While nonprofits have weathered numerous hardships in recent years, revenue instability due to economic uncertainty, crises like natural disasters, shifting populations, and high unemployment rates are nothing new. For decades, nonprofits have had to quickly scale down programming, adjust mission spending, and lay off staff.

Recessions are an inevitable, cyclical force. Nonprofits can ensure long-term stability by identifying new engagement opportunities and diversifying revenue drivers instead of relying on a single source of revenue. What are some actions that organizations can take when seeking sustainability?

Improve donor stewardship

Before you look into expanding your reach or adding new events, take a closer look at your current donors. It costs five times as much to acquire a new donor than to retain an existing donor. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bring in new supporters, but it should not come at the cost of existing donor retention.

Donor retention rates generally increase when gift amounts increase. Consider what you can do to encourage your supporters to increase their gift amounts. Already have a strong average gift amount? Retention rates also increase when donors are personally and authentically thanked within 24 hours. This does not mean just sending a tax receipt. What can your team do to improve your thank-yous?

There are many things you can do to better steward your donors once you have a sense of their habits and preferences and you’ve identified the gaps in your relationship management. By improving your donor stewardship with personal, thoughtful engagement tactics, you can heavily influence donors’ giving habits and keep them coming back to your mission!

Refine storytelling

Our brains are activated by stories in such a way that drives a higher level of emotional engagement. That’s pretty important when you’re fundraising. Stories help us connect, understand, and find clarity amid chaos. Telling stories should be a major component of any organization’s communications efforts.

Delve into how your organization’s mission, volunteers, constituents, and the issues you’re working on resonate with your audience. Consider how you can share those stories efficiently and effectively and measure engagement and readership.

Incorporating a diversity of content as you tell your story will help increase traffic to and engagement with your website and social media channels. Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how you can best tell your story:

• Infographics that share the numbers of the core and growth of your mission objectives, such as patients supported, scholarships given, meals provided—
• Social media “takeover” by a high-level volunteer or constituent
• “Countdown” graphics or videos on your fundraising campaign or event page featuring your supporters
• Post-event engagement text message campaigns

Diversify revenue streams

The 2022 Fundraising Research Study from my organization, GiveSmart, found an ongoing trend in nonprofit fundraising that involves setting unrealistic goals. The majority of organizations expect their main events to bring in ever-growing revenues. But don’t ignore the possibility of a fundraising plateau. When you diversify your revenue streams, you can improve adaptability and mitigate risk to the overall financial health of your organization.

If you are unable to add a new campaign or event, consider making some incremental changes to see growth. Some examples include: 

• Adding a new event site or increasing venue capacity
• Considering how you can steward and leverage your honorees
• Adding a ticketed pre-party or after party
• Offering an associate board-hosted kick-off party

There is more to revenue generation than fundraising events, though. Events have associated costs that can fluctuate as raw materials, food, and labor costs rise. Consider some of these fundraising strategies to help improve your bottom line:

Matching gift drive

Billions in corporate matching gifts go unclaimed every year, according to Double the Donation. If your fundraising or donor management technology integrates with matching gift software, it is easy to solicit this under-tapped revenue source. If not, segment your donor list and reach out, explaining what matching gifts are and giving donors steps on how to claim them for your nonprofit.

Membership drive

Memberships are a great source of annual income and help build a large base of motivated, dedicated donors. You don’t have to have a physical space like a museum or theater to offer memberships. You can offer exclusive invites, merchandise, constituent experiences, and more.

Recurring giving

Offer a recurring giving prompt on your online forms that enable people to give monthly automatically. The retention rate of donors who give at regular intervals is twice that of one-time donors, and their lifetime value is at least twice as much and up to 10 times as high!

Don’t forget to send these donors special newsletters, give them unique name tags or ribbons at events, provide special access to tours, or share registration discount codes.

Tapping into high-level volunteers

Consider whether your board or other high-level volunteers can host events that are tied to one central fundraising campaign, to help expand your reach, increase your audience, and increase revenue. Some examples include:

• A scavenger hunt in which participants tag your organization and share selfies as they collect items 
• A pre-event raffle of a high-ticket item that is publicized to your network 
• A ticketed virtual cooking demonstration or a recipe competition with a donation required to participate
• Adding peer-to-peer fundraising or voting competitions to your gala

Invest in technology

Any of these actions are made easier with the right fundraising and donor management technology. Take the time to review what tools you have available and see what more you can do with them. You may also discover redundancies and corresponding cost savings. There are many things to consider when looking for technology, but do not overlook the importance of security and integrations:

Security

Look for nonprofit fundraising software with PCI and SOC2 compliance. These third-party standards ensure that privacy and security processes are at the highest level. Security begets trust, which is the foundation for any donor relationship.

Integrations

Direct integrations help your team with accuracy and efficiency. Look for direct syncs from your fundraising software to your CRM system, communication tools, digital wallets, streaming services, and data collection to best support your team and donors.

Nonprofits can support their long-term stability by fostering donor relationships, improving communication, expanding fundraising, and embracing technology. While adapting takes dedicated investment and effort, this proactive approach ensures that your mission sees long-term success.

Cara Dickerson is vice president of customer success and account management at GiveSmart by Community Brands.