As the world becomes more and more digital, nonprofit organizations are taking advantage of this shift with online fundraising. Virtual fundraising can improve the reach of your fundraisers and help you build a larger donor base. 

If your NPO is ready to level up its virtual game, here are seven online fundraising tips to implement. 

7 Top Tips For Hosting A Successful Online Fundraiser

Raising money online, even offline, is about building trust and engaging with people. So, it’s crucial to show prospective donors what cause they’d be helping and make it as easy as possible for them to donate. Follow these seven online fundraising tips to help you do just this and boost your success. 

1. Be Clear In Your Messaging

If you want people to really jump on board, be clear and honest about what you need, and why. The clearer you are, the more people trust you. That is a guarantee. 

Being clear in your communication can look like the following: 

• Defining your campaign goals. For example, how much money do you want to raise, and by when do you want to raise it?
• Outlining the story behind the campaign and the reasoning for it.
• Explaining how people can see the impact their donations made.

A great way of showing transparency is setting the goal and then showing how much money has been donated in relation to the goal. 

Doing this helps people feel as though they are a part of something big. It gives everyone a common goal to work toward. As a result, more people may share your fundraiser with others in order to get to the goal. 

Being clear about the cause and what the money will do is also crucial for encouraging people to donate. It shows them how they will be making a difference in the world by supporting your fundraiser. 

2. Leverage Social Media

Social media is your friend! Even if your NPO isn’t super active on social networks, creating a post and asking people to share it can work wonders for your online fundraiser.

When people share your post with their connections, these connections may share it with their own, and on and on it goes. This is an excellent way to improve your reach and get your fundraiser in front of new eyes.

Also make the most of groups and hashtags to help your post reach the right audience. 

3. Branding Is Key

You probably hear this all the time, but your brand, and making sure it's strong, is incredibly important. 

Let’s put it in perspective. When you first meet a person you make note of how they dress, how they talk, and a million other things. All of this informs your first opinion of this person. That is their brand. 

Millions of people are doing the exact same thing to your company. And depending on whether they feel like they can trust you or not, they’ll decide if they want to invest their time and money. 

When putting together your online fundraising campaigns, make sure your branding and voice are always clear. Keeping your branding consistent helps people to recognize you immediately. This means they’ll notice when they see a post or advertisement for your online fundraiser as they’re scrolling through their feeds. 

4. Make Donating As Easy As Possible

No one likes deciding something last minute and then sitting an extra hour just to try and make their decisions a reality. 

These days, everything moves fast, and it’s only getting faster. People have lost the ability to patiently wait for the page to download and spend an extra thirty minutes to donate. So make sure your systems are safe, secure, and fast. 

People should be able to donate with the literal click of a button. Capture people in the moment of making a decision. And avoid sending them down long rabbit holes. 

To do this, make sure your donation checkout process is as seamless as possible. 

5. Acknowledge Every Donation

This goes back to your brand, your communication, and your social media. Just as you would shake someone's hand, give a hug and say Thank You to someone in person, acknowledge them online. 

Make sure your thank you messages are personalized so that donors really feel valued and appreciated for their personal contributions. This is a great way to make loyal donors who will support your fundraising efforts time and time again. 

For more advice, see our guide on How to Thank your Donors.

6. Make It Fun

The world has gotten so serious. That’s why when something unique, different, and exciting pops up, people just can’t resist it. 

This is your opportunity to think out of the box and make your online fundraiser something fun and memorable. You can link games to the fundraiser, make it competitive, and make it exciting. After all, humans are competitive beings. 

7. See If You Can Match Donations

More people will donate when they know their donation will be matched and result in double the amount going to a good cause. 

See if any local businesses or your top donors would be willing to match donations during a specific time period. This is a great way to create a sense of urgency for people wanting to support your cause so that they will donate right away!  

Conclusion

Although the world of online fundraising may seem intimidating at first, it can be a lot of fun. People you never had the opportunity to connect with before suddenly seem a lot closer. 

You may have to think a little bit out of the box and push yourself. But with our online fundraising tips, we have no doubt you’ll succeed. Take the principles from event fundraising, change things up, and put your fundraisers on the web. 

People want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. So give them the opportunity to give a helping hand, and make it fun in the process. After all, every bit helps, and building a community in the process makes it all worthwhile.