Fundraising Tools You Should be Using to Increase Revenue

Fundraising comes with a lot of uncertainty in the nonprofit world. Often, it’s hard to know where to start. Getting started is only half the battle—it can be even more challenging to increase the revenue that you’re receiving.

What you might not know is that several fundraising tools exist that can help to maximize your fundraising potential. The key is identifying and taking advantage of these tools in order to further your success.

In this article, we’ll discuss 4 fundraising tools you can use to increase your revenue and find the support you need to keep your organization moving:

1. Matching Gifts
2. Volunteer Grants
3. Mobile-Friendly Forms
4. Smart Email Outreach

The fundraising strategies you employ can make or break your success. It’s important you find the one that works best for your organization. Are you ready to take a closer look at the tools you should be using? Read on!

1. Matching Gifts

Matching gifts are a form of corporate philanthropy that allows a company to match their employees’ charitable donations with one of their own. While this seems like an obvious tool to take advantage of, $4-7 billion matching gift funds go unclaimed each year.

In order to successfully reach out to your donors and encourage them to determine if their gift can be matched, you need a matching gift database. Virtuous has partnered with Double the Donation, the leading provider of matching gift and volunteer grant solutions to nonprofits, to help you claim this extra revenue with their 360MatchPro solution.

This is how 360MatchPro works:

1. The donor makes a donation to a nonprofit and is prompted (typically on the donation page or confirmation page) to search for their employer in a company name search tool embedded on the page.
   
2. They search for their company and, if they are eligible for a company match, will immediately see their employer’s guidelines for submitting a match request.
   
3. The donor submits the match request.
   
4. The employer reaches out to the nonprofit to confirm the donation was made.
   
5. The donor’s employer submits their matching donation.

Using Virtuous’s integration with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation, you can embed the matching gift search tool directly into your donation form. Bring the potential for a match to your donors’ attention. After all, 84% of people are more likely to donate if they know that their gift will be matched!

2. Volunteer Grants

While matching gifts are an excellent way to bring in extra revenue while fundraising, there’s another form of corporate giving that can contribute to your nonprofit as well. 

Volunteer grants are corporate giving programs that encourage volunteerism in employees’ communities. Companies will provide monetary grants to nonprofits where their employees regularly volunteer.

Here’s how your nonprofit can get a volunteer grant:

1. Once an individual volunteers with your organization, you can recommend they check their eligibility for a volunteer grant through their employer. (Or use a tool like 360MatchPro. It automatically identifies volunteer grant opportunities during the donation process the same way it identifies matching gift opportunities!)
   
2. The individual searches for their company through a corporate giving search tool to determine their eligibility for the volunteer grant.
   
3. The individual follows the links in the search tool to find the forms they must use to apply for a grant from their company.
   
4. The company reviews the application for a volunteer grant and confirms with the nonprofit that the individual volunteered with them.
   
5. The company sends a check to the nonprofit.

Promoting volunteer grants to those who volunteer with your organization is an effective (and often overlooked) way to increase your revenue. Be sure to ask your volunteers to look up their companies through a corporate giving database. You will be on your way to securing more funds for your mission!

3. Mobile-Friendly Forms

Part of growing your fundraising revenue means making the donation process easy for your supporters. Most people are constantly on their phones these days, so why not meet them where they are?

Mobile optimization is the key to ensuring your donors on-the-go have an easy way to complete the donation process. This will make them less likely to abandon the form. Have you ever had difficulty viewing a website on your phone, needing to zoom in and out and rotate your device? Did it make you abandon the page? Probably!

Don’t let this happen with your donors.

Virutous’s tools allow you to create campaigns from mobile-responsive templates that are specifically designed for fundraisers (or you can create your own). If you have implemented 360MatchPro by Double the Donation on your giving forms, don’t worry! 360MatchPro works on mobile and will be easy for donors to view and use.

Mobile-friendly forms can help you raise more by offering ease and convenience to your donors.

4. Smart Email Outreach

As you promote matching gifts and volunteer grants, there’s one last tool you can use to increase your donation revenue: smart email outreach.

Email outreach goes a long way when you segment your donors and tailor your communications to each group. For example, automated emails that thank your donors for their contribution right after they’ve donated will make them feel appreciated and like their donation has made a difference.

However, you can also take this a step further. Here’s how Virtuous’s integration with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation can help you with your email outreach:

1. Collect the information you need to tailor your outreach to a donor after they donate. Using the Virtuous Giving online giving pages and their integration with 360MatchPro, you can include a field on your form where donors can identify their employers.
   
2. 360MatchPro will then use this information, as well as recognize corporate email addresses, and automatically search Double the Donation’s matching gift database to identify donors who are matching gift eligible.
   
3. Donors will then be segmented into groups of match eligible, unknown eligibility, and likely ineligible.
   
4. Those who are match eligible will be automatically sent an email encouraging them to submit a matching gift request to their company. Donors with unknown eligibility will be encouraged to check if their company offers a program. Those who are ineligible will receive an email prompting them to check and see if their employer or spouse’s employer offers matching gifts.

There’s a lot you can do with your email outreach. Using an automated system that encourages matching gifts, for example, is an excellent strategy to incorporate. Tailor your email outreach to your supporters and you’ll be well on your way to securing more funds.

Using the right fundraising tools for your nonprofit can not only up your game and increase revenue. It also makes your interactions with supporters more personal, cultivating your relationships as a result. Try out these strategies and see for yourself!