In this post, you’ll learn how to compile donor prospect profiles.

A Quick Guide to Compiling Donor Prospect Profiles

When it comes to finding new donors for your nonprofit, identifying prospects is just the first step. In order to transform a prospect into a dedicated, engaged donor, you have to cultivate them, getting to know them as an individual and laying the foundation for a lasting relationship.

Cultivation can be challenging, especially when you’re working with multiple prospects at different stages in the relationship-building process. How do you make every interaction as productive and personalized as possible? How do you remember everything you learn about individual prospects?

Here’s your answer: donor prospect profiles. According to DonorSearch, prospect profiles “contain all of the relevant data gathered during the prospect screening process…as well as any other details that a prospect researcher deems important for gift officers to know during the cultivation process.” Essentially, donor prospect profiles serve as your organization’s ultimate source of truth for every prospective donor you’re working with.

In this quick guide, we’ll take a closer look at the process of compiling donor prospect profiles to use for a successful cultivation process. Let’s jump in!

Why You Should Compile Donor Prospect Profiles

Donors don’t want to be viewed simply as ATMs for your nonprofit, especially if they’re just hearing about your organization and its cause for the first time. In order to make a strong connection with a prospect, you have to demonstrate that you’ve done your homework to get to know them as individuals.

On top of helping you build genuine relationships, donor prospect profiles make your cultivation work easier. For example, relying on profiles for contact information and communication preferences can help you build outreach processes that your prospects will respond well to. Likewise, using what you’ve discovered about a prospect’s philanthropic giving history, you can make more informed donation and engagement requests.

Plus, as you get in the habit of actively recording and organizing information about prospects, you’ll develop a greater understanding of your nonprofit’s community. Having a better grasp on your community’s needs, motivations, and preferences will empower you to tailor your marketing efforts and other operations to your knowledge about the people who make furthering your mission possible.

What to Include in Prospect Profiles

During the prospecting phase, you’ll gather lots of information about prospective donors. Let’s walk through what information you should include in your prospect profiles and how to organize it.

There are seven focus areas you should organize your information under:

1. Introductory Details

This section of a profile should serve as a quick view of the current status of a prospect. Think of it as the section you should look at if you don’t have time to look at anything else. It should include the prospect’s:

  • Name
  • Date of Most Recent Interaction
  • Giving Status
  • Summary of Past Interactions
  • Next Moves

This section, primarily the “Summary of Past Interactions,” “Giving Status,” and “Next Moves” categories, should be updated often to reflect your most recent work with the individual.

2. Basic Details

This part of a prospect profile focuses on contact information, like:

  • Full Name
  • Preferred Name or Nickname
  • Phone Number
  • Address
  • Email
  • Birthdate

Since this section contains information that will likely change over time, make sure to practice good data hygiene by keeping everything accurate and up-to-date. You may even consider having your data appended to ensure you have the most useful contact information available.

3. Personal History

The personal history section will include capacity and affinity details gathered from the prospect research process and can guide you in your relationship-building activities with prospects. Here’s what it should include:

  • Alma Mater(s)
  • Degree(s)
  • Connections to Foundations
  • Real Estate Holdings
  • Public Stock Holdings
  • Social Club Memberships
  • Community Involvement
  • Hobbies and Other Interests

This information can also be helpful as you look for additional ways to involve prospects in your work beyond just donating. For example, if you learn that one of your prospect’s hobbies is graphic design, you might ask them to help you fine-tune your nonprofit’s visual brand. Or, if you learn that they attended a school that you partner with, you might invite them to volunteer with your organization at that school.

4. Familial Information

Depending on your organization’s mission and focus, it may be useful to include a familial information section in your prospect profiles that lays out:

  • Name of Spouse
  • Spouse’s Philanthropic Ties
  • Spouse’s Professional Affiliations
  • Key Details on Children
  • Key Details on Other Relevant Relatives

Philanthropic work is often something that prospects enjoy engaging in with their loved ones. Knowing a thing or two about their families can help you spot relevant opportunities to involve them in your work, further strengthening your relationship with your prospect.

5. Professional Affiliations

This section will help you discover more about a prospect’s giving capacity and uncover valuable connections. In it, include these details:

  • Employer
  • Employer Address
  • Position
  • Work Email
  • Work Phone Number
  • Estimated Salary
  • Years with Employer
  • Relevant Employment History
  • Relevant Business Contacts

As you assemble this information, be sure to look into whether the prospect is eligible for corporate philanthropy opportunities, like matching gifts.

Re:Charity’s matching gifts guide explains that matching gifts are a form of corporate philanthropy in which employers financially match donations their employees make to nonprofits. Educate your prospect and donors about matching gift opportunities and help them use a matching gifts database to check their eligibility.

6. Organizational Connections

The organizational connections section should focus on your prospect’s history with your nonprofit. It will include the following information:

  • Date of Last Gift
  • Amount of Last Gift
  • Total Number of Donations
  • Average Gift Size
  • Current or Past Board Membership
  • Hours Volunteered
  • Relationships with Others Involved in Your Organization

If a prospect is brand new to your nonprofit, this section may be blank, and that’s okay! Be sure to fill it out as they get more involved with your work.

7. Philanthropic Ties

This final section will lay out the prospect’s involvement with other charitable organizations. Pay attention to whether the prospect has been involved with causes similar to yours—this can be a great indicator that they’ll be excited to support your organization!

Here’s what you should include in this section:

  • Charitable Giving Elsewhere
  • Volunteering Elsewhere
  • Board Membership Elsewhere

Remember, many donors are willing to support multiple nonprofits at the same time, especially if they’re passionate about a specific cause. So, don’t be afraid to reach out to donors who are currently involved with other organizations—they will likely be interested in getting involved with yours, too!

When to Compile Prospect Profiles

Clearly, prospect profiles provide a wealth of information about potential donors that you can use in a variety of ways—whether you’re meeting with them for the first time, designing a donation appeal, or figuring out how to thank them for a contribution in a meaningful way.

But what situations call for the creation of donor prospect profiles? You should create profiles when:

Compiling donor prospect profiles before launching a big project or when you want to strengthen an existing program will help you approach the process with more information to support every step you take.

Also, think of donor prospect profiles as living documents that you should update and return to often. Ensuring that all of the information you have on individual prospects is accurate and actionable will make it easier for you and your team to rely on profiles as a resource that will help you make progress with cultivating new donors.


Your priority when you discover a new potential donor should be getting to know as much about them as you can and building out a full prospect profile for them. This profile can serve as a key reference and guide every interaction you have with a prospect along the way to their first major donation. Use these tips to get started with creating donor prospect profiles today!

Want to learn how to leverage digital fundraising for nonprofit success? Learn more with this guide.

Digital Fundraising for Nonprofits: 6 Key Strategies

Optimizing your digital fundraising and marketing strategies now helps cement your future fundraising success. But, with so many nonprofits competing for visibility online, it can be difficult to stand out. By investing in the right digital tools, using social media, leveraging the Google algorithm, and organizing your data, your nonprofit can boost your online reach far beyond your existing community. 

1. Use online fundraising software                  

It’s only fitting to manage your digital fundraising campaigns online. Digital fundraising software can help your nonprofit:

  • Record and store donor-specific information
  • Launch online donation forms
  • Send automated gift acknowledgments
  • Manage online event registrations
  • Report your fundraising metrics
  • Create and send email blasts 

No matter your nonprofit’s size or focus, a well-rounded fundraising software solution can streamline all of your operations. Your nonprofit should choose fundraising software that automatically syncs any donor-specific information with your CRM so your information is always up-to-date. 

Getting started with a fundraising software solution is simple. First, research and demo the different options on the market and choose which one is the best for you. Then, work with your onboarding specialist to learn how to use the software and tailor it to your specific fundraising needs. Once you’re comfortable with the system, remember to consistently flag any additional problems you run into so you can best leverage the software.

2. Include remote options for your fundraising event

Virtual and hybrid events naturally complement your digital fundraising strategies. For instance, you can easily send the link to your online donation page in the chat of an event hosted via video call. Plus, hosting remote or hybrid events is easier than ever due to the affordability and user-friendliness of digital fundraising software solutions. Consider adding a remote component to these traditionally in-person fundraising ideas:

  • Silent auction
  • 5K walk/run
  • Gala
  • Dinner party
  • Movie watch party
  • Meet-and-greet with beneficiaries
  • Networking event
  • Webinars and panels with nonprofit experts
  • Q&A sessions with the executive director or board president
  • Giving Days

A simple way to add a remote element to your event is to gather attendees on a video call. Video conferencing software is widely available, so it’s likely that your attendees could easily make an account and participate. Also, some platforms even have nonprofit discounts, helping to save your nonprofit valuable operating costs.  

3. Try a peer-to-peer format

Another way to boost your digital fundraising event’s revenue is to use a peer-to-peer structure in which participants run their own mini-campaigns and use marketing techniques to promote your larger fundraiser. This structure complements digital fundraising because, with peer-to-peer software, you can automate the fundraising process for your nonprofit, your fundraising participants, and their mini-campaign supporters.

Peer-to-peer fundraising software allows your nonprofit to set up a digital hub for your fundraising campaign. From this landing page, your participants can sign up to host a mini-campaign. Then, they’ll receive their own landing page that they can customize with their own fundraising appeals. Once they send their personal link to their network of supporters, they can conveniently donate to the campaign directly from the website. You can also allow participants to join a fundraising team and assign roles with special privileges, such as team captain, through the software. Your peer-to-peer fundraiser will be more shareable and engaging than ever before in a digital setting!      

4. Align your fundraising website with SEO

Boost your fundraising website’s visibility by updating it according to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. SEO is the process of changing your website’s content to complement the algorithm that orders the search engine results page (SERP). In other words, it ensures that your digital fundraiser’s website ranks highly on Google and that your campaign gets more exposure.

If you aren’t tech-savvy and don’t have much room in your planned marketing budget, don’t worry – updating your website to align with SEO best practices is free and there are many resources to help you get started. According to Google, these elements determine your SERP ranking:

  • Website security
  • Mobile accessibility
  • Speedy load times
  • Quality of on-site content 
  • On-page organization of content
  • Accessibility to visitors of all abilities 

Use your CMS or website builder to gauge your status in these areas. Once you’ve located any weaknesses on your digital fundraiser’s website, determine the scope of your desired changes. For instance, you’ll need to budget more time to completely rewrite your blog content than you’ll need to add alt text to your images. Then, train your team on how to implement the changes and delegate tasks. Note that you won’t see results right away, as it takes Google time to read and rank websites on the SERP.   

5. Apply for the Google Ad Grants program

Your nonprofit can guarantee a desirable spot on the SERP by applying for the Google Ad Grants program. This program awards nonprofits up to $10,000 of prime advertising space on the SERP for free every month. To get started, all you need to do is:

  • Sign up for a Google for Nonprofits account
  • Verify your 501(c)(3) status
  • Apply for the Google Ad Grants program

Once you’re approved, determine which pages you want to promote and which keywords to target. Your nonprofit can then use the $10,000 to bid on relevant keywords against other nonprofits, so target the keywords that are specific to your mission. 

6. Keep your data organized

Any strong digital fundraising strategy is data-driven. But, to properly leverage your data, you need to keep it organized so you can access it when needed. You can clean your CRM by:

  • Identifying and removing duplicate data points
  • Sending a survey to supporters to update contact information and preferences
  • Standardizing processes for maintaining data

With accurate and organized data, your nonprofit can pinpoint which areas of your digital fundraising strategy need further attention and which efforts were successful.

Wrapping Up

Ultimately, your online fundraising success depends on how you leverage digital platforms, such as fundraising management and peer-to-peer software. To launch your new digital fundraising tactics, establish attainable, data-driven, and specific goals with your team. Then, pick the software solutions and strategies that allow you to achieve these objectives. Throughout the process, ensure you’re maintaining constant digital communication with your prospects because you can cultivate a deep relationship with them, even through a screen.

This guide explores how schools can create winning strategies to combine matching gifts and higher education and examples of successful initiatives.

How to Win With Matching Gifts And Higher Education: A Guide

If you work for a higher education institution, you know that marketing your mission is essential to bring in generous donations that fund your school. But did you know you could maximize existing donations through corporate matching gifts?

To pair matching gifts and higher education, you need an actionable plan. That’s where this guide comes in. Here’s what we’ll cover:

Double (and even triple!) your donors’ generous contributions to maximize funding for your institution. Let’s dive in to learn how!

Click this graphic to learn more about how nonprofit marketing can help pair matching gifts and higher education.

How to Get Started With Matching Gifts for Higher Education

When it comes to minimum or maximum gift amounts, gift ratios, and all other matching gift logistics, you might think everything is determined by the donor and their employer. Think again! Your school can pave the way to accepting matching gifts by following these five steps:

This image shows the five steps to launching a matching gift program at a higher education institution.

1. Get your team on board with matching gifts.

Before you can effectively promote matching gifts to your institution’s donors, it’s important to build a solid internal foundation, starting with your fundraising and development team members! Prepare your team for matching gifts by:

  • Presenting all the details: Host a meeting about matching gift fundraising. Explain what it is, the most effective way to implement matching gift fundraising, and how it will help your school achieve its goals.
  • Providing team-wide training: Teach the team how to raise matching gifts and how the new initiative will be incorporated into their roles.
  • Incorporating matching gifts into onboarding: Once your existing team is up-to-date, implement matching gifts training into the onboarding process for new team members as a part of your updated processes.

When you set apart time for team-wide training on matching gifts, you’ll help everyone see the enormous potential of the initiative.

2. Set Your Goals

HubSpot’s goal-setting guide highlights a study that shows that 76% of people who write down their goals and make a list of goal-driven actions achieve what they set out to do. Craft a plan that details your matching gift revenue goals for the year, how you’re going to meet those goals and stay on track, and any deadlines you’ll want to meet in the process.

Consider the SMART goal framework to craft well-thought-out and detailed objectives to follow:

  • Specific: What exactly are you looking to achieve?
  • Measurable: What number would designate success?
  • Attainable: How realistic is your goal?
  • Relevant: How is your goal related to the initiative?
  • Time-bound: What is the deadline for reaching your goal?

For example, “Our matching gifts goal is to collect $10,000 in completed company matches by the end of 2022.” With tangible objectives in place, your team is in a better position to actively work toward those goals.

3. Collect Donor Information

When it comes to matching gifts for higher education and otherwise, donor information is critical. Let’s say you’re performing prospect research to find major donors for your university. As you do this research, include a matching gift specification to target alumni working for companies with matching gift programs. You might look for:

This graphic shows what institutions of higher education should look for when conducting prospect research to identify matching gift opportunities.

  • Employer information: What companies do your prospective donors work for? Do these companies offer matching gift programs?
  • Giving history: Consider your engagement with the alumni who work at companies with matching gift programs. Have these alumni donated to your institution before? If so, how much and how often do they give?
  • Campus involvement: Categorize alumni by their activities during their time as a student. Were they involved in any clubs or activities that might point to an affinity for your school’s mission?

Thorough donor research enables your team to locate high-value matching gift opportunities and leverage an informed perspective of your donor’s capacity to give.

To take your donor research to the next level, request employer appends. For higher ed universities especially, employer appends can be helpful to determine graduation year, email address, or any other missing data that would inform you of your donor’s matching gift eligibility and donation history.

4. Promote the Opportunity

Next, tell people about the opportunity to give! After collecting information about your donors, use a donor database to track all the details you’ve collected. Then, you can segment your communications to ensure different groups of people receive relevant communications.

Whether you’re reaching out to new alumni, older alumni, small- or large-dollar amount donors, or donors who work for top matching gift companies, every message should be different. Consider incorporating the following details into your communications to make personalize your messaging:

  • The donor’s name (or preferred nickname)
  • Their previous engagement or most recent donations
  • Information about their employer’s specific matching gift program guidelines

Sending your donors highly personalized outreach is an effective way to encourage them to participate in their employer’s matching gift program. After all, when you customize your communications to individual donors and create targeted campaigns, you’re more likely to find higher engagement and response rates from your donor pool.

5. Follow Up

After promoting your matching gift initiative, donations should start rolling in. Following up with donors is important for supporter engagement and capturing as many donations as possible, so you should consider it another step in the matching gift process!

Your donors want to know your institution appreciates their gift and that you value them as a supporter, alumni, or whatever their relationship may be. Here are a few keys ways you can do this:

  • Thank your donors for the initial donation. This might seem obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. Thank your donors immediately for their donations. Email is the quickest and most efficient way to do this, but you can also send a printed letter in addition to the initial email confirmation, depending on their donation level and your institution’s budget.
  • Thank your donors for submitting a match request. If you’ve been tracking which donors submit a match request to their employer (which you should be!), make sure you thank them for getting the matching process started. This is a huge step they’ve taken to make their donation go twice as far, so showing your appreciation is crucial.
  • Thank your donors after the company match has been received. Once the company’s matching donation has come through, you owe it to your donors to update them and thank them once again. Let them know their donation has gone twice as far and how much of a difference this has made for your school. This also serves as a point of reference for them so they understand how long the process actually takes.

On the other hand, some people will look into matching gifts and fail to follow through with a donation. Your school can seamlessly reach out to these potential donors and follow up through a matching gifts automation platform.

360MatchPro by Double the Donation’s automated platform tracks matching gift submissions from start to finish. When donors give a gift on your donation form, the platform determines their eligibility for a matching gift using the information they provided. If it finds a link between a donor and a matching gift program, it will trigger a follow-up email to the donor explaining how they can submit a match request.

You’ll be able to choose how often follow-up emails go out and easily track any incomplete matches. That way, your team will be able to spend more time on high-value matching gift opportunities and see more requests through to completion.

How to Promote Matching Gifts and Higher Education

According to Double the Donation’s matching gift statistics, 84% of donors say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered—but 78% of donors don’t know if their company offers a matching gift program! That’s why promoting matching gifts and program basics is extremely important.

Your key audience: alumni donors. If you’re keeping tabs on the employment statuses of your students after graduation, you already have a robust database of potential donors. Plus, those with a connection to your school and its mission will be more motivated to give.

How can you promote matching gifts to alumni donors? Here are a few ideas:

This graphic shows the four channels higher education institutions can use to promote matching gifts.

  • Email communications. Whether you’re sending out an email to thank a donor for their specific gift or sending out an alumni newsletter, it’s important to include information about matching gifts to raise awareness about this giving opportunity.
  • Text messages. For a more personal outreach method (and to guarantee your message will be seen), send a direct text message. This is a great channel to use when bringing up matching gifts since everyone checks their text messages! Plus, matching gifts are so easy to explain, you can grab people’s attention with just one, short text.
  • Direct mail. You likely already send direct mail to students and alumni, so it should be easy to incorporate matching gifts into this communication channel! Include a flyer within your other mailings or send out a postcard that specifically highlights matching gift opportunities.
  • Website. Your website is the hub for all information about your school and various fundraising initiatives. For matching gifts specifically, it might also host your donation form or auto-submission tool. Set up a dedicated matching gifts page to prominently feature matching gifts on your institution’s website.

As an added bonus, you can use other marketing techniques to promote information about your matching gift initiative. For example, promote your landing page on Google to help alumni stumble upon it, even if they’re searching for something else! If search engine marketing (SEM) is the route you want to go, check out Google’s grant program for educational institutions.

Click this graphic to learn how to promote matching gifts and higher education through search engine marketing.

Be sure to demonstrate the impact donations and matching gifts will have on your school. This means specifically noting what certain dollar amounts will go toward.

For example, will $200 go toward new books for the school library? Will $500 go toward establishing a new student scholarship fund? Associating dollar amounts with a tangible item will encourage more donations, which could then be amplified by a company match!

Matching Gift Tools For Your School

Setting goals, promoting matching gifts, and every other step of starting a matching gift initiative can actually become easier if you invest in matching gift software for your school. The right tools will streamline the entire matching gift process from start to finish.

How? Matching gift software gives you direct access to a matching gift database, which offers information on thousands of companies with matching gift programs. Here’s how it works:

This graphic shows what a matching gift database looks like on the website of a higher education institution.

The software’s company name search tool can be embedded anywhere on your website. It allows donors to quickly look up their company’s matching gift program without needing to ask their HR departments or look it up on their own (or even more importantly, without leaving your website).

After making their search, the tool will immediately populate with essential info about the company’s program, such as:

  • Employee eligibility
  • Nonprofit eligibility
  • Minimum and maximum match amounts
  • Match ratios

It will also typically include a link to the company’s matching gift forms so your donors can fill out the match request right then and there. Immediacy is important—donors are most engaged with your school as they’re donating, so offering them a direct link to the necessary forms at that moment will result in more completed match requests.

5 Higher Education Institutions That Mastered Matching Gift Initiatives

Everyone prefers different learning styles, from auditory resources to hands-on learning experiences. If you’re a visual learner, we’ve compiled a list of matching gift initiative examples—that way, you can look at universities that did it well and understand how they succeeded!

These five universities exemplify effective fundraising through matching gifts by utilizing:

This image shows the shared elements of the matching gift initiatives of the five higher education institutions discussed in the text below.

  • University branding
  • Easily accessible navigation
  • Matching gift information
  • Matching gift submission options
  • Company search tool
  • Extra contact information

These five institutions mastered their website’s matching gifts pages and even leveraged other digital marketing channels to draw attention to their matching gift initiatives. Let’s take a look at each one in closer detail!

1. University of Georgia

The University of Georgia made our list because its dedicated matching gifts page offers both educational and actionable information to encourage donors to submit a match request. Here are the top things to note about their page:

  • It’s easily accessible: Users can find UGA’s matching gifts page from the navigation bar (How to Give → Matching Gifts), even if they weren’t looking for it.
  • It’s visually appealing: The page immediately captures attention with a graphic that illustrates how matching gifts can maximize impact.
  • It leverages a company name search tool: UGA has embedded a company name search tool from Double the Donation, which makes it easy for donors to find the information they need about their employer’s matching gift program.
  • It’s informative: UGA’s matching gift page outlines simple instructions for submitting a matching gift, as well as a contact form for any additional questions. They also list some top providers who match donations and matching gift contact information for anyone with questions.

However, UGA’s matching gift efforts aren’t just limited to this page. They’ve also embedded the same matching gift search tool into their donation form, and the tool is branded to match the rest of their page.

UGA sends out automated emails once a match-eligible donor has submitted their donation. This email identifies the donor’s employer and offers direct links to start the matching gift submission process and indicate their status. Additional information about their employer’s matching gift program is listed in the email, as well.

2. Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon offers actionable verbiage and options to encourage donors to match their gifts through their employers. Their matching gifts page is easily accessible from their “Give” page (Ways to Make Your Gift → Matching Gifts). It offers:

  • Brief but useful information about matching gifts, along with instructions on how to submit a matching gift directly to the university or process it online.
  • An embedded search tool (also from Double the Donation), automatically pulls up company names and information once the donor starts typing in it.
  • Contact information, including a phone number, email address, and mailing address, for those who have questions and want to reach out to CMU’s Gift Administration office

But again, the matching gift information isn’t limited to this page. On CMU’s donation form, there’s a checkbox where donors can indicate “My company will match my gift.” If selected, an option to search for the donor’s employer pops up along with the company name search tool.

Carnegie Mellon does an exemplary job of educating their donors and web visitors about matching gifts and guiding them through the process.

3. Utah Valley University

Another great example of a higher ed institution that puts matching gifts front and center during their cultivation and donation process is Utah Valley University. Here’s what their matching gifts page does well:

  • It’s easily accessible from the menu of their main Institutional Advancement page (Ways to Give → Matching Gifts).
  • It provides matching gift basics, including a brief but precise description of what matching gifts are and how donors can search for their company to determine their own eligibility.
  • It includes a company name search tool donors can use to look up their employer’s program.
  • It makes additional help easy to find by displaying the name and contact information of the Director of Annual Giving.

For supporters who are ready to make a donation, UVU offers the same search tool on their donation page. The tool matches the rest of the form and helps donors find their company guidelines on a subsequent page:

UVU also sends out automated emails to donors who have been identified as match eligible. This email identifies:

  • The donor’s employer
  • The steps they can follow to submit a match request
  • Additional contact information
  • Extra information about the specific company’s guidelines

UVU offers numerous ways for donors to learn about matching gifts through multiple channels, as well as provides actionable tools donors can use to submit their match requests.

4. Syracuse University

As soon as donors land on Syracuse University’s matching gifts page, they’re greeted with helpful information about corporate matching gifts and a company name search tool. The page’s top benefits include:

  • Straightforward instructions: Donors can follow the brief and easy instructions on the page to search for their company and click on the appropriate button to submit a match, if they’re eligible.
  • Notable branding: Every element is branded to match the university’s colors, creating a consistent experience for donors and a visually appealing page and form.
  • Prominent call-to-action: To get visitors started on the donation process, the page urges donors to “Give now!” with a prominent button that leads them straight to the donation form.

Syracuse also sends out automated emails to match-eligible individuals who have completed a donation. The emails include specific information about the employer’s matching gift guidelines, including their:

  • Match ratio
  • Minimum and maximum match amounts
  • Employee eligibility
  • Deadlines

Syracuse does an excellent job maintaining a consistent brand, communicating with donors, and guiding them through the matching gift process.

5. University of Michigan

The University of Michigan’s matching gift page can be accessed from the navigation bar of the university’s philanthropy website (Giving → Make an Impact → Matching Gifts). From there, the page offers information about different ways to submit a matching gift request:

  • Use their embedded company name search tool. Donors can read the step-by-step instructions on the page before using the search tool and beginning the gift process.
  • Reach out to the employer directly. The page notes that donors can contact their employer’s human resources department to learn about the company’s matching gift program and the procedures for making a gift.
  • Contact the university. Donors can direct their matching gift questions to the university via email, phone number, or direct mail.

The University of Michigan offers substantial information to its supporters to ensure they understand what matching gifts are, how to determine their eligibility, and what steps they can take to submit a match request.

Additional Matching Gifts and Higher Education Resources

The learning process is never over! If you’re part of a higher education institution and you’re looking for ways to boost your fundraising efforts (with matching gifts or other strategies), check out the following resources:

Click this graphic to learn more about online marketing to promote matching gifts and higher education.

Motivate your employees to work towards a good cause with these four corporate giving events

4 Corporate Giving Events That Teams of Any Size Can Host

 

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the concept that corporations are responsible for addressing social and environmental concerns to make the world a better place. Corporate giving, which falls under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility, allows businesses to contribute to organizations that promote social good (usually nonprofit organizations). Typically, companies organize events encouraging employee giving to maximize their contribution and impact.

Corporate giving directly benefits the nonprofit partner’s worthwhile causes, and these programs can also help your business. For example, after a corporate giving event, your business might enjoy positive publicity from participating in philanthropic activities. This is known as cause marketing and can improve your business’s reputation in your community.

These four corporate giving event ideas can help your business promote social good and take advantage of the benefits of CSR:

  1. Athletic Shoe Drive Fundraiser
  2. In-Kind Donation Drives
  3. Auction Fundraiser
  4. Fun Run

Giving back to your community doesn’t have to be costly or require a large team of volunteers. There are impactful corporate giving events that any team can take part in, no matter what size they are. Let’s dive in!

1. Athletic Shoe Drive Fundraiser

By participating in a Sneakers4Good program, your running store or gym collects gently worn, used and new running shoes to raise money. Encourage your employees to bring in their athletic shoes, and place collection materials in your store or gym to collect sneakers from customers as well.

These fundraisers are very simple. According to Sneakers4Funds’ guide to donating running shoes, you can breakdown the process into four steps:

  • Step 1: Collect gently worn, used and new running shoes from your customers and community.
  • Step 2: Fill shipping bags with the shoes you collect.
  • Step 3: Take the shoe bags to your nearest UPS store to ship to your fundraising coordinator.
  • Step 4: Receive a check in the mail after your shoes are processed and donate the funds to your nonprofit partner.

The Sneakers4Good program is quick and easy to put together, especially if your business works with a facilitator like Sneakers4Funds. Because these fundraisers don’t require a significant investment of time or money, smaller running stores and gyms can still raise money to donate to a worthy cause.

2. In-Kind Donation Drives

In-kind donations are non-financial contributions that businesses or individuals make to mission-driven organizations. These donations usually include supplies or goods the organization needs to further its mission. Here are a few common ways to make in-kind donations:

  • Donating school supplies to a local school
  • Contributing canned goods to a food bank
  • Giving toys to children’s nonprofits during the holiday season
  • Donating running shoes to a sneaker recycling program

Businesses often donate their own products or services to nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations. To increase your business’s impact, market the opportunity to donate items to a mission-driven organization to your customers and employees.

3. Auction Fundraiser

Auctions are a popular corporate giving event. The suspense, fast-paced action, and competition of these events make them one of the most exciting ways to drive employee giving. To make the experience even better for participants, you can add a creative twist to a traditional auction fundraiser.

For example, consider trying one of these innovative ways to host an auction:

  • Silent auction. During a silent auction, guests place bids on items by writing them down on paper or submitting them through the event’s online auction website. According to Handbid’s guide to silent auctions, using an auction website or software to facilitate bidding helps eliminate common issues with paper biddings like illegible handwriting or lost bids. You can pair the auction with another event, like a gala, to make the auction even more exciting.
  • Virtual auction. Virtual auctions take place entirely online, which makes ironing out logistical details much more manageable. You can choose to host the auction over a single night on a synchronous video call with participants or allow participants to bid on the items on your auction site over a few days or weeks.
  • Holiday auction. Take advantage of the “season of giving” during the holidays by creating a holiday-themed auction. Decorate your location with ribbons, bows, and tinsel, and create holiday-themed gift baskets for participants to bid on at the auction. You can even pair this with other holiday activities like cookie decorating or gift swaps to boost the holiday fun.

Many factors go into making an auction successful, including your bidding solution, auction items, and, most importantly, the guests who will bid on the items. Market the event to your employees and customers to drive attendance at your auction.

4. Fun Run

Fun runs are a great way to raise money for a good cause and encourage participants to be active. These events are fairly simple, and all you need is the space to host the run and willing participants. The “fun” element of these runs adds a fun, customizable twist on the traditional 5K race.

If you decide to organize a fun run, consider these tips when planning your event:

  • Stay organized. While simple, this event still has several moving parts you need to track. To ensure nothing slips through the cracks, use a platform like Google’s G Suite to organize your work and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with team members and vendors.
  • Choose an engaging theme. The best part of a fun run is that the “fun” element can be anything. For example, you might schedule the race for October and encourage runners to wear Halloween costumes. Make sure to choose a theme your staff, customers, and other attendees will enjoy.
  • Give your participants fundraising tips. Give participants tips and pointers about the best ways to fundraise for your cause, like leveraging social media to reach members of their social networks who want to give. This can help your participants generate more funds to power your corporate giving program so you can maximize your business’s impact.
  • Invite additional guests. Remind participants to invite other guests (like their friends and family members) to cheer them on as they run. Provide opportunities for these guests to contribute to your cause by adding donation collection tables so you can generate additional revenue outside of your staff and customers’ contributions.

In addition to inviting guests to watch the event, you can also connect with other groups in your community. For example, you could ask your local running club to get involved to boost participation in your event.


Corporate giving events are a great opportunity to bring your business and community together to collect donations that will go to a good cause. Whether you host a shoe drive fundraiser to collect running shoes or organize a fun run, you can make corporate giving events engaging for your staff, customers, and other supporters.


About the Author: Wayne Elsey, Founder and CEO of Sneakers4Funds

Photo of Wayne Elsey Wayne Elsey is the founder and CEO of Elsey Enterprises (EE) and a member of the Forbes Business Development Council. Among his various independent brands, he is also the founder and CEO of Sneakers4Funds, which is a social enterprise that helps schools, churches, nonprofits, individuals and other organizations raise funds while helping to support micro-enterprise (small business) opportunities in developing nations.

Learn 6 advocacy event ideas to raise money for your cause.

Advocacy Events: 6 Fundraisers to Earn More for Your Cause

The key to creating lasting change today is advocacy—speaking up on behalf of members of your community affected by a particular issue. Running a successful advocacy campaign will likely start with mobilizing supporters and educating your community about your cause. To support these efforts, you’ll need to raise funds.

Events are a particularly effective fundraising method for advocacy groups. When you hold a fundraising event, you’ll bring supporters together, spread awareness, and earn funding at the same time. The type of event you choose to hold will depend on your organization’s needs and capabilities, in addition to your supporters’ interests.

To help your advocacy group earn more for your cause, these five fundraising event ideas are a great place to start:

    1. 5K Races
    2. A-Thon Style Events
    3. Auctions
    4. Lectures, Webinars, and Panels
    5. Rallies
    6. Community Art Festival

With the right tools and a solid plan, any of these five events will help you engage donors as you raise the funds you need to support your advocacy campaign. Let’s dive in!

1. 5K Races

Race fundraisers work well in a variety of communities. 5Ks in particular tend to attract large audiences, as there are many ways for participants to get involved. Many 5Ks allow participants to choose whether they want to run in the timed race or walk the race course at their own pace. Supporters who decide not to race can volunteer at the event or donate while they cheer on their friends and family.

Grassroots Unwired’s guide to 5K fundraisers suggests several tips for making your event more effective, such as:

These tips can make your 5K advocacy event more successful.

  • Setting clear fundraising goals. As with any fundraiser, your organization should plan a 5K with specific, measurable goals in mind. For example, you might set goals of increasing your revenue total from last year’s race by 20% and registering 50 new supporters who you can add to your organization’s contact lists.
  • Marketing your event throughout the community. Besides sending out emails and posting on social media, distributing fundraising flyers in your community can be a great way to spread the word about your 5K to new supporters.
  • Securing sponsorships. Asking businesses in your area to sponsor your 5K will help you cover event costs and get necessary supplies (like tents, race course markers, and water bottles). In exchange, you’ll promote them on your marketing materials, helping to associate their names with a good cause. Make sure to choose sponsors whose business values align with your cause.
  • Adding a peer-to-peer component. To bring in additional funding and involve more community members, consider pairing your 5K with a peer-to-peer fundraiser. When supporters sign up to race, ask them to create a fundraising page through your organization’s peer-to-peer software and share it with their friends and family.

Besides using peer-to-peer software, digital event tools that include registration and ticketing features can help your advocacy group organize your 5K. Careful planning and efficient registration is key to a successful race fundraiser.

2. A-thon Style Events

The characteristic all a-thon style fundraising events have in common is that you’ll ask supporters to do a particular activity as much as they can to raise money for your cause. To maximize the funds you bring in, you’ll want to choose an activity that interests your supporters.

To help make this decision, you could send out a survey to supporters asking them to vote on their favorite a-thon style event idea. Some of the most common a-thon events include:

These are six ideas for a-thon style advocacy events.

  • Walk-a-thons
  • Bike-a-thons
  • Swim-a-thons
  • Dance-a-thons
  • Bowl-a-thons
  • Read-a-thons

When deciding which a-thon style event to hold, consider what activities coordinate best with your cause. For example, if you’re advocating for an education-related issue, a read-a-thon would be a great fit. Or, if your cause is related to health, you could try a bike- or swim-a-thon to encourage supporters to be physically active while fundraising.

No matter what event you choose, you’ll need volunteers to run it. Look into volunteer grant opportunities to bring in even more funds. These grants can also help expand your network and get the word out about your cause as you form new relationships with the businesses who provide volunteer grants as well as the volunteers themselves.

3. Auctions

Hosting an auction can also bring your community together while raising funds to support your cause. Auctions are an especially versatile fundraiser—you could host either a silent auction or a live event depending on your organization’s capabilities and your supporters’ interests. You can also decide whether to hold your auction in person, virtually, or in a hybrid format.

Once you’ve decided on your event’s format, you’ll need to procure items for your supporters to bid on. Auctions often attract more attention when they offer items that supporters can’t buy at major retailers, such as:

  • Experiences and services. Highly popular auction items often aren’t physical. These items can range from car wash gift certificates to spa packages to vacations.
  • Goods made by local artists. This category can include paintings, jewelry, furniture, or anything else created in your community. Locally made goods are often one-of-a-kind, making them more valuable. Plus connecting with artists in your community can help you gain even more support for your cause.
  • Prize baskets or bundles. To increase the value of individual items,Handbid’s guide to silent auctions recommends auctioning off several smaller items as one prize basket or bundle. For example, you could put together a movie theater gift certificate, popcorn, candy, and a throw blanket to create a “movie night” prize basket.

Your organization can often get these auction items via in-kind donations from corporate sponsors. Besides featuring your sponsors in your marketing materials leading up to the auction, make sure to mention them during the event and thank them afterward.

4. Lectures, Webinars, and Panels


Educating supporters about your cause is key to a successful advocacy campaign. Hosting an educational fundraising event can serve that purpose and bring in funds at the same time.

Your educational fundraisers can be in-person or virtual events. If you go the in-person route, you’ll want to find a large space where an expert on your cause can give a lecture explaining the history and impact of your target issue. To raise money, charge an admission fee and set up a donation box at the event.

To educate your supporters through a virtual event, try a webinar or panel. Your supporters can attend from the convenience of their homes, and you can bring in speakers from different locations to share their unique insights.

5. Rallies


When considering events related to community advocacy, rallies are probably one of the first that comes to mind. Besides providing an opportunity for supporters to donate, rallies help raise awareness of your cause throughout your community and prompt action.

If you organize a rally, you’ll need to get permission to use a large outdoor space. Find several speakers who can speak to your audience about the cause you’re advocating for and inspire them. Also, prepare educational materials that can be distributed during your rally featuring links or QR codes to your website so supporters can connect with your organization afterwards.

A rally can help strengthen community support for your cause and draw new advocates. It may also attract the attention of the local press, spreading the word about your cause even further. This increase in both support and interest will make contacting policymakers about your cause a natural next step—if the issue has been in the news, they’ll already be aware of it when you reach out, and you’ll have new supporters who you can encourage to call or write to them.

6. Community Art Festival


Every activist has a deep emotional connection to their cause. Allow them to share their passion, connect with other activists, and educate the community by hosting a themed community art festival devoted to your cause.

Raise money with this dynamic fundraising event idea by charging admission, selling food and drink tickets, and selling custom merchandise for the art festival. Remember to place collection boxes and information booths around the venue so guests have ample opportunities to give and learn more about your nonprofit.

If you’re envisioning an average arts and crafts sale when planning the festival schedule, don’t be afraid to think bigger! Art comes in many forms, and the more art you showcase, the more people can participate. Some events you could add to your art festival lineup include:

  • Benefit concert
  • Poetry slam
  • Art gallery
  • Dance showcase
  • Fashion show
  • Film festival

Since activism is about inspiring action, ensure your supporters get the chance to spread the word about your cause to people who aren’t yet aware of your initiatives. Help them forge these connections by offering hands-on art workshops. For instance, if the theme of the art show is environmentalism, an art demonstration could entail creating a sculpture out of recycled materials. Not only does this help attendees better understand your cause but it’s also an effective strategy to enhance your fundraising.

Wrapping Up

The ideas listed above are just five of the possible event fundraisers that your advocacy group could hold. Weigh several event options to choose the best ones based on your organization’s budget and supporter base. As you plan your fundraising events, make sure to invest in the right digital tools to help you earn more for your cause.

This article was contributed by our friends at Grassroots Unwired.

Author: Russ Oster

This article was contributed by Russ Oster of Grassroots Unwired.

Russ’ first experience in the world of grassroots organizing came when he was an infant and his mother pushed him in a stroller door to door to collect signatures for the Impeach Nixon movement. Eighteen years later he embarked on his college career in Washington, DC and during that time developed a passion for campaigns and elections that started with an internship on the campaign of the first woman ever elected to Congress from the State of Virginia. 

For the next 15 years Russ lived and breathed campaigns, running field operations in a wide range of races and for a number of coordinated campaign efforts. When it became obvious to Russ that the technology existed to make field efforts drastically more efficient and accountable but the solutions did not, he launched Grassroots Unwired and has worked every day since to keep GU on the cutting edge, pushing new features and enhancements to meet the needs of ever evolving grassroots organizing efforts.

Check out these five impactful nonprofit marketing ideas your organization needs to effectively promote its cause.

5 Nonprofit Marketing Ideas You Need to Promote Your Cause

Reach out to Getting Attention to kick off one of these innovative marketing ideas.

 

Nonprofit marketing is the key to growing your organization, gaining support, and having people show up to your events. Without marketing, there’s no way for people to know about your nonprofit and all the great work you’re doing.

It can be difficult to come up with effective marketing strategies for a variety of reasons. Maybe you’ve been in the marketing world for a while and feel like your marketing plan could use a refresh. Perhaps you’re constrained by your organization’s small marketing budget. Or maybe you’re completely new to the nonprofit marketing space and have no idea where to start.

Whatever your position is, we’re here to offer a comprehensive list of nonprofit marketing ideas to choose from to help you successfully promote your organization’s work. Take a look at the categories we’ll go over:

Whether your organization needs low-cost ideas to fit its tight budget or is looking for a way to connect with more supporters, there is a marketing idea that can work for you.

Let’s get started!

What is Nonprofit Marketing?

Nonprofit marketing is the process of strategizing and planning ideas that will help your organization spread its reach and mission, obtain donations, and recruit supporters like volunteers, board members, and event attendees.

While nonprofit marketing is necessary for all organizations, it’s not always easy. You must be organized and focused on the goals you have for your nonprofit. Once you figure out the nonprofit marketing tactics that work for your nonprofit, they can help your organization by:

  • Spreading awareness of your mission. At the heart of your organization is your mission or cause. Nonprofit marketing can let people know what your organization is working so hard to achieve.
  • Securing donations. The more you can share your organization and its mission with others, the more potential donations you can receive.
  • Building relationships with donors. Of course, any monetary contributions your organization can obtain are useful, but recurring donations allow for a more stable income. If you can communicate with your donors effectively, they’ll be more likely to continue supporting your organization.
  • Gaining other supporters. Volunteers, board members, and event attendees offer valuable support just like donors do. Effective nonprofit marketing ideas can help you reach all kinds of people who are willing to assist you in achieving your mission.
  • Showcasing your services. Knowing exactly what your organization provides will inspire people to contribute to your nonprofit, and a comprehensive marketing plan can help highlight your services.

With innovative nonprofit marketing ideas, your organization can take advantage of these five benefits.

Now that you know just how useful the right nonprofit marketing ideas can be, we’ll go over some strategies for how to use them effectively. We’ve split these ideas into different categories based on the overall outcome they will have for your organization:

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas For Developing Your Organization’s Mission

A clear mission statement provides the basis for the values that govern what your organization does, how your employees approach their work, and how others see your organization.

Here’s how to get started with crafting your nonprofit’s mission:

These six tips will help your organization build a strong nonprofit mission statement.

  • Incorporate storytelling. It’s the classic dilemma: showing people the work your organization has done is way better than just telling them the services you provide. Gather stories and quotes from those your organization helps so that people can develop a personal connection to your organization. Seeing the impact your organization has on real people will help others understand exactly what they could contribute to.
  • Develop a stable marketing plan or strategy. Staying organized for any task requires making a plan, and marketing is no different. A comprehensive nonprofit marketing plan will map out what you want to achieve in the near and distant future to give your efforts some direction.
  • Exude confidence. If you want people to become a part of your organization, then you need to first believe in your work yourself. List your organization’s strengths so that people can see all the ways you excel as a nonprofit. In turn, people will be more willing to support your organization since it gives off a robust and self-assured image.
  • Create an original nonprofit tagline. It’s important to be able to sum up your mission in a short phrase or sentence. That way, people interested in your work can quickly get a sense of what it’s all about.
  • Come up with design, personality, and attitude guidelines. Cohesiveness is key. Not only do you want your marketing materials to match your mission, but the way your employees act should as well. Be clear with how you want your employees to represent your organization so that everyone knows your standards.
  • Provide information about your nonprofit’s goals and progress. Being transparent about what your organization is trying to achieve and the results you’ve gotten so far will help people to get a sense of where their help could fit in. It’s also just good practice for your nonprofit to be honest and forthcoming about its operations.

Once you have a good understanding of your organization’s mission, it’s time to get online and spread the word.

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas For Using Technology Effectively

In today’s media age, productive technology use is the key to marketing success. Using technology effectively can amplify your organization’s outreach even further and spread your mission to more people. Try out these tech-savvy nonprofit marketing ideas:

Text Messaging

With a 99% open rate and 90% read rate within just three minutes of sending, text messaging guarantees that your supporters won’t just open your messages and move on with their day. Instead, they will read and act on them.

To set up a winning text messaging campaign, you’ll need the right software and strategies. Here are a few best practices from Tatango’s guide to text-to-give:

  • Leverage comprehensive text fundraising software. Look for a provider with a full suite of user-friendly tools to create your text messaging campaigns, including automation, segmentation, scheduled sending, and real-time data reports. The right software will also ensure that your text messaging campaigns are compliant with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) so you don’t have to pay any unnecessary fees.
  • Choose a relevant text-to-give keyword. Your keyword is a word or brief phrase that supporters will text to your designated short- or long-code to opt into your campaign. The best keywords are both relevant and easy to spell and market. For example, a higher education institution could use the keyword “ALUMNI” for their alumni fundraising campaign.
  • Build your contact list. Market your text-to-give keyword and code widely across multiple marketing platforms so you can encourage different audiences to opt in. For example, you can advertise your text messaging campaign on your website’s donation page, on your social media, and in your direct mail.
  • Collect and analyze donor data. Assess how effective your text messaging campaign is over time by collecting metrics, such as the average donation amount, how frequently donors text-to-give to your cause, and donor lapses. This will help you identify any gaps in your strategy and optimize your approach to better engage and motivate donors to give.

Remember that the donation page you link to in your text-to-give campaign should be mobile-friendly. Because supporters will be navigating to the page on their mobile devices, you’ll need to make the process as quick and easy as possible.

Website

It’s important to have a strong nonprofit website to showcase your organization and cause. Here are some website nonprofit marketing ideas:

  • Make a website. A well-designed website for your organization is the most widely recognized, versatile online marketing tool. Ensure that yours is easy to use and features all the up-to-date information that potential donors, volunteers, employees, supporters, and clients need to learn about your organization.
  • Create a blog. Content marketing is a great way to share what’s going on within your organization and provide relevant information about your industry. Writing lots of blog content will show that you’re a reputable source for industry and nonprofit-related topics.
  • Write engaging copy. To make your copy easy to follow, break it up with graphics and try to be as concise as possible. It can also help your copywriters if you indicate what you’re envisioning for your brand’s voice and tone.
  • Work on your content’s SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, is what ensures your content gets found on Google and other search engines. Find relevant terms people are searching for through keyword research and incorporate them into your website and blog.

While these ideas are an effective way to strengthen your site, there are plenty of other nonprofit marketing strategies out there.

Social Media

Social media is the perfect way to engage with your younger supporters. Check out these nonprofit marketing ideas for social media:

  • Build out your social media accounts. Social media is always changing, but it’s important to stay on top of the trends and new platforms. As of right now, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat are the places to be. Lean into trends and adapt them to your organization for a fun yet relevant social media presence.
  • Make videos. Videos often allow you to portray and elicit emotion in a way that images can’t. If you have the resources to do so, try creating a short video related to your mission and post it on YouTube, your website, and your social media channels.
  • Establish a connected online presence. Connect your website, blog, and social media accounts to provide a cohesive user experience. For example, provide the link to your website in the bio of your social media accounts and feature your social media accounts on the homepage of your website.

After you have developed your nonprofit’s website and social media accounts, remember to follow all general digital marketing best practices.

General Online Nonprofit Marketing Ideas

Finally, take a look at these general nonprofit marketing ideas to improve your organization’s online presence:

  • Encourage peer referrals with fundraising eCards. Design online greeting eCards for every occasion, so your supporters have plenty of options to choose from throughout the year. Be sure to connect each design to your cause by infusing brand elements like your logo, fonts, and graphics related to your work. Then, you can either offer them for free or in exchange for donations, so people can share how much they love your cause with their friends and families.
  • Include clear calls to action. To inspire action, tell people how they can help create change. Maybe you include a button in one of your blog posts linking to your donation page. Perhaps you add an event registration link to your email newsletter. Making it easy for people to take the actions you want them to make it more likely that they’ll respond accordingly.
  • Take advantage of virtual events. The boom of video chatting platforms in the workplace has opened up doors for virtual events. Now, you can plan an event that reaches hundreds or thousands of people all around the world. Host a panel or share some updates about your organization with your supporters for an engaging online experience.

Smart technology use can push your mission forward and help you gain support. However, it can get expensive to create so much content across different platforms, so it’s important to know how to budget your marketing plan.

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas For Keeping Costs Down

Nonprofits are typically on tight budgets, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t market their causes effectively. They just need to be smart about how they use their funds. Here are some ways you can promote your organization while keeping costs low:

This graphic highlights five cost-saving nonprofit marketing ideas your organization can use to save money.

  • Create a marketing budget. Allocate your resources where they will be most useful, and stay aware of how much money your organization has available to spend.
  • Print strategically. Consider what truly needs to be printed, aim to print double-sided pages whenever possible, and implement batch printing.
  • Unbrand direct mail. Cut spending by avoiding branded envelopes, but make it clear that the letter came from your organization so recipients won’t think it’s junk mail and toss it.
  • Add a “Donate Now” button to your Facebook page. If your nonprofit qualifies, Facebook will add the button to your page for free.
  • Team up with a local business to offset marketing costs. Local businesses are often happy to pair up with nonprofits as a way to give back to their community.

Keeping costs down where you can ensure that you can set aside the funds you need for bigger marketing projects and more expensive resources.

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas For Advertising Your Nonprofit

There are so many different nonprofit marketing ideas for advertising your organization’s services and making sure they’re put in front of the right audiences. This is great news because it means your organization can pick and choose the tactics that fit your nonprofit best. Check out some nonprofit marketing ideas for advertising your organization:

Online

Marketing your nonprofit online will allow you to reach a larger audience. Here are some nonprofit marketing ideas for spreading the word online:

  • Use Google Ad Grants. The Google Ad Grant program provides eligible organizations with $10,000 per month in Google Ad spending at no cost. You just have to apply, create your ads, and you’re good to go! However, you must maintain your account and follow all program requirements. If you need help with your Google Ad Grants account, schedule a free consultation with us.
  • Encourage peer-to-peer fundraising. Peer-to-peer fundraising is when individuals raise money for a nonprofit by reaching out to friends and family. Social media has made peer-to-peer fundraising even easier by building fundraising options on apps like Instagram and Facebook. For birthdays, holidays, memorials, or no occasion at all, individuals who are passionate about your organization can raise money for your cause.
  • Analyze your data. Track and review data such as clickthrough rate and time spent on each page to see if you can find any patterns and improve your marketing efforts. This nonprofit marketing idea can be especially useful when planning your advertising budget so that you can see where money needs to be allocated.

While it’s important to advertise your nonprofit online, there are still helpful ways to expand your organization’s reach using offline methods.

Offline

Combine your online marketing efforts with these offline nonprofit marketing ideas:

  • Sell branded merchandise. Turn your supporters into walking advertisements for your organization! Get creative with your merchandise to make it something that your supporters will love so others will get curious about your nonprofit.
  • Find brand ambassadors. Choosing a leader in your nonprofit to be the face of the organization can help with brand recognition and familiarize people with your nonprofit. Additionally, recruiting supporters or influencers to be brand ambassadors for your nonprofit is a great way to spread the word about your organization.
  • Give people a personalized experience. Whether that’s sending a letter to a donor thanking them for their support or reaching out to a supporter to deepen your relationship with them, customize the experience. People respond better when they know you took the time to give them something special.
  • Emulate larger organizations. Check out more established organizations’ blogs and scroll through their social media pages to get an idea of the progression of their organization.These are seven online and offline nonprofit marketing ideas you can use to promote your organization.

Mixing up your advertising methods is a great way to reach many different people. It also allows you to learn more about your audience and which marketing efforts they respond to best.

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas For Fostering Stakeholder Relationships

All of your supporters are important, but developing relationships with partners and donors will strengthen your organization’s network and broaden your reach. Take a look at some of our marketing ideas for nonprofits looking to recruit more partners and donors:

These six nonprofit marketing ideas will help you develop deeper relationships with your supporters.

Welcoming Partners and Donors

From the very beginning, you’ll want your new supporters to feel welcome in your organization’s community. Try out these nonprofit marketing ideas for new partners and donors:

  • Send a welcome package. Include helpful information about your organization and partner or donor program. Additionally, you’ll want to give them some fun branded merchandise such as a t-shirt, pen, or mug. Doing so can get people excited about working with you and show how much you appreciate them from the very start.
  • Take them out for a meal. Having lunch or coffee with a partner or donor is a great way to develop a relationship with them. You can show them that you care about getting to know them face-to-face, tell them a little more about your organization, and ask for feedback about your nonprofit.
  • Remind them of matching gift opportunities. If a donor’s employer is willing to match their donation, you could receive double the funding for your organization. It’s best for donors to use software that will inform them of matching gift opportunities beforehand, but it doesn’t hurt to them let know after they have made their donation to see if their employer can help.

Once you develop relationships with your partners and donors, it’s important to keep them strong.

Maintaining the Relationship

Keeping your relationships with your supporters is an essential part of your nonprofit’s success. Take a look at these nonprofit marketing ideas to help you maintain stakeholder relationships:

  • Thank your supporters and sponsors with greeting cards. Recognize your supporters for their commitment to your cause with eCards. Send cards during key times, like after they make a major donation or attend an event. Digital cards are also perfect to send during the year-end holiday season.
  • Be strategic with the timing of your messages. It’s important to build a regular email rapport with your partners and donors, whether that be by reaching out to them individually to chat or sending an email newsletter. However, make sure you look into the best time to send these messages. This may depend on the age, career, lifestyle, and time zone of your partners and donors.
  • Reach out to lapsed donors. Just because a donor hasn’t contributed in a while doesn’t mean that they’ve lost interest in your organization. Sometimes, donors are just busy or don’t have your organization on their minds. Sending them a gift or explaining how your donor program has changed can help to re-engage lapsed donors.

Forming relationships with supporters is one thing, but keeping them requires effective communication and dedicated donor stewardship efforts. Apply these nonprofit marketing ideas to your outreach to make sure you’re doing everything you can to create lasting connections with your supporters.

Additional Resources

Developing and implementing a marketing strategy can be a lot for a nonprofit to take on, but these nonprofit marketing ideas will give you a solid foundation on which to build. From solidifying your organization’s mission to fostering relationships with your supporters, there are so many ways to promote your nonprofit and make it stand out to prospects.

While we were able to give you a quick glimpse into several marketing ideas for nonprofits, you might want some more information about them. Below we’ve highlighted some resources about ideas that we mentioned:

This guide will cover top donor outreach strategies to transform your nonprofit’s outreach.

9 Donor Engagement Strategies to Transform Your Outreach

Nonprofits rely on donors’ generosity to fund their mission programming and cover operating overhead costs. But an organization can’t expect to sit back and watch the revenue roll in without first outlining how they’ll identify donors, market their missions to them, and build relationships with them—which is where thoughtful donor engagement strategies come in.

A donor’s engagement extends beyond their donations. With the right tactics in place, you can transform them into lifelong ambassadors of your cause. On the other hand, failure to properly cultivate relationships with them means you’ll potentially lose their interest and their support altogether.

To help, we’ll walk you through the basics of engaging donors and explore proven methods that are known to drive nonprofit support, including:

At Getting Attention, we empower nonprofits to connect with new prospects and promote valuable opportunities using the Google Ad Grant program. Through our time working with nonprofits, we’ve seen how different tactics drive results for nonprofits.

We’re confident this guide will give everything you need to better connect with your supporters and drive increased support in your fundraising initiatives. Let’s get started!Get a consultation to learn how you can use the Google Ad Grant as a donor engagement strategy.

What Is Donor Engagement?

Donor engagement refers to the process of building and maintaining relationships between a nonprofit and its donors. This includes all interactions that encourage donors to become more invested and involved in the organization, including communications, events, volunteer opportunities, and fundraisers.

The primary goal of a donor engagement plan is to cultivate loyal relationships with donors by forging deeper connections. The more you engage donors, the more likely they are to stick around for the long term. In other words, their engagement directly impacts your donor retention rate.

To increase commitment, nonprofits often experiment with different donor engagement strategies like unique marketing tactics and public recognition to improve fundraising outcomes.

Why Nonprofits Should Track Donor Engagement

We’ve all heard that retaining a donor is more cost-effective than soliciting donations from first-time donors. New donors need countless touchpoints before deciding to give whereas current donors have already demonstrated an affinity for your cause and need less convincing.

Plus, due to fluctuating donor retention rates and increased marketing costs, the price of replacing lapsed donors has skyrocketed. As a result, losing donors is unaffordable for many organizations.

Tracking donor engagement is imperative to your mission’s continued success. Specifically, here’s what tracking donor engagement will enable your team to do:

This graphic explains the importance of engaging donors and tracking key engagement metrics.

  • Divide your supporters into meaningful donor segments. Send relevant appeals by grouping donors based on their donation tiers, donation frequency, and interests.
  • Identify areas to upgrade support. Locate major giving prospects by paying attention to long giving histories, notably high wealth indicators, and high engagement scores.
  • Create personalized acknowledgment and solicitations. Send targeted follow-up outreach that aligns with donors’ support levels and appeals to what they love about your organization.
  • Get ahead of potential lapses. Monitor people who have downgraded their support, whether they’re attending fewer events or stopped donating altogether.

Tracking the right details will allow your nonprofit to cultivate meaningful relationships and reduce the number of lapsed donors. Overall, investing sufficient time and energy can help you establish a solid foundation for your mission.

Signals That Measure Donor Engagement

Donor engagement expands far beyond financial contributions. While consistent giving is a top engagement indicator, there are several other factors that communicate donor involvement.

Using a powerful CRM and other digital tools, your nonprofit can track a range of donor engagement signals, like:

These are the most common donor engagement signals nonprofits should track.

  • Gift amount and frequency
  • Recent upgrades or downgrades in donation size
  • Event attendance
  • Response rates
  • Hours volunteered
  • Social media interactions
  • Matching gift eligibility
  • Survey responses
  • Email subscription status and open rate
  • Website visits and time on site

As you can see, both financial and non-financial indicators can signal donor engagement. Using your CRM alongside other tools like Google Analytics for monitoring web traffic, you can identify donors who are at risk of disengagement or who are ready to upgrade their support.

For example, let’s say another donor consistently donates $50 on a regular basis, interacts with your social media posts, and fills out your surveys. They may be a great candidate for recurring giving. Monitoring the right metrics allows you to identify these upgrade opportunities!

9 Donor Engagement Strategies to Drive Support

With the fundamentals nailed down, you’re ready to craft a plan for engaging donors! Knowing what drives your supporters to stick around will help you interact meaningfully and communicate that your organization cares about its supporters.Check out these nine donor engagement strategies.

Remember, each nonprofit’s donors are unique, so every organization finds success in different donor engagement strategies. Tailor your approach to your supporters, and you’ll be on the right path.

1. Google Ad Grants

If your nonprofit isn’t already leveraging Google Ad Grants in its marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with existing and prospective donors. Here’s what getting involved in the program entails:

  1. Google offers up to $10,000 in free advertising credits to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations per month.
  2. Your nonprofit leverages this in-kind advertising space to promote your cause and its fundraising efforts to supporters by targeting specific keywords.
  3. A (potential or existing) supporter conducts a Google search for a term related to your nonprofit.
  4. Your nonprofit’s website shows up in the top spot on Google’s search engine results page.
  5. The supporter clicks through to your nonprofit’s site and decides to get involved with your cause, such as by making a donation.

Our guide to Google Ad Grant impact shows that search ads (like Google Ads) have the highest ROI for nonprofits using paid advertising among other platforms. And since 98% of searchers click a result on page 1 of Google, you stand to gain a lot of exposure for your digital content.

Most searchers click on a result on page one of Google, making Google Ad Grants a great way to engage donors.

Google Ad Grants are essential for increasing donor engagement on two key fronts⁠: attracting new supporters and providing additional engagement opportunities for existing supporters.

By utilizing the free ad space made available by the world’s most popular search engine, your organization can put your cause in front of tons of new and recurring donors, opening up even more chances for building on those relationships.

Get a consultation to chat about using the Google Ad Grant as part of your donor engagement strategies.

2. Matching gifts

Matching gifts are an extremely effective type of corporate philanthropy that places individual donors at the heart of their employers’ giving strategies. They help to deepen both corporate and donor relationships with your nonprofit.

Here’s how these workplace giving programs typically work:

  1. An individual donor gives to your nonprofit.
  2. You encourage the donor to look into their matching gift eligibility through their employer by providing access to a matching gift database or asking them to contact their company directly.
  3. Upon determining their matching gift eligibility, the donor completes a quick online submission form to request their donation match.
  4. The employer reviews the request and verifies that the initial donation adheres to pre-determined matching criteria.
  5. A matching donation is provided by the donor’s employer, so your nonprofit receives two gifts for the price of one.

Highlighting matching gift opportunities is one of the most effective ways to engage donors⁠—and there’s a ton of research to back this up.

In fact, research shows that 84% of donors are more likely to donate if a match is offered, with 1 in 3 donors indicating they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied.

Not to mention, following up with matching gift donors after their initial contribution provides your nonprofit with an additional touch point for reminding donors of your mission. And, having a successful corporate philanthropy partnership with a business can lead to further opportunities in the future, such as sponsorships.

3. Online greeting cards

Engaging donors requires you to get creative. Digital greeting cards might be just what you need to capture supporters’ attention! When you spend time creating visually-attractive designs, your eCards can act as an easy, cost-effective, and interactive way to engage donors.

Boost donor engagement by offering digital greeting cards.

There are a few ways you can leverage eCards in your donor engagement plan, including:

  • Provide cards as donation incentives. Give your donors a fun reason to give! eCardWidget’s guide to charity eCards explains that you have a few options for using eCards for fundraising. For one, you could sell your eCards in your online fundraising store. Alternatively, add them to your website where donors can give in exchange for eCards.
  • Send cards to thank donors. Showing appreciation for donors can go a long way in retaining their support. Have your fundraising staff send thank-you eCards as a way to recognize your committed supporters after they donate or during the holiday season.

We recommend that you create designs for every occasion. Create a mission awareness collection to amplify a cause awareness campaign, holiday cards to celebrate important days year-round, and tribute cards to let individuals give in someone else’s name. Your options are endless! Donors will appreciate having a fun, interactive way to support your cause and share it with their loved ones.

If you’re offering them in exchange for donations, make sure your online greeting card creation platform allows you to enable donations. No matter your approach, be sure to brand each eCard to your cause, even if you only add your logo to the corner.

4. Peer-to-peer giving

Organizations hosting peer-to-peer campaigns are able to reach new donors (via existing supporters who take on a fundraising role for your nonprofit) while offering one of the most engaging ways for existing supporters to participate.

Equipped with customizable donation pages from the organization’s peer-to-peer platform, supporters then reach out to their own networks of friends and family members to solicit donations for a cause they care about.

First-time donors are more likely to contribute when asked by peers, rather than directly by your organization. Donately’s guide to peer-to-peer fundraising explains that “even if they’re unfamiliar with your work, they can still form a personal connection thanks to the power of social proof.” That means this donor engagement strategy enables your team to get in touch with new supporters you may not have won over on your own.

All the funding goes to your organization’s mission, and you’re left with a ton of donors who are highly engaged with the cause. From there, you can work to continue building connections with new and existing individuals through additional donor engagement ideas.

5. Volunteer opportunities

Even your most dedicated donors don’t want their only communication with your team to be additional requests for funding. That’s why it’s an excellent idea to offer unique opportunities for involvement with your mission.

And one of the best ways to do so is by encouraging donors to participate in volunteer opportunities! This can be an excellent way for donors to see your cause in a new light.

Not to mention, you can even monetize this donor engagement strategy by highlighting the potential for volunteer grants. Many donors (especially those previously determined to be eligible for matching gifts) work for companies that provide financial support to the nonprofits their employees volunteer with.

6. Donor appreciation

Two of the most common reasons why donors stop giving to nonprofit organizations they’ve supported in the past are:

  1. They were never thanked for their gift.
  2. They were not informed about how the funding was being used.

Both of these undersights together can lead a donor to believe that the nonprofit in question didn’t really need their donation in the first place. ⁠As a result, donor engagement may decrease.

Luckily, effectively communicating appreciation for your donors can assist in solving all of the above problems. You’ll want to thank each individual donor for supporting your nonprofit with their hard-earned dollars through meaningful outreach via a variety of methods, such as:

  • A handwritten thank-you letter. Show a little extra effort by writing thank-you messages the old-fashioned way. It’ll add personality to your note and remind donors that they’re supporting an organization comprised of real people.
  • A video message. Think outside the box and create a more dynamic thank-you message for donors. Feature your nonprofit’s staff, supporters, board members, and even beneficiaries (with their permission). Not only are videos impactful, but they’re easy to make; all you need is a mobile device with a camera to shoot, edit, and send video thank-you messages.
  • Access to exclusive content and opportunities. After you’ve thanked your supporters, you can show further appreciation by providing unique content they can’t get anywhere else. For instance, invite them to meet and greets with beneficiaries, special webinars with nonprofit influencers, and other interesting chances to engage further with your mission.
  • Donor appreciation days. Who doesn’t love a party? Donor appreciation days allow you to pull out all the stops for your supporters. Make it a night to remember with free food trucks, games, goodie bags, and live entertainment. Or, you can organize an outing to a fun community activity, such as the zoo or a sports game.
  • Addition to a donor wall. Your donors want to leave their mark on your nonprofit, and you can symbolize this connection with a donor wall. Create different tiers based on the value of the donor’s contributions and add them to it on an annual basis. You can even host an inauguration ceremony for new additions to make your donors feel special.
  • Donor gifts. Re:Charity’s expansive list of donor gift ideas explains that thoughtful gifts help to show appreciation and that you value your relationships with donors. Gifts can include branded merchandise, gift cards, or tickets to activities.

Not only is thanking your donors the polite thing to do, but it also helps close the loop and reiterate to the donor that you received and processed their contribution successfully. So long as you show genuine appreciation for your supporters, you can cultivate lasting relationships with them and retain their support long-term.

7. Segmentation and personalization

Unfortunately, a donation appeal that begins with “Dear donor” or “To whom this may concern” and ends with a generic request of $5, $10, $25, or $50 is not likely to produce great results. That’s because it won’t elicit the emotional connections that are required for effective fundraising nowadays.

Why not? An effective ask needs to incorporate strategic segmentation and personalization⁠—two things that, when done well, can go particularly far for your donor engagement plan. It’s what makes a donation request feel like an intimate appeal to an essential partner in your organization’s mission (which, as you know, is what your donors are).

In order to drive donor engagement, segment your communications. You should group donors by specific characteristics to receive targeted information relevant to that slice of your network. Common segments might include:

Tracking donor engagement allows you to segment your donors into meaningful groups.

  • Donation level (including frequency and amount)
  • Geographic region
  • Interests (e.g., lifestyles, attitudes, and mission engagement preferences like events or monthly gifts)
  • Preferences (including communication preferences and preferred involvement opportunities)

Further, you should also personalize your communications to each individual. That may include addressing the recipient by name, referring to a recent donation, or acknowledging how long the donor has been involved with your organization.

8. Unique fundraising ideas

Choosing unique, exciting, and refreshing fundraisers is an essential part of engaging donors! And that’s not saying you have to drop your tried-and-true fundraising ideas, either. Just try sprucing them up to make them stand out, and your audience will be more than happy to participate.

A few ways to spice up your existing fundraising ideas include:

  • Incorporate a fun theme. For example, if you usually host a fun run in the fall, consider getting into the holiday spirit with a Halloween costume theme. This will help set your fundraiser apart from others.
  • Add entertainment. While your fundraiser surely has a main event, don’t be afraid to add side entertainment and activities to keep attendees engaged. For instance, add a concession stand to your fun run, or incorporate a wine tasting at your next gala.
  • Implement gamification. To get attendees to emotionally invest in your event, implement gamification elements so they further connect with your fundraiser. This could mean incorporating a fundraising thermometer so attendees can visually see the impact of their gifts, encouraging them to make larger gifts.

Aside from these strategies, you can also consider taking your in-person fundraising events virtual. By doing so, you’ll be able to connect with more supporters all across the country and even the globe. Or, if you’re intimidated by the thought of an entirely online event, you could make your next event hybrid instead.

9. Powerful storytelling

The story you tell about your nonprofit and its mission is essential for securing and retaining donor support.

To bring your strategic storytelling practices to the next level and inspire more supporters to get involved, it’s important to incorporate essential storytelling elements. Include these three fundamental components:

  • A group or person in need of aid (your organization’s beneficiaries)
  • A compelling hero (your nonprofit’s team and the donors who support your work)
  • A key solution (what your organization does to make a difference).

From there, you’ll also want to include supporting data, an emotional narrative, sensory details, and relevant imagery when possible.

The idea is that donors feel connected to the story and desire to play a role in the solution⁠—thus, supporting (or continuing to support) your organization in its work!


Final Thoughts on Donor Engagement

Your donor base forms an essential component of your overall nonprofit organization, and their engagement with your cause is critical for continuous mission success. A highly engaged donor is more likely to contribute to your cause time and time again⁠—so you don’t want to settle for base-level efforts.

Luckily, utilizing donor engagement strategies like workplace giving promotions, strategic fundraising, and cost-effective marketing can make a huge difference. That means it’s time to begin incorporating these ideas into your donor engagement plan and make sure you equip your team with the tools required to do so effectively!

Want to learn more about engaging donors in your nonprofit organization? Browse these additional resources:

Get started with Getting Attention so you can leverage the Google Ad Grant to promote donor engagement opportunities.

Matching gifts despite economic downturns and how corporate funding remains steady

Matching Gifts Remain Steady (If Not Growing) Despite Economic Downturns

Effective fundraising can be difficult in the best of times, and strenuous economic circumstances can throw a wrench in any organization’s well-laid-out plans. That said, matching gift programs remain a top source of funding for many nonprofits, and matching gifts despite economic downturns is entirely possible.

In order to best craft a matching gift strategy for your organization, it’s essential to both look at past examples and cite probable trends for the future.

Which is why, in this guide, we’ll share valuable insights into the following:

The good news is this ⁠— research shows that matching gift opportunities remain steady and are likely to continue doing so. At the same time, it’s important to equip your team with the knowledge surrounding matching gift programs, their current status in the nonprofit sector, and what you can do to set your mission up for success.

Let’s begin.

What We’ve Learned From Previous Economic Downturns

Since the conclusion of the Great Depression in 1939, the U.S. has fallen into thirteen economic recessions. In the most recent circumstances, we’ve seen the effects that difficult national (and even global) financial crises have had on one of the most popular forms of corporate philanthropy⁠—matching gifts.

Luckily, the evident impact has been largely positive, which is a benefit to the companies, their employees, and nonprofit causes around the world.

Matching Gifts in the Great Recession

The Great Recession, which occurred from December of 2007 to June of 2009, was one of the first to take place while matching gift programs were a commonplace type of philanthropy. And while many were concerned about companies taking away the giving opportunities, this didn’t tend to be the case.

In the words of Aron Cramer, president and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility, “This recession is wiping away a lot of things, but so far, corporate responsibility seems to be a survivor.” Looking back on the happenings, we’re glad to report that corporate giving continued to thrive throughout the downturns.

Here’s what a few well-known companies had to say (and do) concerning corporate giving in the 2008 recession:

General Electric is an example of a company continuously matching gifts despite economic downturns.General Electric — According to its 2008 annual report, the GE Foundation reallocated an additional $20 million to increase its support for organizations providing communities with basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. In fact, General Electric’s overall philanthropic giving grew by 13.6% as compared to the previous year⁠—despite a stock price decrease of 55%.

In the words of GE’s Chairman and CEO at the time, Jeffrey Immelt, “When we come out of this fog, this notion that companies need to stand for something – they need to be accountable for more than just the money they earn – is going to be profound.”

Starbucks is an example of a company continuously matching gifts despite economic downturns.Starbucks ⁠— In December of 2008, Howard Schultz, at-the-time CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, published a contributor piece in the Huffington Post outlining his passionate belief in the participation of corporate social responsibility. Amidst the economic downturn of the time, Schultz proclaimed that it was not the time to cut giving and other social contributions.

In his own words, the Starbucks CEO stated, “With that mindset comes the false belief that investments in people and training can wait; that corporate social responsibility can be put on the back burner.” And the idea is reflected in Starbucks’ matching gift data, as well! Not only did the company retain its matching gift program despite overall financial hardship, but it saw a 28.6% increase in matching gift totals from year over year (source: 2007 and 2008 Global Impact Reports).

Matching Gifts + COVID-19

The next recession seen by the U.S. took place between February and April of 2020 and was the direct effect of the coronavirus pandemic during the same time period. And again, many were pleasantly surprised at the charitable responses taken by tons of businesses, small and large.

Check out these companies’ matching gift responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn:

AbbVie is an example of a company continuously matching gifts despite economic downturns.AbbVie ⁠— In order to aid in COVID-19 relief efforts, global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie opted to significantly increase its charitable contributions to nonprofit causes amidst the pandemic outbreak. In late March of 2020, the company announced a $35 million donation above and beyond its existing nonprofit funding⁠. This was in addition to an expanding matching gift program for its employees, offering to match team member donations at a 2:1 rate, rather than its typical dollar-for-dollar approach.

According to chairman and chief executive officer, Richard A. Gonzalez, “AbbVie is making this donation to nonprofit partners that will have an immediate and significant positive impact in communities that have been hit hardest by this unprecedented crisis. Our 30,000 AbbVie team members around the world are proud to be able to help make a difference in the fight against this virus.”

General Mills is an example of a company continuously matching gifts despite economic downturns.General Mills ⁠— General Mills, Inc. similarly chose to increase its employee matching gift program in response to COVID-19 as a way to further motivate its employees to give back to their communities. In March of 2020, the company increased its maximum matching gift amount per employee by 50%. Not to mention, when you consider General Mills’ already-established 2:1 match ratio, the company set its employees up to continue making a significant difference, resulting in over four times their initial donations’ impact.

Mary Jane Melendez, president of the General Mills Foundation, reported the following: “As a company, we have the values, insights, and partners to positively impact the lives of millions of people worldwide during this unprecedented time as the world navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. These grants will help expand food access and lend added support for many of our communities around the world.”

And it didn’t end there, either! Double the Donation compiled a list of even more key companies that chose to expand their matching gift initiatives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic⁠. This includes Apple (introduced a two-to-one ratio as opposed to their traditional dollar-for-dollar match), Google (significantly increased their matching gift cap to $20,000 per employee), Honda, Microsoft, and more.

What We’re Seeing Regarding Program Updates in 2022

2022 has been a significant year in terms of changes—both regarding corporate matching gift programs as well as in the overall economic landscape. Luckily, despite any economic downturns we’ve seen, the adjustments in matching gift programs have been overwhelmingly positive.

Let’s browse a few companies that have enhanced their employee donation-matching initiatives in the past year—and specifically, how they’ve done so.

Reinstated Programs

Reinstated matching gift programs

These programs that had previously lapsed have been brought back, further empowering their employees to get involved:

  • Murphy Oil Corporation – Corporate matching gift program reinstated
  • Kimray – Corporate matching gift program reinstated with a new maximum match of $2,000

Increased Match Ratios

Increased matching gift ratios

Increasing matching gift ratios enables employee donors and the nonprofits they support to do exponentially more with the funding they contribute. Now, with growing match ratios, these companies aim to double, triple, and even quadruple their team members’ individual gifts:

Elevated Donation Maximums

Increased matching gift maximums

As corporate donation matching maximums grow, so does the capacity for donors’ matching gifts to make a difference for the causes they care about. Check out these companies’ programs, now with more room for eligible matching:

Matching gifts as a whole tend to ebb and flow; one program may end, while another few begin. However, we’ve seen the overall offerings increasing steadily in the past few years. And as we jump into the new year, we can continue to expect program enhancements, new offerings, and more.

What We Can Expect for the Future of Matching Gifts

As the U.S. economy trends downward, many are once again beginning to question the future of matching gift fundraising opportunities. Will companies cancel these programs as their own profits are in danger? Or will they up their giving efforts as their communities’ needs continue to grow?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to look directly into the future and figure out what companies will end up choosing. However, a look at the past, and an analysis of current matching gift trends, can help us craft our hypotheses.

And that being said, here’s what we can expect to occur in terms of matching gifts despite economic downturns:

Companies with existing programs will continue to match employee gifts.

First things first, most companies that already match employee donations are likely to continue doing so. A matching gift program is typically an ongoing initiative rather than something that is often canceled and re-instated at a later, more promising point in time. Most companies see matching gifts as what they are⁠—long-term, positive investments⁠—and will not opt to negate their offering, even despite a nearing or existing recession.

Not to mention, the vast majority of companies will have already established their matching gift budgets for the time being. Plus, cutting corporate philanthropy programming in order to increase business profits would be a pretty poor public relations strategy⁠. This is especially true in a time when corporate social responsibility is being increasingly demanded from businesses across the globe.

More companies will begin offering employee donation-matching initiatives.

In a recent survey, 39% of companies reported plans to expand their workplace giving programs (such as matching employee gifts) in the next two years. Regardless of challenging economic conditions, the demand for charitable-minded companies is increasing.

Employees want to work for companies that support the greater good⁠—often through nonprofit causes⁠. Not to mention, consumers want to spend their dollars in the same way by supporting businesses that care about giving back.

This is particularly crucial in a time such as now, which is being referred to as the “Great Resignation.” Individuals are leaving their existing companies in droves in order to find employment that better suits their wants and needs. For many, that means locating opportunities with companies that prioritize social responsibility and philanthropy⁠—especially to the nonprofits that they themselves support.

Thus, more and more businesses are looking for new ways to demonstrate their participation in corporate social responsibility. One of the easiest and most impactful ways to do so is with employee gift-matching, which is why employers are launching new programs every day⁠. And we expect that they’ll continue to do so!

Some employers will expand their matching gift program thresholds.

Considering how many companies opted to increase their matching gift programs during the recessions of 2008 and 2020, it can be expected that some will choose to do the same now.

Economic difficulty and community needs tend to share a positive correlation⁠—when one increases, the other follows suit. As a result, corporations see a growing demand for nonprofit services and feel compelled to do even more.

And as a bonus for nonprofits, these expanding programs tend to see particularly high levels of employee participation as well. When team members see their employers giving or offering more to charitable causes, they can be increasingly inspired to contribute their own dollars as well.


Next Steps for Elevating Your Nonprofit’s Gift-Matching

What can you do to help your organization make the most of available corporate donation-matching dollars? The #1 step you can take is ensuring your donors are aware of the opportunities in the first place.

In fact, studies show that over 26 million individuals are currently employed by companies with matching gift programs. But more than 78% of this group has never been informed about them! And, despite being eligible to participate, these individuals will be unable to secure matching gifts from their employers on your behalf if they don’t know about the programs.

So keep an eye out for companies with matching gift programs as they’re constantly changing, and new programs are being added every day. Then, be sure to educate your donors about the vast opportunities at hand⁠—and how they can get involved.

For donors interested in matching gifts who work at employers without a program, provide them with the resources they need to pitch a matching gift program to their employer. This might be information about your nonprofit’s programs specifically and how your initiatives align with the given company’s values or general information about how matching gift programs can boost employee engagement and motivation.

Interested in learning more about matching gifts (despite economic downturns and beyond)? Check out these other information-packed resources:

  • 14 Important Questions to Ask About Matching Gifts. You probably have some questions about matching gifts and how your organization can make the most of these programs for your cause. Read up on these frequently asked questions and answers to find out everything you need to know!
  • The Ultimate Guide to Securing Corporate Sponsorships. Matching gifts aren’t the only corporate giving program these companies are offering, either. Browse this comprehensive guide to determine the best ways to secure corporate sponsorship opportunities for your cause.
  • Matching Gift Best Practices: Raise More for Your Nonprofit. Do more with matching gifts! These tried-and-true matching gift fundraising best practices will show you how to inform your audience about the programs, simplify the participation process for donors, and much more.

This guide will help you understand the relationship between donor data research and retention and how to leverage it for fundraising.

An Ultimate Guide to Donor Data Research and Retention

You’ve likely heard the saying that it’s cheaper to retain a donor than it is to find a new one. It’s why maintaining high levels of retention is so crucial for many organizations. Luckily, donor data research can help!

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about donor data⁠ and how it can impact your overall retention rates. This will include:

By collecting detailed information about your supporters, you can develop beyond-surface-level relationships and better target your marketing outreach to each individual. In the end, you’ll see more donors continuing to support your efforts, providing your organization with improved fundraising results over time.

Ready to find out how to leverage donor data research in your retention strategy? Let’s begin with the basics.

Getting Attention can help you harness your donor data to run a successful Google Ad Grants campaign. Click for a free consultation call.

Types of Donor Data to Prioritize

There’s a ton of information available out there about each and every person. To optimize your donor retention strategy, you need to know which types of data will be of use to you.

We recommend prioritizing the following:

Contact information

An individual’s contact information is the most essential element of their donor profile. It’s what you need to get in touch with the donor after their initial contribution, thank them for their support, and begin developing a relationship. In the end, it’s also what you’ll use to send follow-up donation requests.

Ideally, this donor data should include as many of the following details as possible:

  • Name
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Mailing address

If you have multiple ways to get in contact with a donor, it can also help to note their preferred communication methods. This might incorporate text messaging, phone calls, email correspondence, direct mailings, and more.

An example of a donor profile is shown, which is an important part of donor data research and retention best practices.

Nonprofit involvement

Next, it’s important to have a solid understanding of an individual’s historical nonprofit involvement⁠—both with your organization and others. Thus, ideal data on an individual’s nonprofit involvement should include:

For example, you’ll want to engage with a long-time repeating donor much differently than you would a first-time contributor to your cause. Luckily, this information should be one of the easiest to collect and leverage⁠—particularly when it comes to giving history in regards to your own organization⁠—using your nonprofit’s CRM or donor management system.

Employment details

Did you know that your donors’ employment information is one of the most crucial pieces of data you can access? Not only can this information help roughly identify your supporters’ wealth status (more on that below), but it can also open up significant opportunities for matching gifts, volunteer grants, and more. Plus, understanding employment status can even help uncover invaluable business connections and open doors for potential corporate sponsorships as well.

So what exactly do you need to know? The company an individual works for is likely the simplest data point to find. From there, however, additional information such as employment type (full-time, part-time, seasonal or temporary, retired, etc.), job title, and tenure at the business can provide further insights into a donor’s employment.

Matching gift eligibility

A donor’s matching gift status is most often directly related to their employment. But an individual’s matching gift eligibility is such a key component that it should be considered its own donor data point altogether.

Once you know where your donors work (and typically, their employment type), you’ll be more likely to determine whether they qualify for workplace giving programs. From there, you’ll be able to easily and efficiently communicate that eligibility to each individual.

As a result, this data point can function as an additional engagement opportunity (or more likely, multiple). Not to mention, studies report donors being more likely to give if they know that their gift can be matched! And when you follow up with match-eligible donors after they give, you can keep your organization at top of mind for longer, remind them about the impact of potential matches, and ultimately drive more corporate revenue toward your cause.

Wealth data

Understanding a supporter’s wealth level is an essential part of determining ideal donation request amounts and, thus, optimizing your donor relations strategy. In order to craft a solid estimate for an individual’s ability to give, consider the following types of wealth marker information:

  • Real estate ownership
  • Stock ownership
  • Political giving
  • Business affiliations
  • Salary estimations

Together, these data points enable you to recognize and identify prospective major donors and target them as effectively as possible within communications.

Bonus! Hobbies and interests

An individual’s choice of hobbies and interests can tell you a lot about who they are as a person⁠—rather than just a wallet. Though this may not be as “essential” as the other data points listed, having this information in your donor profiles is never a bad idea.

For example, let’s say you’re having a face-to-face conversation with a major donor. Knowing about their hobbies and interests, such as favorite sports (and sports teams), pastimes, animals, foods, and more, can help identify opportunities for genuine connections and similarities and begin building a rapport in the relationship.

How Nonprofits Can Collect Donor Data Insights

Now that you know what kinds of data points are of interest to your fundraising team, how exactly will you go about collecting that information?

Here are a few key methods you might use:

Online donation forms

Did you know that your organization’s online donation forms can provide a wealth of invaluable information about your donors? And if so, are you doing as much as you can with the donor data you collect?

As a donor completes their gift by utilizing your nonprofit’s online donation tool, they’re likely prompted to enter a range of details⁠—from their name and contact info to the way they got involved with your organization.

Matching gift software

Matching gift software (such as Double the Donation) is a specific type of fundraising technology that typically integrates with an organization’s online donation form, CRM, and more. it’s one of the simplest and most impactful ways to collect information about donors’ employment⁠—including current company and matching gift program eligibility.

There are a few ways that this software typically works! For one, a matching gift database search tool can be embedded directly into the organization’s online donation page and/or confirmation screen. Once donors visit the page, they are prompted to enter their company’s name in the auto-completing search tool, which then provides them with detailed information about the company’s available matching gift program criteria and next steps. Not to mention, the company name entered in the search tool is automatically associated with the individual’s donor profile for the organization to come back to.

Even if donors overlook the matching gift tools during the online giving experience, matching gift software may identify additional match-eligible supporters through corporate email domain screening, automated email follow-ups, and more.

Data append services

Have you already utilized multiple of the above methods for collecting donor data and realized you still have a number of holes in your donor profiles? That’s when you may want to consider data append services to help fill in the gaps!

Data appends are typically conducted by third-party agencies that have access to tons of publicly and privately held data sources on millions of individuals. All you need to do is supply the service provider with the information that you do have (for example, a donor’s first and last name and email address).

The appends service then scans that information against the rest of the data and provides additional details about each individual (such as their place of employment, mailing address, birth date, and more).

Asking directly

One of the most straightforward ways that an organization can collect information about its donors is by going directly to the source⁠—the donors themselves.

Common ways for doing so include sending out a brief online survey in which donors can provide a range of requested information or offering donors access to a customizable online donor profile for your organization. In either case, individuals can share details about themselves, which your organization can use to get better acquainted with its audience.

The Impact of Donor Data Research on Retention

Once you’ve collected a plethora of information about your donors, it’s time to use that information to optimize your supporter relations strategy. Consequently, you’ll typically see significantly improved retention levels in no time.

These are some of the specific, tangible benefits of donor data research that result in nonprofit supporters sticking around for the long haul.

Personalization in communications

Personalized communications are more likely to grab recipients’ attention. This typically results in higher open rates, conversion rates, and more.

In order to personalize your organization’s messaging, however, you must have donor data to incorporate. At the very least, you need to know⁠—and use⁠—your donors’ names! Other helpful data points can include recent donation history (amount and campaign), events attended, and personal connections to your organization’s mission.

Take a look at these examples:

“Dear Brenda, Thank you so much for your recent donation of $200 to our cat rescue organization. Your generous support continues to make our mission possible⁠—and we’ve loved getting to know you at our recent gala, too!”

“Dear donor, thank you for your donation! Your generous support continues to make our mission possible⁠.”

Increased personalization makes donors feel more intimately connected to your organization as a key component of your mission. When this occurs, they’ll be more likely to continue supporting your cause with additional gifts for years to come.

Targeted donation request amounts

Organizations often use specific donation asks to encourage donors to make larger gifts⁠—both within online donation forms and with face-to-face major donation requests. However, you can’t just choose a set range of dollar amounts and use it as a universal suggestion for all donors.

Why? If your suggested amounts are all beyond a prospect’s giving ability, they’re likely to feel discouraged from giving and perhaps never complete their intended gift. At the same time, if you request small or mid-size “typical” donation amounts from a potential major donor, you’re likely to leave significant funding on the table.

That’s where targeted donation asks come in! By understanding your supporters—complete with a solid foundation of donor data research⁠—you can craft ideal gift requests for each individual. The donor will be more likely to contribute to your cause, and you’re likely to maximize the donations you receive.

Workplace giving opportunities

Workplace giving programs⁠—such as matching gifts and volunteer grants⁠—can offer a significant form of funding for nonprofit organizations. They can also increase donor engagement, encourage on-the-fence individuals to contribute, and keep supporters coming back time and time again.

In fact, 84% of donors even report that they’re more likely to donate if they know a match is being offered, and mentioning matching gifts in your fundraising appeals results in a 71% increase in response rate.

All of that is to say that they’re great ways for nonprofits to boost donor retention. And, your donor data research sets you up for continuous success in that field by identifying eligible donors to follow up with.

Multi-channel marketing

The most effective way to ensure your marketing materials reach existing donors and encourage them to keep giving is to use data-driven approaches. Storing basic donor information such as their demographics, engagement with your nonprofit, and interests helps you hone in on the best strategy to drive conversions. Specifically, donor data can help you:

  • Know which platforms to prioritize. Keeping track of your most popular communication channels helps you decide which are worth further investment. For instance, if 90% of your donors prefer email communications to direct mail, that’s a good indication of where you should focus your budget and efforts. Some of the other channels include SMS, direct mail, social media, email, website, in-person, and strategic partnerships within your community.

A diagram shows the main multi-channel marketing platforms (explained in the list above) that you can leverage for donor data research and retention success.

  • Pivot your strategy over time. Your donor base is constantly changing, so your outreach approach should too. Your marketing copy should include a blend of evergreen and topical focuses to accommodate upcoming campaigns and more general messages of support. Track data such as donor response rates to gauge which approaches work best.
  • Create CTAs. Different calls to action work for different segments of your supporter base. Tracking donors’ campaign interests makes it easier to make calls to action resonant and personal to more of your donors.
  • Target the right keywords. One of the best digital marketing channels for nonprofits is search ads. Plus, with the Google Ad Grants program, you can get up to $10,000 of free advertising space on Google’s search engine results page every month. Donor data such as location and interests can help you decide the best keywords to target. For instance, if you want to reach donors in a certain area, you can target local keywords for your most-populated donor areas.

Want to learn more about Google Ad Grants? Watch the video below for a rundown:

It’s much more difficult to advertise without donor data to guide your tactics. Boost your return on investment in marketing across every channel by intentionally leveraging relevant donor information.


Main Takeaway for Donor Data Research and Retention

The more you know about your donors, the better you can craft relationships with them. And the stronger your donor relationships, the more likely they are to continue supporting your cause time and time again.

Ready to learn more about donor data management and what you can do with the information for your cause? Check out these additional resources:

Mastering donor data and retention strategies for digital marketing can be challenging. Click to launch your online presence with Getting Attention.

Learn how to find more support for your nonprofit by securing corporate sponsorships in this guide.

Securing Corporate Sponsorships: How to Lock Down Support

As a nonprofit organization, you’re always on the lookout for new and improved ways to secure revenue for your cause. One of the most underutilized sources of nonprofit funding is corporate giving⁠—and within that subcategory, corporate sponsorships can maximize your fundraising potential.

But what exactly are the opportunities available, and how can your team go about securing corporate sponsorships to help fund your mission? This guide will provide you with everything you need to know by exploring the following key topics:

Partnering with for-profit businesses can often be one of the most lucrative and impactful fundraising strategies for organizations of all shapes, sizes, and causes. And don’t forget⁠—participating companies benefit greatly as well. Let’s start with the basics.

Click through to learn more about the Google Ad Grant, which you can use to supplement your corporate sponsorship as an additional way to secure revenue.

What Are Corporate Sponsorships?

Corporate sponsorships are an extremely popular form of corporate giving in which companies provide funding or resources to nonprofit partners. This often takes place in the context of a particular fundraising event, campaign, or project.

For organizations looking to diversify their funding sources by exploring new streams of revenue, sponsorships can be a great place to start. And there are different types of corporate sponsorships available, too⁠! These include:

This image and the text below describe the three types of corporate sponsorships you can secure: financial, in-kind, and media.

  • Financial: A business provides a monetary contribution to a nonprofit.
  • In-kind: A business provides donated goods or services to a nonprofit (these are typically, but not always, related to the business’s industry).
  • Media⁠: A business funds the promotion of a nonprofit’s upcoming event through paid advertising channels.

Regardless of the kind of sponsorship agreement between an organization and a corporate partner, the common denominator is that the nonprofit receives some sort of support from a for-profit business.

Who Benefits From Corporate Sponsorships?

Corporate sponsorships are mutually beneficial relationships, with both parties benefiting significantly from participating in the partnership. Let’s take a look at key advantages for the two primary stakeholders in a corporate sponsorship relationship:

Alt text: This graphic and the text below explain the benefits of securing corporate sponsorships for both nonprofits and businesses.

  • Companies: Companies that sponsor nonprofits as part of their corporate social responsibility programs receive elevated brand reputations, public relations boosts, higher levels of employee engagement, and tax benefits.
  • Nonprofits: Organizations receive increased funding for their causes through corporate donations, along with unique co-marketing opportunities and the potential for lasting relationships with businesses.

In some forms of corporate giving, there are even more beneficiaries to the partnerships⁠—for example, the companies’ employees or the nonprofits’ donors. Employees may feel an increased sense of pride in the businesses they work for when their employers take part in philanthropy. And donors are often provided with new ways to support their favorite organizations⁠—such as through an upcoming event sponsored by a local business.

The Four Stages of Securing Corporate Sponsorships

You understand the advantages of corporate sponsorship participation, and you’re ready to dive in. But where exactly should you start? We’ve broken the process down into four simple steps!

Follow these four steps to master the process of securing corporate sponsorships.

1. Identify Potential Corporate Sponsors

Before you can secure corporate sponsors for your cause, you’ll need to determine who your ideal sponsors are. Your priorities in locating the perfect sponsor can vary based on your mission, the need you’re raising funds for, and more. Start by considering:

  • Popular companies with generous philanthropic initiatives. Take a look at lists of particularly charitable businesses, and see if there are any that align with your mission and values.
  • Local businesses in your community. Local businesses often love giving back to the communities in which they’ve established their own roots. Reach out to mom-and-pop shops in your neighborhood for potential sponsorship opportunities.
  • Companies you already have connections to. Do a lot of your donors, volunteers, or board members work for philanthropically-minded companies? Has a particular business supported one of your organization’s fundraising efforts in the past? These kinds of existing connections can help you get your foot in the door with potential sponsors.
  • Companies whose missions align with your own. Companies with values that overlap with yours will be more inclined to support your cause. For example, if you run an animal rescue, you might want to reach out to pet supply retailers.

Compile a lengthy list of prospective corporate sponsors. When you provide your solicitation team with a wide array of possibilities, it can improve your chances of success and make rejections a bit less discouraging.

2. Cultivate Business Relationships

Like with any donation request, it’s important to have an existing relationship with potential contributors before jumping into the actual solicitation of funding.

To begin developing relationships with corporate partners, consider:

  • Asking a member of a prospective sponsor’s team to sit down and chat with someone from your organization and discuss missions, values, and priorities.
  • Inviting a member of a prospective sponsor’s team to visit your organization’s facility for a behind-the-scenes tour.
  • Providing a prospective sponsor with fundraising impact materials such as your annual report, Form 990, and more.
  • Taking an interest in a prospective sponsor’s business, strategies, and goals.

Not only are you likely to win more corporate sponsors this way, but it also helps establish a sense of familiarity with each party and makes the sponsorship feel relational rather than solely transactional.

3. Create a Value Proposition

Your organization’s value proposition is essentially the answer to the business asking, “What’s in it for me?” One of the most common types of value propositions is that of co-marketing efforts and improved brand reputation. Here’s an example:

Let’s say that Linda’s Flower Mart provides funding for a fundraising event for a local nonprofit, Midtown Youth Center. To provide value for Linda’s Flower Mart, the company’s logo is featured in all marketing materials for the event as a key sponsor, ensuring a wider audience is exposed to her company and will consider her services for future flower needs. Midtown Youth Center then promotes its upcoming fundraiser through all of its marketing and communication channels.

The day after the fundraising event, Linda meets a new group of eager customers who report that they love shopping at local businesses that continue to give back to their own communities.

This value proposition is vital for securing corporate sponsorships, but keep in mind that the benefit to the corporation should not outweigh the benefit to the organization. If it does, the IRS may classify income as “unrelated business income” (taxable) as opposed to a “charitable contribution” (tax-free).

The quality of the co-marketing benefits you offer can make a big difference to sponsors. To improve your value proposition and secure more sponsors, sign up for the Getting Attention newsletter to get marketing tips in your inbox!

 

4. Make Your Corporate Sponsorship Ask

Now it’s time to make the actual request—and this can be the most nerve-wracking step in the process for many fundraisers. As you get to this point, consider the following best practices:

  • Conduct several practice runs of sponsorship request conversations before you meet with the businesses in question.
  • Have your corporate sponsorship conversations in person when possible. This makes the meeting more personal and helps put a face to your organization.
  • Recruit volunteers to make the actual sponsorship ask! These individuals are not being paid to say good things about your organization, and that can make a difference for businesses considering contributing.
  • Offer various sponsorship tiers that align with different-sized budgets. Many businesses will be interested in supporting your efforts but might not be able to swing the hefty price tag of a top sponsorship package.
  • Emphasize your value proposition. This is the tangible benefit offered to businesses considering a partnership and should be the main focus of your conversations.

As you start these conversations, it’s also essential that your team knows how and when to take no for an answer. Some companies simply won’t be able to contribute right now⁠—but if you leave your conversation on a positive note, they’ll be more likely to consider partnering with your organization in the future.

How to Secure More Corporate Sponsorships: FAQ

Still have questions about securing corporate sponsorships for your nonprofit? Here are answers to some common questions organizations have throughout the process.

What should I do after securing a corporate sponsorship?

After securing corporate sponsorships, focus on solidifying your relationship with the company. Share resources about your organization’s work, additional engagement opportunities, mission success stories, and more. Make sure both teams are on the same page with what exactly the sponsorship entails, including logistics surrounding funding transfers.

Once the sponsorship concludes, continue developing your partnership with the company. Maintaining a personal relationship is essential for showing your appreciation for the company’s support. And as an added bonus, they’ll likely be more inclined to partner with your team on future endeavors!

How should we acknowledge corporate sponsors?

The ways in which your organization acknowledges its sponsors will depend on your nonprofit itself, the event or campaign being sponsored, and the company you’re partnering with. For example, if you’re hosting a community event, you might acknowledge a sponsor by providing them with a tent or other area to promote their business.

Keep in mind that some forms of public acknowledgment may be specifically laid out in the sponsorship agreement. This might include:

  • Social media promotion
  • Website inclusions
  • Space in tangible marketing materials
  • Branded event announcements
  • And more

If you want to branch out and acknowledge your sponsors using an additional free marketing channel, consider utilizing the Google Ad Grant. With this resource, you can place free advertisements highlighting your campaign and your sponsor at the top of relevant Google search results pages.

 

What are other top corporate fundraising opportunities?

If your team is interested in additional corporate giving programs, we recommend the following:

  • Matching gifts
  • Volunteer grants
  • Employee donation stipends
  • Payroll deductions
  • Community grants

Not to mention, various forms of corporate giving opportunities often overlap! For example, studies show that 85% of the top matching gift companies also offer volunteer grant programs for their employees. And if a company has shown particular interest in philanthropy before, they might be increasingly inclined to participate in a corporate sponsorship.


Additional Corporate Sponsorship Resources

Now that you have a solid foundation for how to locate opportunities and propose partnerships, you’re ready to get started. But your efforts in securing corporate sponsorships on behalf of your organization are just beginning!

Interested in learning more? Explore other top corporate fundraising resources here:

Getting Attention can help you leverage the Google Ad Grant to secure more corporate sponsorships. Click here to schedule a free consultation.