Your donor’s gift may arrive at an event, on the phone, over lunch, or online, but there’s a lot of strategic planning behind “The Ask”. Social media is most likely part of that strategy—especially mainstream staples such as Facebook and Twitter. But what about LinkedIn? Most of your donors—as well as volunteers, employees and prospective hires—are already there. Does your nonprofit have an effective LinkedIn presence? LinkedIn can be one of the most effective channels to drive engagement with your organization. Keeping your fundraising pump primed means more that than having a LinkedIn company page. An integrated LinkedIn strategy includes your company page, professionally branded profiles for your staff, the consistent creation of original blog content, and content sharing by public facing staff members. Individual Profiles Your organization has multiple employees who have public and often, donor facing roles. Each one of them should have a well-crafted LinkedIn profile. Their profile should consist of a professional picture, a headline that is skill-based, a profile URL that has been customized for sharing, a summary section that thoroughly communicates their background and passion, and a current experience section that describes their role inside your organization. Why is all this necessary? Employees should…

Over at DonorDrive, we’ve done a deep dive into our fundraising data and have come up with some stunning numbers about the swift adoption of giving by smartphone in peer-to-peer fundraising. Before we present the stats, let’s put mobile fundraising growth into perspective: Online sales grew 28% between 2012 and 2015 according to Forrester. Mobile sales grew 327%. Mobile giving grew 942%. So, for every mobile dollar given through DonorDrive in 2012, $10.42 is being given this year. And this trend promises to grow even more dramatically: In 2012 20% of first visits to DonorDrive fundraising pages were by smartphone. Today 60% of first-time visits are by smartphone. Not only have mobile visits increased dramatically, but we’re at the point where most of your future supporters arrive at your fundraising pages by smartphone. Mobile is how they’re meeting you. Organizations with fundraising pages that aren’t mobile friendly are obviously losing dollars. Research from Copter Labs shows that 1 in 4 mobile visitors leave a site that’s not mobile friendly, while only 1 in 11 will leave a mobile-optimized site.  These numbers hold true for fundraising pages too: When DonorDrive adopted responsive design two years ago our nonprofit clients saw a 21%…

Like most nonprofit professionals, you probably can’t remember a time when events—especially fundraising events—were not a mainstay of development programs. Yet surprisingly, this ritual still leaves many directors unable to answer a fundamental question: How much does it actually cost to raise a dollar at every event? The answer might surprise you (generally, it takes about 50 cents to raise $1-$1.50). Some nonprofit consultants such as Neil Edgington advocate ditching events. Or, at least, scaling back to just one, as Gail Perry suggests. Events, however, serve dual purposes—not only do they raise money but they raise awareness of your mission—thus cultivating new stakeholders. Instead of ditching events, let’s make them better. Don’t let administrative tasks take away from time that could be better spent cultivating donor relationships. Events provide an increasingly rare opportunity to spend time with the people who feel closely connected to your cause and are vital in making programs possible. If you are busy attending to the details, you miss out on the socializing. Use your event time, and that of your staff, to strengthen bonds with attendees through quality time spent together. Many organizations use nonprofit temp staffing for planning & execution day-of so that your…

A few days ago, a colleague who’s in between jobs emailed me. She had viewed my profile on LinkedIn and requested an introduction to one of my connections. We’ve all learned by now that if you are looking for the next career opportunity, a virtual connection can potentially turn into a relationship—or at least a cup of coffee. So how do you get to that next level? Skip the Small Talk As with dating, the search for a perfect career match can be helped by taking a chance on love. Ok, that may seem to be a bit of a stretch, but think about it. What if you start from what you love–your passion? In both work and personal settings, it’s the emotional connections that sustain. So where can you readily find these in the professional world? Nonprofit organizations are where people put their passion to work. Ask a volunteer why they’re involved in the mission of the nonprofit, and you will assuredly get an answer in some form of love story. Meeting other professionals who share your passion for a cause gives you a head start on forming valuable connections. Step one: select a nonprofit that you interests you.…

Fundraising is the lifeblood of nonprofits. And while fundraising as a strategy isn’t new, there is a continuing flow of new (and renewed) tools and ideas being cultivated as our cultural trends shift and as technology advances. Day of Giving With some advance planning, your organization can capitalize on the excitement and free publicity surrounding these days. Lisa Goddard, Online Marketing Director of Capital Area Food Bank of Texas, participated in an area event called Amplify Austin which raised more than $7.7 Million in just 24 hours. Lisa shared advice on how to make programs like hers work in ThirdSectorToday. Leverage Visuals: Images Move People Social Proof: Start building “buzz” in advance and motivate potential donors. Try a video like this one featuring the organization’s president making a contribution. It’s like priming the tip jar! On Point Messaging: Email segmentation—content should be specific to the day. For example, a local Day of Giving should include images and content associated with the community. A/B Testing: Track the performance of your social media posts to see what people actually react to, versus what you think they will react to. Two big Days of Giving to consider are Give Local America and Giving…