How can your nonprofit plan for the future in a sustainable, measured way that sets your entire team up for success? By creating a nonprofit strategic plan!
A strategic plan is a document that identifies the goals your organization needs to achieve in the next one to five years to get closer to accomplishing its mission. It also outlines how you’ll work toward those goals.
A strong nonprofit plan can help you ensure your current and future projects are aligned with your larger v [...]
In the digital age of nonprofit fundraising, data is an invaluable asset that holds the key to a world of possibilities. Not only is effective data management vital for allocating money and filing taxes, but it’s also crucial for driving greater fundraising results and stewarding meaningful donor relationships.
If your data is just sitting in your CRM, you’re probably missing out on valuable engagement opportunities. When your nonprofit starts focusing on donor engagement, you [...]
Your nonprofit needs funding from individual donors and grantmaking organizations to fulfill its mission. As technology advances, more and more opportunities to secure this essential revenue online become available.
The Google Ad Grant is one of these game-changing opportunities. Unlike traditional grants, the Google Ad Grant is an in-kind contribution that awards $10,000 in free ad credits to eligible organizations every month. With these dedicated funds for marketing, you can tailor your [...]
Fundraising is your nonprofit’s bread and butter. Whether you’re working to fill your annual fund, raise money for a specific program, or finish out the year strong with a holiday-themed fundraising push, you’re consistently designing and implementing fundraising campaigns to ensure you have the resources to deliver your mission.
But there’s one kind of campaign that is rather unique—a capital campaign. These are large-scale projects that nonprofits cond [...]
For many nonprofits, a majority of their annual fundraising is collected in the last few months of the year, if not the last few days. Between reaching out to new donors, hosting year-end campaigns, and keeping your data organized, the end of the year will likely be a busy season for your nonprofit.
Fortunately, there are a few strategies nonprofits can implement to keep their campaign on target and ensure it finds an audience of receptive supporters. In this guide, we’ll explor [...]
Filing nonprofit taxes can seem stressful, but now that your organization can file online, the entire process can be streamlined. Learn what data to prepare ahead of time to stay organized throughout the year and make the Form 990 filing process more efficient.
Practice Good Financial Hygiene
Practicing good nonprofit accounting all year will set your nonprofit up for success. If your nonprofit doesn’ [...]
If you are employed by a relatively new nonprofit that has grown steadily since its founding, congratulations: you are on the path to success. You established your board, vision and mission statements, engaged an initial group of donors, hired your core staff and created community impact through your programming. What’s the next step? In a word: VOLUNTEERS.
Besides financial contributions, the gifts of time and talent are the most important donations that supporters can make to your [...]
Nonprofit organizations take a unique approach to their accounting systems. This is because they must segment their funds, allocate them appropriately and according to specific restrictions, and reinvest all profits back into the organization’s mission. This makes it imperative for them to find sustainable revenue streams to support the nonprofit and to maintain a sustainable system of recording their financial transactions.
The tool that nonprofits can use to segment their funds and [...]
From email marketing to website marketing to direct mail marketing, there are pros and cons to each method of audience engagement. On the other hand, not every one of your current supporter base and potential prospects will resp [...]
Advocacy campaigns have the power to connect your nonprofit with new audiences while transforming the world for the better. With an advocacy campaign, you can engage donors on the issues they care about, introduce your nonprofit to new supporters, and further your cause by lobbying for social change, all while earning donations and getting your nonprofit’s name out there.
Of course, your nonprofit won’t attract new supporters and activists without the help of your marketi [...]
During 2020, nonprofit professionals around the country moved to their home offices. Working remotely came with its own challenges, from communicating with coworkers to building sustainable habits for your organization in the new context.
While many people turned to Netflix to fill their newfound time during the COVID-19 pandemic, others decided this was the perfect opportunity to start developing their own professional skills. Now that we’re getting used to the new normal and vaccin [...]
No matter how perfect your website’s current design is, you’ll need to update it at some point in the near future. Regularly updating your nonprofit’s website is part of running a website, but sometimes nonprofits aren’t sure what they should be updating.
In addition to WordPress’s routine system updates, you should take the time for routine cleanup and content updates to ensure your website remains both relevant and secure. No matter how much your supporters [...]
Nonprofit financial sustainability is necessary for organizations like yours to develop lasting strategies that help you not only maintain your current standing but also grow.
CharityProud’s article on sustainability explains that economically sustainable nonprofits “operate within their financial means and use their inherent resources responsibly. Your resources include both tangible (donors, technology) and intangible (staff skillsets, community partners) things.” [...]
Being in nonprofits for 10+ years, I quickly learned that the engagement of your supporters goes a long way. Another thing that I learned is that engagement doesn’t have to be hard. You just have to learn the basics and decide to do them right. As the title of this blog suggests, successful engagement is a multistep process that centers around the following five steps.
1. Get to Know Your Donors A crucial step in any good relationship is laying the right foundation. Wh [...]
Any successful nonprofit will tell you that their success can be attributed to their most loyal supporters. Who am I talking about? I’m talking about donors, members, volunteers, and advocates. Those that have been successful also will tell you that without building a solid foundation with your supporters, it will be hard work to keep them around. A key to helping you build and create those long-lasting relationships is making sure that your organization has an eng [...]
When working in the non-profit world, we talk a lot about our organizational values. Our mission. Our core beliefs. Our purpose. Even in the for-profit world, many organizations proudly and prominently hang their values on their walls. There are sections on websites devoted to the organizational mission. They are showcased in strategic plans and annual reports.
With all this talk about who an organization is, what they stand for, and why they do what they do, you would think [...]
So you went through the interview process and got the job of your dreams! You’re going to be working at a nonprofit where you have a deep connection with the mission and will be surrounded by other like-minded colleagues. You walk in on your first day and think to yourself, where do I start? You ask your colleague for a login to your database may receive one of the following answers:
What database? Do you mean QuickBooks, Constant Contact, EventBrite and SignUpGenius? Haha! Her [...]
Sometimes, fundraising feels like trying to carry water in a leaky bucket. Donor retention remains at about 60 percent and there are high rates of employee turnover at many nonprofit organizations. The push to fundraise from a donor-centric perspective has proven beneficial but in order to raise more money in support of the mission, keep our donors and employees and create meaningful change we need to take our approach a step further. Nonprofits must be sustainable.
A good fundraiser recog [...]
