Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Skipping the good days
Part of the luxury of living near the ocean or the mountains is that you can be picky. If the surf or the powder isn’t great, leave it for the tourists. Good is insufficient, wait for the great moments…
When we’re young, or the project is going really well, it’s easy to waste the good days. After all, there will be another one tomorrow.
What becomes clear, though, is that good days are precious. When you’re feeling even a little creative, don’t wait. Write it down, roll tape, speak up. When you’re feeling reasonably healthy, go for a walk.
They’re all good days, if we choose.
June is bustin’ out all over, and nature beckons. Don’t waste it! And don’t waste your creative sparks when you feel them either. If any of the content you unlock in this edition of the Clairity Click-it sparks your imagination, do something with it. Don’t tuck it aside to think about tomorrow. Too often, tomorrow never comes.
Set aside a little time to explore, and see what you find. What calls to you? Pick at least one thing to click on. What did you learn? What did it make you think about doing differently? Write it down and calendar a time to dig into it a bit more sometime next week.
As always, I’ve sorted everything by category, and included a broad spectrum of materials for a range of adult learning styles. A big thank you to my Click-it 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. I’ve got a lot of great stuff for you this week, so let’s get right to it!
Thank you for doing your vital work, and making our world a better place,
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. For a modest $100/year you get all my new blog articles, monthly tips, bonus tips, templates and worksheets, course and product discounts, and access to archived posts, webinars, and podcasts. I am deeply appreciative for your support! [If the enrollment fee is a hardship, please email me and we’ll work it out.]
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
ARTICLES
Annual (Year-Round) Giving
Click-it: 6 ways to use stylistic and literary devices to connect with your donors on a deeper level. I just love these tips from copywriter extraordinaire Lisa Sargent. Learn how a good story, and the right choice of words, can actually change someone’s brain and make them more receptive to giving.
Click-it:. Roadblocks To Avoid: Common Mistakes In Monthly Giving Campaigns. Are any of the obstacles outlined in this piece from Nonprofit Fundraising that hinder the success of your monthly giving program? If so, you owe it to yourself to learn how to address these pitfalls head on. The ROI on monthly giving is just too good to put it on the back burner or leave it up to chance. At the end of the article, there’s a link to a free online course!
Click-it: How to Avoid Fundraiser Burnout with Monthly Giving. Thanks to Ronald Pruitt on the 4aGoodCause blog for highlighting the many benefits of a monthly giving program. Not only do you retain more donors, you also lighten the load on your fundraisers.
Boards
Click-it: The Hidden Ingredient of a High-Functioning Board. Thank you Joan Garry for highlighting this. In my own experience, this is so, so true. I’m going to bet you won’t guess this one. But after you learn the answer, you won’t forget it.
Click-it: Women of Color Leaders: Shifting Power Dynamics within the Board–Executive Relationship. This article in Nonprofit Quarterly recognizes the pivotal role boards play in shaping organizational culture and success, with the added layer of what happens when the executive is a woman of color. It is a call to action. A plea for these women to collectively shape the sector and the future through pushing of boundaries, naming of what is happening and naming the dynamics at play. With four shared stories of navigating board-executive power dynamics.
Content Marketing (Print and Digital Collateral)
Click-it: Annual Report 2023 American Forests (example). Check out this cool digital impact report from American Forests produced with help from Storyraise technology. It’s got all sorts of interactive features, including links to play videos, read issues of the organization’s magazine, a donation widget and a full calendar of specific impacts made, replete with beautiful imagery. By integrating embedded donation forms directly into narratives, you can craft seamless and immersive experiences that inspire action, foster empathy and drive online fundraising efforts.
Donor Retention
Click-it: How to write a thank you letter when you’re feeling stuck. Wonderful advice, as always, from Mary Cahalane, Hands-On Fundraising. She takes you step by step through the anatomy of the entire letter, and then gives you a link to thank you letters you can swipe.
Events
Click-it: Multi-Chapter Nonprofits: 4 Event Program Challenges and Solutions. Chapter-based nonprofits face unique challenges when it comes to planning cohesive events that adhere to your overall brand. For some great tips to tailor strategies to meet each chapter’s distinct needs, click and read this comprehensive article from the experts at Eventgroove.
Major, Capital and Legacy Gift Fundraising
Click-it: Your Guide to AI & Major Gift Fundraising. Yes, the two do go together – and they can make you much more successful. If you do any kind of major gift fundraising (I hope you do!) you owe it to yourself to read this comprehensive piece from the team at Momentum. Streamline admin tasks; access comprehensive insights; identify and rank prospects; strengthen connections with donors, and more!
Click-it: 9 Key Data Points for Finding Your Planned Giving Prospects. Learn what data points to examine to uncover the propensity to give of folks already in your database. Then, per the experts at Stelter, make your database manager your new best friend.
Click-it: Barnardo’s: ‘Be More Gladys’ legacy television ad. Gifts in wills are key to securing the long-term future of many charities around the world. Data released in May 2024 by Legacy Foresight in the UK showed the return on investment (ROI) for legacy marketing was 15:1. So, you’ll definitely want to check out this case study, written exclusively for SOFII, that shows how UK-based charity Barnardo’s attracted new legators with their first-ever television legacy ad campaign.
Click-it: Creating Capital Campaign Naming Opportunities in 7 Simple Steps. Are naming opportunities right for your campaign? For some organizations, the conventional method of naming rooms and buildings after donors is no longer in line with their values. This super useful article from Capital Campaign Pro helps you figure out your approach and, if appropriate, come up with alternatives.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: 33 Fundraising Email Subject Lines Your Donors Will Open (And Click). Your email is useless unless it gets opened. Here, from the NextAfter Blog, are some guidelines for getting your emails noticed
Click-it: Email And Elections. It’s election season in the U.S. – so plan ahead! This article from Ephraim Gopin, 1832 Communications, explains everything you need to know and do regarding your emails. The most important takeaway: Don’t pull back. Next? Spread positivity and light – it tends to be needed during contentious times. Plus, there’s more about timing, stories, personalization and the like.
Click-it: Text to Give Strategy: 10 Tips to Optimize Your Keyword Choice. The folks at Rally Corp are texting experts, and here they offer a slew of tips to make text-to-give easy for your donors and super successful for your bottom line. There are also examples from 12 different nonprofits from which you can borrow.
Click-it: 4 Nonprofit Marketing Tactics to Inspire Gen Z Supporters. Grab these great tips from the folks at Auctria. They include stepping up your social media strategy; optimizing for mobile; leveraging the Google ad grant and telling compelling true stories.
Strategy
Click-it: Philanthropy Facilitators Make It Easy for People to Give. Learn where fundraisers and entire development departments go wrong, often making donating to your nonprofit much harder than it needs to be. Result? A lot of money gets left on the table. Read my article in NonProfitPRO to be sure this doesn’t happen to you.
Click-it: 5 Proven Ways to Boost Your Non-Profit Development Program. If you’re new to the field, read this piece from seasoned fundraising coach Joe Garecht. It’s solid, fundamental advice.
YOU
Click it: The Power of Building Relationships: Why Donors Need Good Fundraisers. Are you a good fundraiser. Read this piece from Jim Langley for Market Smart and see if this is the way you approach your work. If you do, you’re apt to build the types of relationships that lead to long-term support. If not …???
WEBINARS, PODCASTS, COURSES & 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!
Major Gift Fundraising
Click-it: The #1 Shift to Make to Your Lead Gen & Ask Process [Listen to 27-minute podcast] You’ll hear Christina Tzavaras Edwards, the Purpose & Profit Podcast, coach one courageous Executive Director on her pitch (including when to shift from listing “features” instead of “benefits”). Among other take-aways, you’ll learn you don’t have to do asking one way, and how to move through different types of resistance that may come up.
Online Social Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: 5 Secrets of Email Marketing Geniuses [Register for free webinar, 6-5-2024]. There is more power and leverage in one email subscriber than 100 Facebook likes or 50 Twitter followers if email marketing is done right. Problem is, 9 out of 10 nonprofits don’t do it right. Learn what you need to know from Jay Wilkinson of Firespring in this dynamic presentation with actionable take-aways.
Technology
Click-it: AI Explored [Subscribe to free YouTube podcast series]. If you don’t know about Michael Stelzner and Social Media Examiner, you should. I learned everything about inbound marketing and using social for engagement from him back in the early 2010s. Now he’s helping us all navigate AI with an entire series of podcasts with other experts. These will cover everything you need to know to understand how AI can most effectively serve you. You can subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, PAPERS TEMPLATES, ASSESSMENTS & OTHER RESOURCES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaign Timeline & Customizable Checklist [Download free guide], The CauseVox team put this together, including: Step-by-step tasks to undertake, beginning 6-9 months prior to your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign; Marketing and fundraising best practices to guide your efforts; Special considerations for event-centered campaigns; Post-campaign tasks to ensure a strong finish and maximize impact, and more.
Major Gift Fundraising
Click-it: Planning Guide for Fall & Year-End Fundraising [Download free paper]. It’s not too soon. Pumpkin spice latte season will be here before you know it, and you definitely don’t want to wait until peppermint mocha season. The Veritus Group expert offer some great planning tips, including creative ideas for donor touchpoints that will stand out at year end. And there are printable worksheets included too!
BTW: If you want to learn everything you need to know about developing a systematic approach to major gift fundraising, take a serious look at this major gifts certification course. I LOVE this course SO much, and want you to take advantage. There are cohorts forming beginning June 10th and August 26th,. Use my exclusive Code – CA5 – and you’ll get $100 off. If you register 30 days in advance, you’ll automatically save 20%. Don’t delay! The end of the calendar year will be here before you know it, and these are the last dates these classes will be offered this year.
Did You Miss My Newest Articles?
Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog.
RETENTION
5 Secret Nonprofit Donor Retention Action Strategies
Are You Rocking Donor Retention 101?
EVENTS
Nonprofit Event Fundraising: They’ll Never Forget How You Made Them Feel
Top Proven Nonprofit Fundraising Event Planning Tips
Common Sense Nonprofit Event Planning Advice
REFRAMING YOUR APPROACH
How to Stop Being a Radiance Slayer
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: Should Your Board Have Term Limits?
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. MAY tips are now live! If you’re not yet an enrolled student, you can get in on the fun here!
And now, some fun things I found on walks over the past two weeks…
“Kindness is…” Pasted to the wall outside an elementary school.
This seasonal daisy car just made me smile!
Reminder to come from a place of love… painted heart sculpture in someone’s yard.
See what you’re able to find this week! Either within or without the Clairity Click-it. 😉
And please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and Clairification School is affordable, because of their generosity.
