A routine is a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program. Too often, I find that nonprofits engage in social media along of a catch-as-catch-can program. Nothing fixed about it. To maximize social media productivity your practices must become habitual. And, of course, your habits must be good ones if you’re to be…
Are you starting to worry about whether you’ll raise enough money this year to meet your goals? Are you concerned because last year’s appeal didn’t raise as much as you had hoped? Are you fresh out of ideas for what to put into an appeal to generate the giving response you need to sustain vital programs? Fear not! Help is on the way! Just use this 16-point checklist before you send anything to your printer.
Happy Friday the 13th! It’s my lucky day – both I and my son were born on Friday the 13th – so I feel only good things can happen today. Speaking of which, I’ve got some lovely “feel good” goodies for you today. Since “Heart Day” is tomorrow, let’s start with philanthropy – meaning “love of humankind.” Then I’ve got some fun social media and creative stuff to help you really stick out in the minds of your constituents.
Everyone loves a good story. Everyone.
Which is why storytelling should be at the heart of your nonprofit’s strategic communications. I know ‘storytelling’ is a meme du jour. But that’s no reason to ignore it. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t! There’s a reason these phrases become buzzworthy. In this case, because you want to serve up content that’s relevant, attractive and accessible to your constituencies. Storytelling fits the bill better than anything else.
In fact, of all the content you can create, storytelling is your ultimate weapon and the most powerful means of communicating your message.
Let’s look at this a different way.
Are you starting to worry about whether you’ll raise enough money this year to meet your goals?
Are you concerned because last year’s appeal didn’t raise as much as you had hoped?
Are you fresh out of ideas for what to put into an appeal to generate the giving response you need to sustain vital programs?
Fear not! Help is on the way! Just use this 16-point checklist before you send anything to your printer.
In my last post of this two-part series, “You’re Not Alone: What to Do When You Start to Fail at Fundraising,” I discussed what can happen to organizations when leadership begins to lose its way. This can occur for any number of reasons. Why Leadership Loses it’s Way FOUNDER LEAVES with no succession plan in…
This is my first post-broken arm Clairity Click-it – especially hand picked (and I mean that quite literally!) for you. I’m still in a sling for at least four more weeks; maybe more. I leave you to enjoy the fruits of my perusing and one-armed pecking.
The Future of Nonprofit Marketing
This is a special social media edition of the Clairity Click-it, since so many folks tell me they’re not doing as effective a job as they wish they were. Help is at hand! Take a look at these practical, and sometimes thought provoking, tips from some of my favorite nonprofit and for profit marketing gurus.
If you’re not using social media to get and retain more donors, be afraid. Be very afraid.
Social media has ceased to be a nice little “toy.” An “add on thing.” It’s the thing. If you’re not hanging out where the majority of your constituents are getting their information, you may as well fold up your tent and go home. David Letterman didn’t “do social media.” ( See “Do you use the Twitter device?” ). He’s going home.
Letterman may be ready to go off into the sunset. But you shouldn’t be. You can learn new tricks!
What’s a blog, really? A blog is just a super-charged, dynamic website that will bring you many more visitors – and a lot more engagement — than your website does now. Doesn’t that sound like a tool that might help your fundraising?
Did you know that 70% of visitors to the average website never visit again? Done well, a blog drives traffic to you naturally… brings folks back for more… and even gets folks to share stuff you post on your blog with their own networks. It’s a hugely powerful tool for finding and engaging with people – your donors and potential supporters – and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Of all the killer social engagement tools out there, none beats the blog. Still… some of you are dubious. Or your leaders are dubious. So if one of these 10 excuses is stopping you, read on to see how to overcome them.
Bet you thought social media sucks for fundraising. Au contraire.
It can help you raise money big time – but only if you engage with purpose. Just like anything else, social media won’t help you meet your goals unless you know where you’re going with it. Out of context, social media exchanges are just transactions.
Ask yourself this question: What am I going to do to make this exchange mean something, now and in the future?
Adopt an integrated inbound marketing and fundraising strategy.
If you don’t know what that means, you’re in trouble. Read on.
If you do know, are you really doing it?
It’s time to stop pussy footing around this.
Here’s why:
(1) Nonprofit marketing and fundraising have changed more in the past five years than the preceding 50. I’m not kidding! The digital revolution ended business as usual.
(2) Fundraising and marketing must be seamlessly integrated. They cannot be separate silos any longer.
Here are some great posts, plus a bit of personal advice, to set you up for success in the coming year. It’s going to be a busy one, so may as well figure out what you should – and should not – be doing. It will make your life a lot easier and more fulfilling. Let’s get right to it!
Have you made your new year’s resolutions and picked at least one thing you’ll do differently or better in 2014? Here are some great posts to set yourself up for success in the coming year.
TOP 5 Clairification articles from 2013: In case you missed any of these, here are the five articles that generated the most interest and readers over the past 12 months. Enjoy!
In a year-end frenzy? While putting final touches on everything, consider one last thing to make your supporters – all of them – happy. What can you do? And set yourself up for success next year too. Pick one thing you’ll do differently or better. Why the heck not? To your success!
When should you take risks with fundraising? When you’re ready. Here’s what I mean:
What’s on your playlist for 2014? The rewarding gold standards like prospecting, asking and stewarding? Or riskier new events? Special campaigns? Extra social media? You’re to be congratulated if you’ve got innovative ideas. It shows you haven’t lost your creative spark, and you’ve got gusto and passion for what you do. Bravo! But… wait… hold on a minute…
Before you get lost in the creative process,
In the children’s game nobody wants to be left holding the hot potato. Does that sound like the way social media is ‘played’ at your nonprofit? Is anyone in charge? Who sets goals? Who decides what to do/not do? Who evaluates success? Where does the buck stop?
Too many organizations still have not taken charge of their digital strategy. It’s beyond time for this to happen, as I explain in
If any of the following apply to you, your nonprofit is not ready for the 21st century. The cure? Read Monday’s post to get serious and avoid being pranked — or spanked! — for failing to embrace the fact that we’re all social businesses now. Truly, it’s time to get serious (just not today; for now, have a little fun, a super good week-end and… get determined after April 1st). Let’s get in the spirit!
Do you:
In Part I: Share, Part II: Shareable and Part III: Talk of this S.S.S.T. Series we covered the importance of sharing your blog, making it shareable by others and getting folks to talk about you with their online networks. But there’s one important component of your super-sonic blog promotion strategy that we’ve missed. Here it is:
SEARCH
Let’s begin with why it’s important to talk about search. Because you want more readers for your blog, right? Well, the people who are your friends, plus the people who are their friends, are not all the people in the world. They’re not even all the people who may be interested in what you do! Search is how most people find you. Search is the most common online activity after email, and that fact cuts across generations.
R.C.A. is about getting folks walking; not just talking. It’s about good content and conversation that leads to your desired action. It refers to Relatable, Part I, Conversational, Part II, and Actionable. You remember this acronym by thinking about an RCA Victrola – that old-fashioned phonograph contraption that helped transport your grandparents and great-grandparents — and fire their imaginations — through the music that inspired them.
You want to transport your constituents with inspiring values and stories in the same way. The reason you want to transport them? So their inspiration will lead to engagement — action that helps to further your mission. So, today that’s what we’re going to talk about! Ready for action?
I’m a huge blog booster for nonprofits. So much so that tomorrow I’m offering a free webinar on the topic with the folks at Good Done Great. I’ll also be posting a series of articles on this topic in the coming week. If you don’t have a blog yet, you should get one. Pronto! Yup, I think they’re that important.
Here is an overview of what I’ll be covering in tomorrow’s webinar, plus I’ll have a special bonus offer for webinar participants. If you can’t make it, you’ll find a few actionable tips in this article. Plus you’ll find more actionable tips all week. I truly want you to do this, and I don’t want it to kill you. So I’m going to give you some easy steps you can take to make your blog (1) doable, and (2) a super investment of your time and resources. I’m betting that pretty soon you’ll wonder what you ever did without it!
It’s time for a fresh look. A clairifying look, if you will.
Many of you have questions about social media, so let’s start by blowing out a few cobwebs and clearing our heads.
Ready?
Because if you think any of these things (below), you’re making a mistake in today’s zeitgeist.
There’s been a digital revolution, and the way people learn about you and communicate with you has changed. Dramatically.
If you don’t know it, they do.
You can either get inside their heads, or stay inside your own.
Are you confused by all of the “must have” on marketing options? It’s a virtual on storm of choices out there, raining tweets and posts and pes and pins and stumbles. Weathering the storm requires forethought. But armed with the proper rain gear – and these 5 little-known facts — you can happily create a…
What we’ve been exposed to whets our appetite, but it’s not food You lack relevant content. You’re just broadcasting something/anything…. without a plan or editorial calendar… without researching your constituents’ needs or desires… waiting until the last minute… You’re focusing on the medium; not the message. Through whatever broadcast medium we choose to engage, the…
Here’s what folks most enjoyed reading over the last month (plus one special “extra” tidbit): • S’WOT’s Up? The Future, That’s What: Your Crystal Ball for Business Success — How to identify trends, anticipate change and be open to opportunities that will encourage success. This post generated an unprecedented amount of very productive discussion on…
Yesterday I had the opportunity to present a webinar about nonprofit blogging. It was a privilege to connect with 163 registrants on, and to take some time as a community to explore why nonprofits should blog, how we can (1) get started; (2) keep it up, and (3) use our blogs as a hub for…
Okay, so you’re small. That doesn’t mean you have to think and act small. When it comes to social media you have to go big. Because it’s what being social is all about. If you only do a little bit, well… you’re not really being social, are you? Even worse, what if you never respond…
One thing Moms know is that children usually know when adults are only half-listening. Just as kids can feel frustrated, unheard, and at times even und when this happens, so can our constituents feel ignored and unsatisfied when we merely broadcast information without asking for or responding to feedback.. Listening to constituents with our full…
has been likened to the shop window of the 21st century when it comes to brand awareness. Just as consumers increasingly research their purchases on to obtain the best deals, so too do prospective donors increasingly research nonprofits on. So how we manage our social networking presence is of prime importance if we want…
I was recently asked what I thought of . Is it here to stay? Truthfully, I don’t know. I just started. I do know it’s the fastest growing social medium right now, and it’s easy, it’s popular, it’s visual and it’s pretty powerful. It resonates with the “scrapboing” crowd (i.e., lots of women between the…
Think your website is ‘social’ because you’ve put a and button up there? Think again. We’re introduced to a profound change in the way we’ve been thinking of websites in Social Media Today’s recent post: What Needs to Be on Your Digital Agenda in 2012? We’re told we must have ‘social websites.’ Sure,…
“I’m not selling you any tea today” was the subject of an e I recently received from Teabox, a place where I buy the most fabulous Darjeeling tea you’ve encountered anywhere. Well, some time during the past year they apparently hired a new “Head of Customer Experience.” Since then, I’ve received es from…
In From Objections to Opportunities: Winning Over Donors I covered some of the reasons donor hesitations and objections are normal, and nothing to be feared. Rather, they present an opportunity to get to know your donor prospect better and potentially forge an even stronger relationship. There is one secret I’ve found to work like magic in…
In Proven Strategies to Take Charge of Major Donor Asks we delved into the topic of major gift fundraising asks.Specifically, we covered (1) four elements of a successful visit and (2) four elements of a compelling offer. Feel free to refresh yourself before we move on.
Now I want you to truly think about the offer from the recipient’s perspective.
As insiders, we often don’t stop to think about the outsider perspective. It’s just human nature to become so absorbed in a topic it starts to seem obvious. To us.
When crafting your compelling fundraising offer however, it’s important to stop and consider how it may be received. As noted in Part 1:
When crafting and making a major gift fundraising ask, make sure you incorporate the following into your planning:
Let’s pretend you and your donor are not connecting meaningfully right now. You’re not sure why. Could it be they feel financially insecure… they’re worried for their kids… they’ve been let down by politicians… they’re just feeling cynical and/or hopeless? For whatever reason, things aren’t singing between you and them. They haven’t renewed. They haven’t upgraded. They haven’t responded to any of your outreach. They seem to have other priorities.
So, you decide to go to counseling to reinvigorate the relationship. The therapist makes a wise observation: Sometimes in life, one partner feels strong; the other less strong. In such times, the stronger partner has resources to support the weaker partner. Other times, neither partner feels they have coping resources. During these times, we have to depend more on ourselves, be patient, and accept that our partner is not currently in a strong position – even though we really need their support.
Are you being a support for your donor? Are you helping, not selling all the time? Are you being patient, yet persistently showing you care?
We’re in turbulent times.. Alas, as need is burgeoning there are fewer individual givers. During the pandemic, some industries, like education, began losing support. As did many smaller charities not involved in addressing hot-button topics. And prior to the pandemic studies showed giving to be sluggish. Donors are less loyal. Donors may be distracted by emergencies. Or so-called rage giving. Or simply uncertainty about what lies ahead. So they’re giving less consistently. As a result, donor centered fundraising has never been as important as it is now.
People are feeling a need to be nurtured. In other words: Ask not what your donors can do for you, but what you can do for your donors. Recognize they don’t serve you; you serve them. They don’t owe you; you owe them. Your job is to help them experience the joy of giving. It is through you they will achieve their most meaningful work.
Embrace the true meaning of philanthropy as love of humankind. Remember your donors are humankind; you must love them if you want to be a part of philanthropy. Otherwise, you’re just transacting business.
So… what can you do to embrace love — 360 degrees — and thereby open the doors to passionate philanthropy?
What must you keep top of mind to have meaningful conversations with donors who (you hope!) may contemplate a gift to your organization?
I’ve given you a hint within my question.
One word: meaningful.
For a conversation to be meaningful, you have to speak in a language that resonates with the other person.
And what is it that resonates more strongly than just about any other emotion?
LOVE.
To get folks to “YES,” you must learn the language of love and apply it to gift planning.
The word philanthropy literally means, from the Greek, the feeling of love (philos) towards humankind (anthropos).
It’s not just about HOW people give, but WHY.
What about your organization’s enacted values is your donor is most passionate about?
How can you, as a philanthropy facilitator, make it easy for the donor to meaningfully express their feelings and passions?
Passionate philanthropy is seldom a spur of the moment action.
No one just gets up one morning and decides to give away $10,000, $100,000 or $1 million.
Or let’s just stipulate it’s relatively rare.
Rather, would-be philanthropists consider how making a particular gift at a particular point in time may match their values and help them accomplish their objectives, personal and philanthropic.
Anyone who contemplates a major, or stretch, gift plans ahead.
For purposes of this gift planning article, let’s consider your audience to be prospective major (outright) and legacy (deferred) gift donors.
Here comes my occasional “Do’s vs. Don’ts” feature, where I with you something arriving in my box that seems a good ‘teaching opportunity.’ Today we’re going to review a last-day-of-the-campaign on appeal strategy. It arrived as an e. There’s (1) a sender’s address, (2) subject , (3) preview pane, and (4) the e itself.…
I’m a huge fan of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and I often apply their research to nonprofit fundraising and marketing. This article there, How to Find Your Purpose in Life, really struck me. It affirmed something I’ve learned over than 30 years as an in-house development professional: You serve your…
This is one of my all-time most popular posts. And since you’ve still got time to sprinkle a little magic into your year-end fundraising, I decided to share it again!
Consider each of these seven words a magic potion unto themselves.
The more of these words you use, the more powerful a spell your appeal will cast.
Each of these packs a bigger persuasive punch than you might imagine.
Let’s take a closer look at how this works.
The absolute worst thing you can do the day after Giving Tuesday is nothing.
As tempting as it is to let out a sigh of relief that it’s over, resist that temptation.
It’s not time to relax yet.
Nothing comes of nothing.
And a huge part of your goal with Giving Tuesday should be to strengthen your bonds with donors.
That’s the real something you’re after.
It’s not just about the money you raise today.
Your goal with any fundraising strategy is to retain and, ultimately, upgrade these transactional donors. The name of the game in the business of sustainable fundraising is lifetime donor value. [Here’s a great book on the topic: Building Donor Loyalty: The Fundraiser’s Guide to Increasing Lifetime Value.]
Run towards, not away.
Like it or not, Giving Tuesday is a ‘special event.’ That means embracing both pre-planning and post event strategies. This, of course, is labor-intensive during a really busy time of year. Which is why I recommend #GratitudeTuesday as an alternative,than adding yet one more event to your to-do list. If you’re on board with a traditional #GT strategy however, youve likely put a fair amount of planning, resources and time into this event. This involves the attention of more than one staffer and/or volunteer. And it sucks time away from almost everything else in the week(s) leading up to it.
It can be a real drain.
Your job is to put a stopper in that drain so all your hard work doesn’t simply swirl down the drain and disappear. Would you work super hard to create a delicious soup you simmer over the stove for hours, maybe even days, and then take one little taste before you pour it out and start all over again with a new one? Endless work. And no one really gets to enjoy the meal.
This year Giving Tuesday is December 2nd. So, soon.
If you’ve not done so already, now is a good time to think about whether or not you want to jump on the bandwagon and, if so, how. There is more than one way to slice this particular piece of pie. And, really, that’s what Giving Tuesday is – just one piece of your total annual fundraising strategy.
You don’t want to blow it out of proportion. But you probably don’t want to ignore it. Rather, plan ahead to put it into a context where it will complement your other year-end communications and fundraising strategies.
Let’s take a closer look.
What is Giving Tuesday?
I confess I’ve been a bit of an apologist for the “holiday.” I like to turn the tables by actually giving to donors, rather than asking them to give yet one more time during this busiest fundraising time of the year.
Plus, I often say if you want gifts, you must give them. What better time to do so than on giving Tuesday?
Of course, asking can also be a form of giving. So, I love appeals on this date that give people the option of giving money or supporting you in other ways (e.g., volunteering; in-kind donating; advocating, etc.).
It’s all philanthropy (aka “love of humanity”).
What if I told you there’s a teensy little digital upsell that could skyrocket your year-end fundraising results? Would that be of interest?
Darn rootin’-tootin’!
And it’s something you still have time to do.
It has to do with your website, so consider looping in whoever is responsible for that part of your year-end marketing and fundraising strategy.
It’s called a “light box,” “splash page,” or “pop-up.”
Essentially it’s a window that pops, or splashes, or lights up the screen upon a certain trigger (on site entry or right before a user tries to exit the site). It generally stops visitors from interacting with the page until they consider completing a called-for action. I’m sure you’ve seen them, interacted with them and, most likely, been really annoyed by them in the past.
But the question you should ask is do they work?
Please don’t run your year-end campaigns based on the opinions of folks who aren’t professional fundraisers or marketers. There’s a reason why, despite the fact everyone seems to complain about them, pop-ups continue to be widely used on websites — nonprofit and otherwise. It’s because they actually work.
Here are some nonprofit case study examples:
They’ve shown as much as a 1,000% increases in email subscribers over a month of using pop-ups.
They significantly reduced landing page abandonment, generating a 44.2% increase in conversions when used as an exit pop-up for an emergency appeal.
They worked as an after-action pop-up for an advocacy alert, turning 15% of folks who took the action into monetary donors.
Let’s dig a little deeper
You likely collect a lot of data in your donor database, but is it really valuable to you? It’s not if you just let it sit there, rarely lo at it, and never run reports based on data that will help you with meaningful donor segmentation for appeals. And by that, I mean meaningful from…
What’s holding you back? Culture? Fear?
How do you help people afraid of fundraising become comfortable in what should be a mission-aligned role for everyone associated with your nonprofit organization?
After all, everyone benefits from increased philanthropy. Not just development staff.
Increasingly, successful nonprofits are adopting cultures of philanthropy where everyone involved – administrative staff, program staff, board members, committee members, direct service volunteers and even beneficiaries – comes together as ambassadors, advocates and askers on behalf of furthering the organization’s mission, enacting its values and fulfilling its vision.
Facilitating philanthropy is not rocket science, yet folks unaccustomed to the relationship cultivation and solicitation required to land major donations are fearful because they believe they don’t know how to do it. Actually, they do. They just need some guidance, hand holding and support along the way. Reluctant fundraisers tend to think fundraising is just about money. It’s a lot more than that.
It’s the job of a nonprofit’s leadership to work with insiders (staff and volunteers) to help everyone feel both passionate about the cause and confident in the fundraising process.
Of all the barriers to be overcome; first and foremost is fundraising fear. This fear takes many forms, and is perhaps best expressed in some of the questions I frequently receive. So I’m endeavoring to answer these questions below. Hopefully this will help you address these challenges within your own organization so you, too, can transform folks from fearful and reluctant “fundraisers” to joyful and ready “philanthropy facilitators.” It simply takes a little elegant reframing.
Fundraising is too often seen, at best, as a ‘necessary evil.’
When viewed this way, folks – staff and volunteers alike – understandably prefer not to touch it with a 10-foot pole. Who wants to place themselves on the side of ‘evil?’
Yipes stripes!
But that’s not what fundraising is at all.
The tagline for my business, Clairification, is “philanthropy, not fundraising.” I often talk to folks about how the word philanthropy comes from the Greek and translates into “love of humankind.” Nothing evil about that!
In fact, if you ask folks to throw out the first word that comes to mind when you say ‘fundraising,’ and then ask them to do the same when you say ‘philanthropy,’ you’ll see it breaks down pretty neatly between good and evil.
If you’re coming at fundraising from the perspective of ‘necessary evil’ or ‘no pain, no gain,’ you’re never going to be effective. Especially when it comes to asking individuals, one-to-one, for passionate gifts.
As long as you hate it, donors will be able to tell you hate it.
I call this wallowing in the pain. Never a good approach. Distaste for asking begets distaste for giving. It’s done grudgingly, not passionately.
When donors can sense you’d rather be doing anything else than asking them for a gift, guess what happens? They follow your lead! In other words, they feel they’d rather be doing anything else than being asked (or making) a gift. Because you’re reducing everything to a monetary transaction.
What if you reframed fundraising so it’s seen as a really, truly good thing.
I like to reframe it thusly:
If you’re fortunate enough to be a successful nonprofit, this means you’re helping solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
The biggest fundraising time of the year for most nonprofits inexorably approaches.
It can be stressful.
Don’t succumb to the stress. You’ve got this!
Perhaps you can’t do everything you’d like to do this year, but you can do some things.
Here are 12 strategies for you to consider. Each will pack a big punch.
Some you can do on your own. Some will require support from technical and/or marketing staff.
Here’s the thing: Often it’s the little things that count. That pack a surprising wallop.
So don’t save all your energy for writing your appeal. Help your appeal along by putting some of the dozen suggestions that follow into effect. Even just one or two will make a difference.
Let’s get started…
Think AI is cold, complicated, or not for fundraisers? Think again. I’ve experimented myself. Asking ChatGPT to draft an e. Or an out. Or a draft for a proposal. At first, I was unimpressed. The content was a bit generic, and often redundant. Citations were sometimes incorrect. The logic was questionable. And, of course, the…
Does proving your point persuade your nonprofit donor?
It turns out not so much.
At least, not unless your donor is already pretty much won over.
Proof (“just the facts, m’am”), absent persuasion (“once upon a time”), won’t get you far.
In “How to Project Manage Your Nonprofit Story,” I delved into the concept of story vs. data in creating compelling nonprofit marketing and fundraising copy. Stories almost always win out, because human beings are wired for stories.
In this way, people are emotionally moved. They shed a tear… get a lump in their throats… find themsselves chuckling, smiling or even beaming with a flicker, or a flame, of recognition, appreciation or gratitude. They are taken out of their everyday lives, and moved someplace else where theyre offered a new perspective.
From this shared perspective, people can choose to act. To become part of the story, in a positive way.
To make a difference. To bring joy to sadness… hope to despair… healing to hurt. To bring the happy ending they wish to see.
Alas, when I review nonprofit appeals, the lion’s share do a poor job of making the story the star.
Sure, you may be raising money with your fact-stuffed appeal. But I’ll bet dollars to donuts you could raise a lot more by channeling the persuasive power of a compelling narrative. So, today I want to delve a bit deeper into why stories beat data.
If you’re familiar with Robert Cialdini, you’ll know about the six key principles of influence and persuasion that help people to act in the face of uncertainty. And we’re all in that state of uncertainty when we receive a fundraising appeal, right? If you look closely, you’ll see these principles are story-based:
The job of the smart fundraiser is inspiring passionate philanthropy to make people’s lives better. I know you’re smart, because you’re reading this article! But none of us is born with a fundraising gene. And no one ever really teaches us how to write a smart fundraising appeal. We from our predecessors. Or maybe read…
In Part 1, we reframed what digital fundraising is really about: not just mastering tools, but learning to connect with heart and humanity — in the places your donors already live: on. Now, it’s time to turn insight into action. Whether you’re launching your first on campaign or refining what you’re already doing, these four…