The key is to keep people interested and keep their passion to donate ignited. How do you do it? There’s a little bit of psychology involved here. People choose to donate to fundraising activities because there is a positive feeling and moral well-being involved. It makes them feel that they are doing good and are of use to society. A great way to nurture those feelings and keep the spirit of donations alive is to periodically give your readers insight into what it took for you to build your organization – the hardships that the founders had to face; the successes, the slips, the triumphs and tears in order to persist with the objective of pursuing a noble cause. Let your readers know through weekly / fortnightly stories that you follow a value system that drives your fundraising activities.

If possible, you should send out personalized “Thank You” notes to the donors telling them where their money is being used. If there has been an interesting anecdote related to the cause for which the money was donated then mention it too. Remember, you can’t thank these guys enough. They make it possible for your organization to carry on with the good work.

The internet facilitates two-way communication, in real-time if you like and you should make use of it. Donors and patrons will feel involved if you can ask them about their opinion and ideas on how best to carry out a given task with the amount of funds available. If you do that, you’ll find that they will come forward to help you not only in cash but also in kind. Tell the donors that apart from asking for donations, you are there to listen to them as well. A regular feedback and opinion process should be established by you. You could consider live chats, podcasts, audiocasts, etc to let them know about what’s going on in your organization. You can also arrange a visit for your patrons to personally come and see how you run your charitable organization. Remember, online fundraising can benefit from offline activities, so be creative in setting up interaction opportunities between you and the donor. A great advantage of two-way communication and giving donors a real-life glimpse is that you establish authenticity; they will believe what they see and hear of their own accord and not any marketing spiel. You are running a noble organization and you should steer clear of in-your-face marketing. Involve donors and let them decide.