If you’ve been in the fundraising game for a while, you likely know that the landscape is frequently shifting. Technology changes, habits change, the economy changes, and ultimately fundraising trends change as a result.
It is good to be connected to other fundraisers (or sources about fundraising, like this blog!) so you can share and receive knowledge about what is and isn’t working, and keep track of new trends that will impact your fundraising to implement them and stay ahead of the curve.
In lieu of you being able to kick back and compare notes with fundraisers, we’ve done some of the work for you. Here are the top fundraising trends with the most success that you should know about for the rest of 2023.
Top 5 Fundraising Trends for 2023
- Online Engagement is Imperative
- Recurring Giving to Survive a Recession
- Get Personal
- AI is Here to Help
- Think Multigenerational
1. Online Engagement is Imperative
The days of primarily reaching donors through print letters are long gone. Although it’s still necessary to include some print elements, online engagement is at an all time high. Per Twillio’s digital engagement report, 65% of nonprofit engagement is through digital.
And it’s not just the youngest generations being reached that way! Over 30% of baby boomer donors are inspired to give by email today while 39% of millennial donors are inspired to give by social media. This is why it’s important to have your online engagement tools as efficient as possible to help keep your constituents engaged.
With Soapbox Engage’s Donations App, your donors’ data is secure, they can easily sign up for a newsletter to stay involved, you can craft unique thank yous, and more.
2. Recurring Giving to Survive a Recession:
You likely already know that a recurring giving program can be a great boon to your organization, and hopefully have one implemented at your organization. But did you know how it can be beneficial to your organization in a time of economic downturn? In recent years, the amount of donors has declined– but nonprofits have seen increases in the average gift size per donor.
Furthermore, within one year of signing up, recurring donors make additional one-time gifts 75% more often than one-time donors. Investing in your recurring giving program can provide stability in your fundraising, at times when things may seem dire.
3. Get Personal
Part of the reason relationship building is so important to fundraising is you need to truly understand the donors you’re targeting. Different donors will care more or less about certain programs, will be incentivized to give through certain methods, and more.
The most compelling data that will support your organization is to find out how a donor likes to give. Which channel, and for what campaigns? Then, segmenting your lists will help you target each donor the way they would actually like to be reached.
4. AI is Here to Help
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve likely noticed that multiple technological tools, such as Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit and Salesforce, have rolled out AI capabilities. AI is here to stay, and it can be a great help for fundraisers. You should look at it not as a replacement for the important work you do, but an additional resource.
AI can help you optimize your fundraising by providing enhanced data that helps you target your donors, offering reminders to help them stay engaged, helping to draft grant proposals, and much more.
You will always need to review anything drafted by AI, as a chatbot can never replace your keen fundraising eye. But these new technologies are streamlining processes and saving time so that you can focus on the most important work of building relationships and serving your communities.
5. Think Multigenerational
The younger generations care a lot about creating the world they are growing into. That means new donors are everywhere– but you can’t reach them the same way you reach your older donors. Data from Double the Donation shows Gen Z donors expect to see their causes active on social media like Instagram while Baby Boomers still expect direct mail from their favorite causes.
If you want to reach the newest generation of donors, it is important that you maintain a robust social media presence to inform people about your cause and how they can support it. But, don’t throw away your direct mail strategy either! You need to stay multifaceted to be multigenerational. The Soapbox Engage suite of engagement apps can help you manage the multiple demands of fundraising with ease.
Keep these trends in mind as you are tweaking your fundraising strategy for the rest of the year, and you are much more likely to meet your year-end goals for 2023.
If you’re looking for more information to help your fundraising, check out these resources:
- Unleashing the Potential: Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit New AI Capabilities: 7 Essential Tools: Microsoft Cloud is one of the most recent platforms with new AI technology. Check out this blog post to learn more details about how this can help your organization.
- 3 Ways You Can Use Data Analytics to Boost Mid-Level Giving: Did you have a successful giving season that resulted in lots of small donations? Are you wondering how you can boost these mid-level donors to the next level? This blog post offers 3 ways you can use data analytics to help you boost mid-level giving.
- Multi-Channel Stewardship Cadences: A Quick Guide: Donor stewardship is an intentional process that is most effective when it takes place across multiple channels. In this blog post, Kristin provides a guide to help you be most effective at multi-channel stewardship.
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