How to Get Donations for a Nonprofit

Start with the number that should shape everything else. Individuals gave $394.20 billion in 2025, 63.9% of all US charitable giving. Add bequests and it is close to three quarters. Corporations gave 7.1%.

Most small organizations spend their fundraising effort in almost the reverse proportion, chasing corporate sponsorship and grants while the people who already gave once are never contacted again.

Keeping donors beats finding them

Sector-wide donor retention was 43.3% in 2025. Donor counts fell an estimated 3.6%, continuing a decline that began in 2021. Total giving rose anyway, because a shrinking group gave larger amounts.

A 43% retention rate means that of every hundred people who gave you money last year, fifty-seven will not give again. Acquiring a replacement costs several times what retaining the original would have cost, and the retention work is mostly unglamorous.

The thank you is not a receipt. A receipt says $50 was received. A thank you says what $50 does and that a person noticed. Send both, and do not let the automated receipt be the only contact.

Where to start with no list

An organization with no donors starts with the people who already know it, and works outward. Concentric circles, in this order.

Your board. Every director should give something meaningful to them. Not because you need the money, but because the first question many funders ask is what proportion of your board gives, and the honest answer of one hundred per cent is worth a great deal.

Everyone who has been involved. Volunteers, former staff, people you have served and their families, anyone who has attended anything. This list is longer than most organizations believe and is almost never asked.

Their networks. Ask each board member and volunteer to name five people who might care. Not to solicit them, initially, but to invite them to see the work.

The local community. Local businesses, faith communities, service clubs, neighbourhood groups. Small, local and relational, which is what a new organization can actually do.

Nobody starts with a public appeal to strangers. That is the last circle, not the first, and organizations that begin there conclude that fundraising does not work.

Monthly giving is the highest-value thing you are not doing

A monthly donor at $20 gives $240 a year, usually renews without being asked, and typically stays for years. Recruiting one is worth more than several one-off gifts of the same size.

Three things make it work. Offer it prominently, because most people give monthly when asked directly rather than on their own initiative. Make the amounts small enough to be easy, since $10 and $20 a month raise more in aggregate than $50 does. And watch for card expiry, which is what actually kills monthly programmes: ask your platform whether it retries failed payments, emails the donor to update the card, and tells you when a gift lapses.

Then thank them once a year with a note about what a year of their giving did. Monthly donors are the most valuable and least thanked supporters most organizations have, because their gifts arrive silently.

The receipting rules, which are not optional

For any single gift of $250 or more, the donor needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from you to claim a deduction. It must state the amount, and state whether you provided any goods or services in return. If you did, describe them and give a good faith estimate of their value.

Where someone pays more than $75 in a part-gift, part-purchase transaction, such as a fundraising dinner, you must give a written disclosure of the deductible portion.

Get this wrong and the donor loses the deduction, not you. It is a conversation worth never having, and most donation platforms will handle it automatically if configured.

What actually raises money, in order

Events deserve a note. They gross well and net badly, and the net is what matters. An event that raises $12,000 and costs $7,500 produced $4,500 for an enormous amount of volunteer time. That can still be the right decision if the event brings you people you would not otherwise meet, but decide it on the net figure and the relationships, not the gross.

In-kind gifts, and when to decline them

Donated goods and services are genuine support and they carry conditions worth understanding before you accept.

Donated goods are contributions and are recorded at fair value. Donated services generally are not recorded as contributions on Form 990 unless they meet narrow criteria, such as requiring specialised skills that would otherwise be purchased, or creating or enhancing a non-financial asset. Volunteer time is not recorded as revenue.

Two things to watch. Where a donor claims a deduction for non-cash property above a threshold they will bring you Form 8283 to sign, and signing acknowledges receipt rather than agreeing a value: the valuation is the donor’s responsibility. And if you dispose of donated property within three years, Form 8282 may be required.

Then the harder point. It is acceptable to decline a gift. Equipment you cannot maintain, a vehicle that costs more to run than it saves, a building with liabilities attached, or goods you would have to pay to store or dispose of. A written gift acceptance policy, adopted by the board, lets you decline gracefully by pointing at the policy rather than at the donor.

One free thing worth more than most of this

Google Ad Grants gives qualifying nonprofits up to $10,000 a month in search advertising on Google.com. It is a grant rather than a discount, and it is the largest free acquisition resource most small organizations will ever have access to.

The other free thing worth using is our donation fee calculator, which shows how much of a gift actually reaches you on each of the routes above. On a small gift the differences are larger than most people expect.

It requires maintenance, since the programme has requirements about account structure and click-through performance and neglected accounts lapse. A few hours a month keeps it running, and it reaches people actively searching for what you do.

Questions people ask

How do nonprofits get their first donations?

From people who already know the organization, working outward in circles.

Board members first, all of them, giving an amount meaningful to them. Then everyone who has been involved in any way: volunteers, former staff, people served and their families, anyone who attended anything. Then those people's networks, invited to see the work before being asked for money. Then the local community.

Public appeals to strangers come last, not first. Organizations that start there raise almost nothing and conclude, wrongly, that fundraising does not work for them.

Ask in person or by telephone for the first gifts. Email is efficient and converts poorly from people who do not yet know you.

What is a good donor retention rate?

Sector-wide retention was 43.3% in 2025, so if yours is near that you are typical rather than failing.

First-year retention is the number that separates organizations, and it is much lower than the overall figure, because the overall figure is held up by long-standing loyal donors. Nationally the count of first-time donors who returned the next year fell 10.2% in 2025.

Track your own over time rather than against the sector. A retention rate moving from 38% to 45% over two years is a genuine achievement and is worth more than a comparison to a national average built mostly from organizations unlike yours.

How do we ask someone for a donation?

Directly, specifically, and then stop talking.

Say what you need the money for, say what it would achieve, name an amount, and ask. Vagueness is the enemy: 'would you consider supporting us' invites a vague answer, while 'would you consider $500, which funds a month of the tutoring programme' invites a decision.

Then be silent and let them answer. The most common mistake in a solicitation is talking through the pause because it is uncomfortable, which lets the person avoid answering.

Expect no sometimes, and ask why. A no to this amount, this year, for this project is not a no forever, and knowing which it was tells you what to do next.

Do we have to give donors a receipt?

For any single gift of $250 or more, the donor needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from you to claim a deduction. There is no IRS form for it.

It must state the amount of cash or describe any property received, and state whether you provided goods or services in return. If you did, describe them and give a good faith estimate of their value, since only the excess is deductible.

Separately, where someone pays more than $75 in a transaction that is part gift and part purchase, such as an event ticket, you must provide a written disclosure of the deductible portion.

Send acknowledgements for every gift regardless of size. It is good practice, and it is the contact that produces the second gift.

How do we get corporate sponsorship?

Through a person, almost always. Corporate giving is 7.1% of all US charitable giving, and at small scale it is dominated by personal connection rather than by proposals.

Start with where your supporters work. A board member or volunteer inside a company is worth more than a cold approach, and many employers run matching gift programmes that go unclaimed simply because nobody told the employee they existed.

Local businesses respond to local visibility and to being asked by someone they know. National corporate giving programmes have formal processes, priorities and deadlines, and are competitive.

Be realistic about effort. For most small organizations, corporate sponsorship returns less per hour than retaining existing individual donors, which is why it should not be the first thing you build.

Are fundraising events worth it?

Judge on net, not gross, and on the relationships as much as the money.

An event grossing $12,000 with $7,500 of direct costs netted $4,500, and that figure ignores staff and volunteer hours, which are usually the largest input. Many events, honestly costed, return less per hour than a straightforward appeal to existing donors.

What events do well is bring you people. Someone who attends a dinner has met you, and can be cultivated afterwards in a way an email list subscriber cannot.

So run them for acquisition and relationships, and be honest in the accounts about what they netted. The failure mode is an event that continues for years because it always has, absorbing the fundraising capacity of the whole organization.

Should we do a monthly giving programme?

Yes, and earlier than most organizations do.

A donor at $20 a month gives $240 a year, renews without being asked, and typically stays for years. Recruiting one is worth several one-off gifts of comparable size, and the income is predictable, which makes budgeting possible.

Offer it prominently rather than as an option people find. Suggest amounts small enough to feel easy, since $10 and $20 raise more in aggregate than $50.

The programme killer is card expiry. Check that your platform retries failed payments, emails the donor to update details, and reports lapses to you. Many do the first two and not the third, so lapses go unnoticed for months.

How often should we ask for donations?

More often than most small organizations do, and always with something between the asks.

Three or four appeals a year is normal and is not excessive. The common pattern for a small organization is one appeal in December and silence otherwise, which means donors hear from you only when you want money.

The ratio that matters is asks to updates. Aim for at least two communications telling people what happened for every one asking for money. That makes the ask feel like part of a relationship rather than an interruption.

Let people choose. A simple preference option, and honouring it, costs you very little and prevents the unsubscribes that remove someone permanently.

This is reference information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and change over time. For a decision that carries real consequences, check the current text at irs.gov or your state registry, and talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA.