Giving season is a great opportunity to bring your donors up the ladder of engagement and give them more ways to invest in your movement other than donating! Folks are looking for ways to give back during this time of year, and creating opportunities for impact in addition to making a donation is a great way to bring more people into your movement, especially those who may not be able to make a financial contribution but still want to get involved. Plus, making a donation is often considered one of the highest asks you can make of a supporter, so once someone has reached that level of involvement, they have shown that they could be interested in contributing in other ways. Try some of these tactics to build relationships with your donors for the rest of giving season and beyond:
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Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Peer-to-peer fundraising can be used by anyone, from your supporters to your board members, to make an impact on your nonprofit! Encourage your supporters to send fundraising emails to their networks, give your fundraisers a deadline to motivate them around a collective goal, and build momentum toward big moments like Giving Tuesday or the end of the year!
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Supporter Forms: Supporter forms, one of the peer-to-peer fundraising tools offered on AB Charities, are a great way to give your donors ownership over fundraising. These are contribution forms that allow you to set up a design or custom content that you can then send to your supporters for them to share with their networks. Supporters can personalize the form and share with their friends and family, which will widen your audience! Giving season is a great opportunity to create season-specific brandings to get your donors excited to share these forms with their networks. Don’t be afraid to encourage your supporters to explain in their own words why giving right now is so important!
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Collecting Supporter Stories: Asking your donors why they give and what your work means to them is a great way to get a better understanding of your base and give them an opportunity to make their voices heard! You can (with their permission) share their stories in an email or on social media so that your community knows what giving to your movement means to so many people!
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Giving Circles: Whether it be a Facebook group, a book club, or a virtual happy hour, people are looking to connect after staying inside for so long! Giving circles are individuals who come together to learn about their community or a cause that they care about, participate in mutual aid, and decide together how to use their shared resources to make a difference. Help your supporters create a community and connect with each other over the causes they care about. AB Charities’ Tandem forms can help your supporters fundraise not just for your organization, but for multiple groups in your issue area or community.
Small-dollar donors are some of the most committed supporters you’ll find. Giving them more opportunities to join your movement beyond donating is critical to creating and sustaining relationships with your base. Giving season is a great opportunity to show that you value your supporters as stakeholders in your work and create genuine horizontal relationships: By offering up chances for folks to get involved beyond their donations, you’re showing them that you recognize their impact goes beyond any dollar amount. If you have any questions about building your digital fundraising program, our fundraising experts are always here to help!
