The inner workings...
Your organisation is a finely tuned machine, but if you're unfamiliar with fundraising, it can be difficult to know if all the cogs are in place
What is digital and public fundraising?
Public fundraising is an umbrella term, but it’s exactly what it says on the tin… if the public can get hold of it and it raises money for a cause, it’s “public fundraising”. This can include:
Digital fundraising is the most commonly used method of conducting public fundraising. The term refers to anything that supports public fundraising income, such as:
- Donation pages
- Crowd-funding sites
- Fundraising events (marathons, sponsored walks etc)
- Campaigns
- Community fundraising
- Raffles and lotteries
- Regular giving or membership programmes
- Legacy giving
- Social media
- Email newsletters
- Website content
- Blogs
Digital fundraising is usually used as a series of tools to guide a donor through the process of supporting an organisation, making them feel valued and keeping your organisation at the forefront of their mind for when they ready to donate again.
How public fundraising can help your organisation?
Funding
Whether you’re a registered charity, a CIC, or a social enterprise, you’ll have a core charitable aim. The only spending restriction placed on public fundraising is that it needs to be spent on something that will contribute to this core aim. Public fundraising is income that can be spent on keeping the office lights on, keeping craft cupboards full, and keeping the printer full of paper. It can also be used as reserves for times of unexpected hardship.
Restricted public fundraising can be useful too. A restricted campaign can act as a foundation for further funding. Grant funders and large corporate funders feel more secure awarding funding to a charity that has already collected a percentage of the costs for a specific project, and many private funders will only award grants to organisation who have this already in the bank.
Raising awareness
Reaching out to the public does more than just raise funds, it increases the number of people who know who you are and what you do. Public fundraising not only gives you a purpose for reaching out to new supporters, it’s also a great way to make it known that people can receive support from you, as well as give their support to you. This is particularly effective if you’re an organisation that uses volunteers regularly.
For example, if someone does a sponsored walk to support your organisation, every time they post their fundraising page on their social media accounts or via a messaging app, they’re introducing your organisation to a new potential supporter. That new potential supporter might be the Chairman of a grant giving foundation, or the owner of a company looking for a Charity of the Year to support.
Gathering information
Every time someone donates, they’re giving you information that can be used to make decisions about the future of your organisation. You can use contact preferences to judge the best way to get hold of people, geographic location to find out where your marketing is having the most impact, donation amount data to judge how much to price things at, repeat donation frequency data to know how often to send email newsletters, and even type of donor to figure out whether to focus on individuals, corporates, or community for your next fundraising goal.
All of this is achievable with the most basic digital fundraising set up. There is no need for special software or ongoing consultant costs.
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