For a lot of organisations, it’s been a big year for fundraising appeals and virtual events – with many charities seeing booming results from crisis campaigns kicked off since April 2020. Can we keep this momentum going as we see more and more reports that the economic sky is falling in and Australia is in recession?
The reality is – we don’t know what the fundraising future holds, but we do know from previous recessions that our job as fundraisers is to continue inspiring donors and connecting them with causes they care about. We need to thank them regularly, show them the impact of their support and continue to let them know what more they can do.
During the last recession, we saw the organisations that continued to invest in fundraising continue to grow their revenue. Donors were still highly responsive to being asked to give. There were also a group of organisations who jumped on the opportunity to increase their fundraising investments, as competition in the market dropped with many organisations cutting fundraising expenditure and communications with their supporters. History has shown us that in a recession it’s still possible to flourish and grow.
We’ve recently seen a huge initial wave of response to crisis appeals, now let’s show supporters the difference their ongoing, regular gift could make, to help your organisation continue to deliver in uncertain times.
If you’ve brought new supporters into your organisation via a crisis appeal or an online event, they’ve recently shown they care about the work that you do. Give them a call to say thank you and invite them to take the next step and become a regular giver to your organisation.
It’s also a great time to reach out and thank existing supporters, provide updates and invite them to increase their ongoing gift. Asking regular monthly donors to increase their support by showing them the difference the increase will make, will inspire many to do even more with you.
When times are hard, history has shown us that we need to trust in our donors, proactively thank and update them on the impact of their support and offer ways to continue to support what they value. We need to continue investing in growth.
If you still need convincing that during a recession, asking and connecting with your donors will see your organisation thrive.
Want to run your fundraising idea by a team who know regular giving inside out? The team at Raisers Hub can help, book in a free 15-minute discovery call to find out mo