Over the Rainbow Clairity Click-it: Useful Nonprofit Links, Free Resources

Somewhere the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. Hasn’t that always been true for for your nonprofit?

Where troubles melt like lemon drops… You’re always trying to find that place, are you not? In that regard, the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t changed a thing.

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue. You’re still fighting the good fight, trying to wake up where the clouds are far behind you. Right?

Granted, it’s a bit more challenging now. Whether you’re needing to ramp up services or find a way to pivot to sustain your relevance, wishing on a star won’t get you there. But some of these awesome resources I’ve collected for you will help! I’m writing a lot on Clairification about what to do during this extraordinary time. If you’re not yet enrolled as a Clairification School student, now’s a great time to join in and connect with your peers.

Meanwhile… why not dig into some of these amazing articles, webinars, podcasts and e-guides I’ve collected for you across the web? Lots of wisdom to help you mitigate the pain now and prepare for the day when things evolve to a new normal. Crisis has a way of forcing us to re-evaluate what’s important, and what’s not. Seize this opportunity to innovate, adapt and tweak what you’ve been doing so you’ll come out on the other side even stronger than you were before.

You are making the world a better place. This was true yesterday. It’s true today. It will be true tomorrow. You are on the front lines of enacting values other people care about. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be your supporters. Keep faith in your vision. I promise you, it is one that is shared.

It is my privilege and pleasure to help you fly over the rainbow with the happy little bluebirds – at least as much as is humanly possible.

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Many thanks to Bloomerang for sponsoring the Clairity Click-it. Please remember to bookmark the Ask an Expert page — my fundraising advice column on their website! Ask your question here!

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

SPECIAL CATEGORY: Tips for Not-So-Normal Times

ARTICLES

Asking

Click-it: Crisis of Confidence: Your Nonprofit’s Worst Fundraising Enemy. If you’re going dark on your donors right now out of fear – real, misplaced or some combination thereof – you’re doing everyone a disservice. Your organization, and all those who rely on your continued existence, will be left in the lurch without donor support. Grab my 5 strategies to fundraise with confidence in a crisis on the Bloomerang blog.

Click-it: The good news about the COVID-19 crisis. Again, if you’re not out there asking now, you’re missing the boat. Read about what other successful organizations are doing in the post from Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now.

Click-it: Supercharge nonprofit coronavirus fundraising with 4 easy steps. In this guest post for the Candid blog, I offer a step-by-step approach to communicating effectively with those who will see you through this crisis. Truthfully, these four steps work in good times and bad! So start now; then make this your M.O. from hereon out.

Communications and Marketing

Click-it: RISE to the Challenge: a Powerful Virtual Fundraiser to Raise Money NOW. Sandy Rees, Get Fully Funded, has a lovely way of organizing your strategies. This is not an ‘event,’ but a process – from reaching out… to offering insight… to show and tell… to encouraging philanthropy. Brilliant!

Major and Legacy Giving

Click-it: Unplanning Planned Giving. People today are thinking about mortality in ways they previously had not. Fraser Green, Good Works blog, suggests this means ‘planned giving’ has shifted from a reflective to a reactive process. What should your nonprofit do in response? Grab four suggestions here.

Planning

Click-it: Supercharge nonprofit coronavirus fundraising with an articulated plan. Throwing spaghetti against a wall to see what sticks certainly keeps you busy, yet it can be incredibly time-consuming and ultimately unfruitful. In this guest post for the Candid blog I suggest two ways to frame planning that will help you create order out of chaos. Pick your favorite!

Strategy and Management

Click-it: Is It Time to Pivot? Erica Waasdorp, A Direct Solution, suggests going back to fundraising basics will stand you in good stead.

Click-it: Ways To Use Zoom Breakout Rooms To Increase Meeting Engagement. Beth Kanter always has the best practical advice!

Click-it: A Priest and a Therapist Walk Into a Bar. This post from Joan Garry, Nonprofits are Messy, deserves a look just for the title! It’s about how, as a nonprofit leader, you have to keep managing and leading from a distance. And the advice is super useful.

NOTE: You’ll find more of my own ‘what to do in this crisis’ articles on Clairification (just scroll to the bottom of the Click-it).

DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES

Communications

Click-it: Covid-19 Communications Swap [Download free examples]. Lynn Wester, Donor Relations Guru, has collected tons of samples from which to borrow ideas. Appeals, acknowledgements, videos, web pages, landing pages and more!

Click-it: 10 Tips to Host a Successful Online Auction. If you’re planning to take your in-person auction online, or perhaps host a brand new online auction to substitute for another type of event, Classy has some step-by-step suggestions for you.

Online Fundraising and Marketing

Click-it: Meet Your Supporters Where They Are During COVID 19: Facebook Strategies to Engage and Fundraise [Join free on-demand video podcast]. If you’re interested in using Facebook’s tools to help you adapt and raise money during the COVID-19 pandemic, this fun, instructive session on Qgiv with Facebook alumna Kendra Sinclair is chock-full of examples and ideas.

Other Learning Opportunities

WEBINARS & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES

Donor Retention

Click-it: Donor Welcome and Thank You Email Series [Tune in to free, on-demand session]. Saying thank you to donors giving to you during this uncertain time is more important than ever. Listen in to Pamela Grow’s ‘Motivate Monday’ session with the late John Haydon for some expert tips.

Major and Legacy Gifts

Click-it: Cues and Clues: What Prospects are Telling You and What You Need to Say [Register for free webinar, 5-20-2020]. There’s a lot of knowledge you can glean from donor behavior. Once gleaned, it’s important to know how to respond! Join this webinar from Stelter to gain new confidence.

Click-it: Major Giving Metrics: What to Measure, and How [Listen to free on-demand podcast]. In this episode from Pursuant, learn what to measure, how to measure it and how to create a culture of data-driven change.

Monthly Giving

Click-it: Engaging Your Donors So They Stay and Give Funds You Can Count On for Years to Come [Register for free webinar, 5-13-2020]. A monthly giving program is among your best strategies to retain and upgrade donors. In this interactive Firespring webinar with Erica Waasdorp, you’ll learn how to fit recurring giving asks into your overall communication schedule, upgrade existing monthly donors and prevent monthly donors from lapsing.

DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES

Boards

Click-it: How to Turn Your Board Members Into Fundraisers [Download free e-guide]. Grab this 3-step plan from Network for Good, including templates your board can use while fundraising.

Database and Technology Solutions

Click-it: Three Components of the Nonprofit Tech Stack [Download free white paper]. Modern nonprofits that want to provide personalized experiences must have an integrated tech stack. Learn from the good folks at Merkle how Constituent Relationship Management, Direct Response Platform, and Digital Execution Platform make up today’s modern nonprofit marketing tech stack and why your CRM may not be enough as a standalone solution.

Online Fundraising

Click-it: The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Fundraising [Download free e-guide]. Since just about everything is virtual these days, the timing couldn’t be better for this e-guide from Network for Good. These tips are also evergreen. You’ll get six essential digital tools and strategies, learn how to measure your results, and much more.

Did You Miss My Recent Articles?

Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog. I think you’ll find these fairly practical. Hope so!

Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and Clairification School is affordable because of their generosity.

Hope to see you in Clairification School!

2 Comments

Reply

May 8, 2020 at 12:24 pm

Beth Kanter

Thanks for including my blog post in your resource round up!
- Reply
  
  May 9, 2020 at 6:16 pm
  
  Claire Axelrad
  
  Thanks for your consistently excellent content Beth. Be well.

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

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Claire is a fundraising ninja

Joanne Fritz

Nonprofit Charitable Organizations Guide, About.com

Engaging your help was such a huge pivot moment for me and the Board. We would never – not in a million years – have even dreamed of doing a significant challenge at our event without all of the teaching, support, resources and guidance that you brought to us. Sometimes there are these moments in life that you only realize in retrospect were miracles – and that is exactly how I look back at that decision to work with you on our fundraising engine!

Julia Wilson, E.D.

OneJustice

Your piece on attrition, Claire, is dynamite. Amazing. It’s precisely on target. Congratulations.

Jerry Panas

CEO / Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners

Brilliant summary of the whole “story v. stats” thing, Claire. Thank you.

Tom Ahern

Principal / Ahern Donor Communications

Claire Axelrad has been a highly effective fundraiser for over 30 years and her blog is just a wealth of wisdom. What’s particularly notable about Clairification is that although the work is based on decades of past experience, Claire is always looking forward as well. She was the first among her veteran fundraising peers to embrace online and social fundraising and is now one of their most sensible and insightful proponents. She’s a great resource!

Keith Heller

CEO / Heller Consulting

You have been absolutely terrific to work with. Your roadmap and assessment of where we are and where we can go has been so instrumental in having the board stop and think about our future. Your audit is allowing us to move forward in tangible ways to improve our work so that we may help more clients in need of our services. I will count you among my many blessings throughout the year.

Silvia Argueta

E.D. / Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation

I’m subscribed to a million fundraising blogs and the one I consistently open and read most of, is yours. The content is always carefully curated and helpful, not just sales pitch after sales pitch for your own stuff. You stand out, in a good way.

Juliane McLean

Development Coordinator / Bridgercare

You are one of the few fundraising experts that I read faithfully, and we have no shortage of those who publish regularly. But your material is always thoughtful and realistic. Thank you for your candor and good advice.

Richard Ajulani

, Senior Director Individual Gifts / LifeMoves

We have been loving the work of Claire Axelrad since we came across her work, every blog of hers is insightful, well thought out and enlightening.

Good Eggs Storytellers

Most lucid, most succinct checklist I have read on the engagement process. This is the best. Should be required reading for all concerned with major gift solicitation.

Giles Pegram, CBE

Fundraising Consultant / London, England

You are a forever flowing fountain of enormous information and a wealth of ideas. Thanks for being there for all of us small non-profits

Sharon Coleman

St. Francis House

I read your newsletter all the time and find your advice “spot on” and always usable. I pass it on consistently to the staff and other board members. I really appreciate all you do to help nonprofits. Thanks.

Hal Leeds

, Partner Global Sales & Marketing Consultancy / Working to Eliminate Poverty and Educational Inequality

You remind me about what is most important and why I love this profession. I just discovered you and your blog about three weeks ago and I wanted to write today to say thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise. I find your posts, new and old, so spot on. You nail it.

– Heather Wardle CFRE

Vancouver BC

Everybody involved in philanthropy should read these articles slowly and with a very opened mind and a willingness to take from them the necessary components to change the manner and techniques we presently use in order to embrace what philanthropy is all about “Love”. I have no doubt it would be transformational.

Tom Walsh

Business Development Exec / Active Retirement Ireland

Suggest subscribing. Thanks, Claire! I am a regular- and I have forwarded your thoughtful and inspiring column and as well. Keep up the good work.

Margot Harrigan

Corporate Development Officer / Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley

I came across your website and I hit the goldmine! I was asked to join a board and found I need to understand how to build a donor base from the ground up. I searched, only to find expensive consultants or free info that didn’t offer any helpful information. Thank you for sharing so much valuable information!!

Erica Martinez

Claire, you consistently remind me of the proven basic facts of fundraising!! Thank you!! I consistently share them with our team and with the newbie fundraisers I am mentoring.

Margie McCurry

Fund Builders Alliance

Could not make it any easier… Claire Axelrad straightforwardly tells social media/marketing managers of nonprofit organizations that they need to change how they communicate with

UMV

Charity Chatter

Many thanks – this is terrific, impressive data! You are an impressive source. And I’ve been around a long time.

Sara Becker

Oakland Zoo

Wow! Inspiration out the wazoo! Many thanks — I keep up with trends and lots of blog-posts to stay on top of my game. This goes way beyond technique and reaches deep inside to remind me why I’ve done this work for 40 years!

Pam Montgomery

Executive Director / Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley

Thank you for your brilliant blog. I have been a follower for many years and learnt so much from you. Ultimately, it translates into many more families getting the support they deserve. You help me raise more money for my UK charity. Please never stop bringing the best out of me! You’re special.

Anna Henry

Eric.org

Exactly what our profession can use – clarification –- the title of your blog. You help us keep faith with the past while making sense of the present and future. You have a balanced and respectful understanding of what this is all about. Thanks.

James M. Schaffer

Partner / Charity Springs

I’d recommend you sign up. I signed up for about a dozen blogging fundraiser consultants, but have since canceled most. She’s one of two left standing. I like how she organizes her thoughts about fundraising, and her conversation planning techniques are very familiar to me from my work as a prosecutor. I believe that she was a practicing attorney and who changed careers like I have, and my best guess is that she was a litigator as well. This is a very good article and there are several other blogs (her own) that she links to within it, so even though this is a small article you could spend some time here.

Cole Eason, J.D. ’92

Office of University Advancement / Rockhurst University

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…