Blog Digital Fundraising is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Digital Fundraising is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

AUTHOR: Delaney Sterling

Jun 23, 2023

4 Min Read

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By the end of the calendar and fiscal years, fundraisers are crunching numbers to determine when they’ll close the gap between dollars raised and what’s left to reach their goals. These are critical moments in any season—but that doesn’t mean they need to be a scramble.

I’ve been in your shoes, fellow fundraisers. I spent three years working in annual giving at Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and now help CI’s clients market smarter. Here are a few strategies that can make those big donation pushes easier.

SHOW IMPACT YEAR-ROUND

Sprinkle impact messages throughout the year to keep your organization top of mind. When it comes time for a larger donation push, you’ll have already shown your value and inched prospective donors closer to making gifts.

PROMOTE YOUR BRAND CELEBRATE YOUR WINS DON’T FORCE AN ASK

Run Institutional Campaigns

These long-term, evergreen ads give prospective donors a deeper sense of who you are and why you deserve their support, so it will take less convincing when you send them an appeal. This example from Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park highlights positive press that doesn’t tie directly to programming.

Proactively Show Off Your Success

Tell audiences about your programs and achievements as they’re happening in real-time. Celebrity Series of Boston took a “by the numbers” approach with this easily scannable email discussing the coming season.

Not All Messages Need Donation CTAs

Steppenwolf Theatre’s Valentine’s-themed email included a fun, interactive quiz and highlighted positive press without the added pressure to buy tickets or make a gift.

ENGAGE YOUR SUPERFANS

The digital landscape is noisy. Cut through the void by empowering your greatest advocates—like board members and volunteers—to amplify your message with peer-to-peer fundraising.

Peer-to-peer fundraising makes a gift more personal and gives new acquisition donors a touchpoint to your organization. The key is to arm supporters with quick facts about your accomplishments and goals for the coming year and photos from your productions and community programs that they can share with their followers (sized for social media, of course).

HARNESS SOCIAL MEDIA BUILD A FUNDRAISING PAGE

Use Native Facebook Features

When I was at the Goodman, we asked our young professionals board to engage their networks via Facebook fundraisers on Giving Tuesday. We provided a media kit to help them personalize language beyond Facebook’s canned copy.

Create a Branded Web Page

For Giving Dance Day, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater encouraged audiences to build peer-to-peer fundraisers through a dedicated page on their website. They made it easy to promote their mission while still maintaining control over the look and feel of the campaigns.

KEEP THE SPARK ALIVE

Turn one-time gifts into recurring donations by sending timely and relevant communications throughout the year that express your gratitude and remind donors why they made a gift in the first place.

Keep it personal. The automatic tax acknowledgment email we send from our CRMs is incredibly convenient, but it’s not exactly personal. In fact, the most common reason donors do not renew their gifts to cultural institutions is a lack of meaningful thanks. Send a personalized thank you that shows what someone’s gift helped support, or go above and beyond by offering free, exclusive events like backstage tours or rehearsal viewings to show your appreciation. Need some inspiration? Seattle Shakespeare shows their gratitude by giving their donors a peek behind the curtain through these thank-you events.
Share fresh content. Give donors a first look at exciting articles and videos, or document a work in progress to bring them along for the ride. Not sure where to start? Coordinate with your marketing team; they may know of things in the pipeline that aren’t yet on your radar.
Play up your mission. IMPACTS Experience found that mission-driven members are more likely to renew their memberships and make additional donations than benefits-driven members. Strengthen that connection by routinely spotlighting your community impact and thanking donors for moving your mission forward.

THE FINAL WORD

Fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. With a few adjustments to your digital strategy, you can skip the number-crunching frenzy and instead cultivate and steward donors throughout the year. Now get out there and tackle your season fundraising goals!