Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Navigation Bar

  • About
  • Services
  • What Clients Say
  • Contact

Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Event Management Tips for Nonprofit Fundraisers

October 1, 2024 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by John Killoran, Clover Leaf Solutions

Did you know that nonprofits are more likely to reach their fundraising goals when they host in-person or hybrid events? Planning a face-to-face fundraiser is a big job, but it pays off. With solid event management tips, your nonprofit can do more than reach its fundraising goals—you can inspire continuous support and secure donor loyalty for the long haul.

That’s where this guide comes in! Let’s review three event management tips to help your nonprofit’s next event exceed expectations.

1. Create an event-planning calendar.

Most event management activities happen before the event even starts. To host a successful fundraiser, your team must have plenty of time to plan it.

This means you’ll need to create a timeline for when each event-planning task will take place. For example, let’s say your nonprofit is hosting a silent auction. Your calendar may look something like this:

  • 10 months before the event 
      • Define the purpose and goals of your event
      • Create an event plan, including logistics like event date and venue
      • Establish an event budget
      • Choose fundraising software
      • Set up a procurement committee to acquire auction items
      • Create an auction marketing plan
  • Six months before the event 
      • Choose auction items for your item catalog
      • Reach out to potential event sponsors
      • Plan volunteer roles and schedules
      • Start promoting the event on social media
      • Order any custom printing service items, like event signage
  • Two months before the event 
      • Open event registration
      • Recruit volunteers
      • Plan your follow-up materials to thank donors and volunteers
      • Test event technology
      • Finalize catering
  • Two weeks before the event
    • Close registration and finalize attendance headcount
    • Finalize your timeline for the day of the event, including set-up and breakdown
    • Organize day-of supplies
    • Train volunteers on event procedures
    • Make a final event promotion push on social media

Remember, this calendar is dedicated to all your pre-event tasks. Create a separate calendar for day-of activities to keep your to-do list organized.

2. Engage with your audience.

When it comes to generating excitement about your event, you’ll have to do more than just tell people it’s happening. Your communication strategy should get donors excited about your fundraiser!

To do this, use a variety of outreach types, including:

  • Direct outreach. Many nonprofits focus their marketing efforts on general swaths of donors, volunteers, or potential supporters. While this audience is important, don’t forget the individuals already in your corner! Personally reaching out to stakeholders already invested in your nonprofit’s success, like existing donors, volunteers, board members, and corporate partners, makes them more likely to attend.
  • Personalized outreach. Custom outreach hones in on why specific audiences should be interested in your event, making them more likely to attend. Use what you know about individual donors to create personalized messaging that appeals to them. For example, tell a college-aged supporter about the dorm decorations you’re auctioning off at your fundraiser.
  • Broad outreach. Use communication channels that target entirely new audiences. For example, social media posts can appear in front of users who don’t follow your nonprofit’s account. Also, internet searchers can stumble upon your nonprofit’s website if you market it correctly. As NXUnite explains, search tools increase your nonprofit’s visibility online. By driving more traffic to your website, you can engage a bigger audience than ever before.

Beyond spreading the word about your event, you can also use these strategies to follow up after the fundraiser. For example, broad outreach might include sharing photos and fundraising results on your social media channels. Save your personalized outreach to thank attendees individually.

3. Use fundraising software.

There’s plenty for your team to do when planning your fundraiser. But the right tools can make the difference between simply executing your plans and improving overall efficiency.

Fundraising software can handle everything from event registration to payment processing and donor communications. How do you choose the right tool to manage your event? It depends on what type of event you’re hosting.

Let’s think back to our example of an auction fundraiser. Snowball’s auction software guide recommends following these three steps:

The three steps to choosing nonprofit auction software, which are listed below.

  1. Determine your nonprofit’s needs. Think about how you’ll make your fundraiser happen. For example, what tools do you need to run it? What features would help you engage donors? Answering these questions can narrow your search for a tool that meets your nonprofit’s specific needs.
  2. Set a budget. The amount your nonprofit spends on fundraising software depends on the features it offers—but you should still spend wisely. If you purchase all-in-one software, you can use the same tool to host different fundraisers. In other words, you’ll get more bang for your buck.
  3. Compare products. Gather a list of potential software providers and choose the one that stands out the most. To ensure you make the right choice, schedule a demo and meetings with product experts first to see your favorite tools in action.

For the best results, choose fundraising software with multiple capabilities. A solution that can manage auctions, mobile giving campaigns, and a host of other fundraisers will have more than enough features to run a successful event. This way, your nonprofit can diversify its funding streams and raise more overall.


John Killoran head shotAuthor: John Killoran

John 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.

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

July 27, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

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. Share on X

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.

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: Remember the Postscript. Donors Do!

February 13, 2018 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Surprising but true: without a good postscript, your donors may not even read your nonprofit’s appeal letter. And that would be a shame.

How a Postscript Says “Read This Letter”

Postscript to fundraising appeal

The p.s. is the second thing donors read–after their own name!

Very few of us read a letter from top to bottom, in order.

  • First, the envelope helps us decide whether to open and read it at all.
  • Second, the salutation draws us in or pushes us away.
  • Images, captions, and subheadings all catch the eye before we ever look at the main text of the letter.

Above all (or below all!), the postscript grabs the reader’s attention. Direct mail expert Gary Henricksen quotes research that tells us:

Over 90 percent of readers read the PS before the letter. It is the first paragraph, not the last. Share on X

Postscripts Raise Money

It stands to reason that the p.s.helps your nonprofit get more donations. After all, how many donors are going to pitch your letter in the recycling bin and still give you money? But don’t take it from me. Ask the experts.

Decades of eye motion studies have shown that the first two things readers look at when opening a letter are their name and the postscript. –John Killoran

A donor reading a P.S. is a donor looking for information. And that’s your opportunity. –Alan Sharpe

In direct mail (and sometimes email), the PS is the most important thing you write. It’s one of the most-read parts of your message. It’s worth spending some time on to make it really sing. –Jeff Brooks

The P.S. gives you a chance to reinforce your message and include a strong call to action right above the reply device. –Emily Hunsaker

So craft a postscript with

  1. What you’re asking people to give to
  2. How much you’re asking them to give
  3. And a deadline for when that gift should be given –Marc Pitman

Remember:  A good PS offers some or all of the following:

  • A sense of urgency
  • Appreciation
  • A tangible way to help
  • A specific amount of money to give
  • An ask for monthly giving
  • A limited time opportunity –Rebecca H. Davis

Why Aren’t You Writing a Postscript?

There are all these reasons for including a p.s. with every fundraising letter, and very few reasons not to.  So I’m glad to say that out of the 72 nonprofit organizations who sent me a year-end appeal, most of them (39) included a postscript.

Some of them chose to reinforce the message “Give now.” They said just that, “Give today”–or they gave me a link so I could donate online, immediately, instead of putting their letter into the pile.

Some of them gave me a tangible reason to give. They offered to send me a premium if I made my donation before the end of the year, or they appealed to my generosity by telling me my gift would be matched two or three times.

Some told me I would make a difference. Some asked me, “Do you want to accomplish” some amazing result–and urged me to answer “Yes!”

You can find samples of great postscripts just by clicking the links in this post. If you feel creative, great: write your own! But being original is not important. Capturing the reader’s attention while you have it, is.

P.S. Don’t Miss Your Chance to Get More Gifts!

If you are like the 33 other nonprofits who asked me for money at the end of 2017–the one who didn’t include a postscript–you may have missed your chance.

“May have.” Perhaps you’ve done the research, and your particular set of donors is unlike the vast majority. Maybe they read every word. Maybe they find a p.s. annoying. And maybe they are so loyal that they will give to your organization no matter what you send.

I wouldn’t bet on it.

And that is what you’re doing if you don’t include a P.S. in your fundraising appeal. You are betting the financial success of your organization on the hope that your donors are so special, you don’t have to do what works.

And if you’re wrong, some other organization is getting the donations you were hoping the donor would send to you.

Why not try it out? Make this year the year you start using postscripts to get more donations.

 


This is the second of a series about improving your nonprofit’s fundraising appeal letters that will appear on Communicate! throughout the next two months. Next up: the photo.

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

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