6 Ways to Strengthen Your Relationships With Supporters

As a fundraising professional, you’ve heard countless pieces of advice about why and how to connect with your supporters: say thank you, write handwritten notes and be sure to do it all as swiftly as possible.

Most of the time, these discussions are rooted in a desire for increased donations. And this is understandable—after all, you rely on donations to drive your mission forward and make the world a better place.

But supporter relationships should be more than just a means to an end. While it’s true that stronger connections lead to more successful fundraising, your donors will be able to sense your inauthenticity if you’re only pursuing a payday.

By cultivating relationships with intentionality and sincerity, you form a strong community that your nonprofit can depend on. 

At Aly Sterling Philanthropy, we empower organizations to engage their communities, fundraise more effectively and plan for the future. Through our work as nonprofit consultants, we’ve compiled a list of recommendations to deepen your relationships with supporters:

  1. Put the donor first.
  2. Offer diverse opportunities for engagement.
  3. Maintain campaign-level energy throughout the year.
  4. Leverage supporter data.
  5. Craft a compelling story.
  6. Consider a nonprofit consultant.

As you develop your stewardship plan, remember that every organization and supporter base is unique. These tips are general enough to be appropriate for most nonprofits, but you should always take the time to tailor your strategies based on what you know about your donors. A nonprofit consultant can help you develop a stewardship plan that works for your unique audience.  With that in mind, let’s dive in.

Put the donor first.

As any happily married couple can tell you, a successful relationship is a two-way street. This is true for your donor relationships as well.

To be fulfilled, both partners need to be able to give and take. Your supporter is already doing their part by dedicating their time or resources to your organization. Therefore, your nonprofit must also invest energy back into the relationship and put the donor first whenever possible.

This analogy stretches a bit then when you recognize that large nonprofits must cultivate relationships with thousands of individuals, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.

Ensure a donor-centric approach is baked into the foundation of everything you do, from your communications efforts to your fundraising campaigns. 

Most importantly, confirm that you have a solid donor recognition plan in place. Your plan may include a physical display like a donor recognition wall, digital elements such as social media shoutouts or traditional handwritten notes. However you choose to thank donors, make sure your plan differentiates between giving levels for a targeted approach.

Then, even in communications that aren’t specifically intended to thank donors, you should continue to frame your supporters as central to everything you do. When you create your annual report or write your monthly newsletter, share your accomplishments from a plural perspective to inspire a feeling of community. The difference between “Our organization did this” and “We made this happen together” is a small but meaningful shift.

Offer diverse opportunities for engagement.

Supporters will feel more connected to your cause if they can take action in ways besides simply making a donation.

To further engage your community, offer diverse opportunities for interaction and connection, such as the following:

  • Volunteer opportunities. Give supporters a chance to contribute labor and energy to your mission. Depending on the nature of your organization, you may even be able to offer virtual activities for supporters to donate their time. 
  • Stewardship events. These events (like a virtual happy hour) give supporters the opportunity to bond and network with each other in addition to engaging with your team.
  • Social media campaigns. While you should always encourage supporters to follow and interact with you on social media, a specific campaign heightens the opportunity for participation.
  • Behind-the-scenes tour. Give supporters a glimpse of where the magic happens with a tour of your facility. You can do this via video conferencing or livestreaming if you aren’t able to host visitors in-person. 

If you aren’t sure what activities your supporters would like to participate in, it never hurts to ask! Consider putting together a survey that asks supporters to share their desires and preferences for interacting with your organization. Based on their feedback, you’ll be able to implement new programming that you already know will be in-demand.

Maintain campaign-level energy throughout the year.

During your biggest fundraising campaigns, you treat every activity with care and consideration. Each interaction, communication and ask are part of a broader plan. 

Extending this intentionality to your everyday operations will help you connect more deeply with your supporters.

At Aly Sterling, we call this attitude “campaign mentality,” and it essentially means you treat each day like you are in the midst of a capital campaign.

While this may sound exhausting, we believe wholeheartedly that this effort is worth it. Working with a campaign mentality will give your team extra urgency and purpose as you execute daily responsibilities. 

Additionally, a campaign mentality encourages you to prioritize stewardship rather than placing it on the backburner. And when you approach each conversation with a supporter with this heightened sense of commitment, your energy will be contagious. 

Leverage supporter data.

A better understanding of your current supporter base and any prospective donors will make your relationships more meaningful and sincere. To deepen your knowledge of supporters, you can analyze your existing donor database or conduct additional prospect research.

First, consider the information you already have on file. This data can help you evaluate your current engagement tactics—for instance, do supporters respond more favorably to direct mail or texting campaigns? What was the participation rate for last year’s year-end campaign? What do you know about supporters’ interests and motivations?

Instead of looking only at individual-level data or a broad overview, use this information to develop donor segments. Utilizing segmentation in your outreach efforts helps you create targeted and relevant communications that will resonate more strongly with each group.

In addition to making use of this existing data, you can also gather fundraising-specific information on current and potential supporters through prospect research. According to Double the Donation, prospect research helps your nonprofit determine a potential donor’s ability and desire to contribute to your cause.

Prospect research data generally falls into two categories:

  • Philanthropic indicators. These data points represent a donor’s warmth towards and interest in your nonprofit. Key philanthropic indicators include previous donations to your nonprofit and others, history of board involvement, and background information like hobbies and interests.
  • Wealth indicators. These markers reveal an individual’s financial capacity to give, including real estate ownership, stock holdings, past political contributions, and known business affiliations. 

Both types of data are essential to forming a complete picture of each prospect.

With prospect research, you’ll be better prepared to initiate conversations and make fundraising asks without overstepping or damaging relationships. This helps establish a culture of trust and respect. 

Craft a compelling story.

How do you tell the story of your nonprofit? 

Hopefully, you have some powerful constituent testimonials or volunteer stories up your sleeve that spotlight your work. For your story to be persuasive, you must be able to convey why your mission is important as well as empower supporters to contribute to that mission. 

When you tell the story of your nonprofit, make your donor the hero. This doesn’t mean a cape-wearing superhero, but rather the protagonist in your mission’s story. Your organization is simply the conduit by which your supporters are able to reach your community and make a difference. By representing your donor as the hero, you can more effectively call them to action. 

In addition to your written story, you can include multimedia elements to further demonstrate your work. When possible, feature photos and videos of your supporters making a difference. Even though you won’t be able to highlight every one of your donors, their presence as part of your story will make it easier for other supporters to see themselves in your narrative too.

Consider a nonprofit consultant.

Since donor relationships are foundational to your success as an organization, it’s worth considering seeking the advice of an expert. An experienced nonprofit consultant can bring a fresh perspective and seasoned advice to improve your stewardship strategies.

While it’s possible to strengthen your supporter relationships without external support, a consultant can help to amplify and accelerate your existing efforts.

Specifically, a nonprofit consultant can assist your organization with:

  • Crafting a donor recognition plan.
  • Making recommendations to improve donor retention.
  • Conducting prospect research to better understand existing and potential supporters.

Just be sure to select a nonprofit consultant with the right area of expertise. In the Aly Sterling Philanthropy guide to hiring a fundraising consultant, we explore who should be part of the decision-making process, how to find and assess a potential consultant, and the questions you should ask to confirm an appropriate fit. With the right consultant, you’ll be well-positioned to fortify your connections with donors. 


Every moment that your nonprofit invests in supporter relationships will pay dividends as your organization grows. With a community that is dedicated to the success of your nonprofit, in good times and bad, you’ll be prepared to weather any storm. These recommendations should put you on the right path to strengthen those critical connections. Best of luck!


About the Author: Aly Sterling

Long before Aly Sterling founded her eponymous consulting firm, she was solving the unique yet similar problems encountered by nonprofit organizations.

Her decision to start her own business in 2007 was driven by her belief in leadership as the single most important factor in organizational success, and her determination to work with multiple causes at one time to scale societal change.

Aly’s expertise includes fundraising, strategic planning, search consultation and board leadership development for the well-positioned nonprofit. She is regularly sought for comment by trade and mainstream media, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy and U.S. News & World Report. She has contributed to publications of BoardSource and The Governance Institute, as well as the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and The Giving Institute.

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Rebuilding and Reframing for Volunteer Management – Post COVID

As we begin to consider what our new normal will look like, remembering the roots of volunteerism and adapting them the new world is crucial. This evolution is not just essential for the good of our agencies, but for our profession as well.

We must be forward thinking. WE have to be the leaders to promote our programs and prove the value of engaging the support of volunteers.

Our fundamentals are rooted in recruiting, screening, training and the placement of volunteers. Many volunteer managers haven’t stopped their work through COVID-19 but many must reinvent and recreate their programs. Listed below are some tips to getting back to basics as you begin welcoming your volunteers back!

Needs Assessment

The first step is to conduct a needs assessment. There are four points to consider. What are the community needs, the organizational needs, the needs of the volunteer services program and the needs of the volunteers? Where is the sweet spot where those four aspects intersect? Can your volunteers serve these needs virtually or within social distancing guidelines? If not, can you consider an out of the box solution to move your program forward?

Recruiting

Once completing your needs assessment, plan to reassess current volunteer placements. Collaborate with your organization’s staff and leadership to consider all aspects of your organization’s needs and how volunteers can help serve those needs.

Screening and Training

Through this pandemic, we have learned that screening and training can be completed virtually. It isn’t our first choice, but it can be done well. There are great resources to help support the implementation of virtual screening and training, many are free or inexpensive. One such example is the free online webinars offered by the Texas Volunteer Management Conference (https://texasvmc.org).

Placement

Consider the need for facemasks, gloves and social distancing for volunteer placements. Also consider your own agency’s requirement, local and state requirements. Many organizations have successfully created opportunities to continue volunteer involvement while maintaining healthy social distancing practices. Consider current legal requirements, taking temperatures, updating the volunteer handbook and creating a COVID questionnaire and waiver. Solicit support from HR and your peers in the volunteer management community.

Leadership

Create your plan and present the post COVID-19 volunteer management plan to your organization’s leadership team. It is imperative to have buy in from leadership. Now, more than ever, volunteer professionals must insist on having a seat at the table.

As professional volunteer managers, the last thing that we want to see is the decline or elimination of opportunities to serve, opportunities to create advocates, opportunities to move the needle of our missions. Many of us have spent our careers being creative and constantly being problem solvers. We must continue to think out of the box with ways to connect our volunteers to the mission of our organizations.

While so much of this can be overwhelming, this is what we do. We adapt to the needs. The needs of the community haven’t stopped. In many respects, they’ve grown. Who’s hurting, who needs support? It might be our very own volunteers.

Disconnection and social distancing are unnatural to our work. At our core, we are connectors. How do we continue to connect our volunteers to meaningful work and our mission? While many of us have been paralyzed by fear, we cannot and will not give up!

Now, more than ever, we need to work together for the good of our profession and for the sake of those in need. There may be some uncertainty or even a bit of fear with the unknown future of volunteerism. That is precisely why we need to be leaders in our profession. We have the unique opportunity to be trailblazers, to CREATE the new normal for volunteerism. Our agencies and our volunteers are depending on our experience and our vision for the new face of service.

This is where peer support is imperative. Supporting each other professionally has never been more important. Together, we can overcome the challenges facing us. Let’s work TOGETHER to create what WE think the new normal should be for service and volunteerism.


Guest post by Stephanie Canfield, Leadership Community Advocate.

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5 Modern Tools to Improve Your Tech Stack

In 2020, it may feel like there is an abundance of obstacles standing between your nonprofit and accomplishing “the big picture.” A global pandemic, unprecedented economic downturn, a society more distant and divided than ever in recent memory— all challenges when it comes to making a difference.

For modern nonprofits, these challenges are far from insurmountable. With the right tools in your tech stack, you can improve relationship-building, fundraising, and internal operations. That’s where this guide comes into the picture!

At DNL OmniMedia, we help nonprofits discover and implement the software solutions necessary to reach their fundraising, stewardship, and advocacy goals. We’re going to cover five modern tools that your team can implement for more effective fundraising in 2021 and beyond:

  • Mobile Apps
  • Volunteer Management Software
  • Virtual Events Software
  • Grant Management Software
  • Time-Tracking Software

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that incorporating any new technology into your operations requires a careful evaluation and adjustment of your strategy as a whole. This is to ensure that all of your tools— existing and newly added— work cohesively together to reach your nonprofit’s fundraising and advocacy goals.

Nonprofit digital strategy isn’t the topic of this post, so we’re not going to dive into the details here. But, you can check out the DNL OmniMedia guide to building a nonprofit digital strategy to make sure you’re incorporating new tools intentionally and according to an effective strategic plan.

With that, let’s explore a few modern tools that can improve your nonprofit’s tech stack.

Mobile Apps

Think about the ways in which you interact with the outside world, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Browsing the internet, connecting via social media, and even video chatting— all of these methods of connecting are now handled through mobile phones.

At this point, 96% of Americans own a mobile phone, and 81% of Americans own a smartphone. It makes sense that interactions with the nonprofit sector are moving toward mobile accessibility as well! The following graphic from this guide about nonprofit apps shows a few interesting statistics about people’s interactions with mobile phones:

In particular, we want to highlight that 1 in 4 donors use smartphones to discover new nonprofits. If you’re not interacting with supporters on their mobile phones, you may be missing out!

Nonprofit mobile apps are an impactful tool that can be used to improve your tech stack, opening a new frontier of donor, volunteer, and advocate interactions. There are a variety of apps created specifically for nonprofits, including:

  • Peer-to-peer fundraising apps
  • Advocacy apps
  • Crowdfunding apps
  • Auction apps
  • Board management apps
  • Member management apps
  • Volunteer management apps

Beyond providing another outlet for engagement, mobile apps also empower you to connect with supporters who you may not have otherwise. After all, 1 in 5 Americans is a smartphone-only internet user— this means that the only way you’re going to connect with them on the internet is through their mobile phones!

Volunteer Management Software

Effective volunteer management is crucial to continue growing your volunteer program over time. However, with an increased need for volunteer assistance and a community that’s more physically distant than ever, an analog method of volunteer management won’t cut it anymore.

This is where volunteer management software comes into play. With this, you can automate key management tasks and connect with supporters near and far.

To choose an effective volunteer management software solution, seek features such as:

  • Intuitive interface for self-scheduling
  • Effective data management and custom reports
  • On-site check-in to manage in-person volunteers
  • Marketing tools such as social media sharing
  • Communication tools such as SMS messaging

But, how can you find the perfect volunteer management software for your organization? Prioritizing user-friendliness, scalability, and software support are great tips to start. For more tips to help find your perfect VMS solution, check out this blog post.

Virtual Events Software

This year has brought with it many challenges for the nonprofit sector. Some challenges, such as the economic downturn, can’t be overcome with technology alone. However, there is one challenge that you can solve with the incorporation of new software— the mass cancellation of events.

With the right virtual events software, you can get creative with online events to avoid canceling key fundraisers. There are a few different forms this could take:

  • Virtual Auction Software: With the right auction software, you can list items, live stream the auction event, collect bids, and facilitate guest checkout.
  • Virtual Conference Software: Conferences are exhaustive events, virtual or not. A dedicated virtual conference software is key to manage the many panels, speakers, and networking activities included in this type of experience.
  • Social Networks: Did you know that Facebook can be used to host virtual events? With the platform’s live-streaming and live donate tools, you can stream an experience and collect donations for the duration.
  • Video Conferencing Software: For simpler events, you may be able to utilize video conferencing software (such as Zoom) to conduct your experience. This would need to be partnered with an effective online donation tool for fundraising events.

The use of virtual events is hardly new— in fact, national nonprofits have been using virtual means to conduct their peer-to-peer fundraising events for quite some time now. However, the expansion of virtual events for the primary method of gathering together is unique to 2020. We recommend exploring the many possibilities for virtual fundraising events as you begin planning your 2021 calendar. To get started, check out this comprehensive GoodUnited guide!

Grant Management Software

This year, many nonprofits discovered the value of diversifying their revenue streams to combat the financial challenges caused by COVID-19. For some, pursuing grant funding was the key to staying afloat during the crisis. However, there’s no denying that grants are challenging to secure— even during times of economic prosperity.

Grant management software can be a game-changer when it comes to giving your proposals a competitive advantage. This software is created to help your team effectively manage grants from start to finish, or from the initial search and application process through the final implementation tasks.

Of course, not every grant management software solution is equal. We recommend seeking features such as:

  • Integrations with key databases, such as your nonprofit’s CRM
  • Multi-user access for team collaboration
  • Accounting and reporting capabilities for transparency
  • Grant tracking calendar to monitor progress and upcoming deadlines
  • Project management features to keep your team on track

Grant management is a highly customized process. Not only will each nonprofit have its own strategy, but each grant will as well! This is why we recommend working with a nonprofit consultant to create your grant management strategy. These partners can review your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy holistically to effectively incorporate grants. Then, they can help you customize your management software to carry out the most effective and efficient plan.

Time-Tracking Software

Last, but certainly not least, is a technology that’s already popular in the for-profit sector: time-tracking software.

Essentially, this is software that tracks your staff’s time to better understand the work they do on a day-to-day basis. But, why should your nonprofit start tracking time? Here are a few benefits it can provide:

  • Improved Staffing: You’ll understand exactly what your staff is spending time on and where you need to increase (or decrease!) time for various activities to make efficient use of your paid employees.
  • Increased Funding: You can be more transparent with funders and tell them exactly what their donations will go toward. This can be invaluable to raise future donations.
  • Simplified Audits: Audits are a common pain point for nonprofits when they are required to report on their expenses as they relate to specific programs. Time tracking handles some of that lift ahead of time, rather than collecting this information retroactively.
  • Better Program Management: You will understand the tasks that go into different programs and the overall cost of those programs. With this, you can better plan for future programming.

Additionally, these benefits extend beyond your staff as you can track volunteer time as well! By doing so, you can provide rewards to volunteers that have given a certain number of hours. And, you can use that data to fulfill potential volunteer grant requirements.


In summary, new nonprofit technology can drastically improve your nonprofit’s operations— from supporter engagement, to events capabilities, to internal operations. Technology can be a game-changer when it comes to reaching your nonprofit’s greatest goals. However, it’s not as simple as purchasing a new software license.

To truly have success with the platforms described above and other nonprofit tech solutions, consider working with a nonprofit tech consultant (such as the team at DNL OmniMedia!). This partner will ensure you have a holistic strategy to reach your goals, for which all of your solutions must work in tandem.


About the Author: Carl Diesing

Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.

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4 Tips for Building a Flexible Fundraising Strategy

Take a moment to think of your fundraising strategy like a rubber band.

If pressed, how much could you stretch this band? 

A rigid, unyielding rubber band might snap under tension. In this scenario, a lack of flexibility in your fundraising plan could make it much more difficult to bounce back from a crisis. Instead of quickly adapting to change, you’re forced to pick up broken pieces before starting from scratch. 

In contrast, a flexible fundraising plan will be more resilient. This rubber band can stretch and move to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances. 

We’ll go ahead and drop the analogy. An adaptable fundraising strategy will enable you to respond gracefully and creatively to unexpected challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At Aly Sterling Philanthropy, we partner with nonprofits to power strategic planning, fundraising, and board leadership solutions that allow them to thrive. Based on this extensive experience and our belief in the power of positivity, we recommend the following tips to enhance the flexibility of your fundraising strategy:

  1. Assess your current fundraising strategy.
  2. Lead with a strong case for support.
  3. Diversify your revenue streams.
  4. Offer versatile giving options.

While these suggestions are particularly applicable to the current circumstances, a strategic approach to fundraising will always be relevant. By embracing a fundraising plan that is adaptable, diverse and intentional, you’ll be well-positioned to drive your mission forward. Let’s get started.

  1. Assess your current fundraising strategy.

The best place to start when building a new fundraising strategy is evaluating the plan you currently have in place.

Is your current strategy sustainable and effective? Is it enabling you to reach your fundraising goals? Is it rigid and formulaic, or does it allow for adjustments as needs arise?

Dive into the data your nonprofit has collected from recent campaigns. If you already have a solid data management system in place, it should be simple to pull a report and evaluate the overall trends. Even if you have to take a little more time to compile a report manually, a deeper understanding of your current strategy will be well worth the effort.

This assessment will clarify which tactics are working well and which are underperforming or need improvements. Then, you can refocus your efforts on the most critical activities and make adjustments as needed.

While a full feasibility study isn’t practical unless you’re planning for a capital campaign, your data can still reveal a variety of actionable insights. For example, consider the following questions:

  • What is your donor retention rate year-over-year? What about campaign-to-campaign?
  • Have your recent fundraising goals been set at an attainable level?
  • What percentage of your supporters participated in your last campaign? How does this differ across different types of campaigns?
  • On what platform are your supporters most likely to engage with you? Do you have more success with email, direct mail or social media?
  • Do you have a defined donor recognition policy? How do you convey appreciation to different categories of donors? 

These are just a few of the questions to get you thinking about the state of your fundraising strategy. As you answer them with respect to 2020, take into account any challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you experienced setbacks, what would have made the adjustment process run more smoothly?

Then, use this information to set your goal. Even a flexible fundraising plan needs a target! With an ambitious but achievable fundraising goal, your team will be energized and motivated to make it happen. 

  1. Lead with a strong case for support.

Whether you’re preparing for a massive capital campaign or simply refreshing the text on your online donation page, you need a strong case for support.

This statement is what convinces donors why your nonprofit deserves their attention and contributions. Specifically, it should communicate your unique value proposition and share what sets your work apart from other organizations dedicated to similar causes. It should also align with your overall mission statement and strategic plan.

As you prepare your case for support, be sure to articulate the following elements:

  • A clear vision. Do you have a well-defined plan to solve a demonstrated problem?
  • A sense of urgency. Why should the prospect give now? 
  • An investment proposition. What results will the prospect’s gift be able to generate?
  • A call to action. How can the prospect help you achieve your vision?

Overall, a strong case for support builds trust and faith in your organization. When your donors trust that you’ll use their gift wisely, they will continue to have confidence in your work even if you need to make a change.

Additionally, it will be easier to adjust your fundraising strategy if you have a strong foundation to build upon. Your case for support can act as your north star, guiding your efforts even in a turbulent environment.

3. Diversify your revenue streams.

One sign of an inflexible fundraising plan is total dependence on just one or two funding sources. 

If your plan includes just a handful of major donors or relies on a large fundraising event, that could lead to a disastrous halt in your work if something falls through. Putting all of your fundraising eggs in one basket leaves you vulnerable to crisis or even just a change of heart.

By diversifying your revenue streams, your nonprofit will be more resilient and sustainable.

If the evaluation of your current fundraising strategy revealed little variation in your revenue streams, do your homework to explore new sources of funding. 

For example, funding from foundations, government entities and other grant-giving institutions can make a huge difference in your bottom line. However, since they can be extremely competitive, it’s best to treat grant funding as unpredictable. In other words, don’t count your grant dollars before they’re in the door!

You could also consider exploring donor-advised funds (DAFs) as a potential source of revenue. A donor-advised fund is a giving vehicle that holds charitable assets for future contributions. These accounts are attractive to donors due to their financial benefits, as well as for being a hands-off approach. DAFs are managed by sponsoring organizations including community foundations and commercial sponsors. If your nonprofit forms a relationship with one of these sponsors, you may be connected to dozens or even hundreds of donors.

As you target one or more of these sources, be sure to tailor your ask appropriately. While you should tie each request for funding back to the same case for support, the language and appeals you use should be customized to the recipient. Then, after you’ve secured the funding, create a plan for intentionally stewarding this new relationship. 

If this feels overwhelming on top of your usual workload, consider consulting an expert to help you identify and pursue new funding opportunities. As you start the consultant search, the Aly Sterling Philanthropy guide to hiring a fundraising consultant offers some helpful tips to find the right partner for your organization’s specific needs.

4. Offer versatile giving options.

In addition to diversifying your revenue streams, you should also diversify the opportunities that individual donors have to give. 

As you approach each fundraising conversation, you should have a number in mind based on your previous prospect research, gift range chart, and overall goal. But if the answer to that request is a no, come armed with alternatives. 

Think of these options less like a back-up plan and more as a solution for donors who are passionate about your mission but currently unable to make a major gift. You might present the following alternative giving opportunities:

  • Recurring gift program. Consider amping up your recurring gift program to create a predictable revenue stream. Even small monthly gifts can make an impact when multiplied over the course of the year, and they’re often more accessible to a wider range of your supporters.
  • Matching gifts. Many companies will match employee gifts to eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, but sometimes these programs are underutilized. According to re:Charity’s guide to matching gifts, somewhere between $4 and $7 billion dollars in matching gift revenue goes unclaimed every year. To maximize this potentially valuable funding source, spread awareness of matching gifts among your supporters or use a dedicated database to identify gifts that could be submitted for a match.
  • Pledged gifts. Allow donors to commit to supporting your cause at a future date without needing to pull out their checkbooks just yet. By counting on pledges of a certain amount later in the year, you can better plan for future funding while giving the donor time to plan for the gift.  

Loyal supporters will appreciate this flexibility if they experience any financial setbacks. And when the economy recovers (as it always does), your relationships with these supporters will still be thriving.  


Bonus Tip: Consider bringing in a consultant to provide expertise and perspective as you develop your flexible fundraising strategy. Most importantly, the right consultant can help you prioritize relationships with supporters and facilitate even deeper connections. This list of nonprofit consultants includes firms in different areas of expertise, including stewardship. Even if your exact plans for gift solicitation need to change, you’ll still need to rely on relationships to pursue your mission. 

As we move into 2021, it’s time to refocus your efforts and create a fundraising strategy that can weather any storm. By leading with relationships and a flexible approach, you’ll be better able to reach your fundraising goals. Good luck!


About the Author: Aly Sterling

Long before Aly Sterling founded her eponymous consulting firm, she was solving the unique yet similar problems encountered by nonprofit organizations.

Her decision to start her own business in 2007 was driven by her belief in leadership as the single most important factor in organizational success, and her determination to work with multiple causes at one time to scale societal change.

Aly’s expertise includes fundraising, strategic planning, search consultation and board leadership development for the well-positioned nonprofit. She is regularly sought for comment by trade and mainstream media, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy and U.S. News & World Report. She has contributed to publications of BoardSource and The Governance Institute, as well as the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and The Giving Institute.

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5 Strategies for Smarter Fundraising While Working from Home

Traditionally, the idea of working from home conjured images of lounging in sweatpants and less-than-stellar productivity. But as we’ve learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s possible to still accomplish key goals and drive missions forward outside the office.

With the right tools and processes, all kinds of organizations have been able to adapt to the work-from-home (WFH) environment with great success, and the nonprofit sector is no exception. Fundraising professionals have navigated uncharted territory to engage supporters, raise critical funds, and conduct day-to-day operations all from the comfort of home offices. 


As the year draws to a close, it’s time to take stock of your WFH plans and make adjustments to align with best practices. After all, the end of social distancing isn’t on the horizon anytime soon, and you don’t want to lose momentum. With powerful technology and data-informed strategies, you can still achieve your online fundraising goals while working from home.

At SalsaLabs, we specialize in helping nonprofits leverage technology to work more efficiently and boost their fundraising potential. We’ve seen how nonprofits in the field incorporate innovative tools into their WFH routines with great success. So, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help drive your virtual fundraising efforts forward:

  1. Use data to drive more effective communications.
  2. Explore diverse revenue streams.
  3. Host engaging virtual events.
  4. Leverage machine learning technology.
  5. Make use of marketing automation. 

While a remote work environment may not facilitate in-person conversations, there are still plenty of opportunities to connect with supporters through virtual means. Technology can help you build on your existing donor data for time-saving and informed outreach, which can create even more effective fundraising processes. Let’s jump in.

1. Use data to drive more effective communications.

When you can’t connect with your community in person, your online communications are even more critical. If a donor’s primary touchpoint with your nonprofit this year is via email, your messaging needs to make each individual feel recognized, appreciated, and capable of making an impact.

The best way to accomplish these goals is to leverage supporter data when crafting your campaigns. Instead of sending impersonal emails to everyone on your mailing list, you can target groups or even individuals for a more relevant and personalized message.

You can use available donor data to:

  • Create segments of donors. Create segments, or groups, based on key characteristics, then use these groups to send targeted messages. Studies show that segmentation can lead to up to a 760% increase in revenue! While the options for categorizing donors are nearly endless, you can sort groups by engagement type, giving preferences, or demographic information. For instance, you could start a campaign specifically targeting Gen Z supporters, or craft separate end-of-year thank-you emails to address volunteers, major donors, event attendees, and first-time donors in different ways.
  • Personalize messages to individuals. Adding a personal touch to outgoing messages can help your supporters feel seen and recognized. While adding the donor’s name to the subject line or greeting is a great start, you can go even further. Try incorporating details like a recent donation amount, event attendance history, or information specific to your mission (like a pet’s name if you work with an animal shelter). Marketing automation tools (which we’ll discuss in further detail later in this article) allow you to address each individual supporter without anyone needing to manually write in the information on individual messages.

These strategies allow you to take advantage of the valuable information in your donor database software for more engaging messaging and fundraising appeals. However, make sure you’re only using clean and well-organized data to execute these tasks. An email subject line addressed to the wrong supporter is worse than a generic one!

2. Explore diverse revenue streams.

This era of social distancing and economic uncertainty has proven the importance of diversifying your nonprofit’s revenue streams.

If you only rely on one fundraising platform, like an in-person event or a handful of major donors, you’ll be more vulnerable to unexpected changes.

A diverse range of revenue streams will help ensure your fundraising strategy is resilient, sustainable, and less susceptible to risks.

A few creative options worth exploring are:

  • Recurring gift campaign. Encouraging supporters to schedule recurring gifts can help you create a predictable stream of revenue. You may even consider providing branded items as a thank-you for their ongoing support as part of a membership program.
  • Grant opportunities. In the wake of COVID-19, grant-seeking institutions and corporations have both pledged to make funds more readily available to nonprofits. You can conduct research to look for opportunities in your area or look for large-scale programs by national funders.
  • Corporate philanthropy. Matching gifts programs are a remote-friendly way to maximize revenue from your supporters. According to this Double the Donation roundup of matching gift statistics, between $4 and $7 million dollars in eligible matching gifts go unclaimed every year! By focusing your efforts on matching gifts, you’ll unlock new opportunities for funding without much extra work for your team. To do this, you can create a campaign to spread awareness about matching gifts among your supporters, manually screen donations for matching gift eligibility, or use a comprehensive matching gift automation platform to streamline the process.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising. Even though you can’t get together in person, your supporters can still use virtual strategies to share your organization with family and friends. This strategy allows you to leverage the networks of your supporters and reach an even larger audience.

By incorporating one or more of these strategies alongside your current fundraising efforts, you’ll be more prepared to survive if one of the streams dries up.

3. Host engaging virtual events.

While you may not be able to gather donors together in person, you can still create an exciting and community-focused virtual event. 

Not only can virtual events be powerful fundraisers, but they’re also opportunities to share your work with supporters, foster connections between supporters and your mission, and encourage supporters to form bonds amongst themselves. 

As this guide discusses, virtual events are often more economically feasible and widely accessible. Therefore, your organization will be able to engage even more attendees for a lower cost, boosting your profit.

You can host a fundraising-focused event like an online auction or virtual walk, or you can host virtual stewardship events. Any kind of virtual event can be used for stewardship if you don’t charge an admission fee—consider a virtual happy hour, book club, or dinner party as a few potential ideas.

While the primary goal of a stewardship event won’t be to raise money, it’s still an important component of a relationship-based fundraising strategy. Forming deeper connections now will prepare you for making more effective asks in the future.

If you decide to host a virtual event, be sure to plan ahead for potential technical issues. Share connection information with supporters well in advance, provide plenty of tech support for potential questions, and troubleshoot your virtual event platform ahead of time.

4. Make use of marketing automation. 

Marketing automation has been a growing nonprofit trend in recent years, and for good reason: it enables teams to work more effectively with limited resources. Marketing automation can help you level-up your remote fundraising efforts.

While marketing automation isn’t a substitute for a solid foundation of data, it unlocks the ability to contact the right person with the right message at the right time—without a staff member needing to hover over the send button. As long as you start with a solid understanding of your supporter base, automation can help you accelerate your outreach.

You can automate many aspects of your marketing strategy, including posting to social media, capturing leads via your website landing pages, or sending emails. One of the most popular ways to utilize automation technology is through an email stream, also known as a drip campaign.

Here’s how an email stream would work, with the example of a potential donor named Jack:

  1. Jack lands on your nonprofit’s website and signs up for your email newsletter.
  2. Jack receives a “welcome series” of emails once per week with more information about your nonprofit’s mission, current programs, ways to get involved, and how to donate.
  3. The series runs at a specified cadence until Jack completes the desired action (making a donation) or until a certain period of time has elapsed.

Your series could be just a few emails or it can be 10 emails over the course of a few months. All of those messages are sent without anyone on your staff actually pressing the send button, and, if crafted in a compelling way, can generate significant funds for your organization.

Beware, automation can’t fix a message that’s not relevant or interesting to your audience! Make sure each element of your automated campaign is based on the data you have available. Incorporating some of the other tips on this list (like personalization and segmentation) will help you do this.

5. Leverage machine learning technology.

Another powerful way tech can boost your fundraising while working from home is through machine learning. Essentially, machine learning allows computers to make sense of large data sets (like the information in your donor database) to find patterns and make predictions.

For example, machine learning can help you to:

  • Identify potential major donors.
  • Tailor ask amounts to a donor’s giving history.

One of the most advantageous aspects of machine learning is that it continues to improve over time. As more data is available, the analysis and predictions become more accurate. After all, it’s called machine learning for a reason!

To consider a specific example, Salsa’s SmartEngagement technology uses machine learning to power predictive analytics for donation pages. By taking into account all of the historical data you have on a supporter, the program can display optimized ask amounts on your donation form. This helps to increase conversion rates and to avoid the risk of missing out on funds from an ask that was too low.

If you have a large quantity of supporter data to sift through, consider looking for a CRM that offers machine learning capabilities so you can draw insights more efficiently. 


This year, nonprofit fundraisers have needed to adjust their plans and reinvent traditional strategies. While normal in-person fundraising is unlikely to resume for the time being, there are still plenty of ways you can raise money for your mission while staying safe. With these tech-savvy tips, your fundraising staff will be well-positioned for success. Good luck!

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7 Categories of Online Nonprofit Courses + Why You Need Them

Working for a nonprofit, whether as a staff member or a volunteer, opens a wide variety of opportunities. You can make a meaningful difference in the world in an area you love. To make the most effective impact, however, you need effective training and education in a wide range of areas.  To see the bigger picture and where your important work fits in, consider education in these seven areas:

  1. Mission. 

Nonprofits are all about their missions. As a volunteer or staff member, you’re likely there because of the mission. But it’s not good enough to say, “I want to stop cancer because my grandmother had it,” or “I enjoy music and I want others to, too.” That’s good. It’s well-intended. But it’s not what the people who benefit from your mission deserve. They deserve expertise

Becoming expert in your mission’s discipline enables you and your colleagues to see beyond the obvious benefits of your nonprofit’s role. You work for a concert hall and enjoy music. Great, but why? Are there psychological benefits? What determines your audience’s preferred genre? How does the business of music impact what you can offer and when? 

It’s a good idea to direct your nonprofit team (both paid staff and volunteers) toward any online courses relating to your nonprofit mission so that each individual has a solid foundation of knowledge to build from. The more expertise you build, the better you can offer exactly what your clients want and need. 

  1. Empathy. 

And speaking of clients, what are their lives like? It’s essential to see your mission from your client’s point-of-view. If you work in a home for people with spinal cord injuries, can you work a day in a wheelchair? Now you see the physical barriers and emotional obstacles in their life from their point-of-view. You may not be able to see everything, but you get a taste of what you need to do to serve them better. Your empathy will give power to your advocacy.

That being said, you might want to invest in some high-quality online courses to better educate your team on your client base. 

  1. Revenue

Nonprofits run on revenue. Don’t be afraid of this. There’s a revenue-earning method for every nonprofit, and every personality. Start with knowing your options, and determine what makes an option best for you. Do you have volunteers who love to go to parties? Consider events – whether in person or virtual. How about entrepreneurs? Maybe your nonprofit should consider a business venture, like a thrift shop? Are you writing geeks? Then grants. 

And don’t be afraid to volunteer to help raise money. Consider that in the worst-case scenario, you might have to ask. But how long does it take to say, “can you help our mission with a gift….?” And for your prospect to respond? Ten seconds, tops. But you even don’t have to do that to help. Can you provide an introduction? Can you give a tour? Can you write a thank-you note? There are LOTS of ways to help raise money that has nothing to do with asking.By providing access to powerful online resources about fundraising and revenue-building to educate your team, you can ensure everyone knows how they can help most effectively.

  1. Accounting

You have money from all that great revenue generation. Now it’s time to spend it, right? Not so fast. You have a budget, and maybe that’s a pledge over time, so there’s cash flow to worry about. It’s essential to grasp the basics of how money moves through your organization.  But it doesn’t end there. For a nonprofit, accounting is about more than budgets and cash flow. It’s about transparency

If world peace was declared on the same day someone accused your nonprofit of misspending funds, which would take the headline? Peace would wait. 

In the end, nonprofit accounting is about the public’s trust. It’s never enough to say you spent your money right. You have to prove it through proper nonprofit accounting. And to avoid mistakes and scandals like these, it’s a good idea to make sure your whole team has a basic knowledge of key accounting basics such as through educational online resources.

  1. Technology

Technology isn’t about big information systems anymore. It’s about having the skills to express your nonprofit’s mission through a PowerPoint, or sending out a short video about your nonprofit’s latest accomplishment on Facebook. Can you leverage the latest program to ask for donations through a text message, or hold a committee meeting on video? 

These aren’t optional skills anymore. Luckily, there’s an online course or two available for pretty much any tech skill you might need to learn!

  1. Marketing

It annoys a lot of people to think that everything is about marketing, but it is. How you answer the phone. The signature line on your email. What you tell your neighbor about your nonprofit. The furniture in your waiting room. They all form an impression of your mission and your competence to deliver that mission – whether your phone-answering skills have anything to do with your mission or not! 

But nonprofits carry a special burden in their marketing. While in most businesses, the person or company who pays for your service or product is the same one who uses it, chances are in a nonprofit, they’re different. The “customer” using the service, whether you call that person a client, patient, student, constituent, or something else, pays at most just a part of the service provided. Others tend to pay the rest. 

For example, a homeless person probably won’t be asked to pay for their night’s lodging in the shelter. The nonprofit would ask a donor or earn the money through their annual holiday ball. Even students at nonprofit-backed universities or patients at nonprofit hospitals don’t pay the full cost of the services provided. Donors, bookstores, gift shops, food service, and insurance, and donors all pick up some of the tab.    

So, it’s not just that a nonprofit does marketing, it’s important to consider to whom they are marketing – the one who uses the service, or the one who pays for it. The right online resources can help you make those distinctions and learn more about implementing an effective marketing strategy.

  1. Leadership

By their nature, nonprofits are about leadership. All nonprofits exist to address, and take leadership, in some area that either government or businesses don’t. Was there a disaster? The Red Cross is on the ground. Is pollution running into a neighborhood creek? Look for your local watershed association to take the lead. Does your school need a playground? How about the parent-teacher organization? 

There’s also leadership within your nonprofit. Nonprofits are known for being very “flat” organizationally. In other words, when compared to business and government, there tend to be fewer people in the hierarchy. Why? There’s great pressure to put as much as possible into the mission itself. 

What’s that have to do with leadership? Ever hear a nonprofit worker say, “I wear many hats”? Nonprofit staff and volunteers are asked to take on many more responsibilities than the equivalent person in other organizations. Therefore, in some form or another, everyone is a leader in some aspect of their work. They may not be standing at the head of the organization, shouting “charge!” but they could be one volunteer leading a team of others, or a staff person leading a team of staff and volunteers on a special project. In nonprofits, there’s leadership room for everyone.

And what encourages nonprofit volunteers and staff members to take the next step to becoming nonprofit leaders? You guessed it—online courses.

So here’s the big question: can you run, work or volunteer for a nonprofit without the above? It’s possible, but as you get to know your clients and their needs, you’ll want to serve them more effectively

You’ll want more expertise in your mission, to see things through your community’s eyes, find money to do more, build the public’s trust in your work, use technology more efficiently, communicate your mission farther and wider, and better lead your team. 

It won’t happen all at once, but it can happen by embracing ongoing education for you, your friends, and your colleagues. 


About the Author: Matt Hugg

Matt Hugg is an author and instructor in nonprofit management in the US and abroad. He is president and founder of Nonprofit.Courses (https://nonprofit.courses), an on-demand, eLearning educational resource for nonprofit leaders, staff, board members and volunteers, with hundreds of courses in nearly every aspect of nonprofit work.

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A Reflection: Volunteering Transformed

I’m a giver. Sure you may call it codependent, but I like to think of it as giving.

I tend to prioritize other’s needs above my own. The good is that I get a lot of satisfaction out of volunteering.  The bad, well, I’d be more than happy to share with you details about the bad part, but only if I could pay for an hour of your time once per week.

I started volunteering at a young age. As a kid I’d spend summer days supporting physically disabled kids with my mother instead of hanging out with my friends. I spent Thanksgivings feeding the less fortunate. 

At an early age volunteering became an embodiment of who I am.

I give to the homeless. I always acknowledge those less fortunate and feel awkward when I walk by without giving them a little something.

I volunteer for shelters, community efforts and various non-profits. I go to events and work 10-12 hour volunteer shifts for days on end with nary a complaint.

But then a global pandemic descended upon us and suddenly things have changed.

It’s weird. When other disasters have hit in the past, I’d be driven to volunteer. Immediately after the Northridge quake I began efforts to search and rebuild.  The morning after the Rodney King LA Riots, I went down to Watts and Compton and started cleaning and rebuilding.  I did fundraising after 9/11 and food drives in the 2008 recession.  I am always eager to help and give back.

But in a global pandemic?

No thanks.

 I’ve found myself in an uber-selfish mode. I  am scared to help.   I am more hesitant to give to the needy because I don’t want to risk sickness. I am more hesitant to volunteer for organizations or events because I don’t want to be in crowds.   But the irony of this is that one of the most selfless things one can do these days is to avoid volunteering in crowds with others.  It’s important that we don’t co-mingle until we’re on the other side of COVID-19.

However, once there is a vaccine, will my mindset change?  It’s so easy to be selfish, to stay stuck in my own little world.  It’s so easy to stay scared even when the fear should subside.

In the end, we still don’t knows the long term impact this virus will have on volunteering. 

Because of it’s ease in spreading disease, cash is quickly becoming a thing of the past. If we move even further to a cashless society, what happens to the homeless and mentally ill who live off the generosity of others?

Will it be more difficult for events to get volunteers to help? Have we just knocked off the entire 65+ age group from ever volunteering again?

Will face masks and gloves be common place for volunteers? Health checks for all? Will higher risk people stop volunteering for fear of disease? Will healthy people stop volunteering for fear of the higher risk people?

The supplies alone may cost more for organizations to prepare for volunteers. So the ones who can’t afford the supplies – the ones who are in most need of help – may have the hardest time getting volunteer support.

I definitely can’t see into the future but I know how I feel now. And my feelings are currently on the “heck no” side of the desire to volunteer spectrum.

I suspect that will change as time goes by. But we are in a time of cultural transition, the result of which could be a significant shift in human behavior.

We are being secluded on our homes. We are rightfully being fed fear of physically interacting with others.

But we can lose site of who we are are and soon, I can only hope, the selfishness currently required to survive transforms back into an urgent need to help. And once again we can volunteer.


About the Author: Jeff Matlow

Jeff is the founder of imATHLETE.  He’s got a really good newsletter about best practices that you should sign up for here: bit.ly/IAmJeff

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Technology & Events: Planning for the Best & Preparing for the Worst

This is a guest blog post from our friends at Saffire, a platform for integrated, contact-less ticketing for events and venues. Thank you to Cassie Roberts Dispenza for leading a webinar on this topic and sharing her final thoughts here!


As 2020 continues to go on (and on and on and on!) most of our friends in the event industry have been impacted in one way or another by the Covid outbreak. For almost everyone, this means cancelled events and lost revenue. At Saffire, we are constantly looking for ways that technology can afford new opportunities for our clients and this year is no different! While some of the tools available to you may not be your first choice in producing events, we’ve come to terms with the fact that in order to survive we all have to adapt to the opportunities available.

Here are just a few ways that you can use technology to turn your brand in to a revenue producing machine in 2020:

  • Ecommerce – Even if your event was canceled, there are still SO many things you can sell online. Create a “festival in a box” with goodies from your 2020 event and your sponsors. Allow patrons to support you with donations with tools like Patreon. Typically on these transactions, small gifts are given to donors, which can be a way to encourage donations. (Think like a bumper sticker for a $2 donation or a T-Shirt for a $20 donation, etc.) You can also set up virtual shopping on your website with your vendors. Drive up “to go” festival food events have also been profitable for many of our clients. You may even be able to sell tickets to next year’s event super early! We’ve seen the most success with people who offer a generous refund policy. Use your online carts to their fullest potential!

  • Socially Distanced Events – While you may not be able to manage a virtual or socially distanced event the same way as you would an in person event, we’ve seen a lot of festivals have success. In virtual races, participants are encouraged to bike or run at their own convenience on their own route. They are often still mailed a race t-shirt or medal once they’ve completed a race. Other socially distanced events are becoming popular too—you can arrange for drive thru Christmas or Fall Festival displays or drive in movies. Online registration or tickets are easy to implement through your own website, ticketing provider or services like Google Forms. Virtual events via Vimeo and Facebook Live can also generate revenue for events you may host live on social media. Even if you don’t do a password protected event, revenue can still be generated via tips or donations on apps like PayPal or Venmo. In many cases, viewers like this low pressure option to be able to donate an amount they prefer as they’re watching, rather than having to buy a ticket in advance.  
  • Social Media – Our tried and true social media accounts can serve as a way to stay connected to our loyal followers on any of the above intiatives, even if you didn’t get to see them in person this year. Invite a sponsor or two to host a contest – give them credit and give prizes to your followers! It keeps your sponsors engaged and may be a way to keep some of your commitments to them for 2020. Social media ads are drawing a lot of attention right now because everyone is glued to their devices! While many brands have held back on ads, we encourage you to move forward with yours! (Making sure your messaging is considerate of the times of course.) Since ads are not in as high of demand right now, they may actually be less expensive. Finally, make sure to utilize stories and Live features as “in the moment” content. This is what your audience is most likely feeling like they’re missing at the moment—something with human contact!
  • Software Advancements – If you are authorized to have an in-person event in 2020, it’s possible that there will be new regulations for event capacities to control crowds or more advanced selling systems to avoid the exchange of cash. Many technology & ticketing companies are offering new ways to manage these requirements with things like capacity tracking software and contactless selling terminals. Often times having these types of systems in place can help convince your local officials that you are prepared to host events safely again!

It takes a little creativity and thinking outside the box to launch safe and legal events during these times, but the extra efforts can really pay off. You may even uncover new ways to make or save money that you will carry with you in to future years of your event.

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Developing Donor Relationships: Top 5 Best Practices

Nonprofits tend to have a bad habit of viewing their donors like piggy banks or ATMs, reaching out to them only when the organization needs funding for their newest project or impending shortfall. 

While your donors are happy to help a good cause, in order to advance your mission through effective funding, you need to take your interactions with donors to the next level by building relationships. This is especially important during the age of COVID-19. 

Continuing to show your supporters during difficult times (especially during economic hardship where they may not be able to contribute) that you still care about their well-being shows that you’re willing to stick by supporters’ sides through thick and thin. It’s the opposite of treating them like a personal piggy bank. They’re more likely to stick by your organization’s side for the long-haul in return. 

Why is it important to develop relationships? 

Developing relationships with your donors is the first step to enhancing your long-term fundraising strategy. 

Having a relationship with supporters will help you cultivate lower-level supporters for higher giving levels, show your appreciation for support, and collect feedback about your services. 

But how do you start this process? We’ve compiled our top five tips to developing relationships with your nonprofit’s supporters. These tips include:

  1. Get donors involved with organizational activities. 
  2. Keep track of key donor metrics. 
  3. Ask your donors for their advice. 
  4. Don’t always ask for money. 
  5. Keep interactions personal. 

The first step to developing effective relationships is investing in a donor database designed for enhancing engagement. This will help you compile a donor-centric strategy from the outset of your interactions with supporters. From there, you can dive deeper into our strategies for relationship development.

1. Get donors involved in organizational activities. 

Getting donors involved with the various activities and opportunities your nonprofit offers is our first tip to develop healthy relationships. It’s hard to build a relationship with an organization that supporters only interact with online. You miss out on heartfelt human interaction. 

That’s why it’s important to encourage this human connection as much as possible. Donors should meet your key nonprofit players, such as your major gift officer, volunteers, board members, and executives. 

To create these opportunities, we recommend that your nonprofit try the following strategies: 

  • Provide volunteer opportunities. Supporters are more likely to feel connected to your cause when they get to see it up close. Leveraging volunteer opportunities creates strong connections as supporters meet other passionate staff and volunteers. Plus, you’re accomplishing goals for your mission. 
  • Invite supporters to events. Pre-coronavirus events provided in-person opportunities to meet your team while everyone gathered together for a fun experience. Now, virtual events are all the rage! Your nonprofit can create these personal experiences and engage your supporters while they tune in from the comfort of their homes. 
  • Create engaging conversations. Simply talking to your donors is a great way to get them involved with your organization and help them feel more connected. We recommend calling your supporters so that they have a personal interaction and back-and-forth conversation with your team members. Ask for feedback, invite them to participate in virtual events, or simply inquire about their well-being in these conversations. 

Make sure to keep track of your interactions with your supporters to help guide future communications. In order to do this, you’ll need access to a comprehensive donor database. You should be able to build out donor profiles with information about their event participation, donations, volunteer hours, feedback provided, and any and all communications. This will help guide communications and opportunities promoted in the future. 

2. Keep track of key donor metrics. 

As much as we wish we could provide the same level of attention to each and every one of our donors, many times we must prioritize. There’s just not enough time in the day to frequently engage in one-on-one conversations with every single supporter of your organization. 

That doesn’t mean your engagement strategy shouldn’t incorporate outreach to every one of your supporters. Your mid-tier and major donors may simply demand more of your attention and virtual face-time than lower-level donors.

To understand who your top-priority donors are, you need access to some key donor metrics. For instance, you may look at data in a donor’s profile to indicate metrics like: 

  • Donation growth. Look to see how a supporter’s engagement has changed with your organization over time. Has their donation amount increased as they’ve gotten more involved?
  • Engagement score. Some donor database software will provide an engagement score for each supporter, which takes into account their frequency of engagement, latest interaction, and more to show how involved they are with your nonprofit. 
  • Generosity score. A generosity score is calculated using prospect research. It provides an indication of the gift level a donor could reach based on wealth metrics like stock holdings, real estate, and business affiliations.
  • Average gift size. While the generosity score is great to measure prospective donations, you should also be sure to look at the current average giving level to better understand where they are in their giving now. 
  • Gift frequency. Even if a donor is only giving you $5 or $10, the fact that they are doing so multiple times a year, or even monthly as a part of a recurring donation program, is a stronger engagement metric than a single annual gift of an equal amount.

Keep in mind that your lower-level donors now might have more capacity to give in the future. Therefore, they shouldn’t feel forgotten. Set up engaging email campaigns and invite them to engaging, community-wide virtual events to keep them involved with your initiatives. 

Be sure to also conduct prospect research about your supporters. This will provide additional information that you can use to identify high-priority donors with great affinity to give. If you’re interested in learning more about research analytics that indicate a donor’s affinity to give, check out this guide

3. Ask your donors for their advice.

Donors give to nonprofits because they value the work that the nonprofit does. However, you can’t expect this value to be one-sided. Just as your donors value your nonprofit, you need to show that you also value your supporters. 

One key way to show that you value the input and opinions of your supporters is to ask for their advice and feedback. 

This helps supporters get involved on another level because they have a say in the internal operations of your organization.

Plus, you may have supporters with skills that will fill some gaps in your nonprofit’s strategy. Consider the following examples: 

  • If your donors have ample marketing experience, they may be able to provide advice about your nonprofit’s outreach campaigns. Just be sure to maintain your brand in these campaigns.
  • Maybe you have some tech-minded supporters who can help you revise and improve your website design for better visitor engagement. 
  • Donors may work as writers or designers, in which case you may recruit them to donate some time helping you edit promotional materials and communications for your nonprofit. 

Discover details like this in conversation with your supporters or by analyzing their business affiliations. When you learn about this supporter information, be sure to save the data in the donor profiles in your nonprofit’s CRM.

If you’re looking for fundraising software that goes past raising money and will help guide your nonprofit through this key information, check out this buyer’s guide by Bloomerang

4. Don’t always ask for money. 

When nonprofits consider their interactions with supporters, they frequently only think about the last time they asked for money. Asking for donations over and over again may exhaust your donors. 

When you’re reaching out to your supporters and really focusing on building relationships, you’ll have other goals for conversation besides just asking for more and more money.

Get creative with the types of communication you send to donors. For instance, you might choose to send messages about:

  • Success stories. Tell those who give to your nonprofit about the impact their involvement has made for others. Success stories appeal to the emotional connection supporters have with your nonprofit. 
  • Advocacy opportunities. Ask for a different type of involvement. By signing a petition or participating in a click-to-call campaign, your supporters are helping your nonprofit without dipping into their wallets. For a guide on advocacy, check out Double the Donation’s resource.
  • Relevant news. If there’s something in the news that directly pertains to your nonprofit’s mission, tell supporters about it! Make sure they feel good about supporting a nonprofit whose mission relates to a newsworthy cause.
  • Upcoming events. Remind your supporters about upcoming virtual events and activities. If you are hosting a virtual event, tell supporters about the unique experience it will bring and how they can access your live streamed video. 
  • Volunteer opportunities. Tell supporters about the opportunities you offer to contribute time rather than money. This is an especially important strategy to engage your Millennial supporters, who tend to view contributions of time equally valuable as monetary contributions. 

Asking for things other than money emphasizes to your supporters that your nonprofit prioritizes engagement first. It’s easy to view organizations that prioritize money as greedy or rapacious. However, those who focus on the engagement of supporters come across as more humane and caring about those who support them. 

5. Keep interactions personal.

When you get into the nitty-gritty of communication with your supporters, one of the best ways to show them that you care is to make sure all messages have a personal touch. 

This means that rather than sending the same message out to all of your supporters, you should make sure to include details in the communications that signal to the supporter that the message was intended specifically for them. Some strategies to incorporate these details include: 

  • Address donors by name in all communications. Make sure your software supports this idea. There’s nothing less personal than addressing a letter or email, “to whom it may concern.” 
  • Make personal notes about donors to pull into conversations. Keep notes in their profile in your donor database about family members, pets, and past interactions. This shows that you remember personal details about each individual supporter. 
  • Consider the trends in giving and marketing response so that when you reach out to supporters, you can offer them their preferred method of communication and preferred platforms for giving. 

Personal interactions are how you show your supporters that you care about their individuality. While sometimes supporters may overlook these little steps, they’re sure to notice if you miss the opportunities for personalized messages. 


Your supporters are much more than just piggy banks for your nonprofit. They provide the tools and support that you need to succeed. Building a relationship with them is a two-way street. Just as they work to get to know your nonprofit and your mission, you need to work to get to know them. 

With these five tips, your organization is on its way to better functioning relationships with donors. Good luck!


About the Author: Jay Love

Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang

He has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.

Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.

He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.

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4 Proven Tips to Improve Board Member Communication

For nonprofits, it can be easy to focus on the mechanics of running an organization and unintentionally overlook the role that communication plays in your success. With innumerable outreach platforms available at their disposal, nonprofits are in a good position to maximize productivity and reach their goals, but only if they use these channels in a strategic way.

Strong communication skills are a vital component for nonprofit board members. By keeping an open line of communication, your members will cultivate a spirit of collaboration, enhance decision-making abilities, and stay true to the organization’s mission while protecting its reputation. If there’s a lack of efficient communication in the boardroom, it can lead to serious issues that run deeper than ineffective meetings.

With all that rides on effective board operations, communication is not an area that nonprofits can afford to overlook. So your board can continue guiding you toward fulfilling your mission, we’ve compiled four easy-to-implement tips for improved board member communication:

  1. Choose the right board communication tools.
  2. Focus on developing trusting relationships.
  3. Clearly define roles and responsibilities.
  4. Proactively document meetings.

Ready to foster a spirit of collaboration among board members? Let’s dive in!

1. Choose the right board communication tools.

Nonprofit boards often find it important to have a viable platform that enables seamless communication among its members. The software you use to communicate with your board serves as the foundation of your strategy. As such, you should spend time choosing the right tools to streamline operations, which will prove invaluable as your board grows and pursues its strategy. 

Overall, an effective nonprofit board portal will centralize communication, so board members can communicate both during and between meetings. This way, you can focus on leading and your board can focus on governing.

If you’ve never invested in board software or you’re looking to revamp your toolkit, you may need assistance to kick off your search. Let’s explore a few top features that will help your team streamline communications:

  • Agenda building tools – Make your meetings more focused by creating a strong agenda. Your board software should allow you to quickly build and share meeting agendas so everyone can come fully prepared with insightful thoughts. Plus, some platforms will allow you to take minutes directly on your agenda, so you can ensure every topic is thoroughly covered.
  • Meeting scheduling tools – Determining an agreeable time can be one of the most frustrating parts of lining up meetings. With a board portal that offers scheduling capabilities, you can easily locate the best possible meeting time for each of your members and save time that can be better used discussing important initiatives.
  • Video capabilities – Right now, organizations are forced to comply with social distancing recommendations in order to protect their board members. This means shifting to virtual meetings for the time being, which removes a much-needed face-to-face element. Ensure your board meeting software offers video conferencing tools so that board members can accurately gauge each other’s thoughts throughout meetings. Learn more effective tactics and tools for virtual meetings with this helpful guide.

Prioritizing the above features in your search will serve as a great starting point. Whether during meetings or between them, your board must have a flexible and reliable way to communicate. Otherwise, time-sensitive decisions will be delayed and your nonprofit will surely experience setbacks.

2. Focus on developing trusting relationships.

Your board’s communication relies heavily on strong relationships and a foundation of trust. However, this doesn’t occur overnight. Rather, trust is developed over time through mutual experiences and open conversations. By intentionally developing relationships, your board members will feel appreciated and will likely want to continue volunteering in order to advance your cause well into the future.

To maximize the effectiveness of your communication plan, try out the following tips for developing trustworthy relationships:

  • Communicate often, not just during board meetings. Having intentional conversations around initiatives can put you on the path to success. Sit down with individual board members to gauge their thoughts on organizational improvements as well as potential challenges that they could see arising. You may even consider lining up get-togethers outside of the boardroom (such as an annual retreat) to engage in some team-building exercises in a more relaxed environment. These steps will proactively communicate that you value your volunteer board members’ hard work.
  • Assure board directors that communication is confidential. Much of the nonprofit board’s work is confidential. To protect sensitive information, ensure your board portal enables security features and allows members to communicate without worry. This will add a level of trust among members and open up the floor for proactive discussion between meetings.
  • Create a culture of collaboration. A positive boardroom culture involves a certain level of inclusiveness and openness to all perspectives. It should reflect a collegial environment where full participation and dissenting opinions are encouraged and accepted at face value, rather than being immediately shot down. An open environment will work wonders for sparking motivation among your board. Remember, board directors are expected to support decisions even if they disagree with them behind closed doors, so do your best to invite everyone to voice their opinions.

The nature of your relationships is a good indicator of whether or not your board exercises good communication. By intentionally building trustworthy relationships, you’ll create a collaborative team that’s willing to work together to advance your cause.

3. Clearly define roles and responsibilities.

One fatal mistake that some nonprofits make is glossing over the duties and expectations for new volunteer board members and leadership. For instance, it’s often expected that directors make personal donations and use their personal and professional networks to advance the organization’s mission. It’s best to communicate your expectations upfront so as not to run into confusion later. Otherwise, you risk compromising members’ experiences and hosting ineffective meetings.

Beyond defining day-to-day responsibilities, it’s important to also define who’s responsible for one-off activities. Let’s explore two types of tasks you may encounter:

  1. In-meeting tasks. Prior to meetings, it’s important to clarify who’s responsible for tasks during the meeting. For instance, a board chair should be in charge of running the meeting and transitioning between topics on the board meeting agenda, while the executive secretary should take minutes.
  2. Follow-up tasks. Productive meetings often produce countless follow-up tasks, each of which is important to the continued success of your organization. The moment a new project arises, be sure to delegate who will be responsible for completing it. Streamline the process by assigning these tasks and setting deadlines within your nonprofit board software.

When you have a particularly productive volunteer board, new tasks will pop up quite often. Get ahead by making sure all board members understand what’s expected of them upfront. As one of the first steps any nonprofit should take in volunteer management, this can prevent major challenges and misunderstandings about who is responsible for completing what tasks. 

Continue exploring the components of effective coordination with this volunteer management guide from Mobilize, which details easy strategies for engaging these individuals.

4. Proactively document meetings.

During each of your board meetings, a slew of decisions will likely be made, whether they’re pertaining to new fundraising endeavors, upcoming projects, or other involvement opportunities. As changes are made, make sure they’re properly documented in the minutes and distributed in a timely manner. Otherwise, it may result in confusion when it comes to carrying out those updates.

Further, proper documentation makes it easier to communicate decisions to those who were unable to attend. The goal of your minutes should be to make them clear enough that someone can understand them several years down the line. To accomplish this, here are a few ways to ensure all pertinent information is documented throughout each of your board meetings:

  • Keep a list of all attendees. Make note of who’s in attendance, including members of the board and any non-voting participants with their names, titles, and reasons for attending.
  • Keep a record of motions. This includes the names of who made the motion and who seconded it as well as the number of votes in favor of the motion, the number of votes against the motion, and the number of abstentions.
  • Document the rationale behind key decisions. Doing so will help to communicate why certain decisions were made to third-party entities. For instance, in the event of any legal complications, rationales will back up your actions.
  • Use your agenda as an outline. This will provide your minute-taker with a predefined structure, so they can focus on accurately capturing details during meetings. This way, they won’t overlook any key discussions.

By documenting pertinent changes as they arise, each board member will stay up-to-date and be well prepared for future decision-making, regardless of whether they were able to attend a meeting. Learn more about the practice of taking minutes with Boardable’s complete guide to board meeting minutes. Knowing what to include and what to exclude in your minutes will prove invaluable as your board continues its work.


Clear and timely board communication is a key contributor to board effectiveness. Remember, it all starts with effective communication tools and requires you to develop a foolproof plan. By empowering your board members with the tools and tips they need to succeed, they can get back to focusing on what matters: furthering your work and helping you to achieve your mission. 

Over time, you’ll come to realize that good communication will fuel members’ passion for your nonprofit’s cause. By intentionally using impactful communication strategies and methods, your board will transform its efforts in no time.


About Jeb Banner: 

Jeb is the founder and CEO of Boardable, a nonprofit board management software provider. He is also the founder of two nonprofits, The Speak Easy and Musical Family Tree, as well as a board member of United Way of Central Indiana and ProAct. Jeb is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

As the CEO and a Founder of Boardable, Jeb is passionate about community nonprofits, entrepreneurship, and more. He also founded SmallBox, a creative agency for mission-driven organizations, and is co-founder of The Speak Easy and founder of Musical Family Tree, both 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

About Boardable: Boardable is an online board management portal that centralizes communication, document storage, meeting planning, and everything else that goes into running a board of directors.

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