How to Fight a Nonprofit Fundraising Drought: Problems and Solutions

Fundraising is the lifeblood of typical nonprofit. Over the course of this blog, we’ve covered a ton of helpful ways to keep donations sure and steady. The nonprofit sector has created many excellent fundraising techniques over the years, with new methods emerging every year. Despite all this, sometimes your nonprofit will experience an unexplained fundraising drought.

At Kindful, our goal is to help you take your fundraising game to the next level. Feeling stuck in the weeds? Here are some of the most common causes of nonprofit fundraising drought, and solutions to fix them.

Problem: Your Donor Base is Worn Out

Even the most devoted donor base has limits. Soliciting donors too often can actually lead to decreased investment in your organization – in fact, many donors actually prefer a seven-month break between appeals! But what do you do when you’ve already converted many donors into monthly supporters and tapped out much of your core base?

Solution: Expand Your Donor Base

A good cause can mobilize people across many demographics and pull new people into your mission. If your donors are primarily over the age of 40, for instance, why not expand branding and marketing efforts to reach more millennials ? Or maybe it’s time for a public event which will engage your local community and raise awareness. You may already have passionate donors, but focusing on a fundraising campaign that will attract new contacts may be just what you need to stay relevant and keep growing!

Problem: Your Web Presence and/or Branding is Stale

Believe it or not, the design of your website and other online profiles can make or break the success of online fundraising. A bad website, old fashioned branding, or an anemic mobile presence can slowly stifle donations and keep your organization from sustaining in the twenty-first century.

Solution: Modernize!

There are countless resources out there to help you bring your organization into the digital age – everything from Squarespace for site building to Emma for email marketing. And the addition of Kindful can help you update and streamline your brand and your mission. From customizable online donation pages to branded crowdfunding sites, we can help you communicate with an ever-broadening donor base. As you modernize your online presence, you’ll see your audience grow and fundraising lulls lessen.

Problem: Your Donors Have Lost Sight of Your Mission

Of course your mission was well-understood by all your donors… in 2009. If online fundraising has slowed recently, maybe it’s because your nonprofit isn’t as direct as you think when explaining your impact on the world.

Solution: Tell Your Story Effectively

It’s time to find new ways to show how your nonprofit fulfills a real need in the real world and uses donor dollars efficiently to this end. Give donors informative reminders on Facebook, your blog, and in print materials. Reimagine how you tell the story of your work and how it’s making the world better. Make sure the content is exciting and filled with useful information, especially recent achievements!

There are lots of reasons your fundraising efforts may hit a lull. Sometimes those reasons may be out of your control, but sometimes they may be easy to identify and remedy with just a bit of critical thinking and teamwork on the part of your organization. Answer them quickly and help your fundraising rise to new heights!