Issue 300 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! After an event ends, an auction closes, or a campaign wraps, the real opportunity often begins in the follow-up. This week’s roundup explores how thoughtful next steps can turn one-time activity into lasting support. Below, you’ll find practical ideas for thanking donors after fundraising events, increasing engagement at charity auctions, and understanding what truly makes a donor valuable over time. Hope you enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!
Issue 299 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! As April rolls on, this week’s roundup is all about moving beyond the basics and building deeper momentum. From smarter donor segmentation and stronger monthly donor retention to turning your annual fund into a major gifts pipeline, these pieces focus on creating relationships that grow over time. You’ll also find guidance on preparing for bigger moments ahead, including capital campaigns and planning successful gala events, along with thoughtful reminders that the questions we ask and the opportunities we offer can shape the results we get. Dive in! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! 
Picture the room ten minutes in: guests settled, the speaker closing, the ask about to land. Tonight’s goal glows on the screen behind them, $100,000. The first gift comes in and the thermometer begins to climb, a name appearing as someone at table six leans over to whisper to a friend. Another gift follows, then another, momentum building in real time. What started as anticipation has turned into action. Today we're announcing Soapbox Engage Live Displays, a real-time fundraising display built to create exactly that kind of moment. Project your live thermometer, donor feed, and leaderboards on any screen in the room. There's no app to install, no software to configure, and no advance coordination needed with your A/V vendor. If you run galas, walk-a-thons, peer-to-peer campaigns, or any live fundraising event, Live Displays gives your donors something to watch, something to respond to, and something to celebrate together. 
Most charity auctions leave money on the table, not because the items weren't good or the crowd wasn't generous, but because the bidding experience got in the way. Guests who can't find the catalog, items that open too high to attract a first bid, and a silent auction that closes without anyone noticing: these are all avoidable problems. The tactics below are grounded in what actually moves bid counts and final prices at nonprofit auctions. Some are structural decisions made weeks before the event. Others are real-time moves your team can make on the floor. 
The moment your fundraising event ends, the next one begins. Not in the logistical sense, but in the relationship sense. What you do in the 48 hours after an event is one of the strongest predictors of whether a donor gives again next year. Most organizations send a thank you email. Fewer send the right thank you to the right person at the right time. This playbook covers the full post-event follow-up sequence: who to thank, when, how, and what to say at each stage.
Issue 298 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! This week’s roundup is all about strengthening the relationships that power your fundraising. From building a more donor-centered monthly giving program to making the right moves that inspire a second gift, these pieces focus on what keeps supporters coming back. You’ll also find ideas for engaging younger donors through peer-to-peer fundraising, choosing the right tools for your campaigns, and stewarding supporters more thoughtfully, including those giving through DAFs. Quick reminder: we’re hosting our live webinar on the new Soapbox Engage Auctions app tomorrow, April 15. If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time to join us and see it in action! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! 
A successful nonprofit gala doesn't come together on event night. It's built over months of deliberate planning, and the organizations that consistently raise the most money are the ones that treat their gala like a production, not just a party. This checklist covers everything your team needs to execute a gala from first committee meeting to post-event thank you notes. Use it as a master planning document, adapt it to your event size, and delegate sections across your team with clear ownership. 
The fund-a-need is typically the highest-revenue moment of a nonprofit gala. In the span of 10 to 15 minutes, a well-run appeal can raise more than the entire silent auction. A poorly run one can stall mid-room, leave your auctioneer filling silence, and end with a number far below what the crowd was capable of giving. The difference is rarely about the generosity in the room. It's about how the appeal is designed, timed, and executed. This guide covers everything your team needs to run a fund-a-need that performs: cause selection, giving level structure, timing, auctioneer mechanics, live display strategy, and the most common mistakes to avoid.
Issue 297 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! We’re thrilled to share that at the start of this month, we officially launched the Soapbox Engage Auctions app. If auctions are part of your fundraising strategy (or you’ve been thinking about adding them), this new tool is built to streamline every step of the auction experience and help you drive stronger results. We’ll be officially unveiling the app during a live webinar on April 15, and you can register here to join us! Beyond that, this week’s roundup leans into practical ways to strengthen your fundraising foundation, from building a monthly giving program and optimizing for DAF donations to refreshing your strategy with a bit of spring cleaning. You’ll also find insights on leadership, donor behavior, and the small but meaningful ways we show appreciation to the people who support our work. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! 
We've been building toward this for a while, and today we're excited to share it: Soapbox Engage Auctions is officially available. It's a modern auction platform designed specifically for nonprofit fundraising, with a clean bidding experience for your supporters and real-time integration with your Salesforce CRM. Whether you're running a gala, a hybrid event, or an online-only fundraiser, Soapbox Engage Auctions is built to help your team run a smoother event and give your supporters a better experience from first browse to final checkout.
Issue 296 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! As March wraps up, this week’s roundup is a bit of a nudge, in a good way. From the donor conversations we keep postponing to the reminder that there’s never a “perfect” time to fundraise, these pieces are all about moving forward anyway. You’ll find takeaways from our recent NPSP Fundraising Day, along with thoughtful insights on listening to donors, ethical storytelling, and building stronger foundations— from your board to your website. It’s a mix of practical tips and gentle pushes to help you keep momentum as we head into April. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! 
Published March 2026. Updated regularly. Event management software has become one of the more crowded corners of the nonprofit technology market, and with good reason. Events drive a meaningful share of nonprofit revenue, and the tools you use directly shape the attendee experience, the quality of your data, and how much time your staff spends on logistics. This guide reviews the leading nonprofit event management platforms in 2026, covering their strengths, limitations, and which types of organizations they serve best. We include a feature comparison table at the end to help you shortlist quickly. 
Photo: Gloria M. Chang Last week, the New York nonprofit Salesforce community gathered at Building Skills NY in the General Electric Building for a full day dedicated to one of the most critical and complex areas of nonprofit work: fundraising. This special edition NPSP Day brought together nonprofit professionals, Salesforce users, and partners to dig into the real mechanics behind fundraising operations, from data hygiene and automations to donor communications, pledges, and the ever-growing ecosystem of tools that support it all.
Issue 295 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! If you’ve ever second-guessed an ask, overthought a donor message, or wondered if your “engagement” is actually… engaging, this week’s roundup is for you. A lot of these pieces get back to the core of fundraising: clear communication, real connection, and a bit more confidence in the value you’re offering. Below, you’ll find ideas for strengthening major gifts programs, improving donor engagement, and reaching new supporters through social media. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! 
In-kind donations, or contributions of goods or services, can present many benefits for your nonprofit organization. They allow you to reallocate the funds you'd typically spend on these donated offerings to other areas of your budget while still obtaining the resources your nonprofit needs to grow and execute its mission. This form of giving also provides donors who may not be able to contribute monetarily with another way to support your cause. Plus, with in-kind gifts, you can easily report on their impact to build trust with supporters. This guide will help you apply the principles of proper nonprofit financial management to maximize your use of in-kind donations.
Issue 294 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! If your week has already been a mix of “we need this done now” and “we should really be thinking long-term,” you’re in good company. This week’s roundup leans right into that tension: how to balance the day-to-day demands with the bigger picture work that moves your mission forward. Scroll down for ideas on opening stronger major gift conversations, handling donor objections with more confidence, and building a nonprofit budget that will support your longterm. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! 
If your nonprofit runs Salesforce, choosing auction software isn't just a fundraising decision. It's a data decision. The auction platform you pick will determine whether your event revenue lands cleanly in your CRM or lands on someone's clipboard waiting to be imported the following week. This guide is written for development directors, operations leads, and Salesforce admins at nonprofits that are either buying auction software for the first time or replacing something that isn't working. We'll cover what "Salesforce integration" actually means in auction software (it varies enormously), what questions to ask vendors, and what to look for in your evaluation.
Issue 293 Happy Tuesday, fundraisers! I hope you were able to get some fresh air today, wherever you are! This week’s newsletter highlights comparisons of the top auction software platforms for 2026, practical tips for prospect research, and insights on avoiding common major gift pitfalls—plus a reality check on how AI can help or hurt your donor relationships if you’re not careful. Enjoy! You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today! Your nonprofit's mission is the guiding force behind everything your team does. It's your motivation for cultivating donors, managing volunteers, and organizing program activities. However, it can be hard to directly translate your mission into realistic goals and benchmarks to guide your team. For example, you need to set a year-end fundraising goal each year, but there is no exact dollar amount listed in your mission statement. Your annual operating budget can serve as the interpreter between your mission and your nonprofit's activities. By creating a budget, you can efficiently allocate funds and communicate to your team and community how your organization will use its resources to accomplish your mission. In this guide, we'll walk through how to create your nonprofit's operating budget so you can keep doing good work to further your mission. 
When thinking about prospect research, preparing to launch a capital campaign or soliciting new major donors may be the first applications you think of. And while those use cases are extremely valuable, the power of prospect research can be applied across many more large-scale fundraising activities your nonprofit undertakes, from online giving to corporate sponsorships. Prospect research, according to DonorSearch, is a "technique used by nonprofit fundraisers, major gift officers, and development teams to identify high-impact donors within and beyond an organization's current donor pool." In the identification process, tons of valuable information about current and prospective supporters will surface, which you can leverage to generate revenue and build stronger relationships. In this guide, we'll break down how to get started with gathering that data and a few ways that you can implement it right away. |
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