Your nonprofit organization’s strategic plan provides the direction in which you are heading and how to get there. A good nonprofit strategic planning process identifies strategies that will best enable a nonprofit to advance its mission. Many nonprofits start the process by identifying the nonprofit’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, in what is commonly called a SWOT analysis.

Organizations use strategic planning to provide a structured process to define success for an organization, determine the operational and programmatic steps to get there, and align resources and staff to achieve the goal within a given time frame.

Given the typical amount of time it takes to create a well thought out strategic plan most plans cover a time period of three (3) years—long enough to allow time for the plan to be enacted and show results, but not so long that the data and goals should change.

But did your nonprofit’s strategic plan just get tossed aside and now seems completely irrelevant? Don’t give up – it’s time to revisit your plan and these basics can be considered in a timely manner to help you realign your focus and your direction at this critical time.

Three steps to quickly revise your strategic plan:

1. Ensure your agency’s programs, projects and activities remain within the parameters of your vision, strategy and objectives;
2. Review internal and external factors that may require changes to your strategy or affect your ability to achieve your current objectives; and,
3. Identify potential scenarios and develop contingency plans to help you stay on track toward reaching your goals and fulfilling your vision for the business.

If you revise your strategic plan during this time it will significantly benefit your nonprofit in these ways: 

• Revise/re-align the purpose of your organization and set realistic goals
• Adapt quickly to the changing environment
• Better overcome short-term delays
• Become more forward-thinking and visionary
• Build a consensus in your organization about where your organization is heading
• Increase productivity by ensuring that employees know where they’re going and what’s expected of them
• Capitalize on your strengths

My last words in all of the strategy sessions I facilitate, I leave the room with this advice: “A strategic plan is a living document. It does not have to be perfect or 100 percent complete to start using your strategic plan. A rough draft is better than no plan at all. Put your plan on paper so you can stay focused on your current goals and objectives.”

Download our free SWOT analysis guide and template to shine a light on your nonprofit’s future so you can shape it proactively, not retroactively. Plan ahead with a springboard for your future!

As part of Bloomerang’s Content Donation Program, $100 was donated to Shoebox Ministry.

The post Quickly Revise Your Nonprofit’s Strategic Plan With These 3 Steps appeared first on Bloomerang.

What I want to talk about is nothing like that but yet it is quite similar in many ways.

Understanding and Enhancing Your Development Audit

A development audit is an assessment of your fundraising program and your readiness to embark on new development ventures. It involves your board, staff and volunteers throughout the process and ultimately offers recommendations on how to best use your resources available to the organization. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of your systems, including your fundraising software. The development audit report will also offer suggestions to help improve donor communications and stewardship.

The first question you may want to ask yourself if this: “Why would we want to undertake a development audit?”

Our answer is simple, really:

• Preparing for a major gifts, capital or endowment campaign
• Not satisfied with the results of current annual giving program
• Looking for increased Board participation in fundraising efforts
• Seeking an objective evaluation of development program
• Trying to diversify their funding streams
• Engaged in the strategic planning process
• Looking at restructuring the development office
• On quest for a sustainable funding model for the longitude for the organization

So who should be involved in the development audit? The CEO/ED, and lead development staff will directly be involved. Board members, and other lead staff will indirectly participate. But let’s say you work for a small nonprofit, then it’s all hands-on deck and everyone is directly involved. Many times, a nonprofit brings in a consultant to execute the audit (to provide a more objective outlook of the program). When I started with any new organization as their full-time development person, I always completed a small version internally for my own better understanding of the organization and its fundraising.

There are four activities to the development audit:

1. Set goals for the audit (what do you want to learn about the development functions of the organization and why)
2. Development Audit questionnaire to use with staff and board
3. Review of supporting internal and external documentation used
4. Develop an action plan for development addressing the areas needing improvement

Ultimately, the development plan will help the organization build on its strengths, overcome its weaknesses and address opportunities for future growth. And just a few final thoughts: do the audit every few years (staff and board members change), and all staff/board should be involved in development in one way or another.

If you would like to speak to us about helping you with your organization’s development audit, please let us know. You can contact us at www.therayvangroup.com and we always have time for a phone call.

The post Has Your Nonprofit Ever Conducted a Development Audit? appeared first on Bloomerang.

December is around the corner and we want to share best tips for your year-end fundraising. Sit back with your eggnog, put your feet up and review our list of what you need to know so you can have the best giving season ever:

1. Share your metrics for your December fundraising. Whether it’s total dollars raised, number of donors, number of new donors, or any other metric that is important to your overall goals, share it with your community (“We’re trying to bring in 100 new donors!”) and be sure to report back so all of those who gave can feel a part of something with you.

2. Tie your ‘thank you emails’ to your end-of-year story. If you’re an animal welfare nonprofit, make the thank you email be from an animal you help. If you’re telling the story of an artist or dancer, make the end of year email be from them. And if you’re a human services nonprofit, create the letter from a conglomerate story, with a pseudonym who also thanks your donors.

3. Don’t forget your leadership annual fund donors at year end! Run a report to see who has not yet renewed their annual gifts of $1,000 or more. Those lovely donors should be your priority right now. Go see them. Or write them a very personal note and tell them that you have missed their support and their partnership for the cause this year. Send them some love!

4. Use social media to thank your current sponsors and your corporate and foundation supporters. This gives you an opportunity to thank them again in a public way.

5. Don’t bury fundraising messages in your December newsletter. Including a donate now button in your email newsletter is not the same as sending a fundraising email. Newsletters typically have gobs of information. Should donors read your latest blog post? Should they follow you on Twitter? Or should they make a donation? Burying your fundraising message in your newsletter will dilute your ask. Instead, send targeted fundraising emails soon after they open your email newsletter.

6. With 2019 right around the corner, you’ve got limited time to get your year-end fundraising message across. But if all your donor data is in a central nonprofit CRM solution, you can easily segment that data to find and reach out to those who are most likely to give.

7. Consider sending a personalized email to your monthly donors asking them to give a year-end gift as well. Make phone calls to your biggest donors thanking them for their support in 2019 and asking if they would like to end the year with one more (tax-deductible and applicable tax credit) contribution.

8. Filter your data. Whatever the case, filtering your data to find key constituent groups is a great way to save time while ensuring a personal and meaningful connection with donors who are most likely to respond as the year ends.

9. Hang a calendar on your wall and stick to it! With events, business and personal travel, and sugar-induced dazes, the year-end giving season can fly by. Engage any and all staff members and volunteers you can to help you execute it. If you’re not prepared with an editorial calendar for social posts, snail mail strategy and sends, emails, newsletters, and stewardship tasks, it will be December 31st and you’ll be wondering where your donors are. Don’t leave your outreach for the last day of the year and definitely don’t try to just fit in these tasks in free moments — because there won’t be many!

10. Utilize your rock star volunteers. Your nonprofit probably has plenty of supporters who love your organization already and are willing to step into an official role of brand ambassador to cheer on your organization’s year end campaign on social channels. If they already love your organization, why not put them to work on your behalf?

11. Share the messages of your supporters. When it comes to supporting your year-end fundraising campaign with a robust use of social media, identifying, training, and supporting a formal group of people to be social media ambassadors has been linked to raising more money. Don’t just recruit “outsiders.”  Your staff and board are most likely already sharing great stories about your organization with their networks and may already use social media channels to do so.

12. Recognize the value of social media and other outreach. The MOST important thing for you to recognize is the potential value of social media ambassadors from the inside out and to train them according to your needs, standards, and goals.

Incorporate these 12 December practices into your year-end giving plans and watch your fundraising metrics increase year-over-year.

There’s still a little time left to finish this year strong. And if you want an additional boost, email me at jransom@therayvangroup.com to take my last remaining spots for the year.

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Imagine this scenario:

Your organization received a donation from a donor once or twice but have not received anything this year. Some nonprofit professionals may say well that donor is gone, time to find a new one.

WRONG! 

Studies show that it costs less to retain, or re-engage, a lapsed donor, then it does to acquire a new donor.

Let’s look at direct mail alone. In a donor acquisition mailing, you can expect a 1-2% return on investment. When you mail, current or lapsed donors, you can expect a 50-60% return on investment. 

Unfortunately, many nonprofits make the mistake of not distinguishing their lapsed donors from other donor groups. They will send these lapsed donors the same mailer as their active donors or, even worse, prematurely mark them as inactive and ignore them altogether.

Because you have had past interactions with these donors, special considerations should be made. Here are a few simple steps to winning back a lapsed donor:

A: Who are the right donors?

Launching a lapsed donor program, you first have to identify who your lapsed donors are. The terms will vary from nonprofit to nonprofit. However, the general idea is that a lapsed donor is someone who has not made a donation in over a year and has given to your nonprofit at least twice previously. These criteria will probably apply to a good portion of your base, so it can be helpful to narrow the requirements of your program even further. For example, it’s probably not worth the money to focus on donors who have made gifts under a certain dollar amount that is meaningful to you. You only want to concentrate on the donors whose contributions will bring you a return on the resources you spent winning them back.

B: What is the right channel?

When it comes to winning back your donors, some communication forms will be more appropriate and efficient than others.

Lapsed major donor prospects warrant an in-person visit or a phone call, but your nonprofit may not have the resources to visit each donor. While email appeals and direct mail letters might appeal to some, I cannot recommend handwritten letters enough. Handwritten letters provide a personal touch and show donors that you really took the time and effort to win them back.

Tip: Make sure to include a handwritten return envelope and a first-class mail stamp, too, in case your lapsed donors want to give again!

C: Be genuine.

The best way to show lapsed donors that your nonprofit cares about them is by personalizing your outreach and making it as sincere as possible.

Always, address your lapsed donors by their first name. Use any information you have on hand that will help you individualize your outreach. (Tip: This is done much more easily with the aid of a nonprofit donor database.) For example, if you know exactly when and how much a donor has given in the past, you should reference the time elapsed since their last contribution and suggest the same gift size in your correspondence.

This lets your lapsed donors know you care about them personally, instead of thinking of them as merely a piggy bank. Tell your lapsed donors that you miss them. Compliment their giving nature! Don’t be shy in letting them know just how much you value them and don’t want to lose their contributions.

What strategies for winning back lapsed donors have worked for your nonprofit in the past?

Let me know in the comments below!

As part of Bloomerang’s Content Donation Program, $100 was donated to Shoebox Ministry.

The post The ABC’s of Winning a Lapsed Donor Back appeared first on Bloomerang.

Over $59 billion dollars are awarded every year through foundation, government and corporate grants, which accounts for about 15% of all nonprofit revenue (according to GivingUSA).

If your nonprofit is not applying for these opportunities then you are simply leaving money on the table. You must be one of the organizations vying for the funders attention.

So how can you get in on the grant action?

Here are four places your organization can find grant funding to sustain your programs:

1. Ask your board.

Often times your board members may be connected to the community. They may know of grant opportunities through foundations or corporations in the community. Depending on their sphere of influence, they may know of family foundations that their social contacts and business colleagues may control.

Utilize LinkedIn connections to research your board member relationships deeper. If you find a connection and see someone on your board can make an introduction, maximize that opportunity.

Share the current funding opportunities you are aware of with your fundraising committee and your full board. Seeing the funding potential may help to spark their mind and begin thinking of relationships and how they can play a role in making a connection.

2. Search the internet.

This may seem simple (because yes, even a toddler can search the web now) and the easiest answer, but a good online search could lead to potential funding. Make sure you use keywords when you search. (For example, if your organization serves the homeless population you would use words such as: “grants homeless,” “grants homeless Phoenix,” “grants homeless Arizona,” “grants basic needs,” “grants housing,” “grants food,” etc.).

Don’t stop with google. Expand your search through social media accounts alike and use hashtags to search for funding. Something like #philanthrophy, #grantaward, #fundraising and the keywords listed above may all lead you to fruitful paths.

3. Grant databases.

There are a few grant databases that you can access from your public library or purchase an annual membership, such as GrantStation, Foundation Center and Grants.gov.

For teachers, Grant Wrangler is one I highly recommend. Their newsletter provides you with a variety of resources. Everything from free classroom curriculum to gardening seeds and cash to start or expand existing programs.

4. Know your competition.

Review similar organizations’ annual reports, donor walls, websites and social media accounts to see where they have recently received funding.

When was the last time you visited your local science center, art museum, zoo or food pantry? You may be surprised that these locations often offer beautifully designed donor walls or pathways built with donor engraved bricks. These are all great ways to deepen your research. It has happened to me on more than a few occasions that I notice a new family foundation or philanthropist’s name. I return to my office to do some sleuthing and find out there are open grant opportunities in the near future.

Stop procrastinating! It is time to start the take your research seriously. Knowing where your potential funding opportunities are is part of the battle. Prepare to get started on submitting a winning proposal today by knowing what opportunities exist that fit your mission.

As part of Bloomerang’s Content Donation Program, $100 was donated to Kids Need to Read

The post 4 Sources of Grant Funding That Are Right Under Your Nose appeared first on Bloomerang.

When it comes to applying for grants, rejections can be particularly dejecting.

But a “no” from a potential funder doesn’t have to be the end of the process.

Here are our top 10 recommendations on what you should do with a rejection letter from a funder:

1. Don’t take it personally. They rejected your proposal, not you.
2. Call the funder to see if they can offer any insights on why the proposal was not funded.
3. Request a copy of the reviewer’s comments.
4. Ask if you can resubmit in the next funding cycle and how you can strengthen your proposal.
5. Extend an invitation for them to tour your facility and see your programs in action.
6. Research the Competition. Learn from the strengths of other proposals and try to apply that to your grant writing.
7. Take copious notes. Keep track of the feedback you have received so that you can reference this when your next proposal is due.
8. Move on – go back to your potential funding matrix and select another proposal to knock out of the park!
9. Ask for another set of eyes. Make sure you have someone else read your proposal to ask questions and strengthen the language from an outside perspective.
10. Hire a professional to review your proposal before you press submit.

We wish we could tell you that you will receive a successful award letter for every grant that you submit. Sadly, that isn’t reality. However, how you handle the rejection will make a big difference.

We have had our fair share of rejection letters, but getting that one successful reward letter makes it all worthwhile. Take a deep breath and follow the steps above.

As part of Bloomerang’s Content Donation Program, $100 was donated to Impact One Breast Cancer Foundation.

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