Expand Your Fundraising Portfolio With These 7 Offerings

Running a nonprofit and working toward a mission means you’re constantly fundraising. While it may be accurate to say you’re seeking donations to fund your operating budget, donors are more likely to give when the ask they receive is specific. Asks for gifts tied to specific outcomes are even better. One way to make sure your asks are relevant is by building a fundraising portfolio.

It’s a good idea to include multiple offerings in your fundraising portfolio to ensure you always have specific asks and specific benefits. Offerings are different opportunities that appeal to donors for different reasons.

To help you get started, we’ll share seven fundraising portfolio examples you can include to expand your offerings to your donors:

• Adoption & Sponsorship Schemes
• One Gift for One Product
• Donor Membership
• Fundraising Events
• Recognition Societies
• Monthly Giving Clubs
• Newsletters & Interactions

1. Adoption & Sponsorship Schemes

Connect your donor directly with an individual person, animal, or program their donation will be supporting. These programs can be created for low-level, high-level, one-time, or recurring donations. Speaking with a major donor prospect, you can discuss whole programs they can sponsor or you can have a donor’s monthly $20 donation “adopt” a dog at your humane society.

Not only will this increase your donor’s investment—emotional and financial—but it will also provide you with easy ways to communicate in the future with your donor—sharing updates, thank you notes, and pictures.

Adoption Fundraising Portfolio Example

World Animal Foundation has one of the most creative fundraising portfolio examples we’ve seen. They allow donors to “adopt” animals like the Macaw. Donors can adopt the animal for themselves or send it as a gift. For example, if you adopt the Macaw, it includes a photo of the animal, an adoption certificate, a fact sheet about the animal, and an info card on how to help animals and the environment.

Source: World Animal Foundation

2. One Gift For One Product

If your nonprofit regularly gives life-changing products to individuals, such as glasses, water, or shoes, determine the donation needed to provide one product and promote it that way. Donors are more likely to give when they know that their $40 donation will send a pair of glasses to a child in need than if they’re not sure exactly what their money will be spent on. This is known as an impact-per-dollar metric, and while there is some controversy around the topic, it is simply a way of practicing transparency in giving your donors a glimpse of how their donation makes a difference.

Donation For Product Fundraising Portfolio Example

VisionSpring provides a simple statement right on their donation page to show the impact per donation. $5 provides a pair of eyeglasses to their beneficiaries. This could be useful especially for donors who give smaller donations to know their gift makes an impact.

Source: VisionSpring

3. Donor Membership

While memberships won’t work for every nonprofit, they’re a crucial option for organizations like zoos, museums, gardens, theaters, and even parks. Provide enticing and exclusive benefits for your members and they’ll jump at the opportunity to support you at the necessary level. Think through benefits you can offer beyond free admission, like members-only hours, special exhibits, and discounts throughout your organization.

Membership Fundraising Portfolio Example

The Nashville Zoo offers a membership option to give donors first-hand access to their services. Each membership level offers perks such as free admission and parking, a discount on concessions & retail purchases, and access to members-only events.

Source: Nashville Zoo

4. Fundraising Events

Events are a great way to gather your donors together, to honor their gifts, and of course, to receive more donations. Design events that are appropriate for your nonprofit and attractive to your donors. Make sure every event you host brings the donor inside your work more and shares personal stories from your team and your beneficiaries.

Too often, nonprofits just expect event attendees to make further donations so remember that every gift needs to be earned. Have staff make one-on-one personal asks and tie gifts to outcomes.

Fundraising Event Portfolio Example

Girls On The Run uses 5K races to help raise funds and awareness for their organization. Races are a great example of a type of fundraising event that gets supporters actively involved—in this case, literally! Events are a good way to bring donors closer to your cause through first-hand experience.

Source: Girls On The Run

5. Recognition Societies

Many nonprofits are creating recognition societies that honor donors who give a designated amount yearly. You can then gather these groups at small events or honor them at your larger events, giving them exclusive access and membership to an elite club.

Create unique branding around your donation societies and provide opportunities for these groups to contribute feedback and ideas for your work.

6. Monthly Giving Clubs

Like recognition societies, monthly giving clubs recognize your most loyal donors and provide them with special opportunities. However, these can open up an insider view for your donors who can’t give large donations but still contribute regularly. Design unique programs for each type of club or society you develop and promote them accordingly.

Monthly Giving Fundraising Portfolio Example

The Civic Design Center offers a monthly membership program in four different tiers, starting as low as $2 per month. They offer recognition for all their monthly members in their annual report plus other perks like discounted tickets to all their events, exclusive invitations, and recognition on their website. A monthly giving program not only secures recurring revenue for your organization, it also provides opportunities to increase engagement and participation from your supporters.

Source: Civic Design Center

7. Newsletters & Interactions

Every donor should receive regular communication from you, and not just communication with the goal of another fundraising ask. Newsletters are effective and efficient ways to update your donors, keeping them informed and offering them ways to get further involved.

Consider creating additional, more detailed updates for your most loyal donors. Can you share updates from your quarterly board meeting or let your donors see inside your planning process? Can you provide any perks from your programs and services?

Exclusive Newsletter Fundraising Portfolio Example

Harvest Hands has a newsletter for its monthly givers with exclusive discounts at its coffee shop. Exclusive newsletter content can make your donors feel more connected to your cause and drive more revenue if you have an associated products or services.

Source: Harvest Hands Email

Some fundraising offerings will work best for new donors, but others will work to upgrade an existing donor. Once you have a portfolio of offerings, you can spot which will work best as you make your appeals, prioritizing those with higher returns.