Soapbox Engage Blog

Issue 52

It's incredible, but it’s true: today is the one year anniversary of the Fundraising Weekly! When I started this newsletter, I heard from fundraisers around the globe, all trying hard to stay afloat during an unprecedented global pandemic. It made sense to consolidate all the best practices I learned, all the great ideas to pivot fundraising events, and share them with the community.

A year later, and with an incredible and growing community of fundraising beginners and experts, I'm continually impressed with our community's ingenuity and creativity. It's been a pleasure to highlight the great work of fantastic fundraising professionals, consultants, and leaders, and I'm rolling up my sleeves for another great year knowledge sharing ahead of us.

Thank you for the opportunity to hop into your inbox every week. If there's anything I can do to make this newsletter more useful and impactful, just hit the Reply button and holler. Congratulations on joining me for this journey, let's keep up the good work!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Great Fundraising Posts

Event Management Software: What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know

Tim Forbes (Soapbox Engage)

Planning fundraising events of any size can be overwhelming at best. The right tools and resources can make all the difference. Event management software can help organize and handle many aspects of event planning, reducing stress and improving your overall fundraising capacity. But there’s a lot to consider when purchasing event management software. This blog will help you know what to look for and help you choose the right event management software for your nonprofit.

4 Steps to Superb Writing

Jeff Brooks (Future Fundraising Now)

Though very short and sweet, this blog post outlines the four-step writing process that many effective writers use to create excellent content. Jeff adapted this list from Ann Handley’s writing process. It’s worth a couple of minutes to read and assess your writing process.

How to React Quickly to a Crisis, Current Event, or Catastrophe

Kristina Leroux (Nonprofit Marketing Guide)

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that any nonprofit can face hardship of any kind and it will be critical to provide clear, timely communication. Organizations that have the right protocols in place and prepare in advance are in the best position to react quickly and navigate the hardship effectively. This webinar will walk you through developing your own crisis communications protocol so you can manage your communications effectively even when things get stressful.

3 Marketing Tips to Promote Your Virtual Fundraiser

John Killoran (Marketing For The Modern Nonprofit)

Online revenue has increased by 23% over the past year and virtual fundraising continues to be an effective way to accomplish your fundraising goals. But no matter how great your virtual fundraising ideas might be, you won’t be able to get many participants or maintain momentum without adding an effective promotional strategy. This blog is packed with tips on how to build a promotion action plan and some best practices for nonprofit event promotion.

Resource Guide to Facilitating A Great Meeting

Big Duck (Big Duck)

Many of us have settled into a new normal with a weird mix of virtual and in-person work and meetings. Whether your organization plans to continue incorporating virtual meetings or you’re headed back to the office, we’ve all learned new ways to gather and new etiquette to follow. The team at Big Duck has been reflecting on this topic and gathered some helpful tips and insights to help you facilitate better meetings in any context.

Major Cryptocurrency Gifts in Just Two Weeks?

Gail Perry (Gail Perry Group)

There’s been a lot of talk about cryptocurrency recently and a lot of it seems pretty speculative. But the team over at the Gail Perry Group reached out to a nonprofit that decided to incorporate cryptocurrency giving options. Head over to this blog to learn how the nonprofit did it and the overall assessment from the Gail Perry Group about incorporating cryptocurrency into general fundraising strategies.

Raising Major Gifts Post-COVID, Part 1: Donor Identification

Amy Eisenstein (Amy Eisenstein)

A lot of things have changed in the aftermath of COVID-19. As the pandemic winds down, it’s helpful to consider specifically what and how things have changed in the fundraising world so we can return to some of the basics. This is the first in a four-part blog series in which Amy shares tips and insights about how to raise major gifts in a post-pandemic world.

6 Ways to Fundraise With Video

Tracy Vanderneck (NonProfit PRO)

It doesn’t take a huge budget to use video in your fundraising tactics. Whether you use your iPhone or Zoom or any other tool, the important thing is to share your organization’s mission and story in a clear and compelling way. This blog has some great tips on how to fundraise with video without spending loads of money.

Fire That Donor!

Marc A. Pitman (The Fundraising Coach)

Sometimes when a nonprofit really needs to reach fundraising goals, they’re willing to take every donor--including the bullies. Those bully donors can make all kinds of demands or have unrealistic expectations of the relationship. It’s easy to forget that you do have the authority to fire a donor. This blog unpacks some of those “bully donor” scenarios and how to navigate them.