Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Today I want to remind you that part and parcel of your personal mission, as a philanthropy facilitator, is to bring supporters opportunities for meaning and purpose.
Because when you help increase others’ sense of wellbeing, not only is the world a better place but these folks are more likely to demonstrate gratitude by giving of themselves.
Meaning drives us to act with generosity and resolve.
There is no substitute for this, not even happiness – the pursuit of which is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution). But is that really what it’s all about? If so, the U.S. is failing. Did you know the U.S. dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries for the first time ever, dropping from #15 to #23?
“Point is: the good life isn’t about “happiness.” It’s about meaning. Meaning is more resilient. More significant. More enduring. It emerges when we live out our most noble motivations. It’s a process, not a point in time. It’s a never ending game. All we can do is choose to keep playing.
What would happen if we stopped measuring happiness, and started measuring the amount of meaning we experience? And more importantly, if we reoriented our lives, our work, and our organizations toward cultivating more of it?”
— Hugh MacLeod, Gaping Void. Why We’re Measuring the Wrong Thing
Or consider this:
“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”
–Viktor Frankl
MacLeod argues autonomy, purpose, community, mastery, and connection are far more holistic and effective heuristics than measuring “happiness,” as these have been shown to increase feelings of well-being. I would add these are things philanthropy facilitators should strive for as well, rather than focusing solely on monetary transactions.
If you help people find meaning and purpose, the money will follow.
Okay, let’s get in to today’s content. Hopefully some of the resources I’ve collected over the past two weeks will help you enact your mission. As always, a big thank you to my sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the hours of time hunting, gathering and choosing the eclectic resources I believe will best meet the needs of the diverse range of folks who comprise the critically important social benefit sector.
You’ve got this!
Thank you for doing your vital work, with gratitude,
Claire
P.S. Please scroll down to see all my Clairification School sponsors who enable me to offer enrollment in ‘Clairification School at an affordable price [If the enrollment fee is a hardship, please email me and we’ll work it out.]
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
SPECIAL FEATURE: Rising to the Moment
ARTICLES
Click-it: Overcoming Fear and Seeking Solidarity: How We Must Defend Our Communities. When your institution and/or those who rely on you are at risk, how should you respond? Rudy Espinoza, executive director of Inclusive Action for the City, writes in Nonprofit Quarterly about confronting our own fears to support the future we all deserve.
Click-it: For Nonprofits, Trump’s Cuts Echo Reagan Era, but With Striking Differences This article in Chronicle of Philanthropy draws fascinating parallels to the early 1980s, when philanthropy grew by leaps and bounds in reaction to Reagan administration budget cuts. Times are different now, and developing a playbook for moving forward is more difficult. This article argues individual donors can help, but can’t possibly fill all the gaps. It’s a time for diversifying revenue streams, including earned income.
ARTICLES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: What Is Cadence-Based Fundraising? Cadence-based fundraising is a strategic approach to donor engagement that uses a consistent rhythm of interactions with donors to build regular and meaningful touchpoints throughout the year. Learn the key ingredients of effective cadences, and how this strategy can increase donor lifetime value, in this article from Momentum.
Click-it: A mini-masterclass in direct mail. Want an example of great direct mail? Look no further than this post from Mark Phillips on the QI blog.
Click-it:. Are you raising funds like Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice?. Gotta love this depiction of the all-too-frequent way nonprofits approach would-be donors. From Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now. Don’t miss the attached YouTube video.
Click-it: How to Write for Older Donors. Lisa Sargent, The Loyalty Letter, provides invaluable advice. There’s simply no point in sending an appeal people will struggle to read. People’s eyes begin to age at 40. By 65, when they’re at a generous giving age, they really need big type with lots of contrast. Lisa provides 7 specific pieces of advice. Read and heed.
Database
Click-it: 7 Tips For Setting Up Your First Donor CRM. If you’re in the market for choosing a new donor database, you’ll find this article from Caitlin McBride on the Bloomerang blog helpful.
Donor Retention
Click-it: We tested reactivating newly lapsed donors in acquisition. Here’s what happened. The RKD Group tested the proposition “as acquired, so renewed.” They found donors who’d lapsed over a 13 to 24-month period renewed at more than double the rate when sent an acquisition mailing rather than a standard renewal mailing. Revenue increased by 2,454%! Something worth considering?
Events
Click-it: Maximize Auctria: More ways to fundraise. The folks at Auctria specialize not just in auctions, but also on myriad ways to maximize event revenue. Whatever tools you use, these ideas are worth a look. You’re already putting a lot of resources into your event; may as well get the biggest bang for your buck possible. There are all sorts of ideas in here, from sponsorships to raffles to games to competitive challenges and more. Fun stuff to consider!
Click-it: How to Combine an Online Raffle and In-Person Raffle. If you’re looking to boost your fundraiser’s reach, consider running a virtual raffle alongside your traditional raffle. The folks at Eventgroove pass on tips for hybrid raffle success from their customers, and share plenty of tips and practical advice.
Major, Capital and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: The Best Questions to Ask Major Donors – And Why They Matter So Much. Successful fundraising is about listening. So, you need to prepare yourself with open-ended questions that will help you discover how your donor identifies and what they hope to accomplish. This article from Gail Perry offers three groups of questions for you to use, depending where you are in the process of learning your donor’s story.
Click-it:.6 Reasons to Start a Capital Campaign in a Down Economy. While you might guess donors won’t want to give to you right now, Amy Eisenstein at Capital Campaign Pro suggests you can’t assume your donors won’t give until they tell you otherwise. She then offers six great reasons you should not delay your campaign to a later date. Waiting is a huge risk.
Click-it: How AI Is Influencing Major Gifts Fundraising. These days, non-profits and major gift fundraisers are increasingly leveraging AI to enhance donor targeting, personalize engagement, improve operational efficiency, and optimize fundraising strategies. This article from the Veritus Group suggest how it can help you with targeting, personal engagement, operational efficiency, strategic campaign planning, data-driven insights, broader outreach and more.
NOTE: Want to become a master of major gift fundraising – a highly valued skill? This might be a great time to consider exploring certification. I highly recommend this fully revamped Veritus Group course: Certification Course for Major Gift Fundraisers. If you’re the executive or manager, there’s a companion course for you! The next cohort begins June 9th, and you’ll SAVE $200 if you register before May 9th. After completion you’ll become a member of the prestigious Veritus Scholars. If you have any questions, just reply to this email and I’ll be happy to discuss whether this course may be right for you. I promise to be honest.
Online, Digital Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: How a personalized sender impacts open and click-through rates. NextAfter continues to generously share results of A/B tests for their clients. In this one, addressing the sender by name increased opens by a statistically significant 33.5% and click-throughs by 12%. Moral of the story? You can increase your email results by getting thoughtful and creative!
Click-it: How to Write the Perfect Fundraising Email [12 Templates]. Who doesn’t love some good templates from which to borrow? Classy has you covered here, with just about everything you could ever need.
Click-it: How to Drive Traffic to Your Nonprofit Online Donation Page. This is a comprehensive review from Julia C. Campbell of everything you should be considering when you launch a fundraising campaign. Grab these top strategies to promote your donation page!
Storytelling
Click-it: Spring Campaign Success: Using Storytelling to Stand Out in Crowded Nonprofit Inboxes. Check out this post on the iDonate blog from Katelyn Baughan about the demonstrated benefits of assuring stories are featured in your appeals. Research published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision-Making shows narrative-driven appeals featuring identifiable individuals can generate significantly higher donations—in some studies nearly twice as much—compared to appeals using statistical information alone. Why? Because stories fundamentally change how our brains process information:
Click-it: How I wrote it. ‘You want the donor to sit down afterwards and feel some kind of powerful emotion.’ So says Jules Brown, veteran fundraising copywriter extraordinaire, who shares his process for writing compelling appeals on SOFII. This is a Master Class in telling the story of one relatable person.
Strategy, Management and Leadership
Click-it: 10 things fundraisers should be doing NOW. You can read Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now, Cliff’s Notes here or read the OG full article from the Agitator-DonorVoice blog. I encourage you to go through each of these 10 strategies thoughtfully and consider how you might approach things differently to maximize success – for today and tomorrow.
Technology as Tool
Click-it: Your Fundraising Team Needs a Robot With The Right Personality. If you’ve been resisting AI, this is a must-read from Kevin Shulman, the Agitator-DonorVoice. Unless you want to keep getting further and further behind. Top finding? Fundraising teams that used AI to assist their work were 60% more productive per worker than teams that did not. The kicker? You must match the type of AI to the type of worker. READ this!
Click-it: HubSpot — The Anti-CRM CRM for Nonprofits. This Nonprofit Tech for Good article from Benevolent Tech blew my mind. It’s a new approach to the notion one database must serve all needs, replacing the idea of a donor CRM with a data hub ecosystem with integrated applications. Definitely something to think about as you assess your needs, strengths and weaknesses moving forward.
Other Learning Opportunities
WEBINARS, PODCASTS, & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
If you can’t attend live, or are interested in sessions happening at overlapping times, note many are available via recording – but ONLY if you REGISTER!
Events
Click-it: Level Up Your Event Marketing With Email [Register for free webinar, 4-16-2025]. Join Vanessa Chase Lockshin, the Storytelling Nonprofit, and Laurie Hochman of Auctria, for this session focusing on selling more event tickets and/or raising more money through online auctions. Learn what types of emails to send, grab tips to improve click-through rates, and more.
Strategy, Management and Leadership
Click-it: Plan Perfect: Transforming Nonprofit Strategic Planning [Listen to on-demand podcast]. Learn how new tools can empower you to create dynamic plans that grow you’re your mission instead of collecting dust. Nonprofit Hub hosts this session shows you how to enrich your strategic processes with essential feedback from stakeholders, enabling you to adjust plans actively and measure success directly.
Technology as Tool
Click-it: Trusted Digital Labor: Nonprofit Virtual Tech Lab [Listen to on-demand podcast or read transcript]. Join Storyraise and guest presenter Emily Groccia from Version2.ai for this dive into how you can use A.I. to better engage the fullness of your donor pipeline. Not just major donors, but also mid-level and recurring donors who may be your next campaign supporters. Learn how Autonomous Fundraising creates a layer of trusted digital labor, empowering you to collaboratively expand the reach of traditional human teams.
Volunteers
Click-it: Making the Case: Communicating the Impact of Corporate Volunteerism to Leadership [Register for free webinar, 4-21-2025]. Corporate volunteerism programs provide a valuable opportunity to unlock funding, strengthen supporter relationships, and enhance workplace giving efforts. However, demonstrating the ROI and convincing your team to invest time in identifying eligible supporters and marketing these opportunities can be challenging. Join Double the Donation for this webinar to learn how to make the case for corporate volunteerism within your nonprofit.
Websites
Click-it: An Inside Look at Firespring’s Nonprofit Websites [Register for free webinar, 4-29-2025]. Join Kiersten Hill of Firespring as she demystifies the process of building a powerful nonprofit website with a built-in CMS and fundraising tool that does it all. If you struggle with your web presence and want some tips on how to make your website more effective, this is for you.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, PAPERS, TEMPLATES & OTHER RESOURCES
Website
Click-it: Is Your Website AI-Friendly? The 8-Point Checklist for Keeping AI Visitors Happy. This is material that may not be on your radar. Yet. Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios explains your website is no longer just for human visitors. Want to find the balance between adding the details that truly matter to your audience and what matters to AI? Read all about the issues and actions for an AI-friendly and human-friendly website.
Did You Miss My Newest Articles?
Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog. Remember, your goal is not simply to squeeze money out of people. It’s to give donors a squeeze and a hug for being caring and generous. This will make them feel good, which will move them to continue sticking with you.
Your Donors Aren’t Thinking About Tax Breaks — And Neither Should You (At First)
Heartbreaking Missed Opportunities: Is Your Nonprofit Falling Short of Its True Fundraising Power?
Unforgiveable Nonprofit Thank You Letter Mistakes
Totally FAKE Nonprofit News: 6 Fundraising Untruths
Nonprofit Survival Requires People of Goodwill and a Culture of Philanthropy
Top Strategies to Effectively Weather the Storms Threatening Nonprofits Today
Finally… if you have a question, any question…
Check out my free fundraising advice column on the Bloomerang blog! Ask your question here. And bookmark the Ask an Expert page for any time you have a question! Here’s one: Best Ways To Get Started Using Generative And Predictive AI For Nonprofits
REMINDER for Clairification School students: Don’t forget to log in to your “My Clairification/Subscriber Dashboard/Monthly Tips” to grab your exclusive, timely tips for each month. APRIL TIPS are live. Your support is much appreciated, and helps me to support you. Thank you!
I saw some beautiful art this week at the Ruth Asawa restrospective at theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Sharing!
“Art is doing. Art deals directly with life.” — Ruth Asawa
“I am interested in finding solutions to problems.” — Ruth Asawa
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