Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Please enjoy these links, free resources and training opportunities. I hope you’ll find plenty of food for thought, plus some useful practical tools to help you along your journey towards making the world a kinder, gentler and more caring place.
Donor Retention
Click-it: Donor Care Letter from Children’s Cancer Institute. Sean Triner of The Pareto Group shared this great example of a donor-centric thank you letter he received. What I especially like about it is all the different ways they personalized it to reflect the donor’s unique experience with this charity.
Integrated Donor-Centered Content Marketing
Click-it: 6 Nonprofit Email Marketing Stats On How People Engage With Email. All year I’ve been encouraging you to commit to online social fundraising. That doesn’t mean you should abandon email fundraising! It’s still the workhorse when it comes to delivering content to your targeted constituency. But I’ll bet you can improve your results if you heed some of these tips from Cause Vox. For starters, see what the average “open” rate is for nonprofits, and how you can improve upon this.
Major Gifts, Boards and Fundraising
Click-it: Turning Board Members into Fundraisers. I recently had the opportunity to offer a webinar on this subject with Network for Good. There were so many great questions, they asked me to offer a “Q & A” article as a follow-up. Here it is, in case you missed it.
Food for Thought
Click-it: 15 Fundraising Success Metrics to Start Tracking. Use this super handy checklist from Donor Search to begin to measure your success. Because what’s measured is what gets improved!
Click-it: Charity Navigator Updates Rating System, 27 Percent of Charities Get New Star Rating. Sean Norris of NonprofitPro writes about the long-awaited change in how nonprofits are rated. No longer is overhead the overarching guide to effectiveness. It’s about time! You can read more on why this change is important here.
Click-it: The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding. I love color, and the psychology of how color affects our emotions fascinates me. This is a good take on the subject by Gregory Ciotti of Help Scout, and worth a read. Did you know that researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone? The kicker is that the judgements folks make aren’t universal; it depends on the product. So what yellow connotes for one type of nonprofit may be different than what it connotes for another. Color isn’t simple. What is?
FREE RESOURCES + LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Click-it: Charitable Solicitation Compliance [Free Whitepaper]. Harbor Compliance recently released this whitepaper to help nonprofits navigate state charitable solicitation regulations – something becoming increasingly important as more charities raise funds online, beyond their own state borders. Failure to comply with state regulations can lead to fines, denial of the right to fundraise in a state, loss of state recognition of tax-exempt status, and even prosecution of officers and directors. So… check it out.
Click-it: How to Get Donors to Fund General Operations [White Paper]. Getting donors to fund your operations requires combining a specific, “fundable project” (something with a budget that includes overhead), with a great story. Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels of The Veritus Group offer this template for breaking down your general fund into tasty “packages” that will inspire your donors to give – and cover your overhead costs!
Click-it: 5 Keys to Storytelling Success – How Your Organization Can Tell Great Stories This Year [Free Webinar]. Speaking of a great story, Vanessa Chase of The Storytelling Nonprofit offers this free “how to” session twice – June 15 at 10 am PST and June 16 at 1pm PST. Click on the link to register and avail yourself of this great opportunity.
The #ClairityClick-it is a bi-monthly publication linking to useful resources and insights I find across the web. This year I’m showcasing articles that highlight the “Dive the Five” fundraising fundamentals we’re collectively digging into in depth over the course of this year. For more on this, read Want to Guarantee Fundraising Success? Dive These 5 Fundamentals.
For more on these subject areas, check out:
- Major Gifts Playbook (a 4-volume set; get them all at a discount or buy them individually to meet your specific needs)
- Major Gifts Actionable Checklists & Cheat Sheets (If all of these issues resonate with you, then you’ll want to get them all. If you’re struggling with a particular area, then you can just get the one or two you need most.)
- Donor Retention and Gratitude Playbook (you’ll learn about both donor retention and developing a culture that channels an attitude of gratitude in this 6-volume set)
- Nonprofit Blogging that Drives Engagement Playbook (you’ll learn about both content marketing and online social fundraising in this 4-volume set)
Make sure you’re subscribed to Clairification so you don’t miss an article!
