How to Attract New Supporters

With the UK charity sector becoming increasingly competitive, leveraging innovative, digital-centred approaches is crucial to attracting new supporters. Here, we explore various strategies for diversifying your donation offerings, ensuring you engage and inspire a broader audience.

Embrace Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising, a method that harnesses the power of personal networks, can significantly amplify your reach and introduce your cause to new potential supporters. It allows supporters to create fundraising pages and solicit donations from friends, family, and colleagues (2nd-degree donors).

With the right stewardship and consent strategies in place, you can convert these 2nd-degree donors into full supporters of your charity.

How to Implement:

1. User-Friendly Platforms: Invest in a user-friendly P2P fundraising suite that integrates seamlessly with your website, such as hapi and hapiLite
2. Compelling Campaigns: Design compelling campaigns that motivate supporters to fundraise on your behalf. Offer resources and tips to help them succeed.
3. Data and stewardship: Centralising all donor data on your platform is crucial. It allows you to reach out to 2nd-degree P2P donors with stewardship strategies as you would a standard donor, ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of your stewardship efforts.

Introduce Tribute Giving

Tribute giving allows donors to make contributions in memory of someone special, creating a personal connection to your cause. This approach appeals to donors who wish to celebrate life milestones, memorialise loved ones or take donations in lieu of funeral flowers, fostering a deep emotional engagement with your charity.

How to Implement:

1. Dedicated Tribute Pages: Create dedicated tribute pages on your website where donors can share stories and photos, and others can contribute.
2. Data and stewardship: Ensure your platform centralises all donor data, allowing you to reach out to tribute donors with stewardship strategies as you would a standard donor.
3. Automation: Utilise email automation and segmentation to send anniversary messages to tribute page owners, demonstrating a high level of care and consideration for their lost loved ones.

Engage with Charity Lotteries

Charity lotteries are a fun and engaging way to raise funds while offering supporters the chance to win prizes. Compared to traditional donation methods, they attract a different demographic, appealing to those who enjoy gaming and competition.

Optimise Your Website for Donations

A key component of attracting new supporters is ensuring your website is optimised for donations. A seamless, user-friendly experience can significantly impact conversion rates.

Best Practices:

1. Mobile Optimisation: With growing users accessing websites via mobile devices, ensure your donation process is mobile-friendly.
2. Streamlined Checkout: Simplify the donation process by minimising the steps required to complete a donation. Offer multiple payment options, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
3. Engaging Content: Use engaging content—videos, infographics, testimonials—to convey your impact and inspire donations. Regularly update your site with success stories and progress reports.
4. Data Security: Ensure robust security measures are in place to protect donor information, enhancing trust and confidence in your charity.

Diversifying your donation offerings through digital-centered strategies is crucial for attracting new supporters in today’s competitive charity sector. By offering multiple giving streams and optimising your website, you can engage with a broader audience and offer them the freedom to support you in a way that suits them.