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Visionary Leaders: What if you're met with resistance from your nonprofit board or development team?
I was chatting with a visionary leader the other day and she made a comment that saddened me. “When I present a simple opportunity or new idea to my board or even my development team, I feel like I have to fight to convince them that we can do it.”
Sound familiar?
The next time you present an idea that was unbudgeted or a new opportunity that requires an investment and you’re met with resistance from your team, you’ve got to look what’s really behind that!
The Business Behind Nonprofit Fundraising
Recently I was being interviewed by a Board of Directors and they asked what I meant by a phrase I use fairly often.
That phrase?
The business behind fundraising.
It's even the name of my podcast. Well, here's what I mean . . .
The truth about using fundraising pitch decks . . .
The other day I saw a post that read something like “A fancy pitch deck doesn't get major donors to give more money.”
Do I agree with that statement?
Ummm…only, somewhat.
Here’s why:
In the nonprofit world, so many fundraisers kinda found themselves in fundraising. You know, they came up through the program side, moved over from corporate, or were really good at writing grants and found themselves leading the department. That’s cool and frankly one of the most favorite parts of my job.
I find that fundraisers need something in hand to help them lead donors to the best gift.
In Major Gift Fundraising, Slow and Steady Wins the Race
“The race is not always to the swift.” That’s one message to come out of Aesop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare. We can also apply it to major gift fundraising.
There are certain aspects of fundraising that hold a sense of urgency. Planning a gala or golf tournament has a deadline. Updating your organization’s website, posting on social media, getting your email newsletter out the door are all tasks. And, true to research, it feels good to cross them off the list. You’re being productive.
Yet, if you want to grow your unrestricted revenue, nonprofit leadership needs to start making different decisions—ones that take a “slow and steady” approach to fundraising.
All Nonprofits Should Know about Cellar Angels!
With lean and mean roots, Cellar Angels opened its proverbial doors with all the drama and vigor of a sapling grapevine pushing through terra firma. They began with no professional money, relying heavily on a bootstrap model of raising start-up funds through the support of friends, family, and fellow wine enthusiasts. Despite the harrowing maze of paperwork, countless hours spent with Illinois and California-based legal experts, and a hysterically simple, yet pivotal call with California Alcohol Beverage Control, their time spent in launch-mode was not for naught. Throughout, they were given the life-shaping gift of spending time focused on their truest passion: traveling through Northern California’s Napa and Sonoma counties looking for vintners’ treasures.
4 Benefits of Data Research for Your Fundraising Strategy
You’ve probably heard it before: Not all donors are made alike. If you treat your donor base as a monolith, these differences in what donors want and need from your nonprofit can seem like a drag. However, when you recognize and identify these distinctions, they can be your fundraising program’s greatest strength.
While data research is essential across the nonprofit space—from developing advocacy campaigns to hosting events—this guide will focus on how donor data can benefit one of the most vital elements of your nonprofit: your fundraising efforts.
Data research can help you:
Find new donor prospects.
Personalize your fundraising communications.
Optimize your ask amount.
Track your fundraising success.
Ultimately, the process of data research and marketing analysis can help you determine the best way to improve current and future fundraising campaigns. With this in mind, let’s start with one of the biggest benefits of fundraising data research: lead generation.
Nonprofit donors only want to fund projects . . . actually, that's not true.
Have you ever heard, "Donors only want to fund projects."
Actually, that’s not true.
Sure, are there some donors who will only fund projects. But it’s a small percentage of donors.
Nonprofit CEOs - If you’ve heard your fundraising team say this repeatedly, you might have a problem. Why? Because they have way more control over this than they think.
Nonprofit Leaders: Why Is Your Strategic Plan Falling Short?
There’s a pretty famous quote, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” I’d like to add to that by saying that a plan is just a plan until there’s action.
When it comes to growing (thus, funding) your nonprofit, that action also needs to be really well-defined. In my recent discussion with Katie Appold, on the Nonprofit Hub’s podcast, “Good to Growth,” we delved into why nonprofit organizations—even the most ambitious ones—aren’t able to fund what is in their strategic plans.
When it comes to scaling revenue, one culprit is rooted in nonaction, or misguided action. Too often, the nonprofit’s leaders, team members, and board aren’t fully (or effectively) communicating the true financial need of the organization to its donors. The invitation to shift and stop focusing on the same old transactional activities you’ve done in the past is now.
Are you playing defense or offense with your nonprofit's money?
One of my favorite client's uses a sports metaphor for everything! I've learned so much about sports I knew nothing about! Thankfully he's learned lots from me too as he's added 7-figures of gen-ops revenue to his bottom line.
So, today, I'll ask you . . .
Is your nonprofit playing defense or offense with your money?
Creating a Digital Style Guide: 4 Tips for Your Nonprofit
In order for your nonprofit to engage supporters and bring in funds, crafting a solid marketing plan is essential. While your organization’s exact content strategy will vary somewhat based on your audience, you’ll likely be able to reach large numbers of supporters through digital marketing channels like your website, email, and social media.
Online engagement with nonprofits has been increasing in recent years. But with the amount and variety of information that potential supporters have access to on the internet, your organization will need to work harder to stand out from similar nonprofits and promote your cause.
To make your marketing reflect your nonprofit in a cohesive, memorable way, you’ll need to establish a distinct brand, which encompasses the messaging you use across all platforms as well as the look and feel of your marketing materials. Putting together a digital style guide will help keep your organization’s branding consistent from one platform to the next and tie each piece of content you create back to your overall digital strategy.
In this article, we’ll walk through four tips for creating an effective digital style guide:
Define your nonprofit’s messaging clearly.
Understand your organization’s audience(s).
Highlight visual elements of your branding.
Take all your marketing channels into consideration.
5 Year-End Virtual Fundraising Ideas
The end of the year is the perfect time to amp up your fundraising strategy. With so many holiday-themed opportunities and giving days, your nonprofit can significantly increase its revenue and finish out the year strong.
As a nonprofit professional, you understand how much work and planning can go into an event fundraiser, from booking a venue to coordinating catering. Plus, with so many people traveling during the holidays, it can be hard to nail down a time when the most people would be able to attend. But, did you know that you can make the process much easier by planning a virtual campaign?
A virtual fundraiser can be just as—or even more—engaging than an in-person event and offers your supporters the flexibility to participate from anywhere in the world. This way, you can expand your nonprofit’s reach and make the fundraising process more convenient for you and your donors.
Fundraisers Must Constantly be Educators
Recently I was sitting in an interview with a candidate for a potential leadership position within a nonprofit. This is a longtime client that's growing by leaps and bounds. And they'd identified a super sharp individual who’s coming out of corporate as a potential candidate.
And although the majority of the job description isn't fundraising, there will be some donor interface. The topic of fundraising came up twice . . .
First comment: “I don’t want to stand on a corner and beg for money.”
And…
Second comment: “I hate begging companies for gift cards. I had to do that for my kids' school.”
You know, people wouldn’t hate fundraising if they actually understood what it REALLY is.
4 Donation Tools to Maximize the Donor Cultivation Cycle
The donor cultivation cycle is a model that represents the continuous process of identifying new prospects, turning them into donors, and launching stewardship strategies to retain them and bring them closer to your nonprofit.
Essentially, donor cultivation is an exercise in relationship building—and the art of effective relationship building depends on a variety of tools and best practices. For example, a robust donor communication plan is one of the cornerstones of donor cultivation and, subsequently, continued success for your nonprofit.
Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle the tough task of donor cultivation without help. There are plenty of software solutions you can leverage. In particular, we’ll focus on the following donation tools that will help streamline cultivation for your nonprofit:
Nonprofit Payment Processor
Online Donation Page
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Platform
Matching Gifts Database
These donation tools will allow you to more effectively bring in online donations. Additionally, you can leverage their unique benefits to strengthen your cultivation strategies, steward donors, and retain support.