Nonprofit organizations thrive on the generosity of their supporters, but fundraising can often feel like a monumental task. The planning, execution, and follow-up communications for large campaigns demand significant time and resources from already busy teams.
But what if you could boost your revenue without launching another huge event?
The key is to leverage existing touchpoints. Effective fundraising isn’t always about creating something new. Sometimes, it’s about making it easier for supporters to give when they’re already engaged. To help you find effective strategies, we’ll explore five low-lift fundraising ideas that deliver a high return on your team’s time and effort.
Donation Add-On During Event Registration
If your organization hosts regular events, you have a natural opportunity to increase contributions. Simply ask attendees for a donation during the registration process. By adding an optional donation field to your event registration forms, you create a frictionless opportunity for attendees to support your mission further.
This strategy works because it captures people at a moment of high engagement (signing up for an event). At this point, they have their payment information ready, so a simple prompt with a few options can make giving feel effortless and natural.
To successfully implement this approach, you might:
- Suggest specific donation amounts, such as $10, $25, or $50.
- Include an open field for a custom amount.
- Frame the donation in terms of its specific impact (e.g., $20 covers the cost of life-saving vaccinations for a rescued animal).
To maximize participation, you need to make the donation process seamless. While some event management tools require a separate process that can redirect donors away from your registration form, a better approach is to use a system with robust built-in functionality and integrations.
For example, a comprehensive engagement management system (EMS) is purpose-built to handle these interactions in one place. An EMS fuses your event registration with constituent data and financial processing, creating a smooth, all-in-one experience that reduces friction and boosts completion rates.
Birthday or Anniversary Giving
Automating personalized messages that feature a soft ask in honor of a supporter’s birthday or membership anniversary not only raises money for your cause but also shows donors you care. For instance, you might send an email on a supporter’s birthday that says, “Celebrate your special day by supporting a cause you care about.”
With the right technology, you can automate these emails based on supporter data, making it a set-it-and-forget-it strategy that strengthens relationships. Automation and accurate data are the key to making this fundraiser low-lift. When your CRM integrates with your email marketing tools, you can easily create campaigns that are automatically triggered by dates like birthdays or membership anniversaries.
Take this idea a step further by empowering supporters to launch their own birthday fundraisers. eCardWidget’s guide defines a birthday fundraiser as a peer-to-peer fundraising initiative during which people ask for donations to your nonprofit in place of conventional birthday gifts.
All your supporters have to do is reach out to their networks by posting on social media like Facebook and Instagram or by sending their campaign page directly to others! You might even provide them with pre-made social graphics, reducing the friction for them to post.
Pledge Drive
A pledge drive is a time-bound campaign that asks supporters to commit to a donation without requiring immediate payment. This approach fosters a sense of shared purpose, commitment, and urgency as your community works together to reach a specific fundraising goal.
Pledge drives work by lowering barriers to entry. Supporters can commit to a gift that fits their budget. Even smaller donors will feel empowered by watching your progress bar fill up as a result of communal action, building the momentum for your cause.
Proactive communication is the key to maintaining excitement during pledge drives. You can promote the drive through email and social media to keep your community engaged and focused on the collective goal. To maximize engagement:
- Tell the story behind the goal with a video or written content to highlight the specific people the pledges will help.
- Send personalized updates and reminders catered to supporters’ interests and past support.
- Share progress toward your goal on your website and social media.
When executed well, a pledge drive keeps your campaign top-of-mind and motivation high, so people can step up their involvement and encourage others as needed!
Additional Donation Option During Membership Renewal
If you run a member-based organization, encourage members to donate during the renewal process. As iMIS explains in its member engagement guide, “Members who are happy with the role your organization plays in their lives will renew their membership year after year.”
When members renew, they reaffirm their commitment to your mission. They want to see your organization succeed and see real value in you, so they might be willing to give an additional donation during the renewal process.
Just like the event add-on, a checkbox or field on the renewal form can make a major difference. You can also mention your request in your membership renewal letters.
Phrase the request as an opportunity to deepen their impact. For example, you might say, “Add a $20 donation to support our upcoming initiatives.” You could get more specific and mention a specific initiative, such as helping fund a scholarship or host an annual conference. This targets your most loyal audience at a key point in the member journey when they are already demonstrating their support.
Recurring Gift Drive
Sustainable revenue is the goal for any nonprofit, and recurring gift drives can help significantly here. A recurring gift drive is a focused campaign that encourages supporters to sign up for automatic monthly donations.
Having a recurring giving program in place provides several benefits:
- It creates a predictable and stable source of income that you can count on.
- A recurring donor’s lifetime value is often higher than that of one-time supporters.
- Retention rates tend to be higher among monthly donors.
Simply put, recurring giving is a win-win. For donors, it’s a convenient way to make a significant impact over time rather than making a larger one-time financial commitment. For your team, the predictable revenue simplifies budgeting and planning. Plus, you won’t have to consistently reach out to solicit new donations. Instead, you’ll need to simply thank your monthly donors, reminding them that you still value their support long after your recurring gift drive is over.
A successful campaign starts by analyzing your nonprofit data to identify likely monthly donors, such as those who have given multiple times in the past. From there, the focus is on clear communication and stewardship.
In your outreach, show the cumulative impact of small monthly gifts. While email is standard, consider using text messages to send short, urgent reminders. Then, once a donor signs up, provide some sort of perk in return, like an exclusive newsletter with mission updates. This process frees up your team from administrative work, allowing them to focus on building meaningful relationships with this dedicated group of supporters.
Wrapping Up
Your team is already busy planning events, improving your programs, and writing grant proposals—and boosting fundraising results doesn’t have to add more work to your plate. By trying low-lift ideas that complement your existing strategies, you can create new revenue streams that are both effective and efficient.
Remember, the powerhouse behind each of these low-lift strategies is a strong technology foundation and proactive marketing. Investing in an all-in-one system or one that offers robust integrations makes automation and personalization possible, allowing your team to focus on storytelling and other mission-centric tasks beyond your fundraiser.
