The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently offered these 10 tips:
- Don’t treat giving as a financial transaction – instead, treat donors as you would friends or family that are going through hard times. Give them a way to stay involved, even if they are unable to make the level of donation they have in the past.
- Keep close ties to donors – remember to thank donors frequently and don’t treat every contact as a solicitation. Don’t just send an autoreply – make it personal!
- Offer matching grants – to give donors a way to make even a smaller than normal contribution more meaningful
- Ask donors to give monthly – include as an option on all of your fundraising campaigns
- Look for ways to save money on fund raising – this is the ideal time to accelerate the move from direct mail to online to reduce costs. Also use web conferencing to reduce staff travel. Focus on special events that produce the most revenue.
- Seek alternatives to soliciting private donations – for example, can you rent part of your space for outside meetings or offer mission-related products?
- Collaborate to raise money – try joint initiatives with other organizations with compatible missions
- Scale back ambitious campaigns, but don’t give up on them – change the goal or lengthen the timeframe
- Avoid emergency solicitations – don’t let it get to this point – donors won’t want to recommit if your organization seems in danger of failing
- Shore up relations with grant makers – foundations and government agencies may still be able to help in 2009.
The Chronicle also reports that some nonprofits are reporting that more people are giving, even if the average gift is less. This has been confirmed in many recent studies referenced in this Care2 post about the prospects for online fundraising. Even in hard times, donors will still give. Stay as positive as you can when planning your fundraising campaigns this year.
