you’d be surprised how well they can work for your campaign. By selling at events or around the community, cookie dough fundraisers provide an opportunity for you and your staff to have vital face-to-face conversations with community members.

After you’ve collected and placed the orders, distribute the cookie dough at another campaign event. This is a chance to get your message across to a potential new group of voters, while providing them with a delicious reminder of your campaign.

24. Stickers and buttons

Who doesn’t love a cute sticker or button to spruce up any outfit while letting the world know your stance on something (in this case, an upcoming election)? These are popular product fundraisers, especially for political campaigns, due to their low cost. That means you can get a ton made for a small price and re-sell them at a slightly higher, but still low, price point. And that way, supporters who may not have a lot to spend can still take part in your fundraisers!

Election season is ramping up and it’s time to put these political campaign fundraising ideas in action. Hopefully, you’ve found a few ideas that caught your eye, so get your fundraising team ready and get started!

And remember, the easiest way to raise more for your campaign is by ensuring you have the right fundraising tools in your toolkit. Good luck!

For more information, be sure to check out our other educational resources below:

Free Fundraising Software for Nonprofits: Top Providers. If you’re looking for powerful fundraising software to bring in more revenue without breaking the bank, this list is for you. Take a look at our favorite free and low-cost fundraising software providers!
Text-to-Give | Complete Guide for Nonprofits and Fundraisers. Mobile fundraising is on the rise and you don’t want to miss out on that opportunity. Find out how to leverage text-to-give and other mobile fundraising tactics with this comprehensive guide.
Virtual Fundraising: The Complete Guide for 2020 & Beyond. Fundraisers are relying more on virtual means than ever before. Be sure to check out this practical guide to strategic virtual fundraising to learn more (and raise more!) in no time.

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