All Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Articles
Why Donors Give: Tax Deduction
Fundraising hinges on appealing to the recipient’s reasons for giving. Consider all the ways you can leverage storytelling, imagery, and emotion in your emails. The motivation for giving is as diverse as your recipients, but research suggests most people fall into one of several categories. One of your primary goals as a fundraiser is to … Read more
Episode 003 – How Do We Segment Our Emails?
Have you ever hired a consultant to help you with a project, but when it comes time to execute, they disappear? This happened to Holly when she brought in a consultant to look at her email fundraising program. The consultant told Holly she should improve her segmentation and then disappeared before sharing with her a direction to go. In episode 3 of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy teaches Holly about different ways to segment her email file to maximize response.
Episode 002 – How Do We Improve Our Turnaround Time for Sending Disaster Fundraising Appeals?
In episode two of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy Reis takes a question from Ryan who’s frustrated with their turnaround time on disaster response fundraising appeals. This is a topic that really hits home: how do we decide if we’re going to respond to a disaster and then get our appeals out the door quickly in email and direct mail? Jeremy shares how Food for the Hungry decides when to respond and how they send out emergency response fundraising appeals quickly.
Episode 001 – Facebook Algorithm Changes – Nonprofit Answers
In episode 1 of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy Reis answers a question from Helen, a nonprofit marketing manager in Nashville. Helen is concerned about the recent algorithm changes with Facebook and wants to know what she should do. Should she continue to invest time and resources into Facebook? What changes should she make to her social media strategy?
The Story of the One
Nonprofit fundraising, at its core, is storytelling. Telling a story of how your organization has helped one beneficiary be transformed is the building block of telling the story of your organization. In nonprofit development, the story we use in fundraising is called the story of the one. It’s called the story of the one because you’re … Read more
5 Cs of Effective Fundraising Appeals
Raising funds for needed items, foods, and services is the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. Yet many organizations struggle with the staple of a successful fundraiser – the appeal. Your fundraising appeal needs to hit home with your audience, cutting through the clutter in their inboxes to make a real impact. Your appeal needs to … Read more
HVAC – Dave the Development Director
“Dave, the air conditioning in the building went out. Can you find a major donor that has a passion for HVAC and raise $50,000?” asked Wendy, the Executive Director. Dave replies, “Next, can we find a donor with a passion for office furniture to buy me a chair that’s not broken?”
100 Email Appeal Subject Lines
When you’re writing email appeals, the subject and preview text are two key factors to increase your open rate. You want to create a subject line that grabs the reader’s attention and entices her to open the email without being disingenuous. There isn’t a specific template or formula you should use for your subject line, … Read more
25 More Job Interview Questions for Development Directors
You may be applying for a job as a development director or you may be hiring a fundraising professional, either way, here’s 25 more job interview questions. This is a follow up to my first post with 25 job interview questions for development directors. Use these interview questions as a basis for discovering the right … Read more
Sample Phrases You Can Use to Thank Your Donors
Donors love it when you show appreciation for their support. So much so that 80% of donors say they would be motivated to make a second gift if the nonprofit thanked them. Unfortunately, many of us aren’t properly thanking nonprofit donors and this is negatively affecting our fundraising. It’s expensive to acquire a new donor. … Read more
Raise More Money by Giving Donors Choices
What is a donation gift matrix? A donation gift matrix is a tool that allows donors to choose how they want their donation to be used. Learn how to implement a gift matrix on your landing page.
5 Tips to Prepare for a Development Director Interview
You’ve polished your resume, perfected your cover letter, and the phone call you’ve been waiting for finally comes – they want to interview you for the development director position! This is amazing news, and while it may feel like the hard part is over, the real challenge is just beginning. Now it’s time to prepare for the interview so that you can make the best impression possible.
8 Best Nonprofit Digital Annual Reports
Creating a specific digital annual report gives nonprofits a number of options to showcase the great work their donors have enabled them to do. Digital annual reports give you an expanded set of capabilities that a PDF or Issuu (flip book style) annual report can’t match such as video, animation, interactive elements, expanded information for … Read more
25 Interview Questions to Hire Your Development Director
Looking to hire a development director or fundraising manager for your nonprofit? These 25 interview questions will help you through the HR hiring process and find the right fundraising executive for your organization.
8 Tools to Create a Digital Annual Report
Do you want to go beyond simply uploading a PDF to your site for people to read your annual report? Create a flip book style digital presentation to take your annual report to the next level. Instead of downloading the PDF, the reader can click thru and read your annual report on your site, or … Read more
7 Secrets to an Irresistible Annual Report
An annual report is like a slick Apple ad: it tells a story that resonates with people emotionally to confirm their support of your organization or move them to support your organization. While your IRS form 990 and annual financial disclosures tell financial facts, your annual report should paint a picture of support. It should … Read more
11 Creative Ways to Thank a Donor
The way you say “thank you” to donors could be the most important communication pieces you have as a nonprofit organization. Unfortunately, many nonprofits send “thank you” communications that read more like a formal tax receipt then a heartfelt felt note of appreciation that motivates the donor to want to have a relationship with the … Read more
5 Mistakes You’re Making with Donors … That Have an Easy Fix!
During a recent one-on-one meeting with my our Content Marketer at Food for the Hungry, we were talking about value proposition and reviewing a proposed project. I made a comment that would have led the piece away from being donor focused and our Content Marketer calmly corrected my proposed change. It’s amazing how easy it … Read more
3 Keys to Moving from Corporate America to a Nonprofit
In 2011, I was working as a social media consultant, primarily with nonprofits with Tim Smith approached me about joining him at Food for the Hungry. He had just accepted the role of Chief Development Officer and wanted to bring me along as his Digital Director. Though I had worked at a nonprofit and worked … Read more
Secrets to Being a Successful Storyteller
Liko loved school. He had dreams of graduating, getting a good job, helping to lift his family out of generations of poverty. But one day, tragedy struck. The village borehole water pump broke. Clean water was no longer available. The school’s feeding program shut down. The school itself closed. Village residents suddenly had to travel 13 … Read more
3 Steps to Clarity in Your Fundraising
When a donor receives a request for funds, he is looking for a clear answer to questions about your appeal. Providing clear structure and answers in your fundraising appeal will increase the likelihood of achieving your goals. Learn these 3 steps to clarify your fundraising.
YOU Can Be a GREAT Fundraiser!
Fundraising has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of any job I’ve ever had. It’s not hard to be motivated to come to work every day knowing that what I’m doing is making a different in literally millions of people’s lives. I am motivated knowing that Nadine, a 9 year old, received deworming medication and … Read more
Validate Your Email List
“What happened to the deliverability on our monthly email newsletter? It appears we missed 35% of inboxes. Can you check to see if these numbers are correct?” Robert asked his new email marketing analyst, Todd. A few minutes later Todd came into Robert’s office. “I made a big mistake. I imported the entire donor database … Read more
Painful Suggestions by People Who Don’t Understand Fundraising
Yes, it’s well intentioned. Yes, like many professions, people assume fundraising is easier than it actually is. And yes, it’s head-shakingly-funny some of the suggestions people make to fundraisers about how to do their jobs. Here’s a few of the funniest, unfortunately too common, suggestions people make to nonprofit development teams on how to improve … Read more
