Effective Ways to Grow Your Donor Base

Nonprofits generally draw their income from two primary sources - grants and donations. If you're focusing on donations, then having a reliable list of donors that you can count on to support your organization is going to greatly affect the amount of money you can raise for a given cause.

A donor base is also an incredible resource when planning your next silent auction. It gives you a list of contacts who you know are interested in your cause, and therefore more likely to contribute when asked to do so.

But how do you grow your donor base, especially if you're a new nonprofit or a fledgling organization? In order to attract new supporters, you have to be savvy with your marketing and fundraising initiatives. You need to coordinate an effective strategy to not only engage donors of all sizes but retain them once you have their initial support.

Below, we'll take a look at a few ways to employ these strategies and look at some concrete examples of how you can grow your donor base.

Make use of clear messaging

When it comes to attracting new supporters to your cause or nonprofit, having clear, concise communication is everything. Your messaging, from top to bottom, should be consistent and actionable. From your organization's mission and objectives to its processes and solutions to your external communications with the public, all messaging efforts should be aligned and work towards the same purpose.

This eliminates all uncertainty about what your organization does and allows donors to easily comprehend the causes that they support at a glance.

Clear messaging is also an effective means of differentiating yourself from other nonprofits in your area. Use creative content like videos and case studies to demonstrate the efficacy of your organization and the different ways in which you offer solutions to the problems you aim to tackle.

Start locally

Once you have your messaging down pat, you can then start to communicate with potential donors and convince them to donate to your cause.

But where exactly do you start looking? Start small - and locally. Rather than trying to convince every single denizen of the internet that your cause is worthwhile from the outset, try asking coworkers, friends, and family.

Explain your mission clearly and effectively (messaging, remember), and ask your first group of donors to pass the word on to their circles (social media is a great tool in this regard, but more on that below). In this way, you can start to develop a growing list of donors that you can draw on when you hold your first silent auction.

In addition to those in your immediate vicinity, reach out to local groups like churches or rotary clubs. If you can get in front of 20 or 30 people at a time and get some of those names on your list, it's a huge win. Remember, every person counts.

Stay active on social media

Social media provides the opportunity to reach a much broader audience and connect with potentially unlimited donors - but you have to have a strategy in place to coordinate this effectively.

Of course, you should already have social media accounts if you run a nonprofit, but you should also be active on those accounts. This means creating valuable content in a variety of forms and posting regularly to keep your following engaged, and attract new followers and potential donors.

To further your reach beyond that of an organic content strategy, consider investing in paid social media advertising. This allows you to promote posts and create ads that directly target the type of people who would be interested in your specific cause. The beauty of paid social media advertising is that you can also direct readers to take a specific action, whether that's following you on social media, signing up for your non-profit newsletter, or directing them to a donation link.

Host community events

Hosting small to medium-sized events are an ideal way to reach out and attract new supporters in your community. In addition to growing your donor base, they also allow you to raise money for your cause during the event itself - effectively killing two birds with one stone.

Popular events include:

• Charity 5K runs
• Book sales
• Local concerts
• Picnics
• Food markets
• Bingo nights

A reliable donor base fill seats

Donations are the bread and butter of any non-profit. Without a reliable donor base, collecting enough funds to keep your organization afloat and support flowing to your causes will be extremely difficult.

But once you've built up your list of donors with clear brand messaging and other strategies, you can then use that list to fill seats when hosting a charity event or your next silent auction.