12 Cost-Effective Ways Nonprofits Can Connect With Everyday Donors

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In the nonprofit industry, there is often a focus on landing corporate sponsorships or big gifts to move an organization forward. However, to ensure a nonprofit is able to keep growing at a sustainable rate, contributions from all types of donors are needed.

Connecting with “everyday donors,” or the individual small donors who give what they can, and expressing gratitude for their gifts can create a group of supporters that donate now and far in the future. To help leaders build these connections with limited budgets, 12 Forbes Nonprofit Council members each share one cost-effective way that nonprofits can connect with everyday donors.

1. Communicate Your Gratitude With Each Donation

Gratitude for every donation must be communicated. Those smaller gifts amount to significant support over time when cultivated and appreciated. A personal message of gratitude from an employee or trusted volunteer, as well as sharing how their gift has impacted the mission goes a long way to building a strong base and valuing everyone for their contributions to the work. – Brittany Dunn, Safe House Project

2. Regularly Share Accomplishments

Individual donors are attracted to nonprofit organizations whose mission and activities are consistent with their personal beliefs. Charities must consistently communicate their recent accomplishments and illustrate the impact they have made with examples and real-life cases. Testimonials of beneficiaries are important in communicating this, but the message must be genuine and direct. – Abraham George, Shanti Bhavan

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3. Craft Clear Messaging

It’s essential to keep your messaging simple, clear and straightforward. Connect the value that your organization creates to everyday issues and the challenges that we all face. – Ron Ottinger, STEM Next Opportunity Fund

4. Partner With Your Donors

Co-design the connection by talking to your donors directly and designing with them how they would like to engage with the mission. Ask what they need, when and why. If you get this right, you will have a very engaged group of supporters. – Jonathan Prosser, Compassion UK

5. Align Giving With Donor Programs

Just like major donors, people making smaller gifts want to know that their money is advancing the organization’s mission. Aligning giving opportunities with programmatic efforts helps donors of all sizes understand their impact. Additionally, ensuring that every interaction expresses sincere gratitude and highlights new opportunities for continuing support helps encourage future giving at all levels. – Josephine Faass, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation

6. Hold Special Events With Donors And Constituents

It’s my deeply held belief that no contribution should be considered insignificant. In addition to acknowledging our regular donors through receipts and thank you notes, we invite all donors to special events that involve the youth we serve. This way, the donors can witness firsthand how their contributions—of any and all sizes—are making a tangible impact. – Debora Wondercheck, Arts & Learning Conservatory

7. Leverage Personal Testimonies

There is power in a personal testimony. Chances are your nonprofit has volunteers, stakeholders, staff or even board members who have benefitted from the services or mission of the nonprofit. Lean into those testimonies and ask them to share their experiences. Share these testimonies on video, in print and most definitely on social media. People can relate to testimonies, so many will be drawn to the story and the chance to be a part of the work. – Aaron Alejandro, Texas FFA Foundation

8. Post On Social Media

Leverage your organization’s social media platforms to quickly reach and engage with a broad audience of donors at all levels. These are great channels for sharing opportunities to donate and educating donors about the impact of your philanthropy. Your social media followers are already invested in your mission, so give them ways to play a role and support your work. – Linda Goler Blount, Black Women’s Health Imperative

9. Overcommunicate Organizational Happenings

We often think that if we are active on social media, all of our everyday supporters will know what we are up to. However, those posts are brief moments in a busy day that are gone from view in a matter of seconds. Consider committing to a monthly newsletter to share all developments with donors in writing. Also, ask questions of donors rather than only communicating successes. – Patrick Riccards, Driving Force Institute

10. Engage Donors Through Multiple Touchpoints

Multiple touchpoints in a variety of ways provide continued impact updates, the most important of which is one-to-one communication. Checking in with donors is so important to continued engagement. On average, we each engage with over six different social media platforms, so having an impact message on more than one platform is also important. Provide a variety of short- and long-form content to reach all audiences. – Gwen Cooper

11. Invite Community Groups To Use Your Facilities

Open doors create open hearts. To connect with everyday donors, we invite community groups to hold their meetings or lunches at one of our facilities. They get to see the mission firsthand and learn how they can support our initiatives. We gain exposure, volunteers and donors simply by opening our doors and sharing how they can help us to continue to do good. – Kimberly Lewis, Goodwill Industries of East Texas, Inc.

12. Amplify The Stories Of Your Community

Invite your community to share their stories. Then amplify those stories across your social media and email channels to build connectedness. By humanizing and boosting the stories of your community, you are creating paths of empathy that will lead to interest and action for your mission. When people see themselves in your mission, you’ve successfully built a foundation for a community to grow. – Nick Lynch, Collidescope IO, Inc.

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