Every type of fundraiser comes with a few common hurdles, from navigating venues to mastering communication. One challenge almost every fundraiser can encounter is a lack of accessibility. Fortunately, advances in technology have done much to help fundraising professionals eliminate informational, geographical, and ability barriers!
Whether you’re a nonprofit, school, sports team, or other charitable organization, accessibility should be a top concern. After all, the more people who can engage with your fundraiser, the more money you can raise!
To help your group create inclusive, far-reaching campaigns, we’ll explore seven types of fundraising software that enable you to easily connect with all of your supporters.
1. Website accessibility tools
Your website is your group’s central fundraising hub, and 501(c)(3) organizations are required to maintain accessible websites. Plus, even if your group is not a registered nonprofit, it’s still good to follow accessibility guidelines to engage as many supporters as possible.
Here are a few core ways to improve your website’s accessibility:
- Text alternatives. Add alternative text for images on your website and transcripts and subtitles to videos. This makes it possible for individuals with screen readers and slow internet connections to engage with your content when they can’t access visuals.
- Clear content. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) state that all web content must be understandable. This means users should be able to view your website (use proper color contrast, legible fonts, and clear navigation) and accurately interpret information (avoid jargon and use simple language).
- Text spacing. Proper text spacing makes text easy to read. Getting Attention’s guide to 501(c)(3) website requirements provides these spacing recommendations: “Paragraph spacing should be at least 2 times the font size, line height at least 1.5 times the font size, word spacing at least 0.16 times the font size, and letter spacing at least 0.12 times the font size.”
To ensure your website is accessible, explore website builders with accessibility widgets. These are software plugins that allow visitors to change font size, adjust colors, and turn fonts into a sans-serif typeface. Here’s what one of these tools might look like:
2. Donation self-service tools
Recurring donations are a reliable funding source you can count on between major fundraisers, and each fundraiser should aspire to bring in recurring donations!
However, these supporters can lapse if it’s difficult to update their payment information. For instance, if a supporter moves, changes or deactivates a credit card, or changes email addresses, they may lose contact with your group.
Make supporting your cause easy with self-service tools that allow supporters to:
- Update their personal information
- Adjust giving levels or payment information
- Reach out with questions and feedback
By enabling supporters to adjust their giving information online, you can save your staff time and maintain consistent communication. Plus, giving supporters the power to begin and end their giving on their own terms can actually increase retention and loyalty and lead to recurring donor upgrades.
3. Online product fundraising apps
Product fundraisers are a money-raising staple for groups like schools and sports teams. These fundraisers thrive when they have as many participants as possible, but the limits of low-tech product fundraisers can limit your ability to reach a wide audience. If participants have to keep track of paper order forms, go door-to-door, and deliver products themselves, it’s much harder to reach your fundraising goals.
Fortunately, you can leverage product fundraising apps, which elevate product fundraisers by going digital. With these tools, participants can sell product fundraising staples like popcorn, cookies, chocolate bars, wreaths, and discount cards online rather than going door-to-door. Your participants can simply share their personalized fundraising pages with friends, family, and supporters nationwide!
4. Mobile bidding software
In-person silent auctions can be incredibly profitable fundraisers, but they have a few accessibility challenges. For instance, all participants need to travel to a specified venue, walk through a potentially crowded space to view items, write down bids, and regularly check in on their items to ensure they don’t get outbid.
Help all individuals join your silent auction with mobile bidding software. These tools take your silent auction online, so guests can scroll through your items on their phones, place bids, and get alerts when they are outbid. Plus, virtual, streamlined auction bid sheets ensure all bids are accurately recorded and eliminate the need to decipher messy handwriting.
5. Peer-to-peer fundraising software
Peer-to-peer fundraisers ask your supporter base to fundraise on your behalf, allowing you to tap into their networks and access individuals who might otherwise have never heard of your group. Like with product fundraisers, the more supporters who participate in a peer-to-peer fundraiser, the more successful your campaign will be and the more money you will raise..
Team Butter’s review of team fundraising platforms highlights a few accessibility-related features to look for in these types of platforms:
- Intuitive setup. Ensure users of all technical abilities can easily create and customize unique fundraising pages. Your peer-to-peer fundraising software shouldn’t require any coding knowledge.
- Easy social sharing. Peer-to-peer fundraisers flourish on social media, and your supporters likely use a variety of platforms. Get software with user-friendly social media sharing options so all of your participants can get their campaigns online with the click of a button.
- Mobile friendliness. No matter what device they’re using, participants and supporters alike should be able to access campaign pages with ease. Use responsive software that displays your content in an accessible manner on mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.
To ensure all of your participants know how to use your peer-to-peer software, hold an onboarding meeting before your campaign. This is an opportunity to answer questions, provide fundraising tips, and work out any technical or accessibility issues.
6. Matching gift software
Did you know some supporters might be able to make bigger donations at no additional cost? If you said no, chances are that many of your supporters think that, too!
Part of accessibility is distributing relevant information in an easy-to-access, understandable format. Unfortunately, when it comes to corporate giving programs like matching gifts, many companies don’t publicize their initiatives. This means only employees who already know about them can participate in these programs.
Matching gifts are a type of corporate philanthropy where businesses match employee gifts to charitable organizations, usually at a one-to-one ratio. With a matching gift database and widget on your web site, you can inform supporters about these programs and empower them to look up their eligibility with one quick search.
7. Virtual event hosting platform
Events bring your supporter community together. However, traveling to a venue and participating in crowded activities isn’t easy or even possible for everyone. But with virtual and hybrid events, you can create an accessible alternative that truly brings all your supporters together.
Make virtual events engaging and accessible by looking for event-hosting software that includes auto-subtitling, interpreter tools, and audience chat features. This way, everyone can follow your events’ content, ask questions if they need assistance, and engage with your community in a welcoming environment. And not that a virtual event does not always have to be about fundraising, it’s also a great way to let your supporter and volunteer community know how they’re making a difference!
There’s a wide range of accessible fundraising tools to choose from, and each can make your campaigns just a little more accessible to your entire audience. When selecting platforms, look for software that fits your needs, aligns with your budget, and integrates with the rest of your tools.
With these criteria, you can assemble a tech toolkit that allows you to smoothly collect and transfer data, engage all supporters, and host whatever fundraisers your group wants and ensures that everybody can participate.
