Fundraising

Your nonprofit’s Board of Directors sets the direction of the entire organization. While the board’s primary duties include ensuring that the nonprofit’s funds actually further its charitable purpose, it also makes financial decisions on new programs, technology, and fundraising expenses. At the same time, your nonprofit’s employees and volunteers look to the board for the materials, technology, and approval to conduct their solicitation activities. Any real or perceived disconnect between board and staff can affect your whole nonprofit’s fundraising success! Bridging that gap begins with charitable solicitation (aka fundraising) compliance. Currently, forty-four states have laws surrounding a nonprofit’s charitable solicitation activities, [...]

  "Causes brings over 140 million people together to form the world's largest giving community. The belief that everyone has something to give is at the core of what we do; people just need a little inspiration, and to know that whoever they are, there is something meaningful they can do." -Joe Green, Causes.com   Box Tops for Education, TOMS Shoes, and Live Strong are a few of the most popular cause marketing campaigns today. They are great campaigns that help organizations and others in need. But what exactly is cause marketing?   In ReDefining Cause Marketing, Selfish Giving defines cause [...]

This post was originally published to Amy Eisenstein's blog and is being shared here, with her permission. Red flags are often used as a sign of warning or danger. Unfortunately, most red flags are not literal, but figurative, and are often missed by the people who need them most. Once you know the red flags of major gift fundraising, they might be easier to identify and tackle. Here are the top red flags to watch for at your organization. Once you eliminate these red flags, you’ll be ready to raise major gifts in a major way.   1. The development director [...]

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the 2015 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference. The session “Who Should You Love Most? Your Donors, Your Members or Your Subscribers” drew a great crowd – all ready to learn how to leverage their donor, member and/or subscriber base to raise the most revenue.   Now this is a topic that is dear to me – because as membership director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I think about it every day! Even though my focus is primarily on building and stewarding our member base, members and subscribers and donors are [...]

Imagine having the ability to get in touch with your supporters in the following ways: Automatically send an email to constituents on their birthday. Trigger a series of timed welcome emails to a donor after the first time they give. Test two different subject lines with a small group, then automatically have the winning subject line be used in the email to the full group of recipients. Create an email once, but have it send slightly different content to different segments of users. That’s marketing automation. But it doesn’t stop there. Marketing automation is about managing all of your constituent data [...]

Do you remember the classic game of operation? It tested many a child and parent's hand-eye coordination and nerve. Players take turns using a pair of tweezers to attempt to remove items from the board without touching the metal sides. Just the smallest touch and a buzz signals the end of your tun. A big fundraising ask isn't that different. One slip up and you could blow it. But if you understand what your audience is looking for and how to best go about asking for donations you'll be that much better off. NonprofitHub created this great infographic to help you [...]

This post was originally published on Iris7 Marketing and is being shared, here, with their permission. THE CONNECTOR: JENNIFER RICHEY DISCUSSES HER UPCOMING CAUSE MARKETING SUMMIT February 5, 2016 Jenn Richey, Cause Marketing Summit Corporate sponsorships can help non-profits diversify their revenue streams while elevating brand profiles. But where do you start? This May 24 hundreds of non-profit professionals and businesspeople will convene at the second annual Cause Marketing Summit to learn about these win-win partnerships. Recently, Iris7 sat down with Jennifer Richey, founder of the summit as well as the Associate Director of Corporate Partnerships at Young Survival Coalition, to find [...]

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 a strategic plan, managing the day-to-day, and doing it all by the books can feel like a David versus Goliath situation.   Today, I want to focus on the last point, [...]

  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. They do it be focusing on their DUX (Donor’s User Experience)..DUX is ultimately about a/b testing, based on a few smart questions regarding your email fundraising messages. Best if asked from a donor’s perspective: Who’s the email [...]

Mention fundraising and the most likely initial response will be something like, “Oh, I don’t like to ask for money.”  The act of  "The Ask",  asking another for a charitable investment, is often seen as the sum total of “fundraising.”   Those of us who have done it successfully, those who have been there, know this isn’t true.  We know it’s not magic.  It’s a matter of attitude.  We know it to be one of the most rewarding things you can ever do.   It’s not hard.  With the right understanding, you can experience it too. When the time is right for [...]