Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Piano tuners have a vital job… and very few pianists do that work themselves.
Who maintains your tools?
Perhaps it’s a computer with all the software that goes with it. Do you have a world-class pro, someone who is up-to-date, skilled, innovative and empathic making sure that they’re working well? Or are you doing it yourself, muddling through?
If we have mediocre tools, why should we expect great work?
Or perhaps it’s not the software or the hardware that needs tuning. Perhaps it’s our attitude, our approach to work, the way we deal with possibility…
A self-representing lawyer might have a fool for a client, but the rest of us are probably suffering from tools that aren’t what they could be.
— Seth Godin
I’m a big proponent of continuing education. Especially in the fast-paced world of today, where trends, attitudes and technologies change rapidly. If you want to do your best work, you have to stay tuned… pay attention… commit to learning. It’s why I’m beginning this issue of the “Clairity Click-it” with a special feature on current trends.
This newsletter is designed to help you. I try to give you a taste of what’s working/not working for businesses and causes of all stripes. Sometimes it’s tactical advice. Sometimes it’s theory and science underlying the tactics. And sometimes it’s about adjusting approaches to the work; this can make a not insignificant difference.
It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place. I’d like to again thank my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, who have stood with me and you throughout these rapidly changing times.
Thank you for doing such vital work,
Claire
P.S. Want to resolve to be an active learner next year? Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ enables me to deliver original articles direct to your in-box. Plus you’ll get access to all my webinars, exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more!
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
SPECIAL FEATURE: TRENDS
Click-it: How Will Fundraising Look Different in 2022. The ever-prescient, highly plugged-in team of Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels at the Veritus Group share what they’re seeing among a wide range of clients. Take a look, and pick a few areas you know you need to delve into further. The times they are a’changin.’
Click-it: Research Review: The Best New Research of 2022 [Register for free webinar, 1-27-2022]. The team at NextAfter made some interesting discoveries last year about what works to grow giving, and they’ll be sharing! One of the most interesting takeaways is what they call the “donor downgrade experiment.” Or “How asking for less leads to more revenue.” You’ll learn about this and other best ways to grow giving that are counter-intuitive to traditional best practices. It’s a good idea to trust science more, and gut less. And they have buckets of experiments from which to draw!
Click-it: Trends that Will Shape Philanthropy in 2022. The Winkler group weighs in for Giving USA with nine trends they expect to shape philanthropy in the coming year, and how they’ll advise their clients to leverage them. It’s interesting stuff
ARTICLES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: Why You Should Never Feel Bad About Asking Someone To Give. If you ever feel you’re intruding on someone, or about to “take” something from them, when you approach an ask for a philanthropic gift, read this article I wrote for the Bloomerang blog. Giving is good for people, in five specific ways.
Corporate Fundraising
Click-it: Five features of an ideal corporate prospect. This article from Remarkable Partnerships on the SOFII blog shares five recommended features of an ideal corporate prospect. For you, not for everyone and their dog. Learn how to find your 5-star prospect!
Culture of Philanthropy
Click-it: Why Fundraisers Should Offer People an Opportunity to Give. Don’t think of yourself as a “fundraiser.” That sounds like it’s all about money — one of the top taboo topics in our society. Think of yourself, instead, as a “philanthropy facilitator.” That makes it about love. In this article for the Bloomerang blog I share my three top secrets for successful fundraising.
Donor Retention
Click-it: These 3 Signals Show Your Subscribers Are Ready to Donate. This article from the Beeline blog talks about the importance of recency, frequency and money in signaling the next steps you should take with donors and others on your mailing list. It has plenty of actionable tips!
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: How to Have a Website and Email Marketing That Gets a Response. The digital marketing experts at Beeline encourage you to actively use more of the listening tools at your disposal. If you don’t, it’s unlikely you’ll build sustainable relationships. Here are three strategies to ask for and act on feedback so you show people you hear them!
Click-it: 7 Tips to Find the Right Nonprofit Influencers for Your Organization. Influencers are a top strategy for building your prospect list, and this article from Classy explores ways to approach developing the right “trust builders” for your organization.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: What do you need to stop doing? Read this piece from the Varga Group in just a minute; then consider your answer. Deliberately.
Click-it: Is your boss driven by strategy — or squirrels?. Please read this piece from Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now. He articulately lays out why, without an underlying strategy that wraps all your tactics together, it’s impossible to pick and choose which actions make the most sense to get you to your goals. You can’t work strategically if you have to chase another squirrel every time one shows itself.
Click-it: Uh Oh. Your Fundraising Staff Are Going to Quit. Do Good Better Consulting is concerned your staff are not being given the time and resources they need to do the critical relationship building job that’s necessary to make fundraising sustainable. Read, and ask yourself how you’re doing. Be honest.
Click-it: As you’re considering flexibility, also ponder unintended consequences as described in this article from Brighter Strategies, Is Remote Work Equitable? As with anything else in life, one size may fit most. But certainly not all.
Website
Click-it: How to correct these 5 website mistakes. Every time a great appeal takes me to a crappy, unfriendly, hard-to-use website, it makes me cringe. Because I know the fundraiser’s hard work will likely be for naught. The donor will give up, and the donation will never see the light of day. Here are easy things to fix, from the good folks at 4aGoodCause.
WEBINARS, PODCASTS, COURSES & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
If you can’t attend live, or are interested in sessions happening at overlapping times (I’m looking at you October 20th!), note many are available via recording – but ONLY if you REGISTER!
Donor Retention
Click-it: Next Steps: How to Keep Year-End Donors and Get the Next Gift [Register for free webinar, 1-25-2022]. Join Steven Shattuck with host Qgiv for this special session designed to help you retain all the donors you secured last year. You’ll get easy tips you can put into action right now!
Click-it: The Best Way to Thank and Receipt Year-End Donors {Watch free video; download free template]. If you’ve been taught sending a remit envelope with a thank you letter is a “no no,” you owe it to yourself to tune into this simple lesson from Steven Screen, the Better Fundraising Co. You’ll learn how to send a pro-level donor thank you and receipt, and can even download a customizable template.
Click-it: Question of the Month: How do you report back on non-direct impact? [Tune in to brief video]. You know the importance of reporting back to your donors on the impact of their giving. But how do you do this effectively when you’re not a direct service organization? That’s what Jeff Schreifels and Richard Perry address in this quick video from the Veritus Group. Useful stuff!
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: The Elusive, Ever-Changing and Shape-Shifting Planned Giving Donor [Watch free, on-demand webinar]. Want to know if you have legacy giving prospects in your database? The experts at Stelter graciously hosted Katherine Swank and Lawrence Henze from Blackbaud Target Analytics to explain all the ins and outs of available modeled and wealth data. You’ll also learn how characteristics of planned giving donors differ today from five years ago, what data you should be collecting, and what strategies you can use right now to grow your legacy fundraising.
Click-it: 3 ways the pandemic continues to shape fundraising in 2022 [Register for free webinar, 1-25-2022]. Patrick Schmitt of FreeWill will discuss how your organization can capitalize on external forces driving interest in your mission, retain pandemic donors, and quickly stand up non-cash giving strategies. He’ll be joined by Megan Bailey and Liz McFarlin-Marciak from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, talking about how they successful adapted their individual donor strategies.
Online Marketing and Fundraising
Click-it: Maximize Your Google Ad Grant in 5 Easy Steps [Register for free webinar, 1-25-2022]. If you’re not using, or maximizing (the devil is in the details), your free Google ad grant… watch this webinar! It’s from Firespring, and their sessions are always jam-packed with practical take-aways. You will not feel your time was wasted.
Text Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: How to Text Donors and Not Be Intrusive [Register for free webinar, 2-2-2022]. James Martin of Rally Corp will join me for a live session – get all your questions answered! – covering all the ins and outs of how and when you can send messages to your lists (plus new rules coming down the pike for both texting and emails). He’ll cover (1) how recent changes might impact your plans; (2) tips for building lists and SMS opt-ins across all of your communications efforts, and (3) four different types of texts, and when to use each to get the results you need.
YOU
Click-it: Can We Fix the Nonprofit Burnout Problem? [Download free on-demand podcast]. Joan Garry, Nonprofits are Messy, hosts veteran health a fitness coach Chris Barlics for this podcast designed to help you take better care of yourself this year. Can’t possibly hurt, right? If you have co-workers, you may want to listen as a group; then discuss. Sometimes it really does take a village.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, WHITE PAPERS & OTHER RESOURCES
Donor Retention
Click-it: Why Half of Your Donors are Disappearing [Download free white paper from Merkle]. This title should put the fear of you-know-who in you. Most nonprofits lose more than 80% of first-time donors and 55% of all donors per Fundraising Effectiveness Project research. It means you’re working hard, but not smart. Learn how to retain more donors in this paper from direct response and customer care experts at Merkle.
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: Free Donor Assessment [No obligation – for real]. If you just count total dollars raised, and not dollars lost, you’re missing out on lots of potential. How much donor value are you losing year over year? Do you know? Veritus Group is offering a free assessment to show you how much money you’re losing from the same group of donors who gave last year. Oh no! This type of loss kills many nonprofits’ growth. They’ll tell you the data they need from you, then run a FREE report. Easy peasy, and no obligation whatsoever. This is a true gift – and a great way to kick off a new year!
Click-it: How to Create Your Nonprofit’s Annual Story Strategy [Free guide and e-course]. Grab this guide and downloadable free e-course from Vanessa Chase Lockshin, The Storytelling Nonprofit, to learn how to use stories to raise more money in the coming year
Strategy and Management
Click-it: How to Put Together Your Annual Fundraising Plan [Article + free downloadable Template]. You’ll soon be tasked with putting together your plan for the coming year. Don’t simply tweak last year’s plan; you can do better! Use this article from Qgiv as a road map. And don’t forget the parts about assessing resources and making assignments. There’s also a downloadable planning template.
Did You Miss My Newest Articles?
- 3 Nonprofit Secrets to Rock Major Gift Fundraising
- Can You Smoke What’s in Your Major Gift Pipeline?
- Top Strategies for Open Nonprofit Donor Conversations
- The Secret of Donor-Centered Fundraising: No Money Involved
- Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular Clairification Articles of 2021
- How Do You Keep Former Nonprofit Board Members Engaged?
Finally… if you have a question, any question…
Check out my free fundraising advice column on the Bloomerang blog! Ask your question here. Or email me with it directly.
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. Catch your JANUARY tips before the end of the month! If you’re not yet an enrolled student, you can get in on the fun here!
Thank you Claire for being a general genius in areas of nonprofit development. Highly recommend Clairification for her blogs, free webinars, and more.
–Stefanie Millette, MBA, Program Manager, STRIVE
I read your blog 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
My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Don’t miss out.
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