Clairity Click-it: Bunch of Nonprofit Links, Free Resources

Here’s another bunch of free resources for you to enjoy. It continues to be my great pleasure to curate content for you across the web – all with the goal of helping you in your quest to facilitate passionate philanthropy. This year’s Click-it comes to you for free due to the generous sponsorship of Bloomerang. Please check them out and send them a “huzzah!”

I’ve got lots more wisdom to share, and hope you’ll take advantage this year. Clairification School gives you a full year of strategic advice! Articles, free webinars, monthly tips and more. If you’re on the fence about enrolling, see what others say about why they’ve joined.

Enjoy, and may you go from strength to strength.

claire@clairification.com

P.S. I’m also available for hourly coaching. Just email me if you’d like to explore this, or set up a 15-minute time to chat here.

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

Annual Giving

Click-it: 10 Reasons Why Small Monthly Donors Are Worth the Effort. A great post from Erica Waasdorp, the queen of monthly giving. I encourage you to take her words to heart. Monthly giving is one of the best ways to increase average gifts and retain donors.

Data and Metrics

Click-it: An Open Letter to the Board Member Who Insists on Salesforce for Your Nonprofit. When I happened on this article on the NeonCRM blog I just had to share it. I try not to endorse any one particular donor database or CRM as there are many good ones (I do give a shout out to my Clairification School sponsors; please scroll to the bottom of the page and check them out as they won’t steer you wrong!). That being said, there are pitfalls I’d love to see you avoid. While Salesforce can work out, it is most decidedly not free. In my experience, I’ve not run across a nonprofit who didn’t end up spending a minimum of $20,000 on consultants to get it really operational for their purposes. Had a better experience? Please share in the comments below.

Earned Income

Click-it: 5 Small Business Branding Guidelines = Big Opportunity. This is a nice companion piece to the above article. When you’re creating a small business to earn you income, this will give you a roadmap to successfully brand and promote it. From Heidi Cohen of Actionable Marketing Guide.

Note: Also see the podcast on earned income in the section below.

Events

Click-it: Special Event Follow-Up to Convert Guests to Loyal Donors. There’s little point in doing a one-off event where folks purchase tickets but then never get further engaged. Learn to make events worth all the time and effort in this guest post from me on the Bloomerang blog.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: Every Nonprofit Leader is a Fundraiser and Marketer. Check out my article published on Guidestar. If your goal is to create work that does more than disappear, you’ve got to embrace the fact you’re in sales. All of you.

Major Gifts

Click-it: Overcoming Ask Anxiety for Major Gifts. I’m giving a shout-out to Clairification School sponsor Qgiv for taking my Bloomcon presentation this year and turning it into this succinct summary for you!

Online Fundraising

Click-it: Online giving insights and statistics – Q1 2018. Check out this infographic from 4agoodcause with data on giving trends. Interesting to me is that most of your traffic comes directly from what you do. Don’t count on folks to find you through search. There’s a significant percentage, however, who are donating via social media (mostly Facebook).

Online Social Marketing

Click-it: Help I Just Lost My Google Ad Grant. This is the best article I’ve seen explaining what happened to Google ad grants, and why you might want to consider getting one (or getting yours back). By George Weiner of Whole Whale on Beth Kanter’s blog.

Writing

Click-it: 317 Power Words That’ll Instantly Make You a Better Writer. Speaks for itself. From Jon Morrow on Smart Blogger.

YOU

Click-it: My Biggest Professional Mistake. Here are an important pair of articles on the Joan Garry Consulting blog about the importance of both self-care and care of staff. Read them before it’s too late. Especially if you’re at all “Type A.” I wish I’d read them earlier in my career.

FREE AUDIO-VISUAL 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!

Blogging

Click it: The Power of Blogging & Thought Leadership for Nonprofits [Register for free webinar, 6-12-18]. Many nonprofits that have tried to blog have failed miserably. In this session, Jay Wilkinson of Firespring will share collective wisdom gleaned from dozens of nonprofit organizations that have stumbled upon the magic formula for becoming thought leaders in their community.

Earned Income

Click-it: Nonprofit Earned Income Strategies [Free podcast]. It’s always a good idea to diversify sources of revenue, and that means giving earned income its place alongside contributed income. Remember: “nonprofit” describes your tax status, not your business plan. Successful Nonprofits brings us this talk from Alexandra Black Paulick to help you identify and maximize earned-income opportunities.

Management and Strategy

Click it: Marketing and Fundraising: Together at Last! [Register for free webinar, 5-31-18] Join me and Bloomerang for this session where we’ll tackle the impediments to achieving the integration between marketing and fundraising that’s become essential in our digitally-revolutionized economy. If everyone isn’t pulling in the same direction, you’re apt to get lost.

Metrics

Click-it: Measuring Fundraising ROI with Donor Lifetime Value [Free podcast] Learn from Zach Shefska of The Fundraising Report Card how to make better fundraising decisions by measuring ROI and donor lifetime value.

Online Fundraising

Click-it: Swiping Right: Courting New Constituents [Register for free webinar, 5-15-18]. Blackbaud offers suggestions for acquiring emails and converting these new constituents to supporters, including developing a welcome series.

BEST FUNDRAISING BLOGS

Click-it: The Best Fundraising Blogs to Follow in 2018. Accelevents has just published their list of top fundraising blogs — all resources dedicated to helping you be a superstar fundraiser and nonprofit marketer. I’m honored to be on the list.

Did You Miss My Recent Articles?

Here are links to my most recent articles. Enroll in ‘Clairification School’ to get access to every single article I’ve ever written – with new ones delivered weekly straight to your in-box! You’ll also get free monthly tips from your own “My Clairification” dashboard.

And so ends another Clairity Click-it. If you find value in Clairification, your support via enrollment in Clairification School means a lot!

My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it!”

Hope to see you in Clairification School!

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Claire is a fundraising ninja

Joanne Fritz

Nonprofit Charitable Organizations Guide, About.com

Engaging your help was such a huge pivot moment for me and the Board. We would never – not in a million years – have even dreamed of doing a significant challenge at our event without all of the teaching, support, resources and guidance that you brought to us. Sometimes there are these moments in life that you only realize in retrospect were miracles – and that is exactly how I look back at that decision to work with you on our fundraising engine!

Julia Wilson, E.D.

OneJustice

Your piece on attrition, Claire, is dynamite. Amazing. It’s precisely on target. Congratulations.

Jerry Panas

CEO / Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners

Brilliant summary of the whole “story v. stats” thing, Claire. Thank you.

Tom Ahern

Principal / Ahern Donor Communications

Claire Axelrad has been a highly effective fundraiser for over 30 years and her blog is just a wealth of wisdom. What’s particularly notable about Clairification is that although the work is based on decades of past experience, Claire is always looking forward as well. She was the first among her veteran fundraising peers to embrace online and social fundraising and is now one of their most sensible and insightful proponents. She’s a great resource!

Keith Heller

CEO / Heller Consulting

You have been absolutely terrific to work with. Your roadmap and assessment of where we are and where we can go has been so instrumental in having the board stop and think about our future. Your audit is allowing us to move forward in tangible ways to improve our work so that we may help more clients in need of our services. I will count you among my many blessings throughout the year.

Silvia Argueta

E.D. / Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation

I’m subscribed to a million fundraising blogs and the one I consistently open and read most of, is yours. The content is always carefully curated and helpful, not just sales pitch after sales pitch for your own stuff. You stand out, in a good way.

Juliane McLean

Development Coordinator / Bridgercare

You are one of the few fundraising experts that I read faithfully, and we have no shortage of those who publish regularly. But your material is always thoughtful and realistic. Thank you for your candor and good advice.

Richard Ajulani

, Senior Director Individual Gifts / LifeMoves

We have been loving the work of Claire Axelrad since we came across her work, every blog of hers is insightful, well thought out and enlightening.

Good Eggs Storytellers

Most lucid, most succinct checklist I have read on the engagement process. This is the best. Should be required reading for all concerned with major gift solicitation.

Giles Pegram, CBE

Fundraising Consultant / London, England

You are a forever flowing fountain of enormous information and a wealth of ideas. Thanks for being there for all of us small non-profits

Sharon Coleman

St. Francis House

I read your newsletter 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

You remind me about what is most important and why I love this profession. I just discovered you and your blog about three weeks ago and I wanted to write today to say thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise. I find your posts, new and old, so spot on. You nail it.

– Heather Wardle CFRE

Vancouver BC

Everybody involved in philanthropy should read these articles slowly and with a very opened mind and a willingness to take from them the necessary components to change the manner and techniques we presently use in order to embrace what philanthropy is all about “Love”. I have no doubt it would be transformational.

Tom Walsh

Business Development Exec / Active Retirement Ireland

Suggest subscribing. Thanks, Claire! I am a regular- and I have forwarded your thoughtful and inspiring column and as well. Keep up the good work.

Margot Harrigan

Corporate Development Officer / Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley

I came across your website and I hit the goldmine! I was asked to join a board and found I need to understand how to build a donor base from the ground up. I searched, only to find expensive consultants or free info that didn’t offer any helpful information. Thank you for sharing so much valuable information!!

Erica Martinez

Claire, you consistently remind me of the proven basic facts of fundraising!! Thank you!! I consistently share them with our team and with the newbie fundraisers I am mentoring.

Margie McCurry

Fund Builders Alliance

Could not make it any easier… Claire Axelrad straightforwardly tells social media/marketing managers of nonprofit organizations that they need to change how they communicate with

UMV

Charity Chatter

Many thanks – this is terrific, impressive data! You are an impressive source. And I’ve been around a long time.

Sara Becker

Oakland Zoo

Wow! Inspiration out the wazoo! Many thanks — I keep up with trends and lots of blog-posts to stay on top of my game. This goes way beyond technique and reaches deep inside to remind me why I’ve done this work for 40 years!

Pam Montgomery

Executive Director / Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley

Thank you for your brilliant blog. I have been a follower for many years and learnt so much from you. Ultimately, it translates into many more families getting the support they deserve. You help me raise more money for my UK charity. Please never stop bringing the best out of me! You’re special.

Anna Henry

Eric.org

Exactly what our profession can use – clarification –- the title of your blog. You help us keep faith with the past while making sense of the present and future. You have a balanced and respectful understanding of what this is all about. Thanks.

James M. Schaffer

Partner / Charity Springs

I’d recommend you sign up. I signed up for about a dozen blogging fundraiser consultants, but have since canceled most. She’s one of two left standing. I like how she organizes her thoughts about fundraising, and her conversation planning techniques are very familiar to me from my work as a prosecutor. I believe that she was a practicing attorney and who changed careers like I have, and my best guess is that she was a litigator as well. This is a very good article and there are several other blogs (her own) that she links to within it, so even though this is a small article you could spend some time here.

Cole Eason, J.D. ’92

Office of University Advancement / Rockhurst University