How nonprofits can win at competitive online fundraising 

Nonprofit organizations often collaborate with one another to share resources, seek grants, and scale public service delivery. At the same time, nonprofits also compete directly against one another—for attention, for funding, for clients—although this competition rarely gets acknowledged.  

As a scholar of nonprofit management and public service, I’ve explored, among other things, to what extent the element of competition affects nonprofit messaging in an online fundraising competition, and what types of messaging are most effective. Dr. Cali Curley (University of Miami), Dr. Marlene Walk (Albert–Ludwigs–Universität Freiburg), and I observed nonprofits engaged in a head-to-head fundraising competition to try to answer these questions. In this bracket-style fundraising tournament, nonprofits had to out-fundraise their opponents to advance to the next round and, eventually, to a cash prize. This is what we learned: 

In online fundraising competitions, past experience matters  

In traditional fundraising settings, organizational factors such as significant investment in fundraising, more employees and volunteers, and a robust social media presence are correlated with better outcomes. When fundraising occurs solely online and incorporates a competitive design, however, these factors do not have the same impact. One of the key factors correlated with success in the tournament we studied was past experience: Organizations that had previously participated in philanthropy competitions (like this tournament) tended to show better fundraising results. This shows how important it is for nonprofits to understand that different fundraising contexts—in this case, an online fundraising competition—require different competitive strategies and to adjust their approaches. 

Fundraising messaging strategies: Altruism over competition 

Fundraising appeals usually use one of two approaches: altruistic or egoistic. The altruistic approach highlights how the donation will help others and support the nonprofit’s mission, while the egoistic approach emphasizes benefits to the donor or meeting fundraising goals. Participating in competitions like fundraising competitions gives nonprofits a chance to reach new audiences with different messages and possibly tap into the competitive instincts of potential donors by, for example, referencing beating opponents or becoming the organization’s Most Valuable Player by donating. 

However, organizations and individual donors experience nonprofit competition differently: Donors generally seem to be put off by direct references to competition among organizations. Acknowledging the element of competition—especially when engaged in direct competition—gives nonprofits an opportunity to vary their messaging to reach broader audiences and secure the resources they need to deliver on their missions. In other words, it helps for nonprofits to de-emphasize the element of competition in their fundraising messaging. 

In our study of the online fundraising competition, we found fundraising success to be most correlated with messaging using the altruistic framing. Competitive appeals and references to monetization in messaging appear to actively work against better fundraising outcomes. This is perhaps unsurprising, considering that individual donors are unwilling to acknowledge or engage in explicit competition between nonprofits. 

Social media messaging strategies: Focus on the core mission 

Messaging matters, so consider who your audience is and for how long you have their attention. For example, a message on a social media platform like Bluesky or X is a fleeting general blast that reaches different people with varying levels of familiarity with your organization. Candid’s GuideStar or Charity Navigator are more donor-centric organizations where potential donors seek out annually updated organizational profiles. 

Nonprofits should focus their social media fundraising efforts on their core mission and what raising these funds will do—not meeting specific fundraising goals. To be more successful, organizations need to cultivate an intentional and strategic approach to social media usage that responds to the dynamics of their fundraising platform and accounts for the effect of the context in which funds are being raised.  

Lastly, as mentioned above, some resource-intensive organizational factors that boost fundraising in traditional settings (such as the number of employees) were not correlated with fundraising performance in the online competition. This democratizes the ask: Any organization that purposefully engages with social media can see fundraising results. An intentional social media strategy can help even small, resource-limited organizations expand their reach.  

Photo credit: Drazen_ via Getty Images