All Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Articles
Episode 29 – Secrets to Effective Event Fundraising
At Food for the Hungry, we acquire tens of thousands of monthly donors each year from events. In this episode, you’ll learn how we structure a sponsored event for the best possible outcome: a new monthly donor. Learn the format for the event, how to do an effective fundraising, and how to integrate volunteers.
Funny Suggestions from Non-Fundraisers to Nonprofit Fundraisers
Sometimes well intentioned, sometimes demeaning, non-fundraisers often provide unsolicited advice on how we can better raise funds. Often starting with the ubiquitous “Have you thought about…” or “Why don’t you just…”, the statements are followed by head scratching words that prove everyone thinks fundraising is easy because they simply don’t understand the complexities of asking … Read more
Episode 28 – How Do I Move Affinity from a Staff Member to the Organization?
What do you do if the affinity the donor has isn’t for your organization but for a staff member? Learn how to transition a donor’s loyalty from a person to your organization.
8 Steps to Help Your Major Donors Feel Valued
Major donors want you to be effective and efficient — but most of all, they want to know you understand and value their partnership. Relationships are key for any fundraiser. Donors want to feel like they have a relationship with your nonprofit, they don’t want to feel like it’s just a transaction.
Unlock a Donor’s Joy to Get a Donation
Nurturing a donation is unlocking a donor’s desire to express their joy for caring for others. There are many reasons why donors give. But if you look at the core reason why donors give, for many of them, it comes down to a feeling of joy.
Don’t Let Comparison Kill Your Creativity
Don’t let comparison kill your creativity. Do you look at the work of other organizations and get jealous? It’s happened to me. I look and think “we should do it like that!” In fact, what you’re doing, may be just right for your donors and your organization. Stop comparing yourself to others.
Best Nonprofit Annual Reports 2022
Your annual report is an opportunity to showcase the impact your donors have made on the lives of the people you serve. Your nonprofit annual report should be focused on your donors and tell stories of impact. Many organizations tailor the annual report too much towards bragging about accomplishments instead of demonstrating impact. The annual … Read more
Episode 27 – How to Acquire More Digital Donors
You must acquire new donors to survive. How many donors do you lose a year? Figuring out your donor attrition rate is a crucial metric that can determine the longevity of your charity. If you aren’t acquiring enough new donors to make up for the ones you lose, your nonprofit’s revenue will start to decline.
6 Ways to Have Happier Donors
One of the areas that many of us need to focus on this next year is: How do we retain more donors? Donor attrition is a major issue for non-profits, as there, quite frankly, aren’t enough resources for us to go out and acquire new donors all the time. Donor attrition is the percentage of … Read more
Episode 26 – How to Get More Attendees for Your Fundraising Event
For many nonprofits, fundraising events are a key to their annual development plan. In this episode, you will learn how to increase attendance for your events and how to best structure the event for maximum fundraising.
Episode 025 – Predictions for Fundraising in 2019
In this episode, you’ll learn 19 predictions Jeremy has for fundraising and nonprofit innovation in 2019.
Episode 024 – Create an Engaging Nonprofit Annual Report
In this episode, Jeremy explains how to create a great nonprofit annual report. You’ll learn who the target audience is for the annual report, 5 goals for your annual report, and how to create an annual report your donors will love.
Episode 023 – How to Write a Great Fundraising Appeal
Though there isn’t a perfect formula for a charity fundraising appeal, Jeremy walks through a proven formula that will get you results.
12 Things You Must Give Up to Become a Successful Fundraiser
Becoming a successful nonprofit fundraiser isn’t just about what you need to learn or do, it is also about what you need to give up. For 14 years, I volunteered as a football coach in various levels from 5th and 6th grade through high school junior varsity. Each season, I started the team with the … Read more
Episode 022 – How to Build and Maintain Donor Relationships
Building and maintaining donor relationships is the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. You will learn why building relationships with donors is important, how your current definition of donor relationship may be wrong, and how different donor audiences need different types of relationship building techniques.
Start Date – Dave the Development Director
Dave says, “The job candidate that you sent me is just not qualified for the position of development manager.” Wendy replies, “You mean the son of the chairman of our board?” Dave replies, “Yeah.” Wendy replies, “So when is his start date?”
Qualified Job Candidates – Dave the Development Director
Dave says, “I have some great candidates for the Development Manager role. Three have several years of experience in development and the fourth has a masters degree in Nonprofit Fundraising.” Wendy replies “What about Hunter?” Dave asks, “The son of our board chair with no experience and a liberal arts degree?” Wendy replies, “I hear … Read more
118 REAL Nonprofit Email Subject Lines for Giving Tuesday
For nonprofit organizations, email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with donors and keep them updated on your work. And, with Giving Tuesday just around the corner, now is the perfect time to start planning your Giving Tuesday email campaign. To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of 118 … Read more
Millennials Giving – Dave the Development Guy
Dave asks, “If you could change something about our fundraising, what would it be?” Hunter responds, “I’d focus mostly on millennials, they’re the most giving generation.” “But overall they’re giving less, how would you make up for the income loss?” Hunter replies, “With more social cred.”
Developing a Great End of the Year Fundraising Strategy
Developing a great end of the year fundraising strategy can mean the difference between success and failure with your biggest fundraising quarter of the year. Today, you’re going to learn how to develop a strategy – not just any strategy, but a GREAT one to guide you to success. You’re going to build this great … Read more
4 End of the Year Goals You Need to Set
Do you have written goals for your end of the year fundraising? You’ve probably heard this illustration before: having goals is like having a destination for a trip. If you get in the car and start heading somewhere without setting a destination, you’ll end up heading nowhere. The same is true for your goals. Do … Read more
374 of the Best Nonprofit Holiday Quarter Email Appeal Subject Lines
Writing a catchy and creative subject line will help grab the attention of an email recipient to draw them into your appeal. It isn’t easy to penetrate the inbox of someone who receives hundreds of messages each day and walk away with a donation, so writing a creative and compelling subject line helps draw in … Read more
Nonprofit Myth: Your Writing Style Won’t Work
Overcoming the naysayers on fundraising can be an overwhelming task. It’s funny how many people who don’t understand fundraising offer an opinion that what you’re doing won’t work or they have a better way to do it. One of the myths you may encounter is that the writing style doesn’t work, that it’s outdated, and … Read more
5 Ways to Build Loyalty with Your Donors
Much of the fundraising material written today is about acquiring new donors, yet building loyalty with your existing donors and getting that second gift is finding its way to the top of the nonprofit list of strategies. Smart organizations are aggressively courting first time givers to engage for multiple gifts. Many organizations are now focusing on … Read more