Virtual Fundraising started as a contingency as Nonprofits adapted to the evolving pandemic situation to keep up with their fundraising. And while we all hope for the situation to get back to normal sooner, Virtual Fundraising has become a key source of fundraising plans for most organizations now and the donors also find this convenient in most cases.
With technology taking away several logistical challenges, Nonprofits are using really creative ways to engage with their donors and boost their fundraising through multiple virtual channels.
In this blog, we are sharing some creative virtual fundraising ideas to supercharge your virtual fundraising efforts.
1. Virtual Gala
While many nonprofits experimented with Virtual Galas as a response to the pandemic, they realized some amazing benefits that virtual events provide and give you space to innovate and add unique elements to your guest experience and boost up fundraising. These could include livestream performances (you canuse the scrolling ticker to thank your donors), virtual meet and greet breakout sessions, fund-a-need, virtual auction, and social media contests to build up the excitement. Learn more on our earlier blog, where we share steps and tips to plan a successful Virtual event.
2. Virtual 5K/Walkathons/Hike
These events are a great way to bring the community together and support a common cause and this works really well in a peer-to-peer campaign setting. This event can be easily transformed into a virtual event where participants can complete the challenge remotely. A right technology platform can help you create inspiring peer-to-peer campaigns and let your supporters fundraise on your behalf.
3. Virtual Auctions
While you and the donors will miss the fun and excitement of an in-person auction, virtual auctions can be really effective and are much easier to manage and set-up. Start with procuring the perfect range of items, set-up your online auction, spread the word and get your guests registered, and announce the winners during your livestream event.
4. Set-up a Merchandise Store
You can get really creative with this idea and set-up your organization’s merchandise (like t-shirts, hats, mugs) or set-up specific, themed stores for different items (cookies, handmade items and more). Very few nonprofit platforms offer an integrated ecommerce store.
5. Special Day Fundraiser
This is a great peer-to-peer fundraising idea where you can set-up a landing page from where your staff, or your supporters can create beautiful campaigns and celebrate their special days and fundraise on your behalf. Learn how LiveImpact can help you set-up inspiring peer-to-peer campaigns and boost your fundraising and unlike your annual/bi-annual events this will provide contributions trickling in all year long.
6. Virtual Movie Night
This is a really cool way to engage your supporters in a fun way. Movie parties are always fun so why not turn this into a great way to bring people together where your donors can set-up their own movie parties, grab a snack and chat with their friends while catching up on a favorite flick. You can recommend donating the price of the movie tickets to support your cause. You can create a nice landing page in a peer-to-peer campaign setup where your donors can create their own party events and can use services like Teleparty to host their parties and enjoy their movie night with friends while supporting your organization.
7. Virtual Happy Hours
Fundraising events also mean a great opportunity for your supporters to engage with each other and spend time together, build relationships. Virtual Happy Hour can be a great way to bring together your supporters and bond over a sip and a video conference.
You can schedule these events throughout the year so your supporters stay engaged. You can actually jazz it up by actually sending cocktail kits (you can set-up paid registrations to cover for this), with a small update on your mission (and may be a subtle ask).
8. Virtual Trivia Nights / Virtual Bingo / Virtual Raffles
While large events leave a large vacuum throughout the year, you can actually run these smaller contests all year long with smaller targeted groups of donors. Since these events are mostly fun and don’t take up much of your supporters’ time, they become really effective and engaging for your donors.
You can also use these in a peer-to-peer setting where supporters can create their own smaller events and help you reach out to a larger audience in an exciting and engaging way.
9. Virtual Tours
If your organization runs a physical space like a museum, art gallery or a science lab, virtual tours can be really effective. You can set-up these virtual tours and can either set-up ticketing or suggest a donation for the regular price of ticket.
10. Virtual Toy Drive
With several ecommerce options available for your donors, you can easily run a virtual toy drive (for that matter any other in-kind gift drives). All you need is a good landing page, suggest a few links to websites from where donors can gift a toy for your campaign, also set-up a donation link so those who want to donate to this campaign, set-up a social media page as you share progress and campaign updates.
With virtual fundraising there is no limit to your creativity, all you need is ideas that resonate with your supporters and the right technology tools to run these virtual fundraising campaigns seamlessly. While there are several stand-alone solutions that let you manage these events, but they can take a significant cut out of your fundraising and will need you to import-export your donor data and their contributions afterwards. To effectively engage your donors you need to have a solid donor management system to know their interests, their giving history, their participation in your events and integrated virtual event ticketing and peer-to-peer campaign features. Learn how nonprofits are supercharging their fundraising with flexible features on LiveImpact.
