Posted On: 2022-05-11 14:44:05
In 2021, a total of 105 wealthy donors spent an average of over 860 million rupees for charity. It is a sharp growth of 12% in donations given to charity in the last one year compared to the past five years. Not only the wealthy ones, but more people are getting involved now in offering a helping hand to others, especially the weaker section of society. Earlier too, people believed in helping others but the ways were different and far more difficult than now.
Traditional ways of Fundraising and their challenges:
1. In-Person Events
Event fundraising was quite popular in the beginning. Whether it's a walkathon, gala dinner, art show, concert, silent auction, field day, or hikeathon, events allow donors and potential donors to meet in person.
However, it will take a large team to plan everything, in particular, organise, and manage the entire event. Events are usually labour-intensive.
These events also necessitate a large budget to be successful.
Guest lists, refreshments, and adornments, to name a few, are not the only things that must be considered. Especially in the times of COVID-19 and lockdowns, such events are a big NO!
2. Door-to-Door Solicitation
Door-to-door fundraising refers to the practice of going from house to house to solicit funds for an organization. Though, it can be daunting for the fundraisers. It doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment or manpower but it can be risky because the effectiveness is less than desirable.
Door-to-door fundraising is one of the top reasons people have a poor impression of nonprofits. Some donors cite door-to-door solicitation as intrusive. Full-time, door-to-door fundraising is quite labour-intensive and requires salaried, full-time employees or very enthusiastic and educated volunteers, which is quite difficult to recruit.
3. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a type of crowdfunding that makes use of an organization's existing patron base. These types of fundraisers encourage supporters to reach out to their peers: friends, co-workers, and family members, and ask them to donate.
One of the major drawbacks of peer-to-peer fundraising is the effort it takes to teach the existing donors. You also need to consistently motivate fundraisers to go out there and advocate for your cause. It can also be difficult to effectively communicate the nonprofit's goal, vision, and values to dozens of people so that they can continue to share them in the same way.
4. Partnerships/Sponsorships/Grants
Partnerships or sponsorships have always been a staple of nonprofit fundraising. Yet sometimes, grant-giving organisations can be difficult to deal with, due to their inherent bureaucratic nature.
This type of fundraising requires a lot of time and energy. For instance, it takes time to build successful grant-writing skills, time to create a winning application, and time to gain access to the funds.
Grants and sponsorships frequently come with 'strings attached' and this sort of fundraising can be overly burdensome and limiting.
All these ways of fundraising are known as the traditional ways of fundraising. Many of these need a large number of manpower to work at grassroots levels. The COVID-19 lockdowns were dreadful and such fundraising events for charity were strictly restricted.
But did fundraising stop? Did no one make any donations for any purpose? Did lockdowns restrict people from donating? NO! In fact, donations increased multifold during the pandemic period. The platforms for philanthropy evolved and took a new avatar during the challenging times.
Technology was the answer! In the past few years technology had supported fundraising activities but during the pandemic period, it was a boon and was widely accepted by all. Any successful fundraising campaign requires new fundraising techniques and the products & services that connect your organisation to the donors.
Many success stories feature organisations that use cutting-edge tools and structures to accomplish their social good missions and connect their contributors in new ways.
Online Fundraising
Thanks to technology, a new way of fundraising have emerged and it is gaining popularity globally for a few years now. Fundraising has never been so easy and widely used.
Nonprofits, communities, and individuals have discovered a new and effective fundraising option in this environment. Some may argue that the proportion of internet donations to total donations is insignificant. This is true, but only because many people are unaware of this opportunity or its benefits.
Online Crowdfunding Platforms are the medium through which a fundraising campaign becomes successful with lesser yet well-planned efforts. What these platforms do is, they collect data of the ultimate beneficiary, their necessity, check whether the cause is genuine or not and upload this cause on their website for a number of people to see and donate.
Benefits of Technology to Crowdfunding
Surely, traditional ways have their own advantages but with rights tools and efforts, the internet has paved a bright path for online crowdfunding and it's success. Few of the benefits are:
Charitable organisations, nonprofits, communities and individuals can benefit from online donations. Traditional financing has less reach than online fundraising. Traditional direct mail or in-person solicitation cannot compete with the power of online fundraising.
Aside from the massive reach, online fundraising also provides a virtual, real-time revenue flow. Furthermore, if properly executed and administered, internet fundraising is quite simple for donors to grasp.
2. Transparency and Trust-Building
An online crowdfunding platform may show contributors how their money is being used via online fundraising. This is achievable because every money donated is recorded.
As a result, donors' faith in the relevant organisation or charity grows significantly. Donors are more likely to donate money online when everything is transparent.
3. Improved Donor Relationships
Online donation options reduce donor friction by making the procedure simple and straightforward.
Donors no longer have to go through their drawers for a cheque book, and envelope or even visit their banks to support the cause. With mobile phones, they may effortlessly donate to your charity from the comfort of their own homes or from virtually any place.
Donors also receive a thank you letter and tax receipt in real-time. Your relationship building starts the moment they give. Not only do you receive their donation, but you also receive their contact information, so you can start cultivating relationships immediately.
4. Ease of Access
When compared to traditional fundraising, the barrier to entry for internet fundraising is lower. Setting up a fundraising platform is quick and straightforward. You can use any of the popular social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for this purpose. By opening accounts on these platforms, you can easily drive traffic to your crowdfunding website.
5. Better Data and Reporting
Users have fast access to your data because internet fundraising automates the operation. Users may track incoming contributions in real-time and generate reports to get a clear picture of your fundraising efforts.
Human error is also reduced by eliminating manual entry. When entering donations, there will be no more missing a zero or adding an extra zero. Visitors may more readily distribute money to the programmes with better data and reporting.
Along with these, thank you emails to donors create a great impact on the donors and bind them for the future. The online database gives the security of keeping all the data secured and at your fingertips ready to access.
The Bottom line...
As the internet becomes more and more part of our daily lives, nonprofits, communities, and individuals in need of funds have to keep up with this trend. It is rightly said that technology is a boon for today's world. And this digital era is where the magic happens.
With the right efforts and a good crowdfunding platform, a fundraising campaign can lead to success in less time. Internet banking has made it easy to make transactions and transfer them to the ultimate beneficiary. And it is safe too!
Filaantro is one such trustworthy online crowdfunding platform that raises funds for every cause that one truly believes in. With the user-friendly interface, easy withdrawals, social media promotions and tax benefits, Filaantro makes the fundraising experience an easy and transparent journey.
Visit us at filaantro.org to know more
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Author: Anjali Patel
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