You’ve done your homework.  You know your pitch.  You believe in your mission, and understand the reasons donors give your organization.  Even so, you may feel that your fundraising has plateaued… that you’re stuck in a rut or missing out on key giving opportunities.  Many times, you may simply feel a sense of malaise – that no matter how much you try, you aren’t leveling up.

Today, we offer you ten great ideas for powering back on, and taking your fundraising game to a whole new level:

1.  Turn off the Computer and Pick up the Phone

The next time you are getting ready to send out an e-mail, I want you to stop – turn off the computer – and pick up the phone.  Instead of e-mailing that donor, prospect, board member or community leader, pick up the phone and call.  It’s far more personal and has lasting positive effects on the relationship.

2.  Join a New Networking Organization

Running out of new people to talk with about your organization?  Join a new networking group.  It could be a local chamber of commerce, the Kiwanis club, your college alumni association, a business group… whatever it is, join and start going to meetings to connect with more people.

3.  Jump on Social Networks with Renewed Vigor

You may have started that Twitter account, LinkedIn Group or Facebook company page with the best of intentions, but as time went on, your interest may have waned, you got discouraged, or simply stopped participating.  Now is the time to reengage! 

4.  Visualize Your Donor Efforts

Follow these tips to visualize your major donor fundraising efforts.  It will help you see where your donors and prospects are in your overall process.

5. Listen to Your Staff and Volunteers

When was the last time you asked for – and listened to – new fundraising ideas from your staff and volunteers?  Get them into the room and ask them for ideas: What should we try?  Who should we talk to?  What can I do to help you?

6.  Take Your 5 Smallest Donors Out to Lunch

Everyone takes their biggest donors out to networking lunches – and you should too – but have you thought about taking your 5 smallest donors out to lunch?  You know, those old ladies who give $50 a year to your annual appeal or those young professionals right out of college who give $25 because they saw an ad for your organization online?  Call ‘em up, take ‘em out to lunch, and see what motivates them to give.  Maybe they could give more?  Maybe they have friends who would want to give?  Maybe they will just be shocked that you called… It was only $25 after all!

7.  Take 5 Peers Out to Lunch

Yes, another great lunch-related tip.  This time, find 5 peers you respect, folks who work in similar jobs to you, but who aren’t competitors (is there such a thing as a non-profit competitor?  You’d say no in public, but privately, you’d say yes!) and ask them if you can buy them lunch to hear about how they raise money, how they find new prospects, etc.  End result = new ideas and a new contact.

8.  Launch One New Initiative

Step outside the box and take a couple of days to launch a new fundraising initiative.  Do lots of direct mail but never tried asking through email?  Give it a shot!  Don’t have a planned giving program?  Get one started!  Talked about doing prospecting mail, but never pulled the trigger?  Now is the time to do it!

9.  Spend the Day in the Field

Nothing is more invigorating, or leads to more insights, then spending a day away from fundraising working in the field with your program staff.  If you are fundraising for a school, spend a day helping tutor kids for one of the teachers.  If you are working with a homeless shelter, spend a day serving meals and cleaning up after.  Get reconnected with the mission, and get reenergized.

10.  Cold Call (But Don’t Cold Ask)

Seriously… It’s like a splash of cold water in your face.  Shocking, confusing, a little scary, but oddly refreshing.  Make a list of 5-10 people you wish you knew.  Find their phone numbers (or the main switchboards at their companies) and call them.  Introduce yourself.  Ask them out to breakfast.  Don’t make an ask over the phone.  Don’t try to sign them up for your walk or get them to commit to a tour.  Just try to get them to meet you to hear more.  You may get one that says yes.  You may not… Either way, you’ll refine your pitch, think of new ways to present your organization, and feel really, really confident when you go back to calling warm contacts.

Many organizations have the misguided notion that if they just make that “donate now!” button bigger, or if they just hit on the secret formula that no one will tell them, they can raise millions of dollars on the Internet and stop worrying about grants, events, and other traditional fundraising methods.  Bzzzzt!  Wrong answer… Fundraising on the Internet should be a part of your fundraising mix, but for most non-profits, the web will never become your dominant form of fundraising.  So… what are the best ways to use the Internet in your development efforts?

Complimenting Your Activities

For most organizations, the primary development function of your website will be compliment your other fundraising activities.  Your website provides a great opportunity to offer lots of information to your donors, including reports, white papers, stats, and news.  Likewise, every school, church, and charity should be using e-mail newsletters and blasts to keep their donors in the loop.

Your website also provides a landing pad where you can send people to make donations when they can’t make donations on the spot.  For example, when you are giving a speech or working the room at a Chamber of Commerce mixer, and someone says they want to help or make a donation, pull out your card and tell them they can go to your website to donate.  Announce your web address from the podium during seminars, and invite people to go there to learn more or to donate.

The web can also compliment your non-Internet fundraising activities in more direct ways.  For example, if you are holding an  event, you can set up an event page to give information about the event, invite people to buy tickets online, do an early preview for your silent auction, and more.  Many groups that hold walk-a-thons and other participatory fundraising events have had great success with setting up a separate page for each person who is raising money as part of the event that shows progress, with a special message from the participant, and which the participant can e-mail out to their friends as part of their fundraising pitch.

Building a List

One of the best ways to use the Internet to build your fundraising base and compliment your development efforts is by building an e-mail update list.  Successful online businesses have been doing this for a long time, but most non-profits have not latched on to this great strategy.

The basic concept is to set up a sign-up form on your website for your e-mail newsletter (much like the sign-up boxes you see here on The Fundraising Authority).  Encourage people who come to your website to sign up for your newsletter to stay in the loop.  Then, stay in touch with these folks by providing relevant and interesting news and tidbits on your work, mission, and vision.

As you build your e-mail list of supporters, you will be able to incorporate fundraising into your e-mail blasts.  You can invite people to events and sell tickets, ask for donations, find event sponsors, and more.

Raising Money Directly Over the Internet

Of course, while you are likely to find that the best uses of the Internet in your fundraising operation are for complimenting your other activities and building a list, you don’t want to neglect direct fundraising through your website.  Every school, church, and charity should have a “Donate Now!’ button on their website, and be set up to accept one-time and recurring donations over the web.

Many non-profits have also found great success in running web-only campaigns, once their websites started to reach a significant number of visitors per day.  Often, the best type of campaign to run via the Internet is one that asks for relatively small donations ($10-$100) and is for a specific purpose, like asking visitors to contribute $10 to buy meals for a family for one day, or $25 to send a child to school for a week, etc.

Market Your Site

Once you’ve set up your organization’s website, don’t forget to market it aggressively.  Include your web address (URL) on all of your marketing materials, submit your site to the main search engines, optimize your site to be found by the search engines, and ask for links from complimentary sites.

Internet Fundraising Best Practices

1. Build Your List – have sign-up forms on your website and encourage your visitors to sign up for your newsletter.
2. Use the Web as a Compliment to Your Other Activities – Try to include your website as a complimentary tactic for your other fundraising activities.
3. Have a “Donate Now!” Button – Accept credit card donations directly from your website.
4. Market Your Website – Spread the word.  Without visitors to your site, you won’t receive any donations through the web.