Developing a comprehensive, effective fundraising strategy matters in the best of times. When the fundraising landscape becomes more unpredictable, it becomes essential.

A strong fundraising strategy considers the full donor journey. That means tracking engagement in your nonprofit CRM, personalizing content, and clearly connecting every touchpoint to real-world impact.

But before any of that works, there’s a more basic question to answer. Can you actually get your message in front of your supporters?

That’s where multi-channel fundraising comes in.

What is Multi-Channel fundraising? 

Multi-channel fundraising is a strategy that uses multiple communication and giving channels to promote a fundraising campaign. The goal is simple. Reach different donor segments across multiple touchpoints, increasing the chances that supporters will see your message and take action.

Why Multi-Channel Fundraising Matters

Multi-channel fundraising matters because relying on a single platform leaves too many supporters out of the conversation.

Take email, one of the most widely used nonprofit communication tools. About 14% of nonprofit emails are sent straight to spam folders. On top of that, the average nonprofit email open rate is just 25.96%. That means a significant portion of your audience never even sees your message, and most of the rest choose not to open it.

Now look at social media. While 69% of North American nonprofits believe social media is an effective fundraising channel, the reality is more sobering. The average nonprofit Facebook post reaches only about 4% of followers.

These numbers tell a clear story. A fundraising campaign that relies on a single channel is guaranteed to miss a large portion of its audience. And when supporters miss your message, donations are left on the table.

Multi-channel fundraising changes that. By sharing a consistent message across multiple platforms, you dramatically increase the chances that supporters will see it. More visibility creates more engagement opportunities, and more engagement leads to more giving.

In a crowded, noisy world, showing up in more than one place is no longer optional. It’s how successful fundraising campaigns get seen, remembered, and supported.

How to Launch a Multi-Channel Fundraising Campaign

Launching a multi-channel fundraising campaign looks different for every organization, but the groundwork follows the same pattern. Before you start creating content or choosing platforms, take time to answer a few foundational questions.

Getting these right up front will make everything else easier.

Start with a Clear Goal

Every campaign needs a destination. Before you launch anything, define a goal your organization is working toward.

Your goal should be SMART. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

That means you know exactly how much you want to raise, what the funds will support, and when the campaign will end. It also means the goal aligns with your current fundraising capacity, not a best-case fantasy.

For example:

Raise $7,000 over the next six months to purchase supplies that will support 25 additional dogs at the shelter for one year.

A clear goal gives your team focus and gives supporters a reason to care.

Decide How Supporters Can Give

Multi-channel fundraising works best when you offer multiple ways to give to the same cause.

You might use a peer-to-peer campaign to build momentum on social media while directing email supporters to a central online donation page. You could also include options like text-to-give, merchandise sales, or event registrations.

Whatever giving methods you choose, make sure they meet a few non-negotiables. They should be mobile-friendly, clearly branded to your nonprofit, and visually balanced with clean design and compelling imagery. From there, choose the marketing channels that make the most sense to promote each option.

The easier it is to give, the more likely supporters are to follow through.

Use the Channels Your Supporters Respond To

Your nonprofit CRM holds valuable clues about what works and what doesn’t.

Look at past campaigns and identify which giving methods performed best and which marketing channels drove the most engagement. This data should guide your strategy, not assumptions.

If most supporters prefer giving through your online donation form, make that your primary giving experience. If your email campaigns consistently perform well and your Instagram audience is engaged, lean into those channels instead of spreading yourself too thin.

Multi-channel doesn’t mean every channel. It means the right ones.

Make Sure Your Tools Can Support the Plan

Before you launch, take an honest look at your technology stack.

Do you have a CRM that can track donor journeys across channels? A fundraising platform that supports multiple giving methods? Marketing tools that integrate cleanly? Reporting that tells you what’s working and what isn’t?

A strong multi-channel strategy only works if your software can connect the dots. Making sure your systems are in place ahead of time will save you stress, time, and missed opportunities once the campaign is live.

When these pieces are defined early, the rest of your multi-channel fundraising blueprint comes together faster and performs better.

Important Channels to Consider for Multi-Channel Fundraising

No single channel reaches everyone. Even your best-performing platform leaves gaps.

If an email lands in spam, a supporter might still see your Facebook post. If they scroll past social, they may respond to direct mail or a text message later. The point of multi-channel fundraising is coverage. More visibility means more chances to give.

The key is not using every channel available. It’s choosing the channels with the highest potential to reach your audience and making sure they work together.

Common channels to consider include email, social media, your website, paid advertising, direct mail, and calls or text messages.

Because so many moving pieces are involved, organizations see the strongest results when everything is connected through an all-in-one nonprofit software platform. When outreach, giving, and reporting live in one system, campaigns perform better and teams work smarter.

Email

Email remains one of the most effective ways to communicate with supporters when it’s done well. It’s ideal for sharing campaign updates, telling impact stories, and directing donors to a specific action.

To make email work harder in a multi-channel campaign, focus on these fundamentals:

• Personalize your outreach. Use data from your nonprofit CRM to address supporters by name and reference past engagement when possible. Generic greetings feel easy to ignore.
• Be clear about impact. Tell donors exactly what their gift will do. Instead of asking for a donation, explain how $50 feeds a dog for six months or funds a medical exam.
• Appeal to emotion. Logic matters, but emotion drives action. Share why the campaign matters and pair your message with compelling imagery.
• Optimize for mobile. More than half of emails are opened on mobile devices. If your email isn’t easy to read on a phone, it’s likely deleted within seconds.

Every email should include a clear call to action that leads directly to the correct donation page.

Social Media

Social media is a powerful awareness and amplification tool, but it only works when content is tailored to the platform.

Avoid copying and pasting the same message everywhere. Each platform has its own strengths.

• Facebook works well for short storytelling, progress updates, and campaign milestones.
• Instagram is visual first. Let images and video do the heavy lifting, with captions that add context.
• Twitter is best for quick updates, donor shoutouts, quotes, and timely reminders.

It’s better to do a few platforms well than to spread yourself too thin. Social media is also where peer-to-peer fundraising shines. When supporters share your campaign with their own networks, social proof kicks in and new donors are more likely to give.

Website

Your website is the anchor of your multi-channel fundraising campaign. It’s where supporters go to learn more, confirm legitimacy, and take action.

To support your campaign effectively, your website should offer:

• A dedicated campaign page that explains the goal, the impact, and how to get involved.
• Clear navigation so supporters can find the campaign from anywhere on your site and arrive there easily from email or social links.
• Mobile accessibility so nothing is lost on smaller screens and the experience is smooth for all users.

Your website should answer questions, build trust, and make giving feel effortless.

Advertisements

Paid advertising helps extend your reach beyond existing supporters.

Two common options include:

• Google Ads, especially through the Google Ad Grant program, which provides eligible nonprofits with free monthly ad spend to promote campaigns through search.
• Social media ads, which allow you to target specific audiences based on interests, demographics, and behavior.
• Search ads, which can appear when a prospective donor searches for you or even a competing nonprofit.

Ads work best when they support your existing channels. You might promote a social fundraising post while also driving traffic to your campaign landing page through search ads.

Direct Mail

Despite predictions of its demise, direct mail is still highly effective for many audiences.

It requires less mental effort to read than email and often stays in a household for weeks. When used strategically, it can deliver strong returns.

Best practices include:

• Sending mail only to supporters who prefer it
• Using postcards or self-mailers to reduce friction
• Including prepaid return envelopes if you accept mailed donations
• Partnering with nonprofit-focused direct mail platforms to reduce overhead

Direct mail works especially well when it complements digital outreach rather than replacing it.

Calls and Text Messages

Take a second to think about where your cell phone is right now. Is it in your pocket? On the table beside you? Are you reading on it right now? Chances are, it’s probably within reach. You’re not alone! People carry their phones with them everywhere they go. 

This makes reaching out via cell phones a highly productive marketing tactic. Here are some strategies you might consider: 

• Use phone calls for pledge fundraising. While many people may be hesitant to provide payment information directly over the phone, they may want to pledge a gift to your campaign. Make sure to provide that option and inform them of the next steps to fulfill that pledge. 
  
• Incorporate text-to-give fundraising. Text-to-give providers enable supporters to give to your organization directly from their smartphones via SMS. Generally, this process works by sending a text message to the supporter with a link to your online fundraising page for them to complete on their mobile device. 
  
• Provide campaign updates. Allow supporters to sign up for text message updates about your campaign. Send occasional messages to update them on the latest activity and your progress toward your goal. 

Calling and texting your supporters is a great way to reach them directly and ask them to give to your campaign. Calling donors provides a personal connection with a team member, allowing them to discuss the cause with your organization. Plus, text messages have an open rate of 98%, so you can ensure supporters see your message when you communicate via this platform.

What a Multi-Channel Campaign Looks Like in Practice

All of these ideas are great in concept, but you’re probably wondering what it actually looks like to host a multi-channel fundraising campaign. In this section, we’ll walk through an example campaign with you. The fictional organization we’re examining is The Puppy Advantage Foundation. 

The mission of The Puppy Advantage Foundation is to rescue dogs in need, place them in adoption, and find them loving homes. However, they’re finding more dogs than they have supplies to care for at the shelter. Therefore, they will raise funds from their supporters to purchase additional supplies for their growing population of animals in need. 

The first step the Puppy Advantage Foundation needs to take is to define its needs. 

The organization wants to obtain supplies for 25 additional dogs. Therefore, they need to determine how much funding they need to purchase the required supplies. These numbers may look something like this: 

• 25 dog crates and beds = $2,000
• 75 additional bags of dog food (to feed dogs for a year) =$2,500
• 25 medical examinations (plus shots) = $2,500

In total, the nonprofit needs to raise $7,000 to purchase supplies to support 25 additional dogs in the shelter. 

Next, the Puppy Advantage Foundation should define its SMART goal for the fundraising campaign. 

Goal: Raise $7,000 to purchase supplies to support 25 additional dogs at the shelter for a year within the next 6 months. 

The next step in establishing this multi-channel fundraising campaign is to identify the giving channels. 

The Puppy Advantage Foundation has found that many of its supporters give through its online fundraising page, peer-to-peer campaigns, and direct mail. They’ve also had good success with pledge fundraising, so they decided to include it as a giving channel as well. 

The Puppy Advantage Foundation uses CharityEngine, so they already have all the software they need to support this multi-channel fundraising campaign. It was easy for them to analyze past fundraising efforts and giving reports to decide which tools would be most effective for this particular campaign.

It’s time for them to design each of these giving platforms for the campaign. Check out these examples: 

Online Donation Page

On this online donation page, The Puppy Advantage Foundation kept the text short and sweet, used a single compelling image, limited the giving form to a single page, and included a prominent “Donate Now” button as the final call to action. 

These are all great strategies to ensure your donation form is well-designed and compelling, and to reduce donation abandonment as much as possible. 

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaign Page

Peer-to-peer fundraising starts with your organization’s campaign page. Then, you encourage supporters to create their own fundraising pages to share with family and friends. 

The above image shows Jasmine Smith’s campaign page. She updated it with her connection to the mission and a picture of her own dog, Fido, that she adopted from the shelter. 

Direct Mail

A large support audience for The Puppy Advantage Foundation includes elderly residents of a specific nursing home. Sometimes the foundation brings its specially trained dogs to the home to socialize with the residents. 

This audience tends to prefer giving via direct mail. Therefore, the above letter includes a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope for these residents to send their donations to the organization. 

Pledge Fundraising

The above image is a call script that The Puppy Advantage Foundation will use to collect pledges for the campaign. 

Now, the Puppy Advantage Foundation can market these opportunities using more communication channels. 

Multi-channel fundraising requires your organization to consider which platforms are most effective. However, it usually requires multi-channel marketing for nonprofits as well. 

This organization decides to market its campaign using the following channels: 

Email

They decide to send an email as the first step in their multi-channel marketing initiative to promote their online giving form. This email addresses the donor personally, requests a specific contribution amount, and provides a statement of impact to appeal to the supporter. 

Facebook

The Puppy Advantage Foundation posts to Facebook to support their fundraising page. This post simply features a compelling image and links to the foundation's campaign page. The imagery captures the eye while the text compels the reader to support the cause. 

Instagram

The Puppy Advantage Foundation posted on Instagram to direct supporters to its online donation page. Their image is of a dog they’re committed to helping at the shelter, and the associated caption pulls at the supporter’s heartstrings. 

Google Adwords

Finally, the Puppy Advantage Foundation leveraged Google Ad Grants for nonprofits to target keywords most closely aligned with their campaign topic. This allowed them to get their website in front of new, interested audiences. 

The Puppy Advantage Foundation’s multi-channel fundraising campaign was a success! 

They now thank their donors for all their hard work. The contributions of these supporters enabled the shelter to save and find loving homes for 25 additional dogs this year. 

Finding the Right Tools

Multi-channel fundraising works best when your tools work together.

Managing disconnected systems adds cost, complexity, and manual work. An all-in-one platform eliminates that friction by unifying donor data, fundraising, marketing, and reporting.

A platform like CharityEngine brings donor management, fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, email marketing, events, direct mail, workflows, and reporting into a single system.

That means less time stitching data together and more time focused on impact.

When your channels are aligned, and your software supports the strategy, multi-channel fundraising becomes not just manageable but powerful.