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After more than three years of weekly blogging, as well as more than 225 posts, your fundraising FlashPoints is pausing publication.
It's time for a break to ensure the posts maintain current value for you and all the great work you do for your favorite nonprofit.
In the meantime, feel free to browse through the posts through the menu buttons on your right. There is also a search function in the lower center of this blog. Most of these posts and fundraising ideas are geared towards small nonprofits that do not have paid staff people.
If you have ideas for future blog topics or fundraising focus areas you are not finding elsewhere, please submit those ideas here.
Until then, you are wished ample inspiration and passion as you continue your fundraising and mission advancement in 2014. Cheers!
Today's post shares with you more about an inspiring, focused nonprofit that effectively combined mission work and meaningful merchandise.
I received my first one of the Giving Keys from a dear and thoughtful friend after going through a challenging time.
This Los Angeles-based nonprofit employs people looking to transition out of homelessness to make bracelet, necklace, knuckle ring and iPhone case keys. The keys have inspiring messages on them, like "Dream" and "Love." Custom brief words may be chosen, too. All key proceeds support the mission of Giving Keys.
But the inspiration does not stop there.
Once you receive a key, the idea is that you are to give it away at some point to someone in your life who needs the message on the key. I gave mine ("Strength") to another friend going through her own challenging time. I have also enjoyed giving keys to additional loved ones and hearing about their journeys.
Congratulations, Giving Keys on finding a focused way to move your mission forward, again and again.
How might your nonprofit become more focused and self-perpetuating in 2014?
Photo credit above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richard-g/
Recently, I learned of an interesting comparison of fundraising efforts and expectations.
A donor and active volunteer has a general interest in animal nonprofits and an community issues nonprofit. On the whole, she's been more active with the latter.
An animal nonprofit recommended to her by a a friend recently sent a holiday mailing with seven inspiring stories of animal lives saved, each ending with a thanks to her for making the saving possible. There was an incidental mention of a 1:1 matching gift campaign in this holiday communication.
The community issues nonprofit asked the donor via email to commit to soliciting 30 contacts she hasn't been in regular communication with as part of a large endowment campaign. Apparently a major volunteer commitment doesn't even merit a phone call. This ask came on the heels of another email requesting "dues" from this donor and others like her, implying an obligation to give. Neither email communication contained any information on how gifts would be used.
In summary, this donor felt a huge disparity between fundraising efforts and expectations among the two organizations. She felt appreciated by the first organization and dismissed as not worth any effort but expected to give much by the second organization.
Guess which nonprofit received the donor's year end gift given in lieu of family Christmas present exchange?
As 2014, approaches, take a look back at your fundraising communications. Do your fundraising efforts reflect your expectations?
Photo credit above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qisur/
Giving Tuesday was December 3 this year. The results, as tracked and published by Blackbaud offer some possibilities for all nonprofits to consider as they plan their 2014 fundraising.
- The average 2013 online gift on Giving Tuesday was $142.05, up from $101.60 in 2012.
- 3,800 US nonprofits saw their 2013 Giving Tuesday donations collectively rise 90% over 2012.
- $19.2 million in donations were processed by these nonprofits on December 3, 2013 ($10.1 million in 2012)
- Online giving during the October, November and December is believed to account for 40% of overall totals for this fundraising channel each year.
- Online giving is producing stronger results than online retail and Black Friday this year.
- According to the Blackbaud Index, overall charitable giving is up slightly in 2013 over 2012.
How do the results for your nonprofit compare?
If you don't already have one, can you set a goal of offering online giving on your website by the 2014 holiday season?
Photo credit above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artisrams/
Now is a great time to capture in writing the answers to your nonprofit's 2014 fundraising questions.
Once you have the questions written down, they will provide a great framework for tracking your progress, reporting and discussing throughout 2014.
Those questions include:
- What is your mission?
- How are you going to communicate that message?
- What is your 2014 fundraising goal?
- What tactics do you plan to use? They may include:
- Direct mail
- Special events, like a community meal or a walk-a-thon
- Regular, personal visits that include asks to key contacts and established supporters
- Online giving
- Grants
- How will you use the funds you raise?
- How will you communicate your results to your supporters?
Once you have these answers written down, get to work on making your goals happen.
What questions would you add to the list above?
Photo credit above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarkstonscamp/
Recently, we've been going through a painstaking process of car buying. It's time to update our oldest vehicle. Our vehicle purchase planning steps have included lots of online research, conversations with friends about vehicles and dealerships, and of course, a few test drives.
For us, test driving has literally become where the rubber meets the road in terms of narrowing down the vehicles of interest. After test drives of just a few miles, we've both eliminated vehicles from consideration and added possibilities to the list as we looked at similar cars since we were on the lot anyway.
The experience got me to thinking: could your nonprofit offer more opportunities to test drive involvement with your mission?
It feels like there are never enough human resources to move your mission forward. Those who are already involved, like you, can be at risk for burnout. Large scale commitments like serving on your board of directors or chairing your special event can feel overwhelming to those not already intimately familiar with the good work you do.
As you look towards 2014 for your nonprofit, consider:
- What aspects of the work you do are the most inspirational?
- How might you invite others to experience these inspirational aspects in easy, low time commitment, "test drive" style ways?
- Who are three people you will invite to test drive your nonprofit in 2014?
Photo credit above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inhabitat/
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