Matching gifts offer incentives for both the nonprofit and the donors! Organizations enjoy basically doubling donation amounts, and donors get the satisfaction of knowing their contributions are going even further. If the matching gift comes from a business, the company gets to enjoy some tax breaks.

It’s a win-win-win situation!

Matching can be an excellent way for development professionals to boost their funding campaigns. It's surprising how many organizations leave money on the table by not helping their donors participate in corporate matching gift programs.

Let’s dive into the ways you can start taking advantage of corporate matching gifts right away.

Any development professional and fundraiser will tell you that networking is the not-so-secret key to nonprofit fundraising success. Easier said than done, right? You don't want to be one of "those" fundraisers who seem pushy or too forward about it all.

Some people are more natural networkers than others, but it's a skill that just about anyone can master. The most successful development professionals focus on sharpening their communication and networking skills so they can get the most out of all types of events and gatherings.

We rounded up some tips, tricks, and networking rules to help you take your skills to the next level.

Imagine a world in which all your apps and services worked seamlessly with all the data from your organization. A world in which you could quickly move from one app to another, and still see the same data, sitting gently in the proverbial cloud without time-sucking and soul-crushing imports and exports.

That’s just one of the many data dreams many have had in our sector for decades, and one that could be moving closer (though not completely) into reality.

Microsoft, in collaboration with non-profit organizations and other companies, have been leading an effort to develop the Nonprofit Common Data Model (CDM), with a goal of providing non-profit organizations, technology vendors, and technology consultants one common language to represent key data points and data entities within every non-profit organization.

Considering the huge array of nonprofit organizations, Is this something that could even be built? Even if this is technically feasible, how is it being built, and where can you better understand the benefits this could have for your organization?

We’re going to dive into some of the most common questions we’ve heard about Microsoft’s efforts around the Nonprofit CDM, share our own insights (though, we’re not Microsoft, so this is just our best interpretations), and provide some links to more details.

Starting a nonprofit from scratch requires passion, purpose, hard work, creativity, resilience…and money. As with any organizational effort, financial planning is critical to the success of an organization.

One of the biggest questions that can be difficult to answer is, "how much money do I need to start a nonprofit?" The concise answer is, "it depends." There are a host of variables that will impact the answer to that question. Even if you don’t have the exact numbers, you can still have a sound financial plan and be prepared for the initial costs of starting a nonprofit.

We put together a guide to help you identify the standard costs associated with starting a nonprofit. Pre-planning will help you either find enough funding or save enough money to support the startup costs.

Are you thinking of starting a nonprofit? Fantastic! We’re always excited when someone has the passion and drive to make a difference in the world.

We’re always ready to cheer for a new generation of leaders. Of course, we’ve served our sector for nearly 20 years, so we also want to be honest and up-front about all the realities of starting a nonprofit. Launching a nonprofit can be fueled by passion, but the question is how much fuel do you have in the tank...and how long before you need to refuel it?

We’ve found that laying the right foundation, and going into the process with an open mind, tends to lead to the most successful organizations. Taking a slow, methodical approach at the beginning will help you avoid some potentially painful mistakes later. Here’s some questions successful nonprofit leaders have asked before starting a nonprofit.