Digital marketing has become imperative for non profit organizations as well. Today, if you are not found online by your donors then you may lose on business.
This blog will talk about some top fundraising ideas that you can use to raise funds for your non profit organization.
Recently, I did a workshop with NGO owners and directors on what are the different digital medium platforms that can be used for brand awareness and eventually to raise funds. Most of them understood the importance of digital medium in their business today. However, the challenge is in execution
Note this, you do need a team to manage your digital activities. The ideas that you get will be fruitful if execute them well with a good team.
I am also a Digital Marketing consultant and I partner with organizations to help transform them digitally. Hire a in-house team, train them and set a digital marketing process for the organization. You will have your own in-house team to manage directly. I will just help in setting it up. 🙂
Want to know more contact me at hello@digimaddy.com.
Ideas to raise money for charity- Online
1. A user-friendly website.
NGO owners now know the importance of having an online presence. The first step to that is having a website. Think of your website as a shop where users come, read, browse and ultimately convert.
You drive users to your website via different digital mediums like social media, search (SEO), email, whatsapp or advertisements.
Few things that you must take care of are as follows;
a. Check if your website is secure. Install SSL certificate. SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layers”. In layman terms, it means that this is a secure way of sharing information. If a website starts with “https”, the ‘s’ here means the website is secure.
Here is a pictorial representation of how the message comes in your browser. Check for your website today!
If you are collecting user information, payment gateway or have online purchases. Then it is mandatory to have SSL certificate.
b. Check if your website is mobile friendly. Use tools like Pagespeed Insights by Google or Mobile Friendly Test by Google to check the responsiveness of your website. A good responsive website is one which renders according to any device screen size be it a mobile, desktop or tablet.
Here is an example of a top ngo in Bangalore, Sitaram Jindal Foundation whose page is not mobile friendly. They must be losing on some good mobile user traffic.
Mobile users in India have significantly grown because of Jio revolution.
India holds the second largest internet traffic today.
Any top NGO or non profit organization must check their online presence for mobile experience.
Google also says that if you wish to rank in search results then you need to match their “Mobile first indexing” rules. Mobile-first indexing means Google will use the mobile version of the website content for indexing and ranking.
c. Optimize your website for search (SEO). In the image below, for keyword “top ngo in Bangalore”, Google is displaying 59,00,000 results. Which means if you wish to rank in Google first page, your website is going to compete with lakhs of results.
So, it is important to have a well optimized website for search engines.
There are more than 200 ranking factors by Google.
If you wish to learn more about SEO and its importance. Contact me here. ?
2. How to use social media to raise funds?. Social media is a great platform to find new donors and also stay connected and engaged with existing donors.
Social media is the new kitty party or professional networking or social gathering platform.
Your donors or volunteers are most active here. Some top social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube.
It is important to choose the right platform for the right communication. Use social media more for your branding purposed and less for raising funds directly.
You can use social media for fundraising in following ways;
a. To generate leads- Run a campaign on facebook & instagram to get contact details of your existing followers.
Facebook allows you to target your existing followers in their advertisement settings.
This is because the organic reach of Facebook has declined over the decade. Roughly 3-4% of your page followers can see your post. Which means if you have 1000 followers only 30 people can see it organically. This is why engagement on our posts have also declined.
This is also because Facebook is focusing more on advertisement revenue as their business model. ?
Here is an example of a lead generation campaign.
b. Social media is not just about raising money. It is more about branding and eventually fund raising. You need to keep your audience engaged so that they donate with you at the right times. Remember when they have to file taxes. They will come to you if you keep them well informed and engaged.
c. Tell your story in a creative way. Visual story telling has more impact than text-based content. If you want to become successful in the digital world, you need to have creative acumen.
Want an online training for 2 hours on Canva- a graphic design tool? Contact me here.
3. Raise funds with Email Marketing.
Email marketing is a great platform for reaching out to your donors. Survey says that after social media marketing, email is the second-best platform for marketing for non-profit organizations.
There are many tools available for email marketing. One such platform is Mailchimp, it gives you free access to send 10000 emails a month and you can add upto 2000 subscribers. So if you are a small NGO or non-profit organization then this is good platform to begin with.
Do you need a training on mailchimp platform? Contact me here.
Conclusion
The crucial part of any NGO business is funds from donors or getting partnered with companies as part of their CSR initiative. Best way to showcase your work is by using Digital mediums to the fullest.
Fundraising, getting volunteers, branding for non-profit organization is easier and more economical if done online and in the right way.