Resources
Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving
Jul 24th
See this on our new TRENDS page!
One of the ways Click. Buy. Help. adds value to participating non-profit organizations is through helpful resources and observations. Here is a handy index published by Blackbaud, Inc., a company that provides technology solutions to nonprofits. Their index provides a quick glimpse into giving trends. You can read more about their methodology here. They break down the stats in a number of categories, but the two that caught our attention are:
- The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving
- The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving
More >
Fundraising Tips to Help Your Supporters Help You
Jun 6th
The promotion of your non-profit organization is important and complex. Your Click. Buy. Help. efforts are but a component of your overall fundraising strategies, but can be another tool in spreading the word about your work.
Are you doing everything you can to make it easy for current and potential supporters to engage with you? Does your web site stand out in a crowd? These are simple questions, but of course have many interrelated answers. Let’s approach this by asking (and have you answering) a few basic questions.
Double-Dip with Coinstar
Mar 24th
Coinstar is not a Click. Buy. Help. online merchant, but they can help Click. Buy. Help. organizations “Double-Dip” in their fundraising efforts. Here’s how.
First, Coinstar is the leader in changing coins into cash, cards and eCertificates. Generally, they charge a 9.8% fee in the U.S. and 11.9% in Canada. No one would begrudge them a small profit. However, they do have a “Coins that Count” program for non-profits that provides a discounted rate.
But it gets better…
Improve Your Expense Ratio
Mar 3rd
Look at your 2010 Form 990. Consider for a moment the line called Total Fundraising Expenses. (That’s line 16b on your 2010 return.) As a non-profit organization, you know very well the importance of this figure in relation to your total expenses. Others are paying attention.
Charity Navigator is the nation’s largest and most most-utilized evaluator of charities. Their rating system addresses two broad areas of a charity’s financial health — how responsibly it functions day to day as well as how well positioned it is to sustain its programs over time.
One of the their evaluation categories is Fundraising Efficiency.
Draft Announcement Provides Assistance
Feb 7th
Click. Buy. Help. Support
One of the many ways Click. Buy. Help. provides support to its member organizations is with drafting various messages. If you are planning to introduce Click. Buy. Help. to your supporters, here’s a draft. Feel free to customize it as you see fit, but it gives you a good start. Be sure to provide feedback on how Click. Buy. Help. can further assist you with your marketing and promotion message.
Amazon Clarification on Wish Lists
Dec 26th
An excellent question came into the Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue page today from David in Minnesota. He wanted to make sure his Click. Buy. Help. shopping habits supported his son’s organization. Outstanding!
After a quick inquiry with Amazon, we have the details surrounding how to get the maximum benefit from Amazon Wish Lists. It isn’t complicated, but it does need a bit of an explanation.
There seems to be two Amazon Wish List scenarios to consider:
Announce Clearly and Carefully
Nov 27th
When announcing any fundraising event or information to your supporters, it is important to be clear in your message, and focused on the topic. It’s usually a good idea to limit your messaging to a single or no more than a few topics. Better to send frequent nuggets of good, clear, focused information than to send material that has too much content for people to absorb.
One of the “virtual volunteer” services Click. Buy. Help. provides to its organizations is the growing collection of resource materials found here. In the Resources section, we try to store all sorts of helpful materials. Today, we’re adding some assistance for announcing your Click. Buy. Help. relationship. This came out of the recent addition of Archbishop Howard School and is a valuable sample to share with everyone. More >
Events Calendar Enhanced
Nov 13th
Click. Buy. Help. is a place for helping non-profit organizations earn new sources of revenue – but we do more to assist. One service is help maximize the entire fundraising process.
Click. Buy. Help. is a valuable addition to any non-profit organization’s revenue growth strategy. However, it should never be considered as the “only” approach to fundraising. There are many benefits to organizing event-based efforts, like golf tournaments, dinner/auctions, and [insert activity here]-a-thons. Engaging your supporters directly and openly showing your appreciation in person is a critical element of growing your supporter base.
One of the best first steps for any organization is careful and strategic planning of the event’s date. Sure, there are many best practices for early “save the date” announcements and follow-up reminders, but the critical decision is when to hold the event. Choosing a date that does not compete with other fundraising events in your local area allows your organization to get the visibility – and participation – that it deserves.
Enter the Click. Buy. Help. Event Planning Calendar. More >
Add Virality with a Promotional Flier
Jul 5th
Click for Flier PDF
A promotional flier can be an effective and inexpensive way to promote your organization. If you provide interesting or entertaining content, mixed with some tasteful comedy at the right times, you could have something that people will want to share with their friends. Their friends of course may share it with theirs, and so on. This viral nature can spread to an impressively large number of people in a short period of time.
You can capitalize on that concept by using something like this flier to announce to your supporters your involvement with Click. Buy. Help. This flier can be customized with your organization’s name and used in a formal email campaign, forwarded “virally” by your members to and among supporters, or simply sent out when more information is requested about your group.
The New Ask: Not for Cash
Jul 3rd
In fundraising circles, “The Ask” is a critical aspect of any traditional campaign. The groundwork laid; the education delivered; the case made – they are all important preparations for an artful and tasteful request for cold hard cash.
One often overlooked, but important ingredient for a successful Ask is first understanding what money means to the asker. In Laura Fredricks’ book, “The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project, or Business Venture,” she says, “It is essential that we explore our own values of what money means to us, and as importantly, why we feel we deserve to get what we ask for.” This realization will properly set our minds to allow us to perform The Ask “artfully.” As it is in many areas of non-profit operations, “The Ask” is as much art as it is science. More >