In the uncertain landscape nonprofits find themselves in, individual giving is more important than ever. As grant funding becomes more and more difficult to obtain, having a steady stream of donors can ensure your organization can stay afloat.
To help you maximize the effectiveness of your individual giving program, we pulled together insights from a few consultants who work with nonprofits on their fundraising efforts.
Building a Prospect List
If you’re looking to grow or improve your nonprofit’s individual giving program, Chris Baiocchi of Resolute Philanthropy says one of the best things you can do is look at the data you already have. By looking at current and past donors, volunteers, program participants, and more, you can build a prospect list that you can then reach out to and grow your individual fundraising.
A detailed view of donor relationships and giving history helps nonprofits build and manage high-quality prospect lists with MonkeyPod.
The key to building a good prospect list is to identify highly engaged constituents in your community, and the best way to do that is by consulting your CRM. There are lots of different ways to measure engagement, and pulling together some combination of data can help you quickly identify your most engaged prospects. Here are a few pieces of data you can look at:
- Number of donations made
- The amount of money donated
- Number of volunteer hours
- Number of events attended
- Email open and click rates
- Committee and board participation
“These are all things that show us that this individual has raised their hand and is very interested in what we do,” Baiocchi said. “If they are expressing this interest, we want to make sure they are on a prospect list. We want to make sure that we are actively cultivating that relationship.”
You’ll know best what metrics will be most indicative of a good prospective donor, but pulling that information together into one place can help you identify trends and find high-quality prospects. That information may be spread out across a number of different systems, but ideally, it’s all being collected in a single database.
MonkeyPod’s donor dashboard tracks top supporters with detailed giving data for the year and lifetime contributions.
That’s what MonkeyPod was designed to do. Rather than having separate databases for your donors, volunteers, and the people on your email list, MonkeyPod brings them all together into a single platform. MonkeyPod brings together a CRM, email outreach, and fundraising into one platform. It also helps manage your finances with a full nonprofit accounting system and grant management tools.
That means you can use MonkeyPod to build your prospect list. Then, you can contact them via email from the same system and provide an easy way to donate through a fundraising page. And when the donation comes in, they’ll automatically receive a receipt, the transaction will be recorded on your books, and their CRM record will be updated.
Communicating With Donors
While that hopefully simplifies the process, crafting the right message for your donors can still be tricky. Sometimes it feels like you’re begging for money, and some nonprofits don’t know how to best communicate their value.
Nonprofits often solicit donations by highlighting their need for additional funding. They may focus on funding shortages or increased expenses and how your donation can help fill the gap. But it’s often more effective to focus on the impact their donation can make.
“As you’re making the call to your donors and constituents, focus on the community’s need for your service, and ways you can highlight that,” Wendy Burtner of Nonprofit SideKick said. “Consider sharing statistics about the challenges your community faces or the positive impact you’ve made so far. You could also feature profiles of individuals who have been positively impacted by the work your organization does.”
No matter the size of your organization, it can always be beneficial to improve your individual giving program. Hopefully, these tips can help you get started. And if you need a software platform to support your efforts, consider MonkeyPod. Bringing all your fundraising efforts together into one place can not only make your job easier, it can also make you more effective.
And if you’re just getting your nonprofit off the ground, consider the Launchpad program. It provides MonkeyPod access at no cost for nonprofits in their first year, and is deeply discounted for years two and three. If you can build a good foundation for your organization, it can pay off in a big way in the long run.
To learn more, visit www.monkeypod.com or contact [email protected].