Category: nonprofit-marketing

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

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

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

Nonprofit Podcasts: Should Your Organization Start One? Plus How to Do It! Since smartphones first found their way into our pockets, we’ve had the world at our fingertips.

Your nonprofit CRM is the central information hub for your organization. With this software solution, you can develop great relationships with supporters, track important fundraising campaign metrics, and assign internal tasks to your team. Whether you’re looking for a new software solution or buying your first CRM, choosing the right software can be stressful and challenging. In this guide, we’ve pulled highlights from Bloomerang’s nonprofit CRM buyer’s guide to provide some tips and tricks to help you through the process. We’ll dive into both the features that you should consider for a great solution and the steps you should take when choosing the best option for your nonprofit. Ready to...

Google is one of the largest companies in the world. And since 2003, they’ve been working to do their fair share for the betterment of the world we live in. Google Ad Grants for nonprofits is one of the company’s signature programs. It’s designed to help nonprofit organizations recruit, fundraise, and raise brand awareness for their cause. Here at CharityHowTo, we’re devoted to helping nonprofit professionals improve their efforts for their cause through nonprofit professional development. We love what Google Ad Grants for nonprofits is doing for organizations all over the world. And we want to help your nonprofit take advantage of this wonderful program, starting with our free training:...

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...

The Google Ad Grant offers eligible nonprofits $10,000 per month in free advertising credits, but what exactly can those credits do for your nonprofit? If you’re thinking about applying for the Google Ad Grant, knowing how it can be used can help you decide whether or not it is worth your time. If you’re already a grantee, reading through these 6 common ways that organizations leverage the Grant can provide you with new ideas and strategies, and show how the Google Ad Grant can increase its tangible impact on your nonprofit—both on and offline. 1. Raise Awareness Through Informational or Educational Content Google Ads opens your nonprofit up a whole new audience to inform about your cause...

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...

Blog post by Erica Waasdorp I hope you were convinced from one of my earlier blogs that direct mail for nonprofits is still the most effective way to generate donations from your existing donors and generate new donors. The next question you might ask yourselves then is how often and how can you best reach out to your donors, so they’ll be most likely to respond. Let’s start with how often you can reach out to your donors, so they’ll continue to love you. It’s always one of my favorite questions to ask at a webinar: How often do you send appeals to your donors now? Sadly, most nonprofits are not reaching out to their donors enough! I typically see many who answer once or twice a year. Only...

Blog post by Erica Waasdorp

Blog post by Erica Waasdorp This past weekend, I spent several hours going through the stack of direct mail packs I had received in the past two weeks. I reviewed each one, identified organizations I’d like to donate to and then I scanned in those that could help give me some new ideas for year-end giving appeals for organizations I work with. Every year around this time, I talk to nonprofits, struggling to decide if they should send out a direct mail appeal at year-end. Sadly, every year, some organizations drag their feet too long that they end up missing out on the best time of the year to generate the funds they need to support their mission! Why does this happen? I think there are...

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....

Blog post by Erica Waasdorp, Charity How to Presenter, Author, Blogger and Nonprofit Library Contributor I grew up with and in direct mail. I was fortunate to work at Reader’s Digest (RD) in Amsterdam right after college and it really shaped the rest of my career. I’ve always loved direct mail because you can measure results, but nothing beats seeing the boxes and boxes filled with responses coming back. I was ‘hooked’ on direct mail and all of us direct mail ‘nerds’ at RD loved recieving the latest direct mail samples sent to us from countries like the U.S. Australia, Canada etc. The general rule of thumb was that if direct mail packs worked in those countries, they’d most likely also...

Blog post by Erica Waasdorp

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)....

Do you ever wonder how your USPS direct mail gets to your donor’s mailbox? And how you can use best practices to save money on all of your nonprofit USPS direct mail campaigns? Have you ever been to the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC? It’s located right next to Union Station and access is FREE. The museum shows in interactive ways how it all began. You’ll see how people literally risked their lives to make sure that the mail got delivered. From horse to stage coach to trains to planes…

Blog post by A.J. Steinberg

This is a guest post by Julia Campbell Welcome to the wonderful world of Facebook advertising! Facebook Ads for nonprofits, when created and launched strategically, can have powerful results for organizations looking to expand their online communities and raise more revenue. With over 1 billion daily active users sharing 4.75 billion pieces of content every day on the social network, launching a Facebook Ad campaign can set you apart and help you reach a targeted audience. This post is a simple guide to help you plan, create, launch, and measure a wildly successful Facebook Ads campaign to achieve your nonprofit’s objective, whether it be spreading awareness or raising money. Let’s jump...

This a guest blog post by John Hayden

This a guest blog post by Jeff Brooks A “donor newsletter” is a newsletter for and about donors. Its message: Your giving to our organization is making the world a better place. You are accomplishing what you meant to accomplish when you gave! A donor newsletter is not an education piece – rather, it’s about what our donors have accomplished through us. And it’s not meant to be a chronicle of our successes. It tells the stories of success… and gives the donor the credit for helping make it possible. So, does your nonprofit need to produce a donor newsletter? When you produce a donor newsletter and send it to your donors, here’s what you can expect: A donor newsletter will increase...

This a guest blog post by Julia Campbell When looking for great online content to share with your target audience on your nonprofit’s social media channels, always think back to their passions and their interests. What gets them up in the morning? What keeps them awake at night? When you have a clear picture of who you are creating content for using online platforms such as your website, blog, email, and social media, you will be able to quickly brainstorm a list of content ideas and places to look. When you begin looking for content to share on your nonprofit social media channels, keep in mind that content comes in a variety of forms! This can range from videos, to photos, to current...

This a guest blog post by Julia Campbell, originally posted on Wild Apricot’s Blog

This is a Guest Blog Post by Tobi Johnson, originally posted in Wild Apricot’s Blog Does your digital member newsletter have low engagement? If so, you’re not alone. Creating a newsletter that people want to read isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. In fact, many organizations I know write newsletters that their members actually look forward to. In this post, I’m going to cover the root cause of low newsletter engagement and practical tips to create a newsletter your members want to read. The first thing we need to acknowledge is that simply communicating online through things like digital newsletters tends to cause people to feel disconnected. Researchers call this the...

This is a guest blog post by Julia Campbell

This is a guest blog post by Erica Waasdorp How long does it typically take to set up a monthly donor program? From soup to nuts. At a recent webinar, I was asked the above question. The answer is: if you focus on it, you should be able to be up and running within a week. I realize that development people in small to mid-size organizations especially are always pulled in multiple directions and distractions are easy. That’s why I recommend you don’t launch the program until you have thought through and put in place the basics. But with a little bit of focus that can be done in a few days. You most likely have the systems already in place. Brainstorming about a name for a program can be done...

This post was a collaborative piece written by John Haydon, A.j. Steinberg, and Jeff Brooks.

By Julia Campbell In my work with nonprofits, I often hear the same refrain about nonprofit marketing and communications: People are feeling very overwhelmed and stressed out by their never-shrinking to do lists. With so many digital marketing and online fundraising tools out there, how can a small nonprofit choose what to focus on, and how can they manage their time and resources effectively? There are constantly emails to send out, a website to update, a Facebook page and Twitter feed to manage, Instagram and Snapchat to explore, plus phone calls and meetings… how can a small nonprofit get it all done? The answer? You don’t have to do it all! Creating a Strategic Online Nonprofit...

Blog Post by Heather Stombaugh Strategies and tactics in fundraising may change, but print publications continue to be a critical resource in the nonprofit toolbox. According to Kivi Leroux Miller’s 2016 Nonprofit Communication Trends report, print remains one of the top five most important communication channels in the nonprofit sector. Image Credit: Kivi Leroux Miller Every nonprofit should invest in creating compelling fundraising publications. However, in the tumult of other pressing needs, many small nonprofits put off developing their annual reports, cases for support, and other collateral to save money. Let me put this simply: in ANY business, you must spend money to make money....

Step 1 – Strategizing Our case study is about Save The Redwoods and their mission is to protect and restore Redwood forests. To help fulfill this mission, we wanted to reach out to their target audience, i.e. people concerned about the Redwood forests, for support.

We’re big believers in the power of monthly donors. We have been managing monthly donor programs for decades and have seen the ongoing revenue it provides, especially in times of crisis. In some cases, it’s kept organizations afloat; even if they could not send appeals to ask for money, the monthly donations kept the funds coming in. That’s why we maintain that every organization can (and should) organize a monthly giving program. A few years ago when we first started teaching webinars at CharityHowTo, monthly giving was still in its infancy and was used primarily by larger organizations. But today, monthly giving is becoming more and more popular. With the right tools — which you may very...

You’ve seen them all over the interwebs. You run into them as you’re scrolling through your feed on Facebook, as you’re checking your Twitter updates, as you’re looking for remodeling ideas on Pinterest. They’re infographics, and they’re everywhere. But more importantly for nonprofits: infographics (and other data visualization tools) are not a passing trend. It’s time you add them to your fundraising toolbox. Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. Other data visualization tools—like charts, graphs, pictograms, gauges, dashboards, etc.—similarly present data in a pictorial or graphic...