Struggling to get donations for your nonprofit?
Maybe you just want it to stop being hella’ awkward every time you ask for a donation.
I know the feeling. As much as you wanna help a cause, no one likes to solicit donations from their friends, family, or strangers.
With this article, I’m going to clear away all those negative feelings and make fundraising simple, easy, and even a little fun!
If you enjoy these tips, you’re gonna love my new book on proven nonprofit fundraising techniques. You can grab a copy here.
I’ve put together a new GUIDE that’s packed with science-backed nonprofit fundraising methods, resources, strategies, and killer marketing methods.
You should check it out if you want to get more donations and you want to fast-track the entire process.
1. Examine your beliefs about giving
It’s tall order, but here me out here. I want to first examine what you think of when you hear the word “solicit.”
By it’s very definition solicit means to:
- ask for or try to obtain something from someone.
- request, seek, apply for
- press for, beg, or plead for
All of these definitions come with negative connotations. No wants to “beg” or “plead” someone. It’s humiliating. It’s embarrassing.
The idea of trying to “obtain something” from someone or “press someone” for something sounds really manipulative. You’re really just after their money, and it makes you feel kinda squeamish.
Before doing any kind of donor outreach, I want you to think about the REAL people you’re helping. Think about what the money you raise will mean to them. How will it change their lives?
Not only is it your job to fight for this group to be heard, but it’s also your duty.
Now, take a second to think about the nice people who want to help other people. They’re out there, right now. They want to help, they just don’t know how.
You’re giving them the chance of a lifetime! They’re able to directly make an impact in the world with their funds. How freakin’ cool is that?
To successfully persuade someone to give money to your nonprofit, you must genuinely:
- Believe it is a good choice for them that will enhance their life
- Be committed to helping the target demographic or your cause
- Be willing to put your own ego aside in order to fulfill your duty
It’s the kind of motivation that a parent gets when they see their child was treated unfairly. At that moment in time, the parent’s ego doesn’t matter. It’s only about taking action to right a wrong in their child’s life.
2. Tie money to benefits
I guarantee you, no one wants to give money to charity.
Wait… what!?
Yep. No one cares about giving money to charity.
People care about HELPING other people. The charity is just the intermediary.
The best thing that you can do to get a donation from a stranger is to tie that donation to a tangible result that you’re causing in someone else’s life.
For example:
- $25 will give 200 gallons of water to children in Africa
- $100 will save 10 stray dogs from being euthanized
- $500 will give a starving family food for an entire year
You can also have a sliding scale. If people want to have a bigger impact, they can increase their donation.
By doing this, you’re making the impact more real in their mind. You can picture 10 stray dogs or the idea of a family going without hunger for a year. It’s harder to picture giving $500 to a charity out of the kindness of your heart.
The more you can create an image in someone’s head as to the real change their making with their money, the more excited they’ll be to participate.
3. People give money to people, not orgs
This is a hard pill to swallow. I love nonprofits as much as the rest of us!
But, to most people, they are strange, unfamiliar, and inefficient. People are skeptical. They don’t want to help pay your staff. They want to help people that are actually in need.
We are all very visual creatures. If you can SEE the person you’re helping at the moment you decide to give money, it’s going to make the whole process at lot smoother.
We’re basically highly evolved monkeys.
We have multiple parts to our brain. One is the limbic system. This is the emotion-centric part of the brain. It registers a face and we feel emotions.
Then, we have the neocortex, which is responsible for decision making, logic, and self-control. That is the part of the brain that can logically determine a face we see on a computer screen is NOT a real face.
Whether you admit it or not, having a face in front of you when you make a donation feels different than if you’re just seeing text and have a sophisticated cognitive perception that you’re giving money to a real person.
4. Keep it Simple Stupid
Everyone, myself included, is lazy.
We don’t want to do WORK. We don’t want to have to think. We don’t want to have to make decisions in life.
Having to “figure something out” like where a donation button is, how much you should give, or what it goes towards is WORK.
You gotta make it super easy for someone give a donation to your charity. Suggest an amount. Give them the link. Have all the essential info there they need to make a decision.
I would even air on the side of over communicating. At the very worst, someone just won’t end up reading a section. At the best, someone who’s confused will have something explained to them.
This could come in the form of testimonials, other well-known donors, the number of people who have supported something, etc.
It’s crucial that you have these elements. It makes your nonprofit appear more legitimate. You’ll seem more reputable and credible.
To be honest, it feels kinda weird to give to a cause that has no social proof. If no one else has given money, you feel like a sucker. Is something wrong with the nonprofit? Are they new?
You want to avoid these feelings of doubt and uncertainty. You can do that by making sure you always have social proof on your donation page, and at the very least, on core sections of your website.
6. Ask directly for a donation
One of the big mistakes that nonprofits make when asking for donations is that they don’t really ask. They just kind of hint at it.
They beat around the bush. They tell people about this new fundraiser they’re doing. They don’t really explain much. They just hope that people take action.
If you want people to consider your proposal, then you have to ask them directly. It doesn’t have to be specifically about the amount of money you want, but it does have to be in the form of a question.
Examples include:
- What do you think? Will you help?
- Will you join us?
- Do you care about this cause? Will you give $25 to help?
Before making this ask, the person should be aware of who you are, what the organization does, and the benefits of giving money.
If they are, then great! You’ve done your job. You can’t force someone to give money, you can only see what objections they have and address them.
Some people will say “yeah, sure, I’ll give!” Others will say things like:
- Not sure. Is this website secure?
- Can I give cash?
- Maybe next month
These are objections. They can be overcome with the right strategic approach, but that’s beyond the scope of this post.
7. Ask when emotion is high
I have a lot more tips for you in my book, which shares proven fundraising techniques that any nonprofit can use.
Before you go, I have a final effective tip that I want to share with you on the topic of emotion and frame of mind.
Have you ever been in a frame of mind where you’re not at all willing to entertain suggestions, ideas, or other points of views. Maybe you’re mad, drained, or just not emotionally available?
Other people feel the SAME WAY. They’re not always in the right frame of mind to donate money.
The reverse is also true. Sometimes, people are in an extremely receptive frame of mind. They’re feeling positive, joyous, and generous. They want to help.
You can see how the world’s collective “state of mind” also cycles as we near certain holidays, like Christmas. People feel in more of a giving mood. They might remember the teachings of their religion and are feeling more generous.
When you’re on the phone, in person, at events, or chatting with someone, try to put them in the right state of mind before making the big ask. Your ask will have a higher chance of success.
I’ve put together a new GUIDE that’s packed with science-backed nonprofit fundraising methods, resources, strategies, and killer marketing methods.
You should check it out if you want to get more donations and you want to fast-track the entire process.
Try to stimulate some of the emotions that lead to giving (what I covered in my last post).
