Issue 40

Happy Fundraising Weekly Tuesday, and to all the Star Wars fans, May the Fourth be with you! It’s been an excellent start to the month over here at Soapbox Engage, and I hope all of you can say the same. This week’s newsletter has loads of amazing content to help you upgrade your fundraising game. Read on for advice on donor needs, key website features, and even incorporating TikTok into your giving strategy. Hope there’s a Gen Z on your team!

By the way! If you’re eager for more fundraising goodness, we wanted to take a moment to plug this free resource we created to help nonprofits navigate the online fundraising world. You can get the Definitive Guide to Online Fundraising here. Happy fundraising!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 39

Greetings from Tampa, Florida, where the weather is warm, the food delicious, and you can glimpse a dolphin or two swimming mere feet away! I’m here working remotely for the week and I gotta say, you Floridians are onto something. It’s been a wonderful change of scenery.

If the pandemic has taught us one thing in the work sphere, it’s that we don’t always have to be in the office to be our most productive (though I do miss all the coworker interactions)! It just so happens that the folks over at Veritus Group wrote an article on this very subject that we have featured in today’s newsletter. How fitting! We’ve got lots of other great content for you this week as well. So dig in to learn more about topics like building a fundraising calendar, analyzing the origins of your donations, and how to center and utilize community in your fundraising efforts. Enjoy!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 38

I've got lots of great content for you in this edition of the Fundraising Weekly! Today, I'm featuring tips to make your messaging stand out, ways to improve your newsletters and donor relations, and a look into the hybrid fundraising event model. And that’s only about half the content. I'm also highlighting an article that asks us to challenge the urgency in our communications and work style. It may seem unusual with so much emphasis placed on motivation, work ethic, deliverability, and deadlines. But slowing down is important, not just for peace of mind but also for quality of work.

Speaking of urgency and slowing down, today is as good a day as ever to take a moment to cherish the little moments. Call a family member or friend to check in. Appreciate the changing of the seasons (I’m noticing all kinds of flowers in DC!). Spend a little quiet time with yourself. Or slow down in whatever way is best for you!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 37

Even as a long-time nerd, I don’t think I ever expected to see an analogy between nonprofit fundraising and The Avengers! But that’s the beauty of this community, right? There is always so much information circulating about fundraising— be it strategies and tips, case studies, trend predictions, you name it. Some fundraising content may be hyper specific to a type of organization or the community they serve. Some content or principles might be broad enough to apply to an org of any size or mission. Some strategies may seem ancient and enduring, some cutting edge.

But no matter the material, there are always new (often fun!) ways of looking at things. On a personal note, I have found in my life that shifting perspective, especially when confronting a question or issue, is always valuable and often is what yields a solution. It’s fun to shift perspective for the sake of practice or curiosity, as well as necessity. This week’s newsletter content has reminded me of just that!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 36

As more people across the world gain access to Covid-19 vaccines, there’s a glimmer of hope that we will be able to return to in-person fundraising events. But keep in mind that virtual fundraising will always be a relevant and useful skill for any nonprofit! This week on the Fundraising Weekly, we have blog posts covering all kinds of skills— from building donation pages, to writing fundraising letters, to leveraging social media, and more!

And, if I may share, we have some very exciting news over at Soapbox Engage! Our Donations app is now the first tool of its kind to integrate with Microsoft Fundraising and Engagement, Microsoft’s free, open source fundraising application built for nonprofits. The Soapbox Engage Donations app can send data to Fundraising & Engagement in real-time so donor and transaction information is instantly available with no manual entry. We’re just a little bit stoked!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 35

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I think Tuesdays are sort of underrated. Monday kicks off the week, Wednesday is hump day, Thursday is Friday lite, and Friday is the fun, final push for the week. But Tuesdays need a bit more love. For me, Tuesdays are for weekly all staff meetings and, of course, the Fundraising Weekly— and those two reasons make them the best.

This week, we have a bit of everything: social media marketing, donor cultivation, campaign planning, social justice engagement, fundraising appeals, and more! Dig in to this wealth of knowledge, then pass the Fundraising Weekly along to a friend!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 34

Well, we’re officially on the other side of the Spring Equinox. That along with the continued rollout of vaccines to communities around the world has me feeling pretty optimistic for the coming months. I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling either.

Studies have shown that hope and positive moods can increase helping behaviors, like volunteering, assisting coworkers, and donating! Ride this positivity into your next fundraising campaign! Take some free knowledge from your community of fundraising professionals, and dive headfirst into the week with me.

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 33

Wandering into Joshua Tree National Park, deep in the deserts of California, you feel like you've walked right into a Dr Seuss book. I decided to explore with an experimental bag of "Trader Joe's Grainless Cassava & Coconut Tortilla Chips" (which yes, are actually amazing, and no, I don't know how they make them), and saw all sorts of new sights.

It's easy to get turned around, confused, and within inches of pain for something that you swear looked like a harmless, cotton-like bush (that's a cactus, Ryan). That seems to hit a bit close to home for the accidental techies in our fundraising world. One moment, "wow, look at that amazing new fundraising tool features", next moment, "so, you're saying I accidentally deleted what again?".

For those of you wandering the magical online fundraising world alongside me, here's another great week of tips and ideas to help you navigate without bouncing into a prickly plant.

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 32

Happy Tuesday! We’re just about a year into various states of lockdown and I hope you’re all hanging in there. We were blessed with some sunshine in Washington DC today and a little it of vitamin D will turn the day around!

We have a lot of awesome content for you this week in the Fundraising Weekly. If you have any spring fundraisers coming up, get ready to draw some inspiration!

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!

Issue 31

As the calendar turns to March, it's hard to not say, "wait, you again?" A year ago today feels so distant, as we all just went about our days maskless. Now just watching a movie scene that includes a crowd makes me cringe.

We seem to be turning a corner in the fight against COVID-19, and it just might be time to think about a post-pandemic future. Fundraising in-person. Galas. Dinners...inside!

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's keep our eyes focused on the road ahead, and soak in some great fundraising community knowledge.

You can receive the Fundraising Weekly newsletter each Tuesday by subscribing today!