Do you feel as if you are emerging from a great fog and seeing the blue sky for the first time in a long time, like I do? As things started to shut down in March 2020, I realized our team needed to shift how we were servicing our clients and make it a priority to help them figure out how to pivot their offerings immediately. My goal was to keep my whole team working through the crisis and to keep 100% of my clients.

Recently, I’ve had time to take stock of what my business has experienced during the past 10 months and I’d like to share some of the ways I stayed on task to achieve my goals and stay sane during this time:

Stay confident. I entered the pandemic with determination, not fear, knowing that I had built my company lean, nimble and built on strong pillars and this would keep us going strong until the crisis lessened.
Stay connected. Through the pandemic, I continued to network and reach out to those I knew would provide me with support. It’s crucial during difficult times to continue to invite people into your circle who can be your sounding board and cheerleaders. I dug in and made sure I was making time to join virtual Zoom networking meetings, call on clients and check in on treasured contacts.
Stay organized. I made sure I had a To Do list for me and my team every week but kept it supple enough to change if need be. I had my team write down weekly goals and set up weekly meetings with clients to stay in touch and in the loop with our clients’ needs.
Stay true to your mission but...stay flexible. This last one is probably good advice for any entrepreneur, even when you’re not in the middle of a global pandemic. Shift and pivot when you need to. Keep an open mind and know when to put your head down and move forward and when to come up for air and reassess. I strove every day to be the reed and not the oak.

I’d love to hear what you have been doing to keep strong and run your business during this challenging time.

Jessica Maarek, is the Founder and Owner of Red Root Marketing. This agency specializes in social media marketing for small businesses and nonprofits and focuses on community driven content creation and engagement.

Below, we have curated some best practices, tips, ideas and resource on how you can pivot and optimize your fundraising efforts this fall. Your goal may be to make up the windfall of some of the monies you didn’t bring in due to cancelled in-person events or engage a new audience, but whatever you are looking to do, we think you’ll find a tasty, inspiring nugget below that is just right for your nonprofit this season!

Flash Fundraising

With the majority events being canceled or postponed, propose having a flash fundraiser and offer a free gift with every donation.
- Create a sense of urgency
- Send out swag with each donation before a certain date (until supplies last)
- Recognize and appreciate every donation - consider adding in personalized letters or pictures to know donors that everything received is valued and cherished.
- Adding in a time limit or a sense of urgency will help garner more donations.
  - Given the recent spike in cases, MD1 PROGRAM NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW! Donate Below to help us continue fighting!

Peer-to-peer fundraising is the perfect way to recruit new members and get your nonprofit attention for an extended amount of time.
- This is a prime way for people to help market your cause and attract the type of audience you may be looking for (One donor sharing your fundraiser to their network will attract a similar audience or crowd).
  - Oasis paired with Give Lively for their peer to peer fundraiser. (Check out their event below to see more information and the layout).
- Peer-to-peer fundraisers also personalize the fundraisers, thus people may feel more likely to donate if they see that their friend cares about this cause.
  - Hero Complex - Most likely, people want to be seen as the hero of the situation and considering peer- to-peer fundraising makes the donors the heroes of the story, they may get competitive and try to raise the most money.

Reach Out to Directly to Donors/Supporters

Sometimes, the best method is to lay all of your cards on the table: let donors know the additional financial challenges the nonprofit is facing given the circumstances.
- This is not applicable for newer, recent donors, however, for the long-term donors with a connection to the nonprofit, they may be more likely to donate more if they knew of the specific hardships and struggles you are experiencing.
  - BONUS: If members on the nonprofit team are able to personally reach out to bigger, long-term donors whom they have established a relationship with, they may be more likely to donate.
- Taking the time to recognize donors and tell them how much they mean to your case is essential in terms of building and maintaining relationships with donors.
Most likely, your donors know that nonprofits are facing tremendous hardship given the pandemic and the economy. With that in mind, simply try asking or highlighting to them what specifically has set back your nonprofit and see if they’re willing to cover that cost for the time being.

Show Your Audience How Donations Are Being Used

Whether it is something as simple as buying new equipment or being able to direct more funds to your community, it’s important for your online audience to feel engaged and in the loop.
- This is also an easy way to segue into the question or phrase, “Would you like to help us continue…”
By sending short email follow-ups and posts with updates of your nonprofit, it helps people keep you top of the mind when they decide to open their wallets.
- BONUS: You can also use this opportunity to inform about future events and pitch selling tickets… “Here’s what we have in the future, would you like to reserve your spot now for a discount?”

Tell Relevant, Personal Stories

Let your audience know how recent circumstances have affected the nonprofit.
- Whether that would be showing how they have shifted to working primarily online or in some cases, increased their time on the frontline, let the audience know YOUR STORY.
Storytelling is a great tactic in keeping the audience involved and proposing the question, “What can I do to help?”
See if past and current donors can record a short video saying why they have donated in the past.
Having the Executive Director post a video specifying what the funds are being used for will also be able to amplify the urge to donate - people want to know where their money is going.
- “Birth Haven uses these donations to buy diapers.”
- “MD1 Program is able to buy ventilators because of your donations.”

Email Blasts

Email blasts are a great way to remind your audience about your client’s business/nonprofit - sending a quick email blast wishing your audience stays safe or reminding them of future events are the perfect way to keep them reminded and thinking!
- Consider sending email blasts of future events and tips on staying safe!
- To increase donations, we recommend trying to make these email blasts more personable. To separate and distinguish them from normal monthly email blasts, maybe include pictures of the doctors smiling and thanking everyone who helps.
- For some of the bigger donors, address the email to them.
  - “Dear ****, Birth Haven thanks you for your support! We hope you’re staying safe and hope to see you at this online event or rescheduled events in the fall!
  - Send them pictures or emails - it’s a great way to catch their attention and look more personable than automated monthly emails

Collaborate with Other Organizations

Given the recent events, nonprofits have struggled immensely, whether that means cancelling events and moving them completely online or having to forgo certain goals on your timeline, it has been a struggle.
Why not collaborate with other similar nonprofits or institutions in your industry for virtual events or fundraising? This would allow for more exposure and the opportunity to garner more supporters/donations.
- If your event holds an auction, this is a great opportunity to raise more funds and have the auctions become more competitive with a wider audience.
Collaboration means greater organizational efficiency - if your nonprofit is unfamiliar with the process of switching to virtual events, collaborating with an organization that is familiar can help ensure everything runs smoothly.

We hope this rundown was helpful! Contact us for more ideas or sign up for a consulting today at grow@redrootmarketing.com

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