Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
Good-bye 2020. What a long strange trip it’s been.
In the midst of all of it, some people are still able to trust. To trust in others, to trust in possibility and to trust themselves. And…
we’re surrounded by opportunity.
we often get a second chance.
there are still problems to be solved.
we learned something.
there’s another advance, right around the corner.
And always, there’s a chance to make things better.
–Seth Godin
Thanks for taking that chance, for caring and for leading.
Here are some collected resources to help you with your important work. Once again, I want to thank my sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible to offer this biweekly newsletter to you for free.
With gratitude for all you do to make our world a better, more just, more hope-filled place,
Claire
P.S. If you find value in Clairification, your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ is a blessing. You’ll be able to read every single article I’ve ever written, plus you’ll get access to all my webinars, monthly tips, bonuses and more. 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…
SPECIAL CATEGORY: Tips for Not-So-Normal Times
ARTICLES
Events, Virtual
Click-it: 15 Tips and Tricks for Hosting a Successful Online Event. Here are 15 timely strategies for hosting a successful online event. From Kristen Hay on the Bloomerang blog.
Click-it: How Virtual Events Drive Tangible Results for Nonprofits. Lots more info on how to scale an online event, including a useful process timeline. From the experts at Merkle.
Major Gifts
Click-it: How to Close Gifts via Strategic Zoom or Telephone Fundraising Appeals. Asking for a gift may be one of the most loving things you can do right now, while people are desperately searching for meaning, purpose and connection in their lives. Don’t let a little pandemic get in your way of being a philanthropy facilitator. Learn the tricks of the trade in my article for the Bloomerang blog.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: Confronting resistance with love. A lot has happened this year to cause people, businesses and nonprofits to confront cultures they’d previously been resistant to change. Renee Rubin Ross, the Ross Collective, shares this thoughtful piece to help you with your own journey and open a path toward change.
Trends for 2021
Click-it: 5 Fundraising Trends for 2021 and Beyond. This will still not be a ‘business as usual’ year. Nonprofit Tech for Good outlines what they believe you should prioritize in the coming year and years. Don’t get wedded to past strategies. If this year has revealed anything, it’s that staying nimble has now become a strategic imperative for most organizations.
Click-it: New Year’s Resolutions for the Charitable Sector – A Call to Action. This article on the Bloomerang blog is a response to the events of the past year. A resolution to become a bigger and louder advocate for equity in our sector.
Volunteer Engagement
Click-it: Virtual Volunteering: Ideas to Engage Your Volunteers Remotely. You know people who volunteer are more likely to donate, right? Plus folks today are actively seeking ways to connect with others and give more meaning to their lives. Here are six great ideas to incorporate more volunteer opportunities into the mix of what you have to offer your supporters. From Elizabeth Neufeld, Founder of Strat Labs, on the Nonprofit Marketing Guide blog.
YOU
Click-it: New Year’s Rituals for Nonprofits To Improve Resilience in 2021. The inimitable Beth Kanter offers a ton of food for thought. Specifically, how to stay resilient. How to reimagine your work and life. And how to reflect, forwards and backwards, to enrich all you do. Beth also includes tons of tips and tools for mental and physical health. There’s no way you won’t find something useful here.
Click-it: 21 tips to make getting back to work this week more bearable. Vu Le, Nonprofit AF, offers so many good tips with his unique brand of humor and pragmatism. Enjoy!
WEBINARS & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
Storytelling
Click-it: Personifying Your Organization as the Hero/Heroine in a Story of Recovery [Register for free webinar, 1-14-2021]. Join the Donor Search team for this “Master Mind” discussion of how to position your organization, no matter your mission, as a leading character in recovering from what happened last year.
Trends
Click-it: 4 Fundraising Trends for 2021 and Beyond [Register for free webinar 1-12-2021]. Classy will announce its predictions on the Nonprofit Tech for Good platform, so get ready for: (1) The importance of virtual events (and why they’re here to stay); (2) The value of recurring donors and why they have never been more important; (3) The need to meet your supporters on their turf, and (4) How to remain nimble this year in times of uncertainty.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES
Content Marketing
Click-it: 3 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Nonprofit’s Communications Strategy [Download free tips guide]. Nonprofit Pro noticed the organizations that thrived in their response to the pandemic, and put together some best communication practices in this downloadable tip sheet.
Other Articles: The Beat Goes On
Annual Fundraising
Click-it: Giving Tuesday: What if it was called Living Schmoozeday? What if instead of asking for money (which you can do 364 other days of the year), you set aside this day to chat it up with donors and get to know them better? I’ve got a number of other ways to reframe this day in my article on the Bloomerang blog. Bottom line: don’t always be a follower. Stand out from the crowd. #YouCanChooseDay.
Content Marketing
Click-it: A Note to Leaders. Some organizations don’t edit enough. Some over edit. You know which one you are. If the latter, read this article from Steven Screen, The Better Fundraising Co.
Customer/Donor Experience
Click-it: The Worst Way to Start a Conversation with a Donor. Here’s some simple advice from Greg Warner, Market Smart, about how to not fall into a common trap.
Donor Retention
Click-it: Listen to The Whiny Donor and Raise More Money. Being a huge fan of the Whiny Donor (follow on Twitter) I’m naturally a fan of this post from Michael Rosen, ML Innovations. It’s a veritable potpourri of wise fundraising advice from the perspective of a major donor. Though it truly applies to all donors. Take heed.
Online Fundraising and Marketing
Click-it: Secret Cold Email Strategies to Reach Prospective Funders. You might think reaching out to ask a favor via email is rude. Guess what’s worse? Doing nothing! You’ll never get what you don’t ask for. This article I wrote for the Bloomerang blog includes 6+ tips for taking your best shot, first to stepping up to the plate; then to hitting it out of the park. Cold emailing gets a bad rap, but it often works!
Click-it: Digital Marketing for the Modern Nonprofit [Download free e-Book]. In this resource from Flipcause you’ll find best practices for content marketing and blogging, email marketing and pay-per-click advertising, and how to tie it all together with a digital marketing strategy that bolsters your fundraising efforts.
Psychology of Giving
Click-it: Reasons people donate. The inimitable Seth Godin reminds us of the many different giving motivations. They’re all good.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: How to Apply Servant Leadership Principles to Modern Marketing Practices. I think you’ll enjoy this article, written by Keith Reynold Jennings, on Mark Schaefer’s Grow blog. Consider how you might become a better manager and fundraiser by applying these principles, especially vis a vis your donors.
Click-it: A Twitter Tantrum to Read and Heed. If you’re ignoring these basics, highlighted by the brilliant Agitator editors, you’re working hard, not smart. Think about it.
Technology
Click-it: Are You Getting the Most for Your Technology Dollar? [Register for free webinar, 1-21-2021]. Join TechImpact as they share their results from a sector-wide survey, together with hard-earned lessons from numerous nonprofits, to help you better understand the real costs and rewards of technology investments. Don’t miss this opportunity to make the most of your 2021 budget priorities.
Website
Click-it: 10 Great Nonprofit Donation Pages [Updated for 2020]. Schedule some time to revamp your donation landing pages and their calls to action. It can make a big difference in whether you convert visitors to donors, or not. Use these suggestions from Wired Impact.
Other Learning Opportunities
WEBINARS & ON-DEMAND AUDIO RESOURCES
If you can’t attend live, note that many are available via recording – but only if you register!
Donor Retention
Click-it: How to Avoid Fundraising’s Quiet Killer: Donor Attrition [Register for free webinar, 1-13-2021]. Join Jay Wilkinson of Firespring for this important session to help you retain all those donors you acquired over the past few months. You’ll get great, practical take-aways (I always do when I listen to Jay), including 6 key drivers that can double the lifetime value of your donors.
Click-it: Donor Thank Yous: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship [Register for free webinar, 1-21-2021]. Join Kelly McLaughlin with CauseVox to build a strong thank you plan to follow up your year-end campaign and keep your donors engaged all year long.
Major Gifts
Click-it: Raising Major Gifts of Assets During a Pandemic [Register for free webinar, 1-20-2021]. Join Stelter for this sure-to-be engaging session with Dr. Russell James. He’s the guru when it comes to “planned giving” and gifts of assets, and I always learn a tremendous amount from him. Don’t miss it!
Click-it: How to Find (and Keep) Hidden Planned Gifts in Your Database [Register for free webinar, 1-14-2021]. Join Robert Shafis and Jeff Schreifels of the Veritus Group as they shine a light on the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars each year nonprofits are losing as planned gifts (including bequests) are rescinded, and donors go away. You’ll want to prevent this from happening to you!
Trends and Food for Thought
Click-it: An interview with Paul Vallely, author of Philanthropy: From Aristotle to Zuckerberg [free on-demand podcast]. Listen to this conversation on the Giving Thought podcast exploring the history of philanthropy. Subjects include: The distinction between the Greco-Roman tradition of philanthropy and that which emerged from the Abrahamic religions; the relationship between philanthropy and democracy; the relationship between charity and justice; the perception of philanthropists in the greater society; the relationship between philanthropy and religion; Maimonides ‘ladder of giving;’ the difference between strategic and ‘reciprocal’ philanthropy, and much more. It may make you think differently about the purposes of philanthropy, and who can be a philanthropist.
DOWNLOADABLE GUIDES, WHITE PAPERS & OTHER RESOURCES
Major Gifts
Click-it: Creating Strategic Plans and Goals for Every Major Donor [Download free white paper]. This is a perfect time of the year to begin planning to take some of your supporters on a journey towards making a more passionate gift in the coming year. Learn how in this detailed resource from the experts at the Veritus Group.
Strategy and Management
Click-it: 2020 Year-End Review Workbook [Download free worksheets, resources]. Qgiv has put together a useful guide to help you identify areas where you can improve your fundraising and communications strategies in the coming year.
YOU
Click-it: Your Happiness Calendar for January 2021 [Download free monthly calendar]. I just love the Greater Good folks, and thought you’d enjoy this day-by-day guide to well-being.. You can sign up to get it every month!
Last day: If you want to develop valuable new career skills, today’s your last day to grab a discount for the 8-module online Certification Course for Major Gift Fundraisers. Use Coupon Code: Early10CA before January 9th to register here..
Did You Miss My Recent Articles?
Walking in the new year, wearing some bling!
Here are links to the most recent articles on the Clairification blog. I think you’ll find these fairly practical. Hope so!
- How to Supercharge Your Nonprofit Major Gift Fundraising Strategy: 10 FAQs
- Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular Clairification Articles of 2020
- 7 Things Nonprofit Major Gifts Programs Need to Succeed
- Are You Reading Your Major Donors Correctly?
- Could Gifts of Stock Be Your Nonprofit’s Magic Genie?
- Secrets to Nonprofit Leadership – Pandemic Phase 3
Finally… if you have a question, any question…
Check out my free fundraising advice column on the Bloomerang blog! Ask your question here. And bookmark the Ask an Expert page!
Please support my extraordinary sponsors (see below). The Clairity Click-it content is free, and Clairification School is affordable because of their generosity.
REMINDER for Clairification School students: Don’t forget to log in to your “My Clairification/Subscriber Dashboard/Monthly Tips” to grab your exclusive, timely tips for each month. January’s tips are posted! If you’re not yet an enrolled student, you can get in on the fun here!
My motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Don’t miss out.
2 Comments
I listened to you on the Non-profit Show this morning. I am trying to sign up on my phone for your bi-weekly newsletter. I cannot find a link on your site to sign up. Please help.
Thanks, Chris
I emailed you the link, and I will look into this problem. Yipes! Thanks for alerting me to it.