Turn Your Fundraiser Guests into Raving Fans

We've all been there. Boring conference chicken. Even more dry speakers. And, we're sitting at the fundraiser just waiting to write a check and run home to catch up on this season of The Bachelor. Are you ready to improve your next nonprofit fundraiser? Or even better - turn your fundraising attendees into regular donors?

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#1 Step to Get Your Nonprofit Board Positioned for Success in 2024

Maintaining an effective nonprofit board isn’t rocket science, but it does involve intention. And, although you might tell yourself “they’re technically my boss,” if you want to have a badass nonprofit and move your agency to the next level, YOU need to know what might be going “wrong” with your board so you can develop strategies to fix the board issues!

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Giving Tuesday? 6 Questions Your Nonprofit Needs to Ask First

So if you're like most nonprofits, you've probably done this Giving Tuesday thing over and over again and, potentially, unsuccessfully. So, before you get started diving into Giving Tuesday this year, I want you to ask yourself these six questions about whether Giving Tuesday is right for your organization.

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7 Fundraising To-Dos to Increase Your Holiday Donations

For almost all nonprofits, the last 3 months of the year are THE MOST important. 31% of all annual gifts come in in December. With Giving Season Just around the corner, check out these 10 tips to do Giving Season right as a nonprofit fundraiser!

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The #1 Mistake Nonprofit Executive Directors Make

So, your board just had a discussion about the organization’s allocation of staff and resources over the coming months? They’re debating whether the proposed new service fits into your mission?

These meetings start out fine. But then, someone goes deep. They give an example of a potential problem, or they ask how we should handle this minor detail, or they give their opinion about some small item. That’s where it starts. And, then we get drawn into “the enticing complexity of operations.”

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Improve Your Nonprofit's Fundraising Campaigns with Donor Messaging

Donor messaging is such a vague space people oftentimes don’t know what to do or where to start. Sometimes it’s because nonprofits want to cut corners, get creative, and forget about their branding. But the truth is, your agency’s branding should guide what kind of messaging you need to show donors, what that messaging looks like, and how you'll do it.

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Why You DON'T Need a Trifold Brochure for Your Business

Need a trifold brochure? No you don’t. You need a 30-minute brand consultation. Erica was one of my first clients when I launched Grit in April 2017. She is a woman with a marketing background in corporate America who also happened to have a pretty rad style.

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Email Newsletters for Nonprofits: How to Start One, and Why You Should

You have a million and one things on your nonprofit's to-do list. And you already regularly engage your donors in a newsletter (right?). So you're either unconvinced, or on the fence, about adding an e-newsletter to your nonprofit's endless to-do list.

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How Should Nonprofits Collect Donations Online?

I constantly hear nonprofits say “we use PayPal to collect donations online.” I want to respond: “And, how many donations do you collect?” Certainly not many. Stripe, PayPal, and other online money collection options are built to do just that - collect money. These platforms are not built to be user-friendly OR entice people to donate.

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Upgrade to Little Green Light to Manage your Donors

Do you use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of donations?

Maybe you have that long notes section that reflects most of the donations that have come in over the last few years... well, except for those three months the volunteer bookkeeper was on maternity leave.

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3 Tools for Nonprofits that Will Save You Hours of Volunteer Management

As nonprofit professionals, we've all been there. That event is coming up in three weeks. So for that event, you have a list of volunteer slots. And... a list of 50 million people (board members, volunteers, those BFFs who come through for you) who might volunteer for you...

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4 Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make on Solicitation Letters

Even in the age of digital marketing, solicitation letters are a key part of any fundraising plan. Over and over and over again I see nonprofits send out correspondence for solicitation letters with the wrong messaging, the wrong formatting, and no direct ask...

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6 Last-Minute Steps to Making Your Giving Tuesday Campaign a Success

I know we’re all recovering from too much wine, too much turkey, and too much football. I am on the too much football train – not by choice. But when Giving Tuesday is approaching, you nonprofits better have your act together.

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