A critical way for nonprofits to boost fundraising is by increasing their donation page conversion rate. A higher conversion rate for your online fundraising pages means that a greater percentage of those visiting your page are submitting your donation form and giving you a gift.

But how do you successfully increase your donation page conversion rate? Here are nine tips you can use to increase the effectiveness of your online fundraising forms.

Have you ever wished that you could wave a magic wand and increase your donations? That’s basically how it works when you leverage Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro, Soapbox Engage’s new partner in matching gifts.

What are matching gifts, you ask? A matching gift is a donation made by a company to a nonprofit that an employee of said company has already donated to. So instead of one donation, your organization gets two!

In this article we are going to teach you:

1. All about matching gifts

2. How to market matching gifts

3. How to revolutionize your matching gift efforts


Let’s get started!

In case some snow falls out of your inbox when you read this, you can blame politics and the weather. It seems that the weather decided to raise the ante on the US government shutdown today, blanketing the city with snow and by doing so, forcing the government to completely close in the capital city today.

May our friends further north not laugh too hard at our few inches of snow on the ground.

I held off downhill skiing 20th St NW during this storm (it may have happened in the past), and instead braved it into the office to report on all the goodness our community has shared this week. Also, a nearby coffee shop was giving away free coffee. But really, it was all about my commitment to the community. Here's your latest batch of Salesforce knowledge

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

Whether the leaves are already turning and the temperatures are cooling or you’re still blasting the AC, it’s time to acknowledge that we are entering the final season of the year...and we don’t mean back-to-school. September officially kicks off the sprint toward the holiday and end-of-year giving season for nonprofits, which for many organizations begins now with the ever-growing and uber-successful #GivingTuesday (on November 27 this year).

In 2017, the sixth annual #GivingTuesday raised $274 million for nonprofits, a 50% increase over 2016. And in general, one third of annual giving occurs in December, and 11-12% of that happens in the final three days of the year. So it’s pretty clear that this is where the money is at -- and where your focus should be right now.

But whether you’ve got your campaign plan all nailed out or you’re just getting started (it’s okay, many nonprofits don’t even get started planning for EOY until October), we want to know -- how will prioritize your donors? Have you taken a look at your data to determine the best donor prospects that will help you achieve your holiday/EOY goals?

If the answer is “no,” or even “maybe?” then it’s time to figure that out now before you get too much farther. Given how chaotic this time of year can be, and how much effort goes into EOY campaigns, it’s essential that you use your resources effectively, and data is your friend in this case. While we’re not saying that you shouldn’t prepare messaging and campaign materials for your entire supporter list and the general public, we are saying that you should put a considerate amount of research, creativity, and development into crafting the best appeals for your strongest prospects.

What do we mean by this? We’ve outlined a few donor segments to explore within your mind palace, er, database, to help you hone in on the ones most likely to help you get to the finish line by the end of the year.

It seems like it was just yesterday that talking computers and robots were mere science fiction fantasy, found in The Jetsons or Star Wars’ galaxy far, far away. Now, we’re seemingly living in a real-live Westworld, having full-on conversations with Siri, Alexa, and Watson. Who said imaginary friends were just for kids?

R2-D2 and his friends exist because of artificial intelligence, or AI, which is the ability for a computer or machine to simulate human intelligence. AI has been used in some form or another for years, in factories and labs, and now on our tablets and smartphones. But researchers and companies that create AI systems are realizing that it can be used for more than cutting production costs and building things. AI can be used to save lives, and enhance the social good.

There are major efforts leveraging AI to do amazing things from curing rare cancers to stopping poachers to monitoring human-trafficking patterns. But what does AI mean for small or medium nonprofits who don’t have bucket loads of money to create their own AI or even purchase a complex system? How can AI can be used to target the right donors and provide data to backup your storytelling and strategy?

We rounded up a few emerging possibilities for your nonprofit to use AI for better fundraising success. What sounds most helpful and appealing for your organization right now?