Category Archives: Fundraising
Four Words That Are Shifting Nonprofit Communications and Fundraising
Is your organization thinking about reaching younger supporters? For some of you, younger means Baby Boomers; for others it means Gen X or Y. What might that mean for your communications strategy? Let's try to look at the big picture. Lumping hundreds of millions of people into categories always creates stereotypes. But for purposes of... Continue Reading
14 Ways to Share Results with Your Donors
Donors expect results, plain and simple. They want to know that the time and money they share with you is used for good -- to change the world in ways that are consistent with their own values. Reporting back to donors isn't something you should do once a year with an annual report. While annual... Continue Reading
Fundraising Stories That Don't Work -- and What's Different About the Ones That Do
I attended a great session at the Nonprofit Technology Conference earlier this month called "It's Not You, It's Your Stories: Why Fundraisers are Failing at Storytelling and What They Need to Change," presented by Steve Daigneault of M + R Strategic Services and Sue Citro of The Nature Conservancy. Plenty of research shows us that stories... Continue Reading
How Does Your Online Marketing and Fundraising Stack Up?
Nonprofit communicators want to know how they can measure their own success (we are working on a webinar to help with that). One way is to compare your work to industry benchmarks. In the nonprofit world, there are several annual studies that give us a glimpse into what's happening in our sector, especially with online... Continue Reading
Five Ways to Sabotage Your Ask for Support
I hear it all the time from nonprofits: "Our e-newsletter doesn't work." "Direct mail doesn't work for us." "Social media doesn't work for us." When I probe a little deeper, what people often mean is that their communications don't seem to be motivating people to do what the nonprofit wants, whether that's donating money, signing... Continue Reading
Nine Clever Ways to Thank Your Donors
Saying thank you to your donors, and saying it well, is only polite, right? The truth is that good thank yous are much more than good manners: they are a very smart and savvy fundraising strategy. Donors are Testing Nonprofits, and Nonprofits Are Failing Sixty-five percent of first-time donors don’t make a second gift. That’s... Continue Reading
5 Tips for Building Fundraising Partnerships with Local Businesses
Join us for the August 18, 2011 webinar where Joe Waters will talk about Setting Up Marketing and Fundraising Partnerships with Local Businesses. In my experience, most nonprofits take a pretty shallow view of their relationships with local businesses. It usually starts and stops with event sponsorships: cash donations to be listed as an event... Continue Reading
Nonprofit Thank You Letter Dos and Don'ts
Here are a few do's and don'ts from our webinar called "Writing Thank-You Letters That Inspire Future Gifts." THE DON'Ts Don't start with a tired and predictable opening. You can do a lot better than, "On behalf of. . . " or "Thank you for your gift of . . ." Don't speak in generalities about how the gift will... Continue Reading
Don't Start Your Fundraising Letters Like This
You are sitting down to write your latest fundraising appeal letter. Where do you begin? You have lots of good options, unfortunately, it's easy to fall for some bad options too. If you catch yourself writing a letter that starts with any of these three openings, step away from the keyboard, take a break, and... Continue Reading
Lessons Learned from America's Giving Challenge
America's Giving Challenge was one of the first and largest online fundraising contests in the U.S. It proved that smaller organizations can out-fundraise larger organizations by using social media strategically. If you want to use social media for fundraising, pay close attention to the lessons learned here. Conversational Case Studies on America's Giving Challenge, #2... Continue Reading
Home | Free & Pass Members Login/Logout | Contact Us
FREE: Nonprofit Marketing Tips & Ideas | Site Membership | Kivi's Blog | Weekly Tips E-Newsletter
AFFORDABLE: Weekly Webinars | E-Books | All-Access Pass | E-Clinic: Direct Mail for Small Nonprofits
CUSTOMIZED for YOU: Mentoring with Kivi Leroux Miller | Consulting on Marketing Strategies
