When you make a financial contribution to a nonprofit organization, you want your donation to have an impact. In other words, you invest in the community — or world — you wish to see.
The thing is, there are many ways you can give. From text-to-give capabilities to peer-to-peer, let’s review some of the most impactful ways you can support your favorite causes and New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe).
Text-to-Give
Text-to-Give is a simple way to give financially that includes texting a code from your cell phone, to a short code or a phone number. The financial donation will either be subtracted from the donor’s prepaid mobile balance or appear on their subsequent cellular bill.
For example, you can simply text “NYBC” to the number 20222 to quickly yet securely make a $25 donation to NYBCe’s Annual Fund. You’ll then have the opportunity to enroll in monthly recurring gifts once the donation is finalized. Givers also don’t receive any further communication or marketing outreach, so you don’t have to worry about spam or unwanted communication.
Text-to-Give options like ours are an excellent complement to your one-to-one fundraising or peer-to-peer giving initiatives because it’s so easy to use. Include your favorite nonprofit’s Text-to-Give instructions in your social media postings, email signature, or even SMS texts to help recruit new givers and maximize your impact.
Peer-to-Peer Giving & Crowdfunding
Peer-to-peer and crowdfunding are two unique ways to make a much larger impact than a one-to-one fundraising initiative can, and is just as easy to do. Often times, peer-to-peer and crowdfunding are used interchangeably but are actually two different methods of fundraising.
Peer-to-peer fundraising refers to collective donations via one’s network of friends, family, or coworkers. This method is highly effective and unique in that the individual can create personalized campaign pages, which mimic larger crowdfunding pages in some aspects but are more targeted towards a specific supporter and their immediate social network. Custom campaign pages also allow both organizers and supporters to see the total funds raised along with the fundraising goal, which can help motivate and inspire.
Crowdfunding is a broad term that applies to any circumstance in which a supporter chooses to raise funds for a nonprofit or cause by utilizing their social reach, social media, and extended social circles. The traditional method of crowdsourcing may be an online campaign, such as GoFundMe, in which the contributor develops exciting and shareable content outlining a need and potentially sharing a meaningful personal story about the nonprofit.
Such campaigns can go viral because people share them; if the tale is gripping enough, it might move outside the campaign developer’s immediate social circles. Larger-scale crowdfunding campaigns frequently use a centralized campaign website or page, but may not have the campaign tracking that peer-to-peer pages have.
Volunteering
Volunteering is another excellent way to support your favorite causes just by contributing your time and talents in a meaningful way.
Here at NYBCe, for example, we’re always looking for dedicated volunteers to help us meet and greet the blood donors in the canteen, observe blood donors for reactions, ensure the blood donors drink fluids prior to leaving the blood drive as well as preparing the tubes for the blood donations.
We are always looking for volunteers to organize blood drives at their schools, workplaces, and churches. Since the pandemic, hosted blood drives have dropped 25%. We are now collecting 50% of our lifesaving units in both centers and mobile blood drives.
This shift puts a strain on our blood donor centers whereas these mobile blood drives provide blood donation access to an expanded population, regardless of proximity to brick-and-mortar donor centers. If you’re interested in running a blood drive, check out NYBCe’s Toolkit for Success for best practices and publicity material template.
Some blood drive volunteers discover a hidden passion for making a difference and move on to longer-term volunteering as an ambassador, blood drive organizers, blood marrow donor recruiters, or different administrative roles. Visit NYBCe’s Volunteering page for more details about these opportunities.
Online Gifts
Though Text-to-Give is often the quickest way to give — given the ubiquity of smartphones — nonprofits still offer traditional online giving methods, which are just as effective.
If you’re interested in making a financial gift to NYBCe, we accept online donations in just about any amount ranging from $10 to $1M. The process is as simple as filling out the online giving form or contacting the Fund Development Team to coordinate a major gift or legacy gift. For more information, visit our Ways to Give page to learn about all the ways NYBCe accepts financial gifts, including peer-to-peer and text-to-give.