Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies 2025: Tips, Software, Samples

Instagram Live Fundraising is a powerful tool for nonprofits to engage with their supporters and raise awareness of their cause. Through this feature, users can easily donate to a cause right from their Facebook news feed. Additionally, nonprofits can add a “Donate Now” button to their cover photo, making it even easier for donors to make a donation. If you have an upcoming capital campaign, you may consider making grants a portion of that campaign to ensure its’ success and speedy completion.

What percentage of revenue should come from fundraising, grants, and other sources?

Additionally, nonprofits can create targeted ads that focus on specific audiences and ensure that viewers are motivated/incentivized to work further or learn more about their nonprofit. By creating an interactive live stream, nonprofits can share compelling visuals and stories about their organization with their followers, answer questions in real-time, set donation goals, and thank donors for their contributions. Additionally, this feature allows nonprofits to leverage features such as matching donations or tiered giving levels to maximize the impact of their fundraising efforts. Nonprofit organizations can also use Facebook Live as a powerful fundraising tool. With this feature, nonprofits can create an engaging and interactive experience for their supporters, allowing them to share their stories, set donation goals, and thank donors for their contributions. This question comes from a common myth about nonprofit budgeting—that because your organization can’t turn a profit by definition, your total predicted revenue for the year always has to equal your total expenses.

Nonprofit Budgeting: How to Get Started + Template

Fundraising and development are key to any Organization’s long-term success, but it is important to separate the two activities, track their costs and properly report them on your financial statements. Once you’ve created your nonprofit budget, you’ll be on track to secure financial stability and sustainability for your organization. Develop, analyze and apply your organization’s budgets with expert help from the nonprofit financial professionals at Jitasa. With these features in mind, let’s dive deeper into the two sides of your nonprofit’s operating budget.

June Landry, Partner, Chief Marketing Officer

The approved budget then serves as a guide for financial activity in the months ahead. Budgets should not be written in stone, because the financial position of the nonprofit may change during the year. Charitable nonprofits (also known as public charities) generally receive money through donations, and also from grants from foundations or state and federal governments. Subtract your total costs (amount spent) from your total return (amount raised). As we stated above, there is no limit to how much accounting services for nonprofit organizations money a nonprofit can have in reserve. The key is in the organization’s financial management, whether that means reinvesting the reserve back into the nonprofit’s mission or ensuring financial security by saving money.

How to Calculate Fundraising Overhead Percentage

A solid foundation is critical to the success of any nonprofit fundraising campaign. As you embark on your quest to raise money for your cause, it’s essential to adhere to best practices that have been proven to yield results. One of these best practices is setting clear, quantifiable, and attainable goals in your fundraising strategy, known as S.M.A.R.T. goals. Understanding donor motivations and maintaining consistent branding and communication throughout your fundraising efforts are just as important. The more you cater to your donors’ needs and preferences, the more likely they are to support your cause. In a world where nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in addressing pressing social issues, effective non-profit fundraising strategies have become more important than ever.

• Rent, bills, utilities, Internet and telephone bills are all fixed expenses.
• For example, you may reach out to the new bus company you plan to use for your organization’s summer camp to estimate how much their services will cost.
• As a nonprofit professional, you’re likely all too familiar with overhead costs.
• This will stifle your growth while you chase a goal that most donors do not expect you to achieve.
• Are you responsible for managing a nonprofit’s budget, or are you looking to support an organization and want to understand how its finances work?
• Today’s question comes from a fundraiser who wants to know of any ratio of fundraising budget expenses to revenue goal.

What If I Need Help with Nonprofit Budgeting?

Engaging content and exclusive rewards or experiences can encourage corporate participation and donations. These appeals can foster a sense of personal connection with the cause, encouraging more generous donations. Planned giving solicitations encourage supporters to consider long-term contributions to the cause. This strategy can https://nerdbot.com/2025/06/10/the-key-benefits-of-accounting-services-for-nonprofit-organizations/ secure future funding, ensuring the longevity of the nonprofit.

• Consider surveying volunteers to gauge their interests and relevant skills.
• This approach ensures that resources are allocated more strategically and efficiently.
• Even if you never need to justify your expenses, the exercise can help you improve your results.
• This approach establishes trust and openness within the organization, as your employees understand how their input influences the overall financial plan.
• If your nonprofit has the financial flexibility to budget for a revenue surplus, do so!
• Simply put, a non-profit’s revenue is the amount of cash it generates, and its income is the amount of cash it generates minus its expenses and losses.

• A wide variety of organizations and causes can benefit from fundraising efforts.
• Experiment with adding a “monthly” option to your website’s donate button and email appeals.
• Watchdog groups attempt to hold nonprofits accountable by policing their spending.
• Calculate Your Fundraising Event ROI Cross-check this fundraising goal with the amount you’ve budgeted for the cost to run your event.
• Other agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, recommend a ratio of 65% or higher.
• One other thing important to mention is the ‘overhead myth.’ For too long, nonprofits have been rewarded for how little they spend rather than how much they accomplish.

This strategy involves crafting compelling narratives that resonate with supporters, encouraging them to donate directly from their mobile phones. YouTube nonprofit annotations, interactive pop-ups in videos, provide an immediate and direct way for viewers to contribute. This strategy can streamline the donation process, making it easier for viewers to support the cause. YouTube charity live streams offer nonprofits a platform for real-time engagement. These live streams can foster a sense of community among supporters, enhancing their emotional connection to the cause. LinkedIn video content increases a nonprofit’s visibility on the platform.

• Scan-to-give is an innovative strategy that leverages QR codes to facilitate donations.
• That’s the way that the fundraising industry analyzes activities and studies progress across the sector.
• CharityWatch considers a charity to be highly efficient when program spending is 75 percent or higher.
• Email newsletters offer nonprofits a consistent way to engage supporters.
• Directors and officers of the nonprofit cannot be paid, but people who hold a position within the company can be.
• By creating compelling content and stories about their cause, nonprofits can leverage the power of social media to reach potential donors and maximize their fundraising efforts.

” They found that, on average, that it takes one full time equivalent employee (FTE) to raise $500,000 annually, so for every $1 Million an organization wants to raise, they should expect … Calculate Your Fundraising Event ROI Cross-check this fundraising goal with the amount you’ve budgeted for the cost to run your event. Divide the net profit by the cost of the fundraiser and multiply the result by 100. A nonprofit organization is a business that has been granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because it furthers a social cause and provides a public benefit. Bloomerang is the community-focused nonprofit donor management software built to deliver a better giving experience and help organizations thrive. “It’s important as a donor to understand what the allocation between these types of expenses means for your contribution, ” says Christie Novak, an accounting professor at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management.