How to get donations: getting started with individual giving

What is individual giving?

How do I get more people to donate to my organisation?

How do I get started with asking for donations?

The headlines

Individual giving is the fundraising term for getting individual people to make cash donations to your organisation. Whether they donate via your website, write you a cheque or add a donation on to a ticket booking for your event, this can be a great extra income stream for your work. The magnificent David from Apollo Fundraising recently did a guest workshop for members of Sticky-note Squad (my email support for small organisations) where he shared how to get started with individual giving. 

A lot of organisations I support might get a few donations here and there but haven’t yet got a plan for how to make the most of it. We’ve all written “find some rich people” on our mental to-do list, but one of David’s insights was- that’s actually not the solution we think it is and there are other, easier places to focus your energy. 

I was scribbling away throughout the workshop so here are 4 nuggets of practical

wisdom from David’s presentation that you can grab and use for your work.

If you want more support with developing your individual giving, there’s more about David’s work on his website. He focuses on support for cultural organisations, and also delivers some brilliant training and has lots of helpful resources on his website (I’ve linked to a few below too). You can sign up to get David’s emails for fundraising knowledge and tips straight to your inbox.

4 top tips to get started with individual giving

1. Prioritise connection and start close to home

People who give to your organisation need to have the motivation to do it e.g. they want to support what you do and they need the capacity to do it- they have cash to give. Most people instinctively focus on the second one of these e.g. who might be swimming around in a pile of money like Scrooge McDuck? 

David’s insight was that the motivation to give is more important: it’s easier to get someone who cares about what you do to give you cash, than it is to get someone with cash to care. So prioritise your existing connections when you promote opportunities for people to give. Your mailing list, social media followers, participants or community you support, and their friends and family. Look at who has donated before- however small- and find out what you can about who they are and what motivated them to give. Understanding why people support your work helps make your fundraising efforts more targeted and effective. 

Story time: I heard this gem from David a few years back when I was running a charity and went straight back to the office and looked at our online donations. One person had given us £50 a couple of times, so we got in touch, took him for lunch and he gave us £5,000! 

2. Go for heart over head

Making a donation is an emotional not a rational action. Donors want to engage with a story, the individuals they will be helping and understand the change their donation is making. Put them at the centre of the story- what their donation will do, not what your organisation needs. David shared some examples of good donation pages where the word ‘you’ (i.e. the person donating) is all the way through. “You will help change X…” not “We need to raise £££ to fund our programme”.

Look at the donate pages on a few different organisation websites and see where they do this well. Where do you feel engaged and excited about making something happen? Where do you switch off?

David’s blog on 9 steps to get people to give includes some more specifics on this.

3. Actually ask! And make it easy for people to say yes

The other part of the equation David shared (alongside motivation + capacity to give) was the trigger- a clear ask that helps them see the need for support and the difference they can make (so they actually reach for their debit card!) You might make this happen through an event, a crowdfunder or a specific campaign. Put your fundraising asks front and centre rather than just sitting passively on your website. Don’t let people miss the chance to support you! 

I worked with an organisation once where we hosted a fundraising event and people who had been supporting them for years in other ways, finally reached into their pockets and gave cash. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to donate before that, they’d just never been asked directly. 

Road test your giving process and make it as easy as possible. Particularly online, people are easily distracted and if it looks too complicated they might leave it for “another day” i.e. it never happens. Make it as simple and streamlined as possible and give options where you can (online, QR code, cash etc) to suit the moment. No one’s going to fill in a form after an event if they’re rushing back to their car before the parking runs out. 

4. Give a super thank you

David shared some really useful stats about why people who donated to an organisation didn’t donate again. And the number one reason was that they weren’t thanked for their gift. They may have had a standard automated thank you, but making donors feel properly appreciated and building a relationship with them is crucial if you want to build up your individual giving income. Retention over acquisition: getting someone who has already donated to donate again, is way easier than finding someone new.

I mentioned to someone about a charity I support the other day and she (someone in her 40s) told me how she had raised money for them when she was at school, and they never thanked her. She’s carried that grudge for years and hasn’t donated to them since! Similarly I heard a fundraiser speak the other day about the very start of her career, when she ran a marathon and raised money for two breast cancer charities. One of them didn’t send a thank you. The other, a much smaller charity, got in touch with her, made her feel appreciated and she is still making donations to them over a decade later. 

People who donate to your organisation believe in what you do, it’s them cheering you on. Make sure they know how much you appreciate it.

David’s got a video here on ways to make your thank you’s super

What next?

Identify your supporters first, whether they have given cash or not. Who cares about your organisation and has given their time, engaged with your stuff or given small amounts of money in the past? 

Find out what you can about why they support your work and use that as the starting point for a first fundraising campaign or event. This could be something simple like a crowdfunder with a relatively low target, to start to build your supporter network and give people a chance to show you (with money!) that they like what you do. You can use David’s tips to get people giving and make sure they get properly thanked!

I always recommend donating to other organisations too. It can just be small amounts but see what makes you want to give, how easy the process was and how they communicated with you afterwards. Did you feel appreciated and could you see the impact of your gift?

If you want to get invites to these guest workshops in future, and get fundraising tips and resources, you can join Sticky-note Squad, my regular free email support for small organisations.

My main programme is Sticky-note Strategy- level up your planning and make your work easier to manage and fund. If you’re ready to supercharge your fundraising and want to get crystal clear on how you talk about the work you do (and show people why they should support it) then let’s make a plan that works for you.

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