Clairity Click-it: Sand Pail Full of Nonprofit Links, Free Resources

Twice a month I collect and curate articles, whitepapers, webinars, templates and guides I encounter in my readings across the web. All are free to you thanks to my sponsor, Bloomerang. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy finding them for you.

As you may know, 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,’ with an extraordinarily modest tuition. Because I’ve got a LOT more to share with you based on my 38 years’ experience – 30 of them in the trenches – plus all the new things I learn every day in my practice.

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P.S. I try to make most of my content as close to free as humanly possible. If you’re on the fence about enrolling, see what others say about why they’ve joined. And if you’re not happy, I’ll refund you. How’s that?

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

Content Marketing

Click-it: Five Features Every Nonprofit Annual Report Should Include. Kristina LeRoux of the Nonprofit Marketing Guide explains the donor-centered essentials, and includes links to examples in different formats – short form, online, video, etc.

Click-it: Why Your Nonprofit Needs Communications Policies and Procedures, and What Should Be in Them. Here’s a nice outline for structuring a comprehensive plan assuring everyone in your organization is on the same page, courtesy of Maria Bryan creative.

Events

Click-it: Silent Auctions | The Ultimate Guide for Your Next Event. This is a comprehensive guide – silent auctions from A to Z – put together for you by the good folks at Qgiv. You’ll find all sorts of useful tips here.

Grants

Click-it: Five Tips for Novice Grantwriters. Here Chelsea Adams of KFA Nonprofit Management Solutions explains the art and science of applying for government, foundation and other institutional grants. It takes persuasive writing + academic writing.

Major and Legacy Giving

Click-it: Smashing the piggybank. Truer words were ever spoken. This will take you about 15 seconds to read. You’ll think about it daily. Especially if you’re a major gift fundraiser.  From the inimitable Seth Godin.

Click-it: How to get your donors to respond to you WITHOUT asking them to respond to you. I often say “if you want gifts, you must give them.” Here Greg Warner of Market Smart offers a similar view.  Try this with your major gift prospects!

Online Fundraising

Click-it: 6 ways to grow your online fundraising. Ronald Pruitt of 4aGoodCause has put together a blog post that’s a whole course in digital fundraising, complete with numerous links to download a bunch of useful tips and tools. This is a good one.

Strategy and Management

Click-it: How to Survive an Imperfect Nonprofit Culture. I make a point about the importance of a culture of philanthropy, and tell you how you can survive a flawed culture, on the Bloomerang blog. I’m concerned so many nonprofits have cultures that can, at best, be described as imperfect. A little flaw here and there is to be expected. And those can be tackled fairly easily. But the worst nonprofits (and there are too many) have cultures so toxic they perpetuate the very ills they seek to redress. This article has action steps you can take.

Click-it: Your Burning Questions about Nonprofit SWOT Analyses Answered. I recently offered a webinar for Bloomerang and we didn’t have time to answer all the questions.  So, here they are, for all to see!

Click-it: Putting the Mission First: How Nonprofits Can Benefit from Outsourced Donation Processing [Download free white paper]. Outsourcing direct mail donation processing can allow nonprofits to focus more resources on serving the core mission while ensuring greater security, accuracy, speed and efficiency. If you’ve never considered this, take a look at this piece from Merkle RMG.

YOU

Click-it: How To Become Ridiculously Self-Aware In 20 Minutes. I loved this article by Tim Kuegler in The Mission. I told my husband we should try this together. He said “Sounds like a lot of work.” I say, it sounds like a lot less work than years of therapy, and could have multiple work/life benefits. You?

Click-it: 7 Ways to Create a Culture of Belonging. This comes from Mazarine Treyz of Wild Woman Fundraising.  My favorite take-away: “10/5 rule. If you get within 10 feet of someone, meet their eyes. If you get within 5 feet of them, say hello.”

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!

Database Management

Click-it: 4 Change Management Tips for Successful Technology Adoption [Register for free webinar, 7-16-2019]. Navigating a technology switch is tricky business. Learn from one of the experts at Heller Consulting, Smita Vadakekalam, in this important session hosted by Classy. You’ll learn ‘must haves,’ how to get folks on board, and real world tools you can bring back to your organization to use for your next change.

Leadership

Click-it: Nonprofit Workspaces [Listen to free podcast interview]. Joan Garry of Nonprofits are Messy, together with Harvard Business Review podcast cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn, talk through what to do when you’re trying to advance amid a leadership change, your job seems to change with sources of funding, or you’re unsure how to describe your work to people in the private sector.

Major and Legacy Gifts

Click-it: 4 Steps to Establish (and Improve) Your Legacy Giving Program [Free on-demand webinar]. Lori Kranczer of Everyday Planned Giving believes legacy gifts should be a vital part of the fundraising practice of every nonprofit organization, no matter the size, budget or mission. Courtesy of Network for Good, she explains the 4 steps you need to take to increase bequest giving to your organization.

Click-it: How to Write Donor Stories that Make Prospects Take Action. Donor stories add a human touch to planned giving efforts and serve as a translator of sorts, making the more technical aspects of a planned gift easier to understand. Learn more about what storytelling has to do with planned giving in this article on The Stelter Company blog.

Online Social Fundraising and Marketing

Click-it: How to Drive Social Media Engagement with your Nonprofit Storytelling [Register for free webinar, 7-16-2019]. Join Firespring as they host social media and storytelling guru Julia C. Campbell for this step-by-step walk through the process of creating a 2-week social media storytelling campaign to raise awareness and funds, increase engagement with your online community and accomplish your marketing goals.

Strategy and Management

Click-it: Mid-Year Review for Fundraising and Communications [Listen/watch free video]. Vanessa Chase Lockshin of The Storytelling Nonprofit walks you through a quick outline of questions to ask to review last year’s results and plan ahead for next year.

FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS

Content Marketing

Click-it:  23 Creative Annual Reports People Actually Want to Read [Article + Free downloadable guide]. This compendium of the best corporate annual reports over the last five years is super fun to peruse. While you may not have the resources to do anything like this, it’s still interesting to see what’s evolving. Check out the report from the Austrian solar energy company that can only be read in the bright sun! Plus, you can download a free 125-page guide from Visme to create visual slides with impact.

Events

Click-it: 11 Live Fundraising Appeal Scripts: [Download Templates for Crafting a Successful Ask]. The folks at Mobile Cause have prepared customizable templates to help you welcome your event guests, walk them through mobile pledging technology, and showcase the impact of your nonprofit.

Major Gifts

Click-it: 42 Questions to Ask Major Donor Prospects Before You Ask for a Gift [Download free e-guide].This guide, which I authored for Bloomerang, will help inform what questions you should ask to get to know your major donor prospects before you make the ask. Want to learn more? Get on the waiting list for my upcoming Winning Major Gifts Fundraising Strategies for the small to medium-sized shop and you’ll get first dibs on a spot in my most popular e-course when registration opens August.

Strategy and Management

Click-it: Lead Wherever You Are: Overcoming Demands Using Quadrant 3 Leadership [Watch conference session video]. Mark Pitman, Fundraising Coach, thinks some leaders miss the big picture. No one ever gave them a Leadership Map. Here he shares an AFP session about becoming more effective in this role. Get 9 tools to grow your leadership this year.

Click-it: This is how to make your meetings less awful [Listen to quick video podcast]. I love the way Daniel Pink thinks. Check out this Pinkcast with Steven Rogelberg, author of ‘The Surprising Science of Meetings’ with three tips – separation, standing and shrinking — to run more effective meetings.

Did You Miss My Recent Articles?

Here are links to my most recent articles.

• Hold these 4 Nonprofit Fundraising Truths to Be Self Evident
• How Leaning Into Fear Can Change the World
• Fundraising Do’s and Don’ts: Email Invitation
• 4 Ways to Consciously Keep Donors Connected
• Enough is enough…
• 4 Keys to Raise Money in Today’s Social Nonprofit Fundraising Environment

Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ is ridiculously affordable because of their generosity.

Hope to see you in school, and thank you for doing your important work!