Why you should run a fundraising content audit this year

It’s a new year, a fresh start for your nonprofit to create new fundraising content that attracts new donors, hypes up your biggest supporters, and keeps you relevant. 

But before you start planning your content calendar, there’s one thing you’ll want to do first. 

And that’s running a fundraising content audit. 

Quality content is in high demand. Your supporters crave messaging that’s well-balanced in delivery, relatability, and transparency. They’re tired of videos, emails, and social media posts that are batch-and-blast sales pitches delivering little to no value.

Fundraising content audits are a health check on how well your content is performing, ensuring everything you create is relevant, valuable, and intentional. 

Read along this blog to learn what a fundraising content audit is, how it can benefit your nonprofit, and what you need to prepare for your next audit. 

Let’s start with the basics. 

What is a fundraising content audit? 

Conducting a fundraising content audit is a bit like spring cleaning. 

When spring cleaning, you’re matching your space with who you are and who you aspire to be, keeping what reflects your personality and letting go of what’s broken, or no longer suits you.

The same goes for your fundraising messaging during an audit. You’re taking inventory of all of your content across marketing channels to evaluate mission alignment, relevance, audience resonance, and performance. 

After your audit, you and your team—because this is a team effort—should have a solid idea of what content stays, what needs to be rewritten or optimized, and what needs to go.

How do content audits benefit your nonprofit?

A content audit spotlights your fundraising copy across all marketing channels, revealing your strengths and exposing your weaknesses. 

Looking at your content through the lens of an audit will uncover potential for your upcoming content calendar:

• Gaps: During your content audit, you’ll be able to pinpoint mission-related themes that aren’t reflected in your current content. You might also notice absent topics other nonprofits are covering that could resonate with your audience.
• Opportunities: Reuse and repurpose your most engaging content into different formats. For example, turn a compelling donor story into a blog post or an educational video into social media reels.
• Brand voice: Highlight content that doesn’t align with your mission or brand voice and give it a makeover.
• Irrelevant content: Do you have information on your website or in your email sequences that is either incorrect or irrelevant? Flag these in your audit to refresh or discard.
• Calls to action: It’s a new year, and you’re ready to exceed your fundraising goals. To do this, you’ll need to make sure you have simple and clear calls to action (CTAs) so your supporters know what action they need to take. During your audit, you’ll see where you’re missing CTAs and decide where and when to use them in upcoming content.

Content audits sound dry, but they can be fun. 

Think of your fundraising content audit as a treasure map leading you and your team to consistent messaging tools that align with your supporters and your mission. 

How to prepare for your fundraising content audit

Now that you understand the value of a fundraising content audit, it’s time to learn the key steps to auditing your content—so you can elevate your storytelling, maintain brand alignment, and create a more strategic content plan for the year ahead.

It’s a team effort 

Running a content audit is a team effort. 

Avoid placing the burden on any one person, including yourself. Stakeholders, colleagues, and even frontline workers have their ears to the ground, holding their own perspectives, and can provide valuable input into what messaging resonates most. 

By involving team members across departments—whether it’s marketing, development, or programs—you’ll gain a more well-rounded view of your content’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. They can help identify recurring donor questions, common themes in supporter feedback, and gaps in storytelling that might not be obvious from a top-level view.

Encourage open collaboration and input throughout the process. Consider hosting a brainstorming session, sending out a short survey, or simply asking your team to flag content they believe is effective—or in need of improvement. The more voices involved, the stronger and more impactful your fundraising content will be.

Revisit your mission statement

Your mission statement is the foundation of everything your nonprofit does. It defines your goals, values, and purpose, shaping how you communicate with donors, volunteers, and the broader community.

Take the time to revisit your mission statement, your main goals, values, and purpose for doing what you do. Before diving into your content audit, take a step back and revisit your mission statement. Ask yourself:

• Does our content clearly reflect our mission?
• Are we consistently reinforcing our core values?
• Are there areas where our messaging has drifted or become unclear?

This is the thread that will weave through each piece of content. Keep your mission at the center of all your fundraising copy. 

What are your content audit goals?

Before diving into your fundraising content audit, take a moment to define your why for conducting one. Do you want to:‍

• Fine-tune your brand voice?
• Compile and organize your content?
• Provide more value-driven content?
• Increase engagement and donations?
• Archive or reimagine stale content?
• Identify and repurpose high-performing content?
• Ensure your CTAs are where they need to be?
• See what content is receiving the most engagement?

 Focus on your core reasons for conducting a content audit. Consider using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals framework to create actionable benchmarks and track your progress throughout the year. 

Create supporter personas

To better communicate and resonate with your supporters, create supporter personas of your target audience—the people who follow you, donate, and resonate with your cause. 

Think of them like avatars you can personalize messaging for based on factors like age, gender, occupation, demographics, behaviors, and hobbies.

Taking the time to do this will set you up for future email segmentation success, personalizing emails beyond addressing recipients by first name and welcoming them into the conversation.

Take inventory of your content

Select an organization tool for your audit, a place where you can list and track content to analyze. For the sake of simplicity, using Google Sheets for the first time around is absolutely fine.

And if it’s your first time running a content audit, don’t fear. Take small steps by reviewing content created within the last few months to start. 

You can—and should—run a few more audits throughout the year for content six months and older once you get a feel for the auditing process.

Do you have campaigns that span across multiple channels? Consider auditing one channel, whether that means your website, your emails, or your social media account. You can do a more comprehensive review later once you get the hang of the auditing process.

Organize and categorize your content

In your Google Sheet, organize your content based on factors like:

• Content location (website, social media, etc.)
• Content purpose (specific campaign, event, etc.)
• Metrics or website page traffic data
• URL
• Target keywords
• Title of piece/headlines
• Topic
• The supporter persona you are targeting
• Where a person is on their donation journey
• CTAs 
• Error pages/broken links on your website

You might have other criteria you want to focus on that you can add.

Use your spreadsheet or application of choice throughout the year to track and categorize your messaging so you’re always ready for your next audit. 

Your audit is your team’s guide for creating content that clearly defines what you do, provides value, speaks directly to your supporters, and includes a straightforward call to action.

A content audit is something that is overlooked or often dismissed, yet is a powerful tool that helps you stay focused on your mission so you can raise more awareness, strengthen donor relationships, welcome more supporters, and ultimately drive donations!

Need help with your fundraising content audit?

We hope this post helped you get a better understanding of fundraising content audits and how they can strengthen supporter loyalty. If you still need help running your content audit, you’re in the right place. Find time with someone on our team to learn more about how we can help you elevate your messaging and storytelling through a human-first approach to content.