Increase Your Donations by
Providing More Value
…without Spending a Dime! (part 2)
In our last article, we covered the three ways you can double donations to your nonprofit (or even multiply them eightfold).
Here they are, in quick review:
All of that probably sounds “simple enough.” The big question you’re likely asking yourself at this point is: “But how? How do we do any of that, especially on our already stretched-thin budget?” This is where being a nonprofit in the 21st century has its advantages. Today, we have online tools at our disposal that can do all of the above for little or no money at all.
Strategy 1: Provide More Value, Without Spending More Money
In order to provide more value, you must first determine what your donors actually perceive as valuable. We often think we know why people support us, but that’s not quite the same as actually knowing what makes them decide to donate. The easiest and often most precise solution is to simply ask them.
To do that, you can spend a few days on the phones, calling each of your major donors (and some minor ones), or even hire a market research firm to do it for you. Both of those options are resource-intensive. If you have a few minutes and the right tools, however, you can do it all in house and get some very valuable results.
How to learn about—and increase—the value you provide your donors, in five steps:
Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team:
- Of the things that donors find valuable, which would cost very little to increase?
- Can we expand our offerings to our beneficiaries online through resources or content?
- Do we effectively communicate just how much we do in those spaces?
- Would creating a donors’ newsletter or changing the frequency increased perceived value?
- Can we be better at communicating our impact on our beneficiaries through articles, videos and photos?
- Are there other things that we do that are not being recognized by our current donor pool? Are there things that we do that a different demographic might respond to?
Keep in mind that your current “perceived” value may not be as high as the actual value you can provide. For example, if your donors tell you that they love hearing stories of people whose lives you’ve changed, you might be able to increase the number of such stories, or the frequency with which you share them (not just on email, but on social media, as well).
In total, this might take two or three hours to do over the course of a few days. And you’re not going to double your donations on day one, but giving the people who care about your cause more of what they want can only have a positive effect in the long run. There are other benefits to this approach, as well.
Bonus benefits of surveying your supporters:
- The people surveyed will feel like you care about them, which will make them feel more connected to your organization.
- You may get some great quotes for your testimonials that you can share on your website and social media.
- You’ll get language that you can use in your marketing materials, when trying to reach more people who care about your work!
Our next article will build on this survey to help you find more supporters who already feel a connection to your cause! Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to get the info you need to grow your organization and do more good.
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Want help with these strategies or other ways of increasing your impact? We’re happy to help.
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