How to Fundraise Online

Online fundraising is a new and popular way to raise money for your charity. It is the fastest growing area of fundraising and is joining direct mail fundraising as an extremely effective way to promote your cause.

Is your program able to keep up to the demands of the market? Or is it just falling by the way side or in need of a serious update? This is a fast moving target and keeping up and adjusting your approach is fundamental.

Here are 11 tips to get you into the game and keep you there.

1. Get Legal. Just as with other types of fundraising, online solicitations must be registered with the appropriate officials. Check with your state attorney's office or secretary of state office to find out the requirements in your state. Also, if you do online fundraising in states other than your own, you may need to register there as well. You can also find a company to help support your cause and build your charity joint with that charity.

2. Market without Stop. It is not enough to just put a "donate now" button on your website and wait for the money to roll in. Promote your online capacity in your newsletters and include your website address on all of your collateral materials such as business cards, flyers, postcards, and signs. Include information about the options in all of your direct mail campaign literature. Put together a special promotion for online giving using your email list, your mailing list, and social marketing.

3. Explore all your Options. Expand your thinking about online fundraising to include social networking sites, now popular with all age groups, from Millennials to Baby Boomers. How will you process credit card donations? There are many options such as paypal, shopping carts, or other merchant services. Do you want to set up your own system? Or do you want to engage a company that provides that service for you? Would you like to be able to offer recurring donations to your supporters? You don't need a flashy website, but you do need an attractive one that is easy-to-understand and navigate. Consider too the various generations that will be using your site. Design it in a way that will please all ages and continue to attract new visitors.

4. Be Considerate. Don't spam, and don't look like a spammer. Don't overwhelm your donors with too much email, and don't use email to the exclusion of other methods of fundraising. Online fundraising should be only one part of a well-balanced portfolio of strategies. You have to have many different way of reaching your donors. One must interact with them and include them on new updates, ways your utilizing the funds, and upcoming events.

5.Give Donors Choices. Everyone has a preference for communicating and donating...by mail, online, or from their mobile phones. Make sure you accommodate as many of them as possible. See this great example from the Red Cross. Include information about planned giving options too. The World Wildlife Fund has a good page about legacy giving that can be reached through its donate button. Speaking of the donate button, make sure you make it large and easy to find on your website. People are not going to donate if the process is to difficult or they cant find the button on your webpage.

The internet can be a powerful place and can really boost your donations if promotion is done properly. With these five tips you should have a great start to your online fundraising. One last piece of advise is to make sure you thank your donors for their contributions, make sure you sincerely thank them for everything they are doing to make your cause a success. Best wishes!

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