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2019 was the year of innovation for nonprofits. The nonprofit sector had bigger and better fundraising ideas and took steps to become more sustainable. Nonprofits developed leadership strategies with their boards, allocated more resources to engaging their employees, and volunteers, and started incorporating more technology into their everyday operations.
The sector also faced more uncertainty with government budget cuts, while navigating political uncertainty and more mergers. However, there was and continues to be an increasing need for nonprofits and the good that they do.
Here are the trends you need to be aware of in 2020, to stay ahead of the game:
1. Personalizing Every Donor Interaction
According to Nonprofit Tech for Good, consumers are craving more authenticity from their interactions with business and brands. Fun ways of taking this to the next step is by sending them digital birthday cards or donor anniversary cards. It’s the extra step that many organizations don’t take.
Whale and Dolphin Conservation sends out birthday messages to supporters and encourages them to use their day to share their message, so it serves two purposes.
Many organizations don’t realize how much funding they could be receiving or retaining if they put a little more TLC into personalizing their communications.
Segmenting your donors and tailoring content for each segment can help a lot with this. Sharing a video of the construction of a new school in Rwanda, for example, might be appropriate for a large donor (who likely helped fund the project), but might not be as appealing to a family. A video of kids playing soccer or learning in Rwanda might be content better received by that segment.
2. Fundraising Online Instead Of Offline
Online fundraising exploded in 2019 and you can expect it to keep growing in 2020. Most new donors will discover your organization online, so you absolutely need to have an outlet for them to donate.
ccording to crowdfunding website Leetchi.com, donors are increasingly younger and have higher incomes. They are also more likely to donate the most money on their first donation and like to donate to multiple organizations. For that reason, you want to make it easy for them to donate, as they’ll be more likely to donate again if their first transaction is seamless. Here are 5 Donation Page Mistakes That will Destroy Your Online Fundraising.
Sumac offers online donation pages that integrate seamlessly with your website!
Seamless Donation Pages
Besides having a great functioning donation page on your website, social media is gaining in popularity as a means on generating online donations. Fundraising on Facebook has grown substantially through 2019, and you can expect it to continue to gain in popularity through 2020.
Add a donate button to your nonprofit’s Facebook page to start accepting donations online, or create a fundraiser. Facebook also allows nonprofits to start fundraising campaigns. Facebook is a great option because it doesn’t charge fees for donations to nonprofit fundraisers.
You can also encourage supporters to start personal fundraisers to support your cause. Facebook birthday fundraisers were one of the biggest trends in 2019.
Here are a few other online donation trends that are continuing to grow in 2020:
- Crowdfunding: funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.
- Text-to-give Fundraising: Simply put, text-to-give fundraising allows nonprofits and charities to accept donations via text message.
- Peer-to-peer Fundraising: Peer-to-peer fundraising is a fundraising strategy that empowers individuals to raise money on behalf of a cause via online fundraising pages.
3. More Diversified Funding Sources and Engagement
In 2020, both Forbes and Galaxy Digital are anticipating that we’re going to see more nonprofit and private business partnerships. Nonprofits are vehicles for spreading good fortune, values, and awareness for causes. Partnering with a nonprofit company creates a win-win situation for both parties, so it’s no surprise corporate giving is on the rise.
4. A Focus on Sustainability
Elizabeth Disco-Shearer from Disaster Services Corp predicts that more organizations will be looking for robust software solutions to help them fundraise and manage their organizations. Disaster Services Corp, for example, uses blockchain technology to effectively deploy disaster services.
It’s becoming essential for nonprofits to evolve their data management and security practices, and transition away from insecure Excel spreadsheet and outdated processes.
Keeping better records of donor interactions and contact information, fundraising, case management, and volunteers will allow your nonprofit to increase their security, organizational memory, record keeping, reporting, and efficiency. Sumac is one of the few that allows you to do this all in one place.
About the Author: Sumac is part of the Societ family, a company dedicated to providing exceptional software and services to nonprofits. With over 25 years of service, Silent Partner has helped organizations manage over 3 million donors and contacts across the US, Canada, UK, and Europe .Learn more.
