Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Please wear a mask.
I know each of you has your nonprofit’s needs to deal with, but before that can happen you need to stay healthy. You need to assure your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, supporters and, yes, even strangers stay healthy.
This is the biggest crisis our world has faced in 100 years. There’s no ignoring it. In the last Clairity Click-it I encouraged you to take a good hard look at what you can do proactively to make the best of the cards we’ve all been dealt. Today I echo that plea, yet begin with that one simple step.
Cover your face.
Thank you for helping to make our world a better place.
I hope you find some of these resources I’ve collected for you helpful.
With gratitude for all you do,
Claire
P.S. Many thanks to Bloomerang for sponsoring the Clairity Click-it. And please also take advantage of all my original articles on this blog by enrolling in Clairification School!
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
SPECIAL CATEGORY: Tips for Not-So-Normal Times
ARTICLES
Grants
Click-it: Grant Funding Opportunities for Nonprofits amid COVID-19. Nonprofit PRO and GrantStation have partnered to share available grant funding opportunities for nonprofits in four categories: COVID-19, national, regional and federal. They’ll update these funding opportunities on a weekly basis. Good to know!
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: The Essential Guide to Nonprofit Live Streaming Video: How nonprofits can use live videos to strengthen relationships with donors, members, and supporters. Julia Campbell, Marketing for the Modern Nonprofit, notes the growing importance of live streaming for the times we’re in, offering suggestions for live platforms and ways to get started.
Strategy, Management and Leadership
Click-it: How Nonprofits Can Weather an Economic Crisis. Check out my article on the Bloomerang blog discussing the different impacts of focusing on cutting expenses vs. generating revenues.
Click-it: A long walk from charity to justice. Three colleagues reflect on the Candid blog on the intersection of race, equity, and philanthropy in this moment. How will your organization approach this opportunity for reshaping your culture?
YOUR Food for Thought
Click-it: A Brave and Startling Truth: Astrophysicist Janna Levin Reads Maya Angelou’s Stunning Humanist Poem That Flew to Space, Inspired by Carl Sagan. This piece by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, and especially the poetry reading of Maya Angelou’s awe-inspiring ‘A Brave and Startling Truth,’ left me trembling. And hopeful. Please enjoy.
NOTE: You’ll find more of my own ‘what to do in this crisis’ articles on Clairification (just scroll to the bottom of the Click-it).
WEBINARS & PODCASTS
Annual Giving
Click-it: Growing Annual Giving During a Pandemic and Into the Future [Register for free webinar, 7-22-2020]. Part of the Donor Search ‘Master Mind’ series, this session with experts Brian Lacey, Mark Rountree, Christina Nichols and McCabe Callaghan looks promising.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES & REPORTS
Donor Retention
Click-it: Retaining the COVID-19 donor [Download free white paper]. As you know, disaster or reactive donors can tend to retain poorly. How do you make sure this bump leads to long-standing gains for your mission? The folks at Moore have some suggestions.
Virtual Events
Click-it: Virtual Fundraising Events Checklist & Planner [Download free guide]. Virtual and livestreaming fundraising events have a lot of moving parts to manage, but you don’t have to get overwhelmed. This guide from Mobile Cause will help you stay on top of the details.
Other Articles: The Beat Goes On
Asking
Click-it: Matching Gifts Best Practices. Donors love to leverage their giving, and matching and challenge opportunities are one of your best ways to make an offer folks can’t refuse. Here’s a great, comprehensive article from Qgiv about how to promote them, manage them, gratefully acknowledge them, and report back on their impact. If you aren’t doing this actively right now, please read this; then see your next appeal results skyrocket.
Boards
Click-it: The default nonprofit board model is archaic and toxic; let’s try some new models. Vu Le, Nonprofit AF, challenges us all to rethink governance and leadership. I love this: “We are talking about a structure where groups of volunteers who barely know one another, see one percent of the work, often don’t reflect the communities we serve, and who may have little to no experience running nonprofits, being given vast power to supervise leadership and determine values, policies, and practices. Why did we think this weird structure would work?”
Donor Retention
Click-it: Secret Nonprofit Donor Thank You Advice: Always Add a Tip. Now’s the time to go the extra mile. Thank you’s are an especially big deal today, because people are stressed and isolated. Why not ‘tip’ your donors with extra gratitude right now, rather than succumbing to the notion thank you’s are no big deal during a crisis? Read my article on the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: Rock These Outstanding Nonprofit Donor Thank You Templates. Grab some templates you and your volunteers can use for phone calls, personal notes and emails. Also from me on the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: How 5 Nonprofits Successfully Nudged Dormant Donors to Give Again. Check out these examples offered by the folks at Sumac of successful lapsed donor appeals.
Online Social Marketing and Fundraising
Click-it: Twitter for Nonprofits: Does Your Organization Really Need to Tweet? As we socially distance, now is a great time to revisit your nonprofit’s social media strategy. This is a thorough discussion of the pros, cons and ‘how to’s’ of Twitter on the Wild Apricot blog.
Click-it: Top Seven Tips to Collect Email Addresses of Your Nonprofit Donors. How useful is this article from Robin Cabral, Development Consulting Solutions?
Sponsorship
Click-it: No Cash? No Problem! 15 Other High-Value Offerings a Sponsor Can Give. Chris Baylis, The Sponsorship Collective, offers a plethora of ways to build sponsor relationships beyond cash gifts.
Storytelling
Click-it: Sharing Stories from Your Community. I’m starting to notice some nonprofits have stopped telling stories. They’re all business with messages like: “Times are tough; we need money to survive; please send money.” This article from Flipcause is an important reminder of the emotional power of stories. Don’t forget to tell them, and grab some great tips for so doing here.
Writing
Click-it: The most difficult word in fundraising. I love this article from Jeff Brooks, Future Fundraising Now. I tell people, over and over and over, not to use this word. Yet… sigh. If you’re one of the people making this mistake, please read and heed. If you know someone making this mistake, please send them this article. You’ll raise more money.
Other Learning Opportunities
WEBINARS AND PODCASTS
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: Designing the Perfect Marketing Strategy for Your Gift Planning Program [Download free webinar and slides]. Kathryn Miree, a legend in the field of planned giving, teaches you how to create a marketing strategy for your Tier I, Tier II and Tier III planned gift prospects in this Stelter pre-recorded webinar. You’ll learn a lot!
Storytelling
Click-it: Movie Mondays: A Simple Story Formula [Listen to free video]. Tom Ahern joins Chris Davenport of The Nonprofit Storytelling Conference for this quick video outlining the four pillars of a simply storytelling formula. Use it to write your next appeal or other donor communications piece.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: How to Grow Individual Donations [Register for free webinar, 7-21-2020]. Join Sherry Quam Taylor in this Firespring session designed to help you build a stronger, more diverse funding model that will assure your sustainability, in good times and bad.
Website
Click-it: How to Captivate and Engage Constituents with Your Website [Register for free webinar, 7-21-2020]. I highly recommend this presentation by Jay Wilkinson, CEO of Firespring. You’ll get super practical tips that will make a big difference in your bottom line this coming fundraising season. If you don’t do these things, you’ll leave money on the table. That would be a shame.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES
Asking
Click-it: Mid-Level Giving: A Million Dollar Missed Opportunity [Download free paper]. Mid-level donors are one of the most productive and valuable segments in a donor file. Yet they’re often overlooked, leaving money on the table. Learn from Amy Bobrick of Merkle how to tap into this hidden pot of gold hiding in your own database.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: The Power of A/B Testing [Download free e-book] Learn the essentials of A/B testing from the experts at Marketo so you can move away from guessing and start optimizing your campaigns!
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog. I think you’ll find these fairly practical. Hope so!
- 4 Types of ‘PERSONAL’ Your Nonprofit Must Adopt Today
- How to Improve Your Online & Monthly Giving Donation Processes
- Is Your Nonprofit Inadvertently Creating Stranger Danger Due to Coronavirus
- Stop Scolding Nonprofit Donors to Make Unrestricted Gifts, Especially Now
- Fool-Proof Nonprofit Crisis Fundraising Communications Templates for Every Audience
Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and Clairification School is affordable because of their generosity.
Hope to see you in Clairification School!
