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Choosing the right fundraising event for your nonprofit or school can be confusing and overwhelming. There are literally thousands of fundraising options, from selling wrapping paper to throwing high-dollar luxury galas, and everything in between. Selecting the right fundraising event is about more than the dollars coming in; you should also consider your resources and manpower (what the event will cost). You don't want to burn out your volunteers, spend more money than the event brings in, or chase away your supporters. It might feel a bit overwhelming, but not to worry...we're here to help you develop the best fundraising events for your organization. Here are some guidelines to help you choose the right event to accomplish your goals.
Most nonprofits share similar unique marketing challenges; they must use limited resources to raise awareness of their mission to donors and the recipients of their services. Unfortunately, many nonprofits either avoid marketing altogether or lack a good strategy to get the most out of their marketing resources. No matter what kind of nonprofit organization you work for, quality marketing is essential and quality is better than quantity. There are several fundamental marketing principles and strategies every nonprofit should understand and utilize.
When was the last time you felt truly appreciated? It's more than good manners to say 'thank you' and acknowledging when your supporters give their valuable time, energy, and resources. It's an essential part of what many nonprofits call "donor care." Sincere gratitude helps build strong relationships between you and your donors. Whether you know it or not, your supporters are one of your most valuable assets, and it's essential to care for them well. Donors usually decide whether to continue supporting your organization based on three primary factors: Nonprofit Payment Processing: A Complete Guide & Glossary
You work hard to raise awareness for your cause, reach new donors, and solicit support for your fundraising campaigns. But how does a donor’s decision to make a gift translate into money in your organization’s account? That’s where payment processing and your donation tools come in. Just like other organizations, nonprofits rely on a steady flow of revenue to keep up their operations. You almost certainly already use online donation tools of some kind, and nonprofit payment processing is essential for converting that online support into real revenue. Online credit card processing is a huge part of our lives these days, so as consumers and donors, it can be easy for us to take it for granted. However, as a fundraising professional, you should be asking yourself (and ideally be able to answer) questions like:
Salesforce is a powerful and sophisticated tool for nonprofits. It has so many useful features that it can feel overwhelming to learn how to use the platform to the fullest. Imagine taking a child to the front of a 747 airliner, and instead of asking her if she wants to say "hi" to the pilots, say, "alright, time for you to fly the plane!" Just a bit overwhelming, right? Salesforce Trailhead and NPSP Days are excellent ways to learn Salesforce, making it fun and easy for your organization gets the most out of Salesforce. Our own Soapbox Engage even has a Salesforce MVP on staff help organizations understand how to integrate Salesforce to grow your organization's success. Since our team can't hang out with the whole Salesforce nonprofit community every day (we try!), some self-service approaches to learning Salesforce could come in handy. Here are three of our favorite Salesforce Trailhead training resources for nonprofits, along with information about our own NPSP Days. Originally published 2019. Updated February 2026. You've done the hard work: built a compelling mission, cultivated relationships with supporters, and set up your online donation forms. But if your donation asks aren't converting the way you'd like, the problem is often the words on the page, not the cause behind them. In 2026, donors are more discerning and more distracted than ever. Inboxes are crowded, attention is short, and generic appeals get ignored. The good news: small, research-backed changes to your language can meaningfully shift donor behavior. This guide covers five proven ways to strengthen your donation wording, with before-and-after examples and practical tips you can put to work today.
Certified B Corporations ("B Corps") are socially responsible, for-profit businesses that uphold the highest ethical and environmental standards, public transparency, and legal accountability. It points to how the company benefits their workers, communities, and the environment. Companies that receive “B Corp” certification seek to balance profit and purpose. Each member signs the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence and is genuinely committed to ensuring the highest social responsibility standards for their company. All of us can learn something about ethics and social responsibility from each of these companies!
Every nonprofit depends on development professionals to bring in the funds needed to accomplish the mission. Each development professional has a slightly different approach to fundraising that fits their strengths, but there are some basic qualities and skills that every fundraiser should possess. Here are four skill sets every development professional must have to be an effective fundraiser.
Email is one of the most convenient and cost-effective means of communicating with current and potential donors. It allows you to clearly communicate your vision, strategy, and needs with numerous people and invite them to donate to your cause. As a general rule, you should be using email for more than just asking for donations. Your donors want to receive stories and regular updates because they care about your work! In this blog, we will focus on how to ask for donations in an email, and specifically, choosing the best wording to ask for donations for your organization. Requesting donations in an email is both an art and a science. People’s inboxes are peppered with messages from great organizations asking for support for worthy causes. It’s important to write emails that stand out, deliver unique information, and make compelling requests. Best Nonprofit Fundraising Software: 6 Awesome Tools
Online fundraising and digital toolkits are essential components of any modern nonprofit’s operations. If your organization is just getting started, or if you’re looking for ways to make improve your existing set of tools, you’ll want to focus on nonprofit fundraising software. This is a fairly broad category, including both the tools that donors will directly engage with online in order to make donations and the underlying software that will support your strategies behind the scenes. We’ve selected a few top nonprofit fundraising software solutions that span a variety of core functions:
Fundraising for small churches can feel overwhelming. It might seem like your options for fundraising ideas are limited but there are many creative ideas for groups of all sizes. What small church communities lack in size, they often make up for in passion, commitment, creativity, and scrappiness. Whether you are raising funds for a mission trip, local charity, a building fund, or anything in between, there are many ideas for church fundraisers that are fun, creative, and effective. One of the keys to fundraising in a small church is to make sure that your fundraisers provide value to your congregation. Hosting fun events and opportunities that people enjoy attending will foster a more profound sense of community within your church and make people more eager to partner financially. Here are 10 unique fundraisers for small churches to get you started!
As a nonprofit professional, you know how important it is to have the right tools in your fundraising arsenal. Of course, your organization’s mission is its most important motivator for donors, but the internet has opened up more fundraising outlets than ever before. It’s important to have an adaptable toolkit that can handle any opportunity to fundraise online. Online donation software comes in all shapes and sizes, and they’re designed to address a wide variety of needs. What every donation tool has in common, though, is that they can help your nonprofit raise more support online by engaging new donors or streamlining the donation process. Let’s walk through a few top online donation software options for nonprofit organizations:
Fundraising for schools can feel overwhelming. People are busy and it can be difficult to come up with creative fundraising ideas that don’t involve selling donuts, discount cards, or wrapping paper. Plus, let’s be honest, your neighbor’s parents probably just purchased the minimum number just to be done with the whole thing. School fundraisers don’t have to be boring, complicated, or “been there, done that.” They can also be great community building activities if done right. We’re here to help streamline the process and put the “fun” back into fundraising for school. Here are 9 school fundraising ideas that are sure to spice things up and get people excited to participate.
With Soapbox Engage, you can easily create elegant, mobile-friendly online payment forms that integrate with Stripe - without a single line of code. Whatever your nonprofit's online payment needs, we've got you covered with our nonprofit accidental-techie friendly Stripe integration. What's more, all of our online payment forms have the option to integrate with the Salesforce constituent relationship management platform, allowing you to save key supporter and transaction data in real-time exactly where it needs to go to provide a 360 degree view of your supporters.
Salesforce advocacy software can be a powerful tool for your nonprofit to build momentum around a key issue, mobilize existing supporters, expand your mailing list, and raise money. This is true even if your organization isn’t primarily engaged in advocacy. But what do you need to know before investing in Salesforce advocacy software? Here are 11 key questions you should answer before making a buying decision.
Peer-to-peer fundraising can be an effective tool for raising money for your nonprofit while engaging key supporters and cultivating new donors. And, with the right peer-to-peer fundraising software, campaigns can be simple for your organization to create and manage, and easy for your supporters to join. With the latest update to Soapbox Engage, our unrivaled Salesforce integration for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns adds even more features to aid your organization in funding its mission - all with a user experience that is mobile-optimized and built for your brand.
With the latest release of Soapbox, we've added support for the TouchNet payment gateway in our Shop e-commerce app. Now, TouchNet clients can easily create engaging, mobile responsive e-commerce stores to sell books, subscriptions, swag, or whatever their university, college, or department has on offer. Spring is finally here in the Mid-Atlantic, which gave me a chance to get in a relaxing weekend in Savannah before the whirlwind of May arrives. For those of you in Seattle, I'll be visiting twice this month, hanging out with the community of do-gooders at NPSP Day Seattle and the Washington State Nonprofits Conference. The Seattle NPSP Day just crossed 100 registered attendees, making it the largest ever!
Before I place a nice large coffee / burrito / salad order (affectionately known as the NPSP Day trifecta), let me first serve this week's round of knowledge here at the PUB Crawl. Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today! 
Online fundraising continues to evolve as technology changes, but is your online giving strategy keeping up with the evolution? With swift changes happening in our world, it's important for your organization to be prepared to start making the moves needed to successfully navigate through uncertain times. In its 2019 benchmark study, M+R Strategies found that online revenue for nonprofits grew by just 1% in 2018. You read that right, it was the only time in their study’s history where online donations were effectively flat year-over-year. While the reasons for this dramatic shift are wide and varied, there’s one key message that rings loud and clear for fundraisers this year: it’s time to step up your fundraising ideas game. It’s tough enough to try to keep up with the technology, so coming up with the ideas for fundraisers that are going to compel your donors to take action this year might be harder than ever. While there’s no silver bullet approach that is going to raise your organization’s fundraising success fast, there are plenty of ways you can more effectively boost your online giving and convert more donors. Here’s a list of some irresistible online fundraising ideas that will increase interest in your fundraising campaigns while converting more visitors to donors on your nonprofit website. An online petition can be an effective way for your nonprofit to rally support for a campaign and trigger change - all while increasing enthusiasm for your mission, boosting donations, and quickly growing your supporter list. With the latest update to the Soapbox Engage Petitions app, you can also customize the fields you include on your petition to get exactly the information you're looking for from supporters. |
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