In this guide, we’ll walk through all the details of how to start a fundraiser for your nonprofit.

How to Start a Fundraiser: The Nonprofit’s Ultimate Guide

Fundraising comprises a large portion of your nonprofit’s funding. Collecting donations empowers your organization to expand its reach and accomplish its mission.

However, it can be intimidating to start a fundraiser from scratch, especially for newer organizations and less experienced fundraising coordinators. Fundraisers require a certain level of organization, a clear strategy, and a lot of hard work to be successful. From creating your initial goals to developing your marketing materials, there are so many considerations that go into starting a fundraiser.

To help you stay on track, we’ll teach you how to start a fundraiser by walking you through the fundraising process step by step. Along the way, we’ll offer advice on how to pull off the fundraiser of your dreams.

Take a look at the steps we’ll discuss to make sure your fundraising plan is complete:

  1. Determine Your Goals For Your Nonprofit Fundraiser
  2. Select a Fundraising Campaign Type
  3. Develop a Fundraising Plan
  4. Choose the Appropriate Software Before Starting a Fundraiser
  5. Create Marketing Materials To Promote Your Fundraiser
  6. Promote Your Nonprofit’s Fundraiser
  7. Thank Donors For Contributing To Your Fundraiser
  8. Assess the Results of Your Nonprofit’s Fundraiser

It’s our goal at NXUnite to equip nonprofits with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful. Fundraising is such a huge element of nonprofit operations, so it’s important to know how to start a fundraiser properly. That’s why we’ve created this ultimate guide to help your nonprofit reach its fundraising goals.

With that, let’s jump right into it and learn how to start a fundraiser!

Our panels will help you develop a well-rounded fundraising plan.

1. Determine Your Goals For Your Nonprofit Fundraiser

To start a fundraiser off on the right foot, it’s important to set a focus for your campaign by creating clear goals. That way, you’ll build a strong foundation for the rest of the planning process.

The SMART Goal Method

Instead of creating generic objectives, there are some guidelines your organization should follow to make sure your goals are meaningful. The SMART goal model ensures that your goals are action-oriented and targeted to exactly what you want to achieve. Check out the elements of SMART goals:

  1. Specific. Make sure your goals have a clear purpose. It’s not enough to say you want to raise money for your cause. Indicate exactly what the money will go towards.
  2. Measurable. In this case, measurable typically refers to a clear monetary value you’d like to achieve. For example, your goal could be to raise $10,000 during the fundraiser. However, it could also be a certain amount of new donors you want to recruit or the number of returning donors you’d like to see.
  3. Achievable. While it’s good to be optimistic, you’ll also want to be realistic about what your organization can achieve. Don’t set your fundraising amount too high or give your nonprofit too short of a time to reach its goals.
  4. Relevant. Keep your organization’s current overall goals in mind when determining your fundraising goals. That way, your goals will align and make sense for your nonprofit.
  5. Time-bound. Set a deadline for your goals to motivate your organization to achieve them. Otherwise, you might put them off or not achieve them as quickly as you could.
The first step in how to start a fundraiser is to come up with SMART goals.

To sum up SMART goals, we’ll give you an example to refer to. If you coordinate school fundraisers, your goal might be to raise $100,000 over the course of the school year to help build a new playground. This goal is specific because it indicates exactly what the money will go towards. It’s measurable because you’ve assigned a monetary value to your goal.

Your team must determine whether your goals are achievable by evaluating your resources, but we know this one is relevant because it will add value to the school. Lastly, this goal is time-bound because it must be accomplished by the end of the school year.

Other Considerations For Your Fundraiser’s Goals

Now that you know how to create SMART goals, there are two other considerations you’ll want to keep in mind:

  • Your definition of success. This consideration ties into the achievable aspect of SMART goals. Do you want to raise a certain amount of money? Maybe you want to secure new donors or retain a certain amount of donors from your last fundraiser. Whatever the metrics you’re using to determine your fundraiser’s success, they will help you determine how much you need to raise and how much you could raise realistically based on your organization’s size and scope.
  • The intended impact of your goals. You might know what the money you raise will physically go towards, but why is that project or initiative important? Returning to our school example, maybe your school wants to build a new playground because it will teach kids the importance of being active. Illustrating this intended impact of the playground when you’re marketing your fundraiser will create a more compelling call to action for potential donors.

Putting thought behind your goals will set your campaign up for success before it even starts by giving participants something to work toward. Once your fundraising goals are solidified, it’s time to choose what your campaign will look like.

2. Select a Fundraising Campaign Type

Once your fundraising goals are solidified, it’s time to choose what your campaign will look like. There are a wide variety of available options for nonprofit fundraisers. Depending on your goals, budget, and resources, you can select the type of campaign that best suits your organization’s audience and needs.

To make it easier to plan your campaign, we’ve divided some of the top nonprofit fundraising ideas into the general categories of online and offline initiatives. Of course, some of these ideas are flexible and can be hosted in either sphere. Additionally, you might choose to combine multiple campaigns to expand your fundraising capabilities—it all depends on what you hope to accomplish!

To help you learn how to start a fundraiser, this graphic lists four types each of online and offline campaigns, which are detailed below.

Online Fundraising Campaigns

A major advantage of online fundraising is that it breaks down geographical barriers, making it possible to connect with more supporters no matter where they live. These campaigns are also convenient for your supporters since they can participate from anywhere. 

Here are a few online fundraising campaign types to get you started:

  • Crowdfunding. Leverage the power of social media and gain support from a wide range of people using a crowdfunding campaign. You can request small donations that add up to your goal and ask that followers share your campaign page with their friends and family to engage even more supporters.
  • Text-to-give. Make donating online even easier by meeting supporters where they probably are—on their phones. When a donor texts a keyword to your organization’s five- or six-digit shortcode, they’ll receive a link to your online donation page, where they can quickly fill out the form and make their contribution on the go. To make the most of your text-to-give campaign, ensure your donation page is optimized for mobile use.
  • Matching gifts. Matching gifts are a popular form of corporate philanthropy that allow you to double many of the donations you already receive. When a supporter who works for a company with a matching gift program contributes and submits a match request, their employer will donate the same amount. Embed your matching gift tool directly into your online donation page to prompt donors to check their eligibility and submit match requests.
  • Online shopping. Online shopping fundraisers allow supporters to contribute to your nonprofit by doing something they were probably going to do anyway: purchase everyday items from their favorite e-commerce sites. You likely heard of (or even participated in) AmazonSmile before its 2023 discontinuation, but there are alternative platforms your organization can still leverage to run a similar type of campaign.

The one downside of online fundraising is that it’s often more difficult to form lasting connections with campaign participants. That’s why it’s especially important to follow up with supporters and say thank you after they contribute online.

Offline Fundraising Campaigns

Many people prefer the personal touch of offline interactions, which is where more traditional fundraising methods excel. Plus, offline campaigns can often be combined with online ones or converted to a hybrid format if some supporters would still like to participate online.

Some popular offline fundraising campaigns include:

  • Direct mail. Requesting donations through mail often feels like a more personal outreach method than a digital ask on the supporter’s end. Segment your donors based on how frequently they donate and how much they have donated in the past, then tailor your messages to each segment. Include a prepaid return envelope with each letter, and consider adding a QR code to your online donation page to offer another giving option.
  • Fundraising events. There are many different ways to gather your community in support of your cause, so choose a fundraising event that resonates with your supporters. Popular examples include galas, auctions, 5K races, and a-thon style events like walk-a-thons or bike-a-thons.
  • Major gift solicitation. It’s estimated that 80% of nonprofit donations come from the top 20% of donors, meaning major gifts are essential to your nonprofit’s ability to further its mission. While you’ll use prospect research tools to identify potential major donors online, you’ll need to build relationships with each prospect offline so they’ll be receptive to your ask.
  • Volunteer grants. Similar to matching gifts, volunteer grants are a form of corporate philanthropy that involves your nonprofit’s supporters submitting requests to their employers based on their involvement with your organization. The submission again takes place online, but this time the contribution is based on an in-person activity: the number of hours they volunteer.

No matter which combination of online and offline fundraising campaigns you try, take steps to get your supporters excited about their involvement with your organization.

3. Develop a Fundraising Plan

An effective fundraising plan will keep you organized and on track. It will serve as your roadmap and ensure you have everything you need to make your campaign successful.

To make sure your fundraising plan is comprehensive, here are the elements yours should include:

  1. Goals. Start off your fundraising plan by adding the SMART goals you developed earlier. These goals will guide the rest of your fundraising plan.
  2. Case for support. You’ll want to craft a compelling reason for why donors should support your cause. It’s best to make this specific to the initiative or project you’re raising money for.
  3. Campaign type. Once you figure out which fundraising campaign you’re moving forward with, indicate that in your fundraising plan. Again, you can use any combination of the ones we’ve listed previously or others you come up with.
  4. Marketing channels. Choose which marketing channels are best for your campaign. Examples of marketing channels include social media, email, and your organization’s website.
  5. Timeline. Before starting a fundraiser, set a definitive timeline for your campaign. It might help to develop a campaign calendar to plan out the work that must get done each week.
  6. Budget. Figure out how much you need to spend to make your fundraiser a reality. Think about the costs of fundraising events and initiatives ahead of time so you only spend what you need to.
  7. Corporate sponsors. There are many philanthropic companies willing to assist nonprofits by sponsoring their events, offering matching gifts, and providing in-kind services. Identify how you’ll narrow down potential sponsors for your fundraiser and craft compelling proposals for support.
  8. Team members. Determine which members of your team will be part of this fundraising project and how much external support you’ll need from volunteers. You’ll want to delegate responsibilities to them so everyone knows what to do.
A fundraising plan will keep your fundraiser on track.

Incorporating all of these items into your fundraising plan will set clear intentions for your fundraiser, making it easier to move along with the planning process.

4. Invest in the Right Software Before Starting a Fundraiser

Fundraising software is necessary for most nonprofit campaigns to run smoothly. From accepting online donations and processing payments to managing donors and volunteers, there are so many aspects of fundraisers where software can make a major difference.

Some popular types of software your nonprofit might leverage for its campaigns include:

This graphic shows three types of fundraising software your nonprofit might leverage to start a fundraiser, which are discussed below.
  • Event management software. From checking in attendees to livestreaming during virtual events, there are many elements of the fundraising event process that can be streamlined using software. Keep in mind that some events may require additional specialized software features, such as mobile bidding tools for online auctions.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising platforms. These solutions enable your supporters to securely create individual fundraising pages to share with their friends and family. This is especially useful for a-thon style events like walkathons and bikeathons where participants collect pledged donations based on their performance.
  • Matching gift tools. As mentioned previously, embedding a matching gift tool directly into your donation form allows donors to quickly discover whether their employers will match their contributions to your organization. Make sure your chosen software integrates with a variety of corporate giving solutions and has auto-submission capabilities to streamline the process for your nonprofit, your supporters, and their employers.

If your organization already uses donor management software, look for fundraising software that integrates with the platform you use. That way, you can automatically transfer information about your new donors between the two solutions, saving your team time and energy. Later on, you can use that data to reach out to donors and improve your future fundraising campaigns.

5. Create Marketing Materials To Promote Your Fundraiser

Nonprofits need to come up with cohesive marketing strategies in order to promote their fundraisers effectively. Think about your campaign as a single story you want to tell. Every promotional material should work together in pursuit of your goals.

It can be difficult to create effective marketing materials on a budget, that’s why it’s essential to use the free or discounted marketing tools to empower your mission. This way, you’ll create stunning designs that are also cost-effective. With this in mind, here are some additional tips that will help you elevate your materials:

  • Focus your marketing on the impact your fundraiser will have. Of course, you’ll want to tell potential donors exactly what their money will go towards, but you’ll also want to highlight the underlying benefits of the project you’re funding. Make it clear why this project or initiative is important and what will happen if you don’t achieve your fundraising goals.
  • Using multiple different marketing channels will allow you to reach a broader audience. While you’ll want to tell the same cohesive story to all of your supporters, remember to adapt your message and content to each channel. For example, your social media campaign might feature short videos explaining the fundraiser while your website might contain an entire page dedicated to the fundraiser.
  • No matter which marketing channels you leverage, having well-designed images can help your marketing materials stand out. People are more drawn to images than words, and eye-catching designs can convey more information than you might think. Plus, images can break up large chunks of text to make it easier to read.
  • Feature your corporate sponsors. Corporate sponsorships can provide immense value to your nonprofit, but remember that they’re mutually beneficial relationships. Therefore, include the companies’ logos and details in your marketing materials to recognize them for their support and pave the way for long-lasting partnerships.

If your team has trouble creating its marketing materials, consider outsourcing the design work to a third-party graphic designer. We highly recommend Kwala, a nonprofit-focused graphic design company. By exclusively working with nonprofits throughout the years, they’ve become well-versed in what it takes to design materials that inspire support.

From social media graphics to fundraising flyers, Kwala can help bring your visions to life and spread awareness for your fundraisers in no time. Take this event invitation they created for the Wildlife Rescue Group for example:

Wildlife Rescue Group’s event invitation is a stellar example of the marketing materials you can create for your nonprofit fundraiser.

Whether you want artistic drawings or more realistic designs with stock photos, they’ll work with you to create the perfect promotional materials for your next fundraiser.

Once your marketing materials are ready to go, it’s time to share them with your supporters!

6. Promote Your Nonprofit’s Fundraiser

Your fundraiser could be for an outstanding cause with an organized fundraising plan behind it, but if no one knows about it, you won’t reach your fundraising goals. Promoting your fundraiser will attract new and previous donors to contribute to your cause.

As we alluded to before, your organization can use many different marketing channels to spread the word about your fundraiser. Use any combination of the ones we’ve listed below:

Try out a combination of these different marketing channels to promote your fundraiser.

Email

You can’t go wrong with email marketing. It allows you to reach new and previous supporters and send a variety of different communications related to your fundraiser. Whether you’re informing subscribers about your fundraiser in your newsletter, inviting supporters to a fundraising event, or thanking donors for their contributions, email is an effective way to communicate about your fundraising efforts.

Website

Your organization’s website is the home base for anything and everything about your nonprofit, so it’s a great place to include details about your fundraiser. Potential supporters will get the opportunity to look through other pages on your site to learn more about your organization before they lend their support.

Peer-to-Peer Outreach

One underutilized marketing tool is your supporters. Your existing donors and volunteers are some of your nonprofit’s biggest ambassadors. A genuine referral from one of them can go a long way in amplifying your fundraiser. Have them post about your campaign online and text their friends, encouraging them to donate to your fundraiser. You can even design event invitations or fundraising eCards they can use to challenge others to give to your campaign.

Learn more about designing donation and cause awareness greeting cards for your cause by exploring eCardWidget’s charity eCards guide.

Blog

If your nonprofit has a blog on its website, consider posting an article about the fundraiser. You could introduce or recap a fundraising event or provide an update about how much money you’ve raised so far.

Social Media

Social media is a great place to promote your fundraiser because your supporters can repost your content and share it with their own networks. You can also use social media as a chance to have some fun with your fundraiser’s promotion by playing into current trends and making short videos about the fundraiser with your team.

Press Release

See if any local media outlets will share a press release about your fundraising events. That way, you can reach members of your community who may know nothing about your organization.

Related Organizations

Ask your corporate partners, local businesses, or other related nonprofit organizations to help you spread the word about your fundraiser.

Google Ad Grants

The Google Ad Grants program provides nonprofits with $10,000 per month in Google Ad spend. As long as your organization is eligible, you can apply to the program and leverage Google Ads for free to promote your fundraisers and cause.

For help with applying for the program and managing your account, reach out to a Google Grant agency. A professional can take charge of your campaigns, so you can focus on other aspects of your fundraisers instead of writing ad copy.

Reach out to our recommended Google Grants agency.

Takeaway: The best marketing campaigns use multiple marketing methods. As long as you make the effort to interconnect each channel and communicate a cohesive message, leveraging multiple marketing channels will help you reach a larger audience.

7. Thank Donors For Contributing To Your Fundraiser

It’s always important to thank your donors, especially directly after they’ve made a donation. New donors can become life-long members of your community if you put in the effort to form relationships with them. Additionally, you can keep previous donors coming back by showing them you appreciate them.

The way you create a positive experience for donors is through effective donor stewardship. While 55% of US donors prefer to be thanked for their contributions via email, there are several ways to practice proper donor stewardship and leave a lasting impression:

Continue relationships with donors after your fundraiser with good donor stewardship.
  • Thanking donors by emailing them or calling them directly after they donate
  • Sending donors personal thank you letters with tax receipts
  • Treating donors with respect and care
  • Maintaining frequent communication with donors across marketing channels
  • Inviting donors to stewardship events
  • Sending donors reports that illustrate the impact they’ve made on your organization

Donor stewardship ensures that your organization creates and maintains strong relationships with your supporters. That way, your nonprofit can expand its network and build a community of supporters to work with and rely on when you start future fundraisers, projects, and initiatives.

Don’t overlook other supporters at this stage either! Recognize volunteers for any time and skills they used to make your fundraiser successful too. Sending a personalized eCard or quickly calling them can leave a positive impression. Additionally, take the time to publicly acknowledge your corporate sponsors for their contributions. You can do this with a sincere thank-you post on social media.

8. Assess the Results of Your Nonprofit’s Fundraiser

After your fundraiser, it’s essential to go back and look over your goals to see if you’ve accomplished them. This final step is important because it allows you to take the lessons you’ve learned from this campaign and apply them to your next fundraiser.

A great way to assess the results of your fundraiser is to ask your donors or event attendees for their feedback by sending them a survey. That way, you can get another perspective on what worked and what didn’t from fundraiser participants rather than leadership.

Additionally, there are some questions you’ll want to review with your fundraising team to evaluate your success. These questions may include:

Take the time to review the results of your fundraiser in order to make the next one even more successful.
  • Did you meet your initial goals?
  • Which marketing methods were most successful in achieving your goals?
  • Which marketing methods were unsuccessful?
  • Did you set an appropriate budget?
  • What were some successes that you should replicate when starting your next fundraiser?
  • What were some failures or shortcomings that you should avoid for your next fundraiser?
  • Are there any ways you could have used your resources more efficiently?

Taking the time to reflect upon your fundraiser will make your next one even more successful. Even though your team is likely busy with other projects, putting in a little time now means you’ll save time later in the planning process for future fundraisers.

Conclusion & Additional Resources

Now that you know the steps for how to start a fundraiser, it will be easier to stay organized and get the job done. Each time you host a fundraiser, you’ll get more familiar with the planning process, leading to more successful fundraisers.

In this guide to how to start a fundraiser, we touched upon many different considerations that go into fundraiser planning. We know you might have some further questions about how to host an effective fundraiser, especially if you’re a first-timer.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of resources that go beyond the basics of starting a fundraiser. These articles tackle more specific fundraiser tips and tricks that will help you along your fundraising journey. Check them out below:

Learn more about how to start a fundraiser by attending one of our panels or webinars.
Read this for a comprehensive list of 18 discounted and free nonprofit marketing tools.

18 Free & Discounted Nonprofit Marketing Tools to Use Today

Did you know that nonprofits raise $78 on average for every 1,000 fundraising messages sent out? That means that every marketing message counts, so your strategy needs to be digitally savvy to be effective. Additionally, you’ll need to use sustainable marketing tools to keep your efforts going. But, how does your nonprofit find the right digital marketing tools on a budget? 

By using nonprofit-specialized marketing tools for free or at a discounted rate! This means you can promote your cause without overextending your resources. Compare it to shopping for discounts at your favorite store—a treasure hunt for the best finds at lowered prices. The key is knowing where to look.

In this guide, we’ve made your search easier by providing our top eighteen free or discounted nonprofit marketing tools in addition to some marketing budget guidelines. Here’s where we’re headed:

At NXUnite, we specialize in connecting nonprofits with resources to strengthen all of their operations. Marketing is a vital part of your nonprofit’s success because it’s how people find you, connect with you, and contribute to your organization’s impact. We understand that marketing can be difficult to manage on a small budget, that’s why we’re dedicated to providing you with useful resources like this guide to give your nonprofit an extra marketing edge. 

Click here to sign up for an NXUnite panel.

Nonprofit Marketing Budget Considerations

Before we jump into our top marketing tools, let’s discuss some marketing budget considerations. After all, you need to know how much ad spending you should aim for to understand why discounted or free tools are worth researching.

Within the for-profit sector, it’s standard to determine your marketing budget by allocating 10-20% of projected gross revenues to marketing. As a nonprofit, you should plan to allocate 5-15% of your budget to marketing. The marketing channels you choose to invest in should be determined by your team to ensure they align with your organization’s goals and target audience.

Types of Nonprofit Marketing Tools

What are your options for nonprofit marketing tools? There’s a wide variety of platforms you can use. To simplify your search, we’ve narrowed them down to the following categories:

This image shows the types of marketing tools your organization can leverage.
  • Search: Search tools aid in the promotion of your organization’s website through paid advertising or SEO optimization. They increase your online visibility and drive more traffic to your site.
  • Content: Content tools help you devise a strategic approach to creating valuable content that resonates with your target audience. There are several different forms of content marketing tools that can help you refine and schedule videos, photos, designs, articles, website pages, and blogs.
  • Social media: Social media tools leverage platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram to engage with your target audience and spread your organization’s mission. 
  • Email: Email marketing tools help your organization establish a regular email cadence with supporters. Many platforms include mailing list targeting and customizable templates to find and target the right email addresses. 
  • Analytics: Analytics tools measure your nonprofit campaign success and help you interpret supporter data. These platforms are essential for adapting your marketing strategy to supporter behaviors. 

Each of these types of tools can produce impressive marketing results. To find one that’s right for you, take a look at the following free or discounted providers listed by category: 

Search Marketing Tool

1. The Google Ad Grant

The Google Ad Grant program is a digital marketing tool that allows you to bid on keywords that strategically target your ideal audience. If nonprofits win, Google will place ads on Google’s search results pages (SERPs). 

It allows nonprofits to leverage the Google Ads program for free by giving eligible organizations $10,000 in free advertising credits every month. As long as your organization meets Google’s eligibility standards and complies with its rules, the grant will renew each month. 

You can use the Google Ad Grant to promote:

  • Donation pages
  • Service pages
  • Educational Content

These pages should match the search intent of each of your terms. For example, when you search “wildlife conservation” on Google, you’ll see ads at the top and bottom of the page for related nonprofit content. For example, this could include a donation page from the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Google enforces detailed requirements to apply for and maintain eligibility so nonprofits make the most of the program, which means the Google Ad Grants application and management is a full-time job. That’s why so many nonprofits turn to expert agencies for professional assistance. Check out our favorite Google Ad Grants agency: Getting Attention

Content Marketing Tools

This image shows discounted and free nonprofit marketing tools you can leverage to create compelling content.

2. Grammarly 

Grammarly is an online writing assistance tool that can help your nonprofit create compelling, error-free copy. It helps improve your writing by making grammar, punctuation, and spelling suggestions. Grammarly’s advanced features include pro options that can make clarity suggestions to ensure your nonprofit’s mission comes across loud and clear.

Our favorite feature: Grammarly can be easily integrated into technology your nonprofit already uses like its website builder, Microsoft Office, and Google Docs.

Pricing: Grammarly for Nonprofits offers free access to all Premium-level writing suggestions, administrative dashboards, and website integrations. 

3. Kwala

Kwala is a graphic design agency built for mission-driven organizations. That means they know how to make your nonprofit vision come to life. These professionals are dedicated to providing stunning graphics that showcase nonprofit work. They have experience perfecting nonprofit logos, year-end appeals, website graphics, brochures, and more.  

Our favorite feature: To make sure every design is just right, the Kwala graphic designers offer unlimited revisions and redesigns to capture your unique nonprofit flair. 

Pricing: Kwala understands that hiring a full-time graphic designer may not be feasible on a nonprofit budget. That’s why they offer unlimited graphic design services for a fixed $439 price each month. Or, you can pay for an annual subscription of $3999 with the first two months free. 

4. Canva 

Canva is a graphic design tool that enables users to create eye-catching designs on their own. Specifically, your organization can use it to make visually appealing graphics, presentations, social media posts, and other design assets. Canva’s user-friendly interface provides a wide range of templates, icons, fonts, and stock photos. With simple drag-and-drop functionality, your team can create beautiful designs in no time.

Our favorite feature: Canva is built for teamwork, so anyone can contribute to your design before it’s finalized. 

Pricing: Canva is free for nonprofits if they follow a few outlined steps: fill out the application form and wait to receive an email confirmation. 

5. Piktochart 

Pikto chart is an infographic and visual content creation tool that provides customizable infographics, charts, presentations, posters, and reports. With fifteen different visual tools and a library of top-notch templates to edit and make your own, Pikto Chart offers the right tools to create content that converts leads. 

Our favorite feature: Pikto Chart has video editing tools like a social media video editor and a cropping tool that lets you make shareable content in a flash. 

Pricing: Piktochart offers a discounted annual plan for nonprofits at a rate of $60 per member per year. 

6. Pexels

With Pexels, your organization can receive access to royalty-free stock photos to enhance your organization’s online visuals. These stock photos work as a great replacement when your organization does not have the perfect photos lined up. They work great for quick social media posts or website additions without any copyright restrictions. 

Our favorite feature: You can search photos by color, background, or most popular collections to find the perfect image.

Pricing: All Pexel photos and videos are free for commercial use.

7. Hubspot 

Hubspot’s all-in-one content creation tools can help your nonprofit manage several areas of content marketing and sales. Specifically, its campaign assistant, brand kit creator, and persona generator can be leveraged to refine your digital marketing strategy. Using these tools and more, you can brainstorm campaigns that perfectly suit your brand and resonate with your target audience.

Our favorite feature:  Hubspot’s blog ideas generator can rescue you from writer’s block with AI-assisted blog titles for a week’s worth of content. 

Pricing: Hubspot offers a 40% nonprofit discount that includes premium-level, nonprofit-friendly onboarding, and over 1,000 integrations. 

8. WordPress 

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that makes it easy for nonprofits to create and manage their websites and blogs. It offers a range of customizable themes and plugins to customize your site and scale it over time. Its known for its user-friendly interface that lets your team make new web pages, post new blogs, and edit content hassle-free. 

Our favorite feature: WordPress’ Start-to-Finish Nonprofit Guide can take your team through the basics and get your website up and running quickly. And, if you run into any issues, they have a large online support community you can rely on.

Pricing: WordPress is free to download and customize. 

Social Media Marketing Tools

This image shows discounted and free nonprofit marketing tools you can use to boost your social media.

9. Hootsuite 

HootSuite is a social media management platform that lets you save time with prescheduled posts using a centralized dashboard. Your nonprofit can engage with its followers using Hootsuite’s unified message box that never lets you miss a notification from any of your social media accounts. Additionally, Hootsuite’s analytics capture and report your key metrics so you can skip the guesswork and track your performance. 

Our favorite feature: When prompted, Hootsuite’s OwlyWriter AI generates memorable captions and post ideas. 

Pricing: HootSuite offers a nonprofit 75% discount on its Hootsuite Team or professional plans. 

10. Buffer

Buffer is an intuitive social media scheduling tool that can help your organization plan, schedule, and publish content across ten different platforms. With scheduled publishing, you can maintain cross-channel branding consistency and build your audience base. Buffer also provides post-customization and team collaboration tools so your team can get each post right every time. 

Our favorite feature: Buffer’s video content creation tools are perfect for Shorts, Reels, and TikTok. 

Pricing: Buffer offers a 50% nonprofit discount that applies to all products and plans.

11. Later 

Later provides social media management tools that can sharpen your strategy. You can create, edit, and schedule posts across every profile. Later’s on-the-go mobile app lets you save your drafts or post when inspiration strikes. Additionally, Later’s Caption writer uses AI captions that do all the heavy lifting. 

Our favorite feature: Later’s Linkin.bio tool creates fully customizable link web pages, so you can drive traffic from your Instagram and TikTok to your blog, YouTube, or online merchandise store. 

Pricing: Later offers a 50% nonprofit discount for eligible organizations. 

Email Marketing Tools

This image shows discounted and free nonprofit marketing tools which are discussed in more detail below.

12. Mailchimp 

Mailchimp is a marketing, automation, and email platform that helps you manage and talk to your supporters. Their approach focuses on maintaining healthy contact management practices with well-designed campaigns and detailed data analysis tools that engage your entire mailing list. 

Our favorite feature: Mailchimp provides detailed recipient list management capabilities to tailor your messaging to predefined audiences. 

Pricing: Mailchimp offers a 15% discount to verified nonprofits and charities. 

13. Active Campaign 

Active Campaign is an email marketing,  marketing automation, and CRM (customer relationship management) platform that can help your organization deliver personalized communications to your audience at the right time. You can track your email engagement with tags, custom fields, analytics, and performance reporting. With Active Campaign, your team doesn’t waste any time resending delayed emails.

Our favorite feature: Active Campaign includes pre-built templates and layouts for common email campaigns so you can customize your email the way you want.

Pricing: Active Campaign offers a 20% nonprofit discount for eligible organizations. 

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14. Brevo 

Brevo specializes in building relationships across email, SMS, and chat messaging. Their marketing, sales, conversions, and transactional email platforms offer helpful tools to expand your reach. Specifically, Brevo’s transactional email platform guarantees a 99% delivery rate and is quick to set up with developer guides, code recipes, and more. 

Our favorite feature: Brevo’s campaign management tools let you trigger transactional emails, send marketing campaigns and track interactions. 

Pricing: Brevo offers a 15% nonprofit discount on their Enterprise license fee.

15. Mailerlite

MailerLite provides digital marketing tools to grow your audience with email marketing, automation, newsletters, and transactional email features. They offer three separate editors—drag and drop, rich-text, custom HTML–to create your customized email campaign. Additionally, their automation features allow you to set triggers to automatically deliver emails or update custom fields. 

Our favorite feature: MailerLite provides landing pages and pop-ups to help you build your subscriber list as your organization grows. 

Pricing: MailerLite offers a 30% discount on paid plans which can be stacked atop the discount automatically applied to annually billed subscriptions. 

Analytics Marketing Tools

This image shows discounted and free nonprofit marketing tools for analytics and tracking. You can read about each in the sections below.

16. Google Analytics 

Google Analytics gives you free tools to analyze your organization’s key data points. Using Google Analytics, you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, check the relevancy of your landing pages, and find out where your top users are coming from.  You can connect your Google Analytics account with your Google Ad Account to get these in-depth insights and more.

Our favorite feature: Google Analytics will show the success of each of your key landing pages including your volunteer and donate pages to get a detailed view of your web traffic. 

Pricing: Google Analytics is free. 

17. Hotjar 

Hotjar is an analytics tool that offers valuable insights about your website. Using Hotjar, you can visualize conversion flows with a full-funnel overview to see where users drop off and make adjustments to your website strategy. Their real-time feedback gives so users the chance to express frustration or delight about individual parts of your site, so you can keep them engaged. 

Our favorite feature: Hotjar’s heatmap feature offers graphical representations of data that detect website page user activity for you to understand your site at a glance. 

Pricing: Eligible nonprofits receive access to 50% off on higher data plans or a free Business account. 

18. Jetpack 

Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that contains over 30 different features and is designed to provide all the great parts of a WordPress.com site to use on a WordPress.org site. Including features like brute force attack protection that automatically block unwanted login attempts and keep your organization safe without having to worry about invaders. 

Our favorite feature: Jetpack provides powerful stats to keep track of real-time data on visitors and analyze ongoing trends. 

Pricing: Jetpack contains several free features designed for nonprofit use. 

Conclusion

Finding the right marketing tool on a budget can be difficult. Fortunately, you’re now equipped with the top free and discounted platforms to engage with your existing audiences and reach new ones.

Keep in mind marketing tools are designed to make your life easier. So, look for the ones with user-friendly features and reliable support. Consider choosing platforms that have experience working with nonprofits and consult their websites for further information, especially if you’re new to the nonprofit marketing scene. 

For more marketing tips, check out these articles: 

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The title of the article, which is “School Fundraisers That Get Your Students Outside,” next to an illustration of kids playing outside.

3 School Fundraisers That Get Your Students Outside

By the end of the school year, students are ready to get outside for summer vacation. But for many student organizations and sports teams, work doesn’t end when classes do.

If you’re a football coach or player’s parent, for example, you know that summer is when the team buckles down to train for the next fall season. You’re likely relying on last season’s leftover funds to cover the expenses your team incurs during this time (e.g., paying for new uniforms and equipment). You may consider starting a campaign to raise additional funding, but it can be difficult to compete with the excitement of summer break.

This year, why not be prepared for these costs by choosing an engaging fundraising idea for the summer season? Let’s explore a few important best practices for holding fundraising outdoors, along with some fun ideas to try out.

What are some best practices for outdoor fundraisers?

There are some unique elements of outdoor fundraisers to consider before starting your campaign. Factors like weather can impact how you plan the event as well as the fundraising methods you choose. To ensure your event is a success no matter what happens outside, here are some things to consider when planning:

  • Keep the weather and venue in mind. Outdoor events force you to surrender control of certain elements (like the temperature). Obviously, your team should avoid scheduling the event on days that are likely to be extremely hot or prone to storms. However, weather is not always predictable, especially during warmer months. In the event that temperatures exceed safe limits or rain is expected, be prepared with an alternative plan like having tents, a secondary location, or a backup date ready.
  • Choose age-appropriate activities. Children of different ages will be interested in different kinds of activities. For example, an elementary school student might enjoy a short scavenger hunt while a high schooler would prefer a challenging sports tournament. Plan a variety of kid-friendly fundraising ideas and tailor activities to different age groups to ensure everyone can participate.
  • Use a fundraising platform. When your team uses a fundraising platform, supporters can donate online before the event so they don’t need to wait in registration lines at the fundraiser. Additionally, your team won’t need to worry about collecting cash or checks during the event. This adds a layer of financial security as there is no risk of a cash donation blowing away or getting rained on.
  • Prioritize safety. When events take place outdoors, there are more variable factors at play to impact safety–particularly heat. If you are holding a physically demanding event like a sports tournament or race, make sure to have plenty of water, snacks, and shade available. If food will be present, adhere to proper food safety procedures during preparation and storage.

In addition to these special considerations, be sure to follow traditional fundraising best practices. To generate excitement and attract attendees, market the fundraiser ahead of time. And as always, thank and recognize your donors and volunteers with thank-you cards or emails.

3 Outdoor Fundraisers for School Groups

There are a myriad of fundraising event ideas to choose from, but outdoor school fundraisers have the potential for greater creativity. Choose a fundraising idea that your team will love and that your community will want to engage with. Keep in mind that as a school-affiliated organization, parents will make up the largest portion of your volunteer base. So, avoid choosing fundraisers that will require unreasonable amounts of time and effort.

1. Charity Race

A charity race, 5K, or marathon is one of the most traditional, classic outdoor fundraisers. Don’t shy away from these tried-and-true fundraisers—just because something is traditional doesn’t mean it isn’t engaging and effective.

The best part about holding a charity race is that they can easily be adapted to various age groups and fitness levels. Here are three different types of races your team can organize to appeal to distinct audiences:

  • Walk-a-thon. A walk-a-thon is similar to a traditional 5K, but instead of running, participants are encouraged to walk. Because it is stroller-friendly, this idea is great for younger children and families. To get the whole family involved, encourage them to bring leashed pets along, too.
  • Fun run. Double the Donation defines a fun run fundraiser as “a type of peer-to-peer fundraiser in which participants sign up to run, collect pledges, and earn donations for each mile (or other specified unit of distance) they run.” Your team will need to choose a route, date, and time as well as a fun theme. For example, you might choose a superhero theme and encourage runners to dress up in athletic attire inspired by their favorite heroes.
  • 10K or half marathon. A longer, more intense race is best for experienced runners and older students (i.e., those in high school). To get more community involvement in your race, advertise it using posters or flyers inside local businesses. Additionally, your team could partner with nonprofits in your area to pool your supporter bases.

There are no hard and fast rules around who can participate in which type of race. For example, your high school cheerleading squad might prefer a walk-a-thon to a 10K. The most important thing to consider is whether your team members and supporters would enjoy and engage with the fundraiser.

2. Picnic or Barbecue

When you imagine the perfect summer evening, what comes to mind? For many, it’s backyard barbecues, ice cream, and lemonade. Your team can take advantage of the nostalgia and comfort of a picnic or barbecue for its next fundraiser.

When planning one of these events, follow these steps:

  1. Choose a date, time, and venue (e.g., a local park, picnic pavilion, or school playground).
  2. Determine how you will fundraise, either by charging for entry or per food item.
  3. Decide how you’ll serve the food—for example, will you host a potluck-style or catered event?
  4. Start marketing your event using digital channels as well as printed promotional materials like flyers.
  5. Purchase plenty of supplies, like plates, cutlery, cups, tablecloths, blankets, and, of course, food.
  6. Set up blankets and tables for all of your guests.
  7. Host the event and have fun!

If your team decides to prepare food onsite or in advance, be sure to strictly follow all food safety guidelines. Make sure to have coolers and ice available to keep food at the proper temperatures, and ensure all foods are cooked thoroughly to keep your guests safe.

3. Sports-Themed Fundraisers

If your group is a sports team, you already have a built-in, cohesive theme to follow for your fundraisers. Your supporter base will already be familiar with the sport, and they’ve shown that they’re interested in supporting your team financially by purchasing merchandise or tickets to games.

For example, 99Pledges’ guide to sports fundraising ideas recommends organizing a sports camp in which team members can learn from professional athletes and practice new skills. If you coach a high school soccer team, this could be a great opportunity for your team to prepare for the upcoming season and bond with each other.

There are many other ways to incorporate the sports theme into your fundraiser, even if you don’t want to center the entire event around your sport. For example, if you hold an outdoor bake sale in tandem with a summer carnival, you could sell soccer-themed cookies and other treats. Your team’s sport can play as big or small a role in the fundraiser as you like, but it can serve as a helpful reminder to show donors what they’re supporting.

While choosing to hold your fundraiser outside can introduce new challenges, it will make for an engaging, unique experience that your supporters will remember for years to come. No matter which event you choose, remember to always have a backup plan, whether that’s a secondary location or an alternative date. And finally, make sure that your participants, donors, and volunteers know you appreciate them and their hard work.

This guide will help you launch your donor retention efforts.

Donor Retention Ideas and Best Practices for Nonprofits

As a nonprofit professional, you understand the power of cultivating strong relationships with donors. Their passion and generosity make your mission come to life.

That being said, it takes significant effort to preserve these connections over time and secure consistent fundraising revenue. Having a robust donor retention strategy in place will help you deepen your donor relationships and achieve sustainable growth. In this guide, we’ll discuss these fundamental aspects of donor retention:

By following these tips and tricks, you’ll be equipped to retain more donors while expending less effort and money on your strategies. Let’s begin!

Learn more about donor retention and dozens of other pressing topics through NXUnite panels.

Donor Retention FAQs

Whether you’re a new nonprofit founder or a seasoned professional, you might have some questions about donor retention fundamentals. Let’s get on the same page by answering these frequently asked questions.

What is donor retention?

Donor retention is the process of encouraging donors to continue giving to your nonprofit over time. This involves deepening your personal connections with donors and demonstrating their gifts’ impacts on your beneficiaries and the greater community. 

Why is donor retention important?

Compared to donor acquisition (the process of identifying new donor prospects and convincing them to donate for the first time), donor retention is more:

This Venn diagram depicts the relationship between donor retention and donor acquisition, which highlights the importance of donor retention.
  • Cost-effective: It’s more affordable and efficient to keep existing donors than it is to attract new ones. After all, donor acquisition requires researching prospects, launching extensive marketing pushes, and building a case for support. Existing donors already know your nonprofit’s mission and have already provided you with their contact information, negating additional research and outreach.
  • Sustainable: Retained donors provide a reliable and predictable source of income, which is better for the long-term financial health of your nonprofit. 
  • Personal: While donor acquisition requires building relationships from the ground up, effective retention relies on deepening existing donor relationships, which takes less time.

While both donor acquisition and retention are important to fundraising success, retention is a more feasible and efficient approach to maximize donations and increase supporter loyalty.

How is donor retention measured?

There are numerous significant donor retention metrics that your nonprofit should think about tracking as key performance indicators (KPIs), such as: 

  • Donor retention rate measures the percentage of donors that give again after their initial contribution. Use this baseline metric to set donor retention goals.
  • Average gift size helps indicate whether retained donors are giving more or less over time. You could use your average gift size KPI to adjust your initial ask account to reflect your donors’ current ability to give.
  • Frequency of giving measures how often donors contribute to your organization. You might prioritize promoting your monthly giving program if your frequency of giving KPI is lacking.
  • Donor lifetime value measures the total value of a donor’s contributions following their initial contribution. 
  • Donor retention cost measures how much you spend on outreach efforts to maintain existing donor relationships. By comparing this to your cost to acquire a new donor, your nonprofit can evaluate how effective and valuable your retention strategy is and adjust it accordingly.

All of these metrics provide data that you can use to optimize your donor engagement strategies from many angles. 

What are the common reasons donors stop giving?

Understanding why some donors stop giving can help you proactively prevent churn and secure more repeat donations. While each donor is different, here are the most common reasons why they might stop contributing: 

  • Lack of communication: If a donor hears radio silence after contributing, they might feel unappreciated or unsure that their gift had any real impact.
  • Too many fundraising appeals: While a lack of communication is problematic, you also don’t want to inundate donors with appeals or irrelevant, generic communications.
  • Poor donor journey: Donors may stop giving if they experience roadblocks in their donor journey, such as an unoptimized online donation form.
  • A shift in financial status: Your donor might cancel their gift if their budget has changed.
  • Loss of interest: If your nonprofit doesn’t keep your donors engaged, they might lose interest in your mission and stop contributing
  • Negative publicity: Controversy surrounding your nonprofit, its staff, or board members can yield a loss of trust from your donors.
  • Lack of financial transparency: If your donors don’t understand what their gift is being used for and your organization’s financial practices, it might lead them to distrust your use of their funds.
  • Competition: Donors may find another organization that better engages them or aligns with their values and decide to contribute to them instead. 

Fortunately, your nonprofit can combat these reasons for churn and create a more connected and passionate donor community with the rest of the tips in this guide.

What are some important donor retention statistics?

These statistics show how crucial prioritizing donor retention is for your nonprofit.
  • The average donor retention rate for nonprofits is 40-45%. (GiveSmart).
  • The cost of bringing in a new donor is often double or even triple the amount of their initial donation. (Instil)​.
  • A 10% reduction in donor attrition can yield up to a 200% increase in projected value. (Instil).

Donor Retention Best Practices

Now that you understand the importance of donor retention, it’s time to implement retention best practices into your organization’s daily operations. Consider adding the following practices to foster a donor-centric culture:

1. Segment donor communications.

To keep donors engaged enough to keep giving over time, your team must personalize your outreach efforts as much as possible. Donors respond better to communications crafted with their own interests and priorities in mind, but don’t worry—you don’t have to spend all of your time painstakingly personalizing messages. Using segmentation techniques allows you to send customized messages efficiently. 

Using your donor database, separate your donors into groups based on certain criteria, such as:

  • Profession: Donors in stable careers are more likely to have money to donate. Plus, their workplaces might have corporate philanthropy programs that you can promote for retention and increased giving. 
  • Giving history: If a loyal donor who used to make an annual donation has stopped, you could craft a targeted message inviting them to re-engage. 
  • Interests or preferences: Donors are more likely to renew their support for campaigns that they’ve shown interest in before.
  • Engagement level: This can include factors such as event attendance, volunteer involvement, and other activities outside of simply donating. Suggesting they get involved in another aspect of your nonprofit’s work can lead to higher engagement and another donation down the line.
  • Communication preferences: Segment your message delivery based on your donors’ communication preferences, such as email, direct mail, SMS, or phone call.

Segmentation is only possible when your nonprofit keeps thorough information in your database and frequently cleans it out. NPOInfo’s guide to nonprofit data hygiene recommends establishing a regular cadence for deleting duplicate records, appending contact information, and amending inconsistencies in your database. 

2. Demonstrate impact.

Your donors want to know that their investment in your organization has a real effect on your beneficiaries. Win future donations by showing each donor their impact on the pursuit of your mission. You can demonstrate impact and secure recurring gifts by:

  • Sending detailed impact reports to each donor. After your campaign has finished, send your donors segmented messages detailing exactly how their contribution made a difference. 
  • Creating an annual report. This document provides a great opportunity to present your organization’s progress and how particular donors helped you achieve your goals. Consider adding a donor shoutout section where you list the top donors and the influence of their contributions.
  • Introducing them to beneficiaries. Organize a donor beneficiary meet and greet (with permission) where donors can learn about their gifts’ impacts straight from the beneficiaries. This allows your supporters to forge a personal bond with beneficiaries and better understand that their actions significantly change lives. 

No matter which strategy you take, ensure you demonstrate more than monetary impact to donors. They’re aware of how much they gave, but they might not know what the gift provided.

For instance, a food bank might tell a donor that their gift provided 30 families with meals for the rest of the month. This gives your donors a unique perspective on their own philanthropic practices and can inspire them to increase their engagement going forward.

3. Prioritize transparency and accountability.

To sustain the satisfaction of your donors, your nonprofit needs to win and keep their trust. Emphasize your commitment to transparency by:

  • Publishing your Form 990. Your organization’s Form 990 is publicly available and provides all financial and personnel information to potential supporters. Post your Form 990 on your website for easy access.
  • Regularly auditing data. Your nonprofit has a responsibility to your beneficiaries and stakeholders to keep accurate records. Integrate data hygiene into your daily operations by periodically reviewing important data and being accountable for any discrepancies.
  • Encouraging feedback. Ask donors and other stakeholders for their feedback on your nonprofit’s direction, effectiveness, and other considerations. 

Allow your donors to rest assured that they’re supporting a reputable nonprofit by maintaining transparency throughout the fundraising process.

Learn more about donor retention and dozens of other pressing topics through NXUnite panels.

Creative Activity Ideas to Boost Donor Retention

Now that you understand the overall best practices you should integrate into your daily operations, it’s time to put them into action and pursue donor retention. Consider the following activity ideas that can help improve donor retention:

1. Provide ongoing involvement opportunities.

There could be any number of factors impacting your donors’ giving habits. Keep supporters engaged no matter their financial situation by offering numerous ways to get involved with your nonprofit’s mission, like:

Unfortunately, once a donor’s pattern of giving is changed, it’s a slippery slope to them churning and losing their passion for your cause. Avoid this outcome by keeping their enthusiasm alive with other ways to contribute to your cause. They’ll be more likely to start giving again once they’re able to!

2. Offer exclusive benefits and experiences.

Simply put, without your donors, your work wouldn’t be possible. Express your genuine gratitude for their contributions by recognizing donors, both publicly and privately. Here are some unique ways to show your thanks:

  • Launch a donor loyalty program. Loyalty programs incentivize continued engagement with rewards. For instance, you might offer a small gift basket for donors who renew their annual donation for the fifth year in a row.
  • Offer tokens of appreciation. Besides a loyalty program, you can give donors tokens of your thanks for individual donations. For example, you could offer a t-shirt with your nonprofit’s branding for gifts above $200. 
  • Organize VIP experiences. Show your donors a good time by extending an exclusive invitation to your events. You could curate a VIP experience for donors above a certain threshold complete with free food, a backstage tour of your facility, and one-on-one conversations with officers or board members. 

Your supporters will be impressed with your nonprofit’s outstanding commitment to donor appreciation and might renew their support to access more exclusive offerings like these!

3. Promote corporate social responsibility programs.

Leveraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) offerings, such as matching gifts and volunteer grants, are a powerful way to renew and increase support for your organization. 

According to Double the Donation’s list of matching gift statistics, 84% of survey participants said they were more likely to donate to a nonprofit if a match is offered by their employer. However, only a fraction of CSR money is claimed each year due to employee unawareness of their company’s matching gift policy. To access the benefits of CSR, it’s up to your nonprofit to spread awareness of CSR offerings by:

  • Using a matching gift tool with auto-submission capabilities. Make it effortless for donors to secure a matched gift from their company by integrating a matching gift tool with auto-submission into your giving page. This software allows supporters to request a matching gift from their employers without the tedious work of submitting forms to the company. Instead, they simply input their work email address into the system and the software submits a request on the donor’s behalf.
  • Hosting a matching gift Giving Day. By hosting a Giving Day specifically geared towards generating matching gifts, you can activate urgency for your cause and inspire donors to check their employer’s matching gift programs.
  • Creating calls-to-action leading to your CSR information page. First, write an informational page on your website explaining everything a donor needs to know about CSR. Then, include clickable call-to-action banners in your email messages that promote the page. 

Empowering your donors to leverage CSR supercharges your fundraising potential and inspires supporters to continue impacting your mission, with the help of their employer.

Send personalized milestone greetings.

Keeping in touch with donors about personal milestones is important for establishing rapport and showing that you care about them as people. Some milestones you could reach out on include:

  • Birthdays
  • Work anniversaries
  • Anniversaries of supporting your organization
  • Holidays
  • Wedding anniversaries

Using your CRM, keep track of any personal information you gather about your donors through casual conversations with them. Then, set reminders so you can send your custom messages on time. Don’t forget to make your messages pop by using your nonprofit’s branding or by sending an eCard.

Wrapping Up 

Maintaining strong connections with donors over time can be difficult, especially when aiding your beneficiaries is your top priority. But, by incorporating donor retention best practices and activities, you can spark interest in your cause while cultivating long-term relationships and support. 

Plus, your nonprofit has many options for structuring your retention efforts, from sending eCards to offering exclusive branded merchandise. Ultimately, as long as your team shows your authentic appreciation for your donor’s support and demonstrates their significant impact, you’ll have a sustainable donor retention rate for years to come.

Additional Resources

The Beginner’s Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Marketing. Want to learn how to level up your marketing efforts to acquire and retain more donors? Learn from the experts at NXUnite in this guide.

Upcoming Webinars, Panels, and Discussions with Industry Experts. NXUnite gathers all of the nonprofit professionals in one place for insightful discussions via panels and webinars. Join the conversation by signing up today!

Donor Recognition: A Strategic Guide to Showing Appreciation. Once you’ve acquired or retained your donors, thanking them for their support is crucial. Secure long-lasting relationships with donors by following the unique tips in this guide.

NXUnite panels can help you learn even more donor retention tips and best practices. Click the button to sign up!
Learn how to raise funds and nurture supporter relationships on social media by employing these nonprofit social media fundraising tips.

Inspiring Social Support: 5 Social Media Fundraising Tips

With 4.76 billion social media users across the globe, each spending over 2.5 hours on the platforms every day, it’s clear that nonprofits must incorporate social media into their fundraising and donor communication strategies.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can empower your organization to spread the word about its cause, cultivate enduring relationships around the world, and raise significant funds to further its mission.

For nonprofits interested in leveling up their social media fundraising strategy, we’ll walk through five impactful tips to generate more revenue from social platforms:

  1. Leverage social media fundraising tools.
  2. Share impact frequently.
  3. Cultivate one-on-one relationships with supporters.
  4. Evaluate your fundraising results.
  5. Express gratitude to donors.

It’s no secret that the key to successful fundraising and donor engagement lies in meeting your supporters where they are. Today, you’ll find many of them eager to interact with and contribute to your nonprofit on social media. Let’s jump right into the best ways to inspire their support.

1. Leverage social media fundraising tools.

Social media is a powerful tool for uniting people around the world under common interests, values, or causes. With this in mind, many platforms have developed features that make it easy for nonprofits to gather support and raise funds. For instance, since Meta’s fundraising tools first became available, organizations and their supporters have raised over $7 billion on Facebook and Instagram.

Therefore, making use of the social media fundraising tools at your nonprofit’s disposal can boost your results. For example, according to GoodUnited, Facebook offers a wide array of useful fundraising tools, including:

  • Birthday fundraisers. Around their birthdays or other occasions, Facebook allows users to take the lead in fundraising for your nonprofit. About two weeks in advance, users will typically receive a notification prompting them to create a birthday fundraiser to celebrate their special day. When they select your nonprofit, their fundraiser will auto-populate with your Facebook cover photo and mission statement, ready to be shared with their personal networks to collect contributions on your behalf.
  • Facebook Challenges. Your nonprofit can engage existing supporters and attract new ones by hosting a Facebook Challenge. To start one, you’ll need to choose a Challenge activity, preferably related to your cause, such as completing 50 jumping jacks each day for a whole month. Then, gather participants in a Facebook group to build a supportive community throughout the Challenge and raise funds in this peer-to-peer event.
  • Donate buttons. Make it convenient for donors to give directly on the platform by adding Facebook’s Donate button to your nonprofit’s page and posts. Since this button appears on reshared posts as well, this is an excellent way to reach a wider audience and secure additional support.

While it’s important to establish a social media presence on several different platforms to reach supporters of varying demographics and preferences, be sure to identify the most relevant ones to your organization’s goals and target audience. This allows you to better focus your efforts and maximize your results.

2. Share impact frequently on social media.

To achieve optimal results with social media fundraising tools, however, your nonprofit will have to inspire supporters to get and stay involved. It’s essential to share impact on a regular basis so existing and prospective donors understand exactly how you’re effecting positive change with your work.

Compelling visuals and impact videos tend to be particularly successful in catching a user’s eye, so lean into the power of graphic design as you communicate your organization’s impact. Ensure that the images, colors, and symbols in your posts all cohesively convey your mission and branding.

One of eCardWidget’s donor retention strategies centers on sharing detailed and specific impact stories to keep supporters motivated. For example, after a Facebook Challenge, a health-related nonprofit can share that the funds raised enabled it to launch and run a new prevention program in the community. This helps donors feel proud of their contributions and enthusiastic to continue giving.

3. Cultivate one-on-one relationships with social media supporters.

Social media users can generate massive support for your nonprofit organization if you engage with them effectively. Facebook fundraisers, for instance, leverage the power of your supporters’ individual networks to boost awareness and raise funds for your nonprofit. 

However, the end of a Facebook fundraiser doesn’t have to be the end of your relationship with the supporter who created it or with those who donated. By properly stewarding them, you can create social media connections that stand the test of time.

To accomplish this, engage in conversational messaging with supporters. Facebook Messenger makes the process easy. Let’s say a user creates a birthday fundraiser on Facebook and encourages their friends and family to donate to your nonprofit in lieu of birthday gifts. Your nonprofit can use conversational messaging to provide them with a personalized experience by sending them encouragement, sharing tips for success, and expressing gratitude.

4. Evaluate your social media fundraising results.

Collecting data is crucial for any nonprofit fundraising initiative because it can generate productive insights that you can apply to future efforts. When it comes to social media fundraising, your nonprofit should keep track of:

  • Fundraisers created by supporters on your behalf
  • Transaction reports
  • Average size of gifts made to fundraisers
  • Average number of donations made to each fundraiser
  • Number of new donors who gave

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns can travel far on social media, spreading from network to network and boosting awareness for your nonprofit. Make the most of this fundraising method by constantly seeking ways to optimize your strategy for greater results.

5. Express gratitude to social media donors.

No fundraising strategy is complete without having a plan in place to recognize donors and express appreciation for their support. When it comes to social media fundraising, the first step is identifying everyone who has made a gift to your organization. Facebook’s donation reports list basic donor information, such as the individual’s first and last name, and potentially an email address.

When reaching out to these donors, be sure to:

  • Personalize your thank-you. Rather than sending a generic, blanket thank-you message to your donors on social media, strive to incorporate each individual’s preferred name and specific gift amount to show that your nonprofit values them personally.
  • Suggest additional opportunities to contribute. Based on how each donor interacts with your organization, provide other ways they may be interested in supporting your mission, from volunteering to attending a fundraising event.
  • Encourage continued connection, such as through conversational messaging. Apart from thanking supporters, you can ask questions or send surveys to gather information on what compels them to give to your nonprofit.

Thanking donors on Facebook and other social media platforms will not only boost your nonprofit’s donor retention rate, but will also build a reputation of gratitude and sincerity around your organization online. Furthermore, by spotlighting individual contributions, you can inspire others to join in through social proof.

Social media platforms have become popular hubs for nonprofits to acquire, engage, and steward supporters around the world. This means that there is plenty for your organization to do to maximize your social media fundraising results.

To reduce the time and effort it takes to nurture strong connections and raise revenue on social media, consider working with a company that can manage the process for you. After all, your nonprofit’s ultimate focus is on making a lasting difference in the community while continuing to generate the funds to do so.

Healthcare Data Cleansing: Frequently Asked Questions

Did you know that every patient generates millions of detailed records in real-time? That’s a lot of data to collect, store, and make comprehensible. Not to mention, healthcare organizations must take special care to adhere to regulatory requirements across several different data types.

That’s where healthcare data cleansing comes in. This necessary process keeps healthcare data sets from becoming unusable which can have severe consequences. In this guide, we’ll explore data cleansing in depth by answering the following questions:

  • What is healthcare data cleansing? 
  • What causes dirty data?
  • What are the benefits of healthcare data cleansing?
  • How can healthcare organizations maintain proper data hygiene? 

Keep in mind that healthcare data cleansing requires a robust data platform that can either be built in-house by a team of analysts and data scientists or bought through a vendor. Whichever solution your team chooses, it will need to be scalable to keep up with an increase in data over time. With this in mind, let’s explore data cleansing in greater detail. 

What is healthcare data cleansing?

Healthcare data cleansing, also called healthcare data scrubbing or cleaning, is an essential part of data hygiene and refers to the process of identifying and rectifying errors within a healthcare data set. This data set is integrated from a variety of sources such as EHRs, claims systems, lab systems, and administrative databases stored within a centralized healthcare data warehouse.

How often your organization cleans its data set is dependent on several factors, including:

  • The size of your organization
  • The volume of data collected 
  • The speed at which data is collected 
  • The associated regulatory and compliance requirements
  • The desired outcomes of your collected data 

Healthcare organizations must regularly clean their data to maintain quality standards. The frequency of data cleansing will be determined by the data quality controls put in place within your existing workflows. 

What causes dirty healthcare data?

Dirty healthcare data is caused by a variety of factors that can quickly add up and cause severe system roadblocks. These factors include:

  • Duplicate data: Because data is inputted from several sources, it can be easy to incur data duplications. This slows down your data reporting and analysis processes and makes it difficult to draw meaningful insights. 
  • Inaccurate data: Data reporting errors from patients or providers can invalidate your data set and cause lasting issues that may take significant time to resolve. 
  • Incomplete data: Omissions, forgotten updates, and missing data all prevent a full patient picture which could lead to workplace inefficiencies at best and inaccurate patient diagnoses and treatments at worst. 

In a system as large as healthcare, data collection errors are bound to happen. To prevent them ahead of time, create standardized rules for accurate data entry and task team members to audit your database on a regular basis to locate errors.

What are the benefits of healthcare data cleansing? 

A clean data set can work wonders for your organization. In fact, the benefits of healthcare data cleansing can be tracked across several key measures: 

  • Operational and cost efficiency: A clean data set saves both operational time and money. This means that your team will spend less time sifting through incomplete data while maximizing your resources. 
  • Data storage efficiency: Most data is stored within a healthcare data warehouse and must undergo substantial cleaning efforts to transform from raw data to usable data. Quality measures ensure that your organization has access to a structured, organized healthcare data warehouse. 
  • Data analytics accuracy: Analytics tools help your organization visualize health outcomes which include risk adjustment analysis, population health management, and patient engagement among others. Clean data keeps these analytic reports accurate and up to date.  
  • Improved patient outcomes: Because each data point represents an individual patient, a clean data set provides the chance to improve patient outcomes at a quicker rate. Which means providers can access the right information and the right time.
  • Enhanced billing processes: Correct data streamlines the payor and patient billing process and prevents unnecessary costs. In turn, your organization can better approach financial reporting. 

The bottom line: A clean healthcare data set is essential for data-backed decision-making. With comprehensive data quality measures in place, your organization can see measurable growth across major stakeholders. 

How can healthcare organizations maintain proper data hygiene?

On the ground level, healthcare data cleansing can be understood as a series of steps or ordered processes. These steps include: 

  1. Validation: Your data must be validated for accuracy, completeness, and consistency during this initial data cleansing phase. Data analysts identify and remove discrepancies and duplications to ensure data accuracy.
  1. Standardization: Once data discrepancies are eliminated or appropriately evaluated, data analysts must standardize data formats so that they match. For instance, an analyst must ensure that a patient with a recently changed last name is accurately represented.
  1. Error Correction: Data professionals must detect and correct any remaining inconsistencies. This process may include outlier detection, data profiling, and other methods to resolve inaccuracies. 
  1. Completeness verification: Incomplete data is assessed and missing values are accounted for and properly documented using appropriate methods.
  1. Integration: Data is then consolidated or integrated from several sources into one data set (while adhering to privacy laws) also known as a healthcare data warehouse. Then, the usable data can be extracted for meaningful analysis. 
  1. Review and monitoring: Data is reviewed and monitored on a regular basis to ensure quality and accuracy measures are sufficiently met. Data audits, quality assurance checks, and external data validation are all a part of this process. 

Because this process can be involved, many organizations turn to healthcare data professionals to outsource their data collection, cleaning, and analysis. Often, data scientists and analysts are forced to write elaborate queries for unstable and untrustworthy databases, but data platforms like Arcadia Foundry can simplify several data collection and analysis processes. 

These platforms are built for analysts by analysts and are consistently enriched with clean, quality data, so organizations don’t have to rely on their own cleansing and standardization processes to extract meaningful insights. 

Maintaining an accurate, usable healthcare data set requires consistent data cleansing. If your organization decides to perform its own data cleansing be sure to follow the outlined best practices for quality assurance. If your organization decides to outsource its data cleansing to a vendor, make sure they offer comprehensive and reliable services. 

About the Author: Nick Stepro

Nick Stepro is the Chief Product Officer at Arcadia, where he leads the design of the next wave of advanced healthcare analytics applications — including Arcadia Analytics, which has been praised as having one of the best user interfaces in the industry. He has worked with large health systems and payers to design and execute on innovative clinical integration and business intelligence strategies to drive improved health outcomes and reduced system costs.
Nick believes in good design and data visualization. When combined with focused expertise in analytics, healthcare and business process, the results are intuitive data-driven applications that empower users to dramatically improve the way they run their businesses. His data visualization work has been covered on NPR, U.S. News and World Report, Medical Ethics Advisor, and elsewhere. Becker’s Health IT and CIO Review recently named him one of “31 Health IT and Revenue Cycle Whiz Kids” to watch. He has spoken at Medcity CONVERGE, AMIA, and HIMSS and has been a guest lecturer on data visualization at Georgia Tech. In December 2016, he was the closing speaker at the CCO Oregon Cost of Care conference.

This ultimate volunteer appreciation guide shares wonderful ideas to help recognize volunteers.

Volunteer Appreciation: How to Recognize Unsung Heroes

Part of running your nonprofit is learning how to develop a thriving base of supporters. That means you need to learn how to source donors and volunteers. As a volunteer manager, you’re tasked with motivating volunteers to stick around. That means you need to know the ins and outs of volunteer appreciation.

While they don’t expect anything in return, volunteers deserve an occasional “thank you” at the very least. However, you’ll really foster connections with them by singing their praises and going above and beyond by recognizing volunteers on a deeper level.

From learning the basics of retention to sourcing new ideas, we’ll provide you with everything you need to establish (or revitalize) your volunteer appreciation strategies. That way, you can confidently inspire your volunteers to stick around. Here’s what you can expect to learn throughout this guide:

Your volunteers are your nonprofit’s unsung heroes. They serve your organization day in and day out, all because of their passion for your mission. Make sure they’re just as passionate on day 100 as they are on day 1 by following the tips we share in this guide. Let’s dive in!

Use eCardWidget to thank your volunteers with our favorite volunteer appreciation gift: eCards.
Here's a breakdown of what volunteer appreciation is.

What Is Volunteer Appreciation?

Volunteer appreciation refers to the act of recognizing and expressing gratitude for the generosity of those who freely offer their time, skills, and resources to support an organization. It involves acknowledging the selfless service and impact volunteers make, showing gratitude for their commitment, and ensuring they feel like a valued part of your cause.

Volunteer appreciation can take different forms, such as verbal expressions of gratitude, written thank-you notes, special events, and personalized gestures. By showing you value volunteers, your nonprofit can honor their contributions and cultivate a supportive volunteer culture that encourages ongoing relationships.

This section explains why you should recognize volunteers.

Why Volunteer Appreciation Matters

You work hard to source new volunteers and want them to stick around. That’s why you need to express your gratitude to them regularly and authentically.

These individuals selflessly dedicate their time and skills to support your cause, and it can be easy to take that for granted. Luckily, saying “thanks” can go a long way!

Expressing genuine gratitude means you can:

  • Acknowledge the invaluable role they play, strengthening their connection to your organization.
  • Foster a sense of belonging, motivation, and satisfaction among volunteers, leading to increased engagement and supporter retention.
  • Establish a supportive and inclusive environment, inspiring others to get involved and contribute their time and talents.
Common benefits of volunteer appreciation include strengthening connection and fostering a supportive, inclusive environment.

Overall, recognizing and valuing volunteers means you can inspire continued support and build a strong foundation for ongoing collaboration in achieving your mission.

The frequency of volunteer appreciation depends on a few factors.

How Frequently You Should Express Appreciation

The short answer is there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to volunteer appreciation. Rather, the frequency of volunteer appreciation varies across nonprofits. It all depends on your organization’s size, resources, and volunteer involvement.

Generally speaking, we recommend expressing appreciation regularly to ensure volunteers feel valued for their contributions. When establishing your volunteer appreciation cadence, here’s the frequency we recommend for different tactics:

  • Ongoing through verbal expressions of gratitude and thank-you notes after volunteer events
  • Monthly or quarterly via volunteer spotlights and public recognition to highlight standout volunteers
  • Annually alongside annual nonprofit events or milestones (like National Volunteer Week or your organization’s anniversary) to showcase supporters’ collective impact

Ultimately, the key is to make volunteer appreciation a continual practice rather than a one-time occurrence, reinforcing volunteers’ vital role in your nonprofit’s mission.

Here are several of our favorite volunteer appreciation gifts.

Our Favorite Volunteer Appreciation Gifts

With a solid understanding of volunteer appreciation, you’re now ready to venture into brainstorming ideas for expressing gratitude. We took some time to procure some of our favorite volunteer appreciation gifts and ideas that your supporters are sure to love!

Remember to pick the ones that will resonate with your unique base of supporters. You may even want to segment your supporters within your volunteer management system based on the types of appreciation they prefer. For example, do they prefer personal, one-on-one appreciation or a public shout-out? Either way, we’ll provide plenty of ideas that will fit anyone’s preferences.

Our favorite volunteer appreciation gifts are thank-you eCards.

Thank You eCards

This volunteer appreciation strategy stands the test of time. People have used greeting cards to express gratitude for years, whether they wanted to show appreciation for a gift or say thanks for lending a helping hand. Now, your nonprofit can take this strategy to the digital space thanks to eCards!

This is an example of a volunteer appreciation eCard from Youth For Understanding.

Online greeting cards have countless uses, especially for nonprofits. They’re perfect for raising money, inviting supporters to events, spreading cause awareness, and strengthening supporter relationships. Here’s how eCards work as volunteer appreciation gifts:

  1. Design a collection of thank-you eCards branded to your nonprofit.
  2. Embed your eCards into a page on your website.
  3. Your staff, beneficiaries, or other volunteers can choose their favorite designs, customize a message, and send them to standout volunteers.
  4. The eCard is delivered to the volunteer’s inbox.

To power this volunteer appreciation idea, choose a user-friendly eCard platform. We recommend our friends at eCardWidget.

The platform comes equipped with user-friendly design tools that make it easy to design thank-you eCards with any fonts, colors, and graphics you want. It even has templates to kickstart the design process. Once you’re ready to go, you can embed the convenient widget into your website and direct people to your site to send eCards to impactful volunteers!

Use eCardWidget to get started with our top volunteer appreciation gift: eCards.
Recognize volunteers with gift cards to local restaurants and other businesses.

Gift Cards

From shopping to eating, there’s a gift card out there for everyone. Chat with your corporate sponsors and ask if they’re willing to spare some free gift cards. Chances are, socially-responsible companies would be more than happy to lend a hand.

A few great places to check include:

  • Local restaurants
  • Nearby coffee shops
  • Grocery stores or other businesses
  • Wellness businesses like spas and yoga studios

Bonus points if you can find a company that correlates with your mission! For example, if you work at an environmental organization, you might partner with a local plant nursery.

The amount you load onto each card should align with how much time someone’s given to your nonprofit. In other words, don’t give a brand-new volunteer a $200 gift card to a fancy restaurant.

Throw a volunteer appreciation dinner for your supporters.

Volunteer Appreciation Dinner

Bring your volunteers together for some delicious food and meaningful conversations by hosting a volunteer appreciation dinner. Invite volunteers to enjoy a meal and socialize with organizational leaders, staff members, and fellow volunteers. Doing so offers the opportunity to recognize the volunteers’ hard work and impact on your mission, while also allowing them to interact with others who are just as passionate.

Add some speeches or a presentation to the agenda, providing plenty of time to acknowledge individuals, highlight their achievements, and communicate heartfelt appreciation.

By establishing a warm atmosphere during the evening, you’ll foster a sense of community and ensure volunteers feel celebrated for their selfless service.

Custom apparel branded to your nonprofit is a fun way to recognize volunteers.

Branded Apparel

Your nonprofit can offer t-shirts and other apparel as a creative way to thank your volunteers. Not to mention, this doubles as a nonprofit marketing strategy. Each time they wear your nonprofit’s t-shirt or use your tote bag, they’ll amplify your mission to other community members.

Here are a few volunteer-specific apparel ideas to get the ball rolling:

  • Branded Volunteer Apparel: Distribute t-shirts, hats, tote bags, or other apparel branded with your organization’s logo and colors alongside a special volunteer appreciation message. Volunteers can then wear their custom shirts proudly any chance they get.
  • Volunteer Uniforms: If your organization has an ongoing volunteer program, provide volunteers with designated branded apparel they can wear when lending a hand. Providing them with free volunteer t-shirts and hats will create a sense of belonging and foster team spirit!
  • Achievement Badges: Encourage volunteers to strive for greatness by offering special badges or patches that recognize their accomplishments. For example, offer badges for milestones like hours served or years of volunteering. They can attach their patches to apparel, so they can wear their badges with honor. Not to mention, the patches may even spark conversations, allowing volunteers to share their inspirational experiences.

Even if you have some leftovers from your recent t-shirt fundraiser, giving the spares to committed volunteers can go a long way.

Show your appreciation, boost morale, and offer a visual representation of your dedicated community with this volunteer appreciation gift! After all, who wouldn’t want to show off their passion for your cause?

Give personalized awards as volunteer appreciation gifts.

Custom Awards Ceremony

Craft awards that recognize exceptional volunteers in categories like leadership, impact, and commitment. Then, honor the winners and publicly acknowledge their admirable contributions by holding an awards ceremony. You can create custom awards like:

  • Rising Star Volunteer
  • Volunteer Team of The Year
  • Most Hours Served

Transform it into a celebratory event by featuring speeches, music, and other interactive elements. There’s no better way to engage and appreciate volunteers than by hosting a full-blown event in their honor!

Give away local event tickets as volunteer appreciation gifts.

Local Event Tickets

Connect volunteers with the community they work so hard to serve by giving them tickets to local events. Chances are, they’d love to stroll through a local festival or have a night out to the movies.

Take a look at your community’s event calendar and find events your volunteers will enjoy, such as:

  • Local concerts or music festivals
  • Sporting events
  • Performing arts shows
  • Arts exhibitions and museums
  • Community festivals or street fairs
  • Historical or cultural tours
  • Entertainment events like movie showings

This is a great opportunity to immerse volunteers in your community’s culture. Just remember to tailor this volunteer appreciation gift to the individual.

Self-care packages make for thoughtful volunteer appreciation gifts.

Wellness Packages

Show you care about your volunteers’ well-being by sending custom self-care packages. This volunteer appreciation gift can include various items that encourage relaxation and overall wellness.

Here are some theme ideas for crafting the ultimate wellness packages:

  • Bath and body products such as scented candles and bath bombs to create a soothing environment
  • Mindfulness resources like a journal and a meditation app subscription
  • Healthy snacks and herbal teas to boost nutrition
  • Fitness items like a yoga mat, foam roller, and water bottles to encourage healthy lifestyles

Pricing for these volunteer gifts can quickly add up, so be sure to send these only to your most committed volunteers. By sending a custom self-care package, your nonprofit can show it recognizes the importance of self-care.

Have a social outing to show volunteer appreciation.

Social Events

Encourage your social butterfly volunteers to hang out at a social event. There are plenty of ways you can bring your volunteer community together to say thanks, whether you want to party on a budget or splurge. You might host one of these fun events:

  • Potluck dinner or picnic: Host a casual dinner or a picnic at an outdoor venue where volunteers can enjoy a fun-filled time with their families and fellow volunteers.
  • Field day: Encourage some healthy competition by arranging a field day with all sorts of games. Volunteers can sign up in teams or opt to be paired up with other stragglers.
  • Movie night: Host a movie night where volunteers can relax, enjoy a film, and chat with one another. You might even choose a film related to your mission or let them vote on the movie beforehand.
  • Group hiking or nature walk: Organize a day out in nature at a local park or scenic area. Volunteers can come together to enjoy the outdoors and one another’s company.
  • Local attractions or cultural events: Arrange outings to local museums or cultural fairs where volunteers can enjoy shared experiences and explore their community together.

Social outings are perfect for helping volunteers enjoy the community and bond over their shared experiences. These events are also great for getting some face-to-face time with staff.

Recognize volunteers by shouting out your committed supporters on social media.

Social Media Spotlights

Social media plays an instrumental part in many people’s lives. Liven up your followers’ feeds by shining the spotlight on outstanding volunteers.

From Instagram to Facebook, your nonprofit can provide a volunteer appreciation gift that honorees can share with their networks.

  • Volunteer of the Week/Month: Create a dedicated post highlighting a standout volunteer each week or month. Conduct a short interview, so you can showcase their story, accomplishments, motivations, and impact they’ve made on your community and cause.
  • User-Generated Volunteer Testimonials: Ask volunteers to share their volunteer experiences. Encourage them to post on their personal social media accounts and tag your organization. Then, repost these testimonials on your organization’s social media pages to showcase the positive impact of volunteering.
  • Volunteer Achievements: Celebrate significant milestones your volunteers reach. You might call out individuals who achieve a certain number of volunteer hours or help push a major initiative forward.

When featuring your volunteers on social media, obtain their consent first. Some volunteers might prefer a different volunteer appreciation gift, so respect their privacy preferences!

As a volunteer appreciation gift, make tribute donations.

Donation in Their Name

Your volunteers offer their time and skills to further your mission. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to donate too!

Donate in a volunteer’s name as a way to express gratitude and recognize their hard work. By making this gesture, you can deepen the volunteer’s connection to your organization and establish a sense of pride in knowing their work is making a difference.

Not to mention, donating in a volunteer’s name can serve as a form of public volunteer recognition, showcasing their commitment to your cause. Whether you donate to your cause or another one they support, this will go a long way in communicating that you appreciate the volunteer’s dedication.

Bonus tip: Volunteer grants are an easy way to further a volunteer’s impact. Through this type of program, their employer will donate to a nonprofit where they regularly volunteer.

This section explores a handful of ways you can take volunteer appreciation to the next level.

Best Practices for Effectively Recognizing Volunteers

Now, you’re armed with some incredible volunteer appreciation gifts your supporters will love. Not so fast, though! You need to know how to choose the best ones for your unique group of supporters.

When selecting your favorites, create the ultimate plan to recognize volunteers with these tips:

Recognize volunteers effectively by personalizing gifts, matching preferences, being creative, infusing your brand, and being prompt.
  • Personalize your gifts when you can. Reference their exact contributions when you can. That’s what makes nonprofit eCards and volunteer awards so great. For example, you can incorporate a volunteer’s name and a custom message into your personalized eCards. Or, you can choose a unique award for each volunteer.
  • Match volunteers’ preferences. Not everyone loves public recognition. Chat with volunteers to see which volunteer appreciation gifts they’d enjoy.
  • Be creative. Give gifts that people will remember, and infuse your nonprofit’s voice when possible. Something as simple as personalizing an eCard can elevate a traditional thank-you email.
  • Promptly thank volunteers. Time is of the essence! Recognize volunteers as soon as possible. While digital gifts can be sent instantly, physical gifts and experiences will take longer than others to deliver.
  • Incorporate your nonprofit’s branding. Your volunteers love your cause, so make sure any gift you send relates to your cause. Infusing your nonprofit branding can be as simple as using your logo, colors, and fonts on a t-shirt or eCard.

Implementing these tips will empower you to communicate your genuine appreciation. You’ll boost volunteer engagement and retention in no time!

Check out some additional resources that'll help with your volunteer appreciation strategies.

Wrapping Up: The Impact of Volunteer Appreciation

An incredible 63 million Americans (AKA 25% of the adult population) volunteer their time and talents to make a difference according to Nonprofits Source’s online giving statistics page. However, the industry volunteer retention rate hovers around 65%. That means 1 in 3 volunteers will quit serving your nonprofit sooner than expected.

Make sure your volunteers’ selfless efforts don’t go unrecognized! Otherwise, you risk losing them to another cause. While their acts of service are selfless, everyone loves an occasional thank you. By proactively recognizing your volunteers, you’ll communicate that you want them to stick around.

If you’re looking for more best practices, we’ve pulled together some resources for you. Explore these to continue learning about effective volunteer management:

Create eCards with eCardWidget to start leveraging our favorite volunteer appreciation gift idea.
A person stands at a desk looking at a computer. Text: "Boosting Virtual Member Engagement: The Definitive Guide"

Boosting Virtual Member Engagement: The Definitive Guide

Member engagement is a driving force in growing your association. Fonteva’s guide to member engagement defines this term as “the ongoing outreach and interactions between associations and their members to keep constituents informed, educated, and motivated to continue their memberships.” With an engaged membership base, your organization will see increased retention, a stronger community, and even increased non-dues revenue.

When planning for your association’s future, it’s crucial to consider how you will keep current members engaged while attracting new ones. Improving member engagement will require you to explore your association’s strengths and weaknesses as well as your members’ needs and preferences. To get started, you’ll need to employ the following strategies:

  1. Set goals and choose engagement strategies.
  2. Understand and appeal to members.
  3. Prioritize community building.

In this guide, we’ll break down each of these tactics and how they will put you on the path toward deeper virtual engagement. Let’s get started! 

1. Set goals and choose engagement metrics.

Outlining the goals you’d like to achieve must be the first step you take toward increased engagement. The goals your organization chooses will dictate which initiatives you focus on, how resources are allocated, and which metrics you’ll need to track in order to measure success.

To get started, look at your association’s past performance. You might reference member surveys to understand what areas could use improvement, developing goals meant to target those weaknesses. The goals you create should be structured as “SMART” goals, or goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Let’s say you want to boost your association’s social media presence. One of your goals could be to increase your LinkedIn follower count from 500 to 1,000 within the next year. Because this goal uses a specific number and timeframe, is realistic, and is relevant to your objective, it qualifies as a SMART goal.

Once you’ve settled on a few engagement goals for your association, it’s important to start tracking metrics related to those goals so you can accurately measure your progress. Here are some common key performance indicators (KPIs) that can help you track improvements in virtual member engagement:

  • Social media metrics: Social media provides a treasure trove of useful data about users and how they interact with your page. You can track your follower count, likes, comments, shares, click-through rates, and more (depending on your goals). To narrow down which metrics you’ll track, remind yourself of your goals and develop KPIs that directly apply to those goals.
  • Virtual event KPIs: If your association holds virtual or hybrid events, make sure to measure the engagement of virtual attendees (just like you would for in-person attendees). You can measure factors like registrations, actual attendance, returning and new attendees, and participation time.
  • Email marketing engagement: Emails likely play a big role in how your association attracts new members and connects with existing ones to keep them in the loop. You can track how engaged members are in your announcements, newsletters, fundraising prompts, or other campaigns by measuring metrics like open rates, click-throughs, conversions, and unsubscribes.

Many of these metrics can be tracked using an association management tool to create custom reports to visualize your organization’s performance. These reports provide a much more accurate, easy-to-understand way to analyze association data.

2. Understand and appeal to members.

After deciding on your association’s core engagement goals and identifying how you’ll measure progress, you’ll need to start implementing strategies that improve engagement opportunities for members.

If your organization is seeing low engagement rates across the board, your current offerings may not align with what members are looking for. To make the switch to discussing topics and holding events your members will be excited about, you’ll need to learn more about their interests.

Here are some of the strategies you can use to understand your members and adjust association activities to meet their needs:

  • Send out surveys. Surveys are a great way to see inside your members’ minds and hear directly from them what they expect from your organization. There are many kinds of surveys you can send, depending on what you want to learn from members. You might send more general surveys asking about their interests, or narrow the subject by asking how your virtual engagement strategies could be better. Another popular way to get member feedback is by sending post-event surveys (ideally, there should be separate surveys for in-person and virtual attendees).
  • Segment members. Create groups of members based on shared characteristics like their interests, tendencies, or preferences. For example, you might create a subset of members who take advantage of almost all of your continued learning opportunities and further segment these members by their communication preferences. Then, you can direct communications about the opportunities and subjects they are interested in to those segments as appropriate.
  • Set up a variety of engagement opportunities. Because your members each have different preferences and goals, make sure to offer various engagement opportunities to address their unique needs. Options for virtual engagement can include virtual events, meetings, learning opportunities, and discussion forums, all providing a different way to connect and build a community. For instance, members who want to expand their network and form relationships outside of association events and meetings may use your membership directory most often.

Taking an approach that focuses primarily on meeting individuals’ needs rather than creating a blanket solution will make all members feel included and catered to. Over time, this careful consideration will help build more positive member experiences.

3. Prioritize community building.

Additional engagement opportunities like fun events or fundraisers can help add value to the membership. These activities strengthen the bonds between members in your community, leading to increased renewals and member retention rates. While you may think of these events as being limited to in-person annual dinners, there are virtual and hybrid options you can extend to remote members as well (like a quarterly virtual happy hour). 

Fundraisers are a great way to unite your members for a common cause, whether you are fundraising for your association or on behalf of a charitable organization. To get members more engaged in the fundraising process, you can put together a member-led fundraising committee. Give this committee specific responsibilities like developing fundraising ideas, planning fundraisers, and executing fundraising events.

After your event or fundraiser wraps up, always remember to thank those who attended or donated. These thank yous will keep members coming back to your events or donating in the future. Keep in mind that the time period following a successful event or fundraiser can be a good opportunity to send renewal reminders, if applicable.

Virtual member engagement goes beyond encouraging connections between individual members and your association. It also motivates members to connect with one another, building a web of professional relationships that they can leverage to advance their careers, further their education, and secure exciting new opportunities. To achieve this level of engagement and give members the experiences they are looking for, be sure to select a membership management platform that will make implementing new strategies and measuring your progress simple.

This guide will cover the basics of Google Ad Grant Agencies and five options you can partner with.

The Complete Guide to Google Ad Grant Agencies: 5 Options

The Google Ad Grant gives nonprofits access to Google Ads, allowing them to enhance their digital marketing plan. Nonprofits who receive this grant will receive $10,000 every month to spend on Google Ads, which appear at the top of Google’s search results pages.

However, there are parts of the Google Ad Grant that are complex and may require knowledge that your nonprofit staff lack. In that case, you may want to work with a professional in the field, such as a Google Ad Grant agency.

This article will give you the rundown on Google Ad Grant agencies and what your nonprofit should know about working with one. Here’s what we’ll cover:

A Google Ad Grants agency can lend your nonprofit the experience and knowledge necessary to apply for and use the Google Ad Grant strategically. This allows your nonprofit to efficiently grow its online presence and reach a larger audience, resulting in more supporters, volunteers, and donors. These individuals help your nonprofit drive the impact that you desire, allowing you to work more efficiently towards your goals. So let’s dive into what a Google Ad Grant agency is!

Click through to schedule a free consultation with the Google Ad Grant agency Getting Attention.
Let’s dive into what a Google Ad Grant agency is.

What is a Google Ad Grant Agency?

A Google Ad Grant agency is a professional organization that can help your nonprofit optimize your Google Ad Grant strategy. While some of these agencies focus wholly on Google Ad Grants, other agencies offer Google Ad Grant services as one of many other digital marketing services.

These agencies are designed to take the pressure off your nonprofit’s staff to create and manage your Google Ad Grant account. With their professional touch, they’ll be able to launch campaigns that help you achieve your desired results.

Learn more about how a Google Ad Grant agency can help your nonprofit.

How Can a Google Ad Grant Agency Help Your Nonprofit?

Much like other types of marketing consultants for nonprofits, Google Ad Grant agencies can help your nonprofit in multiple ways. Some common features that these agencies offer as part of their Google Ad Grant services include:

This clipboard graphic shows some common services Google Ad Grant agencies provide, detailed in the text below.
  • Google Ad Grant application: Unlike other grant applications, the Google Ad Grant application requires more of a back-and-forth with Google. A professional agency will handle the account creation and application tasks for you.
  • Account management: A Google Ad Grant agency will monitor your account, ensure that it complies with the Google Ad Grant’s complicated guidelines, and reactivate it if necessary.
  • Keyword research: A successful Google Ad strategy relies on the thoughtful use of keywords. An agency will have the experience and tools necessary to choose keywords that will help you reach your desired audience.
  • Landing page optimization: Your Google Ad will direct traffic to landing pages. To encourage further engagement with your nonprofit’s website, a Google Ad Grant agency will help optimize your landing pages.
  • Create and optimize onsite content: Having an appealing landing page isn’t enough to engage potential supporters, you’ll also need helpful and interesting onsite content. Not only will Google Ad Grant agencies optimize already existing content, but some will also create new content for you.
  • Campaign management: In order to make the most of your Google Ad Grant, you’ll want multiple ad campaigns running for different keywords. Tracking these campaigns can get complicated, which is why Google Ad Grant agencies will help you by managing your campaigns for you.

Essentially, Google Ad Grant agencies can take over all the work associated with your Google Ad Grant account. This can be immensely helpful for nonprofits that don’t have the capacity to maintain their account consistently, yet need the traffic the ads drive to help them recruit new supporters.

Click through to schedule a free consultation with the Google Ad Grant agency Getting Attention.
Let’s cover the benefits of working with a Google Ad Grant agency.

What Are the Benefits of Working with a Google Ad Grant Agency?

One of the major benefits of working with a Google Ad Grant agency is the comprehensive list of services they provide. However, there are other benefits that nonprofits can reap from a partnership, such as:

This graphic lists four benefits of working with a Google Ad Grants agency, which are described in the text below.
  • Time saved: Nonprofit employees are often spread thin, so outsourcing the work of managing your Google Ad Grants will result in more time for your staff to allocate to other tasks and reduced stress.
  • Professional experience: Even if your nonprofit’s staff members have the capacity to work on your Google Ad Grant account, the program can be a learning curve for those just getting started. A Google Ad Grant agency will have the professional knowledge and experience to efficiently and strategically handle all tasks that arise from your Google Ad Grant account.
  • Consistent upkeep and maintenance: To keep up with Google search trends, your Google Ad Grant agency will consistently check on your account, evaluate how well your campaigns are performing, and make any necessary adjustments to your strategy. Your nonprofit will benefit from the regularity of these improvements.
  • Clear reporting: Google Ad Grant agencies will be able to clearly demonstrate the impact of your Google Ads by generating easy-to-understand reports that you can use in meetings with your nonprofit leaders and board members.

If you have the budget for outsourcing the work associated with Google Ad Grants to an agency, these benefits will outweigh the costs simply through the visibility you will gain with professional help. However, part of a successful partnership is choosing the right Google Ad Grant agency to work with.

Learn more about evaluating which Google Ad Grant agency is right for your nonprofit.

7 Tips for Choosing a Google Ad Grant Agency

Now that you know how a Google Ad Grant agency can help you with your nonprofit’s digital marketing strategy and what benefits such a partnership brings, let’s dive into what your nonprofit should consider when choosing a Google Ad Grant agency. While researching your different options, take into account the following:

This clipboard image lists some tips for choosing a Google Ad Grant agency, also covered in the text below.
  1. What you want: Ask yourself, what do you want out of a partnership with a Google Ad Grant agency? Reflect on what conversions are most important to you—if you’re looking to recruit donors and make donation requests of interested individuals, your strategy will look different than if you’re just trying to raise awareness of your cause.
  2. Price: Different Google Ad Grant agencies will have different prices and service packages available. You’ll want to select an agency that fits your needs and your budget.
  3. Approach to Google Ad Grants: Since some digital marketing agencies provide Google Ad Grants services as well as other offerings, you’ll want to consider whether you’d be happy with these types of agencies or if you’d prefer to work with an agency that deals specifically with Google Ad Grants.
  4. Certified by Google: While not completely necessary, a Google certification means that Google has vetted the agency’s work and recognized that they have in-depth knowledge of Google Ad Grants.
  5. Reviews: Read reviews of the Google Ad Grant agency and see what other nonprofits have to say about their services. Pay particular attention to if they’ve previously worked with nonprofits similar to yours or working in a similar vertical.
  6. Case studies: To get a more in-depth look at how your potential Google Ad Grant operates, check to see if they have created any case studies of successful partnerships. You can use these to evaluate the agency’s effectiveness.
  7. Free consultations: After you’ve narrowed down your choices to a couple of options, consider requesting a free consultation from these agencies. Having the opportunity to see how different agencies would handle your nonprofit’s specific Google Ad Grant strategy will allow you to better assess if you would be happy partnering with them.

While your Google Ad Grant is just a part of your nonprofit’s overall digital marketing strategy, it can still create significant results for your organization, such as greatly increasing awareness of your cause and helping you to recruit passionate new supporters. Work with a Google Ad Grant agency that understands your nonprofit’s unique needs and that is able to assist you as you need.

Click through to schedule a free consultation with the Google Ad Grant agency Getting Attention.
Here are five stellar Google Ad Grant agencies your nonprofit could work with.

5 Top Google Ad Grant Agencies

To help jumpstart your research for a great Google Ad Grant agency to work with, here are five agencies to consider.

1. Getting Attention

Getting Attention is an agency dedicated specifically to Google Ad Grants. It boasts a diverse, global team of seasoned experts with years of experience that will help you set up and maintain your Google Ad Grant account. They will take the time to get to know your mission and your beneficiaries, then apply that information toward creating personalized Google Ad campaigns that help your nonprofit stand out on the search engine results page.

Their services include:

  • Google Ad Grant applications: If your nonprofit doesn’t already have a Google Ad Grant account, Getting Attention will guide you through the application process and help you get started with the program.
  • Account hygiene: It’s important to have up-to-date data on how your ad campaigns are doing in order to improve them. Getting Attention’s team is dedicated to removing outdated and unnecessary data to make sure your nonprofit doesn’t get bogged down.
  • Keyword research: This Google Ad Grant agency is committed to constantly improving your nonprofit’s messaging through thorough keyword research,  which will help drive traffic to your website.

Getting Attention offers free consultations to interested nonprofits and has an affordable plan with a monthly fee for their services.

2. Platypus Digital

A digital marketing agency that specifically focuses on nonprofits, Platypus Digital is determined to connect charities to the people they need, such as donors and fundraisers. Based in the UK, they have a focus on cultivating a strong relationship and mutual understanding with their clients and have helped over 180 charities with their digital marketing services.

Some of the services they offer include:

  • Google Ad Grants management: As one of Google Ad Grant’s Certified Professional Agencies, Platypus Digital has extensive knowledge and experience to apply to your nonprofit’s Google Ad Grant strategy.
  • Google Analytics: Aside from Google Ad Grants, Platypus Digital also performs audits and health checks on your Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to help you reach your desired results.
  • Meta Ads: Social media is a great digital marketing opportunity for nonprofits. Platypus Digital can help you make the most of this opportunity through Meta Ads, increasing visibility through Instagram and Facebook.

To help you gain greater insight into Platypus Digital’s work, the agency provides case studies of its specific offerings. These include their SEO, data review, and conversion rate optimization services.

3. Digital Ninjas

This agency works with organizations large and small to achieve their digital marketing goals. They pride themselves on being flexible partners, offering expert and impartial advice with data-led planning and execution. Some of the features they offer include:

  • A/B testing and optimization: By comparing the results of similar keywords, Digital Ninjas will be able to optimize your ad campaigns.
  • Web experience improvements: To keep website visitors interested and engaged, this digital marketing agency will help you revamp your existing website or even build you a new one.
  • Personalized QR codes: Digital Ninjas uses QR codes to seamlessly connect the offline and digital world, taking direct mail to the next level. With personalized QR codes, you’ll be able to redirect supporters to your donation portal with all available details pre-populated.

Digital Ninjas has previously helped organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Pink Elephants. They offer flexible pricing and packages and employ dedicated Customer Happiness Ninjas to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your partnership.

4. Luminate Marketing

An agency that specializes in working with mission-driven organizations, particularly in the religious vertical, Luminate Marketing adjusts its services to meet your budget and help bring your mission to light. Their offerings include:

  • Vision workshops: If your nonprofit isn’t sure about where to start with digital marketing, these vision workshops are designed to help you hone in on your messages and create a marketing plan that works for you.
  • Branding and design: Luminate Marketing can help you develop logos and brand guides and can help you create digital and print designs for your promotional purposes.
  • Strategy and messaging: If you need an expert’s opinion, by partnering with Luminate Marketing you’ll have ongoing access to their team of professionals who can work with you to refine your approach and content.

Luminate Marketing’s offerings come at a range of different price points. Aside from their paid services, they also provide a list of free resources for organizations that don’t have the capacity to partner with them at the moment.

5. TrueSense Marketing

TrueSense Marketing is a full-service, strategic, direct-response fundraising agency. With over 50 years of history and over 400 team members, they are dedicated to listening to your donors and helping your nonprofit grow. Their services emphasize:

  • Recruiting new donors.
  • Retaining existing donors.
  • Reactivating lapsed donors.
  • Increasing your donors’ gifts.
  • Engaging your donors meaningfully.

Their previous clients include food banks, animal care, veterans services, and many other types of nonprofits seeking to get the word out about their cause.

Click through to schedule a free consultation with the Google Ad Grant agency Getting Attention.
Let’s take a look at some additional resources about Google Ad Grant agencies.

Working with a Google Ad Grant Agency: Next Steps

With this guide, you can make an informed decision about whether working with a Google Ad Grant agency is the best step for your nonprofit, and if it is, which agencies would be best suited for you. Consider how Google Ads will fit into your nonprofit’s overall marketing plan, and partner with an agency that will help you create the impact you desire.

If you’re interested in learning more about Google Ad Grants, take a look at these resources:

Click through to book a free consultation with Google Ad Grant agency Getting Attention.
Learn everything you need to know about donor recognition, so you can boost retention.

Donor Recognition: A Strategic Guide To Showing Appreciation

Put yourself in a donor’s shoes. After perusing a nonprofit’s website, you take the plunge and make a sizeable donation of $100. You receive an email with your tax receipt but don’t hear another word.

You were so inspired by their mission, but you didn’t receive so much as a thank-you email in return for your financial support. In turn, you feel slightly unappreciated and decide to look into other organizations pursuing similar causes. That’s why donor recognition is vital!

If that organization had reached out with a personalized thank-you letter, you’d be much more likely to give again. And while this example might sound a bit dramatic, it happens all the time. Nonprofits don’t always recognize those who give to their causes, and that can reflect poorly, especially when major contributions aren’t acknowledged.

If your nonprofit’s donor recognition strategies are lacking, you’ve come to the right place! To help, we’ll highlight the importance of thanking your donors and explore creative ways you can show your appreciation. Here’s what you can expect:

At NXUnite, we’ve worked with several of the industry’s leading professionals. These thought leaders regularly share their expertise on how nonprofits can thrive in an ever-changing landscape. One of the timeless strategies we’ve noticed is that acknowledging donors is a must for establishing a reliable base of support.

With a few creative donor recognition ideas in your back pocket, your donors will know just how much their contributions are valued. In no time, you’ll inspire them to stick around for the long haul.

To recognize your donors, design interactive thank-you eCards with eCardWidget.
Let's start with a definition of donor recognition.

What Is Donor Recognition?

Donor recognition is the process of thanking supporters for their contributions to your organization. While the term is typically associated with individual contributions, nonprofits can express appreciation for anyone that’s donated money, goods, or services to their cause. That includes businesses and other organizations.

Acknowledgment can occur either privately—such as by personal letter or phone call—or publicly—like with a donor wall or other display. Depending on your supporters’ preferences, acknowledging their contributions can take many forms, from a simple thank-you letter to more elaborate awards, plaques, or public displays of appreciation.

Organizations often separate donor recognition into tiers based on the type of gift and the total amount given. The higher the amount, the greater the level of recognition. For example, a major donor might receive a lasting thank-you on a donor wall, while a donor who gave $30 might receive a personalized eCard.

Let's review the benefits of effective donor recognition.

Reasons Why You Should Recognize Your Donors

Recognizing your donors is the number one way to nurture positive relationships with them. You want them to feel valued and speak positively about your organization. By taking the time to express your gratitude, you can positively impact your work in several ways. For example, you’ll be able to:

  • Increase your donor retention rate. When donors feel appreciated, they’ll stick around for the long haul. Even small, recurring donations can add up. So, no matter the size of their gift, expressing gratitude can go a long way.
  • Motivate existing donors to give more. Donors continue supporting charities when they feel like they’re making a difference. By recognizing their contributions and giving insight into their impact, you can make them feel like their support is essential to your success. In turn, they may donate more in the future.
  • Acquire new donors. When you thank those who support your cause, others will take notice. Whether you do so publicly or privately, the word will get around to new prospects. Existing donors will brag about your team. When others see that your nonprofit clearly appreciates its donors, they’ll want to give too.
Effective donor recognition will increase retention, incentivize giving, and boost acquisition.

Properly thanking supporters for their committed support can transform your nonprofit’s abilities. After all, your donors are the lifeblood of your organization, so you want to take steps to attract and retain them every chance you get.

Try these creative donor recognition ideas to show your genuine gratitude.

14 Donor Recognition Ideas

Creative recognition ideas will empower you to connect with donors and retain their support. While a simple “thank you” can go a long way, you’ll want to get creative to make a lasting impression on donors.

If your current strategies aren’t making the cut, we’ve curated a list of our top donor recognition ideas we think you’ll love.

Send custom eCards to express your gratitude for donors.

Personalized eCards

What is the best gift for donor recognition? A personalized thank-you eCard, of course!

Take the traditional thank-you email up a notch and offer a visually-engaging token of appreciation. eCardWidget’s guide to charity eCards explains that eCards work for several reasons. For example, they offer benefits like:

  • Convenience and affordability. Forgo mail processing time and postage costs. Within seconds, you can submit a personalized thank-you card, and it’ll appear in your donor’s inbox. By skipping snail mail, you’ll provide instant gratification.
  • Interactiveness. You can include interactive elements that simulate the feeling of opening a physical greeting card. For example, recipients can click an image of an envelope to reveal the card.
  • Customization. Digital cards are extremely customizable, making it easy to match them to your nonprofit’s mission. You can even include videos and other animations, unlike traditional greeting cards.

Create personalized thank-you eCards that reflect your nonprofit’s unique voice and brand. Then, send them to your generous donors. They’re an incredibly cost-effective and personalized way to express appreciation. Your donors will love receiving online greeting cards that communicate your appreciation for them, like this example from Youth For Understanding:

Create donor recognition eCards to send to each of your nonprofit's donors.

Send charity eCards post-donation or during key times of the year, like on recipients’ birthdays or during the holiday season. This is a great way to let donors know you’re thinking about them. By sending a personalized eCard, you’ll create a lasting memory for givers.

Use eCardWidget to design and send thank-you eCards to your donors.

A genuine, personalized letter is a great donor recognition idea.

Thank You Letters

Personalized notes that show gratitude for a donor’s support are a classic way to express appreciation. A well-crafted email or a handwritten letter that expresses genuine appreciation for the donor’s support is a simple and effective way to say “thank you.”

Your letter doesn’t have to be long. It can be as simple as crafting a couple of paragraphs, customized to speak to their specific relationship with your organization.

To personalize your letter, include information such as:

  • The donor’s name
  • The specific amount they donated
  • Other engagement history, such as volunteering
  • Information about their employer’s matching gift program, if they have one

Overall, a heartfelt note of gratitude can make a donor feel appreciated and valued for their contributions. In turn, this can help cultivate a lasting relationship, and recipients will recognize the effort that went into crafting a personalized letter.

A donor appreciation wall is a formal and public way to acknowledge supporters.

Donor Recognition Walls

Creating a wall or display with the names of your donors is a visual way to acknowledge contributions. It allows you to take donor appreciation public by recognizing donors for their generous contributions in a place where all the world can see.

Donor walls can come in many forms, such as physical plaques or virtual displays. While traditionally built in the physical world, nonprofits with limited budgets can create virtual donor walls on their websites. Not only is this more budget-friendly, but you can update the wall in real time.

Either way, donor walls can feature donor names, photos, or messages of appreciation. You can also add special touches such as a donor of the month or yearly donor awards.

Whatever you decide, a donor wall is a great way to show your donors that their support is valued and appreciated. It’s also a great way to inspire others to give.

Host a donor appreciation event and only invite your committed supporters.

Donor Appreciation Events

If you want to go all out, host a donor appreciation event. Hosting an event specifically for your donors can make them feel special and can help your team show your gratitude for their support.

Plan exclusive events for your major donors. These events could be a private dinner, a VIP tour of your facility, or a special performance.

Virtual gatherings work well too, especially when supporters are scattered in different locations. Try hosting a casual virtual get-together or happy hour where everyone can come together on Zoom.

Posting shoutouts on social media is a great public donor recognition idea.

Social Media Recognition

While great for promoting your work, social media is also a great place for donor recognition. From Facebook to Instagram, recognize your donors on social media by:

  • Tagging them in posts and stories about events they attend.
  • Sharing personal impact stories from donors.
  • Posting photos about projects their donations have made possible.
  • Sharing videos and written testimonials from your beneficiaries.

Social media enables you to reach a wide audience, allowing you to showcase how much you love your donors. When you craft meaningful messages, your donors will feel compelled to share them with their networks. In turn, you can connect with new prospects, too.

Public donor recognition can be powerful. As our volunteer appreciation guide suggests, just make sure your supporters are fine with you publishing their pictures and names online first.

For this donor recognition idea, have your staff or volunteers personally call donors.

Donor Recognition Phone Calls

A personal phone call from a staff member or volunteer can make a donor feel valued and appreciated. You can have a personal conversation with your donor, showing them that you’re genuinely grateful for their support.

When speaking to your donors, use the opportunity to provide updates on your organization’s progress. Depending on time constraints, you might also use this as an opportunity to solicit feedback or other ideas for improving your work.

While an excellent way to express appreciation, this donor recognition idea can be time-consuming. Try to limit phone calls to individuals who give a certain amount and prefer this form of recognition.

Create donor appreciation videos to leverage visual storytelling techniques.

Thank-You Videos

A personalized video message from your nonprofit’s staff is a creative and heartfelt way to show donor appreciation.

For major donations or big projects, interview a beneficiary to show just how much your donors’ gifts impact your mission. Sharing stories about how donor contributions have made a difference in the lives of those you serve is a powerful way to show gratitude and inspire continued support.

Tectonic Video’s nonprofit video storytelling guide explains that you should incorporate a few key elements, such as:

  • A narrative arc that engages the audience
  • Relatable characters
  • Clear and consistent narration
  • Compelling visuals

In turn, you’ll appeal to your donors’ emotions and leave a lasting impact on them.

When published online, well-produced videos can increase visibility for your cause, too! Others can see just how impactful donations are, prompting them to donate as well.

Create branded merchandise and send it to reliable supporters as a form of donor recognition.

Branded Merchandise

Sending donors some merchandise connected to your mission can be an excellent token of appreciation.

Not to mention, it’s a fantastic way to tap into social proof. For example, let’s say you send some apparel to a committed donor. They might sport a trendy hat or t-shirt around town. This can prompt meaningful conversations about your mission. Even if people don’t ask them about it, others will see your organization’s name on it, prompting them to search for it online.

When it comes to merchandise, consider creating and sending the following as a way to recognize donors:

  • Apparel like nonprofit t-shirts and hats
  • Tote bags
  • Mugs and water bottles
  • Stickers and decals
  • Keychains

Every time they put on their t-shirt or see your keychain when they unlock their front door, they’ll think of your nonprofit. Plus, they can wear or use these items proudly and spread the word about your nonprofit like we mentioned.

A great donor recognition idea is to offer valuable content like special reports and behind-the-scenes updates.

Exclusive Content

Providing exclusive content to your donors can make them feel like insiders. For example, if they designated their donation to a certain program, be sure to give them exclusive updates on the program’s progress.

As you brainstorm ideas for what content you’ll offer, consider these common donor recognition rewards:

  • Digital content such as eBooks, videos, podcasts, and webinars
  • Behind-the-scenes updates or sneak peeks
  • Special reports
  • Access to exclusive merchandise

Not only does offering exclusive content serve as a form of donor recognition, but it also provides an incentive for donors to continue giving. When you spend time creating valuable rewards, they’ll want to continue accessing the exclusive content.

Recognize your donors by sending discount vouchers for local restaurants and stores.

Discounts at Local Businesses

Partner with local businesses like restaurants and stores to offer discounts to donors. Not only is this a great way to express appreciation, but it also allows you to tap into corporate social responsibility and promote local businesses.

Once you have discounts lined up, mail or email the coupon to your donors along with a note of your appreciation. You can say something simple like:

“Please enjoy 15% off your next purchase at [store] as a token of our appreciation for your continued support.”

Provide donors with discounts to your nonprofit's events as a form of donor recognition.

Discounts For Your Events

Your nonprofit likely hosts events regularly. From family-friendly 5Ks to lavish galas, events are a powerful way to bring people together in support of your cause. Chances are, entry into these events isn’t free.

As a way to recognize your donors, offer discounts to your nonprofit’s events and conferences. To limit the number of people who receive discounted access, only promise these discounts to those who donate to specific campaigns or above certain amounts.

Inspire supporters to stick around by showing donor appreciation with handmade gifts.

Handmade Donor Recognition Gifts

Creating handmade gifts, such as paintings, pottery, or crafts, is a creative way to show gratitude and acknowledge the donor’s support. The recipient will know you took the time to create something special just for them.

It can be as simple as a thank you card or as elaborate as a hand-painted portrait. The goal is to show them that their support is valued in a unique and personal way.

Maybe your organization aspires to provide vital resources to at-risk youth. You might have them craft something for mid-tier and major donors, making this donor recognition idea much more meaningful.

An exclusive donor newsletter can communicate donor appreciation and incentivize continued support.

Donor Newsletter

Chances are, your nonprofit already sends a regular newsletter to its entire email subscription list. You use it as a way to communicate big updates, highlight upcoming events, and share volunteer opportunities. Intertwine this communication technique with your donor recognition strategy by sending an exclusive donor newsletter.

Send a personalized newsletter to your donors with updates on your nonprofit’s work, impact, and future plans. Include photos and stories to make it engaging and meaningful.

Alternatively, create a section in your regular newsletter that spotlights a different major donor each time. This is an excellent way to publicly recognize major gifts throughout the year.

Create an annual gratitude report that emphasizes donor appreciation.

Annual Gratitude Report

Your annual report provides a look back on your nonprofit’s year. It’s one of the most important documents you create all year. One easy way to thank your donors is by listing them in this highly-distributed document.

You have a couple of options with this donor recognition idea:

  • List donors alphabetically
  • Group donors based on donation ranges

If you want to kick things up a notch, consider creating a separate “gratitude report” exclusively for showcasing donors’ impact. While annual reports generally focus on hard stats from the past year, a gratitude report looks specifically at the wins for the year, communicates appreciation, and lays the groundwork for the upcoming year.

A few different organizations leverage this donor recognition strategy as a way to highlight those who make their work possible. Take the Pride Foundation’s Gratitude Report for example.

As a way to express donor appreciation, they crafted a virtual report that speaks directly to donors. In it, you’ll find highlights of the grants and scholarships the foundation was able to award alongside testimonials from those influenced by donations. This approach is a fantastic way to communicate your donors’ impact.

Follow these donor recognition tips to boost your retention rate.

Donor Appreciation Best Practices

Beyond picking the right ideas, there’s an art to expressing your appreciation for donors. No matter your cause, make sure you craft a donor recognition strategy that adheres to these tried-and-true best practices:

  • Do get creative with your donor recognition ideas. Anyone can send a generic thank-you email. Get creative with your ideas to stand out. Being creative can be as simple as creating custom eCards connected to your cause.
  • Don’t wait to say thank you. The quicker you express appreciation, the better! If you wait too long, donors may think you’ve forgotten about them.
  • Do develop a donor recognition plan. Developing a plan will help you define levels of donor recognition, the types of recognition your team will give, and who should be recognized.
  • Don’t ignore donors’ recognition preferences. Saying “thank you” should be as personalized as possible. That means adhering to individuals’ preferences. If they prefer a private phone call, ring them up. If they want a public shoutout, draft a social media post!
  • Do use donor-centric messaging. Focus on the donor and how their contribution will make a difference. Making your donor the center of the call allows you to emphasize gratitude and show that the organization values their contributions.
  • Don’t overlook small donations. Acknowledge every donation you receive, no matter how big or small. Each contribution matters, so make sure you recognize each and every one of your donors.
Follow these dos and don'ts of donor recognition.

Sticking to these tips will enable you to recognize donors in meaningful ways that inspire them to stick around. Pay attention to how your donors respond and adjust accordingly.

Check out these resources to get more donor recognition ideas.

Final Thoughts on Donor Recognition

If your nonprofit wants to build a reliable base of support, donor recognition isn’t an option! Thoughtful donor recognition helps build loyalty and encourages repeat giving from the same individuals. Public recognition can be especially impactful since others will see how much you value your supporters.

Ultimately, donor recognition is a powerful tool for any organization that wants to ensure the success of its fundraising efforts.

The donor recognition ideas we shared should give you everything you need to get started, but don’t stop there! To continue learning, check out some of these additional resources:

Thank your donors by creating engaging digital eCards with eCardWidget.