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.

Are you contacting your best donor prospects?

Low Hanging Fruit for FundRaisers

Looking for new donors is vital to any organization that depends on donations. Could you be overlooking some of your best potential donors? If your aren't asking the people who have benefited from the paid services that your organization offers, then you are missing a great source of donations. For instance:

animal shelters can ask people who had adopted animalsplaces that have an admission charge like museums, nature centers can ask visitorsorganizations that put on conferences or festivals can ask attendeeshealth care organizations can ask people who have received health servicesschools can ask alumnitheater groups can ask box office visitorsand so forthLow Hanging Fruit

These people who have already shown that they value your organization offer fundraisers the equivalent of low-hanging fruit, says Laurie Anderson Mann, of DramaBiz.

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How your donor database can help you revive a lapsed capital campaign

Reviving a lapsed capital campaign

Did you start a capital campaign and have to allow it to lapse before it finished? You are not the only one. Many nonprofits have had this happen-- maybe because of the economy, or unexpected changes within an organization.Just because you let a campaign lapse, doesn't mean you have to abandon it forever. You can revive a lapsed capital campaign, and your donor database can help. By keeping your contacts current, you will have the records there to start up again when you are able.

 

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4 questions to answer to create a successful membership program for your nonprofit

Benefits of a Membership Program

In order to create a strong membership program, there are  four basic questions you need to be think through in order for things to run smoothly. Knowing the answers will get a new membership program off to a strong start; or help clear up problems in one that is already established. Either way-- whether you are new to membership management or needing to strengthen one you already have, knowing the answers to these questions creates a solid foundation:

What role do you want people to play in your organization who are not board or staff?What should be the base membership fee?What benefits should you offer to members?How can you best manage joining and expiration of membership?1.  What role do you want people to play in your organization who are not board or staff?

The answer to this question helps you decide whether you actually need or want a membership program at all! There are many benefits to a membership program but it will also be additional work to keep it running smoothly. Will this extra work be worth it to you?

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Get ready to send end of year letters to donors for tax season

End of Year Letters

Now is the time to start thinking about what information you need for your End of Year letters for tax season.  Although these letters aren't sent until after the New Year, you may have some decisions to make and some data entry to complete in order for the process to go smoothly. For instance a couple of questions to answer are

Will you send out letters to all donors, just to donors who will be required by the IRS to have written proof of their donations, or skip sending them altogether?Do you want to include a fundraising appeal with the tax summary letter? What is a tax summary letter?

Tax Summary letters, often called End of Year letters, give donors information on what they have donated to your organization that year. These statements differ from the holiday appeal, in that they are sent after the holidays. Their primary intention is to give information to the donor for taxes; however it is not uncommon to combine them with another appeal.

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7 steps for your nonprofit to establish a successful memorial giving program

Establishing a successful memorial giving fund

You can easily start a memorial giving program just by adding a line or two on your website, in your newsletters and in your appeal letters. For that small effort, you can experience both

increased donations andstronger emotional ties with your donors

Of course to create a really successful tribute program, you'll need to do more. Step by step is the way to succeed.Memorial gifts are made on the death of a loved one (people and companion animals), or in honor of a special life event like a wedding. People are especially likely to want to make memorial donations to organizations that deal with life and death issues, such as hospices and other health care related programs; veterinary practices and animal shelters. For instance, Kairos Dwelling, which houses terminally ill people, says that a large percentage of their income comes from tributes.

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Thank you for turning you donor database into a powerful tool to relieve suffering

Turning donor database into powerful tool to relieve suffering

One of the great pleasures of working at FundRaiser is supporting people and organizations who are working in all aspects of nonprofit work. You are our stars, making us proud of the work we do. When you bring together our software with your mission and vision, you bring life to FundRaiser Software.

Over the years, I've talked to many of you who have shown great ability in turning FundRaiser into a powerful tool to relieve suffering of all kinds. I’ve written articles based on what you've told me. We've recently gathered together some of the most helpful of these resources and organized them by type of nonprofit work you are doing. Our hopes are to contribute even more to the realization of your vision.

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Part II of How your non profit organization can record campaigns and associated events for clear ROI data

Part II - Campaign Management

In the Gilda's Club case study talked about in my last blog entry, Debra mentions using the “code set up feature” for events. She is referring to the capability in the Campaign Management section to have Gift codes directly associated with events, so that the codes can be automatically applied to gifts.  In the Coding & Spare Fields training, we learn that there are 3 primary Gift Codes:  Motivation, Fund, and Purpose. 

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How Gilda’s Club uses campaign management software to stay organized on simultaneous events

Gilda’s Club of Western Pennsylvania has a dedication to improving the lives of cancer survivors that inspires me. They keep up a very active schedule of fundraising to pay for the services they offer to cancer survivors and their families. They started small, using FundRaiser Basic, and over the years have built momentum so that they now are running several events at once. Staying organized is a challenge, and they have done it by skillful use of special campaign management features in FundRaiser Software.

Using the Campaign Management Console is straightforward, and in doing so, Gilda’s Club of Western PA is able to easily view campaign ROI, and make adjustments as needed to their campaigns. Debra Markovich, Executive Assistant at Gilda’s Club Western Pennsylvania uses FundRaiser Professional on a daily basis and explains how they stay organized while running several simulaneous events:

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7 steps for keeping up with rapid growth in your donor database

Keeping up with rapid growth in your donor database

When Siena/Francis House began to grow, it also found the need to change how it was using its donor database. With more work, more people were using the database, sometime simultaneously. The development staff also increased the frequency of appeals from just a couple times a year to one going out nearly every month; and  expanded other types of in-person fundraising that relied on good information about how specific donors' felt connected to the organization.

Siena/Francis House is Nebraska’s largest shelter serving homeless men, women, and children. At the time of this interview, they had grown from 86 to 222 beds for the men guests, and more was needed. “Within 2 months of building the new men’s shelter, we were laying down mats for overflow. Depending on the weather, we now house as many as 300 to 350 men, women and children guests a night and serve 900 meals a day,” Marge Harman, Information Technology Administrator for the organization, told me. Faced with this kind of need, they have kept their database functioning optimally. “The need is there, that’s the sad thing,” says Marge. The following steps will keep your database working well under these high-pressure circumstances, too:

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Keeping on Top of Grant Deadlines

Okay, so we're not going to travel back in time to keep tabs on Ulysses, here, but in tracking grant proposal progress, it is important to make sure that each step of the process is done in a timely manner. There are usually deadlines that must be met to be considered for grant monies, so it is imperative that we have some method of reminding ourselves when those deadlines are coming near.

Tickle Your Memory

In FundRaiser Professional and FundRaiser Select, the "Tickler" system fills this need. Tickles are date-sensitive reminders that can be associated directly with a name record, such as a Foundation from which we are seeking a grant. There is a Tickle tab for each and every name record. In this tabbed page, we can keep multiple tickles, with "Do Dates", notes, and more. In the case of a grant application, you would set up separate tickles for each stage of the application process, and later for the reporting deadlines. If different staff members need to be involved, you can assign tickles to the responsible staff members to accomplish. Once they have completed their portion of a tickle, they can pass the tickle along to the next staff member, or when completed, can give it back to you.

Automatic Tickle RemindersWhen FundRaiser is started, it will remind you of all tickles coming due in the next "X" number of days that pertain to you. You get to tell it how many days that "X" should be, whether it is "0" to show only those due today, or "7" for a week's advance notice, or "30" for a month, and so forth. This is set in the Options > Personal > Tickles section of the program.Print Tickle ReportsOnce in the program, you can view all tickles for a specific donor by looking on their Tickles tab. You can view all tickles that pertain to you by going to Windows > Staff Tickler. And, you can print a variety of reports in Print > Tickle Reports.Assign Tickles to FundRaiser UsersTo allow tickles to be assigned to certain users, each person must be given a program password. To do this go to the Options menu and click on User List/Security. In this window, you set up the passwords with which each user will login to FundRaiser. After that, tickles can be designated for a specific user, by name, or can be for all the staff. The "supervisor" of FundRaiser will be able to see all tickles for everyone, if you choose, and will be able to limit others to see only the tickles that apply directly to them and/or those assigned to "all staff members". As always, if you have questions on how best to use these features, drop us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or give us a call at 800-543-4131.
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How a Christian radio station got back on track by responding quickly to listener letters

How a Christian Radion Station Got Back On Track by Responding Quickly to Listener Letters

About 10 years ago, key members of CrossTalk ministry took a step back from their work, and realized they weren’t getting where they wanted to go. “We had a lag of four to six weeks in responding to people who contacted us. When we got around to contacting them they were irritated and didn’t care anymore. We were failing,” says Caleb Weiss, Development Director.

Caleb knew that donor management software could help, but theirs was more of a liability. “We had some kind of membership tracking software at that time. It took more work to use than it saved. We were also using several Excel spreadsheets. We needed a software product that would help us do our job without having to put so much into it.”

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7 ways an alumni foundation improved donor cultivation by moving from Excel to a donor database


Mariemont School Foundation didn’t really want to move from their Excel spreadsheets to a donor database, but their new development director said they needed to if they wanted to be more successful. “The people who were on the foundation board didn’t want to learn something new, but then they hired a development director who said in order to be a successful group, donor management software was something we needed to grow our organization. You start out as a grass roots organization and then you need someone to say, ‘to grow your organization this is something you need to do’.” says Ann Pardue, who is a Trustee on the Board of the Mariemont School Foundation.

Since starting to use the donor database, the foundation has seen great gains

According to Ann, Mariemont has been able to:

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Why I want the environmental organization I volunteer for to use a donor database instead of Excel spreadsheets

The environmental organization I volunteer for is important to me, so it followed that when I discovered they were using Excel spreadsheets to track the donors who help make it happen each year, I suggested that we use a FundRaiser Software program instead.

My co-volunteers were leery about moving from Excel to a donor database. They don't know me as any kind of expert on non-profit fundraising. They feared that using a donor database would simply complicate matters. Excel spreadsheets are free and everyone knew how to use them. Their questions led me to do some research so I could tell them more clearly why I was making my suggestion. Here's what I turned up:

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7 steps to increased donations for schools using a donor database

increasing donations for schools large and small

Schools can significantly increase incoming donations by clarifying who their most generous constituent groups are and then focusing development efforts on those donor segments. Several FundRaiser users have done this, with excellent results.

1.    Enter your donation amounts into your database

The first step to locating your most generous donors is easy. “It’s a simple matter of entering your checks into FundRaiser. Then all that information is there,” says Ellen Bouye, Administrative Assistant of Oklahoma Christian Academy and a FundRaiser Select user.

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3 ways you can use your database to create warmer fundraising letters

Stronger fundraising letters

“Donors share personal things in letters when they send donations. For instance they might say that they recently lost a loved one. I want to be able to use my software to respond to that person, to create ‘high touch’ communications, and even to become friend,” says Joe Emert of Life Radio Ministries.

Joe makes it part of his mission to interact with donors as people. He also knows that a good relationship to a donor can have a positive impact on giving. “I don’t just do things to help me get another donation and yet I know that if I meet the needs of a donor not just on the radio but also by responding appropriately to an inquiry or something that is said in a letter, that creates a better relationship.

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Not gone yet...! Lapsed donors

You still have time to catch them... and it's easier to do it while they are still in sight, than later when they are totally gone. That's lapsed donors I'm talking about. One of the most important groups to send letters to are Lapsed Donors - those who have given in the past, but not in the most recent 9-24 months. It’s much easier, and less expensive, to win a donor back than to find a new one.

Lapsed donors have indicated that they are interested enough in your organization to donate at least once. This makes them highly qualified as potential future donors. For some reason they have not felt the incentive to donate again recently. That may be for reasons beyond your control, but it might also be because you haven't asked.

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Tips for increasing volunteer satisfaction

Does your organization depend on volunteers to get its work done? Are you satisfied with your volunteer retention? Do you have a few problem volunteers that may actually be more trouble than they are worth, but who just won't go away? In one of my favorite articles written about volunteer management, Michael McKee addresses these points, distilling years of experience into a short article. When I talked to him to get his permission to post the article on the FundRaiser website, I found him to be as engaging and direct in person as he was as a writer, brief and helpful.

The Care and Feeding of Volunteers

by Michael McKee

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Why FundRaiser Multi-User Must Go...

Are you using FundRaiser's Multi-User or Single-User license? FundRaiser is beginning a gradual phase-out of these licenses and a mandatory upgrade to a Client/Server license. The reason is that Client/Server is much faster and more reliable when accessing FundRaiser on your network.

Many of our users have already moved from multi-user to Client/Server. Here are the stories of a few of them, and why they like Client/Server:

Fast organizational growth at Siena/Francis House had them chewing their nails over the slow operation of FundRaiser multi-user. They solved the problem by switching to FundRaiser Client/Server. Siena/Francis HouseKeeping up with the work of a regional organization is no small job. It takes several people sometimes working simultaneously in FundRaiser to get the work done at Siloam Family Health Center. It gets done smoothly with FundRaiser Client/Server. Siloam Family Health Center.The online version of FundRaiser includes Client/Server as part of it's core program to allow several users working from different locations to smoothly access the program. Bishop McDevitt High School uses it for that reason. Bishop McDevitt High School.CrossTalk TV & Radio also uses FundRaiser Online version. They like how staff members can work both in the office and at home, viewing and editing the same data  simultaneously. CrossTalk TV & Radio.
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Don't forget your main mission on social media

As social media director for FundRaiser, I make posts and write articles for forums, facebook, blogs like this one, and newsletters. It's a job I really like, in part because of the ongoing challenge to understand and integrate how the new and emerging tools of online communication can be used to really add something to the conversation between FundRaiser and our nonprofit customers. As I know that many of you are also dealing with a similar challenge, I'd like to occasionally share what I am learning and experiencing. If you'd like to share your thoughts, too, please feel free to join the conversation on our facebook page, or email me directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Probably the most important thing to keep in mind, always, is to remember that for all its pizzazz, social media and online communication are about trying to make a connection with the people who want to hear from you and are interested in what you have to say. This isn't new, but sometimes the 'newness' of social media tools makes us forget that it's still always about understanding and meeting the needs of your audience, whoever they are. Every time you write something, try to put yourself in the shoes of your supporters. If you do this,then you are starting from the right place. Nancy Schwartz, editor of the Getting Attention blog/newsletter for nonprofit marketing , is one writer who has some excellent tips and advice for staying in tune with your audience.
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Producing Tax Summary Letters

It's time to produce Tax Summary letters (also called End of Year letters) again. They are usually sent in January after the last donation for the year is in. To help you breeze through this process, here's a coherent plan of attack for FundRaiser users.

Step One... Read More

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

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