Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Once again, I’m sharing a bit of inspiration.
There’s the James Bond villain sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is the short-term power of bullies, trauma and mobs.
And then there’s a more resilient form of power. This is power based on connection, discussion and metrics. A power based in reality over the long term.
Divisive power tears things down. Resilient power builds things up.
Resilient power creates the conditions for the community to produce value over time. Resilient power uses optimism and fairness to create value because participants can see ways they can participate and contribute.
Fear might be for sale, but that doesn’t mean we have to buy it.
Better is possible.
— Seth Godin
What will you do in the weeks and months ahead to demonstrate your resilience and step into your power on behalf of those who need your help?
What will you do to engage others in your mission and vision?
What will you do to make the world, or your little corner of it, a better place?
Hopefully, you can use some of the insights you glean in this week’s issue of the Clairity Click-it to help you move forward. So, start digging through the curated content from across the web. I hope it will make your job easier, and more fulfilling.
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 resources I believe will be most useful to you. It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to succeed.
Thank you for doing your vital work, and making our world a better place.
You’ve got this!
Claire
P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you on-demand access to all my webinars and archived articles, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! It’s less than $2/week [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: Donor Advised Funds (DAFs)
I’ve long been advocating for a special fundraising strategy targeting new and ongoing gifts from philanthropists who’ve establish a philanthropic piggy bank in the form of a donor advised fund (DAF). [See here and here; if you’re an enrolled Clairification School member, listen to this webinar Strategies to Leverage Donor Advised Fund Philanthropy.]
TIP: Some of your donors may have money parked in their philanthropic piggy bank (aka DAF), and they’ve simply forgotten it’s there. They can’t give it to you simply by clicking the “donate” link in your Giving Tuesday or year-end appeal. They have to make a request from the administrator of their DAF. It’s not hard, but a well-placed reminder from you can make a huge difference: “Do you have a Donor Advised Fund or private foundation? Thank you for being a proactive “philanthropist” (“lover of humanity”), and making it a priority to help solve the world’s most pressing problems. If you have undistributed funds just waiting to be put to work, please reach out to your DAF or foundation administrator now to recommend a grant to [your charity] or to the charities of your choice. You will be making a real difference in the lives of those who could use a helping hand (or whatever reason makes sense for your charity).”
TIP: If you have donors who’ve given via a DAF in the past, but have not done so yet this calendar year, reach out to them individually. The most efficient way is to make a phone call, followed by an email (or a text if this is something they’ve opted into). Do this NOW; don’t wait for the last two weeks of the year when many folks are travelling or otherwise busy with holidays.
Here are some compelling arguments.
ARTICLES
Click-it: Donor Advised Funds Are a Potential Fundraising Goldmine – If You Do the Right Things. Jeff Brooks argues on the Moceanic blog: “None of us can afford to ignore DAFs any more.” They are skyrocketing in number and in the amount of money in them. And they’re giving out more money. Ignore this at your peril. Per Jeff: According to a recent survey, organizations that actively seek DAF grants raise a lot more money than those who don’t: 2.2 times more revenue. The survey also found 54% of US nonprofits never solicit DAF donations at all. That used to be no real problem. But now, if you ignore DAFs, you could be leaving donations on the table!”
Click-it: Fidelity Charitable distributes record-setting $11.8 billion to nonprofits in 2023. This recent AP article reveals giving from DAFs soared last year — four times what they were 10 years ago — even while generally donations were dropping. Fidelity Charitable said the average grant in 2023 was $4,625, with the average DAF handing out 11.8 grants in the year. Plus more grants are going to smaller charities, and a broader range of them.
Click-it: Tom Petty wants you to know about Donor Advised Funds. According to the National Philanthropic Trust 2022 DAF report, grants from DAFs to charities increased more than 60% in the past two years, accelerating an upward ten-year trajectory. That means, per Alia McKee of Sea Change Strategies, your DAF strategy is an important pillar of your midlevel and major gifts programs.
ARTICLES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: Tiptoe-ing Carefully Around Donor Tipping. Should you ask donors to “tip” or to cover “processing fees?” It’s still an open question. Guest author T. Clay Buck suggests pros and cons in this piece for the OneCause blog. It’s definitely something to give some conscious thought to.
Content Marketing
Click-it: Six Steps for Impact Report Success. One of the best donor retention strategies is sending donors a report re-enforcing the impact of their giving. Here, Josh Kligman and Jeff Rum of Storyraise have compiled 6 key steps for impact report success. They’ve also shared some examples. Plus, you can download a full free e-book on the topic.
Culture
Click-it: Looking to Improve Your Culture of Giving? Create an Attitude of Gratitude. Call this what you will, it’s true that focusing on your organizational culture packs a powerful punch. Per this article by the Donor Relations Group, as a donor relations professional leading a team focused on expressing gratitude, cultivating this culture mindset is essential in everything you do. Here are 13 steps you can implement to foster a culture of gratitude.
Donor Acquisition
Click-it: Lead Generation for Nonprofits: 9 Essential Strategies to Attract Donors. Check out this comprehensive plan from Wild Apricot with everything you should be doing to find potential new supporters and convert them to donors. If you already have a plan, use this to check against it and see where you’re deficient. If you don’t have a plan, use this as an outline.
Events
Click-it: FOMO is Real—Use It to Sell More Nonprofit Event Tickets! Tap into the power of psychology and behavioral economics to boost attendance at your next event. The team at Eventgroove explain how this works, and suggest strategies to proactively leverage FOMO. My favorite is #4.
Online Digital Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Unlock the Power of Facebook for Your Nonprofit. The folks at Auctria suggest 6 strategies to maximize your nonprofit’s impact on Facebook Learn how to adapt to their ever-evolving algorithm in order to boost visibility and engagement with your content. Some tips include more visual content and a consistent posting schedule.
Click-it: 5 Ways to Build a Digital Community that will Transform Your Nonprofit. This is an important job! Is anyone on your team doing it? In today’s environment, anything you can do to build connections and nurture relationships is something you must do. It’s simply no longer optional. Check out this article from Nonprofit Tech for Good to learn how to reach more people, amplify their message, and increase your, and their, overall impact.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: 3 More Strategies + 6 New Tips To Boost Generosity [Part 3 of 3-part series].. Besides fundamentally reframing your approach from fundraising to philanthropy, from selling to helping, and from competition with other nonprofits to collaboration — hugely important cultural shifts discussed in Part 1 of my 3-part article for Bloomerang about the recent “Generosity Commission Report” – here are more specific recommendations for meeting prospective donors where they are. Along with the three recommendations in Part 2, consider them your new core strategies. If current trends concern you, please remember a trend means something is shifting, either as a general inclination or movement, or in a statistically noticeable way. It’s a type of bending in a new direction, and if you want to adapt to the trend you need to be able to bend as well.
Technology as Tool
Click-it:. ChatGPT for Nonprofits: Your Guide to AI Success. Momentum’s report, The Nonprofit Productivity study, found 82% of nonprofit professionals are comfortable using AI for at least some donor outreach. Are you? If you’re exploring AI tools for your nonprofit or looking for tips to improve your ChatGPT usage, this article will help.
Click-it: How AI health care chatbots learn from the questions of an Indian women’s organization. I found this AP news story fascinating, and thought you might too. It’s a pilot chatbot project many hope will be address the “missing middle” initiatives of AI development — the programs that will help communities but are low-priority because they will not generate big profits. This has promise for the positive impact of AI on health care around the globe.
Trends
Click-it: Rage Giving 2.0? Some Nonprofits See a Bump in Giving After Trump Win. If this is your organization’s moment, what will you do to meet it? This Chronicle of Philanthropy article suggests you need to tell donors what you plan to do and how that will help the donor enact their values. People may give spontaneously to the big household-word charities, but you can’t rely on this is you’re less well-known. If the recent election will impact your work, it’s up to you to let folks know.
Website and Landing Pages
Click-it: How a sticky bar on instant donation pages impacted gift conversions. Here’s another useful experiment being shared by the brilliant and generous team at NextAfter. The key learning from this experiment is that adding a sticky bar to donation pages following acquisition offers significantly increased the conversion rate (50%) and revenue (35.4%).
Year-End Fundraising – and Beyond!
Click-it: Beyond Year-End Fundraising: Keep Asking. People get a shot of dopamine, a “warm glow,” when they give. But the feeling won’t last – unless you fan the flames. Learn why, and what you can do, in this article I wrote for NonProfitPRO. Now is the time to plan ahead for what you’ll do after folks make their year-end gifts.
WEBINARS, PODCASTS, ROUNDTABLES & 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!
Content Marketing
Click-it: Marketing Trends Nonprofits Need to Know (and Embrace) [Register for free webinar, 12-4-2024]. Digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing—each plays a role in a nonprofit’s strategy. Join Kiersten Hill of Firespring for a conversation about marketing trends, including use of influencers, storytelling, digital experiences, automation and use of AI.
Grants
Click-it: Start Your 2024 Grant Strategy Off Right! [Register for free webinar, 12-12-2023]. Spend just 45 minutes with grants expert Diane Leonard in this Charity How-To webinar and learn how to define your success in the current year beyond dollars awarded. The session will also cover how to engage your colleagues to be part of the grant planning process so chances for success are increased.
Strategy
Click-it: Reviving Generosity: The Heartbeat of Civil Society [Register for free panel discussion, 12-2-2024].Hear from social benefit sector leaders as they discuss key takeaways from the Generosity Commission’s recently released report, Everday Actions, Extraordinary Potential: The Power of Giving and Volunteering and the implications for civil society. Together, they’ll explore innovative strategies to rekindle the spirit of generosity and activate a movement that fosters deeper connections, community resilience, and empowered civic engagement. Brenda Asare, Chair of The Giving Institute, Alice Ayres, President and CEO, Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), Sue Cunningham, President and CEO, The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Mike Geiger, President and CEO, Association of Fundraising Professionals, and Wendy McGrady, Chair of the Giving USA Foundation. This is not just a conversation; it is a call to action.
Year-End Fundraising
Click-it: Get the Most Out of Year-End Fundraising [Watch 9-minute video]. Not many organizations participate in a meaningful way per Nathan Hill of NextAfter. If you’re one of them, there’s still time to modify your behaviors so you don’t leave money on the table. Listen up!
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, PAPERS, TEMPLATES & OTHER RESOURCES
Culture of Philanthropy
Click-it: The Love Project (Vol.2): Initial Survey Findings: Adrien Sargent, Jen Shang and the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy have put together a three-part guide on the study of love in fundraising. This volume explores which forms of love are appropriate in fundraising, how love can impact behavior, and how we might feel about our “self” and our philanthropy. And, if you haven’t read The Love Project (Vol.1), please begin there.
Major Gift Fundraising
Click-it: Mid-Level Officer Job Description Template [Download free resource].Veritus Group created a succinct job description that focuses the key skills and qualities you’ll want to look for when hiring for an extraordinary Mid-Level Officer. This is the best way to avoid your MLO getting sucked into every interesting project and event, or torn apart by competing power centers. There are also job description templates for Major Gift Officer and Planned Gift Officer.
Online, Digital and Mobile Marketing and Fundraising
Click-it: How to Boost Year-End Giving With Text Messaging. Texting is an underutilized form of relationship building and fundraising. 95% of people read a text within three minutes of receiving it. The folks at Rally Corp describe why it’s such a terrific platform for engaging your audience – especially at critical year’s end, when timing matters!
Sponsorship
Click-it: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Corporate Sponsorships [Read free guide]. Double the Donation, the corporate matching gift specialists, show you how to market corporate sponsorships by showcasing the value of partnership in a way that resonates with corporate goals while advancing your nonprofit’s mission. From identifying the right partners to creating tailored sponsorship packages and measuring your success, this article has it all.
Year-End
Click-it: 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists [Download free e-book]. Grab this resource I created for Bloomerang and learn all sorts of nifty things. Like how to inspire donors to give by appealing to their emotions. And questions to follow up with lapsed donors. And how to create a compelling donation landing page that delivers results. Plus much more!
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.
Last Minute Strategic Year-End Email Appeal Tips
Strategically Share Top Year-End Giving Options Nonprofit Donors May Not Be Aware Of
12 Quick Strategies to Boost Year-End Fundraising
How to Cultivate Awe, Gratitude, Altruism and Meaning to Significantly Boost Nonprofit Fundraising
Philanthropy – Love of Humankind – Needed More Than Ever
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: What Are The Pros And Cons Of Combining An Appeal Mailing With An Impact Report?
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. Your DECEMBER special tips are live — there are 5 of them this month, because it’s such an important time for fundraisers!
I am so grateful for you and all you do to repair our world. Thank you!
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