All Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Articles
5 of the Most Creative Ways to Show Gratitude to Donors
Are you looking for a way to raise more income in the short term and long term? Thank your donors quickly and often. Beyond a thank you note, how do you creatively thank your donors? Showing gratitude to your donors is a key way to build a healthy donor relationship and continue to develop people down … Read more
Fundraising Ideas – Dave the Development Director
“Dave, in our weekly staff meeting, our programs team came up with these 37 ideas for fundraising,” Phil says. Dave reads the report, “Number 4, educate more and ask less. Number 13, use more facts and statistics.” Phil remarks, “I think Number 27 is the best.” “Ask the Gates Foundation for a grant.”
Want Better Email Fundraising Success? Make It Easier to Read
You spend countless hours crafting the perfect fundraising appeal, but all your hard work could be for nothing if potential donors can’t understand what you’re trying to say. In order to ensure that your message is getting across loud and clear, use these tips to make your fundraising appeals easier to read.
How to Tell an Impactful Fundraising Story
Story is embedded into who we are. The best stories feature focus on a single character. This character could be a beneficiary, a donor, or any stakeholder. The best fundraising stories communicate how the reader can make an impact. When I first arrived at Food for the Hungry, our direct mail appeals used vivid stories … Read more
Complete Guide to Great Fundraising Appeals (with Examples!)
If you’re new to fundraising, writing an appeal to raise funds is different than you might expect. Once, I hired someone who had sales and marketing experience but no direct nonprofit experience. He tended to write appeals that were very fact based, “1 billion people live in poverty” or “You can help 10,855 people right … Read more
5 Secrets Experienced Fundraisers Know
When I joined Food for the Hungry, I thought I was going to blow right by expectations in fundraising. I came in with a consulting background and an MBA … I could figure out the secrets to fundraising quickly and knock a home run in our digital fundraising in no time. What I discovered is … Read more
10 Email Fundraising Tips You Need Right Now
Email may be the best kept fundraising secret for your nonprofit! Not because you aren’t already using it, but because there is so much opportunity to change and test different parts of a fundraising email to see the impact on results. Today, we’re going to discuss some ideas of things you can put into practice right … Read more
8 Steps to a Timely Disaster Fundraising Response
It can be very frustrating not being able to get out a timely appeal. I remember a specific incident where we were sitting five days after a disaster, and we had not yet sent out our email appeal. At that time I made a decision that that wasn’t going to happen again, that we weren’t … Read more
Are You Bothering Your Donors?
Why are we afraid we’re “bothering” donors? We ask questions like “how soon is too soon to ask for a second gift?” or “best practices say I should wait nine months for a second gift, what should I communicate before then?” Can you imagine a meeting at Amazon where executives debate like this, “We should … Read more
Episode 013 – How Do I Position the Donor as the Hero?
Your donor is the hero. This is one of the hardest concepts for nonprofit staff to accept. In this episode, Jeremy answers a question about how to position the donor as the hero in your nonprofit communications. Using examples, Jeremy teaches you how to write active copy that presents an appeal from the point of view of a donor.
Episode 012 – What is Retargeting?
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a technology to show ads to a warm audience. In this episode, Jeremy discusses what retargeting is, how it works, two different types of retargeting, and how your nonprofit organization can use retargeting to get more supporters and deepen your relationship with existing donors.
Episode 011 – How Often Should My Nonprofit Blog?
Blogging is not dead. Far from it. In today’s episode, Jeremy answers a question from a nonprofit executive about how much blogging is right for his organization. This executive is being told by his team to blog every day, but doesn’t understand why.
Mistakes That Will Sink Your Fundraising Campaign
I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve had to learn a lot of hard lessons. Nonprofit fundraising isn’t always easy. There are many rules and guidelines that industry pros have learned through expensive testing over decades. When you learn these lessons, some come from your own expensive mistakes, you will learn how to best fundraise … Read more
Episode 010 – How Do We Stop Fighting Internally Over Income Sourcing?
In this special edition of Nonprofit Answers, Jeremy is live at the Christian Leadership Alliance with a timely question. At the conference, a nonprofit leader asked Jeremy how to properly give internal credit for income without causing problems with attribution and to reduce internal fighting over “credit” for donations.
4 Essentials Required for Donor Thank You Communications
Whether you send a thank you video, a note of gratitude, a welcome gift, a thank you email, or other creative way to thank the donor for their donation, you need to communicate in a specific way to have the biggest impact on your donor. Sending your thanks is a key way to continue developing … Read more
Episode 009 – How Should I Clean My Email List?
Do you have a lot of email addresses on your file that aren’t responding? Speaking from personal experience, Jeremy explains to Grant the steps to re-engage email subscribers and what to do if they continue to be unresponsive.
Hunter Interview – Dave the Development Director
Dave asks, “Why do you want to work at a nonprofit?” Hunter replies, “I have extensive experience raising funds.” “What experience?” Dave asks. “I did a Go Fund Me for a missions trip to Africa.” Hunter replies. Dave asks, “What did you do in Africa?” Hunter says, “I changed a kid’s life by giving him … Read more
Episode 008 – How Do I Create a Sense of Urgency in My Appeals?
Creating a sense of urgency in your appeal messaging will help move readers to become donors. What if you have a difficult time creating a sense of urgency? In episode 8 of Nonprofit Answers, Rob asks a question about how to create urgency in his appeals for a women’s shelter.
Accounting Error – Dave the Development Director
“Looks like we have an accounting error snd we will be $250,000 short,” said Frank, the CFO. Julie, a board member, replies, “That’s ok, we will just ask Dave to raise the money.” “Fundraising is so easy.” Gerrish, the Board Chairman, responds.
100 More Email Appeal Subject Lines
A great subject line can be the difference between catching the recipient’s attention to open your email or to be unceremoniously tossed into the trash or simply ignored. What makes a subject line stand out? It needs to be concise. The best subject lines are between 3 and 6 words in length. You don’t have to … Read more
8 Ways to Reactivate Unresponsive Email Addresses
Do you have people on your email list who haven’t interacted with your organization in some time? Do you want to learn how you can save these people and reactivate them to continue wanting to receive your emails? Let’s explore 8 steps the organization can take to reactivate these people, or decide what to do … Read more
Episode 007 – My Executive Director Keeps Editing Out Fundraising Best Practices
Do you have someone who edits out fundraising best practice from your appeals? Someone who doesn’t like the urgency, postscripts, hyphens, folksy language, or handwritten notes? Is your fundraising suffering because of it? In episode 7, Jeremy answers a question from Julia about how to handle an Executive Director who doesn’t understand fundraising and is undermining her efforts.
Telemarketing – Dave the Development Director
“Hey Dave, we had one complaint about your telemarketing campaign. Can you cancel that?” said Nixon, the Customer Service Manager. Dave replies, “That’s $200,000 of our annual revenue.” “It’s bothering our donors, Dave. Just ask a major donor to give $200,000.” Nixon responds. Nixon walks away thinking “I’m good at this fundraising thing.”
Why Donors Give: In Exchange for a Premium
When it comes time to ask for donations, remember that everyone has different reasons for giving (or not giving). By understanding the concept of “the premium,” you’ll be better equipped to appeal to potential donors’ individual needs and motivations—which will ultimately lead to more successful fundraising campaigns.