Let’s discover two fundraising eventualities. Faculty A and Faculty B are each holding month-long read-a-thon fundraising campaigns to cap off the top of the varsity 12 months. Faculty A asks college students to gather flat donations of $10 from their family and friends. Faculty B makes use of the pledge fundraising mannequin and asks college students to gather $3 pledges for every hour spent studying from their sponsors.
In the long run, each colleges are profitable—however Faculty B raises more cash and has higher participation from college students. It is because the scholars knew that they may elevate extra to help their college just by spending extra time studying.
This information will discover how your college or nonprofit can use pledge fundraising to increase its affect by breaking down a number of the prime continuously requested questions (FAQs). Let’s start.
1. What’s pledge fundraising?
A pledge happens when a donor guarantees to make a present of cash, items, or companies that might be delivered to the group at a later date. Donations, alternatively, are paid instantly. Typically donors use pledges to stagger bigger funds, breaking them into extra manageable funds (e.g., pledging to provide $1,000 over six months).
However how does this course of work in apply? 99Pledges’ information to kid-friendly fundraising concepts illustrates how your group can weave this fundraising methodology into your subsequent marketing campaign:
- Work with a pledge fundraising software program supplier to arrange donation pages for contributors.
- Encourage your contributors to share the donation pages on-line.
- Members acquire pledge donations from family and friends, normally corresponding with a unit of distance, time, or amount (e.g., $1 per automobile washed throughout a automobile wash or $3 per mile jogged throughout a jog-a-thon).
- Observe pledges utilizing your fundraising software program.
- Accumulate proceeds as soon as the occasion wraps up. Your software program ought to routinely ship reminders and acquire funds from donors.
Remember that pledges are completely different from month-to-month giving initiatives. Month-to-month or recurring giving signifies that the donor has enrolled in your sustainer program and agrees to donate a selected greenback quantity every month (e.g., $25 every month, on repeat). Whereas a donor might pay some pledged donations in installments, this doesn’t make them part of your month-to-month giving initiative.
2. Why settle for pledges?
Pledge fundraising is an efficient methodology for nonprofits, colleges, and different fundraising organizations as a result of it:
- Is extra versatile. Improve your donors’ experiences and safe extra donations by providing them alternative ways to donate. For instance, throughout a walk-a-thon they could select between giving pledged donations for every mile walked or donating a flat fee. Flat charges enchantment to donors who know what they need to donate whereas pledges may be higher for individuals who can not or don’t want to donate instantly.
- Can enhance donors’ capability to provide. Not your entire supporters can afford to provide massive quantities at one time. Nonetheless, pledge donations give them the choice to pay towards a bigger sum over a number of months. Whereas your group received’t obtain an instantaneous main present, these small donations add up.
- Offers extra alternatives to steward supporters. With pledged donations, you’ll have not less than two alternatives to attach with them: after they make the pledge and after they donate. In the event that they plan to satisfy the pledge in a number of funds, you’ve much more probabilities to indicate your gratitude. Ship donors heartfelt thank-you messages and share the affect that their contributions should steward the connection.
Pledges are additionally an effective way for donors to supply focused help to the causes or tasks they care about most. For instance, an afterschool program may use a sports activities crew fundraising thought like a baseball hit-a-thon to boost cash for its crew sports activities program. When donors pledge to donate to this marketing campaign, they’ll know precisely the place their funds are going.
3. How are pledges collected and processed?
There are various alternative ways to handle pledged donations, and it’s as much as your group to resolve what works finest. Nonetheless, there are some ideas and finest practices to comply with that may maintain the method operating easily:
- Use pledge fundraising software program that can observe pledges and fundraising progress throughout your marketing campaign.
- Settle for quite a lot of cost strategies like bank cards, PayPal, ApplePay, and GooglePay to make donating versatile and handy for donors.
- Leverage on-line donation pages. Since pledges are sometimes collected by way of peer-to-peer fundraising, contemplate making a donation web page for the entire marketing campaign and permitting contributors to create particular person pages.
- Select a cost processor or fundraising platform that’s protected and safe. Usually, these suppliers are PCI compliant and make use of safety measures like knowledge encryption and two-factor authentication.
Moreover, you’ll have to ensure you’re asking for these donations in an efficient method. As a result of some donors might not be aware of pledge fundraising, clarify how the tactic works in your asks. In case your group is holding a peer-to-peer marketing campaign, share some primary fundraising ideas and advertising and marketing supplies with contributors.
4. What occurs if a donor doesn’t fulfill their pledge?
Sadly, pledge attrition can occur in virtually any marketing campaign. Nonetheless, a median of 84% of occasion fundraising pledges are fulfilled, so you’ll be able to relaxation assured that this isn’t a rampant situation that can critically affect your success. To offset any anticipated losses, set the expectation that you just received’t obtain roughly 10% of the entire quantity pledged.
In lots of circumstances, pledging to donate isn’t legally binding. Which means one of the best ways to curb pledge attrition is thru preventative measures. Begin with clear communication—ensure donors perceive what pledging to donate means, inform them after they might want to make the cost, and ship out reminders.
Moreover, some fundraising platforms require a donor’s card data to course of the pledge. This fashion, your nonprofit can routinely acquire the agreed-upon quantity on a selected date (and neither you nor the donor will overlook about it).
5. How can your group encourage donors to pledge once more?
You’ll have to make efforts to steward your group’s relationship with donors to make sure they pledge once more sooner or later. To take action, arrange a gratitude system that features components like:
- Sending donors thank-you messages. Share an electronic mail or handwritten letter expressing your gratitude for his or her help. eCardWidget’s information to thanking donors recommends including private particulars like the quantity donated, centering the donors’ affect, and making certain your message suits the present quantity.
- Creating donor recognition partitions. Recognition partitions are mounted, public shows in your facility that function the names of your prime, most loyal donors. These partitions honor the donors’ contributions, bodily symbolize your group of supporters, and make these featured really feel deeply related to your trigger.
- Giving prime donors public shout-outs. Determine the donors that pledged the biggest quantity, contributed for the primary time, or have joined in on essentially the most pledge campaigns. Then, ask in the event that they’d prefer to be featured in your web site or social media. Think about asking them just a few temporary questions on why they help your trigger. You possibly can function their solutions within the publish.
In case your nonprofit or different group shares an affect or annual report, contemplate including a piece that acknowledges impactful donors. Unfold consciousness of your pledge fundraisers and increase supporter retention by including a particular part to spotlight the affect of pledge-based fundraisers.
Pledge fundraising permits your group to provide its supporters a special approach to contribute to your trigger. The flexibility to make smaller donations over time or sooner or later can increase your donors’ capability to provide. Unit-based pledges can empower contributors in charity races, dance-a-thons, and different occasions to go the additional mile in the course of the marketing campaign.
To encourage each your donors and contributors to do extra to additional your mission, contemplate implementing pledge fundraising into your subsequent marketing campaign.
In regards to the Writer
Rodrigo Ramos
Rodrigo Ramos is the Supervisor of Buyer Success at 99Pledges, the #1 on-line fundraising platform for colleges, sports activities groups, music teams, and extra. 99Pledges gives organizations with an easy-to-use, web-based resolution to handle and drive success in fundraising. The platform’s strong performance can help easy pledge drives in addition to performance-based campaigns (e.g. enjoyable runs, walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, and so on.).
