If your charity is new to online fundraising it's important to be realistic about it's potential. If you are a smaller charity don't expect to simply put up a site, add a donation facility and then see the money rolling in. Successful online fundraising is all about building relationships with potential supporters over time.
In terms of your potential, a lot depends on existing supporter networks, your strategy offline and the nature of your cause. Many smaller charities however - particularly those that have a fairly passive approach to online fundraising - don't raise much of their overall income via the internet. Those that are more successful use their websites and online communications as a tool to engage people, capture interest and then to build relationships with potential donors.
To be successful it's of paramount importance that you develop a strategy. You need an active online marketing plan to drive traffic to your site, plans to engage your audience, to capture potential supporters details and an ongoing communications plan. In addition you need to facilitate the involvement of your supporters - at its simplest via an online donation facility. Online social networking - direct interaction with potential supporters - is also becoming increasingly important.
These topics will be considered in greater depth elsewhere on this site. One other thing to consider is how you will manage the relationships you build with potential supporters. A good supporter or fundraising database system that ideally interacts well with your website is extremely important here.
To get started ask yourself these questions:
i) how will you promote your website to people who are interested in what you do?
ii) how could you interact online with people that might be interested in what you do?
iii) how will you engage potential supporters?
iii) how will you capture people's details if they are interested in your cause?
iv) how will you build (and manage) relationships with potential supporters over time?
v) what will your "ladder of engagement" be for people get involved with your charity be?
vi) how will you facilitate online giving from your site and what other ways could potential supporters get involved with your organisation?
