|
Issue 43 Greetings Fundraising Weekly community! I hope you had an excellent weekend and an even better start to your week. Personally, I had the chance to spend some time in Kansas with family over the weekend. A change of pace and scenery is always nice, especially when it means seeing loved ones! You’re in for a treat with this week’s newsletter. We’ve got lots covered, from volunteer appreciation, to mission statements, to cyber security. We’re also excited to highlight some think pieces relating to community building, donor love, and the spiritual component of fundraising. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 42 This week’s Fundraising Weekly has me thinking about relationships, and how, at the end of the day, they are what fundraising is really all about. All nonprofit actions are interconnected and relate back to forging a relationship with a community. Improving your donor relationships can result in more funding. Meanwhile, improving your fundraising strategies will increase transparency, resulting in better donor relations. As you read through this week’s curated articles, consider how relationships play a key role in each one. They are the foundation of peer-to-peer fundraising; they’re essential to adding influence to a campaign; and they are at the heart of donor care and appreciation. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 41 Happy Tuesday fundraising superstars! This past weekend I had the chance to trek up to New York City, and it almost felt normal. It made me daydream about the days in-person fundraising can resume at the scale it once was. I'm not sure about you, but I'm eagerly awaiting the days we can gather together in person again! But until then (and, if we’re being honest, even after), virtual land is the place to be! This week’s newsletter highlights a blog article about how to build and sustain an online community, with tips like leaning into peer-to-peer fundraising, recruiting ambassadors, and upgrading your social media presence. We’ve got a lot of other great stuff for you too— so dig in for tips on fundraising letters, volunteer handbooks, and more! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 40 Happy Fundraising Weekly Tuesday, and to all the Star Wars fans, May the Fourth be with you! It’s been an excellent start to the month over here at Soapbox Engage, and I hope all of you can say the same. This week’s newsletter has loads of amazing content to help you upgrade your fundraising game. Read on for advice on donor needs, key website features, and even incorporating TikTok into your giving strategy. Hope there’s a Gen Z on your team! By the way! If you’re eager for more fundraising goodness, we wanted to take a moment to plug this free resource we created to help nonprofits navigate the online fundraising world. You can get the Definitive Guide to Online Fundraising here. Happy fundraising! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 39 Greetings from Tampa, Florida, where the weather is warm, the food delicious, and you can glimpse a dolphin or two swimming mere feet away! I’m here working remotely for the week and I gotta say, you Floridians are onto something. It’s been a wonderful change of scenery. If the pandemic has taught us one thing in the work sphere, it’s that we don’t always have to be in the office to be our most productive (though I do miss all the coworker interactions)! It just so happens that the folks over at Veritus Group wrote an article on this very subject that we have featured in today’s newsletter. How fitting! We’ve got lots of other great content for you this week as well. So dig in to learn more about topics like building a fundraising calendar, analyzing the origins of your donations, and how to center and utilize community in your fundraising efforts. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 38 I've got lots of great content for you in this edition of the Fundraising Weekly! Today, I'm featuring tips to make your messaging stand out, ways to improve your newsletters and donor relations, and a look into the hybrid fundraising event model. And that’s only about half the content. I'm also highlighting an article that asks us to challenge the urgency in our communications and work style. It may seem unusual with so much emphasis placed on motivation, work ethic, deliverability, and deadlines. But slowing down is important, not just for peace of mind but also for quality of work. Speaking of urgency and slowing down, today is as good a day as ever to take a moment to cherish the little moments. Call a family member or friend to check in. Appreciate the changing of the seasons (I’m noticing all kinds of flowers in DC!). Spend a little quiet time with yourself. Or slow down in whatever way is best for you! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 37 Even as a long-time nerd, I don’t think I ever expected to see an analogy between nonprofit fundraising and The Avengers! But that’s the beauty of this community, right? There is always so much information circulating about fundraising— be it strategies and tips, case studies, trend predictions, you name it. Some fundraising content may be hyper specific to a type of organization or the community they serve. Some content or principles might be broad enough to apply to an org of any size or mission. Some strategies may seem ancient and enduring, some cutting edge. But no matter the material, there are always new (often fun!) ways of looking at things. On a personal note, I have found in my life that shifting perspective, especially when confronting a question or issue, is always valuable and often is what yields a solution. It’s fun to shift perspective for the sake of practice or curiosity, as well as necessity. This week’s newsletter content has reminded me of just that! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 36 As more people across the world gain access to Covid-19 vaccines, there’s a glimmer of hope that we will be able to return to in-person fundraising events. But keep in mind that virtual fundraising will always be a relevant and useful skill for any nonprofit! This week on the Fundraising Weekly, we have blog posts covering all kinds of skills— from building donation pages, to writing fundraising letters, to leveraging social media, and more! And, if I may share, we have some very exciting news over at Soapbox Engage! Our Donations app is now the first tool of its kind to integrate with Microsoft Fundraising and Engagement, Microsoft’s free, open source fundraising application built for nonprofits. The Soapbox Engage Donations app can send data to Fundraising & Engagement in real-time so donor and transaction information is instantly available with no manual entry. We’re just a little bit stoked! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 35 Happy Tuesday, everyone! I think Tuesdays are sort of underrated. Monday kicks off the week, Wednesday is hump day, Thursday is Friday lite, and Friday is the fun, final push for the week. But Tuesdays need a bit more love. For me, Tuesdays are for weekly all staff meetings and, of course, the Fundraising Weekly— and those two reasons make them the best. This week, we have a bit of everything: social media marketing, donor cultivation, campaign planning, social justice engagement, fundraising appeals, and more! Dig in to this wealth of knowledge, then pass the Fundraising Weekly along to a friend! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 34 Well, we’re officially on the other side of the Spring Equinox. That along with the continued rollout of vaccines to communities around the world has me feeling pretty optimistic for the coming months. I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling either. Studies have shown that hope and positive moods can increase helping behaviors, like volunteering, assisting coworkers, and donating! Ride this positivity into your next fundraising campaign! Take some free knowledge from your community of fundraising professionals, and dive headfirst into the week with me. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 33 Wandering into Joshua Tree National Park, deep in the deserts of California, you feel like you've walked right into a Dr Seuss book. I decided to explore with an experimental bag of "Trader Joe's Grainless Cassava & Coconut Tortilla Chips" (which yes, are actually amazing, and no, I don't know how they make them), and saw all sorts of new sights. It's easy to get turned around, confused, and within inches of pain for something that you swear looked like a harmless, cotton-like bush (that's a cactus, Ryan). That seems to hit a bit close to home for the accidental techies in our fundraising world. One moment, "wow, look at that amazing new fundraising tool features", next moment, "so, you're saying I accidentally deleted what again?". For those of you wandering the magical online fundraising world alongside me, here's another great week of tips and ideas to help you navigate without bouncing into a prickly plant. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 32 Happy Tuesday! We’re just about a year into various states of lockdown and I hope you’re all hanging in there. We were blessed with some sunshine in Washington DC today and a little it of vitamin D will turn the day around! We have a lot of awesome content for you this week in the Fundraising Weekly. If you have any spring fundraisers coming up, get ready to draw some inspiration! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 31 As the calendar turns to March, it's hard to not say, "wait, you again?" A year ago today feels so distant, as we all just went about our days maskless. Now just watching a movie scene that includes a crowd makes me cringe. We seem to be turning a corner in the fight against COVID-19, and it just might be time to think about a post-pandemic future. Fundraising in-person. Galas. Dinners...inside! Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's keep our eyes focused on the road ahead, and soak in some great fundraising community knowledge. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 30 We’re wrapping up February, then spring will be just around the corner! I'm sure my fellow northern hemisphere friends are as excited as I am. What are your spring fundraising goals? Do you have any special events planned — virtual or in person? Am I getting ahead of myself? With spring on the way, I feel a renewed sense of hope. And it’s not just the thought of warmer weather and some leaves back on the trees. I’m hopeful that this season will renew some strength in the nonprofit community and nudge us just a little closer to the “normal” we all miss. For now, bundle up! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 29 It’s a very special day for PICnet, the company behind Soapbox Engage… It’s our 20th anniversary! We’ve spent the last two decades advancing the world of nonprofit tech and serving the nonprofit community we deeply cherish. We’ve grown and evolved a lot over the years and it hasn’t always been easy, but we’ve loved every moment. Thank you for being a part of this community. This newsletter and each subscriber is another reminder of why we love what we do. So, while we celebrate ourselves today and reminisce about laying ethernet cables in 2001, please know we are also celebrating you! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 28 Valentine's Day is just around the corner. For some, this may be a made-up holiday designed to sell cards and chocolates. But I like to think of it as an opportunity to practice gratitude in all areas of my life. What about the nonprofit community do you cherish? How have you been expressing appreciation for your donors lately? Which of your coworkers could use some encouragement right now? There's lots of little ways to show love, and it goes a long way in a season like this. So cozy up with your favorite warm beverage and enjoy this week's thoughtful fundraising content! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 27 Winter has officially arrived in DC. How is this measured? The speed by which the city shuts down at even the whisper of snow on a local Reddit forum. While the National Zoo's pandas celebrated by doing their own version of body sledding yesterday, our fundraising community was busy at work with more knowledge sharing. Grab a cup of hot chocolate, east coast folks, and enjoy a round of thought-provoking content! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 26 Most folks don't know about the little blue line. It appears once every four years, stringing together the US Capitol and the White House, and provides the path of the new President to their new residence. It also happens to go right by my office building. This year, that meant me, a US secret service officer from Texas, and a building security guard watched from inside glass doors as the President slowly drove past the office, right before making a left to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The officer put it best, "I've been doing this for 24 years, and I've never seen anything like this." As we're all launching into 2021 with a sense of disequilibrium, it helps to know that there's a path pointing you home. Here's another fantastic batch helpful guidance from fellow non-profiteers. Consider this your own little blue line, taking you right to the knowledge you need to keep bringing success home to your organization. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 25 Living near downtown Washington DC has meant that life has seemed a bit different during the past week. There's the military presence, anti-climb fencing, and the types of things you see on TV in far away war zones. So when I took a moment to leave the city for a hike and a view, I had a chance to take a deep breath of the cool air and think, "maybe those skies are beginning to part, and maybe we have better days ahead of us." We're early in our journey together here in this newsletter, but I'm darn proud to work alongside fellow fundraising professionals looking to make the world a better, more just place. For those of you in the US, here's to a peaceful Inauguration Day tomorrow. After pausing for a moment tomorrow, let's get right back to work serving the communities we care so much about. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Issue 24 Let's just cut to the chase. I was hoping to be able to come back this week and say, "I hope you've all had a relaxing week, recharging your batteries, and taking the past few days to relish the calm of the post-fundraising season." Alas. It's a challenging time. And if I'm going to hurtle through these days, I'm darn proud to be doing so alongside the folks in our nonprofit sector focused on making the world a more just and peaceful place. Here's to doing the hard work, sharing knowledge, and stepping up to the challenges in front of us. You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! |