Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Navigation Bar

  • About
  • Services
  • What Clients Say
  • Contact

4 Strategies for Successful Nonprofit Grant Management

May 14, 2024 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Jon Osterburg of Jitasa

Grants are a significant source of funding for nonprofits, comprising nearly a quarter of total nonprofit revenue. They fuel vital programs and services, which is why you need an organized approach to grant management.

By properly allocating grant funds, your nonprofit will make the most of this funding. This provides additional flexibility to use your other funds where needed, like for donor communications or delivering services in the community. Let’s explore four strategies you can use for effective grant management.

  1. Standardize grant management processes.

Many nonprofits earn multiple grants throughout each year. Therefore, these organizations have many grants to manage at once, each of which has its own purpose.

Simplify the process by developing guidelines for grant management tasks and expectations. Your guidelines should include each step of the process from beginning to end.

To help, Jitasa explains grant management as a cycle that follows these steps:

The nonprofit grant management cycle, which is detailed in the text below

  1. Identify grant opportunities
  2. Apply for grants
  3. Track your grant’s progress
  4. Record grant funding
  5. Report back to the grantmaker

Using this grant lifecycle as a guide, your instructions will outline each step necessary to apply for, accept, and use grants. This way, every team member can streamline the process and increase efficiency.

2. Comply with grant rules.

When using a grant, you must follow financial management requirements, such as reporting the funding on your nonprofit’s Form 990. But you must also comply with the grantmaker’s rules.

Review the unique terms, conditions, and reporting requirements for each grant before using any of the funding. These requirements may include:

  • Budget restrictions: Most grantors restrict funding to specific uses. For example, one grant could be for a specific program while another has to be used for your current capital campaign.
  • Project timelines: Many grants require nonprofits to meet a deadline for fulfilling the funding’s purpose. For example, your grant terms may set an end-of-year deadline for launching a new program. In this case, your nonprofit might have to send monthly progress reports to the grantor.
  • Monitoring: Grantors may want to oversee your project and assess your usage of their funding. This may include monitoring your progress through site visits or recurring meetings.

These requirements are also important for reporting purposes, such as creating financial statements. Nonprofits must differentiate between unconditional, contingent, and reimbursable grants in these reports. You’ll need to be familiar with the nature of the grant before creating statements.

Another common requirement is acknowledging the grant’s source in your marketing materials. This may include showcasing grant-funded programs on your nonprofit’s website or in your email newsletter. You must be transparent about grant usage with both the grantor and your stakeholders.

3. Track grant usage.

Your nonprofit likely already tracks its financial performance for budgeting purposes. In the same way, you should track grant usage to make informed decisions about fund allocation. This empowers your team to keep grant-funded programs on track to achieve their goals.

Choose relevant metrics to track, such as:

  • Cost-per-outcome: Gauge the grant’s effectiveness by calculating the cost of achieving an outcome, such as getting someone to sign up for the designated program. To measure this, divide grant expenditures by the number of outcomes achieved.
  • Grant utilization rate: Compare the percentage of the grant used to the total amount awarded. This will show how far you were able to stretch the funding.
  • Programmatic output: Track the results of grant-funded programs. This may include the number of individuals served, services provided, or activities completed.

According to NPOInfo’s data collection guide, these metrics will also help you improve a project’s return on investment (ROI). With an overview of your grant usage in comparison to your goals, you can adjust your strategy to make a bigger impact. Then, you can measure your progress and demonstrate your impact to stakeholders.

4. Work with a financial professional.

Grants are just one of your many, diversified revenue streams. You probably also raise funds from individual donations, corporate philanthropy, earned income, and investments. Then, you must apply this revenue to various expenses in a way that powers your nonprofit’s activities.

Working with a financial professional can ensure you make the most of not just grants, but all of your nonprofit’s resources. To start working with a nonprofit accountant who can manage your grants and other financial needs, follow these steps:

  1. Determine your financial goals and needs.
  2. Establish an outsourcing budget.
  3. Research top nonprofit accountants.
  4. Schedule consultations to meet with your top choices.
  5. Narrow down your list and select an accountant.

A professional accountant can also help you develop future financial goals. As a result, your nonprofit can restart the grant cycle by knowing which grants to apply for and how you’ll use them.


Jon Osterburg has spent the last nine years helping more than 100 nonprofits around the world with their finances as a leader at Jitasa, an accounting firm that offers bookkeeping and accounting services to not for profit organizations.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Fundraising Tuesday: Asking for a Legacy Gift

April 16, 2024 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

When it comes to asking people to leave a legacy gift to their organization, Planned Parenthood does it right.

Legacy giving means making a donation that takes effect after you die, through your will or other planned giving tools. It’s a touchy subject. While I personally take comfort in thinking about my life as a story with a beginning, middle, and end, many of your donors shy away from thinking about their own death. So, you need to think carefully about how you approach them.

How Planned Parenthood asked for a legacy gift

It’s clear that Planned Parenthood has done that careful thinking. First, because they recognized me as a potential legacy giver. How? My wife and I have donated to them in small amounts every year for many years. We are loyal donors.That makes us more likely to think of them in our will than someone who gave one large gift and has been silent ever since!

(Note: they didn’t stop asking us for annual gifts, and that’s right, too. A person who makes a legacy gift is feeling the love for the organization they’ve just benefited: they’re in the mood to help.)

Second, they started mailing these materials to me when I turned 65. (They could find that out from public records.) That’s a reasonable time to do it. People who are raising children, paying off their mortgage, or saving for retirement may also do legacy giving, but it’s unpredictable. People who feel relatively secure for the rest of their lives are the often the ones who start looking to make a difference beyond their lifetime.

Third: the materials are simple but complete. Simple, as in:

  • Easy to read
  • Nicely produced (but not expensive-looking enough to ring the “Why are they wasting my money?” alarm in donors’ minds)
  • Putting a clear message out front. “Your legacy. Our future. Reproductive health and rights for the next generation.”

Complete, as in including:

  1. A motivational brochure that answers the question “Why give this way?”
  2. Brief explanations of options: wills, trusts, beneficiary designations on our retirement funds, life insurance, or bank accounts
  3. Language we could copy and paste into our will
  4. Contact information for the Office of Gift Planning (phone, email, or online)
  5. A reply card to be sent through the mail. This makes the process more familiar for people my age, who are used to giving through the mail. It also helps the organization to know in advance what legacy gifts they are in line to receive–a good thing for planning and for stewardship (in other words, not taking your best supporters for granted!)

Will Rona and I include Planned Parenthood in our wills, or make any other kind of legacy gift to them? That would be telling. But are we more likely because of the thoughtful way they asked? A thousand times, yes.

Is your nonprofit ensuring its own future by asking donors to think about their own legacy? If not, it’s time to start. We are not getting any younger, you know!

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Fundraising Tuesday: Does Texting Donors Work? Exploring the Effectiveness of SMS

April 9, 2024 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Christina Marmor at Mogli

According to the latest nonprofit technology reports, 62% of nonprofits use SMS/text messaging for their organizing efforts while 22% utilize text-to-give for fundraising. These are impressive numbers, but popularity doesn’t always equate to results. If your nonprofit hasn’t yet tried text marketing or fundraising, the first question on your mind is likely does it work?

While the answer to this question can vary depending on your audience’s preferences and the SMS strategies your organization uses, the general consensus is yes.

In this article, we’ll explain why SMS works for nonprofits by diving deeper into the effectiveness of texting donors for marketing, stewardship, fundraising, and more.

Text messages have a 98% open rate.

One of the main reasons texts are effective for a variety of nonprofit needs is that they have impressive open rates—98%, compared to email’s average of 20%. This means that many more of your nonprofit’s supporters will read the messages you send via text message than those from other channels.

Plus, Mogli’s SMS marketing guide explains that beyond high open rates, other text marketing benefits include:

text messaging

  • High click-through rates. Once supporters open a text message from your nonprofit, they’re also more likely to click on the links. Texts have an average 19% click-through rate, meaning that these messages can drive action from your supporters more effectively than those sent via email and other channels.
  • They’re easy for staff to send. With an SMS marketing app, your nonprofit’s staff can easily send, receive, and track text messages to and from supporters. Since texts are naturally shorter and less formal than other communication methods, you can spend less of your valuable time writing the message’s content, too.
  • They’re easy for supporters to read. Text messages are only a few sentences long at most, so donors don’t have to spend much time or brainpower to read them. Taking this work off your supporters’ plates makes them more likely to read and engage with your messages.

Because text messages simplify communication for both you and your supporters, they’re highly effective for getting urgent messages across, checking in with donors, and spreading the word about important cause-related updates.

SMS provides easy two-way communication.

Texts aren’t just effective for sharing information—they also provide opportunities for two-way communication, helping you create positive personal interactions and ultimately build lasting relationships with donors. Because texts are highly personal and easy to respond to, supporters can easily text back quick questions or feedback. This allows your nonprofit to continue the conversation and learn more about supporters in the process.

For example, take a look at the following example of what a text exchange between an animal rescue nonprofit and a donor with questions about a fundraising campaign might look like:

  • Nonprofit: Imani, we’re launching a fundraiser to provide local animal shelters with brand-new leashes, litter boxes, and pet toys. Can we count on your support?
  • Donor: I can’t donate money right now, but I have extra cat toys that my cat doesn’t like. Can I donate those?
  • Nonprofit: Yes! We accept both monetary and in-kind donations, as long as they’re new or gently used. Find a drop-off location near you by following this link.
  • Donor: Perfect, thank you!
  • Nonprofit: No, thank you! We appreciate your generous support for our community’s furry friends in need 🙂 Let us know if you have any more questions about donating!

This exchange quickly answered Imani’s questions, established a positive rapport, and resulted in an in-kind donation to the organization.

You can increase texts’ relationship-building potential further by leveraging a text marketing tool that integrates with your donor database (such as a Salesforce SMS app if you use Salesforce for Nonprofits). This way, you’ll be able to automatically record data from your text interactions in individual donor profiles. Then, you can reference this data in later outreach to show donors that you listen to them and further improve your relationships.

Texts are versatile and fast.

Finally, the versatility and speed of SMS make it effective for a wide variety of nonprofit needs and goals. It goes beyond promoting your fundraising campaigns—you can also use texts for general marketing, donor stewardship, advocacy, and more.

For instance, one nonprofit might use SMS messages to do all of the following at different times:

  • Fundraise directly over text using text-to-donate campaigns.
  • Personally invite supporters to events and volunteering opportunities.
  • Share educational resources to spread awareness of their cause.
  • Thank donors with immediate, personal thank-you text messages.
  • Ask supporters directly for feedback on events, fundraisers, and more.
  • Send intuitive text surveys to learn more about supporters’ opinions.
  • Remind donors about event and volunteering registration deadlines.

And these uses are just the beginning! Text messages are highly flexible, and recipients are more likely to read texts within minutes while letting emails pile up in their inbox’s promotions folder. This means that for any message you want supporters to read and act on quickly, text messages are the answer.

Texting donors does work, especially when you personalize messages and send content that aligns with supporters’ unique interests. To get started with text marketing, look for a texting app or solution that meets your organization’s needs, then brainstorm ways to incorporate texts into your multichannel marketing strategy. When you add SMS to a comprehensive communication plan, you’ll be able to better connect with donors and holistically improve your relationships.


Christina Marmor head shotChristina Marmor – Vice President of Marketing at Mogli

Christina is a tenacious marketing leader who combines grace, grit, and creative joy to drive innovation, evolve mindsets, and accelerate transformation. She is obsessed with personalizing experiences to drive connection and engagement. Christina is a life-long figure skater. When not championing Mogli, you’ll most likely find her on a lacrosse field cheering on her son or at the ice rink supporting her daughter’s figure skating journey.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 139
  • Next Page »

Yes, I’d like weekly email from Communicate!

Get more advice

Yes! Please send me tips from Communicate! Consulting.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Copyright © 2025 · The 411 Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in