Increase Supporter Engagement with Strategic Fundraising
Most charitable nonprofits are dependent on the generosity of their donors for the majority of their funding. The secret to successful fundraising is making the donations work for both the organization and the donor. How do you do this, you ask? More importantly, how do you do this without incurring additional costs?
A well know organization Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City provides an excellent example of how you could use events to engage and recruit supporters. The organization holds large networking events where supporters purchase tickets to attend 
these functions. Some event examples include golf outings, races marathons, auctions, guest speakers, dinners and receptions. These events provide an outlet for the organization to appeal to their donor’s interest. This allows them to reach donors on a deeper level and show them that they appreciate their personal support, and not just their money. It is a way an organization can provide something for their donors to say “we care about you”. Another creative example is the annual ticketed Casino Banquet Dinner that hosts over 700 members of the commercial real estate industry. Each organization is different and may have varying donor demographics, so think about your target donor market and keep their interests in mind when planning your next fundraising event.
In addition to planning events tailored to the hobbies of your donors, another tactic to increase attendance at these events is 
to invite special guests to donate their time as honored attendees. So if your guests aren’t into golfing or dancing, they might feel inclined to purchase a ticket towards hearing a guest speaker or getting a chance to shoot the breeze with one of their favorite celebrities. Using sponsors to underwrite these events can keep costs down making every dollar gained go that much further for your organization, while boosting the engagement of your donors.
Perhaps you are looking for an alternative to hosting an event? Another successful strategy to fundraising is to leverage the publicity of your sponsors goodwill. This can be done very simply by asking for donations or contributions to your cause or event and offering an acknowledgment of some sort in return. We see this type of thing everywhere. At restaurants or retailers when you donate a certain amount you are thanked by the organization by getting to write your name on a card that is displayed high for everyone to see. Using this same concept your organization can promote online acknowledgments on a sponsors page of your website, in e-newsletter blasts, on event banners and more.
Whether you choose to boost your fundraising through a local event or through donor acknowledgments, allocating a portion of your Google AdGrant to accomplish this type of marketing with boost your donations and donor support without breaking your budget. This serves a dual purpose, the first being your ads and web content are directing traffic directly to your site using keywords that normally would not have triggered your ads placement. This is good because it is driving users who would have never gotten to your site organically to a landing page on your site about your sponsor, event or donors. Additionally, you can target your Google Ad to pages that recognize your sponsors and donors contributions. This gives your supporters recognition and publicity covering their generosity. The value of such a partnership is easily monetized to any sponsor by giving them the Adwords Key performance indicators, number of impressions (users who saw the ad) and Clicks (users who engaged with the ad). Google AdGrants are so versatile you can multiple campaigns running at one, with each promoting a different event or supporter opportunity.
