Virtual Ways to Support Nonprofits and Schools During a Crisis
As a digital fundraising partner to organizations throughout the United States, we’ve seen first-hand the quickly increasing impact the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is continuing to have on nonprofits and educational institutions.
Because many areas of the country have significantly reduced physical interactions, especially in groups, we’re seeing more of these organizations having to put their services on hold or offer them strictly via virtual channels.
Now more than ever, we need to find ways to support and empower the organizations that are fulfilling the critical needs of our most vulnerable populations, and those that will require extra financial support in order to remain operational as a result of this pandemic.
Leveraging the Virtual Nature of Giving Days
Giving Days are time-restricted fundraising and engagement challenges that aim to rally groups of people around a particular region, cause, event, or university. They are all about providing organizations with the tools to meet their donors where they are – online! No matter the operating budget or the staff size of the organization, all participants have the same opportunities to share their mission and engage with those who have a passion for the work they do.
Through online fundraising initiatives such as Giving Days, donor contributions of all sizes can be managed in one place. This means that a donation of ten dollars shares the same digital platform as a donation of ten thousand dollars. This helps you to easily focus your energy on new donors who want to help in small ways as well as still generate support from your major donors.
Although our Giving Day platform is entirely digital, many hosts generate excitement around the day by promoting in-person events. This is even more common among higher education Giving Days as they often have donation stations and special events set up around campus.
While in-person events are impactful for organizations of all sizes, in response to our current situation, we are encouraging organizations to utilize virtual tools to rally support rather than pausing fundraising activity altogether.
Ways to make your Giving Day Completely Virtual:
- Set up a virtual event and invite your entire community to join:
- If you already had an in-person event planned, launch a digital event that uses the same or similar branding from your live event, and have it take place at the same time as your intended live event.
- Encourage heightened participation through prizes and matching gifts:
- By offering prizes based on a variety of milestones, beyond just dollars raised, you can help encourage friendly competition among your supporters.
- Utilize more videos over written content:
- You’d be surprised how effective virtual face-time can be, even in a pre-recorded video. Video content can be shared on each participant’s campaign, which also includes fundraisers.
- Activate more peer-to-peer activity:
- People are going to be online and on social media more than ever — this is the perfect time to encourage your supporters to help spread the word about your fundraising efforts to their social networks.
- Live stream to connect in real-time:
- Live-streaming during your Giving Day is now easier than ever with GiveGab Live, GiveGab’s real-time virtual event dashboard that pairs perfectly with your Giving Day site and gives you the power to connect with your community in real-time, showcase pre-recorded videos, provide a text-to-give option, reveal giving stats and leaderboard changes as they happen, and more.
Additional Resources for COVID-19 Support:
Visit GiveGab’s Crisis Relief Resources Page
We’re experiencing a true “we’re all in this together” situation in that everyone is being encouraged to distance themselves and to stay home as much as possible. This doesn’t mean that we should stop interacting altogether, in fact, the opposite is true; we’re already seeing that the growing impact of the Coronavirus is inspiring people to come together through digital philanthropy.
To find the best way you can meet your organization’s unique fundraising goals, connect with one of our Engagement Specialists by booking a demo below. Because you deserve an easy, enjoyable, and effective way to fundraise.
