Most nonprofits know how to capitalize on periods of elevated giving throughout the year, such as cause months, Giving Tuesday, and the year-end season. However, with so much fundraising focusing on maximizing these opportunities, it’s easy to overlook strategies to boost daily donations.
When nonprofits want to grow their capacity or take on large projects, they need consistent, reliable revenue. This allows them to focus on their programs or growth instead of constantly fundraising to make ends meet. To that end, they must implement fundraising strategies that generate consistent financial support.
In this guide, we’ll examine four sustainable revenue streams nonprofits can implement to help them achieve a comfortable level of consistent revenue.
1. Shoe Drive Fundraisers
According to Funds2Orgs, the shoe drive fundraiser is an extremely profitable long-term revenue-generating activity. Essentially, you’ll partner with a shoe drive fundraising provider to collect gently worn, new and used shoes from your community. Then, the shoes will get picked up by your fundraising provider, and you’ll receive funds in exchange.
Although the process looks different for every fundraising provider, this is how it works generally:
- Partner with a fundraising provider. Your nonprofit will decide on a proven and reputable shoe drive fundraising provider.
- Receive a shoe recycling kit. The provider will send you a shoe reuse kit containing shoe collection, marketing, and shipping materials.
- Set out shoe collection and marketing materials. For collection, you’ll set out boxes or bins provided by your fundraising partner. For marketing, you’ll put up flyers, posters, and other signage around your community. Your provider may also give you templates for digital marketing posts, like email newsletters and social media posts, which you can send to your community.
- Collect gently worn, new and used shoes. Your nonprofit’s community members and supporters will deposit their shoes in your collection boxes and bins, which you will empty whenever they become full.
- Coordinate your shoe pickup. Your provider will either pick up the collected shoes or you can mail the shoes to them. The fundraising provider should give you the shipping materials required.
- Receive your check. A few days after the provider processes the shoes you’ve collected, you’ll receive a check for them. Then, you can put those funds toward your mission!
A shoe drive fundraiser can be held as a long-term initiative, giving community members a great way to recycle their gently worn, new and used shoes anytime and save them from landfills. Shoe drive fundraisers are a particularly great revenue stream for schools, as children constantly outgrow their footwear.
If you’re interested in maximizing the funding from this revenue stream, you can pair it with many fundraising event ideas. For example, fun runs, yard sales, or sports tournaments are great opportunities to highlight your shoe drive fundraiser and ask for more shoe donations.
2. Recurring Giving Programs
Donors make regular contributions in recurring giving and membership programs, usually in exchange for small perks. These programs are reasonably easy for nonprofits to implement, as all they require is adding a new recurring giving option to their donation forms.
However, there are still some complexities surrounding these programs. To help you ensure this new revenue stream is successful, answer the following questions:
- Why should your supporters become recurring donors? Donors make gifts for various reasons, but requesting that they make gifts regularly is a much bigger ask. Discuss the tangible benefits of recurring giving to make the option more attractive. For example, when you select the monthly giving option on the World Wildlife Fund’s donation page, it says: “Thanks for making a lasting difference for nature. Giving monthly is an easy, efficient, and effective way to protect the planet.”
- What benefits will recurring donors receive? Although supporters donate without expecting anything in return, offering small perks to recurring donors is good practice. It might include sending exclusive email newsletters with behind-the-scenes information or inviting them to recurring donor events.
- How will supporters learn about your recurring giving program? When you first launch the program, announce it in your newsletter. Then, continuously advertise your new recurring giving program by building mentions into your communications calendar.
- How will we strengthen relationships with recurring donors? All donors deserve recognition for their support; recurring donors are no exception. Go beyond a simple thank-you letter and implement other stewardship best practices, such as wishing them a happy birthday and celebrating the anniversary of their first recurring gift.
Generally, recurring donors give because they’re motivated by consistently impacting your nonprofit’s mission. However, if you’d like to capture an audience of supporters motivated by exclusivity or more tangible benefits, consider creating a membership program. Membership fees are generally higher than the average recurring donations, but in exchange, these supporters expect more significant perks and benefits in exchange for their membership. For example, the Georgia Aquarium’s membership comes with 40% off parking, 10% off general admission, 10% off gift shop purchases, and more.
3. Social Enterprise
A social enterprise is a business designed to maximize profits and positively impact society and the environment. The profits generated from these enterprises are used to fund social programs or nonprofit causes. These types of businesses can serve as reliable revenue streams, as they usually take the form of retailers selling products or services and are largely unaffected by periods of low donations.
Not convinced that a social enterprise will work for you? Here are a few examples of successful social enterprises run by nonprofits:
- Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Run by Habitat for Humanity, Habitat ReStores are independently owned reuse stores operated by local Habitat for Humanity organizations. They accept and sell donated items, and the proceeds go toward helping local families build, rehabilitate, and repair safe and affordable homes.
- Goodwill. Goodwill maintains thousands of stores nationwide to support their mission of helping people find life-changing opportunities and realize their dreams through training and career resources.
- Lost-n-Found Youth. This Atlanta-based nonprofit is dedicated to finding safety and shelter for the city’s LGBTQ+ youth. It operates a thrift store to generate funds to help end LGBTQ+ youth homelessness in Atlanta.
- Friends of the Library (FOL). The Tuscaloosa Public Library operates a used bookstore to raise more funding for the library. Over the past decade, the program has contributed an average of $90,000 annually to the library.
Generally, the most sustainable social enterprises for nonprofits follow the thrift store business model. This allows them to accept in-kind donations from their communities to fill their storefronts, and donors get to write off their contributions on their taxes.
4. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Peer-to-peer fundraising isn’t a new concept for most nonprofits. You’ve probably hosted a peer-to-peer event like a walk-a-thon or giving day campaign. To turn this fundraiser into a more sustainable revenue stream, empower your supporters to create peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns even when your organization isn’t hosting a specific event.
Inspire your supporters to create DIY fundraising campaigns where they can combine their interests with generating donations for your nonprofit. Here are a few examples:
- A supporter bakes cupcakes and cookies and sells them to their community, donating the proceeds to your nonprofit.
- A teacher at a school hosts a read-a-thon for their students, asking parents to pledge donations for every book read.
- A supporter starts a peer-to-peer fundraising page for their birthday, asking for donations instead of gifts.
It’s a great way to mobilize your supporters to volunteer and raise donations for your cause. The key to making it sustainable is empowering supporters to create these campaigns at any time during the year, whenever they feel inspired. Create a dedicated page on your website for peer-to-peer and DIY fundraising, providing all the details supporters need to start their project.
You may also need to purchase peer-to-peer fundraising software that allows community members to create their fundraising pages. To round out your tech stack, check out this list of fundraising platforms by OneCause.
With these fundraising ideas, you’ll secure sustainable revenue streams that bolster your nonprofit’s coffers. Don’t forget to implement sustainable financial management practices to maximize the impact of your funding!