As a nonprofit fundraising professional, you know it’s not enough to address donor outreach messages with “Dear Donor” and call it a day. With 71% of consumers expecting personalized interactions with brands, nonprofits like yours must focus on developing meaningful moments for supporters. In this guide, we’ll explore the following tips for creating personalized donor interactions that inspire long-term, reliable support: Segment your donors. Use an interaction timeline. Call donors to express appreciation. Create unexpected moments. Ask for feedback. Whether you’re looking to level up your ..read more

Implementing new constituent relationship management (CRM) software for your nonprofit is a major milestone. Whether it’s your first CRM or a more robust system to scale with your organization’s growth, your new CRM will help you streamline your operations and manage your donors more effectively—ultimately allowing you to do more for your mission. But once you’ve put in the work to compare the top CRMs, evaluate your priorities, and choose the best system for your nonprofit, what comes next? The answer is implementation, a process in which you set up, customize, and migrate data to your new CR ..read more

Your nonprofit or mission-driven organization might feel motivated to adapt its visual storytelling approach to respond to shifting audience preferences or changes to your organization’s brand or cause. Online storytelling is our favorite way to drive mission engagement and upgrade current donors. Marketers frequently use visual elements like pictures, infographics, charts, data visualizations, and videos to drive their storytelling strategies. But how can you improve these visual elements to tell your story authentically this year? Let’s explore five expert tips for enhancing visual storytell ..read more

Fundraising setbacks can happen to anyone, especially under challenging economic conditions. In general, fundraising dollars, donor participation, and retention rates decreased in 2023. Further, specific donor segments, like major donors, that held strong in 2022 suffered significant dips in retention. Clearly, nonprofits everywhere are facing fundraising challenges. But there are strategies your organization can use to keep donors engaged and level up your fundraisers. In this guide, we’ll explore how to make changes that bring in reliable funding and engage more donors. Let’s get started! 1 ..read more

Guest blog by Julie Kennon of Charity Engine If you missed this captivating webinar on recurring giving, don’t worry…we took notes! It’s no secret that a strong recurring giving program provides a necessary foundation for any nonprofit. Reliable revenue means, of course, that you can keep the lights on, but it also means you have a steady base of supporters committed to your cause. It means you can forecast growth with confidence, and it speaks strongly to the overall health of your nonprofit. But building a strong recurring giving program isn’t always easy. We turned to Erica Waasdo ..read more

Many nonprofits are considering ways to upgrade their recurring donors to higher levels. I’ve written in the past about best practices for getting recurring extra gifts and upgrades, but here are a few different approaches you can use with your recurring donors. Ask your monthly donors for a straight upgrade. Ideally, segment your donors by source of sign up as that may be how they’re most likely to upgrade. Of course, you’re not able to do this for face-to-face acquired donors, but direct mail recurring donors may be more likely to upgrade by mail, those who were called may be more ..read more

Recurring giving is a significant source of revenue for nonprofits, as 57% of nonprofit donors are enrolled in a recurring giving program. Recurring donations provide reliable funding every month to keep your organization running. This means your organization should be dedicated to cultivating these donors—and be extra careful to retain them! As a nonprofit leader, you know that you must motivate donors to give regularly by laying out your fundraising needs, explaining how they can help but more importantly how their recurring gifts are making a difference  A recurring donor welcome serie ..read more

When it comes to securing recurring gifts, there are several common mistakes nonprofits stumble into. From requesting a recurring gift from a donor who already gives monthly to asking them for another recurring donation in a thank you letter, quite a bit can go wrong when asking donors to upgrade their giving!  One under-discussed but still damaging mistake is repeatedly asking donors to increase their gifts when it may not be in their budgets. Of course, there’s no way to keep track of individual supporter’s finances, but your nonprofit should pay attention when repeated requests go unan ..read more

Guest Blog by Logan Foote, Sales and Education Manager at GolfStatus As you know, trying new fundraising ideas is critical for nonprofits to grow and scale. Finding ways to reach specific donor segments with campaigns and messaging that resonate with them is crucial to boosting conversions and retention.  One way to employ this strategy is to target the environmentally-minded people in your donor and supporter base. Appealing to the eco-conscious segment of your donors can foster increased engagement and boost fundraising for your nonprofit, while also helping them connect with nature and ..read more

When I first started fundraising monthly, now more than 30 years ago, there were only mail and phone appeals. Face-to-face conversations had just started, and some nonprofits were putting their toes in the water with direct response TV. Now, things are quite different. Just about every payment processor and constituent relationship management system (CRM) allow donors to make automatic monthly payments online. Even with online fundraising being so prevalent now, many nonprofits struggle to balance their short and long-term giving initiatives. I continue to be passionate about monthly gift prog ..read more