"Soft skills" are a hot topic of discussion in recent years, especially in the business world. Many companies are beginning to prioritize hiring candidates with these interpersonal attributes because it’s easy to teach someone how to do a task. It’s much harder to teach people communication, problem-solving, and relational skills. Nonprofits are no exception.

"Soft skills" are the unquantifiable abilities that help you build healthy relationships, communicate effectively, and make you an excellent fundraiser. Lacking these attributes could cause you to miss or misunderstand important things in conversations with current and potential donors (and your staff).

Because so much fundraising happens online now (via websites, social media, and the telephone), it’s easy to assume that these soft skills are less valuable. On the contrary, they’re actually more important because every interaction carries more weight. We rounded up three soft skills every development professional should cultivate to boost your online fundraising.

It’s October, and we’re just over a month away from Giving Tuesday 2023. November 28th will be this year’s biggest celebration of generosity. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a day to encourage people to do good. In 2022, organizations received $3.1 billion in donations on GivingTuesday, a 15% increase from the year before! It’s an incredibly important day for nonprofit organizations to participate in fundraising.

We're here to help make sure your nonprofit is ready to take full advantage of this fundraising opportunity. Here is a checklist of things you can do to improve your organization's likelihood of success.

Nonprofits often overlook one fundraising goldmine hidden right under their noses: the office place! With the rise of corporate social responsibility, many companies actually want to fundraise for charities and causes they value.

Studies link charitable giving and other corporate social responsibility actions with better employee engagement and satisfaction. Employees want to work for companies that focus on community, people, and the planet, not just on profit.

Don’t assume that this value of corporate social responsibility is limited to a line-item in budgets for charitable giving. Businesses also value getting their employees involved in philanthropic activities!

Employees are often eager to make donations to nonprofits through workplace fundraisers, especially if the organization supports someone in the employee’s life, or if someone they know invites them to donate. Employees are also likely to give when they see a personal story of someone the nonprofit is helping.

Is your organization excited for the opportunity of a #GivingTuesdayNow worldwide event on May 5, 2020, to bring in much needed fundraising this year, but also dealing with a sea of change from the coronavirus' impact on our nonprofit community?

Not sure how to make sure you don't miss the boat on this new version of #GivingTuesday while also needing to move fast to prepare for it while tackling too many other things right now?

Giving Tuesday Now (or #GivingTuesdayNow depending on your love of hashtags) is the first day of giving organized by the same people who created #GivingTuesday, with a focus on boosting fundraising and support for the nonprofit community that so often works behind the scenes during crises such as COVID-19.

With more than $2 billion raised by organizations during #GivingTuesday 2019, it's likely that #GivingTuesdayNow will give a much-needed boost to participating nonprofit organizations.

This first attempt at a unique off-cycle #GivingTuesday event will happen on May 5, 2020, and will be a global event with participation from organizations around the globe.

If you're already burning the candle at both ends and need help with lift-off for #GivingTuesdayNow fundraising ideas, you're in the right place.

As every country pulls out all the stops to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, many cities and states are requiring all nonessential employees to work from home. But the work can’t just come to a screeching halt. Nonprofits around the world are trying to figure out how to do as much work as possible online.

Some development professionals might already work from home. Others are probably trying to figure out where to start.

Learning to work from home is actually not as easy as you might think! If working from home is a new experience for you, have no fear! We’ve put together a handy guide for you to fundraise successfully from home for the next few weeks (pro tip: check out this Definitive Guide to Online Fundraising). If working from home goes as well as we think it can, you might be reluctant to get back to your regular office routine.