Fundraising Tip: Fundraising for Free

We don’t always have to spend money to support our fundraising efforts.

In my first role as a head of fundraising, in this case it was as a director of development, I had to get creative in fundraising as we didn’t have much of a budget.

By my second year I was doing “Fundraising for Free” sessions at nonprofit conferences.

These ideas may or may not work for large, national nonprofits. I believe they can be super helpful to small, local, nonprofits, those with small fundraising teams and perhaps not much of a budget to support fundraising efforts.

First, make sure it’s easy to donate from your website. This is critical, and shouldn’t cost a penny. If you’re paying for someone to maintain your website or make edits other than copy, it may cost you a little if you need to make changes.

Use you email signature to share something with donors.

Use the phone. Call donors, potential donors, stakeholders, volunteers. Connect with them around impact amd mission. This is to build relationships and costs nothing.

Aside from what you pay for your email blasts, e-appeals are free. Some worry about asking too much; most do not ask enough. Use e-appeals to keep asking.

Go to a community lunch. In the photo above, I’m at my local chamber of commerce lunch supporting a local restaurant. It costs me the price of lunch, which I needed anyway. For that I had the opportunity to talk about the nonprofit I fundraise for and their impact on survivors of domestic violence.

These are just a few ways to support your relationships building and fundraising without spending any money. There are several other ways to do this, and even more that cost very little.

My main point here is to not let your expense budget, or lack there of, keep you from excelling in getting more and more people to support the impact your organization has.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this one: https://altrui.org/fundraising-tip-share-your-impact/

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Take a risk. Be of service. Support your friends and colleagues. Be kind.