Diversifying Your Fundraising in Uncertain Times

In recent years, there have been a lot of “unprecedented” events; from the pandemic, to postal strikes, and even whispers of recession. This climate of uncertainty has challenged the charity sector to make multiple pivots, often at very short notice. While there’s no way to predict what happens next, there are ways charities can prepare for uncertain times so the next time we are asked to pivot, we can rise to the challenge in stride. 

One way to do this is through diversifying your fundraising. Instead of focusing all-in on one or two channels, ensuring your fundraising mix provides would-be donors with multiple ways to give or engage provides more predictable funding, minimizes issues if a funding source, like a government grant falls through, and future-proofs your charity against changing giving trends. 

This blog discusses some of the many ways you can diversify your fundraising and donor engagement to future-proof your organization and is filled with statistics, examples and tools you can leverage to diversify your fundraising.

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Table of Contents

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The first place to look in diversifying your fundraising efforts is your overall online and offline fundraising mix. While the importance of each will vary depending on the nature of your charity, there will always be certain demographics that are more comfortable with providing cash and cheque donations, either in-person or mailed in and others who will find the convenience of online donation easier and don’t have cash or cheque books to hand. Looking to the past, we can see that online fundraising has typically grown in times of crises with its most rapid growth during 2020; during that time, online giving close to doubled from 563,000 to roughly 1.1 million donors giving $412 million.  

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One is not necessarily better than the other; by providing channels for both online and offline donation, you can be prepared when things like postal strikes happen and quickly communicate and encourage donors to use a different method if something prevents them from donating using their preferred method.

For offline donations, ensure you have a process to keep track of gifts so you are still able to provide a tax receipt when appropriate and thank the donor for their contribution. It can be hard to get all the information when you receive both cash and cheque at irregular cadences. Upgrade from a spreadsheet and use a purpose-built system. Whether you process tax receipts for offline donations when you get them, or once a month, a system can help you organize their donation details and issue a CRA-compliant tax receipt at the click of a button. 

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For online donations, you can create a customizable donation form and embed it directly onto your website, as well as share it as a link, from your social media, email signature, and wherever else it makes sense. Our online donation forms take care of the tax receipting automatically and disburse the donation to your charity promptly. Our solution still gives you control over the donation experience and data - you can check out donation records and thank your donors by logging into your CanadaHelps Charity Account.

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Monthly Donors are the MVPs of the charity fundraising world. They provide steady, predictable funding so that you can plan ahead for your programs. The good news is that monthly donors are a growing giving trend! In 2023, monthly giving in Canada continued to grow with revenues on CanadaHelps.org growing by nearly 6% year-over-year, reaching over $75.8 million.

To start building your list, create a donation form that puts monthly first and list “single” donation, and “monthly” donation as different ways to give on your site. Even if your current form already allows people to donate monthly—setting it apart as an option and highlighting it as a specific program can guide people towards monthly donations even if they had not considered it before.

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If you don’t have a program to nurture your highly engaged donors and convert them into monthly donors, now is the time to start. Here’s some example messaging you could send to your MVPs who are not yet monthly donors.

Thank you for being one of the most dedicated supporters of our charity. Your donation of X over the last year has made it possible for us to [successfully rehabilitate 286 wildlife orphans back into the wild], and we also recognize your gifts to [our charity] dating back to 2022!

‍We wanted to ask whether you would be able to commit to becoming a monthly donor so we can plan more efficiently to support [wildlife in our community]. A $20 monthly donation would enable us to help [wildlife all year round] and [allocate resources more immediately when crises arise].

‍Convert your one time donation to a monthly gift here. If now is not the best time for you to become a monthly donor, we appreciate you all the same!

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The average monthly donation made through CanadaHelps donation forms is $50!

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Another program to steer your most valuable and existing major donors towards is “planned giving”, also known as bequests or giving through a will. 

Like most giving programs, it begins with the education of the donor. Often, giving through a will is not going to take away from family inheritance as one may think, as the amount donated can help offset taxes on the estate and support a cause that the donor was giving to throughout their life. Having a “Planned Giving Information Kit” or someone who can speak to planned giving at your organization can help you secure large gifts for now and in the future. Make sure you list “Planned Giving” on your ways to give page, develop a list of your most likely planned giving donors and develop communication around it. Here’s an example:

Thank you for being one of the most dedicated supporters of our charity. 

We wanted to ask whether you have thought about planned giving? Planned giving is one of the most impactful ways you can support [wildlife in Toronto], both now and far into the future. In addition, it might not impact inheritance in the way you expect as planned giving can be used to offset estate taxes.

Speak to xxxx@wildlifeshelter.org and let us chat through your questions, or check out our info kit on planned giving.

Your information kit should provide accurate information on how planned giving can offset inheritance taxes, how planned giving provides impact to your charity, and a template for how to include your charity in a will. A suggested will clause wording could look something like:

I give the sum of ____ ($) OR ____ (%) of the residue of my estate to [charity name] for its general purposes as [charity name] sees fit.

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On the opposite side of the coin to “Planned Giving” is tribute or in honour of giving. The reasons we give and get involved with charity are often deeply personal and tied to our values. What better way to honor somebody than to give to the cause that they care about? CanadaHelps Donation Forms gives your charity an easy way to capture those with this sentiment with Tribute First forms, which prioritizes the “In memory of” or “In honour of” section of the donation form. You can even choose to upload custom pictures for your eCards so that they are more closely tied to your charity and mission. 

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List this as another way for people to support your charity on your “Ways to Give Page” and embed a tribute first form so supporters know they are in the right place. 

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Donations of securities are another growing trend in donor giving that can mean remarkable growth in fundraising revenue for your charity. Gifts of securities vary in size, but they are often larger in value. Securities donations have been increasing and are part of a wider trend of more strategic donors. In 2023, securities donations grew by 26% and this trend looks like it will continue.

It’s a win-win situation with donors feeling good because they can make a bigger impact and eliminate capital gains tax, while your charity receives the full fair market value when the security is sold.

Some charities might be worried about the barrier to entry or the need to create a brokerage account in order to start accepting securities. CanadaHelps makes it easy - no additional accounts needed. With every gift of securities or mutual funds, we facilitate the sale of the gift, issue a charitable tax receipt, and transfer the proceeds right into your charity’s bank account, using the banking information submitted when you first registered with CanadaHelps. 

In fact, it’s as easy as making and embedding a donation form and comes with all the same customisable features. Check out CanadaHelps Securities Donations Forms. 

The average securities donation through CanadaHelps, even discounting outliers, is $7,815!

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Spring and summer, with better weather, bring about the best time for peer-to-peer. P2P events like walk-a-thons, creative challenges, or other awareness campaigns can be helpful at engaging a slightly different donor demographic and injecting an element of fun into your fundraising. Over 2579 P2P campaigns were run through the CanadaHelps peer-to-peer fundraising platform in the past 2 years, with $12,870 raised on average! 

P2P can also be a lower-lift than a fully managed event for your charity as it taps into your supporter networks and resources so they can be an advocate for your charity. People are more likely to respond to someone they know who reaches out with a cause they’d like to support. It can also help raise awareness of the issue and have ripple effects for the future.

Check out our latest blog on why and how you can run a successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign here.

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Similar to P2P, third party fundraising engages your supporter network. This is when a third party, it can be an individual or a group, is passionate about your cause and raises money for your cause with little to no involvement from your charity. It can be even more hands-off, though you should put in place a process and reserve the right to approve third party events. This ensures they run smoothly and protects your charity’s reputation and registered status. The CRA states that charities participating in third party fundraising should:

• put in place a written agreement setting out the modalities of the fundraising arrangement

• ensure that official donation receipts are only issued to donors for the eligible amount of the gift

• ensure that official donation receipts are signed by an authorized individual in conformity with ss. 3501(1)(i), 3501(2), 3501(3) and 3502 of the Income Tax Regulations

• be able to provide to the Canada Revenue Agency a full accounting of the monies or that portion of the monies donated to it, and the receipts that were issued in return

• be able to account to the Canada Revenue Agency for the amount of the advantage received by the participants as a result of their participation in the fundraising event

You can make Third Party Fundraising easy for you and your supporters by directing them to “Create a Fundraiser” through Canadahelps.org. One of the best things about fundraising through CanadaHelps is that we provide support for donors and charities, so we take care of the heavy lifting if a fundraiser has any questions related to setting up their fundraiser. 

Creating a fundraiser through CanadaHelps is easy for your would-be supporter and comes with features like being able to add a fundraising goal, start/end dates, a Supporters Wall, and email notifications.

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Remember to list this as a way to get involved or give to your organization and prepare guidelines and an informational kit for would-be fundraisers. You may even want to set up specific kits for schools, community groups and individuals if this is applicable for your charity.

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Thinking outside the box, there are multiple other ways for donors to support your charity. Organizations like Donate A Car make it easy for individuals to donate their vehicle to charity, and for your charity to benefit from the proceeds. This is another win-win for charities and donors as Donate A Car makes it easy for donors to get rid of a used car while supporting a cause that is meaningful to them.

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We hope this blog post gave you some ideas of the ways you can diversify your fundraising, tap into growing trends of strategic giving and inspired you to think outside of the box. CanadaHelps provides a variety of fundraising tools and opportunities to help you diversify your fundraising quickly and easily, without the need to set up new accounts or new learning curves. We take care of the technical side of donation processing so you can focus on communicating the message and educating your donors on their impact.