Things with the yard have screeched to a halt. Between poison ivy and my having a blister that got infected (ouch!) we’ve had to find other things to do. Books are finding their way to shelves and pictures are being hung on the wall. We’re able to find our pots and pans and starting to feel like it’s home.
But we went through a couple of weeks where everything was in disarray. It was overwhelming and felt like it would never come together. We’re feeling that way too now with the street in front of our house. It’s been torn up and everything looks like a mess. I trust though that the city knows what it’s doing and will indeed finish the work that it has started.
There is a possibility that you may be feeling this way related to your nonprofit – whether it be your fundraising efforts, your board or your programs. Sometimes we need to take the next step and trust that the ground will come up to meet us. We just need to take the next step and do the next right thing.
If you’re not sure what the next right step is or you realize that you really don’t have an overall plan, I encourage you to register for the workshop on June 20th. It’s all online and will help you develop an outline of your plan. Hope to ‘see’ you there.
Kind regards,
Kirsten
Article of the Week: Asking: Integrating Into Publications / Emails Have you had any thoughts about a free report you could offer that would be beneficial to potential donors? That’s one of the things we can offer that will help us build a group of potential donors (otherwise known as an email and snail mail list). Continue reading
Quote of the week: Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde
Kirsten Recommends: June 20th Fundraising Planning Workshop – Attend Online!
Reach Your Fundraising Goals Faster When You Get ‘on target’ with a clear plan
Putting together a fundraising plan doesn’t need to be overwhelming. When you attend this virtual workshop you’ll be walked through setting up your plan.
Attendees will:
- Create a fundraising plan, customized for their organization
- Learn strategies that work for small and medium-size nonprofits, and those that waste your time
- Receive forms, templates and examples to fast forward your planning process
Limited to 10 participants.
Details:
- When: Friday June 20, 11:00 am – 4:30 pm ET (begins at 10am CT / 9am MT / 8am PT)
- Where: Virtual
- Cost: $75 ($47 when you register by June 13) OR Join The Nonprofit Academy (l-year option at $197) and this planning day will be included.
Members: $25 off. Email kirsten@bullockconsulting.net for your details.
Here’s a summary of recent articles and blogs related to fundraising and nonprofit organizations. As always, please forward this to others who might benefit from the information. Thanks again for reading!
Awareness / Communications
- How to Insert Google Calendar Invites in Your Marketing Emails Your events are essential. One of the challenges is people forgetting about it and making some other commitment. Here’s a way to make it really easy for people to add your event to their calendar. @HubSpot
- The Internet Trifecta & the Battle for Attention: Lessons From Mary Meeker's Internet Trends Report Wondering what’s up with the internet? Here’s a great summary, via a slide presentation, that includes analysis as well as predictions about what we might see in the not-so-distant future. @HubSpot
- Creating a Stellar Elevator Pitch for Your Nonprofit Organization While most people don’t like being ‘talked at,’ it’s still a good idea to have a quick answer when people do ask about what we do. Here’s a quick way to do that. @stayclassysd
- Jewish Federation of St. Louis: Our Story Website Launches This is a great example of using stories on your website. The look is clean and the pictures are great. Their Our Story site shares the stories of people touched by their work. @wiredimpact
Fundraising Planning
- You just gotta love older people Fundraisers, on average are pretty young. Donors, on average are pretty old. So we have an interesting gap to overcome in communication these fundraisers and donors. Read on here. @101fundraising
- Initiating the Social Media Path to Purchase Model This is an interesting article to explore if you’re asking for money online. Whether we’re selling something or asking for a gift, the decision making process is very similar. Here are some perspectives from the for-profit perspective. @MSocialBusiness
- Planning for Social Media Fundraising: Part 2 Big successes in online fundraising seem to be fairly unpredictable – often related to disasters or the passing of someone who was passionate about your cause. While those aren’t predictable, there are some ways put the pieces in place and plan for more consistent success with online fundraising. Here are some thoughts on that. @howardlake
Fundraising Tactics
- The CEO of Coca-Cola on Using the Company’s Scale for Good Sponsorships often come out of a corporate social responsibility budget. Now that CSR has become mainstream, companies are getting a little more comfortable with having a greater impact. That means that the decision making process is changing. For some nonprofits this will be a welcome change, for others it may be a big wake-up call. Read on and decide which camp you might fall into. @HarvardBiz
- Gail’s Guide to Brilliant Donor Cultivation Events Anything that Gail writes is great and insightful, so regardless of whether or not you are currently hosting cultivation events this is a must read. If you’re not hosting them, please consider starting. More and more donors are giving to those causes they feel personally connected to and these are a great way to build those connections. @GailPerrync
7 Things You Must Do to Salvage Your Annual Fundraising Your annual giving program is the lifeblood of your fundraising planning. Read on to get some tips, encouragement and a real life story that may sound very familiar to you… @BloomerangTech
Leadership
- Does fundraising need an ethics committee? I’ve often heard leaders in our field say that if we don’t govern ourselves as it relates to ethics, we’ll have to bear with outside groups doing it. Is this the start of a trend and is it really something we want / need? @howardlake
- What Funders Want: Nonprofits that Need Their Support…But Not Exclusively Are you becoming over-reliant on a single funder? Be forewarned that they might ask you to take a break from their support. There’s a thin line between needing their support and being overly reliant on it. @npquarterly
- How Does Your Nonprofit Retain Termed-Out Board Members? If you’re not keeping in touch with former board members you’re missing out on a great opportunity! Here are some thoughts on how to do that. @HuffPostBiz
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