How charities can fundraise on a budget

If your charity is dealing with a sudden restriction in funding, you’re not alone – charities around the UK are reporting that they expect to lose a third of their total income on average as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with 83% saying they will need access to emergency grant funding to survive.

But while the situation is unprecedented and worrying, in 2020 charities also have unprecedented opportunities to fundraise and spread the word about their cause on shoestring budgets thanks to digital technology and social media.

Here are some ways digital can help stretch your fundraising budget that little bit further:

Free and low-cost social media tools

Social media channels represent a cheap or even free opportunity for charities to reach a wider audience, forge valuable relationships and build an engaged community of fans. According to the 2019 CAF Giving report, one in seven people who donate using a website or app do so through social media.

But how do you manage the constant flow of social media posting and responding, with limited resources and time?

Social media management platforms such as Hootsuite, Buffer and TweetDeck can help charities automate a lot of the hard work behind scheduling content and understanding metrics to get the most out of their posting – we’ve covered a few of them here that feature free plans.

Free Google advertising

Google offers charities the chance to compete for free advertising space as part of its Google Grants programme, with over £7,500 a month in grants offered towards search engine marketing that can help your charity’s donation ask be seen.

Free data tools

While we’re on the subject of Google, the search giant has quite a few free, handy tools for increasing the effectiveness of your online marketing. The reason they are free is that they make their money from your website’s data, so it’s in their best interests that you do well and keep using their services.

Google Analytics is a completely free tool that gives you access to Google’s data on your website traffic, helping you track and report on who’s coming to your website and donating and why, and optimising your site to meet its goals. Go here to view our guide to the basics of Google Analytics.

Google Keyword Planner is also free and an incredibly helpful tool to choose the right keywords that will ensure you rise to the top of search engine results.

For more on how to ’do data on a budget’ we recommend this video from charity tech-consultant Superhighways from Charity Digital’s 2019 conference, which featured easy to follow tips and free tools to collect and analyse data.