FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

Creating Value with Non-Ask Events

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Most of the time organizations offer donors reciprocated value. They send thank you notes in response to donations, preprinted labels in the hopes of receiving a donation, tickets when purchased, or other tangible things received either in response to or in anticipation of a donation. This isn’t bad, but it’s very reactive. It assumes the organization has a quid pro quo relationship with its donors.

To start thinking proactively, it’s important to work on non-reciprocated value. This is something that you can offer to your donors for free without asking for a donation or any other consideration. When it holds real value for them, it becomes memorable.

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How Often Should You Communicate with Donors?

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When your organization receives a gift, you send a thank you letter. Perhaps the donor has requested to be subscribed to your newsletter, which is sent maybe once a quarter. Other than that, do you reach out to your donors? Are you afraid you’re talking to them too much?

It’s a fine balance between too much outreach and not enough. On one hand, you don’t want your donors to forget about you, and it happens in even those with the best of intentions. People’s lives are busy. In the hustle and bustle of juggling jobs and family along with everything else, something as simple as sending a check slips through the cracks.

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New Organization? Creating Your First Thank You Letter

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When you’re new to using donor management software, one of the things you will do is create your first thank you letter. Even if you’ve been using the software for a while, you’ll probably create new letters, so a lot of what we’ll cover will apply to long-time users of the software as well. One of the biggest tasks of writing a thank you letter is deciding what to say. You want to strike a balance between conveying your organization’s mission and thanking the donor, while being personable, yet professional.

Within our software we provide a template to get you started. While we call this our “Generic Thank You Letter”, there certainly will be nothing generic about it once you’ve followed our lead. We provide the template, including automatically adding in merge fields for the gifts and the donor’s address. And more importantly, we provide pointers to give you an idea of what to write.

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Cloud new nonprofit banquet Company culture New Year new donors major gift prospects Importing Data understanding giving trends grassroots campaign small donations FundRaiser Basic social media direct mail office building donor relationships customer service technical support donor relations End of Year Letters data conversion adding personal notes to letters customer portal look and feel mode code National Change of Address correspondance correspondence upgrading donors motivation Constant Contact GivingTuesday Codes major donors motivation code how-to videos transparency Donor Portal nonprofit fundraising personalizing letters upgrade Congratulations monthly giving reports Volunteer module Snow Birds pledges new version tech tip donor profile how to handle auction gifts Alternative Addresses data entry user interface holiday giving PayPal annual campaign charity golf tournaments training tip role of nonprofits donor retention spare fields word processor advanced tab gift entry Thanksgiving membership benefits operating systems large donations product news membership programs donor advised funds tax summary letters donor contact information budget texting donors thank you letters training endowment campaign legacy giving gift acceptance policy salutation campaign publicity materials capital campaign donor attrition rate community broadcasting new leadership FundRaiser Hosted GoFundMe project NCOA processing recurring gifts overview donor preferences spreadsheets vacation targeted mailings LYBUNTS custom page planning letter Network for Good moves management Thank You memorial giving corporate sponsors follow up raffle repeat donors disaster relief add ons appeal letters development director updates gift notes field planned giving Resiliency Tickles solicitors on site training grants donor user spotlights brick campaign fundraising mission driven happiness operational costs donor loyalty mailing new features Excel board members entering auction gifts community arts nonprofits ticket sales alumni merge fields tribute gifts security importing csv case study holiday letters in honor of donations donor retention rate increasing giving amounts segmenting donors donor slip arts accounting software donation history animal rescue letter templates donor targeting Reporting to IRS event management pictures government grants phoning donors giving levels membersip benefits donor engagement Reminders Crowdfunding Campaign donor attrition the Ask foundations flash sales ROI volunteering appeal prospects premiums change of address updating In-Kind gifts volunteers Facebook campaign holiday auction Facebook donor recognition password protection email announcements ticketsales merge notes community supported gardens communications relationship tracking welcome packet passwords campaign management Task List general donor prospects donor source FundRaiser Spark #GivingTuesday Groupings online donations backing up data features giving history SYBUNTS support annual maintenance plan data analysis Personalizing online donations anonymous donors fundraising letters lapsed donor

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