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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.” [...]
With the unprecedented realities of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, nonprofits of all sizes have faced the new challenge of taking their fundraising events online. Virtual events, though brand new undertakings for many organizations, can be extremely effective ways to engage with supporters, spread awareness of your cause, and raise money from anywhere.
Thankfully, online fundraising and communication platforms have made [...]
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 [...]
Whether the thought of planning an event sounds fun or frightening, too often I think there is not enough time devoted to developing a purpose, strategy and evaluation. Rather, we do what has always worked, make sure everyone has fun, and then it’s on to the next. The reality is when you take a look at the number of hours and dollars that go into an event—is it always worth it?
Let’s make a plan...
Get strategic. What is the real objective of this event? [...]
Do you know off the top of your head, at this minute, what your donor retention rate is? You should! Don’t let donors slip through the cracks or fall off the radar when there are plenty of tools out there to assist in keeping them engaged and continuing their giving habits.
This begins with making donor retention a priority in your organization. The amount of time and money you spend acquiring a new donor compared to what you will spend with an existing donor is significant. Take a l [...]
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 [...]
“What do you know about strategic planning?”
“Do you think we need a strategic plan?”
“Strategic plans seem like a lot of work to put together.”
Sound familiar? Most of my conversations with board members were a variation on this theme when I worked as a fundraiser: strategic plans sound like a great idea but an awful lot of work.
It’s true that creating a strategic plan involves a combination of meetings, research and writing. But i [...]
Everyone in the nonprofit world understands the importance of keeping overhead costs low. In an effort to save money, well-intentioned board members may be opposed to the idea of investing in donor management software. What your board may not know is that refusing to make that investment may actually be costing you money.
To take the leap and commit to a nonprofit CRM solution, you must persuade a majority on the board to add a line item to the organizational budget. Despite the cost-effec [...]
