Cultivate High-End Donors

I just found a great article on FundRaising Success titled “45 Easy Ways to Cultivate High-Value Donors.”  The suggestions are indeed very easy, practical, and easy to apply.  Some of my favorites:

7. Have someone who benefits from the organization’s work write letters describing how the organization has helped.

16. Send donors articles that might interest them — even if they have nothing to do with your organization. Sometimes it’s better if they have nothing to do with your organization — that tells donors that you’re interested in them as people and not as checkbooks.

27. Take out a thank-you ad in the local newspaper.

What are some of the ways you thank your donors?

Small Businesss Funding

Photo courtesy of www.flickr.com/randycox

People often come to the Grant Resource Center looking for grants to start or maintain a small, for-profit business.  For the most part, foundations do not fund for-profit business ventures, and foundation funding is our specialty.  Read more about this in the Foundation Center’s FAQ section, under “Where can I find information on funding to start a business?”

I’ve developed a Small Business Resources sheet to provide some sort of guidance to those people seeking information on funding a for-profit business.  I hope the list of resources will grow as I do more research.

Please, let me know in the comments if there are any local resources I left out! 

Afterschool Program Resources

Lately I have had a rush of patrons come to the Grant Resource Center to research grants for afterschool programs.  To learn more about these patrons and their unique needs, I’ve been researching afterschool programs and have come across a few resources they might find useful.  These are not resources for grants, but rather resources for people who work with afterschool programs or would like to start one in their community.

• AfterSchool Professional Network |  “Centralized, online resources and information for the afterschool and out-of-school time professionals and programs.”
• Shared Features of High-Performing After-School Programs |  A PDF of a white paper prepared for the After-School Corporation with support from the U.S. Department of Education.  “This study examined high-performing after-school projects funded by The After-School Corporation (TASC), to determine what characteristics, if any, these projects shared.”
• Starting an Afterschool Program: A Resource Guide |  A PDF from the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center.  “Whether you are a school administrator, a faith-based organization, a family child care provider or any other type of afterschool program developer, this resource guide presents helpful publications and resources as
  well as a range of considerations as you begin to develop an afterschool program.”
• The Center for After-School Excellence |  Creating educational opportunities for afterschool educators,  “The Center for After-School Excellence is dedicated to ensuring that during the critical afternoon hours, young people are supervised and instructed by well-trained staff in high-quality after-school programs.”

Storytelling as Marketing

Marketing is not a dirty word.  I know, it often conjures up images of a pushy salesman in an ill-fitting suit who just won’t leave you alone, but in the nonprofit world, marketing is simply about telling your story.  The story of your organization, the stories of your clients, the stories of your community.

To be a better nonprofit marketer, then, you need to be a better writer and a better storyteller.  Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Polish your writing skills right now! Quality writing is essential to everything you do, and at all levels of your organization.  Whether it’s grant writing, writing for a newsletter, composing a blog post, or sending an email, writing well makes you and your organization look good.  Practice, edit, rewrite.  Repeat.
2. Speaking of blogs … start a blog!  Write with some regularity, which is more difficult than it sounds (see yesterday’s post).  Posting on a schedule may makes you seem dependable to your readers (even if it’s only in their subconsciousness).  Keep an informal tone in your blog; it helps reinforce your existence as a real person working for a real organization, and it makes you seem more trust worthy.  You don’t want to be that guy in the ill-fitting suit, do you?
3. Publish an interesting newsletter (it’s the “interesting” that’s the hard part).  Share more than event dates and registration deadlines; share stories from clients, celebrate your volunteers, acknowledge your donors in a unique way.  Write to a defined audience (your donors?  your clients?  your peers?).
4. Provide electronic distribution of your newsletters. If you write quality, useful, and / or interesting and moving content, your newsletter may become “viral,” and providing electronic distribution will aid in its dissemination.  It’s all about spreading the word, your word.

Do you enjoy telling your organization’s stories?  Does it feel like marketing to you?  Let me know in the comments.

A Resolution

Today I made a resolution to post here twice a week from now until the end of time.  Okay, maybe “until the end of time” is a slight exaggeration, but I thought it would really show my level of commitment.

My goal is to post every Monday and Thursday.  (And yes, I know today is Wednesday, but for me it is Monday since I’ve been on vacation since last Friday.)  This will be terribly difficult because I’m a perfectionist.  Sometimes it takes me four hours just to write a single post because I need to make sure everything is perfect before I can hit that “Publish” button.  But now, with my new twice a week posting schedule, I’ll have to force some of that perfectionism to the side.  Ohhh, it will be tough!  Please be kind if I let some sloppiness slip through.

What sorts of things do you need more information on?  What burning questions do you have for someone who reads grant writing manuals for fun?  This is a blog, a true Web 2.0 technology, and it’s all about community, collaboration, and sharing.  Share your problems or questions with me in the comments, and I’ll do my best to share some solutions.

Let’s interact!