How to Plan a Successful Donation Drive: 6 Top Tips
Donation drives are important for quickly reallocating resources to community members who need them most. Follow these six tips to make the most of your drive.
Guest Post by Jacob Spencer, Customer Success and Account Manager at Donately.
For organizations big and small, a donation drive can be daunting. Achieving success can take months of coordinating, organizing, and soliciting financial donations and in-kind support.
To make your life easier, we’ve compiled our list of important considerations for planning a donation drive. We’ll cover why you should:
Yes, the stress a donation drive potentially can have on your organization and staff is intimidating. But with these six tips, you can spend less time and energy on your donation drive and yield higher, more impactful returns.
1. Be unafraid to ask for donations.
What’s the worst that could happen? Making a clear and direct request is the only way people and organizations will know to donate. Your request should answer these questions:
What need in your community will your donation drive address? What will be the measurable impact of the drive? What is your goal?
When will the drive take place? What are the dates when supporters can donate? Will there be an opening or culminating event?
How can supporters get involved? In addition to the donations themselves, will you need volunteers to collect, organize, and/or distribute donations?
What exactly can (and can’t) supporters donate? Are you requesting in-kind or financial donations? Are you requesting new or used items?
In addition to asking individuals for donations, plan to solicit corporate support from relevant for-profit businesses. For example, for a winter clothing drive, you could ask clothing retailers with a local presence for in-kind donations of jackets, caps, and gloves. Companies are often happy to donate to nonprofit community drives—especially when they get public recognition for their donations in return. In these asks, be explicit about how a donation will benefit their organization—often through CSR publicity.
2. Offer incentives.
Not everyone donates purely out of selflessness. In fact, people and businesses usually have multiple reasons for donating.
Yes, they’re probably donating because it’s the right thing to do. But they may also be looking to get something out of their participation. For some, it may simply be the feeling of having done something good for someone else. For others, such as businesses, it may be publicity. In general, however, these groups are donating because you’ve already done the work to establish a strong, personal relationship.
But when it comes to lapsed donors or new donors unfamiliar with your cause, they likely don’t have the personal or emotional connection to your organization that drives the core of your donations. To garner their interest, consider offering specific incentives for donating:
Events. Host events (e.g. a bowling night, gala, or online concert) specifically for active donors.
Raffles. People love games and winning. Consider holding a raffle (where it is legal to do so) for all monetary donors who give at least a certain amount.
Merchandise. Offer donors wearable merchandise as a token of your appreciation, such as hats, buttons, or tote bags. You can even customize your merch to your organization or drive’s brand.
If you offer more than one incentive, you can establish tiers with each level requiring a certain donation amount. For instance, your top donors might receive VIP access to your events and a large gift basket, while basic donors might receive a button or shirt.
3. Quickly reply with thanks when a company or person donates.
Don’t burn any bridges by ignoring the donations you receive. You never know when you might need a company or individual to support you again in the future. According to Fundraising Letters’ guide to donor thank-yous, “Only 19% of new donors will give again after their first donation.” One of the major reasons for such a large donor churn is the lack of a simple thank-you.
Send your thank-yous as quickly as possible after a donation is received. With many giving platforms, you can set up emails to automatically go out when a donation is in-put into the system. Additionally, every thank-you should include:
The donor’s name. With current technology, it’s easy to add a personal touch to every thank-you you send. Use your donor management software to input the donor’s name (plus other relevant information such as their title or address) into the blanks of a prewritten letter.
Relevant financial information. Both financial and in-kind support to 501(c)(3) charities can be tax-deductible. Make it easy for donors to claim their gifts as deductions on federal taxes by providing the date and value of their donation as well as your nonprofit’s Tax ID Number.
Impact. Your donors just made a positive impact on the world. Remind them what their donation will do for the community and who it will help. Use a combination of anecdotal stories and quantitative facts/figures to show the impact of the drive.
Recognizing even the smallest gifts with a well-written thank-you email or letter shows your gratitude and helps grow your relationship with each donor. When you reach out to them during your next drive, they’ll be more likely to give!
4. Keep a donor registry.
You also don’t want to keep asking the same donors to donate to your cause every time you have a new event. Moreover, having a large, diverse body of donors will financially protect your organization from the effects of losing any single donor.
Thus, try to mix it up and tap into different pools of donors. How do you accomplish this as efficiently as possible? We recommend you:
Monitor received donations using donation management software that allows for easy, long-term tracking and reporting.
Using filters and search tools, create specific lists of donors based on their donation history and amounts.
Depending on the specifics of your drive, focus your outreach efforts on the most relevant potential donors.
By utilizing a donor registry to track your donors and donations, you’ll retain your supporters and save money on new donor acquisitions.
5. Use different avenues to market your donor drive.
According to Donately, over 80% of Americans now own smartphones. As a result, digital marketing can be one of the most effective ways to get your donor drive in front of the right eyes.
While these days social media receives a lot of attention in digital marketing, Facebook and Twitter aren’t your only opportunities to reach existing and potential donors. Consider using a combination of digital outreach tools, including:
Text
Google Ads
Email
That being said, especially if you’re focused on addressing a local issue, try incorporating traditional outreach methods (in addition to your digital fundraising efforts) into your marketing plan, including:
Direct Mail
Local News
Local Partnerships
Phone Banking
Even as you use a variety of marketing channels, make sure you’re still focusing all of your organizational efforts and marketing for donations to one drive at a time. This will help you avoid any internal competition for donations or confusion for donors.
6. Tell your story.
As you can probably see by now, the more a donor can connect with your cause, the more likely they are to (1) donate and (2) donate in generous amounts, and (3) donate again in the future. A touching, cohesive story can solidify that connection. In general, your donation drive’s story should have a clear beginning, middle, and end:
The Beginning should introduce a compelling main character (such as a volunteer or community member) and a problem in your community.
The Middle should demonstrate the increased stakes if the problem is not addressed and propose a possible action or solution.
The End should offer your audience a way to get involved, solve the problem, and be a part of your story’s resolution.
Your story will be the heart of your outreach plan, and you should rely on it in both your physical and digital marketing. When available, such as on social media, plan to enhance it with relevant multimedia elements. For example, for a food drive, you might post interviews with donors, volunteers, and recipients alongside photo updates of incoming donations. Especially online, photos, audio, and video can break up blocks of text and lead to increased engagement and sharing.
Ultimately, there’s no one way to plan a donation drive, and fundraisers never go exactly as expected. But by using these tips to create a thorough, adaptable plan, you can be successful in your donation drive endeavors no matter the circumstance. Keep your eye on the prize and shoot for the stars!
About the Author
Jacob Spencer | Donately Customer Success and Account Manager
I strive to make every step of our customer journey as enjoyable as possible. My goal is to turn everyone who trusts Donately into a raving fan! Raising funds can be daunting, but we know that with the right tools, it can and should be easy.
Throughout my career, I've been able to help sales and success teams tackle new markets, grow and expand.
Leading with empathy, listening to actually solve problems, and remembering that we are all human are the key elements to growing any business in a meaningful way.
When I'm not working you can find me spending time with my wife, 2 boys and our Border Collie, Abbie. Family>Everything.
Why Both Charities & Companies Can Benefit From Product Donations
After months of planning for an upcoming charity event, now comes the time where you have to reach out to multiple businesses and ask for product donations or auction items for the event. As a resourceful problem solver, avoid becoming timid or hesitant when you make the request, feeling like you’re asking the business for a handout. Instead, it’s important to realize that a product donation actually does benefit the business!
Having an item showcased at an event is an excellent marketing opportunity for businesses, allowing both you and the company to share in a win-win situation. Understanding that both the nonprofit and the business can win is the key to receiving a successful amount of product donations. Below are some additional tips that can help to prepare as you approach a business asking for product donations or auction items.
Do Research Upfront
Try to first learn what your attendees would prefer to purchase and then find businesses offering those items. This ensures a better fit for both the attendees and the donor. Also, make sure you understand the demographics (age, gender, location, etc.) of the people attending your event. Then when speaking to the businesses, you’ll be able to confirm that the event attendees are their ideal target audience.
Promote Social Good
With the topic of social good on the horizon, many companies are beginning to realize that supporting a cause can provide the business with successful ROI. A study by Cone Communications found that 87% of Americans will purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about. A business is not only receiving the opportunity to support an important cause, but is also being offered the chance to promote their product or company to hundreds of people at the event, with very little effort needed on their part.
Prepare a List of Benefits
Before speaking to the business, be prepared by compiling a list of benefits you’re able to provide to the organization. For example, the company will benefit by having a room full a attendee at the event that are their ideal target market, while being able to benefit from a low cost method of marketing. They will also benefit by being one product among a limited amount of featured items or businesses at the event. This will help the brand in standing out as a featured product. Don’t forget to offer the opportunity to help promote the brand through social media or provide the company with a social media image or video post-event. Companies would also appreciate receiving links to their site from the event website. Feel free to ask what the company values that you can deliver. It often doesn’t cost more to deliver an additional benefit to the company and it could compel them to increase their donation.
If you can follow these steps when approaching a business regarding product donations, then you should be able to achieve a more successful outcome with a win-win for both your nonprofit and donor businesses.
5 Minutes with DonationMatch Co-Founder Renee Zau
By Juliet Davenport, Nonprofit Ambassador at DonationMatch
When was the last time you experienced a pain and decided to devote your full-time effort to solving it? Co-founder Renee Zau became an accidental web entrepreneur when she wished for a product like DonationMatch and waited several years for "someone else to build it so I could be a customer." When that didn't happen, she and boyfriend Darryl took what they learned working for a VC-backed startup where they met, their savings, and advice from smart friends to get accepted into and graduate from the Founder Institute (a tech startup accelerator), which propelled DonationMatch into the premiere platform for reaching consumers through charitable events.
Here's what we learned in 5 minutes with Renee!
How did you come up with the idea for DonationMatch?
Inefficiency bothers me. I hated seeing myself and other wasting time typing the same information from the same donors over and over again for fundraising auctions. I also experienced the pain of not having an easy way to collect and track the requests my business was receiving. All the paperwork being mailed back and forth seemed wasteful, and I wanted a centralized place for both donors (companies) and receivers (nonprofits) to not just manage donation records, but make requests and seamlessly transfer necessary information easily. I waited four years before Darryl caught on to how frustrated I was and realized I wasn't alone in needing a solution.
What do you think charities can learn from the private sector?
I know that the ultimate goal of a charity isn’t to make money, but I think many fail to invest in practices early on that will help them become financially self-sustainable. When a charity can’t focus on its mission because it needs money and has to constantly fundraise, it ultimately hurts its ability to do good work. Just like a startup for-profit, I’d like to see nonprofits:
- Strive for long-term financial viability with an aligned business model,
- Identify whether their mission is unique and necessary (as opposed to initiating a project within an existing organization), and
- Plan for a bootstrapped success model based on partnerships and leveraging the help of others, in case funding doesn’t come easily.
Where would you like to be in 5 years?
In five years I’d like to be able to sign on to DonationMatch as a fundraising event chair in the U.S. or Canada, input my event details, and be able to fill my silent auction, opportunity drawings, and gift bags in an hour while having fun. This would be possible because of smart tools we're building into DonationMatch that help companies and brands want to donate goods because it's easy, cost-effective, and profitable. I can't wait for this day!
What is your weakness?
There’s always room for dessert. Even for breakfast.
What is another question you would like to ask Renee?
Using Social Media to Promote Your Event
By Juliet Davenport, Nonprofit Ambassador, DonationMatch Spring fundraising time is among us. How are you planning to promote your event? According to Socialable, one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal should be social media. Because of its wide audience reach, social media can be used to "increase registration, increase buzz, and ultimately increase attendance." However, in considering your social media platform, it's important to keep in mind who your target audience is and how they interact online. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are likely your best options.
Another boost is the new Pro Event page upgrade on DonationMatch. It has built-in extra help for your event to get found by search engines like Google and Bing and Facebook sharing widgets. What makes it super convenient is automatic donor promotion and the ability to export donation details.
For details on using social media to help promote your event, and for useful tools to help you manage it, read more on Socialable's post here.
How are you using social media to promote your event?
Coming Soon: A Fresh Look and Features for DonationMatch
By Renee Zau, Co-founder, DonationMatch You've told us how easy DonationMatch makes getting more customers and event donors, how much time we've saved you, and how great it feels to both give and receive. We've taken your feedback and are excited to announce that added features and a new look are COMING SOON! Why are we letting you know BEFORE we do the upgrade? Our site will be unavailable during this transition, and we want you to be able to plan any important DonationMatch account activity around it. The exact date/time isn't set yet, but it could happen as early as this Friday evening, May 11th, and we'll announce it as soon as we know with an email, on Facebook, on Twitter, AND here on our blog.
Thanks for all your support, and we look forward to seeing you online at DonationMatch!
