The Secrets to Attracting New Donors Through India Giving Day
As we approach our 3rd annual India Giving Day (IGD) one of the questions we hear most often is, “How do we leverage India Giving Day to engage new donors?” While there are countless ways to spread the word about the important work you are doing in India, here are some of the key learnings from our first two years of this campaign.
Peer to Peer Fundraising (P2P)
According to Bonterra, our technology partner for India Giving Day, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) fundraising is the #1 way to engage new donors. During India Giving Day 2024 the organizations that saw the most growth in donor numbers confirmed this finding. The top three organizations for new donors generated a cumulative of 470 new donors through the work of 137 P2P fundraisers. For these three organizations a full 48% of the donors who gave to their India Giving Day campaign identified themselves as new to the organization upon check-out.
Leverage your existing base of supporters
While IPA has done extensive advertising and tens of millions of people have been exposed to India Giving Day through news channels and social media posts, this is only one aspect of building a successful campaign. Organizations that have excelled during India Giving Day are those that have leveraged the enthusiasm surrounding the campaign to energize their base, encourage donor participation, hosted events, utilized the customizable social media posts, and kept in frequent communications with their donors to advance the campaign.
Introducing your supporters to India Giving Day
The most successful nonprofit organizations communicated with their base through newsletter announcements, custom emails, social media, donor events, and phone calls. Highly successful nonprofits hosted donor gatherings well in advance of India Giving Day so that their supporters had the time they needed to plan their own events, prepare their own P2P fundraising campaigns, and learn how to use the resources available to them through the nonprofit toolkit. One of the top volunteer fundraisers used these resources to create his own brochure with a QR code that linked to his giving page. He spoke to his church and community groups and invited those in attendance to make a gift to his campaign.
Invite the next generation to take the lead
The top three fundraisers in 2024, defined by the number of donors they brought to their chosen nonprofit, were all under the age of twenty-five. The enthusiasm and idealism of young people is contagious and active philanthropists are often looking for ways to include their children in philanthropy. India Giving Day provides the perfect format. Be sure to include family gatherings in your India Giving Day planning sessions. Not only are young people a powerful ally, but you will have helped their parents, your donors, achieve a goal that is important to them and their children.
Follow-up to support and encourage your volunteers
People are busy! Whether it be career, school, family, extra-curricular activities, or a lively social life, it can be challenging for your volunteers to follow through on their good intentions. Our top performers for India Giving Day 2024 not only held events and information sessions well in advance of the day, but they followed up throughout the duration of the campaign to ensure their volunteers had the tools, skills, and follow-through they needed to succeed.
Use the resources that are available to you
One of the many benefits of participating in India Giving Day is the robust resources that are available to you. They include India Giving Day branding materials, customizable social media posts, suggested email and social media copy, “how to” trainings (dates to be announced), P2P fundraising tools, support for community events, and more than $100,000.00 in prizes and matching gifts.
We at the India Philanthropy Alliance are excited to have you join us for India Giving Day 2025 and encourage you to take full advantage of the many opportunities that are available to you.