Asking for donations is the "bread and butter" of the development professional's job. You are fundraisers, after all. But that doesn't mean you're immune to intimidation, self-doubt, and even a bit of uncertainty or confusion. It IS intimidating to ask people to give their hard-earned money to your nonprofit.

Whether you're a professional fundraiser or a member of your local PTO, we've gathered some tips, tricks, and basic best practices to help you either review the basics or get started fundraising toward your goals.

Most nonprofits use fundraising events to raise large portions of their annual budget. Everything from charity golf tournaments and galas to 5Ks and bake sales fund organizations large and small.

Events are excellent ways to bring supporters and like-minded people together around a common cause. The right fundraising event can generate a lot of revenue for your nonprofit. Still, big events can require more time to plan and advertise, and they usually have a higher overhead cost. It's critical to choose fundraising events that match your nonprofit's budget and execution capacities.

We gathered a list of some of the top fundraising event ideas and some practical insights about their ease of execution and potential return on investment. Our goal is to help guide your decisions about which events might best fit your nonprofit.

As you know, the year-end fundraising season is critical for many nonprofits to bring in a large portion of their annual budget and fund projects and programs throughout the following year. Many fundraising experts agree that one of the most effective strategies for year-end fundraising is the matching gift.

We aren't talking about matching gifts that generous companies often provide their employees for their financial donations. We're talking about the kinds of matching gifts that come from foundations or major donors to match the contributions made to a particular fundraising campaign. These types of major gifts are often called "challenge grants," and they're designed to kickstart or fuel a fundraising campaign.

We rounded up some practical tips and insights to help you use "challenge grants" to fuel your year-end fundraising campaigns.

We get it. Development professionals are expected to somehow accomplish spectacular fundraising feats, plan unique events on a shoestring budget, create heartfelt, compelling content, and find time to stay up to date on the industry trends and best practices. It's a Herculean task, even for the best, most experienced fundraisers.

We might not be able to take anything off your to-do list, but we can help you work more efficiently and effectively and perhaps streamline some of the tasks.

Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the holiday season and year-end giving rush. About 50% of nonprofits receive most of their annual donations during the last three months of the year. In fact, 31% of all annual giving occurs during that year-end giving window!

It's critical to have a solid year-end fundraising plan, and what better time to kick that campaign off than with Thanksgiving. But who wants to host the same old fundraising events year after year! We rounded up some great Thanksgiving-centered fundraising ideas you can incorporate into your year-end giving campaign and some practical strategies to boost your overall fundraising efforts.