The nonprofit world feels like living in a snow globe these days: every morning you wake up, someone’s shaken your world, and the snow has fallen differently. Things are changing constantly and there’s so much happening that it’s hard to keep up.
In this climate, it feels like asking for money is out of place and deeply uncomfortable. But most nonprofits are also feeling the impacts of coronavirus, with canceled events, lost revenue, and disrupted programming. Now more than ever it’s important to be able to ask your supporters for a donation to keep your organization strong through this crisis.
If you’re feeling both the discomfort of the ask and the impacts of quarantining, this guide will help you understand the best way to fundraise online during the Coronavirus pandemic.
It might seem counterintuitive to make a fundraising push when the world is in crisis, but this is actually an incredibly important time to focus on fundraising efforts. There are a few important things you can highlight to help your supporters understand why you’re fundraising now.
It’s clear that now is the right time to be asking donors to support you. But the fact still remains that many donors are also struggling financially right now. How do you know the right people to ask? Unsurprisingly, it’s all about relationships.
Now isn’t the best time to be searching for new donors. Instead, focus on people you have existing relationships with and figure out how you can bring value to those relationships. Identify key supporters in your network and give them some personalized attention: make a one on one call, enlist a board member, or ask top donors to be a part of a seed fund for your fundraiser.
If you’re looking for ways to make those top donors feel special check out these ideas:
You’ve done this before! Fundraising during a pandemic might seem like a new thing, but fundraising is what you do and you are good at it. This is an important time to go back to basics and remember a few facts:
Speaking of back to basics, let’s take a minute to review some of our favorite fundraising practices that will help you now more than ever.
If you’re still feeling a little bit overwhelmed it can be easiest if you see what other people have done. Check out these examples of people doing it well.
Game to Grow has put together a specific fundraiser to help support them during the crisis. They’ve got a great example of showing how they’re continuing services through the pandemic:
“Luckily, during this crisis our game-based social groups can largely be run though the internet via teleconferencing. There are some hurdles to jump in order to make sure we maintain the same high quality of services. We want each child to have the same opportunity to connect with peers, continue the fellowship of adventure, and receive the life-enriching experience of a professionally facilitated collaborative experience.”
Plus they’re being transparent about how the funds will be used to continue their work right now. This allows supporters to feel like they’re helping during the crisis.
North Texas Food Bank’s fundraiser in partnership with Park Place is particularly interesting because it’s a great example of a supporter coming through for an organization in this crisis. Park Place Dealerships is running a fundraiser to support the work the food bank is doing right now.
They use clear language to show how the food bank is serving people in need as part of the pandemic:
“As things are changing day-to-day, NTFB remains committed to their mission. As a second responder for emergencies, they must maintain operations to ensure that food continues to reach members of our community needing assistance.
While the full scope of this pandemic’s long-term impact is not yet known, there’s already an economic impact from business and school closures, a drop in oil and gas prices, travel restrictions, and the cancellation or suspension of major public events.
It is because of this unknown, it is more important than ever to provide for our neighbors in need.”
If your organization is directly responding to the pandemic, this kind of language will help your supporters stay up to date on your work.
If you’re specifically looking for language around canceled events, NTEN has a wonderful example of a fundraiser to cover the costs of their annual conference.
“This week, the difficult decision to cancel #20NTC was made, but it was one that was made that was true to NTEN’s values and centered the community. In the last 24 hours, the NTEN community has shared countless messages of support, as well as offers to generously donate registration fees towards the significant financial hit.
The reality is that NTC is a significant part of NTEN’s annual budget, and there is a substantial amount that is needed to pay for the conference contracts that are owed for not putting on the event. NTEN has done everything to negotiate as much as possible. Unfortunately, insurance does not cover cancellations due to COVID-19.”
Letting your supporters know what you have done to mitigate the damage, then asking them to chip in keeps them feeling informed and involved. Plus it helps them regain confidence that the event will continue in future years.
If you want to get a jump start on moving your fundraising efforts online and using some of these tips, it’s a great time to start with CauseVox.
CauseVox helps you raise more with less effort, making it easy for you to launch a fundraising campaign, online event, or crowdfunding campaign. With simple technology that is easy to understand you can get started with virtual fundraising in no time.
Learn more about how CauseVox can help you launch your virtual fundraising event.
To help support nonprofits during this time, CauseVox has introduced a new Basic Plan Unlimited, which gives you more capabilities for free. Learn more about Basic Plan Unlimited. Sign up today!
Learn more about how CauseVox is helping nonprofits during the coronavirus pandemic.
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