Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
As we enter a memorial weekend in the U.S., I am reminded to be grateful for all who have served us – in every imaginable capacity. As others served us, so is it our responsibility to serve those who will come after us.
Have you ever thought about the expression of gratitude as a service to others?
I’d love for you to think about this, both in your personal and professional life. When a “thank you” comes to mind, don’t just think it silently. Express it! You’ve nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
“Gratitude is the practice of seeing the true value of what we have and what we’ve experienced.
It doesn’t come naturally or happen of its own accord. Gratitude is not a feeling but a deliberate practice.”
This issue of the Clairity Click-it brings together a carefully curated mix of ideas and resources to help you invent a better future. You’ll find content to support leadership, decision-making, communication, and fundraising — all organized by category so you can easily scan for what’s most relevant to you right now. Or come back when your priorities shift.
As you read, I invite you to look for just one idea you might try or adapt. If something resonates, save it, make a note, and put it on your calendar so it’s there for you when the moment is right.
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 eclectic resources I believe will best meet the needs of the diverse range of folks who comprise our critically important social benefit sector.
Thank you for doing your vital work, with gratitude,
Claire
P.S. If you’re an enrolled Clairification School student, your JUNE TIPS are live. If you’re not yet enrolled, please consider helping me simply cover my costs. [This is a labor of love, but if the enrollment fee is a hardship, please email me and we’ll work it out. I want you on board – even if it costs me money. My motto: “If I know it I want you to know it!”]
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
SPECIAL FEATURE: Civil Society Under Attack
ARTICLES
Click-it: The United States Labels Nonprofits as Foreign Threats, Borrowing from an Authoritarian Playbook. This Nonprofit Quarterly article explores how authoritarians abroad have used foreign agent labels and legislation to stifle civil society, connect those tactics to what is happening domestically, and offer ways the nonprofit community can stand together against them.
Click-it: Solidarity in the Face of Intimidation. In a March article for Nonprofit Quarterly, Joe Goldman laid out 4 tests for democracy. The third was “Will Civil Society Leaders and Organizations Remain Free and Independent?” He writes now about how he did not imagine this test would come into play so soon – with the 11-count indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on charges legal experts across the political spectrum have called defective and likely to be dismissed. Noting how a “flimsy indictment that is eventually dismissed still does its work,” he talks about the fallout from this allegation – and what it portends.
STUDIES & TRENDS
- 2026 Fundraising Effectiveness Project report (AFP & Giving Tuesday)
- 2026 Nonprofit Benchmark Report (Virtuous)
- 2026 Recurring Donor Report (Neon)
- 2026 Online Giving Benchmarks (M+R)
ARTICLES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: Never Interrupt Your Donors When They’re Being Generous. Steven Screen, the Better Fundraising Co., tells a cautionary tale about the dangers of assuming scarcity rather than abundance. Don’t say “no” on behalf of your supporters. Give them the opportunity to do something meaningful – should they so choose.
Click-it: Write a better fundraising appeal. Mary Cahalane, Hands On Fundraising, always offers the most useful information about appeal writing, and this post is no exception. There are links to some really useful tools here too!
Boards and Staff
Click-it: 5 Mindset Shifts That Overcome Nonprofit Board Fundraising Reluctance. Want to reframe fundraising so your board leans in instead of backing away? Here, in my article for NonProfitPro, are five mindset shifts that can turn reluctant nonprofit board members into enthusiastic champions for your cause.
Donor Retention
Click-it: The Lapsed Donor Letter That’s Killing Your Retention (And 5 Ways to Fix It). This article from Momentum (with a somewhat horrifying real-life story) outlines why you need to stop thinking like fundraisers and start thinking like donors. You’ll learn 5 terrific ways to use a lapsed donor letter as a tool for deepening relationships. If you want recurring donors to stay and to deepen their commitment, you must resist the instinct to manage lapses through billing language and automated processes.
Click-it: First-Time Donor Retention: 3 Best Practices for Nonprofits. Nonprofit Hub highlights three essential practices for keeping the donors you’ve worked so hard to acquire. These are not just nice-to-have. They’re essential!
Click-it: The Nonprofit Sector Has a Mid-Level Giving Problem. How do you treat donors who give more than your average online or direct mail donor, but who aren’t (yet) on anyone’s major gifts radar? Joe Garecht explains why you need a mid-level giving strategy if you want to retain and upgrade those donors who are quietly generous, consistently loyal, and almost completely ignored.
YOU CAN DO THIS! If you want a tried-and-true system to address mid-level giving and significantly improve your major donor pipeline, look no further than the Certification Course in Mid-Level Fundraising. I’m partnering again with the Veritus Group, and am offering an exclusive Clairification Community discount – a whopping 35% off – using this code: CLAIRE35. Stop leaving money on the table!
Events
Click-it: Attract. Engage. Activate. [Register for free, live workshop, 6-3-2026]. Laurie Hochman of Auctria hosts Rebecca Hollander Smiros of Rebecca Hollander Events for an actionable workshop designed to bridge the gap between a well-run event and a record-breaking fundraiser. They will open their playbooks to show you exactly how to captivate your audience and convert that energy into immediate giving. Learn how to get the right donors in the room; boost attendance; design experiences that deepen connections; processes to streamline giving, and more
Click-it: What Are General Admission Tickets? An Event Organizer’s Guide. Read all about the pros and cons of selling general admission vs. reserved tickets from the event experts at Eventgroove. You’ll learn how the two ticketing types solve different problems, when to sell which, and how to sell through different channels.
Click-it: How to Increase Bidding at a Charity Auction: 10 Proven Tactics. Most charity auctions leave money on the table, not because the items weren’t good or the crowd wasn’t generous, but because the bidding experience got in the way. Guests who can’t find the catalog, items that open too high to attract a first bid, and a silent auction that closes without anyone noticing: these are all avoidable problems. Soapbox Engage highlights the best ways to design the bidding experience from the moment a guest browses your catalog to the moment the auction closes.
Major, Capital and Legacy Giving
Click-it: Blended Giving: How to Connect Today’s Gifts with Tomorrow’s Impact. Nathan Stelter writes about how a staff team approach to major donor fundraising can unlock future and/or current funding you may be leaving on the table. For example, a donor who gives from their DAF might be open to naming you as a DAF beneficiary – if you just ask! Read about other natural opportunities here.
Online, Digital Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Are you average? You’ll find great take-aways from this analysis of the M+R Benchmarks Report by Ephraim Gopin, 1832 Communications. Reports are nice, but not meaningful unless they are used as the basis for a strategic plan to improve your results.
Click-it: Google’s Quality Threshold Is Quietly Killing Scaled AI Content At Ranking. Share this with whoever is in charge of your SEO. Discuss! What should you be doing differently to rise in Google search rankings? Brands must invest in robust editorial processes, human-led strategy, and meticulous quality assurance (including internal linking and distribution) to ensure that every piece of content, whether AI-assisted or not, consistently surpasses Google’s evolving threshold.
Psychology of Giving
Click-it: The Spiritual Side of Relationship Fundraising Every Fundraiser Should Understand. It’s not about the money. It’s about the donor’s identity. Jeff Schreifels has been spreading this gospel, brilliantly, for years now. He does it again in this article for NonProfitPro.
Storytelling
Click-it: The Storytelling Technique That Raises a Lot More Money. Jeff Brooks writes on the Moceanic blog: “People don’t give because you told a good story. They give because they choose to be part of a story.” He continues: “Fundraising isn’t just storytelling. It’s a real-life adventure for the people who choose to get involved.” Sage advice.
Website and Landing Pages
Click-it: What Should a Donation Page Say and Do: Frictionless Donation Pages. For a donation page to convert to a gift, you need both the right words and the right experience. Learn what causes donors to leave in the first place, explore nonprofit donation page best practices, and study what a high-converting donation page should say and do in this piece from 4aGoodCause.
Other Learning Opportunities
CONFERENCES
Click-it: The Future of Fundraising is Now: Responsive Nonprofit Summit [Register for free two-day event, 6-4 to 6-5, 2025]. You’ll have access to 25 sessions, 30 fundraising experts and more, all designed to help you ditch outdated tactics and scale personal connections. The Summit is sponsored by Virtuous in partnership with We are For Good. The co-creator of Charity: water, Viktoria Harrison, will keynote. Speakers include: Nathan Chappell, Founder at Fundraising.AI & SVP at DonorSearch; Tim Paris, Cofounder + CEO at Dataro; T. Clay Buck, Founder and Principal at Next River Fundraising Strategies; Gail Perry, President at Gail Perry Group; Cameron Ripley, CEO at Community Boost, and more.
WEBINARS, PODCASTS, & 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!
Events
Click-it: From Chaos to Confidence [Register for free webinar, 6-2-2026]. CharityHowTo hosts A.J. Steinberg for this complimentary 45-minute session where you’ll learn, step-by-step, how to fix one of the most stressful—and most overlooked—parts of your fundraising event: registration and check-in.
Grants
Click-it: Introduction to Project Budgets [Register for free e-course, 5-28-2026]. This 90-minute session from Candid will cover basic components of a project budget including income and expenses; common terminology, including direct costs, indirect costs, and in-kind; how to estimate the realistic cost of a project for both personnel and non-personnel expenses, and what financial documents you may also need to submit with your proposal.
Major, Capital and Legacy Giving
Click-it: What to Do When a Donor Gives Before You Ask [Listen to on-demand podcast]. Andrea Kihlstedt and Amy Eisenstein of Capital Campaign Pro share why every fundraiser should be prepared for a preemptive gift and not be reactive in the moment, but really think about how they’ll handle such a situation should it arise. I’ve actually done something quite similar to what John did in this situation, and I can vouch for the strategy. Be brave; it works.
Click-it: So You Want to Have a Campaign [Register for free webinar, 6-4-2026]. If a capital campaign is on your horizon, be sure to sign up for this useful session from the Gail Perry Group. You’ll learn what it actually takes to be ready, and walk away with a framework for the infrastructure, leadership, and donor relationships required to succeed.
Technology as Tool
Click-it: Smarter Together: A Human First Approach to Agentic AI [Register for free webinar, 5-28-2026]. Walk away from this Blackbaud session with clear, plain‑language understanding of agentic AI and how it differs from traditional automation or analytics. Also learn why human oversight, transparency, and escalation paths matter, especially in donor and constituent engagement. And grab practical tips to think about AI as a teammate that supports people, not a black box that replaces them.
Website
Click-it: How Nonprofits Should Think About Their Website as a Platform [Register for free webinar, 5-26-2026]. TechSoup has your back with this session revealing how websites integrate with CRM and marketing systems, support ongoing optimization, and provide enhanced insights into user behavior. This session helps nonprofits plan websites that scale and remain effective over time.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, PAPERS, TEMPLATES & OTHER RESOURCES
Psychology of Giving
Click-it: The Behavioral Economics Nonprofit Playbook [Download free resource]. I love this guide from NextAfter. When you understand why donors give, you can unlock generosity by keying into human emotions. You’ll learn underlying principles, and get the data-driven, tested, and proven research you need to acquire and retain more donors.
Strategy, Planning, Management and Leadership
Click-it:. The Sanity-Saving Magic of Understanding Donor Complaints [Download free e-book]. One loud voice doesn’t speak for all people. There are useful ways to handle complaints, and harmful ways to react. If you want to continue raising money – and doing more good – this guide from the Better Fundraising Co. will help you put things in perspective.
Did You Miss My Newest Articles?
Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog.
❤️Top Strategies for Open Nonprofit Donor Conversations
🚀 Better Nonprofit Communications: 7 Simple Ways to Increase Donor Response
💸It’s Not Too Early to Prepare for Prime Fundraising Season!
🎯 4 Nonprofit Strategic Planning Myths—Debunked (And What Actually Works in Uncertain Times)
🌱One Thing You Absolutely Must Know about Today’s Donor Engagement Journey
📞Donors Screening Calls? 12 Strategies to Stop Being Defeatist.
💡 5 Strategies to Improve Nonprofit Use of Donor Data
🤔❓Finally… if you have a question, any question…
Ask your question here. And check out my free fundraising advice column on the Bloomerang blog! You can bookmark the Ask an Expert page for any time you have a question. Here’s one: How To Budget For Major Donor Cultivation And Stewardship?
Sharing some outdoor art that made me happy this week. Enjoy!
Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and Clairification School is affordable, because of their generosity.
