An Essential Ingredient to Be a Great Fundraiser

It's my absolute joy to write, design and create to raise funds for animal nonprofits, especially at this time of year. I have so much respect for the clients I am privileged to work with who trust me to do this important work for them.

I also receive the same kinds of communication from organizations I support, and I learn something valuable in every content I receive. One embodies a special skill and expertise in this line of work, and I am humbled to be one of them.

One thing I find to be true in doing this service for others: one needs to feel a genuine sense of gratitude. I wake up each morning and thank the universe for my life, my abilities, my clients, my circle of humans and animals who share happiness with me. Then it naturally flows when I perform my work, which involves alot of thanking as well as asking!

My favorite quote is from Isabelle Allende:
"You only have what you give."
I believe this with all my heart and soul, and I witness this regularly.

I have been fortunate to have met my heroes Jane Goodall, Milo Runkle, and Gene Baur. It's not a coincidence that they all radiate an amazing energy of positivity and generosity. This is how I want people to feel when they meet me, as I felt when I was in the presence of these amazing humans.

Your Top Communication Methods in Fundraising

There are always new and trending ways to communicate with your supporters in your fundraising efforts, especially with social media platforms constantly evolving and adding tools and features.

Even as communication itself changes, don’t forget about your tried and true methods. Your fundraising “pie”, as I call it, should always have a handful of pieces when launching a campaign. Even when one method seems more fruitful for a particular campaign, that doesn’t mean you lessen the efforts or forego other pieces in your pie. Collectively, all your communication channels are necessary to reach all your audiences and demographics. I think one mistake folks make is putting too much weight on the quantity of names/profiles rather than measuring the quality of that audience. For example, you may have 3000 subscribers on your mailing list, 8000 Facebook followers, and 10,000 Instagram followers, and 200 direct mail contacts. It doesn’t necessarily work out that your campaign is reaching the most people on a channel with more followers.

If you can maintain a database of your donors that includes how they choose to donate, this will help evaluate where your quality donors reach you, and also what percentage of those audiences/followers are you getting responses from.

For example, your email list may be your third largest list but it may also have your highest quality audience when it comes to responding and donating. In reality this has often been the case in my experience. Since your list will consist of contacts whose emails you obtained through a direct contact, and acquiring that email address takes a bit more of an effort than following a FB or IG profile, the subscribers tend to be more invested. (But also keeping in mind that there can also be an overlap in the audiences of these channels.)

Your fundraising pie may look different, as it should! Know your pie pieces, your communication channels, and know what percentage of your audience responds in each method.

What are the most effective communication methods?

If you are not sure or you are just starting, I would launch your campaigns on the following channels, and then evaluate as you are able to accumulate data and decide which ones have your best response. Most of the ones listed do not necessarily require a budget.

• Emails: Using an application like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. It may have a cost if your subscriber list reaches a certain quantity. But the software gives you important data to track campaigns, such as who opened your emails and what links were clicked

• Facebook: Facebook fundraising is a key way to fundraise, and it is also a method you can “ask” more frequently than other methods.

• Instagram: Since it is now tied to Facebook, it’s really about giving your fundraising campaign as much exposure as you can. You are still reaching a different audience than FB, and providing another convenient way for people to donate.

• CUDDLY: For animal welfare nonprofits, it is an effective vehicle that reaches yet another demographc and another method to give. It may take some time to build up your database of followers but a nice feature they offer for free is a specialist who will help write your campaigns, boost your campaigns and increase exposure through CUDDLY’s own email and social media marketing.

• Direct Mail: This method requires a budget, but there is still an audience who prefers printed communication in the mail. Even if your mailing list is small, these supporters might be of a very high quality. There are donors who also still prefer to use checks, and stats show that these donors are usually of an older demographic and can be more consistent in their giving.

It is also worth the effort to ask your supporters which method of communication they prefer. And take note of this in their donor profile in your database. It is also common for supporters to request opt out of communication through a particular method. it is important to note this and follow through with their request.