Tag: Regular Giving

13 Ways to Write Better Fundraising Asks

Posted on by proppec

When you’re only six weeks into your new fundraising job and your boss suddenly assigns you the task of writing your organization’s year-end fundraising appeal, due tomorrow, what the heck are you going do?

Instead of copying and pasting last year’s letter, how about you carve out some time to create your very own masterpiece? The results will be worth it.

But how do you do it? Especially with limited time? First off, turn off your phone and the online noise so that you can focus. And then pay heed to these 13 tips by Pamela Grow.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/13-ways-write-better-fundraising-asks-pamela-grow

Guide to Annual Giving Donor Segmentation

Posted on by proppec

For most advancement shops, annual giving is the black hole of fundraising: a generic ask to a mass audience. But what if you could deliver a meaningful, personalized experience for all of your donors—without increasing the resources needed or time and energy spent?

In this whitepaper, you’ll learn how to segment your constituents to personalize your annual fund outreach in an efficient, scalable way.

Featuring original research from Greta Daniels, Director of Development at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, the whitepaper will cover:

  • Why segmentation needs to be part of your playbook in the noisy charitable marketplace of today
  • How to gather the right data, create donor segments, and test their effectiveness
  • Three case studies of segmentation in action at nonprofit and for-profit organizations

Get it all for free by filling out the form on the following webpage:

https://get.evertrue.com/annual-giving-donor-segmentation

How Donors Choose: One choice that’ll increase revenue

Posted on by proppec

Many nonprofits already know the value of giving concrete examples for what donations of different amounts are worth. You know, things like…$25 feeds a shelter dog for three weeks…$60 pays for a counselTina Cincottiing session at the legal aid clinic…$100 provides five hours of tutoring help…

Whether people donate and how much is greatly influenced by how we ask. Examples like these increase donor response because they paint a clear picture of the impact you can have if you give.

But how can these examples create even more impact? Tina Cincotti explains more in this blog.

https://fundingchangeconsulting.com/how-donors-choose-one-choice-thatll-increase-revenue/

Why your business needs an inbound marketing Growth Plan

Posted on by proppec

It’s time to stop wasting money trying to interrupt your target prospects and instead reap the benefits of attracting your prospects to you. And that’s what inbound marketing services are all about – creating and sharing content that appeals to your audience so they build trust in your brand. It works on the principle of attract, convert, close and delight; turning strangers into visitors, leads to customers, and finally promoters.

35% say closing a deal is getting harder, whilst only 22% are happy with their current conversion rates. And that’s exactly where inbound marketing technology comes in.

Abby Mitchinson writes how inbound can give you the opportunity to think smarter, grow faster, and deliver powerful results.

https://info.angelfish-marketing.com/blog/business-inbound-marketing-services-gameplan

Where brand and fundraising meet. The case for a case for support.

Posted on by proppec

Fundraising is focussed on the bottom line. Hard, tangible cash. Facts and figures. Brand is about perception. The heart and mind of the audience. Intangible feelings.

OK, so I’m being purposefully black and white. But everyone of my friends in the sector feels that brand and fundraising teams need to work better together. And with the sector still suffering reputational damage and a new drop in voluntary income, it needs to be all hands to the pump.

And I’ve seen where this happens in perfect harmony. The case for support. I’ve worked on lots of cases for support for very different charities, and they always show me how close communication, brand and fundraising teams actually are, and how well they can work together.

Alexander Scott explains how the case for support is the core story that weaves together brand narrative with need, and the action you want your audience to take.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/where-brand-fundraising-meet-case-support-alexander-scott

More Than Just Data: Why Actionable Insights Matter

Posted on by proppec

There’s no question that customer experience (CX) is a data-driven discipline. After all, at the foundation of most CX programs are close-ended surveys designed to capture and analyze customer feedback.

Yes, metrics are a crucial element of every successful CX program. With metrics, you can establish a clear performance baseline and track trends based on actions you take over time.

But how do you know in advance if the actions you take will be the right ones? Wouldn’t it be great to have a crystal ball that lets you know exactly what to do to have the biggest impact on your anchor metrics?

Here’s some good news: You don’t need to have psychic powers to excel at CX. Instead, you need to use predictive analytics to clarify expected returns before you take every step—and to ensure you have clean data to power your CX metrics program. Only then can you take meaningful action based on your customer data.

In this blog, Richard Boehmcke shares how predictive analytics can benefit your business and therefore fundraising successes.

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/59294313/posts/21031

10 Most Effective Communication and Fundraising Tools, According to Non-Profits

Posted on by proppec

Survey respondents for the 2018 Global NGO Technology Report were asked to rate the effectiveness of the most commonly used communication and fundraising tools. Their answers provide valuable insight into which tools NPOs, NGOs, and charities should prioritize in their communications and fundraising strategy.

http://techreport.ngo/2018/03/28/10-effective-communication-fundraising-tools-according-nonprofits/

6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

Posted on by proppec

The formula for getting work done is simple: Show up and sit there. Think. Stare out the window. Write.

There’s no muse, no need for a perfect storm of artistic conditions to come together before you can rack up the pages. You just do the work. The work gets done.

But simple formulas don’t always produce good results. Let Rachel Toor guide you through tips to of what to do when you get stuck.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/6-Ways-to-Beat-Writer-s/243587

How to Identify and Respond to Fundraising NOs

Posted on by proppec

One of the greatest challenges of being a development professional is dealing with rejection. The fact is, you are going to hear the word “No” a lot.

But the best fundraisers know not to take it personally and get right back on that fundraising horse. They also learn that sometimes a No can help you find your way to a Yes.

Here, Allison Gauss, defines the 9 types of fundraising nos and what to do with them.

https://www.classy.org/blog/how-to-identify-and-respond-to-fundraising-nos/

Alumni Engagement: What We’ve Gotten Wrong And How To Fix It

Posted on by proppec

At some level, every fundraiser knows that alumni engagement is an important driver of alumni giving. At the same time, the advancement profession seems perpetually perplexed by how to measure engagement and apply those measures to increase philanthropy. Why is that?

Generally speaking, advancement offices have access to a pretty accurate picture of who alumni were as students, but very little information on who they are now.

As a result, advancement professionals are primed to treat alumni as former students instead of getting to know them as mature adults. This leads to false assumptions about current alumni needs and the relevant steps a school might take to increase engagement by addressing those needs.

Different from alumni affinity, Dr. Jay Le Roux Dillon describes “Alumni Role Identity” in this series of blogs – a measure of a graduate’s level of connection to their alma mater and an indicator of their inclination to donate to same.

Part 1: https://www.salesforce.org/alumni-engagement-weve-gotten-wrong-fix/

Part 2: https://www.salesforce.org/higher-education-fundraising-culture-sameness-busting-3-massive-myths/

Part 3: https://www.salesforce.org/alumni-role-identity-new-way-alumni-donor-psyche/

Part 4: https://www.salesforce.org/past-webinars/alumni-engagement-scoring-science-tell-us-webinar/

6 assumptions you should make about donors

Posted on by proppec

Jeff Brooks takes guidance produced on customer experience and reviews it through the lens of a fundraiser because it’s a look at how people think and decide.

Here are the “6 components of human beings” with what each might mean for fundraisers to give you a powerful advantage.

https://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2018/03/6-assumptions-you-should-make-about-donors.html

Direct Mail – Dead or Alive

Posted on by proppec

These are dark times for direct mail fundraising. Response rates are down (and have been trending lower for more than a decade). At the same time, costs of paper, printing, and postage keep going up, usually faster than inflation.

So direct mail is dead, right? The sooner you stop using it for fundraising, the better. Right?

Not so fast.

Jeff Brooks takes a sober and non-panicked look tells at direct mail to see that it isn’t dead. It’s not even sick. But it’s changing, like everything else.

https://www.moceanic.com/2019/direct-mail-dead-or-alive/

10 Common Myths About Our Visual Brains

Posted on by proppec

Brain science is commonly taken into consideration when developing marketing and communication strategies, particularly concerning visual content. After all, the best way to influence behavior is to understand its drivers. And behavior is driven by our psychological brains. At the same time, basing a strategy on invalid data can quickly waste time and resources.

Unfortunately, when it comes to understanding our visual brains, plenty of myths clutter the published universe. To save everyone a lot of wasted effort, Samantha Lile at Visme
has debunked 10 common myths about our brains and their visual abilities.

https://visme.co/blog/common-myths-visual-brain/

Giving Day – The Ultimate Guide to Success

Posted on by proppec

A Giving Day is a 24 hour digitally driven fundraising and engagement campaign with the goal of rallying a university’s or nonprofit’s community behind a particular cause.

The original and most famous Giving Day is #GivingTuesday and has since been embraced by universites and nonprofits across the globe looking to run their own campaigns.

In this plan from Hubbub, you will gain a clear idea of the steps required to launch a successful Giving Day campaign. Much of this is targeted at universities, schools and colleges, but is applicable to the whole nonprofit sector.

https://www.hubbub.net/giving-day

Free Stuff! 51 Stunning Presentation Slides You Can Customize [Plus Templates]

Posted on by proppec

Creating a presentation powerful enough to stay in your audience’s mind is key whether you’re presenting to potential prospects, showing off your incredible KPIs at your board meeting or sharing best practise with other fundraisers at the next CASE conference!

Visme has put together an incredible selection of free presentation templates that will ensure you stand out.

https://visme.co/blog/creative-presentation-ideas/

Free Stuff! Really Good Emails

Posted on by proppec

More free stuff and this time we focus on email templates. Emails are a key method for non-profits to communicate with your supporters and getting the design right is key in getting your message read.

Really Good Emails is an amazing resource with over 4000 real email campaigns to inspire you PLUS if you sign up for free, the code behind the email for you to tailor to your needs.

https://reallygoodemails.com/

Free Stuff! Free tools for you – Hands-On Fundraising

Posted on by proppec

Every week, Mary Cahalane provides expert fundraising advice in her blog – I could easily reshare her blog here every week (hint – sign up to the Hands on Fundraising blog).

Anyway, Mary’s post at the beginning of the month really stood out for offering links to loads of free content to help fundraisers get creative. There are sites listed which offer free photos, photo editing, graphic design, office tools but what really stands out is the list of writing tools!

Miss it, miss out!

https://mcahalane.com/11390-2/

Retention is the New Acquisition

Posted on by proppec

While organizations focus on their development goal and raising money through major gifts, events, direct mail, grants and online, it is often stewardship and retention that fall by the wayside.

According to Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay, a 10% increase in donor retention can enhance the lifetime value of your donor base by up to 200%.

Those are sobering statistics and make it pretty clear what we should be focusing on. Here, Danielle J Vermenton provides 10 tips on how to embrace donor retention.

https://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/retention-is-the-new-acquisition/