Welcome to MatchTips! MatchTips, a newsletter from MatchMaker FundRaising Software, provides fundraising tips and technology information to nonprofit organizations.
In this issue of MatchTips we discuss developing social media metrics, the YouTube Nonprofit Program and the release of MatchMaker FundRaising Software Enterprise Edition 2.0. In addition, we provide tips for developing a donor recognition plan and creating accounting policies and procedures.
Continue reading
To launch a successful fundraising program, an organization should have created a number of documents including the Case for Support, Gift Acceptance Policies and Procedures, and a Donor Recognition Policy. The Case explains “why” you are raising money, the Gift Acceptance Policies delineate what constitutes an acceptable gift and under what circumstances your organization will accept the donation, and the Donor Recognition Policy explains how you will express gratitude to the donor.
Return on investment (ROI) in marketing terms is “the contribution attributable to marketing (net of marketing spending), divided by the marketing ‘invested’ or risked.” Basically, what did we get for our spent time and money. So what is the ROI for your social media efforts? How do you value the 50,000 likes on your Facebook page or the 10,000 Twitter followers you have. If the numbers you are tracking don’t give you an action, how valuable are they?
A couple of weeks ago I read an interesting blog by Seth Godin. Seth Godin has written thirteen books, including Tribes, Small is the New Big, and Purple Cow, that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every book has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. He is also an entrepreneur. This particular blog talked about lying. It posed the question, why lie?
I attended a Social Media Phoenix Boot Camp one evening last week. Check out www.smcphoenix.com. I came away with a few new tidbits of information and the resolve that I really needed to get back on track with doing something in the social media arena. We have all heard the mantra, “you need to be doing social media.” The problem for me, and many of the people I talk to, is finding the time. However, as the saying goes, “there is no time like the present.” I was also very energized by the enthusiasm of the two Boot Camp instructors. Continue reading
Heritage Designs’ free online tool helps nonprofits draft and implement effective fundraising plans
www.matchmakerfrs.com/fundraising-plan
PHOENIX (Oct. 31, 2011) – Crafting a fundraising plan got a little easier for nonprofits with the help of a Phoenix-based software company’s newest tool. The Fundraising Plan from Heritage Designs is a free tool designed to enable nonprofits to easily create a fundraising plan that will serve as a guide for an organization’s fundraising activities.
Corporate matching gifts occur when an individual makes a charitable contribution and the individual’s employer matches the employee’s gift by sending a contribution to the same nonprofit organization. Corporations will in some cases match an employee’s volunteer hours with a matching gift.
Welcome to MatchTips! MatchTips, a newsletter from MatchMaker FundRaising Software, provides fundraising tips and technology information to nonprofit organizations.
In this issue of MatchTips we discuss creating strategies from social media and fundraising to donor management policies and procedures. In addition, we provide tips for selecting donor database and board management.
Continue reading
Two nonprofits similar in mission and staff size are using donor management software to track donations and fundraising activities. The first organization has a database full of bad data. Donors are not getting receipts; deceased donors are getting appeal letters. Staff members have not been trained and there is no support. They complain that the software does not work and that they hate the system. The organization is handcuffed when planning their fundraising strategies or tracking their effectiveness. The second organization loves its donor management software. The data is clean, their donors receive accurate mailings, the organization is successfully managing their fundraising activities, and staff love the reports. New personnel are trained on the software before they ever log in and support is available to resolve any problems and questions that come up.
Here’s the kicker: Both nonprofits are using the same software package.
Donor management consists of the policies and procedures a nonprofit develops to manage information regarding its constituents. The constituents may be donors or they may be other groups such as prospective donors or volunteers.
