Non-Profit Website Fundraising Tips by Nicole Moran

If you’re a non-profit, you likely have 1 of 2 goals, if not both goals. 

1:  You want to spend as little money as possible, while bringing in as much funding as possible to support your organization. 

2:  You need volunteers of time or talent in some way. 

How can you achieve these goals through your website?

Having helped a lot of non-profits organizations, both on the website side, and as a non-profit employee and volunteer, there are a few things you can do on the web to maximize your efforts.

Email campaigns:  I have several clients that send out mass emails to their volunteers, boards, and others in their groups.  It is a great way to spread the word, and the best part is—the online services that we recommend often offer a non-profit option.  If you can prove you are a 501c3 organization, they will give you a free account with free email credits.  Otherwise, this is a service most organizations have to pay for—and it is definitely a better option to use an email management tool rather than just sending a bulk email and having it end up in their spam box.  Services offering non-profit email management that we would recommend are Vertical Response (free) and Mail Chimp and Constant Contact (discounted).

Volunteers:  Need volunteers?  There are a few things you can do using your website to attract volunteers.  First of all, you should collect information from anyone willing to be a volunteer—just using a simple form can achieve that.  What kind of opportunities are there—are they regularly scheduled?  If so, post a calendar online with upcoming events and the need for each one.  Email the calendar out.  Post news items with the latest volunteer needs.  Tweet about it.  Facebook about it.  Collect phone numbers and text about it (something you can do online, for free, often).  The means by which to promote your need are endless!

Donations:  I am not sure that there are any non-profits that do not take donations or gifts of some kind.  You can easily integrate with Google Checkout or PayPal (both with non-profit specific products) and accept donations on your website.  These are some of the common solutions our clients choose to use to accept donations online. 

I recently took a trip to Guatemala to help out at an orphanage called Casa Guatemala.  They are in the middle of the jungle with only a few working computers and power in only one of their buildings (the one with the computers).  Yet they understand how to utilize the web for volunteers, donations and other needs—including Twitter, Facebook, their own website, blogs and donation sites and subsites.  One thing they did was set up a donation site (separate from their current site, though really, they could be integrated—and probably should be), which allows potential volunteers and donators to set up sub-sites—a new concept to me.  In other words, if you get people passionate about what you’re doing and set up something like sub-sites—your needs can be spread virally by SOMEONE ELSE—allowing them to share why they are involved and what the need is and then market it to their friends.

As with all things WEB, the more you get it out there and give the people a way to be involved, the more likely you are to have positive feedback and help spreading the word.  Non-profits, whether its your church, an orphanage, Haiti relief organizations, or a rehabilitation program for ex-convicts, serve such an important role in the world and trying to make it a better place, I think it is important that you know there are many options that are low cost or no cost to help you do what you’re doing.  And Cirrus, as well as its employees has a lot of experience with non-profit organizations just like yours!