CCS Fundraising

Type: Article

In light of GivingTuesday’s recent announcement of #GivingTuesdayNow—an event they are describing as a “day of giving, generosity, and unity” slated for May 5—we offer immediate steps to raise awareness and funds for your cause.

The purpose of participating in a giving day is to offer new and established donors a special reason to engage with your cause. Getting involved in giving days is essential, as they are increasing in popularity year after year. For example, #GivingTuesday, the best-known giving day that takes place annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is growing exponentially. According to the NonProfit Times, #GivingTuesday raised a total of $511 million online in the United States. This was an increase of over $100 million from 2018, an increase of nearly 28 percent.

When mapping out your plan for May 5, it is important to consider that the organizations that succeed on giving days have robust strategies that align closely with their wider institutional goals. We typically advise our clients to plan for Giving Days six months in advance, but with May 5 right around the corner, here are three quick tips for success to implement immediately:

1) Create a theme (and stick to it!)

Many organizations stumble on giving days by jumping into the conversation without proper branding which includes themes, colors, and cohesive case for support. Conveying mixed messages or an unclear case for support will confuse your audience. Your main goal should be to inspire them to get behind your cause. To maximize your outreach, you should approach your plan by thinking of #GivingTuesdayNow as a mini campaign. Come up with a title or tagline that works for your organization as well as a list of talking points that should be threaded through all of your communications until May 5.

2) Stand out above the crowd

Given the needs of so many nonprofits during this crisis, the chances are good that your audience will be inundated by pitches from many organizations. Therefore, the way you present your mission can make all the difference. In addition to creating and sticking to a theme, messaging with confidence helps you stand above the pack. It has been shown during previous times of uncertainty that the organizations who communicate a clear and confident plan for the future are the most successful. The simple reason is that donors want to back institutions that will follow through with their goals. Avoid messaging that shows desperation or insecurity about the months to come.

It is also important to remember that you will be attempting to attract new people who may not be familiar with your cause. For this reason, your messaging should aim to clearly underline who you are and why this day is special.

3) Execute an actionable outreach plan

Because time is of the essence, come up with a communications plan to use across channels. Assign roles to your development staff to spread the workload around. Once the plan is created, connect with leadership to align strategies for:

  • Existing Content: What digital content do you already have created? For example: videos from people who benefit from your cause or blogs already published that show the real impact of your mission.
  • Email marketing: With only a few weeks until May 5, consider sending 2-3 emails to your database that outlines your #GivingTuesdayNow theme and details how their participation is essential to your organization at this moment.
  • Social media posts across channels: Double down on your social media efforts by sharing content with your theme in mind. Always hashtag #GivingTuesdayNow to continue to remind your audience of the event. Helpful Tip: Consider tapping your development staff, volunteers, and board members to share content on social media from their personal accounts as well. It’s a great way to expand your network and reach the widest audience possible.
  • Website messaging: Put your #GivingTuesdayNow message at the top of your homepage for the next few weeks to grab attention. You may already have new messaging that addresses the COVID-19 crisis on your website, so you may just need to add an extra sentence about the event to the existing content.

For more tips on mastering your digital strategy during a crisis, click here.

If you’re just getting started, here are two reminders: 

  • Start small: Consider a reasonable goal for #GivingTuesdayNow to create an early win. It’s much better to overperform than underperform to build momentum for your next giving day.
  • Learn from other orgs: Take a look at the organizations who are already ahead of the curve and brainstorm what it will take for your organization to exceed their success.

Following your #GivingTuesdayNow campaign

The first thing to do after #GivingTuesdayNow is to track and publicize your results to celebrate your success. It is also useful to do an immediate internal evaluation to determine which parts of your plan worked and which parts didn’t. This audit will allow you to identify the outreach channels that were the most effective which will help greatly for future giving days. It is valuable to thank all donors who participated in elevating your cause through all channels.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

It is no secret that large in-person events and galas are instrumental in raising awareness and funds for nonprofits across geographies and sectors. With these events currently on hold during the COVID-19 crisis, organizations are questioning how they can replicate their impact. The good news is that we are already seeing many organizations successfully pivot to using the digital space to continue these efforts. Just like in-person events, these take planning, innovation, and commitment from staff, volunteers, and all constituents to maximize the return on investment.

In this post, we share how one organization is thinking creatively to continue large event momentum during this uncertain time.

Thinking Outside the Box: East Harlem Tutorial Program

The East Harlem Tutorial Program (EHTP), whose mission is to prepare students with the academic skills, strength of character, and emotional well-being to excel in high school, college, and beyond, had been preparing for a major gala slated for April 20. The gala is a major cornerstone of the institution’s annual fundraising program. For context, last year’s gala attracted 600 guests and raised $3.6 million, which was nearly 60 percent of its annual giving total. With this year’s gala out of reach, EHTP decided to pivot to an innovative new way to engage its donors and a larger audience.

In initial planning sessions, the team mapped out different scenarios of how to replicate the gala. With staff working remotely and already spread thin to keep the development office running, the team determined that a two-week comprehensive online communications campaign—focused on several touchpoints via social media and e-mail—could be implemented to match the impact and funds of the gala. Crucially, the team decided that, while addressing the crisis was necessary, they also needed to emphasize the organization’s mission both during and after these challenging times.

The campaign, which began April 6, uses all of EHTP’s social media platforms, e-mail channels, and website to share meaningful messages with its audience. These include (among others) messages from EHTP’s Executive Director and Board Chair, touching images, and testimonials from those positively impacted by the program, as well as videos that tell the story of all of the work the organization is doing and will continue to do for its community. This two-week online event was created to raise awareness for the cause as well as build momentum for an online “Day of Giving” on April 20, which was the original date of the gala. The giving day, which will work similarly to Giving Tuesday, will encourage people to get involved and support the organization’s mission.

Utilizing Existing Technology

EHTP was already ahead of the curve as it has held an annual virtual auction using the platform GiveSmart for previous years’ galas. With the new social media campaign in full swing, the organization has converted the GiveSmart page into a full fundraising site, listing all of the donors, posting updates on the programming, and allowing donors to make donations directly through the site. EHTP also moved to a fully digital gift acknowledgment process, both to streamline remote work processes and to create another digital touchpoint with donors.

Recognizing the Moment

EHTP developed a theme for its in-person gala, Build Love, that highlights the organization’s goal of building a loving, supportive educational community for all its scholars and their families. With the COVID-19 crisis in mind, the team worked to slightly alter messaging for the virtual gala to connect it to current events. As a result, the Build Love messaging now encompasses both the organization’s day-to-day work and the need to provide additional support to the families of East Harlem during this difficult time. The team updated the virtual gala website to reflect this shift in messaging and to highlight the remarkable work EHTP’s teachers have already undertaken to provide high-quality virtual learning to students at this time.

Activating the Advocates

In order to increase awareness and reach the right donors for the giving day, EHTP has encouraged its board members to utilize their contacts and create messages to personalize the ask. Two board members have led the charge on the fundraising front, and the team worked with them to craft strong messaging for why the EHTP community needs support now more than ever. To further motivate donors, one of EHTP’s board members offered a $100,000 matching gift should the giving day reach its goal. Communicating this match has already garnered a great deal of attention.

Initial Results

EHTP has been driving activity to its repurposed gala fundraising site, where it maintains a listing of all donors that is updated in real-time. In addition to raising funds for the gala, donors can earmark their donations to go toward EHTP’s emergency assistance fund, to support urgent access to technology, meals, and housing assistance for the East Harlem community. The emergency fund has already raised over $350,000 in the past two weeks, even before going public on the website.

Tips for Pivoting to a Virtual Plan

1) Do what makes sense for your organization

While EHTP made the decision to hold this two-week digital campaign, you may want to create a different event. For example, some organizations are holding virtual galas where users are encouraged to sign in for a one-time event using programs like Zoom to learn more about the organization, listen to speakers, and donate through an online platform. Use your initial planning meetings to map out the plan that works best for you. Consider coming up with several courses of action and then base your decision on staff bandwidth, what you think your audience would respond to, and the potential return on investment.

2) Have a clear theme and message

It is important that your call-to-action is direct and easily understood by your audience. All of your social media posts, e-mail messages, and website language should be branded and consistent throughout. Additionally, while it’s wise to acknowledge the current crisis in your communications, this does not mean completely revamping the messaging around your event. Like EHTP, find ways to link your organization’s mission to this challenging moment, and share a vision for what the organization’s work will look like after the crisis ends.

3) Track everything

Tracking the success is important for any event, but it’s even more important for an online event. Luckily, it is easier to track what messages are resonating online. You are able to see what e-mails are being opened, what videos are garnering the most attention on social media, and how many people are clicking through to your website to sign up for an online event or make a gift.

4) Don’t be afraid to adapt

If the data you’re tracking shows that your current social media message isn’t resonating, or that your donation site is too difficult to navigate, then switch it up. An advantage of an online event is its flexibility – you can change the platform you use, update the text on the website, and make other changes relatively quickly and at a low cost.

5) Have a strategy for follow-up

When following up on any action items, give everyone on your team clearly defined responsibilities, and make sure the whole team is involved in the planning and communications. You want it to feel like their gala, not just a gala.

At CCS, we know from past experience that organizations that completely cancel fundraising plans at times of crisis will be negatively impacted. That’s why it’s important to think creatively about a backup plan for events and to try something new that will inspire your donors even if it’s in a small way. Donors who care deeply about your organization’s mission will want to participate, regardless of whether the event is online or in-person.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

COVID-19 is changing the way development professionals are communicating, so having a robust digital marketing strategy has never been more important. Digital is an ideal way to distribute communications—especially crisis messaging—both quickly and cost-effectively, while keeping your audience actively engaged with your organization. Plus, with information ever-changing during the crisis, the digital realm allows you to pivot fast and adjust your messaging in real-time.

To provide you with best practices for executing a successful digital plan during this uncertain time, we partnered with Beth Hatcher, Founder and CEO of Beth Interactive, a digital marketing and e-fundraising agency in Chicago that specializes in digital strategies and e-philanthropy for nonprofit organizations.

Solidify the Call-to-Action

The first question to consider as you think about your crisis communications is: What do you want your recipients to do? Do you want them to make a gift? Become a member? Provide feedback? Share a story? Identify your goal, and then tailor your communications to accomplish it. Whether you’re sending an email to donors, adding new messaging to your website, or sharing content on social media during this crisis, you should always have a call-to-action in mind.

Organizations that overwhelm their audience with multiple asks or vague communications are likely to fall behind. Deciding on a priority ask will help you message with directness and clarity. It will also help you determine whether or not your messaging is resonating. For example, if your email or website asks donors to provide feedback through a survey, and a large percentage of them do, you have successfully engaged them in the way you hoped.

Engage with Purpose

Because so many of us are isolated right now, there is a clear longing for connection. But the members of your community are most likely inundated with messages from many different organizations trying to reach out during this time. So, it’s important to ask: How can you engage your donors and support your community most meaningfully? Think about how you can foster these relationships in a substantial way that rises above the clutter.

A first step to answering this question is to empathize with your constituency. Let’s say your institution is a museum that is currently closed to the public. What would be valuable to a museum member during this time? Would they like access to virtual tours of exhibits? Or would they be more interested in additional member benefits when the museum opens again? Putting yourself in their shoes will help you craft messaging that shows you are keeping their interests in mind. Asking for feedback from your users is another great way to keep them engaged and involved.

Utilize Your Channels

All your different channels should be activated to cast the widest net possible. If you already have stewardship and communications channels in place—such as email, website, and social media—now is the time to double down on these avenues. If you don’t have a good digital infrastructure in place, invest some time into getting up to speed so you don’t fall behind. Regardless of where you are with your digital presence today, here are best practices for how to improve your outreach.

1) Website

In a previous post, we shared three simple ways to improve your website without spending too much time and money. Since your website can continually change, think of it as the best home for providing up-to-date and helpful information.

Key Recommendations:

  • Create a landing page for content during the COVID-19 crisis: If time and funds allow, build a simple home for all of your crisis statements, blog posts, videos and more. You can also direct attention to this page by adding a banner, pop-up, or lightbox across your website.
  • Be straightforward and direct: The layout of your landing page should be clear and simple:
    • Address and sympathize with your audience’s concerns
    • Describe your plan of action and what you are already doing
    • Include information about ways your audience can help immediately
    • Encourage them to make a gift, and make it easy to do so
  • Add a call-out to your homepage and/or giving page: Your crisis messaging should be front and center, so your audience doesn’t have to search to find important information.
  • Consider a sign-up form: Giving your audience an opportunity to receive real-time updates is a great way for them to stay connected, and it’s a useful tool for acquiring new emails for your database.

2) Email Marketing

While it’s important to have a solid website presence, you have to get people to your website. Email is an excellent tool to deliver timely information, push overall engagement and drive giving online.

Key Recommendations

  • Use clean design, bold visuals, and honest messaging: Your emails should get right to the heart of the situation, not lose the reader in long scrolls or dense text. Visuals can go a long way in telling your story, so think about what could convey your current situation while still showing hope and forward progress.
  • Drive your call-to-action: Use designed buttons (vs. simple hyperlinked text) for greater click-through.
  • Leverage personalization: For example, lead with the recipient’s first name, when possible.
  • Include faces: Sign the email from a recognizable person in your organization or community, and include their portrait in the signature—it really helps people connect.
  • Be open to adapting and trying new things: Pay close attention to which messages are resonating, and which ones aren’t. One way to test this is to use two different subject lines with your audience to see which one gets a higher open rate.
  • Measure and learn: Look at the results of your emails. Which one had the highest open and click-through rates? Which images did your users click on most? Use this analysis to drive improvements.
  • Know your audience: It is important to have a clear understanding of who you are reaching out to and why. Take this time to ensure that your database is accurate. If you are sending an email to your entire database, make sure the information would be useful to all members of your list. If you have a more specific ask for a particular subset, be sure to filter before you send.

3) Social Media

Keeping your social media presence active during a crisis shows that your organization is present and engaged. Use these channels to connect with your existing audience and rally new people around your cause.

Key Recommendations:

  • Use best-quality visuals to gain traction: Visuals make things easy to spot while scrolling through busy social media newsfeeds.
  • Post updates as often as needed: Be consistent and don’t allow long stretches of time to go by without providing useful content to your audience.
  • Pin the most critical information: Locking down your most valuable messaging on the top of your Facebook and Twitter profiles will allow this information to remain easy to access.
  • Use simple messaging: Just like your website and email strategies, be clear, concise, and direct about your call-to-action.
  • Respond to comments: Thank users regularly for their support, and be sure to respond to questions—as well as negative feedback. It’s paramount to be a part of your organization’s conversation on social media (otherwise, the conversation will happen without your input!).

It is important to remember—especially now—that your digital strategy can always change down the road. Try to think of this initial strategy in 15-, 30-, and 60-day increments. Consider your immediate needs and reinforce these messages across channels. Finally, remember to stay on message and on brand throughout. Stay true to your mission by sticking to the principles and behaviors that have already propelled your organization into prominence.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

Beth Interactive is a digital marketing and fundraising agency in Chicago specializing in online strategy and consultation, e-fundraising, email marketing, SEO, and website design. The team partners closely with healthcare foundations and nonprofits nationwide to engage donors and increase giving through intelligent strategies, thoughtful execution, and full-service support. Learn more at bethinteractive.com.

As discussed in a recent webinar held by CCS Fundraising leadership in partnership with the International Catholic Stewardship Council, COVID-19 has changed the way we are congregating. The lack of in-person Mass makes it challenging for pastors to connect with their faith communities. While weekly parish offertory and potentially the annual appeal can be affected negatively during this time of uncertainty, the dioceses who have a plan for how to pivot into the digital space will experience the greatest success with creating an online parish community and consequently a greater response to electronic giving. Dioceses across the country are already doing a stellar job providing information to parishes. As a next step, it’s important to find ways to partner with parishes to connect with families by utilizing the tools, training, and support you have provided pastors and staff in recent weeks. In every diocese, there are parishes that are incredibly adept at engaging their parishioners virtually. It’s uplifting to provide real-time and local examples of success to inspire greater engagement from all parishes.

Many parishes will not have the infrastructure (maybe not even a website) to create virtual communities or collect money online. Therefore, your diocese will need to assess how it can make sure that all parishioners have the ability to donate to their parish virtually, and that all parishes are driving activity toward this purpose. This is a significant undertaking, but under the current circumstances, it is well worth the effort and can lead to positive short and long-term benefits. Here are two things you can start doing right now.

  • Create an Online Offertory Page

When specifically asked to transition giving from the typical in-person methods to online giving, the faithful are responding generously. Creating an online offertory page will provide parishioners with an easy to use process to express their gratitude for their local parish, pastor, ministry, and staff members. When creating an offertory page, remember:

  • It is important that parishioners are given detailed instructions on how to donate online. This is especially key for older and less tech-savvy parishioners. Create a one-page document with three to five easy steps for supporting your parish online.
  • It will take a degree of effort to get into contact with parishioners and communicate this new medium for offertory giving. Personalized contact with families will provide an important pastoral or community experience for pastors and volunteers while also providing assistance on how to support the parish at this time.

As examples of successful pages that make giving easier for parishioners, The Archdiocese of Detroit and The Archdiocese of Chicago, among others, have created universal online offertory pages where parishioners can make a donation to any parish within the Archdiocese (as opposed to or in addition to individual parishes having their own portal). In these two examples, note that a COVID-19 statement as well as quick access to make a donation is available right on the homepage. Moreover, several dioceses have enrolled in #iGiveCatholic Together to facilitate receiving donations for their parishes, schools, and ministries. Making it simple for your community to find giving information and make a donation is paramount.

  • Pivot to Online Congregations

A virtual Mass is an excellent way to stay connected to parishioners while adhering to state health and safety guidelines. Many dioceses have already been connecting with their communities this way since the COVID-19 crisis began. Virtual Mass offers parishioners the opportunity to give online during or following the service and provides pastors with the opportunity to express the importance of supporting parishes at this time. To support parishes as they engage their faith communities during this stressful time for everyone, diocesan leaders must become the “arms and legs” that help translate smart tools into ministry in action.

The first step is setting up virtual meetings with each parish to share common materials, messaging tips, as well as guidance on how to utilize technology to replicate the in-person Mass. Webinars should include all pastors, business managers, and key parish leaders in partnership with the diocese.

Examples from the Field

Messaging Around Facebook Live

Many dioceses are pivoting to Facebook Live Masses to keep momentum going and to provide a place for the community to continue to feel connected. CCS Fundraising is developing a strategy for nearly a dozen dioceses that will support every parish in the creation of Masses on Facebook Live, and share spiritually responsible messaging regarding the importance of supporting the Church at this time through letters, e-mail messages, phone call scripts, homemade videos, newsletters and bulletins, text chains, pre-recorded calls, social media posts, and webinar meetings with parish councils and ministries. Celebrating Mass in every parish on Facebook will allow pastors to minister to their parish family throughout the COVID-19 crisis in as personal and local a manner as possible during a time when people are hungry for connection.

Humanizing the Online Experience

Inspired by a parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, parishes throughout the country have begun to ask parishioners to email photos of themselves so the pastor can print out the photos and place them in the pews as he celebrates Mass. During the Facebook Live Mass, you can see everyone’s faces which creates an engaging and personal touch. Small but personal gestures can go a long way in keeping your parishioners engaged.

Congregating Consistently

St. Monica in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, a parish that serves over 1,100 families, provides a daily Mass on Facebook at 8 am. The priests also pray the rosary once a day on Facebook. With each narrowcast, the pastors remind all of the importance of the offertory and directly ask for offertory support. St. Monica has enjoyed gifts in the $2,000 and $3,000 range, and at present, the parish is at its offertory target. This parish is also leading the way when it comes to quality communications and consistent offertory at the parish level for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

These tools will help dioceses and parishes in the short-term while we all adapt to the challenges brought on by COVID-19. But they will also serve your institutions in the long-term by establishing new ways to connect our parish communities. With a digital strategy in place, dioceses can also look forward to planning for online giving days, which you can learn more about here.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

On Friday, March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law. The $2 trillion economic stimulus bill aims to provide immediate relief for individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and state and local governments.

What Does This Mean for Nonprofit Organizations?

As it relates to fundraising, the CARES Act incentivizes charitable giving from individuals and corporations by increasing tax deductions for charitable donations. It also offers loans and grants to eligible nonprofit organizations impacted by the coronavirus. Below, please find a broad overview of the most impactful ways that the CARES Act affects donors and nonprofit organizations for tax year 2020.

Individual Donors:

  • All taxpayers (both those who itemize and those who use standard deduction) can deduct $300 in charitable giving to public nonprofits in 2020
    • Prior to the CARES Act, those who used standard deduction could not deduct any charitable giving.
  • For those who itemize their taxes (which accounts for nearly all taxpayers with an income of $200,000+) the CARES Act significantly raises the amount of charitable giving deductible from 60% of filers’ adjusted gross income (AGI) to 100% of AGI.
  • Gifts to donor-advised funds and private foundations do not receive the revised deductible under this provision.

Corporate Donors:

  • The CARES Act raises the amount of charitable giving that corporations can deduct from 10% of taxable income to 25% of taxable income.
  • The bill also raises the amount of in-kind donations of food that corporations can deduct from 15% of taxable income to 25% of taxable income.

Small Nonprofits (501(c)(3) or Veteran’s organizations 501(c)(19) with 500 employees or less):

Paycheck Protection Loan Program

  • Organizations can receive a loan up to $10 million with a maximum interest rate of 4% to use for operating costs such as employee salaries, paid sick or medical leave, insurance premiums, and interest on mortgage, rent, and utility payments.
  • The portion of the loan used for payroll costs, and interest on mortgage, rent, and utility payments during an 8-week period after the origination of the loan is eligible for loan forgiveness.
  • Loan forgiveness may be reduced if staff headcount is reduced prior to June 30, 2020.
  • Any loan portion that is not forgiven has a maximum maturity of 10 years.
  • Loan payments can be deferred for 6-12 months.

Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program

  • Eligible nonprofits can apply for a loan up to $2 million with a 2.75% interest rate, with a loan amount awarded based on the organization’s economic injury incurred from coronavirus.
  • Loan repayment periods are up to 30 years based on the borrower’s ability to repay.
  • Eligible organizations can request a $10,000 advance prior to receiving a loan, which does not require repayment even if organization is denied EIDL.

Large Nonprofits (Defined as Employing 500-10,000 Individuals):

  • Organizations can apply for loans with a maximum interest rate of 2% to fund ongoing operations.
  • Loan payments are not due within the first 6 months.
  • To receive the loan, borrowers must certify that:
    • The loan is necessary to support ongoing operations.
    • The organization will retain 90% of its workforce until September 30, 2020.
    • No jobs will be outsourced or offshored for a period ending two years after repayment of the loan.

Other Provisions to Note

Federal Grants:

  • The bill provides an additional $25 million for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., $75 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and $75 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.
    • In 2018, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts awarded $152 million and $116 million respectively to nonprofits in the United States.
  • Among other sectors receiving grants from the CARES Act, nearly $14 billion will be made available for higher education institutions to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.
    • Funds will be disbursed by the Department of Education through the Title IV distribution system.
    • Funds may be used to defray expenses for colleges and universities, such as lost revenue, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education, and grants to students for food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care.

Real Estate/Capital Gains Tax Change:

  • The CARES Act includes a provision that allows real estate investors to use depreciation of real estate holdings to offset capital gains earnings, in effect lowering investors’ overall federal taxes.
    • Previously, investors were only permitted to use real estate depreciations to offset $500,000 of capital gains annually. The CARES Act removes the $500,000 cap for three years (this year and 2018 and 2019 retroactively) which will potentially lower federal taxes by a considerable amount for some UHNW individuals, particularly real estate developers.

Additional Nonprofit Relief:

  • The CARES Act creates a refundable payroll tax credit of up to $5,000 per employee on an eligible nonprofit’s payroll.
    • To be eligible, a nonprofit must have experienced a drop in revenue of at least 50% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with to the organization’s revenue in first quarter of 2019.
    • The credit is available each quarter until the nonprofit’s revenue exceeds 80% of the same quarter in 2019.
    • Nonprofits receiving an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) are not eligible for these credits.
  • Nonprofits that self-fund unemployment benefits could be reimbursed for up to half of the costs of benefits provided to their laid-off employees.
  • Suspending payment requirements for employers for the 6.2% employer portion of Social Security taxes from the date of enactment through the end of 2020, with half the balance due by the end of 2021, and the other half due by the end of 2022.
  • Allowing net operating losses (NOLs) for nonprofits with UBIT, arising in tax years 2018, 2019 and 2020 to be carried back five years and suspending the 80% taxable income limit until 2021.

This piece has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as tax advice. Individuals should consult their accountant or tax advisor with regard to such matters.

Sources Referenced:

To download or print this piece, click here.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

In a previous article, we shared eight self-management tips for fundraisers to achieve personal and professional success. For a refresher, take a look at the post here.

As we all navigate the temporary but vastly different global landscape, here are eight adapted strategies of self-management during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Prioritize the activities that bring in gifts – in the long term.

While some of your constituents may not be ready to talk about giving, you must stay connected. The number one reason why donors stop giving is that they no longer feel connected to an organization. So reach out – in broad communications and personal emails and phone calls. Meet them where they are, lead with empathy, and see how the crisis is affecting them personally. Think of the moves management process – every move you make now should get you closer to receiving a meaningful gift. And keep in mind that some WILL be ready to make gifts now – don’t assume they are not. Reach out, ask questions, and listen.

2. You can still raise money while staying home.

We can’t go meet our donors face to face and we’re stuck at home. What’s a fundraiser to do? Time to get creative. Pick up the phone and call your donors. Schedule video chats while you drink coffee separately. Do virtual happy hours. Your creativity and connectedness will stand out and donors will think of your organization when they are ready to give.

3. Set aside 90 minutes DAILY to make phone calls.

There’s no commute or daily meeting that runs 30 minutes long. Ramp up the time you are on the phone calling your constituents. And block that time off on your calendar so it gets done – every. single. day.

4. KEEP out of your comfort zone.

Now is the perfect time to do the tasks you’ve been dreading – calling that prospect, video-chatting with that Trustee. Many people are home and eager to connect with others, and we have a shared experience that bonds us. So from the comfort of your home, get out of your comfort zone. And stay there.

5. Take it one day at a time.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the scope of the crisis or the changes to your work life. Adapt and overcome. Pivot and persevere. If we can embrace this change, get creative, adjust, and stay positive, we will come out on top. Those who curl up and resist will fall behind.

6. Keep asking for help.

You will need the help of volunteers and colleagues now more than ever. Rally your troops to connect with the community. Seek creative ideas to keep your organization relevant and meet donors where they are. Deploy ambassadors to call your donors to check in and offer support. Use this time to deepen connections with your community and those you serve.

7. In a time of reactivity, be proactive.

We each must continually react to new challenges being thrown our way. In all that noise, remember to stop and reflect. Carve out time to think – how can we move our organization forward? How can we strengthen relationships with our donors? How can we stay relevant and accessible in this time of uncertainty? You can put together an idea task force and block off weekly time on the calendar to brainstorm. This is the time for innovation – make sure you carve out time for it.

8. Evaluate and adjust – daily.

In this rapidly changing environment, even our best laid plans will need to change. Be strategic, but nimble. Be ready to course correct as our world evolves – but always keep the end goal in mind: your donors, your community, and your mission.

Bonus round: a few more thoughts in this challenging time.

Be your own micro-manager.

Be militaristic with your time. Set deadlines to create urgency for yourself. Plan out your day with tasks to be accomplished, phone calls to be made, and set time parameters for each one.

Reward yourself.

You can’t operate at 100% efficiency at your dining room table all day. Take breaks, but use those breaks as rewards. You can go for a quick run when you finish your task. You can get some cookies after you make four phone calls. Figure out what motivates you and use it to your advantage.

Make lemonade out of lemons.

This is a trying time for us all. We’re worried about our health, our families, our organizations, and our world. But in stormy skies, there are silver linings. We have an opportunity to set our organizations apart by how wisely we spend this time. While facing changes and challenges, let’s connect with our community, connect with each other, and connect with ourselves. Look for little wins, celebrate the small stuff, and we’ll get through this together.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

Nonprofit organizations across all sizes and sectors share the same questions: how do we engage our donors, and what sort of outreach is appreciated and appropriate? With the COVID-19 crisis impacting the philanthropic landscape on a daily basis, the answer to that question has taken on new levels of depth and importance. The situation can appear paralyzing to even the most experienced fundraiser. However, the most important thing we have learned in our 70+ years of work in the philanthropic sector is the power of communication. Right now, your focus as fundraising professionals should be on consistent and highly personalized donor engagement strategies.

Guidance for Communication

While it is important to remain sensitive to the current environment, it is not an effective strategy to cease communications with donors altogether during a crisis. In fact, it is essential for you to ramp up communications to keep key stakeholders informed and engaged during this fast-changing time. As you prepare your communication plan, consider how different constituents may be affected and able to respond during this time. For example, your messaging should be customized for individuals vs. corporate vs. foundation funders, as well as for generation, gender, and ethnicity. But regardless of the constituency, keep the following four points in mind to form the foundation of your messaging:

  1. Stay the Course: The donor engagement methods that are currently working for your organization remain unchanged despite communication channels (i.e. virtual meetings over in-person visits).
  2. Make Adjustments: When needed, tweak your strategy based on feedback and new information.
  3. Be Flexible: Given the present challenges, be willing to pivot slightly from your original plan.
  4. Think Long-Term: Donor engagement has always been about building and maintaining lasting relationships.

Prioritizing Your Communication

As you plan your communication strategy, chart the stages of your prospect pipeline and accompany each stage with its own recommendations. You can begin by separating constituents into categories defined by their stage in the solicitation cycle: discovery, cultivate, brief, ask, and steward. In the case of a crisis, stewardship is your highest priority. Reverse that order and begin with donors who are in your stewardship category. For each of these stages, you will want to consider detailed answers for the following criteria:

  • Priority: Determine a timeline for communicating with them. Does outreach need to be immediate? Are there opportunities/need for ongoing touchpoints?
  • Definition: What are the specific criteria needed to place a given donor in each category?
  • Action Item: Is there a specific item you need to share at this time? Do you need to move a scheduled meeting to a virtual platform?
  • What to Consider: For each category, what are your goals for that donor, and how has the crisis affected those goals? What do they need to hear from you right now?
  • Key Points to Cover: How personal should the communication be? Do you need to thank them, make an ask, share how the crisis is affecting your organizations, show the development of a case for support?
  • Vehicles: What is the most appropriate method of communication? A personal call, a handwritten note, an email, or a video conference?
  • Lead: Who is the best person on your team to lead this communication?

Special Considerations

Among the many challenges we are all facing, there are two issues you will want to pay particular attention to in your communication.

  • Personal concerns: Health and the economy are likely front of mind for all donors. Always begin conversations by checking in and inviting donors to share their experiences or concerns.
  • Technology: Be sure to run through virtual visits and test media ahead of schedule. Use the donor’s preferred platform for check-in meetings with volunteers and organizational leadership to get everyone comfortable with the functionality and features. Click here for more information on how to run effective virtual donor meetings.

Recommended Strategies

1) Lead with well wishes and care for the safety of the individual. Acknowledge that this is an unprecedented time and many are experiencing disruption to their routines and plans.

Sample Messaging: It is our sincere hope that you and your family are well, safe, and able to continue as much of your normal routine as possible in this uncertain time.

2) Provide a high-level summary of the organization’s response plan. Focus particularly on the expertise the organization provides and how it is helping its constituents and community in this time of upheaval.

Sample Messaging: As a close friend of our organization, we want to share with you…

  • Consider sharing your organization’s crisis response fund, useful resources, or opportunities to get involved.
  • Do not provide medical advice. Aim to share resources that are nonpartisan in nature.

3) Circle back to the organization’s mission and share current needs.

Sample Messaging: Amidst the uncertainty of this moment, one thing remains clear: the need for our services within the community has never been greater.

4) Close with a sincere thank you.

Sample Messaging: As a supporter of our organization, you empower our ability to respond to this crisis, continue services to our constituents, and advance our mission. Thank you.

5) Additional Engagement Ideas

Given work-from-home and shelter-in-place mandates in some states and an increased need to connect and engage with one another, now is a good time to think about creative ways to communicate with your donors.

  • Create “in-person” online moments. Develop virtual visit structure and speaking notes. Make the visit tangible by presenting the host’s screen to share photos, charts, and digital booklets/case statements to bring the mission to life.
  • Close the social distance. Consider hosting a cultivation “social hour” led by organization leadership, campaign chair, and any subject matter experts (physician, teacher, curator) at the organization.
  • Instill Confidence. Highlight recent examples of generosity. Inspire others with a testimonial from a donor who stepped up in this time of crisis.

Conclusion

Remember that throughout this crisis, your highest priority should be communicating with your donors. Through past crises, donors continued to give to organizations they felt connected to, so it is imperative that you nurture your relationships. Charitable organizations can persevere through challenging times with flexibility, creativity, and resolve.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

The COVID-19 crisis continues to have a dramatic effect on our personal and professional lives, so out of necessity, many development teams are redirecting their focus to digital communication. As important donor meetings are moving to the video conferencing world in the coming weeks, much has been said about best practices for video conferencing in general. Tips like dressing professionally, ensuring you have the right equipment (i.e. microphones/cameras), and finding the right web platforms for your meeting are certainly useful. But how do you properly prepare to make sure that your next donor meeting is smooth and issue-free? Consider these tips in advance of your next meeting.

Hold Internal Practice Runs

To create a seamless meeting, avoiding any distractions will allow you to focus on the task at hand. You should always be logging into the meeting 15-20 minutes in advance of your session to make sure everything is running smoothly. But if time allows, you should also consider holding mock sessions with internal colleagues at least one day in advance of your meeting. You can utilize this practice time to:

  • Determine Roles: Divvy up responsibilities on your team where everyone plays a part. If you are using webinar software and inviting multiple people to the conversation, give your teammates official roles on the backend (i.e. organizer, panelist, attendee, etc.) so you can test what each view looks like.
  • Avoid Technical Issues: Doing a dry run will help you work out any technical kinks that may arise. It will also help you get up to speed on the format and functionality of the software. Testing your internet connection, microphone/phone/computer audio, as well as your web camera and room lighting during these practice runs will allow you to enter the real meeting with confidence that things will look right and operate correctly.

Practice and Time Your Talking Points

It is essential that you avoid going over time in your pitch or presentation. Planning talking points is even more important when using digital platforms. Use the internal practice runs to time things out so you have a better understanding of what to add or cut down for the meeting. Consider also having a colleague act as the donor and ask potential questions so you can time out your answers accordingly. Creating and communicating a detailed agenda well in advance will also go a long way to establishing expectations.

In creating your timeline, make sure you plan for the first five minutes to be used for everyone to sign in and get acclimated to the software. It is also important to leave time for introductions and small talk to keep the conversation personable. For example, it is natural that your donor may want to briefly discuss the COVID-19 crisis and how it is affecting them, and it’s important to allow time for this very important issue to be addressed. By being prepared, you can avoid letting this topic monopolize the agenda. You should also allow for time in case there are any technical issues, such as the donor’s internet connection or phone dropping out temporarily. This way you won’t feel rushed at the end of your meeting.

Create Ways to Keep the Donor Engaged

Keeping your audience engaged throughout is key to ensuring that the meeting is productive for everyone involved. After introductions and preliminary discussions, transition the conversation to an overview of the key points on the agenda. While you want this to stay as structured as possible, tell the donor that you welcome questions throughout to keep the conversation flowing freely. This will also help you gauge what is resonating. There could be multiple people on the call who are not all easily seen on screen, which could make it more difficult to read body language and respond to visual cues. Stopping to ask questions of the donor will go a long way in eliminating those issues.

Additionally, utilizing the technology to incorporate visuals and downloadable documents will allow for richer discussions. These should also be prepared and shared prior to the meeting. On a recent virtual donor session, leaders of a small parish in Connecticut were meeting with an elderly donor through a video conferencing platform. Three days before the meeting, the team sent e-mails to the donor with links to download the software as well as all meeting materials which included the case for support, an FAQ document, and a detailed meeting agenda. This allowed the leaders of the parish to focus more on the conversation and during the meeting itself, they didn’t need to take any time out of the discussion for materials to download. If possible and if time allows, mailing the donor hardcopy documents well before the meeting day adds another element of personability to the session.

Have a Backup Plan for Malfunctions

Because so many professionals are now using digital platforms to hold meetings, even the best programs are seeing technical issues due to bandwidth challenges. It is therefore worthwhile to have backup programs ready to use should your primary platform have technical issues.

In a recent meeting, leaders at an independent school were using video conferencing software to follow up with an important alumni donor and share campaign plans in light of the COVID-19 crisis. The software worked smoothly during the practice run a day before, but when members of the development team logged in 20 minutes before the meeting to test the software, the screen kept freezing and the screenshare function wasn’t working properly. After not being able to solve the issue in short time, the team quickly pivoted and decided to move to a different platform. They logged into the backup platform, sent the donor an email with new login instructions, and were able to hold a successful issue-free meeting that began on time.

As a third backup option, you can always consider moving to an audio-only conference call. Having these options in your back pocket will prepare you for any curve balls thrown your way and will keep you from needing to postpone the meeting.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

It is important to remember that even with meetings being moved to the digital space, the principles and best practices of how you communicate with donors remain the same. Articulate your mission with clarity and confidence and continue to find ways to provide meaningful follow-up correspondence after your meeting. This includes new and expanded materials that reflect what was discussed during the meeting.

Most importantly: thank the donor for their time both on the call and in your follow-up calls/e-mails. The commitment they made during this time of heightened uncertainty can’t be understated, and the donor should feel your appreciation in every step of the process.

Additional Resources for Video Conferencing Best Practices

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.

The COVID-19 crisis has thrust many development professionals into a remote work situation, and more than ever before we’re seeing how the digital space can greatly support our usual fundraising practices. Well before this moment, the rise of online giving has been significant, and the importance of engaging your existing and potential donors online has never been more essential. The best giving day strategies begin at least six months in advance, so now is the time to look ahead and plan for success.

Giving days—24-hour digital fundraising challenges—are worth the investment, especially in this time of uncertainty. Executing a giving day strategy can be a useful tool to raise awareness and funds, as long as you make the right preparations and have reasonable and achievable goals. The organizations that are succeeding in their outreach have robust strategies that align closely with their wider institutional goals and include investments in time and staff resources.

Why Participate?

The purpose of participating in a giving day is to offer new and established donors a special reason to engage with your cause. Getting involved is essential, as they are increasing in popularity year after year. #GivingTuesday, the best-known giving day that takes place annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is growing exponentially. According to the NonProfit Times, #GivingTuesday raised a total of $511 million online in the United States. This was an increase of over $100 million from 2018, an increase of nearly 28 percent.

There are opportunities in every nonprofit sector on #GivingTuesday. For example, #iGiveCatholic, which was deemed “the most successful Catholic crowdfunding event to date” by the National Catholic Register, has taken online Catholic stewardship practices to the next level. #iGiveCatholic is a bishop-led initiative in partnership with lay leaders in Catholic philanthropy that offers assistance to Catholic organizations as they build their outreach strategies for the online giving event. Through this service, organizations gain access to training, toolkits, and materials to execute a successful plan. In 2019, the #iGiveCatholic campaign raised nearly $7.5 million from over 29,000 donors across the country.

There are also regional giving days to investigate in your own area. Whichever days you choose, follow our three steps to maximizing your giving day strategy.

The Three Keys

  1. Preparation 

Making the most out of a giving day takes planning. Many organizations stumble by jumping into the giving day conversation without proper outreach strategies, branding, or realistic goals. It is a best practice to create an outreach plan over six months in advance. You should have a calendar filled with strategies for:

  • Content creation (i.e. branded templates, videos, images, testimonials, podcasts etc.)
  • Email marketing to your database to build momentum
  • Social media posts across channels that tell a consistent story of impact
  • Website enhancements to serve as a “home base” for giving day promotion
  • Public relations/media outreach

The preparation stage also gives you an opportunity to survey the people who gave the previous year. Tap into your network to ask them what compelled them to give, what content they found most effective, and what they would want to see improved. This will help you create a new strategy that resonates with your core audience.

  1. Standing Out Above the Crowd

As the popularity of giving days grows, the chances are good that your audience will be inundated by pitches from many like-minded organizations. Therefore, the way you present your mission can make all the difference. The first question to ask here is, Why should people give to our cause? Consider the elements of your case that stand out, and boil those differentiators into a ten second elevator pitch to grab attention and clearly present your case.

Once you have narrowed your focus, create professional-looking content that support your case. Think about using campaign-specific graphics and colors in emails and on social media. Remember that you will be attempting to attract new people who may not be familiar with your cause. Your messaging should aim to clearly underline who you are and why this day is special.

  1. Promotion

While it is important to communicate your strategies well in advance, outreach should be ramped up a month before the giving day. This includes communications through all of your social media channels and your email database It is also important to activate your strongest supporters to raise awareness. Pull a short list of your most active volunteers and major financial supporters and make personal calls to ask them for help in spreading the word.

When promoting your giving day, it is also essential to strike a balance between underwhelming and overwhelming your audience. Be purposeful with your outreach and avoid redundancies in your content to keep your audience engaged. For example, sending the same emails several times without adding something new to the conversation could slow momentum as you get closer to the day.

Following Your Giving Day Campaign

The first thing to do after your giving day is to track and publicize your results to celebrate your success. It is also useful to do an immediate internal evaluation to determine which parts of your plan worked and which parts didn’t. This audit will allow you to identify the outreach channels that were the most effective which will help greatly the next year. It is valuable to thank all donors who participated in elevating your cause through all channels.

If you’re just getting started, here are some reminders: 

  • As you think about your strategic plan for this year and beyond, it may be tempting to participate in as many giving days as you can find, but you could risk spreading yourself thin. Take a look at your calendar, identify all the giving days you might want to participate in, and then see which ones fit your organization best. Try a few the first year and then assess which one(s) worked best for you.
  • It’s okay to start small. Consider a reasonable goal to create an early win.
  • No matter how far out your next giving day is, it is worthwhile to assemble your team to begin strategizing today. Take a look at the organizations who are doing it well, and brainstorm what it will take for your organization to exceed their success.

This post is an update from a previous published article which can be read here.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to change the way we work, it is valuable to think about how even the smallest improvements can set you up for success later. This article, which was previously published here, speaks to the small wins that can help your organization build momentum no matter the current situation.

The Importance of Small Wins

It is often said that campaigns are meant to be a marathon, not a sprint. However, it is easy to get lost in the big picture or stuck in the weeds of daily tasks that suddenly make campaign goals seem too daunting or too visionary. It’s important to remember that campaign success is not only about funds raised, but also about the ongoing accomplishments that keep a development team feeling positive about the direction forward. Celebrating small wins in fundraising is important for building momentum, instilling confidence, and establishing a successful path forward to realize big picture goals.

Achieving this kind of incremental success cannot be overlooked or understated. When managing a campaign, there will always be a moment when you face adversity, whether experiencing a setback or feeling trapped with your back against the wall. This is especially true for those whose campaigns have stalled, when you feel like you’ve exhausted all options, and things are just not going as you had hoped. In times like this, it’s important to remember that a small win can be something as simple as completing a productive weekly meeting with your executive director or identifying a new prospect to discover. Acknowledging and celebrating these small yet mighty tasks not only start your campaign off on a strong foot, but also keep you moving forward with cadence.

Whether you’re looking to boost activity or pivot in strategy, there are things you can do right away to ensure your campaign keeps moving forward.

Three Ways to Achieve Small Wins

1. Rally the Troops: Instilling Internal Confidence

Building a sense of ownership, trust, and empowerment among organizational leaders around campaign priorities is an important accomplishment to celebrate at the outset of and throughout a campaign. Knowing that your people support institutional campaign efforts inspires greater confidence among campaign leaders and volunteers who are driving activity forward every day.

Rallying the troops around a collective sense of “we” must be an ongoing effort to ensure overall campaign success. These important individuals are your key insiders that will help you achieve larger fundraising goals. Instilling internal confidence among your troops can be accomplished in the following ways.

  • Be transparent and communicate often. Your people want to know what’s going on. They want to support the institution and leaders they work for. However, these individuals can only do so if they are aware of what is going on at all levels. Host monthly update meetings with staff, send newsletters or other forms of consistent communication about campaign progress and success, and create opportunities to discuss challenges and frustrations so lines of communication are always open around the positive and negative. This will establish trust and confidence in-house which will be necessary for larger wins down the road. Transparency and communication open the door to internal advocates and ambassadors for your campaign that will build greater momentum for campaign success.
  • Look inward and create structure on your team. Internal leaders and staff often want to help in any way they can. Creating and assigning roles for each person will create a sense of “we” behind a shared goal, which becomes a much larger win for the organization as whole. Communicate these roles clearly with your team so that everyone knows exactly what part they play and feels a sense of ownership.
  • Highlight accomplishments at the next staff meeting. As leaders and staff complete tasks, publicly acknowledging their good work to advance campaign efforts will open the door for more people to get involved and allow everyone an opportunity to celebrate small wins together. Celebrating small successes is key to creating a winning culture and can help create an energized and excited team even during the hardest times of a campaign.

2. Maximize Effort: Updating the Pipeline

Campaigns are not just about hitting goal, but also about building and maintaining relationships with donors. While nonprofit organizations often focus on a specific targeted list of campaign prospects when seeking significant funds, a campaign is also an opportunity to clean up the pipeline and identify new individuals who share a commitment to an organization’s mission.

By reviewing and updating your prospect pool, you give your people confidence in knowing that they are spending time wisely on the right donors. Updates may involve removing a prospect who has been unresponsive for a few weeks and pivoting to toward a different prospect who yields greater potential support. Another update may involve moving a prospect from the discovery stage to the cultivation stage following an introductory meeting. Especially when a campaign is stalled, any update to the pipeline is a great way to get the ball rolling again.

Each new prospect is a new opportunity to increase donations, set both staff and donor sights higher, and engage a broader community that may include the next generation of leaders. Once a prospect is in the pipeline, celebrate every move throughout the donor engagement process as a small win toward greater success. After a long week of research, finding a new prospective donor who has the ability and affinity to give, as well as access to your organization, is an outstanding win to celebrate. Identifying a new major gift prospect is exciting and can help reinvigorate leaders and restore confidence among current donors.

3. Prepare: Setting Yourself Up for a Major Win

Organizations often celebrate a completed solicitation visit because it means they are one step closer to a potential gift. While this is an exciting moment in any campaign, the hard work that goes into the preparation required to conduct a successful solicitation visit often goes unacknowledged.

Asking for a transformative gift is not a one-step process. The solicitor(s) must be prepared to present the case, verbalize a request, and handle responses in a personal manner. The first solicitation requires the most preparation. The process to ensure that each solicitor, who may not always be a professional fundraiser, feels confident in their ability to conduct the meeting involves several tasks, which include (but are not limited to):

  • Material development and review
  • Strategy meetings
  • Learning and training sessions

As you walk through the materials and strategy for a solicitation meeting, acknowledge each completed task as an accomplishment and share your progress with other leaders and volunteers. Keep everyone in the know about how much has been accomplished leading up to the first big request. That way, when a gift comes through, everyone can celebrate it together.

Each completed task is an incremental step toward greater success. As a campaign manager, you will notice and want to point out to your team that your leaders become more and more prepared for and confident when conducting solicitations over time, which yields higher returns on requests. This is an example of how incremental success can lead to small wins throughout a campaign.

Getting Started Today

The three ways to achieve small wins outlined above work in tandem with one another to achieve incremental success. When planning a campaign or restructuring a fundraising approach, it’s important to set activity benchmarks in addition to your big goals. Working these small wins into your campaign are important strategies for building momentum, establishing trust, and charting a path forward for boosting activity and realizing big picture goals.

It may help to ask yourself: What does tomorrow look like, and next week? What do I have to look forward to tomorrow, or what will we accomplish next week? How can we build on next week’s win?

When answering these questions, keep in mind that incremental accomplishments illuminate progress and demonstrates success. This helps to motivate everyone involved to drive campaign activity and sets your people up to produce results.  Be purposeful about what you communicate. You can position anything as a small win to your leadership and major donors. It helps to create a strong perception of progress, which leads to greater success.

During this challenging time, we are continuing to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from over seven decades of nonprofit advisory leadership. Click here to access our Strategies During COVID-19 page. Here you will find resources that provide best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic fundraising consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. Members of the CCS team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across sectors, disciplines, and regions. With offices throughout the United States and the world, our unique, customized approach provides each client with an embedded team member for the duration of the engagement. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page. To learn more about CCS Fundraising’s suite of services, click here.