Summary
Nonprofits across the globe are struggling with inconsistent government grants and financial pressures. To overcome these challenges, organizations must diversify their funding streams and improve their community engagement strategies. In this article, we explain how publishing real-world stories, actively engaging with donors, and harnessing a nonprofit management software like Claromentis can help to boost interest and funds.
Economic difficulties, fluctuations in donor engagement, and stagnant funding streams have left many nonprofits feeling uncertain about their financial future.
Instabilities in government funding only add salt to this wound.
As it stands, around 67% of nonprofits in the US receive government or federal support. Yet many of these organizations are now losing out on recurring grants due to funding cuts and growing competition.
As one nonprofit leader revealed in a recent Urban Institute report:
“Our biggest concern is ensuring consistent funding to sustain our programs. The sudden loss of a major recurring grant this year (2024) has put pressure on our ability to cover essential needs.”
In these challenging times, nonprofits like yours have no choice but to adapt.
In order to find new funding streams, you must rethink your community engagement strategies and reach new audiences. Only then can you gain the resources needed to support your services, communities, and employees.
7 community engagement examples and ideas for nonprofits
In the remainder of this article, we’ll explore 7 community engagement ideas that can help your nonprofit boost awareness and funds.
1. Share real-world stories and user-generated content
Storytelling doesn’t just strike an emotional chord with your supporters — it brings your mission to life. It emphasizes the real-world impact of your services, and demonstrates what donations can do for the communities you serve. Whether that’s providing food for displaced families or financial aid to survivors of domestic abuse.
This is why storytelling is essential for community engagement and fundraising.
But, in order to get it right, it needs to be authentic and ethical. Instead of retelling experiences, empower individuals to tell their own stories. Encourage volunteers and employees to write about their project and case work, and share insights from citizens they’ve helped (providing they receive consent). The more impactful, the better.
For inspiration, consider examples from well-known nonprofit organizations, such as Caritas, who share stories from their youth groups and global communities.
To widen the reach of your storytelling efforts, post your stories on a searchable extranet like Claromentis, and share snippets across your social media channels, email newsletters, and physical print communications.
How can nonprofits leverage AI to improve fundraising and donor engagement?
Claromentis’ nonprofit management solution contains generative AI capabilities that can augment your storytelling efforts. With just a single prompt, employees and volunteers can create impactful news articles and blog posts. To ensure everything is brand-aligned, communications managers have the option to implement content approval mechanisms before publication.
All in all, this AI-powered content helps you drive awareness, boost donor engagement, and improve your fundraising efforts — all without burnout out your comms team.
2. Be transparent and build trust
Though statistics vary by generation, one thing remains constant: people are more likely to donate to charities and nonprofits they trust.
Despite this, only 22% of Americans highly trust charities.
In order to increase trust in your organization, you must balance your real-world stories with impact reports, donation breakdowns, and other data-rich insights. According to Guidestar, organizations that do so receive 53% more contributions.
This kind of transparency triggers a good gut instinct, rather than a bad one.
3. Collaborate with other organizations
There’s no need to go it alone. Partnering with businesses — whether local, national, or global — can help you spread awareness and attract fresh supporters.
Plus, you may be able to generate some steady funding from these collaborations. Take Oxfam’s partnership with Tony’s Chocolonely as an example. The fair trade chocolate company developed exclusive chocolate bars for Oxfam’s high street shops, attracting interest and further donations. In 2024, they even released Glastonbury-branded chocolate bars, giving buyers the chance to win tickets to the popular music festival.
4. Create volunteer and membership programs
Volunteer and membership programs encourage supporters to witness the impact of their time and money firsthand.
This can boost donor retention and improve your overall brand reputation. After all, volunteers and members who trust and love your organization are more likely to spread the word to their friends, families, and colleagues.
To streamline onboarding and volunteer management, consider using a feature-rich nonprofit software like Claromentis to:
- Automate your registration forms
- Build engaging and trackable e-learning pathways
- Share policies and volunteer handbooks, and enforce compliance via an AI-powered policy management application
- Manage and communicate with your widespread volunteers
With Claromentis, your managers can progress applicants quickly, enhance engagement, and ensure volunteers stay safe and compliant.
5. Build a consistent social media presence
The world moves ten times as fast on social media. What matters a great deal one day is buried by thousands of other news stories the next.
As such, it’s important to have a consistent, strong, and impactful presence on these channels. Post engaging and brand-aligned content, interact with your followers, and try to keep pace with the ever-changing trends of social media. (Yes, even the silly ones!)
Take the RSPB as an entertaining example. The well known British charity posts outlandish “Bird of the Week” videos on TikTok every week, aimed to engage and educate younger generations. Since the campaign launched, the RSPB have increased their followers by 190% and skyrocketed their monthly views. Imagine what that could do for your funding streams.
6. Organize fundraising events
Many nonprofits have reported a dip in event attendance in recent years. But this doesn’t mean you should give up on events entirely.
The key is to find what works for you.
The types of events you organize will vary according to your size, brand, and strategy. Examples could include:
- Charity auctions (donations from high-profile celebrities can be great for attracting interest!)
- Fun runs and marathons
- Sponsored fitness challenges
- Craft workshops and classes
- Tea mornings and social get-togethers
These events can be in-person, virtual, or a mixture of the two. Just make sure to keep track of event attendance and interest. If one style of event doesn’t work, it may be a sign to shake up your approach.
7. Gather feedback from the community
Community engagement goes both ways. It’s not enough to post content and hope for the best. Actively engage with communities across your locations and ask for their feedback.
What events would they like to see? How do they feel about your brand? Do they trust you to use their donations wisely? What content resonates with them?
Asking these questions via Claromentis’ online polls and surveys application is a great way to generate feedback without expending your employees’ time. Plus, it’ll be much easier for you to break down the feedback and extract meaningful insights.
Claromentis: One home for your fundraising and community engagement strategies
Juggling your community engagement strategies using disparate platforms will only cause problems. Teams may end up following inconsistent processes, using out of date branding materials, or publishing content without approval. Worst of all, you’ll have little to no insights into your location-by-location efforts. This makes it difficult to pinpoint which tactics work — and which don’t.
To get total clarity across your community engagement strategies, you need to centralize your efforts with the right technology platform.
This is where we come in.
Claromentis is the best enterprise-level software solution for large non-profits looking to improve their donor management, community engagement, and fundraising efforts. Our scalable solution comprises a nonprofit intranet, learning management system, and business process automation platform.
There’s no disparate tools or aggravating data silos. Everything you need to manage your donors, engage your communities, and support your fundraising efforts is available under one investment.
By harnessing the full potential of Claromentis, your nonprofit can:
- Generate and share impactful stories
- Democratize your internal communications — without risking compliance
- Organize in-person and virtual events
- Automate onboarding processes
- Build effective volunteer programs and e-learning experiences
- Gather donor feedback and monitor engagement
- Consolidate your brand assets and outreach materials
- Track fundraising performance across your multi-site teams
And much, much more.
If you’d like to see how our nonprofit management solution can help your nonprofit, book a 10-minute discussion call with our team. We’ll assess your requirements, explore our nonprofit discounts, and provide tailored recommendations.
