Gift Giving Ideas for Your NFP

One way to increase the number of individual donations that your organisation receives is to offer your donors a small gift in exchange for donating a set amount. Not only is it a nice gesture to show your appreciation for their contribution, but it’s also a great way to increase your donor’s sense of connection to your cause.

When you give them a tangible benefit for their gift, it makes them feel that they are a member of an exclusive set or club. Why not try one or more of the following gift-giving ideas to boost your results during your next fundraising or membership drive?

Offer Donors a Choice

Instead of sending out the same gift, why not partner with a third-party vendor to produce a selection of gifts that donors can choose from based on their level of giving? Allowing your donors to pick their own gift ensures that they really will like and enjoy the incentive that they will receive and increases the chance that they will use it where others will see your logo and messaging.

Custom Drinkware

Mugs, tumblers, water bottles and insulated beverage carriers are great choices, because they are something that your donors or members might use every day. Just be sure to customise them with your nonprofit’s logo and tagline to build brand awareness and loyalty. These types of gifts also help to keep your cause top of mind because it’s likely that recipients will use them daily, and possibly in public settings, such as the workplace, helping to increase interest in your NFP.

Embossed T-Shirts and Hats

Apparel is another thoughtful gift that helps your donor feel more involved in your work while raising awareness of your brand. In addition to your NFP Logo and tagline, consider embossing these types of gift items with a fun, lighthearted image that’s eye-catching but true to your nonprofit’s mission. Doing so will increase the appeal and “collectability” of your gift.

Carry-Alls and Cover-Ups

Messenger bags, packs, totes, jackets, blankets, towels and umbrellas are items that might be a little costlier to send to multiple donors, but their popularity and usefulness make them great gift choices to imprint with your branding images.

Fun Incidentals

Smaller items, such as addresses labels that are customised with your donor’s information, or pens, keyrings, notepads and calendars that are branded with your logo and contact information are all low-cost, budget-friendly items that allow you show your appreciation to your donor.

Meaningful Experiences

Finally, don’t forget that some of the best gifts that any of us receive involve unique events and experiences. Rather than sending a tangible item to your donors, consider offering them exclusive access to information, or a fun occasion, to show your gratitude for their contribution. Give your donors the VIP treatment and invite them on special tours to see the inner workings of your organisation. Consider hosting events and look for ways to give your donors unique experiences that will be memorable and enjoyable. For example, if there are entertainers or other celebrities at your event, invite your top donors backstage to meet with them personally.

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Planning Your NFP Impact

As we go about our days, it’s very easy to get caught up in the busyness of our everyday routines. Sometimes, we may become so focused on performing specific tasks that we may forget about the real reason why we are working so hard. Everything action that we take, no matter how big or small, should ultimately contribute to making meaningful change.

Before we can make a difference in our communities, we first need to create a plan. The following steps will help your NFP identify needs and issues, discover and implement solutions, and measure the results.

Identify Needs in Your Community

The first step to defining your impact is first to clarify what problem or issue you are trying to solve. Do you understand the real needs in your service community? How is your NFP uniquely positioned to help? What expertise, resources and assets can you leverage to make a difference? Activities such as conducting a needs assessment can help you discover problems as well put you on the path to discerning their root causes.

Determine Outcomes

Ultimately, who do you want to benefit the most from your work? What is the expected outcome of your work in both the short and long-term? How can participants build upon short-term success to create more enduring change over time? In addition to considering your beneficiaries, think about other stakeholders, and what actions you may need them to take to help you achieve your objectives.

Map the Path Forward

When planning the steps that you need to take to reach the desired result, always keep in mind that your planned outcome should be the driver of all your activities and efforts. Use outcomes to help you determine your specific objectives, and what individual steps you and others must take. Each objective should be realistic, measurable and achievable.

Don’t Forget About the Importance of Culture in Creating Change

Long before your NFP can make a positive difference in the lives of others, you will likely need to change your culture to one that is less focused on costs and move from a scarcity model of operations to one that is outcome-driven. To create a culture of impact, encourage your people to continuously seek ways to provide greater value to your members. Make it safe for them to take some risks and experiment with new ways of doing things to find better, more effective methods. Encourage and facilitate life-long learning, open communication and skill development to help your team grow both personally and professionally.

As your team strengthens their core competencies and becomes more flexible, they become better at evaluating their own performance as well as that of your programs and services. Empower them to make direct decisions on the front lines and use their new insights and abilities for your NFP’s best advantage!

Monitor and Evaluate Your Progress

At the outset, you should create benchmarks that will help you measure your NFP’s progress as it works towards achieving specific objectives. It’s also a good idea to periodically re-evaluate them to see if these goals are still relevant and necessary to achieve the desired outcomes.

Sometimes, it’s tough for nonprofits to have the unbiased insight necessary to objectively evaluate their performance and the impact made by their programs and services. If you suspect that this is the case with your organisation, you might wish to consider bringing in an independent consultant or evaluator to help your NFP understand the difference that it makes, and, to help you identify areas that you should focus on to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

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Tapping Into Nonprofit Members Through LinkedIn

In NFP circles, we talk a lot about the importance of using social media to build support for your nonprofit and its work. While there are plenty of articles and podcasts out there that discuss how to put Facebook and Twitter to its best use for your NFP, LinkedIn is one really useful platform that’s often overlooked. The following strategies will help you unleash the power of this social media channel to benefit your nonprofit!

Why LinkedIn? Look at the Demographics Your NFP Can Tap!

According to Omnicore’s recent research, LinkedIn currently boasts 562 million users, and adds two new users every second! 45% of users who read posts on this channel occupy the top leadership and management posts in their organisations, making it an excellent platform to discover potential new board members and other top talent for your NFP!

41% of millionaires also use the site, making it the go-to location to connect with this demographic and potentially recruit key donors to your cause. It’s also a great marketplace to interact with younger, highly-skilled and educated individuals and encourage them to advocate for your cause, as 13% of millennials, and 40 million college students or recent graduates, have a LinkedIn profile!  This same fact makes the channel a great place to find talent to fill your open volunteer and staff positions!

Align Your Profile and Messaging with Your Mission

To get started using LinkedIn, you will need to create your nonprofit’s profile. Keep your messaging in alignment with your mission, as well as be consistent in tone so that it matches the messaging on your other social media profiles. Use keywords that are in sync with your values, goals and overall purpose to make it easier for others to find and connect with you. Don’t forget to include a link to your nonprofit’s official website, along with links to your NFP’s other key social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

In addition to creating an official profile for your nonprofit, your key members should also create personal profiles and connect with your organisation, to help raise awareness and support for your work! In this way, board members, directors and other prominent leaders in your organisation can create and connect with a community of like-minded professionals that can support your NFP through advocacy, donations, volunteering and more!

Move Past Your Profile

Many organisations invest the time to create a winning profile on the platform, and then quickly abandon it to spend more time on other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. When creating your profile, you should keep in mind that LinkedIn isn’t just a networking platform or job search engine. It also offers users the ability to build their credibility, establish their position as thought leaders and increase their reputation by facilitating conversations where members can discuss ideas, events and trending topics as well as ask one another for opinions and advice.

Best Practices to Create Content that’s Relevant to LinkedIn Users

When used correctly, LinkedIn can be a great platform for you to tell and share your nonprofit’s best stories. Invite your key members to share their personal accounts of how your organisation has impacted their lives and the lives of others in your service community. Create articles that others will find useful and interesting. Currently, lists and how-to articles tend to perform best on this channel.

Unlike other forms of social media, research shows that the articles that do best on LinkedIn don’t include videos. That’s why you will want to limit the visual portion of your content to include only one, or possible two high-resolution, captivating photos at most. If it will help to simplify complex data or processes, you may wish to embed only one clear and concise infographic later in the text of the article to make the content easier to understand and remember.

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Realising the Potential of Your Donors

While they can be difficult to identify and recruit, major donors are potential game changers when it comes to gaining the level of funding that you need to significantly advance your cause. In fact, studies have shown that nearly three-quarters of the donations that most nonprofits receive each year are made by a small handful of key contributors.

The following strategies will help you to find and connect with major donors and encourage them to actively engage with your NFP and its work.

Identification

If you have existing donors who are giving recurring gifts to your NFP, it’s likely that you’ve already connected to at least one or two donors that can make substantially larger gifts to your NFP. Screen your existing connections to see if you have any good prospects among your current donors, volunteers, members, board members and advocates.

Use any public information to look for key indicators of wealth as you research your prospects. Investigate their real estate holdings, level of giving to your NFP and other nonprofits as well as their current or past political contributions.

In addition to screening your current donor’s list, reach out to your board members, trustees, and third-party partners and ask them if they have connections that may be interested in your cause and that have the money to give substantial gifts.

Cultivation

Major donors usually only give significant contributions to causes that they feel a personal connection, so you will want to focus on establishing rapport, and building genuine relationships with your prospects. Look for ways to give your prospects the “inside track” at your organisation so that they feel greater affinity and attachment in your NFP’s success. Ask for their input, give them access to special events and give them the full details of your organisation’s current and past achievements as well as your future goals. Encourage direct involvement with your NFP and its activities so that your prospects can see for themselves just how important your work is, and how they can join in and be a part of something wonderful that is making a difference in the lives of so many in your community!

You could also assemble a major gifts team comprised of individual board members and other key figures in your NFP leadership to oversee relationship development with specific prospects. Host a variety of formal and informal events that will appeal to your major donor prospects such as a charity auction or gala. Use your NFP brand to develop its own society to attract the attention of potential major donors and give them the recognition that they likely crave as part of their involvement with your work.

Crafting Your Proposal

If you want to be successful at attracting and retaining your major donors, you must first understand that it is a time-consuming process that takes a great deal of effort over a long time to bear fruit. Focus on relationship development before you ever ask your prospects for a large contribution, with the understanding that it might take 1 to 3 years to develop the relationship to the point where your prospect will be comfortable in making a large donation.

As you create proposals, keep in mind that major donors typically look at their large gifts as an investment in their community. They want the money to be well-spent on something that will generate real change. Create a strategic giving plan that identifies each major donor’s specific needs and goals. Include research and data that defines the problem you are trying to solve. Include detailed information and visual aids in your proposal that will illustrate how a significant contribution will help your NFP be able to achieve specific goals.

Stewardship

Your relationship with your major donors doesn’t end with one large gift. Your goal should be to continue your relationship with them indefinitely as you look for ways to encourage continued active engagement with your nonprofit and the community that you seek to serve. These contributors make good candidates for leadership posts within your organisation and can be a source to turn to when seeking new candidates for your board and volunteer programs since they have already proven their level of interest and commitment to your work!

Continuing Education

Would you like to learn more about how to create a more engaging major donor program for your NFP that will encourage greater donor engagement and giving at all levels? Sign up for this webinar from Donor Search: Flash Class: Are Big Foot and Major Gifts Mere Legends? Three Truths About Setting Up A Strong Individual Giving Program. This event will be held on Thursday, October 25^th, 2018 from 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM AEDT.

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Is Your NFP Innovative?

According to the results of the recently released Give Easy 2018 Innovation Index, innovation in Australian nonprofits has increased just over 10 points in three years, going from 57.7 to 66.0 this year. The survey revealed that Australia’s most innovative nonprofits include: Burn Bright, the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, Culture at Work, Thankyou, along with the Australian Red Cross and the Fred Hollows Foundation.

How does your NFP compare to the nation’s most innovative organisations? What qualities do these nonprofits have that allows them to stand out and make a real difference in the world?

Innovative Traits

Innovation doesn’t happen by accident. It requires creativity, which means that organisations must bring together talented, original thinkers, and give them an environment rich with resources, open communication and the freedom to take risks and try out new ideas.  The most innovative organisations are known for giving their teams the freedom to experiment with processes and procedures. Burn Bright, for example, is constantly pushing the envelope in the methods that it uses to deliver its leadership programming to teenagers, to hold their interest and strengthen their learning abilities.

An additional trait that the most innovative NFPs share is that they truly have the welfare of their communities close to their hearts. Their concern is part of the values of their organisation, informing their mission and showing in every program and service that they offer. Their values are apparent in every action that they take. The Fred Hollows Foundation, for example, was created to put an end to avoidable blindness, and has now saved the sight of millions in Australia and 25 additional countries around the world!

Innovative nonprofits are also confident, because their entire organisation is focused on achieving a shared purpose. They believe in their cause, and the work that they are doing to help their communities!

Does your nonprofit encourage your team to experiment with new ways of thinking and doing things? Do you have a system in place to capture new ideas? Are you focused on your mission, and are you giving your team all the resources that it needs to connect with its community and increase support for your cause?

Tips to Encourage Greater Innovation in Your Nonprofit

The best thing that every organisation can do to encourage greater creativity, cooperation and innovation is to help their associates to share their thoughts and ideas. Look for ways to develop a system to gather new ideas from multiple areas of your organisation.

This means encouraging your staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries of your services to give you feedback on your performance. What are some areas that need to be changed or altered to be improved? What are their best ideas on how things can be made better?

When analysing feedback, don’t settle on just one or two concepts. Instead, narrow your list down to several great ideas. Develop a plan to implement each of them, at least on a trial basis. You can then monitor your change initiatives, tweaking performance as you go along and perfecting it before you “roll-out” the best ideas organisation-wide!

As you try out new ideas, processes and procedures, keep in mind that you will fail at least some of the time, and this is okay – it’s to be expected! Don’t let these setbacks derail your overall change process, however, but learn from these mistakes and use this information to improve the process and create just the right environment where innovation can flourish!

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Harness the Power of the Internet to Source Your Volunteers

Without volunteers, it would be impossible to advance your mission and make a true difference in the lives of others. Finding enough talent can be difficult, especially if you are a small to mid-sized nonprofit with limited resources. Use these tips to boost your online recruiting efforts.

Build a Strong Facebook Presence

If you haven’t already done so, encourage your existing staff, volunteers, board members and other supporters to connect with your NFP on its Facebook page. Post a good mix of content, on a regular basis, to raise awareness about your cause.

While articles and longer posts typically do well on Facebook, make sure that you are keeping things interesting by posting emotionally stirring images and videos. Take care to ensure that the stories that you share are moving, but are also focused on a clear purpose, and in alignment with your NFP’s values, mission and goals. Share the results of studies and other research that illustrates the need that you are trying to meet in your community. Create infographics to make statistics and other results more relatable and meaningful to your supporters.

Encourage interaction by promptly responding to any likes and comments. Conduct a poll or host a contest on your Facebook page to generate additional interest in your nonprofit and its work.

Once you’ve built an online community of supporters with your Facebook page, some individuals might simply read your posts and become interested in joining in. Taking a more active role, however, will help increase your recruiting results. Let your followers know about openings in your volunteer program in your posts.

Encourage your existing volunteers to share their experiences in the program on your Facebook page. Create posts that recognise and reward your current volunteers for their hard work. Engaging with your volunteers and other supporters on Facebook not only boosts your recruiting, but can also improve your relationships with members, donors, advocates and other stakeholders!

Create Your Own Online Database of Potential Volunteers

How easy is it for your supporters to sign-up to volunteer? Simplify the process by posting an easy to fill out online form on your NFP website. This form should collect their contact information, availability, and the pertinent details of their skills and experience. Save this information in a database that will allow you to search for volunteers based on their abilities so that you can quickly find a match.

Segment your volunteers based on skills, age, location and other demographics. Try to create opportunities that will match each segment. By making it easier for anyone to join in and help, you generate more significant interest in your work. This increases the chance that your supporters will come back for more opportunities to assist in their communities.

Create Short-Term Tasks

Think about the volunteer opportunities that are available with your organisation. Break down duties and tasks and create some “micro-jobs” that can be completed quickly, and online, where possible. This makes it a lot easier for people that are busy and crunched for time to pitch-in virtually for just a few moments. Post these opportunities on your own site, as well as third-party apps to increase awareness about these types of opportunities to connect with your organisation.

Once someone has completed a few smaller jobs, they may be more inclined to make room in their schedules for positions that require a commitment of more time. They may also become more willing to volunteer on-site in addition to their online service.

Use Third-Party Apps

There are a host of sites that seek to match potential volunteers with nonprofits. Vollie is an Australian company that matches volunteers with specific skill sets and certifications with the nonprofits that need help from individuals with specialised backgrounds. It allows anyone in the world to connect with a nonprofit that needs their specific talents and experience, with tasks being completed online. The duties that these volunteers perform are quite diverse, from answering calls to providing expert advice..

The Taproot Foundation is another third party that’s connecting experienced volunteers with nonprofits, although the opportunities that they offer may need to be completed either online, or onsite at the nonprofit’s facilities or other designated physical location.

Make Engagement Easy

One of the most straightforward ways to support your recruiting efforts online is often overlooked. Keep in mind that the easier it is for your supporters to interact with your nonprofit online, the simpler it will be for you to create an engaged, vibrant, online community that supports your work by volunteering, advocating, and donating to your cause! Take the time to update your website on a regular basis! Make sure that it loads easily, is effortless to navigate and has been optimised for mobile to ensure that engaging with your NFP is a fast and fun experience!

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Just How Innovative is Your Nonprofit?

Is your nonprofit prepared for the unforeseen challenges, and opportunities, that lie just beyond the horizon, or are you focused solely on offering the same services, and delivering them in the same ways, as you’ve always done? Innovation is the key to increasing efficiency, effectiveness and performance, but, it requires creativity and, a willingness to take risks.

To create an environment where innovation can grow and flourish, your organisation must first be open to, and embrace, change. The following strategies can help your nonprofit adopt a more flexible mindset that spurs innovation and improvement.

Empower Your Team to Take Risks

Do your members and staff feel free to share their ideas and try out new ways of thinking and doing things? Encourage your team to challenge the status quo and to questions assumptions. Do away with “sacred cows” and let your team know that no area is off limits when it comes to challenging ways of thinking and doing things.

Let your team understand that it’s safe for them to take calculated risks and try out new ideas, especially if it is something that will save time, streamline a process or otherwise improve your practices. Offer praise and recognition as well as rewards when your people find new ways of doing things that make it easier to create an impact. When there are setbacks, allow your team to learn from the mistake. Encourage them to let it go and move forward once the lesson has been absorbed.

Seek Feedback from Diverse Sources

While it is up to leadership to define an organisation’s culture and chart its course, your NFP needs opinions and other input from other sources. Seek comments and suggestions for improvements from multiple sources both inside and outside of your operations. Encourage your members, service beneficiaries, volunteers, and even the general public to offer up their best ideas and advice on areas your NFP should seek to address.

By seeking feedback from multiple sources, you encourage more open and direct communication throughout your organisation as well as gain insight into problems and issues, as well as solutions, that you might have otherwise overlooked.

Host Brainstorming Sessions

Choose individuals from different departments in your organisation and form an internal focus group to come up with new ideas to improve your processes and practices. Try to select people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and genders so that you have a variety of viewpoints to identify areas for improvement and come up with potential solutions.

Test Your Ideas

Once you have an interesting concept or proposal, test out your ideas. You might build a prototype or roll out a new practice or process on a limited basis and measure its performance. Identify any areas of weakness, or items that need to be improved upon before your roll out the innovation full-scale. Make any final tweaks and other adjustments if it improves performance. If the idea is not scalable, or otherwise feasible, don’t let this setback weaken your dedication to innovation. Learn what you can from the process and use this information the next time that you have a new idea or concept to try out.

Make Room for Innovation in Your Budget

Adopting any new practice or procedure typically requires time, effort, and funding. Make sure that you are dedicating enough resources to encourage innovation. This means making the necessary equipment, tools, and training readily available as well as making room for it in your budget by allocating funding expressly for innovation.

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3 Ways to Attract Younger Volunteers

Human capital and the ability to raise funds are the lifeblood of any organisation. In the past, nonprofits could rely upon the public’s very human need to give back to society to help drive their recruiting efforts. Today, younger adults are more likely to commit to a nonprofit because its values and work, align with their own interests. In other words, if you want to attract younger volunteers, you should seek to build meaningful relationships with them, and offer them work that they find valuable and personally enriching.

There is also some research that suggests that today’s youth are hesitant to claim the mantle of volunteer, spending more of their time in activities related to education and paid work. When our young people do volunteer, they tend to do so informally, rather than connecting with a public institution and working through them.

Nonprofits need this generation to grow, so your NFP will need to change up its recruiting practices. The following tips can make your NFP and its volunteering opportunities more appealing to Millennials and younger adults.

Connect with Millennials on their Terms

If you want to target younger adults for recruitment, you must target your messages to match this generation’s preferred means of communicating and gathering information. In the past, your recruiting efforts likely focused on personal, face-to-face recruiting drives, and notices that you posted on your website, in your email newsletter, or via direct mail. Today’s young adults conduct most of their business in the virtual, digital world via mobile devices. To reach them, you must go where they are!

This means using apps that make it easier for the public to connect with your nonprofit and learn about your openings for volunteers. It’s also a good idea to invest in developing your website so that it’s easy to navigate, especially on mobile platforms, so that young adults can quickly browse your site and learn more about your cause and the work that you are doing to make a difference. You should also invest in developing your social media channels, posting your volunteer positions on them, and encouraging all your supporters to like, share and follow your posts to increase engagement with your cause.

While Facebook is popular with older adults, younger ones tend to be more visual, and enjoy shorter, faster, and more spontaneous posts. Focus on developing your Twitter profile, along with your Instagram and Pinterest accounts to convey your NFPs story visually, and quickly get the word out about volunteer opportunities, breaking news and other needs.

Help Young Adults Become Passionate About Your Cause

Keep your messages focused on your mission, and present it in a format that’s fresh, entertaining and light. Tout the mutual benefits of volunteering with your NFP and offer opportunities for young adults to gain valuable work experience, learn new skills, and polish existing ones. Try to show your younger volunteers exactly how their role contributes to your cause, and how they are explicitly helping you to make a difference in your service community. Share your NFP’s stories of how young adults just like them have been able to create a tremendous impact through their work.

Be Flexible

Today’s young adults are very busy and always on the go. They may be less likely than previous generations to stay in one location or position for very long, which can make them hesitant to take on challenges and opportunities that may require extended time commitments. Wherever possible, try to be as flexible as you can with scheduling.

Offer a variety of volunteering positions that vary from short, online activities that require just a few minutes of their time, to longer ones that will allow them to do some of the work remotely. The easier that it is for young adults to engage with your organisation and act on its behalf, the more likely this generation will be to support your work by contributing their time and hard work!

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The Future of Philanthropy

The reasons why individuals donate to charity, along with the ways that they give, is rapidly changing. A great deal of this change can be attributed to technological advances that are disrupting the very way that we work and live our daily lives. Other factors, such as government budget constraints, changing social views and recent, widespread global political upheaval have also impacted the lives of individual donors and affected the reasons why they feel compelled to support causes through gifts, volunteering and advocacy.

To secure the funding that they need to make a lasting, positive impact, nonprofits need to be aware of the following trends that are reshaping the very nature of philanthropy.

The Expectation of Increased Transparency and Accountability

Donors want to know where their money is going, and just how their support advances the mission of a specific NFP. To meet this need, nonprofits must increase transparency about the ways that they operate, how their boards reach the decisions that they do, and how and why funds from all sources are spent. Publicly releasing your NFP’s financial statements is a good start, but for real transparency to occur, NFPs should make additional information available to the public about their operations. Nonprofits should also take steps to ensure that their performance is communicated in ways that are easy to understand, such as providing results that are accurate but also make it easier for the public to interpret the results.

Drive for True Collaboration and Partnerships

In an atmosphere of increased scrutiny of public institutions, coupled with reduced government funding, nonprofits are being pushed to do more with less. One way that many nonprofits have found to successfully overcome these obstacles and create more significant impact is through partnerships with external third parties. In this type of relationship, each party shares resources with the other but focuses on providing the services that it does best.

Sponsorships are another way for nonprofits to collaborate with businesses to secure the funds that they need to host events and provide much-needed services to its members.

In the past, partnering with others was less about sharing resources and was more used to build the reputation and brand identity of each participating entity. While it’s still good PR to collaborate with others, the spotlight is now on building relationships with others that are long-lasting where each cooperates to solve complex, long-standing social ills, and that offers tangible benefits to everyone involved. These types of relationships work best when each party can share resources and help one another advance their core mission.

A Focus on Honest Conversations and Genuine Relationships

The advance of the Internet, and the creation of a multitude of social media channels makes it easy for people to stay in touch with their contacts. In an atmosphere of constant connection, successful nonprofits understand that they must use all their communication resources to connect with their members, donors, volunteers and other supporters in a way that encourages greater engagement.

Rather than merely counting the number of likes, shares and followers one has on social media, one growing trend that NFPs can’t neglect is the expectation that social media can be used to keep everyone “in the loop” while also using it to spark genuine dialogue between supporters and the cause.

Segment your supporters by their preferred method of communication. Create content that appeals to their tastes based on demographics and share content that speaks to their needs. Use MailChimp or another automated email service to periodically contact supporters based on their prior responses and interactions on social media.

Encourage supporters to sign up for your newsletters and to agree to receive Tweets or other alerts whenever you have urgent information or releases that impact your cause. Use your Facebook page to share what you are passionate about, and to tell your NFP’s stories through the eyes of its volunteers, board, advocates, donors and its members and other beneficiaries to make a human connection between your nonprofit and its stakeholders. The more that you seek to actively engage your supporters, the more connected to your cause that they will feel, and the more likely they are to act in its support!

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Host a Charity Bake Sale

Need a fast, easy and fun way to quickly raise some cash for your nonprofit? Consider hosting a charity bake sale! This type of fundraiser not only increases the profile of your NFP in your community, but, it’s a great way to get more of your people directly involved in fundraising as you will need a host of volunteers to bake cakes, pies, cookies and other goodies, as well as sell them during your event! Consider using some of the following tips to ensure that your next bake sale is a success!

Enlist Help

Begin planning for your event early so that you have plenty of time to recruit several volunteers with culinary talent. Everything is more likely to go off without a hitch if you spread the workload out and have several people involved with the baking process.

Partner with local businesses or other third parties to increase the number and selection of baked goods that you offer for sale. Your partners may even be able to help with the actual selling process by providing space and manpower for displaying your baked goods and selling them on behalf of your organisation.

Diversify Your Offerings

The most successful bake sales offer a wide variety of tasty treats for sale. Think of multiple sizes and flavours of cookies, cakes, and cupcakes as well as pies, turnovers and similar fare. Be aware that some ingredients may put allergy sufferers at risk, so take the time to clearly label all of your baked goods that contain specific nuts and other allergens. Include some items that are gluten-free or that don’t contain eggs and dairy to give folks options if they are vegans or otherwise avoiding these ingredients.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to just offer the finished product at a bake sale. Jars of pre-made, speciality mixes for cakes, cookies and breads are popular choices at these types of events.  You could also offer tea, coffee and other refreshments to go along with the baked item. If you have a large space, consider offering to seat individuals who want to enjoy their purchase on-site.

Price Your Items

Offer items for sale at a scale that will encourage the items to move quickly. Clearly label each piece with its price before your event begins. Offer discounts to those who buy multiple items to promote greater sales.

Publicise Your Event

Make sure that you take advantage of all your social media channels to get the word out about your bake sale. Make and distribute flyers and handouts well in advance of the event, and consider advertising on local tv, radio and newspapers to publicise the event. You can also consider holding your sale in conjunction with another event that typically garners a lot of in-person foot traffic, such as a popular local festival or similar event.

Offer Additional Opportunities to Donate

Set up a mobile payments kiosk to make it easy for your supporters to tap, donate and go at your sale. Setting up a good old-fashioned collection jar is another way to encourage others to make a contribution to your organisation that’s above and beyond simply buying your baked goods.

Donate Any Leftovers

Rather than taking unsold items home, consider donating them to a local food bank so that nothing goes to waste.

Share Your Success!

Don’t forget to take pictures and videos of your event. Once you’ve tallied your proceeds, share the images of your sale, along with the results, on your website and social media to show everyone how much fun everyone had, and how their participation will be used to further your cause!

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