Clairity Click-it: Cornucopia of Free Nonprofit Resources
I’ve collected bountiful gifts for you this month — because it’s a good time to curl up next to a warm fire with your laptop and get in some inspirational reading. Remember, my motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it!”
I’m dedicated to paying it forward after 30 years of in-the-trenches nonprofit work. As others helped me, so do I want to help you. I put a lot of work into curating and sending the Clairity Click-it to you on a bimonthly basis, and once again want to thank my new 2018 sponsor, Bloomerang, for keeping this newsletter free.
I hope you’ll also enroll this year in ‘Clairification School’. You’ll get access to ALL my content for a full 12 months, including original weekly articles, bonus webinars and more, in the most cost-effective way I’ve found to deliver it. Here’s what one reader wrote to me about a recent article: “This is just SUCH good advice and like a Major Gift master class.”
If you can’t afford to attend an online class or a conference, or hire me as a coach, I’m hoping you can afford to pay less than $2/week to receive articles that are the equivalent of a Master Class. Articles that will help you raise much more than you invest by enrolling.
Your support makes it possible for everyone and, truly, means a lot.
P.S. Questions? Just ask! Please email me at claire@clairification.com. I read and respond to every single email.
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
Annual Individual Giving
Click-it: Why Your Segmentation Probably Stinks (and What to Do About It). Here’s a useful article on donor segmentation, and where you can go awry. Do it, but do it in a way that’s useful – to you and to your donors. From Kevin Shulman of Donor Voice, courtesy of Nonprofit Pro.
Click-it: What one brilliant arts organization can teach us about fundraising This is a great article by Mary Cahalane of Hands On Fundraising about the right way to structure your constituent journey so you turn more of them into donors. I wish I’d written it!
Business Sponsors
Click-it: Seven Corporate Sponsorship Strategies for the New Year.This comes from Chris Baylis of The Sponsorship Collective. You can also grab a free sponsorship template here.
Content Marketing
Click-it: How to Create Your 2018 Nonprofit Content Strategy in Just 2 Steps. I like just about anything written by Julia C. Campbell of JCSM, and this is no exception. If you do these two things, you can’t go wrong. Of course, the devil’s in the details – but at least wrap your strategy in these two pieces of advice.
Click-it: Two Ways to Transform Your Annual Report from Dull to Dynamic. This is a super-useful guest post by Nancy Schwartz, nonprofit communications guru, on The Nonprofit Marketing Blog. If you’re thinking about not producing an annual report this year in order to save money, consider downsizing and taking these tips to heart instead. If you turn it into a ‘Gratitude Report,’ it becomes a gift to your donors!
Data & Metrics
Click-it: Questions to Answer & Metrics to Measure for a Stronger New Year. You’ve no doubt heard it said that what gets measured gets done? Zach Shefska of The Fundraising Report Card suggests what you may want to measure in the coming year. This is important stuff!
Donor Retention
Click-it: Key Donor Love Strategies to Keep Nonprofit Supporters Loyal. Check out my article on the Bloomerang blog. You’re going to need these tips to keep all the donors you secure this month!
Click-it: Planning your “thank you” campaign. If you’ve been a member of the Clairification School for any time, you know I advise you to write your thank you at the same time you write your appeal. So I love the notion of treating ‘thank you’ as a campaign. Check out this spot-on article by Ronald Pruitt of 4aGoodCause.
Click-it: Is Your Monthly Donor Tax-Letter Ready? This is a useful piece of advice from monthly giving guru Erica Waasdorp.
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: The New Golden Age of Planned Giving. Changes in the tax law mean that wealthy donors will have even more reasons than before to engage in charitable planning. Here’s what Randy Fox of the Planned Giving Design Center has to say about how the evolving landscape may affect you and your donors.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Google for Nonprofits Grant Gives You $120,000 in FREE Ads Each Year FOREVER. This is super comprehensive, includes an infographic for visual learners, and tells you everything you need to know about leveraging this terrific marketing opportunity. Thanks to the folks at Ally360.
Click-it: Nonprofits & IoT: Voice-Activated Fundraising Anyone? Check out my guest post on Nonprofit Pro. Think this sounds far-fetched? 57% of smart speaker owners have bought something with their voice. Can donating be far behind?
Click-it: What You Should Invest in for 2018. Beth Brodosky of Iris Creative asked me for one thing I thought nonprofits should invest more in this coming year. Here’s my response.
Click-it: Nonprofit Planning for 2018: Your Top 3 Nonprofit Digital Marketing Challenges – And My Solutions. There’s no one whose advice on digital marketing and social media I heed more than Julia C. Campbell of JCSM. Get off to a good start this year by reading this article.
Click-it: Online Social Media: Where Do Your Peeps Hang Out? This is my monthly guest post for Maximize Social Business, where I serve as their nonprofit social media expert. What’s cool about this is I am not, not, not a technology whiz. Which is to say that you can do this too!
Storytelling
Click-it: How to Tell a Nonprofit Story: Connect the Story to a Broader Context. Vanessa Chase Lockshin of The Storytelling Nonprofit advises: “If you really want to kick it up a notch, connect your story, your work to something bigger.” Good advice!
Trends
Click-it: Top 10 Fundraising Trends for 2018. I was going to create my own list of trends, but to be honest I love Gail Perry’s Fired Up Fundraising list so much that I don’t need to. I agree with every single one of her trends. The only one I’d add would be to become supremely adept at content marketing – something I’ll be talking about a lot in the coming year. If I had to pick my top trends, they’d be ##4, 7, 8 and 9. What do you think?
Click-it: Ushering in the Future [Download article]. AFP’s Advancing Philanthropy magazine, celebrating its silver anniversary, is filled with articles about philanthropy frontiers. Here is an interesting one by Stephen Nill of Charity Channel (coincidentally, also celebrating its silver anniversary). Congrats to you both, and thanks for all your wisdom through the years!
Websites
Click-it: Eight common user experience problems (and solutions) for nonprofit websites. This article is chock full of useful advice. This is Part 2. You’ll want to read Part 1 as well. Thanks to Mike Mella at Be like water media.
FREE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
The more you learn, the more you grow.
Finding webinars you’d like to attend that overlap? Note that for many of these webinars you can obtain a copy of the recording if you’re unable to join live – as long as you register!
Donor Retention
Click-it: Cultivate Stronger Donors Without Sending More Appeals [Register for free webinar, 1-24-18]. The folks at NextAfter cover three proven strategies and tactics to cultivate stronger donors, increase retention rates, and grow your revenue
Major Gifts
Click-it: 7 Steps For Getting Started in Major Gifts [Register for free webinar, 1-24-18] This webinar by Kathie Kramer Ryan on Hubspot should be a nice complement to my upcoming 8-week Winning Major Gifts eCourse which commences January 23rd].
Management and Strategy
Click-it: The Top 10 Things Nonprofits Should Be Doing in 2018 [Register for free webinar, 2-21-18]. Guidestar and Crowdrise collaborate to reveal the most important things to do to ensure 2018 is your most successful year ever.
Marketing Communications
Click-it: Soul-Searching: The starting line for non-profit communications planning [Register for free webinar, 2-6-18]. Join Vanessa Chase Lockshin of The Storytelling Nonprofit for this session on finding your voice and becoming proactive with your brand and communications.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Standing Out In the Inbox: Email Marketing for the Modern Nonprofit [Register for free webinar 1-25-18]. Julia C. Campbell of JCSM will make it abundantly clear why email is not dead, and will give you strategic tips to make email an even better work horse for you in the coming year.
Storytelling
Click-it: 15 Must-Haves for Powerful Storytelling [Register for free webinar, 1-25-18]. The experts at TrueSense Marketing will share the storytelling secrets that bring success in direct-response fundraising.
FREE DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES
Annual Giving
Click-it: Donor Advised Fund Widget [Download website code for free]. This nifty website tool from Market Smart makes it easy for donors with donor advised funds to recommend distributions from your nonprofit. The DAF Widget goes on your organization’s website. Your donors with DAF accounts then can easily find their account management company from a comprehensive list of over 800 service providers. Then, they simply click to go directly to their DAF management company’s website where they can enter the relevant information to make a donation recommendation for your organization. To see the widget live, visit the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society website by clicking here.
Donor Retention
Click-it: How to Build a Donor-Centered Gift Acknowledgment Program [Download free e-Guide]. I wrote the book – and it’s a gift from me and the wonderful folks at Bloomerang!
Event Fundraising
Click-it: The Ultimate Guide to Online Event Registration and Ticketing [Free guide]. Thank you Accelevents for this handy resource showing how to use online technology to open doors, increase accessibility, and improve the registration and event ticketing process.
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: The Art of Soliciting a Donor [Download free white paper]. You won’t find better experts on major donor fundraising than Jeff Schreifels and Richard Perry of The Veritus Group. Their resources all offer sound advice.
Click-it: Visual Planned Giving [Download free e-book]. Renowned charitable tax planning expert, Dr. Russell James, has updated his book on charitable gift planning to reflect the changes of the new Tax Law. Market Smart offers it here for free.
Planning
Click-it: Create Your Nonprofit Fundraising Plan in Seven Easy Steps [Download free template]. This is from Liz Ragland at Network for Good, and it comes at an opportune time to get you on track for this to be your best year ever!
Click-it: 8 Free 2018 Budget Templates [Download for free]. A gift from Hubspot to get you started.
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
Enroll in ‘Clairification School’ and get access to every single article I’ve ever written – with new ones delivered weekly straight to your in-box! Here are links to my most recent articles. You get six free articles; then you’ll want to enroll.
- Philanthropy, Not Fundraising: I Have a Dream 2018
- Readers’ Favorites: Top 10 Clairification Articles 2017
- New Tax Law: How Worried Should Your Nonprofit Be?
- Nonprofit Major Donor Fundraising A B C’s
- How to Inspire Philanthropists to Help Your Nonprofit Cause
- Are the Rich Motivated to Give Differently?
LAST DAY to register
My popular 8-week online Winning Major Gifts eCourse commences January 23rd. If you’re ready to take the plunge, I guarantee you’ll raise more money next year.
SIgn up before midnight PST January 20th.
