We don’t normally talk much about corporate or employee donations here. So when Adam Weinger of Double the Donation volunteered to share a few thoughts on how to market a matching donation program, we said “Go for it!” ~ Kivi Guest Post by Adam Weinger of Double the Donation Raising money for your nonprofit can be…
I know many of you are busy bees trying to get your 2012 annual reports together. (If you feel like you need some guidance, I’m teaching my annual reports webinar at CharityHowTo on February 13, 2013). To help you focus on what’s really most important about last year, I recommend that you come up with…
I’m really interested in how nonprofits approach marketing differently (especially content marketing) based on how closely aligned their goals are to fundraising for their organizations versus more community engagement or brand building goals. So, I decided to splice and dice some of the data from the 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, based on the top goals. I…
Kristina and I were looking over our Google Analytics a couple of weeks ago, and noticed that one relatively old article on our site consistently gets a lot of traffic, month in and month out: Interview Questions to Help You Write Great Donor, Volunteer and Client Profiles for Your Newsletters. So we thought we should update…
Let’s have some hot Mixed Links on this chilly Friday. Take a look at this great compilation of the Best Nonprofit Marketing Posts of 2012. There are some really great ideas and lessons to take into 2013. Atlas of Giving released results from 2012’s year end report on charitable giving as well as the forecast…
I get this question a lot: How often should we email? What’s too much, what’s not enough? It’s a complicated question with lots of variables. For example, the more relevant and valuable your content is to those on the receiving end, the more you can email them. You can make your content more valuable and…
I heard from several people yesterday about the issue of whether donor acquisition or donor retention should be the focus for 2013, for those of you who are at least somewhat responsible for fundraising from individuals. Of course, you have to do both, all the time, but just how hard you swing in either direction…
Just before 5 o’clock on New Year’s Eve last week, I received an email from Kit Rains, Development Director at the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, letting me know that they had an increase in donations after using some tips I gave during a webinar. I love hearing from nonprofits on what works for them (and what…
You decide to raise money for something very tangible. It seems like a good idea, because you hear that donors like to make specific things happen. So you pick that thing you’ll raise money for, launch the campaign, and . . . you don’t meet the goal. Now what? That’s the question facing Laura Lamorette,…
I believe a well-written, thought-out thank you letter is the perfect opportunity to further develop your relationships with your donors. I am presenting two webinars this week on thank you letters if you want to join us, but in the meantime, Erica Mills has written a great blog post for us on how to avoid…
Gail Perry knows how to fire up a board! But first you have to have the right kind of people in place. Gail shares what she looks for in a enlisting board members. If you want to learn more, this Thursday Gail will join us for a Pass Holder webinar called 7 Steps to Enlist…
Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now blogged today about some email fundraising lessons from the Obama campaign shared in Bloomberg Businessweek, one of which is that ugly emails work better than pretty ones. Quoting here: “Every time something really ugly won, it would shock me: giant-size fonts for links, plain-text links vs. pretty ‘Donate’ buttons. Eventually…
