Tag Archives: social media

Things you should know about year-end giving

November 19, 2014Latest Newscharitable organization, charity, community-benefit, December, donate, donor, fundraising, giving, giving strategy, Holiday giving, how to donate money, make a donation, nonprofit, November, npo, online giving, philanthropy, Season of Giving, social media, why donate, wise giving, year-end givingpete

The final two months of the calendar year can provide a significant amount of support for charitable organizations, if leveraged properly. Through working with many non-profit organizations, coupled with extensive research, we strong believe in the power of the Season of Giving.

Let the following statistics state our case.

The average total amount holiday givers plan to donate is $281.
22% of donors will contribute to just one organization
55% of donors will spread their contributions across two to three organizations
23% of donors will give to four or more nonprofit groups.
Two-thirds plan to donate the same amount as last year, and 12% plan to increase their contributions this holiday season.

If that’s not enough, enjoy these statistics:

Between 35%-42% of online giving happens in November and December.
About 40% of online gifts are made in December.
For many charities, giving in December brings in about 1/3 of the fundraising dollars.
Online giving happens largely between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Online giving (by dollars) on December 31 is concentrated between 10a.m. and 6 p.m. in each time zone.
For many organizations, more than 20% of all giving for the entire year occurs in the last 48 hours of the calendar year.

Have you implemented your year-end giving strategy? Do you have one?

Campaigns we help design can see benefits in three primary areas:
Revenue

You can raise a little or a lot – either way, it provides new funding
Each non-profit is different – varying sizes, varying needs, varying degrees of public presence, varying depths of constituencies
Roughly 40% of all giving comes in during month of December

Exposure

Solid year-end campaign can create a lot of exposure
Local media can play a key role. In most communities, local newspapers, radio stations, and tv networks actively seek ‘feel good’ and ‘community inspiring’ stories
Social media creates increasing connections and relationships
Email marketing remains a strong tool to engage your existing database of constituents

New supporters

In the form of new donors and volunteers, a public relations campaign can lure in new batch of supporters
Recruits people who were unfamiliar with the organization
Gives your development team a great source of new leads to prospect

If you don’t have a year-end giving strategy, contact us right away. Though we’re just weeks away from the new year, it’s not too late to maximize the opportunity.

Seven tips for fundraising success

May 13, 2014Latest Newsanalysis, asking for money, benefactor, best practice, board, building relationships, cause, charity, charity rating, charity strengths, charity weaknesses, charity wishlist, connect to charity, connecting donors, constituent, contribute, development, donate, engaging constituents, fundraising, funds, generate awareness, GiftingWishes, giving, HealthCheck, how to make connections, how to raise funds, innovative giving, leadership, leadership assessment, network, networking, nonprofit, nonprofit assessment, nonprofit growth, nonprofit success, NPcatalyst, online donations, online giving, organization, philanthropy, raising money, relationship building, social media, solicitation, solution, steward, stewarding donors, Strategic giving, strategic planning, strategy, using volunteerspete

Raising funds for charitable organizations can be difficult; certainly time-consuming. It’s a patient process, requiring considerable research, planning, and organization. The word “development” is a perfect fit to the process an organization goes through to generate a meaningful contribution.

When it comes to raising funds for your organizations, here’s a handful of tips to consider adding to your overall fund development strategy. They have represented the centerpiece of our success. They’re not listed in any specific order, but you’ll quickly recognize where and how they fit in your strategy.

Identify strengths and weaknesses

Understand the organization – from operations to personnel to policies to financial management. Recognize the causes and implement solutions to each. Be sure to dot every “I” and cross every “t”.

Offer innovative giving

The one constant between most non-profit organizations is the ability to accept cash contributions. Every donor knows this. However, savvy donors (charitable investors) seek greater information, transparency, accountability, and results from their contributions. A strong percentage of them seek unique and innovative giving methods.

Create solicitation strategies

Know your constituents. An engaged leader is a gem and, as nonprofit leaders, it’s our obligation to strive for their full potential. One great way to really get to know supporters is to design solicitation (or engagement) strategies for each. Start by creating a Prospect/Donor Profile for each, used to document their interest, involvement, willingness, and capability. Mapping a solicitation strategy will force you to be strategic about cultivating each constituent’s involvement. This one act involves and is influenced by the other six tips offered here.

Engage constituents

From prospect identification to board leadership to donor stewardship, your benefactors are your organization’s greatest vehicles of success. Engage them through key steps of the fund development process. You’ll be amazed at their ideas, insight, and perseverance.

Generate active awareness

Tell your story to the world. Shout it regularly through local media and through your social media avenues. Be sure you focus on strengths and opportunities and that any weaknesses are addressed. Distribute clear messages and keep your messaging timely. Encourage staff, volunteers, and donors to share the messages through personal, personable, and electronic means.

Network

It’s a seven-letter word that, for many non-profit leaders, is more like a four-letter word – work. There’s no better way to prospect new supporters, whether they’re future volunteer or donor leaders. It involves stepping out of your routine, forces you to fine-tune your 30-second elevator speech, and smile even if you’re having a difficult day. Ask any business leader, networking produces results. Get out there and make friends and share your organization’s story, needs, and opportunities.

Steward donors

Perhaps the most detrimental cause of recent organizational failure might not have been solely the economic crash. Is your organization at fault for not properly recognizing donations and, more importantly, developing strong relationships with its donors? Stewarding donors strengthens the lifeblood of non-profit organizations. Pick up the phone, send an email, direct a tweet, say hello in the store, high-five at a ballgame, and send a card. These are the little ways that magnify the “engage constituents” tip into truly rewarding alliances. Make each donor feel as if he/she is in the middle of the game.

Perhaps one that should be listed is “have fun”…development and non-profit leadership should be exciting, rewarding, meaningful, challenging, and fun. Make the most of it!

An incredible first year for NPcatalyst

March 2, 2012Latest Newscharity, community, GiftingWishes, give, HealthCheck, media, nonprofit, NPcatalyst, philnathropy, social media, solution, volunteerpete

Athough we’re already in the third month of the year 2012, we haven’t really taken an opportunity to reflect upon the first year of NPcatalyst LLC. Like any new or innovative idea, there are many twists and turns and unforeseen obstacles. However, with the right team, positive outlook, and extreme passion, the good far outweighs the uncertainty.

We took a few minutes last night to test a new tool to paint a picture of our initial year of operation.

Here’s to an even more amazing year in 2012.

Yours in Community,

Pete

NPcatalyst designing year-end giving campaign

August 15, 2011Latest Newsbest practices, charity, charity rating, fundraising, HealthCheck, non-profit, online giving, philanthropy, social media, wise giving, year-endpete

NPcatalyst has designed a campaign to raise funds for interested organizations through a unique year-end giving initiative. The campaign will remind and drive support from community residents, private foundations, and business leaders as they make contributions to organizations before the close of the calendar year.

Non-profit organizations (regardless of size, scope, sector, or location) are invited to participate in the innovative campaign, but need to enlist with NPcatalyst prior to November 1st. Through a small participation fee, each organization will receive:

an organizational assessment (charity rating) and best practices solutions guide;
invitation to participate in up to three fundraising-driven webinar training sessions;
inclusion in NPcatalyst’s social media and traditional media messaging;
direct positioning with NPcatalyst’s expanding roster of corporate, foundation, and philanthropic influencers;
an online profile, featured on the NPcatalyst website; and,
a special contributions-tailored profile on a soon-to-be-announced Campaign website.

Signing up well in advance enables the participating organizations to address areas deemed as weak or needing improvement, based on the charity rating score determined by NPcatalyst’s HealthCheck tool. It’s an organization assessment (or charity rating) tool, which analyzes each organization in five different categories, then provides a best practices solutions guide for improvement in each area. Click the following link – www.npcatalyst.com/healthcheck/ – and learn more about the HealthCheck tool which the NPcatalyst team created. Best of all, it’s a great revenue-generating tool. In fact, here’s a testimonial:
“What I’m coming to understand about the value of this HealthCheck process is not necessarily the rating itself (though that’s important), but the best-practices it ends up prompting. To that end NPcatalyst is doing great work ensuring that we’re adhering to those best practices.” – Jonathan Mueller, executive director of Sierra Nevada Journeys

NPcatalyst was founded to provide philanthropic solutions to both donors and the charitable organizations they support. Pete Parker, managing partner of the firm, has helped non-profit organizations raise over $30,000,000 through appealing and innovative annual, major, capital, and online giving campaigns. Most recently, the firm create a corporate engagement campaign which connected community residents in throughout northern Nevada with over 15,000 volunteer opportunities.

The year-end giving campaign is an opportunity non-profit organizations should seriously consider. To sweeten the invitation, NPcatalyst is offering the charity rating, best practices guide, public relations messaging, and year-end fundraising campaign at $375, a heavily-discounted rate from the $450 base price. With a targeted fundraising goal of $5,000 per organization, it’s an incredible opportunity. Taking advantage of this two-week offer, which ends on August 31st, requires each organization to send an email to info@npcatalyst.com or call 775-333-9444.

Networking for Non-Profit Success

May 24, 2009Latest Newsnetworking, non-profit, non-profit management, social media, traditional networkingpete

Originally posted on 2/20/09 at http://parkerdevelopment.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/networking-for…profit-success/.

Networking for Non-Profit Success

I was asked a few weeks ago by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Northern Nevada Chapter) to be the presenting speaker at the February luncheon. After a good laugh, I asked about the subject matter. The response was Networking. After another good laugh, I accepted…on a condition (we’ll get to that).

Now, I love to network. With each person I meet or get connected to, a new possibility or opportunity emerges. Because I’m on a personal (and now, professional) mission to enhance the level of philanthropy and community action in our community, I’m constantly participating in networking activities. However, difficulties arose when I began to prepare for my presentation.

I tend to put all my effort into everything I do, whether it relates to a client, a volunteer activity or program or my friends and family. So, when I began to think about my presentation, considerable stress insued. See, networking is all about connecting with others, sharing stories and creating opportunities. This is just as important for the corporate sector as it is the non-profit community. Problem is, I was limited to time on a subject that I absolutely love and find incredibly valuable.

I spearheaded my research by sending a survey to all those on the local AFP mailing list. I was curious to see if my hunches were correct. These included:

very few non-profit leaders actively participate in network opportunities, particularly those of the “traditional” sense

very few non-profit executives knew about social media

many non-profit professionals were hesitant to participate in both

It was a very simple survey and only completed by 30% of our membership, but it proved my thoughts. If you’re interested, here’s the link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VBd1q7956Y9WzFg9dTY1UQ_3d_3d. In fact, go ahead and complete it (90 seconds of your life). I’ll present the results soon.

Since they asked me, one of their own, to present on networking, I was destined to provide considerable information, as opposed to making it an open forum for Q & A. I did, however, conduct a “speed networking” exercise (my original demand).

This was required for three specific reasons. First, networking can be a bit frightening if you either don’t know how to start a conversation or are afraid to step outside your “comfort zone.” Second, I only see four or five other non-profit professionals on the local networking circuit. While this benefits the small group of us, it doesn’t speak well to our local non-profit community. And lastly, NPOs can easily apply the method, internally, at donor receptions, volunteer trainings and new staff orientations. I think the exercise went well.

I allocated half of my presentation on “traditional” networking, as just described, as well as social media. I’ve been using social media for some time now, but was amazed at the amount of information regarding social networking. Holy cow did I find a lot. Making matters worse (and stress), I couldn’t stop researching the topic.

I hadn’t planned on using Powerpoint with my presentation but, since I’m a stat and info freak, I decided to use it. I prefer speaking, person to person (individual and group), rather than using a display. I prefer eyes on me and for people to truly listen to me almost as much as I listen to them. I think using Powerpoint was very effective, given that most people in the room hadn’t seen any social media stats.

Rather than going into great detail about the networking presentation, take a look at it for yourself.

It’s also located on my website at http://www.npcatalyst.com/networkingpresentation-mini.ppt. If it doesn’t load properly, then drop me an email at petep (at) npcatalyst.com.

Make it a great day.