Category: nonprofit-tips-tricks

The Top 10 Things Board of Directors Do

The Nonprofit Guide to Sell More Event Tickets

The Nonprofit Guide to Sell More Event Tickets

Nonprofit Leadership Skills Training to Offer Your Employees

Inside Look... This guide will cover the following topics: Introduction Understanding the job description Having clarity about the mission of the organization How the organization is governed The basics of nonprofit law and accounting Where to find needed information How to be a great ambassador for the organization Time Management Summary

Top 10 Tips on How to keep your Monthly Donors

Inside Look... This guide will cover the following topics: Keep the Value of Monthly Donors Top of Mind Don’t Keep Your Monthly Donors Waiting. Steward them early! Be as Committed to Your Monthly Donors as They are to YOU ACT Before Monthly Donors Leave Add Credit Card Account Updater Encourage Electronic Funds Transfers Test Call Your Organization Ensure You and Your Staff are Passionate about Monthly Giving Review Your Join and Retention Processes Look at Your Numbers Introduction! “FIGHT TILL THE LAST GASP.” — William Shakespeare, Henry VI

5 Reasons Why You Need to Keep Learning

5 Reasons Why You Need to Keep Learning Nonprofit Professional development is key to fundraising success 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.

Six ways to future proof your website with WordPress

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...

Ask a Nonprofit Expert – Beyond Virtual Facilitation: How to Maximize Engagement and Tackle Wicked Problems in Your Virtual Meeting

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...

Ask a Nonprofit Expert – How to Budget In Crisis

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:...

Nonprofit Event Honorees The Key to Your Event’s Success

Organizations put a lot of time and effort into nonprofit events. They spend countless hours creating silent auctions, designing invitations and tribute books, and crafting stage programs. However, they spend very little time and effort choosing the perfect honoree, and because of this their nonprofit events often underperform and even, unfortunately, fail. The difference between an honoree that is just okay and one that is perfect is akin to the disparity between a lame duck and a golden goose! A lame duck is just along for the ride, but a golden goose will continue to bring riches long after the event is over. Why Your Nonprofit Event Needs a Golden Goose Honoree A nonprofit event doesn’t...

10 great nonprofit conferences to mark in your 2020 calendar

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...

How To Create a Nonprofit Event Budget | CharityHowTo

Get a Grip on Nonprofit Event Budgets Creating Budgets and Cutting Costs Nonprofit event budgets are as unique as snowflakes, and just as elusive to pin down! Whether a gala, festival, or house party, organizations need to understand how to create a nonprofit event budget in order to successfully plan and execute their events.

Moving Your Instagram Audience to Action | CharityHowTo

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!

Grant Writing Training For Your Nonprofit | CharityHowTo

What To Look For (And What to Avoid) In Grant Writing Training For Nonprofit Organizations Blog Post by CharityHowTo Expert Diane H. Leonard, GPC

Does Your Nonprofit Event Need a Psychologist? | CharityHowTo

This blog post is by CharityHowTo Expert AJ Steinberg Does Your Nonprofit Event Need a Psychologist? Many organizations spend an enormous amount of time and resources on nonprofit events, only to have them fall short of their goals. They may try changing venues and changing themes, but still, the events fail to meet expectations. What these organizations should be changing instead is their own mindsets and figuring out how to fix their events’ psychology! As a 20-year veteran nonprofit event planner, I deeply understand the psychology of fundraising through nonprofit events and how the choices we make during the event planning process will impact, positively or negatively, a guest’s...

How to Save Money on USPS Direct Mail Postage with Barcodes

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…

How to Overcome Event Planning Burnout and LOVE Nonprofit Events

Blog post by A.J. Steinberg

10 Ways to Use Instagram for Nonprofit Visual Storytelling

4 Ways to Use Social Proof to Improve Volunteer Recruitment

This post is by Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA When it comes to volunteer recruitment for your nonprofit, understanding human nature and psychology is key. Why? Because our brains determine everything we do. By better understanding what triggers humans to act, nonprofit staff can become better influencers and, ultimately, better marketers. One of the most powerful and enduring psychological phenomenon is that of social proof. Over the millennia, our species has survived because of our ability to mold our behavior to that of our clan. Those who did not conform risked banishment and extinction. We have learned subconsciously that social conformity is linked to our very survival. The power of the tribe...

How to Choose the Best Nonprofit Accounting Software for Your Organization

This is a guest post by Joseph Scarano Does your nonprofit’s current accounting software allow you to create separate financial statements by fund? How about generate budgets by grant, fund or program? The needs of a nonprofit are different from that of a commercial business, and that goes for accounting needs, too! This article will help you understand the needs of your organization and help you select the most effective software for your nonprofit. Evaluate Your Organization’s Needs First, list and prioritize your organization’s requirements to establish the most important elements required in a new system. The factors to consider are: Funding Sources and Budget for your Organization –...

How to Write a Newsletter Your Members Will Actually Want to Read

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...

5 Tips and Strategies for a Better Nonprofit Fundraising Event

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

16 Ways To Get More Comments On Your Facebook Page

Corporate Social Responsibility: How to Secure Corporate Support

Corporations invest in social responsibility programs and activities to support their triple bottom line: people, profits, and the planet. Companies are smart to be concerned about corporate social responsibility (CSR), both because CSR is a driver among consumer groups and because some labels— think “organic,” “recycled,” “smaller carbon footprint”— are generally more costly for companies to attain, thereby reducing shareholder profitability. A corporation’s long-term success is based on its ability to balance the vision against the interests of key stakeholder groups. As a for-profit company, my company–JustWrite Solutions–considers these questions all the time. We have a formal CSR...

5 Tips to Get Your Fundraising Print Publications On Point

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....

How to Write a Bulletproof Grant Budget | CharityHowTo

Would you believe me if I told you that the grant budget is often the *first* reviewed portion of a grant application packet by the grant reviewer, grantmaker staff, or grantmaker board?