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How Small and Large Nonprofits Use Social Media

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As social networks grow in popularity, nonprofits of all sizes must figure out how they spend their time using them, which networks to focus on, and what skills to hire for. But big groups and small groups often have different approaches to these challenges.

Spotlight

American Welding Society

Our organization is headquartered in Doral, Florida, but we also conduct events and individual section and district meetings around the United States and in international locations. We also provide industry standards for welding and joining of metal, plastics, and other materials through our codes and certification procedures.

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NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

Utilize an Email Marketing Strategy to Drive More Donations

Article | July 14, 2022

When creating your nonprofit fundraising and donations strategy, email marketing should be on the top of the list of channels to use to support your efforts. However, 70% of nonprofits do not have an email marketing strategy, despite 26% of online donors saying email marketing is what inspires them to give. Email marketing can help nonprofits reach their fundraising goals by helping expand reach, develop a loyal donor base and drive more donations. Build an Email Marketing Strategy Implementing email marketing may seem intimidating to some, but once you have an effective strategy in place, it will act as a blueprint and support all your goals moving forward. When you start building your strategy, it’s important to spend time developing a unique strategy that aligns with your mission and goals. Consider these questions: Who is your target audience? How are you collecting email addresses? What types of emails will you send? What types of content do you want to share in those emails? What will your emails look like? What is the layout? What is the design based on? How often do you plan to send emails? What platform will you use? Does it integrate with your donor database and have all the features you need to implement your strategy? Email marketing is the most effective and successful when there's a strategic plan in place. Creating a detailed strategy that answers the questions above will provide your nonprofit with the stepping stones needed to set your email marketing efforts up for success and help meet your overall fundraising goals. Send Emails Once you have a strategy and execution plan in place, you’re ready to start sending your messages to your audience. Email subscribers want to hear from you, but you need to be sure you are sending engaging messages to the right audiences. When you start sending your emails, plan to send a mix of different messages to your audience. Email marketing is an effective channel to not only fundraise but to help subscribers stay engaged and keep donor retention high. A great example would be to include advocacy emails in your plans. Advocacy emails include newsletters and impact stories. These types of emails help your subscriber feel valued as a donor as they’re seeing the direct impact of their support. As you start and continue to send emails, always track each email's performance. This helps you determine what is working and what is not working. By tracking key metrics, like click-through rates, conversation rates and donations per email, you will be able to continuously improve your strategy and the emails you are sending. Follow Best Practices As you begin to execute your email strategy, there are a few key best practices I recommend following to help increase engagement, donations, and overall performance of your emails. Personalize the email for your subscribers. Personalized emails can generate donations up to six times more compared to a generalized email. Make sure your emails are well-designed with compelling imagery that helps the donor visualize your mission and the impact of their donations. Provide clear calls to action in each email you send and always include a “Donate” button in all your communications. Include social sharing buttons and links to your social channels in all your email communications. Emails with social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by as much as 158% and help expand your reach by allowing donors to recommend and share your nonprofit with their network. Create an email cadence so you are regularly communicating with your audience throughout the year. For every 1,000 fundraising emails delivered, nonprofits raised $78, so it is in your best interest to continuously send messages to your subscribers. Start by sending emails monthly and then experiment with increasing the frequency of emails per month and see what works best for your nonprofit. Utilizing email marketing is key to having a successful fundraising strategy for your nonprofit. By building a well-thought-out strategy and implementing it, you will be able to engage, retain and convert subscribers into a loyal donor base.

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NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

The Psychology Behind Donations

Article | July 20, 2022

Are you expecting all donors to be the same? If you answered “no…well actually… kinda,” then you are not alone. It’s simple to send out the same fundraising message to everyone. However, you can transform your fundraising when you understand that there are many reasons why a person chooses to donate to a nonprofit. Once you understand the psychology of donating to charity, you can then best appeal to current and potential donors. Why do Donors Give? Along a spectrum, there are two extremes that prevent nonprofits from using donation psychology in their fundraising messages. On one end, the person making the ask – the Executive Director, Development person or Board member – assumes all donors have the same motivations for giving that they do. This translates into single-focused messaging that appeals to the person making the ask and to some donors, but not to others. On the other end of the spectrum when a nonprofit neglects philanthropy psychology, the person making the ask becomes paralyzed. They fear offending donors by asking at the “wrong” time. They focus on external, societal crises, such as the pandemic, wars, tragedies, and make a decision for the donor that this is the wrong time to be asked for a gift. They assume that the donor would be offended if asked. The Millennial Impact Project studied why donors across generations start giving. Unexpectedly, according to the researcher, Derrick Feldmann, donors first give because they want to belong. They desire to join their friends or be a part of a cause doing the good they wish to see in the world – this is before they understand what the cause or nonprofit is seeking to accomplish. As they gain that sense of belonging and begin believing in the cause, they can be motivated to continue to give when the nonprofit taps into their giving style. The Seven Faces of Philanthropy was groundbreaking research published in 1994 that has been updated and is still relevant today. In summary, the researchers found that donors give for different reasons. Some donors give because they enjoy the act of giving, especially through events. More donors prefer to donate to local charities or make a long-lasting impact through their investments. Other donors desire to repay or pay forward in gratitude through their giving. Others give because of religious or altruistic reasons. Then, there are donors who see giving as a family tradition and, if applicable, to teach their children generosity. Understanding the donor’s motivations for giving guides a nonprofit in developing the right message, using the right fundraising methods and segmenting to the right group of donors. How Can you Encourage Your Donors to Give? Now that you understand the psychology behind making a philanthropic gift, you can implement this knowledge to customize your fundraising appeals. First, you will need to determine why your donors give. This is done through discussions with Board members, personal conversations with donors, and through donor surveys. It begins with a simple question, “Why do you give to…?” The answers will assist you in creating donor identities; that is, the types of identities or groups where donors wish to belong. Sample identities could be “community leader” or “survivor” or “change maker.” Next, based on what you learned from your current donors, pick the top two or three donor motivations and associated identities. Alter your current messaging and fundraising methods to these giving reasons. The messaging and methods that inspire your current donors will likely attract more donors. Begin testing your messaging for these two to three reasons: Which message has the highest engagement in response and donation? This will be your primary message that you will rotate with the secondary messages. As you further explore your donor’s psychology for giving, you can advance to segmenting your communications based on what will motivate groups of donors to give. Once you understand donor psychology, you will wonder how you missed the clues to why your donors give – and be ready to catch future donors by staying one step ahead of their giving habits.

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NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

How Donor Data Can Inform Better Donor Experiences

Article | July 29, 2022

Although we recommend talking directly with your donors to learn what matters to them, one-on-one conversations aren’t the only way to gain valuable information about your donors. Through analysis of the donor data in your fundraising software, you can obtain insights that will help you create a better experience for your donors, and motivate them to give more over time. Here’s what you can learn from the numbers and how you can apply this knowledge to improve your donor experience. Biographic and Demographic Information: This particular donor data isn’t snazzy, but it provides you with important tools to use in donor communications. Here’s what you can do with it. Preferred Name: Even something as simple as addressing your donors by their preferred names or nicknames will go a long way toward building a meaningful relationship. Employment: Improve the timing of your emails by sending to full-time individuals when they’re at work. Age: Millennials are more likely to check social media or text messages for communications, while Baby Boomers are more likely to use email or even snail mail. A multi-channel communication strategy, however, is the best thing to help you reach your donors where they’re at. Educational Background: While someone’s education level may provide insights about their capacity to give, consider looking at what your contacts were involved in while in school. Did they join clubs that provide a clue about their interests? Did they hold certain leadership positions that tell you what they’re committed to? What community service projects were they active in? This information can help you customize your communications more meaningfully. Involvement History: Monetary giving isn’t the only indicator of a donor’s interest in your organization. When you’re putting together your campaign lists, don’t forget to look at other historical indicators as well. Note: If you’re already using Network for Good’s simple, smart fundraising software, demographic details, like the ones above, need to be individually added as “Custom Fields” to a constituent’s record. Involvement in Advocacy Work: If an individual advocates for charities or causes, he or she is usually serious about making a difference and seeks to do so in other ways. Corporate Sponsorships: If someone has organized a corporate sponsorship for her or his place of employment, the individual has demonstrated a willingness to go the extra mile foryour organization. Showing Up at Events: If you have regulars who appear at your events, they’re prime candidates to get more involved. An events platform that integrates directly with your fundraising software can be a key tool here in making sure you’re following up with the right people. Network of Connections: Prospective donors will always be more willing to respond if a friend or business connection has introduced your organization to them. If you think an individual would be willing to contribute to your nonprofit, look at who in your donor database is connected to that person and ask for an introduction. This strategy can also be used for raising corporate sponsorships. Hobbies: Hobbies and interests will tell you who’s most likely to participate in your events. They’ll also give you ideas about what types of events will be most popular with your contacts. Here are a few ideas: Games: Trivia night, bingo, or board games. Outdoors: Run/Walk, golf or fishing tournament, or softball. Food & Drink: Wine tasting, celebrity chef or bartender, or profit share at a restaurant. Music: Benefit concert, talent show, or Battle of the Bands Arts & Culture: Group night at the theatre, charity poetry reading, or author meet-and-greet. Timing of Gifts: When do individuals give? If someone tends to make donations at a certain time of year, your request will probably be welcomed (and successful!) if you ask at that time. Using tools such as the “Giving” filters to conduct donor analysis can help determine if there are trends around a particular time of year for one (or multiple) donors – and knowing the timing of gifts will also help you spend your marketing dollars more wisely. If someone has given within a year-long time period, that person is much more likely to give again than someone who gave two years ago. You can allocate your marketing resources more intelligently if you know who is more likely to donate. These are just a few ideas on how to use your data to not only build a stronger donor experience but also increase your fundraising revenue. Learn why the donor experience is vital to a successful organization and how to implement an effective donor experience program by downloading “A Better Donor Experience: Is it the Cornerstone of Donor Loyalty?”

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NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

7 Reasons to Invest in a Volunteer Program

Article | May 20, 2022

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit. Your services, fundraising campaigns, and even day-to-day operations of your nonprofit can depend on volunteers. An estimated 30 percent of Americans or 77.9 million people reported they volunteered for an organization or association.” AmeriCorps published survey So, if people want to volunteer, the key to garner willing volunteers is to: Communicate your needs Share your “why” Make it easy While all nonprofits know they need volunteers, investing time and energy into building a program can naturally fall by the wayside. As you look to recruit and retain volunteers, a best practice is to put a strategic volunteer program in place. You may be asking, “What’s the benefit to me, the nonprofit?” Let’s dive into it! First, let’s start with the basics — what are the top reasons to invest in a volunteer program? We’ve got you covered. A dynamic volunteer program: Creates ambassadors for your mission. Volunteers spread the word in your community and increase your community engagement. They can advocate for you with their friends, family, and local and state legislatures. Provide your volunteers with messaging so they can share their “why” on social media and by word of mouth. One pro tip shared by Points of Light is to provide a digital badge to add to your volunteer leaders’ email signatures. Develops new funding sources. The line between a volunteer and donor should be fluid, not separate. A 2014 study by Fidelity Charitable found that 83% of volunteers report supporting the same nonprofits with their donations. Don’t silo your volunteers and your donors! Reduces your operating costs. According to the Independent Sector, the value of a volunteer hour was estimated at $28.54 in 2020. Since payroll is often the largest expense for a nonprofit, volunteers provide essential support to your cause with minimal costs to you. Increases the quantity and quality of your programs and services. It’s a win-win situation for professional development and your lengthy project list! That list will be met by an eager, talented volunteer, and your volunteer will improve their professional skills at the same time. Maximizes your limited staff resources. We’re sure there’s been a few items on your wish list that you’d love to check off if you had more resources, like being open on holidays or offering more services to your community. Volunteers can fill in those gaps! Maybe they are looking for ways to give back over a holiday, or they may have the connections to develop a new service opportunity for you. Increases your diversity and brings in new ideas. Although your nonprofit may always strive to diversify or get out of the “we’ve always done it this way” rut, you may not meet the potential of those goals with your staff. Volunteers can provide unique perspectives, different experiences, and even that spark of excitement that comes with a new idea. Minimizes volunteer turnover.Just like staff onboarding, volunteer onboarding takes time and money. If you recruit and onboard well with easy-to-access opportunity matching, training, and tracking mechanisms in place, your volunteers will be well on their way to a successful experience. Build on that by learning more about your volunteers’ interests and skills, and they will feel seen and appreciated. An upfront investment will pay off in years of dedicated service. Are you convinced? If so, it’s time to take the next step of how to start putting a volunteer program into place. Then you can scale your volunteering as your nonprofit grows! Here are our 5 fundraiser-approved steps to developing a bullet-proof volunteer program. Step 1: Quantify your current volunteer impact. Gather data on number of volunteers, hours and skills contributed. Measure the return on investment (ROI) including your program cost and total estimated volunteer value (# of volunteer hours x est. volunteer wage per hour). You can even take it a step further and consider the monetary savings to the community when volunteers provide the service or in-kind donation versus a private provider (e.g. number of children tutored or trees planted). Step 2: Educate your staff and board on the benefits of volunteering. Share your ROI and other data with your executive team and board and garner to get them on board. Recruiting, onboarding, engaging, and retaining your volunteer base will be much smoother when you have their support. Step 3: Purchase or build a volunteer management software system. Track volunteer hours, record your volunteers’ information, and create reports. Your software/tracking system should include a personalized volunteer dashboard where they can track their hours and volunteer services provided, demonstrating to them their impact in real-time. Step 4: Develop a plan for recruitment, training, and growth opportunities for your volunteers. Share the plan with your current volunteer leaders and solicit their feedback before rolling out to the community. Step 5: Make the case for even more investment in your program next year. Give insight into how your efforts to recruit, engage, and retain volunteers positively impact your mission and your bottom line.

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NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

Non-Profits Impacting the Economy

Article | July 14, 2022

When creating your nonprofit fundraising and donations strategy, email marketing should be on the top of the list of channels to use to support your efforts. However, 70% of nonprofits do not have an email marketing strategy, despite 26% of online donors saying email marketing is what inspires them to give. Email marketing can help nonprofits reach their fundraising goals by helping expand reach, develop a loyal donor base and drive more donations. Build an Email Marketing Strategy Implementing email marketing may seem intimidating to some, but once you have an effective strategy in place, it will act as a blueprint and support all your goals moving forward. When you start building your strategy, it’s important to spend time developing a unique strategy that aligns with your mission and goals. Consider these questions: Who is your target audience? How are you collecting email addresses? What types of emails will you send? What types of content do you want to share in those emails? What will your emails look like? What is the layout? What is the design based on? How often do you plan to send emails? What platform will you use? Does it integrate with your donor database and have all the features you need to implement your strategy? Email marketing is the most effective and successful when there's a strategic plan in place. Creating a detailed strategy that answers the questions above will provide your nonprofit with the stepping stones needed to set your email marketing efforts up for success and help meet your overall fundraising goals. Send Emails Once you have a strategy and execution plan in place, you’re ready to start sending your messages to your audience. Email subscribers want to hear from you, but you need to be sure you are sending engaging messages to the right audiences. When you start sending your emails, plan to send a mix of different messages to your audience. Email marketing is an effective channel to not only fundraise but to help subscribers stay engaged and keep donor retention high. A great example would be to include advocacy emails in your plans. Advocacy emails include newsletters and impact stories. These types of emails help your subscriber feel valued as a donor as they’re seeing the direct impact of their support. As you start and continue to send emails, always track each email's performance. This helps you determine what is working and what is not working. By tracking key metrics, like click-through rates, conversation rates and donations per email, you will be able to continuously improve your strategy and the emails you are sending. Follow Best Practices As you begin to execute your email strategy, there are a few key best practices I recommend following to help increase engagement, donations, and overall performance of your emails. Personalize the email for your subscribers. Personalized emails can generate donations up to six times more compared to a generalized email. Make sure your emails are well-designed with compelling imagery that helps the donor visualize your mission and the impact of their donations. Provide clear calls to action in each email you send and always include a “Donate” button in all your communications. Include social sharing buttons and links to your social channels in all your email communications. Emails with social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by as much as 158% and help expand your reach by allowing donors to recommend and share your nonprofit with their network. Create an email cadence so you are regularly communicating with your audience throughout the year. For every 1,000 fundraising emails delivered, nonprofits raised $78, so it is in your best interest to continuously send messages to your subscribers. Start by sending emails monthly and then experiment with increasing the frequency of emails per month and see what works best for your nonprofit. Utilizing email marketing is key to having a successful fundraising strategy for your nonprofit. By building a well-thought-out strategy and implementing it, you will be able to engage, retain and convert subscribers into a loyal donor base.

Read More
NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

What Does the Health of Your Nonprofit Website Mean and How Can You Improve It?

Article | July 20, 2022

Are you expecting all donors to be the same? If you answered “no…well actually… kinda,” then you are not alone. It’s simple to send out the same fundraising message to everyone. However, you can transform your fundraising when you understand that there are many reasons why a person chooses to donate to a nonprofit. Once you understand the psychology of donating to charity, you can then best appeal to current and potential donors. Why do Donors Give? Along a spectrum, there are two extremes that prevent nonprofits from using donation psychology in their fundraising messages. On one end, the person making the ask – the Executive Director, Development person or Board member – assumes all donors have the same motivations for giving that they do. This translates into single-focused messaging that appeals to the person making the ask and to some donors, but not to others. On the other end of the spectrum when a nonprofit neglects philanthropy psychology, the person making the ask becomes paralyzed. They fear offending donors by asking at the “wrong” time. They focus on external, societal crises, such as the pandemic, wars, tragedies, and make a decision for the donor that this is the wrong time to be asked for a gift. They assume that the donor would be offended if asked. The Millennial Impact Project studied why donors across generations start giving. Unexpectedly, according to the researcher, Derrick Feldmann, donors first give because they want to belong. They desire to join their friends or be a part of a cause doing the good they wish to see in the world – this is before they understand what the cause or nonprofit is seeking to accomplish. As they gain that sense of belonging and begin believing in the cause, they can be motivated to continue to give when the nonprofit taps into their giving style. The Seven Faces of Philanthropy was groundbreaking research published in 1994 that has been updated and is still relevant today. In summary, the researchers found that donors give for different reasons. Some donors give because they enjoy the act of giving, especially through events. More donors prefer to donate to local charities or make a long-lasting impact through their investments. Other donors desire to repay or pay forward in gratitude through their giving. Others give because of religious or altruistic reasons. Then, there are donors who see giving as a family tradition and, if applicable, to teach their children generosity. Understanding the donor’s motivations for giving guides a nonprofit in developing the right message, using the right fundraising methods and segmenting to the right group of donors. How Can you Encourage Your Donors to Give? Now that you understand the psychology behind making a philanthropic gift, you can implement this knowledge to customize your fundraising appeals. First, you will need to determine why your donors give. This is done through discussions with Board members, personal conversations with donors, and through donor surveys. It begins with a simple question, “Why do you give to…?” The answers will assist you in creating donor identities; that is, the types of identities or groups where donors wish to belong. Sample identities could be “community leader” or “survivor” or “change maker.” Next, based on what you learned from your current donors, pick the top two or three donor motivations and associated identities. Alter your current messaging and fundraising methods to these giving reasons. The messaging and methods that inspire your current donors will likely attract more donors. Begin testing your messaging for these two to three reasons: Which message has the highest engagement in response and donation? This will be your primary message that you will rotate with the secondary messages. As you further explore your donor’s psychology for giving, you can advance to segmenting your communications based on what will motivate groups of donors to give. Once you understand donor psychology, you will wonder how you missed the clues to why your donors give – and be ready to catch future donors by staying one step ahead of their giving habits.

Read More
NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

Marketing Your Nonprofit Organization in 4 Simple Steps

Article | July 29, 2022

Although we recommend talking directly with your donors to learn what matters to them, one-on-one conversations aren’t the only way to gain valuable information about your donors. Through analysis of the donor data in your fundraising software, you can obtain insights that will help you create a better experience for your donors, and motivate them to give more over time. Here’s what you can learn from the numbers and how you can apply this knowledge to improve your donor experience. Biographic and Demographic Information: This particular donor data isn’t snazzy, but it provides you with important tools to use in donor communications. Here’s what you can do with it. Preferred Name: Even something as simple as addressing your donors by their preferred names or nicknames will go a long way toward building a meaningful relationship. Employment: Improve the timing of your emails by sending to full-time individuals when they’re at work. Age: Millennials are more likely to check social media or text messages for communications, while Baby Boomers are more likely to use email or even snail mail. A multi-channel communication strategy, however, is the best thing to help you reach your donors where they’re at. Educational Background: While someone’s education level may provide insights about their capacity to give, consider looking at what your contacts were involved in while in school. Did they join clubs that provide a clue about their interests? Did they hold certain leadership positions that tell you what they’re committed to? What community service projects were they active in? This information can help you customize your communications more meaningfully. Involvement History: Monetary giving isn’t the only indicator of a donor’s interest in your organization. When you’re putting together your campaign lists, don’t forget to look at other historical indicators as well. Note: If you’re already using Network for Good’s simple, smart fundraising software, demographic details, like the ones above, need to be individually added as “Custom Fields” to a constituent’s record. Involvement in Advocacy Work: If an individual advocates for charities or causes, he or she is usually serious about making a difference and seeks to do so in other ways. Corporate Sponsorships: If someone has organized a corporate sponsorship for her or his place of employment, the individual has demonstrated a willingness to go the extra mile foryour organization. Showing Up at Events: If you have regulars who appear at your events, they’re prime candidates to get more involved. An events platform that integrates directly with your fundraising software can be a key tool here in making sure you’re following up with the right people. Network of Connections: Prospective donors will always be more willing to respond if a friend or business connection has introduced your organization to them. If you think an individual would be willing to contribute to your nonprofit, look at who in your donor database is connected to that person and ask for an introduction. This strategy can also be used for raising corporate sponsorships. Hobbies: Hobbies and interests will tell you who’s most likely to participate in your events. They’ll also give you ideas about what types of events will be most popular with your contacts. Here are a few ideas: Games: Trivia night, bingo, or board games. Outdoors: Run/Walk, golf or fishing tournament, or softball. Food & Drink: Wine tasting, celebrity chef or bartender, or profit share at a restaurant. Music: Benefit concert, talent show, or Battle of the Bands Arts & Culture: Group night at the theatre, charity poetry reading, or author meet-and-greet. Timing of Gifts: When do individuals give? If someone tends to make donations at a certain time of year, your request will probably be welcomed (and successful!) if you ask at that time. Using tools such as the “Giving” filters to conduct donor analysis can help determine if there are trends around a particular time of year for one (or multiple) donors – and knowing the timing of gifts will also help you spend your marketing dollars more wisely. If someone has given within a year-long time period, that person is much more likely to give again than someone who gave two years ago. You can allocate your marketing resources more intelligently if you know who is more likely to donate. These are just a few ideas on how to use your data to not only build a stronger donor experience but also increase your fundraising revenue. Learn why the donor experience is vital to a successful organization and how to implement an effective donor experience program by downloading “A Better Donor Experience: Is it the Cornerstone of Donor Loyalty?”

Read More
NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

7 Reasons to Invest in a Volunteer Program

Article | May 20, 2022

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit. Your services, fundraising campaigns, and even day-to-day operations of your nonprofit can depend on volunteers. An estimated 30 percent of Americans or 77.9 million people reported they volunteered for an organization or association.” AmeriCorps published survey So, if people want to volunteer, the key to garner willing volunteers is to: Communicate your needs Share your “why” Make it easy While all nonprofits know they need volunteers, investing time and energy into building a program can naturally fall by the wayside. As you look to recruit and retain volunteers, a best practice is to put a strategic volunteer program in place. You may be asking, “What’s the benefit to me, the nonprofit?” Let’s dive into it! First, let’s start with the basics — what are the top reasons to invest in a volunteer program? We’ve got you covered. A dynamic volunteer program: Creates ambassadors for your mission. Volunteers spread the word in your community and increase your community engagement. They can advocate for you with their friends, family, and local and state legislatures. Provide your volunteers with messaging so they can share their “why” on social media and by word of mouth. One pro tip shared by Points of Light is to provide a digital badge to add to your volunteer leaders’ email signatures. Develops new funding sources. The line between a volunteer and donor should be fluid, not separate. A 2014 study by Fidelity Charitable found that 83% of volunteers report supporting the same nonprofits with their donations. Don’t silo your volunteers and your donors! Reduces your operating costs. According to the Independent Sector, the value of a volunteer hour was estimated at $28.54 in 2020. Since payroll is often the largest expense for a nonprofit, volunteers provide essential support to your cause with minimal costs to you. Increases the quantity and quality of your programs and services. It’s a win-win situation for professional development and your lengthy project list! That list will be met by an eager, talented volunteer, and your volunteer will improve their professional skills at the same time. Maximizes your limited staff resources. We’re sure there’s been a few items on your wish list that you’d love to check off if you had more resources, like being open on holidays or offering more services to your community. Volunteers can fill in those gaps! Maybe they are looking for ways to give back over a holiday, or they may have the connections to develop a new service opportunity for you. Increases your diversity and brings in new ideas. Although your nonprofit may always strive to diversify or get out of the “we’ve always done it this way” rut, you may not meet the potential of those goals with your staff. Volunteers can provide unique perspectives, different experiences, and even that spark of excitement that comes with a new idea. Minimizes volunteer turnover.Just like staff onboarding, volunteer onboarding takes time and money. If you recruit and onboard well with easy-to-access opportunity matching, training, and tracking mechanisms in place, your volunteers will be well on their way to a successful experience. Build on that by learning more about your volunteers’ interests and skills, and they will feel seen and appreciated. An upfront investment will pay off in years of dedicated service. Are you convinced? If so, it’s time to take the next step of how to start putting a volunteer program into place. Then you can scale your volunteering as your nonprofit grows! Here are our 5 fundraiser-approved steps to developing a bullet-proof volunteer program. Step 1: Quantify your current volunteer impact. Gather data on number of volunteers, hours and skills contributed. Measure the return on investment (ROI) including your program cost and total estimated volunteer value (# of volunteer hours x est. volunteer wage per hour). You can even take it a step further and consider the monetary savings to the community when volunteers provide the service or in-kind donation versus a private provider (e.g. number of children tutored or trees planted). Step 2: Educate your staff and board on the benefits of volunteering. Share your ROI and other data with your executive team and board and garner to get them on board. Recruiting, onboarding, engaging, and retaining your volunteer base will be much smoother when you have their support. Step 3: Purchase or build a volunteer management software system. Track volunteer hours, record your volunteers’ information, and create reports. Your software/tracking system should include a personalized volunteer dashboard where they can track their hours and volunteer services provided, demonstrating to them their impact in real-time. Step 4: Develop a plan for recruitment, training, and growth opportunities for your volunteers. Share the plan with your current volunteer leaders and solicit their feedback before rolling out to the community. Step 5: Make the case for even more investment in your program next year. Give insight into how your efforts to recruit, engage, and retain volunteers positively impact your mission and your bottom line.

Read More
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Spotlight

American Welding Society

Our organization is headquartered in Doral, Florida, but we also conduct events and individual section and district meetings around the United States and in international locations. We also provide industry standards for welding and joining of metal, plastics, and other materials through our codes and certification procedures.

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New Research Examines Evolving Social Donor Expectations

OneCause | June 29, 2022

OneCause, a leader in online and event fundraising, released findings from its latest research, The Giving Experience Study. Findings provide insights from social donors who gave to fundraising events and peer-to-peer campaigns over the past year and include what motivates their giving, when and how they will be comfortable returning to in-person events, and what influences repeat donations. The new study compares the latest survey data with findings from 2018 and 2021, examining how donor expectations have changed across generations, demographics, and by type of event involvement. Donor expectations and patterns of generosity have never been static, but the radical and sudden change brought about by the pandemic was unlike anything the world of philanthropy had seen before. After a dramatic shift to virtual events in 2020, donors came to expect on-demand, easy event and giving experiences. To unlock generosity as the nonprofit world moves toward recovery, it's imperative to understand how giving motivators and donor desires have evolved." Steve Johns, chief executive officer for OneCause Key findings include: Social giving continues to grow. As the general population looks for ways to reconnect with friends, family, and colleagues after long periods of pandemic isolation, social giving continues to increase. In the last 12 months, 3 in 10 U.S. adults gave through auction events, peer-to-peer fundraising, or occasion/giving day campaigns. This reflects a five-year trend of steady growth in social giving. Trust emerges as a key motivator; personal connection grows in importance. This year's research revealed new rising motivators influencing the attention and behavior of today's donors. While ease, mission, and impact remain key drivers of social giving, trust, personal connection, and immediacy emerged as key motivators for the first time in 2022. Donors are excited about the return to in-person events but want nonprofits to offer virtual options. A quarter of social donors said they prefer to only engage in person with organizations they donate to or mostly in person with some virtual engagement. But donors want options – 43% of social donors still prefer to engage exclusively or mostly virtually. Choice is powerful; offering multiple options for engagement personalizes the giving experience. Social giving continues to unlock generosity in younger, more diverse donors through expanded access to philanthropy. Social giving and virtual engagement continue to boost access for donors who have been historically underrepresented in or excluded from philanthropy. Gen Z, Millennial, Black, and Hispanic social donors reported giving more money than last year and that they gave to more organizations. Opportunities to steward social donors for retention and recurring giving. A social donor's first gift shows they value a nonprofit's work. Nonprofits have a great opportunity to cultivate lasting relationships and convert more social donors to recurring givers. Feeling like a donation makes a difference continues to be the number one reason to give again across generations. "It's clear from five years of data that the influence of social donors on the world of philanthropy is growing," added Johns. "We're excited to be able to connect nonprofits with self-reported insights into the evolution of how this increasingly diverse group of donors prefers to give to and engage with the organizations they support." About the Survey The online survey of 1,029 social donors was conducted by Edge Research between April 26-May 12, 2022. Social donors are defined as anyone who self-reports giving to at least one charitable organization by attending a fundraising event; participating or sponsoring someone in a fundraising activity like a run, walk or ride; or donating or requesting donations for an occasion, challenge, or giving month or day within in the last 12 months. Data is self-reported, not transactional. Edge Research worked with an established industry sampling partner, consisting of opt-in research participants. This is a non-probability/convenience sample. Quotas were set to ensure incoming data (prior to screening for charitable donations) was census representative in terms of age and gender, region, and race/ethnicity. About OneCause OneCause is driving the future of fundraising with easy-to-use event and online fundraising solutions that help nonprofits improve the giving experience and raise more money. OneCause builds technology that optimizes everyday generosity, making it easier for nonprofit organizations to fundraise and for nonprofit supporters to give. Since 2008, OneCause has helped over 10,000 nonprofits raise more than $4 billion for their missions. Headquartered in Indianapolis, OneCause is committed to driving innovation in the charitable sector, bringing together nonprofit professionals across the world for the annual Raise Conference to exchange ideas that further fundraising.

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NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY

Bloomerang Launches New Dashboard and User Interface Updates to Improve Fundraisers' Productivity

Bloomerang | June 27, 2022

Bloomerang, the complete donor management solution for thousands of small and medium-sized nonprofits, announced the availability of a new user-centric dashboard to improve fundraisers' day-to-day productivity and monitor fundraising campaign performance and overall organizational health. In addition to the refreshed dashboard, Bloomerang's user interface (UI) updates seek to enhance accessibility via improved screen reader support, reduced animated movements, increased readability and scannability, revised colors and visualizations to compensate for red-green colorblindness, and more. Fundraisers can rely on Bloomerang to provide the information they need to take the next best actions and have a full picture of their organization's data and fundraising health–all from one easily accessible location. These latest updates help customers make the most of their precious resources–so they can spend more time on their mission and fundraising programs. We're excited to deliver a more intuitive information hierarchy, simplified data access and management, and improved accessibility. Our goal is to continuously drive innovation and lay the groundwork for more customization in the future, while staying focused on ease of use and simplicity of experience for the nonprofits we have the privilege to serve." Tammy Hammond, Bloomerang's Chief Product Officer The new dashboard in Bloomerang includes visual snapshots of: Recent constituents with a new constituent quick-add button Amount raised by week, month, and fiscal year Donor retention rate with customization capabilities Recommended first-time donor call list Most recent reports Fundraising campaign goals and progress tracking, including customizable date ranges Active tasks assigned to you and your team In addition to the new fundraising dashboard, Bloomerang's UI accessibility updates include: Logo and font update to match Bloomerang's new visual identity Less scrolling and a brighter look with a full-screen width and white background Better iconography with red-green colorblind accessible icons, improved labels and wording, and highlighted navigation tabs Search functionality for information stored in the database is accessible on any page Fewer clicks to access needed information and fundraising functionality save time and improve productivity for fundraisers Michelle Gorham, Chief Advancement Officer for YMCA of Rock River Valley has benefited from clearer insights into their donor data through the use of Bloomerang's fundraising dashboard, UI updates, and functionality. The availability and organization of this data has directly improved their productivity and communication segmentation. "Most importantly we know our donor retention which is not something we knew before. I also now have information about key interests of our most generous donors and have the ability to create reports that can show me all the donors who have said they care about 'academic programs' or 'camp' or 'disease prevention programming' so that we can engage in important conversations with them." This latest release supports Bloomerang's vision to deliver the donor management and fundraising platform of the future. Earlier this year, Bloomerang was named a "Best Place to Work in Indiana" in 2022, and launched a new brand identity to better articulate the value and services offered to the nonprofit community. Bloomerang's suite of online fundraising tools also strengthens nonprofits' ability to cultivate deeper relationships with their donors and increase the impact of their fundraising campaigns. About Bloomerang Indianapolis-based Bloomerang is the complete donor management solution that helps thousands of small and medium-sized nonprofits deliver a better giving experience and create stable, thriving organizations. Combining robust, simple-to-use technology with people-powered support and training, Bloomerang empowers nonprofits to work efficiently, improve their donor relationships and grow their donor bases. With Bloomerang, nonprofit professionals love their work and have another teammate in the cause.

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NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

ezCater Solves Tax Exemption on Workplace Food for Top Nonprofits Nationwide

ezCater | June 24, 2022

ezCater, the most trusted provider of corporate food solutions, announced a new tax-exempt ordering platform for nonprofit organizations. With ezCater, organizations set their tax-exempt status once and it automatically applies to catering orders from over 95,000 restaurants on the ezCater platform, saving them time and money. Ensuring catering orders are tax-exempt is complicated and time-consuming for nonprofits, requiring each person to file a tax certificate with every restaurant that they order from. This is even more complicated for organizations that order food across multiple states. We've taken something that should be simple and made it simple. Nonprofits have many important things to worry about, and this solution allows them to put time back into their missions, instead of wasting it on unnecessary paperwork." Diane Swint, Chief Demand Officer at ezCater "ezCater makes handling the tax-exemption process for my team an easy feat," said Matthew Boone, Head Coach of Track and Field at Jacksonville State University. "Keeping track of paper receipts and creating multiple expense reports was such a headache. Not only do I have peace of mind that ezCater is storing the information for me, but my team has easy access to high-quality meals on the road." The Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a nonprofit that supports children, teens, and young adults with rare and serious diseases by providing a free 'place like home' for them to stay while participating in clinical research trials. The Inn has selected ezCater to order meals for the families. However, meeting various dietary restrictions and avoiding food waste becomes complicated. With ezCater, meals arrive individually selected, packaged and labeled, and The Inn's tax-exempt status is automatically applied to every order. "Our job is to serve and provide support to families during some of the most difficult times of their lives," said Emily Johnson, Family Program Operations Manager for The Children's Inn at NIH. "ezCater's ability to automate tasks like ordering each meal and researching restaurants that accept our tax exemption allows my team to focus on what really matters." With an ezCater Corporate Account, businesses have easy access to all products within ezCater's suite of corporate solutions. This includes features like invoicing, custom checkout and reporting, organization-wide tax-exempt ordering, recurring employee meals, and concierge food ordering. About ezCater ezCater is the most trusted provider of corporate food solutions. With a network of 95,000 restaurants across the US, ezCater provides flexible and scalable food solutions for everything from daily employee meals to sales meetings. ezCater is purpose-built for business and supported by best-in-class customer service, enabling companies to centralize and manage their food spend in a single, customizable platform.

Read More

NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY

New Research Examines Evolving Social Donor Expectations

OneCause | June 29, 2022

OneCause, a leader in online and event fundraising, released findings from its latest research, The Giving Experience Study. Findings provide insights from social donors who gave to fundraising events and peer-to-peer campaigns over the past year and include what motivates their giving, when and how they will be comfortable returning to in-person events, and what influences repeat donations. The new study compares the latest survey data with findings from 2018 and 2021, examining how donor expectations have changed across generations, demographics, and by type of event involvement. Donor expectations and patterns of generosity have never been static, but the radical and sudden change brought about by the pandemic was unlike anything the world of philanthropy had seen before. After a dramatic shift to virtual events in 2020, donors came to expect on-demand, easy event and giving experiences. To unlock generosity as the nonprofit world moves toward recovery, it's imperative to understand how giving motivators and donor desires have evolved." Steve Johns, chief executive officer for OneCause Key findings include: Social giving continues to grow. As the general population looks for ways to reconnect with friends, family, and colleagues after long periods of pandemic isolation, social giving continues to increase. In the last 12 months, 3 in 10 U.S. adults gave through auction events, peer-to-peer fundraising, or occasion/giving day campaigns. This reflects a five-year trend of steady growth in social giving. Trust emerges as a key motivator; personal connection grows in importance. This year's research revealed new rising motivators influencing the attention and behavior of today's donors. While ease, mission, and impact remain key drivers of social giving, trust, personal connection, and immediacy emerged as key motivators for the first time in 2022. Donors are excited about the return to in-person events but want nonprofits to offer virtual options. A quarter of social donors said they prefer to only engage in person with organizations they donate to or mostly in person with some virtual engagement. But donors want options – 43% of social donors still prefer to engage exclusively or mostly virtually. Choice is powerful; offering multiple options for engagement personalizes the giving experience. Social giving continues to unlock generosity in younger, more diverse donors through expanded access to philanthropy. Social giving and virtual engagement continue to boost access for donors who have been historically underrepresented in or excluded from philanthropy. Gen Z, Millennial, Black, and Hispanic social donors reported giving more money than last year and that they gave to more organizations. Opportunities to steward social donors for retention and recurring giving. A social donor's first gift shows they value a nonprofit's work. Nonprofits have a great opportunity to cultivate lasting relationships and convert more social donors to recurring givers. Feeling like a donation makes a difference continues to be the number one reason to give again across generations. "It's clear from five years of data that the influence of social donors on the world of philanthropy is growing," added Johns. "We're excited to be able to connect nonprofits with self-reported insights into the evolution of how this increasingly diverse group of donors prefers to give to and engage with the organizations they support." About the Survey The online survey of 1,029 social donors was conducted by Edge Research between April 26-May 12, 2022. Social donors are defined as anyone who self-reports giving to at least one charitable organization by attending a fundraising event; participating or sponsoring someone in a fundraising activity like a run, walk or ride; or donating or requesting donations for an occasion, challenge, or giving month or day within in the last 12 months. Data is self-reported, not transactional. Edge Research worked with an established industry sampling partner, consisting of opt-in research participants. This is a non-probability/convenience sample. Quotas were set to ensure incoming data (prior to screening for charitable donations) was census representative in terms of age and gender, region, and race/ethnicity. About OneCause OneCause is driving the future of fundraising with easy-to-use event and online fundraising solutions that help nonprofits improve the giving experience and raise more money. OneCause builds technology that optimizes everyday generosity, making it easier for nonprofit organizations to fundraise and for nonprofit supporters to give. Since 2008, OneCause has helped over 10,000 nonprofits raise more than $4 billion for their missions. Headquartered in Indianapolis, OneCause is committed to driving innovation in the charitable sector, bringing together nonprofit professionals across the world for the annual Raise Conference to exchange ideas that further fundraising.

Read More

NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY

Bloomerang Launches New Dashboard and User Interface Updates to Improve Fundraisers' Productivity

Bloomerang | June 27, 2022

Bloomerang, the complete donor management solution for thousands of small and medium-sized nonprofits, announced the availability of a new user-centric dashboard to improve fundraisers' day-to-day productivity and monitor fundraising campaign performance and overall organizational health. In addition to the refreshed dashboard, Bloomerang's user interface (UI) updates seek to enhance accessibility via improved screen reader support, reduced animated movements, increased readability and scannability, revised colors and visualizations to compensate for red-green colorblindness, and more. Fundraisers can rely on Bloomerang to provide the information they need to take the next best actions and have a full picture of their organization's data and fundraising health–all from one easily accessible location. These latest updates help customers make the most of their precious resources–so they can spend more time on their mission and fundraising programs. We're excited to deliver a more intuitive information hierarchy, simplified data access and management, and improved accessibility. Our goal is to continuously drive innovation and lay the groundwork for more customization in the future, while staying focused on ease of use and simplicity of experience for the nonprofits we have the privilege to serve." Tammy Hammond, Bloomerang's Chief Product Officer The new dashboard in Bloomerang includes visual snapshots of: Recent constituents with a new constituent quick-add button Amount raised by week, month, and fiscal year Donor retention rate with customization capabilities Recommended first-time donor call list Most recent reports Fundraising campaign goals and progress tracking, including customizable date ranges Active tasks assigned to you and your team In addition to the new fundraising dashboard, Bloomerang's UI accessibility updates include: Logo and font update to match Bloomerang's new visual identity Less scrolling and a brighter look with a full-screen width and white background Better iconography with red-green colorblind accessible icons, improved labels and wording, and highlighted navigation tabs Search functionality for information stored in the database is accessible on any page Fewer clicks to access needed information and fundraising functionality save time and improve productivity for fundraisers Michelle Gorham, Chief Advancement Officer for YMCA of Rock River Valley has benefited from clearer insights into their donor data through the use of Bloomerang's fundraising dashboard, UI updates, and functionality. The availability and organization of this data has directly improved their productivity and communication segmentation. "Most importantly we know our donor retention which is not something we knew before. I also now have information about key interests of our most generous donors and have the ability to create reports that can show me all the donors who have said they care about 'academic programs' or 'camp' or 'disease prevention programming' so that we can engage in important conversations with them." This latest release supports Bloomerang's vision to deliver the donor management and fundraising platform of the future. Earlier this year, Bloomerang was named a "Best Place to Work in Indiana" in 2022, and launched a new brand identity to better articulate the value and services offered to the nonprofit community. Bloomerang's suite of online fundraising tools also strengthens nonprofits' ability to cultivate deeper relationships with their donors and increase the impact of their fundraising campaigns. About Bloomerang Indianapolis-based Bloomerang is the complete donor management solution that helps thousands of small and medium-sized nonprofits deliver a better giving experience and create stable, thriving organizations. Combining robust, simple-to-use technology with people-powered support and training, Bloomerang empowers nonprofits to work efficiently, improve their donor relationships and grow their donor bases. With Bloomerang, nonprofit professionals love their work and have another teammate in the cause.

Read More

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT

ezCater Solves Tax Exemption on Workplace Food for Top Nonprofits Nationwide

ezCater | June 24, 2022

ezCater, the most trusted provider of corporate food solutions, announced a new tax-exempt ordering platform for nonprofit organizations. With ezCater, organizations set their tax-exempt status once and it automatically applies to catering orders from over 95,000 restaurants on the ezCater platform, saving them time and money. Ensuring catering orders are tax-exempt is complicated and time-consuming for nonprofits, requiring each person to file a tax certificate with every restaurant that they order from. This is even more complicated for organizations that order food across multiple states. We've taken something that should be simple and made it simple. Nonprofits have many important things to worry about, and this solution allows them to put time back into their missions, instead of wasting it on unnecessary paperwork." Diane Swint, Chief Demand Officer at ezCater "ezCater makes handling the tax-exemption process for my team an easy feat," said Matthew Boone, Head Coach of Track and Field at Jacksonville State University. "Keeping track of paper receipts and creating multiple expense reports was such a headache. Not only do I have peace of mind that ezCater is storing the information for me, but my team has easy access to high-quality meals on the road." The Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a nonprofit that supports children, teens, and young adults with rare and serious diseases by providing a free 'place like home' for them to stay while participating in clinical research trials. The Inn has selected ezCater to order meals for the families. However, meeting various dietary restrictions and avoiding food waste becomes complicated. With ezCater, meals arrive individually selected, packaged and labeled, and The Inn's tax-exempt status is automatically applied to every order. "Our job is to serve and provide support to families during some of the most difficult times of their lives," said Emily Johnson, Family Program Operations Manager for The Children's Inn at NIH. "ezCater's ability to automate tasks like ordering each meal and researching restaurants that accept our tax exemption allows my team to focus on what really matters." With an ezCater Corporate Account, businesses have easy access to all products within ezCater's suite of corporate solutions. This includes features like invoicing, custom checkout and reporting, organization-wide tax-exempt ordering, recurring employee meals, and concierge food ordering. About ezCater ezCater is the most trusted provider of corporate food solutions. With a network of 95,000 restaurants across the US, ezCater provides flexible and scalable food solutions for everything from daily employee meals to sales meetings. ezCater is purpose-built for business and supported by best-in-class customer service, enabling companies to centralize and manage their food spend in a single, customizable platform.

Read More

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