Nonprofits, by definition, depend on donations and fundraising efforts to be able to operate. Without contributions, all the work you do on behalf of animals can be for naught.
If your nonprofit organization has a website, on the other hand, you can use it to launch fundraising campaigns where you’re in full control. That means your organization decides what to do with the funds and how to promote your campaign.
In this article, we’ll discuss why you should use your website for fundraising. Then we’ll go over three tips to help you launch a fundraising campaign online. Let’s get to it!
Why You Might Want to Use Your Website for Fundraising
Fundraising platforms have become incredibly popular during the past decade. When people seek to raise funds, the first places they often turn to are websites such as GoFundMe and Kickstarter.
That approach makes sense if you’re an individual, but is less helpful if you’re a nonprofit organization. As a serious organization, it’s more logical to use your own website to raise funds:
By using your site, you remain in control of the entire fundraising process. That is in contrast with third-party platforms, where you need to abide by their rules and they typically take a cut of the donations.
By using your website to launch a campaign, you can also collect more information about your donors. If they share their email addresses with you, for example, you can use those details to contact them for future campaigns (as long as they agree to it!).
As a nonprofit organization, it’s in your best interests to build long-term relationships with the people who trust you with their money. Using your website for fundraising is a critical step in that process.
How to Create a Fundraising Campaign Through Your Website (3 Key Tips)
There are a lot of things you need to keep in mind if you want to launch a successful fundraising campaign. Let’s look at three of the best ways to set yourself up for success.
1. Be Transparent About Where the Funds Are Going
A lot of people can be wary about giving their money away to organizations they haven’t heard about. For your fundraiser to be a success, you need to be transparent about where the money is going.
There are a lot of nonprofit organizations that do this brilliantly. Austin Pets Alive!, for example, tells you where your money is going for each donation level:
There’s a big difference between giving a nonprofit organization $50 blindly, and knowing that money will go towards vaccinating a litter of puppies. Many people are much more likely to make a donation with strong images like that in mind.
Another animal nonprofit that tackles transparency well is the KC Pet Project:
What they do is enable you to choose which projects or efforts you want to donate towards. That way, you know where your money is going right from the start. Giving your own donors that level of choice can dramatically increase the funds they’re willing to give.
2. Choose the Right Payment Processor(s)
Most of us are accustomed to making online payments all the time these days. You may even have a favorite payment processor, which you use whenever possible. PayPal is the most popular example: For a lot of people, if they don’t see a PayPal button, they might not make a donation.
If you want to maximize the funds you collect, you need to offer your visitors as many payment options as possible. That way, you won’t miss out on any donations because your visitors didn’t find a processor they felt comfortable using.
Some of the most popular choices for payment processors include the aforementioned PayPal, as well as Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and Stripe. Most of those processors make integration simple. However, if you’re going to be using several of them, you might want to look into services that bundle multiple options.
If you’re a WordPress user, you can try a plugin such as GiveWP, which enables you to integrate multiple donation options into your website:
As a nonprofit organization, you get preferential pricing if you choose to upgrade to GiveWP’s premium version. That premium license provides you with access to even more payment processing options, so it’s definitely worth a look.
3. Use Your Social Media Presence to Drive Donations
Most successful nonprofits have a strong social media presence. As an animal-focused organization, you have an advantage – people love animal accounts on social media:
If you play your cards right, you can use your social media presence to drive visits to your website and increase donations:
Beyond sending traffic back to your website, you can also look for ways to integrate social media with your fundraising efforts. For example, you can give shoutouts to donors on social media, and integrate your feed into your website.
Integrating Twitter and Instagram feeds into most websites is relatively simple. It’s also a great way to show social proof and let donors know that your campaign is alive and doing great!
Conclusion
Every successful animal nonprofit organization needs a robust online presence. If you already have a website, it makes sense to use it to launch and conduct any future fundraising campaigns. The more successful they are, the bigger the difference you can make in the lives of our animal friends.
Before you launch a new campaign for your nonprofit organization, here are three tips to keep in mind to ensure its success:
- Be transparent about where the funds are going.
- Choose the right payment processor(s).
- Use your social media presence to drive donations.
Do you have any questions about launching a fundraising campaign? Let’s go over them in the comments section below!
