Don't Be Afraid of the Challenges Ahead!
Customarily, the arrival of autumn conjures up excitement for football, festivals, and fabulous fundraising events. This year is different. This year has been ghastly in many aspects. The COVID-19 Pandemic has unfortunately altered our daily lives and disrupted pre-planned fundraising strategies. With approximately six weeks left in 2020, most organizations are struggling to recover revenue before closing out the calendar year. In the nonprofit world, the shift to 4th quarter
5 Steps To Start Your Nonprofit’s Community Relations Efforts
What is “community relations” and how is it going to help your nonprofit grow? Community relations is the means to meet your prospective donors, volunteers, and supporters where they are and build relationships with them. No matter your organization size, location, budget, or mission, community relations is an essential component of any communications plan. You need to reach out to your community to bring them to you! Has your organization had a recent conversation about incr
Nonprofit New Year Resolutions to Keep (or Make Right Now)
Focusing Your Fundraising Efforts in 2020 Most of us in small nonprofit life are starting our first full week of the new year. I know, I know, you’re thinking... “New year!? I just completed the end-of-year dash (jingle bells and all), and I finally wrapped up the last gifts of the year on December 31st.” You may be lamenting the lack of planning time in late summer/early fall of 2019. Let it Go! Let it Go! It’s a fresh week. Block out time to make resolutions and to plant th
Get Ahead for Next School Year While Winding Down This One: Five Steps to Grow Your School Annual Fu
Successful school annual funds bridge the gap between students paying hefty tuition fees for operational expenses. In the National Catholic Education Association’s latest Annual Report, school annual funds contributed an average of $31,000 to school operations while endowment funds contributed an additional $26,000. Yet, only 30% of elementary schools receive private funding. An average of 32% of elementary students at EACH school surveyed requested financial aid, and this nu
March Shouldn’t Have to be Maddening: How to Build and Keep Strong Relationships with Grantors
Building Relationships with Grantors How about those Loyola Ramblers? The Cinderella team or underdog (pun intended as they are part of the wolf family) has made it to the Final Four. How can you compete for significant grant funding and come out a winner, too? It probably is not much of a surprise that strong relationships with grantors are a necessity to produce significant funding and an effective partnership. How exactly do we build those relationships? Where do we start?
Don’t Get Stuck in the Mud: 4 Tips to Build Strong Donor Relationships
The sparkly high of the new year with fresh beginnings has dulled, and we are now trudging through the mud of our signature Spring events. Are the flood waters of event details sweeping your focus away from the donor experience? Take 5, breathe, and zoom out to think about how your events weave into the donor experience instead of the other way around. Tip 1: Identify Top Donors/Prospective Donors and Provide them Special Access Think about how you will reach out to them bef
Does Asking For Money or Falling Short of Your Fundraising Goals Scare You?
Asking for money can be a scary proposition. Managing the proper activities and orchestrating a team of people to conduct these activities can be overwhelming in the midst of everything else that an in-house development director or one (wo)man band has on his or her plate. Having a system, the right team in place, and following a plan can alleviate the fear before you even get to the request meeting. Major Gifts can lay a foundation that put you well on your way to your annu
Giving Isn't Just For The Christmas Season
Holy Thursday, Batman! Lent is almost over, and I’m sure that we are all ready for the Easter holiday. Below is a recap of some of our tips to maximize giving during the Easter and Passover Seasons for our religious and secular nonprofit clients. Now is a great time to evaluate what worked or didn’t work and to weave some of these tactics into next year’s plan: 1. Run a six-week campaign during Lent! Easter season, beginning with Lent is an excellent time to reinvigorate giv
How to Inspire Daddy Warbucks to Become a Donor: A Guide to Maximizing Your Event
Happy #TipsTuesday! Maximizing Your Events Cha-Ching…Your non-profit organization holds various special events throughout the year, and you rake in a decent amount of money for your mission. …oh but the countless hours of planning, prep, and details are leaving you exhausted and wondering “How am I going to get us to that $1 million dollar annual revenue mark? (Or to your next level of growth or sustainability?) “There are no more hours left in my day!” Does Daddy Warbucks at
Is Your Annual Report 2000 and Late? A Guide to Annual Reports in the Digital Age
#TipsTuesday! Creating awareness is oftentimes folded into the mission of many nonprofits. So how do you get your annual report to not only steward your supporters, but to grab attention for your mission and the impact that you are making? We’ve put together our TOP TEN pointers: 1. Keep it Short and Sweet… Did you know that a person’s attention span is 8 seconds while the average goldfish’s is 9 seconds? It’s time to move away from the Dinosaur Age of twenty-page reports and
