5 Essential Fundraising Tactics For Nonprofits In 2024: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s fast-paced and economically uncertain world, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face the critical task of fundraising effectively. The past two years have seen a dip in overall giving, placing even more emphasis on the need for nonprofits to strategically boost both short and long-term funding.

Following GivingTuesday and the end-of-year giving season in the U.S., nonprofits are at a pivotal juncture. As 2024 unfolds, here’s a roadmap featuring key fundraising tactics for nonprofits to turbocharge your efforts:

Cultivate meaningful donor relationships by engaging and stewarding new donors

Your bond with your donors is the lifeline of your organization. This year, make a concerted effort to nurture these relationships. Engage new donors by acknowledging their contributions, sharing the tangible impacts of their gifts, offering regular updates on your successes, and inspiring them to give again and again.

But it’s often easier said than done. Smaller and medium-sized nonprofits lack the staff larger organizations have, which means fewer resources for keeping track of and engaging with past donors. Here’s where a robust donor relationship management (DRM) solution can help to support relationship building with new and one-time donors. DRMs can directly address industry challenges by offering tools for personalized communication and targeted outreach to support relationship building and retention.

Adopt a multiple-appeal strategy

Year-end appeals just wrapped a few weeks ago; now that we’re in the new year, what’s next? The answer is simple: Do more appeals! Giving people multiple ways to support your cause throughout the year should be a critical piece in your donor retention strategy. Moments in time like GivingTuesday and the year-end giving season create built-in opportunities for nonprofits to send out appeals, but that shouldn’t be the only time of year you’re doing this.

Sending out multiple prompts and creating various opportunities within a calendar year for donors to give again or contribute in new ways is just as critical. Whether it’s for a specific need like upgrading facilities or for general support, crafting multiple appeals throughout the year keeps the momentum going and offers donors continual opportunities to engage and contribute.

Tap into donor generosity to maximize major gifts

To do this well, you need to understand the anatomy of a generous donor. This kind of donor is ready to give and shows this through active participation at events, volunteering, responding to communications, and more. They’re also willing to donate to your cause, having previously shown commitment to your nonprofit. Lastly, they’re able and have the financial capacity to make substantial contributions.

So, how do you tap into this? We’re so glad you asked! You need to have a deep understanding of this generous donor anatomy so you know what signs, behaviors, and engagements to look for. It’s not easy to keep track of manually. Predictive analytics are a powerful tool for uncovering your most generous donors. For example, Bloomerang Predictive Giving Insights analyzes your records to uncover your ideal donors without complicated steps or complex coding.

Generosity unlocks the funds needed to propel your mission forward, and finding donors with both the wealth and generosity to give is critical to fundraising success.

Segment donor audiences for communications that will land

With more than 1.8 million nonprofit organizations registered in the U.S., you’ve got a lot of competition. If you aren’t communicating the right things to the right donor audiences, you won’t see much in the way of results.

One of the most important factors when sending communications to your donors is understanding the intended audience for that specific message. Are you trying to reach previous EOY donors? Perhaps volunteers from a past event or donors who were at your last silent auction.

The more you can segment your donor audiences, the better you can target your message, and the more likely your communications will generate action.

When in doubt: personalize, rinse, repeat

Integrate personalization across all your fundraising strategies. Recognize and appreciate each donor’s unique connection to your cause. From individualized communications to tailored interactions at events, make every donor feel valued and integral to your mission.

Help your donors feel valued, that they’re integral to your mission, and that they’re making an impact on their community. Be sure to build every communication with 1:1 personalization in mind: with a welcome, clear direction on where help is needed and insight into how their volunteer support matters. Sending thank yous following a donation or event is also an ongoing opportunity to personalize donor interactions. Personalization isn’t a one-time effort but a continuous process that should be woven into every aspect of your donor engagement strategy.

Charting a path forward

As you move through 2024, these five fundraising tactics for nonprofits will be instrumental in elevating your results. Remember, the heart of effective fundraising is connecting, engaging, and resonating with your donors.

We’d love to hear how you’re integrating these strategies into your 2024 fundraising plans. Share your essential fundraising tactics for nonprofits in the comments below!