Taking an Omni-Channel Fundraising Approach: 5 Tips

Your supporters are constantly receiving information, whether they’re scrolling social media, checking the mail, or catching up on unread text messages. Getting their attention and holding onto it requires more than just a one-off email. To capture the kind of interest that leads to donations and long-term supporter relationships, your fundraising team needs to meet donors on the platforms where they spend their time.

With an omni-channel fundraising campaign, your nonprofit can create and share a coherent message across a variety of channels, including email, text messaging, direct mail, phone calls, and personalized video. Omni-channel fundraising integrates numerous different channels to create a unified experience for your supporters. where each touch point uses previous donor insights to inform your next message.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to create an organized and effective omni-channel fundraising strategy for your organization.

1. Structure your outreach.

Managing a variety of channels and creating personalized donor journeys for each supporter requires a well-organized approach.

To coordinate your omni-channel campaign, you’ll need the following tools and structures:

• Centralized donor data. Use your donor management system or donor database to map out a clear progression of each donor's journey and ensure messaging stays relevant to their specific experiences with your nonprofit.
• Sequenced touchpoints. Ensure that your phone calls, emails, and physical mailings follow a logical order. Your team should have a planned outreach timeline so that each member of your audience receives consistent attention.
• Automated cadences. Use technology to keep follow-up from slipping through the cracks. EverTrue’s fundraising software guide recommends looking for a solution that alerts your staff when to reach out to specific donors and provides donor summaries to make follow-up easy.

With the right workflow and technology, your team can spend less time worrying about logistics and more time honing your message.

2. Select your digital channels.

Online giving is easier than ever, so select outreach channels that can take donors to your donation page in one click. Choose platforms that your audience already uses, while also considering your organization’s capacity for managing outreach on multiple channels.

For your omni-channel fundraising approach, consider how you can use the following channels:

• Social media. Determine which social media platforms your audience uses the most, each platform’s unique strengths, and how each can help your outreach strategy. For instance, you might use social media listening tools to find out where supporters are talking about your organization’s work.

• Text messaging. SMS is a dynamic channel that enables back-and-forth communication between you and your supporters. To assure supporters that your messages are not spam, you’ll need to make it as clear as possible that the texts come from your organization and provide clear opt in or out options.

• Personalized video. Sending unique videos to donors can help make your appeals more memorable and moving. Using a testimonial from a recipient of one of your programs’ support can help you connect donations to real-world impact and strengthen your appeals.

The right mix of channels can help you connect with your supporters in new and memorable ways, increasing their brand recognition. With an omni-channel approach, your nonprofit should always appear on the platforms your supporters use regularly, encouraging them to continue their donor journeys.

3. Break up digital messaging with direct mail.

In an increasingly digital landscape, direct mail feels new again. To add to your digital efforts, give your donors something tangible to hold on to. For example, following an online donation, you might send supporters a physical thank-you message.

Choose a direct mail partner that allows your team to customize your mailers’ imagery and copy to align with supporters’ interests and engagement history. For instance, you might create unique mailers for each of your programs and send them to supporters based on which initiatives they’ve expressed interest in.

To connect your direct mail with your digital efforts, 360MatchPro recommends including QR codes on your physical mailers. These can take supporters to your program information pages, event registration site, or your donation form, depending on your mailers’ purpose and where each supporter is in their giving journey. Connecting physical appeals to your website can also provide valuable information about the ROI of your direct mail campaign. For example, if you receive a boost in online donations after sending out mailers with a QR code to your donation form, you can likely attribute the influx of gifts to your direct mail campaign.

4. Improve as you go.

You don’t need to wait until your campaign ends to refine your outreach approach. To continually adjust your strategy, seek additional information about your donors and their engagement.

Continually improve your omni-channel fundraising strategy by:

• Keeping up with your donor’s milestones. An important life update, such as a promotion or graduation, gives you an opportunity to further personalize your outreach by congratulating your supporters on their accomplishments.

• Leverage predictive AI. Look for fundraising software with AI tools that can analyze your donor data to identify trends in supporters’ behavior. This can help you determine when the right time is to make a fundraising ask, which supporters may be willing to upgrade their gifts, and if any supporters are at risk of lapsing.
• Double down on what’s working best. You may find that some channels drive more engagement than others, giving you a chance to lean into them further, while still supporting the others. For instance, if direct mail is more successful at securing gifts than social media, you can place greater emphasis on mailers while using social posts to reinforce the same message, so your channels continue to work together.

Learning what works and what needs improvement in your current omni-channel campaign can help you achieve even greater success in your next one by giving you a clearer sense of where to start.

5. Steward donors across different channels.

Your creative, varied outreach shouldn’t end once you secure a gift. Continue your omin-channel approach to steward and recognize supporters long after their first donations to earn more valuable future gifts and build an engaged community.

Experiment with creative ways to express your gratitude and stay connected with donors, including thank-you videos, handwritten notes, and, with your supporters’ permission, social media spotlights. These thoughtful measures help supporters keep your organization in mind in between gifts, enabling you to build long-term relationships.

An organized, creative approach to omni-channel fundraising can help you build deeper relationships with supporters, leading to long-term, reliable giving. Assess your organization’s current workflows and technology today to ensure that it can support delivery and analytics tracking for your omni-channel campaign.