Is your non-profit “grant-heavy”?

3 out of the box fundraising campaigns from our nonprofit community

This week, Giving USA reported a drop in individual Americans giving in 2018. With the fluctuations and unforeseeable downgrades that come with grant funding and corporate donations, our nonprofit community is showing more interest in taking a bit more control of their revenue streams and investing time and strategy in individual giving.

Developing new, creative campaigns to find new donors and upgrade current funding sources is hard, which is why we wanted to share (3) recent individual giving campaigns we are inspired by and know can be replicated with the right help from our network of volunteers.

Unconventional Digital Campaign

Urban Ministries of Durham connects with the community to end homelessness and fight poverty by offering food, shelter and a future to neighbors in need.

Marketing Concept: Names for Change, is an individual giving campaign site where Urban Ministries of Durham is selling naming rights to common items because they want us to see how critical every item is to helping fight homelessness.

What sticks out to us? Incorporating visual elements and using the elements to convey just how a donation will combat homelessness is unlike traditional sites that solely show total dollars raised. Giving the option to select recurring donations is fundamental to collecting donations and this site does it in a subtle manner. If you can incorporate compelling dialogue and creative descriptors to get donors to check this box, you’re doing the most.

Must-have components:

• Path to goal, or a visual element that shows the total amount collected continues to stand the test of time and is a powerful tool.
• Make it shareable: You get it — social media is the essential. Start to consider each individual donor as a network, where they influence their common-minded friends and acquaintances to join in.
• All donations matter: When setting tiers, make sure to capture all kinds of donors, $5 — $20,000, leaving no excuses not to donate.

Un-Gala a Traditional Gala

Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive — at home, at school and at play.

Experiential Concept: Gear Up for Winter is a fun, dress-down event for 300 people with an abbreviated speaking section, using the majority of the “program” for attendees to roll up their sleeves alongside dozens of other volunteers to help sort, inspect, and package warm winter essentials.

Must-have component: A commitment to imperfection. Instead of securing a traditional hotel or meeting space, Cradles to Crayons has a warehouse that they use as the venue. This is a forcing function to lean into the “dress-down” event. They opted for this experience because it reflected how they carry out their mission — hands-on, directly connecting with their community. Like their regular programs, they made sure that even this event was mission-aligned

Peer to Peer Fundraising

The American Cancer Society is on a mission to free the world from cancer. Until they do, they are funding and conducting research, sharing expert information, supporting patients, and spreading the word about prevention.

Program Concept: As a decentralized chapter organization, it doesn’t always make sense for the regional sites to host annual exclusive events for high touch donors. For the American Cancer Society- Manhattan, mobilizing their exceptionally large network of supporters with leadership opportunities to fundraise on behalf of ACS has served their revenue stream well.

Boards of all shapes, sizes, and functions can be and should be an extension of your fundraising. In 2011, of organizations that engaged board members in fundraising, 55% saw an increase in fundraising levels and 60% reached their fundraising goals.

Must-have components:

• Setting expectations: ACS-Manhattan is clear about the responsibilities including naming the number of events that need to be organized, how many events each junior board member must attend, and sets fundraising goals for each commitment.
• Varied levels of time commitment: Just as you would set inclusive donation levels, create networks that are realistic to your ambassadors time. Junior Board is at the peak of time with consistent meetings and consistent event responsibilities. For those who are looking to volunteer with less frequency, consider creating Event Committees that allow interested supporters to dip in and out of their commitment.

Click here to view the custom collection of Catchafire projects that will help you raise funds from all sides.