There can be different channels of fundraising- online or offline. When selecting a particular channel for your organization, consider factors like your goals, key expected outcomes, your budget and timelines, and resources available.
The various channels can be:
- Digital channels:
- Email fundraising, ‘donate’ pages on websites, campaigns on other platforms, social media like Facebook fundraising, crowdfunding, peer-driven fundraiser pages, and so on.
- Offline channels:
- Face-to-face fundraising (door-to-door/ street), telephone fundraising, events, direct mail, retail, advertisements, collaborations like local community shops (percentage sales for donations), etc.
- The channel selected will depend on a lot of factors including your capacity and resources available, local laws and donor preferences, kind of cause, and available community support too. One can adopt a multichannel fundraising strategy too- choosing and preparing a mix of the above fundraising channels. To decide what can work best, make sure you conduct an in-depth analysis- a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, cost-benefit analysis to understand the return on investment, an analysis of your existing fundraising budget and future plans, and factor in staff time and skillsets too.