Charity eCards – Nonprofit Catalog

As nonprofit professionals, we’re tasked to come up with creative ways to engage supporters and sponsors. Especially in the competitive and fast-paced online space, it’s challenging to grab and retain people’s attention. If you’re searching for the ultimate attention-grabbing fundraising strategy, give charity eCards a try!

There’s no better way to bring an interactive element to your online presence than with charity eCards. Everyone loves receiving personalized cards. Connect each one to a charitable cause, and that makes receiving one even more meaningful.

From holiday eCards to cause awareness day cards, your nonprofit’s possibilities are endless. Before you start designing, you’ll need to know the basics about offering cards.

What Are Charity eCards?

Charity eCards are digital cards that supporters can send to friends and family to show their support for a particular cause or nonprofit. By using eCard software, organizations can create designs for different occasions. Common themes organizations stick to include:

• Holiday cards
• Tribute donation cards
• Thank-you cards
• Cause awareness cards

Nonprofits typically offer these cards in exchange for a donation or for a specific price. While primarily sent via email, supporters might be able to send your charity’s eCards through other platforms like text or Facebook. It all depends on your eCard software.

This creative fundraiser works for several reasons. For one, it incentivizes donors to give. They’ll receive an instant give-back with every gift. By enabling people to personalize messages alongside their chosen eCards, you can tap into peer referrals, too. Supporters will get to shout about the causes they love, effectively inspiring their friends and family to look into your cause.

Particularly when compared to direct mail, nonprofit eCards are cost-effective and eco-friendly, eliminating the need for postage and printing.

Donation eCards Ideas to Spark Inspiration

Nonprofit eCards come in all shapes and sizes. From simple and straightforward messages to more creative and thoughtful designs, you can create designs for every occasion. Whether you’re connecting them to a specific campaign or offering them year-round, you can create anywhere from one charity eCard to a full collection with dozens of options.

To get your creativity flowing, let’s walk through some examples from real charities. And remember to incorporate your branding into every design. Something as simple as including your nonprofit logo in the corner will go a long way in promoting brand awareness.

Holiday Charity eCards

Holidays happen year-round, making them a great opportunity to support your work. Create ones for people to send to love ones to celebrate any holiday, like:

• New Year’s Day
• Valentine’s Day
• The Fourth of July
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and other year-end holidays

If you want to get creative in expressing appreciation, your team can actually send holiday eCards to committed supporters and sponsors. Let them know you’re thinking about them during holidays, particularly during the year-end holiday season.

After all, this is the most charitable time of year, and you can reconnect with them when they’re feeling the most generous. In fact, December alone accounts for 30% of annual giving, according to Nonprofits Source’s online giving statistics.

For this example, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium created a collection of Valentine’s Day cards. They featured some of their animal residents, tying each card back to their mission. Mimicking the traditional Valentine’s Day card style, each card features a witty pun and plenty of hearts.

Cause Awareness eCards

If there’s a cause awareness day or week associated with your cause, that’s the perfect time to create a fundraising card to spread the word. One option is to offer the cards for free and simply have supporters share their favorite designs with friends and family. Alternatively, connect them to a fundraiser. Have your supporters donate to your cause, then send an eCard to boost awareness.

In this example, Project Sleep created a small collection of charity eCards for World Narcolepsy Day. The day correlates with their mission to raise awareness about sleep health and sleep conditions. Supporters could send the nonprofit eCards for free, helping to increase public knowledge about the 3 million individuals living with narcolepsy across the globe.

Birthday eCards

Birthday cards are a tradition that stands the test of time. Help your supporters celebrate by crafting birthday eCards with your nonprofit’s branding.

We recommend offering birthday eCards in exchange for donations. As explained in Fundraising Letters’ donation eCards guide, this is a creative way to eliminate any pressure to buy a gift. The donor can give in honor of their loved one and send a birthday eCard letting them know. Giving to a cause the recipient cares about is a meaningful way to wish happy birthday.

For this example, we’ve pulled a more generic example that any nonprofit can emulate. Simply add your logo to the corner of the charity eCard you design. Then, customize the message that will be sent alongside it to let the recipient know the proceeds of the card purchase went to support your organization.

Thank You eCards

Offer thank-you cards as a way for supporters to thank someone who’s impacted them in some way.

The best part about nonprofit eCards is that you don’t have to sell them or require donations from supporters. You can actually offer them for free and use them internally! Really get creative by having your team send them out to sponsors, donors, and volunteers to express appreciation.

This is such a great way to help supporters thank their loved ones and empower your team to thank sponsors and committed supporters. As a bonus, you can also use eCards as a form of employee appreciation.

We’ve picked a unique charity eCard for this example. As part of its 70th-anniversary celebration, Youth for Understanding (YFU) offered digital cards branded with the organization’s colors and logo to its beneficiaries. Those impacted by the program could send the digital cards to their friends, host families, teachers, and volunteers as a unique way to reconnect and express gratitude.

How to Offer Fundraising eCards to Supporters

Using our preferred charity eCard software eCardWidget, you’ll have a few options for offering digital cards to your supporters, such as:

• During the donation process: This is one of our favorite ways to raise money with cards and is what’s pictured below. Offer eCards in exchange for donations. A donor will choose their preferred eCard, select a donation amount, and fill out other required information. The donation will go to the nonprofit, while the donor’s loved one will instantly receive the card.
• Post-donation: Using this strategy, donors can donate and then choose an eCard to send. To use this approach, simply embed the widget into your donation confirmation page. That way, supporters will fill out the recipient’s contact details, add a personalized message, and click send.
• Attached to your fundraising eStore: This approach is perfect if your nonprofit sells fundraising products! eCardWidget allows you to attach eCards to your virtual store. Someone will buy a card as a product from your store. After making their purchase, the widget will appear on the order confirmation page, where they can fill out the details.

Best of all, eCardWidget integrates with some of the most popular fundraising tools, making it easy to integrate it into your existing fundraising processes. It even comes with a convenient WordPress plugin and Shopify integration to make the process of offering nonprofit eCards even smoother. Remember, you can also use them internally and offer them for free!

Additional Resources

Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.

Nonprofit Graphic Design – Nonprofit Catalog – Charity eCards rely on effective graphic design. Make sure you know the basics of nonprofit design to create compelling cards that excite supporters.

Birthday Fundraisers: How to Secure Year-Round Support – Fundraising eCards for birthdays are perfect for raising money. Learn more and explore other birthday fundraising ideas with this guide.