Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Get the Clairity Click-it Ticket to Success!
On February 2nd the groundhog will let us know if we’ll have an early spring or more winter. Whichever way it turns out, I’ve collected plenty of resources to keep you busy.
Before we get into it, I want to send a shout out to my 2019 Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for keeping this newsletter free. Remember, my motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it!” They’re making it possible for me to spend the time curating and sending the Clairity Click-it to you on a bimonthly basis. If you appreciate this as much as I do, please let them know!
I hope you’ll also enroll this year in ‘Clairification School’. You’ll get access to ALL my content for a full 12 months, in the most cost-effective way I’ve found to deliver it.
If you can’t afford to hire me as a coach, and you can’t afford to attend an online class or a conference, I’m hoping you can afford to pay less than $2/week to receive original, weekly articles that are the equivalent of a Master Class, plus webinars, bonuses and more. All with the goal to help you raise much more than you invest by enrolling.
Your support makes it possible for everyone and, truly, means a lot. Thank you sincerely for doing the significant work you do.
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 Giving
Click-it: Monthly Donors and Mystery Shopping. Thanks to Roger Craver on The Agitator/DonorVoice for reprinting Steven Shattuck’s excellent Bloomerang blog article in full. It covers how to best deal with monthly donors during especially intense times such as #GivingTuesday and Year-End, and is based on Steven’s own research.
Click-it: Diving in with Donor Acquisition Cost. As you’re contemplating your donor acquisition strategies for the year ahead, you’d be wise to consider your costs to acquire these folks. Read this comprehensive piece from Zach Shefska of The Fundraising Report Card.
Management and Strategy
Click-it: Ins and Outs for 2019. Greg Warner of Market Smart wrote recently about these changing trends. I find them to be spot on, so naturally wanted to share them with you. Bottom line: Make supporters feel good, not bad.
Click-it: Fundraisers, Do Your Successor – And Future Self – a Favor: Write Your Job Manual!. This is a great thing to do for your team, and also for yourself. You can take this manual with you as an example of what you do and how organized and strategic you are. If you’re a manager, ask your staff to do this! Thanks to the Bloomerang blog and author Karen Griner.
Click-it: About Nonprofit Waste, Overhead, and Financial Subservience. Keenan Weller writes in Nonprofit Quarterly about how low overhead does not equate with efficiency, nor does frugality equal effectiveness. It’s based on a study from 666 Habitat for Humanity affiliates.
Major and Legacy Giving
Click-it: Top Strategies to Kickstart Major Gift Fundraising. In this article on the Bloomerang blog, I lay out three pre-conditions for major gift fundraising success. Are you doing all three effectively?
Click-it: How to Put Joy into Major Gift Solicitation and Philanthropy. I wrote this article for Bloomerang to help you and your volunteers overcome any feelings of dread in approaching folks for major gifts. Enjoy the hands-on exercise provided, and let me know how it goes!
Online Fundraising
Click-it: Reduce confusion, distraction and friction to convert more online gifts. Your donation landing page matters. It can help or hinder. This article from 4aGoodCause will help make sure the work you put in getting potential donors to your donation page doesn’t end in an abandoned gift.
Trends
Click-it: Top 6 Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies in 2019. Here’s my annual take on what you should be paying most strategic attention to in the year ahead. On the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: Altimeter’s Top Digital Trends For 2019. I’ve been following Brian Solis since I discovered him in 2011, just as I was beginning to understand the impact the digital revolution has had on ‘business as usual.’ He’s brilliant, and always prescient. If you want to know where the world is headed, look no further. Yes, nonprofits tend to lag behind. But… not forever. Be in the know, and maybe ahead of the curve.
Writing
Click-it: The Good and Evil Words of Fundraising, A perfect article from Jeff Brooks, direct mail writing guru, on the Guidestar Blog. Read it. Do it.
YOU
Click-it: Burnout, Resilience and Nonprofits: The Latest Research, Trend, and Insights. As always, Beth Kanter offers up terrific advice to help you de-stress and live and work healthier.
YOUR NEW FEATURE: Clairification Insight
Click-it: Kindness is a skill. Picked this up from a David Brooks NYT op ed column yesterday about ways to hold meetings with people of diverse viewpoints and backgrounds; thought I’d share this tidbit on the ‘best icebreaker:’ To start such a gathering, have all participants go around the room and describe how they got their names. That gets them talking about their family, puts them in a long-term frame of mind and illustrates that most people share the same essential values. There are a lot of other practical tips here as well.
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
Click-it: Just Ask! Building a Culture of Curiosity to Empower Your Team and Your Constituents [Register for free webinar, 2-20-2019]. Stanford Social Innovation Review is bringing together key leaders for this rare free interactive session covering how cultivating curiosity can empower employees and customers, and advance workplace equity. Plus, you’ll get practical tools to help you put learning into practice.
Donor Retention and Upgrades
Click-it: How to Tell Your Donors They’re Changing the World [Watch free Vlog]. This is just five minutes, with examples! Listen in to Jeff Brooks and Sean Triner of Moceanic who tout the benefits of gratitude, personally and in fundraising, and offer some great tips about writing the thank you letter and reply device before the appeal.
Events
Click-it: Events in a Digital Age: How to Maximize Offline Events in an Online World [Register for free webinar, 2-12-2019], Join Angie Kubicek, chief marketing officer at Firespring, to learn how you can streamline everything from event registration to email marketing to social media, ensuring you capture your audience right where they are: online.
Online Fundraising
Click-it: 4 Free Online Fundraising eCourses [Access on demand]. This is an AWESOME benefit being offered to you by NextAfter. Learn how to turn FB likes into donors, increase email donations, optimize donation and landing pages and more. This is a must click!
Sponsorship
Click-it: The 5 Components of a Winning Sponsorship Proposal [Listen/watch video]. This won’t take long, and you’ll get valuable tips. Very practical stuff from Chris Baylis of The Sponsorship Collective. Plus, you can download a free sponsor template!
FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS
Boards
Click-it: Why Do You Need a Board Retreat? Here Are 5 Reasons. Do you or don’t you need a board retreat? Cindi Phallen addresses that question on her Create Possibility blog.
Events
Click-it: How to Raise Awareness for Your Charity Event [Download checklist]. Let this infographic from Revel Global Events guide you through the steps needed to get the most traction from your event.
Click-it: A Definitive Guide to Health and Safety Requirements for Event Planning [Download free eGuide]. Lots of useful stuff about the duties of event planners in ensuring health and safety of both staff and attendees during an event. It’s written by Function Central in the U.K., so the law may not apply exactly, but the concepts are universal and the checklist alone is worth downloading.
Donation Processing
Click-it: Putting the Mission First: How Nonprofits Can Benefit from Outsourced Donation Processing [Download free white paper]. This may be useful if you’re finding your current method of direct mail processing stressful and less than cost-effective. From the experts at Merkle RMG.
Grants
Click-it: Grant Tracking Spreadsheet [Download free template]. Need some help tracking all of those grants you applied for? Download this resource from the folks at Qgiv. You can also read more about how to stay organized with How To Track Your Grant Application Progress.
Major and Legacy Gifts
Click-it: 30 Easy “Get the Visit” Major Gift Strategies [Download free eGuide]. When it comes to major gifts, we worry a lot about the ask and not enough about securing the “getting to know you” visit. That’s why I wrote this guide for Bloomerang outlining several effective ways to get started, along with 30 strategies to ensure you get a visit with major donors.
Marketing
Click-it: Nonprofit Marketing Plan Template [Download free guide]. Nancy Schwartz of Getting Attention is a nonprofit marketing guru, so you’d do well to download this useful template.
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
You can check them out here:
- Staff Annual Fundraising Campaign? An Open Letter to Vu Le of Nonprofit AF Note, if you’re not enrolled in Clairification School and can’t read this on my website, you can read a reprint on Guidestar here as well as the article from Vu here.
- Which Nonprofit Fundraising or Marketing Problem is Yours?
- Philanthropy, Not Fundraising: I Have a Dream 2019
- Be Up Close and Personal with Major Donor Prospects
- BIG Tips to Raise BIG Money for Your BIG Mission
If you find value in Clairification, your support via enrollment in Clairification School is a blessing. I promise to pay it back, and continue to offer lots of specific advice to help you raise greater awareness, more volunteerism and passionate philanthropy.
Hope to see you in Clairification School!
