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Fundraising Tuesday: Is Your Nonprofit Tech Savvy? 5 Types of Software You Need

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A guest post by John Killoran of Clover Leaf Solutions

Nowadays, there’s software for everything — including for the work that you do as a nonprofit professional. Whether you want to more easily connect with donors, grow your revenue, or just have a home base for all of your information, there’s software that can help.

However, because there are so many software options available, you might be wondering which platforms are worth the investment. The latest nonprofit trends show that technology is essential for organizations like yours, but where should you even begin?

We’re going to review 5 of the major types of nonprofit software so you can get a sense of the variety of offerings out there. Our top 5 picks are:

  • Donor Databases
  • Online Fundraising Tools
  • Matching Gifts
  • Marketing Software
  • Volunteer Management

Ultimately, these tools allow you to spend less time on paperwork and task management and more time on doing what you love.

1. Donor Databases

Let’s face it — keeping track of all of your donors and transactions is difficult. You want to show each supporter how much you value their contributions, but attempting to personalize every thank-you note or donation request would be incredibly time-consuming.

That’s where donor databases come in. Also known as constituent relationship management (CRM) software, donor databases can help you keep track of your supporters’ donations and involvement with your organization. Using a donor database allows you to:

  • Easily personalize your communications: With a donor database, you’ll have a record of every donor’s name, contribution amount, and any other information you request during the donation process. With everything organized in one place, it’s much easier for you to automate personalizing direct mail, email, or text-to-give campaigns.
  • Build better relationships: Now that you can keep track of each donor’s information in a readily accessible database, you can focus on getting to know your donors. Using your database’s personalization and communication tools, you can build better relationships with your donors.
  • Re-engage disconnected donors: A database can help you find patterns among your donor base. You’ll be able to see who is engaged and who isn’t so you can strategize on how to rebuild relationships.

2. Online Fundraising Tools

Practically every nonprofit is using the internet to connect with donors, accept donations, and grow their audience these days. Raising money online is essential, especially if you want to expand your nonprofit beyond your local community.

Online fundraising tools can make it easy for donors to engage with your organization and for you to manage your different fundraising campaigns.

With a wide variety of tools — including peer-to-peer campaigns, text-to-give, crowdfunding, and more — this type of software can help you diversify how you fundraise. You can also:

  • Stay organized: If you’re launching a major digital campaign, online fundraising software can help you keep track of the influx of donations, monitor new donors, and consolidate your marketing materials in one place.
  • Develop an online presence: This software can also help you grow your online presence. By directing donors to your online platforms through your text-to-give campaign, for example, you can increase the traffic on your website.
  • Easily engage donors: Online fundraising software makes it easy to send personalized thank-you notes or updates about your campaign to donors.

3. Matching Gifts

Matching gift programs and other forms of corporate giving are extremely underutilized by nonprofits despite being an easy source of revenue. In fact, according to 360MatchPro, over 18 million people work for companies with matching gift programs!

Not only do matching gift programs boost your bottom line, but they also help donors grow their impact, which then deepens their attachment to your organization. With the help of matching gift software, you can make it easier for donors to determine their eligibility to get their contributions matched.

Other benefits of a matching gift software include:

  • Increasing revenue: Matching gifts are a great way to increase your revenue. Not only are your supporters’ gifts essentially doubled, but donors are also more likely to contribute higher amounts if they know their gifts are being matched.
  • Connecting with more people: With a matching gift program, your supporters can serve as advocates for your cause in their workplace, which might encourage more people to donate.
  • Strengthening relationship in the community: Involving the business world in your nonprofit’s work can help you better situate your nonprofit within your community. Doing so will help you grow your network, which could create additional event opportunities or partnerships.

4. Marketing Software

It’s great to have a donor database, online fundraising tools, and software for tracking matching gifts, but these platforms won’t be very helpful if you can’t actually reach your supporters.

Marketing software makes it much easier for you to reach your donors in a timely, engaging, and consistent manner. Your supporters have already shown interest in your nonprofit, so they want to hear from you! Here are some key benefits of using dedicated marketing software:

  • Easily reach your supporters: Marketing software allows you to easily contact your donors. You can send updates, thank-you notes, and donation requests with the click of a button. Plus, with marketing software, you can be sure to personalize your messages by using your donor’s name or specifying their donation amount.
  • Determine effective strategies: Using the metrics from your marketing software, you can also see which types of campaigns are the most successful among your donors.
  • Stick to consistent branding: With all of your marketing materials in one place, you can also ensure that your branding remains consistent. A memorable brand reassures donors that they’re in the right place and can increase your visibility in your community.

Marketing for your nonprofit is not just important for donor acquisition, it’s also crucial for donor retention. Marketing software can help you to keep your donors engaged so that they continue to support your cause.

5. Volunteer Management

Volunteers are the backbone of your organization. They’re passionate individuals who generously donate their time and energy so that your nonprofit can continue to forward the social good.

Incorporating a volunteer management system into your organization can give you the tools you need to oversee your volunteers and to show them that you value their hard work. For example, this type of software allows you to:

  • Keep track of volunteers and their hours: Handwritten hour logs are a thing of the past. With volunteer management software, you can keep a detailed record of how many hours each volunteer has contributed for the month.
  • Easily contact your volunteers: Your volunteers are among the most engaged of your supporters, so you want to be in close contact. This software can allow you to send quick updates or thank-you messages to your volunteers, which can add a personal touch to your volunteer program.

Keeping your volunteer program organized is also a great way to demonstrate your professionalism and how much you value your volunteers’ time. No one wants to waste time checking in or trying to figure out which days of the week they should come in. With this software, your volunteers won’t have to worry about that.

If you want to learn more, this Galaxy Digital guide outlines the tools you should look for when selecting your volunteer management software.

 

Takeaway: Investing in nonprofit software can save you time, earn you more revenue, and enhance your connections with donors. Click To Tweet

John Killoran Snowball softwareJohn Killoran is an inventor, entrepreneur, and the Chairman of Clover Leaf Solutions, a national lab services company. He currently leads Clover Leaf’s investment in Snowball Fundraising, an online fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations.

Snowball was one of John’s first public innovations; it’s a fundraising platform that offers text-to-give, online giving, events, and peer-to-peer fundraising tools for nonprofits. By making giving simple, Snowball increases the donations that these organizations can raise online. The Snowball effect is real! John founded Snowball in 2011. Now, it serves over 7,000 nonprofits and is the #1 nonprofit fundraising platform.

When Should You Pursue Nonprofit Leadership Development?

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A guest post by Susan Tomlinson Schmidt of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance

If you’re asking yourself when you should pursue nonprofit leadership development, the short answer is yesterday.

All nonprofits can benefit from improving development opportunities for team members. Not only does it help your team evolve and become better professionals, but it also helps your organization increase efficiency.

Most growing nonprofits are constantly trying to do more with less. Usually, this means decreasing your overhead expenses and focusing on elements of your mission. While development of team members might increase your overhead expenses, over time, it can actually fast-track your organization for success.

Here at The Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, we understand the value of professional development for nonprofits. In fact, we specialize in it! We certify new professionals in the industry each and every year and provide ongoing training opportunities for organizations and individuals.

In this guide, we’ll dive into the benefits that your organization will see when you invest in your teammates. Then, we’ll cover some materials and resources you can use to start your own development program. Let’s get started!

Benefits of Leadership Development

Developing your staff members to become more effective leaders at your organization is the key to growth and success. They’ll not only grow their own skills at the organization, but they’ll also be able to help develop more efficient organizational processes.

This helps you build a reputation of efficiency, raise and allocate more funds, and ultimately create a greater impact on the community. Let’s explore a few other key benefits:

Employee Retention

When employees feel that they’re developing and honing their skills to become better versions of themselves, they’re more likely to stay engaged. This element of personal growth and development is key for staff members to maintain high levels of satisfaction in their careers.

When you invest in your employees, they’ll stick around and invest back in your organization. However, if you fail to provide an engaging workplace, you could cost your organization a lot of money in turnover costs.

In other words, it pays to retain employees! When you add up the expenses that accompany hiring, training, and getting new staff up to speed, it becomes very expensive to start seeing return on a new hire. If you’re curious about how much you might be actually spending on employee turnover, this calculator can help you identify the cost of not retaining your team members.  

Of course, professional development isn’t the only way to retain employees, but it is one of the most effective. 93% of employees say they would stay longer at their jobs if their employer invested in their careers.

Fundraising Efficiency

Training your staff members to become better professionals leads to new ideas for efficiency at your organization and increased productivity overall.

For instance, if you focus on developing communication in your organization’s future leadership, and they’re currently in a fundraising position, they’ll likely transfer those skills to communicate effectively with your supporters. This results in higher fundraising revenue for your nonprofit.

Organizational Growth

Not only will individual staff members become more efficient in their position at your organization, but they’ll also teach their coworkers to do the same. Good habits and ideas will trickle down the ranks to help your nonprofit grow from within.

The last thing you want at your organization is for your leadership to leave. But what’s worse is when they leave without leaving their mark on your other team members. Help all team members grow and develop, then also encourage them to help one another create the most holistic growth strategy at your organization.

Resources to Implement Development Opportunities

Developing leaders at your organization helps in multiple ways for both the individual and your organization as a whole. But how can you pursue this development? We’ve pulled some of the top resources we discuss in The Nonprofit Leadership Alliance guide to professional development, including guided online resources, books, and journals.

Guided Online Resources

You can find plenty of guided online resources to help your team learn and develop. What constitutes these guided resources? Usually, they’re structured as online nonprofit courses that help walk learners through challenging material.

Generally, these online courses are designed with modules that guide individuals through content one bit at a time, with various elements and engaging opportunities to enhance the learning experience. For instance, you might read through definitions of keywords on one module, then watch a video to provide an example of what you just learned in the next.

Books

Lessons can be learned from just about any literature, from an instructional pamphlet to a children’s novel. In particular, there are books targeted to the nonprofit sector that you can lean on to gain general knowledge on a range of topics.

Look for books published by your favorite consultant or ask them for recommendations. Then, invite your team members to read these books and take notes on their insights. You might even start a lunch-time book club to cover some of these insights and to discuss how they can be applied to your organization.

Journals

There are publications everywhere that keep tabs on what’s happening in the nonprofit world. Keeping up with academic journals and other publications, like blogs from trusted sources, is a great way to keep up with the latest trends in the nonprofit industry.

Quickly advancing technology and legislation updates usually take a while (at minimum a month) to hit the nonprofit course scene, and even longer to make its way into books. That’s why it’s important to also encourage staff members to keep up with journals, blogs, and other online reading materials to understand the latest news. Everyone will learn how to effectively react to it and make decisions for your organization.

Wrapping Up

Professional development for nonprofit leaders is a key aspect of growth for the entire organization. According to Double the Donation, 85% of employees are not engaged in the workplace. But providing professional development opportunities can change that.

Ready to get started? Choose a development resource and dive in!

Susan Tomlinson Schmidt Leadership DevelopmentSusan Tomlinson Schmidt has dedicated her life to serving others through more than 25 years advancing the missions of social-impact organizations. Currently, Schmidt is the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance president, an organization that develops talent for the nonprofit workforce.

She received her master’s in public administration from the University of Memphis and is a Certified Nonprofit Professional. Schmidt and her husband, David, a professional chef, have two sons, Patrick and Walker. They live in Leawood, Kansas.

4 Best Practices For Staying Tax-Exempt as a Nonprofit

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A guest post by Mathew Tooker of  File990

Receiving tax-exempt status is an essential part of getting your 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization off the ground. However, retaining that status requires an annual filing process to ensure your organization continues to spend its funding responsibly.

At File 990, we’re passionate about nonprofit taxes and equipping organizations with the tools they need to streamline basic accounting and tax processes. We also know that small to mid-sized nonprofits and community organizations often don’t always have dedicated tax professionals on staff. Yet your mission shouldn’t suffer for it!

In this guide, we’ll share the most critical information you need to know, including the foundations of IRS Form 990 and our tried-and-true tips for staying tax-exempt year over year. Let’s get started!

What is IRS Form 990?

IRS Form 990 is an annual tax form that is required of most nonprofit organizations. What’s the purpose of this form? To keep your organization tax-exempt and retaining your 501(c)(3) status.

When you file your 990, you provide key information about your nonprofit finances, including a summary of your activities and programming throughout the year, an overview of your governance structure, and a basic look at your expenses and revenue. This way, the IRS can look into your organization and ensure that your funds (including grants and charitable donations) are properly handled. Without it, your nonprofit risks substantial fines and, eventually, may lose your tax exemption.

However, completing your yearly 990 can do even more for your organization than keep your team up to IRS standards—it can function as a marketing tool for attracting and retaining generous donors. Upon completion, your Form 990 is publicly available, meaning supporters and prospects can have a look at your finances as well. When they see the good work your organization is doing as it is funded by generous gifts, they’ll be more inclined to give.

Tips for Retaining Tax-Exempt Status

Now that you understand the purpose of Form 990 and why the IRS requires you to file every year, let’s jump into our favorite tips for staying tax-exempt as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

1. Choose the correct form.

As a 501(c)(3) organization, you know you’ll need to file IRS Form 990. However, did you know that there are multiple versions to choose from?

Here’s a basic comparison between the four most common versions of Form 990 to help you determine the right one for your team:

  • 990: This is the complete version of the form and must be filed by organizations with gross receipts of more than $200,000 per year.
  • 990EZ: The next step down from the full version, the 990EZ is filed nonprofits with gross receipts between $50,000 and $200,000 per year.
  • 990N: This is the most simplified version of the form and is only available to organizations with gross receipts of less than $50,000 per year.
  • 990PF: The “PF” in this form stands for private foundation. As such, this form is filed by all 501(c)(3) private foundations regardless of financial status.

If you run a small to mid-sized nonprofit, you’re probably looking at 990N vs. 990EZ. These abridged versions are shorter and simpler to complete, which is a nice bonus!

Just because you’ve been eligible to complete the e-postcard (or 990N) in the past doesn’t mean you will be forever. If your organization has had a boost in revenue over the last year, it might be time to look into moving up to one of the more comprehensive forms to ensure you’re complying with IRS standards.

2. Submit your form before the deadline.

Once you’ve selected the tax form that is required of your organization, it’s time to determine the date by which you’ll need to submit your documentation. Take a look at our File 990 guide to the Form 990 deadlines that explains how to determine your organization’s deadline as well as consequences for failing to file and how to request an extension. Here are a few key notions to be aware of:

  • Your deadline for submitting your form is the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. For organizations following the calendar year, the deadline is May 15th.
  • You will be fined up to $100 per day that your return is late, with a maximum penalty of $50,000 or 5% of your gross receipts (whichever is less).
  • After three consecutive years of failing to file your 990, your organization will lose its tax-exempt status.

Luckily, you can avoid all of these potential challenges by simply filing your 990 before your deadline. Just figure out your due date, get started well in advance, and be sure you have a reminder set every year!

3. Make sure your document is complete.

Another thing you’ll want to check before sending your tax form (whether physically or digitally) is that you’ve completed everything you need to on the document. If you’re missing vital information on your first submission, you can be penalized as if you hadn’t completed the form in the first place.

To ensure your organization remains tax-exempt, be sure to double-check your submission before sending it in the IRS. According to the IRS website, “The date we receive a complete and accurate return is the date we consider your return filed.”

4. Leverage low-cost filing software.

One significant trend we’re seeing more of in the nonprofit space is organizations using online filing software rather than investing in a dedicated accountant. Especially for smaller organizations (with gross receipts under $200,000 per year and are eligible for the 990N or 990EZ), filing your annual tax return with the help of a dedicated e-filer is completely attainable.

Plus, the right software provider can help make sure you follow the first three tips as well. By ensuring you fill out your form completely before submitting it, offering guidance on selecting the form your organization needs, and sending automated reminders as your deadline approaches each year, a nonprofit tax filing software can help save your organization time and money that can be reinvested in your cause. Not to mention, your e-filer can even save relevant information year over year, making the re-filing process simpler than ever.

All in all, filing Form 990 is one of the most important things you can do as a nonprofit each year—both for IRS requirements and for ensuring complete transparency with your donors.

Mathew Tooker Headshot Mathew’s expertise is in sales forecasting, goal setting, client growth initiatives and business development and analytics. When he is not laser focused on moving organizations forward, you can find him spending time with his wife, Lauren, and two dogs, Reagan and Teddy, running marathons and watching the Atlanta Braves and Auburn sports.

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