5 Fundraising Trends for Todays Donors

While the last couple of years have taken their toll on the economy, fundraising, paradoxically, has surged. In fact, it’s the very resourcefulness shown by integrated marketers in the nonprofit industry that has led to many of today’s trends in giving—providing donors with greater flexibility, security and engagement than other methods offer.

Below are five fundraising trends that can help nonprofits reach tech-minded donors, in particular.
 

1. Flexible Giving Options—As integrated marketers have learned, it’s critical to meet donors where they are with giving options that work for them. While there are certainly still donors that are perfectly happy to receive direct mail solicitations, many others have moved online. This adaptability has led to growth in online, mobile, app and other flexible donation options.

 

• Digital wallets – This solution, like Apple Pay or Google Pay, is one of the easiest to use, automatically populating a donation form with donors’ payment information. It has the added security of a phone’s facial recognition authorization.
• Hybrid campaigns– Allow donors to make a one-time donation to a physical event and upgrade for campaigns that also have online or mobile elements.

• Cryptocurrency payments – Making inroads into nonprofits due to its growing influence, crypto allows donors to make an entirely digital, tax-deductible payment. It has also been adopted by well-known nonprofits like United Way and the American Red Cross. In fact, Giving Crypto Tuesday 2021 raised more than $11 million for 1,000 charities!
• Automated clearing house (ACH) payments – Donors can pay through direct electronic transfers from their bank accounts and avoid credit card processing fees.
• PayPal, Stripe, Venmo– As with digital wallets, these provide inherent security that comes with paying from your phone.
• Text giving– The convenience of mobile options like this can’t be overstated. Donors can give online at any time. And personal information is saved for future donations, so the next time is even easier.

 

2. Workplace Giving—As the donor pool grows, younger donors especially are seeking more meaning in their donations. They want to bring purpose to their contributions and to those causes supported by their employers. Nonprofits can bring their mission to workplaces knowing that donors will share those that are of greatest mutual interest. Companies that offer donation matching to organizations or causes that resonate with their employees will also significantly impact fundraising because they can double or even triple employee giving. Designating a specific time for giving will also help galvanize employees to donate.

 

3. Donor-Advised Funds (DAF)—Though they’ve been around for over 90 years, these funds have grown in popularity in recent years. Donors can give to these funds like they would any stock, bond or interest-bearing account as often as they like and will receive an immediate tax deduction. These funds also provide greater flexibility, letting donors designate the money toward grants for preferred charities. Studies show that most of the funds in DAFs stay local or go toward education. Nonprofits that take the time to discover which donors have DAFs can determine who to target in the future.

 

4. Tech-Driven Experiences—Because donors are interested in the new, different and creative, it comes as no surprise that they are interested in tech-driven fundraising experiences. Some popular tactics include the following:

 

• Livestreaming: These virtual events are a good time to connect with online donors. They gained in popularity when in-person events weren’t possible but have proven to be a lasting method for reaching out informally. In addition to fully virtual events, livestreaming is a good medium for hybrid fundraising events.
• NFT auctions: A new and impactful way to reach potential donors, NFT artists use auctions to sell their unique art. A nonprofit can use a similar model to solicit donations for something related to their cause (a square mile of rainforest, a section of beach, a piece of a coral reef, etc.).
• Mobile bidding: A new way to engage in an old practice. This practice allows participants to engage in an auction with a virtual audience.
• Event recordings: Take high-profile presentations or key moments and turn them into on-demand videos that let you continue to collect donations long after an in-person event passes. Combine this with the instant engagement that push notifications allow immediately before, during and after an event to capture every opportunity to encourage donations.

 

5. Peer-to-Peer fundraising—Community-centric fundraising leverages social media and the internet to encourage donations. In this model, nonprofit organizations work together toward a shared goal. Particularly popular for fundraising for social justice issues, peer-to-peer focuses on an affected community rather than a single nonprofit organization. Donors are advocates for these causes, leading to building lasting relationships in the community.

As technology and its impact on daily life changes, fundraising trends like these arise to help nonprofits adapt. Some of those listed here are new, while some have been around but found greater acceptance and more widespread use during the pandemic’s peak as nonprofits sought alternative methods for fundraising. Companies who raise funds from private sources need to continue to explore these and other ways to strengthen relationships and expand their outreach.