Asking For Donations 
How To Ask For Donations?

In any scenario, asking for money is always considered greedy and rude. Now we all know that the main reason why anyone will go to the extent of asking for donations if it is not necessary. But there is always a sweet time to ask for it. First of all, before asking for someone’s hard-earned money, as a fundraiser, you must explain yourself about the campaign and what measures you are planning to take in order to make things better. You need to be straightforward yet swift about asking for funds. Be humble and help your reader understand how helpless you are and how they can help you get better.

The best way to get a good response and donation is to tailor your story according to who you are telling the story to. If you expect a donor to respond with a nice e-mail, then you tell your story lightly. Send a more serious message to a more formal person or group.

Collect your money for an ANBI organisation, then indicate that the donations are tax-deductible. Of course, this also applies to business donations.

Make sure you make the urgency of the donation campaign clear. If you need funds for your cause, you must add a deadline to show the donors that there is a sense of urgency to your fundraiser. Without urgency, people might put off donating — meaning they might forget, and you’ll have to ask them again. The urgency also helps to spread and share the action. The more urgent, the more people will share the action for you on social media. Explain what happens if your crowdfunding donation campaign does not complete successfully. You don’t have to do this in a very negative way; it can also be brought positive. Say something like ‘If we achieve this goal, we can’ Make it urgent, but keep it positive.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t donate right away or if you hear ‘No’ a few times. That’s normal; people are busy with other things or have problems themselves. You don’t know in advance when people will cross the bridge, so give them time and keep the courage in it. Continue to campaign and promote the donation. After all, crowdfunding is about helping each other during difficult times.

Do you collect one-time donations, or do you want to call on the same donor again later? If the latter is the goal, you can set the donation as a first step in the relationship with the donor. To build a good relationship with the donor, you must make them part of the donation campaign. So stay in touch, write updates and thank your donor extensively. People who donated to your fundraiser without asking anything in return deserve applause for their philanthropy. At least you can do is to convey your gratitude for their cooperation and kindness.

It seems obvious, but the first step to collecting donations is starting an online donation page. Last year online giving grew by 12.1%. More than ever, donors and campaigners are looking for fast, safe and easy ways to donate online.

This is where your WhyDonate account comes in handy. As soon as you have created a free WhyDonate account, you will immediately start your first fundraising campaign. Once you publish the fundraiser, you can start collecting donations right away. If you have your own website, you can easily place a donate button there. The WhyDonate donation forms are perfectly designed to be customised according to your own branding and optimised for the highest donation conversion.

Now that you’ve created the fundraiser page, you can also start thinking about other types of campaigns, such as recurring charitable donations. Periodic donations are automatic payments that are collected monthly or annually. On average, a regular donor annually gives 42% more than a one-time donor. With WhyDonate, you can start a separate fundraising campaign where you only accept monthly and annual donors. You can, of course also place this donation campaign on your own website by means of the donation plugin. 

Changing the donation intervals on the donation form is easy. Make sure you are logged in, and then go to the fundraiser page on WhyDonate. You will then see a pen icon at the top right of the screen. If you click on that, you will be given the option to adjust the donation amounts and intervals. These changes will only be made for this fundraiser. So, you can create different forms.

After personal contact, a personal message is the strongest channel to recruit donors. Think of Email, WhatsApp, Facebook DM, Instagram DM and other channels where you can send a personal message. The more contacts you have, the better. To maximize the chance that people will make a donation, it is important that you segment the contacts in order to send them a message that is as personal as possible. If you have thousands of contacts through different channels, it is difficult to send them all a personal message. So you will have to bundle them or make some kind of template. Be careful about this because there is nothing more annoying than a personally intended message where, for example, a wrong name is mentioned. You can segment the contacts by immediate family, family, best friends, friends, colleagues, former colleagues, neighbours, sports club etc. Include a link to the donation page in all messages. Keep a list of people who have donated so that you can remind those who haven’t yet. You can repeat this once or twice without it getting too intrusive.

Events are a perfect opportunity to solicit donations. You have large groups of people who may want to make a donation. For example, it could be a sports event such as a running race, tennis tournament or family tournament. But also events of a business nature, such as trade fairs and courses. These are great opportunities to ask for donations for your cause. And this is why:

• For most events you need proof of participation. While purchasing this proof, you can already ask the participant for a donation. You can then ask the participants again during the follow-up email contact. 
• During the event, you can place a QR code on printed matter (leaflets, posters, flyers, tickets) and screens that link directly to the donation form. It really helps if this is also mentioned at the end of a presentation. For example, people can scan the QR code directly from the presentation screen.
• Be aware that events are a unique opportunity to raise donations. You have the attention of a lot of people who are all listening to your story.

Social media is a perfect channel to collect donations. Think of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tiktok or even Pinterest. This way you not only reach your own network, but also the network of your friends and with a bit of luck even the network of their friends.

• Success on social media depends entirely on the text, image and video. A short video always works best compared to an image or text. Such a video can be very simple and can be recorded with your own phone. Write down some points you want to tell and start recording. It doesn’t have to be right the first time, and you can safely record multiple videos and ultimately choose the best one. If you don’t feel like making a video, make sure you have good text with personal images.   
• It is also important to tell a story that is as personal as possible, always ending or even starting with the question, “Would you like to make a donation?”. If you don’t ask people to donate, there’s a very good chance they won’t.
• Before you post the fundraiser on social media, it is important that the first donations have already been made. A vague acquaintance will not be the first to donate to your fundraiser. So make sure to ask your family and friends to make a donation first.
• Don’t just ask people for a donation, but also to share your post. Please note: this should not be at the expense of the donations. So be clear that it is about making a donation, but that it is also nice if the message is shared.
• For social media fundraising, ask people with a lot of followers to share your post. First, focus on the people you know best and send them a personal message. If desired, help to collect the right material so that the “influencer” spends as little time as possible on this.

In addition to personal social media channels, you can also use the major news and media channels. Think not only of social media but also of the (online) newspaper, blogs, radio and magazines. Make a list of relevant sections and the corresponding editorials. If it’s a large national media company, try to avoid the general editors. There is very little chance of being picked up there. Choose an editor that best fits your story. And focus on local media first; they will be more inclined to share your story. Once the local media has written about you, the national media is more likely to take over.

Make sure that the press release about your fundraising campaign is of good quality so that it can be taken over one-on-one by the media company. Make sure the story about the fundraiser is personal, informative and based on facts. Opinions and assumptions are usually not adopted. Be sure to include an image, contact details and a link to the donation page in addition to the text. This is especially important for digital channels.

Some donors are extra motivated to donate when they get something in return (besides the good feeling). It could be something very small or even just a gesture. This also makes it easier for yourself as you can give something back. Reciprocity is therefore a very strong principle that can work very well when you ask for donations. You can return the following to your donor:

• Physical gifts: For example, if you collect donations at an event, you can easily give something back to the donor. For example a cup, keyring, t-shirt. You’d be surprised how many people like this. And in addition, it also provides extra visibility for your promotion if you have the items printed properly.
• Digital gifts: If you do not want to send items by post, you can also send digital gifts to your donors by e-mail. Think of a free advertisement on your website, a shout-out on social media, an e-book, paid content, etc.