The Internet has created many new opportunities for nonprofit organizations to solicit funds, organize events and reach out to new donors and volunteers. A recent buzzword in the industry is crowd funding, where groups often lead a donation blitz that seeks to raise smaller contributions for a larger number of people.
Earlier this year, a group of 100 nonprofits in northwest Indiana raised more than $100,000 in 24 hours, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana. Outreach for the event was done through the usual digital channels such as email, Facebook and Twitter, and donations were processed using the Razoo platform.
While crowd funding is a powerful and exciting new tool for organizations looking to improve funding, it does not replace traditional forms of fundraising. The biggest contributions will still come from the most involved and connected donors. Successful nonprofits also know that fundraising is a constant.
Using donor management software to improve websites
More important than embracing crowd funding is for a nonprofit to embrace its own website. An organization’s site should be a gateway to all the information that potential donors, volunteers and the people it serves require. The success of crowd funding is due in no small part to the rise of e-commerce in general. Individuals are more comfortable about spending money online and prefer the chance to complete a transaction from their own computers.
Nonprofits can use their websites to collect online donations, process subscriptions and sell merchandise. With the right donor management software, all of these tasks can be completed without sending individuals to a third-party site to process transactions. Donors feel most comfortable when they can make the donation at the website of a trusted nonprofit.