Issue 001

Is it just more, or does it feel like days are turning into weeks, and weeks into months? As we muster all our collective strength as fundraisers to push forward into the unknown of a pandemic fundraising season.

Deep breath, everyone.

While you're taking that deep breath, grab a refresh round of knowledge from your fundraising community colleagues here in this weekly review!

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Countless nonprofits rally athletes all over the world to run, bike, swim, row, or do any other sport in the name of philanthropy. Running, walking, and cycling fundraisers are some of the most popular athletic charity events.

Though COVID-19 forced many development professionals to move many events online, we’re noticing that some virtual fundraisers are even more even successful than the in-person version! Bicycling events just might be one of those events.

We put together a quick guide to help you plan a virtual bike fundraiser for your nonprofit. Cyclists have a long history of pedaling for great causes, so it’s definitely worth the effort to mobilize the cyclists in your community to support your cause.

The Coronavirus pandemic continues to change the way most of us are living (at least when it comes to gatherings of more than 10 people). But that doesn’t mean development professionals and fundraisers need to toss their fundraising plans and start from scratch!

Surprisingly, you can turn a lot of events into successful virtual fundraisers, including charity runs! Hey, if the Boston Marathon can go virtual this year, we can, too! In fact, hosting a virtual charity run might be easier in some ways than an in-person run fundraiser!

Here’s a practical guide to help you move your run fundraiser to a virtual platform instead of scrapping it!

Do you use donation tiers in your online forms and other requests for donations? The ability to add suggested giving levels is a relatively common feature of most online donation forms (including Soapbox Engage's Donations app).

But how do you decide what donation amounts to suggest? Do you set the bar low and hope people give more? Do you aim high and risk scaring away people who can't give that much? Development professionals and fundraisers rightfully have a lot of questions about how to create donation tiers that drive donations instead of scaring away their donors.

The very short answer is, setting donation tiers is both an art and a science… but it definitely doesn't require a crystal ball or pulling random numbers out of a hat. Here's an essential guide to help you create donation tiers in five (relatively) easy steps. (We promise, the steps aren't that hard, but they do require a little research.)

Development professionals have a lot on their plates these days. From reaching fundraising goals to managing communication with donors, it can be hard to stay on top of the to-do list in normal times.

Now that many of us are working remotely, juggling family and work under COVID-19 pandemic conditions, it’s more challenging than ever to get everything done and stay connected with your team. Have no fear! We rounded up some of the best free or inexpensive software tools to help fundraisers and development professionals conquer their regular tasks.