Blogs2022-06-24T17:34:48-04:00

The TopNonprofits blog contains articles, stories, tips, and other helpful information for nonprofit professionals. Be sure to bookmark this page and join our mailing list so you won’t miss any new material added to this treasure trove of knowledge.

Our blogs are written by seasoned professionals with topics carefully selected and information referenced and curated to provide the best possible information available on the Internet. We’re always open to new ideas, suggestions, and contributions for content. Start learning by clicking on the selections found on this page. Contact us if you have any questions.

8 Best Practices for Major Giving

Major gifts are the financial backbone for your organization. Follow these 8 best practices to grow your own major giving strategy.   Perform a prospect screening. This is a good place to start, as it feeds directly into the major donor identification process. Prospect research can reveal a wealth of information about potential and existing donors. Whether you hire a screening company, bring in consultants, take on the task in-house [...]

The Google Advantage for Nonprofits

It’s free for nonprofits. Got your attention?   Google has offered some of its services to nonprofit organizations free of charge since 2007. Over the past couple of years, they have opened up a much wider selection of software and services to any qualifying 501(c)(3). Here’s everything Google for Nonprofits can do to aid your efforts.   Resources for Efficiency Google’s suite of productivity software helps nonprofits work toward their [...]

Fundraising Compliance, for the Little Guys

You know who they are. Nonprofits with a handful of staff. Those with budgets in the thousands, not bajillions. Local, community organizations. You might even be a part of one. As co-founder of a local nonprofit chamber orchestra myself, I know I am.   These are the nonprofits that vivify our communities and keep our world turning.   Running a nonprofit of any size is challenging. For smaller organizations, developing [...]

Quick Review: Differences Between Non- and For-Profit Accounting

If you are serving on a nonprofit board or are considering doing so, it is important to keep in mind that along with the great work of that organization, it’s also your responsibility to understand that nonprofit’s finances. There are a variety of differences between non- and for-profit accounting. The more familiar you are with the differences, the better prepared you will be as a board member.   Why is [...]

Guide to Creating Mission & Vision Statements

Several years back we created a free one-page vision and mission statement guide which became incredibly popular. We recently decided it was time to revisit and expand our analysis. The result is an updated 4-page guide & worksheets, as well as updated recommendations and examples on our popular 50 Example Mission Statements and 30 Example Vision Statements lists. What the guide includes Intro: Guidelines, Audience, & Functions Mission Statement Building Blocks [...]

Types of Charities

A permanent version of this page can be found under Lists in the top site navigation. Since charities cover such a broad range of missions we've found it helpful to break them down into the 9 different types of charities.  Most of these can then be broken down further into subgroups to help you find they specific type of charity you are looking for. Animal Charities Who doesn't love animals? [...]

4 Great Website Builders for the Tech Un-Savvy

I have a subscription to a small professional website, I suppose we could call it a social network, called MosaicHub. This website has a Questions and Answers feature (similar to LinkedIn’s old Questions feature, it’s just categorized much better) that I spend a lot of time sifting through. A question popped up a while back that asked if a business needed to have a website or if a Facebook page [...]

You Got Hacked. Now What?

A few weeks ago, one of my clients had its website hacked. A small nonprofit here in Columbus, Ohio, we couldn’t figure out why our website wasn’t loading properly and what had happened to all of the content. Then, we received the simple explanation from our web manager: “We got hacked.” "We Got Hacked" At first, there were laughs around the room. And then we realized that this was actually [...]

7 Killer Email Fundraising Tips

  This post was originally published on John Haydon's  blog and is being shared here, with his permission.  7 Killer Email Fundraising Tips from Human Rights Campaign How often do you experience your email messages from your donor’s perspective? How often do you let your donors pick the best email fundraising message?1Well, that’s exactly what Human Rights Campaign does. And it works!During their 16NTC presentation, HRC shared how they crafted wildly successful email campaigns. [...]

Why Your Employment Brand and Company Culture are Everything

As I’ve gone through the last five years of my career, my job search has stayed relatively the same. When I’m searching for writing jobs, it doesn’t matter what the industry is, the job descriptions are all virtually the same. Except that, over the last couple of years, I’ve seen a lot of companies squeezing in witty little remarks, hidden questions, and seemingly ridiculous proclamations about what goes on in [...]

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