I’m always on the lookout for new tools that make it easier for fundraising and nonprofit leaders to get their jobs done. Unique ways for nonprofits to engage their supporters, and for organizations to raise more money for their causes.
Today I want to share five of those tools with you. I’m recommending these because I think they provide value, and because they’ll help you accomplish your mission more efficiently and effectively than without them.
I’m not being compensated in any way from any of these companies — there’s nothing in it for me other than knowing that you’re able to be more successful if you take advantage of one or more of these tools.
So here we go…
DAFDirect.org (DAF Widget)
This thing is brilliant. I’m grateful to Greg Warner of MarketSmart for introducing me to this great tool for encouraging middle & major donor engagement and online giving.
Here’s how it works. DAFDirect.org is a nonprofit that exists solely to provide the technology resources for other nonprofits to accept donor-advised fund gifts online. This allows donors to make charitable grant decisions from their DAF right on your website. At the exact time that they’re motivated to give you a gift.
You simply embed the widget on your website, ideally in the areas on/near your current giving pages or calls to action. Donors who have DAFs can then select their specific fund and direct a grant to your organization right from the widget. It’s that simple.
The other great thing is, DAFDirect.org isn’t in the payment processor business. There is no per transaction charge for using the widget. Their costs are underwritten by the companies that manage donor-advised funds, so you don’t have to worry about the typical transaction fees associated with credit card transactions.
Here’s why this option should be important to you. From 2013 – 2015, the average DAF contribution to a nonprofit is right about $4,000. That’s well beyond the average online credit card gift of $100 – $200. AND, when a donor designates a DAF grant to your organization, they’re also telling you that they have considerable capacity. This is a great indication of both affinity for your cause, and their ability to give more (if cultivated appropriately). You’ve now surfaced a new middle or major gift prospect!
iDonate
The iDonate platform is one of the hottest new online giving platforms on the market.
What’s really cool about the iDonate platform is it’s versatility. Like any other traditional online giving platform, it accepts all types of credit cards. But it doesn’t stop there. The platform lets donors make significant contributions of other types. Directly through the iDonate platform, supporters can donate appreciated stocks, real estate, vehicles, shares in their business, and even electronics.
This is a great tool for increasing the average value of online gifts, and accessing a unique share of wallet that you might otherwise not have access to through a traditional online giving system.
My friends over at Jimmie Hale Mission have a live version of the iDonate platform. Check it out.
MarketSmart
I was lucky enough to get a demo of MarketSmart this week. If you are responsible for major gifts or planned giving in an organization, you’ve got to check this platform out. Greg Warner, the CEO/Founder of MarketSmart is passionate about helping nonprofits develop highly engaged relationships with their donors.
The MarketSmart platform allows nonprofits to access real-time tracking of online donor behavior, score that donor engagement through proprietary algorithms, and build deeper relationships through automated engagement strategies. This means you can focus on the most engaged major and planned gift prospects at the actual time they are most likely to be ready to give.
HEPdata
HEPdata has multiple products and services, but my favorite is their corporate matching gift program.
HEP has a suite of different products even in the corporate matching gift arena, including a tool that allows your site visitors and donors to search in real time to see if their company has a matching gift program, and if it matches gifts to your organization. When donors find that their company matches gifts to organizations like yours, HEP’s tools even allow you to provide their company-specific matching forms to them immediately via email.
There are three reasons I love the HEP corporate matching gift software and tools.
I like HEP because it’s incredibly inexpensive to launch, you can use their system online and offline, and it lets you tap a completely unique share of wallet that, without their service, would take you a significant amount of time and effort to access. It just makes sense.
I personally used their service a few years ago, and in 12 months we increased our corporate matching gifts by more than $60,000.
Aunt Bertha
Chances are this may be an entirely unknown platform to you. Aunt Bertha is a fairly new organization (they’re a B Company), created to help connect people to programs.
Think of it this way. Let’s say you run a food bank or food pantry. Clients come to you because they need food, right? But it’s likely they also have other needs. Maybe they need job training, housing, medical services, etc.
Aunt Bertha aggregates program and service provider information and categorizes it by community. That means people in need in your community can directly access the information to find the services they need. It also means that nonprofit program directors and staffers can utilize their service to more quickly get clients the services they truly need. Aunt Bertha also provides reporting and insights at the community level so that community leaders, government officials, and nonprofit leaders can more effectively plan and allocate resources for people in need in their communities.