Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it!” So twice a month I collect and curate articles, whitepapers, webinars, templates and guides – all free due to the generous sponsorship of Bloomerang – that I encounter in my readings across the web. They’re my gift to you, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy finding them for you.
My motto also leads me to offer plenty of original content via my virtual year-round ‘Clairification School’ — because I’ve got a LOT more to share with you based on my 35 years’ experience – 30 of them in the trenches – plus all the new things I learn every day in my practice.
If you find value in Clairification, please sign up now for all the benefits ‘Clairification School’ has to offer. It’s as free of a ‘public school’ as I can make it, while covering expenses.
Your support makes it possible and, truly, means a lot.
P.S. I’m also available for hourly coaching, and offer up to four deeply discounted hours to members of the Clairification community. Please email me if you have any questions.
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
Annual Giving
Click-it: What You Need To Know Now to Promote, Receive and Acknowledge a DAF Gift. More and more philanthropy is being parked in Donor Advised Funds, so it behooves you to know how to seek out these gifts and steward DAF donors. This guest post by Lynn Gaumer, J.D. in The Stelter Company blog tells you what to do.
Click-it: Top 3 Reasons You Need a Monthly Giving Program Right Now. I’m a big proponent of getting into the monthly giving game, and this article on the Moceanic blog explains why. If you’re seeking reliable, predictable income, read this.
Content Marketing
Click-it: 6 Strategies to Grow Your Nonprofit Email List with Facebook. If you use social media, especially FB, this piece from John Haydon may be one of the most useful articles you’ll ever read.
Corporate Giving
Click-it: Why Corporate Giving Is On The Rise. I happened on this article in the Planned Giving Design Center blog under “ethics,” and thought the perspectives were highly shareable. The ethics here are those businesses are wanting to embrace (they aren’t all bad guys!). If you’ve not been approaching businesses because you weren’t sure how to align your values as yours, this is food for thought.
Events
Click-it: Silent Auctions Simplified: Tips, Tricks, and Expert Advice. This article on the Wild Apricot blog covers everything from bid sheets and item selection, all the way to setting up online payments. Useful stuff!
Major and Legacy Giving
Click-it: DIY Online Will Services: Technology Is Putting Estate Planning Tools in the Hands of Your Donors. When I used to work in the planned giving field, one of the biggest obstacles to getting someone to leave a legacy was that they’d need to meet with an attorney. Today’s online tools can help, but you must approach them carefully. Nathan Stelter of The Stelter Company tells you how.
Online Social Marketing
Click-it: 5 Steps to a Killer Nonprofit Instagram Strategy. Not that long ago, I was a huge booster of Pinterest for nonprofits for the same reasons Julia C. Campbell is now touting Instagram. It’s a cost-effective, interactive way to both ‘show and tell’ your story.
Online Social Marketing and Fundraising
Click-it: How to raise your average online donation size. Using online platforms, there are simple strategies you can easily employ to boost your giving results, and the folks at 4aGoodCause take away the mystery!
Click-it: The Donor Pyramid and Marketing Funnel Have Changed. Check out my newest article published on the Guidestar blog. When’s the last time you took a holistic 360 degree view of your fundraising and marketing strategies and how they do/do not support one another? This article suggests why it’s essential in our digital age to make the shift from outbound to inbound, from up/down to round-and-round.
Click-it: Four Ways To Engage Nonprofit Staff in Communications. Do you ask program staff to blog or write social media posts? They know the programs backwards and forwards, and actually want the public to know about them too! Maria Bryan suggests four ways to encourage staff to share their stories.
Storytelling
Click-it: Storytelling for Fundraisers: How to Tell Compelling Stories that Make Donors Want to Give. Visual stories are one of the most awesome ways to inspire giving. Check out this article from the Qgiv blog for some really useful tips – with examples!
Trends
Click-it: 25 Nonprofit IT Influencers Worth a Follow in 2019. If you want to be on the cutting edge in our digitally revolutionized world, here are the folks you need to follow.
You
Click-it: How to Stop Subconsciously Sabotaging Work-Life Balance. Might you be your own worst enemy? Sometimes rather than blaming forces beyond our control, it’s useful to look at what can be controlled. I explore the answer to the question “Where are you coming from?” on the Bloomerang blog.
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!
Boards
Click-it: Engage Your Board [Listen to free on-demand podcast]. Rob Acton is interviewed by Dolph Goldenberg of Successful Nonprofits. You’ll learn why E.D.s should stop reading reports at meetings,
Data Management
Click-it: Tips for Navigating in Today’s Data-Driven World [Register for free webinar, 5-14-2019]. Angie Kubicek of Firespring explores the intricacies of how to manage data in order to keep trust with consumers, followers and donors as well as efficiently utilize the information at hand. Plus you’ll get action steps and a helpful checklist!
Click-it: Making Your Donor Database Work For You [Register for free webinar, 5-29-2019] Join me and Steven Shattuck of Bloomerang for this special webinar for the Clairification community. We’ll show examples of best practices in data management, communication segmenting, engagement tracking and reporting in order to help your team work smarter, not harder.
Donor Retention
Click-it: Donor Retention: The Ultimate Love Story [Register for free webinar, 5-15-2019]. Tim Sarrontonio of Neon One joins The Fundraising Report Card for this dive into donor retention strategies your organization can employ immediately.
Events
Click-it: The Ultimate Event Program: How to Keep Guests Engaged & Inspire More Giving [Register for free webinar, 5-15-2019]. Take advantage of this session sponsored by Mobile Cause to learn how to keep attendees motivated to give throughout the duration of your festivities. You’ll get tips for planning every important element of your event.
Grant Writing
Click-it: Shaping Your Ask: Learning to Love (or at least Live With) Restricted Revenue [Register for free webinar, 5-16-2019]. This webinar from Nonprofit Quarterly and Curtis Klotz, CPA explores how the latest changes in FASB accounting standards for revenue recognition can be used to develop more effective grant proposal narratives and budgets. Plus you’ll learn to maximize the flexibility of restricted grants.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: How to Do a Strategic Self-Audit of Nonprofit Strengths & Weaknesses [Register for free webinar, 5-22-2019]. Join me and Bloomerang, and bring your questions. I’ll walk you through the steps of conducting your own internal audit of your strengths and weaknesses, while also considering opportunities and threats on the horizon that may impact your choice of strategic direction.
Click-it: How to Grow Your Fundraising Revenue — Developing Fundraising Strategies that Work [Register for free webinar, 5-28-2019]. Join Vanessa Chase Lockshin of The Storytelling Nonprofit for this webinar that walks through a case study about how she developed a strategy for one of her clients that helped them grow their fundraising revenue by 14% in 9 months.
Click-it: Fundraising Climate Change And What You Can Do About It [Tune in to free on-demand webinar]. This comes from the good folks at Market Smart, and is designed to propel you towards a future where low-dollar donors are disappearing, retention is abysmal, donor trust in nonprofits is depressed and competition for donor dollars is increasing. You’ll get research and practical take-aways.
FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS
Content Marketing
Click-it: Nonprofit Communications Planner [Download free template]. Keeping donors engaged is a year-round process. Grab this useful tool from Network for Good to stay connected with supporters on a regular basis.
Donor Retention
Click-it: New Donors: You Need Them More Than They Need You [Download free white paper]. Amy Bobrick of Merkle RMG takes a look at the critical need to develop systems that embrace the reality that ‘lifetime donor value’ matters if you want sustainable fundraising. This means moving from transactional acquisition to transformational retention (you can read Amy’s intro to the paper here).
Strategy and Management
Click-it: How to Do a Strategic Nonprofit SWOT Analysis [Download free eGuide]. Shining a light on the future, and how you can shape it, requires looking at big picture Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats from many perspectives. I prepared this SWOT guide + template for Bloomerang so you can break out of old patterns and ruts, facilitating proactive, not retroactive, planning.
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
Here are links to my most recent articles.
- Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Useful Life Advice for Nonprofit Fundraisers
- Your Nonprofit Appeal Response Device, Like Cheese, Stands Alone
- The Giant Mid-Level Fundraising Opportunity Your Nonprofit’s Missing
- To Be or Not to Be: What Goes in This Year’s Nonprofit Work Plan?
- If Your Nonprofit Disappeared, Would People Sing Hymns?
- NEW Feature: Fundraising Do’s and Don’ts — Spring Email Appeal
Hope to see you in Clairification School!
