This usually involves looking at the 

• LYBUNTS – donors who gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not (yet) This year
• SYBUNTS – donors who have given in Some Year But Unfortunately Not (yet) This year
• and donors who gave in April – June in previous years

“Hi _____, you’ve given through your donor advised fund in that past. As we near the end of our fiscal year, I was wondering if you had more to give.”

“Thank you. I can appreciate that. At the risk of pushing…do you happen to have a donor advised fund? Many of our donors don’t realize we can receive funds through this kind of fund.”

The post Remember to approach your donors with DAFs appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Donor segmentation, or the process of grouping supporters based on shared characteristics, is a helpful starting point for conducting personalized fundraising at scale. Effective segmentation is grounded in donor analytics, which DonorSearch defines as “collecting, organizing, interpreting, and drawing useful conclusions from information on your nonprofit’s supporters…so you can better plan and execute various fundraising efforts for your organization.”

To help you get started, this guide will cover five of the best ways your nonprofit can use donor analytics to segment supporters for various fundraising activities. Let’s dive in!

1. Based on Demographics

Demographic donor data is essentially background information that tells you basic details about your supporters. Useful data points that fall into this category include donors’:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Marital and family status
• Employment
• Wealth

This information can help you narrow down the best targets for outreach about specific fundraising initiatives. For example, you might use location data to identify supporters who live near the venue where you’re hosting an in-person fundraising event and send invitations to them. Or, you could use employment information to identify donors who work for companies that run corporate philanthropy programs (matching gifts, volunteer grants, payroll donations, etc.) and market those giving opportunities to the supporters who could take advantage of them.

Although demographic data gives general insights into your supporters, keep in mind that it doesn’t fully encompass who they are as individuals. Relying too heavily on this type of information can lead to stereotyping that turns donors away from your organization instead of welcoming them in.

2. Based on Psychographics

One solution to the problem of over-reliance on donor demographics is to also analyze psychographic data, which provides deeper insights into why supporters do what they do. Information in this category that can be useful for segmentation includes:

• Hobbies
• Interests
• Values
• Lifestyles
• Motivations for supporting your mission

These data points allow you to add depth to targeted fundraising appeals. Returning to the in-person event invite example, if the event you were planning was a 5K, you might prioritize reaching out to supporters who live near the venue and are physically active in their free time. But if you were holding an auction instead, you could move nearby donors who enjoy shopping or activities that align with your big-ticket auction prizes (such as traveling or going to concerts) to the top of your invite list.

Certain types of fundraising organizations also see particular success from segmenting donors based on giving motivations. For instance, many universities group supporters according to their relationship with the institution (alumni, parents, friends of the university, etc.) so they can create unique engagement strategies for each segment that align with their specific reasons for giving. Grateful patient fundraising programs at hospitals and other healthcare organizations rely on this type of segmentation as well.

3. Based on Giving History

Giving history encompasses a supporter’s past monetary contributions to your nonprofit, which can help you identify behavior patterns to build on for your next donation request. Here are some metrics to track for each of your donors in this section:

• Average gift amount
• Donation frequency
• Date of last gift (aka recency of giving)
• Preferred contribution channel
• Lifetime value (i.e., how much donors have contributed and/or will contribute during their entire journey with your organization)

Knowing this information helps you ask each supporter to give just the right amount so you avoid overwhelming or offending them while also minimizing the risk of leaving money on the table. This balance is critical regardless of whether you’re promoting your monthly giving program to small-dollar donors or filling in a capital campaign gift range chart with major contributions.

4. Based on Non-Donation Engagement

Monetary giving isn’t the only way supporters can help your organization further its mission, as you likely know. When it comes to data tracking, these other methods fall under engagement analytics. We’ve already touched on event attendance as one form of non-donation engagement—other data points in this category include:

• Interactions with marketing materials—e.g., whether a supporter follows your nonprofit’s social media accounts or subscribes to your monthly newsletter.
• Volunteering in any role at your organization, either on a recurring or as-needed basis.
• Advocacy campaign participation, such as signing petitions or canvassing about a cause-related issue.
• In-kind donations, which Jitasa defines as “any and all non-monetary donations to…charitable causes,” including goods, services, and assets like stocks or real estate.

Understanding engagement history enables you to keep donors involved with your organization between monetary gifts in ways they’ll be receptive to. Plus, if a supporter is unable to give financially for a period of time, you might suggest free or low-cost ways for them to contribute to your mission until they’re in a position to donate again.

5. Based on Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics focus on what donors may do in the future—especially major giving candidates. Although it’s impossible to project the future with 100% accuracy, combining internal and external donor data can help you understand which supporters are most likely to:

• Respond to outreach
• Make a first gift
• Become repeat donors
• Upgrade their giving
• Have the highest lifetime value

Nonprofit AI tools are particularly helpful for leveraging predictive analytics. A predictive modeling tool powered by machine learning can sift through your prospect research data, make the projections above, and prioritize your lists of potential donors for outreach accordingly. That way, you can connect with your best prospects first and work smarter, not harder, at major donor fundraising.

The exact donor segmentation criteria your nonprofit finds most useful at any given time will vary by fundraising campaign type, target gift size, engagement goals, and many other factors. For best results, keep your donor database clean and up-to-date, and integrate as many of your external tools (prospect research solutions, event platforms, etc.) with your CRM to ensure you can quickly access accurate data that tells you what you need to know, when you need to know it. Happy fundraising!

About the Author

Hannah Davis

Hannah Davis is the Senior Manager of Growth Marketing at EverTrue. She works with nonprofit advancement teams to help fundraisers connect with more donors in meaningful ways. Before joining EverTrue, Hannah worked in higher education advancement at the University of Connecticut Foundation, leading annual giving communications and donor engagement efforts. Her experience in fundraising fuels her passion for helping nonprofits modernize their outreach while staying donor-centric.

The post 5 Ways to Segment Donors for More Effective Fundraising appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

As a fundraiser, do you ever look at the calendar or the news or the economy, and think: this is the worst possible time to ask anyone for anything?

You’re not alone.

I’ve been in nonprofit fundraising since the mid-1990s. It’s just about always felt like a bad time to fundraise. There was always logical reason why we shouldn’t be asking for money. The dot-com bust. 9/11. The 2008 crash. Donor fatigue (still a myth, by the way). Election anxiety. COVID lockdowns. A donor gives less this year so we immediately think all donors will give less. There are too many active capital campaigns in the community.

There is always a reason to not ask.

The problem is, not asking isn’t a fundraising strategy.

Your Mission Still Matters

In good times and bad: your work still needs to happen. The people you serve still need you.

And, as nonprofit fundraisers, we get front row seats to people’s generosity. Across millennia of human history, people have been shockingly, reliably generous. Even in hard, confusing times. Maybe especially in hard times.

I think about what happened during the pandemic lockdowns. Some of the organizations I was watching most closely were arts groups, orchestras, theater companies. They couldn’t perform. Couldn’t gather. Couldn’t do the thing that defined them. By every conventional measure, they had no reason to ask and no right to expect much.

Some of them had record-breaking fundraising years.

Not because circumstances were perfect. But because people are generous and they were asked.

The Voice in Your Head Is Not a Reliable Advisor

I can almost hear the objections coming up right now.

• “My board says the timing is off.”
• “My gut says people are stretched.”
• “I don’t want to seem tone-deaf.”

I get it. That instinct comes from caring about your donors. That’s a good thing.

But your board’s nervousness is not a fundraising plan. And the critic in your own head would likely keep you from asking even in times when it’s obvious donors are giving.

You can ask with compassion. You can acknowledge that this might be a hard season for some people. You can make it easy to say “not right now” without any pressure or guilt. That’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.

What you can’t do is not ask and then wonder why the money didn’t come.

Ask Clearly. Ask Kindly. Ask Directly.

I wrote a whole book called Ask Without Fear! because this is the thing that stops more fundraisers than anything else. Not the economy. Not donor fatigue. Fear.

Fear of seeming pushy. Fear of a no. Fear that the timing is wrong.

The antidote isn’t false bravado. It’s asking anyway, with your whole heart, knowing your mission matters and knowing that some people are ready and willing to join you in it.

And in chaotic times, we’ve found asking can be a kindness. In a world the feels out of control, we’re offering something tangible for people to do. Something concrete they can feel good about.

Be specific. Be warm. And don’t bury the ask below three paragraphs of context-setting.

Ask clearly. Ask kindly. Ask directly.

Hundreds of Billions of Dollars are Given Away Every Year

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are given away to nonprofits. Not just the famous ones. Not just the massive endowments. To organizations exactly like yours, run by people who took a breath and made the call.

No organization receives donations by accident. No one wakes up and mails a check to a cause they’ve never heard of. Every single gift, every single year, was earned by someone who made the ask.

You have to earn each donation each time. That’s the work. And it’s worth doing.

So if your organization needs funds, the path forward is simple (not easy, but simple): ask. Ask clearly. Ask kindly. Ask with the confidence of someone who believes their mission matters.

Because it does.

The post There’s never a good time to fundraise appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Think about what you’re actually doing. You’re working to make seismic changes in communities, often with razor-thin margins for error. You’re doing some of the riskiest, most important work that exists. And you’re doing it while navigating a structure most other leaders never have to think about: you’re not funded by the people you serve, and you share authority with a board that makes many of the decisions you’re ultimately held responsible for.

All the responsibility. Not all the authority.

If you’ve ever felt uniquely challenged working in a nonprofit, that’s why. It’s not just you.

One of the things that makes it even harder is that nonprofit work actually runs at two very different speeds. And most leaders, teams, and supervisors only talk about one of them.

Speed One: Fast

There’s a lot in nonprofit work that genuinely can (and should) move quickly. Thank you letters going out the door within 48 hours. CRM entries getting logged in real time. Contact forms on your website responding immediately. Direct mail being outsourced efficiently. AI helping you draft donor communications faster, in your organization’s voice, without starting from scratch every time.

This is real. Tools are better than ever. Automation has removed a lot of the friction from administrative tasks, and that’s worth celebrating.

Your supervisors, board members, and funders are watching this side of the work. They see how fast technology can move, and they (reasonably) expect some of that speed to show up in your results.

Speed Two: Friction

The second speed, friction, is the part people don’t talk about enough.

We can automate tasks. We cannot automate people.

Donors take their own time deciding whether, and when and how much, to give. Direct reports need guidance. The people your organization serves take their own time doing the things that are good for them. Boards move at the pace of consensus. Relationships, by definition, cannot be rushed.

In my experience coaching nonprofit leaders, it is often taking up to twelve attempts just to reach a donor, let alone get a meeting on the calendar. That’s not inefficiency. That’s just working with human beings.

The danger is when supervisors, or even you yourself, start measuring all of your work strictly against the “fast” standard. When everything looks like it should be instant, and something takes months, it’s easy to assume someone is failing. Often, they’re not. They’re just doing the slow work that no software can replace.

Try this: The Two-Speed Audit

Does your work load feel impossible? This simple Two-Speed Audit exercise can help.

Get out a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle. Label one column “Fast” and the other “Friction.”

Then look at your work through three lenses:

• Your job description: What does it say you do?
• Your calendar: Where do you actually spend your time?
• Your last performance review: What really got measured?

For each activity you can identify, ask yourself: is this a fast thing, or a friction thing? Which tasks can be automated or accelerated? Which ones just take time because they involve people making decisions at their own pace?

Getting it on paper helps give you perspective. And, you’ll start to see that you’re not failing at the friction tasks. You’re simply doing them.

What to Do With This

Once you can see both speeds clearly, a few things get easier.

You can give yourself permission to let some things take time. Not because you’re being slow, but because that’s the actual nature of the work.

You can have better conversations with your supervisor about realistic expectations. Instead of feeling like you have to defend yourself, you can walk them through the two-speed reality with a concrete framework.

And maybe most importantly, you’ll be able to resist the temptation to treat people like tasks. When you start thinking everything should be fast, that’s when relationships get transactional. That’s when you rush donors, push people you serve, or lose patience with a board that’s still working through something important.

The fastest path to burnout in nonprofit work is trying to move people at the speed of automation.

Your awareness of both speeds, fast and friction, won’t just help you. If you can help your team and your organization understand this distinction, it has the potential to change how everyone talks about performance, workload, and success.

Both speeds are real. Both are necessary. A healthy nonprofit needs them both to do good work in the community.

The post The Two Speeds of Nonprofit Work (And Why Both Are Necessary) appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of Form 990s, including the different types, staff and external team members you’ll need to consult with, and when these forms are due. Let’s dive in!

What is Form 990?

IRS Form 990, according to Jitasa, is a “tax return document that exempt organizations complete each year and file with the IRS.” Once your organization has been granted tax-exempt status, Form 990s show the government and other stakeholders that you’re staying compliant with the requirements of tax exemption year-after-year.

Due to organizations varying in size and complexity, from newly-created nonprofits to national network organizations, the IRS has four different types of Form 990s, which are covered in the table below.

Types of Form 990s

Why is Form 990 important?

Most significantly, Form 990s are legally required. They report financial information to the government, which allows oversight and holds nonprofits accountable. This measure is in place to discourage fraud, providing a paper trail that the IRS can review. Information provided or lack of information provided (suspicious unrelated business income, excessive compensation for staff members, discrepancies between fundraising income and expenses, incomplete sections, etc.) can cause the IRS to audit your nonprofit. 

There are consequences for not filing Form 990 or filing late. If a nonprofit doesn’t file Form 990s for three consecutive years, that organization risks losing its tax-exempt status. Late filings also sometimes trigger audits and (except for Form 990-N) come with fees. On top of the legal implications, failing to file Form 990 is a major red flag to grantmakers, donors, and other stakeholders who expect financial transparency and proper management from the organizations they make large contributions to.

Form 990s are publicly available, which is how donors and other interested parties can see them. For nonprofits in good standing, this is a foundational way to demonstrate your trustworthiness. 

Alongside your other fundraising staff training, have your development team review the previous year’s Form 990 so they can speak to the information is a good idea. Additionally, although Form 990s are available on the IRS website and through third-party sites like Candid, consider linking to recent returns on your organization’s website so they’re easy for supporters to find.

When should my nonprofit file its Form 990?

Your Form 990 deadline is based on your nonprofit’s fiscal year. The 15th day of the fifth month after your fiscal year ends is your Form 990 deadline. For instance, if your nonprofit’s fiscal year ends on June 30th, your deadline will be November 15. If your nonprofit runs on a calendar fiscal year, it would be May 15. 

As we mentioned previously, there are penalties for filing late, but you can request an extension. Filing a Form 8868 will grant a six-month extension for filing a Form 990. Form 990-Ns are not subject to late filing penalties, although the loss of tax-exempt status for nonprofits that fail to file for three years in a row still applies. 

Who is involved in Form 990 filing?

A good way to ensure your nonprofit’s return is filed on time is to assign ownership of the task to a specific person. This will likely be an accountant or whoever manages your organization’s other financial reporting. 

Here is a breakdown of the different roles that may be involved:

• • Financial staff members: Your nonprofit may or may not have all of the following roles (and may have one person who handles all of these responsibilities). 
    • Accountants are responsible for analyzing data and creating reports that support the overall financial health and sustainability of an organization, including taking the lead on Form 990 completion and submission.
    • A CFO (Chief Financial Officer) manages the financial strategy of an organization and may consult on Form 990 filing. 
    • Bookkeepers manage day-to-day financial operations and would support the accountant by providing the relevant data and information. 
  • Nonprofit board: Having your board review your Form 990 is a best practice that you should document on the return. Many boards have a treasurer who takes charge of financial processes and has experience in the field, so keep that in mind when you’re recruiting and researching potential board members. 

• Executive team members: Because Form 990 also requires information on mission and operational accomplishments, you may need to consult with leaders within your organization for context on decision-making and the impacts of your nonprofit’s activities.

How should my nonprofit prepare its Form 990?

Whether you’re filing in-house or working with an accounting firm, you’ll need to gather all of the relevant financial information from the fiscal year. This includes:

• • Revenue: This encompasses program revenue, earned income, and fundraising income, from cash contributions to non-monetary gifts like real estate or stocks. (FreeWill’s guide to stock gifts recommends creating an acceptance policy that can help guide your reporting process if you accept these gifts.) 
  • Expenses: This covers fundraising costs, money spent on programs, and administrative expenditures. By compiling a Statement of Functional Expense, your organization will have access to all of this information. Plus, it will be organized using the same categories as the Form 990, making filing even easier. 
  • Organizational Details: These include your address, mission, employer ID number, top five highest-paid employees, etc. 
• Governance Policies: These refer to any policies your board has issued, like a conflict of interest policy or staff compensation policy. 

The extent of information needed will depend on which type of Form 990 you file. You can find more tips on the IRS website, and a nonprofit tax professional can help you identify exactly what information is needed for your unique organization.

The Form 990 is your nonprofit’s federal tax return, so you’ll also need to confirm your state tax filing requirements. Some states accept Form 990 as your state tax return, but some have specific additional forms. Remember to issue Form W2s to employees and Form 1099s for any contract work, too. 

By practicing good financial management throughout the year (recording all relevant information, using dedicated accounting software, making and following a budget, etc.), filing your Form 990 won’t be too taxing.

About the Author

Jon Osterburg

Since joining Jitasa in 2010, Jon Osterburg has helped hundreds of nonprofits around the world effectively manage their finances through tailored, outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services. He currently serves as Jitasa’s Chief Operating Officer, is a member of two nonprofit boards, and has earned a certificate for Executive Education from the Yale School of Management.

The post Everything Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About Form 990 appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

After 25 years working with nonprofit leaders, I’ve watched a lot of fundraisers retire.

Some leave well. Their major donors stay engaged, continue giving, and develop meaningful relationships with the next person who walks through the door. The pipeline stays warm. The mission keeps moving.

Others leave a quiet disaster behind them. Usually, not because they meant to, but because nobody thought clearly about what was really happening with those donor relationships. In less than a year and a half, gifts that looked rock-solid start to erode. And the organization is left wondering why.

I know you’ve likely heard the fundraising maxim “people give to people.” Here’s what I have come to believe: donors give to organizations and missions, not because of individual staff members. They’re also more accustomed to staff turnover than we sometimes give them credit for. The average major gift officer tenure is still around 18 months. Donors have seen us come and go before.

That means a good transition isn’t about replacing you in a donor’s heart. It’s about doing your part to make sure the mission stays front and center. And setting up the next person to connect on that same foundation.

If you’re approaching a career transition — retirement, a new role, or simply passing the baton — here are four things you can do right now to make sure the donors you’ve cultivated stay connected to the mission you both care about.

4 Steps for Leaving Your Fundraising Relationships Stronger Despite Your Being Gone

1. Audit Your Relationship Portfolio Before You Do Anything Else

Ask yourself honestly: have your conversations with donors been centering the mission, the programs, the outcomes…or have they drifted toward your personal story and relationship? Both matter, but the mission has to be the center of the relationship.

If you’re not sure, take that as a signal. Start paying attention to what language your donors use when they talk about why they give. If they’re talking about impact and vision, you’re in good shape. If they mostly talk about you, there’s some re-centering work to do before you leave.

2. Re-anchor Donors to the Why

The goal of a good donor transition isn’t “meet my replacement.” It’s something more important: making sure donors stay connected to why they give.

As you prepare to leave, use Andrea Kihlstedt’s “Asking Conversation” questions. Ask them what draws them to your organization. Reconnect donors to the mission. Remind them, and yourself, that their giving has always been about what they believe is possible, not about the person stewarding the relationship. You may share impact stories. But stay curious and ask engaging questions.

And when the new person comes in, remind them of this too. They don’t need to compete with your relationship history. They get to start fresh, grounded in a common mission with the donor.

3. Be Honest About Your Transition

Donors are smart. They can tell when something is being managed rather than shared. So don’t “manage” them. Talk with them.

Tell them you’re moving on. Share what this chapter has meant to you. Let them see that you’re proud of what you built together. Donors are partners, not just ATMs. So treat them like partners. When you’re honest about your departure, it deepens trust rather than eroding it. And it makes the conversation about continuity feel natural rather than transactional.

4. Leave a Relationship Brief for Every Major Donor

This might be the single most valuable gift you can leave your organization.

For each of your top donors, write a brief summary: their giving history, what motivates them, how they like to be contacted, the conversations that mattered, the stories that moved them, what they’ve said about the mission, and any sensitivities worth knowing. Include the small things, whether they prefer calls or emails, if they light up when you mention a particular program, if there’s a family member whose opinion matters to them.

Sure. These notes are in your donor relationship management system. (They are, aren’t they?) But a brief from you adds personality and texture to the relationship.

This document is vital institutional memory. It means the next fundraiser doesn’t have to start from scratch. And it means your donors don’t have to repeat their story to someone who should already know it.

Building donor relationships – ones that survive your departure

The best fundraisers don’t just build relationships. They build donor relationships. Relationships connected around the organization. Relationships strong enough to outlast their own tenure. That’s the real legacy of a great fundraising career.

You can retire without your donors retreating. But it requires intention, and it requires starting before you think you need to.

What have you seen?

What about you? How have things gone well — or not — when you’ve seen a transition happen at your organization? I’d love to hear what’s worked.

The post How to transition donor relationships before you walk out the door appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

This past week, I was at a board retreat. Not facilitating a board retreat like I normally do. But attending the board retreat as a board member!

And my experience may help you with your nonprofit board members.

Begin With the End in Mind 

As a certified FranklinCovey executive coach, I live by Covey’s Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind.

So as I prepared for this retreat, I knew I was investing 3 days away from my family and my work. So I wanted to make the most of this time. I’m also returning to this board after a few years away. I knew some of the participants but not all. And what I did know was likely old information.

As I looked at their LinkedIn profiles, I wondered if an AI deep research project might be more helpful.

Boy was it ever!

Here are the three steps I took.

Step 1: Asking AI to draft a prompt

I am fairly good at writing prompts. But I know the LLMs are much better. So I used this prompt in ChatGPT:

Could you help me draft a prompt for this research project?

Here’s the prompt I was thinking of: I’ll be attending the NSA (National Speakers Association) Foundation board retreat later this month.

We’ll be together for a couple days as guests of [host name]. Can you help me see what I can do to make the most of my time developing these relationships?

I’m interested in developing a new mastermind. And I’m interested in building out my Concord Leadership Group business and my EWTS Coaching company.

Could you research the LinkedIn profiles of all these people, and any credible outside information you can find that would help give me productive ways to connect with my colleagues that would be win-win?

Here are the LinkedIn profiles:

URL

URL

URL

ChatGPT created an amazing prompt starting with: “You are my relationship strategy + opportunity research assistant.” The rest of the prompt was much longer and more thorough than I would’ve come up with.

It was also not entirely accurate. So, like with all things Ai, I found editing the prompt made it better.

When was the last time you looked at your board members’ websites?

Familiarity can be misleading. When was the last time you found out what your board members do when they’re not at your nonprofit’s board meetings?

Over the years, I’ve been helped by Google Alerts. Google Alerts lets me know when my board members’ names showed up in a news story or blog. Great information that helped in building relationships.

But using tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini helped me understand more of the context these individuals lived in between meetings.

Try it this week

What ever tool you use, why not give it a try this week?

1. Ask the tool to help you draft a prompt for your goals. Tell it you’re interested in building relationships with the board members. And give it some insight into your professional goals.
2. Use that improved prompt in a deep research option of the tool or tools you prefer.
3. Identify insights that can help you have more authentic conversations at your next board meeting or dinner.

Not only will you have better insights to those who give of their time and talent to your nonprofit, you’ll also find yourself enjoying the unstructured communications more than you’d expect!

The post 3 Steps for Being More Strategic with Your Board appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Before implementing another tech tool, you need to audit what you already have. In this guide, we’ll cover how you can conduct a tactical audit of your current stack to find missed opportunities for insightful data and increased revenue, plus the tech that can patch these gaps.

Map the Donor Journey Step by Step

The first step in any tech audit you conduct should be to challenge yourself to think like a donor. You need to walk through your own donation processes to see where the road gets bumpy so that you can invest in the tech that will streamline their experience.

For example, let’s say your organization hosts an annual community fun run. If a participant signs up to be a fundraiser, how long does it take for them to access and share their personal fundraising page? If the interface is clunky and unintuitive, that’s a gap that can hurt user experiences and discourage future participation.

Some other common friction points to test include:

• Making an online donation
• Registering for your newsletter
• Signing up for a volunteer shift

Identifying areas for growth in the donor journey is the first step in improving them. Conduct these reviews regularly—at least once a year—to ensure your processes remain healthy.

Address Data Silos and Manual Re-Entry

Having to export data from one system and manually import it into another is a major hindrance to your efficiency and a data security risk. Manual data entry introduces human error, consumes valuable staff hours, and delays your ability to thank donors in real-time.

Instead, ensure that your fundraising tools integrate, creating an interconnected web of information that empowers data-driven insights. DonorSearch recommends prioritizing integration among your donor database, your prospect research tools, and your event management solutions. Your email marketing platform and your payment processor should also be a part of the same ecosystem.

Ideally, an action in one of these tools should trigger an update in the others. If a connection is broken or nonexistent, flag it as a priority fix.

Evaluate Staff Adoption and Burnout

The best software in the world is useless if your team refuses to use it. Sometimes, the gap is cultural, not technical. The root cause of low staff adoption is usually a disconnect between leadership and daily users of the tech. To avoid running into this issue, implement these strategies:

• Poll your staff. Regularly check in with your team to see which tools are working and which aren’t. Ask them about workarounds they’re using, such as keeping side spreadsheets because the CRM is too difficult to navigate. If you find that your team is bypassing your official tech stack to complete their work, you have identified a usability gap.

• Involve staff in the selection committee. If you decide to invest in new technology, it’s vital that you include staff members who will actually be using the tech in the selection committee. This allows you to confidently choose a solution that aligns with your team’s needs and their level of technical expertise.
• Designate a tech expert. When you introduce a new piece of technology, allow time for an experienced team member to become an early adopter. This team member can learn the ropes and advocate for the new system’s uses, acting as a resource for the rest of the team as they grow accustomed to the tech. 

Taking these steps not only helps you identify gaps and ensure you’re choosing the right tech, but also demonstrates to your staff that you genuinely care about their experience and value their input.

Analyze Your Reporting Capabilities

Your tech stack should provide answers, not just store data. If you cannot easily answer basic questions about donor retention, campaign performance, or donor lifetime value, you have a reporting gap.

According to 99Pledges’ guide to fundraising platforms, reporting and analytics capabilities are one of the most important features to look for in your software, as these tools help you track progress toward your goals and rally support. 

However, it’s also important to avoid fragmented data so you can cross-reference results across various fundraising events. This can help you compare which events are best for ROI, participation, and awareness, allowing you to make more informed decisions in the future.

Look at your last board report and reflect on how long it took to compile those numbers. If your team spent days cross-referencing spreadsheets to generate a simple year-over-year comparison, that’s a sign your tech stack is failing you. Effective technology should automate reporting so you spend your time on more high-priority strategic tasks.

By mapping the donor journey, hunting down data silos, checking in on staff adoption, and testing your reporting, you can build a streamlined ecosystem that supports your mission.

With these insights in mind, you can make strategic decisions regarding whether it’s time to invest in a new tool or to enhance the connections between tools you already have. When your systems work together, your team can focus less on data entry and more on building the relationships that drive your mission forward.

About the Author

Vinay Anne

Vinay Anne is the Founder and CEO of 99Pledges, a peer-to-peer fundraising platform trusted by hundreds of schools, booster clubs, and youth teams to launch engaging, effective fundraisers with ease.

Vinay leads 99Pledges in combining intuitive technology with online fundraising strategy to empower engaging community campaigns like Walk-a-thons and Read-a-thons. With extensive experience in fundraising technology, Vinay is committed to helping community organizations maximize fundraising impact while minimizing administrative effort.

The post How to Identify Gaps in Your Fundraising Tech Stack appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

With all the receipting and reporting you need to do this week, it’s easy to forget the most important part of the fundraising process: thanking.

Ok. The second most important. Asking is obviously more important.

But thanking is hugely important.

Survey after survey shows the top reason donors don’t give a second time: they never learned their first gift made a difference.

The best way for donors to realize their gift matters? THANK THEM. 

Thanking doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be handwritten thank you notes.

Or actual phone calls. (In most cases you’ll simply be leaving a message.)

All you need to say is:

Hi [donor name],

Thank you so much for your gift last year. We couldn’t do [your impact] without support of generous people like you.

Thank you,

[Your name]

That’s it.

If you’re a board member, start with “My name is _____. I’m on the board of ______ and the staff tells me you made a gift last year. Thank you so much…” then continue with the rest of the script above.

Longtime fundraising expert Jay Love says the best use of an Executive Director’s or CEO’s time is thanking. He recommends taking the dollar amount of all last years donations and dividing that by the number of donors. This helps you figure out an “average gift size.”

According to Jay, an Executive Director/CEO should call to thank everyone who gives over the average gift say.

When that become 50% of an Executive Director’s or CEO’s day, every work day, only then can you look to delegate it to staff or others.

Thanking is that important.

So block time on your calendar now to thank.

What if you make a call and the donor actually answers? I give an additional script on this thank you script page.

The post Now’s the time to thank [script included] appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Reliance on one-time funds is always a bit risky, and it’s during uncertain times that these risks are most apparent. But the key to breaking this cycle isn’t finding the right fundraiser. Instead, it’s building a diverse and sustainable revenue model that will sustain your nonprofit long-term.

Let’s look at some best practices your organization can implement to generate sustainable funding through reliable income streams.

1. Strengthen Connections With Existing Supporters

Your most sustainable revenue source is your current supporter base. After all, it’s far more cost-effective to retain an existing donor than it is to acquire a new one—research shows that nonprofits spend about $0.20 per dollar raised to retain existing donors. In contrast, it costs $1.50 per dollar raised to acquire a brand-new donor.

The foundation of a strong supporter base is building relationships that go beyond just asking for money. Here are a few key techniques for improving donor relationships:

• Prioritize donor recognition. Ideally, your nonprofit should send a donation receipt immediately after receiving a gift to confirm that the payment went through. Add a quick thank-you to your donation receipts, then send a longer message of gratitude within 48 hours of the gift. This is the first step to showing donors that you appreciate their support and lays the groundwork for securing a second gift.
• Invite supporters to engage with your mission. Not every message you send should be a donation ask. Instead, mix in messages that tell them about upcoming events, share good news, or even offer a look behind the scenes. You may even invite them to consider other forms of engagement, such as volunteering, making in-kind gifts, and joining your legacy giving society.

• Leverage donor segmentation. Your supporters are unique, which means they’re interested in different aspects of your nonprofit. Segment your donors based on shared characteristics to ensure the content you send them is relevant and tailored to their needs. For instance, you may send supporters who’ve recently volunteered at an event a heartfelt thank-you and a list of upcoming volunteer opportunities they might want to consider.
• Share your nonprofit’s impact. Donors want to know that your nonprofit is a responsible steward of their funds and that their gifts are being used to further your mission. Share both qualitative and quantitative details about your nonprofit’s impact to demonstrate that they’ve made your successes possible. For example, you can share statistics about your recent fundraising event, including the amount raised, as well as impact stories from beneficiaries discussing how the funds have positively affected them.

Strong donor relationships result in more than just additional gifts. When your supporters feel connected to and passionate about your mission, they’re more likely to spread the word about your nonprofit and advocate for it on their own time. For example, your most loyal supporters may be open to helping your organization fundraise through peer-to-peer campaigns. This extends your reach at a very low cost, all powered by the trust you’ve built.

2. Establish a Recurring Giving Program

Predictability is a significant part of sustainable revenue. Instead of relying solely on one-time gifts, you can make giving more reliable with a monthly giving program. Recurring donors provide a steady stream of funding that you can count on, month after month.

Start by building a monthly giving option directly into your nonprofit’s website. This option should be featured alongside your one-time giving option. It can be as simple as a checkbox labeled “Make this a monthly gift?” next to your options for one-time giving amounts. That way, it’s easy for donors to decide on and commit to making a recurring donation.

Bloomerang also recommends optimizing your donation page and ensuring that the giving process is simple before you launch your recurring giving program. Make sure that your donation page is branded to your nonprofit, the form only asks for necessary information, and the page is optimized for all screen sizes. Also, ensure it complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and that your donation processor accepts multiple payment options.

Then promote your monthly giving program in your nonprofit’s communications, including your email newsletter and through social media posts. Emphasize the impact of consistent support and discuss how a monthly gift provides stability for your core programs in these messages.

3. Inspire High-Profit In-Kind Giving

Sustainable revenue isn’t limited to monetary gifts. In-kind donations (or non-cash gifts of goods and services) can fill the gap, as many supporters are eager to give tangible items. The key is to channel this generosity by ensuring donors understand what your organization actually needs.

For example, online wishlist fundraisers let you ask supporters to purchase specific items on behalf of your nonprofit, from office supplies to event materials. This directs in-kind giving to your exact needs, reducing operational costs. You may also publish a list of in-kind gifts you’re looking for directly on your website, so supporters can donate secondhand items they no longer need but that you could use.

Another powerful model is monetizing your in-kind gifts. For instance, let’s say you follow Funds2Orgs’s advice to host a shoe drive fundraiser. Instead of asking community members to donate money, you’ll ask them to give you gently worn, used and new shoes. Your shoe drive fundraising partner will handle all of the logistics and send your nonprofit funds for the pairs you collect, allowing you to easily turn donated shoes into cash.

4. Build Corporate & Social Partnerships

Building direct partnerships with local businesses creates a sustainable, mutually beneficial revenue stream. This moves your nonprofit’s corporate connections beyond just employee matching or one-off volunteer programs into mutually beneficial relationships that require more cultivation but offer significant long-term returns.

Start small by approaching local businesses to sponsor a program or event. In exchange for funding, you can offer brand visibility to your engaged audience. Another option is a cause marketing campaign, where a business agrees to donate a percentage of sales from a specific product to your nonprofit. Frame these opportunities as ways to enhance the business’s reputation and gain access to your supporters as prospective customers.

This strategy is effective because it leverages the company’s existing brand and customer base to generate revenue for your cause. It’s a low-cost way to tap into a new audience and secure funding that is often tied to a company’s marketing budget, not just its philanthropic one.

Sustainable nonprofit revenue relies on building a resilient model from several high-impact, low-effort practices. Start by picking one of these ideas to implement. Over time, you can build upon and expand your sustainable revenue model, creating a stronger foundation for your mission’s future.

About the Author

Linda N. Spencer

Linda N. Spencer is a global philanthropy strategist and storytelling catalyst who bridges the worlds of philanthropy and narrative creation. She has over two decades of senior-level experience raising more than $200 million for nonprofit causes. One way Linda pursues her passion for making a positive impact in the world is through professional storytelling. She believes in the classical definition of philanthropy, which involves asking people to believe in something bigger than themselves. She is a member of the Funds2Orgs team as their lead content strategist.

The post 4 Best Practices for Sustainable Nonprofit Revenue appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

• 36% of nonprofits ended 2024 in an operating deficit.
• 84% of organizations with government funding expect cuts to that funding.
• Over half of survey respondents (52%) have 3 months or less cash on hand, and 18% have one month or less cash on hand.

However, achieving financial resilience is more than cutting costs—it requires strategic foresight and robust financial systems. This guide presents strategies for building nonprofit financial resilience, even in times of economic uncertainty.

Access Outsourced Expertise

To achieve financial security, your nonprofit must first acquire necessary support through fundraising activities. Then, your team must manage and allocate those funds effectively.  

However, many small- to mid-sized nonprofits lack the financial expertise needed to strategize in these areas, and they certainly lack the funds to hire a full-time, in-house expert. Instead, nonprofits can consult with specialized professionals, such as:

• A fractional CFO: A nonprofit CFO manages your organization’s broader financial strategy. According to Chazin’s overview of nonprofit CFOs, outsourcing this responsibility provides deep financial knowledge and strategic assistance on an as-needed or scalable basis, keeping costs manageable..
• A fundraising coach: Your nonprofit can also benefit from fundraising advising through a dedicated coach who provides tactical guidance on strengthening and diversifying revenue streams. A fundraising coach will help you develop a resilient strategy that maximizes your organization’s revenue potential, ensuring your income is secure even in times of uncertainty.

The return on investment (ROI) for these outsourced services greatly outweighs the cost of hiring someone in-house or tackling these strategies alone. Not only does a professional’s expertise set your team up for success, but they also provide an objective perspective of your nonprofit’s approach and make suggestions based on their years of experience in the sector.

Practice Strong Financial Tracking and Reporting

To evaluate your nonprofit’s finances and identify areas for improvement, start by organizing your financial data. Financial statements summarize key financial figures, making them helpful tools for assessing your organization’s income and expenses.

These reports each detail different aspects of your nonprofit’s financial health, and they’re essential for completing most 501(c)(3) organizations’ Form 990 tax returns. Understanding the various types of statements is the first step toward using them strategically:

• Statement of Activities: This statement presents your organization’s revenues and expenses over a specific period of time, detailing the sources of your funding and how you’ve used those funds.
• Statement of Financial Position: This statement, also known as a balance sheet, provides an overview of your nonprofit’s assets, liabilities, and net assets at a specific point in time. 
• Statement of Cash Flow: This statement details how cash moved in and out of your organization over a period. It categorizes your nonprofit’s transactions by operating, investing, and financing activities.
• Statement of Functional Expenses: This statement categorizes expenses by function (i.e., management versus fundraising costs) to clearly show stakeholders how your nonprofit allocated funds to support its mission.

Beyond supporting internal budgeting decisions, financial statements also make it easy to communicate your financial performance to stakeholders. The nonprofit financial landscape is unique in that accountability and trust should be your organization’s end goal. Transparency is a key factor in acquiring support through effective fundraising appeals, as well as securing buy-in from your board, staff, and external stakeholders for various operational decisions.

Diversify Revenue Streams

A common pitfall for many nonprofits is relying too heavily on a single funding source. While scouring the best grant databases for one substantial source of funding or securing a major government contract can lead to significant financial support, relying too heavily on that revenue can leave your organization in dire straits if it goes away.

When economic conditions are uncertain, a lack of revenue diversification directly threatens mission continuity. To safeguard against potential funding lapses, nonprofits should utilize their financial data to determine which programs are most sustainable and identify gaps in potential revenue streams.

Identifying untapped revenue opportunities will require your team to think creatively. Consider alternative giving methods, such as:

• Non-cash donations, such as contributions of food for your beneficiaries or discounted marketing services from a professional agency
• Recurring giving, through which donors may commit to contributing at a recurring frequency, like monthly or quarterly
• Events, which may raise funds for your mission through admissions, concessions, activities, or simply promoting your donation page
• Corporate giving, such as event sponsorships, matching gifts programs, or other forms of support, through which a corporation aims to improve its social impact 
• Various types of planned gifts, like bequests or charitable gift annuities (CGAs)

Revenue diversification creates a safety net that can be further strengthened by effective operating reserve policies. Set aside a “rainy day” fund for your organization, ensuring you have the cash on hand you need to manage unexpected shifts in the economic environment.

Again, consulting a fundraising professional and a financial expert is invaluable here. A fundraising coach can offer strategic guidance for exploring new revenue streams, and a professional accountant can help ensure that your financial systems are ready to accurately track and report new fundraising dollars.

Building financial resilience is a strategic effort that requires proactive decisions in three core areas: securing expert guidance, maintaining rock-solid financial transparency, and actively diversifying your funding streams. This approach enables you to establish a solid financial foundation, resulting in better-informed, more impactful decisions.

Review your current financial processes and conduct a full financial assessment of your organization. When your financial house is in order, your organization can move past funding stress and focus entirely on the mission it was created to fulfill.

About the Author

Jackie McLaughlin, CPA, Quality Control and Learning Manager at Chazin & Company

Jackie is a seasoned accounting professional with over 35 years of accounting experience, 18 years specific to nonprofit accounting. She started her career as an auditor with KPMG where her client base consisted of tech startups. From there, she worked for Fortune 500 companies in audit management and internal audit.

Returning to her passion for startups, Jackie has since dedicated her training and expertise to the nonprofit sector. She is currently responsible for quality control, training, and financial reviews, through which she helps nonprofits achieve financial integrity and operational excellence.

The post How to Build Financial Resilience in Times of Uncertainty appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

These well meaning people are smart, creative, resourceful. But their fall fundraising letters are just wrong.

The Problem: Instinct Over Evidence

I recently listened to Michael Bungay Stanier’s podcast Change Signal, where he interviewed Dave Ulrich about courage and decision-making. Dave raised a crucial question for leaders: “When do you trust your instincts versus when do you trust data?”

“When do you trust your instincts versus when do you trust data?”
– Dave Ulrich, on the Change Signal podcast

This question cuts right to the heart of what I’m seeing with these awful fundraising appeals.

Too many first-time fundraisers, program officers, executive directors, and board members are trusting their instincts instead of looking at the data.

They’re totally ignoring that data.

And we have mountains of data. We’ve been asking people for money for millennia, and our research methodology gets better every year. We know what helps it takes to communicate clearly to people and motivate them to take action.

Yet well-meaning leaders continue to create appeals based on what seems “logical” or “professional”—completely ignoring what actually works. Even organizations who have a track record of world class fundraising letters are throwing it away based on uninformed, untested “hunches.”

The Three Biggest Mistakes that are Killing Your Fundraising Letter

Mistake #1: Trying to Educate About Your Organization

The appeals I’m seeing are trying to educate donors about the nonprofit itself. They list all the different programs, describe various scholarships, talk about all the varied outcomes, and detail every wonderful thing the organization does.

This. Doesn’t. Work.

Education is needed. But not educating about your nonprofit.

Appeals that raise funds educate donors about the problem their gift will impact. Tell people about the problem boldly and clearly, without suggesting it’s already solved. You’re inviting them to be part of the solution.

If the problem is already solved, then your nonprofit is no longer needed.

Donors don’t know about the problem. It’s your job to tell them. In detail.

Appeals that raise funds educate donors about the problem not about the nonprofit.

Mistake #2: Thanking Donors

Thanking donors is incredibly important. But not in an appeal to raise money.

When you thank donors in the same piece where you’re asking for money, you confuse them. They think, “Oh, you’ve got this all set. I’m glad my previous gift was helpful. (Even though I don’t even remember making a previous gift.)” So they throw the letter away or delete the email and look for a nonprofit that really needs their money.

You need to have the courage to clearly ask donors to donate and be part of the solution.
Not because they’re superheroes.
Not because they have more power.
Not because they are better human beings than the people their gift will help.

Because they can be part of something meaningful. Something that is in line with their values. And something human beings have been doing for millennia—helping each other.

Mistake #3: Creating Graphically Designed “Brochures”

The third major mistake I’m seeing is that these appeals look like brochures. They have lots of colors, multiple fonts, design offsets, and fancy layouts.

They look really pretty. But they don’t work to raise funds.

Fundraising appeals that work are letters. Letters are sent from one person to another person.

When your appeal looks like a polished brochure, it signals “completed thing,” “we’ve got things under control here” rather than a personal request for a another person to take action. It’s no longer one person asking another person to help.

Worse, these graphically produced appeals are also incredibly hard for older eyes to read. And your best responders tend to be older donors. Use a serif font at 13 points or larger, not tiny type squeezed into a designer layout.

5 Fixes for These Fatal Flaws in Your Fundraising Letter

Here’s what actually works:

1. Write a letter

A real letter, from one person to another.

• Use their address at the top.
• Greet them by name.
• Have a clear P.S. that sums up the problem, the amount you’re asking them for, and the deadline for them to make that donation.

And have it signed by one person, not a committee.

2. Clearly state the problem

Be honest and tell donors that life is not okay. Things aren’t great. There is a wrong that needs to be addressed.

Be intellectually honest without objectifying the people or situation. Clearly give donors a reason to take action.

3. Ask clearly and early

Put the ask up front: “Your gift of $50 will help resolve this situation.” And ask throughout the letter.

4. Make your fundraising letter scannable

Use short paragraphs, underlining, bolding, and bulleted lists.

Donors aren’t sitting around waiting to thoroughly read your fundraising letter. They are super busy. Probably reading your letter over the trash can.

It’s your job to help busy donors quickly grasp your message and easily understand what action you’d like them to take.

5. Weed your letter

Once you have the letter, remove every reference to your nonprofit. As fundraising expert Steven Screen says, “Donors aren’t stupid, but they’re busy.”

They know you sent the letter. They know the donation will be to your nonprofit. They’re not stupid.

So remove all the times you name your nonprofit. Remove every “we,” “our,” and “ours.” If your initial phrase is “your gift of $72 to our mission will…” cross out the to our mission to make the phrase: “your gift of $72 will…”

Donors know who you are. Your logo is on the envelope. Instead, weed your letter so the reader can focus. They should be thinking:

• “Oh, here’s a problem. Will I help?”
• Not, “Wow, that nonprofit seems great.”

Trust the Data, Then Trust Your Instincts

These three changes will drastically increase the results of your fundraising appeals. We have data on this.

Donors have even more reasons to be distracted this year. Now is not the time to trust your instinct without checking the evidence we have on fundraising letters.

Once you start seeing the results from following proven best practices, then you can trust your instincts and tweak based on what you’re learning. But start with what we know works—what thousands of organizations have tested and proven over decades of direct response fundraising.

Your mission is too important to ignore the evidence.

The post The 3 Biggest Mistakes that are Killing Your Fall Fundraising Letter appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Yeah, me too.

It’s easy to panic. Especially if the board mistakenly thinks that you “just” need to find 50 people to give $1,000.

The Power of a Gift Range Calculator

Based on studies of successful campaigns, we’ve found they typically contain:

• One gift = 10-25% of your total goal
• One gift = 7.5-15% of your goal
• Two gifts = 5-10% of your goal each
• And so on down the pyramid

• 1 donor who can give $12,500
• 1 donor at $7,500
• 2 donors at $5,000
• Plus smaller gifts to complete the campaign

Suddenly that intimidating number becomes a more constructive conversation: “Who do we know that could give at these levels?”

You can do this yourself at https://GiftRangeCalculator.com/

Turn Panic Into Planning

Here’s why I love this approach:

• For you: It transforms “find money somewhere” into “who are the five people we can first talk to?”
• For your board: When someone says “Let’s raise a million dollars!”, you can respond with enthusiasm instead of despair. Pull out the calculator and ask: “Great! Who are the 5 people we know who could give $250,000?”
• For donors: When you show them the gift range chart, they feel relief. “Oh good—you’re not asking me to fund this entire thing.”

The Best Part?

If you follow the gift levels from the Gift Range Calculator and all gifts come through, you’ll raise more than your goal.

Because when people see a fundraising campaign is going to succeed, they want to be part of it. Late gifts pour in.

And is exceeding goal a problem? I don’t think so.

I taught this as part of my “Ask Without Fear!^® – the Essentials” session last week. DonorSearch was kind enough to post it on YouTube.

The Ask Without Fear! Essentials video is on YouTube at:
https://youtu.be/CX8keuV4LEs?si=k1QbQ2BQIJknCd58

Goals aren’t just for fundraising. If you want help with your personal and professional goalsetting for all of 2026, join us for Magnetize 2026! Learn more and sign up at: https://concordleadershipgroup.com/magnetize-2026

The post Stop panicking about your fundraising goal (there’s a formula for that) appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

All the while, they need to keep the mission front and center. Unlike traditional event planners, their work goes beyond logistics; every choice supports a cause and strengthens community impact.

In this article, you’ll step into the life of a nonprofit event planner in the weeks leading up to an event. From morning planning sessions to evening wrap-ups, you’ll see how passion, organization, and creativity come together to make every event a success.

What Does a Nonprofit Event Planner Do?

A nonprofit event planner is responsible for turning an organization’s mission into memorable experiences that inspire action and raise support. Their work blends creativity with strategy, ensuring that every event aligns with the organization’s goals, whether that’s raising funds, growing awareness, or deepening community relationships.

A typical day in the life of an event planner involves managing a wide range of responsibilities. Nonprofit event planners handle:

• Event budgeting and resource allocation to do more with limited funds.
• Vendor coordination to ensure every detail runs smoothly and the guests have a well-rounded experience.
• Volunteer management to support event setup, registration, and guest experience at a lower cost.
• Sponsorship and donor outreach to secure essential financial support.
• Marketing and communications to promote the event and engage the community.

To thrive in this role, a planner needs more than organization and multitasking skills. They must be strong communicators, imaginative thinkers, adaptive, and quick problem-solvers. More than anything else, they must be deeply committed to your cause!

Benefits of Having a Nonprofit Event Planner

Partnering with a dedicated nonprofit event planner offers significant advantages that directly benefit your mission and bottom line. Their unique expertise ensures that every detail, from the largest sponsorship to the smallest logistical choice, drives maximum impact. In particular, a nonprofit event planner:

• Frees up team time: A dedicated event planner handles all the logistics, empowering your core staff (leadership and development) to focus on donor engagement and mission-critical work.
• Maximizes fundraising ROI. Planners are experts at structuring the financial aspects of an event (sponsorships, auctions, appeals). Their experience helps you optimize every revenue stream, often leading to a higher return on investment than events planned by in-house staff.
• Elevates the guest experience. They ensure a polished, cohesive, and seamless experience for every attendee. A better-executed event translates directly into higher donor satisfaction and strengthens their commitment to your cause.
• Reduces stress and manages risk. A professional brings a proactive, solutions-focused mindset. They anticipate problems, prepare for contingencies, and handle last-minute troubleshooting, protecting your organization’s reputation and reducing stress for your entire team.
• Allocates your budget strategically. Planners know how to negotiate with vendors and allocate resources to do more with limited funds, ensuring that every dollar spent directly supports the event’s fundraising goals.

A Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Event Planner

Morning: Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Event

The morning hours set the tone for the entire day. This is when nonprofit event planners establish their priorities, manage communications, and lay the foundation for a productive day. It’s all about organization, focus, and staying one step ahead. Here’s what might happen in the morning:

• Review the day’s schedule. Most planners start their day by reviewing the event timeline, checking emails, and identifying the most pressing tasks. They might confirm catering details, review new registrations, or double-check deadlines with vendors. Staying organized early ensures that small issues don’t become big problems later in the day.

• Team and volunteer coordination. Nonprofit events often rely on volunteers and small teams, so morning check-ins are key. Planners touch base with volunteers and staff to confirm responsibilities, communicate updates, and make sure everyone understands the day’s objectives. Just a short meeting can ensure the entire day stays on track.

• Manage budgets and vendor communication. Budget management is a daily task, especially when every dollar counts. Planners might compare quotes, review invoices, or negotiate with vendors to ensure funds are used efficiently. Maintaining strong relationships with trusted partners helps ensure reliable service and long-term collaboration for future events.

Afternoon: Bringing the Details Together

By midday, nonprofit event planners are deep into the details. This is when preparation turns into action. The afternoon is often spent bringing ideas to life to keep the event running smoothly. During the afternoon, event planners might:

• Venue walkthroughs and logistics checks. If an event is approaching, the planner may spend part of the afternoon visiting the venue. They’ll review room layouts, test audio-visual setups, confirm signage placement, and make sure everything meets accessibility standards. Even for virtual events, this might mean testing platforms, verifying speaker connections, or running through live-streaming logistics

• Marketing and promotion. Event success depends on getting the right people on board. Nonprofit event planners often collaborate with marketing teams during the afternoon to review promotional campaigns, approve graphics, schedule social media posts, or check email engagement metrics. Every outreach effort is designed to build excitement and encourage participation.

• Sponsor and donor engagement. A major part of any nonprofit event’s success lies in its financial backing. Planners spend time nurturing sponsor and donor relationships. Sending updates, finalizing recognition packages, or preparing follow-up materials. These interactions not only secure funding but also strengthen long-term partnerships for future initiatives.

Evening: Managing the Event and Following Up

As the day winds down, nonprofit event planners often find their work is just getting started, especially when the event is right around the corner. That might mean supporting on-site operations or wrapping up a long day of coordination and communication. Here’s what their evening might involve:

• On-site coordination. During the event, the planner is the go-to person for everything. They oversee check-in, manage vendors, guide volunteers, and troubleshoot any last-minute issues. Their calm, solutions-focused mindset keeps the experience smooth for attendees and stress-free for staff.
• Real-time fundraising management. Especially during a gala or auction, the planner or their team must actively monitor and troubleshoot fundraising tools like mobile bidding platforms or live donation displays. This ensures that the technology works flawlessly when the ask is made, maximizing revenue during the most critical moments of the evening.

• Post-event wrap-up and data review. Once the event concludes, there’s still plenty to do. Planners often stay late to oversee cleanup, collect materials, and thank volunteers and partners. In the days immediately following, they review attendance data, evaluate feedback, and measure outcomes against goals. These insights help refine future events and demonstrate impact to donors and leadership teams.

That’s a Wrap!

Ultimately, whether you’re hosting a cookout or a charity golf tournament, the successful execution of any major nonprofit event relies on disciplined planning and a clear dedication to the mission. By adopting the habits of a professional event planner—prioritizing proactive communication, dedicating time to financial stewardship, and ensuring meticulous logistical checks—your organization can minimize stress and maximize impact. Whether you utilize a dedicated planner or incorporate these strategic methods into your own workflow, empowering your team with this level of organization is the essential step needed to transform careful preparation into moments that inspire your community and drive meaningful, measurable change.

About the Author

Daria Knupp

Daria Knupp, CEM, is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at A2Z Events by Personify. She has spent most of her career in the association world, handling content creation and digital marketing, and recently decided to apply her expertise to the events industry.

The post A Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Event Planner + Takeaways appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Do you ever wonder?

In the last few weeks, I’ve heard more interest in tools like WealthEngine, DonorSearch, iWave, and Hatch.ai than I had in the previous six months! Granted, I am currently advising a number of capital campaigns. But having confidence in knowing a how much to ask for is something CEOs, board members, and fundraisers desperately desire.

It seems comforting to think that knowing all about the wealth of a donor will make it easier to ask.

It won’t.

Research is the first step in “Ask Without Fear!®” – but it’s easy to get stuck in research.

And without talking to a donor, research alone can lead to faulty conclusions. Just this week, I told a client, “Looking at their house value on Zillow may feel nice. But no donor is going to give you a tenth of that house.”

Beyond that, just because a person seems to have wealth does not mean they also give to nonprofits.

Early in my career, I tried to get really scientific about asking. And you know what? Donors responded warily. I’d often hear, “Where did you get that number from?” My research methods were not the conversation I wanted to have. I wanted to talk about the impact they could have in the project.

So how is a fundraiser to ask?

The only way to raise money is to ask for it. Specifically.

And the good news is: you don’t have to know exactly what a donor can give.

One of my favorite lines for asking is: “I have no idea if this is even in the ballpark, but would you consider a gift of $100,000?”

Of course, not all asks are for $100,000. But you do need to put an exact dollar amount in the ask.

“I have no idea if this is even in the ballpark, but would you consider a gift of $100,000?”

I love this line because it’s grounded in honesty. You really don’t know. So say so.

This ask also allows them to talk about the amount and the project, not about how you came to that amount.

In my fundraising trainings, I say, “Honesty and integrity are the best fundraising tools.”

I may start adding “curiosity.” Because being curious, allows you to ask great questions. Questions you do not know the answer too.

And those kinds of questions lead to far more engaging conversations.

And to great donations too.

Here’s what to do: look at the list of the next 10 asks you need to make. And figure out where you’d like to see their giving at. Then, in your conversation with them, tell them you don’t know if this is possible, but you were wondering if they’d consider a gift of . Then be quiet. And see what they say.

Remember: Fundraisers raise funds. And asking is the only way to raise those funds.

The post How do I know how much money to ask the donor to give? appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Effective recruitment nourishes a healthy volunteer management lifecycle, and as your volunteer program scales over time, it influences your organization’s sustainability. By creating a strong support base you can rely on, you ensure your organization can access the manpower and skills it needs when it’s most critical for your mission.

In this guide, we’ll explore the dos and don’ts of volunteer recruitment so you’re aware of the most valuable strategies to implement and common mistakes to avoid as you develop your approach.

Do: Write Clear, Compelling Role Descriptions

Volunteer recruitment starts with creating role descriptions that compel supporters to take the next step in their involvement with your organization. Think of these descriptions like job listings—a good description makes the role seem broadly desirable while also catering to your ideal candidate. 

Better Impact’s guide to volunteer recruitment outlines some must-have features of your role descriptions, including:

• A role title
• Purpose of the role
• Key responsibilities
• Location and logistics
• Time commitment
• Support and training provided
• Qualifications
• Benefits to the volunteer

Here is an example role description for an animal shelter that incorporates these details:

Volunteer Dog Walker

Are you looking for a meaningful way to improve the lives of dogs living in shelters? Wagging Tails U.S.A. is looking for dog walkers to aid our mission to provide rescue animals with safety and support on their way to a forever home.

Our dog walkers provide one-on-one attention for our dogs and take them on walks around the shelter grounds. These walks give dogs the chance to exercise, socialize with new people, and experience life outside of the shelter, ultimately making them more adoptable. Both 30-minute and one-hour shifts are available, and volunteering at least once a month is strongly encouraged.

Before your first shift, a staff member will provide you with a 15-minute training session on how to safely and effectively handle a dog on a leash. All volunteers should have prior experience interacting with dogs. 

Walking a shelter dog is a great opportunity to get some exercise, relieve stress, and build confidence in your animal-handling skills, all while meaningfully impacting an animal’s life.

This role description clearly defines the volunteer’s responsibilities, necessary qualifications, and how it makes an impact. Providing these details in advance promotes accountability and attracts volunteers most likely to be successful in the role.

Don’t: Overcomplicate Volunteer Applications

One surefire way to dissuade would-be volunteers is to make the application process too long or too complex. Instead of overwhelming applicants with endless paperwork, try streamlining the process using these tips:

• Only include necessary form fields. While certain fields like contact information, role preferences, and availability are essential, random or superfluous fields can make your application process a slog and give the impression that your organization lacks focus. 
• Break long forms into shorter, paginated steps. Providing a visual break gives volunteers an easy way to continue their progress if they can’t complete the application in one sitting and ensures they don’t feel overwhelmed when they see your form.
• Save detailed questions for follow-up interviews. If you need information you didn’t get from the initial application, a conversation in person or over the phone can relieve some of the burden on the applicant.

To help ensure every applicant fully completes the application, use your volunteer management platform to track progress so that you and your volunteers can catch any issues regarding paperwork. Remember to also include your organization’s logo, color scheme, and other brand elements on your forms to create a unified and professional look.

Do: Promote Volunteer Opportunities Across Multiple Channels

Multichannel marketing should be a core piece of your team’s communication strategy. Think about how many communication channels your supporters use in a given day. They probably send and receive several texts a day, look at their email inbox at least once, maybe surf a few websites, and check their mailbox. Reaching out to your supporters using every channel available to you ensures that your organization sticks out in people’s minds. 

Here are some communication methods that your organization can use to promote its volunteer opportunities:

• Email 
• Word-of-mouth
• Social media
• Text messaging
• Paid advertising
• Flyers
• Direct mail

Tailor your message to each platform. For example, texting is best for short messages that require immediate action. If you’re short on volunteers for a particular event, sending a text can prompt people to sign up quickly. On the other hand, if you’re looking for volunteers for a recurring program, email might be a better option as you have more space to explain why that program matters. 

Regardless of which channel you use, remember to always include a link to your registration form and contact information for staff. Providing these resources allows volunteers to quickly take action and to form meaningful relationships with staff members, ultimately boosting engagement.

Don’t: Pigeonhole Supporters Based on Past Involvement

It’s easy to think of your donors, volunteers, event attendees, and advocates as separate groups in your database. In reality, though, people often move between these categories, and it’s much easier to recruit existing supporters to try a new engagement method than it is to find new supporters altogether.

Someone who has stopped donating due to financial reasons, for example, might jump at the chance to give their time instead. Inviting donors to support your organization in unique ways also shows that you view them as more than a source of revenue, thereby increasing engagement and remedying donor fatigue.

Likewise, a passionate volunteer might be inspired to donate after engaging more deeply with your mission. Their hands-on experience contributing to your cause might also make them strong advocates for your work. You’ll never know if you don’t make the effort to reach out!

Leveraging your organization’s CRM alongside your volunteer management tools can help you connect with supporters by providing a 360-degree view of your constituents. Seeing every way that stakeholders engage with your mission shows how broad the foundation of your support is and allows you to use supporters’ passion to your advantage.

Do: Leverage Community Partnerships

Your organization doesn’t have to recruit volunteers alone. Strategic partnerships can help you access new audiences and add credibility to your outreach.

According to Double the Donation’s volunteer statistics report, 60% of companies offer paid time off for employees to volunteer and 80% of companies offer volunteer grants worth $8-$15 per hour volunteered. Take advantage of those perks by encouraging your volunteers to look into their employers’ programs, as well as reaching out to local businesses focused on volunteerism to establish company volunteer days or group service opportunities.

Other great sources of volunteers include: 

• High schools with community service requirements for graduation
• Sororities, fraternities, or other service-oriented college campus groups
• Fellow nonprofits with overlapping missions

Emphasize the mutual benefits of these partnerships; while your organization accesses enthusiastic volunteers, your partners build goodwill, gain exposure, and obtain a new way to impact their communities.

Volunteer recruitment is a continuous, evolving effort. Your organization should adjust its strategy over time to align with volunteer preferences and your program’s needs. By implementing the tips above, you’ll help your organization to grow a resilient, motivated volunteer base that fuels your mission for years to come.

About the Author

Timothy Sarazen
President, Better Impact

Timothy Sarazen is the President of Better Impact, a global software company dedicated to enhancing the experiences of nonprofits and volunteer-driven organizations in the healthcare and government sectors. With extensive expertise in product-led software solutions, Timothy thrives on turning complex challenges into simple, effective solutions that make customers’ lives easier through the smart use of technology.

Based in Winston Salem, North Carolina, with his wife and three children, Timothy works to bridge the divide between nonprofit executives and volunteer department strategies. His team empowers organizations to align their efforts, improve decision-making, and showcase the measurable value of volunteer contributions.

The post 5 Dos & Don’ts of Effective Volunteer Recruitment appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

And we can learn from all sorts of different sectors to communicate clearly.

Today I was listening to a podcast on local civic engagement. And a note on communicating clearly struck me as helpful for fundraising too. The host, Katy Smith summed up the conversation with this:

The biggest thing is that you are engaging in a form of strategic communication. You are calling to action people who either have not given thought to your issue or who may not agree with you whose minds you are trying to change. And so I often see people talking about a thing in language that makes sense to them rather than language that’s going to resonate and make sense to the people whose minds they are trying to change.

And so I think it is wise, if you can, to avoid using jargon that may not resonate with people.
From Simple Civics: Greenville County: How to Speak at a Public Meeting

Is Jargon Confusing Your Donor?

While jargon sometimes has its place, look at the words and acronyms you use as you talk about your nonprofit.

Do your donors know what it means? Your communication may be clear to you, but is it clear to them?

If not, they’ll may be confused. And confused donors do not give.

Give your fundraising a jargon audit. Like weeding a garden, you may find weeding out jargon may allow your ask to grow.

The post Is jargon getting in the way of your ask? appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Yet even though over 80% of Gen Z have supported charitable causes, nonprofits tend to focus outreach on older donors, often due to outdated assumptions about Gen Z’s giving capacity and uncertainty around how to connect with them meaningfully.

If your campaigns aren’t resonating with Gen Z supporters, you’re not alone. But there are practical ways to realign your outreach. Let’s explore how to build connections and trust with Gen Z so they can translate passion into action and build philanthropic habits that last a lifetime.

What Gen Z Looks For in Campaigns

If your campaigns aren’t resonating with Gen Z, there’s likely a reason—and it’s not just about format or platform. This generation approaches giving differently than its predecessors, and you need to tailor your messaging accordingly. Ensure these characteristics are reflected in your outreach to Gen Z:

• Values-driven giving. Gen Z brings a strong sense of personal identity and purpose to their giving. They’re drawn to causes that reflect their own values. When campaigns make that alignment clear, Gen Z is more likely to take action and become long-term supporters.
• Preference for transparency. This generation grew up with access to more information than ever before. As a result, they appreciate organizations that communicate openly, sharing impact metrics, behind-the-scenes updates, and stories that feel real rather than overly polished.
• Desire for authentic alignment. Gen Z looks for consistency between what an organization says and what it does. They’re energized by nonprofits that not only talk about values, but also reflect those commitments in leadership, operations, and partnerships. 
• Flexibility. Many first-time donors can face barriers to giving when first starting out, such as tighter budgets. Nonprofits that meet Gen Z where they are are more likely to win their support, even in different, nonmonetary ways, like volunteering.

As you develop your next campaign, choose one of these characteristics and audit your current messaging through that lens. Where can you be clearer? Where can you show more? Where can you build trust? Start there, and invite feedback as you go.

How to Tailor Campaigns to Gen Z Audiences

1. Meet them where they are.

Gen Z came of age with smartphones in their hands and a world of information at their fingertips. They’re constantly absorbing content, often across multiple platforms at once. But even in a noisy online world, they engage deeply when something catches their attention—especially if it feels relevant and real.

To keep up, your campaign materials must reflect how Gen Z consumes content and where they spend their time by: 

• Using short-form video. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are essential platforms for reaching Gen Z. Highlight impact moments, staff introductions, or supporter stories in quick, visually engaging formats that fit with the platform.
• Optimizing for mobile. From emails to donation pages, Qgiv by Bloomerang recommends making the supporter experience mobile-friendly, with quick load times and responsive design.
• Making experiences social. Given Gen Z’s social media usage, user-driven content spreads faster and feels more authentic. Encourage resource sharing and storytelling with easy-to-use templates, branded filters, or hashtag campaigns.

The digital world is constantly changing, so ensure you stay on top of new trends and capitalize on them. For instance, if a new TikTok challenge or sound is going around, consider how you can leverage it for your marketing efforts.

2. Use inclusive language.

Welcoming younger supporters into your philanthropic community starts with inclusive messaging. Clear, thoughtful language helps Gen Z feel genuinely invited—and more likely to stay engaged over time. Ensure a welcoming atmosphere when speaking to Gen Z by:

• Refining your tone. Gen Z is likely newer to the nonprofit world than other donors, so avoid jargon when explaining your cause. Also, treat Gen Z with the same consideration you give other donors—their age doesn’t make them any less deserving of thoughtful and respectful communication.
• Showing appreciation for all types of engagement. Whether a new supporter donates $10 or 10 hours of volunteer time, they deserve the same welcoming treatment. Show gratitude and highlight that any and all contributions matter. In fact, Bloomerang explains that by “showing [volunteers] gratitude and explaining the impact of their volunteer work,” you can steward these relationships and more effectively reach out with small donation asks later on.
• Using accepting language. Prioritize language that is free of bias or exclusion, whether related to race, religion, gender, ability, or other factors. Inclusive messaging shows that your organization values the identities and experiences of everyone in your community.

Ensure your entire team understands the standards for inclusive messaging and how to speak with different generations. You can stay up to date by reviewing reputable sources like Nonprofit Resources’ Inclusive Language Guide, attending professional workshops, and collecting feedback from members of Gen Z. 

3. Build authentic relationships.

If your campaign strategy relies solely on bottom-funnel announcements, general email newsletters, and appeals, you’re likely missing opportunities to meaningfully engage Gen Z supporters. Since they’re relative newcomers to the philanthropy space, it’s important to communicate with them openly and authentically to help them feel comfortable and understand opportunities on the horizon. Here are some tips for doing just that:

• Share informal updates between campaigns. A quick note about what’s happening behind the scenes helps newer supporters understand the typical campaign process and stay connected.
• Be transparent about supporter impact and organizational challenges. Transparency builds trust and genuine relationships with your cause. Share real stories alongside donor data, and be honest when things don’t go as planned. 
• Invite input through low-barrier interactions. Social media polls, quick update emails, and Q&As let supporters shape the conversation and feel seen without requiring major time commitments.
• Send meaningful follow-ups. Instead of just thanking someone for a gift, show them what their support made possible, and offer ways to stay involved beyond donating.
• Hold new donor social events. A social event aimed at Gen Z, like a barbecue or a happy hour, can help these supporters learn about your cause and find community with your organization, which is essential for engaging new supporters.

Remember that you can use these touchpoints as your relationships develop further. Just ensure that you use updated information to personalize these experiences, show that you’re actively listening to donors, and demonstrate your care for these connections. Gather this information by using prospect research tools, checking social media, and reaching out for casual meetings that aren’t connected to a campaign.

Connecting with Gen Z requires more than a savvy use of social media and inclusive events. You should ensure your tech stack appeals to Gen Z’s preferences as well, whether it’s by choosing an online fundraising platform that supports novel mobile giving channels (like Venmo and Apple Pay) or by using peer-to-peer fundraising tools that easily integrate with social media and email. As long as you understand Gen Z’s preferences and reflect them through your outreach and tech stack, you can build a strong base of potential supporters.

About the Author

Diana Otero

Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bloomerang

As Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bloomerang, Diana leverages her expertise in nonprofit CRM to help organizations strengthen donor relationships. She is passionate about showcasing solutions that empower For Purpose organizations to move beyond data tracking and foster genuine connections. With over a decade at Bloomerang, Diana excels at translating product capabilities into strategies that save time, fuel growth, and allow nonprofits to focus on what matters most: their mission. Her work is informed by her experience as a former nonprofit board member and ongoing volunteer work with various organizations, giving her unique insight into the challenges nonprofits face. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post Why Gen Z Ignores Your Campaigns (and How to Fix It) appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Sound familiar?

Donors appear hesitant. Board members are second-guessing more than ever. Major gift conversations were getting stalled as donors try to figure out how to lead their businesses.

The silver lining in this conversation?

One of the members made a simple observation: “It comes down to this: We need to stick to the basics. Directly communicating with our donors and sharing stories that connect them to the work.”

I felt a shift in my emotions. When the world feels chaotic and distracted by the latest news cycle, that’s exactly when you need to get back to what actually works in fundraising.

The Ask Without Fear Basics Still Work

What I’ve noticed in the last two decades of fundraising is that while the challenges change, human beings remain very consistent. We’ve been asking people to support causes for millenia. The tools we use to communicate change. But the fundamentals don’t change just because the headlines do.

Whether we’re facing a recession, a pandemic, political upheaval, or any other crisis, the basics still deliver results:

• Research your donors’ passions and capacity
• Engage them with authentic relationships
• Ask them directly and confidently
• Love them through genuine appreciation

These aren’t complex strategies. It’s easy to overcomplicate the process, but you don’t need to. These just require you to remember that fundraising is about people connecting them with causes they care about.

When uncertainty strikes, donors gain confidence from being able to take action on something. When their world feels out of control, they feel relief from tangible impact their donation makes. They need you to share stories that remind them why they got involved in the first place. They need you to help them see through the noise to what really makes a difference.

Two Ways to Reconnect with The Basics

If you’re feeling stuck on the basics or if you need a refresher on how to implement them, here are two ways to bring clarity. The first is the Do It Yourself Fundraising guide. It’s a distillation of my book Ask Without Fear!^® and designed to walk you through the R.E.A.L. approach step by step. Working through this will help you identify practical steps to act on immediately.

The second resource is something newer: I’ve been beta-testing FRC GPT at fundraisingcoach.com/frcgpt/. This AI tool is loaded with 20 years of my fundraising writings and training content. Think of it as having a thought partner available 24/7 to help you work through specific challenges, craft better donor communications, or just remind you of the fundamentals when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

It’s still in beta, so you might encounter some quirks. But during trying times like these, having a resource that can help you think through donor conversations or craft compelling case statements might be exactly what you need.

The Bottom Line

Stephen Covey taught us about the difference between our Circle of Concern and our Circle of Influence. The Circle of Concern is full of legitimate things to be concerned about—tariffs, rescission, economic uncertainty. But dwelling on those concerns without focusing on what we can actually influence is a recipe for paralysis.

Your Circle of Influence contains the things you can really act on. In this circle are things like treating donors like real people with real passions, telling authentic stories about your impact, and asking directly for support.

The world might feel chaotic, but your mission is still vital. Your donors still care. And you still have the tools to connect those two realities.

So take a deep breath, get back to basics, and remember—the best fundraisers aren’t the ones who time the market perfectly. They’re the ones who stay focused on what matters most, day in and day out, no matter what’s happening in the headlines.

Your cause needs champions now more than ever. Time to get R.E.A.L. about making that happen.

#nonprofitleadership #nonprofitfundraising #askwithoutfear #fundraisingbasics #nonprofitacademy

The post When Uncertainty Hits: Getting Back to Fundraising Basics appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

With Kristin and Samantha, conversations go deep QUICKLY. We went into possible roots for burnout experienced by nonprofit leaders. And then looked at what leaders can do to retain the joy in this important work.

I think you’ll find the conversation both timely and encouraging.

In this episode, we explored:

• What it means to lead in a time of upheaval
• How historical systems still shape today’s nonprofit sector
• The surprising roots of common tools like Gantt charts
• Why burnout is often by design – and what leaders can do about it
• How doubt can actually be a signal that you’re on the right path

We also dug into how leaders can build momentum even when the system isn’t built for thriving—and why learning to say “I don’t know” might be the bravest leadership move you can make right now.

🎙️ Where to Listen:

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-84-compassionate-leadership-with-marc-a-pitman/id1707588091?i=1000715402566
• Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ChQsgRGw6CqrrcTdcohod?si=jtl7VfzVTk-dgq5P4PaFUw
• YouTube https://youtu.be/G6gU-l9Qgt4?si=LKagb9z8zOlA6j6d

Or on your favorite podcast app.

If you’re feeling like you’re making it up as you go along, you’re in good company—and you’re not alone.

I’d love to hear what resonates with you.

If you want more, check out our coaching skills for leaders certification. We teach you how to employ coaching skills to get your team to think for themselves. And how you can use all the experience you’ve earned as a possible coaching income stream. https://concordleadershipgroup.com/coaching-certification/

The post 🎧 Leadership, Doubt, and the Future of Our Nonprofit Sector – Podcast Episode with Marc A. Pitman appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

No PowerPoints. No glossy brochures. No perfectly polished presentations that wow donors into giving.

Instead, they sound like…conversations.

The Counter-Intuitive Truth About Fundraising

When I train nonprofit leaders on making asks, I often hear the same concerns:

“I don’t know what to say.” “I’m not good at sales pitches.” “I feel like I’m bothering them.”

Here’s what I tell them: Stop trying to pitch. Start asking questions.

This feels completely backwards to most people. We think fundraising means we need to have all the answers, deliver compelling presentations, and convince donors through the power of our words.

But effective fundraising is actually about having great questions and letting donors do most of the talking.

A Simple Framework That Changes Everything

I love Andrea Kihlstedt’s asking conversation framework. It has just six parts, and five of them are essentially questions:

1. Settle: “How are you doing?”
2. Confirm: “Is this still a good time to talk about your giving?”
3. Explore: “What have you enjoyed most about our work this year?”
4. Ask: “Because you’ve said [what they told you], would you consider a gift of…?”
5. Explore: “Would giving it quarterly be helpful?”
6. Confirm: “If I don’t hear from you by next week, is it cool if I follow up?”

Notice what happens in step 4? You’re not making up an ask from thin air! You’re connecting directly to what they’ve already told you matters to them.

Why This Works (And Why Pitches Don’t)

In the first Explore phase, you’re doing only 25% of the talking while they share 75%. This isn’t just being polite—it’s strategic.

When donors talk about what they love about your work, two things happen:

1. You get confident. You hear exactly what resonates with them, so you know how to frame your ask.
2. They get excited. They’re talking themselves into giving by sharing their own passion for your mission.

One fundraiser told me after making several seven-figure asks: “I don’t have to make up an ask anymore. By the time I’m ready to ask, I know exactly what to say because they’ve told me what matters most to them.”

This Approach Aligns With Your Values

Here’s why this approach feels so much better than traditional “sales” tactics: You’re genuinely trying to understand and serve the donor, not manipulate them.

Most nonprofit professionals got into this work to help people. But fundraising often feels like taking from people, which creates internal conflict.

When you shift from pitching to asking questions, you’re back to helping. You’re helping donors connect their values with your mission. You’re helping them find meaningful ways to make a difference.

That’s not taking from them—that’s serving them.

The Questions That Steer Conversations

Remember: The person asking the questions is actually the one steering the conversation.

Instead of hoping your pitch resonates, try starting the conversation with questions like:

• “What drew you to our organization initially?”
• “What would you like to see happen next in our work?”
• “How do you see yourself being involved?”

These aren’t just conversation starters. They’re steering the entire interaction toward understanding what matters to them.

And feel comfortable asking questions about their answers. These help you move from surface level “I like it here” answers to getting to what really matters to the donor.

This isn’t an interrogation. If you are sincerely curious, they’ll feel that. And they will anwer.

For Executive Directors Who Avoid Asks

If you’re an ED who’s been putting off that major gift conversation, remember: You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to have good questions.

The pressure isn’t on you to deliver a flawless presentation. The opportunity is for you to have a meaningful conversation about something you both care about.

For Board Members Who Feel Uncomfortable

If you’re a board member who dreads fundraising, this approach can be a game-changer. You’re not selling anything. You’re asking about their experience and interests.

Most board members are much more comfortable asking, “What do you think about the new program?” than delivering a fundraising pitch.

The Ask Still Matters

Let me be clear: You still need to ask for money. Conversational questions alone don’t raise funds.

But when your ask comes after genuine listening — “Because you mentioned how much the youth program means to you, would you consider a gift of $25,000 to expand it?” — it feels natural instead of forced.

Your Next Conversation

The next time you’re preparing for a fundraising conversation, try this:

• Instead of planning what you’ll tell them, plan what you’ll ask them.
• Instead of preparing to convince them, prepare to understand them.
• Instead of hoping they’ll be impressed by your presentation, focus on being genuinely curious about their connection to your mission.

You might be surprised how much more confident and successful you’ll feel.

My advice? Save the pitches for baseball.

The post Is Successful Fundraising Asking Questions or Making Pitches? appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

But having an engaging website isn’t enough. For it to make an impact, people need to find and use it. Increasing site traffic helps more people learn what you do, support your work, and spread the word.

If your website is easy to find and full of helpful content, you can build stronger relationships and encourage action. Think of it this way: more traffic means more opportunities to educate and inspire people. Let’s explore practical ways to attract more visitors to your nonprofit’s website.

Optimize Your Site for Search Engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO)—the process of improving your site so it ranks higher in search engine results—is foundational to nonprofit website marketing. An optimized site helps potential supporters find your organization when they search for topics related to your mission.

For instance, let’s say someone searches Google for “animal rescue organizations near me” or “how to support youth education in Chicago.” If your site’s content is optimized for those terms, your website is more likely to appear in the results.

Cornershop Creative’s guide to SEO for nonprofits dives into several elements search engines consider, such as:

Content Quality

• Keywords: Research specific, relevant words or phrases that your supporters might search for with a tool like Moz or Google Keyword Planner. Then, use them naturally in your content.
• Helpfulness: Keep content accurate, helpful, and updated. Well-written, informative content earns trust from readers and search engines.
• Page structure: Use proper heading levels (H1, H2, H3) ordered in logical heading hierarchies to organize content.
• Meta titles and descriptions: Write strong title tags and meta descriptions to improve click-through rates.

Technical SEO

• Site speed: Improve loading times to reduce bounce rates and increase rankings.
• Mobile-friendliness: Ensure your site works well on smartphones and tablets by using responsive design layouts.
• Security: Use HTTPS encryption to protect visitor data and boost search engine trust.
• Crawlability: Fix broken links and use tools like sitemaps to help search engines navigate your site.

Authority Building

• Internal linking: Link to other pages on your site to guide users and connect relevant content.
• Backlinking: Encourage reputable external sites to link to your content. Common sources include local news outlets, partner organizations, community blogs, and nonprofit directories.

Even small updates to your site’s content or structure can lead to more supporters finding your cause. To get started, choose one of the SEO elements above, such as optimizing your page titles or improving site speed. Each step you take builds a stronger foundation for long-term visibility.

Amplify Your Site with the Google Ad Grant.

The Google Ad Grant gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in free Google Ads. These ads appear above organic results on Google Search and direct people to key pages on your website.

To make the most of your ad budget, choose what page you want to amplify. For example, you might boost your donation form, an educational blog post, or a volunteer program page. Then, research keywords related to that page. Write clear ad copy with a call-to-action that matches what people are searching for, and make it clear where they’ll be directed if they click your ad.

Since a Google Ad provides limited character space, use ad assets to expand your listings. These are optional features that allow you to provide additional information beyond the standard headline and description. For example, you might use sitelinks to highlight different pages on your site, callout extensions to add supporting details, or structured snippets to showcase specific aspects of your programs or services.

Determining Your Google Ad Grant Eligibility

Google’s team wants to ensure that the content it amplifies is helpful and reliable, so joining the program means you need to meet a few requirements. You must:

• Have current and valid charity status (e.g., 501(c)(3) status for U.S. nonprofits).
• Be registered with Google for Nonprofits.
• Comply with the Google Ad Grant program policies, such as using donations responsibly and not exercising any discriminatory hiring or service practices.
• Maintain a high-quality website with valuable, mission-related content and a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate.

Governmental organizations, hospitals, healthcare organizations, and schools are automatically ineligible. However, there is a separate program for schools called Google for Education.

List Your Organization in Online Directories.

Being visible in trusted nonprofit directories can improve both your credibility and visibility. Donors, volunteers, and corporate sponsors will use platforms like GuideStar and Charity Navigator to research nonprofits before committing to supporting them.

Look up your charity on these platforms and claim your profiles. Keep them updated with accurate information, such as your financials and recent program outcomes. Use consistent branding and mission language across platforms to reinforce your identity. Don’t forget to link directly to your website to drive traffic.

These directories are also highly trusted, and including a link on your profiles can improve your domain authority and support your SEO efforts.

Expand Your Reach With Social Media.

Social platforms are a natural channel for distributing your website content and reaching supporters. With smart use of social media, you can connect with current supporters’ networks of friends and family members who likely share similar values. That makes it a great source for attracting donors and volunteers.

Rather than posting randomly, think about how each post can invite people to take action or learn more. Aim to share content that aligns with your mission and links to your website. For example, you might try these strategies:

• Share blog posts, event announcements, or timely updates that link to high-value pages on your site—like a donation form or your volunteer page. Better Impact’s volunteer recruitment guide recommends sharing behind-the-scenes videos and supporter spotlights to strengthen engagement. Then, you can link to a specific page to drive action.
• Use strong visuals and simple graphics to catch attention in busy feeds. For instance, you might pair a powerful photo from a recent community event with a quote from an attendee and a link to a related blog post on your site.
• Interact with your followers. You might prompt conversations by asking questions or posting polls. You can also respond to comments and like or share supporters’ posts about your organization.

When done consistently, this kind of posting builds familiarity and trust. Try creating a simple weekly calendar—like sharing a blog post every Tuesday, spotlighting a donor story on Thursdays, and resharing event photos each weekend. Repetition and relevance will turn passive scrollers into active supporters.

Stay in Touch With Emails.

Your subscriber list gives you a direct line to current supporters. That makes nonprofit emails one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website. Whether it’s a newsletter or campaign-specific message, emails can guide recipients back to your site to learn, donate, or get involved in another way.

Make the most of your nonprofit’s emails by:

• Personalizing subject lines. You might use merge tags, which are placeholders that your email marketing platform will automatically fill with the recipient’s name, donation history, or something else. Campaign Monitor found that emails with personalized subject lines have a 26% higher open rate than those without them.
• Delivering tailored content. Consider segmenting your audience into groups to send relevant appeals. For example, you might create segments for volunteers, recurring donors, major donors, corporate sponsors, and so on, and send relevant engagement opportunities. That same study found that segmented campaigns have a 760% increase in revenue.
• Linking directly to key pages. Include clear calls to action that drive readers to your highest-value pages. You might spotlight a current fundraising campaign, volunteer opportunity, or upcoming event and link to that initiative’s page. This helps convert interest into action.

Email marketing platforms make it easy to design, schedule, and measure your emails. Pay attention to metrics like your open and click-through rates to determine what messaging and timing drive the most traffic to your site.

Wrapping Up

A powerful website is only effective if people see it. Improving discoverability ultimately creates more opportunities for people to engage with your mission. Start with one or two strategies that align with your goals, track what works, and build from there. Remember, growth comes from consistent, mission-driven marketing.

About the Author

De’Yonté Wilkinson

De’Yonté’s a late-80s baby who found his passion for web design and development during MySpace’s heyday, when he helped his friends create awesome profiles. He’s spent the last three years specializing in WordPress and conversion optimization, and is an active proponent of coding guidelines. In his off time he enjoys cooking, Rugby, and hanging out with his wife.

The post Nonprofit Website Marketing: How to Make Your Site Findable appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

The best nonprofit website strategies use custom landing pages to turn campaign goals into compelling stories that motivate donors to act. Let’s walk through five strategic steps to build a page that resonates with your audience and drives measurable results.

Step 1: Define your campaign goal and audience.

Successful landing pages have one thing in common: a clear purpose. Who are you trying to reach with your campaign, and what action do you want visitors to take? 

Start building your landing page by completing these essential first steps: 

• Identify your campaign’s main objective. Whether you’re looking to raise $1 million in a capital campaign, gain 100 new recurring donors through a monthly giving campaign, or rally volunteers for a major fundraising event, define one primary goal to keep your message sharp.
• Determine who you want to reach with your campaign. Are you speaking to long-time supporters, first-time visitors, or a different donor segment? Consider your target audience’s motivations, challenges, and how they’ve supported your mission before. What would inspire them to get involved with your current campaign?
• Align your message with audience members’ specific interests. For example, let’s say you want to engage young donors in your campaign. In the past, you may have noticed that younger donors prefer engaging with social media and video content. With that in mind, you could incorporate a live social media feed and testimonial videos on your landing page to appeal to their interests. 

Keep your team on track by writing a brief, audience-focused value proposition to reference as you develop your landing page. The value proposition should demonstrate how audience members will benefit from engaging with your campaign, whether by helping to further your mission or joining a community of like-minded people all focused on a common goal.

Aligning your goal, audience research, and value proposition will allow you to strengthen your landing page with content that resonates with your audience. 

Step 2: Build a focused content strategy.

Great landing pages tell a clear story that makes people care and act. The content on your campaign landing page should help donors connect with your mission emotionally and motivate them to get involved. 

Optimize the page’s content with these best practices: 

• Lead with a bold, compelling headline. Follow it with a subheader that spells out what’s at stake. For example, a webpage for a healthcare organization promoting a charity run might read “Step Up for Health Equity” and “Sign up for our 5K to keep local clinics open and enhance community wellness.”
• Enhance your narrative with impactful visuals. In a healthcare fundraising campaign, this could mean sharing a patient’s recovery story alongside candid photos of care teams in action.
• Incorporate impact statistics. Share hard data to show supporters exactly how their donations will help your organization further its mission. Highlight impact measurements like the number of meals donated, trees planted, or lives impacted.
• Leverage interactive multimedia content. Engage page visitors using a variety of multimedia elements to capture their attention. Include short video testimonials or rotating quotes from donors and beneficiaries to make your landing page more dynamic. 

Lastly, stick to one call-to-action (CTA) throughout the page to keep the experience streamlined and decisive. For example, your page may encourage visitors to: 

• “Donate Now to Make a Difference”
• “Join Our Mission Today”
• “Sign Up to Support Our Cause”
• “Register to Join the Fun”

Using this type of active language will make your CTAs more enticing and easier to understand. This way, users will know exactly what action they’re taking when they click the CTA.

Step 3: Design for usability and trust.

Design can either build confidence or undermine it. One study even found that 94% of first impressions of a website are based on design. Your landing page needs to be trustworthy, authentic, and simple for your audience to use.

Key design elements include:

• A clean layout with high-contrast colors and legible fonts
• Mobile responsiveness with touch-friendly elements
• Minimal distractions (such as pop-ups, animations, or links to other web pages) to keep users focused on the goal
• Trust signals like secure donation badges, corporate partner logos, and beneficiary testimonials
• Interactive touches such as video snippets or donor maps to boost engagement

Don’t forget about accessibility—all images should include alt text, videos must contain captions, and navigation should follow a logical order.

Step 4: Streamline the donation or signup process.

It doesn’t matter how visually pleasing your landing page looks—it will lose donors if the next step you ask supporters to take is frustrating or complicated. By simplifying your landing page form, you can simplify the path from inspiration to action.

As Qgiv’s donation page guide says, “While it can be tempting to use your form to collect as much information on your donors as possible, keep the required fields and questions to an absolute minimum.” Studies have revealed that reducing the number of form fields from 11 to 4 can boost conversions by 120%. 

Follow these tips to keep your landing page forms simple and convenient: 

• Use an embedded form. Unnecessary redirects can interrupt momentum. Include a donation or signup form directly within your landing page so supporters don’t have to visit another page to get involved. 
• Request essential information. Only ask for supporters’ names, contact information, and payment details if applicable. Save other questions, like their preferred communication methods or how they heard about your organization, for follow-up outreach.
• Prioritize form accessibility. Ensure all form fields have descriptive labels and that your form is simple to use via keyboard navigation or screen reader. 

Your form should match the rest of your landing page’s design to create a seamless, polished look. Otherwise, a supporter might think they’ve landed on an entirely different website, potentially leading to distrust and the loss of their support.

Step 5: Launch, monitor, and iterate.

Publishing the page is just the beginning. You’ll need to drive traffic to it using a multi-channel marketing strategy. Use email, social media, blog posts, and even QR codes on direct mail to reach the widest possible audience.

Monitor the page’s performance with metrics like:

• Bounce rate
• Conversion rate
• Average time on page

To optimize your page further, continually test it across different devices like mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. Use tools like Hotjar or Optimizely to conduct A/B testing, evaluate user behavior, and spot pain points. Adjust copy, CTAs, or visuals based on what the data shows.

Keep in mind that if the landing page is for a recurring campaign, you should treat it like a living resource. Maintain the webpage and keep it effective by refreshing testimonials, updating photos, and incorporating feedback. 

Kanopi’s website maintenance guide also recommends continually referencing your audience data to ensure your landing pages have clear user pathways from initial contact to taking the next steps to get involved. Adjust your page in response to any changes in audience preferences, interests, or motivations. 

Final thoughts

A custom landing page is your campaign’s digital front door. Designed well, it can elevate your fundraising appeal from “please donate” to “here’s exactly how you can make a difference today.”

By focusing on storytelling, design, and data-driven refinement, your nonprofit can create landing pages that inspire and convert.

About the Author

Anne Stefanyk

As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne provides digital strategy to clients and organizations in the nonprofit, higher education, healthcare, and corporate sectors. She opened Kanopi in 2013, upon seeing the untapped opportunities in the market for iterative web design and development. Anne has spent her career at the intersection of business development, marketing, and technology. She specializes in building rapport with clients and converting conversations into tangible results. 

Follow Anne:

• X
• Drupal
• LinkedIn

The post How to Use Custom Landing Pages for Targeted Fundraising appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

If you’re like many nonprofits, your fiscal year ends in June. So you’re in the final weeks of your fiscal year.

If you’ve made goal – congratulations!

If you haven’t, there’s still time.

One of the best things you can do this month is look at two lists:

1. Donors who gave last fiscal year but haven’t yet this year.
2. Donors who gave between January and June in the previous year or two who haven’t given yet this year.

The post How to know who to ask at fiscal year end appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Planned giving is a strategic approach that can benefit your nonprofit both immediately and in the long term. 

According to Giving USA 2024, planned giving bequests accounted for $42.6 billion in charitable contributions in 2023, representing about 8% of total giving in the U.S. Additionally, research from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy indicates that donors who include nonprofits in their estate plans often contribute two to three times more during those lifetimes than those whole don’t. In other words, planned giving is a wise focus for savvy organizations.

If your nonprofit wants to learn how to acquire planned gifts, you’ve come to the right place. While establishing relationships that can lead to planned gifts can take time, there are ways nonprofits can effectively raise more funds through this type of fundraising. This article provides a quick overview!

Understanding Planned Gifts

Let’s begin by understanding precisely what planned gifts are and how they differ from other types of donations.

Planned gifts are contributions of assets to a nonprofit that are arranged in advance, typically as part of an estate or financial plan. They are usually larger than one-time or recurring donations as they come from accumulated assets rather than current income, so they often occur after the donor’s death.

The donor gets the tax benefits while they are alive, and the nonprofit secures long-term funding.

Here are some of the most common types of planned gifts:

• Bequests: These are gifts made through a donor’s will or living trust. Bequests are the most common type of planned gift and are typically received after the donor has passed away.
• Charitable remainder trusts (CRTs): Charitable remainder trusts are irrevocable trusts that provide income to the donor or another beneficiary for a specified period (often the donor’s lifetime), after which the remaining assets are distributed to a nonprofit organization. 
• Charitable gift annuities (CGAs): CGAs are contracts between a donor and a nonprofit. The donor makes a gift of cash or property, and in exchange, they receive a fixed lifetime income stream. After the donor passes away, the nonprofit retains the remaining value.

• Life insurance: Donors can name a nonprofit as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy. This allows the donor to keep costs relatively low while leaving a substantial gift after death.
• Retirement plan assets: Similarly, donors can name nonprofits as beneficiaries of IRAs or 401(k)s. These assets are heavily taxed if left to individuals, so leaving them to a nonprofit can help reduce heirs’ hefty tax burdens.

The benefits of planned gifts abound for both nonprofits and donors. Nonprofits can achieve long-term financial sustainability, especially after receiving planned gifts in addition to diverse revenue streams, such as increased recurring donations and merchandise sales. Donors, on the other hand, may receive tax deductions as a result of their gift, as well as a sense of fulfillment from leaving a lasting legacy.

How to Encourage Planned Gifts

Build a Strong Planned Giving Program

Just as you might have a dedicated recurring giving program or structured tiers for donors based on gift size, a planned giving program can help your organization acquire these gifts in a systematic way.

Here are some key steps to build a strong planned giving program:

• Assess your internal resources. Before launching a program, walk through the support you’ll need. Can your technology and team handle the program? Do you have a strong base of long-term supporters you can tap? Is your board on board? You’ll also need a fundamental legal and financial framework to accept large and/or complex gifts.

• Identify and segment potential donors. Use your CRM to identify loyal, long-term donors, particularly those over the age of 55. Many CRMs will offer wealth screening tools that can help identify prospects. Pay attention to donors who have consistently engaged, not just those who have made large gifts.

• Develop clear messaging and collateral materials. It helps to create a branded planned giving program with a name, logo, and messaging. Provide written and digital resources that explain types of planned gifts, the benefits to donors, and even sample language for wills. Address common misconceptions, such as the notion that donors have to be extremely wealthy to leave a legacy gift.

• Train staff and board members. Provide tips on discussing planned giving. Consider hosting short workshops where team members can practice having conversations with donors or answering tough questions.

• Nurture your planned giving donors. This is a unique and priceless group of supporters, so create a recognition program for them. Offer ongoing communication, event invitations, and even public spotlights if they wish. 

• Incorporate planned giving into fundraising appeals. Even asking “Have you considered leaving us in your will?” on your website or in donor communications can trigger the thought process.

• Measure and refine the program. Ask for feedback and use your CRM to track prospect growth, stewardship efforts, and marketing reach, allowing you to refine the program even as it grows.

Educate Donors on Planned Giving

Many donors are unaware of planned giving. As the expert, it’s your responsibility to communicate planned giving opportunities clearly.

You can create a series of resources that will educate your current and prospective donors. They can include: 

• Website landing pages
• Brochures
• Webinars
• Informational meetings

Wherever possible, infuse your educational materials with impact data demonstrating what your nonprofit can accomplish with gifts like these. And always point out the tax and financial benefits to donors!

Personalize Your Approach

Planned giving outreach is most effective when it’s deeply personal. Align your approach with a donor’s values, interests, and giving history to make the gift seem like an extension of a donor’s lifelong generosity.

Here are a few ways to tailor planned giving opportunities:

• Offer legacy naming opportunities. Naming something provides the knowledge that the donor’s impact will be felt for generations. This can be a building, a bench, a garden, or even something intangible like a fellowship or mentoring program.

• Reflect their passion. If a donor has always supported a program, offer the opportunity to designate their planned gift to that area. Reinforce that their legacy will continue to support what mattered most during their lifetime.
• Discern their wishes. If someone is agreeing to have a building named after them, they might be interested in public recognition through newsletters, your website, or even a plaque on the wall in your offices. Someone else might appreciate a heartfelt, handwritten thank-you letter and invitations to events. Take the time to understand how they want to be thanked.

How to Engage Current Donors In Planned Giving

Identify Potential Planned Giving Donors

Don’t underestimate how much donor data can help you find potential donors! There are key indicators you can track. If a donor has a few of them, they might be a great prospect. Indicators include:

• Age (55 and older)
• Loyalty and longevity (given consistently over many years)
• Major gift history
• Wealth indicators (often available through your CRM)
• High engagement

As CharityEngine explains, fundraising software allows you to manage donor information efficiently with a centralized database, but it also hosts numerous features that can help your nonprofit reach donors effectively. Utilize this tool to identify prospects and craft direct appeals that will resonate with them.

Start Conversations Early

Planned gifts don’t usually happen after one conversation. They are the result of years of trust and meaningful engagement. It’s up to nonprofits to build authentic, long-term relationships that plant the seeds that will inspire donors.

Common donor stewardship strategies include:

• Prioritize personal outreach
• Invite donors behind the scenes, even through virtual calls
• Recognize milestones like giving anniversaries
• Share impact stories of how donor support makes a difference
• Ask for feedback through surveys and focus groups, not just donations
• Introduce legacy giving conversations gently

Consistent, authentic stewardship over time creates a strong foundation that will make planned giving conversations easier.

Recognize Planned Giving Donors

Depending on how they want to be recognized, highlight donors through a “legacy society” or donor recognition program. If they don’t mind public recognition, this type of promotion can also inspire other donors.

Measure the Success of Your Planned Giving Program

Finally, reflect on your planned giving results to identify successes and opportunities for improvement. Freewill’s planned giving guide recommends creating an intentional process for recording and analyzing your program’s performance in your CRM.

While planned giving programs can take years to yield actual gifts, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be tracking every metric from the program’s inception! There are some key metrics you can track to measure the success of your planned giving program:

• Number of confirmed legacy commitments. Track how many donors have formally offered a planned gift, usually through a signed letter of intent or a copy of a will. This is a direct measure of future revenue.

• Number of identified prospects. Monitoring how many prospects you’ve flagged in your CRM as potential candidates can show you how well you’re building your pipeline.

• Engagement touchpoints per prospect. Count the number of calls, visits, emails, and event invites per prospect. The more frequently you’re interacting, the higher the likelihood of a gift.

• Marketing Reach and Response Rates: This gets into the nitty-gritty marketing details. Measure email opens and clicks, content downloads, webpage visits, and even RSVPs to planned-giving events.

• Donor Conversations Logged: Track how many donors have expressed an interest to a staff member. This is an excellent gauge of interest in a commitment.

• Realized Planned Gifts: Tracking when a gift “comes due” gives insight into the long-term financial impact of your program
• Program Growth: Use your CRM to track the annual growth of your program. A thriving program indicates strong donor stewardship and increased visibility for your program. 

Using this data, your nonprofit can learn from its mistakes and adjust its approach to raise more planned gifts in the future.

Planned giving may require long-term thinking and planning, but the potential impact makes it worth the wait. These gifts often represent the most considerable and most meaningful contributions a donor can make, helping nonprofits build sustainable futures and honor the values of their supporters.

Whether your organization is just beginning to explore planned giving or hoping to strengthen an existing program, now is the perfect time to act. Start by assessing your internal readiness, identifying prospects using your CRM, and crafting personalized outreach strategies that align with your donors’ values. Educate your team and your supporters, and remember that the smallest steps can begin to shift the culture.

With thoughtful planning and consistent stewardship, your nonprofit can build a program that will unlock transformational gifts and fuel your mission for generations.

About the Author

Philip Schmitz

Phil Schmitz is the founder and CEO of CharityEngine, a complete fundraising platform powering some of the nation’s largest nonprofits and associations. Phil has developed patent-pending anti-fraud tools and industry-leading recurring payment technology that allows nonprofits to retain more sustainer revenue than the industry average; clients have raised nearly $5 billion using these tools.  Phil’s passion for leveraging technology to empower nonprofits is supported by more than 20 years of experience in building successful technology and e-commerce companies.

The post Planned Gifts: A Quick Guide To Help Nonprofits Raise More appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

You see, when I got started in major gift fundraising, I thought I needed a pitch.

I needed a presentation that would be so great, the donor would immediately pull out their checkbook to joyfully make a gift!

And based on the years of sales training I’d had, I tried to have all the answers to any possible objection.

The result? I did a lot of talking.

Talking is what I thought major gift fundraising was!

In the LinkedIn post, fundraising strategist Amanda Smith shares that a development director more than tripled major gift fundraising results with only one change.

The change? Amanda writes that instead of pitching her organization’s needs, she began with:

“Before we talk about our work, I’d love to understand what matters most to you about our mission.”

Listening was the secret!

Listening – seems scary but makes the work easier

In my experience, it’s listening that makes major gift fundraising so hard. Listening is vulnerable. When we talk, we feel we’re in control. When we listen, we feel out of control. At the whim of the other person.

The good news? We’re not out of control. We’re treating the other person with respect.

Asking questions actually helps us steer the conversation. In fact, one of the best trainings I’ve ever seen is Andrea Kihlstedt’s “The Asking Conversation.”

In the training, she shows that 4-5 questions can move the conversation forward. And shows that most of the time, we are actually listening to the donor. Not talking.

Listening actually gives you the courage to make the ask. As you hear how they connect with your work, you’ll feel your confidence growing. And you’ll be able to ask them in a way that matters to them.

Take a breath. Listen.

As you go through your upcoming major gift asks, take a breath. And ask a question that allows you to actually hear the donor.

No promise that this will triple your fundraising. But I can promise that this will help your donor retention. Because they will see that you are interested in them in addition to their wallet. Truly interested in them.

This will make your nonprofit stand out in the crowd of nonprofits approaching them.

What questions will you ask your donor? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Secret to Major Gift Success – Stop talking so much appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Nonprofit Leaders Don’t Learn Fundraising

Most nonprofit leaders don’t understand fundraising. Despite all the research and training about nonprofit fundraising, most nonprofit leaders tend to see fundraising as something “anybody” can do. And they think of it as transactional, like invoicing donors or billing them.

They completely miss that successful fundraising is a relationship-based process that involves:

• Researching potential donors
• Building meaningful relationships
• Finding value alignment
• And making clear asks that are never 100% guaranteed to be a “yes.”

What makes this situation worse is that we major gift fundraisers often just say “trust me, this is part of the process.”  We know the process works. But to your boss, it sounds like you’re resisting being accountable.

You might not like it, but it’s your responsibility to educate your boss and board on what fundraising actually entails.

Telling Your Story Effectively

As a major gift officer, you need to demonstrate that there is a structured process behind your work. One effective approach is using a dashboard system like the Veritus Group’s dashboard, as described in the book It’s Not (Just) About the Money.

The basis? A spreadsheet. Each row is a qualified donor and includes:

• Target ask amounts for each prospect
• When you plan on making the ask
• And then a 12-month touchpoint strategy for each relationship

Yes, I know you have a donor database. But a simple spreadsheet makes it easy to show your bossWhatever system you choose, the key is making your work visible and understandable.

Now your one-on-one’s move from “What are you doing?” to your being able to share month by month what is happening with each of your assigned relationships.

Understanding Your Boss’ Perspective

Executive directors arguably have one of the hardest jobs on the planet. Every day, they are pulled in so many separate directions:

• Answering questions from multiple direct reports
• Managing relationships & expectations of board members
• Putting out operational fires
• Meeting community needs

They typically feel in the dark about how funding actually happens. Similarly, board members rarely understand nonprofit fundraising mechanics and assume fundraising is like an ATM – you just need to push a button and money appears.

It’s Worth The Work

As a major gift officer, you know fundraising ultimately comes down to human relationships – building them, nurturing them, and making clear asks. It also involves engaging volunteers strategically to strengthen the organization.

Without the context of how fundraising works, these activities might seem like you’re:

• Trying to get others to do your job
• Making excuses for lack of results
• Avoiding accountability

But sharing the story of fundraising, and learning to share it in a way your boss understands, will make your work much less stressful. And will give your boss the confidence of knowing you have a plan.

While I firmly believe all nonprofit leaders should be seeking fundraising training, the odds are your boss isn’t going to become a fundraising expert. By telling your story in a way your boss and your board understand, you’ll reduce some of the stress you and your boss feel around fundraising. And you’ll be making your nonprofit even stronger.

The post Major Gift Fundraisers: Your Boss Doesn’t Understand What You Do appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

When faced with a ticking clock, the speed with which your donors respond to your fundraising appeals makes all the difference. So, how can you ensure that your asks stand out to supporters and inspire them to act, right then and there? 

The answer lies in learning to craft better fundraising appeals, whether you’re sending them out via email, an SMS marketing tool, social media, or even direct mail. Let’s look at three strategies you can apply to your approach today!

1. Create a Sense of Urgency  

Even if a fundraising need feels urgent to your team and beneficiaries, it may not feel urgent to your community of supporters. Most of the time, this is due to your donors not having a clear understanding of just how important your fundraising push is. 

To infuse urgency into your fundraising appeals, apply these tips: 

• Set a clear deadline. A specific date or time can give donors a reason to act now instead of putting it off. Don’t bury your deadline in your message, either—mention it right away and ensure it’s prominently displayed on all of your campaign marketing materials. 

• Use language that encourages action. Examples include phrases like “Act now,” “Don’t wait,” “Limited time,” and “Last chance.” This type of language is excellent for the beginning of a fundraising appeal (such as an email subject line) and final calls to action. 
• Share your progress and how far you have to go. Tell your supporters how far you’ve come with your campaign to prove that you’ve made a dent in your goal. Then, let them know how much further you have to go—this will show them they can be part of closing the gap. For example, you might say, “So far, we’ve raised $3500. We only need $500 more to reach today’s goal!” 
• Leverage social proof. Social proof creates a sense of momentum and demonstrates that other people have been inspired to give to your campaign. Try something like, “Over 500 people have already donated this morning—add your gift to become a changemaker like them!”
• Offer last-minute incentives. Sometimes, offering donors a little something in return can be enough to motivate them to hurry and give. Consider offering things like gift-matching opportunities or even merchandise branded to your organization, like candles, water bottles, or t-shirts. 

2. Personalize the Message 

Say you receive two birthday cards in the mail. One is from your dentist, and one is from your best friend. The card from the dentist is brief and generic, and you can tell that the dental practice didn’t spend much time writing the message (which also contains a thinly veiled reminder about scheduling your next appointment). On the other hand, the card from your best friend is full of warmth, well wishes, and references to some of your favorite memories together. 

Which card are you most likely to keep? It’s a no-brainer—the one from your friend! And the dentist’s card likely goes straight into the recycling. 

Don’t make the same mistake as our example dentist! Your donors want messages that feel personal and special, even when they know you’re in a hurry to reach a campaign goal. Personal touches make them feel valued, connected to your cause, and motivated to act. 

Here are a few ways to tailor your fundraising appeals to individual donors: 

• Use the donor’s name. Always address your donor by their preferred name in the greeting of your message and somewhere in the appeal’s content, too. Something like “Dear Angela” will always be more eye-catching and personal than “Dear Donor.” 
• Refer to past donations or engagement. Before they give again, donors want to know that you’ve appreciated their past contributions and involvement. Ensure you acknowledge everything they’ve done for you so far and explain how their continued support can help you do more. You can even highlight specific impact metrics. For example, you might send a quick text message appeal that reads, “Last year, your generous gift of $40 helped us provide meals to five families in need. With your continued support, we can continue to fight hunger in Chicago.” 
• Highlight the donor’s interests. Every donor has a specific reason for supporting your organization. Point to those interests and values to inspire further giving. For example, you might write, “We know how much you care about helping at-risk youth succeed in STEM classes. With a donation to our tutoring program, you can help more students thrive.” 
• Tailor ask amounts based on giving history. It’s a balancing act—you want to encourage donors to give more than they usually do, but you also want your ask to feel realistic. Customize your donation appeals by playing off of your donors’ giving patterns. For instance, if they usually give $25, it’s probably better to ask for $40 than $250. You can even ask for smaller increases. Here’s an example: “Chelsea, we know you’ve been a loyal monthly donor. Could you increase your monthly support by just $5 to help us do more for homeless pets?” 

3. Offer Quick and Easy Donation Methods 

Finally, one of the best things you can do to get supporters pulling out their wallets during a big fundraising push is to make donating fast and simple. Streamlining the experience makes it more likely that donors will act now rather than putting off their giving. 

How efficient your donation process is comes down to the methods you offer. Try out these methods to make things go smoother for those who care about your cause: 

• Text-to-Give: With this donation method, you need a nonprofit-specific texting tool that provides your organization with its own fundraising short code or phone number. Supporters text a keyword to that number to receive a link to your online donation page. From there, they can complete their gift from their phones. 
• Streamlined Donation Form: Create a straightforward online donation form that is quick to complete. It shouldn’t require donors to provide an excessive amount of information—instead, ensure that donors can quickly input their contact information and payment details. You can even go a step further by providing suggested donation amounts (e.g., $25, $50, $100). Note that streamlining your donation form is a best practice that can help with any other giving method, too!  
• QR Code Donations: Put a QR code on your printed or digital campaign marketing materials that links directly to your donation page when scanned. This will help donors avoid typing long URLs into their smartphones.
• Social Media Donation Buttons: Some social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have donation tools built into them. This allows your followers to donate directly through these platforms without leaving the site. By leveraging these tools, you ensure that donors don’t have to spend time navigating to another site to give. 

In addition, make sure you’re prepared to receive a variety of payment types. You may want to specify that you accept credit cards, debit cards, cash, check, ACH, and digital wallet payments so that every donor can use the option that works best for them. 

In fundraising, every second—and every dollar!—counts, especially if you’re fundraising for an emergency situation. To inspire your donors to respond quickly, use the strategies above and track response rates to gauge what works best.  

About the Author

Christina Marmor, Vice President of Marketing at Mogli

Christina is a tenacious marketing leader who combines grace, grit, and creative joy to drive innovation, evolve mindsets, and accelerate transformation. She is obsessed with personalizing experiences to drive connection and engagement. Christina is a life-long figure skater. When not championing Mogli, you’ll most likely find her on a lacrosse field cheering on her son or at the ice rink supporting her daughter’s figure skating journey.

The post 3 Ways to Inspire Quicker Responses to Fundraising Appeals appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

This is a reminder to resist that urge. We are stronger together.

You don’t have to do this alone.

Off the top of my head, here are some ways you can connect with others:

1. Talk to your peers – Pick up the phone. Or go out to coffee. Typically, people in nonprofits don’t understand each other’s jobs. So Executive Directors getting together have more in common than they expect. As do fundraisers. Not having to explain your work can be remarkably refreshing.
2. Join your local AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Chapter – Each chapter has different events, some trainings, some social gatherings. The monthly lunches have a training agenda, which is great if you are new. You get to learn and meet people without needing to do a lot of small talk.
3. Join the Nonprofit Academy – $19/month and you get monthly call with peers – bring your questions, share your  – plus you get access to trainings on fundraising and leadership with more than 170 CFRE continuing education credits.
4. Sign up for Tactical Thursdays – Every Thursday a new, practical, tactical topic. Host Josh Alcorn does a great job of facilitating interaction.

It doesn’t cost any money to reach out to a peer.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised how good it can feel to make a connection, rather than doing it alone.

And how much is reduces fear.

The situation is still stressful. But it’s better going through this together.

What ways are you finding to connect with others? Let us know in the comments.

The post You don’t have to do this alone appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Tracking financial data is similarly vital. While many nonprofit accounting activities revolve around compliance, they also help your organization evaluate its spending and revenue generation to make the most of its resources and demonstrate financial responsibility to its supporters.

If you’re just getting started with nonprofit accounting, one of the most straightforward entry points is to learn about some of the key documents involved in this process. Let’s walk through four types that you’ll see frequently together.

1. Chart of Accounts

Your chart of accounts (COA) is essentially a directory of your nonprofit’s financial records. It lists all of your ledgers and accounts in a table format and assigns numbers to each one so they’re easier to find, review, and report on.

Here is a quick breakdown of the general categories you’ll likely see on your nonprofit’s COA:

• Assets (account numbers beginning with 1000): Everything your nonprofit owns, such as cash, property, equipment, and accounts receivable.

• Liabilities (account numbers beginning with 2000): Everything your nonprofit owes, including debt, deferred revenue, and accounts payable.

• Net Assets (account numbers beginning with 3000): What your nonprofit is worth, calculated by subtracting your total liabilities from your total assets.

• Revenue (account numbers beginning with 4000-6000): All of the funding your nonprofit brings in through individual donations, corporate philanthropy, earned income, investment returns, and grants.
• Expenses (account numbers beginning with 7000-9000): All of the resources your nonprofit spends on its mission-related programs and projects, administrative needs like staff compensation and facility costs, and upfront expenditures associated with fundraising campaigns.

These sections and account numbers are based on the Unified Chart of Accounts (UCOA), a model COA that aligns with nonprofit reporting standards. However, most small to mid-sized organizations find that the UCOA is too complex for their needs, so they end up using its general structure as a foundation and just including the accounts they regularly use on their COA.

2. Budgets

If you’ve organized a budget for your household before, you know that the goal of creating this document is to provide direction for your spending and income generation. Nonprofit budgeting serves a similar overarching purpose, but it sets a direction for your whole organization, so it’s an involved process that many people at your nonprofit (finance team, fundraising staff, board members, executive leadership, etc.) should have input on.

Your nonprofit might have to create several different types of budgets depending on its activities. According to Jitasa, the most common ones include:

• Operating budget: This is probably what comes to mind when you hear the term “nonprofit budget”—the master financial plan that projects all of your organization’s revenue and expenses for a given fiscal year.

• Fundraising campaign budget: These documents track the upfront costs of revenue-generating initiatives, especially highly involved ones like events or 24-hour giving days, to help you determine your return on investment (ROI) for the campaign.

• Capital budget: These budgets outline the expenses associated with multi-year projects like capital campaigns and explain how you’ll cover those costs over their full duration.

• Program budget: Since launching a new mission-related program typically requires many one-time investments, creating a separate budget for it to start can help you differentiate these from recurring expenses and ensure you can fund it long-term.
• Grant proposal budget: Most grantmakers will ask for a budget as a section of a grant application to demonstrate that your organization will use the funding wisely if you win it.

To be as useful as possible to your nonprofit, all of these budgets should include defined activities, realistic metrics, and specific timelines for spending and revenue generation. Additionally, make sure any niche type of budget you create aligns with your operating budget.

3. Financial Statements

Financial statements are among the most helpful reports for all nonprofit professionals. Each of these statements organizes and summarizes your organization’s accounting data in a different, actionable way to inform your operations.

The four core nonprofit financial statements are the:

nonprofit accounting documents_supplementary [alt text: A mind map of the four core nonprofit financial statements and the data each one reports, which are explained below.]

• Statement of activities. As the nonprofit equivalent of a for-profit income statement, this document details your organization’s revenue, expenses, and change in net assets for a given year to lay the foundation for future budgeting decisions.

• Statement of financial position. Also known as a balance sheet, this statement outlines your nonprofit’s assets, liabilities, and net assets to provide a snapshot of your financial health and potential for growth.

• Statement of cash flows. This report tracks how cash moves in and out of your nonprofit through operating, investing, and financing activities. It’s typically compiled monthly rather than annually like the other statements to help keep your spending and fundraising on track with your budget throughout the year.
• Statement of functional expenses. This is the one financial statement unique to nonprofits because it shows how your organization’s spending furthers its mission by breaking down program, administrative, and fundraising costs in detail.

In addition to using these documents for internal decision-making, they also help with external transparency by providing financial information for your annual report. Loop recommends including high-level data in the report itself—using charts and graphs to make it more digestible—and attaching full versions of your financial statements as appendices in case some readers want to dig deeper.

4. Tax Forms

If your nonprofit has valid 501(c)(3) status, it’s exempt from paying federal income tax, as well as many state taxes. But just because your organization is tax-exempt doesn’t mean you can completely write off tax season! You still need to file a few forms each year to comply with IRS and local nonprofit requirements, including:

• Form 990. This is the federal tax return for exempt organizations, which your financial statements will help you complete. There are four versions of the form—990-N for small nonprofits, 990-EZ for mid-sized organizations, the full 990 for large nonprofits, and 990-PF for private foundations—so make sure to file the right one for your organization.

• State-specific forms. Certain states have extra tax forms that nonprofits have to fill out to remain exempt from state taxes—Form 199 in California and Form CHAR500 in New York are the best-known ones. Other states ask for a copy of Form 990 or other annual forms not related to taxes to maintain nonprofit status, so it’s important to stay up-to-date on the requirements for your state.
• Employer forms. Your organization is also required to provide its team members with individual tax forms to help them file their returns. Every employee on your payroll should receive a W-2, and any contractors you work with will get a 1099.

Be mindful of the deadlines for each of these forms, since submitting late can incur fines or even risk your 501(c)(3) status if it happens repeatedly. Form 990 is due on the 15th day of the fifth month after your nonprofit’s fiscal year ends (May 15 if your fiscal year follows the calendar year), W-2s and 1099s need to be distributed by January 31, and each state sets its own deadlines for additional forms.

If you need help creating or interpreting any of these documents, don’t hesitate to contact an accountant who specializes in nonprofit work. They’ll be able to use their experience and expertise to ensure your organization’s financial planning, recordkeeping, and reporting not only comply with regulations but also contribute to its long-term health and sustainability.

About the Author

Jon Osterburg

Since joining Jitasa in 2010, Jon Osterburg has helped hundreds of nonprofits around the world effectively manage their finances through tailored, outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services. He currently serves as Jitasa’s Chief Operating Officer, is a member of two nonprofit boards, and has earned a certificate for Executive Education from the Yale School of Management.

The post Basics of Nonprofit Accounting: 4 Documents to Know appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

I hope this helps you too. Please keep asking for you cause.

The post There’s nothing kind about not asking appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Yes, billions of dollars flow through philanthropy every year. Hundreds of billions, in fact. But that money isn’t sitting in a holding account, waiting to be released like water from a dam. It’s in the hands of donors and foundations who need to be cultivated, engaged, and asked properly. You can’t just send an invoice and expect people to pay.

So when a service or platform tells you it’s “super easy” to raise money with their product—and you don’t even have to pay—it’s time to ask questions. What’s their revenue model? Do they charge donors by disguising fees as “topping up” donations? Or do they barrage your supporters with slash-and-burn fundraising that might deliver short-term gifts but destroys long-term relationships?

Be Wary When Hiring Too

This same caution applies when hiring fundraisers who claim extraordinary success in previous positions. They may indeed have impressive numbers, but dig deeper. How does their previous organization feel about their efforts now?

Some nonprofits struggle with operational cash flow because a former fundraising staffer secured lots of restricted, multi-year pledges. The money sounds great until that person leaves and the organization can’t pay operational bills despite donors faithfully fulfilling their pledges.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

P.Y.I.T.S. (Put Yourself In Their Shoes) is a principle I often share with clients. How would you feel being bombarded with aggressive fundraising tactics? Or discovering that the platform you donated through took a substantial cut without clear disclosure?

Many nonprofits genuinely struggle with asking for money effectively. Working with experienced fundraising professionals can produce tremendous results. But be wary of those promising the moon without explaining the journey.

Real fundraising takes consistent, intentional work—sometimes boringly so. Because long-term fundraising success isn’t about quick wins; it’s about building sustainable relationships with donors who believe in your mission as much as you do.

And relationships worth investing in always take time.

The post Beware the “Too Good to Be True” Fundraising Promise appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

In this guide to improving your nonprofit’s volunteer program, we’ll discuss five strategies for managing your volunteers and helping them thrive in their roles. We’ll cover everything from showing appreciation to finding the best software partner or consultant. 

1. Invest in volunteer management software.

Investing in volunteer management software can help you build loyalty and long-term relationships with volunteers. For example, volunteer management software can aid in:

• Closing communication gaps
• Breaking down data silos
• Standardizing training
• Providing a central hub for volunteers’ data like their contact information, skills, and availability 

Look for software that allows your organization to integrate multiple applications into one system, so you can easily connect your volunteer management and communication tools. For nonprofits using these tools, research native apps to find a volunteer management solution that will integrate with your current software. 

To improve your volunteer program’s use of technology, consider taking training courses. These professional programs can help you better understand top volunteer management tools and how they can be used to recruit, motivate, and appreciate your volunteers. 

2. Offer positive, engaging experiences.

Just as engaging fundraising ideas drive donations, engaging volunteer experiences drive long-term support. However, you don’t necessarily have to turn each step of the process into an exciting event. For example, giving volunteers the skills they need to excel in the responsibilities they signed up for can cultivate high volunteer engagement in and of itself. 

To make the volunteer experience more engaging, employ the following strategies:

• Train your volunteers. Set your volunteers up for success by training them in the skills they need to complete their assigned tasks. Not only does this cut down on miscommunications and mistakes, but it also makes volunteers feel like they’ve gained something valuable by working with your nonprofit. When a volunteer finishes training for a specific role, note it in your CRM to improve volunteer scheduling later. 
• Clearly designate their responsibilities. Outline the tasks you want your volunteers to complete so there is no confusion about what they should help out with.
• Ask for (and listen to) their feedback. Check in with your volunteers regularly to gauge how they feel about the program. Implement an anonymous survey system to ensure you receive honest answers, or have volunteer managers ask volunteers for feedback directly to give them the space to expand on their answers and respond to follow-up questions. Be sure to acknowledge any feedback you receive and identify recurring trends to inform positive changes to your volunteer program.

An engaging experience will motivate volunteers to continue working with your nonprofit, particularly if they feel that communication with your organization is a two-way street. 

Your volunteer management tools can be essential here. Fíonta’s guide to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge emphasizes the role a customizable, secure software system can play in managing day-to-day nonprofit operations. For a volunteer program, this might mean tracking individual volunteers’ journeys to pair them with optimal opportunities and ensure they always get the assistance they need to succeed. 

3. Leverage volunteer grants.

Volunteer grants can benefit any organization with a reliable volunteer program. Double the Donation defines volunteer grants as “corporate giving programs that encourage volunteerism in communities where employees live and work.” In other words, volunteer grant programs encourage eligible community members to support local nonprofits, knowing that their work will be accompanied by a monetary contribution from their employer.

Volunteer grant programs benefit your nonprofit by:

• Increasing funding. Employers with a volunteer grant program will donate to the nonprofits where their employees volunteer. This means nonprofits can earn funding from the work that their volunteers may have planned to do anyway. 
• Encouraging volunteerism. A volunteer grant gives employees an incentive to volunteer with local nonprofits. Because these grants give the nonprofit additional funding based on the time the employee spends volunteering, they may feel more compelled to volunteer to boost their contribution to the cause.

Additionally, many corporations with volunteer grant programs also have volunteer time off (VTO) programs. VTO are paid time off hours specifically earmarked for volunteering. This allows employees to volunteer during their normal work hours without sacrificing a paycheck, leading to more volunteers for nonprofits like yours. 

However, many potential and active volunteers don’t take advantage of these programs because they’re not aware of them. A strong volunteer management system can help your organization identify these opportunities by centralizing donor data (such as employer information) and opening channels for communication. That way, you can more easily ask donors to check their volunteer grant and VTO eligibility.

4. Schedule social events.

One popular reason for volunteering is to meet new people with similar interests. Setting up social events that allow volunteers to get to know one another can help facilitate these relationships.

While nonprofits can host social events like holiday parties or dinners at local restaurants, your organization can also encourage new friendships during the volunteering process. For example, schedule a group of volunteers to work on a campaign at the same time so they have the opportunity to chat together.

Encouraging your volunteers to socialize can:

• Strengthen community ties.
• Help them meet new people with common interests.
• Get them excited about volunteering because they will look forward to meeting up with new friends.

If your organization understands its volunteers’ interests and personalities well, it may be able to form groups or pairs of volunteers who are likely to hit it off. Another strategy for facilitating relationships between volunteers is to group them based on demographic factors like age. For example, younger supporters may enjoy working with others, and they will likely have more in common with volunteers in their age group.

If your nonprofit has a large volunteer program but struggles to build a strong community, volunteer management software can help. Software that can host volunteer profiles, help manage events, and record volunteer engagement can provide your nonprofit with accurate volunteer data that will inform how you facilitate volunteer socialization opportunities. To build a strong network of volunteers, your organization may need to consider switching to a CRM with the functionality you need.

5. Show your appreciation.

Stewarding relationships with volunteers is just as important as stewarding your donors. While donors help you stay up and running with financial contributions, your volunteers give their time and energy to furthering your mission. 

Showing your volunteers you value them can go a long way toward building deep, personal relationships that encourage years of dedicated support. A few ways to show your appreciation for their hard work include:

• Saying thank you. Express gratitude to your volunteers through thank-you letters or emails. To make these messages more personal, consider calling volunteers on the phone and thanking them in person each day after they finish their shifts. Be conscious of communication preferences, as well. For instance, younger volunteers might be happy with a message via Facebook, whereas older supporters appreciate a letter in the mail.
• Recognizing volunteers publicly. Honor your top volunteers at your next fundraising event or highlight them on your organization’s social media account. The best way to track their hard work is through volunteer management software that can record their hours worked, note their responsibilities, and track other preferences that may be useful for determining how you’ll recognize them.
• Participating in volunteer holidays. Holidays such as National Volunteer Week and International Volunteer Day are dedicated to recognizing volunteers’ hard work. Plan a fun weekend event with games and snacks for your volunteers and their families to honor their contributions.

Showing your volunteers that you appreciate them is key to cultivating a personalized connection with your organization. Connect your CRM, your messaging tools, and volunteer software to track every part of volunteers’ experiences with your nonprofit. This ensures you can send proper volunteer thank-you letters to recognize milestones, reference specific details to add a personal touch, and never miss an important date, like a birthday or volunteer anniversary. 

While it can be difficult to juggle tasks related to your volunteer program with other responsibilities, maintaining a robust volunteer program is crucial. Without a crew of dedicated volunteers, your intense year-end fundraiser or elaborate capital campaign wouldn’t be possible. Choosing volunteer management software that helps you organize data and streamline the volunteer process can help you create a strong program your supporters will want to return to year after year.

About the Author

Karin Tracy

Karin Tracy, VP of Marketing at Fíonta, is a seasoned designer and marketer with a passion for serving nonprofit organizations and being a small part of bettering the world. She is a certified Pardot Consultant and Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, a fan of automation and reporting, a lover of animals, and devourer of popcorn.

At Fíonta, Karin drives marketing efforts for all internal and external projects. Her direct service work is focused primarily on marketing strategy and automation for Fíonta’s MCAE (Pardot) clients.

The post 5 Ways to Level Up Your Nonprofit’s Volunteer Program appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Despite these challenges, successful event planning is achievable with the right strategies and resources. By understanding the most common obstacles and how to overcome them, your nonprofit can host events that not only meet your goals but also inspire and engage your community.

Let’s explore four common event planning challenges faced by nonprofits and discuss practical solutions for planning and executing your next event with confidence.

1. Budget Constraints

Tight finances can make it difficult to secure venues, hire vendors, and provide high-quality experiences for attendees. Often, nonprofits are forced to cut corners or rely heavily on donations, which can add uncertainty to the planning process.

Solution: Creative Budgeting and Fundraising

To overcome budget constraints, think strategically about where and how to allocate your resources. Here are some actionable approaches:

• Prioritize Spending: Identify your non-negotiable event elements, such as venue accessibility or technology to engage virtual attendees. Focus your budget on these priorities while finding cost-effective alternatives for less critical aspects.
• Leverage Sponsorships and Partnerships: Reach out to local businesses or organizations for sponsorship opportunities. In-kind donations, such as catering or printing services, can significantly reduce costs while building community relationships.
• Utilize Budgeting Tools: Consider using budgeting templates or software designed for nonprofits. These tools can help you track expenses, identify cost-saving opportunities, and stay within budget.
• Host Fundraising Campaigns: Use the event itself as a fundraising opportunity by offering tiered ticket pricing and incorporating a donation appeal. Crowdfunding platforms can also help you raise funds in advance.

With a clear strategy and creative solutions, your nonprofit can host successful events that make a big impact—without breaking the bank.

2. Limited Staffing and Volunteer Burnout

Nonprofits often operate with small teams and depend heavily on volunteers to bring their events to life. While volunteers are invaluable, relying too much on them can lead to burnout, reduced productivity, and even event-day mishaps. Balancing workloads and maintaining morale are critical to ensuring a smooth planning and execution process.

Solution: Effective Delegation and Volunteer Management

Managing a small team and volunteers effectively can transform a stressful planning process into a well-organized effort. Here’s how:

• Assign Clear Roles and Responsibilities: Break down the event into tasks and assign a specific role to each team member or volunteer. Doing so ensures accountability and prevents overlapping duties, which can lead to confusion.
• Set Realistic Expectations: Communicate clear timelines and goals so your team knows what’s achievable within your available resources. Avoid overloading any one person with too many responsibilities.
• Recognize and Appreciate Volunteers: Acknowledge your volunteers’ contributions through thank-you notes, recognition during the event, or small tokens of appreciation. This boosts morale and encourages long-term commitment.
• Leverage Volunteer Management Tools: Use software to organize volunteer schedules, track progress, and communicate effectively. These tools save time and reduce administrative headaches.
• Plan for Breaks and Support: Ensure your team has adequate time to rest, eat, and recharge during the event. A refreshed team performs better and creates a more positive atmosphere.

By fostering a culture of clear communication and appreciation, your nonprofit can build a motivated, engaged team that is ready to bring your event vision to life.

3. Attracting Attendees

Even the best-planned event can fall short if attendance numbers don’t meet expectations. Nonprofits often struggle to capture their target audience’s attention and create promotional materials that resonate, especially when competing with other organizations.

Solution: Strategic Marketing and Outreach

Drawing attendees to your event requires a thoughtful and targeted marketing approach. Consider these strategies:

• Leverage Digital Channels: Promote the event using email marketing, social media platforms, and your nonprofit’s website. Create a series of posts and updates to maintain visibility in the weeks leading up to the event.
• Create Compelling Messaging: Focus on the value your event provides to attendees. Highlight key benefits like engaging speakers or the impact attendance will have on your mission.
• Partner with Like-Minded Organizations: Collaborate with other nonprofits, local businesses, or community groups to cross-promote your event. Doing so expands your reach to new audiences.
• Offer Incentives: Encourage early sign-ups with discounted pricing, exclusive perks, or giveaways. Group discounts can also inspire more people to attend.
• Utilize Targeted Advertising: If your budget allows, use social media ads or local event calendars to reach specific demographics. Paid campaigns can ensure your event reaches the right audience at the right time.

By prioritizing outreach and crafting a strong promotional strategy, your nonprofit can generate excitement and fill seats, ensuring your event reaches its full potential.

4. Venue and Logistics Issues

Securing the right venue and managing event logistics can be daunting for nonprofits. From finding an affordable location to ensuring accessibility for attendees, logistical challenges can thwart an otherwise well-planned event. Technical difficulties or last-minute changes can add further complications.

Solution: Proactive Planning and Contingency Strategies

Addressing logistical hurdles requires careful planning and preparation. Here are effective ways to manage venue and logistics issues:

• Book Early and Negotiate Costs: Secure your venue as early as possible to lock in availability and negotiate better rates. Your nonprofit may qualify for discounts or special rates at specific venues.
• Prioritize Accessibility: Choose a venue that accommodates all attendees. Consider factors like parking, public transportation access, and onsite amenities.
• Develop a Detailed Event Plan: Outline all logistical needs, from seating arrangements to audiovisual equipment. Share this plan with vendors and your team to ensure alignment.
• Test Technology in Advance: Schedule a walkthrough of the venue to test microphones, projectors, Wi-Fi, and other technical equipment. Prepare backups to account for potential failures.
• Create a Contingency Plan: Prepare for unexpected issues, such as bad weather or last-minute cancellations. Identify alternative options for critical elements like venues, catering, or transportation.
• Use Event Management Software: Streamline the planning process with tools that help you track logistics, manage budgets, and communicate with vendors and team members.

By taking a proactive approach to venue selection and logistics, your nonprofit can minimize disruptions and create a seamless experience for your attendees and event team.

Nonprofit event planning comes with its fair share of challenges. However, with thoughtful strategies, you can turn these obstacles into opportunities for growth and creativity. Each challenge gives you the chance to strengthen your planning process, build stronger connections, and create more memorable experiences for your audience.

No matter the size of your team or budget, successful events are within reach when you approach planning with a clear vision and a focus on proactive solutions.

About the Author

Daria Knupp

Daria Knupp, CEM, is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at A2Z Events by Personify. She has spent most of her career in the association world handling content creation and digital marketing and recently decided to apply her expertise to the events industry.

The post 4 Common Event Planning Challenges + How to Solve Them appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Small tweaks to your fundraising appeal can make a big difference in persuading people to give. One adjustment you can make is incorporating impact data that shows the effect of donors’ contributions.

In this guide, we’ll explore exactly what impact data is, why it’s crucial to highlight it, and how you can add it to your appeal. Let’s get started!

What is impact data?

As UpMetrics’ impact measurement guide explains, “Impact refers to the tangible changes or results that your organization generates for its community as outlined by its mission, vision, and goals.” Therefore, impact data is any information that demonstrates how effective your organization is in creating programs, initiatives, and interventions that help you achieve these results.

You may be used to collecting and leveraging data relating to your regular activities, like events, volunteer outings, and services. However, impact data goes beyond just tracking these activities to evaluate the positive outcomes of your work on your beneficiaries.

For example, the impact data you collect may demonstrate your effect on:

• Individuals
• Societal systems
• The environment
• Economic development
• Public health and well-being
• Education
• Cultural and artistic expression
• Human rights and social justice
• Technology and innovation

To prove your impact in a holistic way, use a combination of quantitative and qualitative impact data. While quantitative data has numbers attached to it, qualitative data focuses on nonnumerical, descriptive information. For example, a quantitative data point would be the number of beneficiaries you helped through a specific program. In contrast, qualitative data might be something like an interview with a major donor about their experience with your nonprofit.

Why is it important to include impact data in nonprofit fundraising appeals?

Impact data can help your team make well-informed decisions about the future direction of your services, but it can also be eye-opening for your external stakeholders, like donors, sponsors, and grantors, to review as well. By reporting impact data in your fundraising appeals, you can:

• Show donors the difference they can make. Studies show that 67% of people want to know all the details of how nonprofits use their donations to ensure that they don’t go to waste. While you might not be able to map where each individual donor’s contributions went, you can use impact data to demonstrate the difference they’ve made (and can continue to make) on your beneficiaries. Use donor-focused language like “you” and “your” as opposed to “we” and “us” to center their effect on your cause.

• Build credibility. Any nonprofit can say they touch people’s lives and drive real impact. When you actually incorporate impact data into your fundraising appeals, you back up these claims with real facts and figures, allowing you to build trust with current and potential donors.

• Induce urgency. Let’s say you’re running a text-to-give campaign to fund your disaster relief efforts. You can use impact data about how you’ve successfully helped natural disaster victims in the past to demonstrate the importance of gathering funds as quickly as possible to support even more people in need.
• Emotionally charge your appeal. By combining impact data with storytelling elements, you can develop a heartwarming appeal that elicits supporters’ emotions and inspires them to give back.

When you incorporate impact data into your fundraising appeals, you create a more compelling argument for why people should contribute to your cause and, as a result, can boost your campaign revenue.

How can you incorporate impact data into your fundraising appeals?

Build your appeal around your impact data for the best results. Consider these tips to effectively weave in this information:

• Create a narrative. Make your impact data come to life through storytelling. Start by identifying the main character of your story—in this case, one of your beneficiaries or stakeholders. Then, determine the setting, plot, conflict, and resolution to show the effect your nonprofit had on this individual. Lastly, back up your story with relevant metrics. For example, you may tell the story of how a long-term donor became a legacy giver and include a statistic about how many people your organization has helped due to previous legacy gifts.

• Use visuals. If you’re creating an email, direct mail, or text-to-give appeal, leverage visuals that emphasize your impact. These may be charts or graphs that provide a visual representation of your impact data or photos and videos that show your work in action. Either way, these visuals can help contextualize your data and make your appeal more engaging.

• Showcase testimonials. Don’t forget about qualitative impact data! Testimonials show prospective donors why your organization is worth supporting in current stakeholders’ own words. Reach out to donors, sponsors, beneficiaries, or staff members who may be willing to provide a quote about their relationship with your nonprofit and its impact on their lives.

• Attach impact to different donation amounts. Based on your impact data, demonstrate what different donation amounts will allow your organization to achieve. For example, Bloomerang’s donation page guide explains that the Nashville Food Project’s donation form takes this approach by pulling data from their impact report and connecting it to real outcomes. This way, you show donors the exact impact they can make and inspire them to get involved.

Lastly, end your fundraising appeal with a compelling call to action (CTA). Leverage your impact data to make a compelling case for why donors should contribute, and tie that to action with a CTA like “Donate now to make your mark on our program!” or “Contribute today to change the life of a child in need.”

After they’ve contributed, remember to follow up with donors to show them how their specific donations made an impact. Send them regular updates and your nonprofit’s annual report to keep them in the loop about your work.

About the Author

Charles Sword

Charles Sword is the Chief Revenue Officer at UpMetrics, a leading impact measurement and management software company that’s revolutionizing the way mission-driven organizations harness data to drive positive social outcomes. With a wealth of experience in business development and strategic planning, Charles is responsible for all aspects of market development for the company and is passionate about helping the world’s leading foundations, nonprofits and impact investors to drive accelerated social and environmental change.

The post The Role of Impact Data in Nonprofit Fundraising Appeals appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

First impressions matter, which means your nonprofit’s website can make or break a donor’s relationship with your organization. If you don’t make it easy for donors to understand what you do, explore how they can support your cause, and donate, chances are they’ll find another nonprofit that does.

Let’s explore the top reasons donors aren’t engaging with your website and the concrete steps you can take to improve it.

1. Poor User Experience (UX)

Does your website take several long seconds to load? When donors land on your homepage, do they have to dig through your navigation to find where they’re trying to go? Are there too many images, buttons, and blocks of text crowding your pages?

Your nonprofit’s website is one of your most powerful marketing tools, but only if it has a strong user experience (UX).

Next Steps

Use free tools such as PageSpeed Insights to identify if your website has UX issues. Compile your findings and start implementing improvements such as:

• Simplifying the navigation bar
• Compressing and resizing images
• Adding more white space around page elements
• Breaking large paragraphs into lists or bullet points
• Implementing a mobile-responsive layout
• Following accessibility best practices, such as adding alt text to images

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: The Learning Together website shines when it comes to accessibility. It has an easy-to-access accessibility menu in the bottom right corner, where users can change color contrast, increase text size, highlight links, pause animations, and more. Plus, it allows users to switch to a Spanish version of the website.

2. Weak Branding

Your nonprofit’s branding determines how people perceive your organization and its impact. If your website’s colors, font, and images are inconsistent, donors will have a hard time understanding what your nonprofit stands for, trusting your organization, and establishing an emotional connection to your mission.

Avoid the misconception that a well-designed website will convince donors that your organization doesn’t need financial support. You may assume that low-budget, DIY branding makes your nonprofit seem like an underdog worth rooting for, but actually, a poorly made website gives the impression that you don’t have a focused, long-term strategy for sustained success and impact.

Your website branding should be visually compelling and consistent to build credibility and trust. When donors reach your giving page, they should immediately know that they’re at the right place and feel comfortable enough to donate.

Next Steps

The Liminal nonprofit branding guide recommends creating official brand guidelines for your team to follow when working on your website and other marketing materials. In this document, include:

• An overview of your organization and its brand identity
• Logo variations, spacing specifications, and misuse cases
• Core messaging elements, including your mission statement and calls to action (CTAs)
• Typeface, hierarchy, and font style usage
• Colors, along with their hex code, CMY, and RBG value
• Voice and personality for written communication, such as casual or professional

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: Hood Code provides coding education to youth living in New York City’s public housing system. Its bold and sleek website appeals to the eye, capturing the organization’s tech-focused approach. As donors explore the site, they’ll know their donations are contributing toward professional programs and digital empowerment.

3. Lack of Social Proof

Many donors get involved with a nonprofit because they want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They hope to join a community of like-minded people who share a common passion for their cause. But if there’s no sign of community on your nonprofit’s website, they may wonder why others aren’t interested in championing your organization.

By incorporating social proof across your website, you demonstrate that you’ve earned the trust and support of a passionate audience, improving the chances a new visitor will trust you and join your audience, as well.

Next Steps

If you plan to add supporters’ names and photos to your website, remember to get their permission first. From there, look for opportunities to incorporate the following elements into your website:

• Stories and testimonials from beneficiaries, volunteers, and staff members
• Case studies highlighting successful projects or programs
• Impact metrics that illustrate how you’ve put donations to good use
• Digital donor recognition walls that celebrate your key contributors
• Ratings from reputable charity watchdog groups, such as Candid (GuideStar) or Charity Navigator
• Partnership announcements with local businesses and other organizations

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: Restore NYC incorporates various social proof elements on its website. It has a dedicated “Our Impact” page with statistics on the number of people the organization has served and how their lives have benefited from Restore NYC’s core services. Its annual reports, available to download for free, also contain in-depth stories about beneficiaries and the role the nonprofit played in their journey toward a better life.

4. Missing or Unclear CTAs

You likely already understand the importance of creating accessible, streamlined giving experiences for donors. While you know your donation page should be short, straightforward, and mobile-friendly, the giving experience doesn’t start there. If it’s difficult for donors to find your donation page, or they’re not sure what you’d like them to do when they land on one of your website pages, they might not take any action at all.

Including clear CTAs on your website makes it easy for visitors to engage with your content and take actions like donating.

Next Steps

Whether you’re encouraging visitors to sign up for your email newsletter, become a volunteer, register for an upcoming event, or donate, provide a direct and convenient way for them to do so. According to Fundly, your CTAs should:

• Be short and straightforward
• Stand out visually on the page
• Incorporate words like “today” and “now” to inspire a sense of urgency

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: Lift Up the Vulnerable provides strong examples of CTAs across its website. A popup on the homepage invites visitors to “Double Your Impact Today!” explaining that every dollar they give will be matched up to $250,000. Its “Be a Changemaker” page includes eye-catching buttons that say “Give Today” alongside suggested donation amounts that illustrate each gift size’s impact.

As you adjust your website, track metrics such as page views, bounce rates, conversion rates, and average session duration. Conduct regular training sessions with your team to cover topics like content strategy, UX, search engine optimization (SEO), and data security.

If you determine that your website requires an extensive revamp or rebrand, reach out to experts, such as a nonprofit branding agency, to help you achieve your goals.

About the Author

Todd Hiestand

Todd has over 20 years of experience as a leader in the nonprofit sector. He has served in a wide variety of roles, guiding digital marketing, technology, fundraising, eCommerce, and communications strategies. His expertise in developing systems and processes has helped launch organizations and sustain growth over time.

The post 4 Reasons Your Donors Aren’t Engaging With Your Website appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

But with volunteers making up about one-third of the nonprofit workforce, volunteers and staff must overcome interpersonal challenges if they want to drive real change. Recognizing each other’s value and working together is the only way to successfully further their organizations’ missions. 

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of best practices you can use to improve volunteer-staff relations at your nonprofit and set your team up for long-term success.

1. Clarify each role’s responsibilities.

When you create clear boundaries between staff and volunteer responsibilities, it’s easier to foster positive relationships from the beginning. This way, task ownership is clearer, preventing contention and work slowdowns.

Before you start staffing your next campaign, refresh your job and role descriptions to ensure they accurately speak to each person’s responsibilities. Clearly outline the following for each role:

• Whether it’s a paid or volunteer position
• The time commitment, such as part-time, seasonal, or occasional long shifts
• Their primary responsibilities
• Additional responsibilities they may pick up on a day-to-day basis as needed
• Who they report to
• Which team members this role will interact with
• Whether the position is entry-level, skills-based, or senior 

Then, reinforce the division and delegation of responsibilities between paid and volunteer roles during volunteer onboarding. Clarify what ad hoc tasks are within the scope of volunteer responsibilities and which ones they should ask a staff member to handle. For example, you may let your summer camp program volunteers talk to upset parents but ask them to pass the conversation off to a staff member if the parent mentions any major concerns, such as child safety or data security.

If any issues or confusion arise down the line, remind both staff and volunteers what duties they’re ultimately responsible for and what they aren’t. When in doubt, tell them to refer to your volunteer handbook or a senior staff member.

2. Create space for casual interactions.

Because volunteers and staff may be involved in different aspects of the organization, they might not get an opportunity to get to know one another or become familiar with what the other actually does. 

To bridge the divide, volunteer managers should create space for volunteers and staff to interact casually. When they’re more familiar with each other, everyone will be more compassionate and understanding in moments of conflict.

Try inviting staff and volunteers to eat together before events or celebrate a successful campaign with a small party. You might hold an appreciation dinner event and create name cards so you can seat volunteers and staff next to each other. Or, ask staff members and volunteers to team up for auction item solicitation — you could even give out a prize for the team that gets the most items.

3. Provide adequate training.

A common reason tension can build between staff and volunteers is insufficient training. If a group of volunteers doesn’t know what they’re doing on the day of an event, the staff members in charge may get frustrated at having to train them on top of all their other responsibilities. Or, a volunteer who hasn’t received enough training might ask lots of questions and get frustrated when staff members expect them to do things they haven’t learned how to do.

To avoid these conflicts, improve your volunteer training process by:

1. Assessing your current training resources and processes. How long is your current training process? Who takes the lead? What resources, if any, do volunteers get to walk away with to learn more? Look for any clear gaps and opportunities to provide more knowledge.
2. Asking past volunteers for feedback. Volunteers who have been through the training themselves often have the best insight. For instance, a volunteer might say that last year’s phone canvassing training didn’t provide enough instruction on how to talk about your organization to prospective donors. To improve this year’s training, you might add an extra session where volunteers roleplay conversations with donors.
3. Inviting both staff members and experienced volunteers to lead. Allocating some of your training responsibilities to long-time volunteers not only takes work off your staff members’ plates but also empowers volunteers. 

Consider providing extra training opportunities for staff members, too. For instance, hosting a training workshop about leadership styles can help staff discover their strengths as leaders and learn how to harness them when working with volunteers. 

4. Celebrate teamwork when you see it.

Positive reinforcement is crucial for truly changing the dynamic between volunteers and staff at your organization. 

When you see staff members go out of their way to help volunteers, thank them for fostering positivity among the team. Any time you notice volunteers mediating conflict or encouraging teamwork, make a note in your volunteer database to send them a special thank-you message later. 

Additionally, make both volunteers and staff feel appreciated by recognizing their team achievements. Call particular attention to accomplishments achieved through the cooperation and efforts of everyone, such as successful fundraising events. This will boost morale and foster the idea that great results happen through teamwork and a collective dedication to your mission.

Fostering positive volunteer-staff relations can feel challenging, but the results are well worth the effort. When you use these strategies and create an environment where volunteers and staff members work together effectively, you’ll strengthen your nonprofit’s community and achieve better long-term results.

The post How to Foster More Positive Volunteer-Staff Relations appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Prospect research is the best way to gain insight into these high-impact donors’ giving capacities, motivations, and preferences. In this guide, we’ll answer some of the most common questions nonprofit professionals have about prospect research when getting started so you can make the most of this process. Let’s dive in!

What is prospect research, and how is it used?

DonorSearch’s prospect research guide defines this term as “a technique used by nonprofit fundraisers, major gift officers, and development teams to identify high-impact donors within and beyond an organization’s current donor pool. Through this process, nonprofits gather an immense amount of data—information about donors’ backgrounds, past giving histories, wealth indicators, philanthropic motivations, and more details that help determine prospects’ likelihood of giving.”

Prospect research is useful for finding donors for a multitude of initiatives that depend on large gifts, including:

• Launching new mission-related community programs or expanding existing ones.
• Securing the estimated 60% of annual fund revenue that comes from major gifts on average.
• Completing your gift range chart during the quiet phase of a capital campaign.
• Building out your organization’s legacy giving program.

While most nonprofits use prospect research primarily to identify new potential donors at the beginning of a fundraising initiative, it’s most effective when it’s an ongoing process. Once you’ve found a viable prospect, continue researching to stay up-to-date on their wealth and philanthropic details as you cultivate relationships with them and solicit gifts. Plus, periodically screening your donor database can help you find major donor candidates among your existing supporters.

What information can you learn through prospect research?

One of the most common misconceptions around prospect research is that it’s synonymous with wealth screening. In reality, prospect research is more comprehensive, taking into account not only potential donors’ financial capacity to give but also their willingness to make a significant contribution to your specific organization based on their philanthropic tendencies and affinity for your mission.

As you screen prospects, look for the following data points (also called markers or indicators):

• Capacity indicators: Real estate ownership, stock holdings, business affiliations, political giving history
• Philanthropic indicators: Previous donations to your nonprofit or other similar organizations
• Affinity indicators: Connection to or passion for your cause; nonprofit involvement history (event attendance, volunteering, board service, etc.); personal information such as interests, values, and family ties.

For your organization to consider someone a viable prospect, they should exhibit indicators from all three categories, demonstrating that they’d be able and willing to make a major gift.

What tools do you need to conduct prospect research?

Generally speaking, there are two types of software you need to conduct prospect research: databases and AI fundraising solutions. Let’s look at both categories in more detail.

Databases

These solutions form the backbone of prospect research, allowing you to find capacity, philanthropic, and affinity information about potential donors. Ensure your team has access to the following tools before you begin:

• Prospect research database: Provides access to third-party wealth and philanthropic data by compiling information from various trusted sources, ranging from real estate records to other nonprofits’ annual reports.
• Internal donor database: Serves as a starting point for learning about existing supporters’ major giving potential and a centralized place to store and organize prospect research data in individual donor profiles.
• SEC investment records and FEC political contribution records: Supplement wealth data on prospective donors with a deeper dive into their stock holdings and political giving history.
• Matching gifts database: Lets you know which prospects could have their contributions matched by their employers as well as provides additional insight into donors’ professional connections.

In addition to leveraging these platforms, simply googling your prospects and checking out their social media profiles can give you a better sense of their interests and values.

AI Solutions

Once you’ve gathered your prospect research data, AI tools can help you sort through it more efficiently and enhance your outreach. The best types of nonprofit AI solutions to leverage for prospecting are: 

• Prospect generator tools: Make lists of prospects who have supported similar causes to your organization’s and create reports summarizing the most important, actionable information on each prospect.
• Predictive modeling solutions: Rate prospects’ likelihood of responding to outreach and becoming donors, organize your prospect lists accordingly, and make suggestions about which potential donors to reach out to first for efficiency.
• Content generation tools: Help you create tailored outreach messages for each prospect based on predictive modeling insights.

Although research shows that nonprofits are integrating AI into their operations even faster than for-profit companies, nonprofit AI is still an emerging field. Work with trusted providers, follow best practices for data security and ethics, and be transparent with your community about how your organization uses AI to prevent risks and maximize the benefits of these tools.

What are the next steps to take after conducting prospect research?

As NXUnite’s donor relations guide explains, prospect research lays the foundation for building a human-centered relationship with each potential donor. While you can get a sense of prospects’ motivations for supporting your mission and the initiatives they’d be interested in contributing to, the best way to be sure about these things is to hear directly from the donor. Plus, cultivation shows that your nonprofit values its donors as individual people rather than just thinking of them as revenue sources.

After you’ve identified potential donors through prospect research, start cultivating them by:

• Meeting with them one-on-one to get to know them personally and introduce them to your organization
• Establishing a regular communication cadence to keep your nonprofit top of mind and share relevant resources on current initiatives.
• Offering other engagement opportunities to give prospects a firsthand look at your organization’s work through volunteering, attending events, or consulting on projects.

Keep each prospect’s profile updated in your donor database as you learn more about them through these relationship-building activities and your ongoing research. This way, when the time comes to solicit a major gift, you can use all of this information to request an amount and suggest a designation that aligns with their unique giving capacity and motivations.

As with other new processes at your nonprofit, getting your approach to prospect research right will likely take time and practice. Monitor the usefulness of the data you find and the effectiveness of your research-driven outreach efforts. This way, you can hone your process over time and ultimately bring in more major gifts for your mission.

About the Author

Sarah Tedesco

Sarah Tedesco is the Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction. She collaborates with other team members on a variety of issues including sales, marketing and product development ideas.

The post Maximizing Donor Outreach: FAQ Guide to Prospect Research appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

The Rise of Fractional Executives: And The Impact On Nonprofits

by Cindy Wagman

The nonprofit sector is facing an unprecedented staffing crisis. A staggering 77% of nonprofit employees report feeling burned out and wanting to leave their positions. The numbers are even more concerning for early-career professionals – with approximately 85% of those in their first decade of nonprofit work considering leaving.

For small to mid-sized nonprofits, the challenge is particularly acute. Many struggle to afford the six-figure salaries that experienced executives command, leading to a cycle of hiring junior staff, investing in their development, only to lose them to larger organizations or burnout.

Executive Directors find themselves taking on additional responsibilities, leading to their own exhaustion and frustration. Board members worry about sustainability and impact. Something has to change.

Enter the fractional executive model – an innovative approach that’s transforming how nonprofits think about leadership and sustainability, offering a practical solution to these persistent staffing challenges.

What Exactly is a Fractional Executive?

Unlike traditional consultants or interim leaders, fractional executives are experienced C-suite professionals who serve as long-term, part-time members of your leadership team. They bring their expertise and strategic oversight to your organization for a fraction of the time – and cost – of a full-time executive.

The Key Difference: Implementation vs. Advisory

Traditional Consultants: Typically provide recommendations and plans but leave implementation to internal teams

Interim Executives: Temporary full-time leaders who bridge gaps during transitions

Fractional Executives: Ongoing, part-time executive team members who both strategize AND implement

Why Nonprofits Need This Model Now

The nonprofit sector is experiencing unprecedented challenges:

• Increased demand for services
• Competition for skilled leadership
• Budget constraints that limit hiring options

Traditional solutions often fall short. Full-time executives may be out of budget reach, while consultants might not provide the consistent, hands-on leadership needed for real transformation.

The Win-Win Proposition

The fractional executive model creates unique value for both nonprofits and leaders. Unlike traditional consulting, where the relationship is typically project-based and advisory, or interim roles which are temporary by design, fractional leadership offers a sustainable partnership that serves both parties. Organizations gain an experienced leader deeply integrated into their team, while executives can be their own boss, often make more money than in-house, and be in control of their time.. Let’s break down the specific benefits for both sides:

For Nonprofits:

• Access to experienced executive expertise at a fraction of the cost
• Consistent, long-term strategic leadership without the full-time salary burden
• Implementation support, not just recommendations
• Flexibility to scale executive support up or down based on organizational needs
• Fresh perspectives from leaders who work across multiple organizations

For Executives:

• Opportunity to impact multiple organizations
• Better work-life balance than in-house
• Higher earning potential
• Continued professional growth and diverse challenges

Real Impact in Action

Consider a small environmental nonprofit with a $1.5 million budget raising about $400,000/year. While they can’t afford a full-time Development Director at $120,000 annually (plus benefits), they can invest in a fractional fundraising executive at $5,000/month. This leader brings senior-level expertise, implements sustainable fundraising systems, and drives real revenue growth – all while fitting within budget constraints.

Similarly, an organization with 15 employees can’t afford a full-time HR person, but needs HR support beyond payroll. A fractional HR professional can provide support beyond the basics including performance management, culture development and creating healthy teams.

Looking Ahead

The fractional executive model isn’t just a temporary fix – it’s a sustainable solution for nonprofits seeking to build capacity and impact. As the sector continues to evolve, this approach offers a practical way to access the leadership expertise needed for long-term success.

Remember: In today’s challenging nonprofit environment, innovation isn’t just about programs and services – it’s about finding new ways to build and sustain organizational capacity. The fractional executive model offers exactly that opportunity.

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A Linkagoal survey found that 31% of adult respondents feared failure—that’s more than those who feared spiders (30%) or the paranormal (15%).

Mistakes are nothing to fear when you reframe them as opportunities to learn, grow, and, ultimately, better serve your nonprofit’s community. Keep the following tips in mind to leverage your internal culture, software solutions, and training resources to help your team learn from its mistakes and move forward productively. 

Make risk-taking a normal part of your team’s culture. 

Surveys have shown that adults in the U.S. overwhelmingly prefer playing it safe to taking risks. However, a study from Susan R. Fisk of the Kent State University Department of Sociology found that “failed risk-takers are perceived as more likely to be hired and promoted… risk-taking—regardless of outcome—considerably increases perceptions of agency and decreases perceptions of indecisiveness, and these attributions predict positive workplace outcomes.” 

In the for-profit world, the biggest risk-takers are often rewarded for their bold, decisive actions. Why can’t the same be true for your nonprofit? 

We recommend promoting risk-taking within reason as an organizational value. Failures and mistakes are a natural side effect of taking risks, but they don’t have to completely derail your efforts. When risks don’t pan out, don’t retreat to safer grounds—identify what went wrong and work to correct the specific issue. Additionally, encourage your team to continue to be bold and think outside the box. 

Embrace open communication with your nonprofit staff. 

For many nonprofits, the biggest challenge in learning from mistakes is getting staff members to talk about them openly. This is understandable—making mistakes can cause embarrassment or fear of professional penalties. 

However, your team can’t learn from its mistakes if staff members don’t feel comfortable debriefing them as a team. Encourage open communication with your team by taking these steps: 

• Establish a culture of transparency, accountability, and communication from the top down. Have your nonprofit’s top leaders promote transparency by addressing their own mistakes and taking accountability in team-wide communications. This practice signals to your employees that mistakes are considered a normal part of the job. 
• Quickly address mistakes without calling out individuals. Provide specific feedback privately and debrief lessons learned as a team. This way, team members won’t feel called out or embarrassed in front of their colleagues, but your team will still understand the valuable lessons learned from the situation. 
• Use team meetings to share challenges and work through mistakes together. Encourage staff members to share roadblocks and collaborate on potential solutions in team-wide meetings. For example, a team member could raise a roadblock they’re facing involving engaging major donors between in-person meetings and events. Other team members could chime in with the strategies and best practices they’ve found most helpful for interacting with major donors year-round. 

The most effective way to encourage transparency among your staff is to have a measured response to mistakes. This approach should focus on understanding what went wrong and moving forward productively rather than chastising team members unnecessarily. 

Investigate root causes. 

Recurring mistakes likely stem from the same root issue. Without addressing the core problem, the mistakes may continue and snowball into larger problems. 

For example, consider a fundraising team that continually encounters the issue of having insufficient or outdated information when meeting with potential major donors. Recently, one team member met with a major donor and invited them to a volunteer event, not realizing that the same donor had just helped out at the organization’s annual 5K the previous weekend. Awkward! 

If similar issues keep arising, you could be facing a deeper issue with data silos. In this case, if your volunteer management system and nonprofit CRM don’t integrate, you may not be able to see the full picture of each donor’s involvement with your organization. 

Understanding this root issue enables you to fix the core problem, giving staff members greater access to each donor’s complete involvement history with your organization. 

Keep stakeholders informed as needed. 

Learning from and moving past mistakes requires your organization to be transparent with external stakeholders and internal staff members. Inform stakeholders of any mistakes that affect them. These may include: 

• Data privacy issues, such as a potential breach of your donor database
• Event cancellations, such as canceling your annual fundraising silent auction event because of an accidental double-booking of the event space
• Miscommunications, like unintentionally sending out a year-end giving reminder email in July

For larger issues like data privacy concerns, send an email and letter immediately notifying stakeholders who may have been affected. For lesser issues like typos or wrong dates in emails or social media posts, issue corrections ASAP to clear up confusion. 

Establish safeguards to prevent future mistakes. 

Whether a mistake involves internal or external stakeholders, put measures in place to prevent the mishap from recurring. Here are a few strategies you can use to mitigate a wide range of issues: 

• Leverage software solutions to help prevent future missteps. For example, let’s say you recently faced an issue where your online donation page went down, and it took staff members several hours to notice. You may set up an automated alert system to notify your staff when your online donation page and other important website pages go down, ensuring you can correct these issues as quickly as possible in the future. 
• Ensure your software tools have some level of human oversight, especially if your nonprofit is using AI solutions. AI tools can have issues with bias and misinformation. Carefully review any AI outputs for accuracy and ensure they reflect the diversity of your nonprofit’s community. 
• Integrate your software solutions to reduce data silos. Bloomerang’s nonprofit CRM guide recommends finding a solution that integrates with your most commonly used tools, like your fundraising software, event management platform, marketing solutions, and accounting tool. 
• Improve your internal communications procedures. 86% of employees and executives cite a lack of communication and effective collaboration as the main drivers of workplace mistakes. Enhance your internal communications practices by planning regular check-in meetings with your staff and using an ad-hoc communication platform like email or Slack to keep your employees in the know. 

If a mistake involves external stakeholders, communicate to them how you’re implementing measures to prevent the same issue from happening again. This type of message can reinforce stakeholders’ trust and confidence in your organization, reaffirming their commitment to your cause. 

Train your team. 

Ongoing training is an excellent way to ensure your nonprofit’s team understands the latest fundraising best practices and has the tools and resources it needs to overcome challenges. We recommend the following strategies to keep your team knowledgeable: 

• Work with a professional fundraising coach. Whether you need to improve your fundraising solicitation process, major donor asks, storytelling efforts, or board collaboration, consider working with an executive fundraising coach. These professionals can help outline your goals and create a roadmap to achieve those objectives efficiently. They can also provide trainings for a board or team.
• Follow influencers and thought leaders in the nonprofit sector to stay current on best practices. Encourage team members to follow nonprofit influencers on LinkedIn and social media. Discuss the latest trends and best practices in team-wide weekly or monthly meetings. 
• Collect feedback from your team. Gather input from your team about your efforts to learn from mistakes, pursue continual training, and adopt more effective strategies for the future. Ask for their insights during team meetings or via regularly scheduled surveys. Adjust your efforts based on their feedback to continue providing a positive experience for your team. 

76% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. Offering employee training also ensures your staff members are empowered to push your mission forward with the latest tools, resources, and best practices in their pockets. 

Mistakes are inevitable, but repeated issues don’t have to be. By reflecting, recapping, and learning from your mistakes, your nonprofit’s staff can become more productive and work more effectively toward your mission. Focus on treating core issues and maintaining a positive, forward-thinking workplace environment for your employees.

About the Author

Ann Fellman

As the Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, Ann is responsible for the company’s overall thought leadership, brand, marketing, and community outreach programs that work to strengthen relationships with customers and the broader nonprofit community. Ann brings over 24 years of experience in business-to-business (B2B) marketing in the technology industry, including time spent working at a nonprofit organization.

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3 Mistakes Nonprofit Leaders make in their Fundraising Letters

The post We-ed your letters for fundraising success appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Most importantly, nonprofits must maintain the trust that has been placed in them by donors—so protecting donor data is a critical mission for nonprofits. Here are four tips any nonprofit can use to safeguard against vulnerabilities.

1. Use a Robust CRM

A robust constituent relationship management (CRM) system will aggregate donor data, making it easy to derive insights that could influence your marketing and fundraising strategies. However, this also means it hosts vast amounts of donor information, including:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Demographic information
• Payment details
• Contact information
• Engagement history
• Wealth indicators

Because a comprehensive CRM holds so much data, it’s a good place to start understanding basic security protocols and locking down your processes. Safe platforms use data encryption to store information, and your team can implement its own security measures by limiting access to the CRM.

Consider your payment processor, as well. CharityEngine recommends looking for a provider with PCI certification, which means “a third party has evaluated and tested the provider to ensure their security meets the highest standard possible.”

2. Implement Strong Access Controls

Beyond considering what data your nonprofit collects, it’s also important to note who can access that data. Anyone who can use your fundraising platform likely has access to donor data, as well.

Your CRM will allow you to set permissions, so controls can be placed over different sections and types of data. Limiting access to information such as bank account numbers can protect against that data being hacked or used without authorization. Data such as addresses or other demographic information should also be accessed only by those who need it.

Placing controls on data protects your donors, your team, and your nonprofit. There are two primary ways your nonprofit can limit access to sensitive information:

• Two-factor authentication (2FA): Two-factor authentication requires two different activities, or factors, to verify identity. It protects against external threats, such as cyberattacks, fraud, and unauthorized access to data.
• Role-based access controls (RBAC): Role-based access controls restrict access to data based on a person’s role within your team. This makes it easier for administrators to manage access by assigning roles rather than assigning individual access.

Regardless of which security protocols you implement, it’s important to periodically review access to donor data and adjust permissions as necessary. Set a schedule and ensure that access is as limited as possible, making it easy to manage.

3. Keep a Clean Donor Database

Let’s say your nonprofit has a donor named Susan Smith. Last year, Susan got married to Bob Brown and took his last name. Together, they continue donating to your organization.

In your database, how is Susan listed? Is there an entry for Susan Smith, Susan Brown, Mrs. Bob Brown, or all of the above? Furthermore, Susan’s marriage could lead to other changes in her data. Did Susan change her email address to reflect her new last name? If she and Bob moved into a new home after the wedding, her physical address may have changed.

In situations like this, your nonprofit could be working with outdated or incorrect information, leading to emails that bounce, direct mail sent to the wrong address, or even duplicated engagements, including fundraising appeals. Each scenario can compromise data security, waste resources and time, and lower the chance of a successful donation.

To avoid this, focus on data hygiene. Maintaining an accurate and updated donor database will minimize the risk of errors, duplicate records, and outdated information, all of which can compromise data security and lead to less desirable fundraising outcomes.

Best practices include:

• Regular data audits: Systematically review and analyze your data to ensure it’s complete and accurate. Audits will help you identify potential security breaches, ensure sensitive information is gated and permissions are appropriate, and maintain data integrity.
• Data entry standards: Establish guidelines for inputting data to ensure consistency, accuracy, and completeness of information. For example, 360MatchPro explains that this could include requiring phone numbers to be entered with parentheses around the area code or deciding on a uniform approach to abbreviating common words like “Road” to “Rd.” When data entry is standardized, the potential for errors that could cause security vulnerabilities is reduced.
• Automated tools: Software applications or programs that can perform tasks automatically take human error out of the picture. These help ensure consistency in security processes and allow for real-time monitoring and threat detection.

While the security benefits of a clean database are numerous, it also facilitates closer donor relationships through more accurate data-driven insights. You can use clean data to make informed fundraising decisions that appeal to donors and motivate them to give.

4. Train Staff on Data Security Practices

More team members interact with your donor data than you may think. For example, how many members of your marketing team have access to your CRM? Have you given access to external parties, such as a fundraising consultant?

While you continually monitor access to data, it’s also wise to conduct regular training sessions for your team. Training and preparing your staff is an excellent defense against any vulnerabilities.

For example, your staff should be prepared to:

• Identify phishing scams: Fraudulent emails designed to look like they’re coming from a reputable source are considered phishing scams. To avoid falling for the scam, staff should ignore emails asking for sensitive information without verifying it’s legitimate. They can hover over links and inspect email addresses for slight errors. Be sure they don’t click on links or open attachments, and always report phishing scams to the IT experts.
• Create secure passwords: Using complex, unique passwords for each account will help prevent unauthorized access. Passwords should be at least 10 to 12 characters long and avoid using personal information or common words. Instruct your team to use a phrase or a sentence and mix uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols.
• Report security issues promptly: Notifying senior staff about any security issue, regardless of how small, will keep the problem from expanding in scope and severity. Have established protocols for reporting security concerns.
• Regularly update software: Keeping all operating systems and applications up to date means you will always have access to the latest security features. Your staff should enable automatic updates and regularly check for and install updates, on work devices and any personal device used for work.

Incorporate this training into any onboarding sessions or regular workshops your nonprofit hosts for team members. For example, while a team member learns how to navigate nonprofit fundraising software, they’ll need to know proper procedures for inputting, accessing, and analyzing data within the platform.

These security measures can be implemented immediately! But remember, it’s not enough to put measures into place unless you’re continually reviewing your data protection strategies and taking steps to keep data clean and secure. Constant attention will ensure security for your nonprofit as well as improved donor experiences, which will help increase engagement when your constituents see how hard you work to keep their data safe.

About the Author

Philip Schmitz

Phil Schmitz is the founder and CEO of CharityEngine, a complete fundraising platform powering some of the nation’s largest nonprofits and associations. Phil has developed patent-pending anti-fraud tools and industry-leading recurring payment technology that allows nonprofits to retain more sustainer revenue than the industry average; clients have raised nearly $5 billion using these tools.  Phil’s passion for leveraging technology to empower nonprofits is supported by more than 20 years of experience in building successful technology and e-commerce companies.

The post 4 Donor Data Security Tips for Nonprofit Fundraisers appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

School grants are an opportunity that you may not have experience with. Instead of soliciting individual donors to make gifts to your school, you’ll submit a grant application to a grantmaker or grantmaking organization. They’ll review it and then approve or deny your request for their grant.

Though school grants take a lot of effort to pursue, they’re well worth the time. In this guide, we’ll take a look at why your K-12 school should apply for grants and discuss three top tips for your grant application. Let’s dive right in!

Reasons to Apply for School Grants

Although the grant writing process can be long and arduous, there are many reasons why schools across the country apply for them regularly. Some of these reasons include:

• Financial support. The biggest benefit of school grants is the increased, reliable financial support you receive from them, allowing you to pursue programs and initiatives you may not have been able to otherwise. Plus, grants allow you to diversify your revenue streams, ensuring your nonprofit has enough support even when times are tough.
• Credibility. Receiving a grant indicates to your audience and other interested parties that your school is credible and reliable. Not only will this increase trust with your existing audience, but it may also lead to opportunities with other stakeholders, such as other grantmaking organizations.
• Opportunities for students. Ultimately, more funding and an improved reputation allow your school to offer more opportunities for students, enriching their learning experience. For K-12 schools especially, students are in their formative years, making any additional programs or initiatives extremely impactful for them.

Whether you need the funding to purchase school recreation software, build a new science lab, or fund your theater program, grants can provide key support. As long as you stick to the grant’s rules and regulations, you’ll have a successful partnership with the grantmaking organization that will positively impact your community.

Tips for Applying for School Grants

Now that you understand why it’s valuable for your organization to pursue school grants, let’s take a look at best practices for your application.

1. Choose grants wisely.

The grant application process starts with researching which grants are best suited for your school. Many different types of grants might work for your organization, such as:

• Federal grants. These grants are bestowed by the federal government and can provide substantial, multi-year funding to your school. Because of this, the application process for these grants is generally very competitive. They may also be long and complex. Before you attempt a federal grant application, it’s recommended to have successfully applied for smaller grants.
• State grants. State grants are provided by your state or local government. Much like federal grants, you can receive a substantial amount of funding in exchange for undergoing a rigorous and complicated application process. However, since these are aimed at organizations within your state, you may have less competition.
• Foundation grants. These grants are provided by foundations set up by corporations, wealthy philanthropists, nonprofits, and more. In terms of the amount of funding they provide, this can vary greatly depending on the specific foundation.
• Specific education grants. This refers to grants aimed at improving specific educational programs, such as STEM or the humanities. These grants are a great opportunity for schools who want to improve a certain program, rather than those needing support for more general projects.

If you’re uncertain about which type of grant to pursue, you may wish to discuss your options with a fundraising consultant or fundraising coach. These professionals have many years of experience in the industry and may already know of grants that will benefit your school.

Regardless of which type of grant you choose to pursue, check the requirements before you begin applying. Make sure that your school meets these requirements—if not, then you’ll be wasting both your and the grantmaker’s time and resources.

2. Craft a compelling grant proposal.

Much like you want to craft compelling email subject lines to encourage viewers to click, you want to write an interesting and impactful grant proposal that answers the question: Why does your school deserve grant funding more than the other applicants?

Learn Grant Writing recommends following these tips when you’re just getting started with writing grant proposals:

• Follow the funding guidelines. These guidelines are instructions from the grantmaker on how to apply for their grant. They’ll include crucial information about eligibility, what they require, and more. Use this to tailor your grant proposal to your funder’s needs.
• Start with a narrative skeleton. Based on what information the grantmaker needs from your organization, lay out the skeleton of your proposal. Create headers and subheaders for all the sections you need to cover. This gives you a solid foundation for your proposal.
• Lay out your grant budget. A common requirement of grants is that you lay out exactly what you will do with the funds. Work with your finance team to create a realistic budget and break it down for the grantmaker in your proposal.

As you apply for more and more grants, you’ll get more comfortable with creating proposals. In no time, you’ll be drafting them like a pro.

3. Underscore need with data.

To stand out from the other K-12 schools that also need funding, emphasize your organization’s needs with data. In particular, quantitative data is especially impactful for demonstrating that you meet the grantmaker’s eligibility requirements and that their funds would allow you to provide a better experience for students.

Tracking this information, however, can be difficult for schools that don’t have the right tools. To solve this problem, CommunityPass recommends organizations use dedicated software that helps them stay informed. For example, let’s say you’re applying for a grant that requires you to have at least 1,000 students. With a school registration solution, you can easily access the number of registered students and submit those reports to the grantmaker.

Pair grant applications with other school fundraising ideas to diversify your revenue streams and garner the funds your school needs to improve the student experience. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to getting started with your first grant application!

About the Author

Mary Coyle

Mary Coyle is the Head of Product Management at CommunityPass and has held senior level roles in Program Management and Marketing Operations. She has an MBA from University of Texas at Austin and a Finance degree from University of Illinois.

The post Why Your K-12 School Should Apply for Grants and 3 Top Tips appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Seem realistic? It’s true that your email subject line is often the only part of the email your donors see — 64% of people decide to open or delete emails based on their subject lines.

Fortunately, subject lines can also work in your favor. If your nonprofit is worried about receiving silence from donors and you want to get more supporters’ attention, this guide can help. We’ll explore four tips you can use to improve the quality of your nonprofit’s subject lines and provide examples to get inspired by.

Stay clear and concise.

Your email subject line will be much more effective if you know exactly what you want your email to accomplish and can communicate that clearly. Start by defining your goal for each email so you can write subject lines that get right to the point and hold recipients’ attention.

For example, say that your goal for an email is to acquire new donors from your pool of past event attendees. You might write a subject line that reads “Liked our event? Learn more about supporting our mission!” This subject line quickly communicates that you’d like recipients to consider supporting your nonprofit in more ways than one.

In terms of length, experts recommend keeping your email subject lines limited to 9 words and a total of 60 characters.

Personalize, personalize, personalize.

Another way to capture and retain supporters’ attention with your subject lines is to make them feel personal. “Jamie, the campaign you supported surpassed its goal!” is much more compelling than a generic subject line like “See the results of our fall fundraising campaign” because it’s relevant to the individual recipient.

The easiest way to personalize both your email content and subject lines is to segment the contacts in your database. Segmenting donors by donation level is a good starting point (i.e., major donors, mid-level donors, recurring donors, and minor donors). However, the more granular and specific you can get, the better.

For instance, you might also segment supporters based on their:

• Charitable interests, based on the initiatives they’ve donated to or shown interest in along with their stated interests.
• Donation history, such as the type of campaigns they’ve donated to and their giving methods.
• Past involvement, including whether they’ve attended fundraising events, volunteered, or participated in your advocacy initiatives.
• Location, so you can send emails about relevant events and volunteer opportunities in their area.

Make sure that the subject lines you write are hyper-relevant to the supporters in each segment. Additionally, use your fundraising software or email marketing tools to auto-populate email subject lines with each supporter’s first name to address them directly.

Incorporate words that stand out.

To inspire more people to read your emails, put plenty of thought into how to make your marketing stand out with attention-grabbing subject lines. This can be as simple as incorporating certain words or framing your subject lines in specific ways to draw recipients in.

Try to include words that stand out to donors because of their:

• Emotional resonance: Use words that evoke positive emotions like empowerment and hope, such as “together” or “thrive.” Pair these with the names and stories of beneficiaries to evoke feelings of connection along with an emotional response. You might use the line, “Together, we can make a difference for children in need,” for example.
• Ability to pique recipients’ curiosity: Curiosity is a powerful motivator — simply framing your email subject line as a question can lead to 50% higher open rates. You might also incorporate words that evoke curiosity on their own, like “explore” or “discover.”
• Compelling data: Including statistics, numbers, and other data that speaks to your nonprofit’s impact or the importance of a certain appeal is bound to make your subject lines stand out. For instance, you might write a subject line about legacy giving that reads, “One legacy gift funded 200 scholarships! Explore the story.”

To gauge the impact of using certain words in your subject lines, compare the open and click-through rates (CTR) of different emails. For instance, you might compare the CTR of three emails that included the word “legacy” with a group of emails without any attention-grabbing words.

Keep it genuine.

Your nonprofit relies on lasting relationships with donors, and the best way to cultivate and maintain donor relationships is to be honest and transparent with them about your nonprofit’s work. This sentiment extends to your email subject lines — the more genuine you can make them, the more recipients will trust the email and want to read its contents.

You can imbue your email subject lines with honesty and genuine care by using the following tips:

• Avoid false urgency. Urgency can be effective for time-sensitive appeals for occasions like GivingTuesday or the last day of a fundraising campaign, but it isn’t always necessary. To keep recipients engaged and avoid burning them out, save urgent subject lines for when you really need them.
• Prioritize your nonprofit’s community impact. Even when you’re trying to build relationships with donors or thank them for their support, bring the focus back to the impact that your nonprofit and supporters make together. A subject line like “Thank you for saving Jasper the bulldog’s life ♥️” acknowledges the donor while centering the impact their support has made on beneficiaries.
• Tell true stories. Storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging supporters, and you can pull recipients into your stories right from the subject line. For example, the subject line “Dante’s story of resilience & how you can help others” piques recipients’ interest and immediately connects them to your nonprofit’s work in a genuine way.

Remember that no matter what your goal for an individual email is, relationship-building is always a secondary goal. Stay genuine and write warm, community-focused subject lines to ensure that your emails contribute to positive supporter relationships.

Examples of compelling email subject lines.

Using the tactics discussed above, we’ve compiled a short list of compelling email subject line examples you can use to inspire your own subject lines:

• Fundraising appeal: Daisy, your donations power political change. Join the fight
• Thank-you email: Eloise, the coral reefs you helped rebuild thank you!
• Event invitation: Change lives with your bids at our June auction
• Survey or feedback request: How was your donation experience? Let us know!
• New donor welcome email: Welcome to the fight for LGBTQ rights, Diego
• Follow-up email: Imani, we still need petition signatures. Will you sign?

These are not the only kinds of emails your nonprofit will send, so take the time to brainstorm a variety of potential email goals now and exercise your subject line-writing muscles. Then, bring your ideas to your team to discuss how you can use these tips to improve your organization’s email marketing strategy for the long term.

The post Writing more compelling subject lines for nonprofit emails appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

The best tool you have for making your communications recognizable and trustworthy is your nonprofit’s logo. However, for your logo to have this effect, there are several key elements that you need to keep in mind as you design it, including its:

1. Brand Alignment
2. Marketing Incorporation
3. Accessibility
4. Universality

According to Loop, “Your logo serves as a powerful visual representation of your organization’s mission and values, weaving them together into a compelling and memorable symbol that demonstrates who you are and why your work is vital to your community.” Let’s dive into how to develop a logo that accomplishes this purpose.

1. Brand Alignment

Especially when it comes to the most popular companies, people often conflate logos with their associated brands. When you think about Apple, for example, you probably picture a neutral-colored graphic apple with a bite taken out of the right-hand side. This logo has become so synonymous with the Apple brand that many of the company’s stores don’t even have the name on the sign—only the symbol!

However, logos are just one part of an organization’s brand kit (the signature elements that communicate its purpose and personality). Before developing your logo, first consider these other essential aspects of your nonprofit’s brand:

• Color palette. Most organizations choose one or two main colors to represent their brand, plus a few secondary shades to accent their marketing materials. Color psychology also applies heavily to branding, so consider different colors’ popular associations before finalizing your palette. For example, red is a favorite color among healthcare organizations because it evokes a sense of boldness, urgency, and passion.
• Typography. Be specific not only about your nonprofit’s one or two primary brand fonts but also about the size and weight of the typefaces you’ll use for headers and copy. For instance, if your main brand font is Poppins, you might specify that headers should be in Poppins Bold and body text should be Poppins Normal, with all headers being at least 6px larger than their corresponding copy.
• Messaging. Branding extends beyond visuals to the way your nonprofit talks about its work and tells its story in written content. Within your brand guidelines, establish a tone of voice, preferred word choices (e.g., is your organization an animal “rescue” or “shelter”?), and writing style guidelines (e.g., do you spell out the word “percent” or use the % symbol?).

Your nonprofit’s brand colors and fonts should be front and center in your logo design. If you include a tagline in your logo, ensure its format aligns with your messaging standards.

2. Marketing Incorporation

Consistently incorporating your logo across your nonprofit’s various communication channels is critical for audiences to recognize and remember it. Each marketing material will have a different amount of available space to accommodate your logo, so you’ll need to align the logo’s format with the content’s layout to ensure the design remains aesthetically pleasing.

Here are some ways to effectively incorporate your nonprofit’s logo into common marketing channels:

• Your organization’s website. As the main information hub for your mission and work, your complete logo should feature prominently on every page. Many organizations add their logo to the top corner of their navigation bar and link it to the site’s homepage.
• Social media. Setting your logo as your nonprofit’s profile picture on every social media platform will ensure it appears alongside all of your posts. Make sure it fits the circle displays on social media sites (Facebook displays profile pictures at 196 x 196 pixels, and Instagram displays them at 110 x 110 pixels). If your complete logo is a combination mark (a symbol and text), consider only including the symbol since the text likely won’t be readable at that small display size.
• Print communications. If you’re creating many materials at once, such as presentation handouts for conference attendees or a large batch of direct mail messages, printing everything in full color can be expensive. A black-and-white variation of your logo will come in handy in these situations.

Create samples of each type of content with your nonprofit’s logo featured correctly so you can reference them as you update your website, join new social media sites, or launch future print marketing campaigns.

3. Accessibility

Every member of your nonprofit’s community should be able to gain value from your logo—including individuals with disabilities. Some of the general steps you take to make your communications accessible also apply more specifically to your logo.

If your logo includes text, always check for adequate color contrast between that text and its background. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (the industry standard for digital communications) recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for larger text such as headers. Using dark text on a light background or vice versa will usually allow you to meet this standard, but there are online contrast checker tools you can use if you’re unsure.

Additionally, include alternative text for your logo whenever possible in online content. Alt text, as it’s commonly known, will show up in place of your logo if a website visitor’s internet connection is poor and allows audience members who rely on screen reader technology to interpret images. Make alt text descriptive, and keep it to 140 characters or less to match the processing limits of common screen readers.

4. Universality

No matter when or how community members encounter your nonprofit’s logo, it should stick in their minds. Try these tips to make your logo unforgettable:

• Feature it in other spaces besides traditional marketing materials. Reinforce your logo by adding it to event signage, branded merchandise, and appropriate locations around your facility.
• Don’t overcomplicate the design. As explained in NXUnite’s graphic design guide, simple logos that use white space effectively and are highly relevant to the nonprofit’s mission are the most memorable.
• Be strategic about rebranding. Although you might update your logo to keep up with current design trends or reflect a shift in your organization’s values, don’t substantially change its look without warning your supporters well in advance. That way, they’ll still recognize your content as belonging to your organization and continue engaging with your nonprofit even after your rebrand.

Most of all, ensure your logo’s symbols align with your organization’s purpose. While adding your name and tagline helps cement the connection between your logo and your mission, the images you include should also allow audiences to visualize key aspects of your work.

To see these strategies in practice, let’s look at one of the most iconic nonprofit logos in history: the WWF Panda.

The World Wildlife Fund has used a version of this logo to represent its purpose of conserving nature and protecting vulnerable species (like giant pandas) since its founding in 1961. The logo’s graphic style has changed throughout the years to align with the organization’s evolving brand and audience. However, the core of this simple black-and-white design has stayed the same and is used consistently across WWF’s communications, which is why it’s so memorable.

Take inspiration from WWF and other strong nonprofit logo designs as you create a unique logo for your organization!

The post Nonprofit Logo Design: 4 Essential Elements to Consider appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

However, when your data is isolated in different systems, it can be difficult to generate useful insights. These isolated systems are called data silos, and they can prevent your team from unlocking key trends among your supporter base—limiting your outreach progress.

In this guide, we’ll provide steps you can take to break down data silos so your nonprofit can use its data to its fullest potential.

1. Establish data governance.

Start by developing clear policies, procedures, and guidelines for data management. These rules serve as a reference point for all team members handling data, ensuring consistency across your organization.

These policies should include areas like:

• Standardization. Determine how you’d like staff members to input certain data types to standardize data entry. For example, if you’re inputting the dates of volunteer outings, decide if you’d like your team to use an MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD format.
• Duplication. Let your team know how you’d like to handle duplicate entries, whether by merging these records or deleting extraneous records.
• Verification. Survey your donors regularly to ensure the data you have stored for them is correct. You may also use tools like an email scrubbing tool to verify the accuracy of your supporter information.

Additionally, assign data stewardship responsibilities to different departments and team members to establish accountability. For example, when conducting prospect research, it’s important to have a point person for entering data, identifying those with high giving capacity in your database, and creating donor prospect profiles.

2. Invest in a centralized data platform.

With the right donor database or constituent relationship management (CRM) system, you can centralize your data and create a single source of truth for all valuable information your organization collects. Here, you may store data related to:

• Donor or member management. General donor or member data—such as names, ages, contact information, and communication preferences—allow you to reach your constituents and personalize your communications with them.
• Fundraising. Keep track of fundraising metrics—such as each donor’s individual gifts, your average donation amount, and donor retention rate—to assess your strategy.
• Marketing. Campaign data you may collect includes email open rate, click-through rate, website traffic sources, and social media engagement. This information allows you to identify your marketing strengths and weaknesses so you can improve your approach.

When data from all your initiatives is in one platform, you can use it to inform these branches of your operations. For instance, use donor demographic information to create segments that allow you to run more targeted marketing campaigns or post metrics about your past fundraising campaign on social media to inspire your supporters to give.

3. Integrate your existing systems.

Integrating your existing tools with your database or CRM ensures that data flows seamlessly between platforms, eliminating the need for manual data entry and preventing database errors. Look to integrate the following tools with your CRM:

• Fundraising platform. Add specific information about donors’ giving history to the donor profiles in your database to better segment your supporters and follow up with appropriate donation requests in the future.
• Email marketing software. Upload contacts from your CRM to your email marketing software for broader reach, or create records for new email subscribers in your database. Then, you can automate email communications to certain segments and track email engagement metrics within your CRM.
• Event management tools. Store important information from your event management tools in your CRM—such as attendee data, registration metrics, and funds raised—to power your future events.

As Double the Donation’s nonprofit data collection guide explains, choosing platforms that seamlessly integrate reduces the time and effort required for data management and allows your team to focus that energy on mission-critical activities instead.

4. Conduct regular data audits.

The more disparate data sources and systems your organization has, the more likely data errors and inconsistencies will occur. Prevent small data issues from spiraling into larger problems by conducting regular data audits.

Deep Sync’s data hygiene guide explains that auditing your data is the first step in the data hygiene process and provides a realistic view of the current state of your data before tackling any problem areas. Auditing your data with your fundraising or marketing goals in mind helps you focus your efforts on the data points you need for your campaign.

For example, if you’re looking to engage major donors in your upcoming capital campaign, narrow in on relevant data during your audit, such as giving capacity, donation history, and employment data. This exercise can also help you identify any gaps in your database and whether you need to conduct a data append to fill in this information.

5. Promote internal data sharing.

Communication among different team members and departments is the key to successful nonprofit operations. When you increase collaboration among your staff, they’ll share important data with each other and facilitate well-informed decision-making. Consider how you can encourage different departments to work together to improve your campaigns.

More formal ways that you can promote internal data sharing include:

• Regular email updates with high-level overviews of each team’s current priorities
• Monthly team meetings in which department leaders can explain their work in-depth and answer any questions
• Collaborative tools like project management software and document-sharing platforms that make it easy for staff members to work together

Outside the workplace, you can also set up team-building events that allow staff members from different departments to get to know each other. Building this camaraderie empowers team members to work together and share data that helps each team develop a deeper understanding of your organization’s operations.

To run highly effective fundraising and data-driven marketing campaigns, you need to unify your data and ensure it’s consistent across teams and platforms. Breaking down data silos empowers you to base decisions on accurate information, strengthening your efforts and fueling your mission.

About the Author

Gabrielle Perham

Gabrielle is the Director of Marketing & Sales Operations for Deep Sync. She joined the organization in 2017 and brings 20 years of experience in strategic marketing, branding, communications, sales enablement, and digital marketing. With a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done attitude and a big-picture mindset, Gaby loves solving marketing and business challenges. She earned both a B.S. in Marketing and an M.B.A. in Marketing Management from the University of Tampa. Gaby enjoys spending time with her fiercely outspoken daughter; hiking and kayaking; rocking out in the first row of a live show; and giving back to her local community.

The post Breaking Down Nonprofit Data Silos: 5 Steps You Can Take appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Demographics are key to understanding your audience, which will help you create informed campaign strategies and personalized messaging for top donors. In this guide, we’ll cover four top strategies for targeting your nonprofit’s top donor demographic groups in your online fundraising efforts to maximize your revenue.

1. Identify Your Top Donor Demographics

To identify your top donor demographics, start by analyzing the information stored in your nonprofit’s constituent relationship management system (CRM). Consider your most engaged donors and determine if there are any common demographics between them to help you decide which potential donors to target.

Research the following demographic information for your most loyal donors:

• Age: Discover if your nonprofit targets younger donors vs older ones. Then, tailor your outreach based on generation.
• Geographic location: If your organization is national, take geographic location into account. Outreach for one area of the country may look different than another.
• Income level: By understanding your donors’ income levels, you can make informed decisions about what groups you should ask for a large gift.
• Interests and hobbies: If your donors share specific hobbies or interests, you can tie that back into your fundraising efforts. For example, if many of your donors are runners, organize a fun run to benefit your nonprofit.
• Donation history: Understanding your donors’ donation history provides helpful insight to tailor your outreach. If a donor has only donated once, try to reengage with them. If a donor gives frequently, thank them often and share how their gift has moved your mission forward.
• Charitable involvement: Donors can support your nonprofit in more ways than one. See if long-time supporters would be interested in volunteering at your next event to help push your mission forward.

These are just a few examples of ways to utilize your donor data. Understand what information your nonprofit needs, then turn to what your software has gathered. If what you have in your nonprofit CRM is incomplete, NPOInfo recommends conducting a data append to ensure you have a holistic view of your loyal supporters.

2. Optimize Online Fundraising Elements

In today’s world, online donations are often the most convenient way donors can give. Improving your online donation experience can help you receive more gifts, as well as build trust with your donors.

Here are a few common elements your nonprofit should optimize:

• Nonprofit website: Your website is often the first time your donors will interact with your nonprofit. Make sure that it clearly communicates your mission and goals.
• Campaign microsite: An event or campaign microsite can help you stay on theme with your fundraiser while maintaining your nonprofit’s brand.
• Donation page: Your donation page should have a user-friendly and engaging experience from start to finish. Check out these proven donation page strategies from the fundraising experts at OneCause to help.
• Social media: Engage with your current donors while expanding your reach to a new audience through your social media channels.

Unoptimized online fundraising elements may lead to frustration from donors and could even result in them withdrawing their support. The experience online must be easy to navigate to ensure donors’ continued loyalty, support, and gifts. Plus, with continuous positive giving experiences, donors may even upgrade their support through recurring or larger gifts!

3. Tailor Online Fundraising to Your Top Demographics

There are a few more steps to take before you begin outreach. Consider the fundraising ideas that will appeal to your top demographic groups and then start building your campaigns. Common online fundraising ideas include:

• Online auctions: An online charity auction provides all the benefits of a nonprofit as a live auction but allows bidders to give from the comfort of their own homes.
• Peer-to-peer fundraising: Get your whole community involved in your fundraising efforts with a peer-to-peer campaign. Tap into your loyal donors to champion your cause online, allowing your nonprofit to strengthen existing relationships while growing your network.
• Awareness campaigns: Spread the word about your nonprofit’s mission through an online awareness campaign. Make use of social media outreach and tap into your ambassador network for extra reach!
• Text-to-give campaign: Prompt donors to give through a simple text message. Send them a link to a mobile donation page, ask them to choose their gift amount, complete their payment information, and contribute to your cause.
• Virtual walkathon: Host a virtual walkathon so your supporters can get in their miles and fundraise on your behalf no matter where they are.

Start by analyzing the performance of previous online fundraising campaigns to get a better idea of what donors would be interested in. If you saw a large amount of support for your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign last year, it may be a great idea to host another this year.

4. Personalize Online Fundraising Appeals

Personalization can go a long way. Show your loyal donors you value their support by personalizing your fundraising appeals to their preferences. Segment your messages based on your donors’ preferred:

• Marketing channels: Where they like to hear updates from your nonprofit (social media, email, etc.).
• Message frequency: How often your donors like to receive messages from your nonprofit.
• Lifecycle stage: What stage of giving your donors are in.
• Interests: What type of event or fundraiser your donors are interested
• Giving history: How much they have given, and how often.

You can determine if there are any common preferences for your top donor demographics to create more targeted fundraising appeals for them. Make sure to make requests with the donor’s name included. If they feel individually recognized, they are more likely to give.

Additionally, don’t forget to express your gratitude to donors for their previous gifts. By communicating how much your nonprofit values their contributions, you can help your donors understand their part in moving your mission forward.

Target Donors for Online Fundraising Success

Getting and keeping donors can take a lot of effort. Once you make a connection, it’s important to nurture your relationships. You want donors to support you long-term because it costs about 10 times more to bring in a new donor than it does to keep an existing one. By thoughtfully approaching online fundraising and strategically targeting your top donor demographic groups, you’ll be well-positioned to maximize the revenue your nonprofit receives.

About the Author

Karrie Wozniak

Karrie has spent more than a decade bringing innovative technology and fundraising strategies to the nonprofit industry. As one of the first executives at OneCause, Karrie combines her 20 years of experience in marketing with her passion for helping nonprofits expand their reach, leading industry research, marketing strategy, and fundraising consulting initiatives. She is also an active speaker on donor and fundraising trends, and has been featured on Forbes.com, Philanthropy Journal, and Nonprofit Hub.

The post How to Target Top Donor Demographics in Online Fundraising appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Providing the path of least resistance for supporters to donate to your cause is crucial to meeting financial goals and pushing your mission forward. To create that path, you should understand your payment processing system and how it can help you establish a relationship with potential donors.

Let’s explore how your organization can empower your donors to contribute in a secure, simple way with your payment processor.

How Nonprofit Payment Processing Works

Payment processors play an essential but hidden role in the donation process. In fact, for donors to support your nonprofit online at all, you need a payment processor, and you’ll usually only notice if something goes wrong, like a data breach.

Even when everything is running smoothly, it’s still useful to know what aspects of the donation process payment processing software benefits. In addition to accepting donations, payment processors also:

• Collect your members’ dues.
• Provide a way for supporters to buy your merchandise online.
• Serve as an event ticket sales portal.

Essentially, your payment processor is your catch-all tool for managing online payments. This makes secure payment processors a core part of any modern nonprofit’s technology toolkit, especially considering 360MatchPro reports that 63% of donors prefer to give online and 27% of nonprofits have experienced a cyberattack.

Donation Processor vs Aggregator

When it comes to payment processors, you can choose to use a dedicated donation processor or an aggregator to collect donations. Both of these systems look fairly similar to the donor but differ on the backend of the giving process.

A donation processor that’s dedicated to nonprofit fundraising hosts specific features to maximize philanthropic efforts. These tools provide funds every few business days, so you’re not waiting on a monthly check. When you use a dedicated processor, the donation journey is fairly straightforward. Here’s how it works:

1. Your donor will enter their personal and payment information on your nonprofit’s online giving page.
2. This information is sent to the payment processor’s gateway for the transaction to be verified and approved. Then, it moves through the ACH (automated clearing house) network before being received by the donor’s bank or credit card.
3. Once the transaction is approved by the donor’s bank or credit card, it’s sent back through the system to your organization’s merchant account, which is typically set up by the processor specifically for your nonprofit.
4. The merchant account will retain the donation amount until the transaction is fully verified and finalized.
5. Finally, the donation is transferred from your merchant account into your organization’s main bank account.

If your team chooses a payment aggregator, the first couple of payment processing steps remain the same. But, you’ll share a merchant account with other organizations that also use the aggregator and will likely receive the funds a bit later. An example of this tool is PayPal, which distributes payments to its clients on a monthly basis.

The donor’s journey to making a payment is as simple as that with the right payment software. With this understanding, you’re able to settle on which type of processor best suits your individual needs.

How to Choose a Payment Processor

Now that you understand how payment processing works, consider what features your organization needs. Your team should research which payment processing system works best for charitable organizations like yours.

There are a few steps to take when determining which product to invest in. You can choose between purchasing a dedicated payment processing system separately or working with a fundraising solution with a preexisting partnership with a payment processor.

When you purchase your payment processor separately, you’ll have more control over the payment process. Plus, if you choose a processor designed for nonprofits, you’ll have access to a support staff who understands the donation process and how it works in the context of your organization.

On the other hand, some fundraising solutions already have partnerships with specific payment processors. As such, you might automatically opt-in to using a specific payment processor when you invest in fundraising software. Ask the fundraising software provider what processor they use, and conduct research on that processor separately.

Whichever route you choose to find your payment processor, these key attributes are crucial to consider during your research process:

• Easy access to funds. Ensure the processor you choose gives nonprofits more leverage over their raised money and grants them access to the funds within 1-2 business days. This means more immediate funding, leading to easier accounting.
• Painless software integration. Pick a service that integrates with your existing nonprofit software. When analyzing fundraising software, be sure to research each platform’s payment processor to be sure you’ll have an entirely integrated system.
• Experience in the nonprofit sector. Your payment processor should have experience handling any questions or concerns that arise during your fundraising efforts.
• Security. Secure payment and data protection are crucial to your organization. Data breaches are damaging to your success and reputation, so be sure to invest in a program that offers a high-security level. Additionally, remain vigilant in these protective measures:
  • Using a PCI-compliant processor.
  • Running address verification services.
  • Following up on large and minimal donations.

With these key items in mind, your fundraising team can find the best payment processor that can help you effectively retain donations and reach your fundraising goals!

Simplifying the Donation Process

Now that you’ve secured your payment processing software, it’s time to simplify the other aspects of the donor payment journey. This can include setting up a donation page that is easily accessible from multiple browsers, simplifying your donation form, and streamlining the matching gift process.

Optimize mobile giving

Making your giving experience accessible for both desktop and mobile donors can improve donor acquisition and retention. Prospects can donate at your fundraising event or while on-the-go.

To implement a mobile-friendly design, your page should respond well on all screen sizes. Your mobile site will look a bit different from the desktop version, and that’s okay! To optimize user-friendliness, be sure to add:

• Bold and easy-to-read text
• Large donation buttons
• A simple design to avoid crowding

When it only takes a few seconds for your donor to click and donate via mobile device or desktop, you’ll more likely secure their contribution. They’ll thank you for saving them time!

Simplify your donation form

Your donation form is the last touchpoint you have with a donor before they give. Make sure it’s straightforward enough not to scare them off. After all, forms that take too long or are too complicated can turn even your most passionate supporters away.

However, you still need to ask for the essentials. Stick to asking for basic contact information needed to process the donation and get in touch with the donor to deliver their donation receipt. You can use future opportunities to gather more specific details, such as what about your causes interests them.

The donor database software you chose to integrate with your payment processor is useful for future communications and getting to know your donors. The more you know about your donors, the better you can communicate with them.

Promote matching gifts

While you should keep your donation form short, it’s also an opportunity to earn additional revenue from an accessible corporate giving program: matching gifts.

Matching gifts are a free and easy way for nonprofits to potentially double some of their supporters’ donations. To promote them on your donation page, embed a matching gift database search tool into your donation form or donation confirmation page. Supporters can use this tool to look up their employers and see if they qualify for a matching gift.

We’ve already pulled back the veil on how nonprofit payment processing works, so let’s take a brief look at the payment process for business’s CSR programs. 360MatchPro’s guide to CSR vendors presents this useful chart:

Essentially, a donor gives to your nonprofit, which your payment processor manages. Then, they submit a matching gift request to their employer. If the request is approved, the employer uses their CSR software to allocate funding to the nonprofit. The CSR software vendor takes this money and gives it to your nonprofit, usually through a check or wire transfer depending on the amount.

Your organization puts a lot of effort into making successful fundraising asks that drive potential donors to your website. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your work by ensuring a straightforward and secure process.

With fundraising tools like a dedicated payment processor, you can connect with supporters and drive greater fundraising success. During your search, remember that simplifying the giving experience for donors is essential in your decision-making process.

The post After the Ask: Understanding Nonprofit Payment Processing appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

While communication metrics and donor feedback are good places to start stewarding donors, your nonprofit may overlook a valuable resource for enhancing donor stewardship: your bookkeeping data. This information is a powerful tool for communicating donor impact and establishing a plan to further their involvement over time.

Let’s explore five ways your nonprofit can leverage its bookkeeping data to enhance donor stewardship.

1. Tailor reporting and impact updates

While accurate financial reporting is crucial to avoid losing your 501(c)(3) status, it’s also a helpful way to show donors the impact of their contributions. Incorporate data-driven updates into your communication cadence to remind donors of their important role in furthering your mission.

Use the following bookkeeping data to send tailored, relevant reports to donors:

• In-kind contributions: Highlight the importance of a donor’s noncash gift by tailoring an impact update to address their specific in-kind donation. For example, donors who contributed bags of dog food to an animal shelter might want to know how many animals were fed with their donation.

• Restricted donations: When donors place restrictions on their gifts, they’re often passionate about the project or program they funded. Provide specific program updates detailing how you used their funds in ways that aligned with their restrictions. This should include key impact analytics, such as measurable outcomes and fund allocation, to demonstrate a program’s effectiveness.

• Fundraising event revenue: Share event recaps with both attendees and contributors, including the total revenue generated compared to the event’s fundraising goal. Break down this data into specific sources of revenue, such as the amount raised from ticket sales, to draw a direct connection between your fundraising success and donors’ involvement.

After sharing the hard numbers, prompt donors to further their involvement by explaining what else could be possible with their continued support.

2. Personalize acknowledgment and recognition

Donor appreciation is the cornerstone of stewardship. When supporters feel valued by your organization, they’ll be more likely to stay connected through increased giving or other involvement opportunities.

Use individual donation data to personalize donor acknowledgments. eCardWidget’s guide to thanking donors recommends the following best practices for valuable recognition, which can be enhanced with bookkeeping data:

• Be prompt. Accurate bookkeeping records will help you track when and how often donors give. Use this information to send timely messages of appreciation that note their giving frequencies for even more personalized gratitude.

• Center their impact. Save the discussion of your nonprofit’s work for project updates—appreciation messages should keep donors’ contributions at the focus. Consult your bookkeeping data to learn about their involvement over time and specify their impact in your recognition efforts.

• Match the donation amount. Analyze your records to identify donors’ giving histories and show your appreciation accordingly. For example, donors who have increased their giving amounts by 5% each year should receive increasingly meaningful signs of appreciation from your nonprofit.

Infuse your existing donor appreciation efforts with bookkeeping data to show supporters that you’re paying attention to their unique contributions. You can also supplement this data with details from your constituent relationship management (CRM) system or donor database to further personalize messages. For example, you may notice a donor contributed $50 on their 50th birthday and send a birthday card thanking them for their generosity.

3. Provide more transparent financial reporting

Beyond fulfilling your obligation to report financial activity to the IRS, transparency is an effective way to demonstrate your nonprofit’s trustworthiness to donors. This bolsters donors’ confidence in your organization, making them more likely to stay involved with your nonprofit and continue giving.

There are several ways you can exhibit trustworthiness, such as making your Form 990 publicly available or creating a detailed annual report. Outsourcing your bookkeeping needs to an external professional is a key strategy for strengthening donor trust and streamlining your bookkeeping responsibilities.

According to Foundation Group’s bookkeeping guide, a professional bookkeeper can help with:

• Recording transactions
• Reconciling bank accounts
• Providing financial statements
• Assisting with 1099 preparation
• Giving advice and counsel as needed

With these services, professional bookkeepers help nonprofits achieve financial compliance and accurate record-keeping. This way, you’ll have all the (accurate) data needed to transparently report your financial activity to donors, such as how their donations were used or why your fundraising goal is set at a certain amount.

Additionally, some bookkeepers dedicate a section of their website to discuss their clients and the financial success they’ve been able to achieve. A bookkeeper’s case study can spread the word that a trustworthy professional handles your nonprofit’s books, so potential constituents know there’s accountability.

4. Choose clear stewardship touchpoints

Donor information stored in your bookkeeping system is like a window into supporters’ giving motivations and preferences. Using this data, your nonprofit can establish actionable touchpoints for stewardship that help you standardize the process of deepening donor involvement.

Create a donor stewardship plan that aligns with your bookkeeping process to standardize engagement across your supporter base. This plan could include the following steps:

1. Segment donors based on their giving levels and histories to determine which stewardship activities would best engage each group of supporters.
2. Develop a communications plan based on your donor segments, including the content and frequency your messaging should follow to move donors up the giving pyramid to higher donation levels.
3. Collect donor feedback to contextualize your bookkeeping data so that you can better understand why donors give and what would influence them to continue giving.

With this information, your nonprofit can proactively and consistently connect with donors to increase their engagement. This allows you to send targeted appeals and updates that resonate with donors individually and inspire their recurring support.

5. Identify involvement opportunities

The end goal of stewardship is to deepen a donor’s involvement with your organization and retain (or upgrade) their support over time. Meeting this goal requires offering a reasonable call to action that tells donors exactly what their next step should be.

Use your bookkeeping data to analyze donors’ giving patterns, including the frequency, timing, and amounts of donations. Supplement this data with past engagement information from your CRM to identify highly engaged donors who likely have an affinity for your organization’s cause and would be willing to give their support in other ways.

Then, create a strategy for marketing other opportunities, like volunteer roles or advocacy campaigns, to these donors. Incorporate educational information, such as the definition of a 501(c)(3) organization or the inner workings of your nonprofit’s operations, to help donors feel like they’re truly a part of your team.

Equipped with valuable insights from financial data, your nonprofit can let data drive its decision-making to create actionable plans for reaching your goals. As you work on improving your approach to donor stewardship, your bookkeeping data may also guide many other initiatives if you thoroughly and accurately record your financial activity.

About the Author

Greg McRay

Greg is the founder and CEO of Foundation Group, one of the nation’s top providers of tax and compliance services to nonprofits. Greg and his team have worked with tens of thousands of nonprofits for over 25 years, assisting them with formation of new charities, plus tax, bookkeeping, and compliance services. He is credentialed as an Enrolled Agent, the highest designation of tax specialist recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Greg and company work with charities and nonprofits all across the country and worldwide.

The post 5 Ways To Use Nonprofit Bookkeeping for Donor Stewardship appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

And the time before that?

Objections are one of the scariest parts of fundraising. They can cause the most skilled fundraiser to freeze. In this clip from my training on overcoming objections, I show you how to prepare so you can show up to your next solicitation with ease.

The post How to prepare for the scariest fundraising objections appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Is it?

No. Relationships exist in many formats. Many that do not lead to fundraising at all.

I’d suggest fundraising is all about mutually beneficial relationships.

That’s why if you meet with a donor prospect, you better have some asks ready. Even if you’re just “catching up.”

Have 3 Options Ready

If you’re “just going out to coffee,” it is correct to not make a solicitation. The visit itself is a success. Be strategic and curious with your questions – as they will be with theirs. But honor your stated “this isn’t an ask” invitation by not asking.

But…

But you better have 2-3 asks ready. In Ask Without Fear!® I call these “arrows in your quiver.” These are levels you’d like your prospect to give at or areas that you’d love to invite a donor to give to.

Why?

Especially when it’s “just a visit, not an ask”?

Donors are super busy. And they are smart. They know the nonprofit needs gifts. So there’s a chance they’ll ask you how they can help.

If you don’t have some fundraising asks ready for any meeting

1. You risk looking like an unprofessional nonprofit leader: if your nonprofit needs fundraising to run, you should know what would be helpful. If you don’t, you risk losing the prospects confidence that yours is a good organization to give to.
2. You risk never connecting with them again: Ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But with it taking more than 12 attempts to reach a donor, it will feel like forever. If they are interested when they ask you what would be helpful, they may not be when you finally connect with them months later.

Hesitate but honor their ask

If you set up a meeting just to get to know someone, great. That’s the “Engage” step – one of the 4 steps of fundraising.

But if they ask you how they can help, honor their ask. Have an answer.

You might say:

Oh. I didn’t come to ask you…this time. But if you’d like to know, here are a few things that would be helpful. [Share them briefly.] Which sounds more interesting to you?

Small, Medium, and Large Fundraising Asks

If you really have no idea what their giving might be, come with a small, medium, and large option. You could look at your average gift and determine levels below, at, and above average.

Or you could think about the largest gift level you currently have and then work done from there.

Alternatively, if you think the person has capacity for a larger gift, you could have three project areas.

A Conversation, not a Presentation

I am not suggesting you have three presentations available. 

No.

But be ready to have three conversations ready. And be ready to ask a specific dollar amount in those conversations. If they may ask you for a presentation, schedule one with them. But major donors rarely ask for a presentation.

Visit with integrity – and be ready to ask

Being ready to ask is crucial to your fundraising. I once talked with a bank CEO who told me if a nonprofit CEO didn’t ask in the first meeting, he could stall the ask for two years. He gave me the process in great detail.

Most donors I’ve talked with don’t have a step by step plan to stall. But as soon as they leave the meeting with you, they’ll get distracted. So distracted that they may even forget why you are following up with them for months.

Save yourself, and your donor, the frustration. Have an ask ready when you go to visit. Better to be ready and not use an ask than to be caught by surprise.

The post You better have the ask ready appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

A fundraising consultant can identify opportunities for improvement in your existing fundraising plan and build new strategies to advance your nonprofit. Whether you’re struggling with online fundraising or stewardship, a fundraising consultant will bring a fresh perspective to your operations and help push you one step closer to your mission.

In this guide, we’ll cover five simple steps to hire the perfect fundraising consultant for your nonprofit. Backed by the right partner, you’ll have the support and guidance you need to maximize giving and strengthen donor relationships.

1. Secure your board’s buy-in.

Securing buy-in from your board is critical to hiring a consultant and creating an effective partnership. The right consultant will work side by side with your team, so it’s essential that your board gives the green light to set up a collaborative working relationship. Plus, your board will be involved in fundraising activities, such as stewarding major donors, and will be able to provide helpful insights and next steps for your work with the consultant.

2. Read up on consulting services.

After determining your needs and goals, outlining your project and talking to your board, you’ll need to research possible consulting firms and the services they offer. Your fundraising needs should align with the specific services and specialties of your prospective consultants.

Consulting firms can help your nonprofit with a variety of things like conducting feasibility studies ahead of a capital campaign and email marketing. Some other common services include:

• Fundraising solutions
• Strategic planning
• Communications
• Board and staff training

Along with the services consultants provide, you’ll also want to consider the following factors:

• Founding philosophies: Ensure a prospective consultant’s mission and values align with your own. This will lead to the most effective and productive partnerships.
• Location: If your nonprofit is looking to bring on a consultant with a strong understanding of your community, then a local firm might satisfy your needs. However, a remote consultant can bring a fresh perspective to your nonprofit and pull from best practices seen in other locations and sectors that could benefit your organization. Weigh the pros and cons of both to determine whether a local or remote fundraising consultant can meet your needs.
• Testimonials and references: Look at a prospective consultant’s website to see if past clients reported having positive experiences with this consultant. This will help you get a strong sense of their working style and whether a given consultant would be a good fit for your organization. You can also request references from your consultant later in the hiring process to get more in-depth insights from former clients, which we’ll discuss in the fourth step.
• Past projects: Explore a consultant’s past projects to assess if they have the right background and experience to support your proposed project. They should also have experience working with nonprofits similar in size and sector to yours.
• Chemistry: Once you meet with a prospective consultant or talk to them over the phone, you’ll get a better sense of their communication style and personality. Ensure that your consultant will mesh well with your nonprofit to increase the success of your partnership.

To kickstart your research, you can take a look at Google reviews and consultants’ websites. However, leveraging your professional network is essential if you’re stuck at this initial starting point of your research.

3. Use your network.

There are plenty of consulting firms out there and each one offers different packages, so it’s easy to be overwhelmed; however, don’t forget that you can use the help and knowledge of your network to support this process. Look towards these resources:

Your respected peers

Your peers from other nonprofit organizations probably have some experience with hiring a consultant (or they know someone who does), so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Look for nonprofits that have similar supporter bases and goals. For example, if your nonprofit is locally focused and has a staff of ten, you may not want to ask a national nonprofit with 100+ employees for a recommendation. Instead, one that is most similar to yours will ensure you find a consultant with the most relevant background.

Professional organizations

Professional organizations like The Giving Institute provide complete lists of trusted and vetted fundraising consultants. This ensures that you’re only considering reputable consultants who have a proven track record in driving success for their clients.

Community-based organizations

Community organizations offer directories of top fundraising consultants specific to certain locations. For example, if you’re an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that wants a consultant who has an in-depth understanding of your community, you might look towards a community-based organization in Indianapolis for their recommendations.

You can also look at web pages that round up the top reputable consultants, like Re:Charity’s list of the leading nonprofit consulting firms. Wherever you start your research, make sure to be thorough and ensure a consultant checks off all your boxes before hiring them.

4. Be thorough throughout the hiring process.

After you’ve used your network to recruit consultant candidates, you’ll want to be thorough in the hiring process. Meeting with your top candidates will probably be the easiest way to get a feel for their personalities and decide if their values align with your nonprofit’s.

Keep the following tips in mind as you interview candidates:

Pick a consultant who fits.

When interviewing potential consultants, keep the following points in mind and feel free to ask them:

• Do they understand your nonprofit’s cause and goals?
• Do they have experience working with similar nonprofits?
• What are their specialty services and do they match your nonprofit’s needs?
• Will they be able to collaborate easily with your team and board?

Selecting a consultant who understands your project’s efforts and your cause is crucial for your partnership’s success.

Ask for a proposal.

After you’ve met or spoken with the potential consultant, you can ask them for a proposal. A proposal is a document that outlines a consultant’s process and approach to your project, as well as answers any specific questions you have. Aly Sterling Philanthropy’s guide to fundraising consultants explains that a strong proposal will have the following elements:

• Demonstrates an understanding of your nonprofit’s mission
• Offers suggestions to fix the challenges brought up in your conversations
• Provides a projected timeline
• Lists out any estimated expenses

You can request proposals for multiple consultants that you’re interested in or just one or two of your top choices. The proposal is intended to help you narrow down your choices further and increase your confidence in a candidate.

Check their references.

Speak with past clients that a prospective consultant has served so you can get first-hand insight into their working style and the fundraising results they’re able to produce.

Focus your discussion with references on how your candidate managed their project and collaborated with a team. You can cover if the candidate kept a budget and deadline in mind while working.

5. Communicate and sign.

Keep in mind that your consultants’ proposals aren’t set in stone, and you can always take the opportunity to note any questions or changes you would like to be made. For example, if the timeline seems too short or too long, you can see how a consultant might modify their approach to better meet your needs.

As you finalize your decision and turn the proposal into a more concrete plan, keep these tips in mind:

Establish your expected communication and timeline.

When it comes to communication, you’ll need to establish your expectations and schedule biweekly or weekly meetings. Determine what your consultant should discuss with you and what they can make their own judgments on.

Finalize your timeline so both parties know how long the project will take and how much of your consultant’s time will be dedicated to this account. For example, while an online fundraising project might take just a few months, you might need a consultant for a year or more when planning a capital campaign.

Determine how your consultant will be paid.

You’ll also need to discuss the costs of the contract. How will your nonprofit pay your consultant? You may be paying a flat fee, a retainer or an hourly rate. Make sure both you and your consultant are comfortable with the final decision.

Finalize your goals and responsibilities.

Determine your nonprofit’s goals and responsibilities, along with your consultant’s responsibilities. It’s important to know how your consultant will collaborate with your nonprofit’s internal operations. You’ll also want to discuss what tools you’ll use to track your project’s success, such as fundraising software and CRM platforms like Salesforce, and decide on which metrics to pay attention to.

The relationship your nonprofit has with your consultant will rely heavily on open communication, so make sure both you and your consultant understand your project’s needs and goals from the beginning.

Remember: a consultant is the missing link. You’re hiring a consultant for advice and help, which won’t be effective unless you share the reins. Trust that your consultant knows what they’re doing but don’t forget to take an active role in your fundraising strategy, too. With both parties working together in harmony, you’ll be much more likely to fundraise with a positive return!

About the Author

Long before Aly Sterling founded her eponymous consulting firm, she was solving the unique yet similar problems encountered by nonprofit organizations. Her decision to start her own business in 2007 was driven by her belief in leadership as the single most important factor in organizational success, and her determination to work with multiple causes at one time to scale societal change.

Aly’s expertise includes fundraising, strategic planning, search consultation and board leadership development for the well-positioned nonprofit. She is regularly sought for comment by trade and mainstream media, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy and U.S. News & World Report. She has contributed to publications of BoardSource and The Governance Institute, as well as the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and The Giving Institute.

The post 5 Easy Steps: A Guide to Hiring a Fundraising Consultant appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

In the end, both schools are successful—but School B raises more money and has better participation from students. This is because the students knew that they could raise more to support their school simply by spending more time reading.

This guide will explore how your school or nonprofit can use pledge fundraising to boost its impact by breaking down some of the top frequently asked questions (FAQs). Let’s begin.

1. What is pledge fundraising?

A pledge occurs when a donor promises to make a gift of money, goods, or services that will be delivered to the organization at a later date. Donations, on the other hand, are paid immediately. Sometimes donors use pledges to stagger larger payments, breaking them into more manageable payments (e.g., pledging to give $1,000 over six months).

But how does this process work in practice? 99Pledges’ guide to kid-friendly fundraising ideas illustrates how your organization can weave this fundraising method into your next campaign:

1. Work with a pledge fundraising software provider to set up donation pages for participants.
2. Encourage your participants to share the donation pages online.
3. Participants collect pledge donations from friends and family, usually corresponding with a unit of distance, time, or quantity (e.g., $1 per car washed during a car wash or $3 per mile jogged during a jog-a-thon).
4. Track pledges using your fundraising software.
5. Collect proceeds once the event wraps up. Your software should automatically send reminders and collect payments from donors.

Keep in mind that pledges are different from monthly giving initiatives. Monthly or recurring giving means that the donor has enrolled in your sustainer program and agrees to donate a specific dollar amount each month (e.g., $25 each month, on repeat). While a donor may pay some pledged donations in installments, this doesn’t make them a part of your monthly giving initiative.

2. Why accept pledges?

Pledge fundraising is an effective method for nonprofits, schools, and other fundraising organizations because it:

• Is more flexible. Enhance your donors’ experiences and secure more donations by offering them different ways to donate. For example, during a walk-a-thon they may choose between giving pledged donations for each mile walked or donating a flat rate. Flat rates appeal to donors who know what they want to donate while pledges can be better for those who cannot or don’t wish to donate immediately.
• Can increase donors’ capacity to give. Not all of your supporters can afford to give large amounts at one time. However, pledge donations give them the option to pay toward a larger sum over several months. While your organization won’t receive an immediate major gift, these small donations add up.
• Provides more opportunities to steward supporters. With pledged donations, you’ll have at least two opportunities to connect with them: when they make the pledge and when they donate. If they plan to fulfill the pledge in multiple payments, you have even more chances to show your gratitude. Send donors heartfelt thank-you messages and share the impact that their contributions have to steward the relationship.

Pledges are also a great way for donors to provide targeted support to the causes or projects they care about most. For example, an afterschool program might use a sports team fundraising idea like a baseball hit-a-thon to raise money for its team sports program. When donors pledge to donate to this campaign, they’ll know exactly where their funds are going.

3. How are pledges collected and processed?

There are many different ways to manage pledged donations, and it’s up to your organization to decide what works best. However, there are some tips and best practices to follow that can keep the process running smoothly:

• Use pledge fundraising software that will track pledges and fundraising progress during your campaign.
• Accept a variety of payment methods like credit cards, PayPal, ApplePay, and GooglePay to make donating flexible and convenient for donors.
• Leverage online donation pages. Since pledges are often collected through peer-to-peer fundraising, consider creating a donation page for the whole campaign and allowing participants to create individual pages.
• Choose a payment processor or fundraising platform that is safe and secure. Typically, these providers are PCI compliant and employ security measures like data encryption and two-factor authentication.

Additionally, you’ll need to make sure you’re asking for these donations in an effective way. Because some donors may not be familiar with pledge fundraising, explain how the method works in your asks. If your organization is holding a peer-to-peer campaign, share some basic fundraising tips and marketing materials with participants.

4. What happens if a donor doesn’t fulfill their pledge?

Unfortunately, pledge attrition can happen in almost any campaign. However, an average of 84% of event fundraising pledges are fulfilled, so you can rest assured that this isn’t a rampant issue that will seriously impact your success. To offset any expected losses, set the expectation that you won’t receive roughly 10% of the total amount pledged.

In many cases, pledging to donate is not legally binding. This means that the best way to curb pledge attrition is through preventative measures. Start with clear communication—make sure donors understand what pledging to donate means, tell them when they will need to make the payment, and send out reminders. 

Additionally, some fundraising platforms require a donor’s card information to process the pledge. This way, your nonprofit can automatically collect the agreed-upon amount on a specific date (and neither you nor the donor will forget about it).

5. How can your organization encourage donors to pledge again?

You’ll need to make efforts to steward your organization’s relationship with donors to ensure they pledge again in the future. To do so, set up a gratitude system that includes elements like:

• Sending donors thank-you messages. Share an email or handwritten letter expressing your gratitude for their support. eCardWidget’s guide to thanking donors recommends adding personal details like the amount donated, centering the donors’ impact, and ensuring your message fits the gift amount.
• Creating donor recognition walls. Recognition walls are mounted, public displays in your facility that feature the names of your top, most loyal donors. These walls honor the donors’ contributions, physically represent your community of supporters, and make those featured feel deeply connected to your cause.
• Giving top donors public shout-outs. Identify the donors that pledged the largest amount, contributed for the first time, or have joined in on the most pledge campaigns. Then, ask if they’d like to be featured on your website or social media. Consider asking them a few brief questions about why they support your cause. You can feature their answers in the post.

If your nonprofit or other organization shares an impact or annual report, consider adding a section that recognizes impactful donors. Spread awareness of your pledge fundraisers and boost supporter retention by adding a special section to highlight the impact of pledge-based fundraisers.

Pledge fundraising allows your organization to give its supporters a different way to contribute to your cause. The ability to make smaller donations over time or in the future can boost your donors’ capacity to give. Unit-based pledges can empower participants in charity races, dance-a-thons, and other events to go the extra mile during the campaign.

To motivate both your donors and participants to do more to further your mission, consider implementing pledge fundraising into your next campaign.

About the Author

Rodrigo Ramos

Rodrigo Ramos is the Manager of Customer Success at 99Pledges, the #1 online fundraising platform for schools, sports teams, music groups, and more. 99Pledges provides organizations with an easy-to-use, web-based solution to manage and drive success in fundraising. The platform’s robust functionality can support simple pledge drives as well as performance-based campaigns (e.g. fun runs, walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, etc.).

The post What Is Pledge Fundraising? 5 Frequently Asked Questions appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

And more than that, they’re not responding to any of our follow up.

This is hard in fundraising, isn’t it? Most nonprofits aren’t asking for next year’s budget. They need the money now.

While I’m in favor of thoughtful philanthropy, nonprofits tend to need an answer. To know if they should keep following up or if they should move on. The conversation should be a dialogue. A back and forth.

Your Role is NOT to Decide for Your Donor

Whatever the cause, one thing I do know: don’t make the decision for the donor.

Resist the urge to take their silence as a decision. The donor hasn’t said “no” until the donor has said “no.”

As hard as it can be to do, keep consistent and kind with your follow up. If the donor didn’t say yes or no to the ask, they must be thinking about the donation.

Honor them enough to let them tell you their decision.

A while back, inspired by the book Go For No!, I wrote a post called “Sometimes you need to go for no.” You might be surprised to find you like the experience of making a game of getting no’s.

So hang in there. Silence is just silence. Not a no.

If you need follow up reminders, feel free to sign up for my Follow Up Friday emails. While not specifically written to fundraisers, you’ll see how applicable the follow up ideas are for your work.

The post Silence isn’t a “no” appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

The more that your donors engage with your nonprofit, the more likely they are to stay engaged and become lifelong supporters who help you serve more beneficiaries.

To give your organization’s donor engagement a boost, we’ll explore winning techniques your team can use to get more supporters actively involved in your work.

1. Be genuine when asking donors to engage.

Donor engagement isn’t just about employing the right strategies. It’s also about having the right mindset—one focused on being genuine.

Being genuine means wanting to engage donors not just for the sake of raising money but also for the sake of growing relationships. Over time, this will increase their dedication to and involvement with your cause.

Having this mindset is important for two reasons:

1. It builds trust. Nobody wants to feel like a walking ATM. If you’re transparent with donors about why they matter to your organization and what you need from them to increase your impact, they’ll be more confident in your work and want to support you in the long run.
2. Your nonprofit can better connect with donors. Authenticity creates a desire for connection. As you get to know your donors on a personal level, you’ll have a better understanding of their interests. This will allow you to create an outreach program that is tailored to your supporters.

To demonstrate genuine interest in your donors, focus on developing two-way relationships with them. This means your nonprofit should:

• Have regular conversations with donors to develop rapport and build relationships.
• Be honest with your donors about what’s going on at your organization.
• Learn about your donors’ interests and use the information to encourage them to get involved in ways they will enjoy.
• Thank your donors regularly for their support.

A mindset focused on genuine connection and involvement will show your supporters that you care about them and their experiences with your cause. Plus, it will allow you to apply other donor engagement techniques with a donor-first approach.

2. Use software to help with donor engagement.

It can be challenging to keep track of hundreds (or even thousands) of donors and build authentic relationships with them.

While a completely individualized approach isn’t always possible, building successful, long-lasting relationships does require some degree of customization. Having a place to track all of your donor information will help you create the best, tailor-made plan possible for engaging with them.

That’s where constituent relationship management software (CRM), like Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge NXT or Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, comes in. This kind of software allows you to store donor information, track touchpoints and relationship milestones, and segment your donors into different categories.

Segmentation is what empowers you to personalize communications to some extent. Your nonprofit can segment donors into lists based on:

• Donor status
• Giving history
• Age
• Interests
• Preferred giving channels
• Communication frequency preferences

By segmenting your donors, your nonprofit can provide them with the most relevant information to their interests and needs, making them more likely to engage with your mission.

As you look for a CRM solution that fits your needs (or seek to enhance your existing tech stack by changing your CRM), you may find it useful to work with a nonprofit technology consultant. These experts can help you assess all of your options, implement your chosen tool, and customize it to meet your needs so that you’re well-positioned to use your CRM to boost donor engagement.

Did you know that the average text message open rate is a whopping 99%? Since it’s such a popular communication method, your nonprofit should take advantage of text messaging as a way to engage with donors.

Many donors are already using their mobile devices to give, but you can also use text messages to engage them in other ways. For example, use text messaging to:

• Provide reminders for donations, volunteering, or events.
• Send updates, like the latest progress on a fundraising goal.
• Ask cause-related questions and reward donors with the correct answers.
• Share images or videos of various projects.

If your organization wants to use text messaging, many texting platforms help nonprofits build a text messaging list. Similar to email marketing, this lets organizations send out a mass text message to all the donors who have subscribed for this type of communication.

4. Maintain the traditional ways you reach out.

Direct mail and phone calls are still valid ways to connect with and engage donors because they add variety to your communications and impact donors in ways that other methods can’t. For instance, a letter may feel more personal than a series of emails. Or, a phone call may leave a longer-lasting impression than a social media post.

For instance, if you spend the bulk of your outreach efforts sending emails, donors are going to get bored and maybe even ignore your messages. But picking up the phone and talking to a donor or sending them a postcard through the mail every once in a while will catch their interest and drive deeper connections.

5. Encourage donors to join the conversation.

When you send emails, write blog posts, and mail letters, you’re talking at donors. However, donors will feel much more engaged if you give them opportunities to respond.

This way, donors get to share their thoughts, questions, and feelings, providing input about your mission and how your nonprofit works toward completing projects and serving the community.

There are many ways you can encourage donors to speak up. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Send out surveys after campaigns or events to gather donor feedback.
• Comment and respond to comments on social media.
• Host webinars, Q&A sessions, or panel discussions and encourage attendees to send in questions and comments.
• Post polls in your social media stories.
• Add a contact form to your nonprofit’s website visitors can use to get in touch with your team.

No matter what strategy you use to get donors to respond to your communications, ensure you’re asking engaging questions. Demonstrate that you’re interested in hearing what they have to say by taking notes and asking follow-up questions.

As you gather feedback and information from your donors, make sure to tell them how you plan to use it. This shows them that their contributions drive real impact and that you take their responses seriously.

6. Build a peer-to-peer campaign.

Deep your donors’ investment in your mission by asking them to step into a volunteer fundraising role for a peer-to-peer (P2P) campaign. This method of fundraising boosts donor involvement and expands your donor base.

In a nutshell, P2P fundraising involves your supporters fundraising on your behalf. They use a personal online donation page and circulate it among their personal networks, championing your cause. A popular form of peer-to-peer fundraising is Facebook birthday fundraisers, where individuals will raise money for a chosen cause on their birthday in place of gifts, but you can also use a dedicated P2P platform that allows donors to create donation pages and share them anywhere.

To encourage your fundraisers and recognize them for their efforts during a P2P campaign, do the following:

• Showcase donors who have made big strides.
• Like, comment on, or share fundraisers’ posts on social media.
• Share broader campaign updates.
• Encourage friendly competition between fundraisers by ranking campaigns by the amount raised.
• Send text messages, social media direct messages, or emails encouraging fundraisers to keep up the good work.

When all is said and done, make sure to follow up with your fundraisers and thank them for their efforts, no matter how much money they’ve raised. Consider sending personalized thank-you notes, posting shout-outs on social media, or even sending small gifts as a way to recognize everyone who participated.

7. Suggest ways donors can get more involved.

Donors have so many options when it comes to being involved with the nonprofits they love, but it’s your nonprofit’s job to make sure that donors are aware of these other opportunities in the first place.

For instance, you may want to encourage your donors to:

• Volunteer
• Join your membership program
• Participate in events
• Commit to a legacy gift
• Share information about your cause on social media
• Give in-kind donations
• Engage in advocacy work on your behalf

As you consider different ways your donors can get involved in your organization, remember that you’re getting more support and creating opportunities for your staff and other supporters to interact with your donors. In other words, additional involvement opportunities have the potential to lead to stronger relationships.

The bottom line is that donors will make more effort to engage if you let them know about other things they can do besides donating money. By giving their time or participating in other ways, donors will gain a deeper sense of personal fulfillment as well, as they’ll drive more impact for your cause.

Donor engagement is vital for your nonprofit’s long-term success and growth, so using the right techniques to boost it is imperative.

As you begin applying the strategies discussed above, you may find that you want to do more to engage donors. To do so, consider partnering with a nonprofit consulting firm well-versed in fundraising and donor relations. Having a third-party expert weigh in on your strategies and provide tailored suggestions for improvements can make a world of difference in your donor engagement efforts.

The post 7 Winning Techniques to Boost Nonprofit Donor Engagement appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

By setting and tracking crowdfunding key performance indicators (KPIs), you can keep a close watch on your fundraising progress, donors’ experiences on your campaign page, the effectiveness of your marketing activities, and more. Over time, you’ll be able to reinforce your strengths and identify ways to boost your crowdfunding results in the future.

In this guide, we’ll walk through all the basics you need to know about crowdfunding KPIs, including eight that you should consider monitoring to improve your campaigns.

The Importance of Crowdfunding KPIs

When launching any fundraising initiative, your nonprofit needs a data-driven strategy. How will you communicate your goal to donors? Which channels should you focus your marketing on? Your organization’s data can provide these answers.

By setting KPIs for your crowdfunding campaign, you can learn:

• Whether your campaign is on track to meeting its goal.
• How donors are responding to your campaign messages.
• Common characteristics of people who donate to your campaign.
• Which online platforms generate the most engagement.
• Whether your deadline is too long or short.

Throughout and following your campaign, you can use this information to enhance your marketing approach, allocate your resources more efficiently, and refine your donor engagement methods. All of this adds up to raising more for your nonprofit through crowdfunding.

8 Top Crowdfunding KPIs to Track

While there are many KPIs you can monitor for your campaign, concentrating on a select number ensures that you glean meaningful insights that you can actually act on. Start with these essential crowdfunding KPIs:

1. Amount of funds raised. Simply note the amount you’ve raised so far and compare it with your goal. This is an easy way to keep an eye on your fundraising progress and determine whether you can expect to generate the funds you need before the deadline.
2. Number of donors. Successful crowdfunding relies on securing small to mid-sized gifts from a large group of people. Pay attention to the number of unique donors contributing to your campaign to decide whether you need to expand your reach. Additionally, consider shared demographic characteristics such as location to better understand your donors and how best to solicit donations from them.
3. Average gift amount. Your nonprofit can calculate its average gift amount by dividing the total amount of funds you’ve raised by the number of gifts you’ve received. Using this KPI, you can add strategic suggested giving amounts to your campaign page to inspire people to give more. For example, if your average gift amount is $15, you might suggest $20 donations on your campaign page.
4. Conversion rate. To calculate your conversion rate, divide your number of donors by the total number of visitors to your crowdfunding page. Then, multiply that number by 100. This KPI reveals whether your campaign messaging and storytelling are resonating with those who come across it.
5. Page traffic source. Are the majority of your donors coming from a specific social media platform, such as Facebook or Instagram? Or are they discovering your campaign through your email outreach? By evaluating your page traffic sources, you can figure out which channels are best to devote your efforts toward.
6. Social media engagement. Social media can significantly increase the visibility of your crowdfunding page by allowing users to share your posts with others in their network. Track the number of comments, likes, and shares that your content receives. Then, adjust your messaging to promote further engagement with your posts and campaign page.
7. Email click-through rate (CTR). To measure the effectiveness of your email messaging, take the number of people who clicked on the link to your crowdfunding page and divide it by the number of people who opened your email. A low CTR might indicate that you need to make your call to action (CTA) more eye-catching and compelling.
8. Time it takes to reach the goal. This KPI refers to the amount of time it takes to reach your crowdfunding goal. For example, you might hit your goal well before your pre-determined deadline or find that you need to extend the cutoff point to secure more gifts. For your next campaign, you can use this information to set more realistic deadlines and expectations.

NPOInfo’s nonprofit data collection guide recommends storing all of these key details in your constituent relationship management (CRM) database. This way, your team can easily access relevant data points whenever you need to reference them for your next crowdfunding campaign.

How to Leverage Crowdfunding KPIs to Improve Results

Once you’re equipped with strategic crowdfunding KPIs to monitor for your campaigns, follow these best practices to make the most of the data you collect:

• Practice good data hygiene. As you store more information in your nonprofit database, ensure that it stays valuable by standardizing data input practices. For example, you might establish that team members should enter “Street” in addresses as “St.” Furthermore, you should conduct a database audit at least annually to delete duplicate entries and update outdated details.
• Choose an effective crowdfunding platform. According to Fundly’s guide to crowdfunding websites, some websites apply a “Keep it All” (KiA) approach to fundraising while others have an “All or Nothing” (AoN) approach. With a KiA fundraiser, you can receive the funds you earn regardless of whether you meet your goal. Many nonprofits prefer this approach since it ensures that you can always reap the rewards of your efforts. With an AoN fundraiser, you can only receive collected donations if you hit the goal.
• Follow up with your donors. Crowdfunding is a powerful way to unite many people around your nonprofit’s cause or project. When you accomplish your goal, be sure to follow up and share the concrete impact that donors’ gifts have made in your mission. This increases the likelihood that these donors will want to support your next fundraising endeavor.

Set aside time to review your KPIs regularly. If you’re running a shorter crowdfunding campaign, you might meet with your team once a week to discuss how you’re performing. Longer campaigns might call for bi-weekly or monthly KPI review meetings. Based on your KPIs, brainstorm additional ways you can level up your crowdfunding strategy both for your current campaign and the ones yet to come.

Crowdfunding KPIs provide your nonprofit team with the information you need to guide your campaign toward its goal and build a roadmap for future fundraising success. Following each campaign, remember to have a donor recognition plan in place to build and strengthen the connections you’ve made. In doing so, you’ll be able to continue improving your results and expanding the community of support around your mission.

About the Author

Missy Singh

Missy Singh is the Director of Operations, Client Services & Sales at Fundly. She has been working there since 2011 when she started as a Customer Experience and Implementation Manager. As an integrated platform for social impact, Fundly serves as an industry leader in crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising. In 2015 Fundly combined with NonProfitEasy to offer enterprise-level technology that addresses nonprofit needs with features such as a CRM, volunteer management, membership management, and event registration.

The post 8 Essential Crowdfunding KPIs for Measuring Success appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

But once I’ve registered, all that stress leaves. Because I’m not longer wondering “if” I’ll go but I start planning for “when” I go.

So let me help you get rid of some stress. Since you’re on this website, you are showing an interest in nonprofit fundraising and marketing. So I wanted to write to you about the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference. I love this conference so much, I risk never getting this email to you because I might keep writing and writing and writing. So I’m limiting myself to three reasons why you should register for the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference this week.

1. Actual Results

   The first reason I’d recommend registering is that this conference is the only conference I’ve been a part of where participants leave and actually raise money right away. Conferences are usually filled with information. But there’s little actionable information. And conferences usually have information that doesn’t quite fit with your situation. So the information isn’t entirely helpful. And much of the information takes time to see results.

   The Nonprofit Storytelling Conference is unlike any I’ve seen. Yes, I help produce the conference, but one of the reasons I stay on the leadership team is that the participants’ nonprofits actually see dramatic fundraising results. This is the first conference I’ve been a part of that participants are energized enough to leave and immediately act on what they’ve learned. They completely rewrite their entire year-end appeal on the airplane ride home. And see two and three times more in donations than the previous year.

   Or they immediately contact donors with a fundraising ask. At a recent conference, leaders from a nonprofit took one phrase from one of my talks and, within 48 hours, had raised one of the largest gifts in their nonprofit’s history. They went to a donor to ask him about being part of their $15,000 matching fund. But because of the phrasing they learned, he ended up saying yes to the entire $15,000!

   Or they leave this conference transform their nonprofit marketing, making it both more equitable and more effective. They empower communities. Engage more volunteers. And make real changes in their area of work.

   We have run this conference for 10 years now and each year we see these results. From small nonprofits to multinational nonprofits. From board members to seasoned nonprofit staff. From North American nonprofits to NGOs from around the world.

   So one reason you should consider registering this week is that the experiences and sessions at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference produce results for organizations just like yours.

2. The Guests (what other conferences call “Attendees”)

   The sessions are great, but so are the guests who attend the conference. The people that come to the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference are passionate individuals seeking to get better at their work. And that energy permeates the experience. And it’s not that the guests are all extroverts. I’ve never seen a more active introvert group! Each year the introverts unite and support each other in making sure they care for themselves.

   Whether seasoned executive directors, volunteer board members, or first-time employees, the guests come to learn and to share. There is no spirit of competition at all. Everyone comes with an attitude of helping everyone else.

   The best part is that we see these relationships grow after the conference. Being in nonprofit fundraising or marketing can be lonely. But the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference helps people connect with colleagues who support each other, sometimes for years.

   There’s something special about seeing those relationships in-person at the conference. Last year, I remember talking to guests who’d not attended the conference for a few years. They felt supported enough by the alumni group we run. But they were shocked with how powerful it was being back in-person at the conference. They told me, “I’d forgotten how energizing this conference is. There’s an atmosphere of possibility and growth. This energy is something I’ve missed.”

   So a second reason for registering for the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference this week is that you’ll be choosing to come in November to soak in an atmosphere of growth and possibility for three days.

3. This will sell out

   The third reason you should register to join us this November 11-13 is that this conference will sell out. For the first time ever, the conference has secured an entire hotel. We’ll be in Santa Ana Pueblo at the Tamaya Resort. (The picture above is a sunrise from Tamaya.) So all the guests in the hotel for those days will be your colleagues. All the discussions and experiences and hallway conversations will be around helping you and your cause.

   Since this will sell out, why not register this week? Especially when you can save money?

Glad I limited myself to three things!

I’m glad I limited myself to just three things. Why should you register for the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference this week?

• guests see actual results from what they learn
• guest get revived and re-energized
• and the conference will sell out so why not get in and enjoy the discount that ends this week?

Hope you take advantage of this week’s savings!

The post 3 Reasons to Register for the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference this week appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

One frequently missed step in this process is optimizing the donor experience. Donors should walk away from any interaction with your organization feeling connected to and excited about your mission. These interactions can be anything from attending a fundraising event to donating online.

In this guide, we’ll explore three ways your nonprofit can inspire these positive feelings among donors through online fundraising. Let’s get started with the most important part of the conversation: choosing effective technology.

Leverage the right tools and technology.

Technology helps nonprofits reach their full fundraising potential while giving donors the best experiences possible. Not only does technology enable online giving, but it also automates repetitive tasks like sending thank-you messages and donation receipts.

To gain these benefits (and more!), start by investing in the following tools:

Fundraising Software

Fundraising software includes all of the tools your nonprofit needs to plan, manage, and measure its fundraising campaigns. Your fundraising solution should help you overcome fundraising challenges like limited donor engagement or inaccurate data while making operations more efficient.

Each nonprofit’s needs are different, so you’ll need to look for software that aligns with your budget, goals, and donor management practices. Allegiance Group’s guide to fundraising tools recommends prioritizing the following features in your search:

• Donation forms: These provide a streamlined, secure way for donors to give to your nonprofit online. Design the forms so they are quick and easy to complete, and consider adding elements to maximize donations, such as an automatic recurring giving option.
• Peer-to-peer fundraising tools: Peer-to-peer fundraising allows supporters to campaign on your behalf by collecting donations from their friends and families. This can expand your nonprofit’s reach, create a sense of community among your supporters, and make them feel like part of your team.
• Text-to-donate features: This feature allows donors to contribute via text, making it the perfect option for busy donors who are constantly on the go. Additionally, it’s a great way to quickly reach donors and make urgent appeals.
• Analytics dashboards: Data analysis tools make it easy to track and visualize donor behaviors, preferences, and trends. Use these to gain a 360-degree view of your donors and give them more tailored experiences in the future.

Overall, these features make donating to your cause more convenient and flexible so donors can quickly contribute no matter where they are. When donors can answer your fundraising appeal with a donation in 60 seconds or less, you’re much more likely to get them on board.

Marketing Tools

Marketing tools allow you to effectively communicate and engage with your supporters, meaning they’re integral to developing strong donor relationships. Email marketing tools, social media management software, and content management systems help you keep your campaigns and donor interactions consistent and organized.

Here are some ways you can leverage these tools to enhance donor experiences:

• Send targeted communications. Use marketing tools to segment your online donors based on shared characteristics (e.g., special interests in a particular project) and send them tailored messages. Make sure to send these messages through donors’ preferred communication channels. Donors will appreciate messages that resonate with their unique interests more than generic fundraising appeals.
• Take an omnichannel approach. Aim to reach donors through several communication channels at once to give them a more cohesive, consistent experience. To establish a variety of touch points with your supporters, pair your online efforts with traditional tactics like direct mail fundraising. For example, add a QR code to mail that links to your newsletter sign-up form.
• Automate communication efforts. Marketing tools allow you to provide personalization at scale through the power of automation. Automate processes like welcome emails, donation acknowledgments, and birthday greetings to make donors feel recognized. For example, a support donating for the first time could trigger your email marketing tool to send them a welcome series to thank them and provide more information and updates.

Don’t neglect one of your most powerful marketing tools: your website. Make sure your website is a reliable hub of information about your online fundraisers, and direct donors to your donation forms by adding donate buttons to your homepage and navigation bars.

To ensure that all of your supporters can reach and engage with the website, check that it follows web accessibility guidelines like offering both mouse and keyboard navigation, providing sufficient contrast between text and background colors, and adding alternative text to images.

Work with experts.

Once you’ve built out your online fundraising toolkit, it’s time to develop strategies. However, running a successful online fundraiser has a lot of moving parts and can be complicated. Working with a team of experts can help you fill in any gaps in your fundraising and marketing strategies, ensuring that you reach and engage donors.

Consider leaning on the experience and expertise of:

• A marketing agency: Agencies specialize in developing and executing strategic campaigns tailored to your nonprofit and its supporters. They’ll be able to implement tactics that resonate with your donors and handle content creation, social media posts, email campaigns, and more. Look for agencies with extensive experience in digital marketing and fundraising.
• A fundraising consultant or fundraising coach: These professionals specialize in fundraising strategy development, donor cultivation, and campaign planning. They’ll help you achieve your nonprofit’s funding goals and work toward other objectives, like developing deeper donor relationships. When it comes to enhancing donor experiences, consultants can provide detailed guidance on donor stewardship practices and fundraising practices that will maximize engagement.

Both marketing agencies and fundraising consultants can help you capture your supporters’ attention and inspire them to donate. Because these professionals have likely worked on dozens of other fundraising campaigns, they’ll be able to suggest the best ways to streamline donors’ experiences with your campaign.

Maintain transparency.

For-profit businesses have to convince their customers to purchase their products or services by showing them what kind of value it will add to their lives. For your nonprofit, the goal is a little different. You need to show supporters that their contribution will aid the work you do, further your mission, and directly benefit the beneficiaries that they care about. 

During the fundraiser, show donors the impact of their contributions. Many nonprofits break down the power of certain donation amounts on their donation page. For example, Feeding America’s donation page highlights that a donation of only $1 will provide 10 meals. This makes donors feel more fulfilled after giving. After all, even a small gift of $5 provides 50 meals.

It’s also important to prioritize donor experiences and relationships after your online fundraiser. Thank donors for their contributions to show your gratitude. eCardWidget recommends personalizing thank-you messages with specific details, mentioning the donors’ gifts, and emphasizing their individual impact. Additionally, share more comprehensive impact reports each year that break down each project and initiative your nonprofit accomplished, the number of beneficiaries you served, and any other organization-specific metrics.

Positive donor experiences make your supporters feel good about supporting your organization and the work it does. Technology allows you to provide personalized experiences during your online fundraisers, even on a large scale. And when donors can give from any device, at any time, in just a few seconds, you’ll be able to raise more while strengthening supporter relationships.

About the Author

Kim Richardson

Kim joined Pursuant, a fundraising and marketing agency, exclusively serving the nonprofit sector in 2012. In her role, Kim leads cross-channel fundraising strategy and program execution across multiple clients in the Faith, General Non-Profit, and Higher Education verticals. Kim has consistently met and exceeded client expectations—leading several of her clients in double-digit, year-over-year increases. Before joining Pursuant, Kim provided marketing and fundraising consulting services to nonprofits and small businesses and worked for more than 15 years in corporate marketing and sales with four of America’s beloved consumer brands.

The post 3 Ways to Enhance Donor Experiences With Online Fundraising appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Writing a grant proposal might seem like a big, scary task. After all, you’re presenting your organization for judgment with real money and support on the line during a time when many nonprofits are seeing drops in their donation numbers.

While this is all true, it’s important to remember that grant writing is really just a series of steps, not a mysterious process that results in money for some lucky nonprofits and rejections for others.

Successful grant writing comes down to organization, careful decision-making, and experience. The more you try, the more lessons you pick up and the better you become (which is why many organizations rely on grant writing freelancers who focus solely on the craft).

But let’s say you’re working in-house and just got handed your first grant writing assignment—what next? We break it down into an approachable 10-step process.

Step 1: Understand the Grant Landscape and Process.

First, you’ll need some context to make more informed decisions. Spend some time learning more about these key areas of the grant landscape:

• Funders. Private foundations, public foundations (technically referred to as public charities), government agencies at the local, state, and federal levels, and corporations are the primary types of organizations that provide grants to nonprofits.
• Funding structures. Grants come in a few different shapes and sizes. Funding can be restricted to the specific project laid out in your proposal or unrestricted for general use. Payouts might be given all at once or provided in installments. The total value might be a flat amount of money or matched, meaning the grant provides a certain portion of your project’s total costs (often 50%). Each of these categories can bring different reporting considerations that you’ll need to understand ahead of time, as well.
• The stages of the grant lifecycle. There’s more to grant seeking than writing a proposal and winning funding, most notably the post-award steps of grant management and reporting. Closely following your funder’s reporting guidelines not only ensures compliance and smooth payouts but also sets you up well for future partnerships.
• The parts of a grant proposal. If you’re brand new to grant seeking, you’ll need to understand the different sections and documents that make up a typical proposal. The exact requirements and order will vary from grant to grant, but you can generally expect to see these sections:

Check out Learn Grant Writing’s introductory guide for a breakdown of these common components and documents.

Step 2: Review Your Nonprofit’s Project.

What are you seeking funding for? The vast majority of grants are restricted, meaning they’re intended to fund specific projects, programs, or initiatives.

Ideally, your nonprofit already knows the new projects that need funding as part of its broader strategic plan and calendar.

Do not put the cart before the horse—only apply for grant opportunities that align with your mission and what you already want to accomplish. Do not come up with new projects and programs solely for the sake of applying for a grant. This is a recipe for mission drift, disorganization, and ultimately, a less focused and effective nonprofit.

Step 3: Research Grant Opportunities.

Start looking for your first (or next) grant to apply for.

There are many helpful sources to check out. For government grants, rely on the official grants.gov website. Candid and The National Council of Nonprofits provide helpful directories for a wide variety of foundation grants, as well.

Memberships and paid platforms are also available and provide additional features that can help you build a consistent grant funding pipeline. Instrumentl and GrantStation are both popular choices in this category.

Start your research by finding opportunities that align with your mission, intended project, value, and timeframe. Don’t be afraid to put together a long list at this stage.

Step 4: Prioritize Your Options.

Next, begin narrowing down your list of grant opportunities to those that will offer you the highest chance of success. Several criteria can help you prioritize your opportunities, including:

• Mission alignment between your nonprofit and the funder
• Project alignment with the grant’s stated purpose and goals
• Any existing connections you might have with the funder
• Applicant success rate, or the number of awardees over the total number of applicants for past grants provided by the funder
• The prominence of the funder or the niche-ness of the grant (as proxy measures of competitiveness)
• The cost of pursuing the grant or the trade-off of time spent applying for and managing it versus its actual value or impact on your project

There’s no one perfect way to measure competitiveness, and your comfort zone will vary depending on the specific circumstances. One helpful rule of thumb we recommend is to prioritize grants with applicant success rates of 20% or greater.

Remember, too, that you can (and should) reach out directly to funders to learn more if you can’t find relevant information online or through any databases you use.

Work through your list multiple times, narrowing it down to a handful of the best opportunities. When you’ve settled on your #1, it’s time to start applying.

Step 5: Dive Deep into the Grant’s Guidelines.

Your chosen grant’s guidelines and requirements will be the foundation of everything that comes next. Take your time to read, read, and reread them.

Actively seek clarification from the funder and experienced team members as needed. Better to invest the time in understanding the guidelines now than struggle through the application process later and realize you’re off-target!

Step 6: Prepare a Narrative Skeleton.

Begin by giving yourself a solid structure to build on, one that’s built directly from the stated requirements of the grant. This will keep you on track, save time, and result in a more effective proposal.

We call it the “narrative skeleton.” Work your way through the grant’s guidelines and requirements and compile them into an outline.

Use the exact language from the guidelines as the section headings—this will immediately convey relevance to your funder. Begin brainstorming talking points and types of data to include in each section as you think of them, but don’t worry about filling in the details and drafting complete sentences yet. The goal is simply to lay the groundwork with an easy-to-use template that you’ll later fill in and polish into a finished product.

Step 7: Kick Off the Project and Collect the Necessary Info

Grant proposals contain information gathered from across an organization, so they usually require input from multiple team members and departments. Before you begin drafting your proposal, it’s a good idea to sync up with the individuals who’ll help you along the way.

While preparing your narrative skeleton, you identified information that you’ll need for your proposal, like impact data about past programs or projections for your proposed project. Prepare an agenda and invite the individuals who can help you gather this information to a grant kickoff meeting.

During your meeting, review the following essentials:

• The grant, the funder, and the guidelines
• Your timeline and intended submission date
• The data you need, from whom, and by when
• How to share information and documents with the grant team
• Anecdotes and constituent feedback that would be helpful to gather

This is also the time to discuss some important logistics. Your organization should finalize the budget for your proposed project as soon as possible (especially for matching grants) so that you can include it in your proposal. Discuss any additional documentation required by the grant, and get the ball rolling on securing it soon. For some organizations, it can take quite a while to secure official board resolutions, for instance.

Answer questions, thank everyone for their time, and follow up as needed. The key is to be organized—no one wants to be roped into a project where they don’t understand what’s needed of them or when.

Step 8: Write Your Grant Narrative.

After your meeting, and as data and input begin rolling in, start drafting your main grant proposal. Consider these best practices to help make this process as smooth and effective as possible:

• Start from the end and work backward. Most grants end with the meatier and more complex sections, like sustainability plans and budgets. Try to tackle these first to both get them out of the way and to keep their important details fresh in your mind as you draft the earlier, more narrative-driven sections.
• Follow storytelling best practices. Active language, use of the first person, illustrative details, real people and places, and a dynamic, positive tone all help your readers better envision their own roles in your story and those of your community. Try to strike the right balance of subtle but emotionally compelling storytelling.
• Balance your narrative with hard numbers. Funders are moved by stories, but they have to use numbers to make decisions. Make sure that your proposal makes a balanced case that’s defensible from both the qualitative and quantitative angles. Use data to illustrate the problem you’re solving, your progress so far, and how much further your new project will push you toward success.
• Stay focused and impact-forward. Write from a position of strength rather than scarcity; that is, while you should clearly illustrate the problems at hand, keep the focus on how you’re moving forward urgently and intentionally. Tie your main talking points back to measurable impact whenever possible and illustrate them with tangible examples and details.

We recommend tackling this step fast and furiously.

If you’ve planned out your timeline well, you’ll have plenty of time to review your proposal, get feedback, and make revisions, but for now, you want energy and momentum. For most grants, you should aim to complete a full first draft in four days or fewer.

Step 9: Prepare the Complete Application.

With a complete draft in hand that you’ve combed through and tightened up, it’s time to compile all the additional documentation you need to provide the funder. These most commonly include budgets, resolutions, and letters of support. Remember, it’s never a bad idea to closely review your grant guidelines one last time to make sure you’re not missing anything.

At this stage, you’ll also likely want to create a cover sheet for your proposal that outlines the contents and supplemental materials.

Step 10: Review, Submit, and Take a Breather.

Finally, ask a teammate to carefully review your complete proposal and compare it against the grant’s guidelines. Have them look for any big-picture issues, missing details, and clunky language.

Then, make your final revisions and submit the grant according to the funder’s instructions (ideally at least a day or two before the official deadline).

Once it’s out of your hands, take a breath, let everyone know, thank them for their help, and shake off all the nervous energy. We recommend taking a walk, bike ride, or just taking an early afternoon to meet up with a friend. Whatever works for you!

This 10-step process has served us and our grant writing students well, and it should serve as a helpful framework for your first forays into the world of grant writing, too. Follow its core recommendations and stay extremely organized. If you want to make your new skills official, try exploring online grant writing courses that offer recognized certification!

Bonus points if you go the extra mile for your organization—remember the list of prioritized list of grant opportunities you developed in Steps 3 and 4?

Revisit them to create a coherent Grant Funding Strategy, a yearlong roadmap of grant opportunities that will sustain your current and upcoming projects. This simple exercise can go a very long way to streamline your future grant writing efforts and set your nonprofit up for long-term success. Best of luck!

About the Author

Meredith Noble

Meredith Noble is the co-founder of Learn Grant Writing, an online membership for those building their careers in grant writing. Her book, How to Write a Grant: Become a Grant Writing Unicorn, is a bestseller for nonprofit fundraising and grants. Her expertise has been featured in NASDAQ, Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, and other top publications. She has secured over $45 million in grant funding, and her students have secured over $627 million – a number that grows daily.  If Meredith’s not biking or skiing in Alaska, she can be found curled around a steaming cup of green-tea and a good book.

The post So You’ve Been Asked to Apply for a Grant — What Now? appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

• servant leadership,
• transformational leadership,
• charismatic leadership, and
• transactional leadership.

Servant Leaders Most Consistently Associated with Growing Philanthropy

The researchers defined a culture of philanthropy as one in which both the CEO/Executive Director and others in the organization, like the board and staff, participated in fundraising. In the report, the researchers go into more depth defining each leadership style.

Here, we’ll just hit the high points.

Servant Leadership

Servant leaders showed the strongest link having a solid culture of philanthropy at their nonprofit. The research defines servant leaders as those who tend to measure success in serving those they work with. It may be that this looking out for the needs of others helps them see their role in the organization. Including their role in fundraising.

Transformational Leadership

The next style most likely to have a strong culture of philanthropy were leaders exhibiting the transformational leadership style. Transformational leaders rally people by centering them around a common mission and a comon vision. This style was found at times to produce a culture where both the CEO/Executive Director and others like the board participate in fundraising.

Why “at times”? When the researchers dug deeper into the data, they made a fascinating discovery. With this leadership style, a successful culture of philanthropy seems to hinge on the leaders own confidence. As the researchers state:

“Where leaders have a high level of confidence in their abilities, an enhanced degree of intellectual stimulation (i.e. encouraging non- traditional thinking and alternative perspectives) has a positive impact on philanthropic culture. Where that confidence is lacking, the effect is negative.”

This finding about confidence is particularly important because only about 1 in 5 nonprofit CEOs surveyed said they had a high level of confidence in their leadership abilities. Only 1 in 5. This indicates that helping these style leaders grow more confident in their role may have a positive impact on fundraising.

Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leadership is defined as a style centering on the personality of the leader. In a nonprofit, this might be seen when a boards say, “We don’t fully understand our CEOs decisions, but she rocks! As far as we’re concerned, she can do whatever she wants because she’s amazing.” In our research, charismatic leaders seemed to do the fundraising themselves. But they struggled getting others to help with fundraising.

Transactional Leadership

The fourth style of leadership in the study was transactional leadership. This style tends to focus more practically on goals and rewards. Some see this in a leader who has a “Do your work and you get a paycheck” attitude. Interestingly, the researchers weren’t able to tie this style of leadership to a culture of philanthropy. But they did find that those identifying more as a transactional leadership style also were most likely to say their nonprofit was experiencing a shrinking budget.

Since a study like this is more like a “snapshot,” we don’t know if transactional leadership causes less money to be raised or if less money being raised causes a more transactional style of leadership behaviors. But there is a link between transactional leadership and declining revenue.

Leadership Can Be Learned

It’s clear from the study that leadership styles significantly impact nonprofit fundraising. In my sharing these results, leaders seem amazed to realize they can choose to exercise a different style. The good news? Leadership behaviors can be learned.

So if you’re not seeing the fundraising results you want, or are frustrated with doing all the fundraising yourself, take a look at your leadership style. It might just hold keys to turning your culture of philanthropy around.

What’s Your Leadership Style?

The even better news? We have a quick, 5-question assessment to help you identify the leadership style you consider “right” or “natural.”

To find yours, take our free, 2-3 minute leadership style assessment at https://fundraisingcoach.com/style.

Then download a free copy of “The Wake Up Call,” to see how your style correlates with fundraising. Get it at: https://concordleadershipgroup.com/report/

The post Your leadership style is impacting your fundraising appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

From Idea & Start-Up to Strong & Sustainable

by Rebecca Rodgriquez

According to Giving USA, in 2022, Americans gave $499.33 billion to charity, signifying a 3.4% decrease from 2021, when charitable giving was $516.65 billion. This coupled with 1.54 million charitable organizations registered in our country alone is a testament to the collective commitment and effort towards positive social impact.

Yet, within this staggering number of organizations, the majority struggle to raise substantial funds—over a million organizations annually have operating budgets of less than $50,000. What does this data mean? Maybe starting an organization for the greater common good is a hobby for most people and they don’t intend to or care to grow it or effect positive change.

One might conclude that this information underscores the necessity for a structured approach in cultivating a sustainable nonprofit model, if in fact we want positive change. It also might be telling us that better expectations need to be set at the idea stage before one is even allowed to register the entity with a Secretary of State.

How would you interpret this data?

Consultants’ responsibility to the social sector

When the nonprofit is still an idea

As mission driven professionals working in the social sector, especially as consultants, I believe that we have a responsibility to lay aside anything holding us back to speak truth and share the knowledge we have to do our utmost for people who are in the idea or start-up stage of an organization. For those who want to be founders of a 501c organization in the exploration phase pre registering their organization, that may mean challenging them to do a feasibility study or better yet contracting your services to execute one. That could also look like encouraging them to volunteer on a regular basis for organizations similar to one they hope to start to get a first hand view of what is involved.

How many of us have come across a new founder who has absolutely no experience working or volunteering in the social sector? How many times have you been contacted by a new founder/ ED who needs help fundraising and you default to the thought – “oh no, not another one and turn them away?”

For nonprofits that have started up

How do you handle or engage those who ask for help who are in the start-up stage who have already plunged into the deep end, possibly undercapitalized, clueless about logic models or fundraising?

What if in 2024 all or the majority of the 124,000 fundraisers here in the United States were to commit to do whatever they can or at least one thing to start chipping away that number over 1 million to best prepare the want to be founders in that idea stage or those leaders of start-up organizations that just can’t seem to hit that $50k ceiling and give them some tips, setting them up for success?

Strong and stable nonprofits

All organizations demand attention and excellence to the many moving parts to become sustainable, mature, profitable. Nonprofit organizations are not exempt from any of this. In an upcoming session through the Nonprofit Academy, I am going to briefly present a metaphor of four legs on a table signifying

• leadership,
• financial sustainability,
• program effectiveness, and
• system and processes.

Whatever lifecycle stage an organization finds itself in – this metaphor can serve as a compass, a north star. As professionals who are committed to our sector and to make our world a better place, let’s do something for leaders to best prepare them for their journey ahead. Understanding and fortifying these four pillars form a cornerstone of building strong and hopefully sustainable organizations.

The post From Idea & Start-Up to Strong & Sustainable appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

The answer could be as simple as not making a follow-up request in a timely manner. Or maybe some donors always intended to just give the one time. While reasons vary, one question nonprofits should always ask themselves after a donation is: Did we thank them?

A simple thank you can go a long way toward persuading donors to come back. After all, it’s discouraging to donate your hard-earned money to what you feel is a worthwhile cause and never hear anything back. Donors are left wondering how their gifts were used or if the nonprofit even received or needed them at all.

Avoid this scenario and avoid overcomplicating the thank-you process by creating systems for expressing gratitude. Using a system allows you to decide how you’ll thank donors upfront, rather than making a separate decision for every donation that comes to your organization.

How do systems of expressing gratitude work and why do they matter for retaining donors? Let’s find out.

Why does retaining donors matter?

If your nonprofit is continuously attracting new donors, does it really matter if you retain them after their initial gift? Yes! Attracting new donors costs time and resources even if you’re using low-cost or free nonprofit marketing tools. It’s far cheaper to pay that cost once and have a donor make multiple gifts than to pay it over and over again for each gift.

Retaining donors may be more cost-effective, but how cost-effective is it to thank every donor? Put plainly, if your organization relies in any part on donors, you should share your gratitude with them. You couldn’t do what you do without their support!

As basic as that is, some organizations still look at each gift and wonder if they should thank the donor. When creating a system of gratitude, it’s normal to have questions like:

• Is this gift large enough to warrant a thank you?
• Are we spending more mailing a thank-you note than we’re getting from the donation?
• Who is the right person to thank?

Ask these questions when first crafting your system of gratitude, not every time a supporter donates. Establishing guidelines and following them removes the time and energy spent remaking these decisions, allowing you to appreciate donors faster.

Bonus: Send your thank-you messages in addition to donation receipts. Gift acknowledgments are important communication, but they should be separate from thank-you messages.

Components of a System of Gratitude

Systems of expressing gratitude are valuable, but what actually goes into them? Primarily, these systems have two components: donor appreciation tiers and donor appreciation methods.

Donor Appreciation Tiers

You should thank all of your donors. Whether they’re giving $100 or $10, they made an effort to support your nonprofit, and while small gifts may not change the trajectory of your mission, those donations were still likely meaningful for the people who made them.

That being said, some donors do require going the extra mile when it comes to showing your appreciation. How you divide donor tiers depends on which supporter groups you’re targeting and your nonprofit’s average donation amount. However, many nonprofits will find it worthwhile to create a system of expressing gratitude with tiers similar to these:

• New donors. Your appreciation for new donors will greatly influence their first impression of your nonprofit. Make it a positive one by expressing gratitude with a prompt and engaging message. While you might vary your strategy based on how much a new donor gave, such as calling rather than emailing donors who give over $100, have special messages ready that thank donors, provide information about your nonprofit, and welcome them to your community.

• Mid-level donors. Mid-level recurring donors provide reliable support month to month. For these donors, thank-you messages should be about maintaining and building the relationship to slowly get them to increase their support.

• Major donors. Major donors need far more than a heartfelt email for them to continue giving to your nonprofit. When a major donor makes a contribution, be prepared to go all out. This might involve sending a letter, calling them on the phone, and arranging a time to meet to thank them in person.

• Volunteers. Volunteers are not donors—though some of them can easily become donors with the right strategy—but they still deserve a thank you all the same. Fundraising Letter’s guide to volunteer appreciation points out that many donor retention strategies also apply to volunteer retention. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for your volunteer appreciation strategy, so reuse your system for expressing gratitude to donors for your volunteers and make a few tweaks where necessary.

While sorting donors into tiers will help you approach supporters as groups, be conscious of individual preferences. For example, take donor communication preferences into account so you avoid texting thank-you messages to donors who only want to hear from you via email.

Donor Appreciation Methods

How will you express gratitude to the donors in each of the groups you just created? Donor appreciation methods vary widely, and here are five to consider in order of how strongly they are likely to come across:

1. Automatic thank-you messages. Automatic thank-you emails require no input from your team after their initial setup. They are the fastest way to let donors know their gift was received and how much you appreciate it.
2. eCards. Elevate your email thank you’s with eCards. eCards are essentially greeting cards sent through email, text, or social media, complete with fun visuals and a message from your nonprofit. The only major differences are they’re digital and much faster than snail mail. eCardWidget’s guide on how to thank donors shows off excellent examples of eCards:
3. Phone calls. Have a quick one-on-one conversation by giving your donors a call. Prepare a script and be ready to answer common questions donors may have.

1. Donor events. Invite your donors to get together to celebrate a successful campaign, year of fundraising, or anything else. These events can be virtual, small lunch get-togethers, or entire formal galas.
2. Donor walls. Immortalize your donors’ contributions by constructing a donor wall that lists the names of your top funders. These monuments are traditionally physical structures, but interactive, digital donor walls have been gaining popularity.

While some of these methods may seem like a lot of work, think of expressing gratitude as just another step in your donor retention process. After all, following up is how you essentially close the loop on a donor journey and encourage them to work their way toward making a second gift.

Retaining donors is about building relationships with supporters so they continue to support you year-over-year. Make your marketing stand out by expressing genuine appreciation and avoid getting stuck in decision paralysis by implementing a system of gratitude.

The post Retaining Donors: Create a System for Expressing Gratitude appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

“Coffee, Calendars, and Sticky Notes: These are a few of my favorite things!”

by Amy Lazoff, Director of Philanthropy & Community Relations, Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

There is one thing I love about this time of year that not everyone quite understands – and that is the sheer joy I experience when picking out a planner for next year. Yes, even though my daily schedule is electronic, I still LOVE a good paper planner!

When I open the cover of my new planner each year and see the empty pages, my brain fills with ideas of all I’d like to accomplish. I love the idea of planning the work and working the plan. As the leader of a small but mighty team of fundraising professionals, who end up wearing a lot of hats throughout the year, my paper planner is also used as a leadership tool.

Everybody gets to pick out a new planner

One of the tasks I give to my entire team is to pick out a planner that works for them. Some like monthly only, some want monthly/weekly or daily, and I just want them to use whatever will be the most beneficial to how they work. Then we pick a day near the end of the year to fill them out. We call it our “Calendar Planning Day” and the first year I took my team through the exercise it was a little overwhelming. Now, they look forward to it and come prepared with all their notes! This day is filled with a lot of coffee, our calendars, and sticky notes of every color.

Mapping out the year

Once we’re done, we’ve mapped out our entire year. It helps my entire team know what is happening with who and when. It helps spot any conflicts early on and make sure nothing big is missing. This is invaluable information to have when sometimes your job, as a leader, is to move on to plan b or pivot when unexpected events threaten to derail your plans. It is also a valuable tool to have as a co-worker, to know when someone has a big deadline coming up so you can lend a helping hand. It also prevents us from attempting to do too many big or new things all at the same time. After all, there are only so many hours in a day!

For my team it is also a way to take our annual fundraising and stewardship plans and lay them out in a different way, focusing on the tasks that must be done to achieve our goals. We also layer in board meetings, conferences, planned vacations, major grant deadlines, planned donor engagement activities, direct mail, special events, etc. as well as all the bigger tasks associated with keeping those things on track. Those tasks range from donor reports, to appeal drafts, to print deadlines, linen and food orders, volunteer training nights, when letters need updated, and more. It isn’t every task we do – far from it, but it lays out the structure for our year. Our planners help us easily talk about our upcoming projects, needs, and recap of the hits and misses as a team each week, and it also helps me prepare for one-on-one meetings with each of my team members.

This tactic may not work for every team, but if you’re looking for a better way to plan your work, and work your plan (or coordinate the chaos), give it a try – what do you have to lose?

Amy Lazoff is Director of Philanthropy & Community Relations at Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo and a certified Quadrant 3 Leadership Coach. She leads a Nonprofit Academy training on planning called “Plan the Work; Work the Plan.”

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However, your nonprofit’s website will only be as effective as its reach. And you could be unintentionally isolating part of your target audience with one big mistake: Not making your website accessible to everyone.

Web accessibility is essential for ensuring people of all abilities can visit your website and interact with your content and resources. But from a broader perspective, accessibility helps your nonprofit promote equal access to information, avoid discrimination, and even comply with legal requirements.

In short, the most effective nonprofit websites prioritize accessibility not just because it helps get more results for their causes but also because it’s the right thing to do.

In this quick guide, we’ll walk you through what you need to know about web accessibility and how you can design or optimize your own website with accessibility best practices in mind. Let’s begin.

What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility refers to the degree to which a website is usable and available to as many people as possible. Of course, this accounts for people with permanent disabilities, but also people experiencing temporary impairments. Here are some examples of both permanent disabilities and temporary impairments:

• Visual impairments, whether from blindness, color blindness, or even losing a pair of glasses

• Motor impairments, which could be due to a stroke, cerebral palsy, or exhaustion

• Hearing impairments, like deafness, hyperacusis, or being in a quiet room and wanting to watch a short video

• Cognitive impairments, which could be ASD, developmental disabilities, or distractions in the room

You won’t be able to predict the needs of every single person who visits your nonprofit’s website, so it’s important to anticipate all possible accessibility needs by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

The WCAG provides an extensive breakdown of everything that goes into web accessibility. But these are the overarching guidelines to keep in mind:

• Perceivable: Your content should be easy for users to see and hear, and should also be understandable when presented in different ways, like through assistive technologies.

• Operable: Your website should be easy to navigate and use, and all functionality should be available to people using just keyboards to navigate through.

• Understandable: Text should be easy to read, instructions should be clear, and mistakes (such as misspelling a word on a donation form) should be avoidable and correctable.

• Robust: Your website should be compatible with current and future user tools, meaning you should practice accessibility best practices now and continue to do so as you maintain your site down the line.

All of these guidelines translate into practical design best practices that can help your website be as accessible to everyone as possible (more on these below!).

In addition to remaining mindful of the WCAG, your nonprofit should understand that having an accessible website is becoming increasingly important as courts have begun to recognize websites as public accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This means that in addition to opening up your site to more people, web accessibility can also help protect your organization from legal liability.

As you adopt web accessibility best practices into your website design and maintenance efforts, communicate the importance of accessibility to your employees so that everyone is on the same page and can do their part to ensure everyone can benefit from your nonprofit’s online hub.

10 Tips for Making Your Website More Accessible

As you come to understand why web accessibility matters, you’ll want to take the necessary steps to ensure that your website is up to par so that everyone who uses it can learn your nonprofit’s story and be inspired to take action.

Here are ten tips to get you started:

1. Ensure your website has a responsive design. This means your website should be easy to use and read on different-sized screens. Ensure that your load speed is low and that text and images resize properly on different devices.
2. Add alternative text (alt text) to all images. Alt text is a short sentence added to an image’s HTML code. It allows individuals with visual impairments to understand images on a web page. Keep your alt text descriptive and short (125 characters or less is best practice), and make sure not to include additional details that a visual audience would not see, such as the photographer credit (that belongs in the caption).
3. Maintain logical organization of your content. According to Cornershop Creative’s roundup of nonprofit web design best practices, this means you should use headings to illustrate the hierarchy of information on each page. For instance, this means having one H1 at the top of a page, followed by subsections labeled with H2s and smaller subsections labeled with H3s. You should also organize your web pages logically on your navigation menu.
4. Ensure your website is navigable by keyboard. Not everyone will be able to use a mouse when using your website. Ensure keyboard accessibility by testing it yourself!
5. When adding links, ensure your anchor text is descriptive. Anchor text is the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink. Make your anchor text clear so that when people click on your links, they have a good idea of where the link will be taking them. For example, instead of using generic anchor text like, “Click Here,” go for something like, “Send One Of Our eCards.”
6. Add transcripts and captions to multimedia elements. Maybe your nonprofit likes to share videos or podcast episodes on its website. But how accessible are those multimedia elements? Ensure that all videos have accompanying captioning and a transcript, and provide a transcript for any podcast episodes.
7. Make sure your text and visuals have a strong contrast ratio. Remember that all of your content should be perceivable and understandable. The colors you use on your website should contrast enough that they’re easy to understand. This means foregoing a neon yellow background and bright pink text for something like a light blue background and black text. The font size and style used will also affect contrast. Aim for sans serif fonts and a font size of at least 16px.
8. Optimize your forms for accessibility. If you want to boost online donations, event registrations, or volunteer program sign-ups, you’ll need accessible forms. Ensure that your forms are short and simple to use and the instruction text on your forms stays visible even after a user starts typing.
9. Offer an accessibility widget or tool on your website. Some website builders will allow you to include an accessibility or widget tool on your website that lets visitors take their user experience into their own hands. These tools empower people to adjust text size, change the color scheme to grayscale, and more.
10. Seek feedback from your audience. Once you’ve implemented accessibility best practices on your website, seek feedback on your efforts. Start by asking your staff members to test out the site, and then consider surveying supporters you have a strong relationship with to get their thoughts. Keep making improvements based on their insights.

To take your website’s accessibility to the next level, consider working with a nonprofit web design company. According to Cornershop Creative, the right company can help you design the structure and informational architecture of your website and help you maintain it over time—all while keeping your accessibility goals in mind. This can save your team a lot of time and headspace and ensure that your website offers a first-rate user experience to everyone who comes across it.

Having a fully accessible nonprofit website isn’t something that will happen overnight, just like how your organization can’t cram for fundraising results.

However, as you do your best to understand the WCAG guidelines and take the necessary steps to make your website more accessible over time (working with web design professionals if necessary), you’ll see that you’re making a difference in opening up your website to a larger swath of your community. Consequently, you’ll see more results for your mission and gain a reputation as an organization that cares about the people who support it. You can do this!

About the Author

Sarah Fargusson

Self-described as a “non-profit junkie,” Sarah has dedicated her career to serving the needs of the non-profit sector. Her project management experience spans a variety of non-profit management disciplines including strategic planning, community engagement, capacity building, fundraising and research. She has worked both in and for the non-profit sector at the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, and the consulting firms The Lee Institute and The Curtis Group. With her ever expanding non-profit tool belt, Sarah joined Cornershop Creative to tap into her techie, creative side, while developing meaningful partnerships with her clients to help them more effectively achieve their goals.

The post Web Accessibility: A Nonprofit Website Design Must-Have appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Professional grant management allows your nonprofit to unlock the power of the Google Ad Grant while saving your team’s time for other marketing endeavors. But outsourcing does more than save time—there are numerous reasons your nonprofit should invest in professional Google Ad Grants management, including:

1. Timely Setup
2. Campaign Maintenance
3. Expert Compliance
4. Clear Reporting

Delegation is critical to any leadership role, but especially for nonprofits that are tasked with making a big impact using limited resources. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how you can make the most of Google’s Ad Grant from the very beginning of the process.

1. Timely Setup

Google Ad Grant agencies do much more than manage the grant. These experts can help your nonprofit from the very beginning of the process, starting with acquiring the grant.

According to Getting Attention’s Google Grant application guide, the application process is meant to prove you’re a trustworthy nonprofit with valuable content to promote to internet users. This thorough vetting results in a lengthy application process, which is why it can be helpful for an agency to handle:

• Checking eligibility
• Registering with TechSoup
• Creating a Google for Nonprofits account
• Preparing your website
• Completing the eligibility form

The application’s pre-qualifying steps can take weeks to complete, especially if you aren’t familiar with the requirements. Delegating the application to a professional can speed up the process and increase the likelihood you’ll be approved on your first try since an agency will have the experience to ensure nothing is left out.

2. Campaign Maintenance

Once you’re approved for the grant, the real work begins. You’ll need to maintain your website, create ads, and research what content prospective donors want to see. That’s where the expertise of a Google Ad Grant agency is vital.

Grant experts have the insight needed to create, maintain, and adjust campaigns as needed. You’ll likely have 3-5 campaigns going at once, and a professional’s insight can help you:

• Track campaigns: As a nonprofit leader, you have several other marketing channels to keep an eye on. Meanwhile, the professionals at a Google Ad Grant agency specialize in watching over your ad campaigns. This consistent tracking can ensure you’re doing everything possible to promote your cause on Google.

• Evaluate performance: A grant expert will keep an eye on your campaigns’ performance. This is especially beneficial for nonprofits with little understanding of search engine marketing or Google Ads since they likely won’t know what metrics to track or how to improve them.

• Adjust online content: For example, do you want users to read your nonprofit’s mission statement or purchase a donation eCard from your website? A grant manager can help you choose the right landing pages and optimize them to drive conversions.

Whether you need to share your nonprofit’s story or promote giving opportunities, you likely know the core messages you need to communicate to drive conversions for your cause. However, Google’s Ad Grant program introduces even more complexity when considering how potential donors use the internet and their behavior on your website. That’s why an expert’s supervision of your campaign performance is especially beneficial.

3. Expert Compliance

Effective campaign creation doesn’t just mean targeting keywords or landing pages. You’ll also need to monitor your compliance with Google’s rules to remain eligible for the program and make the most of the grant money. Some of these rules include:

• Account activity: You must log into your account at least once a month and update it every 90 days. This signals to Google that you’re still using the funding and need your ad credits renewed each month.

• Keyword relevance: You must target keywords that prospective donors are searching for your Google Ads to be shown. Google requires nonprofits to optimize their keywords for the best results, which also helps you create relevant content that ensures users don’t ignore your marketing efforts.

• A 5% click-through rate (CTR): Not only must you actively target optimized keywords, but Google requires that nonprofits maintain a 5% CTR starting after the first 90 days post-approval. This means you can’t just try for relevant keywords, but you also must successfully convince people to click on your ads and explore your website.

These guidelines benefit both nonprofits and their target audiences. Overall, they help nonprofits achieve meaningful marketing objectives and ensure that users can find useful information. A grant expert’s familiarity with these rules allows them to create effective nonprofit ads that will ultimately increase your chances of converting prospects into donors.

4. Clear Reporting

When it comes to narrowing down the right agency to help with your Google Ad Grants management, Double the Donation’s agency guide recommends looking for partners that offer services for the specific areas you need help with. So, let’s say you want complete transparency about your campaigns’ performance. In that case, find an agency that provides comprehensive reports to your team.

These reports may include:

• Data to help you understand each ad campaign’s performance.
• Insights to explain what the data means.
• Improvements based on the conclusions drawn from your data.

Whether you know the basics of Google Ad Grants or nothing about the program, you’ll likely have too much on your plate to also be in charge of analyzing and reporting on the performance of your ads. Entrusting this task with a professional can save you time and help you draw more meaningful conclusions from your reports.

Remember, there’s a huge learning curve to overcome when you start marketing on Google for the first time. A Google Ad Grants agency can guide you through this process and ensure everything goes smoothly. And, if something happens to compromise your eligibility for the program, these experts can also help you reactivate your account and quickly get back to creating ads that drive traffic to your website.

About the Author

Jessica King

Jessica helps nonprofits acquire and manage the Google Ad Grant to expand their impact. Prior to her work at Getting Attention, Jessica worked in nonprofit and higher education organizations focusing on communication and digital marketing, and most recently in search engine optimization in the mission-driven sector. Jessica holds a master’s degree in communication from Virginia Tech. In her free time, you can find her reading, building furniture, and hanging out with her cats, Benny and Olive.

The post Google Ad Grants Management: 4 Benefits for Nonprofits appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

However, donors can be more receptive than you might think! You can tap into this impactful fundraising avenue by explaining the mutual benefits of legacy giving and making it easy for donors to give. To help your organization earn more legacy gifts, we’ll cover the following:

• What is Legacy Giving?
• Benefits for Nonprofits
• Benefits for Donors
• How to Tap Into Legacy Giving

Understanding these benefits is the first step to cultivating substantial legacy gifts for your nonprofit. Let’s explore how you can pave the way for earning more sustainable funding with legacy giving.

What is Legacy Giving?

Legacy giving, also known as planned giving, is a type of donation that’s meant to support a nonprofit, university, or other organization beyond the donor’s lifetime.

This is completed either by setting aside a donation to be given after the donor passes away or by giving a gift during their lifetime that continues to grow following the donor’s passing. Legacy giving can take a variety of forms, including:

• Bequests: NXUnite defines bequests as “a legacy gift where the donor includes a nonprofit in their will, leaving a portion of their estate to it.” Depending on the donor’s wishes, your nonprofit may receive funds, stocks, or a percentage of the estate itself.
• Life insurance: Donors can list your organization as a beneficiary on their life insurance policy. They can also donate any unused retirement assets to your nonprofit.
• Endowments: If a donor wants to give both during and after their lifetime, they can gift a named endowment fund to your organization. Donors can add to the fund, watch it grow throughout their lifetimes, and rest assured that it will continue to grow and leave a charitable legacy after they pass away.

While not commonly considered legacy gifts, donor-advised funds (DAFs) also provide donors with the potential to create a lasting legacy of giving throughout their lifetimes. These funds are similar to endowments, except they’re managed by the donor and their DAF provider instead of gifted to a specific nonprofit. This way, DAF-holding donors can give to multiple nonprofits throughout their lives instead of just one.

Benefits for Nonprofits

First and foremost, legacy gifts provide more financial resources for your nonprofit to use to further your mission. Not only are legacy donations typically larger, but they also help you plan for the future of your nonprofit’s fundraising. Bequests act as future revenue you can project, and endowments provide sustainable, predictable funding that grows over time.

Plus, soliciting legacy gifts allows your organization to engage donors and deepen important relationships. The work you put into cultivating relationships with prospective legacy donors will benefit your organization now and in the future.

Benefits for Donors

The biggest benefit of giving a legacy gift is the ability for donors to make a substantial, lasting impact on your nonprofit’s cause. Infinite Giving’s nonprofit endowment guide explains that legacy gifts enable donors to extend their personal impact beyond their lifetimes and financially support your organization for generations. Every donor wants to make a personal difference, and legacy giving is one of the best ways to do so.

Additionally, legacy gifts offer donors:

• An easier way to give a major gift. Some supporters may want to make a major donation but don’t have the means to do so due to other financial responsibilities. Since most planned gifts don’t affect the donor’s current finances, this presents an easier way to give a large donation without hurting their budget.
• Tax benefits. Just like any other donation, legacy gifts offer tax benefits like charitable tax deductions. For instance, any time a donor adds funds to their endowment or donor-advised fund, they receive immediate tax deductions.
• Family legacies. Even though the donor may not see their gift’s impact themselves, their family members will. Planned gifts and named endowments help the donor’s children and grandchildren remember them fondly and celebrate their life.

With legacy giving options like endowments and bequests, donors also have the ability to restrict their donation—meaning they can decide how they want the gift to be used. While this isn’t a requirement (and it’s often better for your organization if the gift is unrestricted), having the freedom to choose how their funds are used can be an incentive for donors. Donors can also leave their gifts unrestricted but still note preferences for your nonprofit to honor.

How to Tap Into Legacy Giving

Now that you understand the benefits for both you and your donors, you’re ready to start promoting legacy giving and tapping into the opportunity.

To earn any legacy donations, you first need to develop a marketing strategy that makes donors aware of the option. Create a page on your website that explains what legacy giving is, the associated benefits, and how they can learn more about donating. Then, reach out to individual supporters who may be interested and communicate the advantages to them.

Along with promoting the option, you can better tap into legacy gifts by investing in software that makes donating easier. For example, you might invest in nonprofit endowment software so you can easily:

• Create a branded donation page or widget that lets donors give endowments and other non-cash gifts like stocks, DAF grants, and cryptocurrency.
• Simplify the giving process for donors by letting them give a legacy gift right from your donation page. They input their financial information, then the software notifies you of the donor’s intent and starts the endowment creation process for you.
• Track everything in a comprehensive dashboard where you can monitor the growth of endowment gifts and let donors see their impact.

Finally, consider doing prospect research to determine which of your existing supporters may be the most interested in giving a legacy gift. Look for markers in your database that indicate individual donors have demonstrated a passion for your cause and a commitment to give over time. This research will help you focus your outreach efforts and increase your chances of success.

Legacy giving may seem like a difficult avenue to pursue, but these impactful benefits make it worthwhile. When you explain the major difference a legacy gift can make for both your nonprofit and the donor, you may be surprised by how many supporters are interested.

About the Author

Karen Houghton

Karen Houghton is the CEO of Infinite Giving, a relationship and technology driven Nonprofit Investment Advisor. Karen leverages her deep nonprofit expertise to bring a modern and curated investment experience to nonprofit organizations all over the US. She advocates for organizational sustainability through better financial management, strategic access to curated investment practices for reduced management fees, and increased asset giving. 

The post Impactful Legacy Giving Benefits for You and Your Donors appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

As we prepared to meet, I asked her what the biggest challenge was – if it were the six-figure fundraising goal, or something else.

Her response was remarkably candid. She said that the fundraising goal is the big point for us to be working together. But in utter clarity, she said she really hasn’t been doing the fundraising part of her responsibilities.

Getting Clear on Your Focus

It’s rare for any of us to have such clarity.

Many of us have multiple responsibilities. This leader certainly did. Many of those other responsibilities were more urgent, so fundraising was easy to put off.

It’s not just those in nonprofit leadership positions. Even those supposedly tasked solely with fundraising have competing responsibilities. Often fifty-percent of their time is consumed with “being a team player” activities like staff meetings and community events.

Where is Your Focus?

It’s easy to feel busy with all these competing demands. And to fall into the trap of wondering why the donations aren’t coming.

Sometimes the struggle isn’t really with getting donations. The struggle is our own self-discipline to actually do the asking.

This week, make sure to block out time to actually do the asking. And honor yourself by keeping that commitment.

Don’t worry if, at first, the work seems like drudgery compared to your other activities. That’s natural. It will get a bit easier as you see donations coming in.

Remember, fundraisers raise funds. So asking is what you’re supposed to be doing.

A version of this was first sent to our Fundraising Kick coaching email subscribers. You can subscribe for yourself at: https://fundraisingcoach.com/fundraisingkick/

The post Are people not giving? Or are you not asking? appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

After all, you’re planning a campaign to jolt your organization beyond its current capacity, a campaign that will raise 5 times (or more) the amount you raise through your annual fundraising. And keep in mind that these campaigns don’t occur frequently. 41% of surveyed nonprofits conducting campaigns haven’t done so in six or more years. For 24% of them, it’s been over a decade since their last campaign (2023 State of Capital Campaigns Benchmark Report).

So you might not be fully equipped in your current state to tackle a large, special campaign. A bigger fund development team is often necessary to help you make that stretch to your next level of impact and avoid making mistakes along the way.

If you’re considering or planning a capital campaign—what should you know about campaign staffing? Let’s take a look.

Hiring for a Capital Campaign: 6 Steps

Although only 7% of nonprofits report staffing as a key campaign challenge, selecting the right person will be important. The success of your campaign is important and you’ve got to get the right team in place.

To find the best candidates for the job and set your organization up for long-term success, you should take an organized approach. Follow these steps:

1. Determine your needs. Take stock of your development team’s current state. Ask staff to track their activities and to-do lists over the course of a week. Use these insights to determine what realistically can/can’t get done and what an ideal workload looks like for each member of your team. Knowing that your development work will drastically intensify when the campaign is in full swing, estimate how much more you need to grow your team to meet those needs. This may be a good opportunity to reconsider current responsibilities and shift staff roles to make them more efficient and effective. Then, look carefully at what positions you might add. Some organizations add a campaign director or manager. Others find that they are well-staffed at the management level but that additional support staff will add greater efficiency.
2. Determine your priorities. Take a close look at your insights from Step 1. What are the most important things that are or aren’t getting done? Can tasks be reshuffled to boost overall productivity? For example, would it make more sense to hire additional gift officers or a single fundraising coordinator who can take over those logistical tasks and free the rest of the team’s time for more fundraising? Every nonprofit’s staffing plan will vary, but campaigns give you the chance to improve the way you and your staff work.
3. Secure buy-in early. If you are planning to increase your staff for the campaign, you will have to get approvals from your board and executive staff. If you are working with a campaign consultant, they can help put the staff increases in the context of other campaigns. The conversations about staffing should happen during the early phases of planning your campaign in order to build the expectation that the current development staff will not be able to carry out the campaign without increasing its capacity.
4. Budget appropriately. As you secure buy-in for hiring, consider the campaign budget and how it fits into your larger campaign plan. Explain to leaders and the board that it is a common practice to fold hiring expenses into your overall campaign goal. The organization’s increased capacity following the budget’s projected timeframe (often 3-4 years) may be able to cover some or all of the new staff members in an expanded operating budget after the campaign is over.
5. Create job descriptions. Develop descriptions for both new and adjusted roles. Clarify the expected duration of the role and any specific KPIs that team member performance will be measured with. Make sure everyone understands his or her responsibilities, particularly as they relate to the capital campaign. This step will help create a smooth and cooperative work flow, even during the busiest days of your campaign. Determine compensation and benefits details for any new positions, as well.
6. Start promoting and interviewing. Finally, start promoting your open positions on the channels you’d typically use to recruit new team members.

Understanding this process ahead of time will allow you to develop a more thorough and realistic campaign plan and timeline. With a well-organized team of the right size, you’ll be equipped once the quiet phase of your campaign begins in earnest.

Whether you ultimately retain your entire campaign staff or not, your organization will be in a much stronger position to continue fundraising effectively in the future.

As you head into a campaign, remember that preparedness and organization are key. You need to foster a team that’s well-equipped to handle and learn from the campaign experience without being stretched too thin.

About the Author

Andrea Kihlstedt

Andrea is the author of Capital Campaigns: Strategies that Work, now in its 4th edition, as well as How to Raise $1 Million (or More) in 10 Bite Sized Steps, in addition to other books. Andrea has been leading successful capital campaigns for more than 30 years. To learn how Capital Campaign Pro can support you through a capital campaign, visit capitalcampaignpro.com.

The post Staffing for a Capital Campaign: How to Prepare appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

However, did you know that you can gain valuable insights about your nonprofit from your Form 990 that can help you obtain donors? You just need to know where to look!

It can be challenging to decipher the numbers on your Form 990, much less glean actionable insights from them. But, by looking out for certain trends and data, you can make your Form 990 valuable to you in more ways than one. Let’s dive into some key takeaways!

What information is reported on Form 990?

The answer depends on a number of factors specific to your nonprofit. For instance, if you’re a smaller nonprofit, you can fill out a shorter form, whereas if you have more gross receipts, you need to provide more information. According to File 990, The types of Form 990 you should know are as follows:

• Form 990-N, which is meant for nonprofits with gross receipts less than $50,000
• Form 990-EZ, which is meant for nonprofits with gross receipts between $50,000 and $200,000
• Form 990, which is meant for nonprofits with gross receipts more than $200,000
• Form 990-PF, which is filed by private foundations regardless of financial status

As the nonprofit filer grows in size and gross receipts, the more financial records they have to provide to the IRS, so the information required at each tier varies. That said, the IRS requires information about your nonprofit’s:

• Name, address, and Employer Identification Number
• Mission statement
• Governing documents, such as the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation
• Financial information, such as your total expenses, assets, and budgetary breakdown
• Compensation of key officers
• Program accomplishments and setbacks
• Grants and other major contribution information
• Fundraising activities
• External contractor information, such as accountants or consultants

With these key details in mind, let’s explore the areas your nonprofit can improve with information found on Form 990.

1. Financial Health

Perhaps the most straightforward area your nonprofit can gauge using Form 990 is your financial stability. After all, Form 990 is at its core a document that verifies your organization’s tax exempt status. Here are the main places you can look for information on your nonprofit’s financial health:

• Revenue streams. Simply having enough fundraising revenue isn’t enough to gauge if your nonprofit’s financially healthy. You should also take a look at your revenue streams to see if you’re overly reliant on one or the other. For instance, if 75% of your fundraising revenue comes from one-time donors, you should probably look into expanding other revenue streams such as corporate partnerships to build a more reliable support base.
• Cash and noncash assets. Having liquid assets is important for managing your nonprofit’s cash flow, correcting for unforeseen circumstances, capitalizing on unexpected opportunities, and demonstrating financial responsibility to donors. Analyze your assets and discuss whether you have enough or if you need to liquidate more funds.
• Expense efficiency. As important as fundraising is for your nonprofit, keep in mind that mitigating wasted expenses is crucial. Compare your reported expenses with those of previous years and determine if there’s room for future improvement given your current programming.

Financial health, while one of the most important indicators you can gauge using Form 990, is far from the only one. Let’s explore some others.

2. Program Effectiveness

Another area your nonprofit should focus on is the efficiency of your initiatives. Check out the following metrics to ascertain how effective your programs are in supporting your mission:

• Program descriptions. Your team knows your programs better than anyone else. Review the descriptions you provided for your programs and evaluate if they’re still accurate, comprehensive, and mission-oriented. If not, you should get your team on the same page while you modify your definitions.
• Measurable outcomes. Let’s say your nonprofit focuses on providing free tutoring for neurodivergent teenagers. Have your programs led to higher test scores? How about an influx in beneficiaries? What are your online reviews like? Information like this should be present in your “program accomplishments” section.
• Fund allocation. Using both of the metrics above and relevant financial data, evaluate whether enough funding has been allotted for your initiatives. For example, if your nonprofit’s math tutoring programs have especially strong outcomes but are underfunded compared to the other subjects, you might allocate more funds to it to expand its potential.

Keeping your initiatives in line with your mission is the best way for your nonprofit to play to your your strengths and reduce your weaknesses. These data fields help you identify if your programs are mission-oriented, effective, and worth your time and money to execute.

3. Transparency and Accountability

Form 990 is an effective instrument for establishing for trust and transparency with supporters, leading to donor retention. However, it’s up to you to make sure the following aspects of your form have enough data to keep supporters informed:

• Independent auditor’s report. Working with an external auditor indicates that your nonprofit cares about working with an external, unbiased party to present financial records. This speaks to your organization’s credibility and shows your commitment to using funds for the right purposes.
• Collaborations. Transparency in partnerships and marketing is crucial for maintaining your donors’ trust in your nonprofit. Clearly outline any formal partnerships you have with companies, government organizations, and other nonprofits so your supporters can understand your alliances.
• Compensation disclosures. Remember, your nonprofit must be organized purely to aid your beneficiaries and pursue your mission, meaning no internal party can benefit from nonprofit funds. Ensure you have detailed records about your officers’ compensation, including if they’ve received raises and how long they’ve been working at your nonprofit so your supporters know their salaries are fair.

By filling any of these gaps with useful facts in your Form 990, you can rest assured that your nonprofit is giving supporters the information they need to support your organization.

Whether you’re filing the full Form 990 or just the 990-N postcard, you can decide the strongest way forward for your nonprofit. As long as you maintain proper data hygiene practices and file your information accurately, Form 990 is a treasure trove of information that, used correctly, can secure your nonprofit’s place in your community.

About the Author

Melissa Geitgey

Melissa Geitgey, APR, is the director of marketing for Togetherwork’s higher education product group. Togetherwork is a Saas company that provides integrated software and financial solutions that help organizations and membership groups manage, grow, and engage with their communities.

Melissa has extensive experience leading marketing and communications departments to advance strategic initiatives, managing events and corporate brands for Saas, higher education, athletics, professional services, and nonprofit organizations. She graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.A. in Communications and received her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) by the Universal Accreditation Board in 2011.

She’s a past president of the Public Relations Society of America Hoosier Chapter and former chapter Ethics Chair. When she’s not geeking out about marketing communications strategy and the creative process, Melissa loves spending time with her family, listening to live music, visiting art museums, restoring vintage handbags and subversive cross stitch.

The post Evaluating Nonprofit Impact: Analytics to Take from Form 990 appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Issues like these can make it feel like the sky is falling, but investing in the right software solution can help you overcome them. For instance, you might already use a marketing tool to schedule posts and emails in advance or have a CRM to track donor relationships to free up your team’s bandwidth. Specialized fundraising tools play a similar role in your campaigns, streamlining the process and helping you raise more for your cause.

Additionally, these tools have benefits (like increased efficiency) to offer any social good organization, whether you’re raising funds for children to access books or to conserve land of historical and ecological significance in your community. To get started, we’ll focus on one of the most common—and frustrating—fundraising challenges: a lack of reach and disengaged donors.

Hurdle 1: Limited Reach and Engagement

While it’s important to have a core group of passionate supporters who are dialed into each of your fundraisers, it’s essential to consistently reach and recruit new supporters to grow your organization.

However, it can be difficult to find ways to expand beyond this core group or to reach those outside your local area. Digital fundraisers supported by fundraising software offer a low-lift, cost-effective way to cultivate new supporter bases, extend your reach, and engage your existing supporters more deeply.

Here are a few simple digital fundraising methods you can pair with your theme or idea of choice:

• Peer-to-peer. Bloomerang’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide describes this method as “a fundraising strategy where individuals organize personal campaigns to raise money on behalf of a nonprofit organization.” The pledge fundraising model, in which supporters contribute pledged donations that are delivered after the fundraiser, can easily fit into this strategy. For example, you might organize a fun run, have participants collect $5 pledges from their peers per mile they run, and collect donations via online channels.
• Virtual challenges. These challenges take place primarily on social media, and they urge supporters to take part in a challenge (which can be funny, difficult, etc.). Think back to the Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014 which raised $115 million for the ALS Association. Design a challenge your audience is likely to be interested in, does not have a high barrier to entry, and aligns with your organization’s identity and mission.
• Text-to-give. Text-based fundraisers are extremely sharable and make it as simple as possible for your supporters to donate. Typically, you’ll need to use a special software solution to facilitate the process of creating the phone number and codes that supporters will use to donate. Then, all you need to do is write a compelling request, promote the challenge online, and urge supporters to share the campaign with their friends and family.

Each of these methods empowers participants to make the fundraiser a huge success. For example, if your marching band is holding a peer-to-peer fundraiser, students and their families will feel motivated to post about their individual donation pages in order to generate enough revenue to reach the fundraising goal.

This feeling of shared responsibility to your cause will inspire participants to engage more deeply with your organization and work to share about the cause with their networks.

Hurdle 2: Overworked Staff and Volunteers

Most effective campaigns rely on help from your organization’s support system, whether that be staff members, volunteers, members of your PTA, or other supporters. But without the right tech to take recurring administrative tasks off your plate, you could quickly end up with too much work to go around.

Fundraising software can lift the burden of repetitive administrative tasks off your organization’s shoulders. This way, staff and supporters can allocate their time toward more productive tasks, like preparing decorations for your upcoming fundraiser event or scheduling meetings with major donors.

Here are some of the tasks fundraising software can do for you:

• Set up team, individual, or organization-wide donation pages
• Track and log each donation made
• Send automated donation receipts and thank-you messages
• Allow you to send mass messages to participants and donors in just a few clicks
• Collect and consolidate data, making the process paperless
• Process payments for you, quickly delivering the total funds raised to your account

Because your staff will have more time to dedicate toward other tasks, consider making an effort to recruit more volunteers to help out with offline responsibilities, like event setup and tear down. After all, not all of your communications must be about financial support—instead, ask supporters if they’d like to help out by donating their time.

Hurdle 3: Difficulty Tracking Donations

Closely tracking donations is critical to ensure that your organization can accurately report the revenue it made on tax forms, maintain transparency with donors, measure profitability for campaigns, and continue to fund its work. Ensuring that you are meeting fundraising goals and minimizing costs is more important than ever as the U.S. begins to see a dip in donations.

However, if you’re tracking donations without software, the process can get messy. This is particularly challenging when it comes to pledged donations because they are completed after the fundraiser wraps up.

Rather than struggle to keep up with the influx of donations, make sure to invest in software that automatically tracks gifts and processes payments as we discussed in the previous section. If you choose a method like a pledge drive fundraiser, it can be helpful to find a solution with features like automatic payment reminders to prompt donors to honor their pledged gifts. And to make giving as convenient as possible, 99Pledges recommends choosing a software solution that accepts and tracks popular payment methods such as major credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

While these are some of the most common fundraising challenges, your organization might face other obstacles that software can assist with. For example, fundraising software can support donor retention efforts by sending automated thank-you emails when a donation is made. When powerful tech is paired with expert nonprofit management techniques, your organization will be able to reach and retain new audiences, automate tasks, and accurately track data.

About the Author

Brad Dowhaniuk

Brad Dowhaniuk is the co-founder of 99Pledges, which provides schools and teams with an easy-to-use, web-based fundraising solution to manage and drive success in Fun Runs, jog-a-thons, baseball hit-a-thons, and much more.

The post Fundraiser Troubleshooting: 3 Hurdles + How Software Helps appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Between volunteer recruitment, community partnership appeals, spreading awareness, and donation and follow-up requests, your nonprofit practically revolves around effective communications. The trouble is, almost every nonprofit is highly communicative.

In a time of heightened cell phone and social media usage, it’s no wonder brains are filtering out marketing messages, including those from your nonprofit—there’s a mess of them!

So how do you make your marketing efforts stand out? In this guide, we’ll explore four ways your nonprofit can make its messages unforgettable:

1. Choose the right marketing channels
2. Market to a target audience
3. Promote your nonprofit’s story
4. Advertise relevant and valuable information

When you adjust your marketing efforts to capture more than eight seconds of a supporter’s attention, your nonprofit will stand out and garner more support for your cause. Learn how to do just that by employing the following strategies.

1. Choose the right marketing channels

To reach your audience, you need to start by figuring out where they can be reached. Getting Attention’s guide to digital marketing recommends using a multichannel approach to maximize your reach. Try leveraging the following channels:

• Social media: Since your supporters are likely already on social media for a few hours each day, these sites are a great place to get your nonprofit on users’ minds. Your content may get a simple “like” or quick comment, but you’re gaining the visibility needed to pave the way for more engaging communications.

• Email: Newsletters or other longer communications allow nonprofits to build out their messages; send emails to provide supporters with more detailed updates about the nonprofit’s work, upcoming events, and ways supporters can get involved.

• Direct mail: Which would be more attention-grabbing: an announcement from your doctor’s office warning that their list of accepted insurance policies is changing or a direct letter listing your outstanding payments? People listen more closely to messages that are personalized to them, and few communications are more personal than a physical letter. Use direct mail to thank supporters for their involvement, recruit more help, or simply update them on your important work.

Think about nonprofit marketing efforts like exercise. If you want to build muscle, you first need to identify where you want to bulk up or which muscle group you want to focus on. You’ll also need to consistently exercise to see real results.

In the same way, one marketing message won’t cut it for your nonprofit. To yield real results, you’ll need to regularly send communications and consistently keep your supporters in the loop. Remember, you’re not looking for readers, but subscribers.

2. Market to a target audience

Reaching out on the right channels is important, but within those channels, you must also reach out to the right people. Narrow down your audience to identify the supporters who will be the most receptive and valuable to your cause.

Donor research can help you learn more about your target audience, allowing you to connect with them more deeply through your marketing efforts. Try to learn more about your donors than just their names and contact information by researching their:

• Careers
• Community involvement
• Hobbies
• Family members or social circles

These factors can influence who you reach out to and how you approach them. For example, if you know someone who has a history of volunteering, you might first send them messages about your volunteer program rather than donation requests. Specifying your target audience lays the groundwork to develop appealing content.

3. Promote your nonprofit’s story

Of course, reaching out to the right audience is only effective if your message is compelling. You’ll also need to make your message engaging, and the key way to do this is by telling your nonprofit’s story.

Think about the crucial elements of your nonprofit’s story, such as:

• Main characters: You might tell the inspiring story of your nonprofit’s founders, beneficiaries who have been helped by your organization, or past volunteers who have accomplished significant work.
• Setting: Cultivate a feeling of community pride by explaining how your nonprofit helps a locality, state, nation, or even the world.
• Conflict: Why does your nonprofit exist? What is the issue it aims to address? Emphasize the severity of the issue to explain why your work is so important.
• Core message: Your story, no matter how you tell it, should always point back to your nonprofit’s efforts to fulfill its mission according to its values. Let your core values take center stage as the solution to the problem presented in the story.

Attention spans can be affected by a person’s emotional engagement, which is why storytelling techniques can so effectively capture the attention of prospective supporters. Your organization’s unique story will stand out from other nonprofits’ because it’s yours! No other organization has your background, your staff members, or your impact. When told through a compelling story, these unique elements will speak volumes to your target audience.

4. Advertise relevant and valuable information

Just like the compelling nature of storytelling, relevant and valuable information will also capture your audience’s interest. Meyer Partners’ guide to nonprofit marketing warns that donors may be frustrated by a sole focus on asking for money and distance themselves from your mission if you only send them donation requests.

Since your website is a hub for information about your organization and its cause, it’s a great place to provide highly sought-after information. Your homepage should immediately capture visitors’ attention and also encourage readers to click through your additional pages for valuable information about your organization, such as:

• Background
• Cause and mission
• Core values
• Volunteer opportunities
• Upcoming events
• Active board members

Draw attention to your website with tools such as Google Ads. When you leverage the Google Ad Grant program (or hire an agency to manage it for you), your nonprofit’s website will reap the benefits of increased visibility. Use Google Ads and other advertising opportunities to promote your volunteer program, educational content, an ongoing campaign, or any other page on your website.

No matter which channels you use or how you structure your content, create marketing content that speaks to your audience by recognizing their point of view and keeping their needs in mind. When you appeal to your target audience with unique content on the right channels, you’ll quickly capture their attention and keep your cause top of mind even after they click away from your message.

The post How To Make Your Nonprofit’s Marketing Unforgettable appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

65% – 70%!

The person sharing this information said that most business owners get stuck chasing the “cream,” just looking for the three people out of ten who are easy to sell to. Even though the majority of sales is in the additional ten, they ignore them. And wonder why they’re struggling.

True for Fundraising Too

In my experience, this rings true with fundraising too. Especially major gift fundraising.

Nonprofit leaders and fundraisers too often look for the “easy” or “new” donors, while ignoring the discipline of following up with those who haven’t responded. Or who have given in the past but not for a while.

Looking for new donors is wise. But too often, the search for “new” people can be a distraction that leads to funding struggles.

The thing is, it’s a struggle of our own creation. There could be another four or five gifts in the seven people waiting for our follow up.

Following up is a kindness

My friend Hilary Blair said that whenever she is second guessing making a follow up call to a prospect, she remembers the people she wishes would follow up with her! Would you go to the gym more often if someone followed up with you? Or get your hair done more regularly if they’d call you? I know I wouldn’t have changed barbers in the pandemic if mine had followed up consistently.

Remembering she’d be grateful for a follow up helps put her in a better mindset for calling.

Hopefully it can help you get into a better state of mind too. Following up is part of the job of fundraising. You don’t have to enjoy this process of following up. But if you have to meet payroll or hit specific goals, you’ll be glad you did.

The post Following up IS fundraising appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

When your nonprofit hosts a fundraising auction, your catalog is a vital resource for connecting with supporters and sponsors before, during, and after the event. Not only does it serve as a guide to the event, but it’s also a component of your marketing strategy and a resource for thanking everyone who made your fundraising success possible. Additionally, an auction catalog with a professional design and well-written content can motivate event participants to bid on high-value items.

According to the fundraising experts at Winspire, a fully fleshed-out auction catalog is best suited to an in-person live auction because the item list is usually short and finalized well in advance, making the catalog relatively easy to put together. For silent and virtual auctions that feature more items, well-designed bid sheets serve a similar purpose in catching supporters’ attention. However, you might still create an abbreviated catalog to preview a few carefully selected silent auction prizes.

In this guide, we’ll cover the key elements of a nonprofit auction catalog and discuss how to distribute the catalog when it’s complete. Let’s get started!

Contents of a Nonprofit Auction Catalog

It’s no secret that at a fundraising auction, the items are the star of the show. Although you should reflect this by making your item descriptions take up the bulk of your auction catalog, this isn’t the only section you should include.

Let’s walk through each component of a well-designed catalog in more detail.

Cover Page

Because your cover page is the first thing supporters will see when they pick up (or download) your auction catalog, it needs to be eye-catching and have a professional feel to entice them to look inside. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to feature your nonprofit’s brand front and center.

Kwala’s guide to nonprofit branding recommends including the following brand elements in your organization’s marketing materials, including your auction catalog’s cover page:

• Color palette. Ensure adequate contrast between the text and background colors. Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background improves readability.
• Typography. To add visual variety to your catalog, consider choosing two brand typefaces: one for titles and one for body text. But avoid using more than three fonts so as not to create a cluttered design.
• Logo. Place your logo at the top of your catalog’s cover page to ensure it’s immediately visible and recognizable to auction participants.
• Tagline. A tagline is a short, memorable phrase that captures the essence of your mission. Include it on the cover next to your nonprofit’s name and logo so new supporters can quickly understand the cause they’re supporting by participating in your auction.

Additionally, include photos or another interesting visual design on your auction catalog cover page. These visuals should relate either to your mission or to your auction items, depending on what would appeal most to your nonprofit’s supporters.

Mission Information

Once you’ve drawn supporters in with a visual overview of your event and its purpose on your cover page, dive deeper into the cause your auction will support. On the inside cover of your catalog, write out your organization’s mission statement and provide specific examples of how you’ll use the funds raised to further that mission.

You could also convey this mission information with a letter from your nonprofit’s executive director or board chair addressed to auction attendees. This approach not only provides space to include data and tell stories that demonstrate your organization’s impact, but the signature from a leader at your nonprofit also boosts credibility to reassure participants that they’re supporting a good cause.

Event Agenda

The event agenda section is fairly straightforward: include the order of events at the fundraiser, the start and end time for bidding on live auction items, and any other logistical details participants should know, such as where to collect their prizes and whether food will be served. Once the live auction begins, bidding can quickly become intense, so it’s helpful for attendees to know how the event will proceed beforehand.

Item Descriptions

This section should take up the majority of your catalog, and it’s best to include about 12-15 live auction items in total. This way, you can highlight two or three per page, add relevant photos, and write detailed descriptions that encourage supporters to bid.

Here are some tips to make your descriptions more persuasive:

• Give each item a catchy title. For example, “French Countryside Chateau Getaway” will pique supporters’ interest more than “Vacation to Bordeaux, France” would.
• Write concisely. Keep your sentences short and use bullet points where possible to make your descriptions skimmable.
• Include all essential information. List everything included in a prize bundle, along with any limitations on its use (such as the dates when tickets are valid), so supporters can make an informed decision about whether to bid on each item.

Accompany each description with a tracking number so you can find the winning bidders and ensure they claim their items at the end of the auction.

Sponsor Acknowledgments

Securing sponsorships is critical to maximizing your auction’s fundraising ROI. Corporate partners can either provide financial support to offset event planning costs or assist you in procuring auction items at little or no cost. However, sponsorships need to be mutually beneficial to succeed.

One benefit you can provide your event sponsors is free publicity by recognizing them in various event materials, including your auction catalog. If a corporate partner donated an auction item, add their logo to the description with a short blurb such as, “This item was provided by [business name].” On the last page of your catalog, list financial contributors according to their sponsorship level to thank them for their support.

How to Distribute Your Nonprofit Auction Catalog

Once you’ve designed an auction catalog that includes all of the above elements, you should send it to a print shop to make physical copies and save it as a PDF for digital distribution. There are two main reasons for using both distribution methods. The first is to allow supporters to choose their preferred method of following along during the event—some participants might like a hard copy, while others would rather download the catalog on their smartphones.

Additionally, having both print and digital versions of your auction catalog ensures you can seamlessly incorporate it into all of your marketing materials. Include a physical copy with mailed invitations, and link to the PDF in emails, social media post captions, and the events section of your nonprofit’s website. This way, no matter how supporters find out about your auction, they can get a sneak peek at your auction items and come prepared to bid on their favorites.

While some nonprofits solicit professional graphic design services for their auction catalogs, there are also free tools and templates available online if you’d prefer to take a do-it-yourself approach. By including all of the elements listed above, incorporating your organization’s branding and high-quality photos, and ensuring your design translates to both print and digital distribution methods, you can create a polished-looking catalog for your nonprofit’s next auction no matter your level of design experience.

About the Author

Jeff Cova

Jeff has over 17 years of experience in the Nonprofit and fundraising industry. Prior to Winspire, Jeff worked for 5 years as the Director of Development at Cal State Fullerton before co-founding a company specializing in producing charity auctions for Nonprofits where he successfully produced the auctions for 250 of Southern California’s most successful fundraising events.

In 2008 Jeff founded Winspre with the goal of helping non-profits across the country increase their event fundraising revenue and identify new fundraising sources. Jeff and his team at Winspire have helped over 12,000 non-profits to date.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Nonprofit Auction Catalog appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

We know how easy it is to fall into the same routine of hosting the same event every year, so we’ve compiled a list of tips to help set your next charity auction up for success. Use these best practices and fresh ideas to create a profitable and memorable auction.

1. Host an Online or Hybrid Auction.

Traditionally, most nonprofits hold in-person auctions. People get dressed up, hire babysitters, and enjoy a night out. But what if it wasn’t the only option?

Adding online bidding options creates a hybrid auction where your guests can participate as they’re able. Online bidding gives virtual attendees the tools they need to bid from anywhere, and it also enables people who have to leave early to stay engaged with their open bids. Donors don’t have to be in the room to support your cause – they are invited to join in the fun from afar.

To keep your remote bidders engaged, follow these best practices:

• Host a livestream. Hybrid auctions don’t have to sacrifice the face-to-face element that in-person guests rely on to engage with one another. One popular solution is to host a livestream where you present the items to the online audience as well. We also recommend that you use this livestream as an opportunity to publicly thank your donors – both in-person and virtual.
• Provide them with a mobile bidding app. With mobile bidding, attendees will be able to bid across the globe or even without cell coverage. As long as they have internet access, they can participate! Plus, instant push notifications and text updates will notify them when they’ve been outbid, so they can jump back in. This also helps in-person attendees stay engaged no matter where they are at your event. When you use a mobile bidding app, you’ll see fewer bid sheet mix-ups and be able to provide a faster checkout experience for the winners.
• Add photos or a video to each item in your catalog. Since your remote attendees won’t be able to see your auction items in person, high-quality images or embedded videos are the next best thing. With images and videos, they can see exactly what they’re bidding on, so take time to choose the right angles and lighting for the most visually appealing results.

Whether you plan to go fully digital or just incorporate mobile bidding into your physical event, using technology doesn’t mean your events have to be any less engaging than traditional ones. Incorporating the above tips will help you create a positive online bidding experience.

2. Market Your Auction Well in Advance.

Prior to hosting your event, you’ll need to develop a detailed strategic marketing plan that will help you proactively promote the event to supporters. Market early and often to effectively spread the word. After all, if no one hears about your auction, attendance will be very limited.

To start, you’ll need to take advantage of multiple marketing outlets. With numerous platforms available, you’d be remiss if you didn’t take advantage of them. We recommend considering your audience and their communication preferences and then choosing the outlets that will best reach your audience. These might include email, social media, eCards, text, or direct mail.

From here, you can incorporate the following practices to take your marketing strategy to the next level and amp up support for your next charity auction:

• Leverage social media. Don’t overlook the power of the share button! As part of any strong digital strategy, social media is crucial. Simply put, it allows supporters to share your auction with their personal networks, expanding your reach to a much larger audience. With nearly 4.9 billion social media users worldwide, it’s an excellent opportunity to market your charity auction.
• Include the link to your auction site in all marketing materials. An auction site houses all the important information regarding your event. This includes event details, information about your cause, your auction items, and more. Using an auction site eliminates the need to print out a physical catalog and makes it much easier to share key information in each message.
• Highlight your top items and packages that will be up for bidding. Your auction items and packages are the main attractions for your event. Incentivize potential attendees to register by showcasing bidding items that are tailored to their interests. Be selective about which items you share ahead of time – you want to make sure you leave room for some surprises.

Marketing is a critical step in the planning process. Refining your promotion strategy well in advance gives you plenty of time to spread the word and boost registrations. The above tips will serve as a solid starting point, so you can start generating buzz around your upcoming auction.

3. Use Nonprofit-Specific Auction Software.

Charity auctions have several moving pieces, which can be overwhelming to many newcomers. With the right software though, you can streamline the entire process, from registration to item distribution. The right tools can alleviate stress and make hosting an auction a breeze.

Don’t just settle on the first auction platform that comes your way. Instead, go with a solution that’s specifically designed for nonprofit use. Nonprofit-specific auction software will give you a range of functionality without having to piece together individual solutions, starting with easy management and planning tools.

Let’s take a look at some of the features you’ll need access to, so your charity auction is the best it can possibly be:

• Mobile bidding app: As we touched on earlier, mobile bidding allows people to bid at their convenience wherever they are, whether they’re socializing at your auction or in the comfort of their own homes. Apps account for nearly 90% of people’s internet time on smartphones, so bidders will be very receptive to this approach. Make sure your tools offer instant push notifications, an intuitive interface, and secure checkout options.
• Gamification: Gamification tools add a layer of friendly competition to your charity auctions. Keep the energy high with tools like leaderboards that showcase top bidders, a countdown timer to drive those last-second bids, and a live fundraising thermometer so people can see their bid’s impact in real-time.
• Livestreaming capabilities: The best charity auction software will offer its own livestreaming tools which will allow you to stream directly within the app or the web platform. This way, the bidding experience won’t be interrupted by making participants access the stream elsewhere. What’s more, you should be able to promote items directly under the livestream to drive participation.
• Robust reporting features: Reports will help you gain deeper insights into your bidders’ behavior and your auctions’ performance. This will help you tremendously in pinpointing areas of improvement, so you can refine your strategies for future auctions, launching your team towards success.
• Secure payment processing: Processing payment through your mobile bidding app is much more convenient for your guests, providing faster checkout and shorter lines. When comparing options, make sure that the auction software is PCI-compliant to ensure the security of your guests’ personal data and payment information. And ask about the payment types your guests can use, like credit cards and Apple Pay. Accepting multiple types of payment will increase trust and increase the revenue potential of your event.

The tools you use for your auctions can mean the difference between an engaging, successful auction and one that falls short of expectations. Taking the time to choose the right tools upfront will lead to greater results later on. Looking for the above features will help you make a much more informed decision, putting you on the fast track to success.

Along with choosing the right software, training your in-person volunteers on how to use the software will be invaluable. They don’t need to be experts, but make sure that they’re trained for the level of software support for their volunteer roles. Not only will your guests feel at ease that your volunteers know their way around, but your volunteers will be more excited and engaged during the event, increasing volunteer retention.

If you need guidance in finding the right charity auction software for your team, check out Handbid’s complete nonprofit auction software guide. You’ll learn about key features to prioritize in your search and gather some tips for making the most of your tools along the way!

As you get started planning your next charity auction, take these ideas back to your team and adjust them to suit your needs. In no time, you’ll create an engaging and profitable fundraiser that beautifully impacts the success of your nonprofit.

The post Charity Auctions: 3 Best Practices for Fundraising Success appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Think of it this way: if you were a donor contemplating giving to an organization, you’d likely be inspired to donate after reading an illustrative text that tugged at your heartstrings and told a great story about the impact of donating. Compare this to a generic “Donate now” text that leaves a lot on the table and doesn’t do much to sway supporters to give.

Taking your text-to-give messages to the next level requires the right strategies and tools. Use these tips to make your text donation requests absolutely irresistible to your subscribers and meet (and exceed!) your fundraising goals:

• Leverage Storytelling
• Use Eye-Catching Visuals
• Create a Strong Call to Action
• Personalize Your Messages

To easily send compelling messages, leverage a nonprofit-specific text messaging platform that can readily meet your needs. Tatango’s guide to nonprofit text messaging recommends working with an intuitive platform that has robust segmentation capabilities, automation, and more so you can take the guesswork out of creating great messages and hit the ground running.

Armed with the right technology, you’ll be in great shape to bring these best practices to life. Let’s begin.

Leverage Storytelling

Storytelling can play a pivotal role in a nonprofit organization’s ability to connect with their audience, demonstrate their impact, inspire action, and achieve their fundraising goals.

Specifically, storytelling is a powerful tool that nonprofits should leverage when making donation appeals for these key reasons:

• Humanizes your cause: Through stories, nonprofits can help donors and potential donors connect emotionally to their cause. This emotional connection can be far more persuasive than mere facts and figures or generic requests to give, helping donors to see themselves in the shoes of your beneficiaries and empathize with them. This is an effective way to encourage them to take action.
• Demonstrates impact: Storytelling is an effective way to demonstrate the impact of a nonprofit’s work. By sharing stories of individuals they’ve helped or changes they’ve brought about, nonprofits can show donors and supporters how their contributions are making a real difference.
• Increases retention and engagement: Stories can help nonprofits keep their supporters actively engaged and invested in their cause. They can help to foster a sense of community and shared purpose, which can lead to increased donor retention and involvement.

Now that you know the many benefits of storytelling, here are a few ways you can use this essential tool in your text messages:

• Highlight the real individuals your organization has helped: This way, donors can see exactly who their contributions are going to and how it’s making a difference.
• Position your donors as heroes in your ongoing journey: Don’t give your story an ending just yet! For instance, an animal welfare organization might tell the story of a rescued dog who needs life-saving surgery and therefore donations to fund his care. This way, donors are part of providing the solution and will feel more motivated to act by the urgency of the situation.
• Use vivid language: Use description to bring your story to life and help supporters envision it. However, remember to keep your story on the shorter side. You can always include the full story in a blog post and direct supporters to visit that page to read more.

Let’s consider another example of storytelling in action. A church running a text fundraiser could share a short story about a homeless family who counts on their food bank to stay alive. By urging churchgoers to continue to give, they can help this family and many more have regular access to meals.

By sharing stories of the individuals they’ve helped, nonprofits can better engage their supporters, demonstrate the impact of their work, and encourage further involvement in their cause.

Use Eye-Catching Visuals

Images, videos, and graphics are key components to enhance your storytelling. Using these types of compelling visuals gives a tangible face and story to your nonprofit’s work. A healthcare nonprofit, for instance, could share an image of a patient in need of urgent medical care. This emotional visual could encourage more donations.

Tectonic Video’s guide to nonprofit video storytelling explains that video is an especially effective medium for connecting with donors and sharing stories so they’re engaging and easily digestible. For instance, you might have staff sit down and explain their fundraising needs in a short video. Or, you could invite beneficiaries to give testimonials and explain how your nonprofit has changed their lives. With the permission of these individuals, share this video through your text messaging campaign.

You could also repurpose this content on your social media and website to promote your text-to-give fundraiser. In your caption, make sure to provide clear directions on how to opt-in to your text messaging campaign. This way, you can grow your subscriber list and inspire even more donors to give.

Create a Strong Call to Action

All of your text messages should end in a firm call to action that gives your supporters a clear next step to take. For example, you might invite supporters to:

• Give to your organization’s annual fundraising campaign
• Sign up for your upcoming fundraising event
• Apply to volunteer
• Create a peer-to-peer fundraising page
• Sign up for your monthly email newsletter

Primarily, you’ll be directing supporters to give on your mobile-friendly donation page, so it’s important that your call to action to donate is specific, personalized to the individual, and uses active language.

Make sure to include a time element in your donation requests to convey urgency. For example “Donate this week” isn’t as effective as a message like “Donate by midnight to have your gift matched” or “Donate by Friday to save our oceans.” Be concrete and make it as easy as possible for donors to take the next step. To do this, include a mobile-friendly link to your donation page in your text message.

Personalize Your Messages

A donation request that is personalized to the individual is much more likely to inspire action. To personalize your texts and ensure your donation request feels reasonable to the individual, you need to use segmentation. Segmentation is the process of dividing your contact list into subgroups based on shared characteristics.

For example, you can segment your supporters based on factors like:

• Donation amount
• Donation recency
• Donation frequency
• Demographics (age, location, etc.)
• Interests
• Event attendance
• Prior engagement with your organization

Donation history is especially important to consider when sending donors a specific donation request. For instance, you wouldn’t send the same donation request to a major donor that you would send to a smaller, lower-tier donor. Taking donation history into account ensures that your donation requests feel reasonable based on the donor’s willingness and capacity to give.

To segment your contacts with ease, you need the right technology. Having an intuitive text-to-give platform allows you to segment your lists and personalize your messages further by greeting donors with their first names and acknowledging their specific donation contributions in your thank-you messages. This not only makes your donor communications more attention-grabbing but also helps to strengthen supporters’ connection to your cause.

Conclusion

Achieving the full potential of your text-to-give campaign requires careful planning, compelling storytelling, and the right tools for personalization. With a comprehensive texting software, your nonprofit can streamline its text messaging strategy and significantly boost revenue. Remember, the most effective messages are those that connect with the heart of your supporters and inspire them to make a difference, so put ample time and thought into the content of your messaging.

About the Author

Mike Snusz

Mike Snusz brings 19 years of digital fundraising experience to his role as Director of Nonprofit Customer Experience at Tatango, a text messaging platform for nonprofits and political campaigns. Prior to Tatango, Mike spent 15 years at Blackbaud leading a team of digital consultants that helped nonprofits improve their online fundraising, monthly giving, email marketing and peer-to-peer fundraising programs. Mike started his nonprofit career managing the Ride For Roswell from 2003 to 2005 in his hometown of Buffalo, NY.

The post How to Write Compelling Text-to-Give Requests: 4 Key Tips appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Running a hybrid silent auction is no easy feat. Between engaging your in-person and remote audiences, procuring appealing items, and smoothly conducting bidding, your nonprofit has a lot of planning and work ahead of itself. However, when you plan a hybrid silent auction correctly, your nonprofit will reap plenty of benefits—from expanding your reach to helping your fundraising results skyrocket.

Unlike a traditional auction, a hybrid auction allows you to engage with donors from all over the world—whether they’re in your local area and able to attend in-person or miles away participating virtually. This can lead to stronger donor relationships, inviting supporters to give to your organization during your event and support your nonprofit for years to come.

To make your hybrid silent auction a success, you’ll need to leverage the right tools and strategies. Follow these essential guidelines to kickstart the planning process:

1. Invest in powerful auction software.
2. Make it mobile-friendly.
3. Ensure your event reflects your mission.
4. Promote your event widely.
5. Target two distinct event audiences.
6. Collect and leverage your auction data.

Running a hybrid silent auction is a team effort, so make sure your entire nonprofit’s team is on board and ready to engage in the planning process. This will make it easier to assign roles and responsibilities along the way and create a well-designed event and decide if you need additional support by engaging a fundraising event planner. Let’s dive into how you can create a memorable hybrid silent auction, guaranteed to meet and exceed your fundraising goals.

1. Invest in powerful auction software.

Hybrid auctions rely more on technology than a traditional in-person auction does, so investing in the right tools to manage your dual bidding experiences is more important than ever. According to the OneCause guide to fundraising platforms, an all-in-one fundraising solution will make it easier for your organization to manage the entire fundraising process and easier for your supporters to engage and give to your cause.

Specifically, look for a fundraising platform with the following key features:

• Mobile bidding. Mobile bidding is the best way to smoothly facilitate incoming bids and make the entire process more convenient for both your in-person and remote attendees. Plus, because of its ease of use, you’ll inspire more bids and give guests a positive impression of your event and organization overall.
• Table management. For your in-person component of your hybrid silent auction, you’ll need an easy way to assign seats. The right fundraising platform will enable you to complete these assignments in just minutes and upload venue and seating plans.
• Express check-in and self checkout options. Guests don’t want to wait to start the bidding process. Capitalize on their excitement and immerse them into your auction quickly with contactless express check-in and QR codes for guests. Then, when your event is over, supporters can efficiently checkout and pick up any items they won.
• Live streaming. A reliable live streaming network allows your remote guests to actively follow along with your event and feel physically present. The right fundraising platform will also offer live chat to drive virtual engagement.
• Real-time analytics. As your fundraiser progresses, you should be able to monitor progress towards achieving your fundraising goal. Then, you can encourage more donations among your in-person and remote attendees in the final stretch. Your nonprofit should also be able to track donor behavior and trends to inform your fundraising strategy at your next hybrid auction.

A fundraising platform with these features and more will help you lead successful auctions and host other types of events, including galas and peer-to-peer fundraising opportunities. Your platform should grow with your organization and provide long-term value, so ensure that you’re working with a full suite of comprehensive tools that can boost your ROI for any fundraising activity.

2. Make it mobile-friendly.

According to fundraising statistics from 360MatchPro, half of all nonprofit website traffic last year came from mobile users, indicating that more and more people prefer interacting with their favorite organizations right from their phones. That means it’s essential that you prioritize the mobile experience for your guests. When planning your event, here are a few key aspects to consider:

• Allow guests to register and bid from mobile devices. Ensure that guests have full functionality to your auction platform from their mobile device, allowing them to register, purchase tickets, make bids and donations, and check out from whichever device they choose.
• Send real-time outbid notifications. You can’t always count on bidders to be glued to their mobile devices during your auction, anxiously waiting to see if they’ve been outbid. However, by sending real-time notifications to participants’ mobile devices, you can recapture their attention and encourage them to up their bids to win the item.
• Automatically resize content to fit smaller screens. Your text, images, and interactive content should automatically resize to fit the portrait-mode orientation of a smartphone, freeing users from needless zooming and horizontal scrolling. To achieve this, use bidding software that comes with mobile-friendly tools and optimizes the auction experience for mobile users.

Providing a mobile-friendly user experience is critical for maximizing engagement. Otherwise, you risk missing out on a significant portion of your supporter base simply because your hybrid experience was not accessible.

3. Ensure your event reflects your mission.

When donors feel emotionally connected to your cause, they’ll be more likely to participate, donate, and bid on items during your event. Continuously reiterate to your guests how your event and the revenue raised will be used to support your nonprofit’s mission.

Consider the following best practices for connecting your event with your greater mission and inspiring supporters to give:

• Choose a relevant event theme. Setting a theme is a great way to increase participation and reiterate the meaning behind the event. For example, an ocean conservation organization hosting a hybrid auction might make their event theme “Under the Sea.”
• Tell constituent stories. One of the best ways for supporters to truly understand the importance of your mission is by hearing it from those who have directly benefited from it. With their permission, consider sharing real stories of constituents and how they were positively impacted. You can even bring constituents in to tell their story in their own words at your auction event!
• Tie revenue to concrete impacts. Because donors like to know how their hard-earned money is being used, it’s a good idea to highlight impact statements to better communicate impact. For example, consider sharing metrics like $X raised goes to support Y number of beneficiaries in a specific way.

It’s important to frequently remind guests that they’re participating in your event to support your nonprofit and its vision for social good. It’s not just a fun night out or a way to win exclusive prizes—although those are certainly excellent benefits of a fundraising auction as well!

When attendees understand the impact that their contributions make on your mission, they’ll be more likely to support your organization by giving well above the fair market value for auction items or by making donations outright.

4. Promote your event widely.

In order to secure a high turnout for your auction, taking a strategic approach to event promotion is a must. A multichannel marketing strategy with the following key methods of communication can help your nonprofit reach diverse audiences:

• Direct mail: Sending physical invitations via direct mail can grab supporters’ attention and increase excitement for your upcoming event. Because direct mail is one of the more costly promotional tactics, consider reserving this method for engaging with high-value donors and historic event attendees.
• Email: Email is one of the easiest and lowest cost ways to get a message out to a wide range of supporters. To make sure your message stands out in recipients’ already crowded inboxes, be sure to choose an eye-catching subject line and address the reader by name.
• Social media: Your organization’s social media presence can go a long way for promoting your event and boosting attendee engagement beforehand. Be sure to share information on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and encourage supporters to interact with and share your posts as well!
• Web presence: Your nonprofit website is likely the hub for all sorts of information about your upcoming auction, including how to learn more or register for the event. Maximize this invaluable resource by directing traffic to a dedicated event web page from your other marketing channels.

It’s important that you don’t leave event marketing as an afterthought! Get started early on in the planning process to ensure your supporters are aware of the upcoming opportunity as well as understand what a hybrid auction is, how to get involved, and all that it entails.

You’ll also want to determine how you’ll handle the two audiences of virtual and in-person attendees. Will you promote one experience to certain types of donors more heavily? How will you explain the virtual bidding process so that even the least tech-savvy supporter can join in? Answering these questions beforehand can go a long way to ensuring a seamless and well-thought-out experience for each group.

5. Target two distinct event audiences.

Planning a hybrid event involves juggling a number of moving pieces. Specifically, you’ll need to craft two memorable experiences for your in-person and remote audiences within a single, coherent event.

To do so, it’s important that you take the time to plan for each experience based on what that particular audience is interested in. For example, donors have reported that certain elements are much more engaging during virtual events than others. These components tend to cater well to virtual and remote audiences:

• Mobile-optimized event platforms
• Picture-in-picture technology
• Live streamed content
• Real-time chat breakout rooms
• One-click donations

On the other hand, these elements were favorites for engaging face-to-face audiences:

• Event themes
• Chatting with other guests
• In-person speakers
• Live entertainment

Other elements like raffles, auction bidding, matching gifts, and online promotion beforehand will be experienced by both remote and in-person event audiences. Regardless of the components you incorporate into your plans, be sure to consider the way your various groups of supporters will interact with each. And remember—no one audience is more important than the other!

6. Collect and leverage your auction data.

Tracking your event performance through fundraising data is an impactful way to learn about what works well along with what leaves room for improvement. If you’re looking for key performance indicators (or KPIs) to track for a hybrid auction, consider the following data points:

• Percentage of attendees who engage in-person vs. online
• Average bid size
• Additional donations beyond ticket sales and bids
• Number of bids on each item
• Average time attendees spent participating
• Event ROI

To make the most out of your event data, be sure to determine which KPIs to track early on in the planning process and keep up with your progress throughout. Then, take a look at your results by analyzing auction data and seeing what you can do better the next time you plan an event. A strong fundraising platform will automatically track and organize donor activity so you can draw insights and trends from your data.

A hybrid silent auction can be a highly rewarding experience for your supporters and your organization. Take ample time to prepare for your event with your staff and volunteer base and reflect on past fundraising event data so you can create a memorable, engaging event that will appeal to your donors’ interests. The right tools will streamline the entire planning and execution process, so be sure to invest in a comprehensive fundraising platform that will meet your nonprofit’s needs.

The post 6 Guidelines for Planning Your Hybrid Silent Auction appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

As a nonprofit professional, you understand the importance of a strong online marketing strategy. By tapping into digital channels and creating quality content, your organization can expand its reach, boost its following, and direct supporters to get further involved in your efforts,  whether that’s by donating, volunteering, or participating in your events.

Two of the biggest assets nonprofits have to increase their online visibility are their website and social media presence. Rather than treating these as standalone tools, your nonprofit should integrate them to create two-way traffic between these platforms and effectively introduce new audiences to your cause (and keep them actively engaged).

Connecting your website and social media is easy when you have the right tools and strategies. In this guide, we’ll cover the top tips to unify your marketing strategy:

1. Share your website content
2. Encourage sharing with social media buttons
3. Add social media live feeds to your homepage
4. Use social media as a fundraising tool

By pairing your newfound knowledge with a content management system (CMS) built for nonprofits, you’ll be well on your way to boost your follower count and site visitors. Let’s begin.

1. Share your website content

Your nonprofit website contains a wealth of information and resources that can be easily transformed into engaging social media posts. This is an effective strategy for improving content creation on your social media profiles, as you’ll begin to create natural opportunities for social media followers to explore your website.

For example, let’s say you want to highlight your annual year-end fundraising event on social media. You might include a photo from the last time you hosted the event, then include a mobile-friendly link in the caption to your event landing page. This way, once you intrigue your social media followers with your exciting event, you can immediately direct them to learn more event details and register on your website.

Here are a few types of content you can post on social media to pique your followers’ curiosity and successfully lead them to your site:

• Videos. Your nonprofit might already have videos on your website that cover your history, introduce your team and volunteers, or highlight your events and programs. Instead of creating new videos, repurpose these videos by sharing them on your social media. This is an easy way to generate more content on your social media channels and point viewers to your website to get more information.
• Podcasts. If your nonprofit records a regular podcast or appears on a guest podcast, share snippets of the episode(s) on social media and direct followers to your website to listen to the full thing. A podcast can be a great outlet for helping your supporters get to know your staff and volunteers through interviews, drumming up excitement for upcoming events, and discussing current events or societal issues related to your cause.
• Blog posts. Keeping up with your website’s blog means that you are consistently creating new content for your website. This can translate into consistent new content related to your projects or upcoming events for your social media profiles! Share sneak peeks of blog posts on LinkedIn or Facebook to intrigue your followers, then lead them to your website to read the whole piece.

Create a content calendar that includes what will be published on your website and when it will be shared on social media. This will help you stay on track with posting in both places regularly so your followers and website visitors have new content to read and view.

2. Encourage sharing with social media buttons

Putting social media buttons on your blog posts, web pages, and donation form can empower your supporters to share these resources on their own feeds when it’s fresh on their minds. With one easy click, they’re on their way to creating a post about your nonprofit for their followers to see.

To enable social sharing on your website with ease, your nonprofit needs to work with the right website builder. Morweb’s guide to the best nonprofit website builders recommends looking for a CMS that allows you to add social sharing buttons for popular platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn—with no coding required, saving your nonprofit valuable time.

Once you launch your social sharing buttons, place them by your navigation bar to make sure they’re prominently displayed on relevant web pages. You can also design them to match the branding of your website, including the typography and color scheme, so that they blend nicely with your site.

3. Add social media live feeds to your homepage

If your nonprofit CMS offers a social media module, you can easily add social media live feeds to your website. Live feeds automatically update when you post on social media to display your new content. Choose your most active accounts to showcase in a live feed, as this will ensure your supporters are seeing fresh content.
A social media live feed is a great tool for showing that your organization is active on both your website and your social media profiles. By demonstrating that your organization is regularly updating its content and interacting with supporters on various platforms, your organization will appear more organized, accessible, and trustworthy.
For example, if a supporter is interested in volunteering with your organization on Giving Tuesday and sees a recently-updated social media live feed that indicates an active online presence, they’ll know that your “Volunteer Information” page is likely accurate and up-to-date, too.
To encourage the flow of traffic between your website and social media profiles, put a “Follow Us” button near your live feeds. This will help your website visitors take their exploration of your cause a step further and get regular updates on your organization’s work in their social media feeds.

4. Use social media as a fundraising tool

Both your website and social media profiles can help you pull in online donations for your cause. By leveraging both of these tools together, you can boost the support your organization is receiving. To do so, you’ll need to encourage both your social media followers and website visitors to use the online giving tools hosted on your website.

Here are a few ideas for getting started:

• Set up a Facebook fundraiser that leads supporters to your online donation page. Facebook is an excellent platform for online crowdfunding. Because Facebook handles payment processing fees, 100% of the money raised goes directly to your organization. For the Facebook fundraiser, your supporters will use Facebook Pay, but make sure to include a link to your donation page on your fundraising page to encourage additional contributions after the campaign ends and even sign up for monthly giving.
• Encourage peer-to-peer fundraisers to post. According to OneCause, peer-to-peer fundraising empowers your loyal supporters to take the fundraising reins and introduce your cause to people in their personal networks. Have your top supporters create peer-to-peer fundraising pages online, then instruct them to share links to their pages and your website on social media. This way, their followers can give and learn more about your cause, leading to greater involvement down the line.
• Share information about how to increase impact on your social media profiles. Post on social media about ways that donors can easily give more. For example, if you partner with a matching gift company to embed a matching gifts database on your donation page, you can create a related social media post. In your post, you could discuss how to check whether you qualify for matching gifts and share it with your donors so they can take advantage of their employers’ corporate philanthropy efforts.

Social media gives you the opportunity to promote your organization’s fundraising campaigns to your community of current supporters, but don’t forget that it also enables you to connect with new supporters. Encourage your supporters to share your fundraisers with their own personal networks to increase your reach.

The Gist

By using your social media to promote your website and vice versa, you can level up your donor engagement, create stronger relationships with supporters, and bring in more revenue. First, you’ll need to make sure your website and social media are updated and accessible, so be sure to work with tools like ready-to-go website templates and social media schedulers to build out a strong digital presence. Remember to keep your audience in mind and plan out mission-centric content that will resonate with your supporters.

The post Integrating Your Nonprofit Website With Social Media: 4 Tips appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Do you remember those?

In the 1980’s there were all sorts of books about how to dress. And for many of us, we were told what kind of “power tie” we were supposed to wear. It’s as though if you wore the wrong tie your entire business meeting would fail.

Fundraising isn’t like that.

You’re not going to “mess up” an ask if you stumble over your words. Or if you say the monthly amount instead of the annual amount (or vice versa).

Because fundraising is a conversation with donors and people you hope will consider being donors.

Today’s “ask” is only a part of a long, ongoing conversation with the other person. Their response to today’s ask – or their lack of response – allows you to curiously follow up with them in the coming weeks. I find with donors and with so much of working with people, if you don’t know what someone is thinking it is smart to ask. You can ask them if they received your email. Or if they were put off by the ask. Or you can thank them for their gift.

The ask is important. But remember the ask is part of a longer conversation.

So get out there and ask for gifts. Even if you stumble over your words a little. It’ll make you more human.

Remember, your nonprofit’s fundraising is stronger than a 1980’s power tie.

The post Your fundraising is stronger than a 1980’s power tie appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Yes, the USA recorded over $499 billion was given from non-government sources last year. But the trend of fewer individuals giving accelerated. Individuals gave a 64% of the total – still the lion share of all giving – but a drastic drop from last year.

Are people less generous?

Does this mean people are less generous? Not necessarily. It’s easy to assume that people are less giving now. And that inflations in the economy is forcing people to be less generous.

But this data doesn’t include the money giving on GoFundMe’s and other, non-itemized, non-tax deductible giving.

According to the Nonprofit Times article:

“More troubling is when these numbers are paired with earlier research from the Lilly School that showed just 5.4% of American believe they had a personal interaction with a nonprofit – despite more than 10% of the population working at a nonprofit and tens of millions of people involved with organizations…”

One of the telling quotes in the article was from Chris Pitcher, CEO of fundraising firm RKD Group:

“Not enough people are being moved to contribute – because our practices perpetuate talking at them, not talking with them or listening to them,” said Pritcher. “As a sector, we have to change…”

That’s why it is imperative nonprofit leaders learn how to talk to donors more effectively.

For decades talking “at” donors has been “good enough” for the sector to get by. Sure, the return rates on that kind of fundraising were awful. But if nonprofits inflicted “talking at” materials to a large enough group of people, they could at least pay their bills.

But there are many more ways people can align with their values now. Rather than only having the option of giving to a nonprofit, now they can buy products or participate in activities that stand for the same values.

It’s not distracting us from the mission

Whether we like it or not, when we start a nonprofit, we commit to being funded by a community of people who don’t understand the work we do. That’s how the tax structure is in the United States. A board of individuals directs the nonprofit. And a group of people, companies, and foundations fund it.

To complain about having to learn to talk to donors is like a store owner complaining about having to learn to talk to customers. Store owners need to learn where to advertise and how to communicate and relate to customers in ways that encourage them to keep coming back. If the nonprofit cause is as important to nonprofit leaders as they say it is, nonprofit leaders need to learn to communicate effectively with donors.

• Not because donors are better.
• Not because nonprofits should exist to serve donors.
• Not because donors should direct our nonprofit’s mission.
• Not because donors are self-centered and egotistical.

Nonprofit leaders need to learn to effectively communicate with donors because nonprofit staffs deserve to get paid. And nonprofit causes deserve to be funded.

If our cause involves using donated funds, then learning exactly what to say to donors is not a distraction from our work. It’s part of the work.

As the Lily School’s Dr. Una Osili says in the article:

“The Giving USA results should be a bit of a reminder or maybe a nudge if not a direct catalyst for a lot of folks around the philanthropic sector to recognize and think about the importance of engagement and building those authentic relationships,” said Osili.

It’s not about focusing exclusively on rich people

While there are definitely incredibly large gifts represented in the “individual” category, it is better for a nonprofit to have a diversity of donors. Too often, nonprofit leaders and boards try to reach “rich” people. People in their community or in the nation that are wealthy. But an exclusive focus on wealthy people can put a nonprofit on very shaky financial ground. When on donor changes her focus, the nonprofit’s entire budget could be put at risk.

We ignore or take for granted our donors at our own peril. Fundraising opportunity exists with donors of all gift sizes. And the tools exist for even the smallest nonprofits to be more personal with donors. It doesn’t take much more effort than writing a letter or making a phone call. The hardest part is usually pushing through an awkwardness similar to learning to speak in a new dialect.

This work is worth it. The benefits of having relationships with donors include: more consistent funding, more engaged advocates for your nonprofit, and a better qualified pool of potential board members.

As you get better communicating with donors, you’ll get less distracted by people who seem obviously able to give “major” gifts. In fact, you may find yourself paying more attention to donors of all levels. For example, many of our nonprofit clients get smaller gifts from donors through donor advised funds. Rather than thinking of a person as a “small” donor, it may do well to treat them as an interested individual.

For example, the article says that:

According to the most recent data from the National Philanthropic Trust, $72.67 billion was deposited into DAFs and $45.74 billion was granted during 2021. The average DAF account was $183,842.

That means that $26.93 billion dollars put into donor advised funds (DAFs) last year wasn’t yet given out. Could your nonprofit use some of that money? It may well be sitting in the accounts of donors you’ve classified as “small.”

Is fundraising getting harder?

Not necessarily. But it is requiring more intentionality.

Nonprofits can no longer get by with crappy messaging or self-entitled assumptivism. Throughout history, human beings have been generous to one another. If your organization relies on donations, the good news is human beings still are generous.

And the opportunity is ripe for nonprofit who genuinely build relationships with donors.

The post Protect Your Nonprofit from the Dip in Donations appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

I find it’s better to build a habit of consistent communication with donors and prospect rather than trying to “make up” for not talking to people in weeks or months.

When we try to “make up” for lack of effort, we tend to overwhelm ourselves causing us to stop calling again. This creates a boom and bust cycle of activity.

Stephen Covey talked about man-made systems versus more agricultural ones. A college course is more man-made. You can “cram” at the end and still pass the test.

But a farmer can’t do that. Imagine a farmer deciding to take the spring planting off, not tend the plants in the summer, and then cram in the fall to get a harvest.

That’s unfathomable, isn’t it?

Fundraising leans on the agricultural side.

So rather than cramming, set consistent goals for your personal calls and outreaches. And consistent patterns for your appeals and donor impact reports.

Your nonprofit fundraising will be better for it. As will your relationships with donors and prospects!

The post You can’t cram for fundraising results appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Donors circle their favorite golf fundraisers on the calendar every year as a can’t miss event. They look forward to time spent on the golf course, doing something they enjoy in support of a good cause. A golf fundraiser accomplishes more than simply raising money—lays the foundation for new partnerships, strengthens important relationships, and shares your mission and message with new audiences. Best of all, you don’t have to be a golfer to plan a successful tournament—tools and resources exist to help from inception to execution.

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Set Goals

Think about what you hope to accomplish with the golf event; essentially, what does success look like for your organization? Set some clearly-defined goals for the tournament, such as a target number of golfers, number of sponsors, and overall dollars you hope to raise. This will help you better define a budget for your tournament in terms of revenue and expenses.

2. Recruit a Dedicated Planning Team

You’ll definitely want a point person to take the lead on the overall event, tracking tasks, income, and expenses, but it’s in your best interest to recruit others to help with planning, prep, and execution. Your team can provide varying perspectives and new ideas while also better distributing the workload so one person doesn’t shoulder all the planning burden.

Depending on the size of your nonprofit, you can start with staff and board members. You might also expand your team to include dedicated volunteers or active donors, particularly if they are golfers or have connections to potential sponsors.

3. Lean on Technology

The right technology can make planning and holding your golf tournament easier and more efficient, ultimately saving you time and helping raise more money. Look for an event management platform that’s built just for golf events—most ticketing platforms or CRMs don’t have the capabilities to handle the unique nuances of a golf event, like handicaps, flighting, and scoring. Be sure your software solution has the following features:

• Professional, customizable event website. This makes promoting your event super easy—simply share the link all your promotional materials. Share information about the event’s logistics and what it’s raising money for.
• Online registration and donations with secure payment processing. Collecting golfer and sponsor information online saves a ton of time and effort. This information should drop into the software’s backend, where you can track and manage it in one place. This also ensures that you capture important donor data right at registration so you can include it in your nonprofit’s CRM.
• Live-scoring. Golfers should be able to track their scores in real-time through an easy-to-use mobile app. Live-scoring makes finalizing the tournament’s results much quicker and easier, and organizers can track the round’s progress on live leaderboards.
• Push notifications and emails. Keep golfers in the loop about special events, make donation asks, and recognize sponsors throughout the tournament.

4. Determine Specifics

Start by approaching area golf courses with a tentative time of year. Narrow in on a date by looking at course availability, other local events, and the day of the week that will work best for your nonprofit. Keep in mind that a private golf course will be more expensive than a public course, but you’ll likely be able to charge more for registration and sponsorships at a higher-end facility.

Next, determine the event’s format. Most charity golf tournaments use the scramble format, which typically consist of two or four person teams that utilize the best shot until the ball is holed. This format makes the event approachable for golfers at all skill levels, which broadens your potential audience.

Think about tournament add-ons, games, or contests that can supercharge fundraising. GolfStatus suggests selling mulligans (basically a “do over” for a shot) or raffle tickets, holding an auction, having a hole-in-one contest, or adding on-course entertainment and games.

Finally, you’ll want to brainstorm ideas to market your tournament and get the word out about your event. Leverage channels such as Google Ad Grants, social media, email, and direct mail to rally your supporters for your tournament.

5. Build & Sell Sponsorships

Sponsorships are where you will bring in the most revenue from your event. Take a hard look at your event’s fixed costs and build sponsorship packages to cover them. Golf tournaments are unique in that they attract a typically affluent and influential demographic, with a higher than average net worth. This makes your golf event an attractive way for sponsoring businesses to get in front of prospective clients and customers! What’s more, businesses are looking for a win-win when sponsoring events—they want to make an impact on their community by supporting a worthy cause while also benefiting from brand lift and exposure.

Look for connections to potential sponsors on your planning team, board, or through other supporters who might be able to make an introduction. You can also research potential sponsors by connecting with the local chamber of commerce or digging through their social media to find out more about the types of events they typically sponsor. Your sponsorship packages should provide benefits and high ROI for the sponsor, such as logo exposure, social media mentions, or an opportunity to interact with participants or speak at the event. In-kind corporate sponsorships are also valuable for things like pin prizes, player gifts, auction or raffle prizes, or specific event services.

6. Stay Organized

Using a golf-specific platform makes it simple to keep all your information in one place, so your team and the golf facility staff can easily access up-to-date player information, easily make hole assignments, and print cart signs and registration lists. Communicate the day’s schedule with all registrants ahead of time so they know what to expect. You might also develop a master schedule and task list to keep volunteers and planning team members on track with what needs to be done and when it should happen.

Check-in should be appropriately staffed and prepared for a rush of golfers so no one is waiting for long periods of time. You might also set up a donation station at check in and sell mulligans or raffle tickets. Your event website should be mobile-friendly so folks can make payments right on their mobile device so you don’t have to mess with cash.

7. Follow Up After the Tournament

Once the event is over, your job isn’t done! Send thank yous to express your gratitude to golfers, sponsors, donors, and volunteers. Share videos or photos that highlight the day and get them excited about coming back again next year!

Do a deep dive on the outcomes of your event to help you determine any changes that need to be made. Do you need to increase registration fees? Are there other sponsorships to add to the lineup? Did the golf course meet your needs? What other ways can you promote the event? Is there a different day of the week or time of year that might work better? You might also conduct surveys to get feedback from golfers and sponsors to help further inform your strategy for subsequent golf events.

Wrapping Up

Golf tournaments are a great way to bring in dollars while engaging donors and driving impact. Even if you’ve never planned a golf tournament before, it doesn’t have to be scary! Start by getting your tech platform in place to launch an event website, collect registrations, sell sponsorships, and facilitate a successful, lucrative golf tournament.

About the Author

Logan Foote

Logan Foote has been around the game of golf nearly his entire life. He first picked up a club at the age of four, and despite thousands of attempts, he’s never had a hole-in-one. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and pursued a career in sales. Logan came to GolfStatus in 2017, where he channels his passion for golf to help nonprofits raise money through the game. As Sales and Education Manager, Logan oversees a team that works with thousands of nonprofit clients to maximize their golf fundraisers with the GolfStatus platform, and shares his golf fundraising expertise through GolfStatus’s free educational webinars. He lives and golfs in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife and three sons.

The post Fairway Fundraising: Tips for a Charity Golf Tournament appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Does this sound like you?

My friend Phil Jones has a helpful framework to address this.

He says that most of us want opportunities so we can get donations. But the problem is, opportunities don’t just come to us. They don’t find us.

He says to get to opportunities, we need to start with questions.

• Questions lead to
• Conversations which lead to
• Relationships which develop into
• Opportunities that create chances for
• Donations

So this week, as you look at making your 5 – 10 contacts to further your major gifts, consider your starting place. If you don’t have as many opportunities as you want, try moving up, earlier in the process to asking good questions of people.

Some powerful phrases I like using are: “I’ve been wondering about your opinion on…” and “How do you think people in your position handle…”

Find something that will help you in your leadership or in running your nonprofit or in conducting a project. Something you’re sincerely curious about. And ask.

These are legitimate in the fundraising process. Asking for money is only one part of the entire cycle. But “cultivating” or engaging prospects is a vital part too.

Have fun asking curious questions this week! And bonus points if you ask major gift prospects who aren’t yet donors. And even prospects who aren’t yet part of your database or contact list.

A similar version of this was first sent to those subscribed to the weekly Fundraising Kick coaching emails. To sign up for yourself, go to: https://fundraisingcoach.com/fundraisingkick/

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