Nonprofit Tools Archives - Getting Attention

This guide will cover everything you need to know about Google Workspace for Nonprofits.

Google Workspace for Nonprofits: Everything You Need to Know

August 21, 2023/in Nonprofit Tools /by connie.zhang

Organizing your work and connecting you with your fellow employees are tasks any business software should accomplish. And like businesses, nonprofits can benefit from investing in software that streamlines their operations.

Google Workspace for Nonprofits, also known as Google G Suite for Nonprofits, provides that solution for nonprofits of all types and sizes. The wide variety of apps it offers suits any need a nonprofit could have and facilitates communication and daily tasks. All you have to do is understand Workspace’s features and configure them to match your organization’s needs.

To help you out, we’ve put together this guide on everything you need to know about Google Workspace for nonprofits. Read more

This guide will cover the top peer-to-peer fundraising software solutions for nonprofit organizations.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software: 11 Top Solutions

August 15, 2023/in Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Marketing, Nonprofit Tools /by connie.zhang

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a powerful form of nonprofit fundraising in which organizations empower their supporters to raise money on their behalf. This fundraising strategy, also referred to as social fundraising or P2P giving, enables nonprofits to reach larger audiences, engage new donors, and raise a ton of funding for their causes.

For this fundraising method to be effective, your dedicated supporters require the right tools⁠—or peer-to-peer platforms⁠—to manage their fundraising from start to finish. And there are a lot of software choices to explore. That’s why we’ve crafted this guide to help you decide on the provider that’s best for you.

In this article, we’ll cover the following:

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: The Basics
11 Top Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software Solutions

By the end of this guide, you’ll be comfortable with the types of features and functionalities peer-to-peer fundraising software can offer, and you’ll walk away with a few great options to consider. Set your team up for success by carefully deciding which solution will work best for you!

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software: The Basics

Keeping your peer-to-peer fundraising process organized can be difficult. Your team may have suddenly become a lot bigger with the inclusion of your peer fundraisers, and you have to manage both them and your staff members for your campaign to succeed. Plus, you have to track the funds everyone has raised and keep morale and excitement high.

Peer-to-peer fundraising software can help you keep your processes organized and streamlined. Such a solution comes with the following functionalities:

Communication tools. To have a successful campaign, you need to communicate effectively with staff members and volunteers. Peer-to-peer fundraising software enables you to message all involved individuals and even create communication templates to help your volunteers reach out to their networks.
Individual fundraising pages. With the right software solution, your volunteers will be able to create, customize, and personalize individual fundraising pages. They can use these pages to help you acquire donations and share their story, goals, and progress. Since they’ll be tapping into their network for fundraising, this personalization will help create an emotional connection for potential donors.
Donation processing. Allow donors to make gifts through individual fundraising pages. That way, they won’t have to navigate to your nonprofit’s website to make a gift, making the process more convenient. Peer-to-peer fundraising software will give you secure and easy-to-use donation processing forms to ensure a smooth giving experience.
Mobile optimization. As 57% of nonprofit website traffic comes from mobile devices, ensure that your peer-to-peer fundraising software can create fundraising pages that are optimized for mobile usage.
Social sharing integrations. Since your volunteers will be promoting their fundraising page to their network, social sharing integrations are crucial to success. With these integrations, they’ll be able to easily share their pages through social media, email, and text messaging, maximizing their advertising opportunities and ability to reach their network.
Gamification elements. Friendly competition motivates your peer fundraisers to increase their efforts in helping your nonprofit. Peer-to-peer fundraising software allows you to create a competitive spirit by incorporating gamification elements, such as leaderboards and milestone rewards.
Data and analytics. Keep track of your volunteers’ fundraising in real-time and get insight into the overall amount of revenue generated. Then, use this information to make informed adjustments to the strategy for your peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. You can also evaluate the data to help improve future campaigns.

Peer-to-peer fundraising software is specifically designed to help your nonprofit’s peer-to-peer campaign shine. Harness these functionalities to provide support for your volunteers and ensure your next campaign is a success.

11 Top Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software Solutions

When choosing a peer-to-peer fundraising software solution to invest in, take a look at their case studies and testimonials. In particular, assess how the provider has helped organizations similar to yours in size and type, as that will give you insight into how the solution will work for you. Also, don’t be afraid to look at third-party reviews!

Keep these considerations in mind as you read through the following list of top peer-to-peer fundraising software solutions. If you see a solution you’re interested in, assess whether it will meet your needs, align with your budget, and be easy to use.

1. CharityEngine

CharityEngine is an all-in-one nonprofit donor management and fundraising platform designed to aid nonprofits of all sizes in a wide range of fundraising efforts. In addition to their greater constituent relationship management (CRM) solution, they offer peer-to-peer fundraising software that provides groups and individual fundraisers with the capabilities they need to succeed.

Some of CharityEngine’s peer-to-peer features include:

Personalized campaign microsites
Customizable team and personal fundraising pages
Strategic fundraising goal-tracking tools

Plus, CharityEngine’s peer-to-peer fundraising software integrates seamlessly with donor management solutions, event management tools, and other fundraising software. That way, you can smoothly transition from your existing software to this CRM solution.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

2. Classy

Classy is a comprehensive online fundraising solution complete with peer-to-peer functionality and a mission to empower nonprofit organizations to unlock the generosity of their supporters. Since its foundation, Classy has helped thousands of nonprofits advance their missions, raising more than $5 billion in donation revenue.

This peer-to-peer fundraising software’s features include:

Campaign templates
Embedded videos and livestreams
Built-in progress thermometer
Mobile-optimized pages and donation forms
Flexible payment processing
Employer donation match options

With Classy, you’ll be able to mobilize your supporters with easy-to-use tools so they feel empowered to advocate for your cause. Plus, you’ll have built-in tips and expert fundraising guidance, including automated email workflows to coach, motivate, and thank volunteer fundraisers.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

3. Click & Pledge

A powerful online fundraising platform, Click & Pledge is dedicated to helping nonprofits and their supporters set up and manage effective fundraising campaigns. They’ve handled more than $1 billion in charitable contributions for more than 20,000 causes. Their platform is built for a variety of organizations, including nonprofits, associations, educational institutions, faith-based groups, and more.

They offer a variety of solutions that can support your peer-to-peer needs, including:

Donation Forms
Text-to-Give
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Sites
Video Fundraising
Donor Outreach
In-Person Fundraising
Account Management

Click & Pledge’s peer-to-peer fundraising software solution provides added customizability by offering over 20 unique widgets for volunteers to add to their pages. It also makes tracking and managing your volunteers easier through a team portal, where you can evaluate success at-a-glance and conveniently message team members.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

4. Donately

Donately is an online solution dedicated to creating innovative and effective online donation forms and fundraising pages. Working with all sorts of nonprofits, churches, businesses, and agencies, this peer-to-peer fundraising software aims to simplify the donation process on both the donors’ end and the organization’s.

A unique feature that Donately offers is its top-of-the-line peer-to-peer fundraising pages. These pages are customized to fit your organization’s branding, but still allow your volunteers to personalize them with their own stories. The result is a cohesive and harmonious page that drives more donations.

Plus, you’ll get access to fundraiser progress tracking bars and social sharing tools to further spread the word about your campaign. With this peer-to-peer fundraising software, you’ll be able to effortlessly expand your donor network.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

5. DonorDrive

This peer-to-peer fundraising software solution works with nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and higher education institutions to simplify online giving and assist in raising more for their causes. DonorDrive amplifies the voices of your biggest advocates, who can share their personal stories to expand your donor base and connections.

With a mobile fundraising app, virtual campaign functionality, online donation campaigns, peer-to-peer giving, and more, DonorDrive users have the tools they need to power their missions effectively.

Peer-to-peer donors have access to simplified donation processes to make giving more convenient. They can make recurring gifts and see if their employers will match their gifts, resulting in more donations for your nonprofit. Plus, DonorDrive offers other unique features such as personalized coaching, social media integrations, flexible event configuration, automated communication, and real-time data insights.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

6. Getting Attention

Promoting your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts is key to your campaign’s success. By adequately marketing your campaign, you’ll be able to maximize the number of individuals you reach out to and form connections with. Digital marketing will help you enhance the visibility of your campaign, increasing the number of donations you receive.

Getting Attention is a peer-to-peer fundraising solution focused on bringing more attention to your campaign. It does so by helping your nonprofit gain access to and optimize your usage of the Google Ad Grant. Essentially, this program gives your nonprofit $10,000 of free credit to spend on Google Ads, greatly increasing your outreach.

You can use the Google Ad Grant to:

Spread awareness of your mission
Attract new supporters
Recruit dedicated volunteers
Promote ongoing campaigns and events—including peer-to-peer fundraisers!

However, using the Google Ad Grants program can be difficult for nonprofits without experience in the realm of search engine optimization. That’s where Google Ad Grant agencies like Getting Attention come into play.

Professionals from these agencies bring their experience and expertise to help you generate the impact you want. They offer a variety of services related to Google Ad Grants, including:

Program applications
Account management
Landing page optimization
Keyword research
Data and reporting

By working with a Google Ad Grants professional, you’ll be able to perform targeted outreach that increases awareness and participation in your peer-to-peer campaign. This results in enhanced site engagement and increased recognition, making it an extremely effective peer-to-peer fundraising software for marketing.

7. GiveWP

For nonprofits with blogs run through WordPress, GiveWP is the peer-to-peer fundraising software for you. This solution is a WordPress donation plugin option, making donating more convenient for website visitors. It’s an open-source suite of tools that makes fundraising quick and easy.

GiveWP offers a peer-to-peer add-on that allows volunteers to leverage its features to encourage their networks to make gifts to your nonprofits. A unique offering of theirs is the ability to give donors choices through:

Choosing where their contributions go through the Funds and Designations feature
Using tribute eCards to make gifts in memory of a loved one
Allowing them to opt-in to peer-to-peer marketing newsletters

Other top features of GiveWP’s peer-to-peer platform include fundraising goal progress bars for individuals and teams, social sharing abilities with built-in calls-to-action, and integrated sponsorship information.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

8. iDonate

iDonate is a modern digital giving solution designed for today’s nonprofits and other charitable organizations to grow their online giving and better reach dedicated supporters. This powerful suite of fundraising software encompasses peer-to-peer fundraising, web and mobile giving, and event management tools to drive results.

This software solution has a focus on optimizing your organization’s growth through the following features:

A/B Split Testing
Recurring Gift Prompt
Personalization
Goal Meters

Their peer-to-peer fundraising platform incorporates top features such as a comprehensive command center and anchor page, campaign management with real-time data metrics, and easy campaign building and editing tools for individual fundraisers.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

9. OneCause

OneCause is an online fundraising and event solution that has grown from a mobile bidding tool to a comprehensive giving platform with capabilities for online donations, peer-to-peer fundraising, auction and event management, and more. Since its launch, OneCause has raised more than $5 billion in charitable donations from 2.5 million supporters and over 40,000 fundraisers.

This software maximizes peer-to-peer fundraising by making it more social, mobile, and fun. It allows you to design your campaign materials based on the type of peer-to-peer campaign you’re hosting, whether that’s a walk-a-thon, memorial, or virtual campaign.

The OneCause peer-to-peer fundraising platform offers key features such as social media integration, motivation and rewards, flexible branding, and accessible technology to help your nonprofit reach its goals.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

10. Neon Fundraise

Neon Fundraise is a product of Neon One, a nonprofit software company with innovative solutions for donor management, online fundraising, program management, events, web development, and more. With this peer-to-peer fundraising software, it’s easy to take your mission to new heights by creating winning experiences for donors, fundraisers, and staff.

Some of the top features this software solution offers include:

One-click donations
Badges and achievements
Donor accounts
Multi-language and multi-currency capabilities
Compliant receipting

These features all work together to create a smooth donation experience for your volunteers’ friends and family, helping to create a more successful peer-to-peer campaign for your organization. Not only that, but it will also help automate your workflow, making issuing receipts and collecting registrations more efficient.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

11. Qgiv

Qgiv is a powerful fundraising platform designed to assist nonprofit organizations with the tools they need to collect charitable donations online, in person, and over text. The peer-to-peer side of their software includes features such as:

Event management for pledge-based experiences
Intuitive online stores for sponsorships and merchandise
Email and social media marketing tools

This software solution also allows you to build customizable and virtual events to fit the needs of your peer-to-peer campaign. It also offers branded team and individual fundraising pages, flexible registrations, and progress thermometers to ensure that event attendees and volunteers are engaged and have a great experience fundraising for your community.

Check out this peer-to-peer platform!

Additional Fundraising Resources

Peer-to-peer fundraising can take your nonprofit strategy to the next level. Not only does it allow you to acquire more donations, but it allows you to form connections with a greater number of potential supporters. To ensure your efforts are successful, equip your volunteers with the most effective and intuitive peer-to-peer fundraising software solutions. That way, you’ll maximize the impact of your campaign.

If you’d like to learn more about nonprofit marketing and fundraising, check out these resources:

Top 2023 Nonprofit Marketing Trends to Inform Your Strategy — Looking for more ways to promote your peer-to-peer fundraising efforts? This guide goes over marketing trends you can use for more effective advertising.
A Complete Guide to Volunteer Recruitment: 12 Key Strategies — A great peer-to-peer fundraising campaign needs dedicated volunteers to succeed. This guide covers the best strategies for volunteer recruitment.
Google Grants Eligibility: Is Your Nonprofit Eligible? — Interested in applying for the Google Ad Grant to advertise your peer-to-peer fundraiser more effectively? Learn if your nonprofit is eligible in this article.

Staff Retention: 8 Winning Ways to Improve Employee Loyalty

August 7, 2023/in Nonprofit Tools /by Contributor

Most, if not all, nonprofits struggle to retain talent, especially in today’s challenging job market and remote work environment.

Improving employee retention requires an intentional and multifaceted approach. To be successful, your plan must encompass multiple employee touchpoints and a focus on employee engagement strategies.

Employees who feel valued, appreciated, and recognized by their organizations and direct managers are happier with their current situations and more likely to envision a future with their organizations.

The following tips can help boost employee engagement and increase retention:

Redirect your compensation efforts
Focus on career advancement
Provide opportunities for skill development
Understand the pressures on employees
Commit to transparency and clear communication
Emphasize your calling
Celebrate employee success
Invest in employee engagement software

Improving employee retention is essential for the long-term health and success of your organization. After all, according to Gallup, the cost of replacing an employee can be one-half to two times that employee’s annual salary. Attract top talent and keep them invested in their roles with these key tips.

1. Redirect your compensation efforts

Offering competitive salaries is a challenge for most nonprofits. Frequently, overhead costs must be kept to a minimum, and salary budgets are limited by funding. While replacing employees is costly, many nonprofits simply do not have the resources available to provide increases to pay or pay ranges. Exploring other avenues to address compensation gaps is important.

One approach is to view compensation from a total rewards perspective. Focus on the indirect components of compensation, emphasizing the overall value of the package provided to employees. Indirect compensation includes perks, recognition programs, mental and physical wellness benefits, culture, management styles, and much more.

It is also important to address any inequities in your compensation structure as part of greater diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

2. Focus on career advancement

Another common reason employees leave an organization is a lack of advancement. Often, individuals seek positions elsewhere without fully understanding the developmental paths available with their current employer.

Employees need to feel that they have the ability to move and progress within a company. Meet with your employees to understand their goals and interests. It’s imperative for leadership to communicate about the organization’s plans, how individuals may fit into that plan, and future opportunities that will be provided.

Formalized policies and practices regarding pathways to advancement and promotions are important to retention. A policy of filling open positions from within and laying out a clear process is evidence of commitment to employee growth and development.

3. Provide opportunities for skill development

Furthermore, it’s important to consider various ways of providing opportunities for development. Not all movement needs to be vertical. Lateral moves within an organization can be equally valuable. They allow employees to:

Gain greater insight into the organization
Develop new areas of expertise
Open new doors

Formal training programs are always an option, but they can be expensive and require a significant commitment of time. Leveraging internal expertise to develop new skills and competencies can be an effective and economical way to provide opportunities to develop new skills.

Some common initiatives include lunch and learns, peer mentoring, and preceptorships. This cross-pollination connects people across your organization, building rapport, trust, and camaraderie that deepens their connection to the organization.

4. Understand the pressures on employees

Employees experience stress both in and outside of work. Regardless of the source, the resulting mental fatigue impacts work performance. Society is becoming more in tune and comfortable with discussing and addressing mental illness and stress. Top employers show similar understanding by instituting benefits that help employees better cope.

Examples of employer-provided support include:

Flexible work arrangements
Generous paid time off
Access to mental health services
Educational programs that address common life stressors

Providing resources to support personal and family challenges shows your employees that you value them as people. These benefits and programs evidence an organizational commitment to stand by employees through both significant, life-altering events as well as everyday obligations that may cause chronic stress.

5. Commit to transparency and clear communication

Employees need to know how and why decisions are made. Do not allow the rumor mill or employee imaginations to tell your story. Frequent, honest communication undermines the spread of inaccurate information, allows for understanding, and builds trust between leadership and staff.

Communication should be two-way, not just from leadership down. Build a culture where employees not only expect managers to ask for their input but feel comfortable offering their opinions. Find out what your employees think about important topics, including what they like and dislike about working at your organization.

Common mechanisms for gathering employee perceptions and ideas include:

Town halls
Climate surveys
Team meetings
One-on-one sessions
Stay interviews
Exit interviews

Welcome feedback in a positive fashion, as negative responses will only stifle future participation.

Once you have this information, do not sit on it. If you are going to ask for feedback, it is crucial that you take action. If action is not possible, circle back to employees to explain the decision-making process.

6. Emphasize your calling

Typically, the employees that a nonprofit attracts are passionate about the organization’s mission and have a strong desire to serve. Capitalize on this connection to keep your employees excited about being part of your team.

Integrate your values and mission into everything you do – your culture, policies, and initiatives. When your mission is central to serving your constituents it is also critical to how you treat your employees. A consistent reminder of the good that comes from their efforts will inspire and have an impact on employees’ long-term commitment to your organization.

7. Celebrate employee successes

Besides incorporating a total rewards approach to your organization, you should also focus on ways to acknowledge and celebrate your employees’ successes. This should be done on a standard basis to ensure that anyone on your team can give kudos. Some simple ways you can start showing employee appreciation include:

Encouraging positive ad hoc feedback during one-on-ones. For direct reports, one-on-one meetings with managers can encourage them to feel more comfortable with communicating and receiving feedback. Facilitate this relationship-building by encouraging middle managers to give kudos to directs. Of course, middle managers should only deliver positive feedback when their directs have earned it, but even recognition for little things can go a long way in making employees feel valued.
Promoting peer-to-peer recognition. Create a culture of recognition at your company by making it easy for employees to acknowledge each other for their performance. According to eCardWidget, one effective way to do this is by designing employee recognition eCards that they can personalize. In addition to expressing appreciation, these cards can come in handy for birthdays and personal accomplishments as well.
Formalizing recognition with awards. If you see remarkable improvement or performance from an employee, consider formally congratulating them with a superlative award. For instance, you might give a “Biggest Innovator” award to a team member who transformed your team’s workflow for the better, or a “Stewardship Superstar” award to an employee who has built great donor relationships.
Instituting rewards for hitting goals. Motivating your team members to achieve goals is a lot easier with a prize for them to cross the finish line. Consider offering goal-based rewards on a monthly or quarterly basis to incentivize high performance and engagement with company-wide initiatives. For example, if your nonprofit reaches its fundraising goal by a specified date, you might reward employees with tickets to a concert.

Each nonprofit is different, so your recognition mechanisms will likely vary depending on your budget, goals, and size. However, these methods are tried-and-true and can do wonders for your staff retention efforts.

8. Invest in employee engagement software

While your personal relationship with employees is a crucial part of boosting their engagement, you shouldn’t take on new initiatives empty-handed. There are many software solutions on the market that can help you take your employee engagement strategies to the next level. Consider investing in the following types of software:

Human Resource Management Systems. This software can help you manage employee onboarding, benefits, performance reviews, and feedback systems so you can actively monitor your employees’ well-being.
Learning Management Systems (LMS). Offering professional development opportunities shows your investment in your team’s growth, which incentivizes them to stay with your nonprofit in the long term. LMSs provide online training, class management, and progress tracking to facilitate your team’s development.
Employee appreciation software. There are many types of software that fall under this category. For instance, eCard software can facilitate ad-hoc recognition, especially between peers. Also, rewards software allows you to assign points to staff members for achieving certain goals and track their progress.
Remote work software. Remote work has boomed in popularity because it provides flexibility for your employees and reduces burnout. Plus, most remote work software, such as video conferencing solutions, collaborative document editing platforms, and workflow managers, are user-friendly and cost-effective.

While these solutions are great starting points for your engagement software rollout, they’re far from the only ones available. To pick the best fit for your nonprofit, gauge your current employee engagement tactics and determine whether they could be optimized with software. Then, research the options available and book free demos to see which best fits your needs and budget. Finally, once you’ve picked your ideal product, ensure your team receives robust training so you can hit the ground running with your new platform!

Wrapping Up

In closing, putting together a retention strategy that addresses your organization’s unique needs can be challenging. It can be helpful to seek guidance from professional HR consultants to identify best practices and help implement change. Whether you decide to seek external assistance or develop your plan in-house, the above tips will point you in the right direction for developing a winning retention plan for your organization.

This article provides 13 top fundraising crms to consider.

13 Top Fundraising CRMs for Nonprofit Organizations (Updated for 2023)

July 20, 2023/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Tools /by Getting Attention

Fundraising CRMs, or constituent relationship management systems for nonprofits, are vital for effective revenue generation and donor management efforts⁠. This is especially true as organizations continue to grow.

If your nonprofit is seeking a CRM solution (whether for the first time or to upgrade an existing system), you’ve come to the right place! This list of top nonprofit CRMs has been crafted with organizations like yours in mind, and we’ll highlight key features, benefits, and more for each provider.

At Getting Attention, our favorite fundraising CRMs (in alphabetical order) are:

CharityEngine
Classy
Click & Pledge
DonorPerfect
Engaging Networks
GiveSmart
Kindful
Neon CRM
NonProfitEasy
Raiser’s Edge NXT
Salesforce
SalsaLabs
Virtuous CRM

One key function to consider as you browse this list of suggested fundraising CRMs is matching gift abilities. Research shows that between $4 and $7 billion in available matching gift funding is left on the table each year⁠—largely because nonprofits lack the tools to secure those corporate dollars effectively.

Luckily, more and more nonprofit CRMs are beginning to incorporate matching gift functionality into their toolkit through seamless integrations with matching gift software (the most common by far being 360MatchPro by Double the Donation).

Ready to dive in and discover the perfect donor management system for your organization? Let’s get started.

1. CharityEngine

CharityEngine offers a number of fundraising solutions, including an online donation platform and fundraising CRM. Their CRM system enables teams to quickly and easily automate fundraising, marketing, and data collection to provide nonprofits with more time to spend on mission-related projects.

Top CharityEngine features:

Built-out donor profiles
Donation pages
Payment processing
Reporting and analytics
Automated workflows.

Not to mention, CharityEngine donation forms drive matching gift revenue by simplifying the matching process for both donors (through personalized reminders and company-specific instructions) and nonprofits (by automating communications, collecting data, and tracking revenue growth). Since the #1 hindrance for matching gifts is a lack of awareness among supporters, CharityEngine leverage matching git software from Double the Donation to ensure each donor is exposed to matching gift information at multiple touchpoints.

Why We Love This CRM

CharityEngine’s major gifts and planned giving software capabilities allow organizations to maximize their impact and streamline their management. As major gifts make up to 80% of an organization’s total revenue, this feature offers a huge advantage.

With CharityEngine, your organization can track applications and opportunities and manage projects with just a few clicks. Its robust analytics features also provide telling insights to measure your major gift progress.

GET A DEMO

2. Classy

Classy is an all-in-one fundraising platform with solutions for donor management, online donations, and peer-to-peer campaigns. This fundraising CRM is designed to provide users with a central hub for campaign and supporter management called Classy Manager. With these tools, nonprofit fundraisers are able to launch and manage campaigns, track performance and donor interactions, and gain a better understanding of their fundraising overall.

Top Classy features:

Online donation processing
Event management
Robust reporting and analytics

And Classy doesn’t want you to forget about matching gift opportunities, either! This platform integrates with Double the Donation’s comprehensive matching gift tool to enable a searchable matching gift database, automated donor follow-ups and match reminders, and more. They even offer a two-way data sync that allows matching gift information collected in 360MatchPro to flow into Classy’s platform! When donors are encouraged to participate in their employers’ matching gift programs on multiple occasions, they’ll be more likely to request a match and secure more dollars for your cause.

Why We Love This CRM

Classy provides a 360-degree supporter interaction view, so you can observe and manage your donor interactions from every angle. You can look into individual donor histories to enhance your engagement efforts. This is especially helpful to re-engage donors and increase your donor retention rate.

For reference, the average donor retention rate across nonprofits is between 40 and 45% which can feel like you’re constantly fighting an uphill battle. However, donor management tools like the 360 supporter interaction view can help your nonprofit make every interaction count.

GET A DEMO

3. Click & Pledge

Click & Pledge offers powerful donor management tools built on the Salesforce platform. This innovative fundraising CRM can even help users sort and rank donors based on an algorithm that considers personal donations, amounts fundraised, and gifts within an individual’s network in order to identify their highest-value supporters.

Top Click & Pledge features:

Automated communications
Data analytics
Manual donation processing
Seamless Salesforce integration

Plus, Click & Pledge integrates with the top matching gift solution, 360MatchPro, to promote matching gift opportunities to supporters, drive more company match requests with automated communications, and boost fundraising revenue overall.

Why We Love This CRM

Click & Pledge offers effective video fundraising options to capture your donor’s hearts. You can simply embed donation forms directly into your videos for viewers to donate without having to exit the video experience.

This solution doesn’t allow viewers to get distracted, so they can give to your cause at the best time—right after viewing your mission. And, recent studies have shown that 57% of people who watch nonprofit videos go on to make a donation. With Click & Pledge, you can make this process as easy as possible.

GET A DEMO

4. DonorPerfect

DonorPerfect is a comprehensive fundraising solution that specializes in strategic donor management through targeted communications, multichannel outreach, easy donation processing, and customizable reports. Plus, it can save fundraisers tons of time and resources when they employ DonorPerfect’s extensive automated workflows!

Top DonorPerfect features:

Payment processing
Fundraising event management
Online donation forms
Insightful data analytics

This platform also incorporates matching gift tools and strategies with a Double the Donation integration. This way, organizations can easily communicate the importance of matching gifts to donors and provide targeted next steps depending on the individual’s employer. The easier it is for donors to participate in matching gift programs, the more likely they are to follow through with their request, and the more dollars that go toward your mission!

Why We Love This CRM

DonorPerfect has a wide variety of integrations, enabling your team to choose the ones that will best complement your goals. From volunteer management to website and event management, DonorPerfect will have your team covered.

GET A DEMO

5. Engaging Networks

Engaging Networks is a multi-faceted fundraising platform with tools for online donations, nonprofit marketing, peer-to-peer campaigns, donor and data management, and more. This eCRM is dedicated to providing users with cutting-edge technology with constantly developing upgrades, newly released features, and a web of seamless integrations.

Top Engaging Networks features:

Advanced visual reporting
Target audience query builders
Fundraising performance analysis
Donor profiling and geotargeting

One of their most impactful integrations is with Double the Donation’s matching gift software, 360MatchPro. Thanks to the Engaging Networks and Double the Donation integration, organizations can quickly boost matching gift revenue by promoting these program opportunities at multiple donor touchpoints. This includes, but is not limited to, during the donation process itself and within a number of automated and customizable email follow-ups.

Why We Love This CRM

Engaging Networks is currently the only platform that offers artificial intelligence fundraising capabilities. This future-forward option leverages machine learning to help organizations reach fundraising goals and transform one-time donors into recurring supporters. As your data changes, artificial intelligence fundraising can continue to predict patterns and give an in-depth glimpse into supporter behavior.

GET A DEMO

6. GiveSmart

Formerly SimplyFundraisingCRM, GiveSmart is a fantastic solution that equips nonprofits with innovative donor management tools. The top benefits of GiveSmart include saving time through strategic automation, raising more with effective fundraising solutions, and receiving guided assistance from a panel of expert fundraising advisors.

Top GiveSmart features:

Automated donor acknowledgments
One-click donor reports
Artificial intelligence
Data analysis

Not to mention, the platform integrates with Double the Donation’s most comprehensive matching gift solution to help drive additional revenue from company matches! Through donor screening practices and automated communications, organizations can easily promote matching gifts and encourage supporters to participate.

Why We Love This CRM

GiveSmart’s ticketing and guest management features work great for any type of event—in-person, online, or hybrid that can keep up with changing preferences. In addition, GiveSmart has scheduled text messaging that engages supporters at the most opportune time.

GET A DEMO

7. Kindful

Kindful CRM is a product of Bloomerang that is designed to build seamless connections between various nonprofit processes to streamline backend efforts and provide improved donor experiences. This platform emphasizes the power of technical integrations with a number of other fundraising platforms to provide an interconnected network of fundraising software that drives success.

Top Kindful features:

Tracking and reporting
Donor lifecycle dashboards
Detailed donor and contact records
Donation tracking
Wealth insights

And for many Kindful clients, this network incorporates matching gift software and practices as well. Their matching gift integration with Double the Donation’s comprehensive automation tool allows organizations to promote company matches through personalized outreach and match reminders. Plus, users can configure automated follow-ups to include matching gift instructions, next steps, and guidelines for each individual’s employer, which ultimately results in increased matches and revenue.

Why We Love This CRM

Kindful’s library of integration features is vast, but there is one specifically worth highlighting—Kindful’s email capabilities. Kindful enables your organization to send timely, personalized donation receipts and campaign emails to establish a personalized cadence with donors. According to TruConversion Reports, an email marketing campaign can deliver a return of $40 for every $1 spent. This places email in the highest marketing ROI category.

GET A DEMO

8. Neon CRM

Neon CRM is a donor management solution created by the fundraising platform Neon One and designed to scale up alongside organizations of any size. This versatile solution is able to help manage nonprofit fundraising, memberships, events, websites, and more.

Top Neon CRM features:

Online web forms
Grant management
Constituent login portals
Automated receipting
Accounts and relationship tracking
Donation processing

Plus, their matching gift integration with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation enables organizations to significantly increase matching gift awareness through strategic follow-ups and personalized guidelines⁠—and boost matching gift revenue as a result.

Why We Love This CRM

Neon One includes website design solutions that can help you build and manage web pages with confidence. With its web design tools, you can generate responsive, SEO-optimized web pages with no coding needed. This way, you can promote your mission through an engaging online presence.

GET A DEMO

9. NonProfitEasy

NonProfitEasy is a product of the Lumaverse technology company that was built to provide organizations with simple, scalable solutions. Previously known as Fundly CRM, NonProfitEasy makes its goal to “turn one-time donors into lifetime supporters.”

Top NonProfitEasy features:

Donor communication
Event management
Pledge and grant tracking
Customizable and predefined data reports
Membership management

And with a seamless integration with the industry-leading matching gift tool, 360MatchPro, NonProfitEasy users are able to double supporter donations while saving time and effort through automation. This includes donor information screening to identify match-eligible transactions, customized outreach triggered to remind eligible individuals of matching gifts, and powerful tracking and reporting capabilities with forecasting tools.

Why We Love This CRM

TheNonprofitEasy includes enhanced member engagement features, so you can create member levels and pricing that reflect your nonprofit’s needs. Additionally, its embeddable member forms make it easy for you to create compelling member marketing campaigns. Member-specific email blasts also let you personalize your communications.

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10. Raiser’s Edge NXT

Raiser’s Edge NXT is a nonprofit fundraising CRM built by Blackbaud that provides organizations of all sizes with donor management tools. The Raiser’s Edge NXT is their newest version of the product, which is a cloud-based software that aims to provide the social good community with an easy and effective fundraising solution.

Top Raiser’s Edge NXT features:

Growth opportunity identification
Dynamic email campaigns
Integrated multichannel techniques
Automated workflows
Accessibility from any device
Donor data analytics

To incorporate matching gift fundraising efforts as well, Raiser’s Edge NXT integrates seamlessly with Double the Donation’s matching gift software. This enables nonprofits to leverage the most effective matching gift strategies with little to no time and effort required of their fundraising teams. With automated donor follow-ups and match reminders, organizations see significant increases in match revenue!

Why We Love This CRM

Raiser’s Edge NXT has extensive donor data tools that offer automated checkups to ensure your data is up to date. With clean and correct data, you’ll be able to foster more meaningful interactions and track your entire constituent community.

GET A DEMO

11. Salesforce

Salesforce is a popular CRM solution for businesses and nonprofits alike⁠. Salesforce.com caters to the for-profit side of the sector, while Salesforce.org targets nonprofits, schools, and other mission-driven organizations.

Top Salesforce features:

Donor-centric relationship-planning
Digital-first fundraising experiences
Program management, reporting, and grantmaking

This comprehensive platform also allows Salesforce clients to extend their CRM functionality through a number of technical integrations with partners listed in the Salesforce AppExchange⁠ marketplace—one of which is Double the Donation. When users leverage Double the Donation’s matching gift automation tools, nonprofits can collect two gifts for every one donation solicited by driving matching gift participation.

Why We Love This CRM

Salesforce’s digital marketing tools can help you make the initial ask and retain them long-term. With Salesforce, you can launch a series of emails or a full-blown, multi-channel campaign. The best part? Salesforce’s personalizing email features let you catch each individual supporter’s attention.

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12. SalsaLabs

SalsaCRM from SalsaLabs is a powerful and effective donor management system. This software works well alongside Salsa’s other fundraising products in addition to a range of other top fundraising solutions⁠—including Double the Donation’s matching gift tools!

Top Salsa features:

Rich donor profiles
Extensive relationship-tracking
Automated suggested gift calculations
Unified online and offline gift management

The Double the Donation integration allows Salsa clients to utilize Double the Donation’s matching gift software, 360MatchPro, alongside their fundraising CRMs and donation forms to automate matching gift communications with donors. This boosts awareness of these programs and their availability while encouraging eligible donors to request matching donations from their employers. Ultimately, these tools result in increased corporate donations and better donor relations.

Why We Love This CRM

SalsaLab’s donor profiles are overflowing with usable information for you to access unlimited custom fields and activity timelines. The platform’s automated “next suggested gift” calculations determine the optimal amounts for you to ask each donor. This way, you’ll engage with donors on a personal level and make an ask that aligns with their donation history.

GET A DEMO

13. Virtuous CRM

Virtuous offers a nonprofit CRM that is designed to help fundraisers streamline donor management efforts, improve supporter relationships, and leverage data-rich insights for improved practices.

Top Virtuous features:

Omnichannel marketing strategies
Donor analysis with highlighted opportunities
Personalized cultivation and retention plans
Reporting dashboards

With Virtuous, nonprofit clients can configure their fundraising CRMs to incorporate Double the Donation’s matching gift functionality. This integration allows organizations to increase matching gifts and improve their strategies through automated email follow-ups that contain employer-specific program information and instructions. When more donors request company matches from their employers, the nonprofit receives additional gifts for free!

Why We Love This CRM

Virtuous CRM’s social insights can give your organization the opportunity to make informed donor decisions. Using these insights, you can track givers based on their interests, persona, affiliations, and social media profiles. From there, you can suggest a relevant next action based on individual donor preferences and passions.

GET A DEMO

Tips for Selecting a Fundraising CRM

There are several CRMs out there and it can be easy to get overwhelmed with so many options. To assess your CRM needs, ask these questions:

What are my organization’s goals? Refer to your mission statement and accompanying objectives to decipher your goals based on your organization’s purpose and size.
How big is my organization? Take a look at your contact list, how many emails you send, and your revenue baseline metrics. Then, consider your revenue goals for the coming years to get an idea of how much growth you’re likely to achieve.
How much data needs to be migrated? Migration determines CRM cost. If you have to collect data from multiple disparate sources, you will have a higher end cost.

Asking these questions ahead of time can help you narrow your search and decide on a scalable solution that best suits your specific needs. You might also decide to request a demo for multiple platforms to compare their capabilities.

Did any of these fundraising CRMs catch your eye? The providers listed above are some of our favorite solutions for nonprofit data management, donor relationships, automated communications, and more.

The more efficient your software, the more efficient your organization’s practices will be and the more you can do for your mission as a result. Good luck!

Check out these other educational resources to learn more about effective nonprofit fundraising and engagement strategies:

How to Apply for Google Grants | 3 Steps for Your Nonprofit. Google Grants can be a fantastic way to increase your organization’s marketing efforts. Explore this guide from our team on effective Google Grants practices.
Nonprofit Storytelling: Best Practices for Fundraisers. Telling effective stories is one of the best ways to increase engagement with your audience and communicate the impact of your organization’s work. Check out these tips to learn more!
You’ve Never Heard of Volunteer Grants?! Learn the Basics. In addition to matching gifts, volunteer grants are another fantastic form of corporate philanthropy that allows nonprofit supporters to stretch their contributions further. Get started with this resource!

This guide will go over how to promote your mission with 13 free nonprofit marketing tools.

Promoting Your Mission: 13 Free Nonprofit Marketing Tools

July 6, 2023/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Marketing, Nonprofit Tools /by connie.zhang

To further your nonprofit’s cause, you need all kinds of support, including donations, and support from volunteers and members alike. To get that support, people need to be aware of your organization and its goals. That’s why getting the word out about your mission is one of the most important parts of running a successful nonprofit.

If you’re not convinced that marketing is vital for your nonprofit, consider that one in four donors use their mobile devices to discover nonprofits they were previously unaware of. And in 2021, nonprofit email list sizes grew by 7%. This means that potential supporters are interested in learning about and helping your nonprofit—they just need to find you.

To help you upgrade your marketing efforts, this guide will cover the following topics:

What are the Benefits of Nonprofit Marketing?
7 Steps for Creating Your Nonprofit Marketing Strategy
13 Free Nonprofit Marketing Tools

Having access to free marketing tools can take a great burden off of small or new nonprofits that are just getting started and may not have the budget to pay for marketing software solutions. However, to use these tools effectively, you must first understand how advertising can help your nonprofit.

What are the Benefits of Nonprofit Marketing?

Promoting your nonprofit brings a variety of benefits. It extends your organization’s reach, resulting in:

Greater mission awareness. Increasing your marketing presence means that you’ll be informing a greater number of individuals about your nonprofit’s mission, operations, and work. Even if these individuals don’t choose to support your nonprofit, you’ll still be boosting awareness of your cause.
Enhanced supporter recruitment. Nonprofit marketing helps enhance supporter recruitment simply by reaching a larger audience. You’ll be able to connect with a larger amount of individuals who genuinely want to help.
Increased fundraising. Because a greater number of people are aware of your nonprofit’s mission, your fundraising capacity also increases as these individuals make donations in your support. Just think back to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which went viral and helped the ALS Association increase its annual research funding by 187 percent.
Stronger community relationships. Not only does nonprofit marketing result in new supporters, but it can also strengthen relationships with existing supporters. With email newsletters and social media posts, keep your work top of mind and show the tangible impact of your supporters’ help.

To fully leverage the benefits of promoting your nonprofit digitally, you’ll need to put time and effort into creating a thorough marketing strategy. There’s a lot of research and planning involved in a successful marketing campaign, but not to worry—we’ll help you get started with establishing your strategy.

7 Steps for Creating Your Nonprofit Marketing Strategy

For advice on establishing a comprehensive and thoughtful promotional plan, consider these seven steps to creating a successful marketing strategy:

Establish your goal.Ask yourself, what’s the ultimate goal behind promoting your nonprofit? Depending on what that goal is, you may need to adjust your approach. Common goals include increasing fundraising revenue, recruiting volunteers, and attracting event attendees.
Determine your target audience. Consider the demographics that make up your supporter base. For example, maybe most of your volunteers belong to Gen Z and live locally to your headquarters. Or, maybe the majority of your donors are Millennials that live all across the country.
Decide which marketing channels to use. Once you’ve determined your target audience, assess what types of messages they are most responsive to and what channels they are most active on. Common marketing channels include email, direct mail, and social media.
Design an attractive and consistent brand. Remember that your marketing efforts reflect back on your nonprofit. Having consistent and professional graphics, branding, and content will add to your nonprofit’s credibility.
Create compelling marketing content. Your content should be unique from other nonprofits, shaped by the marketing channels you use, your nonprofit’s voice and culture, and what your supporters and target audience are interested in.
Evaluate your marketing strategy. After you’ve employed your new strategy for a period of time, assess how well it’s performing. Look at relevant data and information and ask yourself: What’s going well? What could be better?
Revise and improve your strategy. Once you’ve honed in on the portions of your nonprofit marketing strategy that could be improved, make adjustments to them so the strategy is tailor-made to fulfill your goal.

Don’t be discouraged if your strategy isn’t as successful as you want it to be on your first try. Building a nonprofit marketing strategy can be difficult, as there are many different aspects to it that you’ll need to consider. It will take trial and error, and it’s normal for your strategy to need revising.

13 Free Nonprofit Marketing Tools

To help you execute your marketing strategy, we’ll discuss 13 free nonprofit marketing tools you can use and what you can accomplish with them.

1. Google Trends

With Google Trends, you’ll gain a broad understanding of what people are searching on Google in real time. You can use this information to gauge interest in a particular topic. This could be your nonprofit, your cause, or any current events that relate to either.

You’ll also be able to evaluate engagement with your topic of choice in specific locations over time. This can help you determine how popular the topics surrounding your nonprofit’s mission are and form an understanding of your target audience. You can also leverage long-term trending searches in your marketing strategy to garner more support for and awareness of your nonprofit.

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is helpful for nonprofits during each stage of establishing their marketing strategy. It allows you to understand your website, your visitors, and their behaviors. Some of the insights you gain from Google Analytics include:

Who your visitors are. This includes each visitor’s location, age, gender, and interests.
How they’re getting to your site. Web browsers commonly find sites through search engines, but they could also click on a direct link from another page or on an ad to get to your web page.
What device they’re using. You’ll learn whether your visitors use desktops or mobile devices, the browser they’ve chosen, and even their operating system.
How long they’re engaging with your site. Google Analytics tracks session duration rates, meaning the amount of time that a visitor stays on your site. It also tracks bounce rate, which is the percentage of users that leave your site after only viewing one page.

This tool is most helpful for nonprofits who are trying to determine their target audience and decide which digital marketing channels to use. You can also use it to track the success of certain strategies and channels, like Google Ads.

With the insights from Google Analytics, you’ll be able to gain a thorough understanding of your target audience and how they prefer to see communications from your nonprofit. You can also create customized dashboards to keep track of the information you need, which is very helpful for evaluating and tweaking your nonprofit’s marketing strategy.

3. SurveyMonkey

This free nonprofit marketing tool allows you to conveniently create surveys for polling your nonprofit’s audience. Not only can you create surveys to assess attendee satisfaction after events, for example, but you can also leverage this tool to inform your marketing efforts.

With SurveyMonkey, you’ll have access to a library of survey templates that you can build upon and customize to fit your nonprofit’s needs. Make your survey available through web links, email, or embeds on your website. Once you get responses to these surveys, analyze responses with SurveyMonkey’s built-in reports and dashboards.

Like Google Analytics, you can use this free marketing tool to decide on your target audience and which marketing channels to use. However, you can use it to gather more in-depth and detailed information from your nonprofit’s existing supporters to fuel your marketing efforts. For example, use your surveys to ask them about their interests, communication preferences, and what they’d like to see from your organization.

4. Canva

When it comes to developing your nonprofit’s graphics and marketing materials, Canva is the free marketing tool you’ll want to use. To help nonprofits with their advertising efforts, Canva offers free use of its intuitive and convenient premium tools to eligible organizations.

With Canva, you can create a variety of marketing materials to boost mission awareness and recruit support, including:

Social media posts
Presentations
Infographics
Reports
Posters
Flyers

This tool offers over 75 million images and 3.5 million graphical elements to help you design attractive, professional, and consistent marketing materials for your nonprofit. If you’re unsure of how to effectively utilize graphic design principles to create eye-catching promotional content, don’t worry—Canva also offers over 400,000 customizable templates to get you started.

5. Pexels

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is a common saying, but it’s based on reality. In fact, articles with images have 650% of the engagement of articles without. If you’re interested in leveraging the power of images to engage your audience, consider using Pexels.

This free nonprofit marketing tool is a database of free stock photos and royalty-free images and videos that you can use at no cost. Pexels also encourages creativity by allowing users to modify the photos and videos on their site.

For nonprofits without photographers and videographers, Pexels is a great alternative. While you don’t have sufficient photos and videos of your own, use this tool to liven up your promotional content and make it more visually appealing and engaging.

6. Grammarly

While visuals are important for your nonprofit’s marketing content, your written content is also crucial to creating a compelling message that helps garner more funds and followers. Grammarly is a free nonprofit marketing tool that can help you do that.

Although Grammarly can’t write your content for you, it can act as a proofreader. To ensure your nonprofit presents a professional image to potential supporters, it will review spelling, grammar, punctuation, and clarity errors in your text and suggest fixes. By downloading the Grammarly app and extension, you can write mistake-free in any app you use, including Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook, and more.

If you’re looking for even more in-depth insight into improving your writing, Grammarly’s paid premium service will give you targeted suggestions for clarity, vocabulary, and tone.

7. Typito

Nonprofit video content is a type of marketing material that, when strategically created, can create a great impact on your organization. A recent study found that as many as 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands, and another study found that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year and achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness.

Typito is a free nonprofit marketing tool you can use to create stunning and professional text videos. It has an easy drag-and-drop interface to make the editing process more convenient, so you can have your promotional videos ready to go in no time. Typito also offers the following features:

Brand Kit. With this feature, you can choose colors, fonts, and styles to create a consistent brand for your nonprofit.
Instant Captions. Automatically create closed captions that are synced perfectly with the audio of your video.
Video Formats. Typito allows you to choose from over 20 different video formats and aspect ratios for full control over your video.
Free Templates. Inexperienced video creators will appreciate the free text animations that can help you spice up your video without editing expertise.
Live Video Preview. You’ll know how your finished video will look at every step of the editing process with the real-time video preview feature, without needing to export.

And, if you ever need any help with your creations, Typito’s support team is ready to help. For nonprofits that are looking to create compelling video content, such as for a social media platform like Youtube or TikTok, this free marketing tool is a stellar choice.

8. Google Ad Grants

When it comes to reaching a wider audience, Google Search Ads is a top tool for organizations of all types. The Google Ad Grant gives eligible nonprofits access to these ads for free by giving them $10,000 of credits to spend on Google Ads. This free funding can make a huge difference for small nonprofits seeking to create a greater impact.

To be a part of the Google Ad Grant program, your nonprofit must be eligible and go through the application process. After you’ve been approved, you’ll set up ad campaigns that help you work towards your greater marketing goals. Effective Google Ad Grants management allows nonprofits to:

Improve the visibility of your nonprofit’s work.
Generate mission awareness by promoting educational content.
Increase the registrations for upcoming events.
Share volunteer-related content to boost recruitment.
Promote advocacy activities like online petitions.
Share donation and sponsorship opportunities to increase funding.

Use Google Ad Grants to create compelling advertisements that your target audience will click on. To do so, you’ll need knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research. However, if you have the budget and lack the required experience, consider partnering with a Google Ad Grants agency. These marketing professionals can lend their experience to help you generate the impact you desire.

9. Mailchimp

Email marketing is a tried and true channel for nonprofit advertising. Mailchimp makes that easier for you with a solution built for marketing. With this free nonprofit marketing tool, you can set up automated email campaigns to ensure that you send your messages at the right time. And, it syncs seamlessly with your existing software solutions so you can save time.

Use Mailchimp’s free, pre-built email templates to help you jumpstart your email marketing processes. You’ll have access to tools to help you create content, customize designs, and assess how your content is performing. You can also separate your supporters into different segments, helping you create compelling content that appeals to each unique audience group.

10. Hootsuite

It’s estimated that there are over 4.8 billion social media users worldwide. That alone speaks to social media’s greatest power, which is helping your nonprofit increase its reach and visibility. Hootsuite helps you do that by managing your social media profiles, all in one place.

With Hootsuite, you can:

View all your social media content in one calendar.
Schedule and publish content to your profiles.
Create and organize your posts.
Track post engagement in real-time.
Monitor relevant trends and topics.
Get actionable insights on the best times to post.

This nonprofit marketing tool will level up your social media marketing efforts by helping you create high-quality content that appeals to your target audience. Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial for organizations interested in their Professional and Team plans, but after that, you’ll have to pay a yearly fee to continue using their services.

11. Bitly

Bitly is a free nonprofit marketing tool for creating short links, QR codes, and Link-in-bio pages. They have over 500 thousand paying customers across the globe and 5.7 million monthly users. Their free features include:

Link Management. This includes URL shortening, custom brand links, and URL redirects.
QR codes. Fully customizable and dynamic QR codes, different QR code types, and different destination options.
Link-in-bio. Customizable social media URLs and landing pages and easy-to-manage links.

You can use Bitly’s features in a variety of ways to aid your marketing efforts. For example, if the URL for your donation page is long and difficult to remember, make it more convenient for potential donors by shortening it. Or, if you’re promoting an event, include a QR code on your posters and flyers so people walking by can easily get more information

Additionally, Bitly also offers advanced analytics and tracking tools to help you easily assess the data from your links and QR codes. You can use these features to evaluate your marketing strategy’s efficacy, helping you identify points that could be improved in the future.

12. WebSite Auditor

This free nonprofit marketing tool does exactly what its name suggests—it audits your website and performs on-page analysis for SEO. Ensuring that your organization’s website is as easy as possible for search engines to crawl through is important to improving your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), as this boosts your mission’s visibility.

WebSite Auditor’s free plan allows you to:

Find and analyze the pages of your website
Calculate overall website statistics
Make Google XML sitemaps for your pages
Create and manage robots.txt files
Check the number of visitors every page gets
Run full health checks for your website
Polish your site’s HTML code

Not only that, but it offers easy access to all analytical data for your website and pages within one project. WebSite Auditor gives your nonprofit specific knowledge on how your site can be improved and empowers you to make those changes by giving you actionable insights. It works on any operating system, allowing you to easily evaluate and upgrade your site’s marketing potential.

13. Give Lively

After you’ve put your advertising plan into place and evaluated it, you’ll need to decide which improvements to make. Ask yourself, what changes would help your marketing strategy fulfill its purpose? One of the ways you can improve your strategy is by using a dedicated fundraising platform like Give Lively.

Entirely free for nonprofits, Give Lively offers digital, event, and peer-based fundraising features that will help your organization raise the funds you need. This software solution enhances your marketing strategy with these features:

Campaign Pages. Create beautiful, customizable, and responsive donation pages that are easy for donors to use.
Text-to-Donate. Encourage supporters to give on the go with custom text codes that never expire, making fundraising easier than ever.
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising. Word of mouth is a great way to spread information about your nonprofit and its mission. Take that to the next level with peer-to-peer fundraising, empowering your supporters to appeal for and collect donations on your behalf with personalized campaign pages.

If the goal of your advertising strategy is to increase your fundraising capability, Give Lively is the free marketing tool that will upgrade your marketing efforts. To use this software solution, you need to be a U.S. based 501(c)(3) public charity. You’ll apply to become a member, and Give Lively will accept your membership if you align with their values statement.

Additional Resources

Nonprofit marketing can be just as complex and difficult as marketing for for-profit organizations. Luckily, there are a variety of free marketing tools available that your organization can use to reach your goals.

There are a lot of choices, and you might feel overwhelmed by them. Just remember that the first step is to establish your marketing plan—after that, do thorough research and select the tools that will help you achieve your goals.

If you’re interested in learning more about nonprofit marketing, take a look at the following resources:

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas: Promote Your Cause Effectively. This guide will lay out tried-and-true strategies and ideas for nonprofit marketing.
A Complete Guide to Volunteer Recruitment: 12 Key Strategies. Learn more about strategies tailored to recruiting new volunteers.
Google Ad Grants: The Complete Guide for Nonprofits. Interested in the Google Ad Grant? Check out this comprehensive guide to learn how this program can help your nonprofit.

Top 10 Online Donation Tools That Help Nonprofits Raise More

July 1, 2023/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Tools /by Getting Attention

Online donations are a growing source of revenue for nonprofits, with 63% of donors saying they prefer to give online. From small grassroots organizations to large international charities, nonprofits are turning to online donation tools to make it easier for donors to give and to help raise more funds for their causes.

However, with so many donation tools available, each with its own unique features, pricing, and benefits, it can be difficult to decide which ones to invest in.

In this guide, we’ll highlight the top 10 online donation tools that help nonprofits streamline their donation process and raise more: Read more

Learn more about how your nonprofit can get the most out of stock donations.

A Guide to Leveraging Stock Donations for Your Nonprofit

June 21, 2023/in Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Tools /by Getting Attention

The world of online fundraising is constantly evolving, and nonprofits must evolve with it. In recent years, noncash gifts like stocks and cryptocurrency have been on the rise due to their popularity with wealthy donors and the major tax benefits they offer. To ensure your organization can accept and leverage these gifts, you need to have the right infrastructure in place.

When you expand your fundraising strategy to include stock donations, you’ll engage high-income donors by offering more beneficial ways for them to give. Especially when 84% of US adults with incomes over $100,000 own stock, leveraging stock donations for your nonprofit is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on. To set you up for success, we’ll cover the following steps you can take to start leveraging stock gifts:

Understand the basics of stock donations
Set up a brokerage account for your nonprofit
Make it easy for donors to give by leveraging a stock donation page
Promote stock donations to your donors

If your nonprofit hasn’t started accepting stock donations yet, it’s not too late to get in on the action. Let’s start with the basics.

1. Understand the basics of stock donations

Before you can begin soliciting stock gifts, it’s important to have a baseline understanding of the process and legalities. There are three main things you need to know about accepting stock donations:

What types of stocks you can accept: Nonprofits can accept publicly traded stocks, privately held stocks, and mutual funds. Publicly traded stocks are often the most common type of stock you’ll receive.
What you can do with stock gifts: Once a donor transfers ownership of stock to your nonprofit, your organization can choose to hold, liquidate, or reinvest the stocks to increase the value of the donation.
How donors benefit: Normally, people who hold stocks that appreciate in value must pay capital gains tax on the appreciation. By donating stocks, however, donors don’t have to pay capital gains tax. Plus, they get an additional tax deduction for the full market value of their charitable contribution.

Let’s take a look at an example of what this could look like in practice.

Imagine that a high-income donor who normally donates mid-level cash gifts to your nonprofit also owns multiple publicly traded stocks. When your nonprofit lets them know they can give a larger contribution and reduce their own tax obligations, they jump at the chance to donate high-value stock. Once your nonprofit receives the donation, you may choose to reinvest it to increase the donation’s value even further or liquidate it into cash.

Because of the major tax benefits for donors and the potential for your nonprofit to increase the value of donations over time, stock gifts are an incredible opportunity to help your organization fund your mission.

2. Set up a brokerage account for your nonprofit

Ready to start increasing your fundraising capacity with stock donations? The next step is to set up the necessary infrastructure internally.

To accept stock gifts, your nonprofit needs to have a place to receive them. A brokerage or investment account allows you to receive, liquidate, and reinvest stocks on behalf of your organization. Applying for a brokerage account can be relatively straightforward but often time intensive, so be prepared to provide the following as part of your application:

Contact information
Your 501(c)(3) IRS Determination Letter
Your organization’s Articles of Incorporation
Proof of board approval
Your nonprofit’s tax ID number

With a standard brokerage firm, this process can take weeks. If you work with a nonprofit investment advisor, they can simplify and speed up this process significantly. Plus, they’ll give you general guidance on nonprofit investing best practices, in case you decide to reinvest any of your stock donations.

3. Make it easy for donors to give by leveraging a stock donation page

Once you have your brokerage account set up and ready to receive stock gifts, it’s time to provide your donors with an easy way to give. The simplest way to help donors make stock donations quickly and easily is to leverage a donation page that lists stocks and other noncash gifts as options.

By creating a designated stock donation page or adding a widget to your existing donation page, donors will be able to quickly fill in information about their brokerage firm and chosen stock gift to start the stock transfer process. From there, the donor’s brokerage firm will verify and complete the transfer, and you’ll receive the stocks in a few hours.

Remember to reduce any friction with your donor by making the process as easy as possible. Make sure that any platform you use to streamline the process doesn’t require your donors to create a username and login. The simpler it is to give, the better.

Some platforms, like Infinite Giving’s stock donation tool, can even automatically liquidate and reinvest stock gifts if your nonprofit chooses. This takes the bulk of the work off your staff’s plate and gives your stock donations the potential to start appreciating in value as soon as possible.

4. Promote stock donations to your donors

Don’t forget this important step—it’s crucial to thoughtfully market your new stock gifting option to the right supporters.

When you’re ready to start marketing stock donations to your supporters, create a promotion plan that includes the following key considerations:

Donor segmentation: Not every supporter owns stocks, so use segmentation to make sure you’re suggesting stock donations to the right donors. Create segments based on historical giving amounts, and use prospect research to find wealth indicators that suggest donors may be capable and willing to donate stocks.
Emphasizing tax benefits: Stock gifts offer major tax advantages to high-income donors, which is the most common motivator for donors to give stocks instead of cash gifts. In your marketing materials, include eye-catching information and statistics about the tax benefits donors receive when they donate stock.
Providing clear instructions: Donors may hesitate to donate noncash assets because they don’t understand how the process works. Encourage them to give by breaking down the process for them in social media posts, emails, or your newsletter.

When donors start giving stock to your nonprofit, ask for feedback on their giving experience. Consider sending a short survey that asks why they decided to give stock, how easy the process was, and what you can do to improve their experience. Use this information to tailor future outreach based on what tactics successfully encourage donors to give stock.

You want to encourage donors who give stock once to do so again in the future, so remember to thank each donor personally and thoughtfully. eCardWidget’s guide to thanking donors suggests establishing a set of appreciation tactics that align with different giving levels. Make sure that stock donors have a place near the top to adequately express your thanks.

With these tips in mind, your nonprofit will be on the path to leveraging stock donations in no time. Once you start seeing positive results, consider branching out to accept other noncash donations as well and truly tap into the future of online giving.

Check out these 13 matching gift operational stats from Top Nonprofits.

13 Matching Gift Operational Stats: Top Nonprofits’ Insights

March 10, 2023/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Marketing, Nonprofit Tools /by Getting Attention

There are millions of established nonprofit organizations, and the matching gift tactics they employ range from fully built-out strategies to lacking entirely. A recent research report by the Top Nonprofits team shares insights from the leading peer-to-peer focused fundraising groups⁠—specifically focusing on the P2P Top 30.

Here at Getting Attention, we found these findings to be particularly helpful in shedding light on the comprehensive matching gift strategies from some of the most successful organizations overall. That said, we decided to pull a few key matching gift operational stats produced by the study that we’d like to share with you.

Let’s dive in!

General Matching Gift Stats

Before we get started with the Top Nonprofits report, let’s review some general matching gift stats:

It’s estimated that $4-$7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed per year. This alarming number is likely due to the fact that many donors and organizations alike don’t know enough about matching gifts and how to determine matching gift eligibility. Therefore, nonprofits miss out on tons of potential funding.
65% of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs. More and more employers are starting to realize the extensive benefits that matching gifts provide for all parties involved. Companies and donors get to feel good about the impact they’re making. Meanwhile, nonprofits get more donation revenue that they can put toward serving their mission.
Over 26 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs. So many current and potential donors are eligible to have their donations matched. However, matching gift opportunities are not always advertised to donors, leaving nonprofits with a fraction of the donations they could raise.
An estimated $2-$3 billion is donated through matching gift programs annually. This money can be a game-changer for nonprofits who are strapped for cash or are looking to expand their services. More donation revenue means nonprofits can help more beneficiaries.
84% of donors say they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered. Not only are matching gifts a way to increase donation revenue, but they are also effective at getting people to donate in the first place.
1 in 3 donors indicate they’d give a larger gift if matching is applied to their donation. Think about the exponential potential for giving that this stat points to. If matching gift-eligible donors contribute more to your organization, then so do their employers. That’s why promoting matching gift opportunities is crucial to increasing donation revenue.

These statistics illustrate how underutilized matching gifts are but also just how vital they can be to nonprofits’ success. Promoting matching gifts to your supporters can help double or even triple the donation revenue your cause receives.

Matching Gift Operational Stats from Top Nonprofits

Now that you understand some of the basic statistics regarding matching gifts, let’s dive into the matching gift operational stats compiled by Top Nonprofits.

1. 100% of the P2P Top 30 organizations employ some sort of matching gift promotion.

The first statistic that we want to note is that of the 30 organizations whose practices were analyzed in the matching gift study, every one of them had some sort of matching gift strategy built into their overall fundraising efforts.

Again, the extent to which matching gifts were incorporated certainly varied from one nonprofit to the next, but all 30 fundraisers mentioned matching gifts in at least one component of their efforts.

2. There is a positive correlation between matching gift strategies and overall fundraising revenue.

This graph from the study lays out the data, showing that nonprofits’ matching gift scores and their overall revenue tended to increase alongside one another.

All in all, it can be inferred that organizations with well-thought-out matching gift promotions are more likely to see elevated nonprofit funding. Additionally, those organizations with high levels of fundraising success are more likely to invest in a comprehensive matching gift strategy.

3. The mean matching gift strategy score for the P2P Top 30 falls at 7/14.

For their recent study, the Top Nonprofits team designed a dedicated scorecard to analyze various elements of participating organizations’ matching gift strategies.

Each statement accurately reflecting the organization’s matching gift strategy earns the nonprofit an additional point. The study references the following criteria:

Hosts a dedicated matching gift page on its website.
Mentions matching gifts within the donation form.
Uses an auto-completing company search field.
Includes matching gift information within the confirmation screen.
Has an embedded company information widget on the confirmation screen.
Populates company information widget with employer program details automatically.
Shares direct links to program guidelines + next steps on the confirmation screen.
Sends matching gift emails post-transaction.
Mentions matching gift opportunities in the confirmation email.
Leverages separate, dedicated matching gift email(s).
Triggers matching gift emails using the organization’s own domain and branding.
Links to program guidelines + next steps in follow-up emails.
Sends matching gift emails within 24 hours of the initial donation being made.
Uses matching gift software.

Overall, the average matching gift score for the fundraisers included in the project was calculated to be 7/14⁠. This translates to a ‘B’ on the overall grading scale.

Broken down by software provider, the study also notes that the mean score for organizations utilizing Double the Donation software falls at 8.1/14. Meanwhile, Affinaquest’s HEPdata users earned an average of 4.6 points, and organizations using no software (or a still-unknown provider) averaged 3.3/14.

4. Only 6.7% of organizations analyzed with the Top Nonprofits scale earned a perfect score.

(And they all used the same software provider: Double the Donation)

Of the nonprofits analyzed in the study (30 total), only 6.7% (or two organizations) earned a perfect score, having met all fourteen designated criteria on the grading scale.

This means that the vast majority of fundraisers have significant opportunities for improving their matching gift efforts⁠—and can easily do so by pursuing the elements missing in their current strategies.

We did note, however, that both organizations earning full marks employed the same matching gift software⁠—Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro.

5. There are 4 primary locations wherein top nonprofits typically promote matching gifts.

Though there were fourteen criteria laid out in the matching gift study, most matching gift promotional efforts can boil down to four overarching opportunities.

This includes an organization’s dedicated matching gift web page, donation forms, confirmation/thank-you screens, and follow-up email communications.

6. 93.3% of top nonprofits have a matching gift page on their website.

Nearly all nonprofits analyzed in the matching gift study currently provide a dedicated matching gift web page on their website. Even those scoring on the lower end of the scale had online matching gift hubs available on their sites.

In fact, this essential asset is one of the key foundations of a healthy overall matching gift strategy. It provides ample information for donors to learn about the opportunity and how they can get involved. Plus, most organizations link to the resource on their confirmation screen, in follow-up emails, and more.

Many of the P2P-based organizations analyzed also host separate event sites for their most prominent fundraising events. Of these groups, some chose to host their matching gift pages on the event-specific website, while others chose to present theirs on the parent organization site, and others still opted for separate match pages on each.

7. 53.3% mention matching gifts within their donation forms.

Mentioning matching gifts within an organization’s donation forms is an excellent opportunity to collect donor employment data. When the form provides context into the why behind employment data inquiries (i.e., to uncover matching gift opportunities), donors are typically happy to oblige.

And according to the matching gift promotions analysis, more than half of the organizations in the study integrated this tip into their practices.

Like just about every other aspect of nonprofit matching gift marketing, the ways in which they did so differed. This ranged from short and sweet labels marking the optional data fields for employer matching information to summaries of matching gifts and the benefits that come with program participation.

8. 83.3% highlight matching gifts on their confirmation screens.

Following the donation form itself is typically a gift confirmation screen. And according to the study, the majority of leading nonprofits use this chance to promote matching gifts. However, the extent of the confirmation page promotional efforts varies widely.

For example, some organizations offered single-sentence mentions that encouraged donors to pursue the opportunity on their own. The fundraiser may prompt individual donors to contact their company’s HR department to find out if their employer participates.

However, other nonprofits took a more advanced approach. These teams provided company-specific program guidelines and eligibility criteria and even direct links to online submission forms. This allows the donor to kick off the matching gift process from the initial thank-you screen with just one click!

While the former is better than lacking matching gift mentions altogether, the latter technique really works to simplify matching gifts for donors and ultimately aims to drive more matches to completion.

9. 16.7% do not include matching gifts on their donation forms or their confirmation screens.

Not including this information ultimately means that the fundraisers do not have an easy way to collect employment information during the giving process, nor do they offer instant next steps after an individual submits their gift.

This could cause an organization to miss out on available matching gifts. Because remember: more than 26 million individuals work for companies that offer matching gift initiatives. Yet 78% of the match-eligible segment has no idea that they qualify for such a program.

For nonprofits that fall into this group, incorporating matching gifts within the giving experience⁠—either directly within, immediately afterward or, in the best of both worlds, both locations⁠—is a quick and impactful way to ramp up matching gift marketing.

10. 86.6% enlist follow-up emails to remind donors about matching gift opportunities.

Once the donation process itself is complete, most organizations took the time (or, more likely, triggered automation) to follow up with donors regarding matching gifts. These typically fell into one of two categories:

Mentions of matching gifts within a more general confirmation or acknowledgment email
Dedicated, separate email focused on matching gift opportunities and how to get involved.

According to the study, however, not all follow-ups necessarily hold the same value. In fact, the report outlines tips and tricks for creating optimized matching gift messages, which include using the organization’s own email domain and branding, personalizing the contents with employer-specific information, and more. And the most strategic nonprofits utilize emails that provide direct links to the recipients’ online submission portals, empowering donors to launch the matching gift process right from the email.

11. 10% highlight matching gifts in confirmation emails and separate follow-up messages.

Though 86.6% of organizations follow up with donors about matching gift opportunities post-transaction (using some combination of confirmation emails that highlight matching gifts and separate matching gift messaging), only 10% of participating nonprofits incorporated matching gifts in both types of email communications.

Why does this matter? Well, the more opportunities a donor has to be informed and reminded about matching gifts, the higher the chances are that they complete their end of the matching process. Another common roadblock among fundraisers that enlist only confirmation emails to mention matching gifts is that donors are more likely to skim and discard the message without the reader even getting to the part about matching gifts. That’s a missed opportunity for donors and nonprofits alike!

12. Of those that send matching gift emails post-transaction, 52% do so within 24 hours of donors first contributing.

Another finding we saw in the study is that when it comes to following up on match-eligible donations, timeliness matters. In fact, one of the key criteria included in the matching gift scorecard asks whether the organization sends matching gift emails in the first 24 hours after the initial donor contributes.

And of the organizations that have enlisted matching gift emails, more than half do, in fact, meet this standard. The report even highlights that many organizations’ triggered their first matching emails within minutes of the donor clicking “submit” on their gift!

Not to mention, a separate compilation of matching gift operational stats from Double the Donation indicates that match reminder emails sent within 24 hours of an initial donation result in a 53% open rate. That’s more than 2-3 times higher than the average nonprofit email open rate⁠—inferring that donors are more likely to engage with the content when sent in a timely manner.

13. 73.3% of the Top 30 organizations use Double the Donation’s tools.

Organizations analyzed within the Top Nonprofits study of the P2P Top 30 can be divided into four categories based on software usage.

At the time of the report, 73.3% employ Double the Donation’s matching gift automation solution, 360MatchPro. Meanwhile, 16.7% use HEPdata tools, and 3.3% use Amply software. The remaining 6.7% of organizations did not seem to use any dedicated matching gift tools.

The following chart from the report helps visualize the findings:

So what does this finding imply? More top-earning nonprofit fundraisers are trusting Double the Donation to empower their matching gift efforts than any other provider.

Not to mention, Double the Donation users scored more highly on the matching gift score chart overall compared to users of alternative software solutions.

Download the full matching gift report here.

Wrapping Up

By analyzing the matching gift operational stats of top nonprofits, we can gain insights into best practices to follow and make a note of emerging trends in matching gift fundraising. From there, organizations like yours can learn from others’ successes and identify growth opportunities—then pursue those areas more effectively.

Interested in learning more about top matching gift strategies and best practices? Check out these additional resources to dive deeper:

The Matching Gift Research Report [From Top Nonprofits]. Check out the full study here! We referenced some of our favorite matching gift operational stats in this guide. However, the complete research report shares in-depth analysis of thirty leading nonprofit fundraisers that you won’t want to miss.
14 Important Matching Gifts Questions You Need to Ask. Got questions? We have answers⁠. Explore the basics of corporate matching gifts and how to leverage the opportunity for your team in this guide. The more you know, the better you can optimize your nonprofit’s efforts to drive results.
19 Matching Gift Companies with Impactful Programs. Get familiar with some of the most prominent matching gift programs and see if your donors work for these companies. View guidelines and initiatives for employers like General Electric, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and more.

Want to learn how to leverage digital fundraising for nonprofit success? Learn more with this guide.

Digital Fundraising for Nonprofits: 6 Key Strategies

February 13, 2023/in Google Ad Grants, Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Fundraising, Nonprofit Tools /by Contributor

Optimizing your digital fundraising and marketing strategies now helps cement your future fundraising success. But, with so many nonprofits competing for visibility online, it can be difficult to stand out. By investing in the right digital tools, using social media, leveraging the Google algorithm, and organizing your data, your nonprofit can boost your online reach far beyond your existing community.

1. Use online fundraising software

It’s only fitting to manage your digital fundraising campaigns online. Digital fundraising software can help your nonprofit:

Record and store donor-specific information
Launch online donation forms
Send automated gift acknowledgments
Manage online event registrations
Report your fundraising metrics
Create and send email blasts

No matter your nonprofit’s size or focus, a well-rounded fundraising software solution can streamline all of your operations. Your nonprofit should choose fundraising software that automatically syncs any donor-specific information with your CRM so your information is always up-to-date.

Getting started with a fundraising software solution is simple. First, research and demo the different options on the market and choose which one is the best for you. Then, work with your onboarding specialist to learn how to use the software and tailor it to your specific fundraising needs. Once you’re comfortable with the system, remember to consistently flag any additional problems you run into so you can best leverage the software.

2. Include remote options for your fundraising event

Virtual and hybrid events naturally complement your digital fundraising strategies. For instance, you can easily send the link to your online donation page in the chat of an event hosted via video call. Plus, hosting remote or hybrid events is easier than ever due to the affordability and user-friendliness of digital fundraising software solutions. Consider adding a remote component to these traditionally in-person fundraising ideas:

Silent auction
5K walk/run
Gala
Dinner party
Movie watch party
Meet-and-greet with beneficiaries
Networking event
Webinars and panels with nonprofit experts
Q&A sessions with the executive director or board president
Giving Days

A simple way to add a remote element to your event is to gather attendees on a video call. Video conferencing software is widely available, so it’s likely that your attendees could easily make an account and participate. Also, some platforms even have nonprofit discounts, helping to save your nonprofit valuable operating costs.

3. Try a peer-to-peer format

Another way to boost your digital fundraising event’s revenue is to use a peer-to-peer structure in which participants run their own mini-campaigns and use marketing techniques to promote your larger fundraiser. This structure complements digital fundraising because, with peer-to-peer software, you can automate the fundraising process for your nonprofit, your fundraising participants, and their mini-campaign supporters.

Peer-to-peer fundraising software allows your nonprofit to set up a digital hub for your fundraising campaign. From this landing page, your participants can sign up to host a mini-campaign. Then, they’ll receive their own landing page that they can customize with their own fundraising appeals. Once they send their personal link to their network of supporters, they can conveniently donate to the campaign directly from the website. You can also allow participants to join a fundraising team and assign roles with special privileges, such as team captain, through the software. Your peer-to-peer fundraiser will be more shareable and engaging than ever before in a digital setting!

4. Align your fundraising website with SEO

Boost your fundraising website’s visibility by updating it according to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. SEO is the process of changing your website’s content to complement the algorithm that orders the search engine results page (SERP). In other words, it ensures that your digital fundraiser’s website ranks highly on Google and that your campaign gets more exposure.

If you aren’t tech-savvy and don’t have much room in your planned marketing budget, don’t worry – updating your website to align with SEO best practices is free and there are many resources to help you get started. According to Google, these elements determine your SERP ranking:

Website security
Mobile accessibility
Speedy load times
Quality of on-site content
On-page organization of content
Accessibility to visitors of all abilities

Use your CMS or website builder to gauge your status in these areas. Once you’ve located any weaknesses on your digital fundraiser’s website, determine the scope of your desired changes. For instance, you’ll need to budget more time to completely rewrite your blog content than you’ll need to add alt text to your images. Then, train your team on how to implement the changes and delegate tasks. Note that you won’t see results right away, as it takes Google time to read and rank websites on the SERP.

5. Apply for the Google Ad Grants program

Your nonprofit can guarantee a desirable spot on the SERP by applying for the Google Ad Grants program. This program awards nonprofits up to $10,000 of prime advertising space on the SERP for free every month. To get started, all you need to do is:

Sign up for a Google for Nonprofits account
Verify your 501(c)(3) status
Apply for the Google Ad Grants program

Once you’re approved, determine which pages you want to promote and which keywords to target. Your nonprofit can then use the $10,000 to bid on relevant keywords against other nonprofits, so target the keywords that are specific to your mission.

6. Keep your data organized

Any strong digital fundraising strategy is data-driven. But, to properly leverage your data, you need to keep it organized so you can access it when needed. You can clean your CRM by:

Identifying and removing duplicate data points
Sending a survey to supporters to update contact information and preferences
Standardizing processes for maintaining data

With accurate and organized data, your nonprofit can pinpoint which areas of your digital fundraising strategy need further attention and which efforts were successful.

Wrapping Up

Ultimately, your online fundraising success depends on how you leverage digital platforms, such as fundraising management and peer-to-peer software. To launch your new digital fundraising tactics, establish attainable, data-driven, and specific goals with your team. Then, pick the software solutions and strategies that allow you to achieve these objectives. Throughout the process, ensure you’re maintaining constant digital communication with your prospects because you can cultivate a deep relationship with them, even through a screen.

3 Methods for Measuring Your Nonprofit’s Investment Success

October 4, 2022/in Nonprofit Tools /by maggie.connolly

Is your nonprofit’s investment strategy paying off? Understanding your investment portfolio’s performance is critical to establishing a healthy budget, determining future fundraising strategies, and providing a meaningful snapshot to stakeholders.

When evaluating your nonprofit investment performance, it’s essential to consider the following factors:

Return on Investment (ROI)
Risk
Liquidity

By combining these methods, you’ll be able to take a holistic view of your investment approach and make the best possible decisions for the success of your organization and community at large. Let’s dive in!

1. Return on Investment (ROI)

According to NPOInfo, return on investment (ROI) represents the total revenue your organization gains over the total investment cost, including the principal amount and ongoing fees.

When looking at your nonprofit’s investment success, return on investment is the most important measurement to consider. For nonprofits, we recommend looking at your ROI through two different lenses: ROI over a period of time and ROI compared to the market.

ROI Over a Period of Time

ROI over a period of time considers both capital gains and dividends and can be used to analyze the overall performance of a nonprofit’s investment portfolio.

To calculate ROI over a period of time, simply divide your investment return (current value minus investment cost) by the cost of your initial investment.

ROI = (Investment Return / Investment Cost) × 100%

For example, if you invested $100,000 in a mutual fund and it gained 10% over the course of a year, your ROI would be 10%.

ROI Compared to the Market

ROI compared to the market is a way to measure how well your investments performed compared to a benchmark index. In this sense, it focuses on the difference between the return you earned and the return you could have earned by investing in a low-cost, passive benchmark index.

For example, if the S&P 500 gained 10% over a year, and your investment earned 13%, your ROI compared to the market would be 3%.

Additionally, as inflation rates rise, you should compare your ROI against current rates. If inflation is at 9%, but your investment account returns 8%, your fund is actively losing its value, and you should reconsider your investment strategy.

2. Risk

In addition to ROI, you should consider the riskiness of your investments when evaluating your investment performance. A successful high-risk investment strategy can quickly become a very unsuccessful one.

While measuring the risk of your investment strategy is a complex process, for nonprofits, we recommend you begin by evaluating it in two forms: volatility and drawdowns.

Volatility

Volatility is a calculation of how much your investments fluctuate in value over time. Measuring volatility can help your organization understand the predictability of an investment fund’s growth. For example, a fund that gained 10% one year, lost 12% the following year, and gained 16% in a third year would be considered an unpredictable and thus volatile investment.

Volatility is particularly important to consider with short-term, time-bound investments where you can’t wait for the value to swing upward before removing the funds. However, in general, the higher the volatility, the higher the risk.

Drawdowns

A drawdown tells you how much an investment or fund has lost in value over a specific period of time. Drawdowns are important to consider in your performance analysis because they provide historical insight into how much your investments can lose. Much like volatility, the higher the drawdown, the higher the risk.

Generally, a diversified portfolio, alongside ongoing fundraising activities, such as events, donations, and matching gifts, will help your nonprofit reduce the potential risk in your investment portfolio and perform better long-term. For example, if you have a portfolio diversified across multiple asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, and cash, your overall investment is less likely to suffer if one of those assets performs poorly.

3. Liquidity

As an investment performance metric, liquidity tells you how easily you can convert your investment into cash and access your money in an emergency. While not all your funds will be liquid, nonprofits should aim to have an easily-accessible reserve fund of nine to twelve months of their operating budget in a conservative and diversified portfolio.

Endowment funds, for instance, often carry restrictions that regulate the amount your organization can withdraw each year and where that money can go. Similarly, if you have a portfolio that is composed of only stocks, you may have a difficult time quickly converting your investments into cash in the case of an emergency. On the other hand, if you have a portfolio composed of cash and bonds, you will likely have an easier time converting your investments into cash.

To measure liquidity, consider the percentage of your investment portfolio that is composed of cash and cash equivalents. For example, if you have a portfolio consisting of 50% cash and 50% stocks, your portfolio would be considered 50% liquid.

The Bottom Line

By measuring return on investment, risk, and liquidity, you will be able to get a clearer picture of how your nonprofit’s investments are performing.

However, for many nonprofits with limited resources, this information can often be challenging to find, share, and act on. To improve transparency and accessibility as well as increase your investing success, it’s important to consider the investment tools you use. Infinite Giving’s guide to nonprofit reserve funds recommends that you ask the following questions of providers when considering where to invest your funds:

How will you support my nonprofit’s goals?
What are the associated service and investment fees?
How do I access, deposit, and withdraw funds?
What security features do you offer?
What investment portfolio options do you offer?
Can I generate and share custom reports with my stakeholders?
Do you offer accessible customer service and expert advice?

With the right investment tools and measurement strategies, you can better engage key stakeholders and donors, make financially sound investment decisions, generate more income for your organization, and make a greater impact in your community.