Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
December! I’ve collected bountiful gifts for you this month: Articles, free webinars and free downloadable guides to help you succeed in this most generous of seasons. Remember, my motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it!”
That’s why the Clairity Click-it remains free, even though I put a lot of work into curating and sending it to you on a bimonthly basis. I’m not a large corporation; it’s just me here. And I’m dedicated to paying it forward after 30 years of in-the-trenches nonprofit work. As others helped me, so do I want to help you.
But… here’s the thing. I can’t afford to lose money. So if you find value in Clairification articles I hope you’ll enroll this year for all the benefits ‘Clairification School’ has to offer. You’ll get access to all my content for a full 12 months, including original weekly articles, bonus webinars and more, in the most cost-effective way I’ve found to deliver it. At less than $2/week, your support makes it possible and, truly, means a lot.
P.S. Questions? Just ask! Please email me at claire@clairification.com. I read and respond to every single email.
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
Annual Individual (and Year-End) Giving
Click-it: 9 Essential Year-End Fundraising Resources (And Other Neat Stats) You’ll find tons of tips and useful links here on the ReCharity blog. How about this: 29% of all online giving happens in December and 11% happens in the last 3 days alone. Don’t miss out!
Click-it: 450 Email Subject Lines From End of Year Fundraising. Most nonprofits send fewer email appeals than they should. Check out these great tips, plus tons of sample headlines, from Steve MacLaughlin on npENGAGE. Did you know:
- Optimum hours for email delivery and online giving are between 11am and 2pm ET?
- December 31st is the busiest day for email delivery?
- Most nonprofit emails are delivered between Monday and Thursday?
Click-it: Five Ways To Spice Up Your Direct Mail Marketing In 2017. Forbes Agency Council nails the basics — a good list, a good design and a strong call-to-action are a must. They also suggest some new strategies to take your direct mail to the next level. I like the idea of the multiple folds.
Boards
Click-it: On-Boarding … or Board Orientation? The Process for Introducing New Board Members to Their Jobs. A quick read from Mike Burns on Nonprofit Pro suggesting several effective on-boarding tools to put in place.
Content Marketing
Click-it: Will Infographics Stay Relevant in 2018 and Beyond? I often encourage nonprofits to think of their content as a ‘gift’ to their constituents. Such as helpful “How To” info, that also establishes you as an authority in your field. Infographics are a great way to get this across, so check this out from Vikas Agrawal on the Maximize Social Business blog.
Click-it: Six steps toward building a great nonprofit marcom team. Without good marketing, fundraising falls flat. Get practical tips on how to build an ideal marketing communications team from Genie Gratto on Nonprofit MarCommunity.
Events
Click-it: A Simple Recipe for Your Best Fundraising Gala Ever. Planning ahead for spring events? Check out my newest guest post on the Nonprofit Fundraising Digest.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: 10 Insights from the Toronto AFP Congress 2017.Gail Perry of Fired Up Fundraising shares these highlights – all best fundraising practices of which you should be aware to be successful in the coming year. Here’s #1: “Focus more on the few people who love you.”
Social Media
Click-it: 5 Quick Social Media Tips to Create Buzz. Julia C. Campbell of JCSM offers tips you can use throughout the end of year to ramp up online giving. There are plenty of examples from which to borrow.
Click-it: The 5 Deadly Non-Profit Social Media Sins. Get outside your own head and inside that of your potential donor. Read my guest post on the Nonprofit Fundraising Digest.
Sponsorships
Click-it: How to Write a Sponsorship Letter (With a Template and Infographic). Chris Baylis of The Sponsorship Collective specializes in nonprofit sponsorships, and here he’s offered practical tips – including mistakes to avoid!
FREE 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
Click-it: All A-Board! 7 Tips for a Successful Associate Board [Register for free webinar 12-13-17]. Most nonprofits aren’t maximizing their relationship with one of their most promising resources: the next generation of philanthropists and volunteers. All A-Board Alliance is passionate about engaging young people in civic service and will give you best practices to cultivate your young professional supporters by building an Associate Board. Courtesy of Nonprofit Hub.
Content Marketing
Click-it: Master Class: Mapping Out Your Nonprofit Marketing Calendar for 2018! [Register for free Master Class, 12-8-17]. If you’ve never had the benefit of learning from Julia C. Campbell of JCSM, don’t miss this opportunity! She’ll offer a step-by-step guide to mapping out your nonprofit marketing calendar for 2018.
Grants
Click-it: Introduction to Finding Grants [Register for free webinar 12-6-17]. Grantspace is ready to teach you the 10 most important things you need to know about finding grants. Learn to identify funders and get inside their heads!
Online Marketing and Fundraising
Click-it: 10 Emerging Trends in Online Communications and Fundraising [Register for free webinar, 12-19-17]. You won’t want to miss this one. It’s Network for Good’s final free webinar, and couldn’t come at a better time for year-end fundraising and next year planning.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: Data Enrichment 101: Best Practices to Optimize Your Donor Database [Register for free webinar 12-5-17]. Want to learn to use data effectively to optimize your fundraising programs? Join Blackbaud to get tips and best practices for evaluating data hygiene, implementing a data clean-up plan, and performing regular database maintenance.
Click-it: 10 Tech Tools and Skills Fundraisers Can’t Succeed Without in 2018 [Register for free webinar 12-19-17]. Wild Apricot hosts Joe Waters in this session that will help you plan ahead and budget for what you need to succeed in 2018 and beyond.
Volunteers
Click-it: Engaging Pro Bono and Skills-Based Volunteers [Register for free webinar 12-7-17]. Be a hero and send this one over to your volunteer manager. They’ll thank you, and you’ll be providing another donor engagement opportunity! Courtesy of the Learning Center.
YOU…
Click-it: Fundraising Is A Lonely Hunter “Fundraisers are a bridge, not an island.” Remember these beautiful words the next time someone puts you down, refuses to help you or intimates you’re just a money grubber. Nothing could be further from the truth. (Thank you Simon Scriver of Change Fundraising).
Click-it: Five contributions. An interesting paradigm from the inimitable Seth Godin. Do you know which you are? What about the others on your team?
FREE DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCES
Annual Individual Giving
Click-it: The Anatomy of a Successful Fundraiser [Download free eGuide] Classy gathered a list of 10 successful fundraising campaigns hosted on their fundraising platform. They discuss what strategies helped create these powerhouse campaigns and how you can replicate them at your own organization.
Database/CRM Software
Click-it: Infographic: 9 Step Guide To Buying Nonprofit CRM, Considering how better software may take your donor relationship building and fundraising to new heights in 2018? Take a look at this infographic created by Mark Kelly at Salsa Labs.
Donor Retention
Click-it: Donor Retention Math Made Simple [Download free white paper] Learn from Dr. Adrian Sargeant how to calculate the difference even a small improvement in donor retention will make to your long-term fundraising success. Courtesy of Bloomerang.
Major Gifts
Click-it: Transporting Your Donor to the Scene [Download free white paper] Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels of Veritus Group know a lot about major gifts, and in this white paper they lay out some of the best ways to cultivate major donor prospects. The trick is to make your donors feel something with every connection.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: A Graphic Re-visioning of Nonprofit Overhead. Overhead is not optional. It’s essential. This article by Curtis Klotz in Nonprofit Quarterly explains why — with a great visual you can share, and maybe use in your next annual report!
Online Fundraising
Click-it: A Nonprofit’s Guide to Suggested Giving Levels [Download free e-book] This comes via Nonprofit Pro from FrontStream and Artez, who offer particular online solutions. The principles are universal, however. So… contact them and/or ask your current provider, or any potential vendors, if they can provide similar tools.
Strategy and Planning
Click-it: 2017 Global Trends in Giving [Download free report]. Inform your next year’s planning with this annual report from Network for Good that examines the impact of technology, gender, generation, and ideology upon giving worldwide.
Website
Click-it: Nonprofit Website Checklist [Download free e-Guide]. This checklist from NeonCRM includes over 20+ proven web design best practices that will help you better engage your donors and raise more money!
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