5 steps to successfully fundraise during times of crisis

With the whole world on pause, it’s easy to feel as if it’s a recipe for disaster in terms of your fundraising efforts. After all, social distancing means cancelling fundraising events, and self-isolating makes many feel like burying their heads in the sand. Donors are anxious and board members are nervous so what should your organization do to keep raising the funds you need to help those in your community?

Here are five tips to help:

Keep calm and carry on. Instead of reducing fundraising and marketing budgets in an effort to save money, keep calm and carry on. Staying the course and continuing to invest in your fundraising efforts will be what helps you raise the much-needed funds now, and in the weeks and months ahead.

Meet with donors and thank them (virtually). At a time like this, instinct may be to avoid bothering donors while they are facing their own worries. Don’t! Gratitude goes a long way. Take the time to extend a genuine and heartfelt thank you to your donors. Reach out with an email or check in with a phone call—ask how they and their families are doing, or ask about their business. Make it personal and don’t take any donor for granted.

Take events online. Technology today has made it easier for so many of us to work from home and stay connected so there’s no reason why you can’t step up your online fundraising as well. Be creative and ask your community to be creative too. It’s amazing how many fundraising events we can host from our living rooms with a laptop.

If you do have to cancel an event, don’t automatically offer refunds to those who have already paid their registration or bought their tickets. Instead, reach out to each one of them and ask if they’d be willing to donate the cost of their ticket/registration to the organization even though you’re cancelling the event.

Stay the course with capital campaigns. If you’re in the middle of a capital campaign, don’t stop. You may need to revisit your timeline, adjust your goals or draw up new plans, but abandoning the campaign completely won’t do you any favours in the long run.

Ask for what you need. Yes, a lot of people are facing financial uncertainty at the moment, but that doesn’t mean everyone is. Share how these uncertain times are impacting your organization and what you are most in need of. You’ll be surprised how many donors will step up just because you asked.