For every non-profit, fundraising is a core goal. It's important to use the right fundraising tools and implement approaches that are going to modernize everything that you do. 

If your organization has been around for a long time, it can be especially hard to modernize. However, if you don't, you're not taking advantage of all the fundraising world has to offer. 

You need to remain relevant and fresh in a world that can move fast. 

The following are some tips to modernize your fundraising and your entire nonprofit. 

Research

A good starting point if you're just starting an initiative to modernize your nonprofit and your fundraising is to look at what the competition is doing. 

You want to see how they're delivering and what you could take away from that for your own donors. 

In the process, you need to be willing to separate from things that are no longer working. 

Take a Look at Your Current Strategy

You'll want to look at your fundraising strategy as it stands currently before you can specifically create a plan for being more modern. 

What kinds of campaigns do you rely on now, and what do your donors respond best to?

Are there campaigns you have an interest in conducting but you haven't tried yet?

What is your budget? Do you have the money to make tech upgrades? 

What specific goals do you have in place? For example, do you want to grow your donors by a certain percentage amount?

What tools do you have now, versus the tools you'd like to have?

Use Software

There are software platforms that will help you engage your support base and streamline your fundraising operations. 

Some of the features to look for in a fundraising CRM include grant management, targeted email, one-click donations, volunteer management, and event management. 

When you have a unified platform, you'll get the benefits of being able to create well-designed and targeted emails, and you'll have access to extensive custom reporting tools. With comprehensive reporting, you can make analytical, data-driven decisions for your non-profit fundraising. 

Data is in and of itself, an important part of being more modern. You need to know who you're marketing to and what works and doesn't work. Gathering data is one of the biggest reasons to work toward modernizing your nonprofit and more specifically to use a software solution to help you do that. 

Rethink Your Marketing

If you're working in a nonprofit and not focusing on modern marketing trends, you're missing out. 

For example, how are you using social channels? What about email marketing? 

Are you blogging? Are you creating an online brand for the nonprofit?

With this in mind, consider your tone. Does your tone reflect who and what your nonprofit is now, in the current marketplace, or does it come off as stale and outdated?

The language you use across all of your marketing can date your nonprofit, and it might not be a reflection of who and what you are now. 

Is Your UX Design Up-to-Par?

User experience design or UX design is focused on making your website and mobile app usable and accessible by a broad base of people. 

Think about how a donor is going to navigate your website. Is it going to be easy for them to donate, or is your site clunky? What can you do to improve navigation and improve the likelihood that visitors take the action you ultimately want them to?

Do you have clearly-placed buttons and calls-to-action? 

Go Digital and Promote It as Going Green

Going digital in your communications will help you save money and also appear more modern. It will help you stay organized as well. Paper-based communications are not the way of the future. 

As you do digitize everything, you can work the concept of being green into your larger marketing. 

Many nonprofits understand the importance of positioning themselves as green organizations. 

While modernization can be an important part of nonprofit fundraising, you don't ever want to get to a point where you're alienating the donors you can count on and who are veteran supporters for your organization. 

That's why you shouldn't stray too far from your core identity. Instead, you should have a strategic plan for how you can update things while staying true to what your donors want and expect from you. 

Again, it can't be overstated just how much something like a CRM can help you in nearly every part of modernizing your fundraising.