Funds are the lifeblood of any organization and nonprofits rely on the goodwill of both individual and corporate donors. Fundraising is both an art and science requiring sector knowledge, donor psychology, and technology trends to name a few.  

Nonprofits are breaking myths of being one of the most rigid industries, by advancing fundraising for several years. Nonprofits displayed exceptional resilience during the pandemic by adapting to the new normal and exploring new ways of connecting with donors.  

According to the World Giving Index of 2021 report, Nonprofit organizations broke the record in fundraising by registering an 8.9% growth in global donations. Marked as a transformative moment in the history of philanthropy.

While the pandemic is not going to last but here are a few trends that have changed the ways of fundraising forever. Here’s what to look out for:

1. Social Media 

Did you know?

In the first half of 2020, Instagram launched a new feature that helps fundraisers to convert their accounts into charity business accounts. In 2020 alone, people raised more than $175 million for COVID-related campaigns on Facebook and Instagram and over $5 Billion by 2021 (source: HT Tech).

How do they do it?

Thanks to the power of social media, even with social distancing and restrictions nonprofits received scads of audiences for engagement.

1. •  Social media click rate beats classic direct mail marketing open rate. (6%)
2. •  74%of consumers make their purchasing decisions on social media which means they make money decisions on what they like on social media, including fundraisers.
3. •  All you need is a ‘like’ and ‘follow’ to engage new potential donors (source: Awario).

Where the classic platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram played a central role in social fundraising, emerging platforms like Tiktok also gave huge success to fundraisers.

2. Hybrid fundraising events - the new ‘In-Person’

While nonprofits have been experimenting with virtual technology for several years, the pandemic has brought it to the forefront. Hybrid fundraising events offer all the benefits of in-person events with some perks that have made them the top trending fundraising strategy since 2020.

What do hybrid fundraising events offer?

1. •  Cost-effective: All the money spent on booking a lavish gala hall, decorations, catering, and staff can be saved by using good virtual event software. 
   •  Reachability:  Apart from saving you tons of money, it also allows attendees to participate from anywhere in the world.
   •  Flexibility: Attendees can choose segments to attend as per their convenience and can tailor the experience to suit their needs.
   •  Leveraging technology: Hybrid flares options to leverage digital donations and sponsorships.

3. Giving Days: Strengthening community giving

Giving Tuesday U.S. donations (chart)

Giving days are special as they generate a sense of urgency around the cause and motivate people to give back to the goodness in the world in the form of giving.  

Here are a few perks of fundraising on special days:

1. •  The rewarding experience of giving to donors.
   •  Create a tradition of recurring donations.
   •  Supporters tend to be more generous around special occasions.

4. Hybrid Peer-to-peer fundraising

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were disruptions and restrictions on the normal way of doing things - on interpersonal contact.  Digital peer-to-peer became a cherished fundraising trend. Here’s why:

1. • Minus the hassle of in-person, digital P2P offers a much easier way to run chain fundraising with 47% better results than traditional P2P (source: NetworkforGood).
2. • With the entry of AI and the meta world, fundraising softwares have transformed to help organizations stay connected to their supporters throughout the fundraising course.

• Before telling you how they do it let us show you what they did in the first place. How did the COVID-19 crisis change the hybrid peer-to-peer fundraising landscape?

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• A recent Forbes survey says 85% of organizations plan to offer a virtual participation option even after the pandemic – and none of the respondents said they would eventually drop the virtual offering.

   

It appears hybrid models are here to stay.

Here’s what to look for before choosing P2P fundraising software for your nonprofit:

1. •  Full customization options for giving pages.
   •  Social media and mobile-friendly features.
   •  Virtual-friendly tools for remote engagement and events.
   •  Both national and global integration capabilities.
   •  Recurring donations and match capabilities.
   •  Intuitive and robust back-end functionality.
   •  Gamification tools.

For a deeper dive into these features, check out Crowdera’s peer-to-peer software.

5. Fully customized fundraising website: Connecting

the philanthropy world

It might be shocking to you but the majority of donations in 2021 did not happen from countries having the most millionaires but from third-world countries like Indonesia (According to CAF World Giving Index 2021).

Having your own fundraising website is not just a luxury but a necessity for nonprofits to survive in the digital age. Developing countries with low digital fundraising literacy also amped their fundraising with online campaigns and donation websites (source: CAF).

NurtureDreams' fully customized fundraising website powered by Crowdera

Fundraising Platform Vs Fundraising website

Unlike fundraising platforms, nonprofits can fundraise all year round with an integrated donation button on their website. The fundraising website almost gives every benefit of the fundraising platform. 

From peer-to-peer to recurring donations, a good fundraising website gives you the liberty of creating a fully-customized website as per your fundraising model’s need. 

Here is what Crowdera’s fundraising website offers

1. •  Complete-customization
2. •  No coding required
3. •  No additional requirement for setting up the donation process
4. •  A clickable donation button
5. •  Payment integration for both national and international donations
6. •  Tax exemption benefits
7. •  Automated tax receipts
8. •  Donor data management
9. •  24*7 tech help available
10. •  Recurring donation option
11. •  Multiple campaign fundraising
12. •  Dashboard to manage donations, donors, and multiple campaigns

Book A Free Demo to know more.

Here’s a quick recap on the 

Five fundraising trends to look out for

1. 1. Social Media - Get out there and increase your visibility
2. 2. Hybrid Fundraising Event - Virtual events are here to stay
3. 3. Special Giving Day - Tap into that special festive feeling
4. 4. Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Fundraising - Fundraising online is in!
5. 5. Fully Customized Fundraising Website - Having your own website as compared to a crowdfunding platform
   
6.  

That’s a wrap on Crowdera’s Top 5 Fundraising Trends for 2022. You can book a free discovery call with our fundraising experts to know more retail fundraising.