By Bryna Dilman, Fundraising Kit

The last two and a half years have motivated us all to think about the structure of our organizations and the need to develop resilient and sustainable fundraising strategies.

While change can be daunting, it can also be exciting! Staying on top of the latest fundraising trends helps your organization stay current and support your overall revenue growth. In this article, we share the top 5 fundraising trends of 2022, and why your nonprofit should consider adopting them to become a more dynamic, flexible and sustainable organization.

Trend #1: Flexible Giving and Participation Options

Over the past 2 years, our lives have become increasingly more digital. We communicate online, shop online, and donate online. Donors expect to be able to support your organization in various ways and from the comfort of their own homes.

Because of this digital movement, online giving grew by over 9% in 2021 on top of significant growth between 2020 and 2021. Now, there are less donors giving at in-person fundraising events, more nonprofits are putting an end to accepting offline cash and cheques for security reasons, and we are seeing more people embrace emerging online giving tools. Establishing online giving options provides donors with giving methods tailored to their needs and creates a more comfortable donor experience.

In addition, 92% of companies continued hosting virtual events even after physical events had resumed. This shows the comfortability we’ve gained around engaging with our favorite organizations from home. Whether it’s a donation campaign or a peer-to-peer event, providing supporters with flexible participation options lets them support your cause in the way that works best for them, making them more likely to engage with you again.

Trend #2: Focus on Donor Retention Strategies

Donor acquisition is an increasingly expensive endeavor, with the cost of bringing in a new donor often being double or even triple the amount of their initial donation. Donor retention is now necessary to simply break even on acquisition costs, much less generate sustainable revenue for your organization.

Many nonprofits report that more than half of donors only give once, leaving many with a loss on their initial investment in first-time donors. It’s much easier and more cost-effective to motivate individuals to give if they have already done so in the past. These donors know who you are, understand your mission and want to support you.

Fundraising technology makes it easier than ever to optimize stewardship techniques and improve the donor experience. Ensuring donors have easy access to stewardship materials, such as impact reports, allows them to understand how their donation was invested, provides credibility to your organization and makes them feel good about the impact they have made.

Additionally, it’s important to calculate your donor retention rate to understand the effectiveness of your retention strategies. Donor retention starts with building strong relationships with stakeholders so they feel appreciated and excited by the work your organization is doing. By nurturing authentic, long-term donor relationships, you can increase your donor retention and guarantee sustained fundraising success.

Trend #3: Strengthen Recurring Programs

Monthly giving programs provide nonprofits with predictable revenue while reducing the need for fundraisers to keep making individual appeals. Even better, monthly giving is becoming increasingly popular as 42% more revenue comes from monthly donors than one-time donors.

Because recurring giving is more financially impactful, easier to manage, and increasingly popular, fundraisers need to make it a priority. Additionally, monthly giving is a great way to connect with the next generation of donors. For example, a study found that 60% of millennials are interested in monthly giving. Even better, 49% of Gen X donors are already enrolled in a monthly giving program. Millennials and Gen X are the tech generation and typically already pay monthly rent and bills online, making them comfortable with a monthly giving program.

Fundraisers need the right tools for the job to identify and make appeals to their best monthly giving candidates. When you look at technology that provides likelihood to recur, your tech and tools can do your prospect research for you. Ensure you are analyzing donor giving histories and past interactions to determine which contacts in your database are most likely to become monthly recurring donors.

Recurring giving is an important revenue stream for organizations of any size. Just like the trends we see in FinTech to bring high-grade tools to smaller organizations, recurring donor management through fundraising technology allows any nonprofit to get more donations online. The technology is simple, and the impact of just a handful of recurring donations can mean sustainable income for years ahead without requiring additional resources.

Trend #4: Invest in Personalized Giving Experiences

Personalization is critical to long-lasting donor relationships. Donors are increasingly expecting personalized giving experiences. Through the use of the right segmentation tools, nonprofits have the opportunity to enhance the donor experience and increase donor retention and generosity. Interactions with supporters will need to be tailored according to their lifestyles, passions, and communication preferences.

Understanding that 59% of donors would give up to 10% more for a personalized experience means your nonprofit has the opportunity to raise more by getting personal with your stakeholders, which can easily be accomplished using the right tools.

Digital communication and engagement are crucial to providing a personalized donor experience. Targeted emails, social posts, and texts help keep supporters up-to-speed on important events, registration dates and the ongoing impact of your nonprofit.

When planning your communications strategy, be thoughtful of how often you reach out and the quality of your content. With the right tools, you can segment your contacts by their interests, giving histories, and more, creating unique and targeted donor experiences.

For some organizations, personalization may take the form of ramping up a text message campaign that updates donors on key projects and even offers text-to-donate opportunities. For others, it may mean that major donors receive more regular program updates. To find out what works for your organization, send out a donor survey to learn more about how your supporters want to be communicated with, what they want to hear about, and how they prefer to give. This information will help you develop your personalization strategy and help you surpass your revenue goals.

Trend #5: Explore Workplace Giving

When we think about engaging corporate businesses in fundraising, sponsorship is usually one of the first things that comes to mind. However, there is another way organizations can benefit from corporate philanthropy: employee giving.

As the great resignation and hybrid or remote working models continue to become a reality, many companies are looking for new ways to make their employees feel happy, supported and engaged. Many companies find that workplace giving programs are a great way to connect their teams with their colleagues and their community. Approximately $5 billion is raised through workplace giving annually, presenting a huge opportunity for nonprofits.

As you think about finding your perfect corporate partner, start by focusing on businesses in your local community. Companies are much more likely to support nonprofits that operate within the same area where their employees live and work. Next, visit their website to understand more about their corporate social responsibility practices. If you find that your organization aligns with their impact work, they might just promote you within their employee giving program or make a donation themselves.

In conclusion, nonprofits will continue to play a vital role in delivering services, strengthening communities, and supporting those in need. The nonprofit sector is diverse in size, type, donor base, and more. However, one thing brings this sector together, the need for sustainable and successful fundraising strategies.

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By adopting these trends, your nonprofit can evaluate your goals and ensure you have the right tools and technology for the job, which is why Fundraising KIT thinks you should get up to speed on the top fundraising trends in 2022 and get ahead in 2023 so you can start raising more!

This blog is brought to you by Fundraising KIT.

Fundraising KIT was built by a nonprofit leader to support the nonprofit community. Fundraising KIT’s data-driven toolkit helps nonprofits raise more for their cause. Integrating with leading nonprofit databases, KIT identifies supporters ready to give, segments donors for targeted communications, and tracks fundraising progress, all while saving time and resources in the quest to increase revenue. Learn more.