Digital fundraising tips for small charities and nonprofits
This year's M&R benchmarks showed we could learn a thing or two from the agility and authenticity of smaller nonprofits, who have in some ways outperformed larger organisations - securing strong regular giving growth and the most cost effective CPAs on paid social. But with the cost of living crisis meaning many smaller organisations are struggling to keep the lights on, let alone invest in long-term individual giving programmes, digital activation isn't a priority for many. The good news is, there are low-cost and low-risk strategies smaller charities can start to test and learn their way into, to enable income diversification and growth over time.
£32
Average paid-social CPA for smaller charities, compared with £100 for larger organisations.
+22%
Regular giving growth for smaller nonprofits, compared with 9% for larger charities.
37%
Of small-charity site traffic comes from organic search, making SEO a realistic growth lever.
Promising signs for small nonprofits
This year’s M&R benchmarks heralded good news for many digital fundraisers, revealing that online income has increased by 5% across the charity sector in the UK. But one insight, buried in the data, stood out to me more than most. Over the past year, smaller charities have performed incredibly well.
Smaller organisations are acquiring donors on paid social three times more efficiently than larger charities (with a CPA of £32 versus £100) and are seeing the strongest social return on investment, particularly on Meta where 97% of their direct fundraising budget is going. It’s a trend that goes beyond paid media, piercing the very heart of sustainable giving. In smaller nonprofits, growth in regular giving was 144% stronger than it was in larger organisations (with a 22% growth versus 9%), and their regular donors were more generous, too — giving 13% more, on average (£12.25 versus £10.84).
It is, perhaps, unsurprising: 2023 research by the UK government revealed the public is less inclined to trust larger, international charities than smaller, local operations. They’re often easier to identify with and can demonstrate a straightforward link between donations and impact, in a way larger organisations sometimes struggle to do.
While I will always testify to the impact larger organisations make in the world, I’m quietly delighted to see non-profits that are typically eclipsed by industry behemoths coming out on top in the competitive digital landscape for once. Perhaps we have something to learn from the way they’re doing things this time around – in particular, how the public is craving their simple authenticity and often localised value exchange.
Small charities have a fundraising advantage bigger brands often lose.
They can feel closer to the need, clearer about the impact and more authentic in the ask. That does not automatically make growth easy, but it does give smaller organisations a strong starting point when the proposition is sharp.
But there’s a catch-22
While this is a positive sign for small charities, it would be untrue to say all small charities are leaning into digital opportunity. Because at the heart of many smaller organisations is a catch 22 that’s, sadly, holding them back.
On the one hand, some of the smallest organizations have the largest fundraising potential: they can speak with urgency, relevancy, and tangibility in ways larger organisations can sometimes struggle to. They often have hyper-specific funding outcomes, access to authentic stories, and restricted programmes that clearly tell donors where their money will go. All of this is a recipe for effective messaing, hugely impacting the efficient CPAs observed in this year’s M&R report. On the other hand, their focus areas can be so specific that many donors who want to give more broadly are alienated, making scalability a challenge, even if low-level returns are good: while it may be effective to convert a local audience with a local proposition, the ceiling of reach is limited and so is the scale of growth. If by chance they do have a broad appeal with scalable potential, by the nature of their very size, they’re often made up of generalists who may not have the system know-how (or enabling technology) to diversify their programmes effectively.
As a result, digital marketing campaigns and online fundraising are often pushed lower down the list of priorities within many smaller charities. This is, I think, a hugely missed opportunity. And it’s for that very reason that I wanted to write a post, which highlights some of the solutions small charities can look to explore to dip their toes in the digital pond and start to diversify their income streams.
The advantage
Smaller charities can often offer urgency, relevance and tangible impact in a way that feels more direct and believable to donors.
The constraint
They may have smaller audiences, less specialist capacity and fewer systems to turn early efficiency into scalable, repeatable growth.
Getting a basic digital fundraising programme up and running
The good news is, getting a foundational programme up and running is possible for even the smallest organisation. With a bit of elbow grease and expert guidance, a basic operation can be activated and built upon over time. One that doesn't require huge media spends to acquire donors, from the outset — but which does the basics of any digital fundraising strategy right: attract, acquire and retain.
Ways I typically tell charities they can start to foray into digital diversification, if they don’t have huge media budgets, is by leaning into these, three areas:
Use free media first
Apply for Google Ad Grants and use search demand to reach people who are already looking for your issue, service or cause area.
Test paid social carefully
Use low-level Meta testing to learn which audiences, messages and asks have potential before committing larger budgets.
Build an SEO plan you can actually deliver
Focus on winnable searches, practical content and technical hygiene rather than trying to compete for every broad charity keyword.
Fix the donation journey
Make sure traffic has somewhere useful to go: a clear ask, a simple donate form and an onward journey that keeps supporters close.
Keep email simple, but consistent
A small, useful email programme can build trust, support retention and help turn one-off moments of interest into longer-term value.
It goes without saying that it's pointless to get people to your site if you're not going to be able to convert or steward them effectively. That's why it is absolutely essential that any acquisition strategy is accompanied by a clear user journey: from conversion to ongoing retention. But again, there are quick wins:
The power of a good donate form: For donate forms, there are ready-made solutions that are more effective to tap into than laborious, internal tech builds. FundraiseUp is one of many organisations, that offer highly optimised donate forms charities can plug into their websites – and the results can be striking. In a recent test, they managed to increase Salvation Army’s conversion rate to a whopping 49%.
A small (but mighty) email programme: As for email, smaller charities may be surprised to hear that on average UK charities only sent 27 emails to supporters a year last year, or one a fortnight – so getting a basic cadence of comms with supporters is achievable and will go a long way toward improving audience engagement. There is strong potential, here: according to this year's UK M&R benchmarks, email revenue grew by 19% in small charities (per every 1,000 emails sent). And while it was in large charities where email revenue skyrocketed by 160%, there’s huge potential across the board.
Conversion matters
There is little point sending more people to the site if the donation journey is confusing, slow or too hard to complete on mobile.
Retention matters more
The first gift is not the end of the journey. Small charities need welcome, thank-you and email touchpoints that make supporters feel valued enough to stay.
Digital can be done well at all different levels, and the first step is to get curious and get started. Over the years, I've worked with organisations big and small get the most out of their digital programmes and would be only too happy to hop on a call and have a chat about where you are in your journey.
What small charities should take from this
- Small charities can have a real advantage in trust, proximity and tangible impact.
- Digital growth does not have to start with huge media budgets.
- Google Grants, low-level paid social and practical SEO are sensible places to begin.
- Acquisition only works if the donation journey and email follow-up are ready.
- The goal is to test, learn and build confidence before scaling spend.
