Today it seems like the options for reaching donors are virtually unlimited. We can meet up for coffee, host an event, make a phone call, shoot out an email, blast a Tweet, post a video on YouTube, organize a Facebook LIVE event and the list goes on and on. It\u2019s a far cry from the days when we\u2019d mail out a pamphlet and pledge card, cross our fingers, and hope for the best.<\/p>\n
Our methods for resource development have evolved over the years because of many factors including, but not limited to, the economy, technology, and politics.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say that we\u2019re living in a time of great advancements in technology (particularly the internet and our reliance\/obsession with mobile devices) coupled with political and economic uncertainty. Stocks are at an unprecedented high. Trust in the government is trending low. Though at times it feels like all of us in the nonprofit world are just trying to hold on and keep up, it\u2019s nice to see some bright lights.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what we\u2019re giving you here\u2014 10 fundraising trend \u201cbright lights\u201d. Things are looking up in 2017 for nonprofits, charities, and NGOs. Here\u2019s how you can capitalize on it all:<\/p>\n
We are living in a time of political change, but this isn\u2019t necessarily translating into smaller donations. On the contrary, the Philanthropy Outlook 2016 & 2017 predicts that an increase in individual and household income will help to boost fundraising efforts for nonprofits, charities, and NGOs by as much as 3.8% in 2017.<\/p>\n
Make the prediction of an increase in individual giving work for you by<\/strong>:<\/p>\n GDP is up, business savings are increasing\u2014 and these factors have a direct and significant impact on corporate giving. Again, researchers are anticipating an upward trend of giving, with total corporate giving predicted to rise by 4.7% in 2017.<\/p>\n Any fundraiser who weathered the storm that was the Great Recession knows that fundraising since 2008\/2009 has been extremely tough. We didn\u2019t bounce back from pre-recession rates of giving until 2014. Even then, retention rates still haven\u2019t fully rebounded. But as the stock market hits all-time records, companies are finally beginning to breathe a sigh of relief which can really help your organization.<\/p>\n Make the prediction of an increase in corporate giving work for you by<\/strong>:<\/p>\n We built CauseVox<\/a> to inspire, activate, and rally supporters behind your mission because we realize it\u2019s the relationships you form with a donor that will elevate your fundraising efforts to the next level. The focus on relationships and leveraging those connections to increase your audience is what defines People Fundraising<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here at CauseVox, we believe that People Fundraising is the future of fundraising<\/a>. When you give your donors a voice, you\u2019re reaching both current and future donors on a personal level.<\/p>\n Make People Fundraising work for you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier in 2016, we posted about how to work with Facebook\u2019s ever-changing newsfeed algorithm<\/a>. But really, it isn\u2019t just Facebook that is promoting organic content — Instagram, Pinterest, almost all social media platforms are prioritizing the posts of your audience\u2019s friends and family over that of your nonprofit<\/p>\n People are still using social media. But your nonprofit\u2019s reach<\/a> isn\u2019t going to be like it was a few years ago.<\/p>\n Make the trend of decreasing engagement in social media work for you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a hard truth to swallow, but nonprofits, charities, and NGOs are everywhere. In a way, that\u2019s a good thing. With an uncertain political atmosphere, charitable organizations may be called on to step up (even more) in areas such as women\u2019s health, poverty assistance, immigration, the arts, and sciences.<\/p>\n And every single one of these organizations will need to rely on donations to offset what could potentially be a significant decrease in government grants and other aid. Therefore, you don\u2019t just need to fundraise, you need to STAND OUT.<\/p>\n We suggest you take this impending shift as a call-to-action to ramp up your engagement efforts.<\/p>\n Use engagement opportunities<\/a> as a tool to retain current supporters, capture new donors, and bring back givers. Create a varied schedule of activities depending on your average donor demographics. You want to keep supporters active and wondering what\u2019s going to happen next.<\/p>\n Make the focus of donor engagement work for you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n Donor retention rates <\/a>are at the highest rate since 2008\u2014 a steady 45.9%. While we\u2019d all like to see this number higher, this increase (from 45.7% in 2014) indicates that retention is has become a priority for nonprofits and charities.<\/p>\n At CauseVox, we can\u2019t stress enough how important donor retention<\/a> is for your organization. As you plan your 2017 fundraising activities, remember to constantly be thinking of ways to incorporate elements that promote donor retention.<\/p>\n Make the upward trend of donor retention work for you by: <\/strong><\/p>\n Nonprofits have been slow to jump into the mobile optimization trend. If you haven\u2019t begun to mobilize your website and emails for mobile, now is the time. Keep in mind that mobile giving makes up 17%<\/a> of all online giving, and that\u2019s a figure projected to increase in 2017.<\/p>\n Make mobile optimization trends work for you by:<\/p>\n Monthly giving will continue increasing per the 2016 M+R Benchmarks report<\/a>. In fact, monthly giving accounts for 17% of all online revenue and in 2015, monthly revenue grew by 24% across all sectors, compared to 18% growth in one-time revenue.<\/p>\n One of the best things about monthly\/recurring giving is that no matter the size and scope of your cause, it\u2019s fairly easy to implement a program.<\/p>\n Make the increase in monthly\/recurring giving work for you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n Recently, nonprofits have really ramped up their storytelling<\/a>\u2014and we love this. After all, we engineered CauseVox fundraising websites so you have the space to share your story, and thus, inspire donors.<\/p>\n In 2017, make a concerted effort to share your story effectively. Use emotion-inducing language, create common themes and ties between your stories, and don\u2019t forget to tell your donor exactly how their gift plays a role in the solution.<\/p>\n Make the trend of nonprofit storytelling work for you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n Our in-person lives are becoming increasingly connected with our online identities, but nonprofits have notoriously been slow to the party. Maybe it\u2019s because most non-profit work is on the ground. We\u2019re relying on connections. Relationships. Authenticity. And there\u2019s no denying that it\u2019s much easier to develop a bond in-person as opposed to online. Simply put, it seems impossible to form the same donor to nonprofit relationships that we had in the past.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s some food for thought: As the internet, including email and social media, have continued to grow and develop, businesses are now using this as an opportunity to collect data from clients and customers.<\/p>\n DATA\u2014 a nonprofit professional\u2019s favorite word. We love data as much as we love when our coworker brings in a plate of her delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies. So as we power through 2017 and beyond, nonprofits must begin to incorporate practices of the internet of things (IoT) like our colleagues in the business world.<\/p>\n According to Nick Morpus of Capterra<\/a> \u201cThe IoT can change the way nonprofits collect that data and just how much data they can get their hands on.\u201d<\/p>\n Make the presence of the Internet of Things (IoT) work for you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n Every year, we see new trends in fundraising and 2017 is no different. We know you\u2019re knee-deep in planning for the upcoming calendar year, which is why it\u2019s important to factor in these trends as you craft your calendar. You may decide to put some more money into Facebook Ads, connect your website to Google Analytics, or refresh your corporate giving materials based on expectations and trends for 2017.<\/p>\n If you found this article helpful, check out our other resources:<\/p>\n Have you noticed any of these fundraising trends? What do you expect 2017 to bring for your nonprofit, charity or NGO? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n Today it seems like the options for reaching donors are virtually unlimited. We can meet up for coffee, host an event, make a phone call, shoot out an email, blast a Tweet, post a video on YouTube, organize a Facebook LIVE event and the list goes on and on. It\u2019s a far cry from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":50817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2x19-mrqgx8-josh-boot-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2x19-mrqgx8-josh-boot-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Candace Cody","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/candace\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
2. An Overall Increase in Corporate Giving<\/h3>\n
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3. The Growth Of People Fundraising<\/h3>\n
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4. A Decrease In The Effectiveness Of Organic Social Media Marketing<\/h3>\n
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5. A Need To Plan Engagement Opportunities<\/h3>\n
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6. The Ongoing Increase In Donor Retention Rates<\/h3>\n
“Donor retention rates are at the highest rate since 2008\u2014 a steady 45.9%”<\/em> <\/i>tweet this<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
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7. A Switch To Mobile Optimization Across The Board<\/h3>\n
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8. A Projected Increase In Monthly\/Recurring Giving<\/h3>\n
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9. Making Sharing Your Nonprofit Story A Priority<\/h3>\n
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10. A Focus On Data Collection & \u201cThe Internet of Things<\/a>\u201d<\/h3>\n
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“What do you expect 2017 to bring for your nonprofit, charity or NGO?”<\/em> <\/i>tweet this<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"