In most conversations I have with nonprofit leaders about funding, almost all say they find it challenging to raise revenue for the general fund. Donors are more apt to donate to a program or specific area. Foundations and grant providers prefer you find your general funds elsewhere. Businesses would rather support a program. Let’s face it, there’s nothing heartwarming about the general fund, even though just like any business, nonprofits need money to cover their daily operations.
When I’m asked for recommendations for solving the challenge, I always encourage nonprofits to add what I call a technology fundraising campaign to their general fund revenue generation strategy.
We live in a technology-rich world where many companies are developing technology specifically for social good. With thousands of platforms to choose from, your nonprofit can find what will work with your cause and your audiences. I searched the web for Apps that would support many diverse causes. Here are 13 Fundraising Apps any nonprofit can use to build a really powerful technology fundraising campaign.
13 Fundraising Apps For Generating Unrestricted Revenue
GiveBox **Featured Favorite App**
GiveBox has worked with hundreds of nonprofits to build the GiveBox platform in an effort to give nonprofits everything they need for fundraising, event hosting, donation processing, and more. And all for FREE! If you are not already using this platform and its apps for the activities listed below, you are throwing away money.
Here is a list of things you can do with GiveBox:
- Create professional-looking donation campaign pages – create as many pages as you want for as many different campaigns. This feature is a great way to target specific audiences for each campaign. You do this even if you don’t have a nonprofit website yet.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising – Get board members, volunteers, and other groups competing against each other to raise money for your nonprofit.
- Event registration and ticket sales – Most event registration platforms like Event Brite charge you a fee for the registration process in addition to the fee for processing payments. GiveBox doesn’t!
- Credit card scanning – Scan a donation right into your smartphone for no extra fee! Just go to the scanning app and process the payment. No scanners to plugin or keep track of.
- Payment processing – Selling goods to raise money? GiveBox will process your payments. You pay the same fee as with Stripe, PayPal or others, and no extra processing fees.
- Invoicing – Need to invoice a sponsor or vendor? You can do that right from your GiveBox platform for free.
- Membership – Does your nonprofit have a membership base? Manage membership and member payments from GiveBox.
- Donor Database Management – Keep track of donors and donor activities so that you can build better relationships with donors. Target your campaigns to donors who have donated to similar campaigns in the past.
There aren’t many companies that add features and functionality every time they are asked by a client. But that is what GiveBox has done in an effort to offer the best. The founder, Joshua Rowley, and his team also serve as board members on nonprofits and speak internationally about how to consolidate fundraising activities to free up resources, funds, and time.
Benefit Mobile – No Cost Fundraising App
Benefit Mobile participates with a large selection of popular retailers. Your supporters use the Benefit app to check out at the register in-store or on the checkout page online. Each purchase earns between 2% – 20% of the transaction total that is sent to your nonprofit.
Is your nonprofit in need of tangible goods like food, clothing, or toys? This isn’t a fundraising App for your general fund but it could help you reallocate funds that are earmarked for tangible goods. With the You Give Goods app, anyone can launch an online fundraising event for your nonprofit. They purchase goods from the fundraiser and then everything is delivered to your nonprofit. Over 400 items are available for nonprofits.
Take your supporters on a real-world scavenger hunt or journey using ActionBound. The App blends real-life interaction with a smartphone. Use this App to recognize important business sponsors by adding them as stops along the scavenger hunt.
CoinUp is a very simple to use fundraising App that allows your supporters to make a big impact with their small change. Your supporters download the App and CoinUp will round up their credit/debit card purchases to the nearest dollar. Then, CoinUp will send your nonprofit the donation each month. CoinUp also handles the year-end tax-deductible donation receipt for your donors.
Bonus Content: Nonprofits are earning more unrestricted revenue with Audience-Focused Events. These are also the events board members and sponsors love! Learn more in this free training.
Planet Fundraiser helps pair local nonprofits with local businesses. Local businesses choose the percentage they want to donate from purchases made at their stores. When your supporters shop, they are giving back to you and helping a local business at the same time. That’s a winning strategy!
AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when your supporters shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to your charity.
Good Shop finds coupons and deals at thousands of popular retailers and donates a portion of the proceeds to the nonprofit selected by the shopper. Sign up your nonprofit for free.
Good Search is a search engine that donates a penny for every search your supporters conduct. Your supporters can search for savings and your nonprofit receives a donation.
Add the excitement of an auction to your next live event. Text-to-Pledge allows your event guests to contribute any amount to your nonprofit using their smartphone and the text message feature. Individual donations are broadcast on a large screen so everyone at the event can see the progress.
Register your nonprofit with Google One Today. Your supporters then download Google’s One Today App and donate $1 (or more) every day to begin changing the world. Google does not take any transaction fee. One hundred percent of the donation goes to the nonprofit. Google One Today keeps donor information confidential. It is not shared with the nonprofit, only their donation goes to the nonprofit. Why not use this to start a 30-day challenge with your biggest fans?
Pledgeling is a tool for donors more than the charity. It’s recognized as the first social enterprise to provide Apple Pay® in donation forms. Users can easily and securely donate instantly to their favorite nonprofit organization with just the touch of a finger. You can register your nonprofit and promote the Pledgeling App to your supporters.
Shout allows “shouters” to give a certain amount to a charity on any given day. For example, instead of buying that morning latte, a shouter can donate that same amount to their favorite charity. It’s a fun App that reminds us how we can decide to help others every day. Shout does not take any commission for donations.
Create your own nonprofit fundraising App with Zoho. Nonprofits can sign up for free and create Apps to manage volunteer programs, manage donor databases, or create an App for your next fundraising event.
Earn more revenue for your nonprofit with audience-focused fundraising events.
Are you seeing slower signups and fewer guests at your fundraising events? It might be time to hit the reset button and look at modern events. Our favorite type of event is the audience-focused fundraising event. Audience-focused fundraising events engage your entire nonprofit team of staff, volunteers and board members in fundraising, they are more attractive to sponsors, and they keep your nonprofit engaged with supporters year round.
We dive deep into this concept in this free training. Click to watch it on demand today!
Learn the strategies of a Nonprofit Chief Growth Officer! Click above to watch this free training.
