Best Practices in Fundraising in 2024

Assess Your Fundraising Program

• Conduct a thorough Fundraising Assessment to evaluate the effectiveness of your current fundraising program, identify opportunities to increase revenue streams, and determine where to focus time, energy, and resources.

Success begins — and ends — with how you treat your donors

• Do you have a donor stewardship plan?
• Are you making a special effort to thank first time donors.
• Are you segmenting your lists to personalize all fundraising efforts?

Address Donor Retention and Burnout

• Acknowledge the challenges of donor retention and the burnout of nonprofit workers. Develop a comprehensive fundraising program that emphasizes donor stewardship and engagement to address these issues.

Personalize Donor Acknowledgments

• Provide personal and timely acknowledgments to donors to show appreciation and foster a sense of connection with the organization.

Encourage Planned Giving

• Promote long-term giving strategies such as bequests, endowments, and legacy gifts to ensure the future sustainability of the organization.

Diversify Fundraising Channels

• Utilize a variety of fundraising channels to reach a broader audience and cater to different donor preferences.

Leverage Fundraising Technology

• Invest in fundraising software to efficiently manage donor data, streamline fundraising efforts, and enhance donor engagement
• Employ AI in your fundraising efforts, utilize ChatGPT, AppealAI, CoPilot, Gemini and other free tools.

Build Strong Donor Relationships

• Develop deeper relationships with donors by offering a range of engagement options beyond monetary donations, such as volunteering and social media sharing
  
  

Optimize Allocation Control

• Give donors more control over how their contributions are used within the organization to increase their sense of empowerment and investment1

Embrace Multichannel Marketing

• Implement a multichannel marketing strategy to ensure consistent messaging across various platforms and to provide a cohesive donor journey1

Utilize Data for Strategic Planning

• Analyze current data to set clear goals for donor retention, annual operating revenue growth, and participant engagement. Use this information to inform campaign plans and reduce donor churn1

Focus on Impactful Storytelling

• Craft compelling narratives that highlight the impact of donations, creating emotional connections and encouraging generosity1

Celebrate Successes and Innovate

• Recognize the importance of celebrating achievements and continuously seeking innovative fundraising strategies to attract new donors and deepen supporter connections
  
  

Monthly Fundraising Themes

• Create a Fundraising Calendar with monthly themes to focus on specific strategies, such as securing the second gift, stewarding monthly givers, and building an inspiring online donation form.

Revive Retro Digital Marketing Strategies

• Consider reintroducing retro digital marketing and fundraising strategies, such as infographics and postcards with QR codes, which have shown high engagement rates1

Multi-Year Giving Agreements

• Encourage multi-year giving to provide a predictable revenue stream and highlight the long-term benefits of these pledges in communications

This blog post was written with the assistance of AI Tools.