We all go through hard times in the nonprofit world—you’re not alone! But, with enough savvy your organization can avoid or overcome some of these common challenges.
#NonprofitProblem 1: When your long term donors drop off.
Keeping donors invested in your cause and organization is a central struggle in nonprofit life. To keep them contributing, make sure your donors stay engaged by continuously letting them know about the impact they are making and the influence they have on your organization and your mission. Put forth effort to ensure that your donors feel included and informed. This can involve:
- Thank you letters and emails that specify the impact of donations.
- Blog, newsletter, and social media updates that demonstrate the work that supporter donations are making possible.
- Giving donors opportunities to get involved as volunteers, event-goers, or site-observers.
- Being responsive to donor communications and outreach in a timely manner.
Ultimately, this will help build lasting relationships with your supporters and keep them donating long term.
#NONPROFITPROBLEM 2: When you don’t have enough resources.
Nonprofits aren’t in it for the money, but it still takes plenty of resources to achieve missions. Running out of funds is a major issue that nonprofits struggle with every day. So what can you do?
- Seek out strong partnerships with philanthropists, companies, and other organizations that have similar goals.
- Make sure you have robust and affordable fundraising software to enable the flow of donations.
- Start a Peer-to-Peer campaign and let your supporters reach out to their networks.
- Launch a well thought out email marketing campaign to persuade your network to help your organization work towards its worthy cause.
#NONPROFITPROBLEM 3: When you’re short on staff.
We’re all familiar with the struggle to accomplish everything you need to do with not enough hands to do it. This can lead to quick burnout among your staff. But don’t dismay!
- Help out your team by investing in the right technology to work with. With powerful and reliable fundraising software, your small team can multiply its impact.
- Deploy your volunteers effectively, and keep them coming back by thanking them for their work and making sure their experiences with your organization are meaningful.
#NONPROFITPROBLEM 4: When you don’t get enough publicity.
Oftentimes, a marketing team is not in the budget. However, it’s still possible to spread the word of your mission on the cheap. You can start off by creating an effective marketing campaign to reach out for donations from your supporters. You can also utilize your volunteers to help spruce up your website, blog, and social media presence. Additionally, you can reach out to your board and staff to acquire connections to sponsors and establish new partnerships.
Make sure that before spreading the word that everyone in your organization is on board with what exactly is your mission, your vision, your work, and your impact. A unified voice is essential to sounding professional and focused, and will give donors the assurance they need to know that their contributions will be well-utilized.
#NONPROFITPROBLEM 5: When technology keeps moving really, really fast.
From the intense proliferation of social media to the the inevitable growth of mobile usage, your organization has to continuously stay on top of the latest technological trends to ensure that you are reaching the right audiences and making your assets accessible and donor-friendly.
If you figure out your target audience, catering to these changes can become a little more manageable. Curate your organization’s social media presence by picking the platforms that your supporters use most — for many organizations, this usually entails Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It is better to have less social media accounts with more current activity than several accounts that appear dead.
If your website is not mobile optimized and, like many organizations, you don’t have the resources to hire engineers to rebuild your web presence, start small and ensure that your basic donation and campaign pages are mobile friendly. If you’re using Flipcause, you can rest assured that all your supporter-facing tools and campaign pages are optimized for mobile use.
Feeling the struggle? We’d love to hear your #NonprofitProblems in the comments!
