Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
As you read through these resources, and pick a few ideas to try out, consider not just what you’ll do but how you’ll do it. The way we approach our choices and challenges makes all the difference.
A simple but difficult fork in the road for the choices we make.
I did the thing that was:
expedient
easy
safe
what my boss insisted on
generous
brave
new
effective
done by everyone else
deniable
fun
resilient
scalable
unique
selfish
fast
convenient
in sync
remarkable
risky
self-aggrandizing
anonymous
the way it’s always been done.
–Seth Godin
As I do every two weeks, here are a selection of curated articles, whitepapers, webinars, templates and guides that have spoken to me recently in my travels across the web. Make your choices and click on the resources that resonate right now! This newsletter is free to you thanks to my sponsor, Bloomerang. I hope you enjoy these resources as much as I enjoy finding them for you.
Thank you SO MUCH for doing the important work you do,
Claire
P.S. If you find value in Clairification, please sign up now for all the benefits ‘Clairification School’ has to offer. Feel free to check out what others say about why they’ve joined. 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
Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…
NEW OPINIONS FEATURE
This Issue: Ethics in Civil Society
Click-it: Why Civil Society Needs to Pay Attention to AI. This article by Cindi Suarez in Nonprofit Quarterly about the power of technology for good or evil fascinated me. The author lays out how one of the most important emergent issues plaguing our society today is that of algorithmic bias. She’s not worried about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world, but of groupthink, insularity, and arrogance in the AI community and how AI has already been demonstrated to perpetuate discrimination and social injustice. It’s troubling. The article concludes thusly: “Everyone’s now aware that true accountability needs to come from the outside.” That’s us, civil society.
Click-it: Tainted Money Is Better Than None for Struggling Charities. Max Hastings writes for Bloomberg Opinion, arguing arts groups and other charities would starve if forced to follow left-wing critics’ ethical standards. There’s a nice history of philanthropy in service of reputation building here, leaving you to decide if that’s inevitably a bad thing.
ARTICLES
Content Marketing
Click-it: Top 2021 Fundraising Strategies: Mastering Relevant Content Marketing [Part 3 of 6]. I’m outlining my top six fundraising strategies for the year on the Bloomerang blog. Today’s article is all about showcasing how what you do relates to what’s top of mind for folks. I offer five examples of content you can easily share, suggesting ways to make it super accessible. Learn how relevant content can create cash and community! You can read part 1 and part 2 here.
Major and Legacy Giving
Click-it: Why Management Won’t Invest (More) in Legacies & What To Do About It. If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you know I love applying principles of neuroscience and psychology to social sector work. And that’s exactly what Ligia Pena, Globetrotting Fundraiser, does in this article to help you talk to both your boss and your donors about future planning and gifting.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Top 2021 Fundraising Strategies: Mastering Online Appeals and Messaging. This is Part 2 of my six-part series on Bloomerang designed to help you prioritize, work smart and become your most effective money-raising self. This one is filled with tips to help you master online appeals, user experience (including on your website) and digital messaging.
Click-it: How to Find My Top Tweets – and Those from My Competitors – on Twitter? If you haven’t been measuring your social media engagement in a meaningful way, and are wondering what to do more/less of, read this post from Neal Schaffer. I learned a lot!
Click-it: Summer round-up: free tools for you. Mary Cahalane, Hands On Fundraising, has curated this list of favorites including suggestions from Sheena Greer, Ephraim Gopin, Barbara O’Reilly, Lisa Sargent, Sophie Drouet, and the Agitator editors. If you’re looking for help with finding free photos, graphic design, editing, office applications, grammar, writing headlines, blogging and more, this is a great place to shop around. I use a lot of these, but there were definitely some new gems!
Trends
Click-it: Micro-donations: The Future of Nonprofit Fundraising. Read about this emerging form of crowdfunding, especially useful for disaster fundraising, on the Hands On Fundraising blog. It’s a guest post from Patrick J. Coleman of GiveCentral.
Click-it: 12 Must-Know Digital Security Tips. This year marked the 17th anniversary of the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The theme for this year was “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart” as a means to encourage individuals and organizations to own their role in protecting their part of cyberspace, stressing personal accountability and the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity. Thanks to Nonprofit Tech for Good for this tip.
Website
Click-it: How To Create A Conversion-Optimized Donation Page. Your donation page can make or break your fundraising, yet most fundraisers completely hand off this crucial piece of the fundraising puzzle to web or marketing managers. Sure, they have the technical skills and you need those. But it’s your job to tell these folks what needs to be on the page. And what needs to not be there. This guest post from Jacob Spencer at Donately on the 1832 Communications blog will help!
Click-it: Why and How to Test a Website Form. Learn how to test a website form so your website visitors can work through and submit forms in exactly the way you’d like them to. The Wired Impact blog shows you how to text and fix nine different things.
WEBINARS, ROUNDTABLES & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
If you can’t attend live, or are interested in sessions happening at overlapping times, note many are available via recording – but ONLY if you REGISTER!
Featured Webinar by Yours Truly
Major and Legacy Gift Fundraising
Click-it: How to Talk about Legacy Giving Without Seeming Creepy [Register for free webinar, 8-12-2021]. Registration is limited, so wanted to call this to your attention before it’s promoted to the larger community. Legacy giving programs often never get off the ground because people think talking about death is creepy. Yet right now people are questioning the meaning of life, and their own mortality, in a way that’s unprecedented. People are wondering: What will their legacy be? Just possibly they may wish part of their legacy to be supporting the causes they cared about during their lifetime. It’s not going to happen though, unless you begin the conversation. Learn how to persuade ‘powers that be’ you should actively promote legacy giving, even (especially) now. Sponsored by my good friends at Bloomerang.
Culture of Philanthropy
Click-it: Creating a Culture of Philanthropy {Register for free webinar, 8-12-2021]. Is the program team at war with development? Are different fundraising departments fighting over donors or who gets credit? Learn about unique drivers and motivations of programs, development & communications from Qgiv and Rachel Muir and take away 15 ways programs, development, & leadership can instill a culture of philanthropy to make your organization more successful – and a happier place to be.
Events
Click-it: Making the Most of Your Virtual and Hybrid Events [Register for free webinar, 8-18-2021]. A.J. Steinberg, CFRE, of Queen Bee Fundraising will lead you through the world of virtual and hybrid events with insights into strategies to ensure your events maximize engagement and revenue. In this AFP-sponsored live session, A.J. will draw on her 20 years’ experience as a nonprofit event producer to outline the art and science allowing you to cultivate relationships with virtual attendees that last long after the cameras have been shut off.
Major and Legacy Giving
Click-it: Listen Up! Learning to Master the Skill of Listening [Register for free webinar, 8-18-2021]. Some people are naturally good at this; most of us need a little guidance. Who better than the experts at Stelter to shine a light on how to attentively and patiently listen in conversations with donors.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Marketing Trends Nonprofits Need to Know (and Embrace) [Register for free webinar, 8-10-2021]. Join Firespring to discuss seven 2021 marketing trends: (1) Storytelling; (2) Influencer marketing for fundraising; (3) Creating digital experiences to build awareness; (4) Building automation into your outreach; (5); (6) Taking advantage of latest approaches to search engine optimization, and (7) How to use artificial intelligence (AI) to engage.
Click-it: How to Use Text Messaging to Engage and Retain Donors [Sign up for this free online course]. Did you know average donation size via text message is over $107 compared to just $40 with email? Rally Corp is offering this free course to help you learn a simple tool to engage your constituents so they feel connected, inspired and motivated, not spammed.
Click-it: Debrief: Top Takeaways From The Digital Fundraising Summit [Register for free webinar, 8-10-2021]. Cause Vox recently hosted a Digital Fundraising Summit with 30+ experts. If you missed it, you can grab the key take-aways here. If you want to raise more money with limited time and resources, check this out.
Psychology of Giving
Click-it: 4 Ways to Help Donors Understand Why They Should Give [Download free on-demand webinar and slides]. What makes one message get more opens, clicks and/or donor conversions than another? This is a question the folks at NextAfter are constantly asking, and they generously share all their results. You can watch/listen as a webinar, or simply download the slides and transcript. I heartily recommend the first option.
YOU
Click-it: Apps and Strategies for Creating Digital Wellness in the Hybrid Workplace [Register for free webinar, 8-11-2021]. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone or anything else. Kindful hosts Meico, a certified mindfulness teacher, to give an overview of the latest apps for workplace mindfulness, wellness, and productivity and help you learn strategies for using apps to improve wellness and productivity for yourself and your team.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, WHITE PAPERS & OTHER RESOURCES
Annual (Year-Round) Fundraising
Click-it: Quarterly Mail Processing Report [Download for Q2 2021]. We’re just beginning to see how donors acquired during the pandemic behave. Merkle has compiled data juxtaposing fundraising results against a timeline of major events affecting philanthropy in 2020. You can see response and donation volume as well as revenue, average gift and performance by sector. Great for benchmarking your own results!
Major Gifts Fundraising
Click-it: How to Use Permission-Based Asking with Donors [Download free White Paper]. The Veritus Group explains why it’s important to engage with donors in an explicitly permission-based method; how to explore topics with donors without being fearful or adversarial; when to ask, and when to celebrate the result.
Trends
Click-it: What’s the Pandemic Impact on Nonprofits? [Links to collected REPORTS] Even though the impact of COVID-19 on nonprofits isn’t fully known yet, resilient organizations of all sizes are adapting and moving forward. Use these research links collected by Wired Impact to benchmark your performance and consider how to frame your future.
Year-End Giving
Click-it: Prepare for Success: Planning Your Year-End Giving Campaign [Download free e-Guide]. It’s not too early to start! Neon One will show you how to design and launch a first-rate fundraising campaign in just three weeks. They’ve broken down what needs to get done, and when. Learn (1) key questions to ask when reviewing previous fundraising campaigns; (2) how to set the right timelines and milestones for cross-organizational collaboration, and (3) how to draft an appeal that stands out from the rest.
Did You Miss My Newest Articles?
- Top 10 Questions to Answer before Asking for a Nonprofit Major Gift
- How to Supercharge Nonprofit Major Giving Using the Language of Love
- How to Get Donors to Ask You, Not Vice-Versa
- 10 Common Nonprofit Major Gift Asking Mistakes to Avoid
- How to Transform Reluctant Fundraisers into Ready Philanthropy Facilitators
- 10 Tools to Give You and Your Nonprofit Donor Space to Co-Create — and Change the World
Finally… if you have a question, any question…
Check out my free fundraising advice column on the Bloomerang blog! Ask your question here. Or email me with it directly; I mean it! And bookmark the Ask an Expert page!
Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). Clairification School is affordable because of their generosity.
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My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Don’t miss out.
