Crowdfunding for Nonprofits: How It Works

How Crowdfunding for Nonprofits Works

Successful organizations have many supporters. These may include donors, volunteers, employees, board members, beneficiaries, or community members. Before crowdfunding, these people would help by donating their time or money to plan and execute fundraising campaigns. However, they weren’t necessarily brought into the nonprofit’s mission as active fundraisers. By using crowdfunding for your nonprofit or charity, you can take your fundraiser to the next level. Now, supporters can not only become advocates for your cause by volunteering their time or making personal donations, but also help raise money by reaching out to their networks and requesting donations. This increases your potential to raise donations and generate awareness for your cause, exposing your group to new markets and supporters. Crowdfunding initiatives connect people to donation forms so they can easily show their support.

Crowdfunding Websites and Tools for Successful Nonprofit Campaigns

Finding the right crowdfunding software is key to a successful crowdfunding campaign. You’ll want a great fundraising website that is easy to use for nonprofit administrators and participants (or parents of youth or school fundraisers). You’ll also want a platform that offers flexibility to customize for your needs and brand. And, of course, the cost is always a significant factor in nonprofit crowdfunding. After all, you want to keep as much money as possible for your mission.

Fundraising in Real-Time

Our free crowdfunding websites enable your organization to motivate participants and donors through gamification features such as fundraising thermometers and leaderboards. DoJiggy also has an integrated prize management system that supports custom prize levels. Team fundraising and competitions can be a great motivator for new supporters. And for schools, classroom competitions are extremely important for helping your school meet fundraising goals.

To run a successful campaign, the donation process on your crowdfunding platform must be streamlined. You’ll need secure card processing and mobile giving options to easily collect payments from your supporters. Donors like to give money to a cause with a professional look and feel and a nonprofit mission they support. 

Many supporters of crowdfunding campaigns have never been introduced to the organization before. As this may be a person’s first contact with your mission, a seamless website experience is critical.

Crowdfunding Reporting and Functionality

Your crowdfunding platform should generate the reports you need to gain insight into your campaigns. Some important crowdfunding reporting functions include:

• How much your fundraisers and teams have raised.
• Donor information is important for growing and maintaining relationships with new donors. 
• Who the top donors and fundraisers are.
• How successful sponsorship and product sales are.

Using a top-performing crowdfunding platform like DoJiggy will raise your organization’s profile, helping engage potential sponsors for current projects. The look and feel of the website should match the organization’s branding standards. Clearly defined statistics and measurable success outcomes enable a nonprofit to create a strong case for support from future sponsors.

Tips for Non-Profit Crowdfunding Success

• Ensure that your crowdfunding website is responsive and readily visible on mobile devices. The majority of social media interaction is done on mobile devices and your crowdfunding website will be accessed through social media. Therefore, it’s vitally important for it to be responsive and professional in appearance and allow for easy donation collection.
  
  
• Stories are of utmost importance. The individuals raising funds should share their personal reasons for loving the organization’s mission. Taking the time to frame stories compellingly helps to ensure that people feel connected to your work and compelled to give.
  
  
• Share campaign progress. Our crowdfunding sites use fundraising thermometers at the campaign, team, and individual fundraiser levels. Leaderboards and badges add to the fun.
  
  
• Your nonprofit’s crowdfunding campaign will be shared on social media. Ensuring that individuals can easily share links to the campaign creates easy access for people wishing to give financial support.
  
  
• Support and motivate your participants. Create weekly campaign progress reports for participants so everyone understands where the campaign stands against goals and which individuals are the top performers. Include resources and templates to make it easy for volunteers.
  
  
• Weave a culture of gratitude through every step of the campaign’s progress. Ensuring participants feel appreciated and supported will increase the likelihood of their enthusiastic support and future participation.
  
  
• Don’t give away a large percentage of your fundraising money in software and payment processing fees. Many crowdfunding platforms advertise themselves as a free service – but be sure to read the fine print. All e-commerce transactions carry a transaction fee (since Visa and MasterCard charge merchants for the privilege of accepting their cards – even for charitable donations). DoJiggy offers free crowdfunding with donor tips.

If you are ready to start the process of creating your first charitable crowdfunding campaign and want a professional and streamlined website to ensure success for your nonprofit, we are here to help. Sign up for our free software platform for crowdfunding events.

We’ve worked with over 2,000 nonprofit and community organizations because they chose us as their fundraising software partner. We would be honored to have your school or nonprofit as the next proud partner. 

Start a Free Crowdfunding Campaign