How can charities boost their digital fundraising?

Digital fundraising is one of the most effective ways charities can build and sustain engagement with supporters. With a wealth of platforms to utilise and the ability to create highly targeted campaigns, there is the potential to reach large audiences and raise high levels of awareness. In turn, charities can benefit from new opportunities to increase donations and create greater impact through their work.

Digital fundraising is also constantly evolving. New giving platforms, charity challenges and social media trends mean that in order for charities to stay relevant, they must evolve alongside it.

In this blog, we’ll look at some of the ways charities can utilise some of the digital tools available to help support healthy and sustainable fundraising.

Launch a website with quality UX

A website that is tailor-made to meet the needs of users ensures you’re creating an experience that will bring results. A UX audit will provide your charity with valuable data to create an intuitive website that is rooted in user behaviour. This means that your audiences can find information easily, complete any desired actions smoothly, and their overall experience is positive and free from frustrations.

Implementing data-driven UX will support the overall accessibility of your website and make the process of donating much easier. It’ll also help to keep your users on the site for longer so they can learn more about your cause or find out about new ways to support it.

Small UX changes can have a profound effect, so ensuring these are continuously optimised will allow your website to develop alongside your audience!

Prioritise storytelling

A compelling case for support is an absolute must for encouraging people to donate to your cause. But case support alone isn’t enough. The storytelling around who you are, what you do and why, is what people resonate with and helps to build emotional connections with your charity.

Powerful storytelling will embody your values and impact, and make people feel part of your mission. Building this sense of community and shared vision will inspire people to donate, fundraise, or volunteer. Continuing to share human-led stories and illustrating your work through poignant images will also develop your case for support and sustain engagement with your cause.

The great thing about digital fundraising is you can also directly engage with your audiences through this storytelling, building conversations and relationships on your website, social media and via email.

Analyse performance

Tracking and analysing the ongoing performance of your digital fundraising will give you valuable insights into where to focus your efforts. Monitoring your website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, and income generated will allow your charity to gain a full picture of the effectiveness of its digital activities. This can help to identify trends and areas to improve, so you can continuously adapt your digital fundraising strategy.

Have a simple donation journey

Having an online donation journey that is as simple as possible and offers a variety of payment options is going to help your charity secure more donations and increase accessibility. If the process of donating is too slow, hard to navigate or lacks security, you risk losing trust from your donors.

Utilising giving platforms that offer seamless integration with your website can provide a quick and sustained solution. Platforms like Fundraise Up provide a wealth of features that can boost your engagement with donors, create optimised donations pages and let donors have greater control over their regular giving, enhancing the giving experience.

Keep up with fundraising trends

Social media has transformed the digital fundraising landscape. It has given charities the opportunity to directly fundraise through their social media networks and monopolise on trends.

Taking advantage of trending charity challenges, ways of giving and awareness days enables your charity to grow its visibility, relevance and engagement among potential donors.

Growing your network and reaching new audiences allows you to tap into a new pool of supporters, diversifying and developing your income stream.