Digital Fundraising

Website

Your website is a window into your organisation – setting out what you do, how you do it and the impact you achieve.

Always consider what the primary purpose of your website is. For example, is it to raise funds or awareness? Your web content and language should reflect this. 

For many charities, their website is a vital tool in securing online donations.

If your charity doesn’t already have a built-in online donation portal on your charity’s website, there are many free tools available, including CAF Donate. 

Your charity’s website should allow donors to make one-off donations and provide the options to set up regular payments through Direct Debits, with a clear donate button visible on your webpage.

Get tips on how to boost donations through your charity's website

Social Media

Social media is an effective free resource, which if used strategically, can help you to reach your target audiences to achieve your fundraising campaign objectives.

As social media requires time, energy and investment to deliver, take into account, which platform would help you reach your desired audience and best achieve your campaign objectives.

Get tips on how to fundraise through social media

The Flying Seagull Project is a small charitable arts and theatre troupe that travels the world making sick and disadvantaged kids laugh. Over the last three years it’s been working hard to strengthen its supporter base. 

The charity shares short videos, photos and stories of their work in action. They invested just under £100 in boosting posts, which resulted in the number of Facebook shares and likes increasing by more than 400%.

This has translated into higher levels of giving on social media. 

A recent Facebook campaign reached more than half a million people.

It was shared, clicked and liked more than 1,900 times and over 1,000 people made gifts, a number of which were high-level – offering the potential for the charity to grow the number of major donors that supports its work.

The initial target was £10,000. However at end of the 10-day fundraising period a total of £31,000 had been raised.

Email

Email can be a very effective way to communicate with supporters. However, most people have a very crowded inbox and so you need to work hard to make sure your email is noticed and read.

Tools such as MailChimp, Constant Contact and Salesforce allow you to track your emails, such as who has opened them, how long they have looked at them for, and which links they clicked on.

This can help you establish who is engaging with you and what content is the most (and least) popular.

They also offer data protection tools, which help prevent against spamming and can ensure you meet all the required rules and regulations.

Write winning charity emails with our top tips