A 2025 fundraising outlook study found that online giving remains the top fundraising strategy for nonprofits, with 96% of surveyed organizations reporting that they held at least one online fundraiser in the last year. Of those nonprofits, however, 47% said their campaign results could’ve been better.
If your organization is in the same boat, it’s time to invest in your future by upgrading your approach to online giving. In this guide, we’ll cover three tips for leveling up your online giving strategy and explore the fundraising tools you need to implement these changes.
The success of your nonprofit’s online fundraisers depends on your donation page and the giving experience. No matter how appealing your campaign is, donors may not follow through with their gifts if they have difficulty navigating the page or filling out the form.
Before you do anything else, take steps to improve your supporters’ online giving experience. A streamlined, engaging donation page should have:
After making these improvements, brainstorm other ways your donation page could provide a better experience. For example, you might add a short “More Ways to Give” section with links to educational pages about planned giving, in-kind donations, and other options your donors may be interested in.
Your organization has plenty of passionate supporters who want to do more than just donate. With the right online fundraising software, you can make it easy for these individuals to launch their own fundraising pages and quickly multiply their impact. Participants can raise money on your nonprofit’s behalf at any time.
How the process typically works:
While these fundraisers are supporter-driven, your nonprofit still plays a role in their success. Provide tips and resources to fundraising participants and answer any questions they have. Support their efforts by sharing branded marketing materials, appeal templates, and basic guidelines for fundraising.
Your online giving strategy should include more than just optimized fundraising pages. Take a balanced approach to fundraising by including events in your plans, too. These could be fully virtual events or hybrid events with an optional in-person portion. Either way, offer several fun opportunities for your supporters to connect with each other and your nonprofit online.
Make sure your events are highly interactive to encourage engagement. Don’t just post a livestream—give guests multiple immersive ways to participate in online activities. For example, you might host an auction where guests can bid from anywhere and start fast-paced bidding wars. Or, plan a webinar with real-time discussions and interactive Q&A sections.
To create genuinely engaging online events, you’ll likely need event software. A good event fundraising platform will have a variety of features to help you improve the guest experience, such as:
To access some of these features, you may need specialized tools like auction software. However, many solutions offer all of the above features and more, including tools to streamline in-person event management.
As you adjust your strategy, analyze giving data and engagement metrics like conversion and click-through rates. Compare the results of past and present online campaigns to understand your success and identify ways to improve further. If you make further changes to core elements of your strategy like your donation page, use A/B testing to determine which tweaks will make the most impact. With the right upgrades, you’ll boost your online fundraising revenue in no time.
Retaining donors is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Learn practical strategies nonprofits can use to improve donor retention and grow sustainably.
If you need a single, compelling reason to prioritize planned giving this year, here it is: around 46 billion dollars flows to charities every year through bequests. In fact, the latest Giving USA numbers show that bequests in 2024 totaled about $45.84 billion—roughly 8% of all U.S. charitable giving for the year. That’s not a rounding error; it’s a transformative funding stream your mission can’t afford to ignore.
One of the most interesting parts of planned giving is that you never know what is going to happen! Planned gifts will surprise you. In an earlier blog, I talked about the planned gift that I DIDN’T accept. That was not even close to the most interesting gift that I ever received.
And this one isn’t either. But it was something I never expected.
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