Let’s discover two fundraising eventualities. Faculty A and Faculty B are each holding month-long read-a-thon fundraising campaigns to cap off the top of the varsity 12 months. Faculty A asks college students to gather flat donations of $10 from their family and friends. Faculty B makes use of the pledge fundraising mannequin and asks college students to gather $3 pledges for every hour spent studying from their sponsors.

Ultimately, each faculties are profitable—however Faculty B raises more cash and has higher participation from college students. It’s because the scholars knew that they might elevate extra to help their college just by spending extra time studying.

This information will discover how your college or nonprofit can use pledge fundraising to increase its impression by breaking down a few of the high incessantly requested questions (FAQs). Let’s start.

1. What’s pledge fundraising?

A pledge happens when a donor guarantees to make a present of cash, items, or companies that might be delivered to the group at a later date. Donations, however, are paid instantly. Typically donors use pledges to stagger bigger funds, breaking them into extra manageable funds (e.g., pledging to present $1,000 over six months).

However how does this course of work in apply? 99Pledges’ information to kid-friendly fundraising concepts illustrates how your group can weave this fundraising technique into your subsequent marketing campaign:

1. Work with a pledge fundraising software program supplier to arrange donation pages for individuals.
2. Encourage your individuals to share the donation pages on-line.
3. Members accumulate pledge donations from family and friends, normally corresponding with a unit of distance, time, or amount (e.g., $1 per automobile washed throughout a automobile wash or $3 per mile jogged throughout a jog-a-thon).
4. Observe pledges utilizing your fundraising software program.
5. Gather proceeds as soon as the occasion wraps up. Your software program ought to routinely ship reminders and accumulate funds from donors.

Remember the fact that pledges are completely different from month-to-month giving initiatives. Month-to-month or recurring giving signifies that the donor has enrolled in your sustainer program and agrees to donate a selected greenback quantity every month (e.g., $25 every month, on repeat). Whereas a donor might pay some pledged donations in installments, this doesn’t make them part of your month-to-month giving initiative.

2. Why settle for pledges?

Pledge fundraising is an efficient technique for nonprofits, faculties, and different fundraising organizations as a result of it:

• Is extra versatile. Improve your donors’ experiences and safe extra donations by providing them alternative ways to donate. For instance, throughout a walk-a-thon they might select between giving pledged donations for every mile walked or donating a flat price. Flat charges enchantment to donors who know what they need to donate whereas pledges might be higher for individuals who can’t or don’t want to donate instantly.
• Can enhance donors’ capability to present. Not your entire supporters can afford to present giant quantities at one time. Nonetheless, pledge donations give them the choice to pay towards a bigger sum over a number of months. Whereas your group received’t obtain an instantaneous main reward, these small donations add up.
• Gives extra alternatives to steward supporters. With pledged donations, you’ll have a minimum of two alternatives to attach with them: after they make the pledge and after they donate. In the event that they plan to meet the pledge in a number of funds, you’ve gotten much more possibilities to indicate your gratitude. Ship donors heartfelt thank-you messages and share the impression that their contributions must steward the connection.

Pledges are additionally a good way for donors to supply focused help to the causes or initiatives they care about most. For instance, an afterschool program would possibly use a sports activities staff fundraising concept like a baseball hit-a-thon to boost cash for its staff sports activities program. When donors pledge to donate to this marketing campaign, they’ll know precisely the place their funds are going.

3. How are pledges collected and processed?

There are a lot of alternative ways to handle pledged donations, and it’s as much as your group to resolve what works finest. Nonetheless, there are some suggestions and finest practices to comply with that may hold the method operating easily:

• Use pledge fundraising software program that can monitor pledges and fundraising progress throughout your marketing campaign.
• Settle for a wide range of cost strategies like bank cards, PayPal, ApplePay, and GooglePay to make donating versatile and handy for donors.
• Leverage on-line donation pages. Since pledges are sometimes collected by peer-to-peer fundraising, contemplate making a donation web page for the entire marketing campaign and permitting individuals to create particular person pages.
• Select a cost processor or fundraising platform that’s secure and safe. Usually, these suppliers are PCI compliant and make use of safety measures like information encryption and two-factor authentication.

Moreover, you’ll must be sure you’re asking for these donations in an efficient means. As a result of some donors will not be acquainted with pledge fundraising, clarify how the tactic works in your asks. In case your group is holding a peer-to-peer marketing campaign, share some fundamental fundraising suggestions and advertising and marketing supplies with individuals.

4. What occurs if a donor doesn’t fulfill their pledge?

Sadly, pledge attrition can occur in virtually any marketing campaign. Nonetheless, a mean of 84% of occasion fundraising pledges are fulfilled, so you possibly can relaxation assured that this isn’t a rampant subject that can critically impression your success. To offset any anticipated losses, set the expectation that you simply received’t obtain roughly 10% of the entire quantity pledged.

In lots of circumstances, pledging to donate shouldn’t be legally binding. Which means one of the simplest ways to curb pledge attrition is thru preventative measures. Begin with clear communication—be sure that donors perceive what pledging to donate means, inform them after they might want to make the cost, and ship out reminders. 

Moreover, some fundraising platforms require a donor’s card data to course of the pledge. This manner, your nonprofit can routinely accumulate the agreed-upon quantity on a selected date (and neither you nor the donor will neglect about it).

5. How can your group encourage donors to pledge once more?

You’ll must make efforts to steward your group’s relationship with donors to make sure they pledge once more sooner or later. To take action, arrange a gratitude system that features components like:

• Sending donors thank-you messages. Share an e mail or handwritten letter expressing your gratitude for his or her help. eCardWidget’s information to thanking donors recommends including private particulars like the quantity donated, centering the donors’ impression, and guaranteeing your message suits the reward quantity.
• Creating donor recognition partitions. Recognition partitions are mounted, public shows in your facility that characteristic the names of your high, most loyal donors. These partitions honor the donors’ contributions, bodily characterize your neighborhood of supporters, and make these featured really feel deeply linked to your trigger.
• Giving high donors public shout-outs. Establish the donors that pledged the most important quantity, contributed for the primary time, or have joined in on essentially the most pledge campaigns. Then, ask in the event that they’d prefer to be featured in your web site or social media. Contemplate asking them a couple of transient questions on why they help your trigger. You’ll be able to characteristic their solutions within the submit.

In case your nonprofit or different group shares an impression or annual report, contemplate including a piece that acknowledges impactful donors. Unfold consciousness of your pledge fundraisers and increase supporter retention by including a particular part to focus on the impression of pledge-based fundraisers.

Pledge fundraising permits your group to present its supporters a special approach to contribute to your trigger. The flexibility to make smaller donations over time or sooner or later can increase your donors’ capability to present. Unit-based pledges can empower individuals in charity races, dance-a-thons, and different occasions to go the additional mile throughout the marketing campaign.

To encourage each your donors and individuals to do extra to additional your mission, contemplate implementing pledge fundraising into your subsequent marketing campaign.

In regards to the Writer

Rodrigo Ramos

Rodrigo Ramos is the Supervisor of Buyer Success at 99Pledges, the #1 on-line fundraising platform for faculties, sports activities groups, music teams, and extra. 99Pledges supplies organizations with an easy-to-use, web-based resolution to handle and drive success in fundraising. The platform’s strong performance can help easy pledge drives in addition to performance-based campaigns (e.g. enjoyable runs, walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, and so on.).