Tech Tools for Fundraising
In our fast-paced society, technology is ever-growing and ever-changing. Rather than resisting the change, we have some technology-based tools that can help with your fundraising efforts—resulting in saving you time and making you money!
Support systems are designed to help you stay on track and fundraising can become overwhelming if you don’t have the right tools.
These top 4 technology tools are not only helpful systems and apps, but they make life easier as a fundraiser! (You can thank us later.)
1.Utilize Video Technology: Did you know that building your partnership team via video chat can be just as effective as meeting with someone in person? Distance can no longer be an excuse for not meeting with someone "face to face.” You can schedule a meeting with anyone, from anywhere in the world (some of those meetings will just happen to be virtual). So, the next time you think you can't meet with someone because they're far away—take advantage of technology and schedule that meeting on Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, or Google Hangouts. And, this is not only a useful way to make up for distance, it can make up for time or last-minute changes. We recently had a potential partner ask to cancel a meeting because she had to stay home with her sick child, but instead of canceling, we asked if it would be convenient to meet over video chat after the child went to bed. She thought it was a great idea and it allowed us to connect and not miss out on that precious meeting time!
2.Simple Sam: Simple Sam makes fundraising easy. If you don’t know where to begin in making a funding plan, this is a great place to start. Simple Sam actually creates a funding plan for you, keeps track of your progress and creates a database of your partners and contacts. It’s like having an experienced fundraising professional always at your disposal—and the best part is, it keeps working for you way past being fully-funded. http://simplesam.com/
3.If No Reply: You would be surprised how much time you waste going back through to check whether or not your donors responded to your last email. If No Reply is a system created to take “follow up” off your to-do list. It allows you to set up a sequence of emails, and if the recipient doesn't reply to the first one, If No Reply will automatically send them a second. If they don’t reply to that one, it will send a third. This is a great time-saver because you can use this resource to send emails to all of your donors at once with different templates for different donors and recipients (personalized templates for requesting a meeting or asking for volunteers). If No Reply is also a Gmail plugin, so it sends directly from your Gmail account to the recipient’s inbox—not a promotions tab or spam folder! I have a 90% open rate on my emails when I use this system. It’s a great tool for communicating efficiently, in an authentic way, with a lot of people. https://www.ifnoreply.com/
4.Slydial: Do you tend to procrastinate every time you have to make phone calls to your donors? Are you looking for a more efficient way to thank donors in a personal way? Slydial is an app that connects your call directly to your donor’s voicemail allowing you to leave a message in their mailbox. The phone won’t even ring on their end, giving you the opportunity to leave a message for them with the information you were calling about. If you need to thank a lot of people and don’t necessarily have time for a conversation—SlyDial is a great system to use to save time and still leave a personal message for your donor. https://www.slydial.com/
Remember, fundraising should be fun. There’s no reason to make it harder on yourself than it needs to be. If you enjoyed these tips, check out more at www.tailoredfundraising.com.