With so many popular activities, autumn is a perfect time for your nonprofit to host a special event that takes you closer to your annual fundraising goal. 

To get your creative juices flowing, we’ve organized a list of top fall fundraising activities for supporters of all ages. And once you’re finished here, these 77 fundraising event ideas are a great next stop in your reading journey.

1. Pumpkin-Carving Contest

There’s no better symbol of the fall season than the pumpkin. For your pumpkin-carving contest event, encourage attendees to contribute a registration fee or commit to a fundraising minimum to earn their spot in the competition. Partner with local farmers for pumpkins or ask guests to “bring your own pumpkin (BYOP).”

A great example is the annual GUTS pumpkin-carving competition that raises money to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation through a silent auction with food, drink, and merchandise sales. GUTS also asks for online donations from those who can’t attend.

2. Halloween or Thanksgiving Run/Walk

A well-organized run/walk could be your most successful event of the year. Raise money for your organization with a spooktacular 5K charity run or turkey trot (a well-established Thanksgiving Day tradition for those of us not on kitchen duty).

You can also easily organize a virtual 5K with an online fundraising platform. Ask participants to register to run a certain distance by themselves or with other participants, usually in exchange for a T-shirt or finisher’s medal. This is a great way to scale the impact of an in-person event and give your supporters the option to participate no matter where they are.

3. Harvest Dinner

Organizing a dinner at a local restaurant to bring people together for an evening of conversation and connection is another great way to fundraise. Serve a sample of beverages from a local brewery or liven things up with a local musician. Then, sell tickets for a seat at the table and attract corporate sponsorships by offering to promote their brands on event swag, your donation site, and registration pages.

The Emilio Nares Foundation does a great job promoting these perks to potential sponsors on its Harvest for Hope event page.

4. House Party

A house party can be a great way to interact with your supporters face-to-face and show them how much your nonprofit appreciates their dedication.

Not only is this great for donor stewardship, but it can also serve as an opportunity to showcase your nonprofit’s work. Host a costume party, set up a haunted house, or organize a potluck with seasonal food. And for a donation, sell tickets, snacks, and refreshments.

Elevate the party (or any other event on the list) by adding a costume contest, especially if you host the event near Halloween. Then, invite people to dress up in their favorite costume, assign judges, and have them pick from a list of categories, like spookiest or funniest costume.

5. Chili Cook-Off

Selling tickets to cook-off competitors and attendees who want to sample the chili is another fundraising home run. Appeal to local chefs to register for the competition or form a judging panel. Corporate sponsors could also join the panel. Just don’t forget to ask attendees to cast votes.

Along with the traditional awards for categories like “spiciest,” “best vegetarian,” and “top overall chili,” include creative options for desserts or side dishes. Be sure to engage all attendees with family-friendly games, booths, and refreshments.

A great example is The Arc Greater Hudson Valley in New York, which hosts an annual chili cook-off to support its cause. The entry fee is a recommended donation of $15, and a local restaurant hosts the event. Reveal the winners from the specific chili categories on the fundraising page.

6. Pie-Eating Contest

Local bakeries can donate pies (pumpkin pies are abundant this time of year) in exchange for publicity in your marketing, print promotions, and online fundraising page. Recruit a volunteer emcee to amp the crowd and ask participants to start a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign or donate a minimum gift amount for entry.

You can combine this event with another seasonal favorite by hosting a bake sale. Raise more funds by selling baked goods while the spectators watch the pie-eating contest.

7. Giant Pumpkin Regatta

Believe it or not, you can have contestants race in giant, hollowed-out pumpkins for a prize—no kidding. Get supporters to create teams, raise donations for their entry, then have a representative from each team race enormous pumpkin boats. Be sure to take plenty of photos to post on your nonprofit’s social media channels.

In addition to the pumpkin race, host a festival at a pumpkin patch with crafts, activities, and concessions. This is a great way to involve community members and raise local awareness for your good cause.

Need an example of what a Giant Pumpkin Regatta looks like? Check out the annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta event hosted in the city of Portland, Oregon, for inspiration.

8. Fall Festival

If you want to host a fall fundraiser that attracts large numbers of supporters, organize a harvest festival for awareness and donations.

Charge a small fee for admission and booth space to vendors. Then, ask for sponsorships from local businesses in exchange for brand promotion on event T-shirts, merchandise, or co-branding the festival name.

If your city already hosts a festival, contact the festival officials to form a partnership, or rent a booth and design an activity related to your cause to engage the crowd where you can solicit donations.

9. Football Tournament

With football season underway, fall is a great time to host a nonprofit football tournament. Invite participants to start a team and recruit friends, then tap into their networks to raise a designated amount to compete.

Expand your event’s potential by creating multiple divisions for groups of supporters. For example, participants can register for the competitive, casual, or kids division. Then, encourage teams to make their jerseys to show off their creativity. 

This is also the perfect time for community members to tailgate before and after the tournament. You could grill hot dogs and hamburgers to sell and project televised football games on an outdoor big screen.

In addition to the competition on the field, teams can compete to raise the most money in a crowdfunding campaign. Create a donation page for each team where they can ask their supporters to donate money for your good cause. For inspiration, check out this list of football fundraising ideas. 

10. Orchard Walk or Hike

You can also partner with a local orchard and sell tickets for an apple-picking walk. Tickets could include a tour of the farm, a bag of fresh fruit, and an event T-shirt. Consider hosting an apple-themed breakfast and a raffle at your event as well. These raffle ideas can help take participants’ experiences to the next level.

If you don’t have access to a local orchard, fall is also a great opportunity to host an outdoor hike. Organize an afternoon adventure and ask participants to register ahead of time. Then, provide goodie bags and travel guides with local trails. Weekends during the holiday season book quickly, so reach out to supporters with a save-the-date email in advance.

11. Grape Stomp or Winery Tour

‘Tis the season to stain your feet purple. Pair up with a nearby winery and charge a small entry fee for a tasting and a spot in a grape-stomping competition.

According to the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, host of the annual World Championship Grape Stomp, the contest consists of teams of two. While one team member uses their feet to squish grapes in a barrel, the other assists in flowing the juice into a jug. The first team to fill their jug is the winner.

This fundraising event is a great example of a fall peer-to-peer fundraiser because it’s fun for participants and onlookers alike. Remember to empower participants to leverage their network for donations and ask stompers to fundraise a minimum amount for entry.

12. Back-to-School Pancake Breakfast

Does your organization work to help children or education programs? If you want to run a school fundraiser, serve up some pumpkin-flavored flapjacks to raise money for your good cause and celebrate the back-to-school season.

Partner with a local high school for a venue. Ask local grocers and farmers to donate ingredients and materials. Then, rally your volunteers or students to act as chefs.

13. Movie Night or Backyard Theater

How about hosting a double feature movie-night screening at a local theater, drive-in, or DIY film screening at your venue with donated equipment, like a projector and big screen? The fall favorites movie list is endless.

• “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
• “Hocus Pocus”
• “Scream”
• “When Harry Met Sally…”
• “Halloween”
• “Dead Poets Society”
• “Knives Out”

Instead of a movie night, you could also put on a play featuring local talent or have a smaller backyard show featuring your staff or volunteers as the actors. Sell tickets to the show and concessions at intermission.

14. Homecoming-Inspired Dance-a-Thon

There’s nothing like a high school-themed dance to have everyone dress up for homecoming. This is similar to a walk-a-thon event where participants try to dance as long as possible.

Single dancers or partners can sign up and get sponsored to dance by the hour. Keep energy levels high with snacks and refreshments so dancers can raise as much money as possible. And don’t forget to play some fall-themed music.

As an incentive, offer themed T-shirts and other branded gear at different intervals throughout the event. For example, three hours of dancing earn a T-shirt, but six hours of dancing earn a T-shirt, a water bottle, and a sweatband.

15. Bonfire Event

There are plenty of great reasons to host a bonfire in the fall: the homecoming football game, s’mores, and Guy Fawkes Day. Collect donations from local businesses and partner with your fire department for safety. Then, charge an admission fee ahead of time and recruit volunteers to ensure a safe, fun-filled evening. Just don’t forget the marshmallows.

For all your fall events, be sure to inform attendees about your nonprofit’s current fundraising campaigns. This is a great opportunity to introduce your offline supporters to Giving Tuesday and share how important the online giving day is for your organization.

16. Fall Trivia Night

How about renting a sound system and holding an in-person trivia night event at a local community center to raise money for your cause? Create a registration page so teams can register ahead of time and give prizes to the team with the most correct answers and the team that raises the most money through their peer-to-peer fundraising page.

Ask fall-themed questions about the fall season, “Sleepy Hollow,” the history of Halloween, or scary movies. Here’s a sample question: What is the first day of autumn called? (Answer: The Autumn Equinox.)

17. Edgar Allan “Poe”try Night

Coffee shops and pubs are great locations for this spooky yet creative event. Appeal to local businesses for event space and sound equipment.

You can charge for entry and invite volunteers to sign up to read frightening classics. Then, have a competition for the best performance and take a poll or determine the winner through the crowd’s response. Increase the event’s reach by encouraging performers to create a peer-to-peer fundraising page and raise a certain amount before the show. Be sure to provide peer-to-peer fundraising tips to your supporters to set them up for success.

Record videos of each reading to share on your social media channels and get people to vote for their favorites online.

18. Rake-a-Thon

Made popular by several Habitat for Humanity chapters, a rake–a-thon typically involves asking for a suggested donation in exchange for volunteers to rake your yard. This is the perfect fall fundraiser event because leaves fill every yard during the fall season.

While you can reach out to nonprofit donors and local homeowners by going door to door, an online donation website would allow your organization to collect donations ahead of time and help you organize your list of lawns to rake.

19. Oktoberfest Pub Crawl

Working together with local breweries or bars and charging for participation in the crawl is another great way to fundraise in the fall. Consider selecting pubs that offer a fall-themed drink menu (think pumpkin ales, ciders, mulled wine).

Then, encourage participants to wear lederhosen or Halloween costumes for a fun spin on this classic fall event. Create T-shirts branded with your nonprofit’s logo to raise awareness for your cause while participants make their way through the route.

20. Punkin Chunkin Fundraiser

Traditionally held in early November, a Punkin Chunkin is an opportunity to get a final use out of that Halloween jack-o’-lantern. Competitors build trebuchets and enter them in a competition to see who can launch their carved pumpkin the farthest.

Charge a team entry fee and incentivize participation with a prize, like branded swag and tickets to your next event. This is another perfect opportunity to capture unique videos to share on your website or social media channels.

Which Fall Fundraising Ideas Will You Try?

However you decide to embrace the season, look for ways to personalize your experiences for your target supporter base, lean into technology to cast a wider attendee net, and brainstorm how to encourage existing supporters to tap into their networks to attract new faces to your cause. 

Hosting an event that incorporates a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, for example, is a great way to reach more donors and educate individuals new to your cause. For even more inspiration for the entire year, explore our guide, A Year of Creative Fundraising Ideas.

Copy Editor: Ayanna Julien

One way to look at it is that a nonprofit budget is the planning document used to track your expenses and revenue. Put another way: it determines where you’ll dedicate your resources based on priorities.

But not all nonprofit budgets are equal. There are different types of budgets intended for specific purposes, departments, or focused periods. Use this as a guide to ensure your financial activities contribute to your organization’s financial sustainability and long-term impact.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Nonprofit Budget?

A thorough budget is part of any nonprofit’s business plan. When you take the time to organize a clear and consistent financial plan that aligns with your timely goals, there are clear benefits. These are just a few of the most obvious reasons to create a budget for your nonprofit organization.

• Achieve your mission: An effective nonprofit budget keeps you focused on the right things. The more resources you dedicate to a particular goal, the more likely you’ll achieve them.
• Grow without overspending: A budget allows you to grow sustainably without the risk of outpacing your income. Running a charity without a clear budget is like driving at night without your lights on—you don’t know where you’re going, increasing the risk of a sudden crash.
• Communicate better: A good budget improves internal nonprofit transparency by facilitating healthy conversations around your group’s finances. Budget planning helps support staff alignment and ensures your nonprofit board members know what’s happening.
• Keep donors happy: A potential donor doesn’t want to give to a wasteful organization. They want to make sure you spend your funds wisely and that their contributions make an impact. Put simply, having a clear financial plan builds trust with your funders.

Keep these benefits at the forefront of your mind as you create your next budget. These might also be helpful reminders for your team if they need motivation to participate in the budget planning process. The more buy-in you get from your team, the better the process will unfold.

A clear budgeting process also helps to improve other areas of your organization, including your nonprofit accounting system and your management of nonprofit audits.

4 Types of Budgets for Nonprofit Organizations

Budgets all revolve around money, but different budgets serve different purposes. Here are four of the most common types of budgets used by nonprofit organizations.

• Operating budget: This is one of the most common types of nonprofit budgets, and it displays your annual projected revenue and operating expenses. You’ll most likely start with a proposed budget, then track actual spending during the fiscal year.
• Capital budget: This budget consists of the financial numbers directly associated with long-term projects, like a building campaign.
• Program or project budget: This report provides an overview of revenue and expenses for a specific project. You can also create these program budgets for individual departments, like fundraising or marketing.
• Cash flow projection: This budget has projections that answer the question of how much money you have in the bank at any given time. Organizations often lean on these projections to forecast the in-and-out flow of money.

Whether you select one of these budgets or use a combination, understanding how each is unique is the first step.

Budgeting Approaches: 3 Types to Consider

Besides the different types of budgets, there are also fundamental approaches to strategic budgeting. These are the philosophies behind how an organization views money. You can apply each to the various types of budgets.

• Zero-based budget: This approach involves starting from scratch at the beginning of the fiscal year to determine your priorities and how you should spend the money based on those goals.
• Income-based budget: This approach allows you to predict your income, then back into the expenses you can afford from that amount. It’s easier when you have a clear idea of what your upcoming revenue will be.
• Incremental budget: This approach involves building a budget using a percentage increase or decrease based on the previous year’s budget. It’s based on what you already know works and takes far less time to build than starting from scratch.

There’s no “right” approach to organizational budgeting—you must find the one that works best for you. The most important thing is to stay consistent once you select one. Otherwise, you won’t be able to accurately compare budgets from period to period.

Nonprofit Budget Features: Look for These 5 Things

We looked at a few organizational budgets, each with variances and different elements. Still, many of them had several similar features. These are a few of the most common terms you’ll see showing up on budgets.

• Revenue: This is the money coming into your organization. For most nonprofits, these sources of revenue refer to fundraising efforts from donations, sponsors, and grants for nonprofits. It can also mean membership fees and fundraising event ticket sales.
• Expenses: This refers to the things you spent money on, which is a wide range of direct costs that most commonly include staff salaries, travel, nonprofit marketing, program expenses, office space and supplies, and professional development.
• Projections vs. actual: This answers the question: “What did you expect compared to what happened?” Projections are a crucial part of the budgeting process, and you’ll want to see how close your estimated expenditures were to the actual results.
• Time period: This ensures your budget includes the same period for comparison purposes—whether you track the most recent quarter or a three- or five-year overview. But make sure to at least maintain an annual budget that looks at the most recent fiscal year.
• Goals: This answers the question: “What revenue numbers are you trying to hit?” Keep your organizational goals at the forefront to remember what your goal is and what metrics to measure to understand how to get there.

Best Practices for Creating a Nonprofit Budget

Now that we’ve covered why you need a budget and what one looks like let’s unpack a few best practices for optimizing your budget as a nonprofit leader. You’ll learn from and improve on this process through time and effort, but hopefully, these tips save you some time and potentially costly mistakes.

• Involve the right people: Get your staff, volunteers, and board of directors’ input into the budgeting creation and review process to ensure buy-in.
• Align with your goals: Ensure your budget is worth your time by creating one that helps you achieve your goals. Your nonprofit’s budget should directly support your organizational goals and strategic plan.
• Keep it accurate and updated: Create sustainable processes that help you track the accuracy of these numbers. An inaccurate or outdated budget will give you faulty information, detracting from proper financial management.
• Don’t drown in the details: Keep most budget reports high-level to avoid getting stuck in the weeds. Your financial team will care about the nitty-gritty, but your board will likely want an overview.
• Choose the right budgeting tool: Pick a budgeting software that’s helpful and not overly complicated. Automating some of these processes with technology will help your organization grow sustainably and keep the numbers accurate. This could be as simple as starting with Excel or moving to software like QuickBooks or FreshBooks. These tools will often have nonprofit budgeting templates to help you get started.

Get Ready to Budget Better

Budgeting is a crucial part of keeping your organization on track and solvent. Without a budget, you won’t meet your objectives or mission. This financial management is the way to improve the overall financial health of your nonprofit—even if it isn’t easy, it’s worth heeding to keep your organization alive and thriving.

Copy Editor: Ayanna Julien

Nonprofits and not-for-profit organizations share several similarities but have a few key differences in charitable purpose, operations, and tax status.

Understanding what makes nonprofits unique from not-for-profit organizations is crucial, whether partnering with one, making a donation to one, or starting one. Allow this blog to serve as your guide to differentiating between the two and understanding which type of organization aligns with your needs and goals.

What Is a Nonprofit Organization?

All nonprofit organizations (NPOs) serve the public good with a core mission. The money raised from donations must be put toward serving this charitable purpose.

To be a tax-exempt nonprofit, your organization must meet a wide range of requirements by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You must also disclose your financial and operational information to the public. This high nonprofit transparency ensures it serves the public good.

Some prominent examples of these charitable organizations include:

• Concern Worldwide US
• Feeding San Diego
• Shriners Hospitals for Children
• Direct Relief
• Denver Rescue Mission

What Is a Not-for-Profit Organization?

Like a nonprofit, not-for-profit organizations (NFPOs) do not distribute a profit to owners. All money earned from fundraising activities or services must go directly back into running the organization.

However, the biggest difference is that not-for-profit organizations do not have to operate for the public benefit. Instead, these serve the goals and objectives of the organization’s members. For this reason, these organizations have fewer requirements, especially with tax-exempt status and operational transparency.

Common examples of not-for-profit organizations include:

• Credit unions
• Trade associations
• Professional organizations
• Sports clubs
• Social clubs
• University alumni associations

5 Major Differences Between Nonprofits and Not-for-Profit Organizations

The factors that distinguish a nonprofit from a not-for-profit organization are subtle but change how each organization functions. Comparisons of nonprofits with not-for-profit organizations fall into these five general categories.

1. Organizational Purpose

A nonprofit must serve the public good and prove how it supports social causes. By contrast, not-for-profit organizations can serve the special interests of members and the organization itself.

2. Tax Status

For IRS tax purposes, there are 26 different types of nonprofit organizations. Most traditional nonprofits fall into the 501(c)(3) category and have to meet certain criteria to fit into that tax-exempt status.

Although NFPOs can fall into a few IRS categories, most are 501(c)(7) organizations, including social causes or recreational clubs.

The primary distinction here is that nonprofit donations are tax deductible for donors, but nonprofits have a higher level of tax scrutiny. Most not-for-profit donors can’t write off their donations as tax deductions without some added steps.

3. Legal Liability

Nonprofit organizations can exist as a separate legal and business entity from the business owner, like a traditional for-profit corporation.

However, not-for-profits are more like a general partnership, where the members cannot separate themselves legally from the organization. There are some exceptions to this rule, but it requires more work from the organization’s leadership.

4. Operational Structure

To serve the public good, most nonprofit organizations rely on paid staff. Their work is supplemented by a team of loyal volunteers and held accountable by an external nonprofit board with volunteer board members.

On the other hand, not-for-profit organizations are typically solely reliant on volunteers and don’t often have a board of directors. If a not-for-profit employed someone full-time, they would be subject to federal and state income tax.

5. Transparency

To retain tax-exempt status, nonprofit charitable organizations must make financial and operational records publicly available. This impacts nonprofit accounting practices and nonprofit financial audit processes.

Not-for-profits don’t have the same financial regulations and operate much more like privately owned for-profit businesses in this way. It’s still a good idea for them to share these reports with members, even if it’s not a requirement.

How Are Nonprofits and Not-for-Profit Organizations Similar?

It’s easy to understand why the general public views nonprofits and not-for-profit organizations interchangeably. Despite the differences, both are unique compared to for-profit companies and function in similar capacities.

The most notable similarity between nonprofits and not-for-profit organizations stems from how both handle money. In both cases, these community organizations funnel profits back into funding the organization rather than distributing any revenue to owners or shareholders.

Additionally, both acquire profits generally the same way, including general donations, fundraising events, corporate sponsorships, or paid services derived from members of the community.

Understanding the Difference to Inform Your Fundraising Strategy

Both nonprofits and not-for-profit organizations are valuable organizations within communities but have different charitable purposes and, therefore, operate differently from one another to accomplish their goals. It’s crucial to understand these differences when starting a charitable organization or partnering with one.

If you’re launching a nonprofit, explore Classy’s How to Start a Nonprofit in 9 Steps and discover how Classy’s comprehensive fundraising suite can help provide a world-class giving experience for every person who lands on your donation site.

Schedule time to chat with a highly trained member of our team today.

Copy Editor: Ayanna Julien

A partnership with a fiscal sponsor can help jump-start your new nonprofit by lending you its credibility and legal nonprofit status. However, acquiring 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status takes time and work. It’s also crucial in earning donors’ trust. Simply put, a fiscal sponsor propels you forward during your initial stages.

Explore this comprehensive breakdown to discover the pros, cons, and best practices for landing successful fiscal sponsor partnerships and learn how your nonprofit can put these actions into practice today.

What Is a Nonprofit Fiscal Sponsor?

A fiscal sponsor is an existing nonprofit that extends the benefits of its charitable status to your organization. Essentially, people donate directly to the fiscal sponsor, who then funnels the funds to you. The sponsor assumes some of the risk and work involved with the financial management and often takes a percentage of each donation for this reason.

If we think of a new nonprofit as a startup, the fiscal sponsor is like an incubator. It’s a protective environment that allows the organization to grow in stability and structure before becoming fully independent. The goal is for them to be a short-term solution rather than a permanent fixture.

A comprehensive fiscal sponsorship provides you with a shortcut to accepting tax-deductible donations while starting a new charitable project. This is why deciding which type of sponsor best fits your situation is such a critical step in the process.

There are six models of fiscal sponsorship, each with different structures, benefits, and risks. These include:

• Direct project
• Independent contractor project
• Preapproved grant relationship
• Group exemption
• Supporting organization
• Technical assistance

Fiscal Agent vs. Fiscal Sponsor

Like fiscal sponsors, fiscal agents are charitable partners who can assist smaller organizations. However, there’s a critical distinction between these models of fiscal sponsorship.

Fiscal agencies don’t retain financial discretion or control, but a fiscal sponsor does. This is a major benefit to small nonprofits, as it allows them to retain a sense of independence. Unfortunately, this also means you must secure a 501(c)(3) status to enter this agreement.

However, a fiscal agent can provide some financial stability, administrative services, or access to organizational infrastructure. What’s also crucial to note is that the fiscal agent can’t share its 501(c)(3) status with your nonprofit.

Who Can Serve as a Fiscal Sponsor?

Most qualifying tax-exempt organizations can serve as fiscal sponsors for other organizations. However, you must take certain steps to form this partnership. Any organization looking to serve as a fiscal sponsor must meet the following requirements as set by the IRS:

• The sponsor must have active 501(c)(3) status with the IRS
• The receiving organization (your nonprofit) controls all the funds
• The activities must be for charitable purposes
• The sponsor organization must provide tax receipts to all funders
• The sponsor is responsible for the actions of the receiving organization

In other words, becoming a fiscal sponsor is a commitment to help oversee a nonprofit. Think of it like cosigning a loan. The sponsor provides organizational credibility to the unestablished charity. Therefore, there’s an inherent investment and risk involved.

What Are the Benefits of a Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement?

There are several potential benefits of seeking support from a fiscal sponsor. Here are five of the pros when considering this arrangement:

• Immediate financial support: New organizations are the best and most logical candidates to seek fiscal sponsors. For example, when a nonprofit hasn’t earned tax-exempt status yet but still needs donations to get started.
• Protection and stability: Offloading some of the administrative tasks of a new nonprofit to a trusted partner helps you focus on your mission, build a community, and grow your fundraising efforts.
• Resources and infrastructure: In addition to tax-deductible donations, some fiscal sponsors offer administrative services like helping with financial management or human resources. After all, these organizations have a vested interest in your organization, which could potentially lead to them offering other resources to help you succeed.
• Mentorship: Since the sponsors must be tax-exempt to qualify, your sponsor has likely been through the same situation and can provide insight and advice to guide you in the right direction.
• Grant writing assistance: Grants are an effective way to launch new nonprofits. However, writing effective grant proposals takes time and expertise. Having a fiscal sponsorship increases the likelihood that you can apply for and win grant funds.

What Are the Downsides of a Fiscal Sponsor?

Balance the above benefits with these four potential cons of entering into a fiscal sponsorship:

• Sharing a percentage of your charitable contributions: This is a common and acceptable practice since your sponsor provides a service and clear value. However, this means you don’t receive 100% of your fundraising. You may also owe administrative fees for certain services the sponsor provides.
• Disjointed giving experience: Because your fiscal sponsor handles donation logistics, it may confuse donors. For example, they’ll get linked out to give to another organization, which may surprise them.
• Donor confusion: Most of your donors likely haven’t heard about fiscal sponsorship agreements. That means the responsibility of explaining it falls to you. Otherwise, you risk losing donors who aren’t certain why they’re giving to an organization other than yours.
• Legal ties: For better or worse, you’re connecting your organization to this sponsoring organization. The sponsor could earn a negative reputation, or your missions could misalign. Enter into the relationship carefully and manage potential liabilities.

Getting Started With a Fiscal Sponsorship

As mentioned, there are clear pros and cons to signing on with a fiscal sponsor. However, only you can decide what’s best for your nonprofit. If you pursue a fiscal sponsorship agreement, follow these steps to do it right.

1. Do your research: Take a look at the potential sponsor options available to your nonprofit. This might mean looking into the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors (NNFS) to see the options. You’ll also want to talk to other local organizations that have used fiscal sponsors before to learn from them.
2. Pick the right sponsor for your organization: A partnership of this proximity requires a relationship based on trust. After all, your sponsoring organization will have access to your donors, so this must be a partner you have faith in, or the situation could become problematic. Ensuring your mission aligns with your sponsor’s mission is a major part of ensuring that this will be an effective partnership.
3. Have a written agreement: Fiscal sponsorship is a serious business partnership that requires more than just a handshake. Unless you have a written and signed agreement, nothing stops the fiscal sponsor from taking your donations. Protect your new organization by getting everything in writing.
4. Get buy-in from your team: This isn’t a relationship you should enter into without council. Review this agreement with your internal staff and board of directors, as they can help advise you of the details before you sign anything. Even informing your volunteers can help them to understand this agreement and inform potential donors better.
5. Know when to branch out: Having a fiscal sponsorship relationship is ideally a short-term solution while you establish your charitable organization. That may take months or years, but your goal should be toward independence. Revisit the conversation quarterly to determine the timeline of when that should happen.

Is a Fiscal Sponsor Right for Your Nonprofit?

Fiscal sponsorship arrangements are valuable organizational partnerships that can help new nonprofits get off the ground faster. However, because of potential liabilities, you must enter these partnerships with care.

Do your homework about the various fiscal sponsorships and find an organization that’s the right fit for your nonprofit. Then, take the time to ask the right questions before you sign any contracts. The future of your new nonprofit depends on your smart decisions upfront.

From compliance to financial management, accounting provides the systems and information needed to keep a nonprofit’s finances in check.

However, understanding and evaluating financial data can feel daunting when getting started—but it doesn’t have to be. Our guide details how you can take care of all your accounting needs and sustain your nonprofit’s financial health for the long term.

5 Ways Nonprofit Accounting Compares to For-Profit Accounting

For-profit businesses have well-established accounting practices that you might already know. There are plenty of commonalities between these processes and the guidelines nonprofits must follow in accounting. However, there are also a few key differences to keep in mind.

1. Taxes: Approved nonprofits hold tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), unlike for-profit businesses that must pay income taxes for employees.
2. Financial statements: Instead of a balance sheet that for-profit companies keep, nonprofits must maintain a statement of financial position. Additionally, nonprofits keep a statement of activities rather than an income statement like for-profit businesses.
3. Equity versus net assets: When a for-profit business has a surplus, that money goes to the shareholders as equity. With a nonprofit, that money goes toward the organization’s net assets.
4. Governance: A private owner (or public stockholders) typically runs a for-profit business. With nonprofit organizations, a volunteer nonprofit board of directors oversees them. This impacts the reporting and accountability structure within the accounting.
5. Revenue: The income for a for-profit business comes from the sales of goods and services. Within a nonprofit, this revenue comes primarily from fundraising and grant management.

Nonprofit Accounting Best Practices

Every nonprofit is different and requires a custom approach to accounting. However, there are a few basic steps that all charities in the nonprofit sector should follow. Whether a seasoned professional or just starting, here are a few suggestions for making the most of nonprofit accounting.

1. Establish a Budget

A budget is your financial blueprint. It’s where you include your anticipated revenue and expenses for the upcoming year based on the previous year’s performance. This helps inform your team’s forecasting exercises and spending plans. Be sure to plan for contingencies, too.

Stick to your budget as closely as possible. Take the time to review it on a monthly basis to evaluate your progress and pivot if needed. Your organization’s operating budget should serve as your guide, but it’s also critical that each department have an operating budget that ladders back up to your nonprofit’s larger goals.

2. Select an Accounting Software

The right digital tool can help you track your finances more reliably. With plenty of options available, take time to select the one that best suits your unique needs, experience, and budget. For example, QuickBooks and FreshBooks are two commonly used accounting solutions.

The best nonprofit accounting system will help you:

• Manage a journaling system
• Connect to your bank account
• Create and manage budgets
• Calculate your cash flow
• Generate reporting and financial statements

3. Build an Accounting Team

Every nonprofit should have someone responsible for the finances of its organization. This might be a single person like the chief financial officer, or it could be an entire team depending on the size and complexity of your organization.

You don’t need certified public accountants (CPAs) on your team, but it certainly helps. The most important thing is to hire someone who understands the language of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and is capable of routinely executing accurate financial reports. A board member well-versed in accounting is also an asset to your team.

It might be worthwhile to partner with a specialized nonprofit accountant or a larger external accounting firm to help with reconciliations and audits. Their objectivity and specialization in accounting will serve as a major bonus. However, because there are countless accounting firms, it’s best to choose one that shares your values and has experience with nonprofit organizations.

4. Keep Track of Your Records

Hopefully, you track all your nonprofit’s financial transactions, including expenses, invoices, and receipts. This helps to ensure your internal records match your balance sheet, which will make your annual nonprofit audit much easier.

It’s best to save these records digitally in your accounting software, but holding on to paper records for the short term is helpful to verify everything is correct. Proper record keeping is vital to sound accounting and complying with IRS and not-for-profit regulations.

5. Reconcile Your Accounts Regularly

Reconciling your accounts means comparing your bank statements to internal accounting records. Bank reconciliation is the practice of comparing your records to what’s actually in your organization’s bank account to ensure that these records match.

This process helps catch any errors and discrepancies or may potentially catch fraud should there be any suspicious activity within your organization. It also keeps you from falling behind with your bookkeeping efforts.

You can reconcile many accounts, including cash flow (which includes reviewing payments to and from your organization), accounts receivable, accounts payable, and staff payroll. All these accounts are vital to accurate financial reporting in your organization.

6. Conduct an Annual Financial Audit

An audit is a formal examination of your financial records, which can reveal any potential problems and keep you in compliance. You might be able to conduct the audit internally or may have to hire an external firm to run the audit, depending on your size and budget.

This isn’t just an oversight from the IRS but a healthy regular practice to ensure your nonprofit organization’s bookkeeping is well-maintained. The findings from this single audit can fit into your nonprofit annual report and simplify your fundraising.

Nonprofit Accounting Terminology to Know

Accounting can be a highly technical and jargon-filled process. So understanding the relevant key terms is a crucial step toward better nonprofit accounting. Here’s a list of some of the most common phrases you’ll need to know:

• Accounts receivable: The money owed to an organization, or in the instance of a nonprofit, the donation fund.
• Accounts payable: The amount owed to others for services or goods received by the nonprofit organization.
• Chart of accounts: The list of accounts that sends or receives money. These are typically listed as assets, liabilities, net assets, revenue, and expenses.
• Cash flow: How money moves in and out of an organization, especially how much liquid cash is on hand at any given time. This is typically reported on the statement of cash flows.
• Assets: The value of anything your not-for-profit owns, including cash, goods, investments, intellectual property, or physical property.
• Liabilities: The sum of what your organization owes, including any debts.
• Depreciation: The loss of value over time for assets held.
• Statement of activities: The summary of your nonprofit’s revenue and expenses over the reporting period. This is similar to a for-profit’s income statement.
• Fund accounting: The recommended form of accounting for nonprofits because it separates money into separate accounts for various activities, such as programming, marketing, admin, and fundraising.
• GAAP: The Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are the standards for accounting in the United States.

Keep Your Nonprofit’s Accounting in Check to Raise More for Your Mission

Proper accounting is vital to every organization in the nonprofit sector, regardless of its mission or size. Following correct accounting procedures isn’t difficult but requires an educated team and focused efforts to stay on track.

This is one of the primary reasons why Classy prioritizes robust and clear reporting in its system. Having access to these reports directly within your donations platform makes it that much easier to manage your internal accounting processes.

Follow these steps to get a handle on today’s nonprofit accounting best practices to keep your organization compliant and running smoothly.

Whether investing in social, search, or retargeting, there are a range of different paid ad approaches your organization can take. When done effectively, these ads can boost what you already do with organic marketing content and extend your brand awareness.

However, digital advertising success requires a deep understanding of fundamental advertising principles. That begins with a mastery of the basic acronyms associated with digital advertising. If you don’t yet understand the difference between SEO and SEM or PPC and PPV, we’ve got you covered.

1. KPI: Key Performance Indicator

Before determining which digital ad strategy to take, you must know what goals your nonprofit wants to achieve.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measurements of performance over time. These significant metrics help inform your organization’s decision-making and strategic improvement, heavily impacting your mission. In other words, these numbers help you make the most of your data.

Not sure which KPIs your nonprofit should measure? Start with these 12 Nonprofit KPIs Every Charitable Organization Should Track.

2. SEM: Search Engine Marketing

Google and alternative search engines index and share websites, blog posts, and other digital destinations in organic search results based on authority, content value, and keywords. However, these tech companies make money from targeted ads that appear among organic search results based on the user’s query.

The practice of paying for these search ad slots is search engine marketing (SEM). This is slightly different from search engine optimization (SEO), which adapts your site’s content to best rank in organic search results. Aside from the issue of paid (SEM) versus not (SEO), both still benefit each other.

If you need some help boosting your nonprofit website’s SEO, take a look at these 7 SEO Tips and Tricks You Can’t Afford to Ignore.

3. CTA: Call to Action

Every digital ad should drive users toward a single, specific action. Whether to donate, volunteer, or visit your website, your call to action (CTA) should be compelling and clear. It should also be simple for the user to execute, requiring just a single click.

While there are plenty of CTAs to choose from, pick one action that nudges your users to continue their journeys with your organization.

4. CTR: Click-Through Rate

Whatever your CTA is, the goal is to receive a click from the user. Therefore, measuring the number of clicks compared to how many people saw the ad is a key metric for understanding the ad’s effectiveness. This is the click-through rate (CTR).

CTR is a crucial metric to track for email marketing as well. An average benchmark for CTR in 2023 is about 6.3%, but the higher the percentage, the better.1

Formula: CTR = (Clicks/Impressions) x 100

5. CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization

Increasing the number of users clicking on your ad requires improving your conversion rate. This process is conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Nonprofits can gradually improve conversion rates by testing out different ad variables like headlines, copy, and CTAs. Here are 6 A/B Test Ideas to Improve Your Nonprofit Marketing Metrics.

CRO isn’t just limited to just digital ads, either. It’s also a helpful practice for optimizing your blog CTAs and even those hosted on your website.

6. CPM: Cost Per Thousand Impressions

The cost per digital advertisement depends on the type of ad it is. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is the most common form of ad pricing. It means your organization gets charged a set amount for every thousand times your ad is shown.

Because this strategy focuses more on exposure than conversions, it’s the best option for a brand awareness campaign. In this instance, your goal is to have a low CPM to reach more people with a smaller budget. The average CPM on Google in 2019 was about $41—meaning, it costs $41 for an ad to show up 1,000 times in Google searches.2

Formula: Total Cost = (Total Impressions x CPM)/1,000.

7. CPC: Cost Per Click

The next most popular form of ad payment after CPM is cost per click (CPC). As you can probably guess, you only pay when a user clicks your ad. Keep in mind that the same person could click your ad multiple times, and you’ll get charged for each click.

CPC is the amount you pay and is interchangeable with the concept of pay-per-click (PPC).

This approach is better suited for an action-oriented campaign because the ad might be exposed to fewer people overall, but they’ll be more targeted based on their likelihood to click. The average CPC on an ad is typically lower than CPM—between $4 to $6 in 2022.3

Formula: Total Cost = Clicks x CPC

8. CPA: Cost Per Acquisition

A user might see your ad and even click on it, but this doesn’t guarantee they’ll become a supporter of your organization. If that’s your ultimate focus, consider paying for each new supporter your organization acquires. Known as paying by the cost per acquisition (CPA), this closely relates to cost per lead (CPL), which requires advertisers to pay a set amount for every lead.

CPA ad campaigns are even more action-oriented than CPC ads because the goal is to add people to your organization. You only pay for people who become donors or volunteers, but you’ll usually have to pay significantly more compared to a click or impression.

9. PPV: Pay Per View

Despite how it sounds, pay-per-view (PPV) doesn’t mean paying a cable outlet to watch a boxing match—at least not in the context of digital advertising. In this case, PPV means only paying when specific criteria for viewing the ad have been set, like the impression duration.

This is especially valuable for video views because PPV allows you to track how many viewers engaged with your content for at least a set duration before you pay for the ad placement. It ensures people aren’t scrolling straight past your ad without noticing it.

10. VTC: View Through Click

Not everyone who comes to your site did so because they clicked on one of your ads. There will be plenty of people who saw your ad, didn’t click it, then navigated to your website later. This is a view-through click (VTC).

VTC shows the extended power of digital advertising. For instance, even if someone doesn’t initially click your ad or CTA, you’ve still increased your brand awareness and planted the seed for converting them later.

11. VCR: Video Completion Rate

Similar to PPV, video completion rate (VCR) shows the percentage of viewers who watch your entire video ad to the end. This directly indicates how effective that ad is in holding people’s attention.

VCR can also help inform your optimization strategy for your future video ads, which may include testing various lengths of video content. Video ads of less than a minute have a 58% completion rate compared to a 43% VCR for videos between 2 to 10 minutes.4

12. ROAS: Return on Advertising Spend

If you’re familiar with marketing, you know the term return on investment (ROI). Return on advertising spend (ROAS) is the ad-specific acronym for ROI. It’s essentially a comparison of how much fundraising you brought in from an ad campaign versus the campaign’s ad budget.

ROAS is a valuable metric to keep in mind because you’re likely dealing with a limited marketing budget and need to make every dollar count. As long as your ROAS figure is above 100%, your ad campaign is profitable.

Formula: ROAS = Revenue/Advertising Costs

13. DSP: Demand Side Platform

Nonprofit organizations typically don’t place ads directly on sites or search engines. Instead, ad placement gets traditionally accomplished through a third-party service called a demand-side platform (DSP).

These platforms allow you to show ad inventory across an array of ad networks, including the Google Display Network (GDN)—the largest collection of ad sites online.5 Using a DSP, you can bid on ad buys across a range of sites, and the DSP will place them for you.

14. RTB: Real-Time Bidding

Because ads get paid out based on impressions and clicks, the prices fluctuate. Think about the cost of airline tickets that change by the minute based on supply and demand. That’s why real-time bidding (RTB) is crucial.

Your organization places a bid on how much you’d willingly pay for a click or thousand impressions. The DSP then compares that to the other bids going to the same sites. The highest bid is typically the winner, although search engines like Google also take the relevance of the ad to a specific search term into account.

15. DMA: Designated Market Area

The benefit of digital advertising is how narrowly you can target users, which includes focusing on a specific geographic area with your ads. This geographic location you select to target is your designated market area (DMA).

DMAs originally came about because of television markets and are maintained annually by Nielsen Holdings. However, these areas also apply to digital advertising, except you have the flexibility to be more broad or specific than a static television market.

16. RON: Run of Network

Most digital ad campaigns run through an ad network like the GDN. Run of network (RON) means your ad cycles through a grouping of websites rather than one specifically. This is different from the run of site (ROS), where your ad cycles through placements on a specific website.

Both RON and ROS apply directly to display advertisements that show as banner or interval ads on external websites. Keep in mind that this isn’t synonymous with social media ads that run within a social platform (like Facebook or Instagram) or a search engine ad that appears within the results of a search.

18. SOV: Share of Voice

Your nonprofit is not the only organization bidding on ad placements. The share of voice (SOV) is the percentage that your ad gets seen compared to other advertisers. If you’re one of five rotating ads in a single placement, your SOV is 20%. However, if your ad is the only one displayed for placement, your SOV is 100%.

19. IAB: Interactive Advertising Bureau

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) sets the industry standard for digital advertising, including ad specifications. All online digital ads are subject to IAB standards, and ad publishers must follow them.

Making the Most of Your Nonprofit’s Digital Advertising

To get the most out of your digital ad spend, it’s critical to understand the basics of paid advertising. The ever-evolving online space may feel overwhelming, but with the proper tools and resources, your nonprofit can stay ahead and remain on top.

If you’re ready to continue your learning journey, check out these 10 Tips to Boost Your Nonprofit’s Digital Marketing With Google and Facebook Ads.

Article Sources

1. “2023 Average Ad Click-Through Rates (CTRs) for Paid Search, Display and Social Media,” Smart Insights, last modified February 14, 2023, https://www.smartinsights.com/internet-advertising/internet-advertising-analytics/display-advertising-clickthrough-rates/.
2. “Google Ads CPC, CPM, & CTR Benchmarks,” AdStage, last modified or accessed, https://blog.adstage.io/google-ads-cpm-cpc-ctr-benchmarks.
3. “2022 Google Ads & Microsoft Ads Benchmarks for Every Industry,” WordStream, last modified December 12, 2022, https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/05/18/search-advertising-benchmarks.
4. “2021 Business Video Completion Rates and Other Benchmarks,” Marketing Charts, last modified June 8, 2022, https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/video-225924.
5. “The Straightforward Guide to the Google Display Network,” HubSpot, last modified December 8, 2021, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-display-network.

Although it first launched in beta with only a few charity options, Twitch Charity now connects with the PayPal Giving Fund, which offers a catalog of hundreds of thousands of registered 501(c)(3)s.² This development allows streamers to switch into “Charity Mode” to choose a nonprofit from the catalog, set fundraising goals, and control how the donation button appears to their viewers.

Twitch entertains a global audience of over 31 million daily active users, 72% of which are between the ages of 16–34.³ This young and highly engaged audience presents a prime opportunity for charitable partnerships and peer-to-peer donations.

The bottom line is that Twitch Charity streams present a mutually beneficial partnership for brand awareness and fundraising. Since this is likely new territory for many nonprofit leaders, we’ve compiled a guide to help you get started.

What Is Twitch?

Launched in 2011, Twitch is an interactive livestreaming service for content, spanning gaming, entertainment, sports, music, and more. Although your nonprofit may not have experience with the platform quite yet, Twitch is extremely popular among streamers, content creators, and general viewers:⁴

• 44 million Twitch viewers (20% of which are in the U.S.)
• $2.8 billion in revenue in 2022
• $970 million was the price Amazon paid for Twitch in 2014
• 95 minutes is the average session length on Twitch
• About 2.5 million people watch a Twitch stream at any given moment

Users can watch streams from the main Twitch site, mobile app, or even directly within their gaming console. There’s a live chat feature within every channel as well, so users can engage with the streamers in real time.

How to Host an Effective Charity Stream on Twitch

Before the launch of Twitch Charity, users would donate to charity through third-party fundraising platforms. Thankfully, the natively integrated Charity feature streamlines the donation process for streamers, viewers, and nonprofit benefactors.

Giving back is actively encouraged within the Twitch streaming community and the platform itself. Donating to a worthy cause gives people a reason to watch other than just video games.

To host a successful stream, Twitch recommends:

• Choosing a nonprofit that means something to you
• Setting realistic fundraising goals and tracking milestones along the way
• Using incentives to motivate your audience to take action
• Using your personal Twitch channel and other social media platforms to promote your stream and the cause
• Leveraging all of Twitch’s built-in features to make the most of your stream

It’s helpful to learn from experienced Twitch streamers as well, who understand what it takes to pull off successful fundraising campaigns. For example, streamer DrLupo raised more than $2.3 million for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in only 24 hours on Twitch back in 2019.⁵

5 Tips for Connecting With Twitch Streamers to Further Elevate Your Cause

It may seem like a long shot to connect with influential Twitch gamers interested in supporting your cause. Still, about 78% of these users actually want to see more charitable connections in gaming.⁶

Since livestream fundraising is a proven, effective way to rally supporters around your organization, it makes sense that Twitch charity streams are another tremendous opportunity to capitalize on for your nonprofit.

1. Reach Out to Streamers Directly

Take the time to explore Twitch and learn which streamers might be a good fit for your organization. Segment each Twitch channel by where streamers are geographically, what types of games they prefer to play, and other general categories that feel relevant to your organization’s campaign.

Once you find someone that might be a good fit, reach out to initiate an introductory conversation. It’s easy to find their social media channels and other potential ways to contact them in their profile.

Understanding the basics of influencer marketing for nonprofits is a good first step as you contact these streamers.

2. Build a Trusting Relationship

Be upfront about why you’re reaching out and your ideas on potentially starting a partnership. Take the time to help them understand more about your cause and why you believe they would be a strong fit to represent your mission.

Twitch charity streams are most successful when the streamer you work with invests in your mission. As a nonprofit, you also need to spend time getting to know that individual. Ask questions about their previous levels of involvement with nonprofits, what causes they feel most connected to, and other questions that can help you understand who they are better. Think of this partnership like any other sponsorship opportunity—mutual respect is a must.

It’s also worth considering if there is anyone within your organization or community of donors with a strong following on Twitch. You might have an avid gamer in your midst and not yet realize it.

3. Make It Easy to Partner Together

Make your nonprofit stand out, as the most popular Twitch streamers likely already receive requests for promotional opportunities. It’s critical to be an accommodating partner. Use your fundraising team and experience to help organize the stream, leaving the streamer to focus on what they do best.

Here are some resources to provide to the streamer to make their job easier:

• Talking points about your organization and mission
• Relevant links, like your website, donation page, and social channels
• A brand guide, including your logo, colors, and any branded graphics
• Answers to frequently asked questions that might pop up in the chat
• Social media posts and blurbs to add to their channel

Offering something in return for their time will help that individual feel valued and hopefully help nurture a lasting connection. You can also offer to send them some promotional swag from your organization. These are things they can wear or have in the background during their stream to elevate your brand.

4. Promote Your Charitable Stream

Help streamers grow their audience and make the charitable stream a success by promoting the online event. They often have large channels with a built-in audience, but you can’t rely on them to drive traffic and donations. Here’s how:

• Highlight the event on your website
• Talk about the stream on your social channels, using the appropriate hashtags
• Reach out to your sponsors and provide them with resources to help promote
• Send an email to your donor base
• Ask your staff and volunteers to spread the word online and in person with their networks

Charitable streams aren’t limited to just one gamer, either. When you recruit multiple streamers to participate, it can increase the number of potential viewers and donors. Just be sure there’s a cohesive and consistent message coming from this cohort of streamers.

5. Track Your Results

Ask streamers to provide you with some of the large amounts of Twitch user data, like subscribers’ names and profiles, to help you follow up with anyone who participated in your charity event. Just be sure to discuss this with them upfront to help them prepare to collect that information for you.

You’ll also need to determine which metrics are most important to gauge your relative success. Figures like total funds raised and the number of viewers are crucial. This also gives you a benchmark to start from when you plan a repeat of the live stream again in the future.

Using Twitch Charity Streams to Boost Your Nonprofit Fundraising

Twitch’s user numbers are impressive, and the platform continues growing. Membership in Twitch’s partner program has increased by 68% since 2017, and the number of viewers and revenue has grown year over year.⁷ This makes Twitch Charity streams an increasingly attractive fundraising opportunity for nonprofits of all kinds.

Article Sources:

1. “Trillion Minutes Watched One of Twitch’s Several Wild 2020 Stats,” Dexerto, last modified January 30, 2021, https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/trillion-minutes-watched-one-of-twitchs-several-wild-2020-stats-1504715/.
2. “Twitch Users — How Many People Use Twitch (2023)” Demand Sage, last modified January 19, 2023, https://www.demandsage.com/twitch-users/.
3. “28 Twitch Stats to Know in 2023,” TrueList, last modified January 10, 2023, https://truelist.co/blog/twitch-stats/.
4. “Charity Fundraising on Twitch,” Twitch Creator Camp, last modified March 24, 2023, https://www.twitch.tv/creatorcamp/en/paths/growing-your-community/charity-streaming/.
5. “DrLupo raises $2.3 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 24 hours, surpassing goal for third year in a row,” St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, last modified December 21, 2020, https://www.stjude.org/media-resources/news-releases/2020-fundraising-news/drlupo-raises-2-3-million-in-24-hours.html.
6. “How I Hosted My First Charity Stream, and How You Can Host One, Too,” The Verge, last modified July 2, 2020, https://www.theverge.com/21309833/twitch-charity-stream-guide-donations-thermometer-guests.
7. “Twitch Statistics 2023: How Many People Use Twitch?” Earth Web, last modified January 29, 2023, https://earthweb.com/twitch-statistics/

That’s where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. These metrics allow nonprofit organizations to assess how to move toward a desired benchmark or set of benchmarks, like the total number of donors, year-over-year donation volume, average donation amount, and more. 

Understanding nonprofit KPIs will help you make more sense of your organizational performance metrics and shape your strategy on sound data-driven decisions. 

What Is a KPI?

KPIs provide critical insight into your nonprofit’s performance in a specific area.

While vanity metrics may look good, they won’t help inform future strategies. Fundraising KPIs can be more challenging to measure but also more meaningful.

Reporting on the right KPIs helps drastically increase your return on investment (ROI). It also helps you cut through the clutter and isolate the few metrics that genuinely reflect your nonprofit organization’s program efficiency and effectiveness. 

Why Are KPIs So Important?

Here are four reasons why nonprofit KPIs are valuable to your organization.

• Trackable: KPIs provide you with concrete numbers that reveal the true health and status of your nonprofit (e.g., donor growth rate, churn rate, etc.)
• Progress: KPIs reveal which direction your nonprofit is trending over time. Your KPI dashboard reveals which particular areas need improvement
• Priorities: KPIs allow you to zero in on the areas that impact your growth instead of monitoring dozens of numbers that don’t lend any helpful insights
• Transparency: Fundraising KPIs give your team and board members a clear picture of how things are going. This level of nonprofit transparency is crucial to your long-term success

Let’s look at some of the most important nonprofit KPIs, broken down into organizational categories.

Development KPIs

1. Recurring Donors

Knowing what percentage of your donors give regularly helps inform your outreach strategy and allows more flexibility to plan ahead based on predictable revenue. This is typically in the form of monthly donations but could be more or less frequent. 

Even though they typically give in smaller amounts per gift, the lifetime value of recurring donors far surpasses one-time donors in the long run. Evaluating donor gifts gives you a clearer sense of how you’re pacing for the year.

2. New & Active Donors

Keeping a pulse on your donor base and knowing how quickly it grows is vital to fundraising success. Take this a step further by measuring how your number of new donors has changed over a period of time (e.g., quarterly or annually) and which channels drive new donor acquisition, like social media or email.

3. Average Gift Size

Every donor is different, and so is every donation, so it helps to measure the average size of all fundraising gifts over a period of time. Calculating this number helps optimize your donor outreach by crafting appeals slightly above the average, encouraging supporters to give a few extra dollars to meet your request. The average online donation varies by nonprofit category, but it’s generally around $178.¹

4. Donor Acquisition Cost

Ideally, your donor acquisition cost is low, and definitely lower than the cost of your average gift size. Understanding how much it costs to acquire a new donor shapes your strategy and informs your budget. And while nurturing and retaining donors is cheaper than acquiring new ones, continually expanding your donor base is critical to long-term sustainability.

5. Fundraising ROI

ROI is the cost of your fundraising efforts compared to how much revenue these efforts brought in. It takes effort to track but is a valuable ratio to understand. In addition to ensuring your return on investment stays in the green, it also allows you to set specific goals around the number of gifts, new donors, campaigns, and other efforts you want to accomplish.

Marketing KPIs

6. Conversion Rate

This KPI calculates the number of people coming to your website who follow through with your call to action (CTA). That could be anything from donating, registering for an event, or applying to be a volunteer. 

7. Email Click Rates

Email marketing is a valuable tool in your larger nonprofit marketing strategy, and click rates are perhaps the most reliable measure of your content’s effectiveness. Paying attention to your email open rates is also helpful, but these don’t accurately indicate who takes action based on your email’s content. An increase in click-through rates, on the other hand, is a great indication that your messages resonate and inspire action.

8. Social Engagement Rate

Social media platforms are full of vanity metrics, but tracking the right social media engagement metrics can provide a clear picture of your true performance. Your social engagement rate reflects the total amount of interaction a user has with your content—like commenting, sharing, or saving your post. The engagement rate compared to your reach is a great way to see how well you compare to other nonprofits of different sizes.

9. Response Rate

For offline marketing efforts like direct mail, the response rate lets you know how many people donated to a specific campaign. This metric is a must when proving the ROI of more traditional marketing methods.

Operations KPIs

10. Donor & Volunteer Retention Rate

While attracting new supporters is critical to your nonprofit organization’s ability to scale, so is retaining your consistent volunteers and loyal donors. As we mentioned, it’s much easier and more cost-effective to keep your current donors and volunteers than recruit new ones. Your retention rate of both lets you know how many people have committed to your cause. 

11. Satisfaction Rating

Donor retention rates indicate how people perceive your organization’s impact. This satisfaction rate usually comes from regular audience surveys, where you can gauge the sentiment of various audiences—your staff, board members, volunteers, donors, or the general public.

12. Budget Expense Ratios

This ratio reveals the balance between your organization’s programming, fundraising, marketing, and administrative expenses. While there are no set guidelines for what these ratios should be, it’s an unspoken rule that most of it should go to fulfilling your mission.²

Top Last Year’s Performance With the Right Nonprofit KPIs

Nonprofit data analytics don’t have to be overwhelming. KPIs give you a simpler way to find clarity. These are the numbers that shape your strategies, capture your total costs, educate stakeholders on your overall health, and so much more. 

But knowing which KPIs to track is only the beginning. Once you’ve established that list internally, begin pulling this data together and reporting to your team regularly. Only then can you unlock the true power of your nonprofit’s KPIs.

Article Sources

1. “5 Facts About Online Average Gift Size,” NP Engage, last modified January 13, 2023, https://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/5-facts-about-online-average-gift-size.
2. “Nonprofit Ratios: How to Use Them and What They Measure for Your Organization,” Warren Averett, last modified January 13, 2023, https://warrenaverett.com/insights/nonprofit-ratios.

Because the term nonprofit is a governmental designation, much of these differences come from the Internal Revenue Code.¹ And not every charitable organization has an official nonprofit status from the government. A nonprofit’s category depends primarily on its purpose and function.

Before you continue to grow your organization or plan to start a new one, understand the different types of nonprofits and how these distinctions impact fundraising and operations.

Nonprofit Types: What Makes Each One Different

1. What Purpose It Serves

The primary differences between the various types of nonprofits come down to what purpose they serve and how that purpose impacts those they support. A nonprofit’s mission will indicate to the government whether or not they’re eligible for tax-exempt status, which then instructs the organization on how to apply for nonprofit eligibility.

2. How It Registers With the IRS

Not all charitable organizations are nonprofits. To officially become a nonprofit organization, you must complete the appropriate paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or other governmental bodies for international organizations.

For example, to become a 501(c)(3), an organization must submit the following:

1. IRS Form 990
2. Nonprofit bylaws
3. Articles of incorporation
4. List of officers and trustees
5. Audited financial statement

3. How It Accepts and Receives Donations

Most donations to qualifying nonprofits are tax-deductible. However, how much of the donation is tax-deductible depends on the type of nonprofit.

Identify how your nonprofit organization will collect funds, what donors receive in return (if anything), and how you’ll acknowledge these gifts with a tax-compliant donation receipt.

4. What Organizational Restrictions and Exceptions Apply to It

Each nonprofit comes with a specific set of restrictions and limitations. You need to understand what your organization can (and can’t) do to secure and maintain your nonprofit status with or without tax exemption.

For example, 501(c)(3) nonprofits can lobby the government, but no more than 10% of operating expenses can go to lobbying these political organizations. Similarly, 501(c)(3) organizations cannot donate to political campaigns, but other types of nonprofits can.

26 Types of Nonprofits Mobilizing Good

There are more than 1.6 million nonprofits in the United States, and each fits into one of 26 different categories outlined by the IRS.² Some are incredibly broad, while others are more specific.

• 501(c)(1): Organizations created by an act of Congress and are exempt from federal income tax
• 501(c)(2): Corporations that hold property for tax-exempt organizations
• 501(c)(3): Any organization, foundation, or fund operating for religious, charitable, educational, literary, or scientific purposes
• 501(c)(4): Social welfare and advocacy groups (e.g., the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU)
• 501(c)(5): Labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations (e.g., farm bureaus, breeders’ associations, rodeos, and garden clubs)
• 501(c)(6): Business leagues, chambers of commerce, or real estate boards not organized for profit (e.g., the American Farm Bureau or the National Writers Union)
• 501(c)(7): Social or recreational clubs (e.g., hobby groups, country clubs, or amateur sports competition leagues)
• 501(c)(8): Domestic fraternal societies (e.g., Shriners International or college fraternities and sororities)
• 501(c)(9): Voluntary employee beneficiary associations
• 501(c)(10): Domestic fraternal associations that don’t provide benefits to members but instead exist to support outside causes (e.g., local chapters of the Freemasons)
• 501(c)(11): Teachers’ retirement fund associations
• 501(c)(13): Cemetery companies created to provide burial services to members
• 501(c)(14): State-chartered credit unions and mutual reserve funds
• 501(c)(15): Mutual insurance companies
• 501(c)(16): Cooperative groups created to finance crop operations
• 501(c)(17): Supplemental unemployment benefit trusts
• 501(c)(18): Employee-funded pension trusts created before 1959
• 501(c)(19): Veterans organizations with at least 75% of membership consisting of past or present members of the United States Armed Forces (e.g., Veterans of Foreign Wars and Marines’ Memorial Association & Foundation)
• 501(c)(20): Qualified legal service plans (FYI: This designation no longer exists as of 1992)
• 501(c)(21): Black lung benefit trusts created to pay benefits claims as part of the Black Lung Benefits Act of 1969
• 501(c)(22): Funds created to meet liabilities of employers withdrawing from multiemployer pension funds
• 501(c)(23): Veterans organizations founded prior to 1880 (e.g., the ​​Navy Mutual Aid Association and American Legion)
• 501(c)(26): Health coverage organizations for high-risk individuals unable to get coverage through other medical companies
• 501(c)(27): State-sponsored workers’ compensation reinsurance organizations
• 501(d): Religious or apostolic groups that share a common treasury
• 501(e): Cooperative hospitals

5 Types of 501(c)(3) Nonprofits

Over 1 million nonprofits in the United States fall into the broad 501(c)(3) category. For this reason, there are a few subcategories to further distinguish these nonprofits. These generally have the same legal restrictions but vary in purpose and means of collecting donations.

• 509(a)(1): These are nonprofits that exist for the public benefit and rely on support from the public (e.g., churches, schools, and hospitals)
• 509(a)(2): These nonprofits earn income primarily from performing a tax-exempt purpose (e.g., museums or zoos that sell admission tickets)
• 509(a)(3): These nonprofits are support organizations controlled by and exclusively benefitting another nonprofit (e.g., a university foundation solely fundraising for that university)
• 509(a)(4): These nonprofits are public charities that test for public safety
• Private foundations: These foundations receive support from a small group of people or a business and are subject to more restrictions than public charities

Choosing the Right Category for Your Nonprofit

Since most nonprofits in the United States are 501(c)(3)s, that’s likely where your gut will tell you to begin your research on how to start a nonprofit. However, that might not necessarily be the correct option for you. Consider these steps to start down the right path.

• Compare your mission and purpose to the list of nonprofit categories. This helps you consider which one might apply to your group. You’ll also want to consult with a tax, business, or law expert to get their input on where you should apply. Additionally, look at nonprofits similar to yours and find out which category applies to them.
• Take your time before starting the requisite paperwork. This gets you on the right path and helps you avoid starting over, as the application process can be lengthy. Which category you choose will also impact how to shape your nonprofit’s bylaws.
• Consider a fiscal sponsor while conducting this process. This allows you to begin collecting donations early by partnering with an existing nonprofit charity. It might also provide some insights into what type of nonprofit is best for you.

Leveraging Your Nonprofit’s Category

A nonprofit’s status and type impact how it can function and grow. While most nonprofits are 501(c)(3)s, it’s still vital for nonprofit leaders to understand what that means and how it’s different from the many other types of charities.

Gaining a stronger grasp on the ecosystem of the nonprofit sector can also help you to become a better nonprofit leader and have a more holistic appreciation for different organizations and how these work together.

Learn how Classy proudly supports nonprofits worldwide on their path to lasting social change.

Article Sources

1. “Charities and Nonprofits,” File, IRS, last modified December 21, 2022, https://www.irs.gov/charities-and-nonprofits.

2. “Types of Nonprofits: Everything You Need to Know,” Upcounsel, last modified December 21, 2022, https://www.upcounsel.com/types-of-nonprofits

Anytime you ask donors to give, stories can provide an emotional connection back to your cause. A good narrative then shows people the impact of their gift beyond raw numbers and facts.

Still, storytelling is easy to talk about, but harder to put into practice. To help your nonprofit organization get started, here are five tips for leveraging stories within your next appeal or fundraising campaign, along with several fundraising story examples from other nonprofits.

1. Focus on a Character

Every effective nonprofit story focuses on a real character—a person (or group) that gives your target audience a perspective to see the narrative through. Stories are meaningful because of the ability to connect us to someone relatable. Even though their experience isn’t ours, we can better understand them through empathy.

Your character doesn’t have to be someone your organization serves, either. It’s just as impactful to tell the story through the eyes of an employee, donor, volunteer, board member, or community partner. All these people need to do is act as a stand-in for your target audience and invite them into the narrative.

You also have access to characters even if your mission isn’t specifically human-focused. Nonprofits whose mission serves the environment or animal rights still have characters, too. That’s because these causes still affect and matter to humans, who then have a story to share.

Feeding America’s “Real Stories of Hunger” fundraising story example showcases the power of character. The organization tackles the challenge of hunger, a massive and complex issue, by showing it through the eyes of real people like Lamont or Brittany.

2. Build Tension and Resolve It

Every story your organization tells should involve conflict. Although conflict can make people uncomfortable, this tension gives purpose and meaning to a story. Large or small, these issues drive your narrative forward—after all, not including conflict means there’s no story to tell.

Think about a challenge your story’s character faces. Perhaps they noticed a social issue they want to help with or desire a sense of purpose for their life and resources. In either case, there was some conflict that compelled them to act.

This tension hooks the audience and holds their attention. However, they also want to see the tension resolved. Ideally, the character’s involvement within your organization is the solution they needed to overcome the challenge. Thus, your fundraising campaign should focus on a specific tension that people’s donations help to resolve.

The International Justice Mission (IJM) deals with modern slavery and human trafficking—a cause rife with tension—is a great example of how to build tension and resolve it. The nonprofit’s stories don’t shy away from this conflict, and viewers feel the emotional weight of what real people have experienced. Thankfully, IJM resolves the conflict by the end of each story and reminds the audience of the urgent need for continued support of other yet-to-be-told stories.

3. Use Strong Visuals

Compelling visual elements like photos and videos take your nonprofit’s storytelling to the next level. These visuals help your audience picture the character, their issue, and the action they took. In other words, a good image begins to tell the story all by itself.

However, capturing these visuals doesn’t happen by accident. Compiling and editing storytelling assets takes careful planning and execution. But armed with the right skills and equipment to take relevant photos and record videos of the story, your team can capture the story as it happens.

For your campaign appeal, gather specific images and videos around the character and theme you want to share. This means considering what visuals support the narrative and help drive your target audience toward a specific action. Then, unveil these images on each component of the campaign—from print mailers to website landing pages.

Charity: Water is a leading example of nonprofit fundraising stories with beautiful story visuals. The organization takes photos of every project it completes and displays them through stories on its website. Notice how these visuals highlight people and the emotions they experience while interacting with the organization’s mission.

4. Connect to a Clear Call to Action

Every good story contains a clear and compelling action step—the bridge that connects the narrative directly to your target audience. The benefit of being a nonprofit organization is the wide array of actions you can choose from, including:

• Making a donation
• Attending a fundraising event
• Volunteering their time
• Becoming a sponsor
• Giving a recurring gift
• Donating in-kind items

Equally important, and although it might be tempting to squeeze more than one action in, try to stick to one action in your fundraising campaign. By focusing each story on only one next step, you avoid confusing the audience—and the more action options you include, the less likely anyone is to take any action.

The Rainforest Alliance’s Follow the Frog campaign is an outstanding story example with an unmistakable call to action. By boiling down to a single step—buy products certified as rainforest safe—the organization meets the challenges of saving the rainforest. This simple action has led to plenty of stories for the nonprofit.

5. Show Transformation

Stories have power because of the ability to demonstrate a character’s change from beginning to end. This shows how stories can be dynamic and serve to inspire change in your target audience. After all, every person craves a transformation for the better, and stories show how that change is possible.

Consider how your nonprofit helps people—not just those you serve, but also donors, volunteers, and community partners. How are they better through their connection to your mission? That’s the question your audience will ask, too, so use a story to provide examples they can relate to and inspire them to act.

Habitat for Humanity and organizations like it tell transformative fundraising stories because there’s a clear before and after. Picture this: a character who previously didn’t have a home receives one, and as a result, their life is better. However, the story doesn’t end there. The process of providing housing also touches everyone else involved, too.

How Will You Add Stories to Your Next Campaign?

Intentional storytelling is a powerful practice to add to your nonprofit’s marketing campaigns. By focusing on a character and their conflict, adding visuals and clear action, and showcasing transformation, you can make any story more impactful.

However, don’t stop there. There are countless other examples of nonprofit fundraising stories told every day. Learn from how these organizations implement stories to promote the nonprofit’s mission. After all, following other stories helps us capture successful storytelling within our nonprofits better.

Even if mental health isn’t a natural part of your nonprofit mission, we have a number of ideas for how you can engage your donors on World Mental Health Day this year and beyond.

Why Mental Health Matters for Your Nonprofit

Mental health impacts everyone. This is not a single nonprofit issue—it’s a challenge for all people, across all backgrounds. It’s been shown that 20% of American adults experience mental health issues during their life, and that number is only increasing. Here are a few reasons why mental health should be a priority for any nonprofit.

• You can increase mental health awareness: There’s a reason the word “awareness” is in the name—because the goal is to let more people know about how important and prevalent the issues are. When your organization joins the conversation, it’s only strengthening the cause and helping spread helpful information to people who need to know it.
• Staying aware helps you prevent burnout: Too many nonprofit leaders and volunteers leave their mission because they’re too exhausted to continue. Keeping mental health at the forefront of your organization helps to keep that from happening before it’s too late.
• You can facilitate important conversations: One probable cause for mental health becoming such a prominent focus is our long-held stigma surrounding it. It wasn’t long ago that talking about depression or seeing a therapist was considered unusual, or even a weakness. Taking mental health conversations into the mainstream helps normalize the experience.
• It helps you prioritize your team’s retention: Talking about mental health doesn’t just benefit the people your nonprofit serves, but also the leaders within your organization. Odds are that some of your team members or volunteers might be feeling the impact of mental health issues. According to research, 52% of people who need mental health care don’t seek out help. Lead by example by holding some of these conversations internally and providing your team with a safe space to ask for support.

World Mental Health Day is also an opportunity to learn from the example of others. Watch what other nonprofits are up to and how other community leaders speak on the issue. For example, Classy embeds mental health and wellness directly into their culture to lead by example. Joining a larger cause connect you to other great organizations with a common mission.

7 Ideas for Nonprofit Donor Engagement on World Mental Health Day

Eager to dive in, but unsure of how you can help? Follow this list of suggestions for starting small and growing your efforts. Don’t try to tackle each one this year. Pick one or two and see which one works best for your organization.

1. Plan a Meditation Event

Meditation is one way to help relieve stress and anxiety. Studies show that about 14% of US adults have tried meditation—meaning that another 86% of people are new to this practice. It may take some effort to get your team or beneficiaries used to meditation. Think about organizing a community meditation gathering with an expert to show your supporters how to meditate. There are many online meditation courses you can share with others digitally.

2. Write Letters of Encouragement

Since most of our communication today is digital, analog messages like handwritten notes mean a lot to people. Gather your volunteers or staff to write notes of gratitude for those who need it. When you’re thinking about who would love to receive such a note, think about your donors, your community partners, or those your nonprofit serves. Let them know you’re thinking about them and that they’re not alone in what they might be experiencing.

3. Challenge Donors to Unplug

The National Day of Unplugging is another important day that prioritizes mental well-being in March each year. But you don’t need to wait until this day to encourage people to unplug. Take time away from your devices and the internet to give yourself an opportunity to rest and recharge.

Technology and social media usage are one of the leading causes of stress and anxiety across generations. Intentionally limiting your time spent on the internet and mobile devices can foster better well-being in all people.

Like meditation, unplugging is a simple idea to understand, but much more difficult to put into practice. Challenge your team, donors, and community to follow this practice with better mental health as the goal. Go beyond just sharing on social media—since that sort of defeats the purpose.

Host an unplugged event where you gather phones and other devices at the door. Partner with a local park to plan a community hike. Recommend good books that people could get from their local library to enjoy reading.

4. Partner with Mental Health Experts

There are a number of nonprofits working specifically in mental health. Your organization may have the opportunity to partner with them to help educate your community on healthier habits. These nonprofits are likely in high gear during World Mental Health Day, and they’d appreciate your help in spreading the word about their mission.

Cross-promote mental health charities on your social media channels. Share their resources with your community. Find any local mental health leaders, therapists, or counselors who could offer their expertise. Invite them to speak at an event or webinar. Elevate their work and knowledge to benefit everyone in your community.

Need help finding these people? Search relevant hashtags on social media like #MentalHealth or #MentalHealthAwareness. Here are a few examples:

5. Pack Donor Care Boxes

Take the idea of a thank you note to the next level with a mental health care package. Consider sending each recurring donor a surprise gift box after making a donation, at a live event, or as part of a giveaway for Mental Health Awareness day. Fill the box full of things supporting better well-being, like:

• A stress ball
• Herbal teas
• A delicious snack
• A mental health-related book
• A QR code to a relaxing Spotify playlist

You can certainly add your nonprofit’s swag, but the goal isn’t to promote your organization. It’s to make your donors (or volunteers) smile and remember that they’re appreciated.

6. Host an Educational Event

Invite a local therapist to lead an educational event with helpful tips to cope with everyday stress. They can invite their audience and clients to join the event for networking, and you can provide funding through corporate sponsorships. The event’s goal should be to provide useful tips for better mental health practices. Awareness for any topic starts through education.

7. Share Mental Health Resources

Provide your community with resources they can use or give to friends and family. There’s no shortage of this content online if you’re willing to put in the time to look.

• Find helpful resources (like tips or checklists) from mental health organizations
• Collect ideas for relevant blog posts, books, podcast episodes, or videos
• Share these with your network on social media, your blog, and through email marketing
• Promote local events (either in-person or virtual) that people can attend

Contextualize each of these resources for your audience. Mention why these resources could be valuable to them and how it ties back to your nonprofit mission.

Here are a few more specific mental health resources your nonprofit should check out:

• Notice.Talk.Act.® at Work Employer Mental Health E-Learning
• Devereux Adult Resilience Survey (DARS)
• Headspace for Nonprofits
• Peers for Progress National Peer Support Groups
• Safe Call Now 24-Hour Hotline 
• Moodfit Free Mental Health Application
• InsightTimer Free Application for Sleep, Anxiety, and Stress
• BetterHelp Counseling Application for Affordable Therapy
• Give An Hour Emotional Wellbeing Resources
• The Science of Well-Being Course on Coursera
• Mental Health and Stress Management Resources

Is Your Organization Ready For Mental Health Awareness Day?

Mental health is an essential mission for any nonprofit because mental health impacts people everywhere—including your staff, volunteers, and donors. Leverage the annual awareness day as an opportunity to spread your mission in an empathetic and sustainable way.

According to our newly released report, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022, time-based campaigns that include peer-to-peer raise 3.8X more on average than all other time-based campaign types.

The efficacy of this type of fundraising boils down to the psychology underlying the peer-to-peer method. People could be inclined to give to a worthy cause, but they are often more immediately willing and likely to support their friends or family. Understanding these internal motivations can help you boost donations and grow your organization.

About Turnkey

Earlier this year, Classy hosted a webinar on The Psychology of Giving: Copywriting that Compels People to Give with Fulton, given his expertise and work at Turnkey​. Turnkey helps mission-driven organizations acquire and nurture constituent relationships that result in sustainable revenue.

7 Steps to Harness the Psychology of Peer-to-Peer Giving

1. Focus on Identity

In other words, your organization has 6 to 10 potential ways to trigger a meaningful connection with donors. These points of identity could be everything from their jobs, family status, locations, interests, and more. 

Consider how you can connect the act of supporting your cause with different elements of their identity or how they view themselves, whether you’re highlighting their generosity in your language or calling out their membership as a recurring donor. Then, given they will likely ask for donations from friends and connections who share similar identities, equip them with the tools to do so.

2. Understand Donor Motivations

Initial donations are typically based on emotion—almost like an impulse buy. However, these first emotions won’t sustain long-term giving. Donors will only likely continue taking action when you connect with their individual motivations.

The two most common motivations for giving are a feeling of connection to your organization and being able to see the impact of someone’s donations. Make sure your messaging relays and fulfills these factors as you ask for donations and for individuals to create personal fundraising pages.

People who view themselves as moral are also more likely to give. Use the following words in your messaging to remind people of these positive attributes and encourage them to donate:

• Kind
• Caring
• Compassionate
• Helpful
• Friendly
• Fair
• Hardworking
• Generous
• Honest

3. Leverage You-Centric Language

To market your peer-to-peer campaign, you need to both create your organization’s appeals and equip your fundraisers to promote their own efforts. The latter requires you to empower both the fundraisers and their contacts who might give.

Shift your language to speaking about the donor. Make your supporters the heroes of the story. Remind them their support is key to the work you do.

4. Don’t Forget to Thank and Report

Otis mentioned the reason most donors stop giving is that they were never thanked for a gift or asked to donate again.

Prioritize retention and create a thorough follow-up strategy thanking supporters. In addition to thanking them, provide information on the impact of their donation and what it’s helped accomplish in the field.

5. Pay Attention to Readability

Your challenge as a fundraiser is connecting with a wide audience and making your appeals feel personal. Effectively navigating that tension boils down to how you position your language to connect with people. You’ll want to ensure all of your appeals are easily understood by your audience to remove any potential barriers to giving.

In other words, pay attention to readability. One of the most common readability measures is the Flesch Reading Ease, which is on a scale of 1 to 100. Lower Flesch Reading scores equate to easier readability.

Fulton recommends aiming for a Flesch score of 50 or less and maintaining a reading grade level between fifth and eighth grade. Luckily for you, measuring both scores come built into Microsoft Word or can be accessed using free online tools.

People are busy and distracted, and they might skim quickly. Therefore, keep your writing short and simple. Use active verbs and create a sense of urgency to hold people’s attention—at least long enough for them to understand your message.

6. Invite the Audience Into the Cause

People respond when we cause them to feel an emotion. Use language and visual mediums to connect with donors emotionally, and make the call to action clear with strong verbs. Personalize the language to remind them that they’re helping other people.

You-centric language helps show their vital role in your mission. Try using more of the phrase “because of you” to show how donors enable and empower your nonprofit to achieve success. When they understand their role, they’re more likely to take it seriously.

7. Remember Your Purpose

Each message of your peer-to-peer campaign doesn’t always need a call to action. Sometimes a simple thank you goes a long way in making an impression and helping them feel special. 

Fundraising isn’t rocket science, but it is a social science. It requires knowing people and understanding how they work. Your brand is not what people know about your organization. It’s how you make them feel. 

Make the Most of Your Peer-to-Peer Giving

Remember that people give to other people and because of how it makes them feel. They’re also more likely to be motivated to give when asked by people they already know.

When you make donors and fundraisers feel like an important part of your organization, they’re more likely to continue giving. Empower supporters and make them feel appreciated, and see how that positively impacts your results.

Nonprofits can use blogs just as easily and effectively as any other business. Seventy-nine percent of marketers name blogging as their most effective strategy for content marketing, and 92% of nonprofit professionals use content marketing, which includes efforts like blogging, podcasting, and creating video content.

To support nonprofits with their blogging efforts, two of Classy’s own content marketing experts—Jess Woloszyn and Hannah Durbin share some tips from years of writing.

Is Blogging Still Relevant For Nonprofits?

Blogging can be an effective marketing initiative for any organization if you’re willing to dedicate the time and resources.

A blog provides value because of its versatility and flexibility. There’s no limit to the type of content you can share. Meanwhile, a consistent blog builds SEO credibility for your website, while also building brand visibility and thought leadership.

How Can Nonprofits Get Started With Blogging?

Now your organization is ready to start a blog (or perhaps improve your existing blog). But perhaps you’re not sure how to get started. Our experts shared their perspectives.

Jess Woloszyn offers these three blogging for nonprofits tips:

1. Develop a peer editing system to get multiple perspectives involved. Maybe a team member in marketing, a top fundraiser, or a family member who can offer an unbiased perspective.
2. Your blog posts don’t need to be long to be effective. Break content up with headers into clear sections. These help readers skim and find the information they want.
3. Lean into visuals when you can. They make blog posts more engaging and support the points you’re trying to make in text.

Hannah Durbin added four nonprofit blogging suggestions:

1. Cut the fluff and keep your language casual. Write like you’re explaining something to a friend over a cup of coffee.
2. Do your research. See what topics are trending. Ask what people are interested in. Provide answers to the questions your audience is asking.
3. Educate yourself on SEO best practices. Take advantage of keywords to elevate your posts and help them get found online.
4. Don’t rush the process. Step away from the post a few times before publishing. A fresh mind does the best work!

Where Can Nonprofits Look for Blog Topics?

Finding an idea to center your blog post around can be a challenge for nonprofits. The sources of inspiration and ideas are endless, but where are the most effective places to look?

• Collect commonly asked questions about your cause or from your donors as a repository of topics that you already know are going to resonate
• Read other organization’s blogs for inspiration. Subscribe to other popular blogs you find interesting. Take note of their headlines.
• Do a Google search for some keywords related to your organization—like ‘food pantry’ or ‘animal shelter.’Review the pages in the results. You can also refer to Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ to generate some ideas.

How Frequently Should Nonprofits Blog?

More blog posts isn’t necessarily better. In fact, if you write too many posts on the same topic you can actually cannibalize your search results. Focus on creating high-quality posts around topics you know people are searching for and that resonate with your audience.

If you’re just starting your blog, set a realistic goal for the size of your team. For example, two posts every week if you have a few team members. Or one post every week if it’s only you. As you establish your rhythm, increase your cadence. It’s better to be consistent than initially taking on too much and then quitting.

Hannah agrees with the value of consistently publishing blog content, but also points out the opportunity to gather more data from your audience.

More blog posts means more opportunities to see what content resonates and what doesn’t. Test out content on your blog and reshare the most effective content on other marketing platforms.

How Can Nonprofits Find the Time to Blog?

Lean into repurposing content you’ve written for grant proposals, award applications, or your own website and expand from there. You could collect stories from your donors or audience to share. This is also a good engine for providing content for your other marketing platforms.

Editing takes time, but online tools like that make it much easier to get back those hours. Use tools like Grammarly to avoid having to make it perfect. Block time weekly to blogging so it becomes a regular part of your day.

Share the work as much as possible. Ask your team or volunteers to help out. See if any organizational partners or sponsors want to write guest blog posts for you. Don’t try to take on all the work yourself.

What Elements Make an Effective Blog Post?

The perfect blog post completely depends on the topic, but typically an effective post will have at least a few of the following elements:

• Visual elements like images, GIFs, and videos
• Headings that are clear and offer value
• Links to other relevant content—either from your website or external sites
• An action step a reader can take
• Consistent brand tone across all content

Read blogs from other organizations and brands to see what their posts contain. Learn from the practice of others to make your content even better. The more blog posts you read and write, the easier the process will become.

How Should Nonprofits Measure Blogging Success?

Blogging success will look different for each organization. Goals for a blog can be traffic-driven, with the desire to get as many new people to the site as possible. A blog can also be more conversion-driven with a greater focus on getting site visitors to convert via a form field.

Depending on your organization’s goals, here are a few metrics to consider:

• Sessions: Google Analytics helps you see how many sessions your posts have in a given time period. Sessions are typically better indicators of how many people are coming to your site because unlike pageviews, sessions look at the number of people who landed on a page of your site.
• Rankings: Rankings in search results can help you drive significant traffic to your site. By understanding what positions your posts are ranking, you can evaluate the success of your blog content.
• Conversions: Through Google Analytics you can also evaluate your conversions, whether that’s a guide download or a form fill to contact sales.

Set Your Benchmarks: Set benchmarks each month based on your results, then determine which posts are successful by how far they can exceed those results.

If something isn’t performing well, revamp it! Don’t delete good work. Keep working until you get it right and it performs well with your audience.

Ready, Set, Blog

Marketing trends come and go, but blogging remains a steady option for content marketers. The medium has certainly evolved over the years—adding more multimedia options like embedded images and video. This only makes it a more valuable resource for nonprofits.

Blogging is a relatively low-cost marketing resource, especially since organizations are able to repurpose content that you’re already sharing elsewhere. But it still takes time to get it right. Take the time to build a strategy to get the most potential out of your nonprofit’s blog.

If your nonprofit isn’t already blogging, consider starting small and seeing what impact it makes. As you expand your efforts, you’ll likely begin to see a return. Read some of the latest blog posts from Jess and Hannah for good examples of what blog posts should look like:

• How to Rebrand Your Nonprofit, With 4 Tips From an Expert
• How to Get Started With Twitch Charity Streams
• NFT Fundraising Explained: What Is a Non-Fungible Token Donation?

The goal of any nonprofit fundraising event is maximizing donations while minimizing expenses. That way, more money goes directly towards your mission instead of covering overhead costs.

Knowing that the average nonprofit donation is $128, think about how much your organization could raise through a successful community event. Those small gifts can add up to make a major impact.

There’s certainly still a need for larger events on your annual calendar, but supplementing large-scale efforts with easier, cheaper options is a great way to sustain a steady flow of donations all year.

To help you get started, here are 14 cheap and easy fundraising ideas to consider. Pitch some of these creative ideas to your team to determine which ones work best for you.

Incorporate These Ideas Into Your Events With Ease

1. Donation Jars

In the age of cryptocurrency and digital wallets, we often forget about cash as a quick donation option. People are always looking for ways to unload clunky coins from their purses and pockets, so you might as well offer them the opportunity to give back in the process.

These hard currency donations might be small, but they can add up quickly. Encourage people to donate by placing physical donation jars around your community. Talk to local businesses like restaurants, grocery stores, banks, or dry cleaners about leaving a donation jar near their register.

Clearly label each jar with your organization’s logo and mission statement. Train the employees of these businesses on how to speak to the public about your cause. Help them answer any potential questions about your mission and educate them on ways to encourage customers to give.

2. Community Yard Sale

Stuck at home during the pandemic, many people cleared out their attics and closets of unwanted items. Nonprofits like Goodwill were overwhelmed by an influx of donations.

Take advantage of this purging frenzy by organizing a community yard sale. Find a large space, like a park, gym, or community center, to host the event. Invite friends, family, and donors looking to unload their unwanted goods, and encourage them to spread the word to their extended networks.

Sellers can donate a flat rate to your nonprofit for a spot to sell their items, or you could ask for a portion of the money they earn. Your biggest task is to drum up interest from potential shoppers. After all, the success of this event depends on the turnout.

Promote your upcoming yard sale through all relevant marketing channels. Send a localized email campaign to supporters close enough to attend, as well as targeted social media ads focused on a specific geographic area. Even printed materials, like flyers or posters, can help raise awareness.

3. 50/50 Raffle

Over the years, 50/50 raffles have become popular because they give half of the proceeds back to your cause while passing along the other half to a lucky winner.

The only things you’ll need for this cheap and easy fundraising event are a large supply of raffle tickets and a captive audience. Sporting events or school pep rallies work well to host these raffles. Simply recruit a team of volunteers to circulate and sell tickets for a set amount, and provide updates on the prize pool throughout the evening to pique interest.

Toward the end of the gathering, divide the ticket profits into two equal parts and select a random winner to take home half of the money. There are even options for hosting a virtual or hybrid raffle if that’s more accessible to your audience.

Whichever environment you choose for your event, remember to review the rules for nonprofit raffles. Make sure to abide by these laws and pay the appropriate taxes on certain cash prizes.

4. Bake Sale

There’s a reason why reality TV shows like The Great British Baking Show are so popular. People love baked goods, especially when they’re homemade. Your nonprofit can ride this wave of popularity by hosting a bake sale fundraiser.

The most important element of a successful bake sale is recruiting volunteer bakers to make cakes, pies, muffins, and other delicious treats to sell. Then, secure a high-traffic venue to host the event and attract potential (and hungry) buyers.

Even better, coordinate the sale with an event that already draws a crowd, like a farmers market, sporting event, festival, or concert. Ask if you can set up a table or small concession stand to sell your items, then let the smell of freshly baked cookies do the work.

5. Concession Stand

While we’re on the subject of food, we can’t forget about running a concession stand at the next local sporting event. With enough volunteers and tasty snacks, these stands can bring in hundreds of dollars in a single evening.

If you’re interested, reach out to your local high school, college, or professional sports teams. See if they‘d offer your nonprofit the opportunity to run a concession stand at one of their venues, or split the proceeds with your organization if they prefer.

Recruit a team of volunteers to work shifts at the concession stand, and encourage your supporters to attend the game with big appetites. This is a great way to stay involved in the community and meet supporters face to face in a relaxed environment.

6. Car Wash

Washing cars is a common way to raise money for high school sports teams, bands, and clubs. They’re not only extremely simple to organize, but also offer a way for donors to check this pesky chore off of their to-do lists.

To organize an effective car wash, your organization needs an open space, like a parking lot or gas station, plenty of washing materials, and a group of willing volunteers.

Attract the most drivers with clear signage and an easily-accessible location. Set a flat price for the service, or simply ask for donations as customers arrive. Just be sure to mark a clear donation box or bin where donors can leave donations on their way out. This is important since most of these gifts will likely be physical cash or personal checks.

Although a car wash is extremely cheap and easy to organize, it’ll end up being a massive flop if no one shows. Don’t forget to promote ahead of time through your organization’s website, social media channels, and email. Get your volunteers to share news by word of mouth, too.

7. Team Trivia Night

Trivia question: What is the largest nonprofit organization in the United States?

Answer: According to Forbes, it’s the United Way, which brought in more than $5.1 billion in 2021.

Who doesn’t love a good game of trivia? Or even better, a trivia tournament to raise money for your charity.

Work with a local restaurant or bar to host the event. Get a volunteer to emcee with a list of brain-teasers, or reach out to a local personality who supports your cause. Teams can pay a set amount to enter the competition, or the restaurant could give back a portion of the revenue they make from food and drinks throughout the evening.

You could even give a portion of the funds to the winning team as an incentive. But win or lose, trivia nights are always a great way to bring people together for some old-fashioned fun.

8. Sports Tournament

If a trivia tournament isn’t your style, host an athletic competition instead. This could be a tournament of flag football, ultimate frisbee, softball, kickball, basketball, or a mix of different sports.

First, you’ll need a venue to host the competition. Starting your search with a public park or community center could help save money on rentals. If that doesn’t work, reach out to local schools or churches to see if they’d let you use their space for a few hours. Your volunteers can serve as referees—just be sure to get them whistles and striped shirts.

Provide clear rules for gameplay upfront. Determine how many teams can participate and organize them into a bracket to decide who plays who. Depending on the sport, you may need to have medical services on standby in case of athletic injuries.

Collect an entry fee from each team to participate. Sell tickets to spectators as a way to generate additional revenue, and consider selling merchandise, food, or beverages in exchange for donations. You could even secure a corporate sponsor if you wanted to go the extra mile and create custom swag for all competitors with your sponsor’s logo.

9. Giving Holidays

There are several built-in fundraising dates across the calendar, with the most obvious example being Giving Tuesday. However, there are quite a few other holidays your organization can leverage depending on your cause.

Holidays are effective opportunities to raise money because they create organic opportunities for connection. You can even tap into holidays that aren’t traditionally known for fundraising, like Valentine’s Day or Halloween. Costume parties or donation drives are great ideas to maximize these special days.

Find ways your nonprofit can leverage specific holidays or cause awareness days to engage wider audiences and keep donors engaged all year. The more direct the connection is to your cause, the easier it is for people to understand the impact of their gift.

10. Happy Hour

One of the largest perks of joining a nonprofit community is the opportunity to meet and spend time with like-minded people. That’s the reason why traditional fundraisers like golf tournaments or galas are so successful. They’re not only fun, but also give donors the opportunity to spend time together.

However, you don’t need a huge budget to bring people together. Host a happy hour at a local restaurant or pub to help people relax and unwind after a busy day. This also offers an opportunity for professionals to network with one another in a low-pressure environment.

Consider setting a theme for your event, like Taco Tuesday or TGI Friday—anything involving food and drinks. It doesn’t need to directly relate to your nonprofit, so don’t be afraid to get creative.

Ask the managers of your happy hour venue to donate a percentage of their sales back to your cause, or give attendees a discount during your event. Keep in mind, you don’t need to serve alcohol for the event to be effective, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

11. Social Media Challenge

If the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge taught us anything, it’s that social media can be an extremely impactful tool for boosting cause awareness.

Invite supporters to participate in a creative challenge to raise money for your cause, then share their experience on social media to garner interest. The Ice Bucket Challenge took off because it included a clear action that caught donors’ attention—dump freezing cold water on your head in an effort to raise awareness for ALS.

You can be as simple or creative as you’d like in crafting your challenge. It could be as straightforward as doing 20 jumping jacks, volunteering for an afternoon, or taking a photo of yourself doing a kind deed.

Keep in mind, the ultimate goal is to get participants and supporters to donate to your cause. Encourage participants to include links to your donation page with each social media post to drive conversions.

12. Talent Show

Plenty of popular reality TV shows, from American Idol to Dancing With the Stars, focus on people’s talents (or lack thereof). Your nonprofit can cash in on that popularity by hosting a talent show of your own.

Solicit local talent—anything from singers, jugglers, magicians, or ventriloquists—to perform in your show. Pick a volunteer or staff member to emcee the event and help create seamless transitions from one act to the next.

Grab three or four of your board members to act as judges. They can crown an ultimate winner after all of the entries have performed, or leave it up to the audience to determine the best act. The show’s winner could be awarded with some of your best swag, or a set of free tickets to your next event.

Sell tickets to an adoring public or ask for donations as spectators arrive. They’ll not only get to see entertaining acts, but also know that they’re supporting a worthy cause in the process.

13. Open Mic Night

If you liked the last two ideas, combine them together by hosting an open mic night for your nonprofit community. Mix happy hour with a talent show to give attendees a memorable night of stand-up comedy, singing, or a combination of the two.

Like a talent show, you’ll need to secure a venue, emcee, talented performers, and a paying crowd. Your open mic night will likely also involve food and drinks, so be sure to plan ahead by getting a rough headcount of attendees.

Identify what type of crowd you’re attracting so your performers know what to prepare for their acts. Determine upfront if you want a family-friendly environment or more of an adults-only evening.

14. Gaming Marathon

Video games are a big business, providing people with the opportunity to engage with a like-minded community and potentially even give back to worthy causes.

Gaming marathons can attract mass audiences and raise awareness for your organization. In fact, nonprofits like Games Done Quick and Extra Life are built completely around this idea.

Recruit a few gamers to stream themselves online while people watch, cheer them on, and potentially donate a certain amount for every hour they play—similar to pay-per-mile races.

The biggest challenge here is forming relationships with well-known gamers who would be interested in participating. If you can’t secure a gaming celebrity or influencer, look within your own staff, community of supporters, or volunteers for others who could be a good fit.

Use a platform like Twitch or YouTube Live to broadcast the video game streams. Share information about your nonprofit with each gamer to discuss as they broadcast, and encourage them to put the direct donation link in the chat box while they play to encourage additional gifts.

Fundraising Made Quick and Easy

The common link between all of these cheap and easy fundraising ideas is that they bring people together to have fun and support a good cause.

Every season presents new opportunities to fundraise for your nonprofit, whether that’s the spring, summer, fall, or winter. Luckily, these inexpensive events can be pulled off nearly any time of year without breaking the budget.

For even more great ideas, take a look at our article, 77 Fundraising Ideas for Nonprofits and Charities. 

Here are some of the most common fundraising event questions we’ve received from nonprofit leaders like you, along with some insights to help with your decision-making process.

1. How Can I Create Interactive and Targeted Networking Among Attendees?

Networking is a huge benefit of in-person events that just wasn’t the same when the events were 100% virtual. Thankfully, we’ve learned some alternative ways to maximize engagement and create networking opportunities when a virtual component is paired with a live event.

4 Steps to Encourage Networking

1. Allow attendees to see who else is attending and reach out and chat with them (similar to an in-person event).
2. Track what interests and questions attendees share when they arrive, and provide them with recommendations of other like-minded attendees they may want to network with.
3. Create a fun, serendipitous online speed networking lounge that allows attendees to meet and build relationships. In a platform like Classy Live, you can set the number of meetings and the online meeting duration so everyone’s conversation stays fresh and new.
4. Allow attendees to create their own roundtables within your online venue to have face-to-face discussions with a small group of people.

2. How Can I Stream My Content to More Viewers?

An event platform like Classy Live is equipped with native live streaming, but also allows you to stream from your preferred technology. You can poll your audience during the live stream, ask live questions, and encourage attendees to chat amongst themselves or directly with you. Attendees can view the activity tracker to view live donations, and they can see live leaderboards of fundraising activity to encourage more giving.

There are also a lot of simulcast platform options for nonprofits to use when it comes to streaming a virtual or hybrid event. Facebook Live, Twitch, and YouTube Live are just some of the most popular options. 

Ideally, your streaming platform should allow you to broadcast speakers, host breakout rooms, and track attendees as they enter your virtual venue. These platforms use similar rules to a video conference like Zoom. Most offer the option to share your screen or play a pre-recorded video in between the live content.

If you want to toggle between live and pre-recorded content, we recommend using a tool like Restream or Streamyard as your “control p​​anel” for switching between videos and live. This option gives you more flexibility to add in video overlays and schedule out your program content.

Livestreaming Fully Virtual vs. Hybrid Events

Livestreaming a fully virtual event is typically when you invite speakers from anywhere around the world to join via a livestreamed broadcast. In Classy Live, speakers can join in the digital backstage to practice before going “live”. 

Livestreaming a hybrid event is typically when you stream portions of your physical event like a performance so that the virtual attendees can participate without physically having to be there.

3. What Equipment Will I Need to Use?

The goal of these events is to raise money for your cause, not spend the entire budget on expensive equipment. Luckily, hosting a hybrid event doesn’t automatically require a ton of special gear.

4 Pieces of Equipment You’ll Need

• Headphones: It’s best if all your speakers use basic headphones to limit the chance of distracting background noise or audio feedback.

• Camera: An HD camera gets you nicer video quality, especially if you’re broadcasting from a live event. Even if you don’t purchase one, they can often be rented for a day or week.
• Microphone: Consider purchasing a podcast-caliber microphone for better quality audio.
• Software. The livestream software can be one of the largest differentiators. Classy Live will cover most of the basics, but you can also integrate a third-party system like StreamYard to get more creative with video overlays and embeds during the broadcast.

4. How Can I Encourage Donations At My Event?

Minimizing your expenses is one thing, but how do you also maximize the funds you’re able to generate from these events? Here are some of the best practices for drawing more donations during your next online event.

5 Tips for Getting More Virtual Event Donations

1. Remind everyone what they’re giving to. This message should be reinforced through the content being shared, including the speakers or pre-recorded videos.
2. Allow for attendees to give in a variety of ways—either through a direct appeal like a paddle raise or fund-a-need, or via a live or silent auction, or by selling merchandise during your event. This requires you to capture their payment information upfront, much like you would do at an in-person event. Make these experiences available to supporters via their mobile device and text-to-donate.
3. Share a leaderboard of how much money has been raised and who has donated directly within your virtual venue, or create digital displays to show fundraising progress totals or a thermometer view during your physical event. .
4. If you include a silent auction in your online event, choose a platform that will update users on their bid status. Most importantly, a bidder is notified when they’ve been outbid on an item and given the opportunity to add a higher bid.
5. Generate automatic receipts as donations are given, or auction items are won or lost. This serves as a notification to the attendees, as well as a record of their gifts. In addition, attendees can go through the self check-out process to complete their gift or pay for the auction item. 

5. Should My Hybrid Event Have a Moderator?

We encourage all hybrid events to have a moderator, or multiple moderators—just like how in-person events have a host (or hosts). A moderator gives your event a single face both online and in-person, keeps the event on track, and helps segue from one segment to the next.

Within Classy Live, moderators can share a backstage link with any speaker that is going on-stage. This allows the speaker, any guests, and the moderator to prepare prior to going live. The moderator is usually then the one who takes them into the live room and introduces everyone.

Organizations can also consider having someone to manage the Q&A during each session, as well as someone to facilitate the livestreaming technology. It’s a good idea to map out the run-of-show before the event and make sure there are resources to support attendees during the whole program.

6. How Can I Ensure My Event Is Accessible To All Guests?

Accessibility is an important component of an online event, but it’s often overlooked. An estimated 15% of the world’s population suffers from a disability that could impact how they browse online. Forgetting about online accessibility would be like neglecting to include handicap ramps entering your in-person event. Neglecting this can prevent certain people from participating.

Ask your event platform if they use something like accessiBe to ensure the platform is ADA and WCAG compliant. This way, you can enable the accessibility widget to be available to attendees. 

Better website accessibility includes things like:

• Ensuring that the screen contrast helps those with visual impairments
• Checking alt text for all online images and photos
• Making it easier to navigate menus for those who can’t use a mouse

7. What Level of Customization Should I Include in My Online Event Venue?

There’s no shortage of fundraising solicitations or online events. The best way for your nonprofit to standout and create a memorable experience for supporters is personalization. Digital platforms give you the chance to automate some elements, but it also takes time and thought.

Brainstorm with your team some ways that you could make each event a unique experience. Put your organization’s touch on the event. Let your brand shine through and make it your own. That’s been easier to do at in-person events, but it’s also possible with virtual and hybrid fundraisers.

Examples of virtual venue customization that your event provider may offer include:

• Customize logos and banners across the virtual experience
• Upload custom background on the stage
• Specify an accent color to go throughout the event 
• Rename specific labels and areas within the product 
• Save commonly used email templates for re-use within the event 

8. How Should I Handle Follow Up Communication After My Event?

Virtual events come and go—so don’t let your donors forget about you once the event is over. Use a few of these communication methods to continue nurturing them into loyal supporters. Meet attendees where they are at and you want/need communication tools that drive conversion.

Emails are the most direct and effective way to communicate with attendees after a hybrid fundraising event. Use email templates within your event platform to pull in relevant information from the event like how much money they donated. Leverage merge tags in your email copy to simply click and send personalized, relevant emails.

We recommend designing email templates for different touch points prior to, during, and post-event. This way, no matter what stage you and your team are at in the process, the event comes with a fully-baked communication plan.

Text messages are another effective method for following up with attendees post-event. You can filter and group by different types of attendees and/or groups and send SMS to those individuals who have opted in during registration to receive these notifications.

9. What Metrics Should I Track To Gauge The Success Of My Event?

Basic event analytics provide you access to fundamental stats around your attendees, sessions, booths, and break-out rooms. You can see who attended vs. did not attend, which sessions were most attended and how different booths or breakout rooms were performed.

There are also different dashboard views for bidders, transactions and auction items. These can all be filtered, sorted, and exported to produce any reports you need. 

The Future of Fundraising Events

Two years ago, nonprofit professionals and organizations were brand new to virtual and hybrid events. Now, nearly all of us have experience with these new technology-driven methods of fundraising. However, that doesn’t mean we still have a lot to learn.

There are plenty more questions to be answered when it comes to the future of fundraising events. In the meantime, these tips and insights should help your nonprofit take its next virtual experience to the next level.

Any non-Bitcoin currency is referred to as an alternative coin, or “altcoin.” Ethereum, the most commonly used altcoin, has emerged as the second largest cryptocurrency in the market.

Donating cryptocurrency can provide users with enhanced speed and security and help boost nonprofits’ visibility to new audiences. Explore our step-by-step guide to discover how donating Ethereum can positively impact the social sector while helping donors avoid transaction fees and offset capital gains taxes.

What Is Ethereum?

Technically speaking, Ethereum isn’t actually a cryptocurrency—it’s a ledger-technology upon which other programs can be built. This means other tokens can live on the platform. Ether is the official digital currency that powers Ethereum, but other cryptocurrencies like Tether, Uniswap, and Chainlink have been built on the same platform.

The central concept behind Ethereum was developed by Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin in 2015 when he was just 21 years old. The ledger-technology was then developed in partnership with other leading minds in the field, but Buterin remains the face of the platform.

Applications beyond just cryptocurrencies can also be built on Ethereum’s ledger, including everything from virtual world-building games to micro-blogging sites. These decentralized applications, or DApps, are similar to any other online application, except for the fact that they’re not hosted on a single server. Each DApp is autonomously scattered across a number of independent devices, 87% of which run on the Ethereum platform.

Ethereum’s blockchain is made to be more robust and innovative than Bitcoin. Some industry experts even believe Ethereum to be the most likely altcoin to overtake Bitcoin in the future.

How Does Ethereum Compare to Bitcoin?

As the two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum are often evaluated against each other. While they each possess their own unique makeups, these two digital currencies also share a few fundamental similarities.

Similarities

• Well-known cryptocurrencies with marketplaces worth more than $350 million
• Decentralized currencies based in the blockchain
• Possess a level of volatility because of the ever-changing nature of digital currency

Differences

Why Should You Donate Ethereum?

Similarly to Bitcoin, there are numerous reasons why donors are sharing their Ethereum wealth with charitable organizations. Here are a few of the main motivators:

• Speed: The blockchain’s design as a decentralized server makes it quick and easy for donors to give. Plus, donations of decentralized currencies, like Ethereum, are faster for the organization on the receiving end. No more waiting for bank transfers or paper checks.
• Cost: Credit card donations require processing fees. These fees typically cost nonprofits about 2% to 3% per transaction, which quickly adds up. Ethereum donations on the other hand are free of processing fees since no one owns the blockchain.
• Tax Benefits: Because cryptocurrencies are considered a capital asset by the IRS, any profit you make is subject to capital gains taxes. Donating your Ethereum to nonprofits offsets these taxes, which likely means you’ll owe less on your tax return.
• Supporting Tech-Savvy Nonprofits: The more cryptocurrency donations a nonprofit receives, the more likely other nonprofits are to adopt their acceptance. That means more organizations could gain exposure to new audiences and generate another potential revenue stream to drive their missions forward.

How to Donate Ethereum

1. Get a Digital Wallet

Users must have a virtual wallet to store and donate Ethereum. These wallets are similar to well-known versions like Apple Pay and Google Pay, however neither of these allow you to buy or spend cryptocurrency without another third-party service. Some of the most popular digital wallets for trading crypto include:

• Coinbase
• Electrum
• Ledger
• Mycelium

2. Identify Eligible Nonprofits

Due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, not all charitable organizations accept them as a donation method. However, increasingly more nonprofits are beginning to accept this form of payment because of its potential for growth.

3. Determine the Right Donation Size

Before making a gift, be sure to educate yourself on the price fluctuations of Ethereum. While its volatility may be hard to fully grasp, it’s helpful to think about it like donating stocks or bonds.

Where to Donate Ethereum

Due to the nature of decentralized platforms, donating Ethereum to a nonprofit isn’t as straightforward as giving through traditional means, like a check or credit card. The organization must be prepared with the right tools and technology to accept these digital donations. Thankfully, there are a number of sources that can help you identify these tech-savvy nonprofits and donate with relative ease.

• Classy: Classy’s Crypto Giving is built directly into Classy Pay, which means that receipting, payout reporting, and reconciliation will happen directly in-product, similar to Stripe, PayPal, or Venmo. Check it out today.
• Giveth.io: Self-proclaimed as the “future of giving,” this online platform allows users to donate directly to charitable causes without taking any platform fees. Giveth is limited to donating digital tokens, but has a wide range of nonprofits to choose from.
• CoinUp: This organization simplifies the cryptocurrency giving process by connecting to your digital wallet and donating a small amount of your daily expenses back to the nonprofit of your choice.
• Your Bank: Banks are typically more comfortable working directly with Ethereum than Bitcoin because of its increased stability. The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is a group of financial institutions hoping to use the blockchain technology as a standard for interacting with cryptocurrency.
• Directly to Nonprofits: Heifer International and the Water Project are two examples of organizations that accept Ethereum donations online.

Ethereum and the Future of Nonprofit Cryptocurrency Donations

Ethereum is among the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies. This open-sourced platform presents both nonprofits and donors with a great option for partnering together and furthering charitable causes.

As the market for cryptocurrency donations continues to grow, the number of nonprofits accepting gifts in Ethereum is trending along with it. Educate yourself on the benefits of donating cryptocurrency and keep your eye out for additional organizations offering this innovative payment method in 2022 and beyond.

What Is Bitcoin?

The world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin was released in 2009 by a figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity is unknown. Bitcoin introduced the concept of decentralized digital currency, which means that value isn’t held in a centralized place and is instead distributed across a peer-to-peer network of individual devices.

Bitcoin has inspired the release of thousands of other cryptocurrencies (called altcoins), but it remains by far the most successful. Bitcoin accounts for nearly two-thirds of the entire crypto marketplace and a single Bitcoin reached a record-high worth of $54,000 in November 2021. Keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets are more volatile than other currencies, so this price fluctuates wildly.

If you own value in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, this gives you up the opportunity to donate it to support your favorite nonprofits.

How to Donate Bitcoin

Thankfully, donating Bitcoin to tech-savvy nonprofits is relatively simple and easy. However, there are still a few steps involved that you need to be aware of.

Most cryptocurrency value is held in virtual wallets. These are essentially secure locations that hold the private keys used to access your Bitcoin. These can be physical hardware wallets (usually in the form of USB flash drives) or mobile apps. Among the best crypto wallets are Coinbase, Electrum, Ledger, and Mycelium.

These wallets are also a fundamental part of transferring cryptocurrency value to someone else, including nonprofits. These transactions are either considered on-chain or off-chain—depending on whether the transaction happens within or outside of the blockchain. The main consideration here is that on-chain transactions usually incur a fee, while off-chain transactions don’t.

From within the wallet, donors can:

• Select which cryptocurrency they’d like to donate
• Select an amount to give, which can be toggled between Bitcoin and U.S. dollars
• Input the crypto address of the nonprofit you’d like to support
• Leave a note specifying what or whom your donation is for
• Connect to a crypto-ready donation platform; we have a few options listed below

In this way, transferring Bitcoin is not much different from paying your friends using other popular payment apps like Venmo or Zelle.

Why Should You Donate Bitcoin?

1. Bitcoin is fast and easy

For nonprofits who accept cryptocurrency donations, the process is among the fastest options to receive the donation. No more waiting for a wire transfer or for a check to be mailed in. Because Bitcoin is completely digital, the transfer into a nonprofit’s account happens nearly instantaneously, which means your donation can be put to use that much more quickly.

2. Bitcoin is private

The privacy of all decentralized cryptocurrencies is what attracts many people to it in the first place. This advantage carries over to donating your Bitcoin to a nonprofit. A survey of donors in 2021 by Give.org showed that data privacy is an increasingly important factor in their decision.

3. Bitcoin gives you tax advantages

There are some tax advantages to donating Bitcoin to nonprofits. You can avoid paying some capital gains taxes on profits from your cryptocurrency and therefore pay less on your tax return. Taxes tend to be higher on Bitcoin, because the IRS considers it property and there can be capital gains on these types of assets. But donating Bitcoin to charitable organizations offsets some of those taxes.

4. Bitcoin is cheaper to process

Many people give online using a credit or debit card, but unfortunately, that still means passing along the card processing fees back to the nonprofit, which cuts into your gift. Bitcoin donations tend to see lower transaction costs.

5. Donations help legitimize Bitcoin

Among the biggest concerns around cryptocurrencies like Bicoin are their newness and volatility. Bitcoin is gradually being accepted by a larger swath of the population, but many people remain skeptical.

Donating Bitcoin to nonprofits and encouraging more charities to accept digital currencies can help bring cryptocurrency further along into public acceptance. This in turn can make Bitcoin less volatile and therefore more valuable for those who own some.

Where to Donate Bitcoin

Classy

Classy’s Crypto Giving Fund offers three cause categories that donors can give to: food relief, hospitals and health, and community support. Each cause category contains several organizations and the donations are divided evenly among the nonprofits within that category. Donors can make donations via Bitcoin, Ethereum, or USD Coin.

Give Crypto

Give Crypto is itself a nonprofit that distributes cryptocurrency donations to vulnerable populations. This organization centers its mission specifically around using cryptocurrency for making a positive impact on the world.

Your Bank

Some traditional banks and financial institutions can process Bitcoins donations for you, directly from your account. Fidelity Bank is one such example. Talk to your own bank to see if this is an option they offer as well.

Your Favorite Nonprofit

Nonprofit organizations are increasingly accepting Bitcoin donations on their own. After all, this is a growing opportunity for nonprofits to receive funds. Here are a few great examples of charities that currently accept Bitcoin as donations:

• United Way
• Save the Children
• American Red Cross
• Unicef
• No Kid Hungry

If you already have nonprofits that you enjoy giving to, ask them if Bitcoin donations are an option. If they aren’t yet, you could send them some resources to help them start soon.

The Future of Bitcoin Donations and Nonprofits

Given the continued growth of cryptocurrency, it only makes sense that digital donations will continue to rise as well.

Cryptocurrency users are shown to be younger (with an average age of 38) and have a higher net worth (with an average annual income of $111,000) than the typical nonprofit donor. Cryptocurrency donations are also much larger than the average charitable gift ($11,000 compared to $128) and more crypto users are more likely to give than the general population (45% compared to 33%).

These statistics show that digital currencies are a viable and increasingly important part of the nonprofit industry’s future. This also means that nonprofits (especially smaller organizations) should start taking advantage of this trend—or risk falling behind.

On the same token, Bitcoin owners can see plenty of benefits from making donations to their favorite nonprofits. This has even led to other digital assets like NFTs being donated to charities. As cryptocurrencies become a more normal part of our financial picture, expect for Bitcoin gifts to be even more common in the future.

Imagine the impact even just a portion of that money could have on nonprofits worldwide. While February isn’t typically considered a top month for giving, encouraging donors to spread the love through a contribution to your Valentine’s Day fundraiser could change that.

Below we break down some Valentine’s Day fundraising opportunities your nonprofit should consider this February.

1. Launch a Love-Themed Fundraising Campaign

Encourage those celebrating Valentine’s Day to make a donation to your organization on behalf of someone they love, instead of spending their money on material gifts like chocolate and flowers.

Couples spend an average of $165 per person for Valentine’s Day gifts, so securing even a small portion of that for your nonprofit could make a meaningful impact.

Be sure supporters are aware of this donation opportunity. Here are some simple ways to spread the word:

• Create a customized landing page on your website for Valentine’s Day donations
• Write a blog post about the impact a Valentine’s Day donation could make on your organization this season
• Craft a personalized email appeal for existing donors about the opportunity to give
• Record a video message from your leadership team or employees explaining why Valentine’s Day is a unique opportunity to support your nonprofit
• Share bite-sized pieces of that video message on social media
• Design valentine-themed graphics that can be used across all channels
• Encourage your team to spread the word online and with their networks to raise awareness of this unique way to show love

A multi-channel marketing approach gets your campaign in front of more donors. Start by identifying which platforms are most effective in reaching your unique audience, then brainstorm what content you plan to share leading up to February 14. It’s important to keep your audience demographics in mind when crafting your marketing narrative.

2. Encourage Donors to Send eCards on Classy

Classy’s online giving platform simplifies the process of making a donation in honor or memory of someone you love. If a donor chooses to dedicate their gift, they can immediately send a virtual card to the honoree to notify them that a donation was made in their name.

Once you’ve created your eCard templates using a design platform like Canva or Adobe Illustrator, simply upload them to your campaign. Donors can select their favorite card and pass it along to their loved one during the donation process. Not only does this provide a more personal donor experience, but it also introduces your organization to new potential supporters.

To save you time, we created four packs of Valentine’s Day eCards that will be sure to ignite the giving spirit. Upload one or more of these templates to your Classy campaign to give donors immediate access to your designs.

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

Pack 4

Your nonprofit could also send these eCards to donors, partners, and volunteers to spread the love and thank them for their support. Donor recognition and appreciation are key to retention.

3. Partner with Local Florists or Restaurants on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day presents an extremely lucrative opportunity for florists, candy shops, and restaurants. Tap into the money flooding these local businesses by establishing mutually-beneficial partnerships.

These local companies are likely busy during the week of Valentine’s Day, but your partnership could help them stand out among the competition. By promoting the partnership with your nonprofit network, you’re helping to increase their business and therefore increase the amount of proceeds your organization can collect.

Alternatively, you could include a small card on each flower bouquet that shares a little about your charity or encourage local supporters to order a special menu item from participating restaurants that raises money directly for your organization.

4. Organize a Heart-Healthy 5K

Valentine’s Day is intrinsically linked with the heart. This is great news for nonprofits since community walks or races are some of the most popular fundraising events.

This is a big advantage for heart-related charities who are especially interested in promoting cardiovascular health and awareness, but endurance events can be hosted by any nonprofit looking to bring their community together for a common goal.

Encourage friends, family, and couples to run together to enjoy some quality time. Consider inviting attendees to dress in red clothing or their favorite Cupid costume to boost morale, or give out flower bouquets to the winners of the race.

5. Write Love Letters to Supporters

Striking the right balance of direct appeals and messages of love and gratitude is particularly important for Valentine’s Day. In addition to your fundraising ask, write some letters of appreciation to current donors, sponsors, and volunteers to let them know they’re valued.

These messages could be sent in the form of physical mail, personalized emails, or quick videos. Regardless of what you choose, the point is to show your supporters that you care. Donors who feel valued are more likely to continue coming back to your organization.

6. Promote Gift Matching

Finding a match is a prominent theme on Valentine’s Day, so why not carry that theme into your fundraising strategy?

Promote gift matching by reminding supporters how they can amplify their impact by doubling their donation through an employer. Eighty-four percent of donors are more likely to give if a match is offered, and 1 in 3 donors will give more if their donation is matched.

Keep in mind that 38% of people shop for Valentine’s Day gifts online, so online donations are a good place to focus your fundraising efforts.

7. Host a Date Night Event

In case you don’t already have a fundraising event scheduled in February, your nonprofit could host one built around Valentine’s Day.

There are a number of directions this could go:

• Romantic date night for couples
• Sweetheart dance for your younger donors
• Singles night for those looking for love

Your nonprofit could also create events that entice the entire family, like a craft night to make your own valentines or a romantic comedy movie marathon.

To boost fundraising levels, you could sell tickets to the event, run a silent auction, sell flowers during the evening, or (in the case of a singles event) auction off dates with eligible bachelors and bachelorettes.

Consider using a platform like Classy Live to host your virtual, in-person, or hybrid event to make the online experience both memorable and engaging for all.

8. Launch a Fundraising Competition Between Local Schools

Since candy, cards, and flowers are the most popular gift for Valentine’s Day, you could partner with local schools to sell these items in exchange for a donation.

The school that raises the most money could receive a Valentine’s Day-themed dance, candy gift baskets, or an invitation to your nonprofit’s next big event.

9. Sell Valentine’s Day Telegrams

In exchange for donations above a certain level, you could send a special Valentine’s Day video to your donors’ loved ones. Ask your staff and volunteers to record personalized messages, like Cameo, or a recording of your team singing a love song.

Be sure to plan these videos in advance. Have clear instructions for how to record each one, with particular details about backgrounds and lighting. Decide where you’ll upload these videos to ensure they’re mobile-friendly and easily accessible, and don’t be afraid to have some fun and get creative.

Power Your Mission With a Valentine’s Day Fundraiser

Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to re-engage year-end donors and capitalize on the fervor of a new year. While many organizations are still ironing out the final details of their annual strategy, taking advantage of this holiday could help you establish steady momentum heading into spring.

To get a head start on Spring fundraising success, explore these 25 Creative Spring Fundraising Ideas.

We’ve talked about timely, effective fundraising ideas for spring, summer, and fall. Now, it’s time to brainstorm unique ways to capitalize on the time of year when people are naturally more inclined to give.

Nearly a third of all giving on the Classy platform happens between Giving Tuesday and December 31—10% of that typically coming on the final three days of the year. More than half (54%) of nonprofits start to plan year-end giving in October. It’s not too early to begin taking advantage of this philanthropic season.

Classy understands the value of creative winter fundraising ideas. We’ve published lists of seasonal fundraising ideas in the past, but it’s time for a refresh. Let’s focus on effective ways to raise more in the context of winter 2021.

1. Highlight Donor Matching

Winter isn’t just a time for individuals to give—it’s a great opportunity to solicit gifts from your donors’ employers. According to Classy’s State of Modern Philanthropy report, campaigns that leverage donation matching raise three to five times more than those that don’t.

Double the Donation is an organization that simplifies the donor matching experience. Their research shows the potential impact this strategy could have on your nonprofit:

• About $2 to 3 billion is donated through matching programs annually
• An estimated $4 to 10 billion in matched funds goes unclaimed each year
• Over 18 million individuals work for companies that match donations
• 84% of donors say they’re more likely to donate if their gift is matched
• One in three donors say that they’d donate more with the promise of a matching donation

Read Classy’s recent Q&A with Double the Donation to see how your organization can fully leverage matching gifts this winter.

2. Organize a Foodie Week

What better way to get people out of their houses and together with the ones they love than by sharing a meal? Partner with local restaurants to boost your fundraising efforts this winter during a local foodie week.

Your organization can promote dining at these locations for a week, or possibly even longer. Find your staff and donors’ favorite local spots and promote the opportunity to enjoy a meal while supporting your cause.

Encourage donors and partnering restaurants to spread the word in their own unique ways. Provide them with promotional materials like social media templates, email copy, and co-branded visuals to make it easy for them to market the event to their networks.

If you don’t know where to start when identifying restaurants to partner with, consider reaching out to your local chamber of commerce or travel and tourism board. These groups typically have business relationships with plenty of eateries willing to join in the fun.

3. Push for Recurring Donors

Don’t limit yourself to just one-time gifts this year-end season. Build momentum going into the next fiscal year by encouraging people to sign up for recurring gifts. Ask a handful of your current recurring donors why they give and highlight their testimonials in your digital marketing materials.

Classy provides donors with eight different recurring frequencies to choose from:

• One-time
• Daily
• Weekly
• Bi-weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly (every 3 months)
• Semi-annually (every 6 months)
• Yearly (every 12 months)

These flexible options make it easier for donors to set up on-going gifts at the pace they feel most comfortable with. Realize that most recurring donors give to multiple organizations at the same time. Consider identifying some of those charities and find ways to partner together.

4. Launch a Giving Tuesday Campaign

Giving Tuesday, the more generous cousin to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a massive opportunity for nonprofits to advance their missions. In 2021, Giving Tuesday will be on November 30.

Remember that nonprofits across the globe will be asking for donations that day. Find ways to stand out, especially with local donors. Make it easy to give online and explain specifically what the funds will go towards.

Here are some of the top tips to keep in mind when planning your Giving Tuesday campaign:

• Build a memorable (and consistent) brand with customized messaging and visuals
• Prepare a design kit with all of the assets your team will need
• Communicate value with impact blocks
• Suggest strategic giving amounts to donors
• Include a recurring giving option with multiple frequencies
• Test your donor experience

5. Host a Winter Clothing Drive

The colder winter temperatures can be particularly challenging for certain populations in need, like the homeless.

Take the time to organize a clothing drive or similar donation of in-kind resources early in the winter season to ensure adequate resources for your beneficiaries when the coldest temperatures hit in December and January.

When planning a clothing drive, be sure to:

• Pick an easily accessible place for people to bring their donations. Central, public locations like schools, churches, or community centers are great options.
• Promote the drive through both digital channels and offline platforms, like flyers and mailers.
• Make it a competition between different groups to see who can contribute more, or host a kickoff event to energize the community.
• Provide a list of all the items needed (and which ones you can’t accept). MUST Ministries in Metro-Atlanta has a great example of this on their website.

6. Plan a Virtual Fundraising Event

Just like the rest of the world, nonprofit professionals are also experiencing Zoom fatigue. However, you can spice up your virtual events with some seasonal activities like a holiday movie showing or ugly sweater contest.

With Classy Live, nonprofits can power their virtual and hybrid event experiences to increase supporter engagement and raise more for their mission. Take advantage of our virtual event venue to:

• Easily broadcast your event to a global audience
• Display live leaderboards, campaign progress, donation activity, and support donations directly within your virtual event
• Host virtual tables, breakout rooms, and speed networking
• Build an auction into your agenda
• Sell merchandise and fixed-price items during your event
• Use text and email messaging to send event reminders and updates before, during, and after your event

According to Classy’s State of Modern Philanthropy report, four out of five donors who donate to a fundraiser are brand new to the organization. Take advantage of this opportunity to make new connections during the winter season.

Revisit our existing list of winter fundraising ideas and see which ones could be converted into a virtual format. Get people excited about online events rather than dreading another Zoom call.

7. Put Together a Craft Fair

Organize a gathering of local artists and crafters to come together and sell their wares. Bring in funds by selling tickets to both vendors and attendees and by requesting donations at the door.

Not only is this a great way to rally the community, it’s also an opportunity to build brand awareness and loyalty for your organization. Plus, crafts make great holiday gifts.

8. Gather Around a Community Bonfire

There’s nothing like a cup of hot chocolate around a roaring fire.

Entice people to attend your community bonfire event with the promise of live music, food and warm drinks, and fun games for families to play. Showcase your cause by inviting a speaker to share your nonprofit’s story. You can also ask donors to share their stories about why your cause is meaningful to them.

Add a holiday twist by including a themed contest that people can donate to participate in. Something as simple as a cookie eating contest or gingerbread building competition could do the trick.

9. Invite Donors to a Winter Gala

Galas are great fundraisers to host during the winter season. Your nonprofit can elevate the event with a black-tie dress code, or keep it casual and encourage donors to come as they are. You could even invite attendees to wear holiday-themed costumes to add a fun twist.

Virtual or hybrid galas are a great option as well. The HEADstrong Foundation decided on a livestream gala during their 10th annual event in March 2020. Despite the last minute pivot, they were still able to raise $350,000—the same as the year before, but with 60% less expenses.

10. Have a Board Game Night

Who wouldn’t want to play board games for a good cause? Host a game night at your office or a local community center to give everyone a fun reason to come together.

Stock up your supply with plenty of board game options and invite families to bring their own, too. You can make requests for donations or allow families to “rent” the games in exchange for a donation. Just make sure you have plenty of Settlers of Catan to go around.

If you’re interested in sticking with a virtual event, there’s always the live streamed game night option. Whether it’s board games or video games, both are great options to build excitement around your cause.

11. Schedule a Cocktail or Baking Class

Warm people up on a cold winter night by hosting a holiday cocktail-making class. Staff members, volunteers, or even a local bartender could teach donors how to make eggnog or hot cider—either with or without alcohol.

These could just as easily be organized as holiday baking classes. Teach your supporters how to make their own cookies, cakes, or gingerbread and enjoy them together as a group. You could also sell the treats to raise additional money for your cause or donate them to a local food bank. Best of all, these classes work both in-person and online.

What Winter Fundraising Ideas Will You Try?

Capitalize on the giving spirit to raise more for your mission this winter. Find unique ways to engage your donors and attract new supporters with holiday-themed activities that get people excited. Don’t just settle for the same ideas other organizations are using—try something new this year.

• Spring fundraising ideas
• Summer fundriaisng ideas
• Winter fundraising ideas
• Fall fundraising ideas

Even football season comes with its own set of fall fundraising activities.

Fall is an advantageous time for nonprofits because students are heading back to school and eager to socialize with their friends. School-themed fundraiser ideas are perfect for this time of year. These seasonal events provide a chance for your organization to rally supporters around your cause in new ways. Increase donations and expand your reach this back-to-school season with some creative fall fundraising ideas.

1. Host a Homecoming Event

To capitalize on the natural energy that comes with the start of a new school year, host a homecoming event to kick off the fall season.

Many schools plan similar events, so partner with these institutions to boost your fundraising. You could ask that a portion of homecoming football game tickets go toward your nonprofit, or you could organize a virtual tailgate event.

Coordinate with the high school’s football team or marching band to mobilize the students to get involved. Meet with team representatives, listen to their ideas, provide them with your professional expertise, and make decisions on how your homecoming event will look.

Another idea for taking your homecoming fundraiser to the next level is by pitting multiple schools against one another to see who can raise the most money—similar to the Food Bank For New York City’s 5 Borough Challenge.

2. Throw a Back-to-School Night Party

Finish summer vacation with an exclamation point by hosting a back-to-school fall fundraiser event. Combine the fun of summer break into one last hurrah with something as simple as an outdoor movie, or as extravagant as an inflatable obstacle course and carnival games.

Partner with local organizations to offset the costs and stay within your budget. Ask local businesses to sponsor your activities or provide snacks for your movie night. Recruit volunteers to run each area and encourage them to spread the word about your event in the weeks leading up.

3. Partner With Local Businesses

Fall is an opportune time for local businesses to drive sales and attract new customers. Partnering with a nonprofit like yours is a great way for them to grow awareness and generate positive publicity amongst community members.

Find local stores to partner with, like restaurants or clothing boutiques, that would agree to give a portion of their proceeds from a particular day or weekend back to your organization. You can even partner with a bakery for a bake sale to kick off the school year.

These partnerships draw in more foot traffic for the store, helping to support their business goals, while also demonstrating to the community that they are aligned with your mission.

Promote your partnership to boost exposure. This could mean announcing the details on social media or posting flyers around college campuses and local schools to spread the word. Be sure to include the event details in your nonprofit newsletter, and don’t be afraid to send out a targeted email a few days before to remind donors of the date, time, and location.

4. Arrange a Campus Pop-Up Coffee Shop

College students are no stranger to caffeine. Set up a simple pop-up coffee shop on campus to attract new donors, boost visibility, and help students survive their early morning lectures.

Communicate with the college administration before you set up shop. Assuming they’re supportive of your cause, they might even be willing to help spread the word about your charitable coffee.

Promote your coffee shop on social media, since that’s where the college-aged demographic looks to for news and notifications. Tag the college you’re partnering with and use a few applicable hashtags to increase the chances you’ll pop up on the students’ radar.

4. Organize a Run or Walk Event

Charity run and walk events and walk-a-thons are some of the most common and successful fundraisers for nonprofits across the country. They give supporters the opportunity to challenge themselves and work toward a physical goal while simultaneously supporting a cause they care about.

Remind people that they can engage at any level they feel comfortable with. Make your event equally accessible to everyone — from experienced runners to those who prefer to leisurely participate — to open the event up to a larger audience.

Partner with local schools to make these events even more successful. Look into hosting the event at a local high school or middle school’s track or football venue. Consider partnering with a school’s cross country team to help raise awareness and potentially volunteer at the race to encourage attendees. After all, they know a few things about running.

5. Coordinate a Group Hike

Racing isn’t for everyone. Give these folks another way to support your cause by organizing a hiking excursion centered around fundraising. The fall is a particularly great time of year to get into the woods.

Find a local patch of wilderness in a nearby park or mountain trail. Connect with the park authorities to ensure the safety of your participants, then map out a path to explore. You can coordinate a group hike for local supporters, or invite supporters from across the country to hike virtually at a trail in their area. To raise more, encourage hikers to secure a pledge per mile they hike or collect donations through a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign leading up to the event.

Make-A-Wish’s Trailblaze Challenge is a great example of how a nonprofit is leveraging these outdoor endurance events. Several of their local chapters host Trailblaze Challenges during the fall season. These hikes are in excess of twenty miles, and they energize outdoor enthusiasts to participate year after year.

6. Launch a DIY Peer-To-Peer Fundraising Campaign

Tap into the creativity of local students to build their own DIY fundraising campaigns.

DIY peer-to-peer fundraising (sometimes called evergreen fundraising) is essentially peer-to-peer online donation campaign that has no expiration date. The goal is to allow supporters to create their own theme for a donor event, whether that’s a birthday, wedding, or sporting event.

Encourage them to form fundraising teams among the different clubs and sports to fuel a sense of healthy competition. A key to this is providing each team with an easy-to-follow nonprofit fundraising toolkit to ensure they spend more time fundraising and less time worrying about the administrative and technical aspects of collecting donations.

7. Set Up a Rivalry Competition

Fundraising competitions don’t have to happen within just one individual school. Your nonprofit can capitalize on the power of school rivalries by challenging neighboring students to compete against one another to see who can raise the most.

Besides bragging rights, be sure to come up with an incentive for the winning school. This could be something simple, like a free pizza lunch, but it will have more impact if it relates specifically to your organization.

Duke and North Carolina’s school newspapers organized a similar fundraiser to tap into their heated rivalry on the basketball court, but channeled this competitiveness into a fundraising activity for good. Drive school spirit and donations with one event.

8. Partner With Philanthropy Groups

Many academic clubs and organizations are required to have a charity partner that they fundraise for during the year. Most college fraternities and sororities have a particular organization they support. In high schools, leadership clubs like Key Club, National Honor Society, or National Beta Club typically do the same.

In addition to fundraising, many of these groups also require their members to have a certain number of annual volunteer hours. Take advantage of this opportunity by connecting with schools to increase the visibility of your cause and potentially form a partnership with a particular club. This also allows you to begin promoting volunteer opportunities that a younger audience would likely find enjoyable.

Nurture the relationships with these volunteers to steward them into lifelong supporters, and encourage them to spread the word about your organization to their fellow club members and students.

9. Hold a Dress Down Day

Dress Down Day fundraisers allow students and teachers who are typically required to wear school uniforms to dress casually on a specific day when they donate or fundraise on behalf of your organization. To make the most of this experience, you’ll need to work directly with the administrative office at schools with designated dress codes.

These campaigns work well especially because they create instant FOMO. Students can see which of their peers gave to your cause (and which didn’t), motivating them to get involved next time.

10. Put on a Trivia Night

A contest of knowledge only seems fitting for an educational environment. Your trivia night could be organized at a school or local restaurant and involve as many members of the community as you’d like.

Competitors pay a set fee to enter the trivia tournament, which can either be used in part as the prize money for the winning team or individual or put toward your organization’s fundraising goal. If you choose the latter, you could offer another incentive to the winner, like tickets to a school athletic event or premium parking for students.

Pull together some fun trivia questions, possibly including some questions related to your organization or cause.

Pro Tip: Reuse these questions in your online marketing to engage supporters, especially on social media.

11. Arrange a Scavenger Hunt

Create a list of school-related items for students to track down, like highlighters, rubber erasers, or even an apple. Host a school-wide competition to see who can track down every item on the list the fastest.

You could even host the contest virtually, requiring students to snap photos of their finds and submit them on a designated page or share on social media with a particular hashtag.

If you’re an education-related charity, invite the students to donate the collected items as in-kind gifts.

12. Sponsor a Pep Rally

Get in touch with local schools about potentially sponsoring a pep rally for the upcoming sports season.

Ride the wave of school spirit by pitting the classes against one another to see who can raise the most money. The numbers can be tallied up and announced at the event.

Cap this off by sending a representative—staff member, volunteer, or a beneficiary of your organization—to speak at the rally. This is also a great way to build brand awareness among the students and teachers.

Get Started With These Fall Fundraising Ideas

There are endless ways to fundraise during the fall season. Capitalize on the momentum of students returning to school to elevate your cause, increase brand awareness, and expand your reach.

The crypto marketplace is worth over $1 trillion and boasts more than 100 million users across the globe. Bitcoin alone was valued at about $653 million as of March 2021.

It’s challenging for nonprofit leaders to navigate the rise of this exploding technology with increasingly more digital currencies.

Cryptocurrency is a complex topic to tackle. Here’s what you’ll take from this break down:

• Simplified research
• Benefits of cryptocurrency donations
• Insights to take full advantage of this new revenue stream

Cryptocurrency Basics for Nonprofits

Before we dive into the benefits and practical steps for nonprofit organizations using cryptocurrency, let’s start with the basics. Cryptocurrency is a highly-discussed trend, but the technical details of this alternative asset class can be hard to fully understand.

Cryptocurrency is just like any other legal tender that can be traded for goods and services. The biggest difference is that these tokens are completely digital and logged in a blockchain. A blockchain is a technology that decentralizes data by spreading all of the information in a database across multiple internet-connected devices.

Its decentralized nature is one of the things that makes cryptocurrencies more attractive to tech-savvy users because it increases the flexibility and security of the asset. With a digital currency, people are no longer reliant on a financial institution, like a bank, to hold their money.

Benefits of Cryptocurrency Donations

“Cryptocurrency as a donation method has everything a donor looks for when contributing to a nonprofit,” said Pat Duffy, co-founder of The Giving Block. “It’s almost as if it was made in a lab specifically for nonprofits.”

The Giving Block, which brings in over four million dollars in monthly revenue, is a platform that aims to help nonprofits accept payments through cryptocurrencies.

Duffy explained that donating cryptocurrency directly to a nonprofit is tax-deductible. The same can’t be said for donors who transfer the value to another currency. Additional benefits include low friction, a rapidly growing user base, and high tax incentives.

Accepting decentralized donation methods provides users with enhanced speed and security, and opens the door to new potential donor markets.

Demonstrate your organization’s focus on innovation and remain in touch with new technologies by considering this donation option. There aren’t as many nonprofits that currently accept these alternative coins, so it’s an opportunity to stand out.

How to Donate Cryptocurrency to Charity

At the 2021 Collaborative, Edwin Goutier, The United Way’s Vice President of Innovation, explained why his organization was one of the first nonprofits to begin pursuing cryptocurrency donations.

More and more donation platforms are allowing nonprofit organizations to accept cryptocurrency, which is good news for individual donors looking to give back. The Giving Block is just one of the most prominent examples. Even some larger financial institutions, like Fidelity Bank, are getting on board.

To ensure that your donation is being used effectively, take advantage of transparency resources like GiveWell or Charity Navigator. Strong stewardship is important regardless of how you donate your assets to nonprofits.

3 Ways to Accept Cryptocurrency Donations

1. Bitcoin Donation Buttons

The first step is to make sure your donation platform accepts cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin. Use specific donation buttons on your website to make this donation method more visible. There are a number of Bitcoin buttons that can be added, including plugins on WordPress websites.

2. Informative Landing Pages

To get the word out, post on your website explaining why and how your organization is accepting cryptocurrency donations. Here’s a good example from Save The Children, which has been accepting Bitcoin since 2013. The Water Project has a similar informative landing page on their website with specific donation details and a list of which coins they accept.

3. Pursue Cryptocurrency Grants

In the future, certain foundations may begin designating grant money via digital currencies. In 2017, The Pineapple Fund anonymously donated $55 million in Bitcoin to over 60 different charities. These grants will likely work about the same as traditional grants, but create more diversified access to new grant opportunities.

Stay Informed: An Overview of Cryptocurrencies

Because of the fluidity of the digital financial marketplace, there are countless different cryptocurrencies. New coins are being created or deleted almost daily, and their value is in constant flux.

There’s no way to keep up with all of them, but here is a list of a few of the most popular cryptocurrencies currently on the market to catch you up to speed.

Cryptocurrency Through Bitcoin

By far the most popular cryptocurrency, with 68% of the crypto market, is Bitcoin. Bitcoin was introduced to the public in 2009 by an anonymous individual or group. The currency touts itself as a “new kind of money,” which is recorded in a distributed public ledger called blockchain.

Cryptocurrency Through Ethereum

Ethereum is the second largest crypto currency, which was initially released back in 2015. Ethereum is slightly different from Bitcoin in that it’s both a digital currency and an open-sourced network that allows other applications to function on a decentralized blockchain.

Cryptocurrency Through Dogecoin

Dogecoin, which got its name from this 2013 meme, has been referred to as the “fun and friendly internet currency” by its founders. The coin has primarily found its popularity because of frequent mentions by Elon Musk.

Cryptocurrency Through Litecoin

Released in 2011, Litecoin, often referred to as an altcoin, is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was one of the earliest spin-offs of Bitcoin. Technically, Litecoin is very similar to Bitcoin, but the biggest difference is that the network processes blocks more frequently than Bitcoin, making it easier to process transactions more quickly.

Cryptocurrency Through Tether

Tether is an altcoin controlled by Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based financial exchange. The currency is referred to as a stable coin because it was created to be valued at $1 and retains the equivalent amount of cash in reserves—thus your digital tokens are tethered to more traditional currency.

However, there has been some controversy as to whether or not owners of Tether tokens could actually cash out their tokens for physical dollars.

Cryptocurrency Through Polkadot

Polkadot was introduced in 2017 by a co-founder of Ethereum. More than just a currency, Polkadot is a multi-chain network of blockchains. In simple terms, this means that other currencies can be built on top of its architecture.

The Impact of Cryptocurrency Donations on the Future of Nonprofit Giving

Cryptocurrency remains one of the biggest opportunities for growth to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations alike.

“You can choose not to invest in the future and stay in your lane. You can be afraid of spending money on things that help you innovate, [but] if you aren’t investing in the best appreciating assets, you’re negatively impacting your mission,” said Duffy.

It takes time and resources to better understand cryptocurrency, but learning how your nonprofit can get involved is worth the investment.

However, this amount of data can be overwhelming, so nonprofits have to prioritize which metrics to actually measure. Across platforms, you should be tracking social media engagement rates and conversion rates. Here’s what you need to know about both.

1. Engagement Rate

Engagements are the currency of online content. Thousands of people might see your content, but it won’t be relevant for everyone. By interacting with your content, a segment of the audience shows you they care about what you have to say.

This is especially true on social media because the platforms’ algorithms prioritize engagements. Facebook, Twitter, and the rest want to keep people on their websites, so they’re fanatical about delivering content that makes people click. When they do, the algorithms deliver your content to even more people—creating a snowball effect.

Measuring Engagements on Social Media

Engagements refer to nearly any interaction a user has with your content. Your goal is to stop the scroll and get them to click. Depending on the specific social media outlet, that usually means:

• Likes
• Shares
• Comments
• Link clicks

Keep in mind, not all social media engagements are created equal. Social media platforms treat these interactions differently, and so should your organization. Some engagements are more valuable than others because they show a deeper level of audience interaction.

• Liking a post on Facebook is nice, but it requires the least amount of effort.
• Commenting on a post is better because it shows the system that they took more time to add content of their own. It also encourages others to do the same.
• A share is even better—not only because it exposes your content to that user’s audience, but also because it tells the platform that this person likes what you created enough to do so.

This means prioritizing engagements accordingly when tracking social media metrics, but it also means creating content that encourages shares and comments. To learn user demographic and engagement stats for each channel, suggested post frequencies, and a sample week of nonprofit social media content, download the Nonprofit’s Social Media Content Planner now.

Why and How to Measure the Engagement Rate

It’s not enough to simply count the number of engagements collected over a given time period. Measuring your organization’s engagement rate is a more accurate reflection of your content’s relevance to the audience.

That’s because your content reach varies and you want to see what percent of that group who saw your post actually did something with it. In other words, calculating a rate smooths out the rough edges and gives you a more consistent measure of success.

To measure a social media platform’s engagement rate:

• Take the total number of engagements
• Divided by the total number of impressions
• Multiply by 100 (to get the percentage)

For example, if 1,000 people saw your Facebook post and 50 of those people engaged, your engagement rate would be 5%. Now that you’ve calculated the rate, you’re likely wondering how to tell whether or note that rate is good or not.

Benchmarking Your Engagement Rate

To measure the relative effectiveness of your social media engagement rate, you can start by comparing it to benchmark numbers for the nonprofit industry. Typically, an engagement rate of about 1% to 2% is average for most businesses, regardless of platform. Some organizations can see rates of about 4% to 5%, which is a better number to shoot for.

However, more important than benchmarking is consistent improvement over time. If you aren’t already, take some time to begin measuring engagement rate across your social channels. This gives you a baseline of how you’re performing and a place to improve on moving forward.

2. Conversion Rate

Conversions are measurements of how many people took the action you set out for them to do. That will be different depending on what your goal is, and you could have multiple goals depending on the season or campaign.

Measuring Conversions on Social Media

Here are a few different examples of relevant social media conversion goals:

• Click to a read a blog post
• Register for an event
• Make a donation
• Fill out a volunteer form
• Visit a website landing page
• Subscribe to an email list
• Sign a petition
• Purchase a product

Be laser-focused on what action you want people to take. Don’t try to pull off multiple conversions in a single post (or even a single campaign). The more intentional about promoting a single action step, the more likely people will actually take that step.

Pushing two or more calls to action can get cumbersome and confusing, and can also muddle the waters for your tracking purposes.

Tracking Social Media Conversions

Follower count or impressions can be easy to track, but calculating conversions takes things a step further. It requires you to bridge to another platform, usually your website or a CRM, where the conversion takes place.

Without proper tracking integrations that communicate data across platforms, this can be tricky, sometimes requiring you to make educated guesses. But there are often tactics you can employ to track users from social media through a conversion.

One example is a UTM tracking code that allows you to customize a link with tags that explain where a user originates from. If you’re using Google Analytics, you can view the path these users made through your website, including specific actions.

Just like with engagements, the sheer number of conversions lacks valuable context. It’s more helpful to measure conversion rate because it takes the size of your audience into account. Conversion rates are measured the same way as engagement rates—conversions divided by impressions multiplied by 100.

A solid conversion rate depends on the context of how many conversions you’re seeing compared to the number of users visiting your donation page. Ten conversions from 10,000 users viewing your donation page might seem lackluster, but 10 conversions from 50 visitors would be great.

Realize that social media conversion rates aren’t usually that high—typically less than 1%. But you’ll never realize this unless you track it. Keep in mind these rates should vary depending upon your desired conversion. It’ll likely be higher for something easy like driving web traffic, and much lower for a higher-value conversion like committing to a monthly recurring donation.

Make Engagements and Conversions Work for You

Nonprofits should track engagement and conversion rates when it comes to social media. These are not comprehensive by any means, and they aren’t always easy to measure.

However, these rates are likely the most accurate representations of your organization’s performance on social media. When you track the right things, you know how to make improvements and influence those metrics to increase.

To learn more about elevating your social media strategy, check out our other resources:

• The 10-Week Social Media Event Promotion Plan
• 28 Giving Tuesday Social Media Templates
• The Social Media Marketing Guide for Nonprofit Events

While there are no shortcuts to sustained social media success, there are a few low-hanging fruit tips that you can implement quickly and effectively to ensure you’re covering your bases. Here are a few immediate social media improvements your organization can try to see results fast.

7 Quick Social Media Improvements for Your Nonprofit

1. Check for Consistent Branding on All Social Media Accounts

Make sure each of your social media accounts enforces your nonprofit’s brand. When used well, social media has the power to spread the word about your organization. But it can’t do that if your audience is getting mixed messages about your mission and brand.

Start by double-checking that your organization’s name is used consistently, and accurately, everywhere you appear on social media. That includes your social media handles and in your account’s custom URLs, where applicable.

For example, avoid using @GreatNonprofit as your Twitter handle and @TheGreatestNonprofit for Instagram. People may have trouble telling if they’re for the same organization—even if they’re legitimate variations of your organization’s name. Be consistent. Use a free tool like Namechk to see what handles are available across all social media channels.soci

Be sure that your nonprofit’s logo is being displayed consistently on all social accounts as well. Using the same logo in your various profile pictures will make your accounts more easily identifiable. The same is true for your header images. Using the same header or similarly branded images across all accounts can help people instantly recognize your organization’s brand online.

Finally, confirm that you’re reinforcing your mission statement in every bio for your accounts. Your social profiles may be the first place people find out about your nonprofit, so don’t miss this opportunity to inform them about your mission and include a link back to your website, where they can find out more about your specific programs.

Ensuring that your mission and brand are the same across your social media accounts builds credibility and minimizes confusion.

2. Select the Social Media Platforms to Focus On

The truth is you won’t be able to spend enough time on every social channel. Spreading yourself too thin over every social platform imaginable means sacrificing quantity over quality, so consider being more selective so you can truly put your energy where it matters.

Take a moment to assess your capacity to manage each account. How much time do you have and how much time do they require? It’s easier to manage more if you’re lucky enough to have an entire team or if social media is your full-time role. If not, you can scale down your efforts to make sure you’re spending time on the platforms where your supporters are.

Start by looking at which of your existing social media platforms have the most followers and the highest levels of engagement. Where does most of your audience naturally seem to gravitate? Those are likely going to be the accounts where you’re getting your highest return on investment.

Experiment by taking your top two or three platforms (depending on your bandwidth) and focusing exclusively on them. Increase your number of posts on these platforms and spend more time engaging and responding to comments. Start experimenting with different types of posts as well, such as more video content or polls; you might be able to increase engagement as you create the type of content your followers want to see. Check how your platform metrics change over time with this increased focus.

For your other accounts, you can let more time pass between posts for a while and come back later when you’ve got more bandwidth, or when you finally hire that intern. Monitor your accounts over time though to ensure you’re not missing any important opportunities to engage with followers on that platform.

3. Link to Your Social Media Accounts From Your Owned Media

It’s easy to assume everyone knows where to find you online, but your audience is also busy. So you’ve got to make it painfully easy to find your nonprofit on social media.

The simplest way to do that is by adding links to all of your active social accounts to your owned media. Owned media includes your website, email marketing, and any other digital platforms that you directly control.

Start with your nonprofit’s website. Make sure visitors can quickly find links to those social media accounts from either the header, footer, or both. Next, check one of your latest email campaigns. Are the social links easy to find there? No matter what email marketing platform you use, it should be simple to add those links into the footer of an email template. Even if people don’t click them every time, it’s a nice, subtle reminder of where to find you on social media.

These online platforms are obvious places to share about social, but don’t neglect offline places too. Print pieces like marketing brochures and business cards are options, too. Remember, these aren’t clickable links—so be sure to include more than just a Facebook icon, otherwise your audience won’t know what to do with it.

Join us at the Collaborative: Virtual Sessions for more nonprofit marketing tips.

4. Follow More Accounts Like Your Own

It’s tempting to focus exclusively on how many people follow your social media accounts. Many organizations push people to follow their accounts and forget that this is a two-way street. Sometimes you also have to remember to follow other accounts, too.

Following your followers and other like-minded organizations helps to grow your community, allowing you to expand how many relevant conversations you join without having to always ask people to follow you.

For example, following the local chamber of commerce will likely help you stay up to date with local events or business opportunities. Engage with these posts and share them on your account as a way to promote the community. Do this enough, and they may even return the favor.

Each time you check one of your social media accounts, take some time to follow a few relevant accounts. Search for other accounts by your city or by the industry you’re in and you’ll have plenty of accounts to choose from. Most social platforms even share lists of suggested accounts based on those you currently follow. Scroll through their latest posts to like and comment on a few of them.

Taking time to follow other accounts also allows you to learn from others and see how they’re engaging their audiences. Take notes on the types of content and engagement opportunities they’re offering their followers, and consider how you might be able to try something similar on your own account.

5. Use Online Tools to Streamline Your Process

Don’t spend all of your time manually posting to every account; take advantage of some of these helpful digital tools to streamline your process.

Buffer and Hootsuite are both great for scheduling social media content and viewing how your content performs.

Canva is a basic design tool that speeds up the graphic design process, especially for nondesigners.

Linktree allows you to create a landing page full of links. This is especially useful for Instagram, which doesn’t allow you to include links in posts. Linktree and similar tools can be used for any social account as a quick way to share a wide number of links.

Headliner is a handy tool for creating quick, simple videos, especially out of existing content you’ve already created.

Best of all, most of these tools offer nonprofit discounts. For Canva and Linktree, those discounts are even 100% off for their premium accounts, allowing you to use some top industry tools without having to break your budget.

6. Share Content About Your Audience

A trap that too many fall into is only talking about themselves on social media. As is with any organization or account, people can lose interest when you just talk about yourself. You need to talk about them, too.

Do a quick audit of your most recent posts. How much of this content is not about your organization? Aim for at least one out of every three or four posts to be about your audience. You can’t make this shift immediately, but it’s a goal you can start working towards right away.

From there, it’s a matter of bringing your audience into the story you’re telling. This starts with knowing who your audience is and what they care about. Create content that’s focused on them and their interests.

For example, donors care about the tangible impact of your work, so you might create posts that showcase the specific impact of their gifts, highlighting photos or videos of beneficiaries or the product of their donation. If you’re focused on volunteers, you might do a “volunteer of the month” spotlight.

Another great tactic is to collect testimonials from these groups about their experiences with your nonprofit, either text or video. You could even highlight testimonials from people who’ve fundraised on behalf of your organization and how meaningful the experience was to them. Let them inform and inspire the rest of your community by relaying how their work made a difference.

7. Engage Your Invested Audience First

Getting people to engage with you on social media can be difficult, and it’s easy to understand why. People are often bombarded with asks. Follow this company. Like that product. Share this post. People can burn out among all the noise.

Start engaging with the followers who already love your cause and believe in your mission. Keep a running list of the people who are already involved in other ways, like your volunteers or board members. Ask them to follow you and engage on their social accounts.

Share with them why it’s worth their time. Explain why social media growth is important to your organization, and how their engagement could increase your reach and draw in others to follow your page as well.

Make it as easy as a few clicks to spread the word. Arm this group with sample copy, stories of social impact, compelling videos or graphics, and stats that they can share with their networks. Communicate reminders and encouragement often.

Make them feel like your social media champions—because that’s what they are.

Social Media Improvements, in Less Than an Hour

Long-term social media success takes an investment of time. Don’t expect to be able to transform your entire social media engagement strategy in an hour. However, you can make small, incremental social media improvements that will pay off in the long run.

Try some of these suggestions out at your organization and see what happens. Use them as experiments to see what works and where you’re able to get results. Apply these same principles in the long run for continued success. Test them out and you might find a way to do it better.

Read more:

• Social Media Videos: Lessons Learned From 778 Nonprofits
• 10 Social Media Post Examples That Drive Engagement
• 8 Tips to Nail Your Social Media Posts During COVID-19
• 8 Social Media Mistakes Your Nonprofit Should Avoid
• 13 Tips to Level Up Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Engagement Tactics
• 4 Ways to Activate Social Media Influencers in Your Nonprofit Network