Crowdfunding is a popular method for entrepreneurs, nonprofits, artists, and individuals to raise money and support for their projects. It can help a startup get off the ground, provide small business owners with enough funding to open their doors, or support nonprofit disaster relief efforts.

While crowdfunding offers an excellent opportunity for funding and community engagement, it also demands careful planning, strategic marketing efforts, and intentional delivery on promises to maintain trust and credibility.

Below, we’ll cover how crowdfunding works and what the best crowdfunding websites for running your next campaign are.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is the practice of raising small amounts of money from a large number of people. The total raised typically funds a specific project, goes toward general donations for a worthy cause, or drives support for a time-based initiative. Depending on the campaign’s organizer, it may also support a new business venture, philanthropic cause, or product launch.

Here are some key characteristics of crowdfunding:

• Scale and context: Crowdfunding has enabled billions of dollars in funding globally, with millions of individual projects launched across health, education, disaster relief, and the arts. This is evidence that the model works across virtually every cause type.
• Human connections: Crowdfunding succeeds because it combines a low barrier to give with the power of personal networks and authentic storytelling.
• Nonprofit differentiation: Crowdfunding is distinct from year-round nonprofit fundraising because it focuses on raising funds for specific, tangible, and time-bound projects or urgent appeals.

How does crowdfunding work?

A crowdfunding campaign is usually conducted online through a fundraising site to garner support for a set goal.

Regardless of your goal, the key to crowdfunding success is engaging the right people in meaningful ways. Before you begin, identify your target audience: What are your supporters’ preferences, tendencies, and behaviors?

Keep these in mind throughout your campaign and as you follow these five steps.

1. Select a crowdfunding platform

Need a crowdfunding platform to use? Here are three considerations:

Evaluate the fundraising platform’s pricing and fee structure

• Credit processing fees: A small percentage of each monetary gift to a crowdfunding campaign goes to the processing service of the online platform hosting the campaign. The fee covers data transmissions, transaction authorizations, and funding deposits. We recommend looking for a crowdfunding site that offers donors the choice to cover processing fees.
• Percentage platform fees: While the percentage can vary from platform to platform, most services earn their revenue by deducting a fee from the total amount raised. Consider how these fees could impact your fundraising goal.

Investigate ease-of-use and customization options

• Ease of use: A fundraising platform should keep things simple. The less time you spend building, updating, and optimizing your crowdfunding campaign page, the more time you have to raise money.
• Customization options: Consistent branding on your crowdfunding campaign helps create an identity for your organization. Advanced customization options allow you to easily communicate your values, clarify your call to action (CTA), and tell your nonprofit brand story to anyone who visits your donation website.

Identify available resources and customer service offerings

• Accessible resources: Potential fundraising platforms should offer online tutorials, resource guides, or FAQs. Easy-to-access tools can save you time throughout your crowdfunding campaign.
• Attentive customer service: If you have a problem during your crowdfunding campaign, you’ll want to know someone is there to help. Contact customer support before selecting a fundraising platform to ensure its team is helpful and responsive.

2. Get accepted by a fundraising platform

Some platforms may require you to complete online forms and provide documentation before you’re accepted to host your crowdfunding campaign on their site. This process ensures you’ve met the platform’s requirements and will use it as intended.

Requirements vary from platform to platform, but here are a few examples:

• Must be 18 years of age or older
• Must be a permanent resident of one of the eligible countries
• Must have an address, a bank account, and a government-issued ID based in the country where you create the project
• Must have a linked bank account that belongs to the person who verified their identity for your project
• Must have a major credit or debit card

3. Pitch your crowdfunding project

Once a fundraising platform accepts you, you may have to pitch your project to their team to ensure it’s a good fit. Be prepared to answer questions, such as:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• How much are you hoping to raise?
• How do you plan to solicit support?
• Why is this initiative so important?

Prepare for this pitch by identifying your campaign narrative and laying out your marketing plan, similar to how you would promote your organization through word of mouth, social media, and paid ads.

You’ll use this same information to drive donations to your campaign. Think of this pitch as an opportunity to sell your story and gain support from donors, accredited investors, family members, or others who feel passionate about your initiative.

4. Conduct your campaign

Once you’re approved and ready to go, it’s time to run your campaign. Start by building an optimized campaign page. Use compelling imagery, engaging video snippets, and a detailed narrative to tell your story and build your case for donors. When people land on your page, you want to quickly draw them into your cause and streamline the giving process.

After you’ve built your site, pair its launch with effective marketing strategies to get as many eyes on your page as possible. Share the crowdfunding project on social media, run an email campaign, and collaborate with any partners who can help spread the word further.

Pro tip: If you’re a nonprofit on GoFundMe Pro, you can use our nonprofit social sharing integration with Meta to make it easier for donors to find, share, and support your cause on their preferred channels.

Throughout the campaign, track your progress and share updates with your audience.

5. Receive payout from your crowdfunding campaign

While some platforms will pay out all the money you raised, regardless of the final total, others may only offer a payout if you reach your fundraising goal.

The pricing and fee structure will also affect the percentage of funds that land in your organization’s bank account. To raise as much money as possible, ensure the platform you select doesn’t have fine print that could interfere with your success.

What are the different types of crowdfunding?

While all crowdfunding efforts aim to collect donations toward a set goal, there are some key distinctions within the crowdfunding definition.

Rewards-based and equity-based crowdfunding

When someone contributes funds in exchange for something, it falls into the rewards-based crowdfunding bucket. This is typical for startups that might offer free swag or a discounted service.

Similarly, equity-based crowdfunding, or equity crowdfunding, allows small businesses and startups to give away a portion of their business in exchange for funding.

Donation-based crowdfunding

The simplest type of crowdfunding is donation-based crowdfunding, which means someone gives money for nothing in return. However, this type of crowdfunding can be extremely rewarding. It attracts loyal supporters who are passionate about your work and may choose to give again.

3 common use cases for crowdfunding?

Small businesses, research institutes, nonprofits, and individuals are just some of the groups that may choose to run a crowdfunding campaign. Below, we look at the most common applications of crowdfunding and how to successfully bring each strategy to your organization.

Funding for philanthropic causes

Demonstrated by global giving initiatives like Giving Tuesday, crowdfunding has proven its impact on the long-term health and sustainability of nonprofits worldwide.

A nonprofit crowdfunding campaign inspires support for your cause with a compelling narrative to drive people to make a gift. It consists of a campaign landing page that highlights your impact and draws people in, as well as a donation form to facilitate the transaction process.

Crowdfunding campaigns create a sense of urgency with your target audience and motivate immediate action. Common nonprofit crowdfunding applications include:

• General donation fund
• Time-bound project
• Disaster relief

See how nonprofits use Campaign Studio to fundraise anywhere, for any occasion, with branded crowdfunding pages that drive more donations.

Funding for scientific research

Early-stage scientific research can be challenging to fund, as many foundations or government agencies want to see proof of concept before awarding a grant. Crowdfunding can fill this gap, supporting impactful experiments that may otherwise be impossible.

To do so, researchers or other interested parties pitch a proposal to gather support through a crowdfunding page. Patients, medical professionals, and individuals with a strong belief in the topic can then donate online to the project. This broad support allows scientists greater intellectual freedom and independence and provides them with an opportunity to build credibility.

Experiment is a crowdfunding platform that specifically focuses on fundraising for scientific causes. In one instance, the site helped researchers raise 121% of a $5,000 goal to support an effort to study how plastic-metabolizing bacteria could create the next generation of probiotics and therapies to combat microplastics in the human bloodstream.

Startup funding

Rather than depending on traditional funding sources, startups can get their businesses off the ground by using crowdfunding investments from friends, family members, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists.

Crowdfunding makes it easier for startups to amass capital and market their new business to larger audiences. Since investors want to see a company do well, this makes them eager to spread the word about your new products and initiatives.

Startups typically offer investors something in return, most commonly through rewards-based or equity-based crowdfunding. They use social media and crowdfunding websites to educate primary and extended networks about the opportunity to fund the emerging business

Top crowdfunding sites

When looking for people to help fund a new project or business venture, it’s essential that the transaction process is as seamless as possible. Below, we summarize four of the best crowdfunding sites to help you understand what makes each unique.

Indiegogo

Best for: Entrepreneurs

Indiegogo offers the tools to set up a 60-day campaign to help raise funds and garner support from potential investors. By giving entrepreneurs a platform to introduce clever or unconventional products to the world, Indiegogo fuels innovation.

Indiegogo’s crowdfunding campaigns allow entrepreneurs to get curious and creative while providing early backers and angel investors a place to discover groundbreaking products before mainstream availability.

Kickstarter

Best for: Creatives

Kickstarter is a place for creatives to share their business plans with communities that will support them. No matter how big or small, Kickstarter wants to help creators of all kinds, including filmmakers, artists, musicians, designers, and more. Crowdfunders can easily spread the word about their new projects and welcome individual investors to join.

GoFundMe

Best for: Individuals and nonprofit organizations

GoFundMe is the trusted leader in online fundraising, with a community of more than 200 million helping one another. Since 2010, GoFundMe and its technology have enabled more than $40 billion in generosity for individuals and nonprofits.

With no platform fee for organizers, GoFundMe makes it easy for anyone to raise money for the people and causes most important to them. In 2025, the GoFundMe community made 79 million donations and shared fundraisers 72 million times, helping spread generosity around the world. More than 155,000 people started fundraisers for nonprofits, and 975,000 donors who first gave to a crisis fundraiser went on to support other causes.

GoFundMe Pro

Best for: Nonprofit organizations

GoFundMe Pro, a platform built exclusively for nonprofits, provides fundraising solutions that make giving easier, strengthen supporter relationships, and help organizations focus on advancing their mission.

Powered by Campaign Studio, GoFundMe Pro crowdfunding pages help nonprofits:

• Inspire more supporters to donate with impact-centered storytelling and fast-loading pages.
• Increase conversions through a seamless, fully branded donation experience.
• Simplify giving with research-backed donation forms optimized at every step.
• Launch faster with proven fundraising templates featuring prebuilt layouts, messaging, and page elements.
• Increase revenue by offering donors their preferred payment methods, including digital wallets.
• Personalize donation asks with Intelligent Ask Amounts, tailored to each donor and your campaign goals.
• Improve performance continuously through platform-wide A/B testing and optimization.
• Build momentum with a live feed of donations, comments, and supporter activity that encourages participation and social proof.

Crowdfunding success stories on GoFundMe Pro

Nonprofits use GoFundMe Pro to launch crowdfunding campaigns quickly and maximize their impact immensely. Here are two examples:

SBP
When Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall, SBP rapidly launched emergency fundraising efforts on GoFundMe Pro. Using Intelligent Ask Amounts, the organization increased the average one-time gift size by 66%, the average recurring gift size by 17%, and the conversion rate by 59%.

Grand Canyon Conservancy
After the Dragon Bravo Fire impacted the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon Conservancy used Campaign Studio to launch a disaster recovery campaign in record time, raising more than $300,000 in its first month.

Start crowdfunding today to rally support around a good cause

Crowdfunding is a central fundraising model worldwide. These campaigns serve as a tool to bring personal projects to life and a powerful way for impactful organizations, creators, and businesses to share their stories. It can help fund programmatic and operational initiatives alike with the support of an extended network.

Start crowdfunding for your nonprofit with GoFundMe Pro.

Crowdfunding FAQs

What are the main types of crowdfunding?

The three main types are donation-based crowdfunding (donors give without receiving anything in return; common for nonprofits), rewards-based crowdfunding (donors receive a product or perk in exchange; common for startups), and equity-based crowdfunding (investors receive a stake in a business; common for small businesses).

What’s the difference between fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising, and crowdfunding?

Fundraising is the broadest term for raising money to support a cause or organization. It includes everything from events and major gifts to grants, online giving, and more.

Crowdfunding is a type of online fundraising that encourages a large number of people to make individual donations toward a specific campaign or goal.

Peer-to-peer fundraising also takes place online, but instead of simply asking people to donate, it asks supporters to create and share their own fundraising pages with friends, family, and colleagues. In other words, the primary CTA in crowdfunding is to donate, whereas the primary CTA in peer-to-peer fundraising is to fundraise on behalf of your organization.

What is the difference between crowdfunding and a loan?

Private companies may take out a business loan to cover various expenses when getting started or needing an influx of cash for expansions. Businesses typically secure a loan through a bank after completing an application process to assess the company’s creditworthiness. The business must repay the loans over a set period, including interest on the borrowed amount of money.

Crowdfunding is another way businesses can secure startup money or otherwise fund new initiatives. Individuals interested in investment opportunities provide venture capital to the company through a crowdfunding site. In return, they often receive incentives like the company’s new product or an equity share.

Crowdfunding can also support peer-to-peer lending, where investors eventually get paid back, similar to a loan. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulates crowdfunding investments.

How much money can you make through crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding campaign revenue varies from hundreds to millions of dollars, depending on multiple factors, such as goals, causes, and platforms.

One source found that the average amount raised for a successful crowdfunding campaign was $8,150, with donation-based crowdfunding holding 28% of the market share.

As the popularity of crowdfunding campaigns continues to expand, these averages are likely to fluctuate.

How do I tell a good story for a crowdfunding campaign?

Nonprofit storytelling is a huge part of creating meaningful connections with supporters. Rather than simply informing people about why your campaign is critical, use sensory, descriptive language to create a felt experience.

Keep your text short and include compelling imagery, like photos or videos. Clarify the tangible impact of each contribution and focus on one clear CTA that will drive conversions.

Is crowdfunding right for nonprofits?

Donation-based crowdfunding is one of the most effective tools available to nonprofits for raising money online, reaching new donors, and building community around a specific goal. Platforms like GoFundMe Pro help nonprofits create compelling donation pages, track results, and convert one-time donors into recurring supporters.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Building a strong recurring giving program is no longer a nice-to-have but critical to nonprofits’ sustainability and scalability.

Charitable dollars increased 5% in 2025, the strongest growth rate in five years, according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. Yet, donor count fell by 3.6%, meaning fewer donors gave. When nonprofits can’t rely on reaching more donors to grow, they have to build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with the supporters they already have.

That’s exactly what recurring giving does.

Below, we’ll define the value and appeal of recurring giving in today’s fundraising ecosystem and discuss four best practice approaches to building a successful monthly donor giving program.

What is recurring giving?

Recurring donations, also known as subscription giving, occur when donors sign up to give automatically at a specified interval. These are most often in the form of monthly donations, but daily, weekly, biweekly, quarterly, semiannual, or annual giving are all options, too. 

Recurring giving has become a cornerstone of sustainable fundraising because it provides predictable revenue, improves financial stability, and increases donor lifetime value. While many nonprofits once struggled to offer recurring donations due to limitations in payment technology and donor management tools, today’s fundraising platforms make it easier than ever to build and grow a recurring giving program.

As a result, nonprofits are shifting from treating recurring giving as simply another donation option to building intentional donor experiences that strengthen long-term relationships and inspire ongoing support.

Here’s a breakdown in our ultimate guide to recurring giving.

Turn subscription habits into recurring support

The global subscription economy is growing fast, with a projection to reach $1.5 trillion by 2033. From artisan coffees and cat food to music services and streaming platforms, people have gotten used to the subscription model, paying a set amount each month for goods or services.

In fact, recent surveys have shown that subscriptions are as popular as ever, with 51% of people likely to start a new subscription within the next six months, and 59% saying that excitement is their top emotion when signing up for a new monthly service.

Nonprofits can respond to this consumer shift by framing their recurring giving programs as subscription donations and implementing the best practices from today’s most successful subscription services.

With some subtle tweaks and intentional messaging, your nonprofit can capitalize on the ease subscription services offer to take your recurring giving program to the next level.

5 tips for increasing recurring donations

Successful subscription brands have mastered the art of earning long-term loyalty. Here are a few strategies your organization can adapt to grow and retain recurring donors.

Customize your ask

When communicating with donors, personalization is key, and today’s intelligence makes this easier than ever.

Intelligent Ask Amounts from GoFundMe Pro uses artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize each donor’s giving experience based on who they are and what your campaign needs to achieve. Your donation form adapts to your goal, whether that’s boosting crisis revenue or growing recurring gifts.

When your goal is growing recurring giving, Intelligent Ask Amounts can take that personalization a step further. It shows a gentle, branded monthly gift prompt to donors most likely to consider recurring support while keeping the experience focused for donors more likely to give once.

This targeted approach delivers a 38% lift in recurring gift conversions, with no meaningful impact to one-time giving rates.

Enable automated online payments

Because the subscription economy doesn’t rely on members to return each month to settle their bills, they only need to set up their payment information once to seamlessly automate the charge at the agreed-upon frequency.

Today, nonprofits can seamlessly enable supporters to set up recurring donations with their preferred payment methods through software like GoFundMe Pay, such as credit cards, ACH bank transfer, digital wallets, PayPal, and Venmo.

Treat your community as exclusive members

Companies like Amazon Prime and Disney+ treat subscribers as exclusive members through strategies like special member days and branding. For example, Amazon Prime streaming service subscribers get special perks like Prime Day shopping discounts, fast, free delivery on eligible Amazon items, and grocery discounts at Whole Foods.

Try giving your recurring donor community a special name and offering members unique opportunities and access throughout the year.

Offer membership tiers

Subscription services often offer price tiers based on users, features, or professional status to balance value and cost. Apply this to donations by promoting giving levels with special perks.

Offer discounts

Another common strategy used with subscription services is offering first-year pricing discounts to encourage new members to join. Nonprofits can institute a discount by encouraging donors to request a donation match from their employer to gain the benefits of a higher membership level without paying the additional cost.

What are the benefits of a monthly giving program for nonprofits?

Research has found that acquiring a new customer can cost 5–25x more than retaining an existing one. The same principle applies to nonprofits.

Keeping donors engaged through a monthly giving program is one of the best ways to protect your budget and fuel a steady source of income. Here are some of the benefits of recurring giving:

• Increased revenue: Even though monthly donors may give smaller amounts on a per-gift basis, the total amount they give annually almost always adds up to more. M+R Benchmarks show that recurring donors now generate a third or more of revenue for many nonprofits, with that share increasing as organizations scale.
• Easy and effective giving processes: A monthly recurring donation allows supporters to spread the financial impact of their giving across the entire year.
• Improved cash flow: Nonprofits that power their fundraising with GoFundMe Pro see an average recurring donation of $45 compared to the $28 industry benchmark reported by M+R Benchmarks. Since nonprofits often receive most of their income during a seasonal donation window, their revenue may feel stretched outside those major giving days. Building a predictable monthly revenue stream helps to reduce this imbalance and provide much-needed support during your organization’s lull periods.
• Better long-term planning: Neon One’s 2026 Recurring Donor Report found recurring donor retention holds between 78% and 80% versus 32% for one-time donors. Recurring donors also stay engaged for nearly eight years, on average.
• Greater cost-effectiveness: Since the costs of maintaining donors are generally lower than acquiring new ones, monthly recurring donors can deliver more value over time while helping reduce acquisition costs. Industry-wide, recurring donors are 5–7x more valuable than one-time donors, based on multiple studies compiled in Dave Raley’s “The Rise of Sustainable Giving.” On GoFundMe Pro, they’re 10x more valuable.*
• Strengthened donor loyalty and engagement: Roughly 97% of the value of a subscription donor comes after the first recurring gift. They often go beyond giving money by volunteering, attending events, advocating for your cause, or fundraising on your behalf, all in addition to their monthly commitment.
• Heightened sense of community: The key to donor retention is nurturing a deep sense of trust and collaboration with your community. Every month, when a donor makes their contribution, you have the chance to start an organic conversation and remind them of their impact on your nonprofit.

*Based on 2025 internal GoFundMe Pro analysis, comparing lifetime value of recurring vs. one-time donors. Results vary.

Getting started with nonprofit monthly giving programs

Now that you understand the value of recurring giving programs, here’s how to implement one for your organization:

• Start by defining your monthly recurring revenue target, number of active donors, and retention benchmarks.
• Identify your best prospects among existing donors and target these first.
• Choose a program model that fits your audience.
• Give your program a distinct name and identity. See these monthly giving program examples for inspiration.
• Make sure a recurring giving option is visible on every donation form.
• Announce the program to your most loyal supporters first, then promote it broadly across email, social media, and your website.

Learn more about how to build a successful program in our recurring giving playbook.

How can nonprofits encourage recurring donations?

Some of the most common strategies for acquiring more recurring donations include making a monthly giving option visible on every nonprofit donation form, tailoring messaging to existing recurring donors by encouraging them to upgrade their gifts, offering membership tiers and perks, and creating email templates for outreach to repeat donors.

Better yet, Intelligent Ask Amounts automatically tailors your donation requests based on each donor.

However, remember that people typically won’t opt into a recurring gift without education around its value and impact. That’s why it’s also best practice to have a dedicated recurring donations campaign that explains why this giving type is so powerful, which we cover more below.

4 best practice approaches to recurring giving programs

Your nonprofit must decide which type of recurring giving program or strategy best suits your community. There are four main approaches to consider.

Membership program

Membership programs invite your donors to join a community of givers. A nonprofit may offer the members of this community certain benefits or perks, such as VIP event tickets, appreciation events, branded membership pins, or other swag. Many nonprofits will also create a specific name for that community and special branding for the program. For example, the Circle of Givers or Champions of Hope.

The key benefit of this approach is that it makes recurring donors feel more valued and connected to a group of like-minded supporters. This is a great marketing strategy, as it provides a community feel rather than coming across as transactional.

A potential downside to this giving campaign is that it requires a larger time commitment to keep up with specific member communications, promised incentives, and other program-specific tasks. However, these can all lead to an elevated donor experience that builds loyalty.

Sponsorship opportunity

Another approach to recurring giving programs is to frame the donation as a way to sponsor a specific initiative, child, family, animal, or other recipient of your nonprofit’s services. A key benefit to this recurring fundraising strategy is that it makes the donation experience more personalized and meaningful, as donors feel close and connected to the beneficiary of their gift. Some nonprofits may even be able to help arrange for the child or family to write letters to the donor to further build an emotional connection to the cause.

However, one thing to consider with this approach is that typically donations from recurring giving programs go to a general fund rather than directly sponsoring a specific child or family. This isn’t always the case, but if it is, you may have some challenges with messaging to ensure you don’t mislead your supporters.

Incentivized giving levels

Incentive-based programs encourage recurring giving by offering unique perks for each gift amount, such as branded swag, special communications, or member-only events. A benefit to this fundraising effort is that incentives can lead to higher monthly gift amounts. In addition, these types of benefits are a nice way to say thank you to donors for choosing to join your cause.

The downside to this approach is that it can be difficult for some nonprofits to afford incentives. You’ll need to first determine whether it’s worth it to spend money on these items, given the impact you expect them to have on acquiring recurring donors. Then, you may want to see if one of your local partners or a corporate sponsor can help.

Exchange programs

Exchange programs show items people could forgo in exchange for a recurring gift. For example, a new donor could skip a $7 monthly latte to make a donation instead, or an existing donor could gift the money they’d typically spend on a streaming service each month.

The benefit of an exchange program approach is that it’s a good way to motivate donors by showing how easy it is to make an impact. Test this approach with a specific audience segment first, as it might make more sense for and appeal to younger donors. A time-specific promotional campaign might also be a good opportunity to see if this resonates with your supporters.

Leverage recurring donations to strengthen donor relationships

Regardless of which type of recurring giving program you choose, remember that communicating and building relationships with your donors are the most important elements.

Focus your energy on making donors feel special and valued. If you need to sacrifice incentives to improve your communication with donors, do it. The goal is to keep your donors happy and build relationships with them that will retain and grow their support over time.

A robust monthly giving program is a win-win for everyone: Your donors feel like they’re part of an engaged community that cares about the things they do, and your organization builds a reliable revenue stream that helps you realize your goals faster.

See how GoFundMe Pro fuels stronger recurring giving programs.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Fundraising has changed. Donors expect giving to be fast and easy, but convenience alone isn’t enough. They also want to feel connected to your mission, recognize your brand, and trust that their gift will make a difference.

To meet those expectations, nonprofits need campaign tools that support how giving happens today. Yet, many teams are still working with platforms that only solve part of the problem. Some make it easy to give but leave little room for brand expression. Others offer flexibility but make campaigns harder to build and manage.

And even when those tools no longer fit, they can be hard to leave behind. Familiar systems can feel easier to keep using, even when they slow teams down or limit what’s possible.

Campaign Studio from GoFundMe Pro doesn’t require making trade-offs. You can launch high-performing, brand-aligned campaigns with confidence, knowing every page is optimized for conversion based on insights from a community of more than 200 million and over $40 billion raised.

Below, we’ll cover what modern campaign-building looks like with the right technology and how Studio helps nonprofits create, update, and iterate campaigns for every audience and moment.

Built on what works, at a scale you can’t replicate alone

Meaningful campaign optimization requires time, resources, and enough donor activity to know what actually works. Many nonprofits don’t have the capacity to do this alone. Studio changes that.

Powered by an experimentation engine that tests new experiences at consumer scale across millions of donors, GoFundMe Pro quickly identifies what works. Once results reach statistical significance—typically in a matter of hours—improvements are rolled into Studio.

And because the platform keeps improving, the advantage compounds over time: Nonprofits that switched to Studio saw 7.5% faster year-over-year growth on Giving Tuesday, demonstrating the value of a platform that gets smarter and more effective with every experiment.

What Joni and Friends achieved with Studio 
During an important year-end fundraising period, Joni and Friends used Studio to tell its story and create a special opportunity for giving. In the end, the campaign brought in 24% more gifts year over year and increased conversion by 10%.

Below are a few examples of Studio-exclusive improvements, powered by insights from large-scale experimentation and applied to every Studio campaign. That means your fundraising pages can keep improving without adding work for your team or putting performance at risk.

Intelligent Ask Amounts

Intelligent Ask Amounts goes beyond recommending the right donation amount. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize the entire giving experience based on your fundraising priorities, whether that’s encouraging larger gifts, growing recurring giving, or increasing donor participation. Those recommendations are continuously informed by insights from the GoFundMe and GoFundMe Pro communities.

The results show that personalization works. Across GoFundMe Pro campaigns, personalized ask amounts increased revenue by up to 7%. Studio lets you optimize each campaign based on your goals, whether that’s maximizing dollars raised, increasing conversion, or finding the right balance between the two. Regardless of the goal, Intelligent Ask Amounts consistently outperformed standardized suggestions.

What Children’s Cancer Research Fund achieved with Studio 
Children’s Cancer Research Fund used Studio and Intelligent Ask Amounts to create a highly branded Giving Tuesday page that reflected its mission and donor experience. The campaign significantly increased donation volume and recurring gift acquisition.

Recurring nudges

Recurring giving is one of the most effective ways to build sustainable revenue, but growing a monthly donor program often requires significant time and effort. In testing across millions of donations, presenting donors with a simple recurring giving nudge at the point of donation increased recurring conversion rates by 38%, helping more supporters choose an ongoing commitment.

That’s why GoFundMe Pro uses predictive modeling to identify donors who are more likely to become recurring supporters and presents them with a research-backed monthly giving prompt at the right moment. The result is a more-targeted, lower-friction way to invite recurring giving in the moment, without manual segmentation or follow up.

Donation grid optimization with suggested amounts

Our research found that showing donors six suggested donation amounts instead of four can meaningfully increase giving intent. That’s why we’ve applied this insight across every Studio donation page using Intelligent Ask Amounts, giving you the benefit of a layout proven to drive more donations.

We also highlight a suggested amount from the six, making it easier for donors to choose a gift without limiting their options. By surfacing more giving amounts while anchoring donors on the right one, this simple design cue helps drive more donations.

From blank page to optimized launch in minutes

Studio helps nonprofit organizations move from idea to launch in minutes with a library of proven templates. These templates are design starting points informed by real donor behavior and insights from our community. Your nonprofit can also save your best-performing campaign templates to create repeatable playbooks for future appeals.

As you build, Studio provides real-time, data-backed tips to help maximize fundraising outcomes while keeping your team firmly in control. Intelligent text suggestions generate copy informed by your nonprofit’s brand kit, voice, and campaign context.

And every recommendation is just that: a suggestion. Your team decides what to use, what to edit, and when to publish. These opt-in features are by design, allowing you to enable or disable AI-powered capabilities based on your preferences and policies.

Behind the scenes, responsive design and accessibility are built in. Create a campaign once, and it automatically adapts across mobile and desktop experiences, reducing quality assurance checks and making it easier for more donors to engage.

What Foundation Fighting Blindness achieved with Studio
Foundation Fighting Blindness cut campaign creation time from weeks to hours and grew its monthly donor base by 12% in eight months with Studio.

Design flexibility to connect donors to your brand

Every interaction with a supporter shapes how they perceive your nonprofit. When campaigns look and sound different from one another—using inconsistent colors, imagery, or messaging—it creates friction and can weaken the trust and recognition that inspire donors to give. Brand consistency is part of creating a credible donor experience.

Studio makes it easier to deliver that experience at scale. Brand kits give organizations one place to define logos, colors, typography, imagery, messaging, and tone, then automatically apply those standards across every campaign.

And with an integrated image library, you can upload your organization’s images once and reuse them across every campaign instead of starting from scratch each time. Built-in editing tools let you crop images, adjust focal points, and optimize visuals for mobile and desktop without leaving the builder.

For organizations running multiple campaigns or empowering distributed teams to create fundraising pages, this removes a significant quality assurance bottleneck. Instead of reviewing every campaign for brand compliance, teams can launch confidently knowing each experience starts with the right look, feel, and messaging already built in.

What GoFundMe Pro customers are saying

Your evergreen campaigns deserve this too

Moving older campaigns to Studio isn’t about fixing something. It’s about upgrading to a solution that continuously improves. Every campaign built on Studio benefits from ongoing optimizations, new features, and insights informed by donor behavior at scale.

Making the transition to Studio is an investment in better performance, greater efficiency, and the confidence that your fundraising experiences will keep getting stronger over time. And you don’t have to do it alone.

If you’re an existing GoFundMe Pro customer, sign up for our GoFundMe Pro Academy training session to learn how to make the switch, or enroll in our 30-minute course. If you’re new to the platform, request a demo to see Studio in action.

The campaigns that perform best tomorrow will be the ones that start improving today.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Grants offer tremendous funding opportunities for nonprofits looking to scale, such as financing new programs, supporting capital campaigns, or adding a cushion to your overall budget. However, because grants are such a high-demand, time-consuming initiative, it’s critical to choose them wisely. 

Below, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about nonprofit grants, including the benefits, types of grant funding, tips for choosing the right ones, options worth pursuing in 2026, and steps to successfully apply.

What are nonprofit grants?

Nonprofit grants are financial donations from foundations, government agencies, or corporations. The sums are often large enough to be a major gift and are typically awarded through an application process.

Unlike standard donations, which are typically unrestricted and used for various expenses, grants often come with specific rules and guidelines that dictate how nonprofits can use the funds. However, a growing trust-based philanthropy movement aims to transform typical power dynamics between funders and grantees, emphasizing strong relationships, community expertise, meaningful collaboration, and a deeper understanding of nonprofits’ challenges.

Still, you’ll need to stand out to engage with and secure the right grantmaker. As you select new grant opportunities and learn how to write a grant proposal effectively, remember to communicate your impact and provide tangible examples of what you plan to accomplish with the funding.

Benefits of grant funding

There are many benefits to securing a tax-exempt nonprofit grant, such as:

• Interest-free cash: Grants provide cash without the burden of interest, equity loss, or repayment obligations. The only investment required is the time spent on the application process (and possibly an application fee).
• Credibility: Grants signal to others that your nonprofit is serious and impactful. They enhance your reputation and offer a third-party endorsement that can attract donors.
• Awareness: Grants can expose your nonprofit to new audiences, and the press surrounding the accomplishment can expose your brand to potential donors and partners.
• Influence: Grant approvals can improve your chances of winning others. Grant foundations often view previous funding as a sign of trustworthiness and capability, making them more likely to approve future applications.

Common types of nonprofit grants

Nonprofit grants vary widely in their source, purpose, and structure. Below, we’ll explore some of the most common types of grants through the lens of these factors.

Funding sources

• Government grants: Federal, state, and local governments often offer grants to support nonprofit operations or administrations. The application process can be rigorous and highly competitive but worth the effort for recipients. You can find many opportunities on Grants.gov or by searching for local options online.
• Corporate grants: Corporate grants come from large companies, which typically reserve a percentage of their revenue for philanthropic purposes. Google Ads for nonprofits is one example of this type of grant.
• Foundation grants: Foundation grants come from philanthropic organizations—such as families, private and public groups, faith-based organizations, or community funds—to help advance causes or nonprofits in a specific locale.
• Seed and startup grants: Seed and startup grants are one-time grants for newly established nonprofit startups or early-stage programs that lack a funding track record.
• Emergency and rapid response grants: Emergency and rapid-response grants are  short-turnaround grants disbursed quickly in response to crises, natural disasters, or urgent community needs.
• In-kind grants: In-kind grants provide nonmonetary support—such as technology, equipment, office space, or professional services—donated by corporations or foundations.

Funding purposes

• Launch: Launch grants fund the start of a specific project, service, product, or campaign.
• Technology: Technology grants often require you to spend the funding on software advancements or upgraded hardware.
• Infrastructure: Infrastructure grants are capacity-building grants that focus on solidifying a nonprofit’s operational and physical structures.
• General operations: General operations grants provide operating support for nonprofits to use as they see fit, wherever the funding is most impactful.

Funding structure

• Continuation grants: Continuation grants let you renew your grant. However, they require reaching milestones, using funds appropriately, meeting reporting deadlines, and keeping communications and relationships open between your nonprofit and the funder.
• Pass-through grants: Pass-through grants from the federal government provide funding to state and local governments for local distribution. Apply for these federal grants when you want to make a local impact.
• Competitive grants: Competitive grants require nonprofits to submit proposals explaining why they should receive funding. Reviewers then score these proposals based on specific criteria, with the highest-scoring proposals awarded the grants.
• Formula grants: Formula grants are noncompetitive. These grants provide funding for nonprofits that meet predetermined criteria. If you match the requirements, you can receive the funds.

How to choose the right nonprofit grants

Here are a few questions to consider before applying for a grant to ensure it aligns with your nonprofit’s needs and capacity:

• Requirements: First, are you eligible to apply? Review the grant’s eligibility criteria—such as geographic restrictions, organization type, or program focus—to confirm you meet all the requirements before proceeding.
• Grant purpose: Does the funding align with your nonprofit’s goals and current needs? Review the grant’s purpose carefully to determine if it fits your objectives. For example, reconsider applying for a technology grant if you’ve already built a modern data stack.
• Funding amount: Is the grant amount significant enough to justify the time and effort required to apply? Consider whether the potential funding will provide meaningful support to your nonprofit’s mission or initiatives.
• Return on investment: Will the benefits of securing the grant outweigh the costs of applying, including staff time and other resources? Think about how the funds could strengthen your nonprofit, launch new initiatives, or enhance long-term sustainability.

Taking the time to answer these questions can help you prioritize grant opportunities that are the best fit for your nonprofit.

Grants for nonprofits to explore in 2026

Not every grant will be the right fit for your organization. However, to jump-start your search, here are a few of the top nonprofit grants available.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant

AWS for Nonprofits offers three Imagine Grant award categories:

• The Momentum to Modernize award offers funding for transformational technology infrastructure projects
• The Go Further, Faster award provides support for highly innovative projects that leverage cloud technology
• The Pathfinder award funds highly innovative, mission-critical projects that leverage generative AI

Grant packages range from $50,000 to $200,000 in financial support and up to $100,000 in AWS promotional credits. To be eligible for a grant application, you must be a nonprofit organization with a 501(c) status.

Bank of America Charitable Foundation Grants

Bank of America’s nonprofit grants focus on funding local organizations to help improve people’s financial wellness and meet community needs. The nonprofit areas include:

• Workforce development and education
• Economic mobility
• Community development and basic needs

Grant amounts vary by market and organization size. Past grants in smaller markets have ranged from $2,500 to $25,000, while grants in larger markets have ranged from $5,000 to $50,000.

Big Sea Wavemakers Grant

The Big Sea Wavemakers Grant is a competitive grant tailored for nonprofit organizations pursuing innovative marketing projects. This grant empowers nonprofits to transform their unique and impactful marketing ideas into tangible results. Offering up to $30,000 in marketing services, this grant supports nonprofits ready to launch groundbreaking advertising campaigns.

Recipients of the Wavemakers Grant gain access to Big Sea’s comprehensive expertise in nonprofit content marketing. Services provided include assistance in refining and defining your brand, clarifying your messaging, developing your website, designing marketing materials, and expanding your donor community.

Bloomberg Philanthropies Grants

Bloomberg Philanthropies looks to fund nonprofits supporting five key areas: the arts, education, the environment, government innovation, and public health. Grant proposals are by invitation only. Nonprofits can check the organization’s website for the latest news on grant competitions.

Coca-Cola Foundation Grants

The Coca-Cola Foundation provides grants to nonprofits with focuses on:

• Sustainable access to safe water
• Watershed conservation
• Disaster preparedness and response
• Recycling value chains
• Economic prosperity
• Employee giving
• Causes impacting Coca-Cola’s hometown community

In the last 40 years, the Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded more than $1.7 billion in grants worldwide.

Gates Foundation Grants

The Gates Foundation awards grants to nonprofits that achieve measurable impact in eliminating poverty, disease, and inequity worldwide. Grants account for over 90% of the organization’s charitable giving. U.S.-based 501(c)(3) organizations can apply for funding to make a meaningful difference.

Ford Foundation Grants

The Ford Foundation awards approximately 1,400 grants annually to nonprofits with transformative and scalable solutions to eliminate inequality. Opportunities and open fund grants change with time, so check out the organization’s website to see what’s available. You can also sign up for email updates to learn when new opportunities arise.

Google Ad Grants

Google provides several resources for eligible nonprofit organizations, including premium access to Google Maps, the YouTube Nonprofit Program, and Google Workspace for Nonprofits.

The company also provides up to $10,000 per month in Google Ads credit to boost your nonprofit’s marketing efforts. To qualify for Google Ad Grants, your organization must match your country’s nonprofit criteria requirements and not be a government entity, hospital, healthcare organization, school, or educational institution.

National Endowment for the Arts Grants

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency committed to fostering the arts across the U.S. Each year, the NEA awards approximately 2,400 grants to nonprofit arts organizations, fueling a wide range of creative projects and initiatives.

NEA grants cater to a diverse spectrum of needs to support small and large organizations. The Challenge America grant specifically aids small nonprofits in extending arts programs to underserved communities, with grants valued at $10,000.

NBCUniversal Local Impact Grants

The NBCUniversal Local Impact Grants will award nearly $2.5 million to nonprofits in 2026 through 11 NBC and Telemundo-owned television station markets. Organizations with total expenses above $100,000 and under $1 million can apply for unrestricted funds for work in three specific areas:

• Youth education and empowerment: Programs that equip youth with the tools they need to succeed
• Next generation storytellers: Programs that develop pathways for emerging talent and youth voices to explore careers in the arts, news, sports, and entertainment
• Community engagement: Programs that enable individuals to engage with and volunteer in their communities

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grants

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities in the U.S. It focuses on major health issues, including access to care, healthy communities, and public health. The organization periodically issues requests for proposals for specific projects or research areas, each with particular guidelines and deadlines.

ServiceNow.org Partnership for Good Grant

The ServiceNow.org Partnership for Good Grant is a partnership between Accenture, Advance Solutions, GlideFast Consulting, and Plat4mation. It awards four nonprofit grants:

• Cause and Cure grant in collaboration with GlideFast Consulting supports nonprofit initiatives for communities facing health issues
• Disaster and Community Support grant in collaboration with Advance Solutions supports underserved communities and rapid disaster response
• Education and Youth Services grant in collaboration with Plat4mation supports learning and growth opportunities outside of traditional education
• Sustainability and Decarbonization grant in collaboration with Accenture supports nonprofits tackling climate change

Grant recipients for each category receive:

• Free ServiceNow instance, software, licenses, and services, totaling a value of up to $250,000 per grant in total contract value for a three-year period
• Up to 1,200 resource hours for discovery, design, and technical implementation from Partnership for Good Grant partners
• Expertise and guidance from certified ServiceNow experts throughout the implementation process
• A direct monetary grant of $100,000

Silicon Valley Community Foundation Grants

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation supports nonprofits focused on fostering strong and engaged communities that build equity for Silicon Valley residents. It offers wide-ranging community action grants and focused initiatives around financial stability, early childhood development, and housing.

The Kresge Foundation Grants

The Kresge Foundation seeks to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grantmaking and social investing. Over the years, it has strengthened pathways to opportunity for low-income people in American cities. Annually, the foundation gives more than 400 grants to nonprofits, averaging around $160 million in recent years.

The Rockefeller Foundation Grants

The Rockefeller Foundation is one of the world’s most influential and long-standing philanthropic organizations. Dedicated to promoting the well-being of humanity worldwide, it has provided billions in funding for groundbreaking initiatives across various sectors.

Here are some of the organization’s priorities:

• Health: Global health issues and support for health systems and healthcare access
• Food: More equitable and nutritious food access and improved agricultural productivity to combat climate change
• Power: Access to sustainable energy to end energy poverty and boost economic development
• Innovation: Innovative approaches to solving global challenges
• U.S. economic opportunity: Efforts to expand access to meaningful employment and promote economic stability

Walmart Foundation Community Grants

The Walmart Foundation provides local community grants (from $250 to $5,000) to nonprofits that directly benefit areas where local Sam’s Club or Walmart stores operate. Your nonprofit can use the funds in various areas:

• Creating opportunity
• Advancing sustainability
• Strengthening community
• Supporting racial equity

Wells Fargo Nonprofit Grants

Wells Fargo Community Giving supports nonprofit organizations through grants focusing on:

• Opening pathways to economic advancement
• Championing quality, affordable homes
• Empowering small businesses to thrive

Nonprofits interested in receiving an invitation to apply for a Wells Fargo Community Giving grant must register online and submit a grant interest form.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grants

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families, and communities through four main priorities:

• Good food, strong and equitable food systems
• Good health and health equity
• Good early care and education
• Good jobs and family economic security

WKKF accepts applications throughout the year without deadlines or specific grantmaking cycles.

How to apply for grants for nonprofits

Once you’ve identified the types of grants that make the most sense for your organization, use these steps to find and apply for specific ones.

1. Research and identify grants 

Use Grants.gov for federal opportunities, foundation websites for private grants, and peer networks for sector-specific programs. Filter by mission alignment, eligibility, and funding amount. For broader discovery, use Candid (Foundation Directory Online) for private foundation grants, GrantWatch for a curated searchable database, and GrantStation for sector-specific opportunities. 

2. Review requirements carefully

Make sure to read through the eligibility criteria, application deadlines, funding restrictions, and reporting requirements before investing time in an application. 

3. Prepare your materials 

Collect and prepare the necessary materials. Most applications require a project narrative, budget, proof of 501(c)(3) status, and evidence of past impact. Our grant proposal guide covers writing best practices in detail. 

4. Track and follow up 

Maintain a grant calendar, meet all reporting deadlines, and nurture funder relationships for continuation and renewal. 

Pair your grants with donor-centered fundraising from GoFundMe Pro

While nonprofit grants can play a significant role in your organization’s strategy, they won’t cover all your expenses. Stewarding individual donors through targeted fundraising campaigns can provide crucial supplemental revenue to support your mission.

Trust GoFundMe Pro’s flexible fundraising platform to fuel your direct giving, peer-to-peer, crowdfunding, and hybrid-event fundraising efforts. Our platform provides everything you need to attract supporters, inspire donations, and sustain your mission, including:

• AI and machine learning tools to predict donor behavior and drive more giving
• Customizable donation pages
• Simple social media sharing tools
• Secure nonprofit payment processing
• Intuitive event registration software for nonprofits
• Scalable peer-to-peer fundraising platform
• Smarter technology to fuel recurring donations 
• Access to GoFundMe’s community of over 200 million

Explore our pricing or request a demo to see GoFundMe Pro’s fundraising platform in action.

FAQs 

What grants are available for nonprofits? 

Nonprofits can access grants from government agencies (at the federal, state, and local level), corporations, and private foundations. Common options include federal grants listed on Grants.gov, corporate grants from companies such as Google and Walmart, and foundation grants from organizations like the Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The right grant depends on your organization’s mission, size, and eligibility. 

How do nonprofits find grants? 

The most reliable starting points are Grants.gov for federal opportunities and individual foundation websites for private grants. Many nonprofits also subscribe to grant databases or work with professional grant writers to stay up to date on new opportunities. Networking with peer organizations in your sector is another effective way to discover lesser-known programs. 

How hard is it to get a grant for a nonprofit? 

Competitiveness varies widely by grant type. Local community grants from corporations like the Walmart Foundation tend to have lower barriers, whereas major government and foundation grants can be highly competitive with rigorous documentation requirements. Nonprofits with strong impact data, clear project goals, and a track record of responsible fund management are better positioned to succeed at any level. 

Do major foundations accept unsolicited grant proposals? 

This varies by funder. Many large private foundations, including the Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation, do not accept unsolicited proposals and instead fund organizations through invited applications or proactive outreach. Others, including community foundations and many corporate grant programs, accept open applications. Always check the grantor’s website for current submission policies before investing time in an application. 

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Adding a monthly giving option to your donation form is easy, but building a recurring giving program that donors want to stick around for takes a deeper understanding of the donor journey.

That’s the focus of GoFundMe Pro’s new recurring giving playbook, 5 steps to 10x donor lifetime value. Designed to help nonprofit teams find their next growth opportunity, the playbook brings together insights from top recurring giving programs across the GoFundMe Pro network, along with practical prompts, checklists, and examples your team can use to strengthen your own program.

Recurring giving is a relationship strategy

Monthly donors are often some of your most committed supporters, and that commitment deserves a donor experience built with the same level of intention.

The playbook walks through that full journey in five steps:

• Run a program health check
• Identify the audiences with the greatest potential
• Build trust before the ask
• Make the ask
• Create a donor experience worth staying for

Each step is designed to help your team move from a general monthly giving option to a recurring giving program built for long-term growth.

A smarter approach to recurring revenue growth

Recurring giving has always played a role in nonprofit fundraising, but now many organizations are taking a fresh look at how to approach it. As donor expectations evolve, how you design and deliver the experience matters more than ever.

That shift often raises a practical question: What should your team focus on first? Knowing where to start isn’t always obvious. Sometimes the most useful signals are buried beneath surface-level metrics, pointing to opportunities your team may not have considered yet.

The playbook helps you uncover those signals and translate them into clear next steps. It also pushes teams to apply what they already know about their donors more deliberately, using existing insights to shape how and when they make the ask in ways that feel relevant to each supporter’s connection to your organization.

And it doesn’t stop at conversion. We also look at what happens after a donor says yes, showing how small, consistent moments can shape whether someone chooses to stay connected with your organization over time.

Strengthen your strategy at every stage

When you treat recurring giving as a full donor journey, every touchpoint has a purpose: your data helps reveal the opportunity, your messaging helps donors understand the value of sustained support, and your stewardship helps turn a first monthly gift into a lasting relationship.

The recurring giving playbook brings those pieces together in a practical framework your team can turn into a clear path forward, helping you build something donors want to be part of for the long term.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Nonprofits are increasingly turning to mobile apps to streamline and scale their operations, from simplifying volunteer management and donor engagement to improving internal coordination and program delivery.

While customized mobile apps for nonprofit organizations can be expensive to build, there are plenty of affordable options available that can help you save time, expand your reach, and strengthen your impact.

Read on for guidance on the apps best suited to your goals, a breakdown of their key features and benefits, and tips for choosing the right solution for your organization.

How to choose the right nonprofit apps

Before you download your first app, ask yourself:

• What’s the primary job you want the app to improve or simplify? For example, attract awareness, increase donations, recruit volunteers, promote events, develop content, or report on metrics.
• Who will be the primary users of the app? For example, staff, volunteers, donors, or a mix.
• What does success look like? For example, time saved, fewer no-shows, faster follow-up, or cleaner data.

Just be sure not to overwhelm your team by introducing too many apps at once. Choose one or two to start with, then slowly add new ones as you discover additional needs.

Volunteer management apps

Volunteer management apps help streamline all your volunteer activity from one centralized platform, including recruitment, scheduling, communication, and activity tracking.

Here are some of the most popular volunteer management apps.

1. VolunteerHub

VolunteerHub is a cloud-based platform that helps organizations recruit, engage, and manage volunteers.

• Use it for: Managing robust volunteer scheduling, tracking, and communication. Easily automate volunteer reminders to reduce no-shows.
• Best for: Larger nonprofits with 50+ active volunteers or complex scheduling needs.
• Cost: Starts at $143 per month, with custom pricing for larger organizations.

2. Civic Champs

Civic Champs is a web and mobile platform that automates volunteer management and helps nonprofit organizations convert their volunteers to donors.

• Use it for: Eliminating manual data entry and other time-intensive tasks to save time and boost productivity. Allow volunteers to sign up for shifts directly from their phones and see if this increases engagement over time.
• Best for: Nonprofits looking for an entry-level, affordable option.
• Cost: Starts at $49 per month.

3. Better Impact

Better Impact provides software that gives volunteer managers and organizations the tools they need to manage volunteers and maximize their impact. The platform helps you automate scheduling, track hours, and communicate with volunteers with ease.

• Use it for: Leveraging enterprise-grade volunteer management, reporting, and impact tracking. Track volunteer hours and use the app to generate quarterly impact reports for donors.
• Best for: Larger nonprofits or those with complex volunteer programs.
• Cost: Starts at $420 per year.

4. Golden

Golden makes volunteer management software that helps nonprofits recruit, schedule, track, and engage volunteers.

• Use it for: Accessing AI-powered volunteer matching and engagement, including fundraising integration. Match volunteers to opportunities based on their skills and interests.
• Best for: Nonprofits looking for modern, tech-forward volunteer tools.
• Cost: Custom pricing plans start at $110 per month.

Event planning and event management apps

Of the 97% of nonprofits who held an event in 2025, 77% met or exceeded their event fundraising goals. The best fundraising apps for nonprofits help you manage all your planning and execution needs in one place, from registration and reminders to volunteer training and day-of coordination.

Here are some useful event apps for nonprofits.

5. GoFundMe Pro Live Events app

The GoFundMe Pro Live Events app puts attendee check-in, payments, and guest management at your fingertips.

• Use it for: Managing fundraising events end to end, including registration, on-site check-in, live donation tracking, and post-event reporting, all from a mobile device.
• Best for: Running galas, auctions, walks, and other live fundraising events.
• Cost: There are no upfront subscription or setup costs for the app itself. Live Events and its companion app are available exclusively to GoFundMe Pro customers as an optional add-on.

6. Cvent

Cvent makes event marketing and management solutions to help you manage and promote your event, engage your attendees, and collect deep insights to improve your event program’s impact.

• Use it for: Managing registration, sending automated reminders, and collecting attendee feedback all in one platform.
• Best for: Nonprofits hosting multiple events or large-scale fundraisers.
• Cost: Cvent extends special rates to nonprofit organizations.

7. EventMobi

EventMobi offers a full suite of event management solutions, from registration and badging to lead capture, for exhibitors and on-site event apps for attendees.

• Use it for: Managing multievent management and mobile event apps. Create a branded mobile app for your annual gala or conference.
• Best for: Nonprofits running multiple events throughout the year.
• Cost: Starts as low as $1 per product, per attendee, per event.

Team coordination and productivity apps

Nonprofit teams know the importance of staying unified and connected. Beyond the suite of nonprofit Google apps, there’s a range of coordination tools and productivity apps to choose from to ensure your team communicates efficiently.

Here are some popular apps nonprofit teams use to stay organized.

8. Asana

Asana is a leading work management platform for human and artificial intelligence (AI) collaboration that enables you to easily connect people, processes, and cross-functional teamwork in one place.

• Use it for: Managing tasks, project planning, and team collaboration. Plan your annual fundraising campaign and keep your team aligned on deadlines.
• Best for: Nonprofits of any size looking to streamline internal workflows.
• Cost: Begins at $10.99 per user, per month, billed annually. Discounted program plans are available to qualifying nonprofits with 501(c)(3) designation.

9. Slack

Slack is a cloud-based team communication platform that brings all your conversations, apps, and customers together in one place.

• Use it for: Managing real-time messaging, setting up channels by program/committee, carrying out integrations with Google Drive, Asana, and calendars.
• Best for: Remote-first or hybrid teams, groups that need to mobilize quickly, and organizations with tech-savvy employees that rely on instant messaging.
• Cost: Free or discounted plan upgrades to eligible organizations through the Slack for Nonprofits program.

Pro tip: Set up a #campaign-updates channel for staff, board members, and lead volunteers to get real-time fundraising milestones without email overload.

10. Trello

Trello is a work management tool featuring visual kanban boards that teams use to brainstorm, collaborate on projects, organize workflows, and track progress.

• Use it for: Driving fundraising campaigns, delivering programs, tracking projects, managing volunteers, and communicating your impact.
• Best for: Small-to-midsized nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations that rely heavily on remote teams, volunteers, and cross-department collaboration.
• Cost: Free to try, and 75% off for eligible nonprofits.

Design and content creation apps

With so many design tools and resources available today, your nonprofit has more ways to create visual materials that support your mission and promote your events.

Here are some top design and content creation tools to consider.

11. Canva

Canva offers design tools to help anyone become a designer, from creating social media images, videos, and GIFs to posters, websites, booklets, and multimedia presentations.

• Use it for: Accessing drag-and-drop design templates for social media, flyers, newsletters, posters, postcards, and more. Create professional social media graphics in minutes, even if you’ve never designed before.
• Best for: Nonprofits without a dedicated designer that rely on consistent visuals to earn attention and trust from donors and supporters.
• Cost: Free access for eligible nonprofits but requires an application to guarantee eligibility.

12. Adobe Express

Adobe Express helps you communicate and scale your impact by making standout social posts, images, videos, flyers, and more.

• Use it for: Accessing drag-and-drop tools for video creation, editing for PDF text and images, planning and scheduling social media posts, and creating web pages.
• Best for: Nonprofits needing to quickly create high-quality, on-brand visual content without a dedicated design team. If you already use other Adobe platforms, Adobe Express might be a good choice for you.
• Cost: Free one-year subscription to Adobe Express Premium and all the plan’s features for up to 50 people for eligible nonprofits.

CRM and reporting apps

Just as for-profit companies track customer relationships through customer relationship management (CRM) tools, nonprofits can manage and report on their organization’s relationships with donors, volunteers, and supporters through some of the same platforms.

Here are a few CRM and nonprofit reporting apps to consider.

13. CiviCRM

CivicCRM is an open-source, highly customizable CRM purpose-built for nonprofits to centralize constituent communications and build and manage their donor base and membership.

• Use it for: Managing contacts and donors, contributions, memberships, events, and bulk communications.
• Best for: Nonprofits that want full ownership of their data, need deep customization, or work with a limited software budget.
• Cost: Free with no upfront licensing fees. Because CiviCRM is self-hosted or partner-hosted, you’ll typically pay to work with an implementation partner, such as AWS, to set it up and maintain it.

Pro tip: Segment your GoFundMe Pro donors by campaign source, then trigger tailored stewardship emails to first-time digital givers without paying per-contact CRM fees.

14. Neon One

Neon One helps growing nonprofits that need to run peer-to-peer events and team fundraisers from one automated platform while offering supporter tools and real-time data.

• Use it for: Managing donors, fundraising tracking, and reporting.
• Best for: Small and midsize nonprofits looking for an affordable CRM.
• Cost: Starts at $99 per month for the core Essentials plan. Pricing is revenue-based rather than based on your contact list size.

15. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud provides a single solution for fundraising and managing volunteers, programs, and outcomes.

• Use it for: Accessing an enterprise-grade CRM, data management, and reporting for large-scale operations.
• Best for: Tech-forward nonprofits with the resources to implement and maintain a complex system.
• Cost: Starts at $60 per user, per month, billed annually for the Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise plan.

Increasing donations with the GoFundMe app

If your main goal is to increase donations, educate your supporters on how easy it is to use the GoFundMe app to create, share, and manage a fundraiser on your behalf. Encourage your board members, volunteers, and recurring donors to launch fundraisers from the app around birthdays, milestones, or awareness moments.

Pro tip: Get your supporters up to speed on how to use the GoFundMe app with this step-by-step guide to creating a fundraiser. The flexibility of the app means it’s easy to launch and manage campaigns while on the go.

Power your mission with smarter nonprofit apps

As a central hub for your fundraising efforts, GoFundMe Pro complements many of these tools to ensure you get the best outcomes from the ones you choose.

These apps help busy admins who need to keep marketing, fundraising, and operations moving while they’re in the field or on the go. Then, GoFundMe Pro takes it further, helping improve your fundraising efficiency with campaign templates, brand kits, and more.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Fundraising from an early age builds social-impact awareness, teaches financial literacy, and strengthens community ties. Most of all, it helps kids develop the habit of philanthropy from a young age, setting them up to become lifelong supporters of the causes they care about most.

These activities also help introduce your cause to young families and their networks, building meaningful connections that have the potential to scale over time.

The challenge is to design fundraising experiences for kids that interest and engage them. While children tend to make everything more fun, tailoring your activities to an audience of all ages, skills, and interests requires creativity.

Below, we’ve pulled together 12 easy fundraising ideas for kids that parents are sure to enjoy, too.

The 12 best fundraising ideas for kids

Dive into this list of fun and fresh fundraising ideas for kids, from digital campaigns and creative activities to classic events and seasonal fundraisers.

1. Social media challenges

About 18% of tweens and 62% of teens use platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Discord, and Reddit every day, making social media a natural entry point for younger generations to participate in your cause.

Launching a social media challenge reinforces the community fundraising principle of meeting supporters where they are and building pathways for them to engage with your nonprofit.

Some of the best social media activations include participating in branded hashtag challenges on TikTok, Instagram photo contests, and viral fundraising trends. Once you understand how these activations typically operate, it’s easy to brainstorm ways to make them kid-friendly.

How it works:

Once you establish a challenge and announce it on your social media channel of choice, tag a handful of highly involved supporters to help build momentum. When they post, ask them to tag 1–2 friends or family members to complete the challenge next.

To increase the impact of your challenge, repost participants’ content on your channels. Tag them in your caption to celebrate their involvement.

Keep in mind that parental approval is typically required for kids under 13, so be sure to check all privacy settings and that participants won’t share any personal information when they promote your challenge.

Try this:

Create a TikTok challenge with a branded hashtag like #RaiseForOurCause. Have kids film 15-to-20-second videos explaining why they care about your mission and ask their networks to participate by making a donation.

There’s something uniquely powerful about hearing a cause described through a child’s eyes. When adults see kids speak with genuine passion about an issue they believe in, it’s much more impactful than polished messaging. That raw authenticity makes a child’s perspective one of the most compelling ways to communicate a nonprofit’s mission and the real value of its work.

2. Talent shows and video voting contests

Kids love to perform. Here are two ways to help them show off their skills for a good cause.

In-person talent show with live donations

Give kids and community members the opportunity to show off their skills at a local venue, school, community center, or place of worship.

How it works:

Participants can set up a peer-to-peer campaign to raise money and spread the word about the show or contest. Spectators can donate whatever amount they feel comfortable with as a nominal ticket price to attend. They can also donate additional funds at the event via a QR code for an easy, seamless giving experience.

Set up a concession stand to sell drinks and snacks, appoint judges to choose your winners, and then have fun watching participants’ captivating performances.

Video voting contest

Ask children to record a short video of their talent—like singing, dancing, or magic—and upload it to a dedicated webpage or social media channel.

How it works:

Supporters can make a small donation per vote, and the performance that raises the most wins a prize. This version requires no live coordination and scales easily beyond the local community.

When filming and uploading a video, make sure to tell participants to check for a stable internet connection, good lighting, clear audio, and a simple backdrop.

Try this:

Launch a two-week “Kids Got Talent” video contest. Each child uploads a 60-second clip to your fundraising page. Supporters donate via a simple “vote for this performance” button.

Promote the show on social media and in parent newsletters, then announce the winner with a celebratory post on your various channels. Aside from establishing clear logistics for collecting donations and spreading the word, this option has low overhead and low maintenance, and every vote is a donation.

3. Online gaming (esports) tournaments

Kids are digital natives, and this means they often get their fun and games online. Organized online gaming competitions, known as esports, are typically structured around the most popular video games, such as Fortnite, Minecraft, Among Us, and Mario Kart. These tournaments can be a natural way to engage kids in fundraising by doing what they love.

How it works:

Once you select which game you’ll rally participants around, decide which online gaming platform you’ll use to organize the logistics. Battlefy is one option, which lets you set up brackets, document participants, and keep track of player advancement.

Create a central communication hub, such as the Discord voice and text chat app, for team coordination among parents and players. A livestreaming platform, like Twitch or YouTube, can then help broadcast gameplay and foster connection among participants.

Teams register by donating a small entry fee and compete in brackets based on their age and ability. Winners receive prizes, and spectators can donate as they cheer on their favorite players.

GoFundMe’s live fundraising tools can help you run the fundraising side of your gaming event with ease, offering donation overlays, real-time totals, and a landing page that streamers can share with their audience during the match.

Try this:

Launch a video game-based fundraising challenge around Giving Tuesday powered by Fortnite Creative, a digital sandbox where users develop their own games using the tools provided.

Gamers within your community can test them out to decide which is their favorite, then participate in a tournament to put the winner to the test. Players donate a small entry fee to reserve their spot in the tournament and announce their participation on social media to encourage friends and family to tune in and potentially donate while cheering them on.

4. Virtual escape rooms and online puzzles

One of the most creative fundraising ideas for kids is a virtual escape room. This is an online puzzle experience where participants use video conferencing platforms, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, to solve clues and “escape” from a situation, usually within a preset time limit.

How it works:

Once you create your own virtual escape rooms for kids using Google Forms, turn it into a fundraising moment by asking each team to donate a small entry fee. The game can consist of multiple rounds, and winners can receive small prizes for accomplishing tasks. Use Zoom breakout rooms during the escapes to create interactive experiences among players and parents.

Try this:

Design a 30-minute escape room based on the Super Mario Bros. video game, in which players have to rescue Princess Peach from a castle. Create five puzzle levels and invite participants to make a small donation to join. Host it on Zoom with a facilitator guiding teams. Use this tutorial to get you started.

5. Arts and crafts fundraising

There’s nothing like some good, old-fashioned arts and crafts to get kids away from their screens and channel their creativity to benefit your organization. Some ideas include slime-making workshops, fidget clicker toy customization, eco-friendly craft projects, and jewelry making.

How it works:

You can charge for attendance at a live workshop, where kids get to make their favorite items and take them home. Alternatively, the workshop can be free, and kids can sell their items at a future event or gathering to raise money for your cause.

Source bulk supplies from craft stores, shop at eco-friendly materials suppliers, and track trending items through resources, such as Barley & Birch. Try to negotiate a discount or get them to donate the materials for your fundraiser.

Try this:

Host a slime-making workshop to benefit your nonprofit, where kids make a fun creation to give to a friend or sibling. Promote your workshop on social media to reach more participants and consider holding recurring workshops for different projects to further promote community.

6. STEM and educational fundraising

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs are on the rise, which presents a great opportunity to leverage some “smart” fundraising opportunities. Examples include science experiment demonstrations, coding workshops, robotics competitions, and STEM challenge events.

How it works:

Once you find a local teacher or STEM expert to volunteer to host a learning workshop for school-aged children and their families, attendees donate whatever amount they feel comfortable to reserve their spot. Additional donations can be made at the event via a QR code.

Parents value educational activities, and kids enjoy hands-on learning, so STEM fundraising is a great way to combine community giving with skill-building.

Try this:

Host a coding workshop teaching kids how to build simple games. Ask participants for a small donation, with laptops and step-by-step instructions included. Promote to schools and community centers, with the proceeds benefiting your organization.

7. Treasure hunt events

These elaborate scavenger hunts start with hidden items that participants search for using a list of clues and puzzles. The first team to find everything wins. You can plan the hunt for local families or school groups to support your cause.

How it works:

Come up with a list of items to hide in a designated area, such as a park for outdoor fun, or a school gym or a community center for a rainy day. Each participating team or family pays an admission fee, with proceeds going to your organization.

Pick a theme that reflects your mission. For example, you may invite participants to find a number of unique rocks and flowers to support Earth Day.

Try this:

Use these tips from cityHUNT to design a neighborhood treasure hunt that reflects your organization’s mission. Come up with 10 clues leading to hidden items. Promote to local families through schools, places of worship, print ads in local papers, and digital ads on popular local websites.

8. Obstacle-course challenges

For an adventurous take on fundraising, challenge local youth groups or schools to participate in an obstacle course to raise money for your nonprofit. Charge a small fee for teams to participate or set a specific donation amount per person for each attempt.

How it works:

Once you build an elevated obstacle course in a large backyard or park with 8–10 obstacles—such as tires, rented gym equipment, traffic cones, balance beams, hurdles to jump, ropes to climb, and tunnels to crawl through—ask kids to help choose a name for the course.

Try this:

Use a mobile obstacle-course provider, such as NinjaNation, to rent your course for a large-scale event. Or, if you’re on a tight budget, try sourcing donated items to use instead, or partner with a local sponsor to host the event.

9. Modern bake sales

Bake sales are still a popular fundraising idea for kids, but with a modern twist. They can now accept online ordering and payments that make the process easier for everyone.

How it works:

Kids and parents bake treats and set up tables in a school, recreation center, shopping mall, or place of worship. Think cookies, gluten-free cupcakes, homemade pies, and vegan brownies.

Market your bake sale ahead of time via email, social media, and old-school flyers posted around local parks and malls. Encourage digital preorders via a QR code to build momentum and start collecting donations ahead of the event. And thanks to digital payment platforms like Square, you can easily accept credit card payments instead of relying exclusively on cash.

Try this:

Announce your bake sale ahead of Thanksgiving so customers can preorder their treats and serve them at their celebratory meal. Then, recruit students to help host your bake sale at their school on the last day before their Thanksgiving break.

10. Trivia game or quiz night championships

Quiz nights or trivia competitions can easily be tailored to a younger audience by orienting questions around topics they care about, in addition to questions for parents. This way, families can compete for prizes together as a team.

How it works:

Consider asking a local bar or restaurant, like those that already hold trivia nights, to host your event and help recruit teams. Ask for a suggested donation to secure team spots and offer prizes, like T-shirts or mugs, to the winning teams.

Questions can cover general knowledge, cause-related trivia, pop culture, music, school subjects, and kids’ entertainment. Allow spectators to make donations and have materials on hand to create awareness of your organization.

Try this:

Hold a movie trivia night timed with the release of a new summer blockbuster targeted to all ages. Create questions around movies past and present, with other categories to round out the fun and knowledge levels. Ask local cinemas to donate movie passes as prizes.

11. Sports tournament days

High school tournaments are always a cause for excitement. Build on the buzz by asking fans to pledge a dollar for each goal scored or basket made. You can also organize your own tournament by recruiting players from different schools for a one-night event to benefit your cause.

How it works:

Once you partner with a local high school, host a challenge in soccer, basketball, volleyball, flag football, tennis, or pickleball. The winning team gets the title, and your organization receives any proceeds earned at the event.

Try this:

Organize a “Kick for a Cause” event in conjunction with a high school that has its own football field. Request a donation per team entry and a contribution from spectators for each field goal scored.

12. Holiday-themed fundraising

Holidays offer the ideal opportunity for connection and community, from Halloween costume contests and Christmas ornament sales to Valentine’s Day photo booths. Practically any holiday can prompt simple fundraiser ideas for kids, so check the calendar and get creative.

How it works:

By tying an event to a holiday, you can sell seasonal items, with the proceeds going to your organization, hold a costume contest, organize a holiday-themed musical concert, and so much more.

Try this:

Host a Halloween costume contest promoted to families in your community, and ask for a small contribution per costume entry. Attendees vote for winners via a simple card or online platform. Award prizes for the scariest, funniest, and most creative costumes.

Launch your kids fundraising campaign today

These are just a few ways you can involve kids in your fundraising activities to help build awareness, engagement, and support for your organization. Remember, the activities you choose should reflect your brand, goals, and unique needs, so include your staff, board members, volunteers, and supporters of all ages in brainstorming the fun.

Learn how the leading technology, coaching, and fundraising expertise from GoFundMe Pro can help fuel your efforts, from peer-to-peer fundraising and donation pages to live events and crowdfunding, and so much more.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Have you ever had FOMO? If so, you’re among the 69% of Americans who have reported a “fear of missing out” at some point in their lives.

This common experience is largely driven by a need to bond with others. We’re social creatures who want to connect with our loved ones and peers, so we look for evidence of their approval and follow their lead. This psychological phenomenon is social proof, and it’s a powerful tool in fundraising campaigns.

Below, we’ll define social proof and how it works. We’ll also offer three ways your nonprofit organization can leverage the power of social proof to motivate donor action, increase conversions, and build a sense of community across your campaigns.

What is social proof and why does it work?

People naturally look to others for guidance on what to think, feel, or do. The feedback and experiences they find are social proof. Online, social proof often appears as user-generated content, including reviews, testimonials, comments, shares, and peer recommendations.

These signals help people make decisions with greater confidence by offering reassurance and validation from others. Social proof works because it helps build trust, credibility, and a sense of belonging.

What does social proof look like in fundraising?

Our latest report with GivingTuesday found that 57% of Gen Z say family or peers influence their giving decisions—that’s 14 percentage points higher than adults aged 30–85. And according to GoFundMe’s The Social State of Giving report, 41% of Gen Z said social media content has motivated them to research or donate to a cause.

Additionally, most Gen Z and Millennials follow impact creators, with 1 in 4 Gen Z individuals reporting that they’ve been motivated to give by one of these accounts.

Partnering with impact creators is one way to incorporate social giving into your fundraising plan, but social proof can take many forms for nonprofits organization—from donor testimonials and beneficiary success stories to recommendations from supporters and your own social media posts. These personal and emotional connections and shared experiences can make generosity feel more relatable and meaningful.

GoFundMe Pro makes it easy to add three types of social proof directly to your fundraising campaigns. By building these elements into your donation page, potential supporters feel more confident, connected, and inspired to give.

1. Meet a high bar faster with progress metrics

Visible progress toward a fundraising goal shows that others have already joined the effort. This creates a sense of belonging and urgency for donors. Accelerate your campaign and fundraising goal completion with transparent, time-bound metrics.

With drag-and-drop functionality in GoFundMe Pro, you can add progress bars in multiple places. Real-time, responsive metrics on your campaign page and thank-you page inspire quick action and supporter sharing. Plus, you control your branding and what metrics you want to show and when, such as percent to goal or number of supporters.

Our research found that when goal progress indicators weren’t present, conversions declined by 7.2% and donation volume decreased by 9%. Without this signal, donors lacked the social proof needed to drive more collective impact. This is why we build progress bars into our templates. It’s a data-backed best practice that helps nonprofits reach their campaign goals faster.

2. Drive action toward a collective goal with a countdown timer

Countdown timers can strengthen social proof by making supporter activity and momentum feel more visible. When people see a campaign building toward a deadline, they know that other community members are actively participating and rallying around the same cause. That shared urgency can encourage more people to join in.

With GoFundMe Pro, nonprofits can add countdown timers to the start and end of a campaign or event. A countdown leading up to a launch can build anticipation and encourage supporters to share the campaign with their networks. At the end of a campaign, countdown timers can help communities rally together and motivate donors to give before time runs out.

As engagement increases closer to a deadline, supporters can see collective action happening in real time. This visible participation reinforces social proof by signaling that the campaign matters and that every donation can help push it over the finish line to its goal.

3. Build momentum with a live activity feed

When potential supporters see other donors’ names on a campaign page, it promotes the feeling that “people like me” are already giving. This social proof increases confidence and momentum, shifting passive interest into active giving.

GoFundMe Pro’s activity feeds inspire donor action by showing supporters that they’re part of a growing movement with real-time recognition on any campaign’s landing page or thank-you page. Animated updates highlight recent contributions, and you can enable further connections through comments, replies, and likes. This creates a sense of community, much like social media platforms.

Not only can your nonprofit interact with recent donations this way, but other supporters can do the same. This builds camaraderie that compounds generosity and encourages more sharing within donors’ personal networks.

Proven impact

Our scaled testing shows that these visible social proof cues increase conversion and donation volume. When live activity feeds were removed, campaigns saw a 9.1% decline in conversions and a 10.2% drop in donation volume.

When individuals can see evidence of others’ generosity—through names, recent gifts, or personal stories of support—it creates a tangible sense of community momentum.

This data is why we’ve made this social proof even more visible on our campaign pages. We surface recent names directly on the donation grid so they’re never missed. Plus, we’ve enhanced the activity feed with animation, motivating messaging, and a direct call to action, encouraging more generosity when that powerful, social-driven moment of inspiration arises.

Use social proof to increase conversions and build community with supporters

A strong fundraising strategy shows supporters that they’re joining a larger community already taking action. When potential donors can see the impact, momentum, and people behind a campaign, giving feels more personal, immediate, and meaningful.

That’s why social proof works best when woven throughout the supporter experience, not treated as a one-time tactic. With GoFundMe Pro, nonprofits can build those moments of connection directly into their campaign pages through features like activity feeds, progress metrics, and countdown timers.

The result is a fundraising experience that helps supporters feel part of something bigger from the moment they land on your campaign pages and donation forms. With the right messaging from social proof, your nonprofit can achieve key milestones and grow your community of support.

Request a demo today to see how GoFundMe Pro’s features can take your fundraising efforts to the next level.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

The fundraising landscape is shifting. At Collaborative 2026, nonprofit leaders gathered to name that reality openly and figure out what comes next.

Across keynotes, panels, and workshops, the conversation kept returning to a single idea: Generosity hasn’t disappeared. It has evolved. And the organizations best positioned for what’s ahead are the ones willing to evolve with it.

Explore the top moments and messages that defined Collaborative 2026.

Generosity is changing, not declining

Generosity hasn’t disappeared. It’s moved into networks, conversations, and moments that happen in real time, often outside traditional channels. The organizations best positioned for growth will be the ones that meet people where they are and make it easy to take action on their own terms.

Participation over transactions

Younger supporters want participation and proximity, not one-way transactions. Trust is moving away from institutions and toward communities, relationships, and peer networks.

GoFundMe’s Gen Z report makes this concrete. Seventy-one percent of Gen Z adults gave in some form in the past week, but their biggest edge shows up in relational behaviors: direct giving to individuals, volunteering, advocacy, and informal giving. They’re eight percentage points more likely than other adults to publicly support or advocate for helping others, and 57% say family and friends shape their decisions. 

Their generosity is immediate, personal, and driven by moments of connection.

The data makes this shift even clearer. Ninety-one percent of Gen Z adults who use community fundraising platforms also gave to nonprofits, making them 16 percentage points more likely to support nonprofits than those who give without using these platforms. 

In other words, online fundraising platforms like GoFundMe don’t fragment the giving landscape. They reshape how people enter and move through it.

Today’s supporters aren’t just donors. They’re advocates, organizers, storytellers, and community builders. Engaging them well means meeting them where they are with experiences that feel natural to them, and having the technology and infrastructure to support every step of their journey: from seeing to sharing, from sharing to mobilizing, and from mobilizing to donating.

Hope is a leadership strategy

Keynote speaker Hamza Khan opened day 2 of the conference with a challenge: Stop treating hope as a passive emotion and start treating it as a practice.

Khan pushed leaders to build organizations that don’t depend on any one person to function, framing leadership as the work of creating more leaders who create more leaders. 

His core argument was that the nonprofit sector’s greatest long-term opportunity is converting compassion into coordinated action at scale. However, that only happens when hope is foundationally built into the culture, not just the messaging.

That framing carried through every session that followed.

Sustainable growth depends on long-term relationships

So what does it take to turn hopeful leadership into durable growth? Two themes dominated the strategy sessions: recurring giving and supporter-led fundraising.

On the recurring giving side, leaders explored what Dave Raley called the “January 1 problem,”—the predictable drop-off in giving that follows the end-of-year surge—and how subscription-economy thinking can help solve it. 

Recurring giving isn’t just a more predictable revenue stream. It’s a trust-building strategy.

Tunnel to Towers Foundation showed what this looks like in practice. By building its $11/month recurring ask directly into its brand identity, the organization made monthly support feel simple, emotional, and mission-connected. Doctors Without Borders uses recurring giving to create operational stability and emergency readiness, not just to smooth cash flow.

On the supporter-led side, American Cancer Society demonstrated how streamlining challenge fundraising can meaningfully improve fundraiser conversion. Organizations that empower supporters to spread the mission themselves expand beyond traditional donor acquisition models and reach people who would never have found them otherwise.

Technology should strengthen human connection

As organizations rethink how they engage supporters, they’re also rethinking the systems that power those relationships. Collaborative’s technology sessions weren’t about innovation for its own sake. They were about using innovation where it matters.

GoFundMe’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Arnie Katz, and SVP of Product, Michal Russ, shared how small platform improvements led to outsized impact: 

• A persistent donate button increased checkout entries by 5%. 
• Improved activity feeds lifted donor conversion. 
• Smarter recurring asks improved sustainer acquisition. 

The compounding effect of incremental optimization matters more than most organizations account for.

On the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), the message was consistent across sessions: Its value is in the capacity it creates for human-centered work, not the tasks it automates away. During “Navigating the nonlinear: Executive lessons from eras of change,” leaders pointed to practical applications that free staff to focus on higher-value, relationship-driven work:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters reduced volunteer onboarding time through AI-powered matching.
• World Central Kitchen uses automation while maintaining human review. 
• NAACP leaders discussed the governance questions organizations need to answer before scaling AI tools, including how data, privacy, and mission alignment get protected.

The rapid-response fundraising session brought a different but related point. Jennifer Warga, VP of Consumer Marketing & Fundraising at American Red Cross, offered a five-part framework for organizations building crisis-ready infrastructure: clarity, coordination, communication, carry out, and course correction. 

In short, the organizations that respond best during crises are the ones that prepare before crises happen. That means cross-functional collaboration, shared playbooks, and the donor trust built through transparency and storytelling long before an emergency arrives.

The organizations that thrive will adapt together

The closing session, led by GoFundMe Chief Customer Growth Officer, Steve Froehlich, tied it together. The future doesn’t belong to the organizations with the most resources. It belongs to the ones that combine mission clarity with a genuine willingness to change how they operate.

That means bringing a startup mentality into legacy structures, building cultures comfortable with ambiguity and iteration, and committing to experimenting, failing, and learning. 

One idea came through every session: The future of fundraising is participatory, relationship-driven, and community-powered. Organizations that embrace that reality, and build for it, won’t just survive the shift. They’ll help shape what comes next.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

This blog was written in collaboration with the team at Double the Donation, an online donation matching tool built to amplify nonprofit fundraising.

Workplace philanthropy recently reached a major historic milestone. According to the latest Giving USA report, corporate support reached its highest level on record at $44.4 billion in a year. For nonprofits, this is a massive signal that the bridge between personal generosity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is stronger than ever.

The following insights derive from conversations held at Collaborative 2026. During the nonprofit conference, it became clear that the most successful organizations aren’t just asking for donations. They’re integrating themselves into the professional lives of their supporters via workplace giving. In this guide, we’ll show you how your team can do the same.

What is workplace giving? Understanding the basics

At its core, workplace giving refers to employee-led corporate philanthropy initiatives. These programs empower a company’s staff to support the causes they care about with the backing of their employer’s resources.

The three primary pillars include:

• Matching gifts: Companies match their employees’ financial donations to eligible nonprofits, often at a 1:1 or even 2:1 ratio.
• Corporate volunteering: Through volunteer grants and volunteer time off, companies provide support to nonprofits where their employees volunteer.
• Payroll giving: Donations get deducted directly from an employee’s paycheck regularly.

While these programs form the foundation of workplace giving, their core value lies in democratizing philanthropy within the office. These initiatives shift the power of CSR from a top-down decision to a grassroots, employee-driven movement.

How does workplace giving benefit nonprofit causes?

Workplace giving is often viewed through a purely transactional lens. It’s a way to top off a campaign total and access corporate funds. However, data reveals that corporate giving programs act as a powerful catalyst for donor behavior and long-term retention. When an individual supporter knows their impact will be doubled, their entire psychological approach to giving shifts.

Boosting conversions and gift sizes

The presence of a workplace giving program doesn’t just increase the amount the nonprofit receives. It fundamentally transforms the donor’s decision-making process.

According to industry research from Double the Donation, organizations tend to see:

• Increased donation response rates: Simply mentioning matching gift opportunities in appeals results in a 71% increase in response rates, with 84% of surveyed donors saying they’re more likely to give if a match is offered.
• Larger gift amounts: Beyond the match itself, the average donation size increases by 51% when donors know their gift is being matched. In fact, 1 in 3 donors indicate they would give a larger gift if they knew a match was applied.

Workplace giving essentially lowers the cost of impact for the supporter. It enables a donor with a $50 budget to feel the personal satisfaction of a $100 outcome, making them more likely to convert from a casual observer to an active contributor.

Engaging the younger generations

For younger generations (like Gen Z and Millennials), workplace giving programs are becoming a primary vehicle for growing impact. A recent GoFundMe Pro report on Gen Z engagement, published in partnership with GivingTuesday, found that 35.2% of adults aged 18-29 report having volunteered in the past 7 days. Nonprofits can maximize this surge in boots-on-the-ground support by actively promoting volunteer grants that empower passionate young professionals to monetize their time with corporate dollars.

While this segment may currently face limited financial capacity primarily due to life stage, its “generosity of spirit” is unmatched. They find other ways to show up, and workplace giving is a natural fit for a demographic that wants to make a difference during the years when their disposable income might be tight.

By leaning into workplace fundraising, nonprofits can get in the door with Gen Z now. Then, as their financial capacity grows, these individuals will already have a deep-seated trust in your cause, leading to lifelong donor loyalty.

Leveraging corporate support as a stewardship engine

Beyond the immediate boost in revenue, workplace philanthropy also serves as an elite stewardship tool. These programs provide a natural reason to stay in touch with your supporters, moving the relationship from transactional to transformational.

Here’s why it works:

• Workplace giving validates the donor’s professional identity: When a nonprofit acknowledges a donor or volunteer’s employer, it signals that the organization cares about them as an individual, not just their wallet. It acknowledges their professional success and endorses their company’s values.
• Workplace giving enables gamified engagement: Tracking a matching gift or volunteer grant throughout its lifecycle provides multiple positive touchpoints. For example, a message that says, “Great news! Google just approved your match request,” provides a secondary giving high weeks after the initial donation, keeping your cause top of mind.
• Workplace giving uncovers high-capacity advocates: Supporters who take the extra step to submit a workplace giving request demonstrate a higher level of investment than the average donor. These individuals can be some of your best candidates for giving circles, community fundraising, leadership positions, or corporate champions, as they’ve already proven their willingness to back your mission.

By integrating workplace giving into your stewardship strategy, you aren’t just raising more money today. You’re identifying and nurturing the most committed supporters in your network.

5 top tips for growing workplace giving supporter relationships

Cultivating workplace philanthropy is about shifting your organization’s internal culture to view each donor’s professional affiliation as a unique window for engagement. Here are five tried-and-true best practices for growing workplace giving and deepening your relationships.

1. Incorporate workplace giving mentions throughout appeals

The initial goal here is simple: Normalize the conversation. Workplace giving shouldn’t be an afterthought confined to a hidden menu or relegated to a footer. It should be a standard part of your fundraising vocabulary that all your supporters know.

To successfully make this transition, we recommend:

• Adding “P.S.” or “Did you know?” callouts: Include a small sidebar or bolded sentence that highlights the workplace giving opportunity in your next donation appeal or volunteer request. For example, “Did you know your employer might double this gift? Check your eligibility here!”
• Using strategic storytelling strategies: Center your narrative on specific outcomes made possible by a matched gift or a volunteer grant. Instead of stating that a company has a workplace giving program, share how a single donation, once matched, can provide a full month of after-school tutoring for a student rather than just two weeks.
• Leveraging multichannel touchpoints: Feature a “Workplace Giving Wednesday” on your social media stories, include a matching gift insert in your year-end direct mail, and use seasonal newsletter headers that remind supporters to submit prior to year-end deadlines.

The key to success is consistency. Aim to make workplace giving a “background hum” across all your communications. When donors and volunteers continuously encounter these opportunities throughout your communication strategy, it shifts from a special request to a standard part of the giving experience.

2. Provide avenues to check eligibility and access next steps

The biggest barrier to workplace giving isn’t a lack of will. It’s an awareness gap. Many supporters would want to participate in these programs, but simply don’t know what their company offers or how they can get involved.

Here are a few steps you can take today to remove this friction:

• Integrate matching into the donation flow: Don’t wait until the follow-up. Empower donors to search for their companies while on the giving page (and volunteers on the registration form), and provide actionable next steps and request links right from the confirmation screen.
• Develop high-converting landing pages: Create dedicated landing pages for each workplace giving pillar: matching gifts, payroll giving, and volunteering (or supplying corporate volunteer information directly within your main volunteers page). These segmented resources improve SEO by targeting specific keywords and ensure supporters can easily locate the information they need.
• Enable timely follow-ups: Don’t let the conversation end once a donation is processed or a volunteer shift concludes. Instead, enable automated outreach to inform or remind supporters about their workplace giving opportunities while engagement is still fresh. Then, link back to the appropriate landing page (ideally with an embedded company search tool) for easy next steps.

When you do the heavy lifting for your supporters, it creates a frictionless experience that respects each individual’s time and ensures that their intent to help results in a completed transaction.

3. Highlight success stories to increase social proof

Numbers are impressive, but stories are what typically inspire action. Therefore, use social proof to show donors exactly how workplace giving works. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• The impact spotlight: Show rather than tell. Instead of just saying “we raised more,” show it. For example, “Thanks to Home Depot’s match, Sarah’s $100 gift became $200, allowing us to feed twice as many families. Kids like John and Jane thank you, Sarah!”
• Humanized partnerships: Post photos of corporate volunteer groups supporting your cause while sporting branded T-shirts. It shows other employees that your nonprofit is a vetted choice for local businesses.
• Supporter testimonials: Share a quote from a donor or volunteer who felt empowered by their company’s support: “I couldn’t afford to give more, but knowing my company doubled my impact made me feel like a major donor.”

These strategies are particularly effective because they educate and inspire your broader audience through the actions of their peers. When a donor sees a fellow supporter doubling their impact, it triggers a sense of competitive altruism and FOMO or fear of missing out. They begin to wonder, “Is my company doing that, too?”

By spotlighting tangible wins, you shift the narrative from asking for money to offering a philanthropy life hack, making the act of workplace giving feel like a shared victory for the community.

4. Review your existing supporter base for growth opportunities

Your CRM is a gold mine of untapped workplace giving potential. By analyzing your current supporter data, you can identify where the low-hanging fruit lies.

Check out these strategies for doing so:

• Use email domain screening: Run a report to find donors with corporate email addresses (e.g., @google.com, @starbucks.com, or @disney.com). These are direct leads for matching gifts and other workplace philanthropy programs.
• Segment your list: Send a targeted email to employees of a specific local corporation: “We noticed several of your colleagues at [Company] got their donations matched. Have you checked your eligibility lately?”
• Identify corporate clusters: Look for opportunities for corporate sponsorship. If you notice 20 donors or volunteers all working for the same firm, you’ve located a prime candidate for corporate sponsorship or a dedicated day of service. You can even see if these supporters would be willing to advocate to their employer on your behalf.
• Expand on existing sponsorships: Examine the corporations that have already provided grants or donations to your cause. Then, see if they have active matching gift programs for employees. Leveraging these initiatives allows you to double-dip: securing the institutional gift while mobilizing their staff to give as well.

Data-driven segmentation allows you to work smarter, not harder. By sending a tailored note to the 150 people you know work at a company with a particularly generous match program, you can significantly increase conversions because the call to action is directly relevant to the recipient’s daily life.

5. Leverage automation to guide donors through the process

Scaling workplace giving shouldn’t mean doubling your administrative load. The most efficient way to capture these funds is through automation.

By employing software like Double the Donation (which integrates with GoFundMe Pro), you can:

• Capture invaluable data instantly: The system identifies match-eligible donors in real time during the donation process.
• Track engagement through the lifecycle: Automation ensures no revenue falls through the cracks by tracking the status of a match from the initial “identified” stage to “payout.”
• Ensure no workplace giving opportunities slip through the cracks: By automating identification and follow-up, you can keep the momentum going without requiring a single manual email from your staff. This eliminates the risk of human error or forgetfulness—whether that’s a donor who closed their browser too early, a volunteer who forgot to log their hours, or a nonprofit marketer who fell behind on their ad hoc outreach.

For many nonprofits, the leaky bucket in their fundraising is the gap between a donor intending to submit a match and doing so. Luckily, automated tools allow your team to focus on high-level stewardship while the software captures every available dollar in the background.

Wrapping up

Workplace giving is the ultimate win-win-win. The supporter feels their impact has been magnified, the corporation fulfills its philanthropy goals and boosts employee engagement, and your nonprofit secures vital resources needed to advance your mission.

When you make it easy for donors and volunteers to leverage these programs, you provide them with a better way to give. By increasing awareness and reducing friction, you can build deeper relationships that stand the test of time.

Ready to start doubling your impact? Explore GoFundMe Pro’s Double the Donation integration to start capturing these “hidden” funds with ease.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Nonprofit staff are charged with making every dollar count, all while wearing multiple hats and juggling shifting priorities. It’s no surprise, then, that 95% of nonprofit sector leaders report being concerned about staff burnout and almost 50% find it difficult to fill staff vacancies. 

Limited resources can create a ripple effect: operational challenges, staff shortages, and increased pressure on already-stretched teams. This is why time-saving strategies are so vital for nonprofit organizations. By increasing your fundraising effectiveness and efficiency, you can focus more on high-impact activities, like planning campaigns, engaging supporters, and managing special events. 

Below, we’ll walk you through four time-saving tips to help sustain your organization’s mission and reduce total fundraising expenses, even with so many competing demands.stantly fine-tune our Studio layouts and capabilities so you can feel confident they’ll deliver great results. 

4 effective strategies to maximize nonprofit fundraising efficiency

To make the most of your time and resources, focus on effective fundraising activities that deliver the greatest return. Strategic effort, paired with the right tools, helps you work smarter and turn every action into meaningful impact. 

1. Invest in giving that grows over time

Recurring donors can deliver up to 10x the lifetime value of one-time donors, making them a critical part of any long-term fundraising strategy. By nurturing these relationships, you create a reliable total revenue stream that requires less effort and lower fundraising costs than constantly acquiring new donors.

GoFundMe Pro is now Sustainable Giving Certified. Our platform’s capabilities were independently recognized by Sustainable Giving for helping nonprofits:

• Acquire more recurring donors
• Increase donor long-term value
• Build predictable, sustainable revenue at scale

This third-party, expert-backed certification validates how our purpose-built tools help nonprofits drive predictable, scalable recurring growth.

One of these tools is Intelligent Ask Amounts (IAA), which can be optimized for recurring gifts. When enabled, IAA prompts the right donors with a gentle nudge toward a recurring donation, leading to an increase in recurring giving without significantly impacting one-time gift revenue. On average, enabling IAA increases recurring conversion rates by 5.15% and lifts recurring donation revenue by 4%.

GoFundMe Pro also offers nonprofits a proven fundraising template built specifically for monthly giving campaigns.

Additionally, nonprofits can emphasize recurring giving on GoFundMe Pro by disabling one-time gifts and defaulting to a preset recurring gift amount or entering a custom one. While monthly giving is the most common option, offering additional frequencies can make donating more accessible and better aligned with your mission. GoFundMe Pro supports the following giving types:

• Annual
• Semiannual
• Quarterly
• Monthly

You can choose which frequencies to display on any fundraising campaign or donation page, allowing you to tailor the experience to your audience and goals.

2. Embed giving on your website for higher conversions

Your website is likely one of your highest-trafficked assets. By embedding your donation form, supporters can give whenever inspired without leaving your site.

Embed GoFundMe Pro donation forms on your homepage, other landing pages, or on partner sites to create a seamless giving experience. By reducing extra steps and distractions, embedded forms help improve key metrics like checkout completion rates.

Plus, the one-time setup is fast and simple. For WordPress users, it’s even easier with a dedicated plug-in. After that, you can place your form across multiple pages or sites while maintaining full control over layout, branding, and functionality. This lets you spend less time on technical details, allowing for greater focus on meeting and exceeding your benchmarks.

Your cause and supporters also benefit from:

• Multiple payment options, like credit card, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, and mobile wallets
• Recurring giving and donor-covered fee nudges to encourage larger gifts
• In-line donation experiences for partner sites that maintain your branding at checkout 

Embedded forms also integrate with analytics and tracking tools, giving you insight into donor behavior so you can optimize performance and improve your return on investment (ROI) over time.

3. Build on trusted fundraising templates

One of the fastest ways to launch high-performing campaigns is to start with templates built on proven fundraising best practices. Using A/B testing and real data, we constantly fine-tune our layouts and capabilities to give you confidence in delivering great results. 

Instead of creating pages from scratch, use proven GoFundMe Pro templates as a foundation for time-bound or evergreen campaigns that evolve with your goals while meeting modern design and accessibility standards. At the center of this workflow is our brand kit, which centralizes key items, including:

• Brand essentials: Logos, colors, fonts, and button styles
• Organizational details: Mission, history, causes, and key identifiers
• Image library: Your images, plus curated, searchable stock photos

From here, teams can leverage additional tools to reduce friction at every step:

• Intelligent text suggestions: Access optional AI-powered messaging support informed by fundraising best practices and your brand kit to use as a starting point.
• Advanced image editing: Crop and reposition images to highlight what matters most, and set mobile focal points so photos display beautifully on any device.
• Device-specific page designs and editing: Optimize pages for desktop and mobile independently by rearranging sections, hiding elements, and adjusting text formatting.

GoFundMe Pro-connected campaign creation tools also make it faster and easier to launch on-brand donation pages. Our pre-optimized templates can scale what works for efforts like:

• Year-end campaigns: Adopt our newest modern fundraising experience to see more than 7% faster growth during the giving season compared to those on legacy tools, helping capture more generosity during high-impact moments like Giving Tuesday.
• Disaster response: Launch quickly with prebuilt messaging, goals, and communications workflows.
• Annual appeals: Maintain consistency across outreach and stewardship to improve donor retention.

Based on key performance indicators (KPIs), you can then quickly turn your organization’s best-performing campaigns into reusable starting points for consistent, scalable launches. Create and manage a library of your nonprofit’s go-to saved templates to repeat what works without searching or duplicating. 

Looking for inspiration? Explore our online fundraising inspiration hub to see how other organizations design their Studio campaigns.

4. Double your donations with Giving Cart

Donors want to know how their contributions make an impact, and if given the opportunity to have even more impact, many will take it. GoFundMe Pro’s Giving Cart helps supporters act on this by letting nonprofits serve up multiple ways to support their cause at once. 

Using the feature, supporters place multiple gifts in their “cart” and then complete them all in a single transaction. This removes friction while expanding the impact of each visit to your campaign page. Donors can:

• Support multiple program expenses or funds at once.
• Combine one-time and recurring gifts in a single checkout.
• Explore different impact options before completing their donation.

By prompting supporters to expand their donations to various programs or initiatives before checking out, your nonprofit can raise its total contributions with minimal added effort. 

This added flexibility improves the donor experience and maximizes each appeal. As of March 2026, GoFundMe Pro data shows that, on average, compared to campaigns without the feature, the average total amount donated using Giving Cart is more than 2x higher.

Giving Cart also helps you tell a more complete story about your mission. By showcasing multiple ways to give—whether tied to specific programs, impact levels, or priorities—you make it easier for donors to connect with the areas they care about most and deepen their engagement over time.

Work smarter to maximize your fundraising efficiency

When time and resources are tight, every decision matters. By using smart strategies—like community fundraising, recurring giving, embedded donation forms, and branded templates—you can maximize your efforts and drive greater impact for your mission.

With proven templates, continuous scaled optimization, brand kits, and Giving Cart, GoFundMe Pro helps you create engaging campaigns, streamline donor experiences, and track performance in real time.

Ready to improve your fundraising efficiency? Schedule a demo to see how GoFundMe Pro can help make the most of your time, maximize your fundraising expenses, deepen supporter engagement, and fuel long-term sustainability.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Donors are at the core of your nonprofit’s success. To retain their support, you must understand what motivates them to give and stay engaged.

If your retention rates are falling short of industry benchmark or your own internal goals, a donor survey is a great way to close the gap. With average response rates ranging from 15% to 50%, surveys give you direct access to meaningful feedback from a significant portion of your donor base.

Donor surveys help you better understand supporters’ preferences, expectations, and motivations so you can strengthen relationships and improve retention over time.

In this complete guide, you’ll learn how often to survey your donors, which questions to ask, which common mistakes to avoid, and how to analyze your results to drive stronger outcomes.

How often to survey your donors

Many nonprofits recognize the value of donor feedback and may already send an annual survey. However, when thoughtfully designed and strategically timed, donor surveys can do much more than check a box. They can deepen engagement and reveal meaningful insights about your supporters’ motivations and preferences.

Just as you analyze email performance metrics to refine your outreach strategy, evaluate survey results and response patterns to better understand how and when your donors prefer to engage.

Essential questions every donor survey should include

Every organization is unique, so the best donor survey questions for your nonprofit will vary based on your goals. However, we’ve identified six question categories for a general survey structure, which you can customize to your needs:

• Donor profile
• Program-specific
• Supporter-interaction
• Branding and messaging
• Donor preferences and marketing engagement
• Donor opinions

Donor profile questions

Whether the goal of this portion of your survey is to better understand new supporters or confirm accurate information for existing advocates, it’s critical to ask the right questions. Start by identifying donor demographics and confirming their contact preferences. These six key questions can help:

1. What’s your most up-to-date email address? This is the most crucial piece of information for maintaining contact with your donor pool.
2. What’s your most up-to-date mailing address? This question provides demographic information and allows you to implement other outreach initiatives, such as snail-mail campaigns or local events.
3. What is your birthday? This detail reveals the age of your supporters, informing things like consumption habits and giving behaviors.
4. Where do you spend most of your time online? This question identifies your base’s browsing habits, helps to pinpoint additional opportunities for donor engagement, and provides insight into potential campaign promotion avenues.
5. Why did you make your gift? Supporters’ responses to this question help you understand why your base gives, which helps you tailor your campaign trajectory to their motivation.
6. How was your donation experience? This question helps you understand whether your donor had a positive or negative donation experience and optimize donors’ preferred outreach pace and expectations, which is helpful for long-term donor retention.

Program-specific questions

Program-specific questions root out the most valuable information to resonate with your base, allowing you to fine-tune future outreach while keeping donors satisfied. The following five questions can draw out this information:

1. Which of our programs is most appealing to you? This question helps you tailor outreach to better align with their interests.
2. What new programs, if any, would you recommend we create? This prompt assesses your programs’ viability and welcomes donor feedback to provide crucial strategy direction.
3. Are there any programs you would like to get more time in the spotlight? Responses to this question expose gaps in your marketing while introducing untapped opportunities.
4. How often do you like to receive campaign updates? This information helps shed light on how often donors want to hear from you. Too much contact results in unsubscribes, whereas insufficient outreach can lead to missed opportunities. Finding the right communication balance helps maintain donor relationships effectively.

Supporter-interaction questions

These questions reveal a deeper level of motivation in your donor, exposing unique opportunities for future engagement. Let’s take a look at the five main questions:

1. How would you best describe your relationship with our nonprofit? This question helps you understand how donors define their relationship with your organization, which provides insight into their motivations and long-term involvement capacity.
2. Which types of communication do you enjoy receiving from our team? This prompt reveals which communication styles work best and helps create a path for future stewardship.
3. Are you interested in volunteering with our nonprofit? This question provides a valuable piece of information that helps you identify who you can lean on when you need additional support.
4. Are you interested in joining our recurring giving community? Anyone who responds yes to this question has a clear interest in expanding their impact. Use this insight to tailor your recurring acquisition audience and tactics.
5. Do you share campaigns with your network via social media, email, word of mouth, or other means? This information helps determine whether your donors are active participants or passive supporters, and identifies opportunities to drive greater peer-to-peer sharing and visibility.

Branding and messaging questions

Understanding your brand’s public perception is essential to long-term success and engagement. Surveying brand-specific questions reveals your participants’ inner thoughts, allowing you to assess and refine your marketing and PR strategies as needed. Here are four strategic questions:

1. What are some of your favorite brands? This info-packed question reveals aspects of your donors’ values and identity, which you can use to inform market segmentation, brand positioning and messaging, and strategic partnerships.
2. Please choose three traits from the list that best describe our branding. The traits your supporters select tell you whether your brand resonates as you hope or whether you might benefit from revisiting your current brand-building tactics.
3. How do you perceive our brand? This question helps you understand whether your public perception aligns with your internal efforts and sets the direction of your future campaigns and initiatives.
4. Which social media channels do you use to engage with our brand? With so many available channels, historic forms of engagement may no longer hit the mark. Perhaps your audience doesn’t read emails, but they will tap or swipe to donate on a social media channel.

Marketing engagement and preferences questions

Understanding how someone engages with your nonprofit’s marketing strategy is key. Asking marketing survey questions, like the five presented below, provides insight into the effectiveness of your strategy.

1. How likely are you to recommend donating to our nonprofit? This question helps you understand whether your audience is willing to recommend your nonprofit, determines how active and passionate they are about your cause, and exposes whether there’s potential to activate them in new ways, like community fundraising or recurring giving.
2. Do you prefer to be contacted by phone, text, email, or other means? Supporters’ responses to this question help you implement donor communication preferences that foster a strong rapport.
3. Which types of content do you prefer: email updates, blog posts, educational videos, behind-the-scenes clips on social media? This question exposes donors’ online habits, providing insight so you can allocate your content strategically.
4. Would you allow us to publicly celebrate your impact on a future fundraising campaign? A yes or no to this question helps you understand donor motivation. Some donors appreciate recognition, whereas others prefer anonymity.
5. Would you be willing to provide us with a quote or testimonial? Understanding this information can help you shape a strategy that reflects and reinforces your supporters’ respect for your organization.

Donor opinions and feedback questions

Donor opinions help feed your organization’s mission. Here are five questions you can ask your supporters:

1. How well do we demonstrate the real-world impact of donor contributions? This information reveals whether supporters feel acknowledged and informed about their gift’s impact and determines your level of value reinforcement, a key driver of donor retention.
2. What do you like most about our mission? This question reveals donors’ motivation, connection, and passion for your cause.
3. What type of updates would you like to see from us in the future? This prompt takes donors’ preferences into account and informs how to shape future outreach.
4. What would inspire you to sign up as a monthly giver? This insight informs how you can amplify donor impact, such as introducing donation incentives or community-building initiatives for recurring donors.
5. What would you recommend to improve our storytelling, if anything? This question puts the power in the donor’s hands to voice their opinion, helping you optimize the structure of your communication.

Advanced survey strategies for maximum response rates

If you want healthy response rates, you need to take survey length and timing into account.

Short introductory surveys perform best with 3 to 5 questions, whereas a comprehensive survey may incorporate 15 or more questions. Optimizing your survey for mobile use ensures you reach a broader audience and makes it easier for supporters to complete it at their convenience.

Strategic timing is equally as important. Post-help session surveys show that your organization values donor experience and feedback, whereas gift anniversary surveys remind supporters of the impact they’ve made and re-engage them in your mission. After supporters complete a survey, consider how you’ll continue to steward the relationship.

Analyzing and acting on survey results

Once you’ve issued your survey and collected the responses, it’s time to put the data into action.

First, consider creating automated alerts for negative feedback. If respondents flag a gap in your messaging, you’ll want to know right away.

Next, identify the broadest trends in your pool’s input. Look for areas that perform well and those that may need reevaluation. For areas needing attention, nonprofits should:

• Identify specific strengths and weaknesses to understand where programs or messaging are effective and where improvements are needed.
• Thank respondents for their time, showing that you value their input.
• Communicate next steps to demonstrate how you’ll use their feedback.

Following up: Turning survey insights into stronger relationships

Successful surveys make supporters feel heard and appreciated, while also providing valuable donor information. This, in turn, can grow into long-sustaining donor relationships.

Once a donor completes a survey, nurturing the relationship is crucial. Email can be one of the best ways to continue post-survey relations.

However, make sure to tailor that post-survey outreach by donor persona, so your message lands and your donor knows you considered their feedback. A donor persona is a summary of your donor’s habits and preferences, which you can use to apply to potential donors with similar demographics. Implementing this technique post-survey is critical to donor retention and sustained engagement.

This helps you determine the best donor retention strategies. For example, your Gen Z donors may prefer small monthly donations via social media platforms, whereas your Baby Boomer base may prefer an annual donation, solicited via email at the same time each year.
Reviewing and understanding your donor survey data is key to maximizing conversion. Your survey data can also help you segment donors, such as those who participate in Giving Tuesday and those who don’t.

Common survey mistakes to avoid

While donor surveys can fuel your nonprofit’s planning and strategy, implementing them incorrectly can have a negative impact. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:

• Sending surveys too often, which can alienate and exhaust your donor base
• Writing your questions in a way that encourages a particular response, increasing the chance of bias—for example, asking how much a donor enjoyed making their contribution assumes the donor experienced enjoyment, whereas asking them to describe their donation experience is neutral and open-ended, drawing an authentic response from the participant
• Failing to follow up, preventing your nonprofit from further stewarding that relationship
• Providing too few response options, which don’t cover all sides of a question
• Providing too many questions, which can lead to survey fatigue or abandonment

Turn donor insights into action

Keeping your donor community engaged is essential to nonprofit success, and surveys can provide a foundation for strong, long-term relationships. Effective donor surveys follow a simple structure: Begin with a warm welcome, address program-specific topics, invite meaningful supporter input, and reflect your organization’s branding and messaging throughout.

With this framework, you’ll be better positioned to gather insights into donors’ communication preferences, engagement habits, and overall perceptions of your work.

Most importantly, act on what you learn. Demonstrating that you’ve heard and implemented donor feedback reinforces trust and shows appreciation for the time and insight they’ve shared.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

This blog was written in collaboration with the team at Double the Donation, an online donation matching tool built to amplify nonprofit fundraising.

For many nonprofits, donation matching feels like a no-brainer. Matching programs drive more than $2–$3 billion in donations annually, and 84% of donors say they’re more likely to give if a match is offered. Yet, persistent myths about matching gifts still hold organizations back from maximizing their fundraising potential and reaching their goals.

Understanding the mechanics of matching is the first step toward building a sustainable revenue stream. Let’s get started.

The basics of donation matching in nonprofit fundraising

Donation matching is a form of philanthropy where a third party (often a company, major donor, or foundation) matches contributions from individual donors.

While many people think primarily of corporate matching, the truth is that matching encompasses several different forms. These include:

Employee matching

With employee or corporate matching gift programs, companies match employees’ donations to nonprofits and schools. According to Double the Donation research, over 26 million individuals work for 24,000+ companies that match donations.

Fundraising matches

Similar to employee matching gifts, fundraising matches empower employees to request funds for donations they raise. These initiatives often coincide with peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, such as run/walk/rides and other event-a-thon experiences.

For example, if a fundraiser collects $1,000 for a 5K charity run, they can request an employer match, even if they didn’t contribute the funds themselves.

Custom matching gift programs

With a custom matching gift program, a company matches its employees’ donations. However, it matches gifts to a single nonprofit through an established partnership.

Donation match challenges

Through donation match challenges, a major donor agrees to match gifts up to the total collected within an established time frame. These initiatives instill urgency and often align with time-based efforts like Giving Tuesday.

Matching grants

With matching grants, the recipient collects a predetermined amount (typically equal to the match) via other donations. For example, a donor might propose a $10,000 donation. However, the nonprofit must first raise $10,000⁠ on its own.

Debunking common donation-matching myths

Let’s take a closer look at the most common myths about matching donations. Clearing up these misconceptions can remove unnecessary friction and set your organization up for a more successful campaign.

1. Few companies provide donation-matching programs

Many nonprofits hesitate to pursue employer-matching gifts, assuming that companies offering these programs are rare. In reality, the opposite is true.

Our research shows that tens of thousands of companies offer matching-gift initiatives for employees. This includes 65% of Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, State Street, and more.

Pro tip: Invest in a comprehensive matching gift database to easily identify program availability, guidelines, and submission processes.

2. Match-eligible donors are aware of the opportunities

Another common myth is that corporate match-eligible donors are already aware of the opportunity. We mentioned that over 26 million individuals work for companies that match gifts. However, most of them have never heard of these programs. In fact, research indicates that 78% of eligible donors are unaware of whether their company matches donations.

Pro tip: Take a proactive approach to marketing corporate matching to close the knowledge gap and ensure donors double their gifts.

3. Donation matches are “one-and-done” events

Donation matches aren’t a single-use tool. Whether within a single campaign or across your annual calendar, frequency breeds urgency rather than fatigue.

The more opportunities to double impact, the better. You can even turn a recurring match into an annual event, such as a gala or a Giving Tuesday tradition.

4. Donation matching is seasonal

Giving Tuesday and year-end giving are great opportunities to prompt matchable donations. However, proper communication can make your match successful any day.

In fact, dedicated donation matches can be the perfect way to boost donation amount and volume during the summer downtime, spring appeals, cause awareness days, or other events.

5. If you create a match, donors will come

It’s critical to view your match as you would any other campaign and promote it to as many donors as possible to maximize the return.

Consider your:

• Subject lines or email headers
• SMS campaigns
• Website announcement bars
• Social media stories and ads
• Donation page pop-ups

A donation match isn’t necessarily effective because it’s available. If donors don’t know how to take action within your match window, they’re unlikely to get involved.

6. A match is limited to specific donations

Many organizations believe that donation matches apply only to standard one-time appeals. In reality, you can (and should) leverage matching gifts across your entire fundraising ecosystem. This includes:

• Events: From galas and benefit concerts to 5Ks, event-related contributions often qualify for corporate matching.
• Community fundraising: Adding a matching component to individual fundraising pages can go a long way in empowering advocates.
• Recurring gifts: Unbeknownst to some, monthly donations and payroll gifts are typically eligible for matching. To streamline the process, batch donations for a single annual submission.

The bottom line is that donation matches are far more versatile than most realize. By expanding your matching-gift opportunities to include diverse campaign types, you ensure that every donor has the chance to double their gift.

7. Donation matching is complicated

Our final myth is a leading cause of unclaimed matches. It’s the idea that the matching gift request process is complicated for supporters.

However, the truth is that requesting a match is typically quick and easy. Although the donation process varies by company, most programs involve a brief online matching gift form that requests basic information about the employee, their donation, and the nonprofit organization.

Pro tip: Equip your nonprofit with best-in-class matching gift technology. Get a demo of Double the Donation and be sure to mention that you use GoFundMe Pro.

How donation matching works (step-by-step)

Whether leveraging a corporate program or establishing a challenge grant, here’s how the typical lifecycle goes:

1. Finding the match: Your nonprofit identifies a funder (a corporation, major donor, or board member) willing to match incoming donations.
2. Securing the initial donation: A supporter contributes during the active match period.
3. Verifying eligibility: For corporate matches, the donor researches their employer’s program. For challenge grants, the fundraising tool automatically tracks the gift toward the match goal.
4. Activating the request: For corporate matches, the donor submits a request to their employer. For challenge grants, the match is “unlocked” once the total goal is reached.
5. Disbursing the match: The funding source (the company or major donor) sends the matching funds to the nonprofit once the conditions are met.

This process ensures that every dollar has the chance to go twice as far. Fundraising software can also automate these steps with reminders and real-time progress bars.

Benefits of a complete donation-matching strategy

Beyond the extra money, donation matches offer several advantages for nonprofits. These include:

• Increased retention: Supporters feel more connected to a mission when they see their contributions doubled.
• Higher conversion rates: A match creates a “now or never” feeling, pushing undecided visitors to complete their gifts. This urgency helps nonprofits convert observers into contributors.
• Corporate connections: Employee matching is often the first step toward a corporate relationship. By tracking which companies match gifts to your cause, you can identify high-value prospects for future partnerships.
• Improved supporter data: When donors search for their company, you gain valuable insights into where they work. This data enables personalized outreach and helps you understand supporters’ professional demographics.

A matching gift strategy is about more than the immediate financial gain. It’s a tool for building long-term sustainability and deepening relationships among the nonprofit, individual donors, and the corporate world.

How to source and secure matching gifts

Finding a partner involves examining your network from a new perspective. Here are a few strategies to consider:

Corporations

Corporations can be your most valuable sources of matching gifts. Clear communication (and ample resources to assist donors in advocating for new matching programs⁠) encourages participation.

Companies may also consider funding a matching challenge, a matching grant, or another type of match to expand beyond their workforce.

Small businesses

Look to nearby boutiques, accounting firms, grocery stores, service providers, and restaurants. Smaller businesses often receive fewer sponsorship requests, and your shared commitment to the local community can make outreach more personal and effective. As a result, these partnerships may be easier to establish and grow.

Influencers and impact creators

Influencers and impact creators can mobilize modern supporters in powerful ways. With their broad reach and engaged online audiences, they can encourage followers to give toward a matching campaign. And if they’re personally aligned with your mission, they may even contribute a matching gift themselves.

Major donors

A major donor-funded match amplifies gifts from other individuals by leveraging a generous supporter’s contribution. To get started, use prospect research strategies to locate a donor willing and able to fund a match. From there, consider face-to-face meetings or video chats to pitch the idea.

Board members

A nonprofit’s board of directors is one of its most valuable donors and an ideal prospect for funding a match. Many companies (such as U.S. Bank, Autodesk, and Schneider Electric) even offer unique matching gift programs for board members.

Crowdfunding

While nonprofits often rely on a key contributor to supply a matching gift, some organizations lack the capacity to secure a match from a single donor. In that case, consider a crowdfunding campaign to combine smaller or midlevel gifts.

Creating your dynamic matching gift strategy

Donation matching isn’t just a bonus for your fundraising. It’s a vital part of a modern strategy. By dispelling the myths that hold you back, you can significantly increase your revenue and engagement.

And remember⁠, empowering your team with the right technology can go a long way. Learn more about how GoFundMe Pro and Double the Donation⁠ can help.

FAQs about donation matching

We’ve addressed common donation matching inquiries to help you navigate the process with confidence.

How do I pitch a donation-matching partnership?

Start with the relationships you already have. A warm introduction can make all the difference when approaching a potential partner.

Does a staff member know the owner of a local business? Do multiple donors work for the same generous employer? Leverage existing connections to open doors and build a strong foundation for the partnership.

What is the average donation match ratio?

The most common ratio is 1:1, meaning the company or major donor matches the initial contribution dollar for dollar. However, some match campaigns offer 2:1 or 3:1 matches to achieve greater impact.

Can you layer multiple matching gift opportunities?

Most often, yes. To amplify the impact of donations, consider layering multiple matching gifts, such as an employee match on top of a challenge gift.

For example, imagine an individual donates $100 during a challenge match, bringing the total to $200. When the donor’s company contributes an additional $100, the total comes to three times the initial gift.

Are there deadlines for requesting a match?

Yes. Challenge matches are generally organized during a specific period, such as an affinity month or designated giving day. Meanwhile, most companies require employees to submit match requests by the end of the calendar year or within a few months after the donation.

What types of organizations are eligible?

Most 501(c)(3) nonprofits and schools qualify for donation matches. However, some companies or foundations may have restrictions on religious or political organizations, so it’s crucial to check their specific policies.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is one of the most powerful ways for nonprofits to expand their reach, engage new donors, and increase giving. By empowering people to fundraise on your behalf, you unlock networks your organization might never reach on its own.

But here’s the reality: Traditional peer-to-peer campaigns are hitting their natural limits.

Participation across traditional peer-to-peer channels is declining. Social fundraising on platforms like Facebook is down year over year. And even when signature events like runs, walks, or rides draw crowds, many nonprofits are seeing lower dollars raised per individual fundraiser than in years past.

However, that doesn’t mean peer-to-peer is losing relevance. It means it’s evolving.

Supporters still give because of people and stories they trust, but they want more flexibility, ownership, and authenticity. That shift is driving the rise of community fundraising, which expands peer-to-peer beyond time-bound events into everyday moments that supporters choose to champion.

In this post, we’ll share actionable community fundraising tips to help nonprofits strengthen traditional peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns while embracing community-driven initiatives. You’ll learn how to empower supporters to tell your story in their own words, activate new audiences, and scale impact, all while reducing friction with platforms like GoFundMe Pro.

Empower your supporters, expand your impact

Traditional peer-to-peer campaigns often revolve around a single moment, like an in-person event. Community fundraising expands that model by recognizing a simple truth: Support doesn’t only show up on event day.

Community fundraising invites supporters to fundraise for your cause in ways that reflect their lives and values, such as birthdays, personal milestones, creative challenges, memorials, livestreams, or moments of urgency. It turns supporters into advocate-fundraisers, not just participants.

The community fundraising tips below will help nonprofits embrace this shift, without abandoning the traditional P2P fundraising efforts that already work.

1. Grow your reach through your personal networks

One of the most effective community fundraising tips is also the simplest: Let people do the talking.

Peer-to-peer fundraisers work because trust is at their core. New supporters are far more likely to give when a friend, family member, or colleague asks them directly—especially when paired with a personal story.

To expand your reach:

• Encourage fundraisers to share why your cause matters to them, not just what your nonprofit organization does
• Promote sharing across multiple channels: social media platforms, text, email, and group chats
• Show supporters that participation doesn’t have to look like a run or walk—nonprofit fundraising can happen anywhere

Strong storytelling makes these asks more compelling. One helpful approach is guiding supporters through a simple framework:

• Why I care (personal connection)
• Why now (urgency or moment)
• How to help (clear call to action)

Resources like nonprofit storytelling worksheets can help supporters shape authentic messages without sounding scripted.

Platforms like GoFundMe Pro also help extend your reach by operating within a broader ecosystem. When supporters use a fundraising platform people already know and trust, their calls to action not only reach personal networks but also GoFundMe’s 200M+ donor community, lowering barriers to participation and increasing visibility.

2. Adopt a community fundraising mindset

If there’s one fundraising tip that unlocks long-term growth, it’s to stop limiting how supporters can show up.

When practicing community fundraising, the nonprofit sets the inspiration and, at times, the framework, whereas the supporter drives the action. Peer-to-peer participants might decide to stream a video game marathon, run 100 miles, host a dinner party, or shave their heads. They choose the activity that fits their lifestyle and their network.

This matters because it changes the dynamic of the relationship. You aren’t just asking them for a favor. You’re giving them agency. Even better, you’re inviting them to be a co-owner of your mission.

This approach is especially effective with Gen Z and Millennials, who are highly motivated by causes but less interested in rigid, event-based participation. They value flexibility, digital-first fundraising tools, and the ability to align giving with their identity and values.

GoFundMe Pro makes community fundraising easier, whether your supporters launch a fundraiser, take on a challenge, or create a campaign that directly benefits your nonprofit. Even better, once you claim your verified Nonprofit Page, your GoFundMe Pro dashboard automatically captures all donations and supporter details for seamless reporting.

In 2025 alone, supporters created over 80,000 challenge-style fundraisers, from yoga challenges and hikes to readathons and gaming events.

3. Reduce friction with built-in coaching and guidance

One reason community fundraising stalls is a lack of confidence. Supporters want to help you reach your fundraising goals, but they’re not always sure what to do next, when to share, or how to succeed.

That’s why providing coaching and ongoing support is one of the most critical elements of a successful community fundraising strategy.

Traditional approaches often rely on:

• PDFs and static toolkits
• One-time training sessions
• Manual check-ins that don’t scale

Effective community fundraising requires automated, data-driven coaching at scale.

With GoFundMe Pro, fundraisers have support from start to finish through built-in coaching, activity tracking, and smart nudges that spark engagement. Each fundraiser has access to a personal command center with recommended next steps, prewritten social media posts and emails, and suggestions for whom to reach out to next.

This guidance helps supporters move forward with confidence, without feeling micromanaged. It also frees nonprofits to focus on strategy while our platform handles the heavy lifting, drawing on insights from a community that has raised over $40 billion.

When it’s easy for supporters to succeed, everyone wins.

4. Celebrate fundraisers to foster long-term engagement

Celebration isn’t just about motivation. It’s about retention.

Celebrate supporters by recognizing first-time fundraisers, highlighting milestones, such as first gifts or goals reached, and sharing thank-you messages that connect their efforts directly to impact. This reinforces that community fundraising isn’t a one-off initiative. It’s part of a lasting relationship.

Plus, GoFundMe Pro makes this easier with real-time tracking and alerts, allowing nonprofits to acknowledge progress quickly and authentically.

5. Make giving easy and mobile-friendly

The most nonprofit website traffic comes from mobile users (including phones and tablets). Mobile users accounted for 52% of all visits in 2024, and desktop users accounted for 48%.

Making giving easy and mobile-friendly isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s essential.

More importantly, mobile-first experiences support in-the-moment sharing and spontaneous giving, which are critical to successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns and community fundraising methods. When someone sees a friend’s personal fundraising page, they should be able to give instantly and seamlessly.

That means fast-loading donation pages, streamlined checkout flows, AI-powered donation forms, and clear suggested amounts with impact statements that make it easy to act in the moment.

GoFundMe’s seamless mobile experience is for these exact moments, making it easier for supporters to act on their emotions and generosity.

6. Use data to track, learn, and celebrate success

Strong community fundraising strategies don’t stop at launch. They rely on ongoing measurement.

Tracking performance helps nonprofits understand what works, where supporters are most engaged, and where to focus next. Key metrics to monitor include:

• The number of active fundraisers/individual fundraising pages
• Average dollars raised per fundraiser
• Amount raised among top fundraisers
• Share activity
• Conversion rates

With these insights, organizations can identify high-performing fundraisers, test new approaches, and celebrate meaningful milestones. GoFundMe Pro’s reporting and analytics tools make it easier to visualize performance, take action, and support recognition and stewardship that drive repeat engagement and overall fundraising success.

7. Collaborate with influencers and community leaders

Influencers don’t have to be celebrities. In fact, the most effective advocates are often trusted voices within a specific community: teachers, creators, local leaders, or deeply passionate supporters.

This is especially true for younger donors, as Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly inspired by impact creators—people who use their platforms to raise awareness and drive charitable donations. More than half of Gen Z say they trust impact creators to donate on their behalf, highlighting the growing role of social-driven philanthropy.

Partnering with these community-based influencers can expand your reach into new networks, add credibility to your campaign, and inspire others to start fundraisers of their own. It’s a powerful way to scale community fundraising organically, fueled by trust and authenticity.

8. Share impact stories often

Finally, close the loop. Donors and fundraisers want to know whether their efforts made a difference. Consistently and authentically sharing impact stories keeps supporters engaged and reinforces why community fundraising works.

By highlighting the real people, programs, and outcomes made possible by community support, you turn participation into pride, and pride into long-term advocacy. For practical tips on doing this well, check out our storytelling guide.

GoFundMe Pro helps nonprofits bring those stories to life. With modern, branded donation pages, expansive community fundraising, Meta social sharing, and user-friendly live event tools, nonprofits can reach millions and amplify impact storytelling across their community.

The future of peer-to-peer fundraising is community-led

Peer-to-peer fundraising isn’t fading. It’s transforming. The nonprofits that will thrive are those that treat their mission as a shared cause and empower their community to lead. Embracing community fundraising means moving beyond rigid events and scarcity thinking to spark real connection, creativity, and momentum.

With the right tools, strategy, and platform, nonprofits can mobilize supporters, expand their reach, and build lasting communities of advocates, alongside the 200M+ already active on GoFundMe.

Now is the moment to modernize your community fundraising approach and unlock what your supporters can achieve together.

Individual fundraisers looking to sharpen their approach can also benefit from these principles. GoFundMe’s guides on common fundraising mistakes to avoid, fundraising tips for small businesses, and how to make a fundraiser go viral offer action-oriented advice tailored for personal fundraisers.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

Peer-to-peer fundraising has fueled nonprofit growth for years, from 5K runs and cycling events to birthday fundraisers on social media. However, what was once a reliable model now needs a refresh to adapt to the changing giving landscape.

Supporters are moved by the people and stories around them, but they want more flexibility and ownership in how they show up. A fundraising page and a carefully curated script are no longer enough to inspire action. The latest trends in peer-to-peer fundraising are signaling an evolution toward empowering supporters to take action on their own terms.

Shifting to supporters leading the way

More nonprofits are embracing community-led fundraising that empowers people to tell your story in their words, through the channels and moments that feel most authentic to them.

This shift isn’t about walking away from what works. It’s about building on it.

Community fundraising extends beyond traditional peer-to-peer efforts by providing supporters with more opportunities to engage on the channels they already use to connect with each other. By fostering a sense of shared purpose, this approach helps organizations reach new audiences, reverse participation declines, and build a more resilient fundraising engine.

The difference between peer-to-peer and community fundraising

To understand the future of fundraising, we have to look at where we started. Traditional peer-to-peer campaigns often feel top-down: The nonprofit decides on an event, such as a fundraising gala or a walkathon, sets the rules, creates the graphics, and invites people to sign up. The supporter is a participant, whereas the nonprofit is the director.

Community fundraising flips the script.

In this model, the nonprofit sets the inspiration and, at times, the framework, whereas the supporter drives the action. They might decide to stream a video game marathon, run 100 miles, host a dinner party, or shave their head. They choose the activity that fits their lifestyle and their network.

Grounded in trusted relationships and lived experiences, this approach is more authentic, more participatory, and more aligned with how giving happens today.

This matters because it changes the dynamic of the relationship. You aren’t just asking them for a favor. You’re giving them agency. Even better, you’re inviting them to be a co-owner of your mission. And when people feel ownership over a cause, they work harder for it. They speak about it with passion and become more than donors or fundraisers. They become advocates for your brand.

Why trust is your most valuable asset

Trust in large institutions is slipping as people increasingly seek authenticity over polished corporate statements and generic marketing emails.

According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, people are turning to those closest to them when making decisions. Compared with five years ago, trust in neighbors, family, friends, and coworkers has increased by 11%, while reliance on national government leaders has fallen by 16% and on the media by 11%.

Similarly, GoFundMe’s The Social State of Giving report highlights the influence of social media creators, with most Gen Zers and Millennials following impact creators online. Notably, 1 in 4 Gen Z respondents reported donating because of a social media creator, and 51% said they would trust impact creators to make donations on their behalf.

Using a platform trusted by millions, such as GoFundMe, makes it easier for supporters to act, fostering confidence, trust, and meaningful engagement from the first step.

The double trust model in action

When a supporter starts a fundraiser for your organization, they lend you their credibility. They essentially tell their network: “I believe in this mission and trust this organization with my time and money, and you can too.”

This is what GoFundMe refers to as the double trust model. By combining your organization’s credibility with supporters’ personal connections, your brand reaches places it might not otherwise. A generic email from a nonprofit might get deleted immediately, but a heartfelt post from a friend gets read, liked, and shared.

Community fundraising also decentralizes your brand voice. Instead of one voice shouting from the mountaintop, thousands of supporters are having trusted conversations in living rooms, group chats, and social feeds. This creates a web of trust far stronger and more resilient than a traditional marketing funnel.

Taking trust one step further: The triple trust model

GoFundMe amplifies this effect through a triple trust model. In addition to your organization’s credibility and supporters’ personal endorsements, our platform adds another layer of trust.

Supporters feel confident giving on GoFundMe because it’s secure, widely recognized, and designed to make giving simple. Together, these three layers of trust make people more likely to give, share, and return, strengthening your fundraising impact in ways no single channel could achieve on its own.

Expanding your reach into new communities

Every nonprofit wants to reach new supporters, but traditional advertising is expensive, crowded, and often inefficient.

Community fundraising changes the game by introducing your mission to entirely new networks, building awareness in ways traditional campaigns can’t. Even if someone doesn’t give, they learn about your organization from someone they trust, which is increasingly rare in today’s saturated market.

In fact, in 2025 alone, 155,000 people started fundraisers for nonprofits on GoFundMe, including 85,000 first-time organizers stepping up on an organization’s behalf, showing just how much your message can extend into new communities when supporters take action.

Micro-communities matter

Consider your supporters’ networks: colleagues, friends, neighbors, and communities that you might not be able to reach alone. When a supporter launches a fundraiser on GoFundMe, they bring your mission into these micro-communities in a context that resonates.

A gamer connects you to the gaming world. A runner introduces your mission to the fitness community. A baker shares your cause with fellow foodies. You don’t need to be an expert in every subculture. You just need to empower the people who are.

Turn individual efforts into impact with smarter tools

People don’t just want to give. They want to do for the causes that matter to them.

GoFundMe Pro makes that easier, whether by launching a fundraiser, taking on a challenge, or participating in a campaign that directly benefits your nonprofit. Even better, once you claim your verified Nonprofit Page, your GoFundMe Pro dashboard automatically captures all donations and supporter details for seamless reporting.

In 2025 alone, supporters created over 80,000 challenge-style fundraisers, from yoga challenges and hikes to readathons and gaming events.

By empowering supporters to take action, you expand your reach, build trust, and turn awareness into meaningful supporter acquisition.

Letting go of the reins as a nonprofit professional

This is often the hardest part for nonprofit professionals because you’re trained to protect the brand at all costs. You’ve established brand guidelines, approved messaging, and strict rules for logo usage, so the idea of letting supporters create campaigns can feel terrifying.

What if they use the wrong font? Or what if they explain the mission incorrectly?

These are valid concerns, but they’re far outweighed by the benefits. In the era of community fundraising, authenticity beats perfection every time. A slightly grainy photo of a supporter volunteering is often more compelling than a stock photo of a smiling model. A caption written in a supporter’s voice, even with a typo or two, lands with more emotional weight than a press release.

You have to trust your community. If they care enough to raise money for you, they care enough to represent you well.

How the right technology makes this easier

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you leave them entirely alone. Even with the most enthusiastic supporters, fundraising can feel intimidating. They aren’t experts like you.

Nonprofits create campaign pages that reflect their brand and bring calls to action to life, using drag-and-drop tools to add leaderboards, engagement features, and other interactive elements.

Once the page is live, our platform supports fundraisers from start to finish. Built-in coaching, activity tracking, and nudges spark engagement and motivation. Meanwhile, fundraisers have access to a personal command center with recommended next steps, premade social media content, and suggestions for whom to reach out to next in their network.

This approach lets your nonprofit focus on strategy while GoFundMe handles the heavy lifting, supporting fundraisers at scale with insights from our community of over 200 million and $40 billion raised.

Using a platform trusted by millions makes it easier for supporters to take the first step. With the right guidance and resources, they can manage their fundraisers with confidence. When it’s easy for them to succeed, both they and your nonprofit benefit, while the experience stays flexible and personal.

Building a feedback loop to improve community fundraising

One of the hidden benefits of community fundraising is that it functions as a massive focus group.

When you observe how supporters talk about your mission, you learn what resonates. Maybe you’ve focused your marketing on one specific program, but you notice that your top fundraisers are now talking about a different aspect of your work.

Pay attention to that. Your supporters can show you what the public finds most compelling about your organization.

You can also use this to identify your next generation of leaders. The person who raises $5,000 for their birthday isn’t just a donor. They’re a potential board member, ambassador, major donor, or volunteer leader. Community fundraising helps you identify these people to nurture those relationships.

Getting started with GoFundMe is easy

If you’re ready to embrace this shift, you don’t need to overhaul your strategy at once. Start by looking for opportunities to say yes to your community. Here are five steps to get started.

1. Claim your Nonprofit Page

Claim your Nonprofit Page to get started with GoFundMe’s community fundraising tools. It’s an easy first step to connect with new supporters and tap into our 200 million-strong network.

2. Create a “fundraise your way” option

Ensure your website has a clear and easy-to-find destination where supporters can start fundraisers. It should be front and center. Celebrate it.

Show examples of other people who have done it. If a supporter has a wild idea for a fundraiser, your answer should be: “That sounds amazing. How can we help?”

3. Equip them with the right tools

Your supporters are busy. If starting a fundraiser is difficult, they won’t do it. You need an intuitive, mobile-friendly, and beautiful platform.

This is where GoFundMe Pro shines. We combine the trust and familiarity of the GoFundMe brand with the custom controls your nonprofit needs.

4. Coach, don’t command

With GoFundMe’s built-in coaching tools, recommended next steps, and helpful resources, we’ve removed much of the guesswork from fundraising, and the heavy lifting is off your nonprofit’s staff.

Remember, when fundraisers feel supported, they stay motivated to keep going.

5. Focus on the story

Remind your supporters that they don’t need to be professional salespeople. They just need to share their “why.”

• Why does this cause matter to them?
• Why did they decide to get involved?

Encourage them to be vulnerable and share their personal experiences. That’s what resonates with donors.

Community fundraising ideas to activate your supporters

Whether launching your first community fundraising effort or looking to expand your supporter pipeline, these activation ideas will give your network a starting point.

Personal challenge fundraisers

Suggest supporters raise money by completing a virtual, peer-to-peer fundraising challenge, where participants work toward a self-directed goal, such as fitness milestones, reading challenges, skill-based goals, or gaming marathons, while raising money for a cause.

Participants can take part at any time, from anywhere, without needing to connect to a live event. Challenges can be time-bound, goal-oriented, or tailored to fit your community. Think “Walk 50 Miles in May” or “Read 10 Books in 10 Weeks.”

Pro tip: Encourage supporters to set a specific, measurable challenge goal for donors to follow their progress and feel invested in the outcome.

Community service and volunteer-led fundraisers

Organize volunteer days where participants collect pledges for hours served, neighborhood cleanups with sponsor-per-bag or sponsor-per-mile models, or skill-share events, such as tutoring sessions or cooking classes where attendees donate to participate. These experiences invite supporters to contribute their time and financial support, strengthening their connection to your cause.

Social and event-based activations

Recommend birthday fundraisers, dinner parties, trivia nights, viewing parties, or memorial fundraisers as low-lift, accessible ways to raise funds. The most successful activations are ones the supporter would do anyway, lowering the barrier to starting and making the ask feel natural.

Measuring success beyond the dollar

In a transactional peer-to-peer model, the only metric that matters is the total amount raised. In a community fundraising model, consider a broader set of metrics to understand your brand’s health.

Look at the number of new donors acquired. Did these people enter your ecosystem through a friend? Look at the retention rate of your fundraisers. Are they coming back every year? Look at the social reach. How many people saw your brand because a supporter shared it?

These metrics tell you if you’re building a movement, not just balancing a budget.

The future is community-led

The nonprofits that’ll thrive in the next decade are those that treat their mission as a shared cause powered by community.

When you embrace community fundraising, you move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. You stop worrying about how many emails you can send and start wondering how many conversations you can spark.

This shift requires bravery. It means stepping back and letting others take the spotlight. The reward? An organization that’s more resilient, more diverse, and more deeply connected to the world it serves.

Your supporters are ready to lead. Are you ready to follow them?

See how GoFundMe Pro can power your community fundraising strategy by requesting a demo.

FAQs

What is community fundraising?

Community fundraising builds on traditional peer-to-peer fundraising by giving supporters more ownership over how they participate. While peer-to-peer campaigns are often centered on nonprofit-led events or initiatives, community fundraising is supporter-driven, empowering people to fundraise in ways that reflect their interests, passions, and communities.

This creates more opportunities for year-round fundraising, advocacy, and deeper engagement.

What are the best community fundraising ideas?

Community fundraising ideas range from personal challenges, like fitness goals, to pledge-based cleanup days, birthday fundraisers, and video game marathons. The best ideas reflect the individual supporter’s interests, making them genuinely motivated to share and ask for support.

For inspiration, here’s a community fundraising challenge from the Alzheimer’s Association. Supporters commit to walking one mile a day to honor the millions affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementias, then invite their friends and family to sponsor their efforts with donations.

How can I inspire supporters to participate in community fundraising?

Inspire supporters by showing them that community fundraising can take many forms. Participation isn’t limited to a run, walk, or formal event. Encourage people to turn the hobbies, milestones, and activities they already love into opportunities to support your mission.

Once you establish the framework, participants can take part at any time, from anywhere, on a platform like GoFundMe.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien

A strong fundraising appeal is one of the most powerful tools a nonprofit organization has. By using a mix of appeal styles, nonprofits can keep supporters engaged and motivated to achieve their fundraising goals.

At the heart of every compelling appeal is a compelling story—one that highlights real people, real needs, and real impact. Today’s donors, however, expect more than a great message. They expect the giving experience to feel simple, personal, and fast. That’s why nonprofits must pair emotional storytelling with smart, low-friction technology that turns inspiration into action.

Below, we share six types of fundraising appeals to try that, when paired with the power of GoFundMe Pro, can help boost conversion rates and fuel your organization’s mission.

1. Lead with a human story

Instead of leading with statistics or program details, try focusing your message on one person, one moment, or one challenge your community faces. This approach adds a personal touch to your appeal letter and helps potential donors understand why your mission matters right now.

Stories create connection. When supporters can picture the life or lives they change, your ask feels less like a request and more like an invitation to be part of something meaningful.

Check out our guide on telling inspiring impact stories for more ideas on developing compelling characters and shaping a powerful narrative.

How to bring this to life with GoFundMe Pro

Campaign Studio, our versatile campaign builder, is the perfect tool for creating and launching custom donation pages that bring your story to life. Add photos, short videos, quotes from the people you serve, and meaningful impact metrics to make your appeal feel real and trustworthy.

When your campaign aligns with and reflects your nonprofit’s brand, it builds confidence and makes donors more likely to give.

Real-world example

Starlight Children’s Foundation added a personal touch to its email appeal by including real quotes from parents of the children it serves. These voices help ground supporters in the impact their donations can have on children’s lives.

2. Invite donors to be partners in the story

Help donors see themselves as a critical piece of your fundraising plan to increase their connection to your cause. For example, shift the language from “we need your help” to “you can make this possible.” This second-person framing allows supporters to feel like active partners in your nonprofit’s mission.

When donors see themselves as valuable problem solvers, your response rate across email appeals, direct mail fundraising letters, and other messaging mediums may increase as they feel moved to answer that call for help.

How to bring this to life with GoFundMe Pro

It’s critical that your appeals appear wherever your supporters already spend time, including on your website, across social media channels, and in online communities and forums. Reaching donors in these key places keeps your message front and center, and makes it easier for them to take the next step when they feel inspired.

GoFundMe Pro makes this possible by helping you create uniquely branded campaigns, build trust with supporters, and reach more people across the web, social media, and the GoFundMe community of over 200 million. With AI-powered donation forms, seamless giving flows, and peer-to-peer and social sharing tools, anyone who feels moved to help can act right away.

Real-world example

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago used Instagram to highlight a full-circle moment for one of its mentees, who later became a mentor for the program. The organization paired this with a fundraising appeal, saying, “The next match starts with you,” offering donors the opportunity to be the reason behind the next success story.

3. Personalize your ask amounts

When donors see a blank field or generic donation amounts in the call to action, they may hesitate because they’re unsure how much to give. That hesitation can lead to abandoned gifts or smaller donations.

Personalized ask amounts remove that friction. Instead of showing every supporter the same $25, $50, or $100 options, tailor the ask to their history and engagement. This helps first-time donors feel comfortable while also encouraging major donors to stretch their generosity.

Over time, this approach can help support stronger retention because donors feel understood—the path forward is clear and relevant to them.

How to bring this to life with GoFundMe Pro

Intelligent Ask Amounts, our AI-powered donation amounts, uses machine learning to predict the amount a donor is most likely to give and to customize an ask for that individual. You can set a campaign goal—whether that’s higher conversions, more recurring gifts, or increased revenue—and our AI optimizes your campaign to help you get there.

Pair each option with tangible impact—such as the number of meals, books, or hours of support that gift provides—so every amount feels meaningful and inspiring.

4. Add ease and urgency to your appeal

Today’s donors are busy, distracted, and often give from their phones. If your online donation experience feels slow or confusing, you risk losing their attention, even if they care deeply about your cause. One of the best ways to drive quick action is to create a sense of urgency.

Time-bound matches, challenges, and countdowns remind supporters that there’s no time to waste. Making simple updates to your messaging, like email subject lines or social media captions, can help capture their attention and prompt them to donate right away. Think, “24 hours left to reach our goal.”

How to bring this to life with GoFundMe Pro

With 0.3-second load times, our lightweight, embedded donation forms keep supporters in the moment. Mobile-optimized, fast-loading flows help turn urgency into action, and abandoned cart reminders bring donors back if they get distracted before completing their gift.

Real-world example

SBP, a nonprofit dedicated to helping communities shorten the time between disaster and recovery, ran a “Home for the Holidays” campaign that highlighted a gift-match of up to $100,000. The campaign also leveraged Intelligent Ask Amounts and framed the donor as a key partner in the cause who could “be the reason a family returns home” that holiday season.

5. Turn emotion into ongoing support

The most effective fundraising efforts invite supporters to stay involved after their first donation. One simple way to do this is by highlighting monthly giving as part of your giving campaign. Even small monthly gifts add up over time and create a powerful, long-term impact for your mission.

Recurring donations provide steady funding that helps nonprofits plan ahead, grow programs, and respond quickly when needs arise. This is especially valuable at the end of the year, when many donors are motivated to give back and make a lasting difference.

For more tips on cultivating monthly donors, check out our guide on turning year-end donors into recurring supporters.

How to bring this to life with GoFundMe Pro

Use recurring nudges to gently invite donors to upgrade after a one-time donation. These prompts make it easy for supporters to turn a one-time moment of generosity into ongoing support.

6. Give supporters a way to lead

When supporters are inspired by your cause, many want to help beyond donating. They want to share your story, invite friends to participate, and feel like part of something bigger. This peer influence is a powerful way to grow your fundraising initiatives.

Supporters can promote your cause through social media, personal emails, and everyday conversations, extending your reach far beyond your owned channels. Your board members can also play a powerful role, leading by example and inviting their networks to participate.

However, peer-to-peer fundraising is evolving. Traditional models often asked supporters to follow a set script or join a single event. Today, people want more freedom and ownership. This is why nonprofits should consider moving beyond traditional peer-to-peer campaigns to a community fundraising approach.

Doing so lets supporters lead on the channels they already use: social media, group chats, neighborhood events, gaming livestreams, or personal challenges, for example. When supporters can show up authentically, they become powerful ambassadors of your brand.

How to bring this to life with GoFundMe Pro

To take full advantage of our peer-to-peer fundraising suite, start by opting in to claim your Nonprofit Page. This opens the door to organic community fundraising across GoFundMe’s 200 million-strong community. From there, add a “Fundraise Your Way” prompt on your website to give supporters a fast, easy way to get started.

Connect your fundraising appeals to tools that drive giving

Strong appeals are the heartbeat of any fundraising campaign. Ace them, and you’ll unlock deeper supporter connections, stronger trust, and lasting excitement. Start today with GoFundMe Pro and watch your mission take off.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien