How to Develop More Fundraising Leads Online

Let’s get real with each other — raising enough funds for your organization to meet your campaign goals, developing fundraising leads, donor retention, growing your community and engaging your current donors are huge concerns when it comes to being able to make an impact.

We get it. We work with many different organizations in order to handle these concerns. We have also been able to study analytics and patterns as well as adapting to changing algorithms in online platforms such as Google and Facebook, in order to create online fundraising campaigns that actually convert potential donors into successful donors and supporters.

It is possible for your non-profit to grow your community, develop fundraising leads, and build engagement online. You can make your members more passionate about your community. You can increase fundraising and improve visibility which would lead to developing more donors and supporters. You can deepen your supporters’ interest and involvement. We know this because we learned how to do this. And, I want to share with you what I’ve learned.

First things first, be genuine. Show your audience why you care. Your audience (especially your fundraising leads) will respond positively and trust you when you’re open, honest, real and raw. That is what this is all about, in my opinion.

There are three main ways to develop your leads:

• automation
• systems
• outreach

Why waste time when you can save time through automation? Streamline your systems. Allot your time and effort into outreach and building relationships.

We’ve all heard of Salesforce, haven’t we? For those who have not, Salesforce is an American cloud computing company who derives their income from using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) wherein it uses data analysis about customers’ history with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth. (FYI Salesforce has a non-profit version of their software system.)

Let’s face it, online engagement was not always a walk in the park for me. But, using CRM programs to track your fundraising leads in order to develop relationships are an enormous help. Salesforce is not a necessity in building engagement with the community, but having a system of organization to track your contacts is. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in the amount of information and notes to remember as you start to grow.

It took me awhile to learn a process of organization and communications that works. It’s a balance and an art. And, it was a slow progression because I was not familiarized with the automation and systems right off the bat. I did focus primarily on relationships, though, because that is what makes this work so special.

This is why I am passionate about helping and assisting others to learn how to do these steps faster. I would not want you to get stalled by the same things that I got stuck in while learning the ins and outs the system.

Outreach is my main focus when it comes to developing relationships with fundraising leads; and automation and systems make the process easier. Through reaching out, collaboration, and partnerships, I have seen the magic happen – it is possible to inspire others and create lasting relationships.

I wanted to make a bigger impact on the world. I wanted to do something bigger than myself.

It’s not just me.

It’s you, and your community, too.

It’s all just a matter of developing and nurturing those relationships.