From reactive to ready: Lessons from 3 nonprofits that mastered emergency fundraising

Creating a first-mover advantage

Organization: International Medical Corps (IMC)

Challenge: Support wildfire victims in Los Angeles as the crisis unfolded just miles from their headquarters

Focus: Multi-channel coordination and segmentation

For IMC, a global humanitarian organization that delivers critical medical care, emergency situations are constant. But some hit closer to home than others.

When Jessica Smit, IMC's Senior Director of Digital Marketing, could see the Los Angeles wildfires from her office window earlier this year, she knew she was witnessing what IMC classifies as a "rapid onset crisis." Unlike hurricanes that may allow for days of preparation, wildfires, earthquakes, and flash floods demand an instant response.

IMC needed to deploy its crisis protocols while keeping an eye on emerging threats to their own physical safety.

The response

In any urgent situation, IMC's goal is to be the very first fundraising message that a potential donor sees. "We wanna be that first person in your inbox, in your text messages, anywhere in your organic social feed,” said Smit.

It’s a strategy that sounds deceptively simple, but there’s a lot preparation involved. Before the wildfires, IMC had already analyzed its existing data. "We'll pull donor data from people who have responded to similar emergencies in the past and do more personalized outreach," Smit said.

Their urgent outreach for the wildfires involved four coordinated tactics:

1. Updating their website
2. Sending targeted emails and text messages, including personal outreach to major donors
3. Launching paid media
4. Running lead generation

The lead generation approach may seem surprising during a crisis, but Smit noted that a percentage of leads acquired during urgent situations become long-term donors. "Strike while it's hot, because you're gonna get your [lead-gen] list fulfilled right away," she said.

Using the right messaging is key. In rapid-onset situations such as a wildfire, the first message is intentionally simple, with clear language and a striking visual, like a Doppler radar image.

For slower-building crises like hurricanes, IMC prepares in advance. Donation pages, creative assets, and paid media drafts are built and approved ahead of time.

The results

Despite the immediate threat to their headquarters and concerns about potential evacuation, IMC successfully executed their emergency response plan.

Their coordinated approach across multiple channels generated donor engagement from both domestic and international supporters. "The LA fires had tremendous coverage in Europe," Smit notes. "So we were able to raise funds from there, too."

The wildfire response validated their rapid-onset emergency protocol and highlighted the importance of having pre-written templates and established approval processes—infrastructure that proved invaluable when every minute counted and their own operations were under direct threat.

The most important thing is to notify our donors that we're responding, because people oftentimes latch on to that first person who reaches out to them.
–Jessica Smit, Senior Manager of Direct Marketing, International Medical Corps

Building years of growth with same-day response

Organization: International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

Challenge: Provide support to animal shelters in Ukraine after the country was attacked with zero warning

Focus: Day-of response and timeliness

"You might wonder what war has to do with animals or wildlife. It is a lot, actually," said Anita Yankova, IFAW's Deputy Vice President of Digital Marketing and Fundraising.

So when Russia attacked Ukraine without warning on February 24, 2022, it didn't just create a humanitarian crisis—it sparked an animal welfare situation that most of the world didn't see coming.

Ukraine housed major wildlife reserves, animal shelters, and rescue centers that were suddenly in the path of warfare. Ukrainian citizens fleeing for their lives desperately wanted to bring their beloved pets, but European Union vaccination requirements created seemingly impossible barriers at border crossings. Most shocking of all, Ukraine's extensive illegal big cat breeding operations—housing lions, tigers, and other dangerous animals—left these creatures abandoned in deteriorating facilities as caretakers fled.

For IFAW, a 55-year-old global conservation organization that rescues, cares for, and releases animals back to their natural habitats, Ukraine was familiar territory. The organization had first mobilized there in 2014 when Russia first occupied Crimea.

The response

Before diving into IFAW's Ukraine response, it's important to understand their approach to urgent decision-making. IFAW has a three-tier system for categorizing disasters that determines reponse:

• Tier 1 (Large Scale): Catastrophic impact with global media coverage, triggering full campaigns with ground deployment
• Tier 2 (Moderate Scale): Regional events with global coverage, such as Los Angeles wildfires
• Tier 3 (Small Scale): Limited area impact with local coverage, warranting partner support only

"That tier structure is not set in stone," Yankova noted. "A disaster could become longer than expected. So that's a very fluid situation."

After the Russian attack, IFAW launched their tier one response. Their approach included:

• Same-day activation: On February 24th—the day war broke out—IFAW instantly updated their website with videos and communications from their contacts on the ground. "We put an update on our website with those videos, with our concern, with empathy, with anything we had heard from them on the ground," Yankova said.
• Immediate communication: The following day, they sent stewardship emails to their donor base—messages that updated supporters on the situation and IFAW's response without making donation requests.
• Rapid deployment: Within days, they were sending urgent funding to partner shelters and launching full fundraising drives.
• A single source of truth: IFAW established a single URL for ongoing updates, posting over 60 updates over two years to maintain donor engagement and transparency. "We were posting […] on the same web thread. So it's one URL, and you can follow all of those updates that continue for two years on the same place at the website," Yankova said.

The results

IFAW's systematic approach generated remarkable outcomes:

• 80,000+ new donors acquired during initial response
• Millions raised in urgent funding within months
• 458% revenue growth over five years, largely from disaster initiatives
• Top Google search ranking for Ukraine animal rescue terms
• Celebrity support from Leonardo DiCaprio and Alicia Silverstone
• $200,000 corporate donation from a Japanese pet food company that found IFAW through search
• $600,000+ generated from a DailyKos story that mentioned IFAW as a top organization offering support for Ukraine

Immediately post on the website. There is opportunity there. Just do something right away. Timeliness is of the essence.
–Anita Yankova, Deputy Vice President of Digital Marketing and Fundraising, IFAW

Eliminating crisis chaos with a system overhaul

Organization: Union Gospel Mission - Vancouver (UGM)

Challenge: Identify and overcome operational weaknesses

Focus: Building robust preparedness frameworks

UGM Vancouver serves people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and poverty. During their 80-year history, UGM has grown to provide meals, shelter, addiction recovery programs, and supportive housing at 11 locations.

Often, their emergency responses are dictated by weather. "When it snows one inch in Vancouver, that's good for fundraising. When it goes below zero in Vancouver, that's good for fundraising," said Chris Mah, UGM’s Director of Strategy and Marketing.

But the Covid pandemic tested their urgent-response workflows. They quickly discovered that operational challenges they'd grown used to living with became major obstacles under crisis conditions.

"It was an event where we literally didn't know what we didn't know," said Mah. "No one in our lifetime [...] experienced those conditions."

The response

The pandemic forced UGM to address gaps in their workflows and technology. "We did not fully understand our tech stack, and there were so many loose ends and different people using different things [...] we had to consolidate," Mah said.

UGM discovered they were using multiple donation processing platforms, different email systems, and various databases that didn't communicate with each other. When staff needed to work remotely during the pandemic, these remaining disconnected platforms created chaos.

Most critically, their donor data was scattered across different platforms with no way to get a complete picture of their supporters, or to easily handle compliance issues.

Finally, they had to get real about their over-reliance on institutional knowledge. "A lot of the steps we do just live in everyone's heads," said Mah. "And in an event like a pandemic, we realized, oh my goodness, there's so many things happening and most of us don't know what they are."

That prompted the UGM team to create detailed project templates, including:

• Team responsibility matrices
• Asset checklists
• Timeline templates
• Approval workflows

The results

UGM's infrastructure investments paid off. Mah recalled how quickly they could pivot when an opportunity arose for an emergency campaign with the Salvation Army. "We threw it together in about a week and a half," he said. The campaign raised $2 million over two weeks.

The partnership highlighted UGM's technical capabilities. While the Salvation Army paid for advertising, UGM handled all the complex backend work, including payment processing, receipts, and website development.

"We've tripled our size in the last decade, raising $30 million," Mah said, crediting their systematic approach to preparedness. UGM’s investment in documenting processes and consolidating technology enabled them to react effectively to multiple crises, from extreme weather events to postal strikes.

Looking back, Mah emphasized the foundational importance of preparation: "If you do that, you'll be in a great position to […] act quickly and react to things with [less] stress."

Understand and scrutinize your strategy, your processes and your technology... you'll be in a great position to be agile.
-Chris Mah, Director of Strategy and Marketing, Union Gospel Mission

What it means to you

If there's one lesson that connects IMC, IFAW, and UGM, it's this: crisis response isn't about reacting faster. It's about being ready before the urgent situation begins.

Here are five strategies you can use to prepare in advance of disasters:

1. Build infrastructure before you need it

Organizations with strong systems in place can launch initiatives in minutes, not days. With roles defined, templates approved, and assets ready to go, you eliminate delays and move fast when it matters most. In practice:

• Define roles, tools, and workflows in advance to eliminate delays and keep teams moving during a crisis.
• Prepare pre-approved assets and templates so you can launch messaging and donor outreach immediately.
• Use donation technology built for speed with instant page creation, flexible goals, and scalable localization.

2. Leverage speed to gain first-mover advantage

In crisis fundraising, speed is often the single biggest differentiator. Teams with a documented process, ready-made content, and frictionless donation experiences can capitalize on moments of urgency while others are still preparing. Specifically:

• Prioritize speed to secure early attention and gifts while donor intent is at its peak.
• Launch prebuilt efforts across email, social, and paid channels with real-time approvals to maximize reach.
• Deliver mobile-friendly, low-friction donation flows to turn urgency into completed gifts on the spot.

3. Coordinate outreach across channels

No single channel is enough in a crisis. The most effective urgent fundraising drives use coordinated website updates, emails, SMS alerts, and paid media to create a unified donor journey. With every touchpoint reinforcing the same urgent message, you can multiply reach, build trust quickly, and convert intent into immediate response. This involves:

• Activating donor outreach across all channels from day one to maximize visibility.
• Keeping messaging consistent to build urgency and strengthen trust.
• Using donation systems that adapt content and asks by channel and device to personalize every interaction.
• Coordinating timing and delivery across touchpoints to boost engagement and drive stronger conversion at every stage.

4. Track performance using real-time analytics

Disasters evolve quickly, and so should your strategy. Real-time analytics allow your teams to track performance mid-initiative, identify what's working, and adjust messaging, channels, or audience targeting on the fly. This kind of agility ensures that energy is focused where it will have the most impact while there's still time to make a difference. Specifically:

• Set up real-time dashboards to track top-performing channels, assets, and donor behaviors as programs unfold.
• Use live data to optimize mid-initiative, doubling down on what works and adjusting quickly to stay on track.
• Choose donation technology with embedded analytics to monitor program health and make smart decisions under pressure.

5. Improve future response with post-crisis analysis

Every urgent situation is a learning opportunity. The strongest teams prioritize post-crisis reviews to capture insights, identify gaps, and make improvements before the next event. Whether it's a quick internal debrief or a full program report, documenting what worked (and what didn't) is how you turn each response into a stronger one and build long-term resilience. This involves:

• Conducting structured post-program debriefs to document wins, gaps, and process improvements while they're fresh.
• Analyzing system data to track retention, second gifts, and donor lifetime value after the crisis.
• Building a feedback loop that turns each urgent response into a strategic advantage through continuous improvement.

Start preparing for your next emergency campaign today. Get your emergency fundraising toolkit now.