Online Fundraising: A Startup Guide

Get Legal

Just as with other types of fundraising, online solicitations must be registered with the appropriate officials. Check with your state attorney’s office or secretary of state office to find out the requirements in your state. Also, if you do online fundraising in states other than your own, you may need to register there as well.

Market Without Stop

It is not enough to just put a “donate now” button on your website and wait for the money to roll in. Promote your online capacity in your newsletters and include your website address on all of your collateral materials.

Include information about the option in all of your direct mail campaign literature. Put together a special promotion for online giving using your email list and your mailing list.

Explore All Your Options

Expand your thinking about online fundraising to include social networking sites, now popular with all age groups, from millennials to Baby Boomers.​

How will you process credit card donations? Do you want to set up your own system? Or do you want to engage a company that provides that service for you? Would you like to be able to offer recurring donations to your supporters?

Make Your Website Donation Worthy

You don't need a flashy website, but you do need an attractive one that is easy-to-understand and navigate. Consider too the various generations that will be using your site. Design it in a way that will please all ages and in a way that encourages people to use it. Make it easy to navigate.

Be Considerate

Don't spam, and don't look like a spammer. Don't overwhelm your donors with too much email, and don't use email to the exclusion of other methods of fundraising.

Online fundraising should be only one part of a well-balanced portfolio of strategies that should include direct mail, events, peer to peer fundraising, seeking grants, and earned income. Every nonprofit should have a varied basket of income sources to remain sustainable.

Give Donors Choices

Not everyone gives the same way. So give your donors choices on how to support you. The Nature Conservancy does this exceptionally well with its ​More Ways to Give page. There, donors can find how to give with a bequest, through an employer's matching gift program, and with peer-to-peer fundraising.

Make Your Donate Button Big and Easy to Find

Your visitors should be able to figure out how to donate immediately. And your button does not have to say "Donate Now." For instance, Nothing but Nets often uses the phrase, "Gift a Net." Try putting a donate button on every page of your website and see how donations grow.

Once that donate button is clicked, make sure there is a heart-warming donation page (include a photo) that is efficient (make it one page long), but complete. Also, include a post-donation page that provides a visual hug, and thank you.

Invite People to Volunteer

Getting people to volunteer is one of the best methods of donor cultivation. Indeed, one study found that volunteers donate 10 times more money to charity and that 67 percent of people who volunteer donate to that organization.

Showcase Donors and What Their Gifts Really Accomplish

Include testimonials and photos of donors. Provide pictures of people receiving help. Be liberal with success stories, stories about real people, and use plenty of inspirational photographs. 

Don't forget to show how a specific level of donation will work. Soles4Souls has a useful donor page that tells precisely what each donation level will buy.

Segment Your Donors

As your expertise and experience with online fundraising advances, think about segmenting your audience. This will require a sound donor management system and an extensive enough list so that there is something to segment. Segment based on age, gender, income, interests, previous giving history, geography, or roles​ such as donor or volunteer.

Develop versions of your email campaigns to fit targeted groups and then test. Testing involves breaking down a particular group into smaller groups and testing different versions of your copy. Track the results, and you will soon get a feel for what kinds of appeals work for whom.

Close the Loop by Thanking Online Donors Well

Most nonprofits do not thank online donors nearly as well as they do donors that give through the mail. It's a shame since the retention of online donors is notoriously weak.

Start with an outstanding post-donation page on your website. Then beef up your email thank yous so they are more than just a receipt. Also seriously consider mailing thank you letters to online donors when they give above a certain level