Note from Beth: As we head into the home stretch of the giving season, there are lots and lots of wonderful holiday giving campaigns and plenty of fundraising data to guide strategy. Frank Barry offers this guest post with some advice about how to succeed with nonprofit fundraising in 2013.
2 Strategies for Overcoming Common Fundraising Challenges All Nonprofits Face [Infographic] – Guest Post by Frank Barry
End of year fundraising is in full swing, but with 2013 right around the corner most nonprofits are balancing their biggest fundraising push with putting plans in place to kick off the new year with a bang.
Good planning always takes into account risks or challenges that could prevent you from reaching your goals as well as strategies to overcome those risks.
What challenges do nonprofits face? According to the State of the Nonprofit Industry (grab the full report here) nonprofits face four common challenges:
- Increased demand for services
- Flat or decreased fundraising
- Greater scrutiny from donors
- Consistently changing technology landscape
Two of the challenges are directly related to fundraising with a third (fundraising technology) that’s at least partially related. So how do you, as a nonprofit looking to start the year off right, put plans in place to overcome these challenges. Here are two simple ideas I’d like you to think about as you close out 2012.
Multi-Channel Fundraising = Optimism
As you can see, nonprofits that implement fundraising strategies that include multiple channels have a lot more confidence in their ability to raise the funds they need to deliver on their mission. Telephone, events, Facebook, Twitter, direct mail, website, mobile, in person, peer-to-peer, etc. should all be part of your 2013 fundraising strategy.
You won’t use every tactic in every campaign, but over the course of the year you should have used multiple channels to raise money. Relying on direct mail alone isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Oh, and those who implement multi-channel fundraising strategies that take online donors to offline channels see up to 3X better fundraising results.
Question: How do you plan on using a multi-channel fundraising approach in 2013?
Mobile Fundraising = Growth
If you’re not growing you’re dying. Right? Lou Holtz put it this way – “In this world you’re either growing or you’re dying so get in motion and grow.”
The truth behind the old adage is as true for plants as it is for fundraisers. If you don’t learn new techniques, try new things and evolve your fundraising skills you’re going to, to put it bluntly, die (i.e. become ineffective at raising money).
Growing as a fundraiser means embracing new technology and leaning how to infuse your fundraising strategies with mobile elements. It may not be a huge channel today, but in ten years it could be one of the biggest – you just don’t know what’s going to happen.
Here are a few interesting stats on how nonprofits plan on adopting mobile in 2013:
- Over 1/3 of nonprofits plan on using at least one mobile tactic as part of their fundraising strategies
- Nearly half of nonprofits will be using QR codes
- 26% of nonprofits plan on using SMS
- 2/3 of nonprofits plan on having a mobile optimized website
Check out the full 2012 State of the Nonprofit Industry INFOGRAPHIC
Your Turn
How do you plan on overcoming the four common challenges and growing your fundraising strategies in 2013?
Frank Barry is a Sr. Digital Marketer at Blackbaud and blogs at npNGAGE. He digs helping nonprofits excel at digital marketing, social media and online fundraising. Follow him on Twitter @franswaa.
