Blogs

How Smart Web Design Boosts Donor Confidence & Grows Giving

By Anne Stefanyk posted 21 days ago
A well-designed website increases donor confidence and facilitates online giving, helping engage supporters and increase material support for your cause. If you don’t have a smart, thoughtful web design strategy, you’re missing out on a prime opportunity to grow supporter relationships. This guide explores the importance of intelligent web design for nonprofits and actionable steps you can take today to enhance your site for a better donor experience. Why Do Nonprofit Websites Need a Smart Design Strategy? What will your nonprofit organization gain from investing in web design? An aesthetically pleasing and well-structured website can drive ...

How to Gauge and Improve Your Nonprofit's Workplace Culture

By Stephanie Sparks posted 03-04-2025
While very rewarding, working in the nonprofit sector has its unique challenges; acing emotionally draining beneficiary situations, competing with businesses for top talent , and operating with constrained resources can be highly stressful. In fact, studies show that 95% of nonprofit professionals cite burnout as a major concern. However, having a supportive, capable team around you can mitigate these risks and make a huge difference in job satisfaction. That’s where strategically investing in workplace culture comes into play. In this guide, we’ll review three key steps for gauging and improving your workplace culture. Ultimately, you’ll ...

6 Tips for Overcoming CFRE Test Anxiety

By Ignatius John Alotto posted 02-18-2025
I have anxiety. It’s human to experience it. For those going through the CFRE certification process, it’s not uncommon to experience test anxiety when preparing for the CFRE exam. But I do know this … if you don’t control your test anxiety, it’ll be harder to pass the CFRE exam. In the novel, Dune , they say, “Fear is the mind killer.” I’d add that anxiety is the test-taking killer. Here are six strategies I suggest to help control your CFRE exam anxiety: Get enough sleep and eat healthy meals. That means giving up ice cream sandwiches, Good & Plenty, Milk Duds … I could go on. You must eat healthily and get enough sleep so you’re ...

Organizing Donor Focus Groups: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits

By Jay Love posted 02-04-2025
Understanding your donors is the key to successful communication, fundraising, and long-lasting relationships. By hosting donor focus groups, you can get to know your donors on a deeper level, allowing you to align future decisions with supporter expectations and preferences. Plus, donor focus groups provide an additional engagement opportunity that enables donors to get more involved in your mission beyond donating. Organizing a donor focus group requires careful planning to ensure you run a productive session where donors feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings about your organization. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to host ...

3 Supporter Engagement Opportunities Outside of Donating

By Kevin Penney posted 01-07-2025
Look at any nonprofit’s financial statements , and you’ll see that dollars only tell part of the story. The real strength lies in the community behind the numbers: volunteers, event attendees, and advocates who bring each mission to life. Sustainable impact comes from engaged supporters who do more than write checks—they show up, speak out, and lead. If you want to grow your career and make a lasting impact, discovering meaningful opportunities beyond traditional fundraising is essential. By becoming an expert in supporter engagement, you’ll gain valuable, transferable skills like strategic communication, adaptability, and community-building—assets ...

5 Steps to Recruit & Train Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers

By Sarah Sebastian posted 12-03-2024
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a powerful tool for nonprofits—it’s engaging, customizable, and puts less strain on your time and resources while empowering your supporters to take the lead. While peer-to-peer fundraising is not entirely hands-off, the payoff is well worth the effort! One of the first areas where an investment of your time will pay dividends throughout a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign is participant recruitment. Who you recruit to fundraise for your campaign and how you empower them will ultimately determine your success. Below, we walk through five key steps for effective peer-to-peer recruitment to give your nonprofit ...

4 Ways Ethical Fundraising Strengthens Donor Relationships

By Marla Smith posted 11-19-2024
Trust is at the heart of what makes a non-profit organization thrive. The relationships we cultivate on behalf of our organizations are the lifeblood of the work we do, and the foundation of those relationships is built on trust. Donors trust us to be transparent about how their money is used, to steward their gifts with care, and to align with their values and vision for the future. This trust doesn’t happen overnight—it’s nurtured over time. The ethical framework of an organization acts as the backbone that ensures trust and transparency are always upheld. Ethical fundraising isn’t just about following the rules; it’s about fostering a culture of openness ...

3 Ways To Attract Corporate Partners to Your Cause

By Jessica King posted 11-05-2024
Corporate partnerships aren’t just about funding—they’re about building relationships that benefit both your nonprofit and the company. As more corporations seek to enhance their brands through social impact, more nonprofits can unlock incredible support. Whether you need additional funding, volunteers, or marketing assistance, the right corporate partners can help you reach your goals and propel your mission forward. Attracting sponsors is a critical skill for fundraising professionals . Mastering this ability will not only help your nonprofit diversify its revenue streams but also secure long-term program-related resources. How can ...

Building a Nonprofit Board: 5 Tips for Recruiting Directors

By Aly Sterling posted 10-22-2024
Your board is an essential component of your nonprofit’s team. It provides governance and strategic direction to your nonprofit, ensuring everything runs smoothly and serves your mission. While you may already have a solid board in place, bringing fresh faces to your board can offer some much-needed new perspectives and help reinvigorate your organization’s overarching strategy. Whether you’re part of the 59% of nonprofits that instate board member term limits or not, adding new members can push your existing board to think in new ways and allow you to make a greater impact. But how do you find new members who are right for the job? The ...

4 Internal Controls For Preventing Fraud in Nonprofits

By Greg McRay posted 10-01-2024
Fraud presents a significant threat to fundraising dollars, causing a median loss of $76,000 each year for nonprofits. Protecting your organization’s revenue against this threat is vital to powering your mission. After all, every dollar counts when it comes to funding your programs and services. Fortunately, the key to safeguarding your resources is within your nonprofit’s own processes. The first line of defense against fraud is internal controls . In this guide, we’ll explore four internal controls your nonprofit should implement to prevent fraud. 1. Create a Fraud Policy To prevent, detect, and address fraudulent activities, ...

Nonprofit Impact Measurement Demystified: 4 FAQs Answered

By Stephen Minix posted 09-03-2024
As a fundraising professional, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day work of planning campaigns, building relationships with supporters, and making donation requests. Focusing on all these moving parts may sometimes leave you wondering, “Is our fundraising work truly making a difference to our beneficiaries?” In other words, you may wonder if your efforts, (or, more broadly, your organization’s programs or services) are having a positive impact on those you serve. To answer that question, you need to engage in carefu l impact m easurement . To help you get started, let’s tackle a few frequently asked questions about impact ...

How to Interpret the 4 Core Nonprofit Financial Statements

By Jon Osterburg posted 08-06-2024
No matter what position you hold at your nonprofit, having at least a general understanding of your organization’s financial situation is critical to furthering its mission. Finances play a major role in nonprofit management, strategic planning , and nearly every aspect of fundraising, among other activities. Since you likely have a lot on your plate as a fundraising professional, having resources that organize and summarize your nonprofit’s most important financial data is helpful, rather than sifting through hundreds of records to find the information you need at a given moment. Fortunately, your organization’s financial team is required to ...

AI and Prospect Research: What Your Nonprofit Should Know

By Sarah Tedesco posted 06-04-2024
Strategically soliciting major gifts has always been essential to nonprofits’ fundraising success. By conducting prospect research and cultivating potential donors, your organization can secure the significant contributions necessary to fund its most important initiatives. As a fundraising professional, you’ve likely also heard that a current trend in the nonprofit sector is the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into various fundraising processes—including major donor prospecting. In this quick guide, we'll explore the benefits of leveraging AI to enhance your prospect research process and provide actionable steps to implement it effectively. ...

Top Nonprofit Management Skills and How to Develop Them

By Caitlin Patterson posted 04-23-2024
Becoming a nonprofit manager is a career path that can provide highly rewarding opportunities to develop a wide skillset, lead with purpose, and unite a team of passionate individuals toward a common goal. However, because the nonprofit landscape is so diverse, there’s no universal roadmap for charting your course toward a successful management career. Instead, it’s important to embody and nurture the skills you need to build cohesion, uphold a positive workplace culture, and adapt to changing needs in your community. In this article, we’ll discuss four essential management skills and how you can develop them in your role. 1. Clear and Open Communication ...

Abusive, Arrogant, Arrested, and Awful Board Members

By Michael Baker posted 03-25-2024
In more than 20 years of consulting with over 100 nonprofit organizations, I’ve seen my share of conflicts, chaffing personalities, and troublemakers serving as board members. Destructive behaviors are a choice, just like when we teach our children to make good decisions and good consequences will follow, make a poor decision, and negative consequences generally follow. A board member’s sole purpose is to ensure the nonprofit’s success. For most individuals, they follow and lead to put the organization on a successful pathway. For a select few, their behaviors negatively impact the organizations they’re supposed to be helping! Leadership of an organization ...

Doing it for You: The Personal Importance of the CFRE Certification

By John Greenhoe posted 02-07-2024
There are many well investigated and delineated reasons for earning the CFRE certification. Certainly, career advancement, building donor trust, and elevating the fundraising profession are among the most oft-mentioned points. All are important. What inspired me to become a CFRE more than 20 years ago was far more personal, and a reason I rarely hear mentioned. Quite simply, I did it for ME. Although much has changed over the years, in some circles, many individuals still shudder at the thought of a career in fundraising. As we all know, it is a most noble profession, but it is also often grossly understood. Unfortunately, there are ...

Successfully Training Your Fundraising Team on AI: 3 Best Practices

By Joshua LaBorde posted 01-23-2024
When leveraged correctly by nonprofits, AI tools can elevate fundraising success. Just take a look at this image to see how AI can help with nonprofit fundraising: However, a tool is only ever as effective as its wielder. That’s why it’s imperative to train your nonprofit’s team members on properly using AI tools. If this is the first time you’re in charge of a team or implementing a large operational change for your nonprofit, we’ll guide you through three best practices for training your fundraising team on AI. 1. Establish a Responsible-use AI Policy Poor fundraising AI usage can lead ...

Fundraising Through Friction: 7 Tips From a Consultant to Manage Difficult Clients

By Amie Bossi posted 01-16-2024
As a fundraising consultant, I can say most clients are a joy to work with. However, the occasional "challenging" one is inevitable. These interactions, though stressful, can be navigated with grace and tact, ultimately strengthening my professional skills and client relationships. While every client is different and requires a unique approach, I find these general guidelines to be effective: 1. Identify the True Source of Conflict Before diving into solutions, understand the source of the difficulty. Is the client expressing/displaying: Misaligned expectations: Constant calls, unrealistic deadlines, ...

How to Tell Ethical and Impactful Stories for Your Nonprofit

By Ryan Felix posted 01-09-2024
Most of us enjoy a good story. Whether we’re watching the latest hit movie, reading a favorite novel, or listening to a friend talk about their recent vacation, stories hold our attention and engage our emotions. Besides its usefulness for entertainment and personal connection, storytelling can also make your fundraising appeals more inspirational. However, it’s easy to get caught up in showing how your nonprofit made a difference in your community and forget to consider the ethical implications that come with telling stories about real people. Because effective nonprofit storytelling involves balancing ethics with impact, this guide ...

Why Do Businesses Offer Matching Gifts? An Inside Look

By Adam Weinger posted 01-02-2024
Corporate giving is a powerful force in the fundraising world. More and more companies realize their duty to give back through philanthropy, and matching gifts are one of the easiest ways to accomplish that. This type of corporate giving empowers employees to direct their company’s philanthropic spending toward causes they care about. When an employee donates to a nonprofit, the company promises to match that donation, effectively doubling the contribution. While it seems like nonprofits primarily benefit from matching gifts, the positives are actually mutual. As a fundraising professional, it’s vital to know why ...