Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
We each have, I believe, a responsibility to “write home” when life gives us some heightened experience – perhaps an experience of illness, or loss, or transition, or awakening. We report back to the collective, and fill in one more shape on the mosaic of human experience. We add detail about the topography to one more spot on that map. We do it because any place that one of us is taken offers lessons for all of us.
— Tara Mohr, From Smoke
You’re a philanthropy facilitator. You ‘write home’ all the time to shine a light on heightened experiences. Whether it be smoke from fires… labored breathing from a terrible pandemic or other illness… choking smog in cities enveloped in pollution… people suffocating from crimes against humanity… the gasps of those saying “I can’t breathe.” Whatever affront to the human experience your organization confronts, you help your supporters translate the love in their hearts into actionable work. You help your constituents fulfill their most cherished values and find meaning and purpose.
You do this to the best of your ability, with full attention and commitment. Even when it’s not easy.
Tara Mohr also asks us to ask ourselves: “How will I fight – in my work, in my thoughts, in my community – for the collective breath of life?”
How, indeed. One of this pandemic’s silver linings is the plethora of free stuff you can find online to help you do your important work. To lift your spirits, commune with your peers, develop new skills and strengthen old ones. That’s where the Clairity Click-it comes in. Simply click on a link and let it transport you to an article, webinar, podcast, e-guide or some other resource that piques your interest.
It is my pleasure to collect and curate these resources for you, and I want to thank my sponsor Bloomerang for making it possible for me to spend the time to do this for you on a biweekly basis. It is a labor of love for both of us.
Thank you for all you do to take people on the path towards passionate philanthropy, in service of making our world a place where all people can breathe free.
With gratitude,
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
Asking
Click-it: 3 Strategies to Successfully Fundraise Mid-Pandemic. All the best strategies you’re innovating now, and having success with, should be continued as you fundraise mid-pandemic. This is your pandemic silver lining! It’s taken this quarantine crisis for some nonprofits to do what they should have done before. Check out my article on the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: Fuel Your Nonprofit’s Annual Contributions Income Engine. Learn how to build an annual contributions giving pipeline and keep it fueled up in my article on the Bloomerang blog, #2 of a four-part series.
Click-it: Help! How Should I Plan for Year-End Fundraising in the Age of Coronavirus? Here’s a timely article from Network for Good as you begin to plan your calendar year-end campaign. Plus you’ll find some advice on thanking monthly donors.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: Due to Current Events Your Nonprofit Has a Back Burner Problem. If you keep putting good plans and approaches ‘on pause’ you’re going to get stuck where you are. At this point, many months into a pandemic, growing economic recession and burgeoning civil rights movement, it is imperative you be proactive, not just reactive. This article on the Bloomerang blog will help you develop a plan not just for today, but for tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
YOU in this moment
Click-it: Get to the Polls allows you to customize and embed an interactive tool on you own site. This tool helps voters find everything they need to get ready for their upcoming elections—where to vote, what will be on their ballot, and contact info for local election officials.
Click-it: Build your program + save democracy. Depending on your mission and constituency, you may be engaged in getting out the vote. If so, the good folks at M+R highlight how to make a poll recruitment campaign successful.
Click-it: 10 Tips for a Successful Staycation. Bless Joan Garry, Nonprofits are Messy, for this post. I too had a rather unsuccessful ‘staycation.’ This article inspires me to try again. Take care of yourself!
WEBINARS & PODCASTS
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: The ethics of using Facebook as a nonprofit [Register for free webinar, 9-3-2020]. This event hosted by The Resource Alliance looks fascinating to me (I confess to an anti-FB philosophy, but then I wrote my senior thesis in college on the topic of “Computerized Databanks and Invasion of Privacy” – way before FB even existed!). Several great speakers will share their experience in the sector as well as practical tips to what you can do to make sure your organization goes digital in the right way. They’ll discuss other social platforms as well.
DOWNLOADABLE REPORTS
Communications
Click-it: Let Your Donors Know about the New Tax Incentives [Download free e-Guide]. Do you actively look for opportunities to provide helpful information to your donors? You should! As you prepare for calendar year-end giving campaigns, check out the helpful information in this e-Guide from Stelter.
Trends
Click-it: How Nonprofits Can Thrive in the New Normal [Download free report], Lots of great take-aways in this write-up from a recently delivered webinar by Merkle. They share recommendations and solutions related to geographical economic resilience, audience strategy, dynamic creative, and messaging that ensures sensitivity to each donor’s situation. Learn how to inspire loyalty in the face of re-imagined events, using enhanced targeting to help you meet changing donor demands.
Other Articles: The Beat Goes On
Annual Fund
Click-it: A Monthly Giving How-To: Should You Ask for Monthly Gifts at Year-End? Read this thoughtful article from Erica Waasdorp on Nonprofit Pro to consider whether you’re better off asking for one-time or monthly gifts during different months from now through the end of the calendar year.
Online Social Marketing and Fundraising
Click-it: 9 Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit’s E-Newsletter. Communication with supporters today must be multi-channel if you want to get noticed. This article from FlipCause suggests ways to connect your e-newsletter with email, social media and your website.
Click-it: Nonprofit Email Fundraising: 9 Questions to Ask Before Sending. This is one of the best articles I’ve seen on this subject. It’s a terrific checklist from Nathan Hill at NextAfter. I love them, because they offer real-time data about what works/doesn’t work from their many clients; then share with the world.
Click-it: Why I Don’t Schedule Tweets. This is amusing for the extreme example of a twitter ‘fail’ included. Food for thought from Ephraim Gopin, 1832 Communications, if you’re currently automating your social media responses.
Psychology of Giving
Click-it: If Money Were a Person. Okay, the Agitator-DonorVoice editors had me at the title! It’s an interesting read.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: Creating a Roadmap to Synchronize the Board to Your Nonprofit Mission. For an excellent step-by-step strategic planning blueprint with lots of specifics, check out this article by Joe Hnat on the Blue Avocado blog.
Click-it: Removing Barriers to Giving, or How Traditional Development Gets in its Own Way. Vanessa Chase Lockshin, The Storytelling Nonprofit, offers some food for thought if you (like me and Vanessa) think the donor pyramid may not be exactly the right model for today’s fundraisers.
Other Learning Opportunities
WEBINARS & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
Asking
Click-it: Donor sized problems [Download brief free video]. Steven Screen, Work Less Raise More, is always a delight. Here he appears in an episode of Movie Mondays to help you to diagnose your appeals. He then goes on to share two simple strategies for making your appeals raise more money. Good advice, and time well spent.
Events
Click-it: RAISE 2020 [Register for free 2-day virtual conference, 9-14 & 15 – 2020]. This is a multi-track conference that’s usually held in person — for a fee. If you’ve been needing a pandemic silver lining, here you go! What an amazing opportunity to hear stellar speakers, network with your peers and learn all the latest about events, auctions, P2P, social engagement and more. Sponsored by OneCause.
Storytelling
Click-it: Storytelling for Better Fundraising [Register for free webinar, 9-10-20]. Join Rachel Muir and Qgiv for tons of examples of how to tell your most compelling nonprofit story. It should be super fun!
Website
Click-it: How to Get the Most Out of Your Nonprofit Website [Register for free webinar, 9-2-2020]. Learn how to put your nonprofit website to work for you and make it multitask as well as you do. Go beyond the basics with Molly Coke of Firespring as she talks about how to leverage technology to help support your mission and make your life easier.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES
Annual Giving
Click-it: Mid-Level Giving: A Million Dollar Missed Opportunity [Download free whitepaper]. Chances are you’re not paying enough distinct attention to your mid-level donors. As a result, you’re leaving money on the table. Read this paper from Merkle to learn what you can do so you don’t miss out moving forward.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: How to Conduct a Social Media Audit for Your Nonprofit [with free template]. Read this article and grab the template from Julia Campbell, Marketing for the Modern Nonprofit. It’s filled with useful tips!
Trends
Click-it: 2020 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study [Download free research report]. Nonprofit Pro has put together their third annual leadership study with data reflecting trends, opportunities and challenges nonprofit leadership teams face on a day-to-day basis.
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!
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!
My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Don’t miss out.
