nonprofit management

Boosting Online Conversions: Tips for a Donor-Centric Site

Guest Blogger

At the same time that in-person fundraising efforts were put on hold, the need for donations grew. Further, as new generations gain giving power, online giving and digital connection are becoming key outlets for supporting nonprofits. Because of this, your nonprofit’s website has stepped into the limelight as a primary channel for collecting donations. 

This is where the conversion rate of your website comes into play. Conversion rate describes the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, whether making a donation, signing up for an email list, or another type of online engagement. To optimize your site and bring in more donations, it’s important to track and understand how certain elements of your website can impact your conversion rate.

In one 2019 study, only .17% of website visitors made donations. If your nonprofit’s website conversions stayed at this less-than-one-percent rate in 2020, you may have felt the impact on your bottom line.

However, there are a few impactful changes that you can make to your website to create a stronger donor experience and boost conversions. We’re going to cover these updates in the following categories:

  • Design Elements
  • Call-to-Action (CTA) Strategies
  • Technical Streamlining

At Cornershop Creative, we’re experts in nonprofit web design and development. While working with organizations just like yours, we’ve seen the difference that effective design can have on conversion rates and nonprofits’ abilities to grow their missions over time. Let’s dive in.

Design Elements

A bland, dated website will do little to motivate site visitors to donate to your cause. As you can see in this Cornershop Creative guide to the best nonprofit websites, your site’s overall design should be fresh, attractive, and motivating to inspire site visitors to give.

Balance informational copy with visually appealing elements, such as impactful imagery of donations at work, video testimonials of volunteers, modern typography, and subtle animation. This will draw users in, keep your nonprofit’s “big picture” mission front-and-center, and push them closer to conversion. But, be mindful not to overdo it, as you don’t want to overwhelm users and distract from the rich informational content about your cause.

Beyond being attractive and motivating, the overall design of your website should be straightforward and simple to follow. Your website’s main navigation menu should follow an intuitive content hierarchy, ensuring donors can find the most pressing pages (such as your donation form) with ease. 

Last, but certainly not least, all of your site elements should be mobile responsive. This means that regardless of the screen size (mobile phone, tablet, desktop monitor), the page elements should adapt to be clearly displayed. This doesn’t mean simply resizing to fit smaller screens but actively transforming. For example, less essential elements (such as a sidebar navigation menu) may be disabled altogether on smaller screens to preserve space for more essential elements.

Designing an effective donation form

Beyond the design of your website overall, we’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss the actual form through which your site visitors donate— your online donation form. This form needs to balance the needs of your organization and its donors, collecting the right amount of information without creating an inconvenient giving process.

The design of your donation form should prioritize user experience (UX), providing both a streamlined and secure giving experience. Follow these best practices:

  • Set suggested donation amounts. Determine your average online donation amount and use that information to provide convenient suggestions to web donors. Use a tiered model to set suggested amounts. So, if your average donation is $25:
    • One tier that’s slightly lower, at $20.
    • One tier that’s slightly higher, at $30.
    • One tier that’s even higher, but still reasonable based on the data you’ve gathered, at $50.
    • One tier that’s well above average, at $100, with the goal of encouraging donors to give more than they would normally.
  • Use multi-step donation forms. Essentially, multi-step forms visually simplify your online donation form by breaking the process out into click-through stages. It’s a more sleek, modern design and asks donors to answer one to two questions per step, rather than including multiple questions on a single form page. Check out the example below to see what we mean:
  • Directly embed the donation form. Linking donors out to a third-party page to process their donation can lead to distrust in your online giving procedures. Just as you want your donation form to be integrated with your donor database for easy access to data, your supporters want to give to your organization directly on your website.
  • Streamline donation information. One in four donors gives via a mobile device. Streamline the giving process for smartphone and desktop supporters alike by limiting the number of fields required on your donation form, prioritizing essential contact and payment information.

And, if you’re unsure of whether you’ve designed an effective form, A/B test your donation page. A/B testing involves providing two different versions of your form to online donors and seeing which has the more positive response. You can test and fine-tune elements like:

  • The wording of your fundraising ask
  • Suggested donation amounts
  • Number of required fields
  • Images or other visuals included
  • Multi-step form or one-page form

But remember, you should only alter one element at a time to understand which elements are truly having an impact. If you’re changing more than one, it will be challenging to discern which is the deciding factor for donors.

Call-to-Action (CTA) Strategies

CTAs, or calls-to-action, are elements that encourage visitors to take a specific action, such as making a donation, signing up for volunteer opportunities, or contacting their local political representatives. In the case of increasing online donations, the goal of your CTAs is to encourage donors to give and give them a clear way to do so (like by linking directly to your donation form).

CTAs should be clear, concise, and attention-grabbing. Here are a few strategies we’ve found that can shine a clear spotlight on your giving opportunities:

  • Eye-catching donation buttons. Donors should always be a click away from giving opportunities on your website. Across your website, such as on your homepage, blog, and About Us page, include bold “Donate Now!” buttons. 
  • Lightboxes. A lightbox is an attention-grabbing pop-up that greets web visitors once they take a specific step on your website, such as navigating to your homepage or submitting a donation. These boxes should be visually appealing, use impactful imagery, and present straightforward next steps. Consider this CTA strategy on your homepage to direct prospective donors to your giving form, and on your donation page after a gift has been secured to encourage upgrading to a recurring gift. Check out the example below, pulled from Cornershop Creative’s guide to digital fundraising:

This lightbox stands out due to a few best practices, including an eye-catching, vibrant image and straightforward next steps.

  • Links in multichannel communications. Whether you’re using social media, email, texting, or even direct mail to reach supporters, include links (or printed URLs) directing them to your website. Note that readers can learn about your nonprofit and make secure donations through the site so that opportunity isn’t overlooked.

Giving through your donation form is the final step for a site visitor— or is it? Securing that first donation is a breeze compared to securing the second one, often referred to as the “Golden Donation.” In fact, only 19% of donors give again after their first gift, but 63% of those who make it to the golden donation continue to give repeatedly over the long run.

Create a donor-centric website with features that engage the donor long after they hit “submit.” Outline clear next steps for your donors to follow post-donation, whether in a lightbox confirmation pop-up or an automated confirmation email. Each of the following tactics can help your website turn a one-time donor into a long-term supporter:

  • Joining your email list to stay in-the-know with upcoming events and campaigns.
  • Upgrading the one-time donation to a sustaining, recurring gift.
  • Telling a friend (through social media) about the gift.
  • Reviewing other engagement opportunities, such as volunteer and advocacy efforts, located on other pages on your site.

Or, you could use this opportunity to deploy one of the strategies for smarter fundraising while working from home— corporate philanthropy. Encourage donors to research their eligibility for matching gift programs in which employers will financially match donations made by employees. Bonus points here if you have a dedicated matching gift database embedded on your website so that donors can search their eligibility with ease!

With CTA language outlining clear next steps post-donation, your website becomes an engagement-generating machine. 

Technical Streamlining

Technical streamlining refers to the behind-the-scenes updates that make your website operate in a more efficient manner. For example, rather than thinking only about the images that site visitors see, you should pay just as much attention to how fast those images load on visitors’ browsers.

Optimize the following technical elements to provide an inclusive, trustworthy, and efficient experience for all of your site’s visitors:

  • Accessibility. Your website should be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure that all visitors, regardless of ability, can engage with the site. A few highlights include providing alternative text for multimedia elements, including alt-text in all form fields, and following a logical content hierarchy. These considerations empower site visitors using screen readers to access your site with ease.
  • Security. Your website should have a secure HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) certificate. Most modern web hosts offer a free SSL certificate, but your site should actively enforce SSL— meaning visitors cannot access the insecure version. Additionally, you should work with a payment processor that ensures your data is encrypted and safe. Generally, if you’re working with a third-party, nonprofit-specific provider (think: EveryAction, Blackbaud, SalsaLabs, etc.), then you’re good to go. 
  • Page load speed. Your donors are looking for instantaneous information, not a 10-second wait time for the page to load. Use a tool (like GTMetrix or Google’s PageSpeed Insights) to measure how long your website takes to load and then take direct action to speed up the process. Pay attention to multimedia elements, such as images, to ensure the files are sized optimally for quick loading. Check that your web pages are caching effectively, which can reduce the work for your web host by loading cached versions of static pages. Finally, ensure your web host is prepared for spikes in traffic to your site and able to allocate resources effectively.

Technical streamlining of your website shouldn’t be a one-and-done effort. Conduct ongoing maintenance checks of your site to resolve any small issues before they snowball into big challenges. Something as straightforward as resolving broken links and optimizing design segments can go a long way toward providing a streamlined experience for potential donors. If your organization has an outdated website or you’re unsure of any of the concepts discussed above, you’ll likely benefit from working with a tech professional.

Streamlining the technical aspects of your website can have benefits beyond increasing donation conversions. For example, according to this Charity Engine guide, your website can be an impactful player in your multichannel marketing strategy. However, that’s only if it’s relevant, navigable, and accessible to all.

In conclusion, your website’s design, CTA strategies, and technical elements all play central roles in determining your ability to convert visitors into donors. So, what should your team’s next steps be to give it the best chance of success?

  1. Evaluate your website using these recommendations to discover gaps in its performance.
  2. Do additional research or consider working with a consultant to bring each element of your website up to standard.
  3. Maintain your website over time, rather than conducting annual one-time tune-ups.

Taking a proactive approach to using and maintaining your website will prevent a poor conversion rate from affecting your bottom line. Good luck!

Guest Author: Ira Horowitz

With 15 years’ experience, Ira is an expert in nonprofit online communications and online fundraising. His work has resulted in increased funds and resounding supporter engagement for hundreds of organizations.

Ira oversees our project management team and works with clients to provide our clients with the best possible final product. He also manages all of our strategic engagements and helps guide nonprofits to determine their long-term strategy goals for online communications.

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5 Reasons a Well Maintained Nonprofit Website is Essential

Guest Blogger

Almost 4.66 billion people in the world are active internet users. As the core pillar of modern information, the internet is now your greatest asset when it comes to furthering your nonprofit mission and improving your fundraising efforts. With more people online than ever before, it’s a no brainer that a well maintained website should be top priority. But what does this mean for your organization?

Let’s take some guidance from top experts in web design and development at Kanopi: “In order to have a well maintained website, you need regular website maintenance.” 

However, a well maintained site doesn’t just mean a working one. Along with conducting security and plug-in/module updates, regular website maintenance involves ensuring you comply with accessibility standards, that your site values user experience (UX), that you tell a story through your site content, and that it is the focal point of all of your online engagements.

To learn more about what makes a well maintained website, let’s walk through the following benefits this can bring to your nonprofit: 

  1. Increases fundraising revenue
  2. Teaches new audiences about your mission
  3. Leads to better search engine result ranking
  4. Acts as a source for supporters to engage directly 
  5. Improves relationships with current supporters

How does a well maintained website accomplish the above? Let’s dive into each benefit and the optimizations you can make to your site to achieve them. 

1. Increases online fundraising revenue

Your nonprofit website is where supporters make online gifts to your organization. Without a dedicated site and online donation page, it’s likely that prospective donors won’t know where to look and possibly skip out on giving altogether. When you take the steps to maintain your website and make it the best it can be, you’re also directly affecting your online fundraising revenue. 

The easier it is for supporters to navigate your site, find the information they’re looking for, and fill out the online donation form, the more likely it is that they will continue to give to your cause and support your mission.

If you want your own nonprofit site to continue driving increased fundraising, make sure to implement these strategies:

  • Include clear buttons and links to your online donation page
  • Streamline the giving process with an optimized donation form that only asks the essentials
  • Use an integrated and secure payment processor to keep donors on the same page and protected
  • Make sure your online donation tool is working and integrated with your website
  • Ensure your online giving process is mobile optimized

Additionally, the way your online donation page is laid out can make a huge difference in how likely someone is to complete their gift. If the form takes them to a third-party page, if the donation tool has errors, or if the form just takes too long to fill out are all reasons why users decide to click away and not donate at all.

Unsure if your website and donation page are up to standard? Use these top donation page examples in this iATS Payments resource from real nonprofits for guidance. 

2. Teaches new audiences about your mission

Did you know that 27.5% of individuals have reported discovering new nonprofits through the internet and technology? 

Kanopi-VolunteerLocal-5-Reasons-a-Well-Maintained-Nonprofit-Website-is-Essential_extra.jpg

According to this graphic depicting the donor journey, the next step after awareness is research. And, it’s likely that the first place prospective supporters will go to learn more about your organization is your nonprofit website.

With a well maintained nonprofit website, you’re able to welcome new audiences, introduce them to your mission, and showcase why you’re a worthwhile cause to support. In fact, many people actually have little patience for poorly maintained websites.

One survey conducted on millennials stated that top pet peeves on nonprofit sites include mobile-unfriendliness, missing information, and the inability to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. If this is something your own site lacks, you’re missing out on a whole scope of potential supporters.

To ensure that your website meets the needs of new audiences, make sure to:

  • Consistently update site content so that it showcases recent success stories and nonprofit accomplishments
  • Check your mobile-optimization status with this free Google tool
  • Optimize image and other media content size so that the website loads quickly (the Google recommended time is under 2 seconds)
  • Include a navigation menu with clear links to content to help people learn more about your organization, like your mission statement, about us page, event calendar, and community testimonials from those you’ve helped
  • Design your site with accessibility in mind and full compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ensuring that users can engage with it despite location, language, ability, or device

Your nonprofit website is the most valuable way to market your organization online, and by taking the steps to properly maintain it, you can appeal to new audiences and turn prospects into full-time supporters.

3. Leads to better search engine result ranking

Along with optimizing your site to act as a reliable research tool for new audiences, you can actually take specific steps to increase your own search engine result ranking. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of tweaking and updating your website to make it easier for search engines like Google to read and determine its value. When someone looks up a keyword related to your mission, you want Google to pull up your organization— otherwise, you’re buried by other similar content and possibly even other nonprofit sites. 

Nonprofit website maintenance should also include actions that support search engine optimizations. Here are some easy ways to ensure this:

  • Publish website content that with keyword phrases that your supporters are most likely to search for
  • Use a specific heading structure with H1s, H2s, and so on to make it easier for search engines to crawl and read your site
  • Include metadata into your website to include specific information that search engines read
  • Use alternative text for media types like graphics and videos so search engines know what they are about

These are only some of the optimizations you can make to your website for improving search engine ranking. Explore qualified resources like Moz.com, a professional source for SEO tools, to learn more about what you might need to do for your own website. 

4. Acts as a source for supporters to engage directly 

In the end, the best nonprofit sites are the ones that act as the focal point of all important online engagements. From facilitating online fundraising to being the core research tool that supporters use, your website should be the first place people turn to support your organization in any way.

To explain this idea, let’s walk through a few scenarios: 

  • A supporter wants to contact your nonprofit to learn how they can get more involved — Your website should have clear contact information, including email and phone numbers.
  • An individual wants to volunteer for an event — Your website should have a dedicated page listing all your volunteer opportunities and how to register for them.
  • A supporter wants to follow your social media pages to have more frequent and casual updates — Include clear connections to all of your social media accounts through prominent links, widgets, or with an embedded running social feed.
  • A supporter wants to attend a fundraising event to give to your cause and meet others — Create an event calendar for your upcoming events and campaigns. Be sure to have links that lead users to the registration page. 

No matter how someone wants to engage with your organization, your nonprofit website should be their first instinct. If you don’t properly maintain your website, these needs are not met.

Make sure you consistently update your website navigation menu so that it connects users to their most desired actions. Not only does this present your site as a reliable resource, but also builds the positive relationship you have with supporters. 

5. Improves relationships with current supporters

Not only can your website help you attract new audiences and increase your online fundraising revenue but it can also provide insight into your current supporters.

As the focal point of the majority of your online engagements, the data that your website collects is extremely valuable to your nonprofit digital strategies. 

Use your content management system (CMS) to track data on which pages are most popular, how different users interact with your site, and the types of content they engage with the most.

With this information, you can even create different user or donor personas based on the typical habits of your various audiences. Then, create targeted marketing content and website optimizations that appeal to those groups. 

However, this is almost impossible to do with a poorly maintained website. It’s critical that your CMS, any plug-ins or modules, and software integrations are consistently updated for full site functionality. This way, you can accurately track those key data points and learn more about what your current supporters value and how you can better meet their needs. 

Conclusion

Most modern nonprofits have some sort of website to facilitate online engagements. But not every organization truly takes the time to make sure their own site is the best it can be. With limited time and resources, nonprofits often make the mistake of deprioritizing their website over more urgent tasks. 

However, your website is the focal point of many of your important engagements, and without a well maintained one, you’ll miss out on several valuable opportunities. Remember to conduct consistent maintenance and keep your audience’s needs top of mind to reap the benefits. Good luck!

About the Author: Anne Stefanyk

As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.

Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.

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6 Ways to Strengthen Your Relationships With Supporters

Aly Sterling

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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3 Steps to Begin Planning Your Capital Campaign

Andrea Kihlstedt

Capital campaigns are intensive, game-changing undertakings for nonprofit organizations. These major campaigns raise significant amounts of funding for specific expansion projects, like constructing new facilities, investing in new equipment, or creating an endowment fund. As major investments in your organization’s ability to grow, these campaigns require tons of strategic planning to be pulled off successfully.

At the Capital Campaign Toolkit, we believe that planning is doing. Simply put, this means that the early planning stage of your campaign should accomplish more than just outlining the steps you’ll follow later. Instead, effective capital campaign planning should be a more active process, one that begins engaging the board members and key donors who’ll be integral to your overall success.

Let’s discuss three steps you can take now—before outlining specific fundraising tasks, writing letters to donors, or diving into the world of virtual galas—to give your capital campaign a strong footing from the get-go.

The first three steps you should take when planning your campaign are:

  1. Clearly define your campaign’s purpose.
  2. Plan with a focus on your top donors from the start.
  3. Actively speak with your key donors.

We’ve helped equip countless nonprofit development teams with all of the tools and support they need to conduct a successful capital campaign, and we’ve found that one of the best ways to set up any campaign for success is to make the most of the planning process. Let’s dive in.

1. Clearly define your campaign’s purpose.

Capital campaigns aren’t dreamt up in a day. They’re massive fundraising efforts that go above and beyond any other campaign, far surpassing your annual fund in dollars raised.

Capital campaigns are driven by a very specific need or project that require an infusion of resources to build capacity. The identification of those needs often grows out of a strategic or long-range plan that spells out what it will take for the organization to reach the next level of operation. 

This means that the first step in planning your capital campaign should be to specifically define what you’re raising funds for. To convince people to rally behind your organization and give generous contributions, you must clearly articulate why you’re seeking their support and what difference their support will make. The purpose of a capital campaign will be composed of two parts:

  • Objective: This is what you’re raising funds for. So, for a nonprofit organization that provides after-school programming for students, this might be constructing a new gym or art room.
  • Goal: This is the specific financial amount you need to raise in order to complete your objective, like raising $10 million to construct the new gym.

When setting this goal, work with your board from the start. This early collaboration serves two purposes:

  1. It builds excitement across your board and obtains their buy-in to the process, getting them invested in the campaign and ready to contribute when the time comes.
  2. It gives you additional perspectives to consider, allowing you to set an objective and goal that’s informed by your board’s knowledge of your nonprofit and current fundraising capacity.

Of course, your board will need to approve any major fundraising efforts and campaign spending anyway, so don’t overlook this step. Take this first task a step further by asking your board to assist with crafting your case for support or case statement—a document that clearly communicates why you’re raising funds, how you’re going to use those funds to meet your objective, and why prospective donors should give. 

When developing a case statement, we recommend conducting a “Features and Benefits” exercise with your board to discover the features of your campaign (what your campaign will fund) and the benefits of each feature. For example, a soup kitchen raising funds to build a new eating hall would list their new building as a key feature of their campaign. Its benefits would be the many more constituents that the organization would be able to feed. 

Working with your board members in the early planning phase of your campaign will build the trust you will need for them to approve the campaign. So be sure to give them an active hand in shaping your campaign and laying the groundwork for a powerful case for support. Here are some tips to help you improve communications with your board.

2. Plan with a focus on your top donors from the start.

Once you’ve identified what you want to accomplish with your campaign—your objective and working goal—then you can begin planning with a focus on your top donors.

Capital campaigns are top-heavy by nature. You should plan to raise at least half of your total campaign gifts from the top 10 donations during the initial quiet phase of your campaign. Keep this in mind from the start of your campaign and begin identifying who those key donors are once your plans start taking shape.

The standard way to keep your efforts donor-centric is to anchor your plan with a gift range chart. This guiding document will be an invaluable resource throughout the entire duration of your campaign. When examining prospects in your donor database and beyond to identify potential contributors, consider the following:

  • Who has the financial capacity to make multi-thousand to million-dollar gifts?
  • Who has a strong existing relationship with your organization and cause?

Focus the majority of your cultivation and solicitation efforts on donors with this winning combination of capacity and inclination to give.

A quick tip to make sure you’re planning with a spotlight on these critical supporters: Block out at least two hours per week during your campaign to personally meet with or talk with major donor prospects.  

This doesn’t mean that you’re going to solicit gifts each week but rather that you’ll plan from the start to intentionally focus on building relationships with your top donors. That will generate buy-in from prospects and strengthen their attachment to your cause. Successfully soliciting a large gift takes time and persistence.

3. Actively speak with your key donors.

You’ve planned to meet with prospects for at least two hours each week—excellent! Begin these conversations with your key donors by interviewing them as part of your feasibility study. 

A feasibility study is an important early step in any capital campaign, and it involves discussing your plans with key stakeholders to gauge their thoughts on your goals and interest in potentially giving. If feasibility studies are a new concept for your organization, check out our complete guide for an overview.

An effective feasibility study will aim to answer a few key questions. Do your key stakeholders and prospects believe your nonprofit is prepared for a campaign of this magnitude? Do they have advice that you can use to drive your campaign to success? These answers will be extremely useful for shaping your strategies as your campaign plans come into sharper focus.

If you’ve encountered feasibility studies before, you might think that nonprofits should only ever bring in third-party consultants to conduct them. However, we encourage you to consider speaking with your key donors yourself.

Remember, planning is doing. While a feasibility study is seen as part of the broader planning phase of your campaign, these conversations are invaluable opportunities for you to begin actively building relationships with the donors who could potentially make or break your success. Don’t wait to start building and strengthening those relationships!

Ask your prospects and stakeholders overarching questions about what they think of your organization, leadership, and case for support. This will give you insight into your campaign’s feasibility, as well as signal to the donor that you value their views. You may find that they believe that you’re well prepared, or you may find that they believe you need to hit the books to better prepare for the endeavor. Either way, seeking their advice will let them know that you respect and value their perspectives.

After you’ve already introduced your campaign and gauged their interest, take this opportunity to begin directly asking prospects about potential involvement. Try questions like:

  • Among your philanthropic priorities, where is our organization?
  • Do you see yourself making a gift to the campaign when the time is right? 
  • Would you consider volunteering for the campaign? 

With these questions, you can better understand your prospects’ expectations of your campaign and their involvement in it. These insights will immediately benefit your cultivation efforts, helping you quickly get a sense of where to focus attention. You may even secure early gift commitments from your most dedicated supporters!

Feasibility studies are a critical part of any capital campaign, but don’t assume that the entire process will have to be completely out of your hands. These interviews and discussions are your first major chance to begin developing the relationships that will drive your campaign to success, so take an active approach. There are resources available (such as our Guided Feasibility Study) to help your team select donors, train to conduct the interviews, and prepare reports for your board.

Planning a capital campaign is a months-long process. After all, you’re raising more funds than your nonprofit likely ever has before and mapping out years of stewardship and fundraising strategies to reach what is often a multi-million-dollar goal.
However, you don’t have to wait until the planning process is complete to begin acting on those plans. By taking an active, intentional approach and collaborating with key stakeholders early, you can begin building valuable relationships that will fuel your campaign down the line. Wishing you a hugely successful campaign!

About the Author: Andrea Kihlstedt

Andrea Kihlstedt, Campaign Expert & Co-Founder, is the author of Capital Campaigns: Strategies that Work, now in its 4th edition, as well as How to Raise $1 Million (or More) in 10 Bite Sized Steps, in addition to several other fundraising books. She has been leading successful capital campaigns for over 30 years.

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4 Tips for Choosing Your Nonprofit Donor Database

Gerard Tonti

Choosing a donor database is a lot like hunting for the right romantic partner with online dating tools.

You are likely working from a long list of characteristics and browsing potential matches from brief descriptions and a few images. If you find something (or someone) that checks many of your boxes, you may schedule a demo—kind of like a first date. If the date goes well and the conditions are right, it could lead to wedding bells and a happy union between your sustainable nonprofit and a powerful CRM.

While choosing a donor management solution may not be an “until death do you part” level of commitment, but it’s still the first step in a long and successful relationship.

At SalsaLabs, we take on the role of matchmaker by helping nonprofits leverage powerful technology to meet their goals. To help you find a donor database that can be your team’s “other half,” we’ve compiled the following list of tips:

  • Create a project team, plan, and timeline.
  • Evaluate core functionality.
  • Consider compatibility with the rest of your tech stack.
  • Determine what additional features are essential for your organization.

The right donor database will support many aspects of your organization, from fundraising to volunteer management. So before tying the knot, make sure it’s meant to be!

Create a project team, plan, and timeline.


Selecting a software solution is no small undertaking. This is true for any type of software, but considering the immense impact that your supporter database has on your organization and mission, it’s especially important to follow an organized procedure.

Before diving into the decision-making process, you’ll probably have a general idea of the features your nonprofit is looking for—after all, there’s a reason you’re in the market for a donor database!

Establishing a plan upfront will give you clearer guidelines for evaluating the available databases and ultimately narrowing down your options to a few top contenders.

Assemble a team. Make sure you have all of the right people on board to make the decision. Depending on the size of your organization, you’ll want to invite anywhere from 2 to 10 people to weigh in on the decision. You’ll want to include the individuals who are directly impacted by the new system, the biggest consumers of information from the system, and anyone else who will have valuable input. The team reviewing the software will also help determine who will be using the software, which, depending on the system you choose, may factor into the budget decision.

Set a budget. Donor databases are built with a range of organizations in mind. Consider data like your number of donors, annual fundraising capacity, and major gift revenue to come up with a price point that makes sense for you. Be sure to establish this financial metric early on so you don’t waste time considering tools that are out of reach. However, if you’re a small nonprofit, you should choose a donor database that can scale up as your organization grows. Finally, it’s important to look for any additional customization or implementation costs when evaluating the price tag of each option.

Create a requirements document. You’ll want to develop a list of major functions and features that the donor database needs. As you create this document, try to limit yourself to the essentials and stay away from hyper-specific items. In general, it’s best practice to focus on what you need to accomplish rather than exactly how. The rest of this article will outline some characteristics you may want to consider.

As you go through this process, insist on defining your project plan in writing. This will ensure you stay on track and find a donor database that meets your needs and expectations.

Evaluate core functionality.

When considering expectations for your potential donor database, there are some core features you should look for.

You’ll want to keep the following core features in the back of your mind throughout the process, even if your primary focus is more specific:

Donor profiles and contact information. In addition to standard fields like name, address, and geographic location, look for a system that allows for custom fields. This will ensure you can record details that are specific to your organization’s audience; for instance, if you’re looking for a donor database for an animal shelter, you may want to record whether each supporter is a dog or cat person as well as the names of their current pets.

Analytics and reporting. The goal of your donor management software is to be able to store and use data effectively. While virtually all CRMs will offer reporting and visualization features, the complexity and flexibility of these can vary. This one place where your project team will have invaluable input since the people who need to access these reports should be represented.

Both of these functions will come standard in most of the donor databases available on the market, but with a wide range of variation. The size of your organization and the required detail level of your donor profiles will help you determine how you need these features to operate. Consider what your organization needs to accomplish to decide the scope of features you need from a solution.

Consider compatibility with the rest of your tech stack.

Your donor database should integrate with the other tools your nonprofit relies on. If it’s incompatible with the other elements in your existing nonprofit technology ecosystem, it may not be a good fit for your organization.

Your donor database should track every engagement metric you have with supporters. As such, you’ll want to consider the systems that track different types of engagement opportunities. For instance, if a supporter signs up to attend an event and donates to your most recent event, you’ll want to be sure all of these metrics are recorded and analyzed by your nonprofit. While some databases may have one or more of these functions built-in, others will require separate solutions.

Consider whether your organization uses the following tools, and if they are compatible with the donor database of your choice:

Fundraising software. Since one of the core purposes of your donor database is to inform your fundraising strategy, you’ll want a software solution that integrates seamlessly with your fundraising software. As this article explains, some fundraising systems pair well with CRMs, and some don’t, so you’ll need to consider the capabilities of your fundraising software as well.

Volunteer management software. If a supporter volunteers regularly with your nonprofit, you want to record that information alongside your other donor data. To avoid manual input, look for a donor database that syncs with your existing VMS.

Matching gift software. Corporate matching gifts can be a huge source of revenue for your organization if you know how to take advantage of the programs. According to Double the Donation, an estimated $4 – $7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed every year. If you connect your donor database with matching gifts software, you’ll be better able to identify supporters who are eligible for matched contributions.

Event registration tools. Whether you’re hosting in-person, online, or hybrid events, you’ll want accurate records of every attendee. It’s helpful to have CRM and event solutions that are well-integrated. Then, you’ll be able to segment and target supporters more specifically based on whether or not they attended a past event.

Communications technology. Make sure your CRM can integrate with the tech you’re using to connect with supporters. This includes more traditional methods like email marketing as well as newer practices such as texting and social media outreach. If your communications platform and CRM are well-integrated, you’ll be able to automate outreach based on other interactions in the database, ultimately increasing supporter engagement.

When all of your supporter data can flow freely throughout your tech stack, you’ll be equipped to build well-rounded relationships with each donor. Take stock of your existing software systems and find a donor database that pairs well with each, then add that information to your requirements document.

Determine what additional features are essential for your organization.

Once you move past core features and software integrations, you’ll want to start on a list of features that are critical to your nonprofit’s operations. This list will be the most important part of your search, but it will also take the most thought to develop.

Consider what processes you have in place that are a drain on your team’s time, then look for a donor database that allows you to automate them or even skip steps completely.

Here are a few examples of tools from Salsa’s nonprofit CRM to give you some ideas of additional features that may save your team time:

Communication tools. Fundraising campaigns and other outreach efforts are more efficient when they can be accomplished directly from your donor database.

Automation and scheduling. Automated marketing tools allow you to contact the right supporter, with the right message, at the right time.

Comprehensive donation tracking. You’ll likely want a donor database that can manage both online and offline donations, avoiding manual input.

Smarter engagement strategies. Based on the interaction data you have available, your CRM can recommend optimized engagement methods. These can even be queued up automatically with automation tools.

Of course, your organization’s needs are unique, so your project team should brainstorm and collaborate to determine your must-have features and add them to your requirements document.

With so many options available, choosing a donor database to meet your needs can feel like an arduous and overwhelming process. A CRM solution will help you get organized and better engage your supporters, so it’s wise to invest the time and energy upfront so you can reap the benefits for years to come. With these strategies in mind, you and your donor management software will be able to live happily ever after. Good luck!

About the Author: Gerard Tonti

Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits.

Gerard’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.

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Get the Grant! Your Competitive Edge with SMART Metrics

Isabel Reed

Amidst a challenging year, nonprofits are zeroing in on the grants that will help them continue to deliver on their mission. As calendars are marked with application dates and deadlines, grant writers have the opportunity (and challenge) of completing a compelling grant proposal – one that will make their nonprofit shine even more brilliantly than the competition.

Although nonprofit teams are stereotypically not the most competitive personalities, the fact of the matter is that financial resources are in high demand, requiring a bit more magic from grant writers to land the grants their organization is relying on. Now, of all times, is the time to boast! Show off the incredible work of your nonprofit team.

Here’s the magic that I urge you to keep in mind as you get to work: tell a story of your past, present, and dream-scenario future. Then, explain with numbers why your numbers back the story of your past/present, and why (with numbers) your dream-scenario future is well within reason.

Nothing beats a grant application that displays both the head (pragmatism), heart (mission focus), and muscle (execution) of your nonprofit. Sounds like a winner to me!

Now the big tip – remember “SMART Goals”?

By this point, you may already have your SMART goals outlined. For example: “In 2021, we will launch 2 new programs across 15 county schools, reaching 15,000 students ages 13-19.”

Amazing! Now implement the same SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) strategy to share metrics that prove you’re able to accomplish said goal.

SMART Metrics to Prove Your Salt

Specific

Show specifically what actions have been taken (or been maintained) and what impacts have resulted. This will be a foundational step to the work ahead, so take your time, and don’t be overly-critical of the first thoughts that come to mind.

Get the ball rolling by simply making a list! Jot down all initiatives and changes your nonprofit has made in the last year (or other relevant time period) in efforts to pursue the mission.

It can help to do this part as a team. Gather a think-tank team consisting of all departmental leaders in your organization. Everyone can chime in on the actions and accomplishments of their respective programs. (Bless the grant writer, who will likely be jotting all of this down and making order of this light chaos.)

Remember: not everything that will be said/thought at this stage will be kept! You’ll need to first identify which contributions are relevant to the grant itself, then workshop each contribution until it is, in fact, SMART.

That said, it’s alright if people start chiming in with general actions and impacts such as “Our clients are much happier with our programs!” – that example won’t make the final cut, but it will get the juices flowing for the team.

By the end, you’ll workshop these ideas to be more specific, such as, “We hired our first full-time event coordinator, which resulted in 3 more programs this year, and 25% better attendance.” (Ok…I’m jumping ahead. Let’s move on to “measurable” now.)

Measurable

Any metric needs to be measurable. How much, how many, what percentage, what ratio? You can make even the broadest statement measurable if you ask the right questions and do the appropriate data collection.

Let’s revisit the previous example and make it measurable: “Our clients are much happier with our programs!” Get started with questions like these:

  • How is happiness being measured? Attendance? Repeat attendance? Referrals? Survey results?
  • Are you tracking this data? (If not, start now! You’ll have the data at the ready for next year.)
  • Don’t forget the specificity – which clients and how many? Which programs and how many?

By asking the right questions and collecting the right data, you will end up with much stronger metrics, a much more compelling narrative, and an easy setup for a SMART goal. For example:

“Last year, we held 45 programs, of which 70% of attendees had attended at least 1 other program in the last 3 months, indicating strong community confidence in our programs. In the last year, we also welcomed a 12% increase in program attendance. Of first-time attendees, a whopping 80% were referred by someone who had previously attended a program. Word of mouth is powerful, but with a grant-funded community outreach and marketing budget, we will achieve…[insert the corresponding SMART Goal here; now that you’ve built the case for your SMART metrics, your SMART Goal will be a slam dunk].”

Achievable

These specific, measurable metrics will have already been achieved, which naturally bodes well for your ability to execute on your proposed SMART goals. If you’ve done the work before this step, you’ll easily check the box for “achievable”.

It boils down to the idea, “We’ve done it before and we can do it again even better.”

Relevant

Now that you have the most amazing data, telling the most amazing story about how you’ve done amazing things and can do many more amazing things if you just had the funding…it’s time to zero in on what (in this mountain of amazing-ness) actually matters to those reviewing your proposal.

It’s time to thoroughly trim the fluff. If you are applying for a grant that is focused on certain communities or outcomes, only use the data that correlates and speaks to those points.

Remember – nothing that you’ve done up to this point will go to waste. Data reports can be powerfully repurposed and recycled. Use the data for outreach to the community, volunteers, sponsors, or donors.

Timely

This will be another easy check mark, if you’ve done the above work already. Timebox your achievements into quarters, years, decades — whatever is most relevant to your organization and the grant it is applying for. Otherwise, you risk boasting incredible numbers with no context. Without context, the data itself is much less valuable.

Final thoughts

Some of your competition will apply for a grant using SMART goals, forgetting to intentionally comb through the SMART metrics that serve as a foundation for those goals. Use metrics to give yourself the best shot at an easy layup.

It’s possible that your organization is very small or brand new, making it difficult to gather historical data on your organization’s performance. That’s no problem – every organization must start somewhere! Here are some areas you can start collecting data on right away, that will give you more to work with next time you apply for a grant:

  • Number of community served (what is your reach?)
  • Demographics of community served (who are you reaching?)
  • Number of volunteers and volunteer hours contributed
  • Community/client satisfaction (collected via periodic surveys, or by number of returning individuals)
  • ^All of the above tracked within consistent time periods (so that you can measure change, progress, growth.)

Best of luck to you as you prepare to apply for upcoming grants. It can be a tedious process the first time around, but rest assured that the data will build on itself gradually over time, so long as you keep a data management system in place. With time, a data management strategy, and a keen eye, you’ll reveal even more compelling (and SMART) stories about your organization, and funds surely will follow.

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4 Sustainable Models to Strengthen Your Nonprofit

Isabel Reed

Nonprofit teams have a lot on their plates. First and foremost, there is the mighty task of carrying out the organization’s mission. Plan events, gather feedback, keep the community engaged! Volunteer coordinators hustle to organize their volunteers, and fundraising directors dance circles around monthly and yearly fundraising goals.

As with any busy, passionate team, it can be difficult to work as one cohesive unit. Or, perhaps, it might be challenging to maintain the overarching perspective of the organization’s goals. The work nonprofit teams do is important and impressive, so we organized a list of 4 sustainable models that could serve to simplify the complicated and facilitate organic growth.

Volunteer Leadership Roles

A common assumption in small nonprofit teams is that the volunteer coordinator must assume all the weight and responsibility of volunteer program. Volunteer coordinators truly make magic happen each day on the job, but there are ways to responsibly and sustainably distribute the weight of the work. Doing so will lead to a more impactful volunteer coordinator, a more empowered volunteer team, and better outcomes for the organization as a whole.

Let’s examine the details of volunteer leadership roles. You might wonder what it means, how it works, and how to establish such a structure. While everything can (and should) be adjusted to meet the unique needs and available resources of your nonprofit, here are some ideas to get started.

Volunteer leadership roles might include:

  • Recruiting new volunteers
  • Leading volunteer orientations
  • Conducting volunteer evaluations
  • Supervising daily volunteer programs/groups

Volunteer leadership roles are best reserved for volunteers who:

  • have shown excellent performance and dedication over time
  • have professional experience/expertise in a skill that is relevant to the volunteer program at large
  • have shadowed or worked closely with the volunteer coordinator in the past

Implementing a volunteer leadership model:

  1. Identify a few volunteers who might fit the bill. Introduce them to the idea and gauge their reaction. If the reaction is positive, time for step two!
  2. Outline the scope of their role in writing, and share that document with them. The document should include what is expected of them, what is not expected (aka, what they are not allowed to do), the duration of their role, and who they should report to.
  3. Express the benefits of taking on this responsibility, and be accountable to them. For example, college student often need examples of leadership in their resumes and CVs. Express that as a benefit and ensure them that you’ll advocate for them when they look for jobs if all goes well.
  4. Introduce this leadership structure to the volunteer program at large. This will keep everyone on the same page, ensure that everyone knows what to expect and from whom, and maintain an appreciated level of transparency. This program might even inspire other volunteers to work diligently towards the opportunity for themselves, over time.

Free Public Events

With fundraising at the mental forefront of most nonprofit teams, there certainly must be a cautious balance between free services/events offered and paid services/events offered. However, there are vast benefits of free public events, and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Rather, examine them more closely to understand how to get the greatest return on investment. You might just find that it becomes a sustainable model for fundraising, community engagement, and growing your volunteer program.

Benefits of free events/services:

  • Increased and sustained positive perception of your nonprofit by the community as a whole. You put goodwill out, you’ll get goodwill back. This is a longterm investment in a positive relationship with the community.
  • Increased and sustained brand/nonprofit awareness. It might be hard to track, but free public events draw larger numbers and more diverse crowds. Over time, this translates to a larger volunteer program, more donations, a larger audience to serve, and more interest in involvement of all kinds (you might receive more job applications or even valuable networking opportunities/introductions).

Safeguards for sustainability:

  • Free events should not put a dent in the organization’s budget. Think “lean but lovely”.
  • Free events should not take much time to prepare for. Think “rinse and repeat”.

Strategies for even bigger impact:

  • Let the local press and media know about these events! Keep them in the know, and be ready to loop them in every time.
  • Get yourself a hashtag. If your event happens in any repeated fashion — weekly, seasonally, or annually — create a catchy hashtag! This will make it easier for the community to share their experiences at your event and, in a way, advertise for you at no cost (a savvy term known as “user generated content”).
  • Offer ways to donate and/or submit an interest in volunteering.

Donation-Matching Partners

Fortunately for fundraising coordinators, philanthropists orbit the nonprofit space closely. To strengthen the financial model of your nonprofit, pull those philanthropic entities close and develop genuine relationships with them.

This relationship can flourish beyond simple, one-time donations. With each of your donors – especially the larger ones – consider how you might ignite more excitement (and therefore, more funds) from the partnership. A great example of this is by establishing a donation-matching partnership with one or more of your larger donors.

Donation-matching is as straight-forward as it sounds. For each donation received from the public, this chosen partner/donor would match the amount. For example, if your neighbor donates $50 to your organization, this donation-matching partner would match that donation and also commit to a $50 donation.

Depending on the comfort level of this partner, you can decide together on an appropriate donation-matching ceiling (the maximum dollar amount they’ll match) and/or floor (the minimum dollar amount they’ll match). You can also decide the duration of this initiative — whether that is over the course of one fundraising weekend, or even a whole year.

Before inviting a donor to be a partner in this initiative, consider the following:

When will the donation-matching initiative start and end, ideally?

Reflect on the psychology of your audience – the people who you’d like to encourage to donate in various quantities (not the donation-matching partner). What conditions will make this most exciting for them?

  • Start this initiative during a fundraising event. It could end at the close of the event, or continue on in perpetuity.
  • Close this initiative at the year end. People love reaching year-end goals together. Consider leveraging the holiday season from November-December to reach your year-end fundraising goals.

Will your donation-matching partner need (or perhaps appreciate) anything in return?

Even if it is a symbolic gesture, acknowledgement of the partner’s gift could go a long way. In addition to recognizing them in the public announcement of this initiative, you could also send them a special thank-you note or symbolic gift.

Recurring Donation Options

When collecting donations, encourage recurring donations! Although one-time donations are appreciated, recurring donations make a much larger impact.

Why donors like it:

  • With various websites available to facilitate recurring donations, donors won’t run into any hassles getting set up. (Check out ActBlue, GivingFuel, DonorBox, PayPal)
  • It works behind the scenes, collecting funds monthly/yearly without effort from the donor.
  • Even if the donation is only $5/month, recurring donors have skin in the game and will feel like a more integral supporting member of the organization.

Why organizations like it:

  • Organizations can generate more accurate financial forecasts when recurring donations can be accounted for in advance. Better forecasting = better management of funds.
  • Reach funding goals more easily and predictably. By knowing how many donations can be expected each month, organizations can prepare fundraising initiatives accordingly to fill in any gaps.

Let us know if there are other sustainable strategies and program models that you’ve discovered along the way. We would love to add them to the list!

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4 Proven Tips to Improve Board Member Communication

Jeb Banner

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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Detailed Guide to Your Nonprofit’s Audience Persona

Donorbox

Once you start a nonprofit organization, you need to develop a marketing strategy that works best. Knowing your target audience helps to create content based on its specifics.

The audience of a nonprofit is diverse. Every group – clients, donors, staff, volunteers, media, the local community – requires an individual approach.

This article provides step-by-step instruction of creating an audience persona – one of the key tools for better understanding each segment of your target audience.

Let’s Differ Audience Persona from Target Audience

  • Target audience

For nonprofits, it’s, on the one hand, socially vulnerable categories of the population who get the assistance of your organization. On the other hand, it’s those members of the society who support the organization in achieving its goals (donors, volunteers, staff members).

For the most effective implementation of goals, you need to segment your donors and audiences.

The target audience is divided into primary and secondary.

The primary target audience is people on whom the organization has a direct impact. And at the same time, your nonprofit’s activities depend on their actions, opinions, and needs.

A secondary target audience is a group of people that affects the primary audience. In turn, the opinions and activities of the secondary audience can cause the primary audience to take note of your information, change their attitude or behavior towards it.

Defining your target audience is describing it in detail, highlighting its characteristic features (age, gender, location, interests).

  • Audience persona 

It’s a documented portrait of the perfect representative of your target audience. A persona does not rely on one specific person. This is a collective image that reflects the majority of the target audience.

Building an audience persona involves a comprehensive study of donors, volunteers, clients, employees, and other representatives of the target audience, depending on the goals of the organization.

Unlike the target audience, which is described by socio-demographic, psychographic, behavioral characteristics, a persona is more focused on the needs, motivations, expectations of the audience. This is an individualized model that the organization focuses on when creating content.

Benefits of Building Audience Personas

Understanding a persona can improve the situation with your target audience. This is the first step towards creating an effective marketing strategy.

To make this tool work, the elaboration of a persona must be as detailed as possible. This will allow you to understand the motivation, needs, expectations, and interests of your target audience. Which, in turn, is essential for building long-term cooperation.

Gender, age, demographic indicators of your donors and clients are the simplest level of understanding of the audience. The next significant step is developing personas, which gives you a much more complete image of the audience’s life cycle and its interest in your work.

Modeling a persona takes place for each segment of your target audience. Getting started, you can focus on developing 3 primary audience personas – for donors, clients, and volunteers/staff.

Four Steps to Build Personas

  1. Make Research

Your existing donors, volunteers, clients, and co-workers are a great source of information that you need.

Interview them. It’s diligent but interesting and important work. The more data you collect at this stage the more detailed and useful image of personas you will end up with.

Go to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. These platforms are a great source of what’s essential for your audience. Minding it provides you with the opportunity to address on a more personal level.

Mind every piece of information, see how total strangers turn into real people with their worldview and activities, families and friends, interests, and preferences.

Why is the research work important? Because one way or another, their life circumstances are the reason for having the will to support your organization.

At this stage, you have to create a profile for each donor/client/etc. containing the following categories:

  • Demographics (age, gender, location, education, employment, marital status, and other info that’s essential for the type of your nonprofit).
  • Goals and values (primary and secondary goals, fears connected with goals, main values).
  • How you can help (what your nonprofit does to help people achieve their goals and fight their fears).
  • What differs your donor/client/volunteer from representatives of the same social stratum.

Use Internet surveys (such as Survey Monkey and Google forms) to reach a bigger audience.

Also make use of web analytics services (Google Analytics, MailChimp, SimilarWeb, Facebook Analytics, Facebook Audience Insights (if you have a business profile)) to find out the characteristics and interests of your online audience

  1. Analyze and Integrate

Since a persona is a generalized image of a potential or real audience, the next step of developing it is analyzing data to find patterns and define types of people you can combine in one.

The types you highlight may differ from your expectations. And this is a good indicator. It defines the quality of your research work.

  1. Create a Profile and Get Acquainted

Make profiles for each of your audience personas, add pics and characteristics. Examine them. Introduce personas to your staff.

Getting acquainted with the desires and needs of your audience leads you to the understanding of what truly is valuable and important for your potential or real clients and donors.

Does your audience look different now? What strategies are you going to use to engage their attention? How are you going to address each persona?

  1. Repeat

Building an audience persona is not a one-time action. It isn’t something you do once and for all.

First, watch if there are any changes in the interaction with the audience. Are they preferable ones? What can be improved?

Then start building secondary personas. Make research and create an image.

Finally, get assured you are aware of changes. From time to time, check the needs, preferences, and goals of your audience. Your organization is developing, involving more and more new people. Therefore, it is important to stay in touch with them and adapt to their features when needed.

Mind Negative Personas

A negative persona is an important component of the audience’s portraiture. It’s impossible not to have one.

Negative personas reveal target groups on which spending resources is least beneficial. It’s just not your audience. It’s rational to be aware of them to include in your marketing strategy.

As well as you did with audience personas, determine the characteristics of negative personas, and create their profiles with a detailed description.

Summary

  • An audience persona is a useful tool for effective work with the target audience.
  • Identifying a persona requires a careful study of your stakeholders.
  • Use online services to research the audience of your web resources.
  • Make profiles of primary, secondary, and negative personas.
  • Repeat research to supplement and adjust profiles.

This guide was brought to you by DonorBox.

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Inspiration From Fellow Fundraisers: Crowdfunding Through the COVID-19 Crisis

Laura Bucher

This guest blog post was brought to you by DonorPerfect. Read the full article here.

Feeding Long Island’s residents and raising awareness about hunger for nearly thirty years, Island Harvest Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization on Long Island. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the team at Island Harvest Food Bank knew that it was up to them to rally residents to combat the ever-growing need for food.

Island Harvest staff members needed to act fast and temporarily modify their business model to meet Long Island residents’ immediate need for food support. Their traditional model of generating and distributing donated food was not sustainable in the new climate, so they pivoted to a purchase-based model to feed as many families as they could right away. The hunger just couldn’t wait.

Island Harvest initially ordered $250,000 of specially designed meal boxes to distribute to families, seniors, veterans, and the immunocompromised who couldn’t leave their homes. When the time was right, Development Manager Ryan Haugstatter created a crowdfunding campaign with an initial goal of $250,000. To the delight of their entire organization, a community of 103 crowdfunding fundraisers joined with nearly 6,000 online contributors to raise an overall total of $955,712 in web-based donations (and counting!) in a matter of just three months!

7 Actions for Nonprofit Crowdfunding Success

You too can leverage crowdfunding to find similar success. Here are seven actions Island Harvest took to empower their community to support them through one of their greatest challenges.

Start with a small goal. Then build on it.

The team at Island Harvest set out with a clear and manageable goal of raising $250,000 to support the organization’s immediate response to their community’s hunger emergency. Ryan warns that setting the bar too high may discourage those who are unable to give large amounts from donating. He suggests, “Start smaller, and when you reach that particular goal increase it if you find the need is still there. Just explain where you can, the reason you’re upping your goal.”

Each time you increase your goal, you have another chance to promote your mission. In addition to spotlighting your crowdfunding campaign via social media and email, Ryan suggests updating your organization’s crowdfunding page, “What we do is we change the verbiage on the crowdfunding site, and we always make sure that we’re reflecting that the money that was raised is just as important as what we’re trying to raise right now. In our outreach, we always spoke about the need to raise funds with the need to support the organization’s mission and programs.”

Over the course of their campaign, Island Harvest adjusted their goal four times, from $250k to $500k to $750k to $1 million to $1.5 million. With the promotion of new, increased goals, Island Harvest even gained some repeat donors, coming back to give for their fifth time! The growing needs of Long Island’s residents required a continued appeal for the community’s help.

Be transparent about how you allocate crowdfunding dollars.

At Island Harvest, more than 94% of expended resources go directly to programs and services that support more than 300,000 Long Islanders facing hunger.

Knowing this builds contributors’ confidence in the organization. Ryan recommends that other nonprofits share this information with their constituents and be clear about what donors’ dollars are funding. “Twenty-five dollars was the amount that was able to purchase one family meal pack, which feeds a family for three to four days. I think also by breaking it down and letting [constituents] know what amount will go towards the purchase of these family meal packs, that also played a part in how much people were willing to give.”

Empower people to support you however they can.

Crowdfunding was an effective way for Island Harvest to fundraise because it enabled their entire community to participate in some way. Even if individuals were unable to donate money or could only contribute a small amount, they could feel connected to the mission by creating a peer-to-peer fundraising page to share with their network to raise money on the organization’s behalf.

Ryan explains, “Even if you can only give $5 but were able to create your own crowdfunding page and put it on your social media channels, that is just as much support as giving us $5. This can actually turn a $5 contribution into a much larger gift through multiple gifts from the crowdfunding effort. Because really, the advocacy and letting people know about the work that we do and our mission, that is what has also served as a motivator for others to give.”

Recruit corporate fundraisers.

Corporations are a great place to start when aiming to quickly build a network of fundraisers. Many businesses have corporate social responsibility programs that encourage their employees to give back to their community. This strategy is especially beneficial because employees can double their donation through their employer’s matching gift program. And in the workplace, we all know there are lots of opportunities for friendly competition for a good cause.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Island Harvest didn’t want to immediately reach out to individuals, knowing that many of them may have lost their jobs. Instead, they reached out to corporations and local businesses they knew were still operating and successfully gained their partnership.

Invite news coverage and creativity.

Island Harvest established a relationship with the NY Metro and Long Island’s media outlets with the help of their public relations consultant who tuned local media into all the wonderful work that Island Harvest is doing. If you aren’t currently in communication with your local news networks, reach out because they are often looking for stories about social good, especially during these trying times. Even without an established connection, Island Harvest’s individual fundraisers found ways to contact local news stations to reach a larger audience with their individual fundraising pages.

A former employee of Island Harvest made headlines when she raised 1,000 lbs of food and $500 on behalf of Island Harvest in honor of her birthday. She placed boxes at the end of her driveway to collect food and monetary donations, inviting friends and neighbors to stop by. A parade of cars lined the street to support her cause.

Another individual inspired others to give and to stay healthy from home. He reached his goal of $5,000 by committing to 5,000 push-ups in 24 hours. Staying tuned in to their crowdfunders’ creative fundraising strategies gave Island Harvest the opportunity to pitch to local reporters and share their fundraisers’ awesome promotional ideas on their social media feeds.

Involve your board and executive team.

Your board members and executives are likely well-connected in your community and can serve as effective solicitors of major donors. Ryan suggests leveraging their stewardship skills by encouraging them to support your crowdfunding campaign. He explains, “We asked [the board] to contribute towards [the campaign], and additionally, we encouraged them to create their own crowdfunding pages and just reach out to their own network that they found appropriate to reach out to.” Ryan suggests encouraging board members, friends, and staff to use their own social media platforms, as well, to share special stories about the work of the organization, program goals, and funding needs.

Ryan also recommends hosting discussions with your supporters through virtual meetings to update them on your organization’s progress. He shares, “Our CEO and president scheduled several virtual meetings with top contributors to give updates and reports on our work. Also, our crowdfunding fundraisers were established to encourage others to create their own crowdfunding pages. We reached out to a targeted list of higher level contributors to participate and expanded it when we could accommodate additional participants.”

Island Harvest gained more fundraisers and strengthened the passion for fundraising in existing crowdfunders by hosting these meetings. Ryan attributes this success to the president’s ability to share about the organization’s past progress in a way that inspires their donors. Maintaining contact with supporters to report on your established programs, the need at hand, and how successful you’ve been thus far motivates them to get involved in all the good you’re doing.

Watch the power of crowdfunding go to work.

When you give your network the tools they need to fundraise on your behalf, you enable your supporters to be your ambassadors. Passionate about your mission and bringing their own stories to the table, fundraisers can rally their networks on a very personal level and reach a much broader audience. Ryan shares, “We started to see so many more individuals creating crowdfunding pages and having their friends and colleagues reaching out – even securing support from across America – to donate to their [pages]. It was really, really powerful. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Ryan believes that fundraisers were drawn by the ability to create their own pages because they could:

  • Easily set up their own crowdfunding project
  • See their name in a list of fundraisers on Island Harvest’s main crowdfunding page
  • Create their own page with a personal story and goal
  • Watch Island Harvest’s progress bar, along with their own, and know that they were a part of something important

Ryan explains, “I think it encourages contributors to help us when they see the goal. Every time they put even $5 or $10 in, they get to see the bar increase and be able to have their name on [the page] with a little note, it makes them feel even more important to the mission. That’s why I love the feature of the crowdfunding page on DonorPerfect.”

Ready to Get Started with Crowdfunding?

Here’s how to get started, step-by-step.

Thank you to Ryan Haugstatter and Island Harvest Food Bank for sharing with us this inspiring story of how they brought their community together and for answering the call when their most impacted residents needed them most through COVID-19. We wish the team and their fundraisers our very best as they push forward to see their community through the crisis.

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