The Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Fundraising + 22 Ideas

No matter your approach, tell your followers how to get involved. Direct them to your donation page, event registration page, or any other campaign page. The overall development staff is comprised of people who actively solicit donations from individuals, companies, and foundations. For instance, a cancer survivor will be more inclined to give to a cancer research institute than someone whose life has never been affected by the disease. Personal connections can be a huge driving force behind charitable donations.

Online Shopping Fundraisers

These days, more than 96% of Americans own a mobile phone of some kind, bringing fundraising to donors’ hands no matter where they are. Made up of both text-to-give or text-to-donate efforts, mobile giving encompasses contributions that supporters can make with a simple text from their mobile phone. Though you could potentially create a form in-house with the help of your own web developer, we recommend using an online donation tool that makes it easy to build an effective form in ten minutes or less.

Community

• Some people are more inclined to support local community charities, while others like to give to larger international nonprofits.
• Feasibility studies help nonprofits determine whether or not they will be able to fund the campaign over the course of several months or years.
• The RAISE program is the latest iteration of the competitive grant program previously known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) under the Trump administration.
• Once you’re happy with your designs, you have several options for offering them to donors.
• Use positive language telling them about positive outcomes, instead of negative situations.

Planned gifts are donations set aside in the present that are then made in the future. Individuals often delineate planned gifts in their wills or bequests. Major gifts are some of the most substantial contributions that a nonprofit can receive from an individual.

Plus, they can even offer pre-existing features that provide a smoother donation process for your donors. Volunteer grants allow corporate volunteers to give back monetarily to the nonprofits that they care about. At the same time, nonprofits benefit by receiving both volunteer time and charitable donations. Digital fundraising continues to grow steadily, with online giving projected to increase by 4.2% in 2024 and 3.9% in 2025. Let’s explore the most effective online strategies to raise money for a nonprofit. If you’re wondering how to raise money for charity, there are a few key things to keep in mind.

Grant Funding Strategies

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently opened its next $1.5 billion funding round for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. The program provides planning and capital/construction funding for a wide variety of multimodal transportation projects, and local governments are directly eligible to apply. This unique funding round will reserve a portion of the funds for projects that received a highly recommended score from last year. It is unknown how much will be made available for “new” projects in this round. Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) is an American federal government program administered by the United States Department of Transportation.

Diverse Strategies for Fundraising Success

Both include $1.5 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The last round also included $775 million in regular appropriations.

Planned Giving and Legacy Programs

You can even about raise grants sell raffle tickets to attendees for a few end-of-campaign prizes. Challenge contestants to come up with their best dishes and bring them to be enjoyed. Everyone makes good memories and, hopefully, walks away with happy stomachs.

Services like Donorbox can help you build this with options like crowdfunding, fundraising thermometers, and company matching. Tell them about your organization and what a difference it’s making. Remind them of the personal difference they make to your nonprofit as individual supporters. Give your donors a sense of ownership so they feel personally tied to your nonprofit, like you. They have different interests and needs and they’re comfortable on different platforms. Not everyone will respond to the same outreach strategy, so it’s important to know how your donors engage with your organization and use them to the greatest effect.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Projects located in rural areas are eligible for up to 100 percent federal cost share. A phonathon is a fundraising campaign that requires volunteers to call donors to ask for contributions. Schools and colleges use phonathons to solicit donations from alumni, but they can be used by any kind of organization.

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has opened the competition for $1.5 billion in federal funds in its latest round of Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, surface transportation grants. Learn more about the 2023 RAISE grants and find webinar recordings and other resources here. USDOT also provides an application checklist and other details on how to apply here. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced that applications are open for a new round of Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grants. Donorbox is an effective donor management tool that includes software that will help you gain insight into your donors’ habits, track metrics, and improve your campaigns based on your audience. Instead, learn from each campaign to make the next one better than the last.

This should include a fundraiser title, an explanation of the specific fundraising need, and a description of your overall organization. As we now know, an effective fundraising campaign engages your donors and effectively meets their needs. You can even equip supporters to launch their own peer-to-peer t-shirt fundraisers that benefit your organization. They can design the apparel in line with your branding standards and select your nonprofit as the beneficiary. Peer-to-peer fundraising is usually tied to an event like a fundraising walk or bike-a-thon, and involves supporters reaching out to their friends, family members, and coworkers to ask for donations.

• Such communication would also help applicants make informed decisions on how to allocate scarce non-federal resources while pursuing federal funding.
• If an organization participates in electioneering, they could have their 501(c)(3) status (and, thus, their ability to fundraise) revoked by the state.
• Department of Transportation (USDOT) receiving almost $13 billion in requests this year alone.
• For nonprofits looking to streamline their fundraising efforts, Grantboost’s AI-powered writing assistant can significantly reduce the time spent on grant writing while increasing success rates.
• In addition, no more than 50% of the total, or $750 million, can be awarded for projects in rural areas.

In no time, you’ll start boosting fundraising revenue thanks to the interactive nature of eCards. Instead, you can pull them into your retention efforts by having your team send thank-you cards to committed donors and volunteers. Fundraising eCards are a creative way to reel people into your cause. Using eCard creation tools, your team can create digital cards for occasions like birthdays, holidays, and everyday occasions.

The full FY 2023 RAISE  program requirements and competitive selection criteria are described in the NOFO. Matching gifts are our #1 recommendation for any organization looking to improve its fundraising. Coming up with unique and impactful fundraising ideas doesn’t have to be difficult.