June 2010 Entries
In the USA, the death rate continues to decline, ministries need to realize that this represents a significant challenge to fundraising without appropriate action. As donors age, resources often become more limited, and the charities they support will feel this effect. However, much of this can be alleviated by ministries encouraging their donors to investigate planned giving.
At first, some donors object to this idea, because they want to make a difference right now and give to an immediate need. “However, if presented strategically, donors may better understand the importance of testamentary gifts, a gift that can keep an organization’s legacy...
posted @ Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:10 AM |
The latest statistics on online giving has been released by Convio Strategies. These statistics will help you evaluate your own organization and provide insight for changes or additions to make in your online fundraising.
The key statistics from the report were:
--“ Online giving grew 14 percent despite a difficult economy. Overall, 69 percent of organizations raised more in 2009 than 2008, while 31 percent saw declines in their online fundraising.”
--“ An increase in gifts drove fundraising gains.”—92% of organizations that increased the number of gifts they received expanded their fundraising, rather than those that increased the amount of the gift.
--“ Small...
posted @ Monday, June 28, 2010 10:39 AM |
61% of fundraisers expect 2010 giving to increase from 2009, the Association of Fundraising Professionals found in a poll of 692 fundraisers. So with this optimism, you can make this increased giving a reality. To help you, we have created a basic list of our free resources.
1) Visit our website (www.christianfoundationgrants.com) and go to our Resources page—There, you will find many grant-writing and fundraising resources to help you in the process.
2) Do a little reading and research—On the left side of our blog, you can view the different categories we have available and sign up for the RSS feed options...
posted @ Wednesday, June 23, 2010 2:52 PM |
There are many viable approaches to funding your ministry, however, you should establish a plan in order to ensure that you choose and carry out the best options.
Naturally, brainstorming must precede the actual development of your fundraising plan. Here are a couple questions to get you started:
Who are your audiences?—Knowing the different groups of people will have a significant impact on what approaches you use.
What resources do you already use?—Evaluate the resources you currently have so that...
posted @ Monday, June 21, 2010 10:10 AM |
Do you want to receive grants? This is the one change you need to make.
Here in the non-profit world, we have become quite adept at following rules and completing instructions. I am not here to advocate throwing all these off, but I do fear that we have lost our sense of story. Think about it. Why are social networks flourishing? People want to know about what is truly occurring, even if just in 160 characters or less.
It’s time to listen to what donors and research are telling you. Story-telling. It is becoming vital to fundraising success for ministries to rethink...
posted @ Friday, June 18, 2010 11:24 AM |
One of the essential elements of a nonprofit is its board. This brings up the question though of how involved should board members be in their own contributions and fundraising roles for the nonprofit. As I have followed various discussions, it seems there is quite the variety of perspectives. “Give or get” seems to be the predominant mentality. However, there is not one correct mentality for all nonprofits. Let’s examine a few of the options.
1) “Give or Get”—This model suggests that board members should be active and freely generous in supporting the organization, or ‘get’ off the board.
While I am...
posted @ Wednesday, June 16, 2010 10:39 AM |
Your ministry is needed, and your work is valued.
Often, we in the field of ministry go for long times without hearing words of encouragement or hope. This economy certainly has not provided any of that, yet I challenge you to take a moment of reflection. There is still cause for hope.
Because I help research private foundations, I have followed the giving trends. You might actually be surprised at what you find. Though there was an overall decrease in giving, many foundations sought innovative ways of giving and others even increased their giving. Grants for faith-based organizations and other organizations close...
posted @ Monday, June 14, 2010 9:51 AM |
This rule is essential to success. More accurately spelled out, “you” before “I” is the key for compelling communication. Let’s take ministry newsletters for an example.
When a donor reads a newsletter, what are they hoping to find there? At first, it would seem the answer would be is that they want to read about the ministry. In a sense this is true, but there’s more to the picture. Donors want to read about the ministry and see themselves as part of it.
What does this look like? It’s the concept of “you” before “I.” A ministry can list all its services...
posted @ Friday, June 11, 2010 9:30 AM |
“If only we had the money for _____” For many ministries, this seems to be a common phrase. At Christian Foundation Grants, we are on a mission this summer to help ministries get rid of that phrase.
How would you like grant-writing templates, a complete handbook of ministry resources, listing of matching grant programs, step by step instructions for writing grants, and more?
The cost? It’s FREE.
Christian Foundation Grants (CFG) has offered the Free Access subscription for over a year now for ministries all across the USA and the rest of the world, and it has proved to be one of...
posted @ Wednesday, June 09, 2010 11:14 AM |
Online fundraising has become close to a fundraising "norm" now. While this is an exciting change, it means as well that now non-profits must be innovative in how they promote and use their online fundraising tools. To utilize this way of fundraising to its fullest capacity, one must seek a variety of perspectives.
Consider a few of these perspectives:
1) Offline-- Of course this sounds strange at first, offline online fundraising?? Think about it again though. Too many people rely just on the idea that people will find their website through an online search and be compelled to donate. While this can be true,...
posted @ Monday, June 07, 2010 11:27 AM |
There are three categories of wealthy donors who give online, according to Joanne Fritze. In this article, we will review these categories and make suggestions for action items you can implement in your approach.
1) “Relationship Seekers”
The research from Convio, Sea Change Strategies, and Edge Research shows these statistics about this group:
--They make up 30% of the wealthy online donors with the average age of 48
--Nearly 90% have given online
--Over 50% say they prefer online giving
--42% read most charity emails
--42% use social networks
From these statistics and further research, the general characteristic about this group is that they are looking for...
posted @ Friday, June 04, 2010 9:01 AM |
SEO, tracking metrics, or linking would not normally come up on a ministry’s list of priorities, but let’s pause a moment. Seeing how one’s website is doing and making improvements are a lot easier than one might imagine. Here is a one word solution:
Analytics.
Subscribing to a service that provides website analytics is a simple way to see who is coming to your site, why they are coming, what they are looking at, how many choose to donate, when the site is most visited, and other such valuable information. To take a tour of what Google Analytics looks like and what...
posted @ Wednesday, June 02, 2010 1:53 PM |