10 Simple Truths About Digital Fundraising Today!

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S H T U TR

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10 Simple Truths About Digital Fundraising Today and the lies the status quo keeps selling you.

Are you hitting your fundraising goals? If not, you ’r e not alone.

In 2021, more than a third of NPOs reported missing their annual revenue goal.¹ The truth is, the same old, same old doesn’t cut it anymore. Your organization needs to shake things up to amplify your good. The same goes for the rest of the nonprofit industry.

Here are 10 simple truths about the state of digital fundraising. From outdated technology to impersonal giving experiences, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

There are many ways you can challenge the status quo and exceed your goals; we’ll show you how.

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I F YO U ’ R E L AT E YO U LO S E

TRUTH

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If you’re late, you lose.

If investing in digital fundraising technology isn’t a top priority, you’re losing out on huge opportunities to raise more and do more good.

Nonprofit organizations that are first to adopt technology are 3x more likely to exceed their fundraising goals, while those who are late to adopt fundraising technology are 2x more likely to fail to meet their goals!² Leveraging digital fundraising platforms and online technology is crucial to meeting and exceeding your goals this year and for years to come.

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Nearly half of NPOs that are slow to fully embrace and integrate technology into their giving strategies, are failing to meet their fundraising goals.3

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M O R E TO O L S, M O R E P RO B L E M S

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More tools, more problems.

Most nonprofits pay for duplicate giving tools.4 This creates an admin nightmare that costs organizations like yours time, money, and employee satisfaction (more on that next).

One third of nonprofit professionals are working exclusively with inherited (and often out-of-date) technology.⁴

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Simplify your digital fundraising software to create a more streamlined experience for both donors and team members, alike. iDonate takes the complexity out of a multi-channel fundraising strategy, by unifying the most effective giving tools into one powerful platform: • Embedded forms

• Text-to-Give

• Peer-to-Peer

• Goal meters

• Events

• And more

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L AC K L U S T E R T EC H L E A D S TO E M P LOY E E D I S SAT I S FAC T I O N

TRUTH

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Lackluster tech leads to employee dissatisfaction.

When your team is frustrated, your supporters and revenue feel it too. If you’ve ever worked with out-of-date or cumbersome technology, you know how incredibly frustrating and unproductive it can be.

Invest in a comprehensive digital fundraising platform that gives your employees all the solutions they need, including easy-to-build landing pages, built-in donor growth features, advanced analytics and reporting, as well as unrivaled technical support. A supported team is a high-performing team.

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Today, 4 out of 5 nonprofits believe their current fundraising technology can’t meet their future needs.⁵

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G I V I N G E XP E R I E N C E S S H O U L D B E FR I C T I O N L E S S, N OT FR U S T R AT I N G

TRUTH

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Do you know how much you’re losing in digital donations because of unnecessary friction?

What specific things are keeping your donors from donating?

Almost all organizations (95%) have friction in their digital experience, which is proven to lower conversion rates.⁶

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Giving experiences should be frictionless, not frustrating.

Right now, 60% of nonprofit giving forms have distracting links and 30% have conflicting calls to action.⁷ Lower conversion rates are guaranteed with these friction-points, especially when coupled with slow load times, broken forms, unnecessary text blocks—the list goes on.

Give your supporters the tip-top experience they deserve and expect. Make sure your embedded giving form is intuitive—add photos and descriptions, display an impact message, and suggest the most frequent gift amount—and your call to action is clear.

Half of all nonprofits still require the donor to complete two or more steps to make a donation.

While this may have worked in the past, today’s donors expect a simple giving experience; they should be able to contribute in just a few easy clicks.

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AS K FO R M O R E D E TA I L S, G E T FE W E R D O L L A R S

TRUTH

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PRO T I P Utilize proven optimization strategies

to create a more engaging and effective donor experience. iDonate even provides form and landing page templates that are proven to effectively drive donor conversions and increase average gift size!

Ask for more details, get fewer dollars.

When it comes to giving forms, keep ‘em

simple and optimize for what works best. The more form fields you require, the more likely

Removing non-essential

your donor is to jump ship.

details (like a phone

Unfortunately, we have a lot of work to do since 70% of today’s nonprofits still require non-essential information and (if you can believe it) 8% still require the donor to enter their birthdate in order to donate.⁹

number) can increase

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donor acquisition by over 40%.8

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N OT A L L D O N O R S A R E C R E AT E D EQ UA L

TRUTH

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Not all donors are created equal.

Nearly half of nonprofits use the same suggested gift array strategy for all donors.10 Please don’t make this mistake! Instead, make the right ask every time.

Nearly half of nonprofits use the same suggested gift array strategy for all donors.10

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Utilize iDonate’s contextual giving feature to suggest gift amounts personalized to your donor’s giving history and financial situation. For example, if a donor gives $100 on their first donation, their future gift arrays should start at $100.

If you’re not personalizing your asks based on donor engagement and data signals, you’re leaving precious fundraising dollars on the table.

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D O N O R S A R E AC T I V E O N S O C I A L M E D I A , N OT DATA BAS E S

TRUTH

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Donors are active on social media, not databases.

In 2021, nearly half of

The trend is clear, each new generation is

Gen Zers and over a

relying more heavily on their favorite social media channels to find out about and give to causes they care about.

Develop a thoughtful social media strategy and commit to regular engagement on the platform(s) that your donors utilize the most. The goal: build community, share your impact, inspire action, and drive engagement. #yougotthis

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third of Millennials donated to a cause because of something they saw on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.11

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P 2 P CA M PA I G N S M U LT I P LY O N S O C I A L M E D I A

TRUTH

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Peer-to-Peer campaigns multiply on social media.

Peer-to-Peer campaigns are a very effective and reliable way to build support for your cause and drive donations; however, pair P2P with social media and things get really

In a recent study, using social media with Peerto-Peer fundraising showed an increase

interesting!

Also, almost a third of mobile traffic to P2P campaigns is driven by social media.13 Boost your results even higher by encouraging donors to post on social media about their own Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaigns.

of 3.8x all other time-

PRO T I P Make it easy for your advocates to take

based campaigns.

(templates, CTAs, etc.) they can use to share on their personal platforms. Be sure to thank them for spreading the word, too.

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action and amplify your message. Provide resources

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O N E-T I M E D O N AT I O N S A R E O L D - FAS H I O N E D

TRUTH

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One-time donations are old-fashioned.

Acquiring donors is expensive, which is why retaining them is so important. Recurring donors are also more likely to donate year over year.

Yet, less than 20% of NPOs have any language on their giving sites that encourages ongoing donations.15 Let’s change that.

Modernize your fundraising efforts with a smarter giving experience focused on repeat donations.

Default your giving form to a recurring gift (simply prompting a recurring gift increases conversion 4x) and provide clear options for start date, frequency, and amount.16 Even if donation amounts are small, they’ll add up quickly!

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The average recurring donor gives 42% more in one year than those who contribute one-time gifts.14

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W E L I V E I N A M O B I L E WO R L D

TRUTH

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We live in a mobile world.

That said, mobile conversion still has a ways to go. In fact, mobile conversion rates continues to lag behind desktop conversion rates by 30-50%.18

In the past three years alone, mobile fundraising has grown over 42%.17

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What that means for your NPO: there’s a lot of potential to optimize your mobile experience— and increase mobile conversion.

Ensure your giving experiences are optimized for mobile and provide donors the personalization they expect. A flexible fundraising platform delights supporters on any device. Oh, and don’t forget to offer text-to-give options, too.

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There’s a smarter and simpler way to fundraise, and we’ve built an advanced platform to help you do so.

Don’t let the status quo of today diminish your digital fundraising efforts tomorrow. Simplify your digital fundraising today to raise more and grow your good.

When you succeed, we succeed.

Book a demo

today.

info@idonate.com idonate.com/contact-us (877) 410-4431

SOURCES CITED:

1. 2022, State of Nonprofit Fundraising 2022 Report, Greater Giving, https://go.greatergiving.com/stateofnonprofitfundraising 2. 2022, Adapting for Your Donors: Insights Into the State of Fundraising and Technology, GiveSmart, https://www.givesmart.com/resource/2022-fundraisingresearch-study/ 3. 2022, Adapting for Your Donors: Insights Into the State of Fundraising and Technology, GiveSmart.

4. 2022, Adapting for Your Donors: Insights Into the State of Fundraising and Technology, GiveSmart.

5. 2022, Adapting for Your Donors: Insights Into the State of Fundraising and Technology, GiveSmart.

6. 2021, The Donation Page Friction Study, NextAfter, https://fundraiseup.com/ research/the-donation-page-friction-study 7. The Global Online Fundraising Digital Scorecard, NextAfter, https://www. globalonlinefundraising.com/

10. The Global Online Fundraising Digital Scorecard, NextAfter.

11. November 2021, 56% of Americans Donated to Charity in 2021, at Average of $574, LendingTree, https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/charitable-donationssurvey-study/ 12. 2022, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022, Classy, https://donationtrends.classy. org/ 13. 2022, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022, Classy.

14. December 2019, The 6 Reasons Monthly Donors Cancel and How to Get Them to Stay, Network for Good, https://learn.networkforgood.com/checklist-the-6-reasons-monthlydonors-cancel-and-how-to-get-them-to-stay-website.html 15. The Global Online Fundraising Digital Scorecard, NextAfter.

16. November 2021, How a monthly gift ask influenced recurring donor acquisition, NextAfter, https://www.nextafter.com/experiments/how-a-monthly-gift-ask-influencedrecurring-donor-acquisition/

8. The Global Online Fundraising Digital Scorecard, NextAfter.

17. 2022, Online Giving Trends, Blackbaud Institute, https://institute.blackbaud.com/ charitable-giving-report/online-giving-trends/

9. The Global Online Fundraising Digital Scorecard, NextAfter.

18. Online Giving Trends, Blackbaud Institute.