Collecting Donations Online - Tips for Non-Profits

Making the World Better Through Non-Profit Work Requires Donations

But how do you successfully collect donations? In this article, we have compiled many tips—for both fundraising beginners and professionals—to help you collect donations online so that you can do as much good as possible!

1. What Do You Want to Collect Donations For?

Before asking people for donations, you should have a clear picture of how you will use the funds. Define the purpose as precisely as possible and consider why people should donate to it. The shorter and more accurately you can formulate the purpose, the better.

Additionally, it is helpful to have some materials prepared before making the first donation call. Create an appealing website with pictures and videos that clearly illustrate your work and evoke emotions in viewers. Write initial texts for your donation appeal and create informational materials that you can give to your future donors.

Transparency and honesty are important, if not essential, components of fundraising. Your supporters will only donate if they trust you and your non-profit.

Here are some questions you can go through:

– Do you want to collect general donations or for a specific project?

– Why is your non-profit’s work needed?

– What problems do you want to solve?

– Who benefits from your projects? How exactly?

– Is there already awareness of your topic in society, or do you need to do educational work?

– Which groups of people are most likely to support your work?

As you might have gathered from these questions, it’s mainly about three things:

– What is your mission?

– What strategy do you want to pursue to achieve your mission?

– Who is your target audience?

You should know all of this before you start fundraising!

2. How Do You Want to Collect Donations?

In the second step, it’s about the method of fundraising. How and through which channels do you want to reach your future supporters? There are countless ways to successfully fundraise, but in this article, we want to focus on digital channels. They have the advantage of being very cost-effective compared to other methods and having a wide reach.

2.1. Donation Form

The first digital point of contact to learn about your non-profit is, of course, your website. There, you inform your visitors and ideally also inspire them to support your projects. That’s why a donation form on the website is indispensable for collecting donations online.

The form should be simple and intuitive to fill out. It should also be easy and straightforward to use on mobile phones, as many donors now use their phones to donate. The donation form should also be visually appealing and reliable to prevent losing donors. A wide selection of payment methods is also helpful for collecting donations.

Our FundraisingBox donation form can do all that (and more). If you want to get to know it without obligation, sign up for one of our free webinars: [To the Webinars](#).

Here are some best practice examples of successful donation forms:

Sea Shepherd has completely adapted the online donation form to match the design of their website.

The donation form from Sea Watch is color-coordinated with their corporate identity and very clear. Additionally, they provide specific donation examples.

In the donation form of the Toni Kroos Foundation, sponsorship memberships can be easily completed.

2.2. Fundraising Campaigns

A great way to collect more donations with little effort and attract new donors is through fundraising campaigns. The idea is that your existing supporters start their own fundraising campaigns and call for donations within their circles.

For this, you need a good peer-to-peer fundraising tool that allows supporters to create their own campaigns with just a few clicks. They only need to set a fundraising goal, select a project, upload a picture, and add a description. Then, the campaign can be shared with friends, family, colleagues, etc.

It is helpful to provide specific examples of occasions for campaigns. This gives your supporters some good ideas right away. They could, for example, start fundraising campaigns for birthdays or weddings, or organize benefit runs, parties, and balls to collect donations. Nowadays, more and more streamers and online gamers are also calling for donations.

To make it as easy as possible for your supporters, provide them with clear instructions. A video that explains how to set up and promote a fundraising campaign usually works very well.

The video from Aktion Deutschland Hilft is inspiring and explains how it works.

Relationship Management for Your Most Valuable Supporters

You should also take care of your fundraisers. A thank-you email after creating a new fundraising campaign can include good tips on how to make a campaign successful, such as:

– Share repeatedly on social media, via email, and messengers.

– Make a first (preferably significant) donation yourself – this sets an example and encourages others to donate as well.

– Share more content from the benefiting organization on social media to educate your network about the cause and encourage donations.

When half of the fundraising goal is reached, you should reach out to your fundraisers again. Thank them for their great efforts and congratulate them on reaching the “halfway point”! Encourage them to keep going to achieve the full fundraising goal. Once the goal is reached, you can say “Thank you” again.

The organization herzbewegt.org has created a dedicated website with tips for fundraisers, which we recommend.

2.3. Collecting Donations Through a Donation Shop

Another way to collect donations online is through donation shops or charity shops. They look and function like regular online shops, but your supporters don’t buy anything; instead, they donate by selecting specific symbolic products.

These products help you clearly illustrate the work of your non-profit and the purpose of the donations. Your donors know exactly what their donation can be used for and feel more connected to your projects.

Here are two good and appealing examples of charity shops:

– In the Charity Shop action medeor, symbolic donations can be made for hygiene kits, medicines, and more.

– In the Charity Shop Kinderhospiz München, you can support by donating for therapy couches and other items.

action medeor

Kinderhospiz München

2.4. Collecting Donations Through Blogs and Social Media

Fundraising with a Blog

A blog is an ideal way to keep your supporters updated. You can share news from your projects, tell stories about the people you help, interview colleagues, volunteers, and others involved in your work, or publish interesting articles with facts about your work. But what does this have to do with fundraising?

Simply put, through the stories you tell on your blog, you create transparency about your work and evoke emotions in readers. Just include a call to support your work with a donation at the end of each article and link to your donation form!

Fundraising with Social Media

Social media is also a great and affordable way to reach many people with your content. This not only raises awareness for your cause but also helps you find new supporters. It’s important not to spread yourself too thin: there are many social media platforms, and maintaining interesting content on all of them is a lot of work. Instead, focus on the platforms where your target audience is most likely to be found.

For example, short, understandable facts about your cause with a call to action and a link to the donation form often work well. Images and videos generate much more attention than plain text.

2.5. Collecting Donations via Email

Email fundraising can be challenging, especially in the beginning. First, you need email addresses for your mailing list, and then your emails need to stand out from other newsletters to be read. Nevertheless, it’s worth pursuing for these reasons:

– People who consciously subscribe to your newsletter have a strong interest in your organization, representing great fundraising potential.

– Emails are an affordable way to send donation appeals.

– They reach recipients quickly, making them suitable for urgent appeals.

– Besides collecting donations, you can also inform your supporters about news.

– A link to the donation form allows your newsletter recipients to help quickly and easily.

How to Start Email Fundraising?

First, choose a newsletter tool that meets your needs and complies with GDPR. There are many options on the market with different features and price ranges. It’s important that the tool offers a “double opt-in,” meaning that after signing up through a form, the registration must be confirmed again—usually via a link sent by email.

Once you’ve personalized and set up your tool and all automated emails, you’re ready to go. Place a signup option prominently on your website. The more visible the call to subscribe to the newsletter, the more people will do so.

Regularly Provide Value

Once you have your first sign-ups, you should send out your first newsletter. Make sure to maintain regularity without overloading recipients. A frequency of about 1-2 times per month has proven effective.

Don’t just send a donation appeal; address interesting topics in the newsletter. These could be new blog articles, interviews, guides, news from your projects, or other content that provides value to the reader. Focus on one main topic that you describe in some detail. If you include too many topics in one email, readers can become overwhelmed and may not read to the end.

2.6. Collecting Donations Through an Online Event

One thing has become clear during the COVID-19 pandemic: what cannot take place as an in-person event can certainly take place online! Many non-profits have successfully turned to online events during this time. Here are some examples:

– Benefit concerts

– Lectures and webinars

– Panel discussions

– Film screenings

– Conferences

– Gala dinners with celebrities

– Cooking classes

– Parent-child meetings

– Project presentations

– Live gaming

– Competitions, and more

There are numerous tools for this—choosing the right one depends primarily on the type of event you’re planning. In a webinar, it can be helpful to see participants for discussion and Q&A sessions. For an online benefit concert, this is unnecessary and potentially disruptive. Do you want to offer a chat or need different rooms? These are some questions you should ask before choosing a tool.

To collect donations through an online event, you should repeatedly mention your donation form or fundraising campaign and provide a link. A tool that displays donations in real time can be very motivating!

2.7. Collecting Donations Through Shopping Portals

Collecting donations through online shopping is a simple and straightforward method. Large shopping portals (e.g., Amazon Smile alternatives) or specialized sites (e.g., shop2help.net, helpshops.org) offer to donate a certain percentage of the purchase amount. To receive donations, you must register your non-profit on these portals.

You don’t need to do much more than that. However, it’s very helpful to continually communicate this option to your supporters (e.g., via social media and newsletters) and place the links on your website!

2.8. Offering Gift Donations

The option to give donations as gifts is becoming increasingly popular. In our consumer-oriented world, this offers a great alternative that is well-received. A donation can be given, for example, for a birthday, wedding, Christmas, etc.

Some online donation forms have the “gift donation” option automatically integrated, such as our FundraisingBox forms. The donor can enter the name of the person being gifted and their own name through the form and receive a certificate to give as a gift.

Here’s what a gift donation certificate might look like:

2.9. Collecting Donations via QR Code

Online donations can also be collected offline—using a QR code. This code can be generated with special generators and links to a website. In FundraisingBox, such a QR code generator is integrated, so you can easily create and download it with just one click.

To fundraise with QR codes, you only need a bit of creativity. The codes can be placed anywhere: on letters, posters, table stands, notices, or even stickers. When someone scans the code with their smartphone, they are taken directly to your donation form and can easily support your non-profit with a donation.

Successfully Collecting Donations with Consistency and Transparency

As you have seen, there are countless creative ways to collect donations. What is needed, however, is consistency and transparency. A common saying among fundraisers is:

“Those who don’t ask for donations, don’t receive any.”

But just asking is usually not enough. There needs to be transparency about your work and how the donations are used to build trust. Because donating is primarily one thing: a matter of the heart and trust.