In today’s crowded web space, it can be challenging for brands and organizations to rise above the noise. Nonprofit marketing tactics can feel complicated and overwhelming to many small businesses trying to make a big difference in the world — but creative fundraising ideas are key to helping these organizations stand out. With the right tools, any organization — large or small — can spread its message, grow an audience, and ultimately support and amplify its cause.
A Dynamic Donations Page/Widget with Payment Integration
The world of nonprofit marketing has evolved since the era of simpler fundraising ideas. Remember holiday wrapping paper sales? Now, increasingly online communities who stumble upon your organization need to immediately understand, connect with, and be pulled into your cause through your website – especially on the donation page. And it’s not just aesthetic or messaging; functionality plays a huge role in the effectiveness of an organization’s donation page. A clear call-to-action, combined with an easy-to-collect payment method, are imperative to usher interested supporters towards the finish line of donating to and supporting your mission.
Nonprofits who partner with UncommonGood receive this kind of personalized donation page on the UncommonGood engagement platform. Each page integrates with Stripe to process payments and provide payouts to nonprofits. As a bonus, our customizable assets allow for a unique donation widget that can embed right on your own page, too. Partnering nonprofits receive frequently updated information about every donation that has been made to your nonprofit through the UncommonGood platform, allowing you to keep easy tabs on who’s supporting you, when, and how.
A Donor Database Solution
Curating your cause’s community shouldn’t be a headache. That’s why a highly functional and organized donor database is vital for any organization, no matter the size. Simply put? When your contacts are in order, it’s easy to communicate key info about your org to them. And once you’ve mastered this, you can put efforts towards monitoring the way current and potential donors interact with your brand– unlocking a next-level nonprofit marketing superpower.
Implementing a tool that manually imports your current contacts is useful. But utilizing UncommonGood’s donor database system to automatically add anyone who interacts with your nonprofit across the UncommonGood platform is even better (especially when it means no more spreadsheets).
A Refreshed Way to Organize and Conduct Fundraisers
It’s hard enough to develop consistently unique fundraising ideas. Managing the execution of those ideas is a whole other kind of challenge! Nonprofits need to create fundraisers on an easy-to-use platform, especially one that’s supported and advertised by another third-party partner. The key to an excellent fundraising tool includes these three elements:
- Streamlined payment process
- Easy payment widget
- Donor contacts automatically added to database
In a study released in February by CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) America, nearly 71.05 percent of the 805 charities serving 152 countries worldwide indicated that they wanted to “learn how to communicate more effectively for fundraising.”
According to Ted Hart, President of CAF America, in an article published by the L.A. Business Journal, “The resilience of charities relies on the key competencies of nonprofits in organizational management.”
A tool that can effectively streamline that process, execution, and management for fundraising ideas makes all the difference.
A P2P That Pops
In addition to having an intuitive donation page and curating periodic fundraisers, amping up your nonprofit marketing tactics and community of support by encouraging them to fundraise on behalf of your org is a great way to engage them directly.
Invest in a tool that allows users to create unique pages that can act as extensions of your organization’s primary fundraiser pages. Imagine them integrating your very own donation widget right on their personal blogs and social media. The impact could be astronomical!
This kind of functionality allows your online donor base to fundraise on your organization’s behalf. The best way to make this a streamlined process is for tools like this to be completely integrated across all platforms. That way, peer-to-peer fundraisers can send all donations through the same channel.
A Way to Self-Host a Sweepstakes
Modern-day fundraising ideas have had to continually reach for more creative approaches to grab an audience’s attention. One of the best approaches trending now is hosting sweepstakes. And when a nonprofit can host their own online event — from invites to contact collection to even running the mechanics behind how the event works — then you’ve got a simple, streamlined event that’s sure to have a fantastic payout.
The Very Best Brand Manager
There are many organizations out there working to make a change – so creating and maintaining a cohesive nonprofit brand for your organization is crucial.
“One of the most obvious reasons that businesses need branding is to help them get recognized more often,” Forbes Councils Member Kristopher Jones wrote in an article on Forbes.com. “A business that doesn’t really have any cohesive branding isn’t going to stay in someone’s mind for very long.” Find a tool that organizes your logos, colors, fonts, and all applicable assets in one easy-to-reference place.
Easy-to-Use Image Editing and Designing
It’s no secret that attention-grabbing designs and images can play an essential role in marketing, for nonprofits, businesses, and corporations alike. Social media posts for businesses rely on an engaging aesthetic, especially when it comes to spreading the word about new and innovative marketing ideas.
But hiring a graphic designer per project can get pricey, and staffing one full-time isn’t much cheaper. A way to help alleviate cost and still drive efficient asset production? Invest in a tool that simplifies the process and can help you make quality designs at the click of a button. Organize your assets, edit text on an idea, and create dynamic images designed for social posts.
This kind of tool is not only helpful — it will save you thousands of dollars in contractor invoices.
A Way to Build a Better Blog
Nonprofit organizations can’t only rely on their main website to connect with their community and potential donors. And while social media is a great way to get shorter and more timely communications out to a broad audience, establishing a regular blog on your site and even on other third-party partner sites can create a consistent lasting impact. Blogs allow for a more in-depth explanation of your nonprofit’s mission, provide an opportunity for personal introductions to the founder and staff, and keep those within your community updated about the organization’s latest news, goals, and events.
“If you can’t tell your story about your cause, you’re not going to be very successful in getting people to join,” said Allison Fine, co-author of The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change, in an article on NPR.org.
Amp Up Your Nonprofit Marketing Arsenal
These are just a few of the tools necessary for any nonprofit, large or small, to make a lasting impression on growing online audiences. It can seem like larger mission-driven organizations, with increased staffing and budget, have it all figured out. But surely, there are ways for smaller organizations to make just as sizable an impact — and these tools are among many that can help them get there.
That is why Carolyn Driscoll created UncommonGood. With her team of software developers, they’ve developed the ultimate creative suite to make resources available to more organizations on a mission to do good in the world. All the tools mentioned above are either already available or in the development stages on UncommonGood’s platform. On top of all that? There are even more innovative tools in the pipeline coming soon!
All of the UncommonGood tools are designed to be easily accessible, exceptionally affordable, and found in one place. No more subscriptions to multiple services to get your basic needs handled. And the best part? You’re not getting merely a tool or service to strengthen your nonprofit. You’re also getting a support team and a lasting partnership to champion your mission and celebrate achieving your goals, every step of the way.
Ready to take your fundraising ideas to the next level by getting the nonprofit marketing support you deserve?
