Free Online Fundraising Guide for You

My friends at Network for Good have done it again.  They've put together this FREE guide to help you improve your online fundraising results in 2010.  You can register to download it for FREE!

The Online Fundraiser's Checklist focuses on the 4 core elements of online fundraising success:

1. A clear, compelling website
2. A clear and easy to find donation form
3. A permission-based email list
4. Great content (this includes great content for your emails and for your thank yous)

I hope you'll check it out!

Cheers!
Jocelyn

P.S.  My company - Care2 - specializes in helping nonprofits acquire new online subscribers so that they can convert them into activists, members and donors.  Looking to build your email list in 2010?  Contact me at jocelynh (at) care2team (dot) com.

Get Ready to Rummage

 
Here is my January column for Fundraising Success.

I hope you'll read it in it's entirety and get ready to rummage!

We're calling a new rector for my church. This entails creating a detailed profile of our institution, assessing our ministries, analyzing our finances, and praying and reflecting on our next "calling." It also entails letting some ministries go.

It's like a big rummage sale. We're giving away some programs (on the cheap!) because they no longer work. At the same time, old dreams, long forgotten, have reappeared at the bottom of the rubbish pile.

The hardest part about holding a rummage sale is that it challenges us to change — to realize that we can't do it all and must make tough decisions about what to give away going forward.  Here are my six suggestions for stepping up your marketing game in 2010. All of these require you first to let go, so you can make space for new miracles to take place. Good luck, and get ready to rummage.

Read on...

Cheers!
Jocelyn

Be Creative.

This is a BEAUTIFUL example of creativity at work in promoting a nonprofit - in this case the AARP.  What are you doing to tell your story in a unique, empowering, memorable and creative way?

Jocelyn

P.S. I found this video by reading Allison Fine's blog.

New Fundraising Contest for You

 Conduit, a for-profit that creates community toolbars (see example above for the Staley Foundation) to help businesses distribute their content across multiple sites, is inviting nonprofits of all stripes and sizes to apply for "Conduit Gives," a new program to help charitable organizations ignite their fundraising campaigns.

Conduit Gives enables nonprofits to create a custom toolbar to share their best news items, alerts, etc. with their donors, members, volunteers and advocates.  Every time a user clicks on the button - Click to Give - Conduit will make a donation to the nonprofit.  Users may click up to once a day, every day in 2010.

Up to 100 nonprofits will be selected for the chance to earn over $300,000 a month for a total of $3,5 million in 2010 via a conduit toolbar! Conduit will also help you brainstorm ways to market your conduit.

What have you got to lose?  Apply today!  Contest ends January 31, 2010.

Jocelyn

P.S.  Toolbars or widgets, like Conduit, that make your web content portable and allow you to engage in "distributed marketing" have become very popular in recent years.  By taking your content to your prospective and current audience members vs. waiting for them to come to you, you will garner more visibility (and donations) for your organization.

Register Today for Free Nonprofit 911 Teleconference With Me

Year-end fundraising is FINALLY over; I hope you achieved your revenue and outreach goals for 2009.

Now it's time to focus on building your base of support for 2010.  But wait, not so fast!  First, it's important to STOP and create a plan for thanking your current donors.  We can help!

Join Katya Andresen of Network for Good and me next Tuesday, January 12 at 1pm EST for Thanks a Million: How to Thank Your Donors so They'll Come Back and Give More.  It's a FREE teleconference.

What you'll learn:

• What (and how often) to say to donors to keep them interested in your work - and their impact on it - as you enter the new year.
• How to make your follow-up personal.
• What vehicles are most appropriate to say thank you.
• The four must-have pieces of text for follow-up.

Can't attend?  Register today to receive a free MP3 audio and text transcript.

Cheers!
Jocelyn