Brand new slide presentation with new tips is now available on Slideshare.
Is this you???
This presentation covers a little bit of everything marketing and provides real world tactics that will help improve your marketing activities.
Take-away: Check it out!!
This is a great article. I always tell people that are considering a new nonprofit to truly consider the options. Nonprofits are a lot more than a group of people with a passion. I hope this article finds you all well…enjoy!!!
The first characteristic is action. When a generous and caring individual sits down with me and begins to describe the plight of others and the actions he or she is willing to take to help alleviate their suffering, I am always listening for the distinction between what they are wanting to support financially and what they are willing to do physically. If they lean toward a significant amount of physical activity, such as operating a facility, conducting a summer camp or working directly with those needing assistance, then the solution to their charitable problem is likely the creation of a new nonprofit organization.
I always advise such individuals to search exhaustively for any existing nonprofit that is already doing similar work before starting a new nonprofit, but if there is not an organization at the right time and place to help those in need, then there are great organizations that can help you get a new nonprofit started. The request is so common that the East Texas Center for Nonprofits at the United Way of Smith County hosts a monthly session titled “Becoming and Operating a 501(c)(3).” If you have a burning desire to roll up your sleeves and get in the trenches operating a nonprofit to serve those who have no place else to turn for those services, creating a new charitable organization may be your best course of action.
When it is clear that a generous philanthropist is not interested in starting or operating a nonprofit, but rather looking for the most appropriate means to provide long-term support to an existing one, our conversation focuses on determining if a private foundation or donor-advised fund can more effectively accomplish the donor’s objectives. The next characteristic I listen for in the conversation is the desired level of donor control. If a donor wants to involve family members on a governing board, play an active role in investing charitable resources, receive compensation for their efforts or review grant proposals from charities, then a private foundation can effectively accommodate that level of donor engagement and control.
A private foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) organization that requires active governance and oversight by a board of directors, but it typically does not provide active charitable services, such as operating a shelter or providing case management. The legal structure of a private foundation allows interested donors to contribute assets to the private foundation and actively participate in decisions with regard to managing those assets and making grants to charities. Because a private foundation is a separate legal entity, donors must consider succession planning and how to properly train the next generation of foundation directors.
If a donor does not want to operate a charity or private foundation, they may be a candidate for a donor-advised fund (DAF) at a public charity such as East Texas Communities Foundation. The key characteristic of this type of donor is simplicity. A donor looking for the easiest way to provide long-term support for one or more charities without the responsibility of operating a separate organization and keeping up with ever-changing regulations will appreciate the simplicity of a DAF.
DAFs are owned and controlled by a public charity that is responsible for knowing and following current laws and regulations. Donors can provide, as the name suggests, “advice” with regard to the ultimate organizations that receive distributions from the fund, but the sponsoring public charity handles all the steps in the donation process, including accepting contributions of simple or complex assets, managing the investments of the fund, processing grants and filing annual tax returns. In addition, at a sponsoring charity such as East Texas Communities Foundation, the staff of the charity can serve as a resource to provide advice and answers to many donor questions.
If you can’t decide if you need to create a new charity, start a private foundation or open a donor-advised fund, the next best thing you might consider is whether the key characteristics of action, control or simplicity dominate your thoughts. Come have a conversation with us and we’ll try to get you pointed in the best direction to help you give well.
Guest columnist Kyle Penney is president of East Texas Communities Foundation and a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy. Philanthropy builds community and changes lives. ETCF supports philanthropy by providing simple ways for donors to achieve their charitable goals. To learn more about ETCF or to discuss your charitable giving, contact Kyle at 866-533-3823 or email questions or comments to etcf@etcf.org. More information is available at www.etcf.org. Encourage your favorite charities to participate in East Texas Giving Day on April 30. Learn more at www.EastTexasGivingDay.org.
What are you waiting for? 10% of all online giving for the year occurs on December 29, 30 and 31 with nearly 30% of all giving taking place in December. Take advantage of the most profitable time of the year. Send two to three fundraising appeals to ensure your organizations success in 2019. Your appeal should be concise, simple, and include a call to action.
Get started!
Subject line: The subject line should be short and compelling. It should emphasize the time-sensitive nature of your message. Examples: “Give before it’s too late” tests very well. Use this tool to evaluate the best subject line for your org. 40% or higher is a good subject line.
Greeting: Try to, use the recipient’s name, and make sure it is spelled correctly.
Web tip– Include an example of how the monies will benefit your organization.
Message: Remind donors that any donation they give by December 31 is tax-deductible.
Donation link: Include the link to send donors directly to your online donation page & make sure that page share’s what the donor is getting for the donation. List the link (for example: “http://www.yoursite.org/give”) this allows donors to click through or copy and paste it.
Call to Action:
Tell donors why they should donate to you. For example: “Your gift of
$20 by December 31 can provide clean drinking water to one person. Please give now.”
Summary:
Thank the reader and sign a real person’s name. I really like these letters to include a personal message of how the individual has already helped or given if possible. Then wrap the letter with how they can contact the organization.
Take-away: It’s not too late for a year end fundraising campaign…start today!
One of my favorite topics is year end fundraising. It’s easy for this to be my favorite because it is when more money is raised for nonprofits than any other time of year.
In fact, 30% of funds raised are raised in December, and 10% of all annual giving occurs in the last 3 days of the year. Year end fundraising just makes sense.
To that point, I would like to share some helpful tips and resources.
I recently posted this How to Create a Successful Year End Fundraising Campaign presentation on slide share. These slides are from the class I teach, and are packed full of ideas, samples, and best practices.
In addition, this is a great campaign planning tool that I helped create when I was a part of the team at Sage Nonprofit Solutions. This template is a bit dated, but the strategies and suggestions are as classic as a good black jacket!
And before I bid you adieu, I will leave you with one of my favorite blogs about year end fundraising…Top 10 Ways to Kill Your Year-End Fundraising Campaign.
I wish you well on your journey to Year End Success.
Take-away: Don’t wait to get started…the time is now!
Instagram is a great resource for nonprofit marketing, especially if you are geared toward a younger demographic or expanding into that demographic.
Check out this great infographic that features tips and tricks!
I love when I come across a great nonprofit marketing tool, and this new marketing tool makes my best of the best list.
This tool walks you through every step of a great marketing program. My favorite of all of the steps is #5…take a look for yourself and thank you to Mobile Cause.
Take-away: Download the Nonprofit Marketing Tool here.
If you have not looked at this for your nonprofit…today is the day.
Facebook Audience Insights gives you aggregate information about three groups of people—people connected to your Page, people in your Custom Audience and people on Facebook—so you can create content that resonates and easily find more people like the ones in your current audience.
See age and gender breakdowns, education levels, job titles, relationship statuses and more.
Learn about people’s interests and hobbies. Audience Insights also includes third-party information on what products people may be interested in purchasing.
Audience Insights combines relationship status, income, family size and location to tell you about the types of people interested in your business.
You can use this information in events to determine areas of interest…for example, I found out that my users are 300% more likely to be On the Go. This is affluent demographic with pre-school age children. This tells me that I need to make sure to think about child care and children’s activities as I plan events. I learned so much…it is an incredible tool.
Take away: Check it out here.
