The State of Storytelling in the Nonprofit Sector

December 31, 2016

Stories have been a huge trend in the nonprofit sector in the past five years, but our sector has been telling stories for much longer. Year after year, we are committed to telling people about our work, progress, and needs. Each time we communicate these things, we are communicating pieces of the larger narrative about our organization. But things are changing, and storytelling is becoming a much more intentional act.

Spotlight

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)

The GEO community makes the difference between grantmaking as usual and transformational change. We’re more than 6,000 grantmakers working together to turn a hunger for more effective philanthropy into clear pathways for achieving it. We’re cutting through the noise to lift up the practices that matter most to nonprofits. The GEO community gives grantmakers the opportunity to work with others navigating the same journey to improve. With conferences focused on solving of-the-moment challenges, regular opportunities for peer learning, and publications that lift up best practice and examples from peers, GEO speeds grantmakers’ progress on the road to effectiveness. Four out of five GEO members outpace the field in adopting smarter grantmaking practices. To learn more about how GEO is making faster progress possible, visit www.geofunders.org.

OTHER WHITEPAPERS
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Turning Your Board Members Into Fundraisers

whitePaper | November 30, 2021

The board of directors plays a pivotal role in every organization’s success. These volunteer leaders set a nonprofit’s strategic direction, manage its finances, and provide governance oversight. Not an easy job. Board members also play an invaluable role in an organization’s fundraising efforts. Their support (whether in time or dollars) can affect donor behavior and impacts a development team’s job satisfaction and likelihood for success. But turning a supportive board member into fundraising ally can be challenging, so we’ve compiled tips on how to empower your board and see results.

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What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About Software Subscription Fees

whitePaper | April 16, 2020

Online fundraising has revolutionized the giving landscape and created exciting new opportunities for nonprofits. Instead of direct mail and telephone fundraising, nonprofits are turning to advanced fundraising software that allows them to gain valuable insights about their supporters, streamline their fundraising campaigns, and massively expand their reach.

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Business planning tools for non-profit organizations

whitePaper | December 26, 2019

SCORE is a more than 40 year old non-profi t with over 10,500 volunteers who provide free business counseling and no or low-cost workshops to new and emerging small businesses nation wide. In 2005, SCORE counselors volunteered over 1,000,000 hours in counseling and workshop services. While most of SCORE’s work has focused on small businesses, over the years it has assisted some startup and emerging non-profi t organizations, particularly on business issues. As a result of these experiences, SCORE strongly believes that to be effective, competitive and sustainable, non-profi ts must not only be caring and creative, they must run their operations as businesses.

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Messaging Strategies in the Nonprofit and For-Profit Worlds

whitePaper | May 24, 2021

In 2011, Jared, Joel, Jon, Jordan, J. Austin, Josh, and Jesse Stanley formed Stanley Brothers, a for-profit proprietary hemp company. A year later, Paige Figi contacted Stanley Brothers looking for a non-intoxicating natural alternative for her five-year-old daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte suffered from Dravet syndrome, a rare, severe form of epilepsy that caused her to have an average of 300 seizures a week—one every thirty minutes. With the help of the Stanley Brothers’ hemp product, Charlotte’s seizures reduced to just one a day, and in 2015, Charlotte was able to attend school for the very first time.

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How to deliver more impact

whitePaper | October 25, 2021

Delivering social impact is the main purpose for a nonprofit organization, so anything that gets in the way of that must be reduced or eliminated. The right technology can help remove these barriers, but it must fit the needs of the business and be approached strategically – with cloud ERP systems designed specifically for the sector.

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8 Nonprofit Fundraising Ideas (and How Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Them)

whitePaper | February 26, 2020

Big promises are being made about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will impact our lives. Experts say AI is slowly “edging” its way into daily life, but tectonic changes in transportation, the workplace, and lifestyle have yet to pass. So, when will AI truly “arrive”? In some areas, it already has. One such area generating substantial value is, perhaps surprisingly, the nonprofit space. While nonprofits aren’t historically at the forefront of technological advancement, this sector is quietly becoming an early adopter of AI.

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Spotlight

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)

The GEO community makes the difference between grantmaking as usual and transformational change. We’re more than 6,000 grantmakers working together to turn a hunger for more effective philanthropy into clear pathways for achieving it. We’re cutting through the noise to lift up the practices that matter most to nonprofits. The GEO community gives grantmakers the opportunity to work with others navigating the same journey to improve. With conferences focused on solving of-the-moment challenges, regular opportunities for peer learning, and publications that lift up best practice and examples from peers, GEO speeds grantmakers’ progress on the road to effectiveness. Four out of five GEO members outpace the field in adopting smarter grantmaking practices. To learn more about how GEO is making faster progress possible, visit www.geofunders.org.

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