Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
I’m back from vacation with a BIG batch of free nonprofit tips and tools for your edification and enjoyment.
If you find one or more articles, webinars or free downloadable guides useful I’ll be happy. My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Life’s too short, and our problems are too big, to keep information all to oneself.
Again I thank my generous sponsor, Bloomerang, for their continued support of my curation of useful content for you – all so you can facilitate passionate philanthropy to make our world a better place.
Let’s get right to this issue’s links!
P.S. If you find Clairification helpful, I hope you’ll consider enrolling in Clairification School to get a full year’s worth of all the wisdom I have to share! 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…
Annual Giving
Click-it: 4 Fundraising Lessons Learned from a Mangy Fox. This is a thought-provoking piece from Amy Eisenstein that will give you a reality check as you move forward with your fundraising plans.
Click-it: Get Started Upgrading and Retaining More Donors through Monthly Giving. The time for building your monthly giving program is decidedly now – which is why I’ve written about the whys and hows on the Bloomerang blog. Also check out this guest post on my Clairification blog by monthly giving guru Erica Waasdorp: 8 Reasons to Start a Nonprofit Monthly Giving Program NOW.
Boards and Leadership
Click-it: The Secret to Re-Engaging the Disengaged Board Member. Cindi Phallen at Create Possibility suggests open-ended questions you can use to motivate your board leaders to fully engage in their roles.
Click-it: Overcome Nonprofit Board Fundraising Resistance through Storytelling. I have a two-parter this month on the Guidestar blog, just in time to help you ramp up for fall fundraising. You can grab Part 2 here.
NOTE: If you really want to ramp up major giving from individuals (from whom a whopping 87% of all philanthropy comes), now is the time to take my 8-week online course: Winning Major Gifts Fundraising Strategies for the small and medium-size shop beginning later this month. You can pour all your energies into less fruitful, less cost-effective strategies (direct mail, crowdfunding, grants, events), but… I’m betting you’re smarter than that! When 80% of funding comes from 20% of donors, where should you be spending 80% of your time? I’m just saying… Please email me with any questions about whether this course is right for you. I promise not to talk you into something you shouldn’t invest in. If you’re ready for this, I’m ready for you. I’m passionate about helping you be the best you can be!
Brand (aka Case for Support)
Click-it: What’s Your Nonprofit’s Body, Heart and Soul? Check out my thoughts on mission, values and vision on the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: How to Create Your Nonprofit Case Statement: Clarify Mission & Values. Getting clarity on these fundamental components of your raison d’etre is essential if you hope to win philanthropic investment. You must know your unique story and what might cause someone to choose to become engaged with you rather than someone else. Read my thoughts this month on the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: Lead Your Nonprofit from Vision, Not Mission. This is the final in a three-part series I wrote for Bloomerang on crafting a case for support that incorporates your unique mission, values and vision. Mission is your what; Values are your how, and Vision is your why.
Content Marketing
Click-it: 7 Nonprofit Annual Report Essentials for Next Year. Abby Jarvis of Qgiv offers up 7 practical tips to enable you to produce the best annual report ever.
Corporate Giving
Click-it: Eleven Types of Corporate Giving Programs. Check out this comprehensive listing from Double the Donation of different ways you can unlock corporate philanthropy.
Donor Retention
Click-it: How to use social media to boost nonprofit donor retention. How to be intentional with your platforms, how to include a social call to action on landing pages and much more in this article from Ronald Pruitt of 4aGoodCause.
Click-it: 5 ways to win back your lapsed donors. This is a to-the-point list of strategies from Mary Cahalane of Hands-On Fundraising. Great info about why donors leave, and how to prevent this from happening. Remember: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Click-it: Why You Should Think More Than Twice about Allowing Anonymous Responses in Donor Surveys. Here are some simple and excellent points from Greg Warner of Market Smart about what it takes to stay meaningfully connected with your supporters.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: How to Search for a Development Officer. Linda Wise McNay writes on the Charity Channel blog about the reasons turnover is so high in this position, and how to achieve a better result.
Click-it: The Nonprofit Sky May Not Be Falling. This is Nell Edgington’s take on the potential opportunities arising out of the new U.S. tax law. You’ll see I’ve added a comment if you click through to read on the Social Velocity blog.
Click-it: These 10 adorable bunnies want you to read this blog post about fiscal sponsorship and equity. Vu Le of Nonprofit AF writes in his own inimitable way about the role of fiscal sponsorship in nurturing young charities and helping them benefit from collaboration and economies of scale.
Peer to Peer Events
Click-it: Easy Money Is Not the Best Money. Planning a P2P event? Learn why registration fees may depress fundraising results. From Otis Fulton and Katrina VanHuss of Turnkey.
Website
Click-it: How to get your nonprofit website into shape. It’s not too soon to get your website into shape for #GivingTuesday and year-end giving. Get some tips from Ron Pruitt at 4aGoodCause.
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!
Culture of Philanthropy
Click-it: Develop a Winning Nonprofit Culture with Minimal Resources [Register for free webinar, 8-14-18]. One of my favorite presenters, Jay Wilkinson from Firespring, will walk you through steps to create a healthy nonprofit culture, how to engage employees, how to assess your own culture and more – plus you’ll get real-life examples of culture that are working!
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: Asking Styles: A Revolutionary Concept in the Field [Register for free webinar, exclusive for Clairification community, 8-16-18]. Brian Saber helps you understand you distinct personality and Asking Style to help you become a more comfortable and effective fundraiser. Plus this is fun to do with boards to help alleviate their fears!
Management and Strategy
Click-it: How I Built My Fundraising Consultancy [Listen to free podcast]. I’m excited to share I was on MarketSmart’s podcast. Take a listen if you have an interest. There’s even a “lightning round!”
Matching Gifts
Click-it: Corporate Matching Gifts: The Beginner’s Essential Skills [Register for free webinar, 8-30-18]. Hannah Silvers from Double the Donation will give a crash course in corporate matching gifts that will include breakdowns of the matching gift process, an overview of popular corporate matching gift programs, and techniques for marketing matching gifts to donors, all with real examples from nonprofits. Courtesy of Bloomerang.
Storytelling
Click-it: What is Our Money Story? And How Do We Tell It? [Register for free webinar, 8-16-18]. Join veteran fundraiser Lori Jacobwith as part of the Bloomerang webinar series for this live session on how to effectively talk about the real costs of your program using storytelling rather than dry data.
FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS
Data and Metrics
Click-it: What to Include in Your Organization’s Fundraising KPI Dashboard? [Download free template]. Information from Zach Shefska of the Fundraising Report Card about setting up a dashboard to help you monitor your most important metrics
Click-it: Using Excel: Keep Donor Data Ready for a Database Import [Download free worksheets]. If you’re ready to invest in a new donor database, here’s some practical stuff from Lori Jacobwith of Ignited Fundraising to help you do so.
Donor Retention
Click-it: Undervaluing Gratitude: Expressers Misunderstand the Consequences of Showing Appreciation [Download paper abstract].We talk a lot about the importance of developing a gratitude practice and culture in order to retain more donors. If you have doubting Thomases at your organization who don’t see the importance of a robust donor acknowledgement program, here’s some ammunition you can use. There’s actual science underlying this. You may want to purchase the article from Psychological Science journal, or you can read it here in You Should Actually Send That Thank You Note You’ve Been Meaning to Write from the New York Times.
Leadership
Click-it: The Wake Up Call: A Study of Nonprofit Leadership in the U.S. and its Impending Crisis [Download free study]. If you want to sustain your organization over the long term, you can’t fundraise in a vacuum. You need vision and a strategic plan. Too many nonprofits try to get away without consensus on direction. Is that possibly you? Read this revealing report written by Adrian Sargeant and Harriet Day under the auspices of Plymouth University, the Concord Group, Bloomerang, Donor Search and Boardable.
Online Fundraising
Click-it: Nonprofit Optimization Guide [Download free eBook]. The folks at NextAfter conducted over 800 online experiments and have codified the results here. Bottom line? The rules of direct mail don’t neatly translate to digital fundraising.
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
Here are links to my most recent articles. I’ve been doing a lot of summer writing to give you a lot of summer reading! Enroll in ‘Clairification School’ to get access to every single article I’ve ever written – with new ones delivered weekly straight to your in-box! You’ll also get free monthly tips from your own “My Clairification” dashboard.
- Read This if You Know People who Hate Fundraising
- Introduction to Strategic Nonprofit Major Gifts Moves Management
- By Not Asking Donors to Give You Short-Change Them
- Why it Pays to Be Kind to Your Nonprofit Donors
- One Key to a Successful Nonprofit Social Media Strategy
- Philanthropy, Not Fundraising – How to Begin the Transformation
WINNING MAJOR GIFTS SCHOOL: ENROLLMENT OPEN!
Registration ends August 18th – don’t miss out!
If you’re serious about fundraising – no matter your size — you’ve got to get serious about investing in major gifts solicitation. Learn how with my online course: Winning Major Gift Fundraising Strategies. It’s a struggle to figure out how to do it on your own, and it wastes time.
You can’t afford not to ask for major gifts. Over an 8-week period you’ll learn everything you need to succeed — finding, cultivating and soliciting those likely to account for 80 – 95% of your total fundraising. Did I mention major gift fundraising is the most cost-effective way to raise money? Plus research shows for every training like this you take, you’ll increase contributed income by $37,000 on average.. That will more than cover your tuition. Enroll yourself and your team (up to six people per organization for one fee).
SAVINGS ALERT: If you haven’t yet joined Clairification School, now is the perfect time to do so! You’ll more than make up your $100 annual tuition fee with the $200 discount you’ll receive on the E-Course. You can enroll + get the e-course discounts with one click HERE.
Questions? Just ask me. claire@clairification.com
Thank you for doing the important work you do.
Hope to see you in class!
