How to Maintain Fundraising Success

Burnout is a very real concern in the not-for-profits sector. It’s not just something that befalls staff members and volunteers, either. Donors can also fall victim to fatigue and decrease their interest and engagement with your NFP. To prevent burnout, you need to understand the natural cycles that affect your relationships with your donors and take steps to build your connection with them to keep increasing the results of your fundraising campaigns.

Build a Foundation

Regardless of whether it’s a personal or professional relationship, it takes time to get to know others and establish rapport. In the early days of your nonprofit, your focus should be on creating a donor acquisition plan. During this stage of development, your main goals are to find as many ways as possible to introduce your nonprofit, it’s work, and, yourself, to your community.

Maintain Your Relationships

As interest begins to build in your nonprofit, it’s important that you don’t spread yourself too thin. Recruit board members and others in your organisation to help you with your outreach to your donors. Offer fundraising campaigns that will appeal to a wide range of potential donors. Follow up personally with those key individuals who are most excited and engaged with your work.

As you work on maintaining and strengthening bonds with your community, look for ways to gain insight and feedback from your service beneficiaries, as well as your donors and other supporters. This way you can learn more about the true needs in your community, and what donors want to see from your organisation in terms of programs and services as well as information. Make certain that your programs put beneficiaries first, to ensure that your services are relevant.

Keep the channels of communication open and explain the difference that you are making in human, relatable terms. Doing so will help to build trust and credibility in your community. At this stage, you should be encouraging those who make annual or one-time gifts to consider making recurring gifts and always be encouraging your donors to support your organisation in multiple ways.

Prepare for the Future

As the relationship between your donors and organisation grows and matures, look for ways to show your gratitude to your key donors. In addition to thank you notes and acknowledgements which you should send to all donors at every level, celebrate how much your organisation has already been able to accomplish. Keep in touch with your key donors and keep them informed about the progress you are making. Share and emphasise your nonprofit’s vision for the future.

Ask donors for their insight and input on your future goals and what type of impact they would like to see occur. Use the information that you learn to create proposals that are tailored to the needs of individual donors and ask them to consider making a substantial investment in your work so that together, you can build a better future for your community.  

Survival Tips for NFPs for the 2018-2019 Financial Year

A new fiscal year has just begun for most nonprofits! The following strategies can help your NFP ensure its survival and growth in the coming year!

Know Thy Self

Do you and your board fully understand your core mission, and, does your strategic planning and other decisions consider whether an activity or expenditure is in direct support of it? There is an increasing push for organisations to offer more programs and services, often at the expense of taking the steps that are necessary to strengthen the NFP and position it for sustainable growth. Keeping your eyes “on the prize” by focusing efforts on achieving your core mission will help prevent resource draining mission creep and help you build a strong, resilient nonprofit.

Know Your Audience

Do you know, and understand, the different segments of your audience? Do you know their tastes and preferences, age, education level, occupation and other demographics? The more that you can learn about the key groups that comprise your audience, the easier it is to create content that is relevant to them, increasing your authority in your specific area of expertise, and making you the go-to source for information in your niche. This makes it easier to create meaningful content that will be consumed, enjoyed and shared by your supporters, which increases the reach of your messages and makes it easier to raise funds, reach recruiting targets, and make a genuine, lasting difference in your community.

Develop Your Board and Staff

To make wise decisions, each member of your board needs to be fully engaged with your NFP and its work. Focusing on your core mission can free up funds that can be spent on training and other development projects that increase the knowledge of all your board members, improving their ability to take wise action to advance your cause. It also allows you to invest in your key people, including staff and volunteers, so that they have what they need to perform their tasks well and actively engage with service beneficiaries and other key stakeholders in your community.

Make inclusion, diversity and equality a priority for your organisation and the people that you attract to it. By diversifying the backgrounds and experiences of your supporters, you increase your ability to create relevant services, in addition to useful content, improving your decision-making capability, as well as your performance in other areas, in the long term.

Build Your Brand and Choose Your Channels

Another key focus of thriving nonprofits is that they invest in building and developing their brand. Use the information that you learn about your audience to reach supporters using the means of communication that they prefer. Build a stronger brand image by focusing on your NFPs values and vision and keeping your messages on target. Choose specific social media, and other communication channels to reach key segments of your target audience to improve your fundraising performance and other metrics.

Don’t Remain Silent

Have figures from your nonprofit, such as your executive director, board members, volunteers and other supporters speak out on the social issues that affect your nonprofit’s community. Encourage all your supporters to share your posts, as well as get involved on their local level to speak up about your cause and the work that your nonprofit is doing to make things better. Encourage advocacy at every level of your organisation and help your people to build their connections with diverse groups of individuals and institutions to increase support for your work.

Make Strategic Planning a Priority

While no one has a crystal ball that allows them to create plans for every possible contingency those organisations that can respond rapidly to dramatic change are the ones that fare best. Make planning a priority for your board, as well as other key leaders in your nonprofit. Don’t just have one backup plan. Try to anticipate upcoming changes that may drastically alter support for your organisation and its work. Create plans that will enable your nonprofit to continue its work despite what happens with Government budgets, the overall economy, political upheaval and other changes that can harm weaker organisations that have failed to prepare for change.

How Volunteering Can Help Your Career

Many individuals consider volunteering because they want to give something back to their communities. They sometimes hold back and resist taking the plunge because they worry they won’t have the time and energy to commit to volunteering and working in a paid position as well. When it comes to filling the post of volunteer treasurer, many of the duties that need to be performed can seem so overwhelming that it makes folks reluctant to take on the role.

If you have a good bookkeeping software to help back you and your processes up, so that its quick and easy to keep your accounts updated, serving as a volunteer treasurer offers several benefits that far outweigh any concerns that might be holding you back from volunteering.

This is especially true if you want to move up in the current organisation where you work, or enter a new field completely as volunteering at a nonprofit offers the following benefits for your career prospects.

Improve Your Job Performance by Improving Your Health

Many nonprofit volunteers report that the work that they do to help others improves their self-esteem, personal satisfaction and confidence. They also report feeling calmer, less stressed and more at ease. This boost to your mental health makes you more resistant to the effects of stress and can boost overall immunity.

When our minds and bodies are healthy, and our immunity and mood are high, it’s easier for us to resist common colds and other bugs as they make the rounds in the workplace. This provides an indirect benefit to our careers since being healthy and resistant to stress reduces absenteeism and makes it easier to achieve peak performance so that we get noticed and promoted at work!

Increase Your Flexibility

Volunteering can be a great way to practice your existing skills, as well as pick up new ones if the volunteer work that you perform involves tasks and duties outside of your previous background. This makes volunteering the ideal way to keep your existing skills current as well as pick up new ones.

Prospective employers that see your volunteer work on your resume, and become aware of all of the tasks and duties that you fulfilled in your role are more likely to see you as the flexible and motivated employee that they need. It can also increase your chances of promotion and other forms of advancement.

Meet New People

As a volunteer, it’s likely that you will have the opportunity to meet and talk with people you would never have otherwise. Not only will you work with other volunteers, but you’ll also probably meet some of the beneficiaries of your nonprofit’s services. You may also come into close contact with donors, staff, board members, other volunteers and advocates.

Each time that you meet and interact with someone new, you are being given an opportunity to connect with people from diverse backgrounds who share your interests and values. When it comes time to find a new position, your new connections may well be the ones that help you locate your next paying position!

Spur Your Creativity, Cooperation and Critical Thinking Abilities

Most volunteers wear many hats in their organisations. Working with different groups of people, completing tasks and searching for solutions on the fly are all activities that you will likely perform as a volunteer. Activities like these boost your creativity, as well as improve your ability to cooperate and collaborate on shared projects and improve your ability to analyse information and reach logical, well thought out conclusions.

So, what’s so great about improving your ability to create, get along with others and make good decisions? These characteristics just happen to be some of the top traits shared by the world’s most successful leaders. Serving as treasurer or other volunteer gives you a chance to polish your leadership and gives you a head start on how to lead yourself and your team to greater levels of success!

How to Improve the Success of Your Digital Team

Is your digital team achieving the results that you want, especially in terms of engagement and growth? If not, your NFP certainly isn’t alone. According to the results of a study conducted by SSIR, around 40% of nonprofits report that the way that their digital teams are structured causes problems or simply doesn’t work to achieve the results that they want and need to thrive and grow.

The same study found that many NFPs have teams that lack diversity, and, that fail to encourage greater donor engagement with their nonprofits. If you want to improve the results of your digital messaging, your organisation must become more inclusive, and representative of the populations that you are trying to reach. Your messaging must also forge genuine relationships with donors to increase engagement.

The following tips can help your NFP improve the effectiveness of your digital team.

Become More Inclusive and Digital Friendly

Increasing the diversity of your digital team begins with increasing the diversity of your leaders, and your organisation overall. Take steps to review your recruitment and training processes to look for ways that your organisation has unconscious bias or institutional barriers that discourage immigrants, those in the LGBQT community, or other minorities from joining your nonprofit.

Develop onboarding processes that help those that are new to your organisation to understand their role and your NFP’s culture. Create mentorship programs that identify, support and develop leadership candidates that are well-versed in the use of technology and the role digital plays in achieving your mission.

Break Down Silos and Unleash Your Digital Team!

Don’t confine your digital team to the bubble of a single department, such as communications. Wherever possible, encourage greater collaboration with your digital team and other departments within your organisation.  

Have digital report directly to the executive director as the head of any other department would do and involve them in the decision-making process, especially when it comes to the design and implementation of your messaging and fundraising campaigns.

Focus on Engagement

Engagement is a hot topic in nonprofits today, yet, as the above study shows, 43% of NFPs don’t have anyone dedicated to donor engagement, and 75% fail to track metrics that measure and evaluate engagement.

If you want to improve your fundraising results, then your nonprofit must invest in harnessing digital’s power to facilitate relationship building, increasing communication with donors and encouraging greater involvement.

Don’t stop at a petition or donation request. Create regular events for your donors to deepen their connection with your organisation by taking direct action in the real, physical world on a regular basis that advances your mission.

Make sure your budget is realistic, and that it provides the level of funding that is needed to genuinely strengthen your digital teams and empower them to set and achieve ambitious targets!  

Tips to Improve Your Funding Options

Does your fundraising strategy consist mainly of a vague idea to raise “more money than last year” and little else? Without financial clarity, and a strategy to optimise your organisation’s sources for funding, your nonprofit will find it difficult, and next to impossible to secure the monies that it needs to operate at a sustainable level and create actual impact for your cause.

The following strategies can help your organisation broaden its base of financial support by increasing the number of sources it has for funding.

Grants

Rather than relying solely on donations from individuals, consider searching for grants that are a good fit for your organisation. Grants can come from Federal or State governments as well as public and private entities such as foundations and corporations.

The applications process is typically quite lengthy, and complex, and there is usually stiff competition for these funds, so your NFP can benefit by bringing on board an experienced grant writer to help them with the proposal and applications process.

Sponsorships

Instead of trying to do everything on your own, consider reaching out to third parties for help in securing funding, and other resources, that will enable you to provide services and advance your cause.

Sponsorships and other collaborations can come from the commercial and government sectors, or might involving partnering with one more parties from the not-for-profit sector that will allow each to focus on performing the work that they do well. Groups can also cooperate and allow each to access resources that the other has to increase the amount of work that is performed by both groups.

Maximise Individual Contributions

Nonprofits can increase their funding simply by looking for opportunities to maximise the number and amount of individual donations that they receive.

To accomplish this goal, your fundraising approach should seek out ways to make it easy for supporters to give online, and give by their preferred means of payment.

Focus on encouraging repeat donors by developing a monthly giving program.

Approach board members and other key influencers that are connected with your organisation to reach out to potential big donors to support your NFP with a large contribution.

Crowdsourcing platforms can be a great way to raise awareness about your cause and encourage donations when they use storytelling to illustrate what is at stake if the issue your organisation is trying to tackle remains unsolved. Options to customise the message and share the campaign easily on social media will increase the number of folks that see your plea and follow through with a contribution.

Special Events

Standard fundraising events, such as charity auctions, galas and balls can be a good way to raise funds for your organisation, but only if they are cost-effective to host. If your NFP will not make a net profit from the event that’s worth the time and effort it takes to plan the event and hold it, you may want to limit the number and type of events that you throw as part of your fundraising efforts.

Consider Options that Increase Your Capacity for Self-Funding

While nonprofits are not designed to operate at a profit, since their main function is to serve the public good, this doesn’t mean that they should operate in an unsustainable manner. Your nonprofit can increase the soundness of its finances to look for ways to self-fund its growth. Does your nonprofit have assets that can be used to fund operations?

For example, would you be able to offer beneficiaries a higher level of service if you charged a fee for certain services? Would rents or activity fees allow you to do more good work, without compromising your core mission and goals? Is there a way to invest some of your funds that will enable your organisation to generate a passive income stream that could be used to fund operations and build capacity? Would selling some products and services allow your organisation to raise the funds that it needs while remaining in alignment with your organisations values?

While each NFP’s answer will be different to questions like these, if income generating activities don’t violate your nonprofit’s values or create another conflict, they can be a good way to raise the growth supporting funds that your organisation needs to survive and thrive.

How to Keep Your Team Happy

High turnover extracts a heavy toll on all organisations, particularly those in the not-for-profit sector. Not only does it waste the time, money and other precious resources that your NFP uses to train its people, turnover increases inefficiency in your organisation as your nonprofit must now go to the effort of finding, training and retaining new personnel.

Long before they leave, unhappy staff and volunteers impact your organisation in terms of the quality of service it provides all stakeholders. If you want to keep your team, and ensure that they are fully engaged in their work for your service community, your NFP’s leadership must make some effort to keep them happy.

The following are a few tips to help your nonprofit better meet the needs of its volunteers and staff members.

Empowerment and Flexibility

Regardless of anyone’s job title and duties, at least some of the tasks that are performed each day seem redundant and unnecessary. Each of us is also an individual with our own tastes and preferences, so wherever it is possible, try to grant your team as much autonomy and authority as possible. Empower your people to make decisions and to take responsibility in the areas that they work in.

Allow staff and volunteers to switch things up during their workday by allowing them to cross train and do similar work, but in different departments. Not only does this help to prevent monotony and boredom, your nonprofit benefits from new insight and perspective brought by members from other areas of your NFP’s operations. It also improves your organisation’s flexibility during times when you might be understaffed in some departments but overstaffed in others.

Keep Everyone Up-to-Date

Have you ever had the experience of having people close to you keep a secret from you? How did it make you feel?

When we respect others, we bring them into our circle of confidence. Everyone wants to know what is going on, and what they need to do as a team to advance the mission forward.

Be accessible to your teams, and make yourself available to them. Have an open-door policy that works both ways. Hold regular meetings with your team members so that you can keep them updated as to your organisation’s goals, policies, and breaking news.

If your team is scattered across multiple locations, assemble them together in one central location with as many members of your team as possible. Next, bring the others in via live video conferencing on Skype or another online platform. Make an effort to give everyone a voice during your meetings so that everyone’s concerns or questions are heard and addressed.

When you openly communicate with your team, you build trust, respect and rapport. Your staff and volunteers learn that they can count on you to provide them with the information that they need to perform their tasks well. Your team also learns that you have their best interests at heart and are looking out for them.

Acknowledgement

When we work hard, it’s only natural to want our efforts to be recognised and appreciated. Make sure that you are taking concrete steps to show your team that you truly value them as people. Let them know you are grateful for all the hard work that they put into advancing the mission and meeting the needs of others.

Awards ceremonies, perks, rewards and letters of appreciation can all go a long way to show your team just how important they are to you and your organisation. While many nonprofits run on the proverbial shoestring budget, it’s important to avoid the tendency to substitute perks and recognition for comparable compensation.

For your paid staff and volunteers, offer a living wage that’s in line with what others in comparable fields and positions pay. Whether other members of your team are paid or unpaid, make sure that they have all the resources that they need to do their jobs well. Invest in replacing outdated systems and upgrading critical infrastructure. Offer updated training and use innovative technologies to reduce the strain and workload on your teams.

Truly honoring your team’s contribution to your organisation is about more than offering a token acknowledgement; it’s about being realistic about the demands that are placed on them. Give them everything they need to perform well including public recognition, realistic wages, current information and equipment.  

The Importance of Social Media for NFPs

If nonprofits wish to survive and thrive, they must have support. This support can come in many forms such as advocacy, donations, and volunteering.

Increasing Support Doesn’t Have to Be Costly

At its heart, social media marketing allows nonprofits to use one of the most successful, and oldest, forms of advertising to increase its base of support: social influence, or, word-of-mouth marketing. Social media campaigns are effective for increasing an NFP’s reach because their cost can be easily controlled by scaling campaigns up or down.

Once the initial content is created, connections within various networks spread the message on their own, creating organic support and traffic without incurring additional cost. Using social media to find and recruit supporters, however, isn’t just about controlling costs. The following is a brief overview of two additional reasons why nonprofits need to be using social media in their marketing campaigns and communications.

To Stay Competitive

Competition is a key factor that affects the impact and growth of every nonprofit, despite the increase in collaborations and partnerships between third parties.

Nonprofits compete to recruit skilled, talented people to serve on boards, and as staff members and volunteers. Funds are also a scarce resource, as there are not enough grants, endowments and individual contributions to fund every need.

Research shows that if you want your nonprofit to be able to recruit enough staff, volunteers, advocates and donors, then your nonprofit must have an online presence, and be using social media to spread the word about your cause and how others can help.

According to statistics provided in the 2016 Global NGO Online Technology Report, most not for profits worldwide are actively online using multiple social media channels to connect with supporters, accept donations and spread awareness about their NFP’s mission. A full 92% of NFPs have a website and 46% blog regularly, making it easy for online users to discover information about their mission and projects.

75% email their supporters’ donation requests and other news, and 75% accept donations online. 95% have a Facebook page, 83% have a profile on Twitter, and nearly 40% use Instagram to keep their supporters up-to-date and motivated about the good work that their organisation is accomplishing.

To be effective, nonprofits must use social media to stand out from all of their competitors in both the for-profit and not-for-profit world. They should use it to firmly establish their brand, and link their brand to their cause, their vision and the work that can be accomplished with the support of others.

To Remain Relevant

It’s not just other NFPs that are online. According to data on social media trends provided by Track Maven, nearly one third of the entire world’s population will be online by next year. Global Web Index statistics reveal that most online users have about 6 social media profiles and regularly use nearly half of them.

This data clearly illustrates why it’s so important for your nonprofit to enter this space! A growing number of us no longer get our news from traditional network broadcasts and media outlets. Instead, we are leveraging our social media networks to stay up-to-date on the latest news and events. We then share those stories that personally connect with us and then like or otherwise express an opinion about these posts with our connections.

To become a part of these crucial conversations and exchanges of ideas, you must be online, and using the social media channels where these conversations are taking place. To engage with potential supporters, you must be online where your supporters are likely to be. Otherwise your cause will go unnoticed and your projects will go unsupported. To stay relevant, nonprofits need to include social media in their marketing strategies, and engage their supporters on the social media channels of their choice.  

If your nonprofit is struggling to build its base of support, this is likely a sign that your social media strategy may need some fine-tuning to return the results that your nonprofit wants and needs. 

5 Marketing Tips for NFPs

Even though your nonprofit is just that, an organisation that is not designed to operate at a profit, marketing is still important. Without an effective marketing strategy, it's almost impossible for NFPs to raise awareness about their cause.

Marketing plays a critical role in a nonprofit's ability to meet fundraising goals and have the money that is needed for operations to continue. There are only so many dollars to go around, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of similar nonprofit organisations that must compete for donations and other sources of funding, and marketing makes it possible for your NFP to stand out from the crowd.

The following marketing tips can help your NFP increase the impact of its messaging with potential donors and other supporters.

Branding - In Addition to Functionality, Make Certain Your Website Connects and Informs

Having a website that looks professional, functions well on traditional laptop and desktops as well as mobile platforms, and that connects with and tells your visitors, is crucial to increasing support for your NFP's mission and goals.

Keep your supporters updated by posting on a regular basis. Use images and video on your NFPs blog and elsewhere on your site to increase your nonprofit's emotional connection with donors. Take steps to ensure that your nonprofit's messaging is clear, and consistent throughout your site and all of your channels, to brand your content, and use good SEO practices and promote your best content to increase your reach.

Make it easy for supporters to jump on your bandwagon and support your cause by using buttons to make it easy for them to share your posts and other messages with their social networks.  

By branding your content, including a clear call to action in all posts and making it easy to share, you can easily turn your website, blog, and social media into a network that functions to increase donations and other forms of support for your nonprofit.   

Make Certain that You are Engaging with Donors in Their Preferred Format

Just as the customer is always right in business, your donor is always right. Are you contacting your donors and other supporters as often as they wish, and in their preferred format? Survey your current donors and supporters on a regular basis to discover what is, and is not, working.

How do your fans prefer to be contacted: email, direct mail, newsletters, telephone or in person? What is the impression of your supporters on your NFP's mission, goals and services? Once you have the results, take steps to meet the needs of your audience by segmenting your followers based on type and frequency of contact that they prefer. Use the insight that you gained to refine your messaging to ensure that your supporters have the right impression of your NFP, the services that it provides and the impact that you make.

Segment Audience Based on Demographics, Personalise Messaging

Not every approach, or every message, will work to persuade every supporter. Divide your supporters into lists based on demographics such as their personal interests, gender, age, education and income levels, and then tailor your approach, and your message, based on their individual segment. Remember to use tools to personalise your messages to increase your connection with your donors.

Set Targets, Benchmarks, Test Messaging and Measure Results, Don't Forget to Refine Messaging

Once you've segmented your supporters, set fundraising objectives and other benchmarks, such as targets for sharing, sign-ups and other forms of support. Don't forget to test the impact of your messages and use analytics to measure your results and compare them against benchmarks and standards to help you be able to determine just how effective your marketing campaign is.

Don't be afraid of change, and don't be satisfied with the status quo, but always be on the lookout for ways to continually refine and improve your messaging to ensure that you continue to meet your objectives.

Increase Engagement by Starting Conversations and Keep them Going

In addition to making it easy for your donors and other supporters to share your posts, further extend the reach of your messaging by visiting similar blogs and starting conversations by liking others posts and leaving comments, including a link back to your NFP's site in your signature. Always promptly respond to any comments that are made on your posts so that you can keep the conversation going and win further support for your cause!

Free Webinars Can Be A Great Source of Learning

We all need to hone our skills or take in some learning from time to time, and the start of the new year is a perfect time to do that.

As a volunteer treasurer, we understand that your budgets can be tight and opportunities to learn can be difficult to say the least. That is why FREE webinars can be invaluable to your charity or non-profit.

They give you the opportunity to refine your knowledge and keep the dollars available for the more important things.

Here are four great webinars to look out for.

Asking Styles: A Revolutionary Concept in Fundraising - 10 January 2017

There is no one right way to ask a business or individual for a donation. If you ask in your own style, you will be more comfortable and successful as an asker. Are you a rainmaker, a go-getter, a kindred spirit, a mission controller or a mix of two styles? In this webinar you will learn the unique strengths you bring to the table and how to craft your case for support in your own words and style.

Online Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits - 11 January 2017

This webinar will share best practices including detailed formulas that every nonprofit should be using to track the effectiveness of their fundraising efforts. You will also learn the 7 steps to online funding success, the donor retention problem and attributes of a killer marketing piece.

Finding New Donors for 2017 - January 18 2017

Did you know that over 75% of funding comes from individuals and that it costs twice as much to find new donors as it does to keep your existing ones. This informative webinar will show you 9 new places to find donors offline, the 4 effective ways of building your email list, the stages of giving to help you steward your donors towards larger gifts and how transparency raises you more money.

Crowdfunding 101 - January 19 2017

Crowdfunding is a new tool in the fundraising toolbox to raise more money, faster, from a larger audience. In this free webinar you will learn why crowdfunding is important for your organisation, how to incorporate it into your existing fundraising mix and the concrete steps you can execute immediately.

Let's make 2017 a wonderful year for your charity and your year as a volunteer treasurer extremely rewarding.

Revising Your Fundraising Results

Planning is an integral part of successful fundraising, and you can never get an early enough start! As the end of the year fast approaches, many nonprofits are busy hosting holiday galas and other end of year events. Most members of the staff are likely occupied with their own personal holiday celebrations as well. Just because the season is coming to an end, however, isn't an excuse to avoid planning your nonprofit's fundraising efforts for the next year.

Now is the time to reflect on your nonprofit's results for the year, and learn from any mistakes that were made during your fundraising campaigns. The following steps can help you to gain insight into what does and does not work for your nonprofit so that you can revise and refine your strategies and be set to start the New Year off right!

Review Results of 2016 Fundraising Campaigns - What Did and Did Not Work?

Before you start making plans for your 2017 fundraising campaigns, take time to reflect on what did and did not work well this year. Go back and look at the metrics for the messages that you sent out during your various fundraising campaigns; did you effectively target your audience and reach your fundraising goals? Were there steps that you could have taken, such as using additional measures to segment your donors list to further tailor your messaging to specific target audiences, which would have improved your results? What specific additional resources do you need to increase your fundraising results in 2017?

Refine Messages and Targeting to Build and Increase Donor Base

Ideally, you should segment your donor lists so that you can ensure that you can tailor your fundraising efforts to match the demographics of your target audience. You should begin by segmenting your list into current and repeat donors and prospective donors, as your approach to reach each of these audiences should be different.

There are other ways to segment your donor list to improve your results and grow your donor base. For example, we know that certain audiences respond well to certain types of messaging and fundraising campaigns, so you should segment your donor list and group them into target audiences to ensure that you are reaching out to donors via their preferred method of interaction, such as email, social media posts, telephone calls and face to face contact.

Once you have segmented your donor lists, and identified their preferred means of contact and interaction with your nonprofit, you can then tailor your message to match preferences that are determined by such demographics as gender, age, location, shared interests and so forth.

Improve Communication and Storytelling to Increase Results

Improving your nonprofit's communication is really a continuation of refining your messaging and targeting. Review the ways that you communicated with your donors and other supporters throughout the year. What sorts of stories did you tell about your nonprofit and the good work that it does in your community? What methods did you use to communicate your nonprofit's stories?

Look for ways to keep your nonprofit's messaging in line with your nonprofit's mission and goals. Make it easier to build connections and increase support for your cause by expanding the ways that you communicate with supporters. In addition to using visual images that carry human interest and convey emotion, consider adding short "micro-videos," that can help demonstrate just what it is that your nonprofit does and how it makes a difference and helps others in your community.

Don't forget to test the messages that you send through 2017, and adjust them to improve your results. This includes the emails that you send about fundraising events and donation requests as well as the other messages and updates that you send to supporters throughout the year.

Use Creative Twists to Update and Market Popular Fundraising Events

Annual events are a great way to encourage repeat donations, but you must be careful to not allow fundraisers such as galas, awards ceremonies, auctions, raffles and other events to become stale and boring. Don't be afraid to use creative twists to keep things fresh, and interesting, at your nonprofit's fundraising events.  

Consider hosting events in a new locations, shake up routines by varying the presenters and line-up and look for ways to inject fun and excitement into your nonprofit's events to encourage donors to want to come to your nonprofit's next event.

Test and Overhaul Your Website and Revamp Social Media Efforts

Just as you want your nonprofit's fundraisers to be exciting so that they continue to draw repeat donors and encourage new supporters to attend, you also need to take the time to update your nonprofit's website on a regular basis. Make certain that your posts are fresh, interesting and helpful, both on your nonprofit's main website, as well as on social media posts.

Take time to make certain that all of your site's pages load quickly, and can be viewed on both mobile and stationary platforms. Make certain that posts are easy to share across all of your nonprofit's social media profiles, and make it easy for others to like and share your content as well.

Continue to test messaging, and make certain that all of your posts are in keeping with your nonprofit's mission and goals and will make the impression that you want while also getting your message across.

Above all, make certain that your site's main donation page and donation buttons work well so that it's easy for supporters to donate as well as be able to learn more about your cause.  

Organisation is the Backbone of NFPs

Whether it is the start of a new year or the middle of the financial year, being organised in all aspects of your NFP is important. There is no denying that running an NFP is not as easy as it looks, so it is integral that all the I’s are dotted, and the T’s are crossed. This is vital for any corporation but particularly for non-profits when your donors and beneficiaries are high on the priority list as is the overall reputation of your company.

Have a Variety of Team Members and Spread out Responsibilities

Whether you are blogging or fundraising, it is important that you make the time to adopt systems and procedures so the team and their responsibilities are laid out explicitly. No one wants to feel that they are pulling more than their fair share of weight - volunteer or otherwise – and everyone needs to feel rewarded at all times.

Accounts also need to be reconciled to eliminate errors. Regularly reconciling your accounts ensures that everyone who handles the accounts is only using the charity's funds to pay for authorised transactions. It also helps you to quickly catch any errors made by your group's bank or other financial institution.

Make sure your team is Qualified

It is imperative that you have a qualified team in place to ensure that errors are not made, particularly ones which lead to being a security risk in the long term. This means having electronic copies of everything and double checking all figures with your financial provider. For everyone's benefit, ensure all the financial matters of your NFP are overseen by more than one person. Let at least two people bear witness to the records and account activities, so there is never any shadow of suspicion, or outright loss of money within your organisation.

Security is Number One

When you cut corners, your security systems are wide open for error and corrupt practices. The most basic form of security is the password, and that’s where many NFP personnel go wrong. If you haven’t changed your password in a while, then it is paramount that it takes priority - today. Don’t wait until the last minute to get things done.

Avoid Delays At All Costs

There are many duties that must be fulfilled to get your NFP's finances completed in a timely manner. Delays can occur often in the process, and can result in the loss of time and funds for your NFP. They can also lead to late filings at the end of the financial year, which can result in fees and other penalties for your NFP. It is these delays that can upset the entire process as well as the fine balance between donors and the running of the operations.

When bookkeeping procedures are followed routinely, and the NFP’s systems and procedures are organised, with appropriate technologies and safeguards in place, mistakes become minimal and even often non-existent. In these cases, a volunteer treasurer's role becomes simpler and much more enjoyable for everyone involved with the charity. The longer you spend working for an NFP, the more you will release that high levels of quality are essential to meet all the business objectives.

The End of the Financial Year for NFPs

The end of the financial year is literally just around the corner, is your NFP ready? As a volunteer treasurer, there are a host of duties that you must fulfill at the end of the year.

End of Year Duties for Treasurers

End of year functions for the treasurer include getting your NFP's accounts in order, compiling and filing various reports, making sure your paperwork is in up to date before any independent reviews or audits, calculating GST, as well as preparing for the start of the new fiscal year. The volunteer treasurer isn't the only board member, however, with duties and responsibilities at the end of the financial year. 

Directors and Board Members Also Have a Role to Play at the End of the Financial Year

As part of their oversight and fiduciary duties, directors and other board members also have certain responsibilities at the end of the financial year.  For example, board members have a responsibility to ensure that they have a solid understanding of their NFP's finances and that they have the knowledge necessary to be able to understand financial reports, and question the accounting methods and information used to compile reports and statements, including the various NFP budgets.

Even though board members are not involved in the day to day management and operation of the NFP, they are still responsible for seeing that the books are kept properly, and reports and other documents are filed on time with the ASIC.  Directors and board members should also take steps to ensure that adequate controls have been put in place to ensure the fair and transparent handling of cash and other assets and that accepted accounting standards are used by the treasurer.  They must also take steps to ensure that any audits are conducted by professionals who are impartial, unbiased and avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

Don't Wait Until the Last Minute to Compile End of Year Financials

There are many duties that must be fulfilled to get your NFP's finances and filings completed in a timely manner. Delays can occur nearly anywhere in the process, and can result in the loss of time and funds for your NFP. For example, if your accounts and other paperwork are not in order before your audit begins, it will take the auditor more time to complete the audit, which can result in the auditor charging a higher rate. Delays can lead to late filings, which can result in fees and other penalties for your NFP.

Treasurers should already be working on preparing for the end of the financial year now in to avoid the extra cost and hassle that can result from unforeseen delays and complications.

As a board member, you can help keep your NFP on track by checking in with the treasurer to make certain that they have all of the resources that they need to get ready for the end of the financial year.  If there are newer members of the board that have less financial experience, consider offering a short class or training now, before the end of the financial year, to help bring them up to speed on the ins and outs of your NFPs finances and their responsibilities as board members.  

Celebrating 2015

Well, what a year it has been. It has been choc-o-block full of successes, triumphs and steep learning curves. And dare I say it, we know our charities and ourselves a little bit better than we did at the start.

Were you successful in securing funding for your NFP this year? It is a hard subject to tackle, but when working together with your local community, it can be very rewarding, not to mention beneficial in the long term. Or perhaps you had more luck with one of the available grants valid in your service area?

Many of our treasurers saw an increase in sponsorship which is a great move forward for NFPs and their awareness in the community.

Some of our working volunteer treasurers even had the chance to do some volunteer work outside of their usual treasury role. There are plenty of opportunities for volunteering, particularly around the December period when charities and NFPs are looking for additional hands to help with their Christmas-related projects.

Did you get a chance to look into the Fundraising Management Diploma at all? MTo recap, The Diploma in Fundraising Management is available to both home and international students as a distance learning course and enables participants to develop the knowledge and skills they need to advance in the area of professional fundraising – either working for an NFP or starting their own charity. Perhaps 2016 will finally be the year to take the plunge?

Whatever you will be doing, we hope that next year is, even more, eventful and successful than the last. So from Volunteer Treasurer to you, merry Christmas and a happy new year.

B Corp Offers Grants To NFPs

As a volunteer treasurer, you are probably always on the lookout for sources of additional funding for your Not-for-Profit (NFP). If your NFP does work that involves the health and well being of children, then you will be happy to learn about a new grant program being offered to NFPs by Whole Kids.

Whole Kids is a certified B corporation and a small, family business that offers children's products that are healthy and organic. This company has started the Small Seeds Community Grant to help fund local community NFP projects that improve the lives of children and their families.

The grants start at $500 and can be up to $5,000 for a single project. Currently, the company has committed to providing at least 1% of gross sales to funding the grants each quarter, and the company hopes to fund up to six projects per quarterly round.

NFPs can only apply for one grant per project. Applications that can be fully funded with smaller amounts are given preference so that the company can fund as many projects as possible each round.

The company started accepting online applications for the grants on April 1^st, and will continue accepting applications for this first round of funding through June 30^th of this year. Your NFP will be notified the following month after the round closes if their project was selected to receive one of the grants.

Service areas for the grants focus on projects that help children in the following eight areas:

·         Efforts to build stronger communities for families and children.

·         Improve the health and nutrition of children and improve access to wholesome foods.

·         Improve children's access to learning opportunities and education.

·         Improve the environment to reduce hazards to children.

·         Secure the environment, wildlife and natural resources for children for generations.

·         Promote safe places where children can play and enjoy recreational opportunities.

·         Improve the health and well being of children, including their mental health.

·         Promote social justice for children and the community and protect children's human rights.

Securing funding for your NFP local projects not only helps strengthen your community directly, it can also increase the stability of your NFP to ensure that you can continue operations and serve the needs of your community for the long term. If your NFP has projects that focus on improving the lives of children, why not consider applying for one of the grants today?