Author: CharityHowTo

🎯 Elevate Your Nonprofit Fundraising with Expert Insights from Jeff Brooks

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Curious about the phenomenon behind TikTok's rise? Explore how your nonprofit can leverage its principles of authenticity and engagement to heighten impact. Plus, learn about Gather Voices, an innovative tool that empowers nonprofits to harness the authenticity of user-generated videos. Read on to uncover the secrets of digital storytelling in a rapidly evolving landscape.

A Beginner's Guide to Video Marketing for Nonprofits to Inspire Action

Telefundraising: Is It Still Effective for Nonprofits?

Nonprofit Storytelling 101: How This Powerful Technique Can Make More Impact

How to Ask for Donations: 3 Easy Phases for Effective Fundraising

Micro Donations: The 3 Big Benefits of Asking Small

Major Donor Strategy: How to Build a Major Gift Fundraising Program

When a major brand like McDonald’s or Nike has something to sell, they don’t just tell their friends and family.

You’ve heard it who knows how many times.

When you think of millennials, who do you think of? How do you imagine them in your mind?

When cell phones became mainstream (and even more so with the rise of smartphones), text-to-give fundraising jumped onto the scene.

Nonprofit monthly giving programs are popping up everywhere. It’s one of the most popular (and amazing!) nonprofit trends.

Maybe you’ve heard other nonprofit professionals talking about it.

As nonprofit professionals, we “make the ask” at one point or another. But asking someone to donate to your organization can feel overwhelming.

Does this sound familiar?

It’s Time! 5 End of Year Giving Campaign Tips Plus 3 Strategy Ideas

Today’s current nonprofit leaders were once in the same shoes you’re in now.

How to Build Stronger Staff and Volunteer Relationships for Little to No Cost! Very rarely are nonprofit organizations one-person shows. They require plenty of teamwork to make the biggest impact possible. And that either means working with nonprofit staff or nonprofit volunteers. But there’s a difference between having people work with a nonprofit and getting them to love working with a nonprofit! That’s why building strong nonprofit staff and volunteer relationships are so important. When your organization works to create a positive experience for all staff and volunteers, you reap the benefits. And some of those benefits look like: Having staff and volunteers who give their all when...

Today, we're featuring Krystina Burow, Development Officer at Tapestry Charter School Thank you, Krystina! 💙💚 Your comments take us to the moon and back! We're thrilled to hear how much our resources have helped you become a better nonprofit professional. This has been one of the most outstanding testimonials we've gotten so far, and we appreciate you taking the time to provide us with such amazing feedback. We hope you can continue learning and impacting the world positively with the wonderful work that YOU do. - The CharityHowTo team.

Today, we're featuring Serena Dallas, Marketing & Philanthropy Director at YMCA of Saskatoon Thank you, Serena! 💙💚 We love to provide you and all nonprofit professionals with high-quality training that can help your organization better reach your communities, strengthen relationships with your donors, and have the greatest impact on our societies. We hope you can continue learning and impacting the world positively with the wonderful work that YOU do. - The CharityHowTo team.

Today, we're featuring Andrea Giannini, Development Manager at National Kidney Foundation Thank you, Andrea! 💙💚 It's great to hear you found our resources useful, and that the things that you learned from our webinars have been useful to you and your team! We hope you can continue learning and impacting the world positively with the wonderful work that YOU do. - The CharityHowTo team.

Free Nonprofit Webinar! Cryptocurrency Donations: 3 Things to Know About This Nonprofit Trend n any industry, certain trends come and go. And with changes and advances in technology, there are plenty of trends that revolve around the digital world. For this sector, one of those nonprofit technology trends is none other than cryptocurrency. No longer do nonprofit organizations need to be dependent on checks and cash donations. Nor do they need to only accept credit and debit cards or payment apps like Venmo, Zell, or PayPal. Cryptocurrency donations are on the rise. And we’re here to tell you the 3 things you need to know about this nonprofit trend. Plus, we have a free nonprofit webinar...

At the end of the 45-minute Nonprofit training, you will have the knowledge you need to create a strategic plan that will function as a road map to success for your organization. Nonprofits use strategic planning to focus their energy and limited resources on achieving their goals and objectives. Develop a Workable Strategic Plan for Your Nonprofit 0:01 Hello, my name is John Duffy and I'm pleased to be with you today to talk about strategic planning in this free for nonprofits webinar. 0:07 I have worked with strategic planning for nonprofits in numerous ways so I've seen the good and the bad. 0:13 Also I've worked in nonprofits in various positions as a volunteer, this page staff,...

Today, we're featuring Lena Jaffe, Grant Writer of Downtown Streets Team. Thank you, Lena! 💙💚 We're really excited to hear that your grant writing has become better and more efficient as you've been learning from our courses. We hope you can continue learning and impacting the world positively with the wonderful work that YOU do. - The CharityHowTo team.

Free Nonprofit Webinar! How to Conduct Nonprofit Board Recruitment in 3 Easy Steps As nonprofit professionals, we may spend our time recruiting talent or volunteers. And when anyone mentions recruiting, that may be the first thing we think of. But there’s another part of a nonprofit organization that requires plenty of thought – nonprofit board recruitment. Your nonprofit board is a group of people who focus on the overall strategy and accountability of your organization. While your volunteers and staff oversee day-to-day operations, your nonprofit board manages the bigger picture. So having the right nonprofit board members is crucial to running the organization the best way possible....

Today, we're featuring Sunnie Scarpa, Executive Director of E.C. Scranton Memorial Library. Thank you, Sunnie! 💙💚 We love how you are becoming a better nonprofit professional through our nonprofit courses. We hope you can continue learning and impacting the world positively with the wonderful work that YOU do.

Never Stop Learning - Ongoing nonprofit professional development resources: essential for success! “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” —Socrates, NOT talking about nonprofit professional development ((but he could have been) Fewer than 20 years ago, the nonprofit sector was a little behind the times. We were the tortoise to the corporate world’s hare, mostly when it came to technology. Go back further to the early ‘90s and, like most nonprofits, your organization probably had a shiny, but static, website with some pictures, your mission statement, contact info and a big, red DONATE button at the bottom. Maybe at the top too.

This a guest blog post by RobinCabral Capital campaigns are the most ambitious fundraising campaigns that a nonprofit organization will ever embark on during its lifecycle. Because of this, systematic steps need to be followed to ensure that a campaign will ultimately be successful. Over many years, these steps have been refined into capital campaign best practices. The following are recommendations based on these capital campaign best practices that one should follow to ensure the ultimate success of their next nonprofit capital campaign. Steps to Improving Your Nonprofit’s Next Capital Campaign 1. Conduct a capital campaign feasibility study in advance. Feasibility studies are conducted...

These days, a nonprofit communications plan is about micro-audiences, immediacy, and precision. Any lag and you’ve lost them. Anything but what they want to know, and they’ll “swipe left” on your message. And while there are many ways to connect with your donors and other people who need to hear from you — from nonprofit direct mail to text — none hits on those three points as efficiently and effectively as a mobile app. Mobile apps cut through the clutter, making it more convenient — and likely — for your supporters to act. A mobile app is a superhighway from Point A (your organization) to Point B (your donor, your volunteers, your community, etc.) and from Point B back to Point A,...

Inside Look | This guide will cover the following topics: 01 Introduction 02 Outline Your Nonprofit Storytelling Ambassador Plan 03The 6 Best Types of Stories for Nonprofits to Share 04 Conclusion 01 Introduction What is nonprofit storytelling, what does it do, and what does it matter for your nonprofit? Storytelling should be actionable - inspiring listeners or readers to take an action on your behalf, whether your goal is to get more members, donations, event attendees etc. It should also make readers want to share the story with others. Let me start with two scenarios. SCENARIO 1: You receive a dry-form letter in the mail from a breast cancer research charity that bought your name from...

Read Our Customer Reviews of Our Various Premium & Free Nonprofit Webinars Below: Modern Nonprofit Email Newsletters: How to Redesign Yours for More Engaged Readers and Greater Impact September 18th, 2024 “This was a great webinar. Very clear. Great examples of dos and don'ts.” Kerry Jordan, Healwell September 18th, 2024 “I found this webinar to be very insightful and gave me a different perspective to something we've been doing for so long. Change is good!” Taylor Madgey, Volunteer Center of South Jersey FNew Interactive Workshop: How To Create a Monthly Donor Stewardship and Retention RoadmapNew Interactive Workshop: How To Create a Monthly Donor Stewardship and Retention Roadmap August...

As the global population moves online, most people will end up with a more connected digital life than they had before. That includes your nonprofit community. The new shift to virtual interaction we’re experiencing won’t rebound completely back to traditional mediums of communication. Virtual interactions are becoming just as meaningful and almost as real as face-to-face conversations. Now that more people are active online, your website needs to be set up for frequent and fast changes. The internet changes faster than the real world. Future-proof your nonprofit website using WordPress. WordPress allows your organization to easily update, change, and maintain your site with tools necessary...

We’ve joined with a number of our nonprofit experts to bring you blog posts that will help answer some of your nonprofits toughest questions. In this post, nonprofit expert Caliopy Glaros answers some questions that came from nonprofit professionals during her last free live webinar with us “Beyond Virtual Facilitation: How to Maximize Engagement and Tackle Wicked Problems in Your Virtual Meetings“. See Caliopy’s answers below, and check out all of her webinars with CharityHowTo. Question: How is facilitating meetings among millennials and young professionals different when they seem afraid or powerless to share? Hierarchies and office dynamics can affect people’s participation in a virtual...

We’ve joined with a number of our nonprofit experts to bring you blog posts that will help answer some of your nonprofits toughest questions. In this post, nonprofit expert Cherian Koshy answers some questions that came from nonprofit professionals during his last live webinar with us “How to Budget In Crisis“. See Cherian’s answers below, and check out all of his webinars with CharityHowTo here. Question: One of our challenges is forecasting revenue when we are trying new ideas and there is pushback on committing to underlying assumptions. Should we budget in a range, or just nail down a baseline scenario, etc…? If we don’t commit to any forecasting, we can’t make any decisions. Answer:...

There’s no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic — and its related restrictions and shutdowns — has wreaked havoc across all elements of society. But even as businesses everywhere are shuttering their doors and windows — temporarily, at least — shutting down isn’t an option for most nonprofits. Charitable organizations are needed now more than ever as unemployment rises and hunger, poverty homelessness and depression are starting to affect people who have never experienced these things before. And those who have feel the impact more acutely. At the same time, nonprofit organizations are facing a reduced workforce due to the illness and social distancing — and possible reduced income as...

The Coronavirus has brought about something new that no one was quite prepared for. Between the cancellation of events, the downturn in the economy, and social distancing, nonprofits have been hit hard in their fundraising efforts. Plus, with so much chaos, it can be tough to realize where to turn next. Try not to panic. Take a few deep breaths, analyze your data, and consider what your nonprofit can do at times like this. The changes you need to make to your strategic plan will help your organization stay afloat and show your supporters that you care. We recommend the following strategic changes for nonprofits in response to the Coronavirus pandemic: Check In With Your Supporters....

Free Nonprofit Webinars to Help During the Coronavirus During this unprecedented and chaotic time, we sincerely hope that you and yours are safe and healthy. And that you are diligently taking precautions to safeguard your health and that of those around you. Nonprofits do good all year long even in the best of times. But at times like this, when resources and patience are seemingly stretched to their limits, it’s the do-gooders, the agents of change, who lead the way in caring, sharing and responding to the call to help. We rest easier knowing that you are out there, working for the common good. We are so happy to be part of that. And we’re honored to be able to offer you resources to help...

Planning events can quickly go from straight-forward and simple to complicated and challenging. As the new year continues, it’s important to gain a truly comprehensive understanding of the digital opportunities and tools you can leverage. This way, you can optimize the event planning process and increase registration and attendance rates. The scope of tools and preparation time you need depends on what kind of nonprofit event you’re hosting. At Fonteva, we are experts in event management and know that there are several core ideas and key digital tools that can supplement any event you have in store. Whether you’re a nonprofit planning a fundraising event or an association hosting a...

Fundraisers can’t turn a page on their calendar these days, it seems, without discovering hundreds of nonprofit conferences to attend. That’s not a bad problem to have. The nonprofit/fundraising sector is one of the sharing-est sectors there is. Fundraisers really do seem to believe that a rising tide lifts all boats (because it’s true). So, there’s really no harm in the free and eager exchange of ideas in the fundraising world. One thing you’ll find at just about any nonprofit conference is an air of camaraderie – commiseration, even – with attendees sharing war stories, success stories, lessons learned, nuggets gleaned, etc. in the halls, at the lunch tables, at the after-session...

Capital campaigns are one of the most extensive campaigns that an organization will ever undertake. In most cases, an organization needs to fund capital purchases, upgrades, and/or renovations and repairs. Given their highly episodic nature, organizations that are seeking to undergo a capital campaign must do so with foresight and preparation geared to success. The most critical steps are taken before even the actual capital campaign plan is drafted and far before an actual solicitation happens. Organizations that are embarking on their first-ever campaign or who have not undergone such intensive efforts in a while would be wise to take heed of the following preparatory steps to ensure...

Guest blog post by: Margaret Battistelli Gardner A special holiday poem (with great apologies to Clement Clarke Moore and Henry Livingston Jr., each of whom was credited at different times with writing the original “Twas the Night Before Christmas”) ‘Twas a few days before year-end and all through the land Nonprofits were scrambling to put out a hand. Donors’ mail and inboxes were stuffed to the hilt With asks and appeals and a wee touch of guilt. Fundraisers were huddled, awaiting the cash, Ignoring, just maybe, they’d been a bit crass. These donors, they knew, keep them sustained And deserve so much more than the same old refrain. When out of the slush pile arose something new – A note...

Guest blog post by: Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“It’s #GivingTuesday! Give us money!” Yes, there ARE ways to use Instagram to raise money on #GivingTuesday. But that’s not one of them. #GivingTuesday seems so simple. Possibly because it’s so social media oriented. And we tend to think of social media as a quick ‘n’ easy way to raise money and awareness for our causes. But it’s not. Not really. Like any good campaign, a #GivingTuesday effort takes planning. And orchestration. And prep. “Most of the stuff I see is organizations just posting on their social media pages, ‘It’s #GivingTuesday, so give us money,’” Ephraim Gopin, founder of nonprofit communications firm 1832 Communications, says with a heavy sigh. But it needn’t be that way. In...

Blog Post by Julia Campbell The seasons are changing, summer is waning, fall is approaching and that can only mean one thing – year-end charitable giving season is about to descend upon us! For many nonprofits, year-end giving season is kicked off by the global giving movement #GivingTuesday. #GivingTuesday was created in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation as a response to the consumerism that often marks year-end. Americans have a day of giving thanks (Thanksgiving). This is followed by two days of giving and getting deals (Black Friday, Cyber Monday) – so why not a full day for giving back? This year #GivingTuesday is on December 3, and expectations are sky high....

Instagram is a marketing powerhouse for brands, companies, and nonprofits alike. If you want to target a younger demographic, Instagram could be for you, with 59% of online adults ages 18-29 active on the network. More than 500 million people have Instagram accounts, more than 300 million of which use it daily!

Blog Post by Julia Campbell Getting sick of Twitter? Are you considering joining the #DeleteFacebook movement? Have you considered using Instagram for nonprofits? Even though it’s owned by Facebook, building an engaged community of supporters on Instagram may be a viable social media alternative for your nonprofit. Here are some Instagram statistics from the Pew Research Center 2018 Social Media Report: 35% of U.S. adults now say they use Instagram (an increase from 28% last year); 71% of Americans ages 18-24 use Instagram, with 81% of this group going on the platform daily! Even if you have been on Instagram for years now, or if you are a complete novice, there are a few tried-and-true...

Blog Post by Julia Campbell What if Instagram Stories could help your nonprofit reach its’ audience? The social media struggle, especially for nonprofits and social causes, is real. Organic reach is plummeting on Facebook. Twitter is removing millions of fake followers from users’ accounts. 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Every day it seems to get harder to reach the people who care, let alone get new people into the fold and excited about your cause. But, there is hope… enter Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories have been exploding in popularity – and not just for early adopters and celebrities like Busy Philipps (even though her Stories are a must-watch)....