🌱🐰💰 The Top 3 Fundraising trends for 2022

The Good, the Bunny and the Money is our monthly take on the latest impactful success stories from across the U.S. and around the World.‌
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‌'🌱 The Good' looks at nonprofits leading the way in impactful change;

'💰 The Money' takes a dive into the private-sector champions driving financial inclusion & economic development; and

'🐰 The Bunny' showcases the most promising collaborations between nonprofits and businesses working hand in hand for the People and the Planet.

With the pandemic sticking around many non-profits are still braced for uncertainty and the uncharted “new normal.” Last year, most nonprofits successfully pivoted to virtual engagement, increased services to meet demands and grappled with fundraising declines. In 2022, these emerging trends and others will have critical implications that extend well beyond fundraising and stewardship - presenting exciting opportunities for those non-profits and private-sector partners who build on lessons learned from the last year. In this month's edition we peer into the looking glass

#1 Technology-Driven experiences that shape events (The Good 🌱)

It seems that pandemic restrictions aren’t going anywhere in 2022, and with that Non-profits will have to contend with how to continue to increase the efficiency of their operations, their fundraising prowess and marketing strategies. Innovation will be the name of the game when it comes to building authentic and long-lasting relationships with donors remotely AND supporting those in need. We predict three key trends in 2022:

• Coordination of virtual and real-lifes activities - To enable remote donors to feel connected during charity events. For the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, for example, that meant lighting candles virtually and In real life at the same time. Our partner non-profit Golden Date Men's Chorus opted for a live-streamed concert for fundraising.
• Creative NFT auctions - will bring even more value to event attendees and nonprofits as these non-fungible tokens are sold by NFT artists in exchange for donations. For example, Coca-Cola auctioned ‘loot boxes’ of NFTs, created by Tafi, which includes digital apparel that can be worn in the metaverse. Profits were then donated to the Special Olympics. It’s impactful and engages new donors in new ways that makes them want to stick around.
• Automation and Artificial Intelligence - Automation has historically been a challenge. One study from last February found that more than a third of nonprofit respondents called a lack of process automation their biggest internal frustration. In 2022 we expect to see growing digital maturity to start to lead to novel uses for Automation and Artificial Intelligence in non-profits 1) For attracting donation: Take WaterAid’s ‘Talk to Selly’ campaign, which provided potential donors with the chance to chat to a bot purporting to be someone who would benefit directly from the charity’s support. The person interacting with the bot would learn about how their money would help real-life people who may find themselves in Selly’s situation. 2) Supporting the vulnerable: Is This OK? is the result of a partnership between Runaway Helpline and Childline. It provided a chatbot for vulnerable children aged between 13 and 18 looking for support or feeling pressured. The chatbot asks some simple questions before offering guidance or connecting the young person to a real person for a conversation.

#2 Innovative Collaborations (The Bunny 🐰)

The number of billion-dollar companies is growing, and more than 70% are interested in philanthropy, which is where ‘collaborative philanthropy’ comes in as it’s more than just giving nonprofits funds or resources. Instead, nonprofits and donor-companies collaborate to create actionable plans that maximize their social impact, while also allowing both parties to learn and benefit from the partnership. We expect the trend of collaborative philanthropy to grow and expand into 2022.

• Leveraging the digital ecosystem… Like Yahoo did by collaborating with a range of non-profit partners to amplify Black artists through the ‘Black Art. Black Stories. Black Voices.’ initiative. Yahoo guided 8 artists through a cutting edge NFT education programme, transforming their artwork into crypto art, and popularised their work across the NFT marketplace. This initiative provided these artists with access to a new market where digital art is attracting a premium.
• Unique approaches to scaling activities… Through the GreenLight Fund which creates economic opportunities for impoverished children. GreenLight selects the most effective nonprofits from across the country, they then identify communities most in need, before investing time and money in the chosen nonprofit to get them setup in the chosen location. The foccus is producing tangible benefits quickly.
• Advanced advertising… As representation drives acceptance - what people see and hear in the media influences our decisions in everyday life. So, to drive LGBTQ inclusion in advertising, GLAAD and Procter & Gamble launched ‘The Visibility Project’. The collaboration will advance the tools and best practice for LGBTQ inclusion, while simultaneously ensuring advertising executives don't face backlash from the community due to inauthentic representation.

#3 Efficient & Transparent Donations (The Money 💰)

There are more nonprofits than ever, which means there is more competition for donations. To complicate matters, donors are more informed and have greater demands on nonprofits to explain what will be done with their money before they donate. As people become accustomed to tracking their food orders from the kitchen to their doorsteps, many now have the same expectations when it comes to donations. The efficiency of donation is also key - did you know that currently when you donate $100, the Nonprofit only gets $89 to $97? ($9B is lost each year to donation processing fees!). In 2022 we expect to see a greater focus from non-profits on:

• Transparency: Organisations such as Impact Atlas provide technology that allows nonprofit and for-profit organisations to track the efforts and outcomes of their charitable initiatives. For charities, this means they can reach more people, with better services at lower cost and for donors, this means they can ensure their donations are put to good use. Better yet - they’re one of our partners so when you donate with bunny.money you will be able to track the efforts and outcomes of your donations with some of our partner non-profits.
• Efficiency: Our partnership with Sila enables bunny.money to eliminate online fundraising fees for Nonprofits by using their payment infrastructure as a service. Sila makes use of blockchain technology to create a cost-efficient alternative to channel individuals’ donations to charities in full. The inbuilt bookkeeping functionality provided by blockchain eradicates the need for middlemen in transactions and reduces the friction typically encountered with cross-border donations - reducing international processing and currency conversion fees.

Image Credits: Cover Photo by Drew Beamer via Unsplash; Wateraid; Greenlight fund; Academy Moralis

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