Business Articles

Nonprofits are under immense pressure to reach the largest number of supporters to help them in accomplishing their mission to bring change in today's societies across the world. To help such nonprofits, various supporters, volunteers and fundraisers are helping raise funds so their favorite cause can be successful. With the large popularity of social media platforms, it has become an effective, yet competitive medium for nonprofits to raise funds online.

With the introduction of online charity websites, nonprofits and their supporters are able to launch online fundraising campaigns not only to help in promoting nonprofits' initiatives but also to help in raising funds online.

Such online charity websites have integrated social media to help you as a fundraiser or nonprofit take your fundraising campaigns viral and reach new supporters. Moreover, it doesn't involve any costs and in return, is a very cost-effective and efficient tool to use for promoting your cause.

Below are a few benefits donors and fundraisers receive by connecting with social networking sites:

1.       Ease in sharing your cause with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

2.       Quickly raise money online for your cause.

3.       Build new friends and relationships with people who have a similar passion.

4.       Easy to learn about new fundraising events hosted by friends and help them raise awareness as well for their cause.

5.       Share and promote your favorite nonprofits' causes with your Facebook friends.

Integrating with social media platforms is not only a convenient option for donors and fundraisers, but also a convenient and effective solution for nonprofits that have to balance their marketing and other operations out of the same funds.

Below are a few benefits for nonprofits:

1.       Provide a convenient option for supporters and volunteers to track and support your fundraising pages online.

2.       Facebook is a great way to help existing supporters take your online fundraising pages viral and raise awareness amongst potential supporters.

3.       Very cost-effective method to reach new donors and raise awareness about your social missions and causes.

4.       Great solution to provide transparency and maintain ongoing dialog and engagement with existing supporters.

Apart from social networking sites, there are social bookmarking sites, which allow you to share information about your favorite nonprofits with others instantly.  There are social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Google and Yahoo Buzz that help spread the word among a large audience about your Cause and the impact it has in the world.

If you have a passion to promote your social initiatives among existing, new and potential supporters, then you must leverage such online charity websites that have the potential to take your online fundraising efforts viral for higher publicity and higher returns to succeed in your social missions.  You have nothing to loose but to raise awareness, potential supporters and build a stable future for your nonprofit.

One of the axioms in the nonprofit world is that people don't like asking others for money.  This is generally true, so what can we do to get our Board members, and other volunteers - the people who are most committed to our agency's mission - to help us raise more money.

First, we must constantly stoke their passion for our cause. We often get so bogged down in the minutiae of ‘doing' that we forget why we are doing it.  In long board meetings or at orientation of volunteers, we often forget to constantly stress the impact our services on our client's lives. We don't provide enough opportunities for our volunteers to be touched emotionally by the moving stories our clients can tell about how their lives have been impacted. Without constantly reinforcing our value to our clients, our board and volunteers will lose contact with those feelings that got them involved in the first place.

Second, we must repeatedly make our case for the need for funds and what we can do with them. In this age of cutbacks, we must talk about how these cuts will affect people's lives. We must stay with their stories and not get lost in the statistics. Our volunteers must feel the pain and loss that each of our clients will experience when they must be cut off from receiving service because of lack of funds.

Third, we must urge our volunteers and board members to broadcast our message to more people. They should not be asked to solicit funds until a potential donor is so moved by our stories, that when we can present them with an opportunity to give, they do so willingly.  If volunteers view their job as sharing their passion for our mission rather than soliciting money, they will do so willingly.

Fourth, we must create a comfortable environment for our volunteers. We can't take for granted anything, like making calls, knowing what to say, having the proper information available, or overcoming people's natural shyness or reluctance to do something new. That's why doing these activities in groups is very important. This provides a safe haven for those calls to be made, the tours to be given, the interpretations to be presented. When we make calls to say "thank you' for donations, we should do them when the board is together or bring volunteers together, where they can offer support and cheer each other on.  When they go through the process once or twice, they will feel comfortable and be willing to more on their own.

Fifth, we must always say ‘thank you' and celebrate success.  Don't just say ‘thank you' when the project is complete, but encourage people with praise every step of the way;  when they agree to participate, when they make their first contact, when they bring the prospect to an event, when they do a good job in making a presentation - we can never say ‘thank you' enough. This is the payment they get for their volunteer work. And when success has been achieved, have a celebration…lots of kudos, lots of laughing and cheering…and gifts.

If we recognize that asking for money doesn't take place until a number of cultivation steps have taken place to help the donor first understand, then appreciate, then want to give, asking is counterproductive. Once the donor has become a believer, ‘the ask' comes naturally-if the needs are shared in financial terms. "With this amount of money we can do this…".  You will be surprised how easy this will be if your board and volunteers are led through the five steps above. They will get such a kick out of it that they will want to do it again and again. Sounds naïve - but just try it.