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Drew Bernard. This Thursday, June 4th, ActionSprout will join us in presenting Beth Becker’s FREE WEBINAR How to Master Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm to Boost Your Content. Here is a little taste of what you’ll learn. ~Kristina. Guest Post by Drew Bernard, Founder and CEO of ActionSprout. Facebook has recently made several changes to the algorithm that determines which content shows up in all of its 1.4 billion monthly users’ News Feeds, including your supporters.
Are your appeal letters, thank you letters, and newsletter articles laced with terms like at-risk youth, underserved communities, leverage, and impactful? If you think your donors understand you when you use jargon like this, think again. It’s easy enough to use these terms around the office. I think people use jargon because it’s an insider language, and it makes them feel like they’re “in the know” in their professional world.
The following is an excerpt from Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits. Nonprofits are familiar with writing blog posts that provide program updates, tell success stories, comment on breaking news and current affairs, and promote calls to action. This type of blog content is standard in nonprofit communications and should continue to be reported on regularly; however, some of your most shared, retweeted, and +1′d blog posts will be those that are out of the ordinary.
"Why can’t you tell us where you spent the money and what your expenses were? You obviously have that information. Why can’t the public see it?". - NPR's Laura Sullivan to Red Cross' David Meltzer. Last night, I was shocked and spellbound to hear NPR devote an entire half hour segment to the special report called: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500 Million In Haiti Relief.
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
What’s sexiest in your nonprofit these days? Who’s got the hot fundraising job? Email fundraising? Social media? Video? Mobile? Direct mail? Direct mail?! That’s so 20th century. But wait, direct mail is fighting back. Or at least, as reported in Direct Marketing , the (not disinterested) US Postal Service is. Advertising mail accounts for 31% of USPS revenue.
So you want to know the real reason why people make major gifts and bequests? Ok. But first, I must share a quote. Confucius once said, “Life is very simple. But we insist on making it complicated.” I love that quote. In a way, it helps explain why people overcomplicate fundraising. They just can’t help themselves! The simple truth is that it’s easy to succeed in major and planned gift marketing today.
Looking for an easy content idea for Instagram and Twitter? Try a day-of-the-week post with one of these hashtags. Some of them, like #ThrowbackThursday and #InspirationMonday, can even be used on Facebook. 3 quick tips for using this tactic: . Do your research. Hashtag meanings change over time. And some hashtags don’t mean what you think they mean.
Looking for an easy content idea for Instagram and Twitter? Try a day-of-the-week post with one of these hashtags. Some of them, like #ThrowbackThursday and #InspirationMonday, can even be used on Facebook. 3 quick tips for using this tactic: . Do your research. Hashtag meanings change over time. And some hashtags don’t mean what you think they mean.
Have you thanked your donors recently? If you haven’t shown gratitude since your year-end appeal, you need to do something soon. And you need to be thanking your donors more often – at least once a month. It’s not too late to start creating an attitude of gratitude. Summer is coming (yea!) and this is a great time to connect with your donors and plan the thank you component of your year-end appeal.
Date: Thursday, November 19. Time: 1-2:30pm EDT. Cost: Free! How to Register: Sign up. Presented by: Heather Mansfield. View: Complete Webinar Schedule. Based on more than 20 years of experience and 25,000+ hours spent utilizing mobile and social media, Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits is a comprehensive 256-page book packed with more than 500 best practices.
The new GivingUSA report is out. The estimates of last year's giving, the most recent on record, appear to be the best in the 60 years of tracking. As a sector, we are still impressed by low-growth. But 5% growth is better than no growth! According to GivingUSA's press release: Overall charitable giving in the USA last year was $358.38 billion. Individual Giving increased 5.7% in current dollars to $258.51 billion.
A sure sign that not much of anything worthwhile is being done in the area of donor relationships is the growing presence of lots of buzzwords surrounding this subject. In reality, my guess is that more folks have married Kardashians than there are organizations that have become seriously engaged in building true relationships with donors. The buzzwords and talk signal that ‘donor engagement’, ‘donor experience’, ‘donor loyalty’ are supposed to matter.
Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.
What are your fundraising pet peeves? Joe from the Fundraising Authority has three big ones. My pet peeve has more to do with word usage than fundraising: I have a co-worker who insists on calling monthly gifts “reoccurring” donations. I correct him from across the office, “It’s recurring!” One day he’ll say it right! Boost the reach of your Twitter posts by using hashtags.
John Haydon gave me a great challenge: Share 9 content marketing tips. When you’ve written a 100,000-word book about nonprofit content marketing , boiling it down to your favorite 9 tips is a challenge. But I did it, and John captured it wonderfully: 3 tips for email newsletters: Be all about the reader. Quick read, skimmable. One column, clean design. 3 “musts” for better content marketing: Listen and understand your audience.
At the end of last year, I recommended Five Ways to Improve Your Fundraising and Communications in 2015. Now that we’re almost halfway through the year, let’s revisit this list and see how you’re doing. I’ll also share ways you can continue on this path throughout the summer and into the fall. Tell stories. Are you telling your stories?
In Abila’s new donor engagement report , the first question they asked donors was, “What matters most to you?” Problem is… the answers they allowed were not all that great. And the results really don’t tell us much. That’s why I think we might be asking donors the wrong questions. What can you possibly conclude from the chart above?
Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand
Do you really know your donors? Not just what they give, but who they are? 👥 In this interactive session, we’ll break down how nonprofits can use behavioral indicators (affinity, recency, frequency, and monetary value) to build prospecting segments that go beyond wealth screening and actually align with donor identity. You’ll walk away with practical strategies to move beyond basic demographics and cultivate supporters based on how they already engage with you!
Today I wore a t-shirt.to make a point! As a nonprofit leader, it's so easy to be "on" all the time. Especially if you live in a small town. I used to spend more time than I'd like to admit wondering if I should get back into "professional" clothes before I went to the store. But when you're "always on," you're boring. No one like 1-dimensional people.
Let’s kick off the week with an innovative and energizing example of the power of ‘thank you’ to enhance both acquisition and retention. A virtual symphony combining the creative use of mobile and a first-rate understanding of the importance of donor experience. This magnificent example is reported in the UK’s Independent. If you donate blood in Sweden you’ll not only receive a text message thanking you when your blood is first taken, you’ll also receive a second thank you when your
(Editor’s note: Today’s post comes from our friends at the National Council of Nonprofits. Jennifer Chandler , Vice President and Director of Network Support & Knowledge Sharing, offers insight on new legislation that will allow nonprofits to own their true costs.). How the Fundraising Game Has Changed Forever – and Four Steps Your Nonprofit Should Take to Benefit.
Billy Attar. We know you guys love your nonprofit marketing tools – especially when they are free! Billy Attar of Pipl is here today to share some tools we haven’t even heard of. Let us know what you think and share your favorite tools too! ~Kristina. Guest Post by Billy Attar of Pipl. We marketers are always on the lookout for new tools to make our work easier.
Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.
In my last post I wrote about Why You Shouldn’t Give Up on Direct Mail Some nonprofit organizations try to save money by cutting back on printing and mailing, but that could be a mistake if your donors prefer to hear from you by mail. Printing and mailing also takes more time, which is challenging, especially if you have a small staff. What can you do?
In his recent post, Jeff Brooks agreed with my “ Donor Fatigue ” video. And he went a step further. Like a newly minted Paul Harvey, he tells “the rest of the story.”. Fundraiser Fatigue. I love his concept of “ fundraiser fatigue ”! He says that we get tired of saying the same thing over and over so we just stop. And then blame the lack of donations on "donor fatigue.".
Our recent post Stop it. Fix It on barriers to growth was triggered by Jay Love’s prediction that when Giving USA 2015 was released it would show that once again charitable giving in the U.S. would not exceed 2% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Sure enough, two weeks later on June 15 th Giving USA 2015 was released and once again reported that charitable giving remained at the 2% level.
Employee recognition has often been deemed a "feel-good" initiative, tied closely to rewards. While we understand its importance, we tend to associate recognition with intangible outcomes like engagement and sentiment, rather than direct impacts on retention and high performance. In today’s workplace, the true ROI of recognition lies in its ability to regenerate tangible, business-driven results.
Millennials are the people that make cool. They are largely the demographic that determines the latest trends in culture, technology and everyday life. However, millennials don’t operate in a vacuum. They are influenced by their managers, peers and work environment to get involved. As more millennials search for a purpose in their everyday work, their social impact doesn’t exist just in their hobbies and spare time.
Photo credit: https://flic.kr/p/7Q2CdQ. Want to get donors all jazzed up before an online fundraising campaign? Try the “wins” blog post, a numbered summary of the good your donors made possible in the recent past. I’ve tried this tactic with three clients over the past 18 months, each with excellent results. Take a look. American Heart Association.
I’m a monthly donor to a nonprofit I love a lot. They use a membership model to boost monthly giving. However, I noticed that during their seasonal membership drives, I continued to get emails asking me to become a member. At first I ignored this, thinking maybe they incorrectly segmented their list. Then, when I got a second appeal email a few months later, I thought maybe my membership had lapsed.
Conferences, expos, exhibitions, summits, forums, and galas. They exist for every single industry you can think of. And isn’t that a great thing? There’s something wonderful about a group of people coming together from across the city, region, state, country, or globe to discuss or support a common issue. It’s inspiring to see professionals wanting […].
Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.
Hey you! I’d love to know how you adapt your organization’s communications for summertime impact, for a blog post! Do you: Change timing. Shift topic, tone or language to make it more seasonally relevant. Adapt your campaign focus, channel and/or frequency. Tone it summer—light and fun. Something I haven’t mentioned yet. Change nothing at all?
These days The Agitator is badgering readers on the importance of mastering mobile almost as much as we hammer away at donor retention. Why? For the simple fact that mobile is becoming the dominant vehicle for digital interaction — from simple communication to entertainment to e-commerce … pulling mobile fundraising along in the wake. Here’s yet another instructive guide from the commercial space regarding mobile marketing, this time from Oracle — The Modern Marketer̵
Early in the 14th century, the French coined a saying that the pot goes so often to the water that it breaks. In the fundraising world, it might seem like our donors are like that overused water pot. We ask them to make a donation so often that might break from donor fatigue. However, donor fatigue is not a real thing. It’s an excuse. If your donors are feeling burned out from all your asks, then your asks are what—pardon my french—suck.
We’ll be kicking off the fourth edition of the #NPCommPix photo-a-day challenge for nonprofit communications pros on July 1, and I hope you’ll join in the fun. Dawn Crawford at BC/DC Ideas and I host the challenge, but we are very excited to welcome our first guest co-host, the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network this time! All you have to do is take a look at the daily prompt, and post a photo to Instagram or Twitter related to that prompt with the hashtag #npcommpix.
Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System
Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.
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