Download the 7 Tips on Asking for Donations guide here! 

1. Research Your Donors to Read Their Minds

The words you want them to say: “Wow, it’s like he read my mind!”

How do you get to that point? You research your donor as an individual, but you also have a broad depth of general research on the kinds of people who donate to your nonprofit as a whole group.

Always prepare for your solicitation meeting. You need to be able to answer these questions if you want to get into a donor’s heart:

• What kinds of words do they use? Do they talk about their passions?
• What do they care about? Are there other causes they are a part of?
• Do they have a history of giving?
• What are their common objections, fears and concerns about giving?

Using research to gauge how to ask donors for money can yield great outcomes. Thanks to the internet, we have more access to information about our donors than ever. In addition, we have the ability to survey our donors and examine how they talk about our cause. Using research to gauge how to ask donors for money can yield great outcomes.

Note, however, that if you survey your donors or ask questions of a potential donor, you have to learn to read the answer behind the answer. We have to address the fears and risks every donor feels, even if the donor herself can’t identify them out loud. And then, connect their existing passions and desires to our nonprofit’s cause, using the same language they use.

In other words, understand your donor base so well it’s like you’ve read their minds.

Don’t worry, this is easier than it sounds if you follow the next six tips…

2. Practice, Practice, PRACTICE — And Then Practice Some More

The best way to dominate your donor visits, get more funds and create real, lasting connections with your nonprofit … is to PRACTICE every aspect of your ask.

In other words, by the time you are actually sitting in front of a prospect, you should have rehearsed the many paths the conversation could take MANY times before. Understanding your talking points, how you’ll graciously address common objections and the exact way you’ll frame your ask allows you to stop thinking about these things and just focus on talking with the donor.

Practice your ask. We can’t emphasize it enough. Run through how you’ll call them on the phone. Plan on how to structure your meeting. Decide how long you’ll make small talk at the beginning, and how to transition smoothly into the ask itself. Leave no stone unturned!

The key to this:

• Practice out loud.
• Then, practice in front of a mirror.
• Then, record yourself on video practicing.

It might feel a little awkward, but you’ll learn things about your delivery. This will allow you to be far more confident and free when it comes to actually making the ask. Don’t skip this step.

3. Never, Ever Surprise Your Prospect

If your potential donor is ever surprised you’re asking them for money, something is deeply amiss. Don’t catch them off guard. You want them to feel as prepared as you will be before heading into the meeting.

Make it clear in your first call or contact that you’re interested in talking to the potential donor about your cause and how he or she might be able to get involved. Make it clear that, while you’re interested in them as a person, there’s a deeper purpose for your visit. That way, they’ll be able to prepare their response, objections and questions. The meeting will serve both of you best when you’re on the same page, always remember this when considering how to ask donors for money.

4. Stop Being Boring (It Isn’t Worth It)

Boring feels safe. No presenter who just reads bullet points off a PowerPoint instead does it because they want their audience to eagerly contemplate running from the room. Nope, they do it because it feels safe.

Reading a PowerPoint feels like an easy way to tell your audience all the info they want and be sure not to forget anything important. But instead, you fail to keep your audience engaged. The actual way to be safe is what we discussed above: PRACTICE. Then you won’t need slides, and you can focus instead on not being boring. The conversation will flow more naturally.

At the same time, don’t be scared of sounding awkward or too forward by asking things like, “What do you think is the biggest challenge we face in this area?” Provoke interesting reactions that are memorable, not boring, formulaic encounters. Show them that their input in the conversation is truly valuable (more on that in the next step).

Your goal is to make your donor both catch your enthusiasm and feel understood. But to get there, you need to let yourself be not-boring enough that they can have fun talking to you. Engaging in personal conversation apart from a PowerPoint will help you build rapport before making the ask.

5. Ask for Advice — You’ll Usually End Up with Money

The old fundraising maxim applies here:

“Ask for money, you’ll get advice. Ask for advice, you’ll get money.”

What most people truly want is to be heard. This concept is often foreshadowed when analyzing how to ask donors for money. Asking for advice means that they will freely tell you the secret thing they are most passionate about, as well as their biggest fears about giving. And most importantly, the donor will feel valued and important. Which they are! They’re the ones whose enthusiasm makes changes happen in the world. So ask them for their input and impressions.

For more tips on the advice visit, check out Gail Perry’s great article on how advice visits can open any door in town.

6. Your Secret Weapon is Pointed Silence

Our culture HATES silence. We think it’s awkward and we want to fill it. This is one reason why extroverted salespeople and fundraisers can actually do worse than introverts.

Often, the most important, meaningful thing—the thing your prospect REALLY wants to tell you—won’t be said if you quickly fill the silence.

Bad Fundraiser: “What’s the most important thing about the environment to you?”

 

Donor: “Well, I think environmental damage is a pretty big problem. We’re hurting the environment forever and we don’t even realize it!”

 

Bad Fundraiser: “Yeah, you’re so right! That’s why our Program X is so important! Let me tell you… [Donor hears: “blah blah blah”]

Don’t do this! Your funding for next year will die a thousand painful deaths. Here’s how that conversation could have gone:

Superman Fundraiser: “What’s the most important thing about the environment to you?”

 

Donor: “Well, I think environmental damage is a pretty big problem. We’re hurting the environment forever and we don’t even realize it!”

 

Superman Fundraiser: “For sure!” [shuts up and looks genuinely interested]

 

Donor: [feels like he should talk because of the silence] “… Yeah! It’s really crazy. In fact, the other day I was thinking about when I was a kid and would go out and look at the stars in the country and see meteors and all kinds of awesome stuff. But now that the city is so big, and there’s so much light pollution and smog, when I go out with MY kids to our cabin we’re lucky to see anything. It’s so sad.”

WOW. And you were about to start making a generic appeal about one of your programs, totally at random! Now you have so much material to work with, and know exactly the RIGHT program to talk about.

Your donor has practically sold themselves, all because you stayed quiet! You’re fundraising for this guy’s kids’ happiness now, not your program!

Too many advice-givers say “just listen better!” But they fail to tell you that it means “shut up and allow silence, even if it feels awkward at first.” Great journalists love this technique—it gets them the best interviews and quotes.

By the way, this works in discussions of all kinds—whether you’re negotiating a contract, your salary, trying to understand your significant other, or asking for a donation. Use strategic silence next time you talk with anyone. The effect almost feels magical and is a hidden approach to how to ask donors for money.

7. Ask for a Specific Amount (Don’t Make Your Donor Do Any Work)

Finally, always ask for a specific amount to contribute to the cause.

Why is this important? Because it takes the burden off of the donor to figure out what size of a donation is necessary. They don’t know anything about your campaign goals. You do. So help them out. Don’t make your donor do the work.

In Summary

We get it. Asking for money is intimidating. But it’s also an immense privilege. You’re inviting other people to take action on a cause that they genuinely care about. You’re selling significance. You’re helping potential donors connect more with their passion, their values, and their dreams. At the end of the day, most people really don’t mind feeling like they’re making a valuable impact on the world.

You’ve just got to ask them to.

Originally published 10.30.13—Last Updated 3.16.2023

The post How to Ask Donors for Money: 7 Proven Tips appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Get Help

No matter how invested you are in your core mission and all that it takes to make it happen, starting and growing your nonprofit can be hard. There are so many hoops to jump through, from certifying your nonprofit status designation, developing a sustainable and effective nonprofit strategy, and more. That is a lot for one or a small group of people to handle. The team at BryteBridge specializing in helping new nonprofits have a strong start.

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If you’ve spent any time in the world of nonprofit copywriting, you’ll have heard the maxim: people give to people, not causes. We like people. We care about real people because they remind us of those we love and care about. Ourselves, our friends, our kids, and our communities. However, many nonprofits forget that the same applies to our own organizations as well, not just our fundraising materials. We’re in the relationship business. Major gifts fundraisers—how much time do you spend getting to know your donors? Then it makes sense to let your donors get to know you too! Here’s why you should include staff bios on your website (and how to make them compelling).

How to Have a Great Staff Page (with Examples!)

Have a Biography

Bio page from Cross-Cultural Solutions – short and sweet bio, and you can click for more.

One of the cardinal sins of nonprofit staff pages is not having a bio for your staff members at all.

It’s not enough to have a contact number and email, or a name. Stopping there would be very corporate—and not in a good way. In addition, don’t put up a wall between people and get them to stop thinking of you not as a real, breathing person who cares about the world.

You don’t want to be a name and a job title.

Plus, subconsciously, you’ll communicate the same thing about your donors: they aren’t real, dynamic people. They’re just anonymous billfolds, like you’re an anonymous suit.

So what should you put in your bio? Good question. Keep reading.

Don’t Be BORING

Okay, here’s the one exception to the rule of always having a biography: if your bio is boring, kill it.

You might as well select your bio text, hit DELETE and click SAVE.

Why Boring Bios Happen

If you’re like me, having a boring bio is tempting because of the potential rewards of doing so:

• Trying to be impressive to funders: We worry that grant-givers don’t give to organizations that are not professional and serious about what they do. So we stuff all of our biggest, most boring achievements in our biographies. Believe me, if funders aren’t sure about giving to your organization, your impressive biography is not going to sway them.
• Attempting to be impressive to individual donors: Okay, when individual donors click on your About page, they care about two things. A) Whether you are run by real people, and B) If you are the kind of people she would be friends with. If you have staff bios at all, you pass Test A. And if you’re not boring, you pass Test B. There is no Test C for whether you’re impressive. Individual donors don’t care about your job title. They won’t remember it in 10 minutes.
• Trying to impress our bosses: Your bosses are neither your donors or funders. Send them to this article if they want you to have boring bios (they probably don’t).
• Wanting to feel impressive to yourself: You aren’t your donors or your funders, either. You are special. You don’t need to brag to know that.
• Trying to fill space: We have a hard time talking about ourselves, sometimes. So we put all the obvious boring stuff in our biographies to fill space. Stop and just be normal! See “Have a Personality” below.
• Not having to try too hard: It’s really easy to write your job title and how many years you’ve been in the organization and where you went to school. Stop being lazy.

Now that you know there are no rewards for being boring, you can stop! Feels good to be interesting, doesn’t it?

Have a Picture

Back on My Feet’s bio page pictures are polaroid-esque photos that incorporate the running theme into them. Awesome job.

First, too many people don’t have a picture at all. This is a huge mistake.

Why don’t you have a picture? People like pictures. Today, we’re spoiled by visual social media like Facebook and Pinterest. If you have a picture, people are much more likely to believe you exist, and to feel connected to you.

Have a GOOD Picture

Secondly, make sure your picture isn’t terrible. A professional headshot is the best way to go, but you don’t necessarily need a full-fledged photoshoot. Pull out a smartphone, have someone who understands photography just a little bit take the photo, and use a photo editor app to adjust the lighting or background. Then you’re all set to add it to your website.

Most of us walk around with little high-resolution cameras in our pockets, so you’re out of excuses for not having a photo of yourself on your website.

Have a Personality

DoSomething.org’s bio pages have personality that matches their target demographic’s sensibilities, as younger kids.

Again, people only want a couple things from your staff biographies: they want to know you’re real and that you’re someone they wouldn’t hate to be associated with. This is a really low bar! You can do it if you have a little personality.

Think about these things:

• What do you like to do in your spare time?
• What inspires you?
• Why are you in nonprofit work? What are the emotional reasons?
• Who is a hero of yours?
• What’s something quirky about you?

We want to connect with real people, so be unapologetically real. Err on the side of too much personality. It’s way better to be a little weird and remembered than being boring, safe… and totally ignored.

An Example

Here is a real staff bio from an operations manager at a nonprofit in Oregon. (Allison—you are a wonderful human being!)

I bolded the most personable parts of Allison’s bio:

Allison provides administrative support to the Capacity Building Services team. Allison is a native Oregonian and has worked in the nonprofit community in Portland as an Office Manager and Program Coordinator for the last six years. She received a BA in Community Development from Portland State University with a focus in community organization and change. Allison developed a strong sense of devotion for the nonprofit sector as a beneficiary of an informal youth development program at the Audubon Society of Portland nearly 16 years ago. This experience gave her a deep appreciation for how nonprofits seek to improve the quality of life for our region; one program at a time.

Allison’s bio is 110 words long—a great length. It even has a great picture. The one problem: the bio could use more personality.

For one, the language is pretty stiff and formal. Might be trying to impress us with notable achievements. But instead of being impressed, I’m a little bored. This is tragic because Allison is a vibrant, interesting person! Here’s a quick revision of her bio:

A native Oregonian, Allison fell in love with nonprofits when she was only a teenager. Inspired at a summer camp led by the Audubon Society of Portland, Allison quickly developed a deep passion for charitable work. This resolve stuck with her through college, leading her to get her BA in Community Development from Portland State U. Over 16 years later, Allison provides support to our Capacity Building Services team and is happy spending her days keeping Oregon an amazing place to live, one program at a time.

Notice how the personal details, not the job title, are the details we focus on most. The tone is casual, and we’re told a STORY of Allison’s journey, not given a list of plain facts. Native Oregonians are probably nodding and thinking to themselves “I remember summer camp! I hope other people get to experience that.”

The bio could still be more fun (what does Allison love about Oregon? It’s lush state parks? Hiking? Kayaking? The open skies?)—but it feels fresher already! Not too difficult, right? With your own bio, focus on varying the sentences and being personable with your language. This will keep boredom at bay.

Practice Storytelling

Acumen Fund’s bio page—loving the quotes. Very personable.

Your bio page is a great time to practice your nonprofit storytelling.

In the nonprofit world, literally every time you answer the question “So what do you do?” you’re given a chance to tell a story about what you do and why your work matters. Your answer is fundraising 101, and it should be fun!

For example, if your bio mentions a specific field like journalism or environmental work, make it part of your story! In other words, don’t just drop it for no reason.

Unless there’s some specific reason your school affiliation would resonate with or legitimize you with potential donors or constituents, I wouldn’t even mention it. Most of your website visitors wouldn’t trade the time of day for information about your alma mater. You may have that sense of school pride, but it’s not the same for others who take pride in their own educational path.

More story tips: Ask yourself, why are you involved in this work? What about your life experiences makes it matter so much to you? Don’t just say “because my cause is important”—that’s lazy. Say why it’s important to you individually. It’s likely your motivations are similar to potential donors’ own motivations, so it’s a great chance to connect on a deeper level and build stronger relationships with them.

Provide a Way to Contact You

Sarah Durham, one of our favorite nonprofit thought leaders. So many good things about this bio page, but note—you can reach out to her on Twitter! Hurrah!

Above all, make sure there’s a way to contact each staff member.

This can be a phone number, email, or even your Twitter handle or LinkedIn profile. Just make sure there’s a way that folks can reach out to you and connect. You’re in the relationship business, after all—connection is what it’s all about.

In conclusion, remember people give to people. People connect with people. When it comes to compelling staff bios, you want your words to make that connection for you. You want donors and website visitors to really get to know you.

Always make your communications more personal, more genuine and more human, and you’ll never go wrong.

*Originally published in 2013

The post 7 Steps to Compelling Staff Bios on Your Nonprofit Website [Updated] appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

1.

First, define your biggest goal.

Obviously, your goals are about donations in some form or another. But which of these metrics is most important to improve at your organization?

• Number of donors
• Average gift amount
• Number of NEW donors
• Donor Lifetime Value (how much money gets donated by an individual throughout their relationship with your organization)
• Cost Per Donor Acquisition (how much a donor costs you to gain in employee hours, marketing, etc.)

Once you have identified a key metric as a team, you can start to measure improvement.

Now when you make changes, you’ll be able to see if you improved. If you make a change and you increase your average gift amount, great! Keep it!

If you make a change and the cost per donor increases, scrap the change!

If the change is minor, measure it over a month or two to make sure your first result isn’t a fluke.

Then you can see whether your changes affect your most important metric.

But that leaves the question: What should you change? How can you determine what parts of your online fundraising are effective at getting more donors?

Glad you asked…

2.

To figure out how to make changes that improve your key metric, you need to analyze your donor journey through your website.

We need to figure out what happens before donations to figure out how to increase them.

It’s unlikely that donors arrived at your donor page by typing the exact URL into their browser window. How did they get to your donor page in the first place?

Here are some questions you should use analytics to answer:

• Where did the donor first arrive on your website? What was their “landing page?”
• Where did they go after that? Directly to the page? Somewhere else?
• Do a lot of visitors who end up donors land on a certain kind of page?
• What keywords did donors search to find your website?
• What landing pages do visitors land on and leave instead of finding your donor page?

Analytics can provide answer these questions.

Once you know these answers, you can begin to get a picture of what attracts your visitors.

If a certain page gathers a lot of traffic and many of those visitors end up donating, note what makes that page different from your pages that are less effective, then go change them. In the next few weeks, do those new changes improve your results?

If yes–hurrah! You’ve improved your key metric and are closer to your goals!

If no, don’t worry. That’s ok!

Knowing what DOESN’T improve your results makes you one step closer to figuring out what DOES. Instead of guessing, you now know what doesn’t work.

So if no–hurrah! You’re only a few tests away from improvements.

3.

Once you’ve analyzed what happens before your donors get to your donor page, you’re ready to look at how donors engage during the donation process.

Questions to ask:

• What’s my abandonment rate (do donors start to donate and then leave)?
• What’s my conversion rate (how many visitors donate once they’re on my page)?
• If a donor abandons the donation process, how far did they get? What made them quit?
• What information do I really need to gather from donors?
• How can I make it as simple and easy as possible for my donor to donate?

It may be hard to believe, but it’s not usually lack of interest that makes donors abandon your donation page.

Usually, it’s because the donation process is inconvenient.

The more forms your donor has to fill out to make a donation, the more likely she is to say “maybe later” or “never mind” and leave your page.

And there’s no guarantee she’ll ever come back.

Test and figure out how well your donor page succeeds at converting visitors into donors. Make it as easy as possible for your donors to donate.

4.

You’ve set a goal, analyzed out your donors’ journey through the website, and improved the donation process to reduce abandonment. Well done!

But your donor doesn’t disappear into the ether after you’ve received his donation.

You’ve created a relationship with your donor. What happens after they’ve donated online?

The average nonprofit loses 70% of their first time donors. That’s a huge attrition rate – and directly affects your key metrics!

Here’s some questions for AFTER your donor gives you money online:

• What’s the next step for this donor?
• How can I continue to nurture and steward this relationship?
• What’s the Lifetime Value of my donors? How can I increase it?
• Does this donor have characteristics that make them an ideal candidate to nurture into a long-term donor?
• What’s my donor retention plan?

For-profit companies understand that the people who have already purchased services from their company are the most likely to purchase something in the future.

Read that last sentence again. It’s important, and often neglected.

The most difficult part of any transactional relationship is getting the first transaction: getting noticed and then building the trust required to get a commitment from the prospect.

Why would it be any different for your nonprofit?

While you can attempt to track your donor relationships in something as simple as an Excel spreadsheet, if you want to do it well long-term, you’ll need a donor database (also known as a CRM).

Bloomerang is an example of a nonprofit CRM tool. With a database, you’ll be able to easily determine your donors’ lifetime value and keep your first-time donors much longer.

Your donors are in a relationship with you. Respect that relationship.

Work to grow the relationships you’ve worked so hard to create.

In time, you’ll be able to raise more donors online–and in turn, raise money to better help the people you’ve pledged to serve.

The post Improving Online Fundraising: 4 Steps to Use Analytics to Raise More Money appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

When it comes to nonprofits working with businesses, I always think of the Joker’s iconic line:

“You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.”

Here’s to hoping you don’t have to bust out the “watch-this-pencil-disappear trick” at your first business partnership meeting. 

To most of us in the nonprofit sector, businesses and nonprofits seem a world apart.

We understand executive directors, fund management and event planning—but don’t talk to us about minimum viable products and CTOs.

Which makes it difficult to approach businesses to partner with them. We feel like we’re aliens in a strange land.

And even if we knew HOW to contact businesses, would we know what to do if someone was interested? Um, sponsorships maybe?

But have no fear. In his book Fundraising with Businesses, expert Joe Waters shows that every massive campaign is built on solid fundamentals: Approach a business, offer them an incentive and give them a detailed plan of action.

In other words, don’t just chase cars. Learn what to do if you catch one.

Going from Win-Lose to Win-Win

So what would you offer a potential business partner? Most of us usually jump one of three directions:

1. Cash donations – A donation from the company to you. If cause marketing were Christmas, this is the generic gift card.
2. Sponsorships – Money for you to put their brand’s name and logo in front of people. Anyone who’s tried to get a fundraising event off the ground has had to wrangle sponsorships.
3. In-Kind Donations – While these CAN be amazing, they can also be cringeworthy. Too much like the gift from Aunt Lawna that wasn’t on your list and doesn’t come with a receipt.

The common theme of all of the options above?

Joe Waters doesn’t doesn’t think you should focus on them much. He doesn’t.

But why not?

Each of the methods above are great in the right context—but they leave so much potential on the table.

While it’s comfortable and easy to accept a simple cash donation, it’s usually one of the LOWEST returns on a business partnership you can get.

If instead that company invested money in a campaign to promote your nonprofit and their company at the same time, you can see much greater rewards.

In other words, why go with a small victory for you—when you could have a massive victory for both you and the business you’re partnering with?

(And which option do you think will get the business eager to partner with you in the future?)

Business partnerships don’t have to be charity—they can be win-win.

As an organization doing amazing things, you have something valuable:

You’re selling the benefits of being associated with your cause and what you’re doing.

You’re selling meaning.

And when you’re working with a partner, you give their work more meaning (and attract more customer attention) than if they worked alone.

The Secret of Business and Nonprofit Success

Reading Waters’ latest book, I was surprised.

While I thought creating business partnerships was difficult, it turns out the hardest part is just finding a proven model that you know will work.

Because once you have a proven model, convincing businesses to join you is just a matter of making it incredibly easy for them to say yes—going local, getting in their heads, doing the work for them—instead of being a question of whether it will benefit their bottom line.

Most of us avoid diving into cross-sector partnerships just because we don’t know where to start, or what we should try.

And if we already have a potential parter, we don’t want to waste our limited time and money testing novel approaches… and maybe screw up a valuable relationship.

Waters summarizes the pressure he felt in his own fundraising gigs:

“None of my bosses had the time or patience for testing concepts or trying new things just to try them.”

Sound familiar?

The 40 Proven Strategies for Business and Nonprofit Partnerships

You can learn a lot from Joe’s book about how to get (and maximize) nonprofit partnerships.

Here’s a few powerful things I discovered:

• How simple Point-of-Sale methods can raise $300,000 for a nonprofit in a single month—with only 10 participating locations.
• Persuasive statistic on why nonprofit partnerships matter to business partners’ target markets (e.g., 90% of American consumers want to know about what causes companies are supporting).
• The three Types of Decision Makers who determine whether you get a partnership: Thinkers, Feelers and Deferrers (and how to appeal to each).

In other words, the book is packed with technical strategies on how to get more from your existing relationships.

To be totally transparent, it’s true these strategies work best from an existing position of strength. The methods will be most effective with a previous business partner or a strong potential partner connection already in mind.

That said, if you take the advice on how to incentivize businesses to collaborate with you, you can easily combine that with a few meetings with potential partners and a detailed plan for implementation and how it benefits them and forge that partnership.

It will just take creativity and dedication—and then, once that’s in place, you’ll have Joe’s resources at your command, which combined with your hard work will (practically) guarantee success with a new partner.

A Vision for Small and Medium Sized Nonprofits

At the end of the day, even the smallest nonprofit—with no existing business connections or cause marketing relationships—can use this book.

Imagine your next partnership pitch:

“We have this testimonial from working with Y company that’s just like you, and here’s our plan and the expected raise in revenue, based on what we’ve seen in the past.”

Wouldn’t that be awesome? Wouldn’t that open doors?

At the end of the day, fundraising with businesses is tough. It definitely takes more work than accepting a token donation.

But even the smallest nonprofit can learn to raise more money and foster valuable long-term business partnerships—as long as you have a proven game plan.

Interested in learning more? Check out Joe Waters’ book Fundraising with Businesses.

Note: A review copy was provided by the publisher. Nonprofit Hub isn’t an affiliate nor benefits in any way from promoting Joe’s book. It’s just a good’un!

Image source: MoviePilot

The post 40 Reasons Nonprofits Have More to Offer Businesses Than We Think appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Don’t believe me? Let’s apply nonprofit-logic to some day-to-day life choices:

1. Don’t go to college if it’s not 100% covered by scholarships! That’s costly overhead! Where are the short term rewards? Especially with that liberal arts degree…

…Despite the fact that you could gain valuable experience, confidence and the connections that make getting jobs and work experience much easier—and there’s a boat of evidence a college degree is correlated with an increase in your total lifetime earnings. Some risk, of course – but a good investment for many.

Here’s another…

2. Don’t buy that expensive camera you’ve been eyeing! You don’t have that kind of money. You’ll have to put it on the card. You’ll never pay it down.

…Even if you can use that camera to start an awesome photography business on the side and through that create a permanent, life-long supplemental income (which will pay off for your camera costs within six months). Hmm.

One more:

3. Stop taking full 60 minute lunch breaks at work! Your coworkers might think you’re a slacker. Your boss definitely will. Don’t you care about the mission?

…Even though there’s plenty of research indicating that taking more breaks increases your energy and productivity at work, so you can get MORE work done, not less.

In all of the above cases, what looks like a risky, costly endeavor often turns out to be a pretty conservative, big-reward investment when viewed over the long haul. While none of these are easy shortcuts (e.g., getting a college degree is hard work!), each are predictable good investments in yourself if you are smart about them.

In other words, sometimes the best thing you can do is invest in yourself.

Do we practice the same philosophy in our nonprofits?

Investing in Your Nonprofit (and Your People)

Your nonprofit exists to help the world. You want every possible dollar you get to help fulfill your mission.

I get that. But sometimes the best way to change the world is to invest in making our organizations work better, faster and smarter.

Investing in your organization means getting more money over the long term, at an initial cost. For example – it might cost a nonprofit $50,000 to hire a major donor fundraiser. But if that fundraiser brings $500,000 of gifts to your organization over a year, you’ll be able to create a much bigger impact than you could have with your initial investment (about 900% bigger!).

This is the difference I’ve talked about between being a frugal nonprofit or a cheap one. A frugal nonprofit is happy to spend on “overhead” that actually will increase the bottom line in the future and make their work more efficient, instead of avoiding costs for the sake of appearing fiscally prudent.

But how can you identify a good investment vs. an extravagant expense?

Good question!

A great investment improves something that you will use regularly.

A bad one improves one you use rarely.

For instance, if you buy yourself a high-end kitchen appliance that will save you five minutes of work making meals if you’re a restaurant chef, that’s a good investment. As a career chef, you’ll use that appliance every day, multiple times, saving you HUGE amounts of labor and money over time.

But if you’ll only use that same appliance twice a year (max) in your home, it’s an extravagant expense. Better to borrow it from a friend or take the time to do things manually. If frugality matters to you, it’s really not worth the extra cost.

So investing in your nonprofit’s work is really just taking the time to think creatively about how you can make regular, key parts of your organization more efficient.

Adopting an Attitude of Abundance

This year, instead of a gut-reaction of scarcity, I’d love if our sector adopted an attitude of abundance.

The truth is that more often than not, our organizations try to do too much, and spread our limited resources around on too many things, instead of investing extravagantly on the most IMPORTANT parts of our organizations (the parts that actually grow the pie and create more wealth and opportunities from our work).

The best investments for your organization will be different from anyone else’s. There’s no cheat sheet for this.

But there are patterns – and I’d love to give you some ideas to get started investing in your organization to expand your impact.

10 Ideas for Investing in Your Organization Today

1. Invest in Your People

Your biggest asset is your people. If a good thing to spend money on is something you depend upon every day, what’s bigger than the people that make up your organization?

Why does Google spend billions on recruiting and employee benefits? Believe us, it’s not altruism. It’s because having good people (and then making their work fulfilling) is a huge competitive advantage. People are what keep your organization running, every day.

In other words, the employees, board members and volunteers that make up your organization should always be a first priority in your organization when it comes to spending money. Develop a healthy nonprofit culture that invests extravagantly in your own people.

2. Education and Self-Development

Go to an AFP conference or a local nonprofit educational event. Purchase online training for your nonprofit staff. Have an afternoon to train your board in fundraising and outreach. Buy books to create an office library, and set aside reading hours for everyone to learn to do their jobs even better.

3. Reject Martyrdom and Self-Sacrifice

Take long lunch breaks as a team. Work shorter hours, but work more efficiently and smarter. Reject the attitude of self-sacrifice and martyrdom that limits so many of our best nonprofit organizations and burns out our employees and board members.

4. Start a Nonprofit Blog

Starting your nonprofit blog means beginning a journey that will help you enormously long term, but it takes a ton of work to begin and maintain initially, even for the first few months. But after a while, you see the enormous long term benefits, that only GROW over time.

5. Upgrade a Technology You Use Every Day (or Multiple Times a Week)

Don’t work on old computers that break down or can’t run key programs. If you use something every day (or it’s high value like your website), look into doing it right, not JUST cheaply.

6. Get a Great Donor Database

This is perhaps the #1 technological investment that could improve our nonprofit’s day-to-day operations. How many of us use duct-taped excel documents across multiple computers to keep track of our donor relationships? Trust us, a good donor database pays for itself, in reduced headaches and increased donor cultivation. (Need a recommendation? For its simplicity and its focus on donor retention, our sponsor’s partner Bloomerang is hard to beat.)

7. Give Raises and Hire at Market-Rate Salaries (or Above)

Invest in your staff financially.

8. Give More Autonomy

Being more in control of your work often gives more satisfaction than being paid more for it (Daniel Pink wrote a great book on the subject – maybe you should “invest” in purchasing it?). You might not be able to raise salaries, but you can probably give your employees greater autonomy and sense of importance, which can go even further.

9. Increase Your (Smart) Marketing Budget

Unfortunately, when under financial stress, many of us cut back on the programs that we need most, like marketing, direct mail and fundraising. These revenue-producing programs are the most important to invest MORE in when economic times are tough. Of course, invest in the marketing and fundraising that helps develop long term funding – such as adding fundraising staff, building donor relationships and thanking your donors.

10. Stop Investing in Short Term ROI

Starting a new program to try to nab a grant? Throwing three events this year instead of one? Going to build a mobile-exclusive app that will need to be updated throughout the year and doesn’t add any value beyond what your website already does?

Make a resolution to stop doing one thing this year — and instead, invest that time, money or energy where it’s most needed. Hint: It might best serve an EXISTING program that’s effective but needs more money – or just back into your biggest asset, your people.

Thanks for reading! What will your organization invest in this year? What do you only WISH your organization would invest in?

The post 10 Ways to Immediately Invest in Your Nonprofit Organization appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

But this time, instead of a list of this year’s most popular Nonprofit Hub posts, I’d like to share with you 10 of my favorite posts from around the web.

Posts that surprised me, that you might have missed in the hustle. Posts from thinkers who challenge us to have a better 2014.

Here’s the quick list (and estimated reading times):

1. 21 Stupid Things Nonprofit Marketers Should Stop Doing (Slideshow) (~7 min) – Kivi Leroux Miller
2. Go Ahead, Take a Failure Bow (~5 min) – Beth Kanter
3. A Nonprofit Marketing Fail: “Our Org Needs Your Input!” (~2 min) – Nancy Schwartz
4. Why Asking for Advice = Great Fundraising (~4 min) – Marc A. Pitman
5. 7 Proven Ways to Grow Your Email List Using Facebook (Slideshow) (~15 min) – John Haydon
6. Which is Better: Major Gifts… or More Gifts? You May Be Surprised (~6 min) – Tom Ahern
7. 7 Ways to Make Your Storytelling Shine (~2 min) – Lori Jacobwith
8. What Social Media Metrics Actually Matter for Your Nonprofit? (~4 min) – Steven Shattuck
9. Ruthlessly Practical Advice for Asking for Major Gifts (~6 min) – Gail Perry
10. 15 Techniques to Boost Your Donor Acquisition and Online Fundraising (~11 min) – Frank Barry

I hope you enjoy – and are stretched by – these awesome resources.

Feel free to jump to any of the articles above, or read more below for a quick synopsis of each link and a few extra tidbits for any superstar readers.

How Nonprofit Marketers Sabotage Themselves Every Day

This amazing slideshow brings together the big marketing mistakes I see so many professionals (nonprofit or otherwise) making every day in their organizations. This counterintuitive digest will get you to question the common wisdom that passes as marketing best practices. Once you’ve perused the slideshow, make sure to check out Kivi Leroux Miller’s free 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, too.

21 Stupid Things Nonprofit Marketers Should Stop Doing (Slideshow) (~7 min) – Kivi Leroux Miller

Fail, Loudly. Then, Share It.

Too many of us are afraid of failing. We don’t want to be seen as untrustworthy, vulnerable or uncertain. So we hide our failures – and then end up risking less and less, and our mission stagnates. Instead, Beth Kanter suggests we need to take a long failure bow when our little bets don’t work out. The whole sector benefits when we’re brave enough to share our mistakes. For more advice from Beth on continuously improving your nonprofit, also check out her Q&A with startup legend Eric Ries.

Go Ahead, Take a Failure Bow (~5 min) – Beth Kanter

The Request That Seems Reasonable to You, But Is Actually A Huge Faux Pas

Want to ask donors what you should focus on next? What they want to hear more of from you? For vital information for your latest effort? Nancy Schwartz has some news for you: too bad. It’s not about you. Stop being selfish. You’ve got to make your efforts and requests about your donors, not about you. Another great article from Nancy has a similar message: always honor your promise to your newsletter/email list by making every message a privilege to receive.

A Nonprofit Marketing Fail: “Our Org Needs Your Input!” (~2 min) – Nancy Schwartz

Tired of Asking for Money and Getting Shot Down? Try This Instead

Great nonprofit work means learning to care more about your audience than you do about yourself. It’s kind of a paradox that it’s only once you focus on what THEY want that donors start to care about YOU. Read the article below by Marc A. Pitman to learn how to best ask for advice, then check out these other two standout articles – on why fundraisers shouldn’t talk about overhead ratios and how sometimes a shoe shine guy can drum up 6-figures in donations.

Why Asking for Advice is the Best Fundraising (~4 min) – Marc A. Pitman

Make Use of Those Facebook Fans. Get Them on Your Email List

Social media’s awesome. But the point of social media isn’t just getting more followers, tweets or whatever other cute branded metric is specific to that medium. John Haydon wants you to know it’s about deepening the relationships between you and your constituents, and email is one of the best ways to get really close. Want to take things to the next level? John’s recommendations: ask new donors why they gave, and craft kick-butt blog headlines that demand attention.

7 Proven Ways to Grow Your Email List Using Facebook (Slideshow) (~15 min) – John Haydon

Why Perpetually Chasing the Rich Leads to Broke Nonprofits

It won’t happen overnight, but want one inevitable way keep your nonprofit from achieving lasting impact? Chase short term profit relentlessly. Tom Ahern points out one of the favorite methods for this kind of short-term thinking is to relentlessly focus on the wealthy and then end up neglecting to build a healthy donor base. At the end of the day, please don’t treat your donor like a cash cow. Instead, show them some “unbridled, passionate, hot, steamy donor love”.

Which is Better: Major Gifts… or More Gifts? You May Be Surprised (~6 min) – Tom Ahern

Let’s Face It: Your Storytelling Could Be Better. Here’s How.

Telling a story isn’t about the facts, the details and the minutiae. It’s about getting us to feel something. Lori L. Jacobwith shares how to put the pieces of your storytelling together in a way that gets people eager to hear more – even if you only have 6 words. The only way to help your donors feel like superheroes through telling them compelling stories.

7 Ways to Make Your Storytelling Shine (~2 min) – Lori Jacobwith

Here’s What ACTUALLY Matters When It Comes to Tracking Your Social Media

Here’s an unfortunate human propensity: if we can put a number to something, we’ll get obsessed with making that number increase (whether or not it means anything significant). Steven Shattuck speaks some sense into the issue of social media metrics: don’t focus on what doesn’t help you long term. It’s all about the conversions, whether we’re talking about your social media, optimizing your nonprofit blog or improving your website.

What Social Media Metrics Actually Matter for Your Nonprofit? (~4 min) – Steven Shattuck

The Answers to All the Major Gift Fundraising Questions You Were Afraid to Ask

More than anything, what separates successful nonprofit professionals from those that are just trying to fit in is an attitude. Of curiosity, pushing the envelope and just trying to have fun. Gail Perry embodies all of these traits, and is ruthless about calling your excuses and getting you to just CARE more. Check out the article below on engaging major donors – and if you’re eager to take it up a notch, learn how to engage online donors this coming year.

Ruthlessly Practical Advice for Asking for Major Gifts (~6 min) – Gail Perry

In 11 Minutes, You’ll Know Everything You Need to Get More Donors Online

If anyone ever told you it was easy to get donors online, this is your opportunity to laugh in their faces. Building an online presence that works for you can take years of work, but it’s one of the biggest wins for your organization. Thankfully, Frank Barry is one of the folks making the complexities of online fundraising simpler. Read below for an amazing breakdown of what it takes to succeed online – and then check out the Next Generation of American Giving infographic on his stomping grounds over at npENGAGE.

15 Techniques to Boost Your Donor Acquisition and Online Fundraising (~11 min) – Frank Barry

Thanks to all these nonprofit luminaries for their great work this year – and here’s to your next!

The post 10 Brain-Tickling Nonprofit Articles (and Thinkers) You Might’ve Missed This Year appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

But more importantly, this resolution starts with YOU, enthusiastic nonprofit professional. The great news is you don’t need the board’s approval to get started.

So in the coming weeks, make sure to gather around the dinner table. Open gifts. Watch movies. Overeat without shame.

Sing cheesy songs. Drink hot cocoa. Make sure the kids put their discarded gift wrap in the trash bag that you pass around.

Let’s first make the holiday and the post-holiday slump an amazing, beautiful time of reflection. Just getting away from it all, looking back and appreciating the ways you’ve been blessed.

But then, look forward at a new year and figuring out how to make the most of those gifts – and how to use them to bless others.

Your resolution?

Your New Year’s Resolution: Pick Something to Stop Doing

That’s right: your resolution isn’t to add more to your plate, your to-do list or your already-overstuffed agenda.

Cross off a pointless meeting. Stop stressing about a grant. Do one less event.

Pick one thing to stop doing.

The secret is that doing one thing less isn’t a decision to compromise. Instead, it’s a deliberate choice to push yourself FURTHER… by focusing on what truly matters.

The Nonprofit Lie: “We Need More Time/More Money/More People!”

When I visit a website like Nonprofit Hub, my first reaction is thrilled excitement.

“Yes! The formula to success! If I follow these instructions, I can raise more money, be less stressed and make the world a better place! I just have to do all the things!”

But this joy is quickly trailed by a sense of dread. Article after article is a rebuke. I’m not doing enough. My email subject lines aren’t performing well. Our team cohesion isn’t great. The board is uninspired.

Here’s the lie we tell ourselves:

“If only we had more money! More resources. More people volunteering. THEN we’d be able to do it all.”

Of course, once you believe that, you’ll never stop believing it. Trust me, you’re not alone: we all think that we need more time, more money or resources (and not just in our professional lives).

But really, we don’t need more time. Everyone has the same amount of hours in the day.

What we really need is to do LESS, so we can absolutely knock out the few truly important things, with relish and energy, every day.

Once you focus on the most important things for your nonprofit (and your specific job there), you’ll magically find you DO have enough time.

Just not enough to throw that extra event (run the numbers – it won’t make much money anyway).

Focus On the HUGE Wins—and Toss Out the Mindless Checklist

When I talk to fundraisers, the mantra is always the same: there’s too much to do. Especially when it comes to those frivolous luxuries Marc loves talking about, like starting a nonprofit blog, investing in nonprofit marketing or taking time to thank your donors incessantly.

And the grumpy fundraisers are right! If you do an amazing job at just those three things listed above, you will definitely have less time for all your other ideas.

You’ll have to sacrifice some of those events. Or cut those last-minute, big-idea distractions that waste your time. Skip the hours spent in throwaway meetings.

But magically, you’ll find out that most of those things didn’t need to happen in the first place.

• Because if you thank your donors with gusto every day… they’ll stick around and you’ll have to fundraise less.
• And if you create an amazing nonprofit blog… you’ll find thousands of new potential donors, volunteers and board members appear at your website’s doorstep every month.
• And if you sit down for that scary major donor visit you’ve been putting off and really connect… you’ll raise enough you won’t need to cross your fingers on that costly, risky event.

The Power of Saying No to the Right Things

Nonprofits don’t starve. They drown.

We don’t need more resources (though of course, that’d be nice) – we need to learn to focus on the huge victories instead.

Then, when we do get more resources, we will already be used to using that money responsibly to grow and change the world even faster.

This holiday season and beyond, let’s resolve to find one thing to stop doing.

And then, with that time-and-energy suck put behind us, we can focus on what really matters.

Loving our donors and making a positive dent in the universe.

Doing remarkable work that matters.

Sound good to you too?

The New Year’s resolution to change your nonprofit: pick one thing to stop doing.

Because sometimes accomplishing more starts with doing less.

What’s your resolution – your one thing to STOP doing this year? What REALLY matters and would be a huge win for your organization this coming quarter? Share in the comments below – and I wish you happy holidays!

The post This New Year’s Resolution Will Change Your Nonprofit appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

We can’t afford to wait any longer—and today, more than ever, a blog is simply one of the best investments your organization can make.

Donors give us gifts. It’s time to give one back. And blogging is the ultimate selfish gift—it benefits us as much as our readers.

But don’t take my word for it. Read on.

How Nonprofit Blogging Can Help You Make a Huge Impact, Today

Let’s say your nonprofit builds wells in Africa.

Your hope: that your small but substantial part in your organization translates into a big impact in the world, right?

To get more specific, your goal as an individual is probably either A) raising more money for your nonprofit, or B) developing awesome programs.

But after that, there are so many hoops to jump through to create real change. We do awesome work, but making change is hard when you’re so disconnected.

Think about it. After you create a program or raise money, you’ve got to consider all the other factors:

• Figuring out distribution: Take your program to the next level via outreach and connection. Get the thing you made to the other side of the globe, or at least outside of your immediate community.
• Once you’ve connected with a potential community, you hope that your aid will get to the people who need it most. The rural communities with unsafe water. Who need education on sanitary drinking practices. Those who are impoverished.
• You hope that those folks will accept your aid as a gift, not an intrusion.
• You hope you’ll avoid disrupting the positive forces in the local economy.
• You hope that the aid won’t be intercepted (and squandered) by local governments without the capacity or motivation to distribute the aid properly.
• That your wells won’t fall into disrepair after a year with no one who has the expertise nearby to fix them.

And that’s just a start! Whew. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. Nonprofit work is hard.

There’s a ton of risk. But the biggest frustration is a sense of being disconnected from the people we serve. Not knowing what or who is being affected and in what way. Just look at all those roadblocks!

But what if you could instantly connect? What if there was a way you could make a difference immediately? A difference that grows and affects more and more people over time, all while helping the bottom line, today?

You could start a blog.

Make This the Year of the Blog

Like great thank-you notes for your donors, a good blog is a gift that leaves the giver better than when they started.

Blogging is a gift. It’s free. Anyone can stop by and read.

That’s probably why you aren’t doing it. “Where’s the ROI??” some ask, quite reasonably.

But blogging is the ultimate selfish gift. It’s as big a gift for YOU as it is for your donors.

Think of it this way: you already have a captive audience of hundreds, thousands or (if you’re lucky) tens of thousands of donors who have indicated interest in your organization.

All donors divide into these three kinds of donors:

Donor #1: The True Believer

“So. Friggin. Excited! I LOVE GALAS!”

Who They Are: Of your donors, a certain percentage just gets it. They are the True Believers: your tribe, passionate people who volunteeer, donate regularly, tell their friends about you and read books and watch documentaries relevant to the cause. They already drink your delicious, life-giving Kool-Aid.

Why Blogging for Them Makes Life Awesome for You: These folks will read everything you write. The gift of blogging means so much to them. And it’s a kind of insurance for you: trade a few hours for the ability to retain the LIFEBLOOD of your organization. These people tell all their friends about you, creating more of all three levels of donors we’re talking about, multiplying your impact and funding. And the True Believers will share all your blog posts on social media with their whole network. Slam dunk!

Donor #2: The Casual Fan

“Yeah, bro — just donated to a sick cause. Totes massive impact.”

Who They Are: The Casual Fans are the donors who make once-a-year, irregular donations or are casual fans of you. They might give when you ask, and your cause is something they are happy to chat about at a cocktail party, but isn’t a cornerstone of their identity—even if giving to you makes them happy.

Why Blogging for Them Makes Life Awesome for You: Your blog is a gift to the Casual Fans because they’ll have a better understanding of why they are awesome for giving to you, and a better supply of party anecdotes for when your cause comes up. They’ll love you and the blog for both of these reasons. But more importantly, you will slowly and deviously convert them into cause-loving, Kool-Aid drinking True Believers, which is FANTASTIC because Casual Fans are the biggest source of unnecessary donor attrition. In other words, your blog keeps them from bleeding away from your cause, and transforms them into super donors. Booyah!

Donor #3: Reluctant Tagalongs

“Who are you again? I gave to WHAT-now?”

Who They Are: The Reluctant Tagalong is a one-time donor who couldn’t tell you from any other random nonprofit off the street. They don’t care about or understand your cause. Reluctant Tagalongs don’t remember why they gave; most likely a friend guilted them into it because they owed him one.

(P.S. It’s safe to assume that EVERYONE who visits your website for the first time starts out as a Reluctant Tagalong. They won’t click on your Donate Now button – in fact, they are waiting to click the Back button on their browser, because they have no reason to care about you. Why would they? Unless, of course, you have a great, moving and complelling blog. Hmm… about that…)

Why Blogging for Them Makes Life Awesome for You: When Reluctant Tagalongs get their first email from you about your latest blog post, they’ll say, “What the heck is this and why am I getting emails about it?” because they’ll have forgotten they donated to you. Then they might read a few lines of your interesting, moving and often entertaining blog, smile and click to another page on your website. And next time, they’ll definitely open your next email, maybe even if it’s an appeal. Congratulations! You just earned a new Casual Fan! And the folks who didn’t open your email or read the post at all weren’t going to be interested in you ever anyway, so when you think about it, there’s no downside! Heck yes!

It’s starting to look like you’d be crazy NOT to blog!

Of course, this all only works if you…

Make Sure Your New Blog Isn’t Terrible

Acumen’s blog is totally un-terrible and engaging. How about yours? (Click image to view)

The most important thing is that your shiny new nonprofit blog actually has to be a gift.

(If I could underline that last sentence three times, make it size 43 font and flashing red color, I totally would—except for it would look 100% like an infomercial.)

You can’t phone it in. A blog is not just your “inbound marketing strategy.” It’s not “content.” It’s a precious gift from you to your donors and anyone else who wonders onto your website.

It’s an invitation to be part of something that’s exciting, important and not for everyone. Just for those special enough to get on board.

Thankfully, making sure your blog isn’t terrible and IS a gift doesn’t take a genius. It just takes a little time and effort. Here are seven steps to a blog that isn’t terrible:

1. Make it About Them: Don’t talk about yourself. Use the word “You,” and mercilessly delete the word “We.” It’s a gift for THEM. Talk about THEM. Your donors and supporters are amazing! Tell them!
2. Kill Your Jargon: Don’t use any words a normal person wouldn’t use. Kill nonprofit-speak. Don’t talk about game changing innovative programs and disruption and blah blah blah. Talk about real people. Pretend you’re at a coffee shop with a friend. Read it out loud. Does it sound human? That’s what makes a blog sparkle.
3. Tell Stories: The fastest way to be interesting, emotional and compelling is to tell real stories about real people. You don’t have to use names or disclose personal details: you can create composite people and still tell a real story. But show us and tell us a story, because abstraction is boring!
4. Use Pictures: Pictures (and video if you can) are amazing at engaging people. There’s something about putting a face to a name and a story that just lights humans up and makes us more generous. Not stock photos. Real photos.
5. Entertain: The biggest crime of a blog is boring the reader. Be fun!
6. Call Them to Action: Don’t waste the opportunity to deepen your relationship. Ask them to join your email list (with a link to where they can)! Tell them they can go to a free event in their area! Let them know why volunteering for you is super fun, and what kind of folks you need! Ask them to share a story in the comments! Get them involved!
7. Post Regularly: And by “regularly,” I mean 3-4 times a month, once a week. You’re busy. But once a week shows that you are active, involved and doing exciting work. And you’re posting not so frequently that you run out of interesting things to say.

Donors Give Us Gifts. It’s Time to Give One Back

The unselfish gift, the generous effort — it actually ends up being the best thing for us, the givers.

Selfishly, we benefit most from giving back. From practicing generosity. From learning how to talk about our cause simply, compellingly and often.

We benefit from having a group of connected followers. From the joy and sense of accomplishment and encouragement that comes when you see a small following of True Believers come and talk about something they care about—you.

We benefit the ability to test our talking points with a low-pressure audience.

And when you care for and tender and cultivate a garden, don’t be surprised that it might, one day, grow fruit. More donations. More traffic. More fans.

The blog, the gift for your donors, becomes a sign to the outside world. You’re all-in. You can be trusted.

You are real and here and have something important to say.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this:

Donors give us gifts. It’s time to give one back.

Make 2014 the year you start a remarkable blog.

Thanks for reading this blog post! I bet your donors want to read one too, but by YOU. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

The post Nonprofits, 2014 is the Year of the Blog. Here’s Why You Can’t Afford to Wait Any Longer appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.