Last editedJan 20232 min read
While there’s still a time and place for in-person fundraising, digital tools make it easier than ever to accept and process donations. If you’re looking for a way to make your charity operations more efficient, you might want to consider online fundraising. In this guide, we’ll look at how to promote a fundraiser online as well as give a few ideas to help you get started.
What is online fundraising?
Fundraising online involves raising money over the internet, whether this involves a slick storefront or social media profiles. Rather than standing on the street corner collecting donations, you can use targeted online advertising to drum up interest. Tools like Zoom make it easier to host online events, while ecommerce platforms and hosting sites make it simple to set up a website. The benefits of online fundraising are plentiful. It’s more accessible, cost-effective, and convenient, for a start. It also broadens your charity’s reach.
Easy online fundraising ideas
There are even more possibilities when it comes to online fundraising than there are with in-person events. Here are just a few simple online fundraising ideas to try:
Social media campaign with visual, shareable content
Social media takeover by a popular brand, celebrity, or influencer
Email fundraising campaign using your current mailing list
Shareable campaign using a crowdfunding platform
Online challenge with participants asking for sponsors
Partnership with a business asking for donations at checkout
In addition to the online fundraising ideas above, another tactic is to take more traditional fundraising events and make them virtual. Try hosting an online auction, live-streamed concert, virtual run, trivia competition, or game night.
How to promote a fundraiser online
Once you’ve settled on an idea, the next step is to start promoting it. Spread the word to your donor list via email and social media channels. You can also pay for a Google ad campaign and create a press package for the media.
Naturally, you’ll need to make sure your website is up to the task of collecting online donations. Is the checkout process easy to follow? Is your site easy to navigate? Is your organisation’s story and mission prominently displayed?
How to facilitate payments when fundraising online
Even the best-planned online fundraiser will fail at the final hurdle without a frictionless payment experience. Most payment gateways support debit and credit cards as well as eftpos for charities. Here are a few additional factors to keep in mind.
1. Optimise your online checkout page
Shopping cart abandonment is a common problem for online retailers; and non-profit organisations often have the same problem. Online donors have short attention spans. If you make it too hard to donate, they’ll quickly navigate away from your page – and you may not get a second chance. Try to keep your checkout page to a minimum, without any need for registration.
2. Keep organised with non-profit fundraising software
One of the best ways to streamline the payment process is with automation. There’s a wealth of software on the market specifically designed for charities, making it much easier to safely manage donors and collect payments. Options like GiveCloud and Infoodle take the guesswork out of payment collection, while keeping customer data safe in the cloud.
3. Provide a secure payment experience
Online security is just as important for fundraising as it is for ecommerce. Charities can fall prey to hackers and fraudsters, which takes a toll on your reputation. Foster an atmosphere of trust by making sure your site is secure for payment processing. Use tools like tokenisation, encryption, and two-factor authentication to keep card details safe.
4. Make payments easier with Direct Debit
It’s best to offer your donors a selection of payment options to suit their preferences. In addition to debit and credit cards, you can make recurring payments even easier with direct debit payments. This helps convert one-time donors into regulars by offering a quick and easy set-up. GoCardless enables you to manage both one-off and recurring donations from a central dashboard. It integrates with over 300 partners, including non-profit software to maximise efficiency.
We can help
GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.