Small Nonprofit, Small Budget: Where Should You Spend Your Year-End Fundraising Dollars?

You’ve decided to invest some money in year-end fundraising. If you have a small nonprofit fundraising budget, now comes the harder question:

Where should you spend it?

When your budget is limited, trying to do everything is usually the wrong strategy. You don’t necessarily need more channels. You need to make the channels you’re using work better.

Before You Spend Anything

Start with the foundation. Ask yourself:

Do we have a compelling story?

Is our fundraising ask clear?

Is our donation page easy to use?

Do we know who we’re trying to reach?

If the answer to those questions is no, don’t make advertising your first investment. Sending more people to an ineffective donation page doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

If You Have $500

Keep things simple. Use your existing email list, social media accounts and community relationships as your primary distribution channels. Put the money toward fixing the weakest part of your campaign.

That could mean:

• Better photography
• Graphic design
• Improving your donation page
• A small paid social test
• Help writing your fundraising appeal

The goal isn’t to suddenly create a sophisticated advertising campaign. It’s to make what you’re already doing more effective.

If You Have $1,500

Now you have more room to test. Build the campaign around:

• A strong donor story
• A clear donation page
• Several emails
• Organic social content
• Consistent campaign graphics

Then consider using part of the budget for targeted digital advertising. Paid social can help more people see the story you’re already telling, particularly when you have useful existing audiences or website traffic. But don’t put the entire budget into media.

Creative, messaging and the donation experience matter too.

If You Have $3,000

At this level, start thinking about the campaign as a journey rather than a collection of posts.

Someone may:

• See your story on Facebook.
• Visit your website.
• Leave without donating.
• See another message later.
• Receive an email.
• Return and give.

Your marketing should help move people through that process.

That may mean investing in:

• Multiple pieces of creative
• Landing-page improvements
• Paid social advertising
• Retargeting
• Email
• Tracking and measurement

You also have enough budget to test what’s working and make adjustments during the campaign.

If You Have $5,000+

Don’t automatically add more channels.

Instead, ask:

• Where are our donors?
• Where have previous gifts originated?
• Which audiences can we reach effectively?
• What data do we already have?
• What can our staff realistically manage?

Depending on the answers, your campaign might include Meta, Google Search, YouTube or other digital channels.

But there is no prize for advertising everywhere. A focused campaign that works together is better than six disconnected tactics.

Don’t Forget About Your Own Costs

Your advertising budget isn’t necessarily your entire campaign budget.

Someone still has to:

• Develop the strategy
• Interview clients or program staff
• Write stories
• Create graphics
• Build emails
• Prepare landing pages
• Set up advertising
• Monitor performance
• Create new ads
• Make adjustments
• Track results

Sometimes your staff can do those things. Sometimes they can’t. Factor that capacity into your plan from the beginning.

Where Would I Spend First?

For most smaller nonprofits, I’d prioritize roughly in this order:

1. Story and message

Give people a reason to care. Stories help people connect to your mission.

2. Donation experience

Make giving easy. If giving is complicated, donors may give elsewhere.

3. Your existing audience

Reach donors, volunteers, subscribers and supporters who already know you. That may mean mail, social media, your email list, or making phone calls.

4. Strong creative

Give people something worth stopping to read or watch. A picture is worth a thousand words.

5. Paid distribution

Use advertising to expand the reach of a campaign that’s already built on a solid foundation.

The Biggest Mistake to Avoid

Don’t look at another nonprofit’s campaign and assume you need everything they’re doing. They may have a $100,000 budget and a five-person development department. Build the best campaign your organization can actually execute well.

And track everything you do, so you know if it works. Did you put money into ads that didn’t result in donations? You need to know that.

Then improve your efforts next year.

What’s Next?

What happens when your organization isn’t necessarily short on ideas or resources—but your team simply doesn’t have enough time?

That’s the subject of the next article: You Have a Development Team. Why Does Year-End Still Feel So Hard?