Regardless of whether you are helping an elementary school raise money for a field trip or garnering support from former students at a university’s alumni office, fundraising is a part of working with an educational institution, and finding new donors is always on your list of duties.
Simple Ways to Grow Your School’s Donor Base
But sometimes, looking for donors seems like an endless game of hide-and-seek ― you know they’re out there, but you still have trouble finding them.
In this article, we will provide you with 6 tips to help you locate qualified new donors for your school in no time.
1. Use Fundraising Software
Consider using fundraising software to help you with your online fundraising campaigns. This will allow you to spend more time engaging with the people who are more likely to donate to your cause.
By using software with a broad set of tools, your school can utilize popular fundraising campaigns and easily reach out to alumni for support.
In addition, a good fundraising platform will allow you to track your fundraising campaigns and get a better picture of your donors, incoming donations, and reports.
2. Use Your Existing Donors
You already have an existing donor pool, so why not use it to gain new connections?
Peer-to-peer fundraising is one of the easiest ways to use your existing donors’ connections.
Research has shown that more than 40% of millennials are giving through peer-to-peer campaigns, which makes peer-to-peer fundraising quite effective when it comes to scoping out potential prospects.
This type of fundraising is similar to crowdfunding campaigns but in this case, your supporters (existing donors) ask their connections to contribute.
For the most effective campaign, look for people who volunteer with your school and/or make recurring donations.
Alternatively, you can set up a crowdfunding campaign where your school will create a fundraising page and your existing donors will use social sharing in order to reach out to their connections. This will help you to grow your network of potential new donors organically.
3. Consider Prospect Screening
Prospect screening or prospect research involves looking at a donor’s personal information, previous donations to your nonprofit, contributions to other nonprofits, and philanthropic involvement.
During your prospect screening, you could also look into the annual giving reports of other similar educational organizations to find new, highly qualified donors.
Another way to find new donors is through relationship mapping, i.e. by investigating the connections of your existing donors.
When a prospect is encouraged to support a cause by someone they know or is close to them, the person will be more likely to contribute.
4. Rely on Your Board Members
Your board already does many things for your school, but have you ever thought of using board members as an asset in finding new donors?
Each member of the school board has personal and professional connections that could be useful, so why not ask them to make some introductions?
The board member’s involvement in your organization serves as verification, and when a prospective donor is already connected to a member of the board, they will find it easier to trust that their donation will be used for a good cause.
5. Use Social Media to Expand Your Outreach
Nowadays, many people who are interested in making a donation will go online to find out more about organizations to support, which is why you need to start sharing information about your school and cause on social media.
If you have no idea where to start, Facebook, which has more than two billion users, seems like a logical choice.
In order to strengthen your online presence and attract donors, make sure to post regularly (about two or three times a week).
Besides focusing on attracting new donors, you can also use your post to share updates on your projects, share testimonials from people who have benefited from your fundraising activities, highlight donors that have been supporting you for a long time, etc.
Don’t forget to include images and videos in order to capture people’s attention.
Another good practice when it comes to acquisition is to ask your existing donors to share your posts to help you reach even more people.
6. Work on Your Website
As it has been pointed out, prospective donors don’t tend to simply randomly surf the internet in order to find an organization to support.
You need to use various strategies, such as personal outreach, word-of-mouth, compelling marketing, and great social media content in order to drive them to your website.
Then, once you have their attention, you need to make sure to make a great first impression.
Here are a few ideas that will help you spruce up the giving section of your school’s website to boost virtual donations and engagement:
Pay attention to your navigation. Make sure it is compelling and prospect-focused. Let potential donors know that you care about more than just their money and even try to make it look like getting involved is fun.
Make a good first impression by covering your content in an organized, simple, and easy-to-understand way.
Explain why people should give to your school, how they can donate, what to donate, who to contact, who will benefit from their gift, etc.
Consider adding a compelling visual. Instead of creating a text-only and monotonous giving form, a single amazing photo of students playing on the new playground or a teacher engaged with students can liven it up and help the donor give more and feel good about their gift.
Do what you can to boost engagement. For instance, set up a registration form that prompts alumni to make an annual fund gift when registering for an event.
While they are making this gift, they’ll be able to also see upcoming events in their area or have an opportunity to share a class note, a memory, etc.
Include a ‘Meet the Donors’ section. Giving is all about people, so be sure to focus on the people.
Consider linking from your giving form to a ‘Meet the Donors’ section which will feature photos and quotes from your existing donors.
This is a great way to help potential donors see themselves as part of your community.
Find a way to move prospects from the scanning phase to the donating phase. When you add news to your site, make sure you’re including CTAs that capture your potential donor’s email.
Then you can send out email streams with the intention of building relationships and eventually securing new donors and gifts.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, when it comes to growing your school’s donor base, it’s all about being on the ball and use different acquisition strategies.
These 6 tips will help you be more efficient and make the process easier for your institution and your team.
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