5 Ways to Maximize Your Virtual Fundraising in 2022

November 15, 2021

We all realize how important it has been to include virtual fundraising in your overall nonprofit strategy, and with the majority of nonprofit unsure when in-person events will return, it’s becoming increasingly crucial to include virtual and hybrid fundraising into your strategy for the new year and beyond.

Thankfully, there are extremely simple and effective ways to fundraise virtually that don’t require a lot of effort and time to set up -

1. Integrate Giving into Your Virtual Event

Through virtual meeting services such as Zoom you can now reach any number of potential donors with a click of a button. This allows you to reach far beyond what you would normally through an in-person event, without the high overhead costs associated with production and setup.

It also allows you to provide real-time impact stories, as seen from Parks California, where their President and CEO appeared at one of the locations that benefited from direct donations to the organization. This allowed guests to truly visualize and see the impact they were making through their dollars. The best part? Through Pledge’s Donate Button for Zoom, they were able to make the donation directly through Zoom, further increasing the success of the event.

You can also utilize PledgeCam, a virtual donation overlay that allows your video screen to show how to make a donation, recent donations and the total amount donated. This provides an additional method to increase overall donations for any livestream, from Twitch to Facebook.

2. Support a Campaign through Fundraiser Pages

Whether you are hosting an online event or not, fundraiser pages are a great way to support your campaign virtually by allowing another channel to better maximize donations. Fundraiser pages can include a variety of information, including more about the campaign or nonprofit, images or video to support the cause, the amount of money raised, recent donations, fundraising goals, and of course, a donation button. This provides a great method to allow donations outside of an actual event, and for supporters to share out to their own networks with a click of a button.

3. Get Mobile-Friendly with Text-to-Donate

Mobile optimization is increasingly becoming an integral part of a successful giving strategy. Through text-to-donate, you now have the option to allow donations to be made through someone’s phone. This is a great call-to-action to make when someone is away from their computer, whether at a hybrid event, through social media, or in a promotional video. It’s important however, to make sure that your keyword and number to text is easy to remember for the potential donor.

This is incredibly easy to do with Pledge’s free text-to-donate service, offering both a memorable number (707070) and the ability to set-up a customizable keyword, available when you set up a fundraiser through our Impact Hub.

4. Follow Up with Donors Post-Event

After your event or campaign has concluded, this provides a great opportunity to not only thank them for their contributions, but to provide an additional call-to-action, whether that by providing a recurring donation, or to learn more information about your organization by visiting your website or subscribing to your email list.

With Pledge, all donor information is owned by the nonprofit organization it contributed to, allowing you easy access to download who donated using Pledge through your Impact Hub. Not only will this provide deeper insight into the performance of your campaign, but integral donor information behind each donation, allowing you to find a potentially new audience that you wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.

5. Integrate Donations Forms for Ongoing Giving

Last but not least, you should consider how to maximize giving through your owned website. This provides an easy solution to those that want to give back to your organization without it necessarily tied to a campaign or event. In addition, similar to the text-to-donate and fundraiser page feature, it allows for easy sharing to your donor’s owned networks.

With Pledge, we offer a free, fully customizable donation form used by a variety of organizations for increased giving allowing you to easily embed onto your website.

For more information on Pledge and how to get started, head to www.pledge.to and click “Sign Up” to get started for free today!