All of your fundraising events present the opportunity to turn your attendees into donors. While this may not happen immediately, it is important to nurture your relationships with your auction attendees. This will help move them along the continuum of involvement with your nonprofit.
You may start by simply getting them to sign up for your newsletter so that they can stay up to date with your cause. Then following up and encouraging them to volunteer or participate will help you build better relationships. Thus, making it more likely that they will donate.
Below are some of the best methods on how you can convert your auction attendees into donors.
When hosting an auction, it is crucial that everything goes off without a hitch. An attendee is less likely to donate if the processes are confusing and things aren’t going seamlessly.
This is also very important when hosting an online auction. People want a smooth, simple donation process. So, make sure there are no errors or glitches along the way.
Hosting a seamless event means that attendees and donors will have had a more positive experience. This makes it more likely that they will attend your future events.
Membership programs are an excellent way of engaging with your nonprofit’s supporters. It gives exclusive insight into your organization. For a monthly fee, you can give your donors perks and incentives relating to your events.
Not only will this bring in some extra funds, but it will encourage once-off donors and event attendees to sign up.
You could even have different tiers to your membership programs. The more someone donates, the higher the tier they reach, and the better the rewards.
Getting your auction attendees involved in your organization can help them to feel closer to your cause. Asking them to volunteer, share something on social media, subscribe to your blog, sign a petition, etc. can help keep them engaged with your nonprofit organization.
This will then further encourage them to support you by eventually becoming loyal donors.
Of course, following up and saying thank you to your auction attendees and donors is always important. Make sure to thank people for attending. This shows that you truly value their support.
Thanking your donors for their contributions is essential. You need to make sure they feel appreciated so that they might continue to support your cause.
Following up later on and letting your auction attendees know how their support made a difference is a good way to keep them engaged. People like to know that they are appreciated and that they can make a difference in the world.
So, reminding them of how they helped a project succeed will encourage them to attend your future auctions and possibly become regular donors.
Outreach is a vital part of any business. It helps you to reach new people and convert them into donors. By personalizing your outreach campaigns, you can appeal better to different people and encourage them to support your nonprofit by attending your events.
You can do this through emails, one-on-one meetings, and phone calls, or even through social media channels.
When doing this, it is important that you don’t directly ask for donations. That will put potential donors off your nonprofit organization. You want to encourage support and build stronger relationships with your supporters.
Segmenting your auction attendees’ data, like demographics or interests, allows you to create more personalized messages that appeal to different target segments.
You should also categorize your supporters by their levels of involvement, such as volunteers, event attendees, once-off donors, recurring donors, and major donors. This will help you to craft more appropriate and relevant outreach campaigns.
If you’re hosting an online auction, using the right auction software is essential. You will want to make sure that the software or online auction platform you use tracks donor and attendee data.
This will help you to keep a list of the contact information for everyone who participated so that you can easily follow up and thank them.
For example, BiddingOwl tracks this data in a downloadable spreadsheet so that all the information is accessible. This also requires no tedious manual data entry - which is always a bonus!
Auction attendee and donor feedback can help you improve your future fundraising events. By simply filling out a survey, your auction attendees can tell you exactly what they liked and didn’t like about your event.
Analyzing and evaluating this feedback gives you better insight into what your supporters want. Then by implementing those changes, you can ensure your auction attendees will have a more positive experience with your nonprofit or charity organization. Thus, they will be more likely to convert to being a donor and continue to support your cause.
This strategy also shows that you care about your donors' opinions and value their insight. So, next time you host an auction, try sending out a quick 2-minute survey the next day to the email list of all your event attendees.
This is a simple but effective way of bettering your fundraising events and converting more auction attendees into donors.
Last but not least, keeping in touch with all your donors and auction attendees is a good idea. Even if they haven’t donated in a long time.
If you keep interacting with your donors, your organization will stay in their minds and they might attend another of your auctions in the future.
You could even gather personal information on your attendees, like their birthdays, so that you can send them more personalized automated emails. This type of thing shows that your nonprofit makes an effort and values people.
Your auction attendees should never be overlooked as they are a good source of potential donors. By attending your events, they have already shown interest in your cause.
So, nurturing these relationships and implementing the above-mentioned strategies can help you to convert your auction attendees into donors.
Mo-Fri 9 am to 5 pm Eastern Time
24/7 critical emergency support
All currencies supported