The 5 best online fundraising tools you need to thrive

Did you know that the best time to raise money is at the end of the year? 31% of annual giving happens in the month of December, while 12% of all annual giving happens in the last three days of the year. Whether it’s reflecting back on the year and wanting to do more for other individuals, or simply looking for an extra tax write-off, donations rise at the end of the year for nonprofits.

As a nonprofit, take advantage of the season and ensure you have the best online fundraising tools to support your organization. This article covers the top 5 online fundraising tools and helps you understand how to get the best out of them.

From using visuals to get your message across, or creating interactive infographics, slides, and videos, there are multiple fun and easy-to-use online tools to make an impact and help raise funds.

5 best online fundraising tools

1. The all-in-one option

Individual fundraising tools can lead to success for nonprofits, but there is also the concern they won’t work seamlessly with other software programs. Using an all-in-one option that connects with your CRM can lead to better results and less human error. These options are especially useful for larger nonprofits.

Salsa allows nonprofits to create digital marketing, online fundraising, multi-channel advocacy, and nonprofit CRM that all work together easily. The platform provides an all-in-one solution for donor management, fundraising, email marketing, online advocacy, social media, and peer-to-peer solutions.

Donor Perfect is another option for nonprofits wishing to manage their donor information and collect online donations, pledges, and recurring revenue in one location. Plus, they also help organizations run multiple types of fundraising activities.

2. Donation forms

There are plenty of online donation forms that allow companies to accept money, but most options aren’t specifically tailored to nonprofits. You’ll want to leverage options like recurring gifts, event registration, or donation buttons. Below are a couple of online donation platforms specifically designed for nonprofits.

Snowball claims that nonprofit organizations can raise 3x more with features like Text-to-Give and free donation pages that offer recurring member payments.

Donate Kindly is a free donation form platform designed with smaller and new organizations in mind. They offer an easy setup process and allow nonprofits to start accepting donations through their own websites immediately.

3. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding leverages social media to increase your fundraising and attract new members. The best online crowdfunding options for nonprofits should have social sharing buttons displayed prominently, and provide users with other ways to stay engaged with updates and perks.

With 40% of campaigns being viewed on phones, Fundly offers seamless mobile integration that thrives on platforms like Facebook. Other features you’ll get – merchandized sales and campaign tracking.

Bonfire specifically helps nonprofits raise money through apparel design. They offer reduced donation fees, verified nonprofit badges to share on your social channels, and an easy-to-access downloadable list of your supporters.

4. Matching gifts

Corporate giving cannot be overlooked – but it constantly is! 18 million individuals work for companies that match charitable donations, but $4-$7 billion in matching funds goes unclaimed per year. Matching gift tools are available to help potential donors determine if their employer will match their donation.

Double the Donations offers two different programs for either small to medium nonprofits or large nonprofits to implement. They boast an industry-leading database of participating companies and easy setup to add effective plugins across various platforms.

5. Prospect research

When targeting past and potential donors, it’s important to look for trends in: 

• Past giving
• Professional affiliations
• Philanthropic tendencies
• Wealth markers

Consultants are still an option, but there is prospect research software that could be more affordable.

DonorSearch provides information that helps nonprofits identify the best prospective major gift donors, annual fund donors, and planned gift donors based on philanthropy and wealth analytics.

Tips and tricks to better engage your community

While the above platforms and software services provide solutions to streamline your donations, funding, and outreach, if the overall online presentation is uninspired, static, or text-heavy, you’ll miss out on key donations. 

Help grow your donor base by incorporating a few proven and easy-to-use practices into your online fundraising today.

• Use creative visuals to get your message across

Most nonprofits are strapped for cash and resources, but that doesn’t mean your online presence and visuals need to look low budget. Easily implemented (no coding required!) interactive social media graphics can be used on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social networks to generate buzz around crowdfunding and donation drives. When visuals are dynamic and interactive, audiences will spend more time on your sites and want to learn more about your cause.

• Interactive infographics

Infographics take multitudes of information and visuals and condense them into a clear story with simple and engaging visuals. Furthermore, infographics are easily shared on various social platforms and help boost audience engagement and traffic. Our infographics have been designed with nonprofits in mind.

• Powerful slides and presentations to WOW your stakeholders

When pitching your nonprofit to potential donors or key contributors, keep them engaged with key data visualizations techniques. Use slides to increase stakeholder engagement with interactive charts and graphs.

• Use video to boost online engagement

Videos are key to capturing attention and keeping your audience engaged, while also being the most effective way to spread your message. They are increasingly easy and inexpensive to create and should be embraced when trying to target multiple generations and demographics. As a nonprofit, video is extremely important on social media.

One option is Prezi Video – a platform that allows users to quickly record themselves, upload images, edit, and publish a video in minutes.

Conclusion 

The end of the year is the time most individuals donate to their favorite causes. Now that you know what tools to use, and how to get your message across, it’s time to get started and manage donations with ease. 

To improve your effectiveness,  incorporate interactive and compelling visuals into your online content to increase audience engagement and donations. 

Interested in discovering how Infogram can enhance your team’s work? Join a brief Zoom session with our Infogram representative to explore key features, get answers to your questions, and understand how we can assist. It’s quick, informative, and just like a coffee break chat. Schedule your call now!