Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
It’s Memorial Day week-end in the U.S., so I’ve got some reading to tide you over the three-day holiday – and beyond.
All of you who work and volunteer on behalf of causes in the social benefit sector contribute in service to our community and your fellow citizens. This issue of the Click-it is dedicated to YOU and the difference you make! Many thanks also to the generous sponsorship of Bloomerang in support of my curation of content for you across the web – all with the goal of helping you in your quest to facilitate passionate philanthropy.
I’ve got lots more wisdom to share, and hope you’ll take advantage. Clairification School gives you a full year of tips! I don’t do this as a “loss leader” for other expensive services. Mostly, I do it because I want to pay it forward. My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Life’s too short, and there are too many problems, to keep it all to oneself.
Thank you for doing the important work you do.
You inspire me!
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: The Surprisingly Smartest, Donor-Centric Fundraising Strategy. Check out my new post on the Bloomerang blog. Seriously, this will surprise you.
Boards
Click-it: A Menu of Fundraising Options for Your Board. Here are some useful tips from Front Range Source to help energize your board around their fundraising role.
Click-it: How to build your first nonprofit Board. Whether you’re building your first board or attempting to strengthen your current one, this is a nice, meaty article from Sandy Rees of Get Fully Funded.
Donor Advised Funds
Why Donor Advised Funds Aren’t Really for Grantwriters (But Can Be…). Six of the ten largest charities in the U.S. are actually sponsors of DAFs. So… you’d probably like to learn how to tap into this philanthropic resource, right? You’ll notice one of the additional resources cited in this article on the Grant Advisor blog is a post by me, so check that out too!
Donor Retention
Click-it: How to Make Your Donor Surveys More Successful. The better you know your donors, the easier it is to communicate with them in ways that are meaningful. To them. As Nathan Stelter writes in this article on The Stelter Company blog: “If there’s one universal truth about us humans, it’s this: We just want to be heard.” Grab some tips to create a better survey here!
Events
Click-it: 3 Ways to Promote Auctions on Social Media. Looking for a way to promote your auction in advance of your event? Abby Jarvis of Qgiv describes great online strategies to spread the word and create excitement
Major and Legacy Giving
Click-it: Engagement Calling Metrics for Lead Outreach Associates Tasked with Arranging Meetings with Major & Legacy Donor Prospects. Check out this useful model from Greg Warner of Market Smart describing quantifiable strategies to identify and qualify prospective donors for future cultivation.
Online Social Marketing and Fundraising
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.
Click-it: You Need to Do What Monty Python’s Eric Idle has Just Done. Michael Rosen of ML Innovations blogs frequently about donor-centered planned giving, but this post is about relationship building writ large. Take away: Social media is social.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: Do You Know Your Biggest Nonprofit Marketing/Fundraising Problem? You have myriad strategic choices. What you select should be aligned with your real life and death needs. Or, as Seth Godin puts it, what’s your oxygen and what’s your chocolate. I explore this in an article for the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: The Power of Savvy Kindness (Not Business Acumen) in the Nonprofit Sector. I like almost everything Nell Edgington of Social Velocity writes, and this is no exception. She explains why you want to be businesslike, but not too much, and you also want to be kind, but not too much. Thought provoking!
Click-it: All Brands Must Die. This article from Nick Ellinger on the Agitator-Donor Voice blog is a strategic reminder of the need for vigilance and forward thinking. If you want to plan to shape your own future, you’d be wise to read this, think, and then perhaps download this free Strategic Nonprofit SWOT Analysis Guide.
YOU
Click-it: Virginia Woolf on Being Ill and the Strange Transcendence Accessible Amid the Terrors of the Ailing Body. This has nothing to do with fundraising, but… fundraising has everything to do with people. And chances are you know volunteers, donors, colleagues and friends who are going through illness. Or who have family members experiencing illness. I found this musing from Maria Popova on BrainPickings inspiring, and thought you might too.
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!
Annual Giving
Click-it: Uncovering WHO Matters Most [Register for free webinar, 5-30-2019]. Wondering how to become your donor’s charity of choice? Join Michele Murray, Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation, and Matthew Mielcarek, Pursuant, to explore the innovative ways the Foundation is beginning to use CRM data & market research to unlock donor motivation and apply those insights to create more meaningful experiences for donors.
Click-it: Beyond the nudge: putting deep behavioral insights to work for you [Register for free webinar, 6-11-2019]. Did you know you can apply knowledge gleaned from decision science to your copy, design and donor journeys in order to increase engagement? The folks at Donor Voice show you how via a case example.
Click-it: How to raise undesignated funds in your appeal letters [Watch free 5-minute video]. Steven Screen, of Steven and Chris Davenport’s Work Less Raise More, shows you how to raise money for undesignated purposes, even while your appeal letter focuses primarily on one specific program.
Boards
Click-it: Light Your Board on Fire about Fundraising [Register for free webinar, 5-29-2019]. Want practical steps you can take – regardless of your role in your organization – to elicit your board’s joyful and strategic participation in fundraising? Then this webinar from Susan Howlett and Asking Matters may be just the thing!
Database Management
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.
Online Social Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Tools Every Nonprofit Needs to Simplify Their Life [Download free on-demand video]. Want to learn which social media platforms you should care about? Five online tools you can’t live without? How to master your online presence in less than 15 minutes per day? Angie Kubicek at Firespring shows you what you need to know!
Click-it: 10 steps to online fundraising success [Listen to free webinar replay]. Join Ronald Pruitt of 4aGoodCause as he outlines specific strategies to acquire, convert and retain online donors through email and social media.
FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS
Annual Giving
Click-it: Monthly Donor Metrics Every Nonprofit Should Know [Download free e-book]. Don’t underestimate the power of growing a robust monthly giving program! Monthly donors are retained donors, serving as the foundation of your success with a predictable and reliable revenue stream. Learn how to recruit and retain these folks with help from Donor Perfect.
Click-it: Annual Giving from Grateful Patients: 4 Key Elements to Success [Download free white paper]. Learn how to acquire, cultivate, and steward folks who are grateful for the experience they’ve had with you. While his paper from True Sense Marketing is tailored to hospitals, many of the principles can apply to schools, arts organizations and other charities with members and clients.
Benchmarks
Click-it: 2019 M+R Benchmarks Study [Read free report highlights]. This M+R annual comprehensive report for online giving gives you everything you need to know to benchmark your results against other nonprofits, get insights into trends and begin to plan for a future where you know one thing will be constant – change.
Data Processing
Click-it: Putting the Mission First: How Non-profits Can Benefit from Outsourced Donation Processing. Outsourcing direct mail donation processing can allow non-profits to focus more resources on serving the core mission while ensuring greater security, accuracy, speed and efficiency in the process. Merkle RMG commissioned this study to determine the benefits nonprofits derived from outsourcing donation processing.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: Strategic Planning Benefit Sheet [Download free guideline]. A smart strategy transforms a nonprofit from one that just survives, to one that creates lasting social change. Nell Edgington of Social Velocity walks you through the steps to create a plan.
Website
Click-it: How to Create Landing Pages That Convert [Download free e-book]. If you want to turn your website visitors into supporters, creating landing pages that convert should be at the top of your priority list. The folks at Firespring know just how to achieve this, and they tell you what you need to know in this free guide!
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
Here are links to my most recent articles.
- Fundraising Do’s and Don’ts: Email Sharing Strategic Plan
- Impatience is Virtue: Key to Sustain Nonprofit Relevancy and Fundraising Effectiveness
- 3 Ways to Remove Psychological Barriers to Philanthropic Giving
- 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
Hope to see you in Clairification School!
If you find value in Clairification, your support via enrollment is a blessing. You’ll be able to read every single article I’ve ever written, plus you’ll get access to all my webinars, monthly tips, bonuses and more. I promise to pay it back, and continue to offer lots of specific advice to help you raise greater awareness, more volunteerism and passionate philanthropy.
