What Nonprofits Can Learn from Hurricane Sandy About Online Fundraising

The storm has passed here in NYC, and since we look at everything through the lens of nonprofit fundraising (is there a medication we should be taking?), here are some of our takeaways from Hurricane Sandy:

1. Be ready to take on a flood
If you’ve got a big campaign rolling out, make sure that your payment processors, websites, and other ancillary platforms are ready to handle the incoming spike in traffic. There’s nothing worse than making a big investment in a project and then having everything go down because you were too successful.

2. Be patient
Just like a family huddled around a Monopoly board waiting for the power to come back on, you need to be patient. You don’t need to reach your fundraising goal on day one. In fact, we’ve noticed in some campaigns that the final days are when the most donations roll in. Hang in there.

3. Think low tech
There are ways to fundraise even when the power has gone out. Door-to-door campaigns may seem outdated, but sometimes, they’re a great way to supplement a your online donation drive.

4. The rain and the flood
Funds can come from wealthy donors on high (the rain), or a humble grassroots effort on the ground (the flood). You never know which might come through for your campaign, so don’t neglect either one!

5. Pull together
Just like a storm recovery, a fundraising campaign is a community effort. If you think that a single person and a case of Red Bull is enough, you’re probably in for a disappointment. (And a minor cardiac event.)

6. One thing you can’t learn from Sandy: don’t wait for someone to come save you.
Forget the Hurricane on this one. Do not wait for someone to come and save your campaign. If metaphorical trees fall on your metaphorical power lines, get out your metaphorical chainsaw and get to work (but not metaphorically … actually get to work.

Title photo by David Shankbone