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.

Preparing your fundraising database for what's coming next

Summe_20190621-191435_1

Summer can be a slower time of the year for many non-profit organizations, which gives us a unique opportunity to look ahead and prepare for upcoming projects.

Some of you have already begun preparing for your Fall fundraising campaigns. We are happy to help you get ready by setting up integrated online donations, creating new Pledge levels, or helping you accept and acknowledge Tributes gifts.

Continue reading
2475 Hits

Are your gift codes aligned with your Gift Acceptance Policy?

53_GAPandcodes

When an organization creates a Gift Acceptance Policy (GAP) it outlines the types of gifts that it will, and won’t, accept. This policy is often written down and stored in a company handbook or provided internally for volunteers and employees to use. And yet, when a gift gets entered into FundRaiser, are you able to follow up on it through reporting to see how certain gifts are contributing to your organization’s bottom line?

Continue reading
1859 Hits

Small, Local Groups Struggling to Keep Donors

ArtsOr_20190521-232705_1

Dear Kim,

I work in an arts program that serves very poor public schools in a very poor state. Without us, 2nd -5th graders in public schools in our area would have NO arts program at all. We have no government funding and little foundation funding. We have built a base of donors and we squeeze every nickel. This year I am so discouraged by the number of donors who have said they are cutting back their giving so they can give to the ACLU or Planned Parenthood. For the record, I totally support those organizations and what they do, but how can I keep our donors? What we do is still important.

Continue reading
2095 Hits

3 Things To Do When Your Campaign Stalls

52_3things

It’s never easy, or fun, when a campaign stalls. Running out of momentum halfway through a five-year campaign, for example, may leave you with what seems like an insurmountable mountain to climb to get going again. And there’s the impact to your organization, especially if you’re fundraising for a major project.

There are usually four reasons why campaigns stall. The first is a lack of prospects. Not having very many major donors, or a lack of donor cultivation (Did you know it can take 18 to 24 months to fully cultivate a major donor?) may leave your organization with a small amount of people from which to initially draw. The second main reason is a lack of infrastructure, such as a donor database, volunteer training, and methods of cultivating your donors. Good news! If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you’re using FundRaiser Software, which puts you one step ahead and can help you with the first two reasons. The third reason is a lack of planning, including a campaign feasibility study. And finally, the last reason may be timing, which often is outside of our control such as an economic downturn happening in the middle of a long-term campaign.

Generally campaigns stall due to a combination of factors. So what can you do when that happens?

Continue reading
3642 Hits

Why Do We Need a Gift Acceptance Policy?

GAP

Dear Kim,

A colleague is working with you on a capital campaign and she says you have insisted that the organization create a “Gift Acceptance Policy.” I brought this to our board of directors and they said it should just be “We accept all gifts.” We all laughed. I don’t mean to be disrespectful but what is the point of having such a policy? What kind of gifts would you not accept? That doesn’t even make sense.

Continue reading
2127 Hits

Two weeks left on our Spring Sale to take FundRaiser to the Cloud

WhyUpgradeHeader

Spring is turning to summer, and as it does the FundRaiser Hosted sale is coming to an end. If you are interested in moving your FundRaiser program to the Cloud at a special lower cost, you have just until  the end of May. Hosted is a fast, secure online FundRaiser, and available to everyone who is already a FundRaiser desktop customer.

Why Professional Hosted?

Continue reading
1855 Hits

Spending Money To Raise Money

Bucky

Dear Kim,

You’ve often said, “You have to spend money to raise money.” But how much is enough? What’s the ideal ratio of fundraising expenses to income? 

Continue reading
1778 Hits

Creating Value with Non-Ask Events

ask_events_header

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.

Continue reading
2068 Hits

Ways To Keep In Touch With Your Donors

50_header

In previous blogs we’ve spoken about reaching out to donors and how many times and how often you should contact them. However, it’s important to think about ways to keep in touch. With so many communications options available to your organization, start thinking about moving beyond mailed letters or even emails into different ways to reach out.

One of the important things to keep in mind is that with today’s busy lifestyles, it’s vital to meet your donors where they are. This may mean moving to virtual communication or even using letters (or cards/postcards) sent through the mail for a special touch. Though social media outreach can have pitfalls and requires tending, it is a viable way to communicate with potential donors as well as your existing ones and with the ability for people to share your posts, they can go quickly viral and bring new people to your cause as well.

Continue reading
1961 Hits

How Often Should You Communicate with Donors?

calendar-time

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.

Continue reading
7635 Hits

Do's and Don'ts of Texting Donors

TextingDonors

Dear Kim,

I am wondering about texting our current and lapsed donors to ask for money? We have a donor base that tends to be young and we have lot of phone numbers (sometimes we have a cell number and not a snail mail address). I think this would work well because it is much more efficient than writing and calling and a lot of people don’t use their phone for calling anymore. My ED wants me to check with someone else. What do you think?

Continue reading
2387 Hits

Two Ways to Entice Lapsed Donors With Your Letters

lapsed-donor-letters

Now that the busy holiday giving season, as well as end of the year tax letters are completed, it’s time to look at ways to bring donors back who perhaps missed out on giving during the past year (or longer). Even if your organization doesn’t consider a donor lapsed until they haven’t given for a much longer time frame than 12 months, it doesn’t hurt to put some enticements into your letters to bring these donors back.

Once you’ve identified your lapsed donors, it’s time to contact them. A primary reason why organizations may not reach out to lapsed donors is an uncertainty about what to say. There are two things that you can do to help entice these donors to return to your organization.

Continue reading
4951 Hits

One Impactful Action by 12/31

Action

Dear Kim,

I have taken many fundraising workshops, including from you, and I always find that I learn a lot. BUT, and this is a big BUT, I am hardly ever able to implement anything I learned because I have no time. Someone suggested just trying to figure out one thing I could do differently for a short period of time, so I am asking you: what is one thing I could do between now and the end of the calendar year that will make a big difference to our fundraising?

Continue reading
2272 Hits

Anonymous Donors

AnonDo_20190213-213125_1

Dear Kim,

I am the ED of a medium sized organization (budget just over $3 million). We raise $1 million from government (we hope that continues), $1 million from fees and rentals, varying amounts from foundations and about $600,000 from individuals. I recently solicited and got a gift of $50,000 but the person made me swear I would never tell another soul where the money came from. I did, but later wondered if that was the right thing to do. What are the protocols for anonymous donors? Can you have a donor that only one person in the organization knows about? If not, should I go back to this person and explain that I made a mistake?

Continue reading
2394 Hits

Using Reports To Set Fund Raising Goals

ReportsDonor

With the start of a new year, there’s a good chance that you’re already well into strategic planning for 2019. No doubt you have a list of goals to achieve such as a certain number or percentage increase in new donors, more consistent donor acquisition, and an increase in total giving or perhaps getting your major donors to increase their giving by a certain percent. No matter your goal, FundRaiser Software has reports which will help you track and reach these goals. 

Increasing the Overall Number of Donors and Prospects

Continue reading
1924 Hits

Moving up the Donor Management Ladder

SparkUpgrade

I've been thrilled with my explorations as a volunteer fundraiser for a small all-volunteer nonprofit that I support. Four years ago, I moved donor information from Excel spreadsheets into FundRaiser's simplest program, FundRaiser Basic.  At that time, I had no hands-on experience raising money, and I was eager to try out some of the things I'd learned from talking to customers in my work at FundRaiser. 

As it turned out, success was relatively easy. Yes, it's true what 'they' say: sending thank you letters, following up with donors who gave last year but not this year, and making sure that donors don't fall through the cracks does result in more stable incoming donations. I've learned lots of good lessons in fundraising and what's more I've really enjoyed the work. Now, on our 5th year using FundRaiser Software, the organization is more financial stable than ever before, all funded by grassroots giving-- loyal donors who believe in our work and aren't likely to move on as a grant or foundation often does. 

Continue reading
2669 Hits

Gift Thank Yous Are the Heart of Appreciation

YouAreLoved2

Dear Kim,As a new fundraiser for a mental health provider, I would like to know the etiquette and proper mode of thanking someone for either an in-kind gift or a monetary donation. It is bad form to send a pre-printed card to acknowledge the gift? I am referring to monetary gifts under $100. ~Ms. Manners, Jr.

Dear Junior Ms.,

Continue reading
2474 Hits

Spice Up Your Thank You Notes With What Interests You

ThankSpice

Dear Kim:You are often quoted as saying things like, “Thank before you bank,” and “The thank you note is the most important element in a donor relationship” and other pro-thank you note statements.  But how do you make a thank you note interesting?  And do donors really read them?  And what if I think the gift the donor gave isn’t really what they could afford so I am not that thankful? ~Dubious Dear Dubious:.

Your letter poses several questions, and I will quickly dispatch the last one first.  You need to change up your attitude toward the gifts that are given to your organization.  Any gift is more than nothing, and donors are making all kinds of choices.  You really don’t know what people can afford and you need to thankful they thought of you.

Continue reading
2046 Hits

3 Ways To Target Your Giving Tuesday Donors

GivingTuesdayCodes

As we draw closer to Giving Tuesday, you may be thinking about how to make highly targeted appeals to your donors based on information like their giving history or other factors. Luckily, FundRaiser software makes it easy for you to select groups of donors and then send them correspondence based on your selections. Let’s look at three different ways you can target your Giving Tuesday prospective donors.

Based on past giving

A motivation code tracks what motivated your donors to give a specific gift. This could be an appeal letter, a campaign, an event, or the fact that they gave to Giving Tuesday last year. Perhaps you want to reach out to donors who haven’t yet given this year or ones who have lapsed. Use your criteria to target your communication directly to these donors.

Continue reading
2156 Hits

Meta Peace Team Comes Back For Great Support

MetaPeace_20181119-202349_1

Melody Arnst, Administrative Assistant at Meta Peace Team, says her specialty is diving in and figuring out how to make things work better, primarily in the office. “That’s why I am working in the database. Things need to work and be streamlined there,” says Melody.

First thing as she started working at Meta Peace, she found herself untangling database issues. Meta Peace, FundRaiser Software users, had decided to give another donor database a try. “We attempted to move to Network for Good. It was a frustrating experience. As the process unfolded, I thought, ‘maybe we shouldn’t have done this,’ " says Melody.

Continue reading
4086 Hits
Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
personalizing letters grants security pictures Alternative Addresses gift acceptance policy in honor of donations how to handle auction gifts membership benefits major donors merge fields volunteers publicity materials event management tax summary letters animal rescue holiday giving fundraising letters merge notes grassroots campaign online donations updates FundRaiser Spark data entry donor retention rate arts donation history targeted mailings giving levels salutation increasing giving amounts corporate sponsors Reminders custom page word processor donor advised funds advanced tab monthly giving auction password protection overview Importing Data LYBUNTS lapsed donor role of nonprofits brick campaign repeat donors large donations vacation adding personal notes to letters Task List tribute gifts follow up donor contact information giving history Company culture donor preferences case study anonymous donors user interface community broadcasting correspondence major gift prospects new features training tip GoFundMe project customer portal development director foundations reports ticket sales donor relations on site training segmenting donors backing up data membership programs new leadership email office community arts nonprofits National Change of Address Network for Good how-to videos pledges online donations donor attrition fundraising operational costs End of Year Letters budget spare fields new donors nonprofit fundraising letter templates the Ask thank you letters letter features holiday letters alumni recurring gifts GivingTuesday premiums disaster relief donor slip happiness donor prospects prospects legacy giving flash sales Codes spreadsheets support customer service In-Kind gifts accounting software PayPal SYBUNTS new version raffle communications entering auction gifts relationship tracking donor source transparency Cloud add ons mode code donor recognition training general welcome packet new nonprofit New Year planning Donor Portal membersip benefits campaign understanding giving trends gift notes field donor Thank You building donor relationships upgrading donors donor targeting appeal letters donor profile Excel mailing look and feel data analysis data conversion board members Personalizing Groupings product news Congratulations phoning donors annual campaign technical support government grants ticketsales memorial giving appeal volunteering charity golf tournaments operating systems texting donors endowment campaign motivation Reporting to IRS moves management passwords holiday Snow Birds banquet small donations Facebook campaign change of address updating Crowdfunding Campaign correspondance importing csv announcements donor loyalty Resiliency #GivingTuesday motivation code annual maintenance plan direct mail Thanksgiving gift entry campaign management upgrade mission driven community supported gardens Volunteer module Facebook Constant Contact donor attrition rate capital campaign planned giving Tickles donor engagement tech tip ROI user spotlights social media solicitors donor retention FundRaiser Hosted NCOA processing FundRaiser Basic

Connect With Us

  800-880-3454 ext 3
  Email Us
  Request More Information
  Monday-Friday
      8:30AM-5:30PM CST

Customer Portal Login Form

User Name:
Password:

If you are not sure about your Customer User Name, please call 800-543-4131 and we will be able to help you.

Or you have lost your password, Request Password