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Mazarine is also passionate about the well-being of nonprofit workers. She talks about the importance of advocating for your employees. She gives helpful advice on how to talk to donors about this, as well as some good resources you’ll want to check out. If you want advice on what not to do when making a fundraising plan, take a look at this post. 

You can see this great conversation in the video below!

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We’ve written this guide on professional development programs. It will help nonprofit executives like you empower employees to develop skills and hone their craft. Explore these four best practices when creating great professional development programs: 

1. Understand why development is important. 
2. Leverage nonprofit-specific development resources. 
3. Enhance existing training programs. 
4. Offer external development opportunities. 

Remember that the best development opportunities are born from upfront research and the best nonprofit development resources.

Reading this article is a great first step in conducting this research and leveraging development opportunities effectively. Let’s get started. 

1. Understand why development is important. 

Understanding the importance of effective development programs is the first step to success. If you’re unsure of these programs, the chances of you implementing it well are very slim. 

There are numerous advantages to nonprofit professional development opportunities, including: 

• Increased employee engagement. 87% of millennials say that development opportunities are important to them in a job. In order to engage our employees and continue growing, it’s better to begin these programs sooner. This especially engages the younger generation because it offers room for growth into future positions. 

• Creating a culture of learning. Astron Solutions’ article on employee compensation names nonprofit culture as one of the key elements of a total rewards compensation structure. A culture of learning encourages staff members to remain engaged and pay attention to new opportunities. This keeps their focus on how to develop themselves as well as your mission. 

• Increasing organizational efficiency. The more your staff members learn about the industry, the more improvement opportunities they’ll find. Pay attention to their suggestions and see how providing learning options can help you succeed. 
• Helping staff grow in their roles. You love your team and we know you want them to succeed. By providing them with nonprofit professional development opportunities your staff can hone their skills, become stronger employees, and gain the confidence they need to succeed. 

If these advantages don’t entice you, there are plenty of others that will! Professional development is a beneficial program for all parties involved, especially when you’re able to maintain motivation and craft the best program for you and your staff. 

2. Leverage nonprofit-specific development resources.

After deciding to create a nonprofit development program, you’ll need to leverage the best resources to do so. After all, your team has to learn from someone. 

While there are many skills that your staff can gain experience and learn about from for-profit sources, they’ll relate better to nonprofit-specific resources. 

Let’s say that a resource is setting up an example to illustrate principles of accounting. They talk about a company working to speed up the production process of a product in order to increase profit. That’s not an example most nonprofits can relate to because their goal is impact rather than profit. 

As you’re combing through the nonprofit-specific resources, you’ll need to decide on the learning platform. Here are some common options you may consider: 

• Books. Books are a classic example of a great development opportunity. You may decide to host a book club at your organization and discuss the specific points covered on a regular basis. Relate the abstract points and examples to concrete aspects of your organization! 
• Online opportunities. With so much of our world today existing online, it makes sense to find learning opportunities there. Look for expert-created online courses. For example, the Leaderosity Learning Library by the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance has courses that utilize engaging learning elements such as text, video, images, and interactive features.
• Journals. Crafted by academically-minded individuals who wish to draw conclusions derived from the latest research in the sector, these journals can help your organization stay up-to-date with the latest trends as well as backup strategic decisions with time-tested research data. 

No matter which you choose to employ, be sure the format suits your audience. The staff of a nonprofit school or tutoring system may prefer academic journals. While those at the local animal shelter may prefer online training courses. 

Choosing the best resource for your audience is the best way to enhance engagement and avoid burnout. Keep in mind the industry and your audience as you research your materials. 

3. Enhance existing training programs. 

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel every time you implement training opportunities. Instead of crafting an entirely new program, enhance the existing training programs at your nonprofit with relevant supplemental resources. 

For instance, let’s say you read a chapter of a book that is highly relevant to your organization’s mission statement. Include that reading in your onboarding activities for new employees so that they get a feel for the mission they’re working toward. 

If you have other standard training opportunities, such as for volunteers or for advancing one’s position, you can also implement new materials into those programs. 

This article sets up a scenario of an animal shelter that has multiple locations and relies heavily on volunteer involvement. They want to make sure every volunteer has the same high level of training before working directly with the animals. Therefore, they use a specific LMS system to teach and train volunteers. 

If this organization wanted to add a new element to this training for all locations. They simply update the course on their LMS (or ask their provider to make the update) with the new information. This way, all volunteers are able to receive the updated information with one fell swoop. 

4. Offer external development opportunities. 

Let’s say you find some incredible development opportunities, but don’t want to incorporate them into existing training programs. Maybe the resource doesn’t fit nicely into one of your existing programs. Or maybe you want to encourage people to take advantage of the opportunity outside of work. 

External (optional) development opportunities are a great way to maintain team engagement with your mission, especially during these unprecedented times. 

Your staff members are implementing social distancing into their daily lives and working from home. They may be searching for new opportunities to fill their newfound additional time. Sponsoring external opportunities is a great solution. This is how it works: 

1. You’ll find a book, an online course, or another professional development resource applicable to your team. Make sure it’s within the price range so you can sponsor as many as who want to participate in the program (or ask to see if there’s a group rate). 
2. Ask your employees if they’d be interested. If you have a great number of interested individuals, you might consider offering some type of group discussion element around the opportunity. For example, lunchtime or happy hour discussions (even over Zoom).
3. Talk to your employees about what they’ve learned. Whether it’s in discussion groups or one-on-one meetings, be sure to give your staff the opportunity to apply the new concepts to your organization’s operations. 

External resources are a great opportunity to encourage additional learning without taking time that’s usually devoted to your mission. Be sure your employees are interested and excited about the opportunity or else they won’t feel the motivation to learn during their free time. 

Professional development opportunities encourage and entice your nonprofit’s staff to create more efficient operations and create a greater impact. Plus, it keeps them motivated and moving forward in their own careers. Strengthen ties within your organization and watch the investment pay off tenfold. Good luck! 

Author Bio:

Kristine Holferty is the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. She is dedicated to using her extensive expertise to help social enterprises and social impact professionals develop their leadership capacity. In addition to her work with The Alliance, Kristine is the founder of Ignite Everyday, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of women in their careers. In addition, she serves on the Certification Governing Board for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (“NASM”). She oversees the certification programs offered by NASM, a division of Assessment Technologies Institute (“ATI”) and the Athletic and Fitness Association of America (“AFAA”).

Kristine volunteers as a reading mentor in the Lead to Read KC program and as a coach for At Coaching for Everyone. It delivers complimentary coaching and leadership support to traditionally underserved and under-resourced populations. Kristine spends her free time in the great outdoors, running adventure races across the globe with her husband, two boys and two dogs. For more information on the NLA’s mission and Leaderosity, check out the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance.  

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These words belong to Dan Pallotta, an American entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian activist, who, in his Ted Talk, reiterates that a nonprofit should be run like a business. According to Pallotta, philanthropy is a market and it is the business of ‘encouraging love’ and ‘increasing awareness.’

Besides their impact through purpose, nonprofits usually need the same tools to function that any for-profit business does, including:

• a team that works on promoting the cause
• the technology that helps raise awareness of the cause
• the donors who can also be seen as customers ― because they have expectations of their money to be put to the cause they deeply care about

All these reasons show that the importance of a business plan for a nonprofit is significant. If you don’t have one, your nonprofit will hardly achieve the noble goal you want it to achieve. So, to help you write an effective nonprofit business plan, we gathered together a few useful tips that will help you properly plan your journey to raising awareness about the cause you’re passionate about.

1. First, Cover the Basics

In case a donor approaches you and asks you questions about your nonprofit, what are the first details you want them to know?

Start writing your business plan by covering the basic points you will share with potential donors. These points may include:

• What is the cause you’re promoting?
• What is the reason that prompted you to support this cause?
• How will you raise money?
• What is your nonprofit’s mission?
• What is your nonprofit’s value proposition and what makes you different?
• What will you do to support this mission?
• How will you do the marketing and ask for donations?

If you don’t know where to start, covering the basics pushes you in the right direction, as it creates an outline from which you can further develop a business plan for your nonprofit.

2. Pay Special Attention to Writing a Financial Plan

If you’re going to have some of your main donors join the board of members of your nonprofit, it’s important to provide them with a detailed financial plan to show them where their money will go.

That’s why you should consider dedicating one of the biggest parts of your business plan to the outline of your financial operations and expenses. Here are some of the points you may want to cover:

• current status of your nonprofit (including startup costs)
• projected status of your nonprofit (including the finances coming from donors and partnerships, as well as your fundraising plan)
• an income statement
• financial management statement (covering salaries, office management, and other operations)
• possible financial issues and gaps (including a solution to them)
• plans on how you will manage the finances in case of the surplus
• other donations (including grants or non-cash contributions)

If you’ve been running your nonprofit for a while and you’re planning to expand, include some accounting data to the outline for your finances for the board of members to see how successfully your nonprofit has been performing.

Besides, this section of your business plan will come in handy if the IRS or other auditors ask you to disclose the data on how your nonprofit operates its finances.

3. Add Credibility with a Nonprofit Evaluation Plan

How will your efforts to support your cause be measured?

Unlike for-profits that can measure their success by evaluating their sales, nonprofits can only measure their success by estimating how many milestones they’ve achieved.

So, if you want to write an effective nonprofit business plan, it’s important to include a section in which you will cover how you will measure your successes.

Depending on the cause you’re working on, as well as the size of your nonprofit, you should include one of these methods to see if you’ve met your goals:

• Narrowing down the mission statement. This evaluation approach will work if you have a very specific mission statement. For instance, if your nonprofit’s mission is to provide hungry people with food, your success will be measured by how many meals you’ve provided over a certain period of time. (Download Nonprofit Hub’s Creating a Mission Statement Guide here).
• Researching your impact on the cause. For example, if your nonprofit is working on improving access to education in underprivileged communities, after a certain period of time, you can do research to investigate your impact and success.
• Setting micro-level goals. If the first two approaches don’t fit, you can outline micro-level goals. Achieving these will indicate your nonprofit’s success on a greater scale.

Having such data in your business plan helps add credibility to it in the eyes of your donors and the wider public, and allows you to manage your nonprofit in a more structured way, as you have all your goals outlined.

Over to You

As you can see, running a nonprofit is a lot like running a business – you need a detailed plan on how you will achieve the goals supporting your cause.

If you don’t know where to start your plan, first, outline the basic details that your donors would want to know. Pay special attention to outlining the financial plan for your nonprofit, and add credibility to your business plan by describing how you will evaluate your successes.

Author Bio

Daniela McVicker is a blogger and a freelance writer who works closely with B2B and B2C businesses providing blog writing, copywriting, and ghostwriting services. Currently, she blogs for Essayguard. When Daniela isn’t writing, she loves to travel, read romance and science fiction, and try new wines.

The post 3 Tips to Write an Effective Nonprofit Business Plan appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

They’re not only “members” in the sense that they get discounts or a subscription ― it’s about belonging. Your members are everyone involved with your organization, all parts of a greater whole.

No association is the same, so there isn’t one universal strategy that will maximize your association membership. However, most associations know that it’s more cost-effective to invest in member retention efforts than member acquisition. 

Members seek a careful balance between the association anticipating their needs and giving them independence. Use your association management tools to maintain this balance for your members by:

1. Creating a dedicated association website.
2. Providing a space for online community-building.
3. Personalizing communications for each member.
4. Hosting events that members value.

The more targeted and curated your member engagement efforts are, the better experience your members will have. Let’s dive in! 

Creating a dedicated association website.

Just like a nonprofit’s webpage, there are certain essentials that your association website requires to meet basic needs. Similar to how donors seek an online donation form, think about the end targets of users on your website. Why did they come to your website?

Your website is likely the first place that people visit to learn more about your association. Therefore, it’s important to create space for general association details and the benefits you offer. Consider if the user wants to:

• Join the association. Incorporate clear pathways where a person can become a member.
• Contact the association. Include a navigation menu so that newcomers know how to access the “Contact Us” page in case they want to reach out.
• Check out upcoming events. Offer an event calendar that lays out future opportunities and a place to register for upcoming events.
• Engage with other members. A member portal encourages community-building. We’ll dive into more details on this later!

According to Morweb, your best bet is to look into website builders that are meant for associations. This way, you can set up your pages and offer online engagements that specifically cater to a member-based organization.

Providing a space for online community building.

As your association gets larger, active online member engagement ensures that your membership stays unified. Companies benefit from a truly connected office, and this mindset is applicable to your association membership.

An accessible member portal is a great way to encourage online community-building, as well as help new members acclimate to the online community. This allows members to: 

• Get an initial sense of other members.  Members can easily navigate a directory full of names, relevant details, and even photos. 
• Communicate with other members. Offer online message boards and forums. On top of creating a discussion space, this also provides a reliable source of feedback to improve the member experience.
• Control their initial impression. Provide members with self-service tools so that they can edit their own profiles and make changes based on new developments and accreditations. 
• Advance in their field. Many associations will invest in learning management systems (LMS) to offer educational courses, either online or in-person. 

Members should have a place to connect besides recurring meetings and larger events. An online space facilitates member engagement and improves the overall experience. Check out Fonteva’s guide to measuring member engagement for more strategies.

Personalizing communication for each member.

If you want to offer an unparalleled member experience, consider ways to personalize each member’s journey based on their preferences. Making the effort to individualize your outreach will elevate the entire membership experience. 

Make sure that your member database is a core component of your AMS. This way, you can easily incorporate member data into your emails, such as names and membership levels. 

Additionally, segment your recipients to create more targeted content and eliminate unnecessary emails flooding your members’ inbox. Segment your members based on:

• Communications preference.
• Membership status.
• Event attendance. 
• Payment preferences. 

Taking the time to optimize your members’ communications helps your constituents feel valued within your organization. The more they feel valued, the more likely they are to renew their membership.

Hosting events that members want.

Although providing an enhanced online experience is key to maximizing association membership, they can’t replace holding in-person events. These live experiences provide value to the community and are a great way to attract attendees beyond your members.

It’s important to pick an event that you know will resonate with your members. Send surveys to your members or peruse online forums to get a better understanding of events that might be of interest. 

Furthermore, consider investing in comprehensive event management software. This way, you can oversee processes and customize your event. Here are a few things to focus on: 

• Ask the right questions. Format your questions based on specific activities and eliminate any unnecessary information. 
• Create the perfect event schedule. Manage all of your vendors, speakers, and sponsor information in one convenient place. 
• Provide a secure payment process. Ensure that your event registration also incorporates a secure payment processor. 

Use an AMS solution with event management capabilities so that your event data can be woven into your member profiles. Even better, invest in tools that are native to each other. For example, Salesforce is a popular CRM with a long list of native tools and integration partners.

Many people join associations to meet others in the same field or with similar interests. Make sure to prioritize both online and offline opportunities to encourage community building. Good luck!

Author Bio

Jake Fabbri is the Vice President of Marketing at Fonteva with over 18 years of experience working in marketing management. He has experience with lead generation, content marketing, marketing automation, and events.

The post 4 Tips for Maximizing Association Membership appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Website design is important, and leveraging the right web development features will help you navigate many of these questions. Customizing your website will enable you to effectively tell your nonprofit’s story, so be sure to use a website builder that allows for some creativity and flexibility.

This all comes down to your content management system (CMS). Your CMS should provide you with the tools and functionality to build out the exact website you want, without any confusion or frustration. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the top features you should look for in a CMS when building your nonprofit website:

1. Customizability
2. Mobile Optimization
3. Fundraising Software
4. SEO Tools
5. Blogging Tools

Making the most of the above features will help boost your online presence and make a great first impression for new site visitors. Let’s get started.

Customizability

What if your team isn’t experienced in web design and needs a simple, straightforward way to present your content? Look for a CMS with simple customizable features so you can easily create and update your site without any coding experience required.

With a customizable CMS, you’ll be able to take advantage of tools like:

• Drag-and-drop. Drag-and-drop tools allow you to pick from a set of pre-designed elements and play around with your page’s design without the need to carefully code each component.
  
• Live editing tools. Use live editing tools to ensure your live page looks exactly how you want it. Edit your page in real-time on the front end of your website instead of having to guess how it will look from the back end.
• Images and videos. Featuring compelling visuals on your website can help tell your nonprofit’s story, encourage visitors to explore your website further, and even inspire them to make a donation. Make sure your logo is prominently displayed on each page of your website and take advantage of features like image carousels to avoid overcrowding the space. 
• Data capture. Add email sign-ups for newsletters or volunteering so you can capture data from your web visitors and keep them engaged with your organization.
• Social media integrations. Since many of your supporters will likely engage with your nonprofit on social media, make sure your CMS supports social media integrations like live social feeds for Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Customization features can help you portray your nonprofit exactly how you want. Make a positive first impression by creating a professional website that’s easily editable and looks how you envisioned it. From there, you’ll have a solid foundation for building it up.

Mobile Optimization

Most people view websites on their smartphones these days, which means potential donors who visit your website may be viewing it on a smaller screen. That means optimizing your website for mobile is incredibly important, and you need a CMS with mobile-responsive functionality to make it happen.

Here are the top mobile-related features you should look for as you build your website:

• Mobile responsiveness. Each page of your website should adjust to fit any size screen, whether it’s a tablet, desktop, or smartphone.
• Mobile forms. Every form on your website, including donation forms, volunteer sign-ups, etc., should adjust for mobile. If your visitors try to make a donation on their smartphone and have to zoom in and out or rotate their device, there’s a chance they’ll abandon the form altogether.
• Lead capture forms. Pop-ups like lead capture forms should scale for mobile so that visitors don’t become frustrated looking for a way to close the pop-up screen.

Optimizing for mobile users is a good strategy for boosting donations and giving your web visitors a positive experience. Even more, you’ll reach a lot more people, and fewer people will leave due to a negative experience.

Fundraising Software

Your website is already a powerful fundraising tool because it houses all of the information individuals need to learn about your nonprofit and get involved with your cause. For that reason, pick a CMS that makes it easy to engage your supporters and raise funds.

Your CMS should offer:

• Donation pages. Add an on-site donation page, which is one of the most important elements of your website. Ensure your donation page is easy to navigate and branded to your organization so individuals are more inclined to give. You’ll also want to make sure your donation page is easy to access from anywhere on your website by highlighting it in your navigation menu.
• eCommerce. Some supporters prefer to give in other ways. Use a CMS that offers eCommerce capabilities so you can set up a store with merchandise (like custom shirts) and offer another way for individuals to support your cause.
• Event management features. Easily design event registration pages and create an events calendar that’s easy to update. Your CMS should give you the tools to do this so you can keep your supporters updated on important events and collect payment directly through your website.

One of the most important functions of your nonprofit’s website is to fundraise for your cause. You can do this through an on-site donation page or an online store. Your website should also make it easy to register and purchase tickets for your events. From there, follow tips like these to keep your momentum going.

SEO Tools

You’ve probably heard the term search engine optimization (SEO), but do you know how to implement it into your nonprofit’s website? SEO involves optimizing content on your website to help it prominently rank in popular search engines, like Google.

If you’re new to web design, chances are you don’t have a lot of experience in SEO, either. According to Morweb’s guide to nonprofit web development, you should pick a CMS with SEO tools that can help you improve your site’s content and rank better on search engines.

These tools include:

• Meta title editors. Your meta title is the title search engines display in search results. Make sure your CMS allows you to easily edit your meta title so you can boost click-through rates.
• Meta description editors. Your meta description is a short description that describes the purpose of your web page and what content they can expect to find there. Your CMS should make it simple to edit your meta description tags.
• Customizable URLs. Your website’s URLs should also be customizable. URLs that are too long or difficult to read can turn web visitors away. However, if your URL includes the keyword you’re targeting and remains short and simple, you’re more likely to rank and get visitors.

When your CMS allows you to customize content with key SEO elements, your nonprofit’s website will have a higher chance of ranking on search engines and getting more attention from web users. Make sure your CMS offers these features so you can maximize your online presence.

Blogging Tools

Will you be posting blog articles on your website? Blogs are an impactful way for nonprofits to communicate the good they’re doing and keep their supporters updated on their progress. But running a blog takes organization, especially when you want it to drive your supporters to take action.

Blogging tools are an important feature that should be part of your CMS. With the right toolkit, you can easily craft your posts and share your content to other channels. These features include:

• An easy-to-use blog editor. The process of drafting, formatting, and editing your blog posts should be intuitive. Create your posts the way you want so they match your nonprofit’s branding and are tailored for your readers.

• Scheduling tools. If you’re leveraging an editorial calendar, make sure your CMS allows you to schedule posts so you can ensure they go out at the right time. This will also give your staff time to review posts before they go live and make sure they’re just right.
• Live previews. As with the rest of your site, it’s important to preview your blog posts before you publish them. Find a CMS that offers a live preview mode so you can make sure your blog posts look exactly how you want them to both on your computer and on mobile before they go live.
• Social media share icons. Encourage your readers to share your content on other platforms by offering share options for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email etc.

Nonprofit web design takes a lot of planning and organization. Make sure your CMS offers you the tools you need to stay on top of your blog content and communicate exactly what you need to your audience. Keeping your website content current is one of the most essential parts of great web design, and this can set your site up for success. 

Building your nonprofit website doesn’t have to be a daunting task. If you focus on the features that your organization will need, you should end up with the right tools to help you put together a professional and intuitive web design.

Looking for some more guidance? Check out Morweb’s guide to nonprofit web design for some of the top best practices.

The post Top 5 Essentials for Your Nonprofit Website appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

At DNL OmniMedia, we specialize in nonprofit tech strategy consulting, so we’ve worked with quite a few nonprofits to develop plans around specific goals such as boosting volunteer engagement. Check out the following reliable strategies for increasing volunteer sign-ups:

1. Solidify your mission statement.
2. Keep an updated website.
3. Manage volunteer data with a strong CRM solution.
4. Use technology tools to motivate volunteers. 

Read on to learn how to use the above strategies to increase volunteer engagement.

1. Solidify your mission statement. 

There’s one thing that’s absolutely essential to bring volunteers to your organization– a strong mission statement.

Your mission statement encompasses your “why,” as in why you’re dedicated to your cause and why you’re giving your time and efforts toward it. It can be easy to develop your mission statement when your nonprofit is born but then take it for granted going forward. Instead, you should think of your mission statement as a kind of living document to guide your work.

You should be actively using this statement to attract new supporters. When a supporter connects personally with your mission statement, you’ve made the strongest, most direct connection you can possibly make with that individual. 

These supporters become volunteers. You should focus some energy on crafting the best mission statement possible to help build these relationships.

2. Keep an updated website. 

Your website functions as your nonprofit’s home on the internet, and it’s most likely where you’re going to direct potential volunteers to find opportunities. Therefore, it’s absolutely vital you keep this information up-to-date and easily accessible. 

Regardless of whether you’re a tech expert or a total newcomer, keeping your website updated can be a manageable (and even budget-friendly) task. There are a few features you’ll want to make sure to include:

• An easily-read calendar widget for quick viewing of upcoming opportunities
• Uncomplicated volunteer registration processes for events, embedded directly within the site
• A call-to-action button to gather contact information from interested potential volunteers
• Links to your nonprofit’s social media profiles, so volunteers can stay in the loop

If your website could use an upgrade to better target volunteer audiences, check out this guide to nonprofit website design for an idea of how to get started.

3. Manage volunteer data with a strong CRM solution. 

You could have the strongest volunteer force imaginable and it still wouldn’t be effective if you didn’t have a comprehensive CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to manage and gather data from these interactions. 

Your CRM software hosts all of the data you gather on donors, volunteers, and any other supporters. With this data, you’ll be able to:

• Maintain volunteer profiles, tracking information such as engagement history and contact info
• Identify which fundraiser campaigns have been most engaging for your volunteers and implement similar ideas in future endeavors
• Identify which volunteers are most likely to convert to donors down the line and contact them accordingly
• Recognize the preferred contact methods for segments of your volunteer force and reach out with new opportunities appropriately

Setting up your organization’s technology solutions can be a difficult undertaking, especially if you’re a larger organization working with particularly robust solutions. 

Bringing on a nonprofit technology consultant is usually the best bet to mitigate risk, whether you’re developing a quick website or needing customized Blackbaud consultation services.

4. Use volunteer grant tools to motivate donors.

You’ll motivate donors using your mission statement, navigable website and engaging events. However, there may not be anything more engaging to a volunteer than the knowledge that they may be able to double their impact on your nonprofit.

This is made possible through volunteer grant programs, typically part of broader corporate social responsibility practices at businesses. The process is simple: an eligible employee volunteers at your nonprofit, they submit proof of time volunteered to their employer, their employer verifies this time with your organization, and then this employer sends a financial gift to your organization matching the time given.

The biggest obstacle in obtaining a volunteer grant is that volunteers are rarely actually aware of these opportunities. Therefore, by providing supporters with education surrounding the practice and directing them to an online volunteer grants database, your supporters are able to determine their eligibility and begin the process. 

For more information on these programs, check out Double the Donation’s guide to volunteer grant basics. 

Let’s recap.

Volunteers are essential for any nonprofit to function, but it can be difficult to motivate supporters to actually give their time!

By crafting solid messaging, keeping volunteers updated on upcoming activities, managing your volunteer data, and utilizing corporate social responsibility tools, you’ll be sure to motivate volunteers to sign up for future initiatives.

The post 4 Strategies to Increase Volunteer Sign-Up appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.