Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
The ‘Clairity Click-it’ is a curated bimonthly newsletter – my gift to you – whether or not you’re currently enrolled in ‘Clairification School‘ to receive ALL my original articles, monthly action tips, free bonuses, and much more. I hope you enjoy the resources below as much as I enjoy finding them for you. There are plenty of useful articles, plus free webinars and downloadable guides – all hand-picked by yours truly.
Like the in-depth articles I write for ‘Clairification School’ students, each resource I select falls into a key fundraising, marketing or nonprofit management area. If you’ve not yet paid your ‘tuition’ – just $100 for the full year – I hope you’ll consider it.
If you find value in Clairification, please sign up now for all the benefits ‘Clairification School’ has to offer. I’m as much of a ‘public school’ as I can be but, sadly, can’t keep doing this 100% for free
Your support means a lot,
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
Annual Individual Giving
Click-it: 5 Questions for a Winning Donor Cultivation Event. Rachel Muir makes a case on the Bloomerang blog for going beyond the usual house party to develop “immersive donor experiences.” She also offers a free, downloadable cheat sheet: How To Do a Donor Cultivation Event.
Click-it: The lesson of my mom’s chili. Mary Cahalane of Hands on Fundraising offers up a great analogy of what happens with fundraising appeals written by committee. I have my own analogy using cake. My sister and I used to sneak into the kitchen, unbeknownst to each other, and slice off just a little piece to “neaten” it out. After all, this would make it look better — and no one would really notice. Right? By the time my parents found it there was almost no cake left! Appeals written by too many cooks take on that quality. The sweetness and substance gets whittled away until there’s almost nothing of substance remaining. Read the article for some tips on how to avoid this problem.
Donor Retention
Click-it: One Key Idea to Simplify Nonprofit Donor Retention. Check out my article on Nonprofit Pro. After you read it, don’t forget to sign up for The Power of Thank You if you want to take action on retaining more donors this year (see more below under “Featured Clairification Resource.”)
Leadership
Click-it: Leaders Need to Know Their Role in Major Gifts. Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels of The Veritus Group are running a 5-part series on the role of leadership in major gifts development. This is the first part, and I encourage you to read them all. They are chock full of wisdom, and information you really need to know if you want to succeed in growing your major gifts fundraising.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: How Much is Your Obsession with Overhead Costing You? David Allen makes an excellent argument on the Development for Conservation blog. He concludes decisively with: “I find organizations not spending enough on fundraising far more often that I find organizations spending too much. But even THAT isn’t the problem. The real problem is that they’re proud of it. If you’re proud of how little you spend, you may be needlessly starving your organization.
Click-it: How To Stop Your Nonprofit’s After Hours Email Habit. This is a must read from Beth Kanter for everybody working in today’s highly networked environment. [The cartoon alone is worth it] Did you know the French have created a new “right to disconnect?”
Online Social Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: How To Change Your Social Media To Succeed In 2017: 3 Mindblowing Take-Aways. Heidi Cohen is a social media marketing guru, albeit not in the nonprofit space per se. Still, I follow her religiously. Recently she attended the annual Social Media Marketing World Conference and her three take-aways are totally applicable to your work too. There’s lots of great information here.
Click-it: How to Raise Awareness For Non-Profits Through Social Media Ad Grants. Some of this information from the Search Engine Journal may be a bit out of date, but it’s a great compilation of valuable information nonetheless. It lays out a plan for nonprofits to benefit from programs that exist at YouTube, Google, Facebook, and Twitter. When I found it, I had to send it.
Click-it: Are you using email to reach your millennial donors? If not, you’re missing out and here’s why. This is an interesting read from Maddy Rieman on the Guidestar blog. It will destroy a lot of your assumptions.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT: YOU
We all need balance in our lives in order to stay healthy and be effective in our jobs. In the spirit of balance, I am now offering an article that has nothing to do with nonprofit work per se – but everything to do with how you, as a human being in the 21st century, achieve equilibrium.
Click-it: The Neuroscience Of Music, Behavior, And Staying Sane In The Age Of Twitter. Neuroscientist and author of This Is Your Brain On Music Daniel Levitin talks about information overload on the Fast Company blog, and it’s very, very interesting. It makes a case for how music, art and discussion can impact your ability to function more effectively – and much more:
My reading of the research is that we really are, as a society working harder than before, but we’re not working as efficiently. We feel overloaded by the onslaught of information, and so I think that creates the conditions in which things like fake news and alternative truth can exist because we just throw up our hands and say, “I can’t deal. It’s somebody else’s job to deal with this, not mine.” –Daniel Levitin
FREE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Note: Free webinar offerings may be on the same dates, but not always the same times. Plus many will send you a copy of the recording if you’re unable to join live – as long as you register!
Content Marketing
Click-it: Tools of the Trade: Leveraging Facebook for Your Nonprofit [Register for free webinar 4-27-17] Guidestar will host Facebook and Instagram’s social good experts, who will talk about maximizing reach with ads, sharing impact through engaging content, and new giving features of both platforms.
Individual Giving
Click-it: The Mid-Level Donor Crisis [Register for free webinar, 4-27-17]. Tim Kachuriuk of NextAfter made $1,000 donations at 37 organizations and tracked what happened over the next 90 days. Learn what it means for you and how you can better engage these high-value mid-level donors in this free webinar sponsored by Nonprofit Supply Co:
Major Gifts
Click-it: 5 Simple Steps to Starting a Major Gifts Program [Register for free webinar, 4-25-17]. Network for Good hosts expert fundraiser Gail Perry. Learn prospect identification and research, and how to get you board involved.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: Why Your CRM and Your Accounting System Need to Work Together [Register for free webinar, 4-20-17] Donor Perfect hosts Joseph Scarano, CEO, Araize to bring what may sound like a dry topic to life and show you how integrating those two systems will benefit your organization every day.
FREE DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES
Donor-Centered Content Marketing
Click-it: The Donor Communication Mini Guide [Free download]. This guide from Network for Good explains what to say, how to say it, and when to say it to achieve your fundraising goals.
Events
Click-it: How to Plan a Nonprofit Fundraising Event on a Budget [Download free e-book]. Donor Perfect shares tips and best practices from executive directors, event planners, and fundraising experts.
Individual Giving
Click-it: The Guide to Courting Third Party Donors [Free eGuide download]. The good folks at Classy know most nonprofits are not doing a good job cultivating donors who come to them through third parties (e.g., P2P fundraising, crowdfunding, event guests), so they’ve prepared this useful step-by-step guide.
Online Fundraising
Click-it: Digital Roundup: 2017 Online Fundraising Benchmark Report [Free download]. Merkle surveyed fundraisers at over 75 large organizations, with an annual revenue of $10 million or more, and asked them to share insights about their online fundraising programs.
Click-it: 2016 Annual Charitable Giving Report [Free download]. Blackbaud’s annual survey looks at online giving from 5,000+ organizations and shows trends by sector and organization size. Also includes the impact mobile giving is making… plus lots more.
FEATURED CLAIRIFICATION RESOURCE
If you’re one of the dozens who have emailed me asking when ‘stewardship school’ will be back, the wait is over. Early bird pricing is on, from now through next Wednesday, for my 4-week e-course: The Power of Thank You. This is your quintessential blueprint for creating and implementing your organization’s stewardship policies and procedures, and turning first-time donors into lifetime donors. If you’ve been wondering how to get your board members involved in fundraising, how to engage event attendees beyond the event, why you should absolutely send a snail mail thank you letter for an online donation, and more, register now to save off the regular price. I can’t wait to see you inside! NOTE: Clairification School students receive a huge discount – just $77 instead of $277. So take advantage of the “Enroll + E-Course” option to save now and in the future. Early Bird pricing ends Wednesday, 4-19. ENROLL NOW.
