I often hear from nonprofit professionals that they don’t know what kind of content to create. So I’ve put together a list of fifteen ideas for content creation for nonprofits.

When creating your content keep one thing in mind, will my ideal supporter find this interesting and valuable? Whether you’re making videos, writing stories, sharing pictures, or even podcasting, you must keep this principle in mind. Everyone is constantly bombarded with stimuli. You have to earn the right to a place in their day and the only way you’re going to do that is by sharing content that is so good that they invite you into their email inbox, newsfeed, or physical mailbox.

You may be thinking, but I don’t have the time or skills to create polished videos or write epic stories. And you don’t have too. The content doesn’t haven’t to be super high quality, it just has to be valuable. In fact most of the time the people you’re reaching out to will connect better with your content if it feels a little raw. They will feel better knowing that you don’t spend a ton of money on slick marketing, but focus on the mission.

Here are fifteen ideas for nonprofit content

1. 1. The Transformation Story:
      This is a story where you tell how your organization helped make a significant transformation in a persons life. I believe these are the most powerful stories you can tell. They pull at the heart strings and put a real face to your mission. This type of story is easiest to create for direct service organizations that are helping people overcome major obstacles in their lives, but with a little work can be used effectively for other organizations too. This story type can be a written story (be sure to include pictures! But get permission first), a video, a picture series, even an audio interview. Here’s an example of a video I put together for Maryhouse in California.
   2. Community Events:
      This could be as extensive as a complete events calendar for your community or just a listing of events happening at your local community center. You could send out weekly or monthly updates depending on how many events there are. 
   3. Trade News:
      This type works well for associations or advocacy groups. You’ll be sending out weekly, monthly, or as needed updates on policy, legislations, regulations, or things that effect your particular industry. These can be extremely valuable to an individual or other organization that works in the particular field and relies upon staying up to date on what’s going on. 
   4. Local News:
      This only really applies to local nonprofits and not national or international. But, I’ve found that if you’re in a community sharing local news stories tends to get a lot of traction on social media. I wouldn’t go sharing just any news story, but find things that relate to your organization in some way and are valuable to your community. It’s also a bonus if you can use this to strike up a conversation.
   5. How To’s:
      How To’s tend to be very popular on social media and usually get very high rankings in search engines. However, they tend to be underused by nonprofits. Your organization is probably looked to, or you want it looked to, as an expert in what you do, so why not create some how to videos around that subject. For example if you are a local community center then how about a how to on riding the local transit system or for an art museum evaluating an art-piece. There are so many possibilities, and again these don’t have to be highly polished videos, they can be shot with a smartphone camera and as long as they provide real valuable content for your ideal supporter they’ll be a hit.
   6. Inspirational Messages:
      Short pithy sayings, or heck even long but moving messages, are easy to share and often find lots of traction on social media. How about a weekly photo of an adoptable animal from the animal shelter with an inspiring quote, or a weekly note from a client at a homeless shelter of how they’re overcoming, or a daily encouraging word from your local parish priest.
   7. Ways to help (volunteer, donate stuff, etc…):
      Everyone loves to help, it releases endorphins, especially if it doesn’t cost them anything. Sending out a monthly list of needs, especially if the needs are direct service related, is a great way to both tell the story of who your organization is helping but also give people an easy way to help. I’ve found that needs lists or even better just one or two particular needs posted on social media get shared a lot.
   8. Cute Puppies:
      If you have a regular stream of cute puppies, kittens, or babies (if you can get permission to share), then you better be posting those pictures as fast as your fingers can click. The internet was built for this!
   9. Educational:
      Teach something. This one closely resembles the How To, but doesn’t have to be just how to do something specific. It could be a short series explaining how a certain farming process works, or a guide to understanding local history. Find something that directly relates to your mission and teach the fundamentals.
   10. Entertaining:
       This will be harder for some organizations than others, but for an organization or association that works with comedians, actors, musicians, or any type of performing arts this should be an easy one. How about a series of one-liners from up and coming comedians, or thirty second famous scenes monologued, or segments from upcoming musical performances.
   11. Holidays & Weather:
       Find a way to tie your mission into upcoming holidays, seasonal changes, or just weather patterns. Everyone is already thinking about these things and if you can tap into that pattern of thinking it’s easier to get attention. For example if you run a homeless shelter then you should be talking about the next big storm or heat wave and how it will effect your clients. 
   12. Advocacy Campaigns:
       If your organization is involved politically then you’re probably either creating or working with others groups on advocacy campaigns. Assuming the campaign lines up with your core supporters values, it can be very active content that get’s your supporters doing something and associating your organization with that action.
   13. Q&A’s:
       Hold a question and answer session with an expert in your field or a client who uses your services. Answer the questions that your supporters would ask if they could. These could take the format of just a written interview or you could step it up a notch and put together a video of the Q&A.
   14. Printable’s:
       Give them something useful they can print out. These can be super simple like a checklist of things to pack before visiting your museum, to full activity sheets or even coloring pages. A homeless shelter could provide an instruction sheet on how to put together a survival kit to give out to people in need on the street.
   15. Behind the Scenes:
       Take people behind the scenes of your operation. You’re doing something unique, engaging, and powerful. Going behind the scenes shows them something they’ve not seen before and makes them feel special and part of the insiders club. Plus it also shows real people working everyday to move the mission forward. Here’s a video example of a quick and impactful behind the scenes video I put together.

If you have other ideas or examples of great nonprofit content leave a comment below or send me an email at justin@nonprofit-success.com.

The old year is cleared out, the parties are over, and you, my friend, are back at the grind. Because you’re that kind of person. You’re the day-in-day-out dependable no matter how many plates are spinning kind of person. You’re the one who gets things done, who sorts through the confusion of he said-she said, who does the research, asks the questions, and finds the solution. You’re a problem solver, a fact checker, a get-to-the-bottom-of-this, put pen to paper, never stop kind of person. You lead, you inspire, you get your hands dirty. 

You may not always get the recognition you deserve, but you’re not in it for the ego, you’re not that type of person. You’re in it because you make a difference, because you change lives, heal hurts, bring freedom, and save the world. You do it because you care, you care about tomorrow, next month, and the next generation. You’re making this a better place for yourself and your community. You may not ever know or see those who you’ve impacted, but they’re out there, and they’re rippling through our entire society, joining us, and changing things from the inside.

Now, as the real work of 2019 begins, put on those headphones, turn up the beats, and get busy.

Friend, you’ve got this!

“Think Big, Start Small, Go Deep”

He’s got big plans to make a significant impact, but he’s wise enough and humble enough to know he has to start small. And his goal, it’s not to impact millions in a shallow way, but make significant and deep change in each individual.

It’s easy to get distracted by all the things we’re not doing when we’ve got big plans but our efforts seem small. We want to have a deep and significant impact on thousands millions of people, but all we’ve got right now is loads of paperwork. 

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

This is the time to stay focused. Yes, all that paperwork needs to get done. And you’ll get it done because that’s what you do as a dedicated professional, but it’s imperative that we set aside the time to work on our core mission. 

• If you’re a fundraiser, make that connection with a supporter today over a brew of hot coffee or just a phone call.
• If you’re a Director, make sure you’re doing something that inspires your team, constituents, and the public.
• If you’re program staff, stay focused on the person in front of you, give them you’re full attention.

Think big my friends and stay focused.

Today I’m going to give you my super easy three step process for finding private grants for nonprofits. When you’ve finished this guide you will have three easy steps to kickstart your grant writing program and if you follow the steps will have at least a handful of relevant foundations to apply to for funding, all for free!.

Before you get started you might want to download the free pdf, with two simple worksheets, I’ve put together to help organize the process. Otherwise, let’s get into it!

Step 1 – Make A Simple List

Take out a piece of paper and make three columns on it or use Worksheet 1 from the download above. In the first column write Banks & Credit Unions, in the second column write Hospitals, and in the third column write Major Companies.

Now make a list of every Bank, Credit Union, Major Corporation, and Hospital in your area. If you’re familiar with your area you can probably come up with these off the top of your head, otherwise type it into Google. Almost every one of these businesses will have a foundation connected to them or a charitable program, and most will give to your local region some exclusively. Hospitals and Banks are even required to have community reinvestment programs. Once you’ve exhausted every organization you can think of move on to step two.

Step 2 – Find The Matching Missions

Now you’re going to narrow down the list by finding the foundations that might be a good match for your organization and writing this information down in a separate list or on worksheet two from the download. To do this you’ll need to search online for each organizations foundation or charitable giving arm. Often you can just type in the companies name + grants and Google will direct you to the appropriate page. Other times you have to search through their website. As you’re searching you’re looking for three specific things:

• • Grant criteria and priorities, or what they fund. This will tell you if they fund the type of work you do at your organization. This is important. Applying to foundations that don’t fund you’re type of work is a big waste of both yours and their time. Often the foundation will list the category that they fund such as Education, Community Development, Youth Services, Hunger, etc… Sometimes, they fund more broadly based upon geography. Any that match with your organizations mission, write them down on worksheet 2.
  • Deadline or Grant Cycle. This will tell you when to apply. Some foundations accept applications on an ongoing basis, others have two or three cycles per year, and others are just once per year. Write this down on the worksheet.
  • Contact person. If you can find it be sure to note down the name, phone, and email of the contact person for the grant application process. This information isn’t always readily accessible, so you might have to do a little more research to find this info. Write this down on the worksheet

Research Tips: Here’s how I look for a companies foundation and grant page.

• • Do a Google search for the company name + foundation or grant. For example if I’m searching for grant information for Golden One Credit Union I would search in Google “Golden One Credit Union Grant” and see what comes up.
  • Go to the companies website and look for the navigation link that says something about philanthropy, foundation, grants, community investment, give back, etc… Often this can be found in the footer section on the very bottom of the page.
  • Call the companies main office number and ask to speak with someone who handles their grant program or community reinvestment program.

Step 3 – Pick Up The Phone
Applying for grants is a human-to-human process. If you’ve done your research and found a foundation that has matching priorities with your organization, then the best thing to do is talk to them, preferably in person, but at least on the phone. This is your chance to inspire them with the amazing work you’re doing and get more details on what they are looking to fund. It’s a chance to start building a lasting relationship with the foundation. Taking this step drastically increases your chances of being awarded the grant funding you’re looking for now and long into the future.

And there you have it! You’re well on your way to running a successful grant program for your organization. Let me know how this method worked for you by leaving a comment below or shoot me an email at justin@nonprofit-success.com

The one thing that unites all nonprofit organizations is a singular focus on a mission. The missions are varied, but the focus, above profits, is on the mission, a dream that someone had to make their community a better place. A dream that they couldn’t contain inside. A dream that they had to put into action and through old-fashioned hard work and persistence they began to reshape reality to resemble their dream.

Dreams are powerful! They have the ability to change you, transform you, and drive you to be something better than you are.

This is what I love about nonprofits and the people who work at them. It’s amazing to watch a team united with a single purpose to make our community, our nation, our world a better place. I love it!

Keep dreaming friends! And comment below with what your dreams are.

I’m going to show you the method I use. It’s helped me immensely, I don’t feel as overwhelmed each day, and at the end of each week I feel waves of euphoria washing over me (well, maybe it’s not quite that good).

The Success River

I like to think of my responsibilities as a flowing river. No, it’s never going to stop flowing. There’s always going to be more, but through a structured system I’ve been able to narrow down that huge flowing river into something manageable that reduces stress.

For this system I use an online ToDo list platform called Trello, it’s free for basic usage. Trello is basically an online todo list with some bells and whistles. You could do this same thing manually in a paper notebook using something akin to the Bullet Journal method, on a whiteboard, or even with a system of sticky notes. Trello allows you to set deadlines, have multiple steps per task, ad images, and many other advanced options.

I setup my Success River with four lists:

The Kitchen Sink

This list is a catch all list where I write down any and all ideas, tasks, and projects that I need to work on. I find it helpful to be able to write down everything somewhere. When I can write it down it seems to take up less space in my brain and I can move on to other things.

You can see on my list here I’ve got Go Through Email, that’s because I don’t default to checking email. Email can be a huge waste of time and allows other people to set your priorities, not good.

This Weeks Priorities

The second list gets reset at the beginning of each week. Every Monday morning one of the first things I do is sit down and determine what are the priorities for this week. Most of these will get pulled over from the Kitchen Sink (in Trello it’s just drag and drop, super easy.) Some, will be added from things I haven’t written down.

The key here is to be realistic. You know how many interruptions you typically have throughout the day, schedule accordingly. I typically also look at my calendar for the week and see how much open time vs meetings I have for the week. My goal here is to list out five or six tasks that if completed I will feel like the week was a success. Sometimes I keep the tasks broad, and then break them down into smaller tasks on the next list.

Daily Get It Done

This third list gets cleared at the beginning of each day. In a perfect world everything would have been accomplished the day before, but frequently there will be one or two items not completed. I move all these items back into the “This Weeks Priorities” list. This helps me re-evaluate my tasks for the day.

My goal here is to have two to three high priority items each day and usually a few housekeeping tasks. The high priority tasks often involve more intense mental focus, so I’ll break those up with more menial tasks like filling, stretching, or straightening up.

Once I’ve chosen my tasks for the day I set to work. Having this list already thought out in the morning helps me to stay focused during the rest of the day. When I feel myself starting to get distracted or my mind wandering to other more shiney projects it’s easy to remind myself that I’ve already thought this through and that these tasks are the most important right now. It gives me an easy shortcut to pull my focus back to the task at hand.

Weekly Success List

Any time I finish a task I immediately move it over to the “Weekly Success List”. There’s a small psychological reward for seeing that task get moved over. It’s addictive.

At the end of the week I get to look through all the tasks I completed during the week. It’s usually pretty impressive. I don’t say that to boast, but because your’s will be too. It’s amazing how much really does get done each week and it’s nice to take a moment to enjoy that warm fuzzy glow.

This is the best part! When I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the fuzzy glow I archive all those tasks. In Trello they magically disappear. It’s like a cool ocean breeze just comes through and blows all that stress away. I love it!

How do you handle your todo list? Leave a comment below and let me know what method works for you.

Photos Courtesy of Matthew Henry

Today’s Motivation Monday is all about how you see the world. I’ve personally been going through some major let downs by people in my life. As I’ve been reflecting on the circumstances, the actions and inactions of others, and my emotional response, I’ve come to realize that I can’t change what’s happened.

I can’t go back in time and put up protective walls for myself. All I have left at this point is my response. How will I respond. Will I respond with immaturity or will I respond well.

So todays quote is from Goethe,

“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”

What do you choose to carry in your heart? I hope you are good to yourself and carry only beauty, joyfulness, and encouragement inside you.

Have you had to deal with major let down from people you relied upon? Leave a comment and share whether you responded well or not.

Featured photo by Dmitry Ratushny

Please, don’t do that!

If there is any way possible to take or get photos taken of the services your nonprofit offers, then you must do that. Those photos, even if they aren’t super snazzy, are authentic. People will recognize that they are real and that will move people. If you don’t have a solid photographer on staff, or a professional volunteer, I would consider taking Nicole Cassidy’s advice over at Bloomerang and invest a little money on hiring a professional photographer.

There are however some really wonderful free photo sites available now. These images will never replace your program photos, but they can be extremely useful for backgrounds and such. The five listed below all use the Creative Commons Zero licensing, this means that the photographers have given their express permission for anyone to use their photos in just about any way with no photo credit required, though it is a nice gesture to help support the artist and hopefully encourage them to produce more great photos!

In my order of preference, the top five truly free photo sites for nonprofits:

1. Unsplash – This site has some of the most amazing, and I mean AMAZING, photos you have ever seen. And guess what, they’re all free to use. Seriously, don’t follow this link if you’re in a hurry or have a donor meeting in the next thirty minutes because you’re going to be sucked in longer than Facebook. I use Unsplash almost exclusively for the photos on this site.
2. Pixabay – This site one of the largest collections of free photos. I would say their photos aren’t quite up to the level of Unsplash, but they have more variety in the subjects of the photos. They support their site through advertisement for Shutterstock.com, so be sure not to click on one of those photos.
3. Stocksnap.io – The images on this high are all very high quality, professional images. They lack the quantity of the top two sites above, but their quality is well worth the look if you can’t find anything elsewhere.
4. Pexels – Again, nice high quality images, but a little short on the quantity.
5. Negative Space – This site majors in people focused photography and features some amazing photos of people in a variety of situations.

These are my favorite sites for free stock photos for nonprofits. If you have one to add leave a comment below with your pick.

Photo Courtesy of Nitish Meena

When I think about this new year, maybe set a few resolutions, it’s hard to imagine what the future might hold. No one can tell the future. But, I think my future is going to have flowers, lots of them. I’m going to be planting lots of seeds in the beginning of 2017.

2016 had so much discord, chaos, and discontent. So I’m going to plant seeds of unity, serenity, and joy.

I’ll be planting lots of seeds in my own backyard, with my family, with my neighbors, and with my co-workers. And, some seeds I’ll just broadcast out as I travel along the journey.

A little joy planted over here. A little harmony over there.

There’s a wonderful quote from a hero of mine, Dorothy Day, she said

“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us? When we begin to take the lowest place, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers with that burning love, that passion, which led to the cross, then we can truly say, ‘Now I have begun.”

That’s why, this year, I’m committed to sowing seeds and growing flowers with everyone and everywhere I go.

What will you be planting this year?

Featured photo by Zach Taiji

Well, not quite. For me, January is always the busiest month of the year because this is when end of year non profit donation tax receipts are sent out to donors. So I spend January pouring over our donor database correcting addresses, making sure donations are all recorded correctly, and getting everything set up with the printer and mailing house.

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Do I have to send out end of year donation reports? In order to answer that we need to take a look at IRS Publication 526. Here’s what your donor will be needing in order to claim a deduction on their taxes.

• For individual donations under $250, they can use their bank statement or a letter from your organization.
• For individual donations over $250, they need a proper letter from your organization.

So, technically, for donations under $250, the donor doesn’t need your letter. And if you’ve sent out a donation acknowledgment letter right after each donation they don’t need an end of your letter. But, honestly, it’s a great way to steward your donors. Let them now how much they gave throughout the year, and better connect them with the impact. Plus, they’ll just be really happy to have an easy and convenient report of their giving and not have to search through a years worth of records.

There are two key aspects to every good donation summary letter. It must meet the IRS requirements for a donation receipt. And it must help maintain your connection with the donor.

Here’s a quick summary of the requirements listed in the IRS Publication 526 – regarding charitable contributions.

• It must be written – or printed, email counts. No verbal receipts
• It must include the amount contributed
• It must state whether the donor received any goods or services for the donation
• It must include the name of your organization
• It must include the date of contribution

Other than these five things the letter can contain anything you want. I suggest a warm thank you and a nice note saying how happy you are to continue working with them through the next year.

Donation Receipt FAQ

Should a donation be recorded on the date received or the date on the check?
According to IRS Publication 526, p13, a donation should be recorded “at the time of it’s unconditional delivery.” In other words if it’s hand delivered then at the time of delivery. If it’s mailed by check then on the date of mailing, which would be the postmark date.

What should a donation receipt look like?
Anything you want. As long as you include the 5 items listed above. Make it fit the image of your organization. If you want to get fancy you can turn it into a 4 page impact report. If you want to save money it can be just one page. I suggest something similar to your letter head. Check out this sample End of Year Tax Summary for some ideas.

How do I value in-kind donations?
Don’t! You are in the business of helping people not estimating product worth. It is the donors responsibility to estimate the value of the items for tax purposes. All you have to do is list a description of the item. Leave the heavy work up to the donor.

If I included donation info on thank you letters for each donation do I still need to send a year end summary?
No. If your thank you letter contained all five of the points above you do not need to send a year end summary. But, you still might want to send one anyway for the convenience of your donors.

updated 2017