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Today on CauseTalk Radio Megan and I talk to Lori Davison , Vice President of Brand Strategy & Communications, at SickKids Foundation about the foundation's new brand platform. Titled SickKids VS The Greatest Challenges in Child Health , the platform shows the strength, the fierceness, the fight that’s very real at SickKids and shares it with those who have never stepped foot into the hospital.
By now you’ve heard about #GIvingTuesday.This year it’s on November 29 and it’s billed as a global day to give back. Some people think it’s a great way to raise more revenue and find new donors. Others find it a complete waste of time. Personally, I like the idea of a giving day and make most of my year-end donations on #GivingTuesday. On the other hand, it feels more like Asking Tuesday with a relentless stream of email messages and social media posts begging you to donate now.
We just finished our free webinar on Go Short for Your 2016 Nonprofit Annual Report , and we’re excited about how many of the attendees are ready to take this step (and how many already have!). Almost 2,200 people registered for this webinar and about 700 participated in this poll. Over half of the participants either did a short report last year and will this year again or will do one for the first time this year.
The National Retail Federation estimates that U.S. households will spend an average of $935.58 this holiday season. That translates into billions of dollars in consumer spending that can empower philanthropy and social good. By shopping at any of the 30 online stores listed below, conscious and ethical consumers can channel some of their spending power into the nonprofit sector.
Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage
This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.
There are only 6 more tickets left for next week's Nonprofit Storytelling Conference in Chicago. I've personally never seen a conference make this much of a difference to attendees and the organizations they work for. I hope you won't miss out! See the session descriptions and get one of the last tickets at: [link]. If being in Chicago for a couple of days next week isn't a possibility, check out the video option.
In the New York Times Special Section on Giving — covering a wide range of topics from foundation trends, to teaching kids to give, and the ins and outs of automobile donations — there’s a piece that will be of special interest to Agitator readers. Asking for Money? Compliment the Donor, Not Your Organization is worth a careful read for several reasons, not least of which is that a major general circulation paper like the Times delves into a ‘how to’ subject generally re
You need to publish an annual report. It’s a best practice. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend 100+ hours creating a tome that only your board members and close friends will read (and let’s be honest, they’ll just say they read it.). Instead, use common sense, save your nonprofit huge amounts of time and money, and create something people will actually look at.
You need to publish an annual report. It’s a best practice. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend 100+ hours creating a tome that only your board members and close friends will read (and let’s be honest, they’ll just say they read it.). Instead, use common sense, save your nonprofit huge amounts of time and money, and create something people will actually look at.
For environmentally friendly and socially conscious holiday shoppers that prefer to give donations to nonprofits as holiday gifts, the 20 holiday gift programs listed below are a good starting point for your holiday shopping. Ranging from wildlife conservation to refugee relief, tribute gifts make excellent holiday gifts for friends, family, and work colleagues.
Every time you ask your site visitor for something – whether it’s a donation or just an email signup – you are entering a mental conversation. To increase the potential for success, it is important that the thought sequence of that conversation take place in the proper order. Briefly imagine if you were approached by a stranger on the street, and they said, “Hey, my name’s Tim.
They’ve ‘opened the envelope’ They’re checking out the ‘order card’ But then they walk away … without making a donation. Why? You had them right on the verge. Possibly, just confusion, discordant message, too many choices. Crafters of direct mail packages know how hugely important carefully designed order cards are for ‘closing’ the gift.
Happy Friday! Join me for some Mixed Links… We have opened our annual Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey , but this year we have completely revamped it. Share your thoughts with us and be the first to see the results during our Preview Webinar for survey-takers only. If you need some website design inspiration, check out this list of the 170 Best Nonprofit Websites of 2016.
Speaker: Gareth Webb & Phil Selley, Founding Partners at Intouch Business
For many nonprofit organizations and NGOs, managing grants and monitoring projects with spreadsheets and manual processes feels familiar—but is it holding your organization back? As funding requirements become more complex and stakeholder expectations for transparency grow, relying on outdated methods can lead to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and compliance risks.
Data can help purpose-driven organizations make better decisions and achieve greater impact. This much is agreed upon. However, in a 2016 survey of nonprofit professionals conducted by EveryAction and Nonprofit Hub, only 6% of respondents felt their organizations were effectively using the data at their disposal. In other words, we while we know data is important, we are still struggling to use it.
Header image courtesy of Time.com. The world of mobile fundraising can be daunting to get started in if you don’t have anything set up, but if your organization is looking take your mobile fundraising to the next level, using Venmo for fundraising could be the answer you’re looking for. What it is. If you aren’t familiar with Venmo, it’s a money transferring platform, meant for people to send and receive payments from approved users.
It’s Halloween for most of our readers tonight. I guess clown costumes are out (for you U.S. readers). Tricks are out too, for fundraisers. Instead, take a moment as you start the week and treat yourself. Think about the most memorable donation you personally have ever made. What was it? Who received it? How were you asked? Now, why has that particular donation come to mind?
Dale Carnegie's seminal book, How To Win Friends and Influence People , was published 80 years ago. It's an oldie…and it's still a goodie. And it wasn't written for fundraisers. However, there are many lessons you can apply when you want to raise more money for your nonprofit. Let's consider each of his 6 principles in the section, "How To Get People To Like You.".
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
There are a lot of strategies that go into a well-developed and successful email marketing program. Some "experts" say that the most important element is that the subject line needs to be provocative. Some say the most the important strategy is to decide who the sender of the email will be and that’s what your donors will respond to. So what's the most important strategy to increase email conversion rates?
Often times as nonprofits, we tend to think about our donors as more of an ATM than a valuable player on your organization’s team. This tends to get even worse when the donations we get aren’t in the mid to upper level. The sad thing is, with the proper cultivation, a $10 donation could turn into a recurring or even legacy donor. Research has shown that follow-up from donations isn’t quite up to the standard that leads to fundraising success.
I want to extend my sympathy to David Love and Jen Love , two of my favorite Agitator -reading fundraisers over the passing Dr. Henry Barnett, Jen’s grandfather and David’s father-in-law. Normally, I would do this personally with a personal note and not post. But, the life of Henry “Barney” Barnett stands as a positive example for all fundraisers — not just David and Jen.
Organizations spend a lot of time and effort focusing on what they will do with the money they receive from donors. And, that makes plenty of sense. People won’t give you money if you don’t have a plan for what you’ll do with it. The beneficiaries of the donations are important— of course! But that’s only part of the equation.
Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.
Credit: https://flic.kr/p/8PaJQa. Jason. Freddie. Michael Myers. These names used to send me hiding under my covers when I was a kid. Heck, I still get the heebie jeebies if someone makes that “chhh chhh chhh ha ha ha” sound from Friday the 13th. And I blame Nightmare on Elm Street for my night-owl insomniac tendencies to this very day. I refused to go to sleep for fear Freddie Krueger would come strolling down my hallway scraping that glove along the walls til he got to my door.
Well, it turns out blogrolls can be like the vegetable crisper in your refrigerator … some fresh looking, appetizing, recognizable stuff on the top, and some soft, liquefying, long-forgotten stuff at the bottom (what is that gook and what was I thinking?!). At least that’s what we found when The Agitator set about ‘refreshing’ our own blogroll recently.
I know this is important. But, honestly, I’m a major and planned gift marketer… not a fundraising consultant. So I found this article by Gail Perry to be very enlightening. In it, she explains how to tackle the delicate process of annual gift solicitation of board members. Below I outline her 7 points. Interestingly, the key to the solicitation happens behind the scenes.
7. Wasting time in-house letting themselves get caught up in meetings, activities, or office politics. 6. Forgetting to ask donors lots of questions about why they care, where their interests lie and what they want to accomplish. 5. Talking too much (especially about themselves) — Don’t be a show up and throw up fundraiser ! 4. Listening too little to donors’ stories, reasons for caring, and their interests, wants, needs and desires. 3.
Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand
Do you really know your donors? Not just what they give, but who they are? 👥 In this interactive session, we’ll break down how nonprofits can use behavioral indicators (affinity, recency, frequency, and monetary value) to build prospecting segments that go beyond wealth screening and actually align with donor identity. You’ll walk away with practical strategies to move beyond basic demographics and cultivate supporters based on how they already engage with you!
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