Your organization’s mission matters.  You know that.  Your staff knows that.  Your donors know that. So… are you acting like your mission matters?  Do your fundraising activities reflect that knowledge?  Most organizations start-off with their mission front and center in their fundraising activities and appeals… but over time, too many non-profits turn to asking their [...]

Kivi Leroux Miller, author ofThe Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause, advises small nonprofits who are creating quick-and-dirty marketing plans to start by defining their target audience. Here she shares three ways to do that. When nonprofit marketing and fundraising programs fail, organizations too frequently blame the tactics. [...]

I’ve received a great deal of interest lately from novice and experienced fundraisers about what happens after you receive a rejection letter for your proposal. I have never hesitated to tell people that I’ve received plenty of rejection as a grant writer. What this rejection has done is made me a better, more strategic fundraiser [...]

When a friend or loved one gets sick and is facing huge medical bills, the quickest and easiest way to raise money for them is through an online fundraising website. Sites like GiveForward, Fundbunch and GoFundMe allow individuals to create customized pages where friends and family from across the world can contribute to help a [...]

If you think all nonprofit communications have to be serious, think again. Kudos to the San Francisco SPCA for creatively jumping on a hot topic while promoting their mission. Warning: watching this video may cause abrupt laughter, inability to stop singing this song and warm fuzzies.

If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s thinking small.  Far too many people spend their time and energy thinking small.  That’s true in the wider world, and it’s true in fundraising. There are a lot of fundraisers in the world – some professional, some volunteer.  Some work on staff, some consult, some are on [...]

So many nonprofit board members are enthusiastic and well-meaning but too often they back out of their commitments.  Bet you have run into this problem! And I have been on the other side too, as a board member. In the heat of an exciting discussion, I suddenly found myself making personal commitments. Then later, in [...]