MARCHing Orders Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links and Free Resources

I’m coming in like a lion… with an abundance of reading and viewing materials to help you with whatever fundraising, marketing and nonprofit management challenges this month may have in store for you.

It’s an opportune time for planning, budgeting, and plenty of donor communications and strategic cultivation. So pick whatever looks useful to you.

I hope you’ll also enroll this year in ‘Clairification School’. You’ll get access to ALL my original content for a full 12 months, including exclusive weekly articles, bonus webinars and more, in the most cost-effective way I’ve found to deliver it. This is useful content that will help you raise much more than you invest by enrolling. Feel free to check out what others have to say about why they’ve enrolled.

I’m on a one-woman mission to take the mystery, and misery, out of successful donor communications and fundraising. Your support makes it possible and, truly, means a lot. Thank you sincerely.

P.S. Thanks, as always, to Bloomerang, my 2019 Clairity Click-it sponsor. Please know how dedicated we both are to helping you do your most important work. Questions? Just ask! I also have a couple of coaching slots available. Email me directly at claire@clairification.com.

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

Boards and Leadership

Click-it: Common Practices Nonprofit Boards Need to Avoid. Do your board members fully understand their responsibilities, and are you helping them to do so? Dr. Eugene Fram, board service expert, lays out the critical elements of service every member must grasp and enact..

Content Marketing

Click-it: 7 effective content marketing ideas for nonprofits. Just about anything you’ll read from Ronald Pruitt of 4aGoodCause will be useful, and this article is no exception. You can be very intentional about which forms of content marketing work best for your nonprofit, your goals and your target donors. Get started!

Database

Click-it: Donor Database = True Love. Aimee Sheridan of Our Fundraising Plan tells some important truths about donor database best practices. Her 6 tips are the perfect guideline – what you must do to make better decisions and, ultimately, raise more money. This is one I wish I’d written!

Click-it: Nonprofit Donor Databases. The folks at Neon have put together a killer comprehensive guide to choosing the right donor management software for you. Terminology, what to consider, questions to ask and more – useful whether you’re brand new to the field or thinking about making a change from an existing database or CRM.

Donor Retention

Click-it: 8 Actionable Nonprofit Social Media Tactics. Check out my article on the Bloomerang blog for some concrete strategies to boost donor love and loyalty online.

Click-it: Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Second Gift Strategy. Another article from me on the Bloomerang blog, all about why you must prioritize first-time renewals. NEVER settle for a one-time gift!

Click-it: 10 Ways to Show #DonorGratitude on a Shoestring Budget. Here are some great ways to show donor love from Julia C. Campbell of Marketing for the Modern Nonprofit. Want more? Check out my Creative Ways to Thank Your Donors and Keep Them for Life!

Major Gifts

Click-it: 4 Strategies to Overcome Fear of Fundraising. If you always hear “I’ll do anything but fundraise,” or if you yourself find your knees quaking at the thought, I’ve summed up my very best tips for the Guidestar blog.

Click-it: 4 types of supporters that self-qualify their interest in being in your portfolio/caseload. Greg Warner of Market Smart offers his take on sorting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to allocating limited resources to major donor cultivation.

Click-it: 3 secrets to successful major donor meetings. Emma Lewzey, Blue Sky Philanthropy, helps you get more strategic with your next visit.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: 10 Things That Drive Executive Directors Nuts. In her inimitable style, Joan Garry shares insights and fixes that will help you to breathe. Personally, I love #10.

Click-it: Fundraising Benchmarks — What Can You Learn from $40B in Donations? Zach Shefska of The Fundraising Report Card has analyzed a ton of data and found patterns that will help you be a more strategic development manager. Plus, you’ll sound really smart to your board and colleagues!

Click-it: Need a Good Day? Focus on Your Little Wins. Learn from Kivi LeRoux Miller of the Nonprofit Marketing Guide how to make yourself and others feel motivated and happy at the end of the day. It’s a great way to avoid zapping the meaning from your work and to stay focused on your progress

Online Social Marketing

Click-it: 8 Actionable Nonprofit Social Media Tactics. There’s no free lunch anymore, if there ever was. The market is saturated. What can you do to stand out, and still make it worth investment of limited resources? Check out my article on the Bloomerang blog.

Sponsorship

Click-it: Top Power Questions That Will Make Your Corporate Sponsors Take Notice. Heather Nelson of Bridgeraise walks you through what it takes to recruit business support for your nonprofit.

YOU

Click-it: 7 expressions to avoid if you want to sound emotionally intelligent. This article on the Fast Company blog shows how you might be inadvertently undermining your own credibility at work. Food for thought.

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!

Donor Advised Funds

Click-it: Donor Advised Funds [Register for free webinar, 3-12-2019]. Learn how DAFs work, why people giving to them and how your organization can benefit. One Hundred hosts Eileen Heisman, President of National Philanthropic Trust.

Donor Retention and Upgrades

Click-it: #DonorLove: Forever and a Day [Register for free webinar]. Qgiv hosts John Lepp, who will share the connection between donor-centered annual and legacy giving programs.

Click-it: Sean Asks Adrian Sargeant: What Is the Biggest Thing in Fundraising No One Is Doing? [Watch on-demand video]. Tune in to two experts, c/o Moceanic, describing ways to help donors feel their gifts really matter. This is what will build the relationship and keep donors engaged and invested.

Click-it: Stewarding Donors for Lifetime Relationships [Watch on-demand video]. In this brief Movie Mondays selection, Susie Burdick talks about the importance of building relationships to sustain donor loyalty.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: Recruitment on a Mission: How Nonprofits Can Attract & Retain Today’s Talent [Register for free webinar, 3-13-2019]. Millennials are currently the largest generation in the workforce, with Gen Z hot on their heels. With for-profits and nonprofits clamoring for a record low number of available workers, you need to know how to compete. Join Guidestar and TriNet, with Linda Santinoceto and Dina Rulli, for this interactive session.

Management and Strategy

Click-it: Why Funding Overhead Is Not the Real Issue: The Case to Cover Full Costs [Watch free on-demand webinar]. Overhead is a poor indicator of nonprofit efficacy. Nonprofit Quarterly helps you learn how to overcome the crippling overhead myth that is starving nonprofits.

Online Fundraising

Click-it: Fundraising with Social Media [Download on-demand podcast]. The Nonprofit Leadership Podcast hosts Claire Kerr of FrontStream to clue you in to the most effective ways to use social media to boost online donations.

Storytelling

Click-it: Creating Your Nonprofit’s Narrative in Four Steps [Watch on-demand video] Vanessa Chase Lockshin of The Storytelling Nonprofit shares the difference between storytelling and narrative, and how your organization can use these two distinct concepts to captivate your audience.

FREE DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS

Donor Retention

Click-it: Why Half of Your Donors are Disappearing [Download free white paper]. Struggling to renew your donors? Smarter stewardship can improve retention. Amy Bobrick of Merkle RMG shows you how!

Social Media

Click-it: How to Build a Monthly Social Media Report [Read article; Download free templates]. Lexi Carbone of Later shows you how to build a useful social media report to help you track the effectiveness of your strategies. If you need to prepare a report for your board or boss, the nitty gritty is all here.

Trends

Click-it: How AI Is Revolutionizing Influencer Marketing [Download free e-book]. This resource from Neal Schaffer and Open Influence is not targeted to nonprofits, but it is on the leading age of where marketing is headed. If you like to be a leader, you’ll definitely want to check this out!

Website

Click-it: Six Website Tools Your Nonprofit Can’t Live Without [Download free e-book]. The folks at Firespring are website experts. Here they outline several ways to fix your website in order to secure increased donor conversions.

Did You Miss My Recent Articles?

Here are links to my most recent articles. Enroll in ‘Clairification School’ to get access to every single article I’ve ever written – with new ones delivered weekly straight to your in-box! You’ll also get free monthly tips from your own “My Clairification” dashboard.

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!

My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.”

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Claire is a fundraising ninja

Joanne Fritz

Nonprofit Charitable Organizations Guide, About.com

Engaging your help was such a huge pivot moment for me and the Board. We would never – not in a million years – have even dreamed of doing a significant challenge at our event without all of the teaching, support, resources and guidance that you brought to us. Sometimes there are these moments in life that you only realize in retrospect were miracles – and that is exactly how I look back at that decision to work with you on our fundraising engine!

Julia Wilson, E.D.

OneJustice

Your piece on attrition, Claire, is dynamite. Amazing. It’s precisely on target. Congratulations.

Jerry Panas

CEO / Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners

Brilliant summary of the whole “story v. stats” thing, Claire. Thank you.

Tom Ahern

Principal / Ahern Donor Communications

Claire Axelrad has been a highly effective fundraiser for over 30 years and her blog is just a wealth of wisdom. What’s particularly notable about Clairification is that although the work is based on decades of past experience, Claire is always looking forward as well. She was the first among her veteran fundraising peers to embrace online and social fundraising and is now one of their most sensible and insightful proponents. She’s a great resource!

Keith Heller

CEO / Heller Consulting

You have been absolutely terrific to work with. Your roadmap and assessment of where we are and where we can go has been so instrumental in having the board stop and think about our future. Your audit is allowing us to move forward in tangible ways to improve our work so that we may help more clients in need of our services. I will count you among my many blessings throughout the year.

Silvia Argueta

E.D. / Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation

I’m subscribed to a million fundraising blogs and the one I consistently open and read most of, is yours. The content is always carefully curated and helpful, not just sales pitch after sales pitch for your own stuff. You stand out, in a good way.

Juliane McLean

Development Coordinator / Bridgercare

You are one of the few fundraising experts that I read faithfully, and we have no shortage of those who publish regularly. But your material is always thoughtful and realistic. Thank you for your candor and good advice.

Richard Ajulani

, Senior Director Individual Gifts / LifeMoves

We have been loving the work of Claire Axelrad since we came across her work, every blog of hers is insightful, well thought out and enlightening.

Good Eggs Storytellers

Most lucid, most succinct checklist I have read on the engagement process. This is the best. Should be required reading for all concerned with major gift solicitation.

Giles Pegram, CBE

Fundraising Consultant / London, England

You are a forever flowing fountain of enormous information and a wealth of ideas. Thanks for being there for all of us small non-profits

Sharon Coleman

St. Francis House

I read your newsletter all the time and find your advice “spot on” and always usable. I pass it on consistently to the staff and other board members. I really appreciate all you do to help nonprofits. Thanks.

Hal Leeds

, Partner Global Sales & Marketing Consultancy / Working to Eliminate Poverty and Educational Inequality

You remind me about what is most important and why I love this profession. I just discovered you and your blog about three weeks ago and I wanted to write today to say thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise. I find your posts, new and old, so spot on. You nail it.

– Heather Wardle CFRE

Vancouver BC

Everybody involved in philanthropy should read these articles slowly and with a very opened mind and a willingness to take from them the necessary components to change the manner and techniques we presently use in order to embrace what philanthropy is all about “Love”. I have no doubt it would be transformational.

Tom Walsh

Business Development Exec / Active Retirement Ireland

Suggest subscribing. Thanks, Claire! I am a regular- and I have forwarded your thoughtful and inspiring column and as well. Keep up the good work.

Margot Harrigan

Corporate Development Officer / Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley

I came across your website and I hit the goldmine! I was asked to join a board and found I need to understand how to build a donor base from the ground up. I searched, only to find expensive consultants or free info that didn’t offer any helpful information. Thank you for sharing so much valuable information!!

Erica Martinez

Claire, you consistently remind me of the proven basic facts of fundraising!! Thank you!! I consistently share them with our team and with the newbie fundraisers I am mentoring.

Margie McCurry

Fund Builders Alliance

Could not make it any easier… Claire Axelrad straightforwardly tells social media/marketing managers of nonprofit organizations that they need to change how they communicate with

UMV

Charity Chatter

Many thanks – this is terrific, impressive data! You are an impressive source. And I’ve been around a long time.

Sara Becker

Oakland Zoo

Wow! Inspiration out the wazoo! Many thanks — I keep up with trends and lots of blog-posts to stay on top of my game. This goes way beyond technique and reaches deep inside to remind me why I’ve done this work for 40 years!

Pam Montgomery

Executive Director / Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley

Thank you for your brilliant blog. I have been a follower for many years and learnt so much from you. Ultimately, it translates into many more families getting the support they deserve. You help me raise more money for my UK charity. Please never stop bringing the best out of me! You’re special.

Anna Henry

Eric.org

Exactly what our profession can use – clarification –- the title of your blog. You help us keep faith with the past while making sense of the present and future. You have a balanced and respectful understanding of what this is all about. Thanks.

James M. Schaffer

Partner / Charity Springs

I’d recommend you sign up. I signed up for about a dozen blogging fundraiser consultants, but have since canceled most. She’s one of two left standing. I like how she organizes her thoughts about fundraising, and her conversation planning techniques are very familiar to me from my work as a prosecutor. I believe that she was a practicing attorney and who changed careers like I have, and my best guess is that she was a litigator as well. This is a very good article and there are several other blogs (her own) that she links to within it, so even though this is a small article you could spend some time here.

Cole Eason, J.D. ’92

Office of University Advancement / Rockhurst University