You’ve probably participated in,  or even run, a peer to peer (P2P) fundraising campaign. P2P campaigns have grown in popularity over the last decade since anyone can launch one and fundraise for themselves or an organization they care deeply about!   Whether your fundraiser is a 5K run, a day of giving like Giving Tuesday, or another event, you can use your P2P campaign to mobilize your board and volunteers and raise money from a large audience. 

While these campaigns have great potential, there are a few considerations to determine if a P2P Fundraising Campaign is the right strategy for your organization.

Newsletters are a great way to keep donors, volunteers, and other stakeholders engaged and informed about the work your organization is doing. When done well, they can be a tool to deepen your relationships and invite readers into greater involvement.

However, given that the average person only opens about 18% of their emails, you want to make sure the message you’re sending is accessible, engaging, and gives a clear sense of the next step the reader should take. Here are our tips on what can take your newsletter from good to GREAT!

Most nonprofits are laser-focused on getting donors. But what about keeping them?

While it can be tempting to assume that once a donor gives, she’ll continue to make a donation year after year, data says otherwise.  According to the AFP 2018 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey, the 2017 donor retention rate was only 45.5%. That means that, overall, one out of every two donors won’t make a second gift. 

The best thing you can do to keep your donors is to have a stewardship plan in place, and that starts with a great thank you letter.  If you’re ready to start stewarding your donors with enthusiasm and sophistication, here are four ways you can create a simple yet powerful donor stewardship plan.

Donor stewardship is a critical aspect to any fundraising operation. If we had a nickel for how many ED’s have told us they don’t like making thank you calls, we’d be on an island getaway right now! A thank you call- sweet and simple. A handwritten thank you card- folk’s love seeing pen on paper. A special gift with your logo- marketing with a thank you!

Stewardship does not have to be complicated. But it has to be. It must be done for you to succeed.

So, you’re a grant writer and are submitting several applications a month. You find yourself needing to streamline your process to meet deadlines and win more money! My friend, it's time you consider adding a boilerplate to your toolbox - assuming you don’t already have one.

Sometimes, communicating with donors is scary. There’s a perceived power dynamic between the money-holder and the money-asker that drives the stories we tell. What would the donor want to hear? How do I tell our story in 750 characters? Does this story make us seem less than perfect?

Here’s the thing -- donors are people too. Sure, foundations aren’t, but program officers, heads of foundations, and trustees are. They’re interested in supporting YOUR work and not another organization with a wildly different focus area because they’re interested in your cause and what you’re doing to drive it forward.

If you are growing a grants program, it can be tempting to just submit as many grant proposals as possible. But, when it comes to winning grant funding the most important thing isn’t how much you write. Instead, it’s finding grants that really align with your work.

What do you do when you see a problem in your neighborhood, whether it’s a stray cat, an individual experiencing homelessness, or a school library without books?

If your answer is “start a nonprofit!” you might want to pause and think again. Starting a nonprofit isn’t always the best way to have an impact on your community — and it might even make the problem worse.