Whatever you fundraise for, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get away from events. They are a wonderful, personal way to raise awareness of your cause, bring together possible donors, and thanking those who have donated. On the flip side, they’re a lot of work to get right, and sometimes you can be left … Continue reading ‘Dos and Data – how your database can help you make your events even better
How to find your community as an adult — and why it matters
Charities rely on communities to help support their causes and, as social creatures, humans need interpersonal contact to survive. These connections range from your inner circle of family and close friends to the outer rungs of your social network — other pet parents at the dog park, for example — and it’s important to have … Continue reading How to find your community as an adult — and why it matters
How Jargon Destroys Nonprofit Fundraising & Marketing
Why would you ever use jargon if you wanted to truly communicate with someone? Just check out the definition: “language used by a particular group of people, especially in their work, and which most other people do not understand” — Cambridge dictionary. When you talk to people in words they don’t understand, really, what’s the … Continue reading How Jargon Destroys Nonprofit Fundraising & Marketing
15 Expert Tips for Giving a Powerful Business Presentation
A powerful business presentation is much more than just a bunch of nice-looking slides. Whether you’re presenting to venture capitalists, senior management or potential donors, you need to make a great first impression and stand out from the dozens of other speakers they’ll encounter. For some people, presenting in front of even a handful of … Continue reading 15 Expert Tips for Giving a Powerful Business Presentation
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Development Content: Five ways to reframe your donor stories
Higher education and nonprofit communications teams tend to turn their noses up at donor profiles. Their reaction isn’t unfounded; college alumni magazine readership surveys, for one, consistently show that donor profiles and gift announcements rank last in interest among types of content in these publications. After working for more than a decade on both sides … Continue reading How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Development Content: Five ways to reframe your donor stories
The big question your donors want you to answer: WHY
Why should I give you money? Why should I care about your work? Why will this matter to someone? Too often, we focus on HOW. We love to talk about how we do the work. All the cool ways we accomplish great things. A new process. A unique way of tackling a problem. All of … Continue reading The big question your donors want you to answer: WHY
#GivingTuesday tweets that got noticed vs those that didn’t
Go on Twitter and search up the #GivingTuesday hashtag and you’ll find a never-ending torrent of tweets by non-profits trying to get the attention of digital passersby. Given how jam-packed the market is, and how short peoples’ attention spans are on Twitter, if there’s anything a non-profit can do to get even ONE like, or … Continue reading #GivingTuesday tweets that got noticed vs those that didn’t
Maximize Your Donations During the Last Week of the Year
If you only looked at how nonprofits spend most of their efforts during year-end fundraising season, you might think that Giving Tuesday is the most important giving day of the year.However, the data tells a different story. Giving Tuesday brings in 4.3% of online year-end revenue.December 31st brings in 15.5% of online year-end revenue.The last week of the year as … Continue reading Maximize Your Donations During the Last Week of the Year
7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers
You'd never know it, but Simon Sinek is naturally shy and doesn't like speaking to crowds. At parties, he says he hides alone in the corner or doesn't even show up in the first place. He prefers the latter. Yet, with some 22 million video views under his belt, the optimistic ethnographer also happens to … Continue reading 7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers
The Pixar Pitch! Telling your Story Crisply and with Clarity in order to Compel Action
In order to move others, we need to become much better at clearly stating what it is we want and where it is we want people to go. Daniel Pink presents the Pixar Pitch as a prime tool in thinking about this. Pixar Animation Studios, starting with Toy Story, is one of the most successful … Continue reading The Pixar Pitch! Telling your Story Crisply and with Clarity in order to Compel Action
Propper Fundraising 