5 Tips for an online fundraising campaign

Since the start of the Corona pandemic, online fundraising with Digicollect has taken flight. We brought together 25 organisations to discuss their learnings and questions about the use of Digicollect. Among them were organisations with physical (and online) collection campaigns and organisations with only online ones.

We share five of their learnings with you.

1. Fundraisers (Collectors) are best recruited in a warm target group
Everyone wants to recruit more fundraisers. That is also one of the biggest challenges that almost all organisations face. There is a general agreement in the discussion: recruiting within an as-of-yet-unknown target group is challenging. But recruiting fundraisers in a warm and well-known target group pays off more.

2. Recruiting by phone works
Are call centres a thing of the past? Not at all! Recruiting fundraisers with the help of a call centre can be very successful, provided it is done within a warm target group.

5. Bigger yield? Focus on the fundraisers who are already raising money
At the bottom line, everyone wants to raise as much money as possible with their campaigns. The first thought is often to motivate the fundraisers who have not yet received donations in their online collection box and encourage them to solicit donations. During the KFIS, it was agreed upon that this approach can be helpful but that you should not solely focus on that. Concentrating on the fundraisers who already raise money generally yields more. They are already enthusiastic, and with a bit of encouragement, you can easily get them to raise even more.

4. Personal contact with fundraisers helps them collect more
Automation can save you a lot of time. An online campaign's intelligent email or SMS journey design is a good example. Nevertheless, some participants in the group emphasise that personal contact gives the fundraiser the confidence to raise (more) funds. And that individual attention is not often seen as too much. With large campaigns, it is sometimes difficult to call everyone personally. Volunteers can play an essential role in this.

A channel like WhatsApp is also becoming more popular. It is a personal yet accessible way to stay in touch with your online fundraisers.

Would you like to save time but still have a personal approach? Organise an online webinar for your fundraisers in which you give them tips, and in which they can ask you questions. You can reach many fundraisers at once without losing that personal connection.

5. Retention remains a challenge: help with the donation request
How do you ensure as many returning fundraisers as possible? People find it difficult to ask their network for donations multiple times. This could mean that they do not return every year/campaign. Yet that is the dream of almost everyone present at the session. To help returning fundraisers, your organisation can provide a different donation question. For example, linking a specific goal to the campaign, such as groundbreaking research or 'dream days' for children and explaining why donations are so badly needed. This gives the fundraiser a specific and urgent donation request without asking the same thing several times.

With Digicollect, Kentaa also does everything it can to promote retention. The group functionality allows you to recruit fundraisers for a specific project, location or department. This gives the fundraiser a particular donation request.

With 'pools,' we focus on raising money with friends, family and colleagues, a member-get-member principle that ensures new fundraisers and makes it more fun to raise money.

We organise quarterly Kentaa Fundraising Inspiration Sessions (KFIS) about specific branches of online fundraising exclusively for our clients. Would you like to know more about Digicollect and our inspiration sessions? Please contact us. Would you also like to set up a successful online fundraising campaign? Visit https://www.digicollect.nl/ for more information.