How Can You Take Donations to the Next Level?

Let’s face it, fundraising isn’t easy. Simply getting your audience to the donate can be a struggle for many nonprofit and tax exempt organizations.

So how can you optimize your approach to fundraising? Well, come up with a plan to take your donations to the next level!

You Need Online Donations

First up, you need to start accepting donations online. Even if you feel better with the old school methods, you need to consider online donations. Why? Because the whole world is mobile—and the easier it is, the more people are eager to give. And nothing is easier than using your phone or laptop to donate.

So make sure you have a website, and use social media, email, and video production to bring your donors to your website! It all works together, really.

Communication for Donations

After you have your page designed, implement your email marketing strategy to direct donors to your site. We’ve told you about email before, and stand by those marketing basics.

Mixed together with social media, you’ll be able to direct increased traffic towards and hopefully donations to your site.

But don’t abandon all of your traditional methods—a direct mail campaign that advertises your web presence is a good mix of traditional and cutting edge. It’s best to use both to reach your audience!

Advanced Tip: Landing Pages

Your website might be awesome, but if you utilize a landing page, you can customize the experience even more for your donors. So what should you do? Customize a single page with a short donation form and passionate copy with a call to action. REMEMBER—Minimalism is best, so avoid heavy graphics, web videos, or any other distractions.

Let’s face it, some things will work and some won’t. Instead of doubling down on one strategy, you should implement A/B testing to make sure that your fundraising efforts aren’t wasted!

Test your landing page by creating two pages that are near identical, but with different calls to action. Monitor which CTA produces better conversion rates, and then you know that is the right direction. Take the foundations of the more successful page, and then create another page expanding that idea. Keep testing and watch your conversion rates increase!

Once you have your donations coming in, head over to ExpressTaxExempt and create a free account. While Form 990 might not be due for a few more months, it’s never too early to work on your recordkeeping, e-file last year’s 990, or even just keep track of donors.

If you have any questions, our dedicated customer support team is here and ready to help, by phone at 704.839.2321 and by email at Support@ExpressTaxExempt.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

What are your advanced marketing tips?

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3 Email Marketing Questions Every Nonprofit Should Ask

So you’ve set up a social media empire, and you’re producing stellar video content to impress your donors and board. What’s next for your nonprofit marketing campaign?

Have you thought about email?

Think about it—just about everyone you know has an email address. There has to be a way your nonprofit can tap into that market. So let’s break down some email marketing tips your tax exempt organization can use.

Why Should We Use Email Marketing?

The affordability of email marketing is reason enough! With an email marketing campaign, you have a lower price point since you avoid the costs of printing paper flyers. Not only that, your nonprofit keeps responsible outlook by reducing your paper footprint.

Email is a great option because of its ease of use and widespread use. These days, almost everybody has an email address, and they know how to check their email. There’s little confusion with a well crafted email that says “click here to donate.”

Because of the low price point, your organization can get a higher return on investment. Of course, you want to approach your emails in different ways depending on the kind they are.

How Should We Approach Email Marketing?

First things first, sign up for an email marketing service, and work the cost into your marketing budget. With your email marketing service, you can catalog and sort user email addresses by demographics. With each new donation you receive, you can obtain and build a bigger database to send future emails.

Once you’re ready to hit send, make sure you reach out to your donors with effective messaging. Try telling a story! Use your organization, your volunteers, or even those you help to get the message across. You can even update your audience with the comings and goings of your organization, while working in a plug for donations with subtlety.

Aim to keep it short and simple. Email marketing is for hundreds of words, not thousands. If you have a source of long form content you want your readers to see, include a link with a short synopsis instead. Remember, less is more – you want people to read and digest the email as fast as possible.

And most importantly, create a call to action - start and end with a call to action: donate now. click here, read this - don’t leave the email hanging.

How Do We Start?

There are quite a few options out there, and you’ll have to see what works best for you. For a more detailed approach, check out some of the email marketing guides provided by the services themselves.

Here are 3 guides to email marketing for nonprofits you should check out:

• The Nonprofit Email Marketing Guide (PDF)
• MailChimp for Nonprofits
• Basics of Email Marketing for Nonprofits (PDF)

Bonus Question: What Other Tips Do You Have?

First off, keep a calendar and a schedule for any of your campaigns. You can make a master calendar that includes your social media, video, and email efforts. After that, stay scheduled! With your email blasts, find organic opportunities to link back to your blogs, social media, and donation landing pages. Most of all, as you design your emails, ask yourself – would I read this email? Would I click that link?

With a strong email campaign, you can work wonders for your tax exempt organization. And when it’s time to file Form 990, we’ll be here to help you. If you have any questions, reach us by email, live chat, and 704.839.2321.

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