Capturing the attention of donors is just the first step toward building a successful fundraising program. To thrive in a giving landscape that’s constantly evolving and full of economic uncertainty, your nonprofit needs to prioritize building resilience through diversified revenue streams and systems that fuel long-term engagement.
It’s time to move beyond one-off campaigns and embrace a mix of community partnerships, perennial marketing, and strategic grant funding. Let’s explore how these strategies can help your nonprofit find the stable financial footing it needs for lasting fundraising success.
1. Partner with Businesses in Your Community
Building resilience starts by rooting your fundraising efforts in your local community.
These partnerships provide reliable revenue while simultaneously broadening your nonprofit’s visibility and fostering goodwill
Make local businesses a true partner in your nonprofit’s success with these win-win strategies:
- Run discount card fundraisers that feature local businesses. With these campaigns, your nonprofit earns funds, and the local businesses receive promotion and new customer foot traffic. ABC Fundraising suggests partnering with popular establishments like tanning salons, dry cleaners, flower shops, coffee shops, and gyms to entice more people to purchase a card.
- Ask local businesses for in-kind donations that can be auctioned off at your next fundraising gala. Leveraging in-kind donations for your event can significantly boost the success of auctions or raffles without incurring high costs. These items may include restaurant gift certificates, tickets to local events, or professional services.
For partners who may not be in a position to give a direct monetary donation, these strategies are a great way to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and invest in your nonprofit’s success while building community awareness.
By emphasizing the mutual benefit (increased visibility for the business and low-risk revenue for your cause), you’ll build a strong foundation of sustained support. When planning your campaign, make sure to involve these stakeholders early to foster trust and ensure sustained support.
2. Build a Perennial Promotional Strategy
Resilient fundraising means securing ongoing support, rather than relying on any single major fundraiser. Nonprofits too often focus on promoting discrete fundraising campaigns rather than building an ongoing marketing strategy to fuel their cause. This leaves them without a sustainable, diversified promotional machine to see them through more challenging fundraising conditions.
In Getting Attention’s guide to fundraising promotion, they highlight the impact of a multi-channel approach to marketing to increase fundraising revenue. This strategy involves reaching out to supporters across channels, including social media, email, text, and direct mail.
If you’ve been overreliant on one channel, introduce variety to spark renewed interest. A simple email survey can help you determine what communication methods your supporters prefer.
Product fundraising offers another avenue to securing ongoing support while also building awareness of your nonprofit.
Supporters can raise funds by selling cookie dough or flower bulbs to their friends and neighbors. These campaigns are appealing because they require no money up front: you only order the product after collecting orders.
These campaigns can even become treasured traditions, with supporters looking forward to making a purchase every year. This helps fuel a continuous cycle of support for your cause and drives the lasting awareness your nonprofit needs to stay sustainable.
3. Tap into Grant Fundraising Opportunities
Beyond individual giving and campaign-based fundraising, securing nonprofit grants offers another path to stable revenue generation. Grants can be sourced from both private and public sources, corporate entities, nonprofit foundations, and government grant makers. While the process of finding, applying for, and managing grants can be complex, leveraging grant management tools can ease the burden by:
- Uncovering trends in fundraising performance that make you more attractive to grant funders (ex: high donor retention rates and low costs per dollar raised are critical).
- Streamlining application workflows and ensure you follow up on the right RFPs for your cause.
Outside of traditional grant funding, consider alternatives like search engine marketing grants. For example, Google Ad Grants provide nonprofits with free advertising dollars to use on Google’s search results.
This support helps nonprofits stay competitive in the world of online advertising and can play an essential role in building awareness of your cause among audiences you may not normally reach through traditional channels.
Resilience in nonprofit fundraising comes down to diversification and consistent engagement. By consciously moving toward community partnerships, building a consistent promotional rhythm, and strategically pursuing grant funding, you can future-proof your organization.
With these actionable strategies in mind, your team can focus less on putting out fires and more on fulfilling your mission—ensuring your nonprofit doesn’t simply survive, but thrives.