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Ask a Responsive Fundraiser: How to Grow on a Budget, Giving Tuesday, and More

Welcome back to Ask a Responsive Fundraiser, where we tackle some of the most pressing questions nonprofit organizations face in their quest to make a difference. This week, we welcome John Mark Vanderpool, Co-Founder of Social Impact Solutions, to help nonprofits with the volunteer-to-donor pipeline, how to grow on a budget, Giving Tuesday, and more.

Be sure to check out past editions of Ask a Responsive Fundraiser and leave us a comment on LinkedIn so we can answer your questions!

Dear Responsive Fundraiser: What is the best way to communicate impact data with our donors? There are various areas a donor can give to, and weโ€™re unsure if we should share all our impact data with all donors. That seems overwhelming.

โ€”Data Dilemma

Dear Data: Great question! 

The social impact your nonprofit creates is the primary driver for donor generosity. That being said, the last thing we want to do is overwhelm and confuse your funders.

One of the most effective ways to avoid overwhelming donors with impact data is to segment your audience by which program they gave to. Platforms like Virtuous make it easy to segment your donor base and provide relevant impact updates via email. 

Another way to communicate your impact is with an impact report. That way, you can clearly demonstrate the value your donors enabled by giving to your nonprofit. Impact reports are effective because you can share social impact metrics and stories of transformation for each of your programs. 

Dear Responsive Fundraiser: We want to start a campaign targeting our volunteers so they also become donors. How should we frame the communications so they know we still appreciate their volunteer service? 

โ€”Always Appreciative 

Dear Always: Volunteers are prime candidates to become new donors, and we love encouraging nonprofits to build a volunteer-to-donor pipeline.

Before you build your campaign, it is important to remember why people donate their time and money to nonprofits. 

Volunteering is:

  • Personally and socially fulfilling
  • Helpful in building relationships
  • Altruistic and helps people live into their own ideals
  • Helpful in building skills and advancing careers

All that to say, volunteering has many benefits for the volunteer and your organization. 

Now, back to your campaign messaging question. Hereโ€™s a quick script you can use to work on your messaging to recruit volunteers to become donors. 

Step #1: Acknowledge your volunteerโ€™s time

We cannot thank you enough for giving away your most precious resource, your time to serve (your cause). 

Step #2: Recognize the problem your organization solves

The fight against (the problem your organization solves) is robust. And our efforts would not be nearly as effective without you and our courageous volunteers. 

Step #3: Affirm your commitment to the cause

At (organization name), we are committed to serving (your cause) and are looking for other committed people to help us. 

Step #4: Call-to-action

If you or anyone you know wants to continue serving (the cause) by becoming a donor, click this link to make your donation. 

Step #5: Re-affirm their time commitment:

By giving away your time, you have already made a difference at (our organization). We are deeply grateful for your service and for considering becoming a donor. 

Dear Responsive Fundraiser: We need to grow our nonprofit but have limited resources. We canโ€™t hold big events or spend much money on ads. What areas should we focus on to increase awareness and build a larger donor base?

โ€”Gimme Some Growth

Dear Growth: I love this question. 

While limited resources might feel constraining, it can help you develop creative ways to increase new revenue. 

Hereโ€™s the key: Start by identifying your ideal donors. Not all donors are created equal when it comes to helping you grow your nonprofit. It is paramount that you identify your ideal funders before anything else. 

Once you know who your ideal donors are, the next step is to determine your primary marketing channel. Focus on one channel that will allow you to reach these donors effectively, whether it’s social media, email, or a specific event. You donโ€™t need to be everywhereโ€”you need to be where your ideal donors are.

If your revenues are less than $15 million, you do not need an omnichannel approach. Concentrate your resources on maximizing this primary channel first. 

It is far too expensive and time-consuming to spend your time and money acquiring new donors across multiple platforms unless you have saturated your primary channel.

Finally, focus on daily marketing activities that produce those ideal donors through that primary channel. 

That way, thereโ€™s no more confusion and only action. 

This exercise also serves as an amazing filter because it allows you to align your actions with your growth strategy. 

So, in review:

  1. Identify your ideal donors
  2. Determine your primary marketing channel
  3. Execute your daily marketing activities that produce new donors through your primary channel 

Dear Responsive Fundraiser: What kind of data should we showcase on our website? We want to highlight our work, but we arenโ€™t sure of the most effective data strategies. 

โ€”Highlight Hiccups

Dear Highlight: If you have ever built a theory of change, you know there are three metrics that communicate your nonprofitโ€™s value: outputs, outcomes, and impact.

Outputs are snapshots of the work your nonprofit conducted in a set time period. They show the work youโ€™ve done but not necessarily the long-term value. 

Letโ€™s use three different programs as examples: a vocational school, a nutrition program, and a water well drilling program.

  • Vocational school: 2,500 students served this year
  • Nutrition program: 5,000 meals provided this quarter
  • Water well: 750 water wells drilled this year

Outcomes reflect the short-term effects three to 12 months after your intervention. These metrics indicate progress but not yet long-term impacts.

  • Vocational School: 80% graduation rate
  • Nutrition program: Increases in Body Mass Index (BMI)
  • Water wells: 7.5million gallons of clean, reliable water provided every day

Finally, we have Impacts. Impacts are everything for your organization and your funders. Impacts are what we are all going after and the most compelling data for you to showcase.

Like outcomes, you need to stretch the time horizon even further. The range for impacts is usually three to five years after your intervention. 

  • Vocational School:
    • 95% job placement rate
    • Percent increase in household income vs. local GDP per capita
    • Percent increases in community resiliency index
  • Nutrition program:
    • 33% reduction in food insecurity
    • Percent reduction in malnutrition and stunting
    • Percent increased school attendance and retention rates
  • Water wells:
    • Percent reduction in waterborne disease
    • Net new education and economic opportunities for women and children who no longer walk hours per day fetching water
    • Percent reduction in community poverty

Remember, the more a nonprofit communicates its impact, the more donors can trust it with their funds. 

We recommend that nonprofits showcase their impact on their home page and have a separate page (Our Impact) dedicated to impact metrics. 

That way, you can share your impact with more website visitors without overwhelming them with data and allow others to go deep on your other impact page. 

Dear Responsive Fundraiser: Giving Tuesday is around the corner. How can we stand out and inspire people to give to our nonprofit? 

โ€”Seeking to Standout

Dear Seeking: Giving Tuesday is an excellent opportunity for nonprofits to share meaningful stories of transformation and invite potential donors into that story. 

There are many ways to tell a story, but a great story arch to follow is:

  • Define the problem your nonprofit solves
  • Provide potential donors with a plan on how you solve that problem
  • Present a solution that donors can participate in when they give

The 2.0 version of this is to incorporate an individual into this story and invite the donor to participate:

  • Explain the problem this person was experiencing
  • Tell the audience what your organization did to help that person
  • Illustrate how that personโ€™s life looks like now that the problem has been solved
  • Invite donors to help many other people (like the one above) so we can make an impact together

Remember that donors want to make an impact, but they need your nonprofit to do so. 

Nonprofits enable donors to live meaningful and impactful lives; the more we remind our donors of that, the more money we can raise. 

If you want your question answered, drop us a line on LinkedIn! Check back next Thursday to see what our Responsive Fundraisers have to say.

What you should do now

Below are three ways we can help you begin your journey to building more personalized fundraising with responsive technology.

See the Virtuous platform in action.  Schedule a call with our team for personalized answers and expert advice on transforming your nonprofit with donor management software.

Download our free Responsive Maturity Model and learn the 5 steps to more personalized donor experiences.

If you know another nonprofit pro whoโ€™d enjoy reading this page, share it with them via Email, Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook.

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