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Virtual walks and runs were gaining popularity before the COVID-19 pandemic. Many organizations were using these types of events to raise money. For example, virtual Strides raised over $82,000 for charitable causes in 2015. Now that large gatherings are unsafe because of the Coronavirus, many popular runs and walks are going virtual and people are flocking to them in the absence of in-person races. Even the famed IRONMAN triathlon series is offering virtual races and attracting tens of thousands of participants each week during the Coronavirus pandemic. They’re also raising money for their "Ironman Foundation" which provides relief aid worldwide. Virtual charity runs and walks start on the internet but take place wherever participants want to complete the distance. People who sign up for virtual charity runs and walks register online and complete the mileage at their own convenience and wherever they live. Once they finish the "race," participants upload their results online. There are many benefits to hosting a virtual run/walk, and they’re relatively easy to organize. Even small nonprofits can put on a successful virtual charity walk with the right preparation! We gathered some of the best tips, tricks, and resources to help you organize your first charity run/walk to raise money for your organization.
COVID-19 is forcing local and national governments to restrict in-person events. Businesses, nonprofits, clubs, and organizations all over the world are trying to figure out how to host virtual fundraising events. Even large companies like Salesforce are pivoting to virtual events! So, you’re not alone in this adventure. And, the good news is that there are some easy and practical ways to make your virtual fundraising event effective and successful. We gathered some of the tips and tricks from top businesses and nonprofits to help you confidently take your next fundraising event online.
"Soft skills" are a hot topic of discussion in recent years, especially in the business world. Many companies are beginning to prioritize hiring candidates with these interpersonal attributes because it’s easy to teach someone how to do a task. It’s much harder to teach people communication, problem-solving, and relational skills. Nonprofits are no exception. "Soft skills" are the unquantifiable abilities that help you build healthy relationships, communicate effectively, and make you an excellent fundraiser. Lacking these attributes could cause you to miss or misunderstand important things in conversations with current and potential donors (and your staff). Because so much fundraising happens online now (via websites, social media, and the telephone), it’s easy to assume that these soft skills are less valuable. On the contrary, they’re actually more important because every interaction carries more weight. We rounded up three soft skills every development professional should cultivate to boost your online fundraising.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Nonprofits is a name you're likely to hear very frequently in the nonprofit tech space over the next several years. As Microsoft's own cloud-based CRM platform, Dynamics for Nonprofits offers a new technology option for organizations of all sizes. If you're already using a range of Microsoft products (or have heard of Microsoft's generous Tech for Social Impact initiative) but haven't yet heard of Dynamics, you're definitely going to want to have it on your radar.
It’s October, and we’re just over a month away from Giving Tuesday 2023. November 28th will be this year’s biggest celebration of generosity. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a day to encourage people to do good. In 2022, organizations received $3.1 billion in donations on GivingTuesday, a 15% increase from the year before! It’s an incredibly important day for nonprofit organizations to participate in fundraising. We're here to help make sure your nonprofit is ready to take full advantage of this fundraising opportunity. Here is a checklist of things you can do to improve your organization's likelihood of success.
Nonprofits often overlook one fundraising goldmine hidden right under their noses: the office place! With the rise of corporate social responsibility, many companies actually want to fundraise for charities and causes they value. Studies link charitable giving and other corporate social responsibility actions with better employee engagement and satisfaction. Employees want to work for companies that focus on community, people, and the planet, not just on profit. Don’t assume that this value of corporate social responsibility is limited to a line-item in budgets for charitable giving. Businesses also value getting their employees involved in philanthropic activities! Employees are often eager to make donations to nonprofits through workplace fundraisers, especially if the organization supports someone in the employee’s life, or if someone they know invites them to donate. Employees are also likely to give when they see a personal story of someone the nonprofit is helping.
Is your organization excited for the opportunity of a #GivingTuesdayNow worldwide event on May 5, 2020, to bring in much needed fundraising this year, but also dealing with a sea of change from the coronavirus' impact on our nonprofit community? Not sure how to make sure you don't miss the boat on this new version of #GivingTuesday while also needing to move fast to prepare for it while tackling too many other things right now? Giving Tuesday Now (or #GivingTuesdayNow depending on your love of hashtags) is the first day of giving organized by the same people who created #GivingTuesday, with a focus on boosting fundraising and support for the nonprofit community that so often works behind the scenes during crises such as COVID-19. With more than $2 billion raised by organizations during #GivingTuesday 2019, it's likely that #GivingTuesdayNow will give a much-needed boost to participating nonprofit organizations. This first attempt at a unique off-cycle #GivingTuesday event will happen on May 5, 2020, and will be a global event with participation from organizations around the globe. If you're already burning the candle at both ends and need help with lift-off for #GivingTuesdayNow fundraising ideas, you're in the right place.
As the saying goes, "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Healthy nonprofits of every shape and size need a fundraising plan. It's tempting to think that you can just "plan to ask as many people to donate as possible." But that's not really a plan. It might result in a quick influx of cash (which gives the illusion of successful fundraising), but then what? What happens after you've exhausted your network? How do you expand your fundraising efforts? So, you're probably asking yourself, "How do I write a fundraising plan?". In short, a fundraising plan is made up of six key elements.
Feel better? Yeah, it's a bit overwhelming, but we'll get through this together, step-by-step. Set your nonprofit up for long term financial stability by putting in the effort to create a fundraising plan. We promise it will be well worth the time, energy, and resources (and your development professionals will be eternally grateful). Here's an essential guide to help you create a fundraising plan for your nonprofit.
We are living in uncertain times as we deal with a pandemic that’s radically impacting how we live everyday life! No doubt, most of us are feeling stressed, unsure of what will happen next, and how we should respond. You and many of your supporters are probably working from home, and most of us are trying to reinvent how we work and communicate. Compounding the problem is the constantly updating news cycle about the coronavirus. Like most fundraisers and development professionals, you’re probably trying to figure out how to salvage your fundraising plan for the spring, summer, and maybe even the fall. It’s true, we are in uncharted waters, but that doesn’t mean we have to totally reinvent the wheel. Here are some guidelines that will help you communicate with your donors and adjust your fundraising goals.
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed life as usual, practically overnight. If you’re a development professional or nonprofit fundraiser, you’re probably inundated with content urging you to contact your donors ASAP. Since none of us has communicated with donors during a global pandemic, what are the new "best practices" that we should be following? Our community doesn’t have all the answers yet, but we do have early information that will help you create a plan to communicate with your donors and supporters in the coming weeks and months. We’ve also identified the categories of donors you should prioritize contacting. The more proactive you are, the better off your nonprofit will be in the long run.
As every country pulls out all the stops to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, many cities and states are requiring all nonessential employees to work from home. But the work can’t just come to a screeching halt. Nonprofits around the world are trying to figure out how to do as much work as possible online. Some development professionals might already work from home. Others are probably trying to figure out where to start. Learning to work from home is actually not as easy as you might think! If working from home is a new experience for you, have no fear! We’ve put together a handy guide for you to fundraise successfully from home for the next few weeks (pro tip: check out this Definitive Guide to Online Fundraising). If working from home goes as well as we think it can, you might be reluctant to get back to your regular office routine.
Last Updated: January 22, 2021 @ 7pm ET We are in uncharted waters, friends. Just weeks ago, none of us expected to be fundraising or figuring out how to run our nonprofits from home. Fortunately, many experts have been working with nonprofits for decades and have a lot of wisdom and experience to share. We wanted to highlight some of the best content that nonprofit experts and leaders are writing to help guide us through this time of uncertainty. Here’s some of the best, most relevant content for any nonprofit figuring out how to navigate fundraising and managing their organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll continue to update this resource as things develop, and more experts weigh in.
Almost everyone is feeling a lot of uncertainty and asking many questions as the coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads around the world. Nonprofits are trying to figure out how to respond and what this means for their work and their funding. We don’t have many answers, but we do know that this is an important time for nonprofits to focus on donor care. Even small actions will build trust and make your donors want to continue supporting your organization. Plus, if done correctly, donor care during the coronavirus could actually expand your network of potential new donors. Here are a few ways nonprofits can care for their donors during the coronavirus.
Does your club or team feeling the financial squeeze, and needs to raise money with a small budget? Whether you’re raising funds to buy new sporting equipment for your club or for a charitable cause, there are plenty of fun, inexpensive, and effective fundraising events and activities. We’ve gathered 5 fundraising ideas that just about any club or team can organize, even with a small budget.
The cost of acquiring a new donor is increasing, and the average donor retention rate for first-year donors is between 22% and 29%. Eek! The bottom line is, it's much cheaper to keep your current donors than it is to acquire new ones. Improving your donor relations (also called donor care or donor stewardship) is one of the most effective ways to increase your donor retention. But it does take some strategic work. If you increase your donor retention rate by just 10%, that can increase the lifetime value of your donor database by 200%! Now that's a nice return on your investment. Donor care is both an art and a science. There are some industry "best practices" that every nonprofit should do, but there’s also a whole lot of room to be creative. We're here to help you put the essentials of excellent donor stewardship into practice so you can build great relationships with your supporters and improve your fundraising.
Are you considering looking for corporate sponsors for an upcoming nonprofit event or program? The great news for nonprofits is that whatever you're doing, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a company that wants to support and align with your mission and cause...and, most importantly in this case, is willing to financially support your efforts. There's no cause too big, too small, or too obscure… someone out there will be excited to partner financially to help you reach your goals. You just have to figure out which business will be the perfect corporate sponsor for your cause. BUT (and this is important) corporate sponsorships are supposed to be symbiotic relationships! True, many business owners and decision-makers are very charitable and generous, but they still want their business to benefit from their financial investment in your organization's efforts. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to treat corporate sponsorships like a symbiotic relationship between a nonprofit and business. It's not hard to make your organization attractive to corporate sponsorship opportunities. With the right mindset, and a few good ideas, you'll have companies lining up to sponsor your next program or event.
Matching gifts offer incentives for both the nonprofit and the donors! Organizations enjoy basically doubling donation amounts, and donors get the satisfaction of knowing their contributions are going even further. If the matching gift comes from a business, the company gets to enjoy some tax breaks. It’s a win-win-win situation! Matching can be an excellent way for development professionals to boost their funding campaigns. It's surprising how many organizations leave money on the table by not helping their donors participate in corporate matching gift programs. Let’s dive into the ways you can start taking advantage of corporate matching gifts right away.
Any development professional and fundraiser will tell you that networking is the not-so-secret key to nonprofit fundraising success. Easier said than done, right? You don't want to be one of "those" fundraisers who seem pushy or too forward about it all. Some people are more natural networkers than others, but it's a skill that just about anyone can master. The most successful development professionals focus on sharpening their communication and networking skills so they can get the most out of all types of events and gatherings. We rounded up some tips, tricks, and networking rules to help you take your skills to the next level.
Imagine a world in which all your apps and services worked seamlessly with all the data from your organization. A world in which you could quickly move from one app to another, and still see the same data, sitting gently in the proverbial cloud without time-sucking and soul-crushing imports and exports. That’s just one of the many data dreams many have had in our sector for decades, and one that could be moving closer (though not completely) into reality. Microsoft, in collaboration with non-profit organizations and other companies, have been leading an effort to develop the Nonprofit Common Data Model (CDM), with a goal of providing non-profit organizations, technology vendors, and technology consultants one common language to represent key data points and data entities within every non-profit organization. Considering the huge array of nonprofit organizations, Is this something that could even be built? Even if this is technically feasible, how is it being built, and where can you better understand the benefits this could have for your organization? We’re going to dive into some of the most common questions we’ve heard about Microsoft’s efforts around the Nonprofit CDM, share our own insights (though, we’re not Microsoft, so this is just our best interpretations), and provide some links to more details.
Starting a nonprofit from scratch requires passion, purpose, hard work, creativity, resilience…and money. As with any organizational effort, financial planning is critical to the success of an organization. One of the biggest questions that can be difficult to answer is, "how much money do I need to start a nonprofit?" The concise answer is, "it depends." There are a host of variables that will impact the answer to that question. Even if you don’t have the exact numbers, you can still have a sound financial plan and be prepared for the initial costs of starting a nonprofit. We put together a guide to help you identify the standard costs associated with starting a nonprofit. Pre-planning will help you either find enough funding or save enough money to support the startup costs. |
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