Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Ticket to Links, Free Resources

The ‘Clairity Click-it’ is a curated bimonthly newsletter – my gift to you – and I hope you enjoy the resources below as much as I enjoy finding them for you. I read everything I share with you. There are plenty of useful articles, plus free webinars and downloadable guides – all hand-picked by yours truly.

I read. A lot. My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it!”

That’s why I also offer my virtual year-round ‘Clairification School.’ For just $100 you’ll receive original articles delivered on a weekly basis, lots of actionable tips, free webinars, a group discussion forum, bonuses and discounts.

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 means a lot,

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

Content Marketing

Click-it: A Daily Social Media Checklist That Will Double Engagement. I like to borrow from the commercial sector when it comes to marketing wisdom, and Rebekah Radice is one of my go-to gurus. You don’t have to do everything on this list, but there are lots of great ideas here.

Major Gifts

Click-it: Capital Campaigns: 6 Pro Tips for Expert Nonprofits. Here’s a nice comprehensive piece with useful tips from the Foundation Center in San Francisco. Take a look if you’re considering a campaign and want to ensure success.

Click-it: Keeping the Finance Person Happy with Major Gifts. I’ve had the pleasure of having an awesome relationship with my CFO. I’ve also had the misfortune of having a less than awesome relationship. The former is better. This article offers practical advice on how to get there from Richard Perry of the Veritus Group.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: 19 tips for making your job posting so amazing, unicorns will weep tears of joy. Having trouble recruiting employees? Vu lee on Nonprofit AF offers up some awesome tips to make your job postings irresistible. My personal favorite: List salary range. It saves your time and the candidate’s time.

Online Social Fundraising and Marketing

Click-it: Handy Nonprofit Tips to Piggyback on 3 Social Media Trends. Check out my guest post this week for the Nonprofit Fundraising Digest.

Click-it: 59 Useful Mobile Apps & Online Tools for Nonprofits. Here’s a gift from Nonprofit Tech for Good – help for your social media, graphic design, photo and video editing, web and email content, productivity, stats & research, news & stories… and more. Share this with the right person(s) at your organization. (I just went and tried the statistics website, and it was pretty awesome).

Click-it: 10 Nonprofits with Great Website Footers. Thanks to the folks from the Wired Impact blog for these great examples from which you can borrow.

FREE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

May seems to be free webinar month. If you can’t find something here to interest you, you’re simply not trying! The more you learn, the more you grow.

Note: 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!

Annual Individual Giving

Click-it: Magic Monthly Giving [Register for free webinar, 5-25-17]. Learn to build and grow a dynamite recurring giving program from Sue Adams, sponsored by Nonprofit Supply Co.

Board Development

Click-it: A More Effective Way to Recruit and Reappoint Members of Your Board [Register for free webinar, 6-2-17] Dennis Miller presents for Top Nonprofits to help you build the best possible board leadership.

Donor Retention

Click-it: The Art and Science of Donor Retention [Register for free webinar, 5-18-17] Donor Search hosts Dan Kimball of Aplos in highlighting simple donor retention strategies that can transform one-time gifts into ongoing supporters with less effort than it takes to find new donors.

Major Gift Fundraising

Click-it: Fundraising Masters with Lori Jacobwith [Register for free webinar, 6-14-17] Using concepts from the best-selling book “The Soul of Money” written by Lynne Twist, this interactive session will examine attitudes toward money: earning it, spending it, asking for it and giving it away.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: Meaningful Metrics: Using Data to Inform Fundraising Strategy and Raise More Money! [EXCLUSIVE free webinar for the Clairification community, 5-30-17] Register now to join me and Zach Shefska of The Fundraising Report Card for some eye-opening tips to boost your results! We’ll introduce powerful concepts that will allow you to make more sense out of your fundraising data and ultimately maximize your capacity to raise money.

Online Social Fundraising and Marketing

Click-it: 10 Signs Your NGO Excels at Social Media [Register for free webinar, 5-16-17] Heather Mansfield presents at Nonprofit Tech for Good to assure you aren’t using social media in ways that are no longer effective.

Prospecting

Click-it: Writing to Advance Your Nonprofit Career [Register for free webinar, 5-17-17] Linda Lysakowski presents for Bloomerang on getting started with writing for publication.

Volunteers

Click-it: Volunteer Recruiting and Onboarding [Register for free webinar, 5-11-17] Nonprofit Quarterly discusses how to get all staff and volunteers to serve as talent scouts on behalf of your organization?

FREE DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES

This month brings some super-useful guides filled with research to help you benchmark both your fundraising and marketing efforts.

Events

Click-it: Great Fundraising Events: From Experience to Transformation [Download free report from Bloomerang website]. New research from Adrian Sargeant, Professor of Fundraising and Director of the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy at the University of Plymouth, outlines for the first time what overarching factors may have a part to play in distinguishing genuinely outstanding fundraising events from merely average ones.

Individual Giving

Click-it: Volunteer Fundraiser Motivation [Free e-book download]. Turnkey has released results of a benchmark study of Peer-to-Peer fundraiser recognition. The findings reflect in-depth research of 93 programs from different nonprofits in the US over a three-year period.

Online Fundraising and Marketing

Click-it: 2017 M+R Benchmarks Study [Free download]. Explore the metrics behind online nonprofit fundraising, advocacy, and marketing. This is your comprehensive guide to the trends and tactics driving nonprofit online programs.

Click-it: Nonprofit Social Media Engagement [Download free report]. This comes from Rival IQ, and includes a study on the ins and outs of social media success for the top 45 non-profits in the United States. Best practices, examples and recommendations are included.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: Sample Job Descriptions. Bloomerang has you covered with these free template downloads.

Click-it: The 2016 Nonprofit Fundraising Survey [Download free report]. If you like research, and the ability to benchmark your nonprofit’s experience against other nonprofits, then you’ll want to read this recently released report from the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC). Among the interesting take-aways: (1) Donor-focus might mean thinking about what else is demanding attention, and (2) Findings support the benefits of using multiple fundraising methods.

FEATURED CLAIRIFICATION RESOURCE

40 Questions to Ask Major Donor Prospects

6 useful checklists, all in one bundled bargain package

Get the Major Gifts Actionable Checklists and FAQs at the “Bargain Bundle” price. Check out my newest addition to this 6-volume bundle, 40 Questions to Ask Major Gift Prospects before You Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse, and feel free to purchase checklists individually if you prefer. Check all the rest here.

NOTE and GUARANTEE: Clairification School members save $40 off the price of the already-discounted bundle and $10 off each checklist if purchased separately. Enroll here before making a purchase and get full benefits from being a member. You won’t be sorry with any Clairification purchase, but if you’re not happy I’ll gladly send a refund. If you’re not happy, I’m not happy.

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Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
January 19, 2018

Clairity Click-it: Cornucopia of Free Nonprofit Resources
November 20, 2016

Clairity Click-it: Bounty of Free Nonprofit Resources for Year-End
November 9, 2016

Clairity Click-it: Cauldron Full of Free Nonprofit Resources
October 20, 2016

Clairity Click-it: Basket of Delightful Nonprofit Resources
October 5, 2016

Clairity Click-it: Fall Extravaganza of Free Nonprofit Resources
September 15, 2016

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