How to Increase Donations During an Up/Down Economy

With the stock market doing its roller coaster thing, marketing professionals who need to gather donations to meet their organization’s objective can have a bigger challenge than usual in getting donations. There are some new ideas in this post, so even if you’re not involved in a fund-raising drive, you may find some innovative thinking in some of these resources.

Sometimes you have to think more non-traditionally to get renewed results. Turn things on their ear, think outside the box, take a different path. Get out of your comfort zone.

“If you do the things you’ve always done, you’ll get the results you’ve always got.” I heard that yesterday at a seminar. True, except when outside factors change things. Then you’ve got to change too.

Here are some examples that may give you just the ideas you need to create the branding, theme, emotional appeal and program to make your 2009 fund-raising drive a record breaker — even in the face of uncertainty.

Ideas for Team Captains: From writing letters with an emotional appeal to creating powerful, meaningful (and fun) events, the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life events have had a powerful effect on building teamwork and increasing donations.

Fund-raising Headquarters: The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has quite a few grass roots ways to gather donations with fund-raisers including creating a donation web page and getting donations at work.

Beth Canter, publisher of Beth’s Blog: How Non-Profits Can Use Social Media, has some of the best information on how to use newer technology to raise funds that sure beats baking cookies! (Not that I have ANYTHING against cookies, but bake sales can be a ton of work for not much income.)

Nancy Schwartz, who publishes Getting Attention, to help non-profits with their marketing, also has content that is loaded with downloadable ideas, tips and valuable techniques for getting donations and fund-raising during uncertain times.

Do you know of other resources that would help a non-profit organization with their donation efforts? Please share your info. Let me know by leaving a comment!!

Tagged as: fund-raising, non-profit donations