Mahi Sall, Advisor, Fintech-Bank Partnerships, Payments and Financial Inclusivity
January 25th, 2023
Mahi Sall is the CEO & Founder of FinXpair, a Berlin-based strategic advisory boutique firm focu[...]
What to expect from social fundraising world in 2020
FundRazr | Mira Soullen | Dec 16, 2019
FundRazr is a free enterprise-class crowdfunding platform and the secret sauce behind 160,000 fundraising campaigns in 40+ countries. FundRazr is laser-focused on eliminating the guesswork of raising money online making it effortless and effective.
What to Expect from the Social Fundraising World in 2020
Things are constantly changing in the world of social fundraising, also called “crowdfunding”, but it’s safe to say that 2019 was an especially interesting year. As some more traditional fundraising methods lost relevance, we helped many organizations try out crowdfunding and social media fundraising for the first time, embracing emotive, personalized storytelling and its wide-ranging impacts.
As a result, FundRazr’s community of nonprofits grew their social fundraising confidence and worked to engage Millennials and Gen Z with their causes, inviting them into giving and finding new longterm donors and advocates.
Wow. A year of change, for sure - but now, it’s almost over! What developments can we expect to see in the social fundraising world as we move into 2020?
See: Social equity must be central to urban tech innovations
Businesses and Charities Will Find Better Ways to Collaborate
Commerce and charity working together is nothing new, but it’s a trend that will continue to strengthen. For many nonprofits, finding new longterm sponsors is uncharted territory, and many staffers may feel that it’s out of their wheelhouse. However, developing mutually beneficial sponsor relationships and marketing partnerships are critical goals to work towards. Once you find a business that’s the right fit, they won’t just provide monetary support - they’ll become passionate advocates for your cause!
Furthermore, an economic recession is a very real possibility for 2020 that must be taken into account. By working together, charities and for-profit businesses can mitigate the revenue shortfalls that are part of an economic downturn. This can be a mutually beneficial relationship - consumers may be more likely to spend money at a business where their dollar is doing something good, and people who would not have otherwise donated might be more likely to if they do it together with a sponsor: for example, you can offer Perks of your sponsor’s product, or receive a small percentage of your sponsor’s profits.
Working with sponsors can help you Make Everyday Giving Effortless (MEGE). People want to give easily, and through channels that are convenient to them. Today, that means giving through smartphones, and donations processed immediately so that they can be easily shared on social. Systems to gamify donation or offer fun perks in return apply here, too.
Donors Will Be Encouraged to Give Less, but More Often
When it comes to donations, frequency will be king. It might sound surprising, but ten $50 donations are a lot better than one $500 from the point of view of the fundraiser. These frequent, smaller micro-gifts help cultivate giving habits and emotional involvement in your cause, establishing the donor as part of your community and eventually, a long-term advocate. By giving often, they’re staying in touch, sticking around for updates on where your work’s at and how their gift will help. The more involved your donors are, the better their lifetime value for your organization.
This trend is also ideally suited to micro-projects, and with FundRazr, more campaigns doesn’t mean more time spent running them! Consider making a campaign for each individual project you’re working to complete - for example, each house you’re trying to build in a hurricane-damaged region, every family you want to provide with Christmas dinner, or every animal you need to keep off the street.
See: Online Giving Trends Show Consistent Growth in the US Since Donation Crowdfunding Debuted in 2012
This kind of donation and fundraising is a win-win: it more closely mirrors the actual work your organization is doing, so that your donors feel like they’re “part of the team”. The more engaged donors are with your mission, the happier they’ll be to help.
Segmentation and Sophisticated Storytelling Will Become Even More Important - Personalizing Donor Experience is Everything
If you’re working in the nonprofit sector, it’s because you care about what you do. To fundraise successfully, you need to help potential donors care just as much. Storytelling is the way to engage people, but sophisticated, personalized storytelling is how you will truly engage as many people as possible.
Let’s say you’re running a wildlife rescue. Since you’re an animal nonprofit, you might draw the conclusion that anyone who loves animals could be a potential donor. And you wouldn’t be wrong, exactly - but it’s not that simple. For example, 20% of your donors might be donating because they care about hawks, while another 30% might like foxes, but not care as much about birds. Identifying these donor segments and marketing to them effectively will help you speak to them in a way that will resonate and optimize your revenue potential.
By showing your audience personalized content according to segmentation (showing your bird lovers hawks), you can make sure their impression of your charity is a memorable one.
Ephemeral Content Will Continue to Rise
In social fundraising, ephemeral content means two things: content that only exists for a short time (like Instagram Stories) or content we only pay attention to for a short time (an Instagram post). Clearly, ephemeral content is tailor-made for social media. This type of content lets you reach a wider audience, engage with them, and elicit an emotional reaction - all without too much labour-intensive content production.
Think of ephemeral content as a greeting card for your organization. It’s sent out to many people (Instagram’s hundreds of millions of users), is fun and simple (a nicely designed graphic, not an original video), and it shares a feeling by sharing the work you do. These personal, emotional stories will get the word out about your mission and plant the seed of donation in your audience’s minds. Make a plan to share content like this at least once a day.
Social Activism Will Keep Growing - And You Need to Keep Up
People are more attentive to social causes than ever, and that’s a wonderful thing. Look at the climate justice movement Greta Thunberg is leading - people all over the world are getting involved, and a large part of it is on social media! Whatever your nonprofit’s mission adopting social fundraising tools and techniques will only get more important. In 2020, if your cause doesn’t have an online community cheering it on, it might as well not exist in the real world.
The statistics around online activism are staggering. Roughly half of United States citizens have been civically active on social media in the past year. If you’re wondering what that looks like, some examples are changing your profile picture to support a cause, posting about voting in an election, looking up information on protests or rallies, and using political or social hashtags.
See: Crowdfunding campaign raises $3 million to protect Princess Louisa Inlet property
Many people believe we are living in a watershed moment for social change. People are dissatisfied with the current state of society, and are beginning to create a vision of what else is possible. As charities, if we offer actionable steps towards change, real progress is possible. If you share the impact each donation makes, it inspires people to give more often. It’s an exciting time for nonprofits, but we need to stay up to date with today’s world to take advantage of it.
Revenue Diversification Will be Even More Important
There are still many charities who rely on a single source of income. Whether it’s grants, major donors, or large fundraising events like galas, this is a risky proposition. With economic turmoil happening globally and older fundraising techniques dying out, it’s more important than ever to diversify to ensure cause longevity and survival.
It’s time for all nonprofits to push their comfort zones. It’s critical to try out new ways of revenue generation like crowdfunding. Establishing multiple streams of income will allow you to set up a sustainable charitable model that mitigates all inevitable risks.
The Donor Journey’s End Will be Just as Important as its Beginning
We all know that a compelling, convincing story is important. Introducing potential donors to your cause, crafting a strong ask, and guiding people to the donate page are all essential parts of the donor journey. However, many nonprofits forget about optimizing the end of the journey - the actual donation page!
Unfortunately, we see many nonprofit websites with broken donate buttons or donation pages that aren’t optimized for mobile. When donors finally click ‘donate’ they’re at the peak of their emotional engagement with, and excitement for your cause. The donation page, and the actual act of donating, should carry on this experience - not kill it.
It should be a priority to make sure their donation page is mobile-optimized. Social sharing must be enabled and the page should have a short story reminding donors why they decided to give. If you’re working with FundRazr, use our one-page donation template. It includes all the necessary elements the make sure donation is just like the rest of their experience - positive and inspiring!
Change might be scary, and social fundraising world has seen a lot of change over the past year. But even though 2020 will be bringing more change, it’s a great and exciting time to be a nonprofit - as long as you’re willing to adapt.
Happy Holidays and hope your 2020 will be exciting and positive.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
 |  |  |
Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada  |
Related Posts
US consumers agree trust in protecting assets is essential before they’ll share their bank credentials- The Rise of Impact Investing in Tech Startups: Aligning Profit with Purpose
- Michigan Governor Signs Intrastate Crowdfunding Exemption
- Benefits Of Outsourcing For Fintech Startups
- 8 Ways to Raise Money Quickly for Emergencies
- The Complete Guide to Unity Game Development Agencies and How They are Disrupting Game Design & Development
Leave a Reply