5 Expert Strategies to Build a Sustainable Donor Pipeline

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Sustainable fundraising has been a top priority for nonprofit professionals this year. According to the most recent Giving USA report, total charitable giving and individual donations are down compared to recent years. As a result, organizations are looking for ways to foster flexible, reliable fundraising streams that create more resiliency in their long-term fundraising strategies.

With that in mind, we’ve outlined five practical strategies to develop a sustainable donor pipeline t [...]

How To Build Nonprofit Brand Awareness: 4 Strategies

Monday, November 11, 2024

With countless businesses and nonprofits alike competing for attention, building a recognizable brand means the difference between staying in the shadows and becoming a household name. Establishing a recognizable and trustworthy brand ensures your organization stays at the top of people's minds when they think about which nonprofits to support.

A brand awareness strategy doesn’t just attract funding; it builds long-term relationships with donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, and co [...]

How to Keep Your Nonprofit’s Funding Flexible: 3 Strategies

Monday, September 23, 2024

By nature, your nonprofit’s finances are unpredictable. From varying donation types, frequencies, and amounts to fluctuating program needs and expenses, your organization must be able to pivot quickly and adapt to financial changes. That’s why flexible funding is key to fueling your nonprofit’s strategic plan.

Flexible funding drives both financial sustainability and advances, allowing your nonprofit to seize new opportunities without being constrained by funding restric [...]

4 Fundraising Metrics That Your Nonprofit Shouldn’t Ignore

Monday, August 19, 2024

As your nonprofit grows and changes, it’s inevitable that your operations must change with you. You may outgrow systems that previously worked or expand beyond the scope of your original . When the time comes to make that change, how will you decide what’s the next best step for your nonprofit?

When it comes to improving your operations, data-backed decision-making is one of the best ways to go. With key information at your fingertips, you’ll make adjustments that ensure [...]

5 Tips to Keep Your Strategic Plan on Track in 2024

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Any organization that relies on fundraising dollars needs a clear strategic plan for success. However, it’s important to recognize that strategic planning isn’t a one-time process; your nonprofit’s strategic plan should be a living document that evolves as needed to help you continue reaching your goals.

This guide reviews five tips to help adjust your strategic plan to keep it on track throughout the year:

Check in on your resource and staff allocation. Assess p [...]

4 Essential Elements of a Strong Nonprofit Strategic Plan

Friday, April 26, 2024

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 [...]

Major Donor Cultivation Explained: How to Build Partnerships

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Every nonprofit understands how important major donors are—they provide the largest contributions to your annual fund, invest in your growth through donations to capital campaigns, and serve as long-term ambassadors for your cause. Their commitment to your organization warrants plenty of individualized attention from your staff members, especially when you’re trying to solicit a prospect’s first major gift.

However, cultivating major donor relationships is an intricate pr [...]

3 Tips to Promote Your Fundraising Events on Social Media

Friday, December 22, 2023

Your nonprofit knows that putting together a fundraising event is no easy feat! Between setting up an event committee, booking a venue, and creating an engaging program agenda, a lot of work goes into crafting the perfect event. However, regardless of how much you plan for your events, their success largely depends on how well you’re able to market them to your supporters.

Your nonprofit has many marketing tools at its disposal, but one of the best ways to expand your reach and stir [...]

Budgeting for Impact: 3 Tips to Allocate Nonprofit Resources

Monday, November 20, 2023

For nonprofits like yours, effective financial planning is essential to furthering your mission. Not only does it allow you to fund your various programs while still being able to pay the bills, but it also sets your organization up for long-term growth and sustainability.

The most important financial planning tool at your nonprofit’s disposal is your annual operating budget. This document details all of the expenses your organization expects to incur in a given year, as well as all [...]

Engage, Empower, Excel: How To Use Donor Data For Action

Thursday, October 12, 2023

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 [...]

How to Boost Your Fundraising with the Google Ad Grant

Monday, August 28, 2023

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 [...]

Understanding Nonprofit Capital Campaigns: 4 Things To Know

Thursday, June 29, 2023

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 [...]

Strategies for End-of-Year Fundraising Campaign Success

Thursday, May 11, 2023

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 [...]

Stewarding First-Time Donors to Annual Giving: 5 Tips

Friday, April 28, 2023

Retaining your nonprofit’s donors depends on the effectiveness of your stewardship. Especially for first-time donors, you need engagement strategies like tailored communications, appealing involvement opportunities, and genuine appreciation to keep them invested in your mission. After all, you’ve put in the work to successfully acquire a new donor and you don’t want to lose them now.

Proactive stewardship will ensure you not only keep new donors interested in your no [...]

Essential Steps for Successful Volunteer Program Development

Monday, November 21, 2022

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 [...]

Choosing the Most Effective Marketing Channels for Your Fundraising Campaign

Friday, March 4, 2022

As a nonprofit marketing leader, you're tasked with creating compelling content and figuring out the best strategies to reach your audience and inspire action. Through it all, a recurring aspect you have to consider is which marketing channels you decide to use.

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 [...]

Multi-Channel Advocacy: 5 Best Practices

Monday, January 24, 2022

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 [...]

3 Ways to Improve Professional Skills While Working Remotely

Friday, May 28, 2021

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 [...]

A Guide to Updating Your Nonprofit's WordPress Website

Thursday, March 11, 2021

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 [...]

5 Sustainable Habits Your Nonprofit Can Implement Today

Thursday, August 27, 2020

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.” [...]