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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 the saying goes, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Healthy nonprofits of every shape and size need a fundraising plan. It's tempting to think that you can just "plan to ask as many people to donate as possible." But that's not really a plan. It might result in a quick influx of cash (which gives the illusion of successful fundraising), but then what? What happens after you've exhausted your network? How do you expand your fundraising efforts? So, you're probably asking yourself, "How do I write a fundraising plan?". In short, a fundraising plan is made up of six key elements.
Feel better? Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming, but we'll get through this together, step-by-step. Set your nonprofit up for long term financial stability by putting in the effort to create a fundraising plan. We promise it will be well worth the time, energy, and resources (and your development professionals will be eternally grateful). Here's an essential guide to help you create a fundraising plan for your nonprofit.
We are living in uncertain times as we deal with a pandemic that’s radically impacting how we live everyday life! No doubt, most of us are feeling stressed, unsure of what will happen next, and how we should respond. You and many of your supporters are probably working from home, and most of us are trying to reinvent how we work and communicate. Compounding the problem is the constantly updating news cycle about the coronavirus. Like most fundraisers and development professionals, you’re probably trying to figure out how to salvage your fundraising plan for the spring, summer, and maybe even the fall. It’s true, we are in uncharted waters, but that doesn’t mean we have to totally reinvent the wheel. Here are some guidelines that will help you communicate with your donors and adjust your fundraising goals.
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed life as usual, practically overnight. If you’re a development professional or nonprofit fundraiser, you’re probably inundated with content urging you to contact your donors ASAP. Since none of us has communicated with donors during a global pandemic, what are the new "best practices" that we should be following? Our community doesn’t have all the answers yet, but we do have early information that will help you create a plan to communicate with your donors and supporters in the coming weeks and months. We’ve also identified the categories of donors you should prioritize contacting. The more proactive you are, the better off your nonprofit will be in the long run.
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.
Last Updated: January 22, 2021 @ 7pm ET We are in uncharted waters, friends. Just weeks ago, none of us expected to be fundraising or figuring out how to run our nonprofits from home. Fortunately, many experts have been working with nonprofits for decades and have a lot of wisdom and experience to share. We wanted to highlight some of the best content that nonprofit experts and leaders are writing to help guide us through this time of uncertainty. Here’s some of the best, most relevant content for any nonprofit figuring out how to navigate fundraising and managing their organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll continue to update this resource as things develop, and more experts weigh in.
Almost everyone is feeling a lot of uncertainty and asking many questions as the coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads around the world. Nonprofits are trying to figure out how to respond and what this means for their work and their funding. We don’t have many answers, but we do know that this is an important time for nonprofits to focus on donor care. Even small actions will build trust and make your donors want to continue supporting your organization. Plus, if done correctly, donor care during the coronavirus could actually expand your network of potential new donors. Here are a few ways nonprofits can care for their donors during the coronavirus.
Does your club or team feeling the financial squeeze, and needs to raise money with a small budget? Whether you’re raising funds to buy new sporting equipment for your club or for a charitable cause, there are plenty of fun, inexpensive, and effective fundraising events and activities. We’ve gathered 5 fundraising ideas that just about any club or team can organize, even with a small budget.
The cost of acquiring a new donor is increasing, and the average donor retention rate for first-year donors is between 22% and 29%. Eek! The bottom line is, it's much cheaper to keep your current donors than it is to acquire new ones. Improving your donor relations (also called donor care or donor stewardship) is one of the most effective ways to increase your donor retention. But it does take some strategic work. If you increase your donor retention rate by just 10%, that can increase the lifetime value of your donor database by 200%! Now that's a nice return on your investment. Donor care is both an art and a science. There are some industry "best practices" that every nonprofit should do, but there’s also a whole lot of room to be creative. We're here to help you put the essentials of excellent donor stewardship into practice so you can build great relationships with your supporters and improve your fundraising.
Are you considering looking for corporate sponsors for an upcoming nonprofit event or program? The great news for nonprofits is that whatever you're doing, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a company that wants to support and align with your mission and cause...and, most importantly in this case, is willing to financially support your efforts. There's no cause too big, too small, or too obscure… someone out there will be excited to partner financially to help you reach your goals. You just have to figure out which business will be the perfect corporate sponsor for your cause. BUT (and this is important) corporate sponsorships are supposed to be symbiotic relationships! True, many business owners and decision-makers are very charitable and generous, but they still want their business to benefit from their financial investment in your organization's efforts. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to treat corporate sponsorships like a symbiotic relationship between a nonprofit and business. It's not hard to make your organization attractive to corporate sponsorship opportunities. With the right mindset, and a few good ideas, you'll have companies lining up to sponsor your next program or event.
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.
Have you ever seen a fundraising campaign that feels like, well, it’s just kind of sitting there? You know it’s an important cause, but there isn’t any "there" there in the messaging. Nothing is compelling you to take action, bringing together a coherent story. It can all feel a bit, well, empty. Launching your fundraising campaign without a theme is almost as tragic as having a cute cuddly puppy without a name, or a house with no foundation. Sure, the puppy is still adorable and cuddly, and the house might have some great features. If there's no way to introduce your puppy to your friends, and no firm foundation to keep the house stable, people have this missed connection that they can’t always point to, but they can feel. We hope you haven't committed this fundraising faux pas yet, but even if you have, all is not lost. We gathered some of the industry best practices and recommendations by fundraising experts to help you come up with an exciting and effective theme for your next fundraising campaign.
Crowdfunding is fast becoming one of the most popular (and useful) fundraising strategies for all kinds of nonprofits. In 2018, 46% of millennials and 45% of GenXers gave to crowdfunding campaigns. It has the potential to bring in a lot of money, help you expand your network, and raise awareness of your cause all at the same time! First introduced to help entrepreneurs and inventors attract investors and raise money to launch their business, the approach has grown substantially, with some experts predict crowdfunding will become a $90-$96 billion dollar industry in the next few years! We created this handy guide to help you avoid some of the common crowdfunding mistakes that nonprofits make when deploying a campaign. We’ve also gathered some industry best practices that will help make your campaigns more successful.
Countless nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world are doing invaluable work to promote justice, care for people, and enact change. The scale of their impact often depends on the amount of support they can build up from various communities. Advocacy campaigns are one of the most effective ways to mobilize people into action. They raise awareness, educate people, seek to influence decision-makers, attract donations, help build your brand, and much more. A well-designed advocacy campaign has the potential to trigger wide-scale responses, prompt people to change their actions, and even affect government policies. Advocacy can be misunderstood and difficult to define at times. To further complicate things, there are some rules and regulations about how nonprofits can engage in advocacy. Before you start planning your first campaign, we created this resource to help guide your organization in incorporating advocacy into your work.
Are you thinking about starting a nonprofit? There’s so much to think about and consider! If you're located in the United States, one of the most important early decisions you’ll have to make is what type of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) 501(c) categorization will best suit your nonprofit. There are actually 27 different types of nonprofit organizations that cover everything from cemetery companies to benefit trusts and everything in between! Most charitable organizations fit into one of three 501(c) categories. Each type has its own rules for tax-deductible contributions, lobbying, eligibility, and other things. It’s critical to choose the right type of 501(c) for your organization because it impacts far more than just your tax exemption status. We created an overview of the three most popular types of 501(c) categories to help make your decision process a little easier. To be totally clear, we're not legal experts, so we always recommend consulting with your legal counsel before making any decisions. To be more direct: take the advice of legal experts before taking any action or making any decision!
Most development professionals and fundraisers who work for nonprofits apply for grants at some point in their careers. After all, someone in the organization has to do it! Grants are often an excellent source of money to accomplish specific initiatives. In 2018, contributions from foundations made up about 16% ($66.9 billion) of the national philanthropic giving. While individual donations still make up 68% of the total charitable giving, grants for nonprofits are an excellent secondary funding source for all kinds of organizations. Finding grants that fit your organization's mission can feel overwhelming. They come in every shape and size you can imagine! Identifying the best grants to apply for can require some serious research, time, energy, and maybe even a little self-reflection. There are many resources and services to help you identify and apply for the grants that best fit your organization. We rounded up a few resources and tips to help you get started! |
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