CAF to hold online fundraising workshop

Does the charity you work for have a website that is maximising its online fundraising potential?

If you're not sure then it might be best to attend two Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) workshops on February 17th and March 5th which promise to address the topic of online fundraising.

The organisers of the workshop guarantee to help you identify whether your website is "earning its keep" and, of course, help you raise money online for worthwhile causes in what is an often-competitive market.

Fundraising websites such as Everyclick can help you collect the money kindly given to you by online donors with its secure payment collection system.

But first you have to publicise your campaign and attract donors.

Sarah Hartley of the Manchester Evening News has just written a list of ten tips for online fundraisers on the community pages of the newspaper's website.

She suggests using modern networking media to draw attention to your campaign's website. Facebook is used by politicians, musicians and people from all generations and walks of life, so why not have a presence on it? Such sites are excellent for issuing bulletins on the progress of your fundraising events.

Blog sites such as Twitter can also make donors feel involved and up-to-date with your charity's activities. If it's good enough for Stephen Fry, it should be good enough for your charity.

A video presence can emphasise the message that your charity is trying to put across and YouTube is ideal for this.

Photographs can also have their use in generating traffic for your website. Upload photos relating to your cause on systems such as Flickr to find a new audience of potential donors.

Of course, traditional mediums such as press releases also still have their place in publicity campaigns.

As with all websites, content is vital. At the beginning of December the Nonprofit Times (nptimes.com) published its own list of online fundraising tips (seven this time instead of ten).

It urged online fundraisers to make their website's pitches "compelling" and to "consider providing stories or images of specific people you've helped, or examples of past projects that were successful".

It is worth putting yourself in potential donors' shoes? Why should you give to one cause and not another? How will your donation make a difference?

Drawing up a list of existing supporters' email addresses is often a good way to get the online fundraising ball rolling. Send them an email with a link to your website and remember nptimes' advice that "if you send an email to 1,000 people, expect about ten of them to donate".

If that doesn't sound like very good odds, console yourself with the thought that online donations tend to be more generous than offline ones.

All your valiant efforts will be in vain unless you are set up to receive online donations. Donors want a straightforward, secure payment method to be offered to them, which provides speedy acknowledgement of their donation.

Organisations such as Everyclick can make this a pain-free process for website organisers, leaving you more time for the other administrative tasks associated with website maintenance.