Clairity Click-it: Vacation Full of 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 Bloomerang, my generous sponsor, 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. My popular Winning Major Gift Fundraising Strategies online e-course is now open for registration – and spots are limited.  Since 88% of dollars raised come from just 12% of donors, you owe it to yourself and your cause to check this out! Please note: You’ll save BIG if you enroll before the August 10^th ‘Early Bird’ deadline.

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

Annual Campaign

Click-it: Fundraising photography: how to escape the curse of knowledge. When your photo doesn’t optimally match your message, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.  Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now, explains.

Click-it: Are You Asking Nonprofit Donors to Pee in the Ocean to Raise its Level? Your task is to persuade people what you’re asking them to do will, in fact, make a demonstrable impact. In this article for the Bloomerang blog, I describe pitfalls to avoid plus several ways to accomplish this.

Boards

Click-it: Are You A Taker? 7 Ways to Give Back To Your Board. Do you do unto your board as you would want them to do unto you? If not, you’re likely not happy with them and wish they’d be more effective.  Guess what?  This won’t happen unless you get some skin in this particular game. Check out this nice piece by Cindi Phallen on the Create Possibility blog.

Content Marketing

Click-it: Are you sending donors something to treasure? You’ll find lots of food for thought in this excellent piece by Mary Cahalane of Hands On Fundraising. When you send a communication to your donors, is it new? Personal? Flattering? Worthy of being cherished? Think about it.

Culture of Philanthropy

Click-it: 6 Secrets to Improve Your Nonprofit Culture. There are two things fundraising is NOT about: (1) money, and (2) and end in and of itself. What fundraising IS about is values. Read my post on the Bloomerang blog to learn six things you can do to meaningfully showcase your values and raise more resources for your mission.

Click-it: How to Survive an Imperfect Nonprofit Culture. Since all philanthropy boils down to a value-for-value exchange, when staff feel taken advantage of and on the short end of the exchange, philanthropy will get subverted. Here I’ve written some action tips for the Bloomerang blog to help you stop perpetuating the very ills you seek to address.

Events

Click-it: Encourage Bidding to Drive Auction Fundraising Success. If you’re planning a silent auction, read this article from Qgiv to get great tips to maximize your success.

Major and Legacy Giving

Click-it: Why Major and Legacy Donors Think Your Fundraising Communications Stink! Greg Warner of Market Smart warns against “spray-and-pray communications that seemingly seek to pound donors into submission.” He goes on to explain how neither acquisition nor retention fundraising should be solely about money. Read to learn about the ‘land and expand’ strategy.

Click-it: Are Your Marketing and Development Teams on the Same Page? Legacy giving is a special kind of fundraising. It’s a long-term process, dependent upon building relationships and cementing loyalty. Towards this end, consistent and thoughtful marketing outreach is key. That means fundraisers must assure marketers come from a donor-centered perspective. The experts at The Stelter Company offer five strategies to accomplish this mission.

Online Fundraising

Click-it: What to Make of Key Nonprofit Online Fundraising Benchmarks. I’ve cherry picked a few highlights from recent reports to explore what trends may mean for your fundraising strategies, this year and in the foreseeable future. Check out my post on the Bloomerang blog.

Click-it: Mid-year check in: How is your online giving working out? The online fundraising experts at 4aGoodCause look at the first half of 2019 to bring you a snapshot of their online donation and fundraising pages to help you understand online donor trends—the who, where and why. They also offer tips to help you maximize results.

Psychology of Giving

Click-it: The motivation divide between young people and older people — and what that means for your fundraising. Jeff Brooks of Future Fundraising Now suggests a new framework for considering why your donors, of different ages, might be motivated to give.

Strategy and Management

Click-it: “We Need More Money” Isn’t a Fundraising Plan. There’s an old saying: “If wishes were fishes we’d all swim in riches.” Wishes, alas, don’t swim on their own. They need a friendly environment, the right circumstances and supporters willing to give them a little push. Learn how to do this in my recent post on the Bloomerang blog.

Click-it: Choosing Between Revenue from Members and Donors. If you work for an organization that has ‘members’ and ‘donors,’ with responsibility for acquiring/stewarding these folks split between different staff or departments, you owe it to your supporters to read this. From Richard Perry of the Veritus Group.

Trends

Click-it: Where Have all the Donors Gone? Not every trend is worth wringing your hands about. In this guest post for Guidestar, I discuss two respected recent reports highlighting concerning trends. What matters is what you can control, and what you can’t. Read this if you want to take charge of your own destiny. Please share if you find it useful.

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!

Boards and Fundraising

Click-it: Key Secrets to Overcome Barriers to Board Fundraising [Register for free webinar, 8-20-2019]. I’m pleased to announce I’ll be offering a free webinar later this month with Boardable, whose mission is to increase nonprofit board member engagement.  Mine too! We’ll unpack the reasons board members fear fundraising in this live session, , and hopefully get to the roots of the problems you’re facing so you can address them head on.

Major and Legacy Gifts

Click-it: Get the Visit, Nail the Ask! [Register for free webinar, 8-13-2019]. If you want some tips to help you get the visit, stand out, successfully get your foot in the door and know if your message is getting through, check out this session with Rachel Muir hosted by Asking Matters.

Online Fundraising and Marketing

Click-it: Online Fundraising Performance: Does Your Nonprofit Measure Up? [Register for free webinar, 8-6-2019]. Online fundraising is managed most effectively when performance metrics are measured. Join Jay Wilkinson, CEO of Firespring, to learn the best detailed formulas every nonprofit should use to track metrics and measure the success of their online fundraising efforts. He’ll include the attributes of a killer email campaign!

Storytelling

Click-it: How Storytelling in Summer Will Move Your Fall Fundraising Needle [Register for free on-demand webinar]. Master storyteller Lori Jacobwith, Ignited Fundraising, joins the folks at OneCause to discuss simple tasks to do now to inspire your community to give more later. You’ll improve your storytelling and grab some non-traditional ideas for donor cultivation.

FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS

Boards

Click-it: How to Take Meeting Minutes Kit [Download free e-Guide]. Board minutes are important, but no one ever teaches you how to take them.  That’s why this e-guide from Board Effect is so valuable!

Database and Metrics

Click-it: Metrics that Matter [Download free e-Guide]. You know what they say, right?  What gets measured gets done.  You’ll want to assure you’re working smart by reading this quick reference created by Zach Shefska of The Fundraising Report Card – which is now free!

Donor Retention

Click-it: Mid-Level Donor Engagement [Download free white paper]. Nonprofits are missing out on millions by ignoring their mid-level donors. Learn why in this white paper from Merkle RMG. You’ll also get five tips to build a successful mid-level giving program.

Major Gifts

Click-it: 42 Questions to Ask Major Donor Prospects Before You Ask for a Gift [Download free guide]. While you may be tempted (or pushed) to set up appointments to sell your proposal and ask for money, really the best way to do that is to set up visits where you ask your prospects questions about themselves and listen to their answers. The better you get to know folks, the better you can tailor your proposal to their interests. That’s why Bloomerang and I are pleased to offer you this guide to inform what questions you should ask to get to know your major donor prospects before you make the ask.

NOTE: Speaking of major donors, my popular e-course, Winning Major Gifts Strategies for the small and medium-size shop, is now open for registration. This class will fill up, so please check it out and email me directly if you have any questions about whether it is right for you. IMHO, major individual gifts are the most effective way to fundraise for most organizations. If you’re not doing it as well as you might, make this the year to consider tweaking your system.  You won’t regret it!

Did You Miss My Recent Articles?

Here are links to my most recent articles.

• Do You Want More Major Donors? Read This!
• Partner to Solve Social Problems; Stop Acting in Silos
• 10 Email Hacks to Increase Nonprofit Productivity
• Nonprofit Fundraising: Do You Know Semantics Matter?
• Donor’s Lament: You Didn’t Thank Me Properly
• Hold these 4 Nonprofit Fundraising Truths to Be Self Evident
• How Leaning Into Fear Can Change the World

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.