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

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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.

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Managing Tribute Gifts in FundRaiser Software, part 2

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Managing Tribute Gifts with FundRaiser Software, part 1In last week's blog post, I discussed the general donor management issues for working with tribute donations. Here, I will go into more of the specifics of working with these gifts in FundRaiser.

The general flow of tribute gifts can be explained better, perhaps, with an example. Let’s say that a prominent citizen of the community has passed away, and that the family has requested that donations be directed to your organization. You might first enter that citizen’s name as an honoree in the Windows | Tributes section, along with the family member to whom notification should be sent. It is good to prepare this ahead, because you may receive many donations and you will want to respond promptly.

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Managing Tribute Gifts with FundRaiser Software, part 1

Tributes

Tribute Gifts are in a class by themselves when it comes to fundraising. They can require a bit more management than "general" gifts, but they can also offer you the opportunity to acquire new donors that might otherwise not be involved with your organization. They also offer existing donors the opportunity to show their respects by giving to a cause they already deem worthy.

Tributes can be made for people or pets, a fact to which many animal-oriented nonprofits will attest. Tributes to the living are the "in honor of" kinds of gifts, while tributes to the deceased are the "in memory of" gifts. "In honor" of gifts may be motivated by an event such as a wedding, anniversary, birthday, graduation, or other important moment for congratulations.

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Keeping Track of Memorial Giving in FundRaiser

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With Memorial Day just around the corner, it might be a good time to mention a couple of ways you can keep track of memorial gifts in FundRaiser.  We call them "Tribute" gifts, and they can be in memory of departed loved ones, or in honor of living individuals, or even in celebration of some life event or other.

For FundRaiser Professional users, there is a built-in module, appropriately called "Tributes" to handle the recording and subsequent correspondence for these types of gifts.  In FundRaiser Select, the Tributes module is available as an "add-on" module for a modest price.  But even in Spark, which has no specific facility for tribute tracking, one can devise some practices to follow and report on tribute giving.  Let's see how they work.

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5 Simple Ways to Publicize Your Memorial Giving Program to Donors

5 Simple Ways to Publicize Your Memorial Giving Program to Donors
Memorial giving reminder on flap of reply envelope
Example of reply envelope text. This is the First Witness reply envelope, and the text is on the back under the flap. It has generated much of their memorial gift donations.

Memorial giving feels good. A donor is able to give to an organization they or a loved one values, and at the same time express a positive connection to someone important to them. Because of the all-around 'feel good' of memorial giving, organizations who successfully promote this kind of donation reap the benefits not only of the gifts, but also the extra good feelings associated with the gifts.

Letting your donors know that they can give to your organization in honor of someone can be very simple and straightforward. Becky Lindberg of First Witness Child Abuse Resource Center and a FundRaiser Select user says, "it is such an easy painless way to keep people connected to your program."

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Managing Tribute Gifts with FundRaiser Software, part 2

Managing Tribute Gifts with FundRaiser Software, part 2

In last week's blog post, I discussed the general donor management issues for working with tribute donations. Here, I will go into more of the specifics of working with these gifts in FundRaiser.

The general flow of tribute gifts can be explained better, perhaps, with an example. Let’s say that a prominent citizen of the community has passed away, and that the family has requested that donations be directed to your organization. You might first enter that citizen’s name as an honoree in the Windows | Tributes section, along with the family member to whom notification should be sent. It is good to prepare this ahead, because you may receive many donations and you will want to respond promptly.

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Successful Tributes Fundraising Increases Donations and Positive Feelings

Successful Tributes Fundraising Increases Donations and Positive Feelings

Nonprofits who make it easy for donors to give gifts in memory or honor of someone, increase both donations and positive feelings towards their organization... especially when the follow-up on your part is handled well. Joan Young, a volunteer at Kairos Dwelling, who are FundSelect users, says that the key to managing tributes is understanding that two different letters are usually sent: the normal acknowledgment letter to the donor, and then an additional letter, called the notification letter, that goes to the family member of the memorialized person. Tracking both of these letters requires some attention.

The American Animal Hospital Association Foundation receives 800 or more memorial gifts a month."Veterinary practices will have a client who has a pet that passes away. The vet then makes a memorial donation to the program in memory of the animal," explains Tamara Fox. She says to deal with this volume of tributes, "being organized helps."

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Don’t Forget to Reach Out to Tribute Donors’ Families

Don’t Forget to Reach Out to Tribute Donors’ Families

Dear Kim,

Would it be tacky to add to our mailing list names of people from whom we have received tribute donations — in particular, the families of people for whom we receive “in memoriam” donations? In my eagerness to enlarge our donor base, I’m wondering if I’m wandering into the realm of bad taste? What do you think? —All alone with my memory gifts

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Inspiring Donors To Give Donations As Gifts

Inspiring Donors To Give Donations As Gifts

Does your nonprofit make it easy for donors to give donations as a special gift? Not only are these kinds of donations good fundraising, they also create positive feelings towards your organization. "More and more people are catching on– giving gifts in honor of holidays, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries," says Becky Lindberg of First Witness Child Abuse Resource Center. For the non profit organization, "it is such an easy painless way to keep people connected to your program," adds Lindberg.

With very simple techniques to get people thinking about making a memorial donation, you can simultaneously

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Joyful Tribute Giving

Joyful Tribute Giving

So my family had that conversation this weekend. The one that usually happens sometime at the start of November. My mother asked me, “so what do you want for Christmas?”. There’s a good chance similar conversations, centered around any number of the winter holidays, are happening in your donors’ households too.

I’m also hearing from a lot of organizations that are working to send out their holiday appeal letters.

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

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