Marc A. Pitman's Blog, page 3

4 Reasons Your Donors Aren’t Engaging With Your Website

Imagine this: A donor mentions your nonprofit during a casual conversation with a family member, sparking an interest in your cause. Later that day, the family member looks up your organization online, hoping to learn how they can get involved. However, after seeing your home page, they navigate away without taking any action at all.

First impressions matter, which means your nonprofit’s website can make or break a donor’s relationship with your organization. If you don’t make it easy for donors to understand what you do, explore how they can support your cause, and donate, chances are they’ll find another nonprofit that does.

Let’s explore the top reasons donors aren’t engaging with your website and the concrete steps you can take to improve it.

1. Poor User Experience (UX)

Does your website take several long seconds to load? When donors land on your homepage, do they have to dig through your navigation to find where they’re trying to go? Are there too many images, buttons, and blocks of text crowding your pages?

Your nonprofit’s website is one of your most powerful marketing tools, but only if it has a strong user experience (UX).

Next Steps

Use free tools such as PageSpeed Insights to identify if your website has UX issues. Compile your findings and start implementing improvements such as:

Simplifying the navigation barCompressing and resizing imagesAdding more white space around page elementsBreaking large paragraphs into lists or bullet pointsImplementing a mobile-responsive layoutFollowing accessibility best practices, such as adding alt text to images

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: The Learning Together website shines when it comes to accessibility. It has an easy-to-access accessibility menu in the bottom right corner, where users can change color contrast, increase text size, highlight links, pause animations, and more. Plus, it allows users to switch to a Spanish version of the website.

2. Weak Branding

Your nonprofit’s branding determines how people perceive your organization and its impact. If your website’s colors, font, and images are inconsistent, donors will have a hard time understanding what your nonprofit stands for, trusting your organization, and establishing an emotional connection to your mission.

Avoid the misconception that a well-designed website will convince donors that your organization doesn’t need financial support. You may assume that low-budget, DIY branding makes your nonprofit seem like an underdog worth rooting for, but actually, a poorly made website gives the impression that you don’t have a focused, long-term strategy for sustained success and impact.

Your website branding should be visually compelling and consistent to build credibility and trust. When donors reach your giving page, they should immediately know that they’re at the right place and feel comfortable enough to donate.

Next Steps

The Liminal nonprofit branding guide recommends creating official brand guidelines for your team to follow when working on your website and other marketing materials. In this document, include:

An overview of your organization and its brand identityLogo variations, spacing specifications, and misuse casesCore messaging elements, including your mission statement and calls to action (CTAs)Typeface, hierarchy, and font style usageColors, along with their hex code, CMY, and RBG valueVoice and personality for written communication, such as casual or professional

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: Hood Code provides coding education to youth living in New York City’s public housing system. Its bold and sleek website appeals to the eye, capturing the organization’s tech-focused approach. As donors explore the site, they’ll know their donations are contributing toward professional programs and digital empowerment.

3. Lack of Social Proof

Many donors get involved with a nonprofit because they want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They hope to join a community of like-minded people who share a common passion for their cause. But if there’s no sign of community on your nonprofit’s website, they may wonder why others aren’t interested in championing your organization.

By incorporating social proof across your website, you demonstrate that you’ve earned the trust and support of a passionate audience, improving the chances a new visitor will trust you and join your audience, as well.

Next Steps

If you plan to add supporters’ names and photos to your website, remember to get their permission first. From there, look for opportunities to incorporate the following elements into your website:

Stories and testimonials from beneficiaries, volunteers, and staff membersCase studies highlighting successful projects or programsImpact metrics that illustrate how you’ve put donations to good useDigital donor recognition walls that celebrate your key contributorsRatings from reputable charity watchdog groups, such as Candid (GuideStar) or Charity NavigatorPartnership announcements with local businesses and other organizations

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: Restore NYC incorporates various social proof elements on its website. It has a dedicated “Our Impact” page with statistics on the number of people the organization has served and how their lives have benefited from Restore NYC’s core services. Its annual reports, available to download for free, also contain in-depth stories about beneficiaries and the role the nonprofit played in their journey toward a better life.

4. Missing or Unclear CTAs

You likely already understand the importance of creating accessible, streamlined giving experiences for donors. While you know your donation page should be short, straightforward, and mobile-friendly, the giving experience doesn’t start there. If it’s difficult for donors to find your donation page, or they’re not sure what you’d like them to do when they land on one of your website pages, they might not take any action at all.

Including clear CTAs on your website makes it easy for visitors to engage with your content and take actions like donating.

Next Steps

Whether you’re encouraging visitors to sign up for your email newsletter, become a volunteer, register for an upcoming event, or donate, provide a direct and convenient way for them to do so. According to Fundly, your CTAs should:

Be short and straightforwardStand out visually on the pageIncorporate words like “today” and “now” to inspire a sense of urgency

An engaging nonprofit website to learn from: Lift Up the Vulnerable provides strong examples of CTAs across its website. A popup on the homepage invites visitors to “Double Your Impact Today!” explaining that every dollar they give will be matched up to $250,000. Its “Be a Changemaker” page includes eye-catching buttons that say “Give Today” alongside suggested donation amounts that illustrate each gift size’s impact.

As you adjust your website, track metrics such as page views, bounce rates, conversion rates, and average session duration. Conduct regular training sessions with your team to cover topics like content strategy, UX, search engine optimization (SEO), and data security.

If you determine that your website requires an extensive revamp or rebrand, reach out to experts, such as a nonprofit branding agency, to help you achieve your goals.

About the AuthorTodd Hiestand

Todd has over 20 years of experience as a leader in the nonprofit sector. He has served in a wide variety of roles, guiding digital marketing, technology, fundraising, eCommerce, and communications strategies. His expertise in developing systems and processes has helped launch organizations and sustain growth over time.

The post 4 Reasons Your Donors Aren’t Engaging With Your Website appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

How to Foster More Positive Volunteer-Staff Relations

Whether it’s a group of volunteers frustrating staff by not taking their roles seriously or a new political campaign manager stepping on the toes of the volunteers who’ve been running things for weeks, conflict between volunteers and staff is all too common. Communication lapses, tension builds, and sometimes, sparks fly. It’s natural, and solving these conflicts is part of every volunteer manager’s job.

But with volunteers making up about one-third of the nonprofit workforce, volunteers and staff must overcome interpersonal challenges if they want to drive real change. Recognizing each other’s value and working together is the only way to successfully further their organizations’ missions. 

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of best practices you can use to improve volunteer-staff relations at your nonprofit and set your team up for long-term success.

1. Clarify each role’s responsibilities.

When you create clear boundaries between staff and volunteer responsibilities, it’s easier to foster positive relationships from the beginning. This way, task ownership is clearer, preventing contention and work slowdowns.

Before you start staffing your next campaign, refresh your job and role descriptions to ensure they accurately speak to each person’s responsibilities. Clearly outline the following for each role:

Whether it’s a paid or volunteer positionThe time commitment, such as part-time, seasonal, or occasional long shiftsTheir primary responsibilitiesAdditional responsibilities they may pick up on a day-to-day basis as neededWho they report toWhich team members this role will interact withWhether the position is entry-level, skills-based, or senior 

Then, reinforce the division and delegation of responsibilities between paid and volunteer roles during volunteer onboarding. Clarify what ad hoc tasks are within the scope of volunteer responsibilities and which ones they should ask a staff member to handle. For example, you may let your summer camp program volunteers talk to upset parents but ask them to pass the conversation off to a staff member if the parent mentions any major concerns, such as child safety or data security.

If any issues or confusion arise down the line, remind both staff and volunteers what duties they’re ultimately responsible for and what they aren’t. When in doubt, tell them to refer to your volunteer handbook or a senior staff member.

2. Create space for casual interactions.

Because volunteers and staff may be involved in different aspects of the organization, they might not get an opportunity to get to know one another or become familiar with what the other actually does. 

To bridge the divide, volunteer managers should create space for volunteers and staff to interact casually. When they’re more familiar with each other, everyone will be more compassionate and understanding in moments of conflict.

Try inviting staff and volunteers to eat together before events or celebrate a successful campaign with a small party. You might hold an appreciation dinner event and create name cards so you can seat volunteers and staff next to each other. Or, ask staff members and volunteers to team up for auction item solicitation — you could even give out a prize for the team that gets the most items.

3. Provide adequate training.

A common reason tension can build between staff and volunteers is insufficient training. If a group of volunteers doesn’t know what they’re doing on the day of an event, the staff members in charge may get frustrated at having to train them on top of all their other responsibilities. Or, a volunteer who hasn’t received enough training might ask lots of questions and get frustrated when staff members expect them to do things they haven’t learned how to do.

To avoid these conflicts, improve your volunteer training process by:

Assessing your current training resources and processes. How long is your current training process? Who takes the lead? What resources, if any, do volunteers get to walk away with to learn more? Look for any clear gaps and opportunities to provide more knowledge.Asking past volunteers for feedback. Volunteers who have been through the training themselves often have the best insight. For instance, a volunteer might say that last year’s phone canvassing training didn’t provide enough instruction on how to talk about your organization to prospective donors. To improve this year’s training, you might add an extra session where volunteers roleplay conversations with donors.Inviting both staff members and experienced volunteers to lead. Allocating some of your training responsibilities to long-time volunteers not only takes work off your staff members’ plates but also empowers volunteers. 

Consider providing extra training opportunities for staff members, too. For instance, hosting a training workshop about leadership styles can help staff discover their strengths as leaders and learn how to harness them when working with volunteers. 

4. Celebrate teamwork when you see it.

Positive reinforcement is crucial for truly changing the dynamic between volunteers and staff at your organization. 

When you see staff members go out of their way to help volunteers, thank them for fostering positivity among the team. Any time you notice volunteers mediating conflict or encouraging teamwork, make a note in your volunteer database to send them a special thank-you message later. 

Additionally, make both volunteers and staff feel appreciated by recognizing their team achievements. Call particular attention to accomplishments achieved through the cooperation and efforts of everyone, such as successful fundraising events. This will boost morale and foster the idea that great results happen through teamwork and a collective dedication to your mission.

Fostering positive volunteer-staff relations can feel challenging, but the results are well worth the effort. When you use these strategies and create an environment where volunteers and staff members work together effectively, you’ll strengthen your nonprofit’s community and achieve better long-term results.

 

The post How to Foster More Positive Volunteer-Staff Relations appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

Maximizing Donor Outreach: FAQ Guide to Prospect Research

If you’ve worked in the nonprofit sector for some time, you know that your organization’s fundraising potential depends on its ability to understand and engage its donors. The importance of knowing your donors increases with their giving level—prospective major donors, in particular, will only want to contribute to organizations that make them feel like an integral part of furthering the nonprofit’s mission.

Prospect research is the best way to gain insight into these high-impact donors’ giving capacities, motivations, and preferences. In this guide, we’ll answer some of the most common questions nonprofit professionals have about prospect research when getting started so you can make the most of this process. Let’s dive in!

What is prospect research, and how is it used?

DonorSearch’s prospect research guide defines this term as “a technique used by nonprofit fundraisers, major gift officers, and development teams to identify high-impact donors within and beyond an organization’s current donor pool. Through this process, nonprofits gather an immense amount of data—information about donors’ backgrounds, past giving histories, wealth indicators, philanthropic motivations, and more details that help determine prospects’ likelihood of giving.”

Prospect research is useful for finding donors for a multitude of initiatives that depend on large gifts, including:

Launching new mission-related community programs or expanding existing ones.Securing the estimated 60% of annual fund revenue that comes from major gifts on average.Completing your gift range chart during the quiet phase of a capital campaign.Building out your organization’s legacy giving program.

While most nonprofits use prospect research primarily to identify new potential donors at the beginning of a fundraising initiative, it’s most effective when it’s an ongoing process. Once you’ve found a viable prospect, continue researching to stay up-to-date on their wealth and philanthropic details as you cultivate relationships with them and solicit gifts. Plus, periodically screening your donor database can help you find major donor candidates among your existing supporters.

What information can you learn through prospect research?

One of the most common misconceptions around prospect research is that it’s synonymous with wealth screening. In reality, prospect research is more comprehensive, taking into account not only potential donors’ financial capacity to give but also their willingness to make a significant contribution to your specific organization based on their philanthropic tendencies and affinity for your mission.

As you screen prospects, look for the following data points (also called markers or indicators):

Capacity indicators: Real estate ownership, stock holdings, business affiliations, political giving historyPhilanthropic indicators: Previous donations to your nonprofit or other similar organizationsAffinity indicators: Connection to or passion for your cause; nonprofit involvement history (event attendance, volunteering, board service, etc.); personal information such as interests, values, and family ties.

For your organization to consider someone a viable prospect, they should exhibit indicators from all three categories, demonstrating that they’d be able and willing to make a major gift.

What tools do you need to conduct prospect research?

Generally speaking, there are two types of software you need to conduct prospect research: databases and AI fundraising solutions. Let’s look at both categories in more detail.

Databases

These solutions form the backbone of prospect research, allowing you to find capacity, philanthropic, and affinity information about potential donors. Ensure your team has access to the following tools before you begin:

Prospect research database: Provides access to third-party wealth and philanthropic data by compiling information from various trusted sources, ranging from real estate records to other nonprofits’ annual reports.Internal donor database: Serves as a starting point for learning about existing supporters’ major giving potential and a centralized place to store and organize prospect research data in individual donor profiles.SEC investment records and FEC political contribution records: Supplement wealth data on prospective donors with a deeper dive into their stock holdings and political giving history.Matching gifts database: Lets you know which prospects could have their contributions matched by their employers as well as provides additional insight into donors’ professional connections.

In addition to leveraging these platforms, simply googling your prospects and checking out their social media profiles can give you a better sense of their interests and values.

AI Solutions

Once you’ve gathered your prospect research data, AI tools can help you sort through it more efficiently and enhance your outreach. The best types of nonprofit AI solutions to leverage for prospecting are: 

Prospect generator tools: Make lists of prospects who have supported similar causes to your organization’s and create reports summarizing the most important, actionable information on each prospect.Predictive modeling solutions: Rate prospects’ likelihood of responding to outreach and becoming donors, organize your prospect lists accordingly, and make suggestions about which potential donors to reach out to first for efficiency.Content generation tools: Help you create tailored outreach messages for each prospect based on predictive modeling insights.

Although research shows that nonprofits are integrating AI into their operations even faster than for-profit companies, nonprofit AI is still an emerging field. Work with trusted providers, follow best practices for data security and ethics, and be transparent with your community about how your organization uses AI to prevent risks and maximize the benefits of these tools.

What are the next steps to take after conducting prospect research?

As NXUnite’s donor relations guide explains, prospect research lays the foundation for building a human-centered relationship with each potential donor. While you can get a sense of prospects’ motivations for supporting your mission and the initiatives they’d be interested in contributing to, the best way to be sure about these things is to hear directly from the donor. Plus, cultivation shows that your nonprofit values its donors as individual people rather than just thinking of them as revenue sources.

After you’ve identified potential donors through prospect research, start cultivating them by:

Meeting with them one-on-one to get to know them personally and introduce them to your organizationEstablishing a regular communication cadence to keep your nonprofit top of mind and share relevant resources on current initiatives.Offering other engagement opportunities to give prospects a firsthand look at your organization’s work through volunteering, attending events, or consulting on projects.

Keep each prospect’s profile updated in your donor database as you learn more about them through these relationship-building activities and your ongoing research. This way, when the time comes to solicit a major gift, you can use all of this information to request an amount and suggest a designation that aligns with their unique giving capacity and motivations.

As with other new processes at your nonprofit, getting your approach to prospect research right will likely take time and practice. Monitor the usefulness of the data you find and the effectiveness of your research-driven outreach efforts. This way, you can hone your process over time and ultimately bring in more major gifts for your mission.

About the AuthorSarah Tedesco

Sarah Tedesco is the Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction. She collaborates with other team members on a variety of issues including sales, marketing and product development ideas.

The post Maximizing Donor Outreach: FAQ Guide to Prospect Research appeared first on FundraisingCoach.com.

The Rise of Fractional Executives: And The Impact On Nonprofits

This guest post is from Cindy Wagman, the founder of https://www.fractionalfundraising.co/. She shares a powerful way nonprofits are bringing in top executive expertise in a new way. Be sure to check out Cindy’s training “Fractional Executives: Disrupting Nonprofit Staffing and Careers” for The Nonprofit Academy at: https://www.nonprofitacademy.com/course/fractional-executives.

The Rise of Fractional Executives: And The Impact On Nonprofitsby Cindy Wagman

The nonprofit sector is facing an unprecedented staffing crisis. A staggering 77% of nonprofit employees report feeling burned out and wanting to leave their positions. The numbers are even more concerning for early-career professionals – with approximately 85% of those in their first decade of nonprofit work considering leaving.

For small to mid-sized nonprofits, the challenge is particularly acute. Many struggle to afford the six-figure salaries that experienced executives command, leading to a cycle of hiring junior staff, investing in their development, only to lose them to larger organizations or burnout.

Executive Directors find themselves taking on additional responsibilities, leading to their own exhaustion and frustration. Board members worry about sustainability and impact. Something has to change.

Enter the fractional executive model – an innovative approach that’s transforming how nonprofits think about leadership and sustainability, offering a practical solution to these persistent staffing challenges.

What Exactly is a Fractional Executive?

Unlike traditional consultants or interim leaders, fractional executives are experienced C-suite professionals who serve as long-term, part-time members of your leadership team. They bring their expertise and strategic oversight to your organization for a fraction of the time – and cost – of a full-time executive.

The Key Difference: Implementation vs. Advisory

Traditional Consultants: Typically provide recommendations and plans but leave implementation to internal teams

Interim Executives: Temporary full-time leaders who bridge gaps during transitions

Fractional Executives: Ongoing, part-time executive team members who both strategize AND implement

Why Nonprofits Need This Model Now

The nonprofit sector is experiencing unprecedented challenges:

Increased demand for servicesCompetition for skilled leadershipBudget constraints that limit hiring options

Traditional solutions often fall short. Full-time executives may be out of budget reach, while consultants might not provide the consistent, hands-on leadership needed for real transformation.

The Win-Win Proposition

The fractional executive model creates unique value for both nonprofits and leaders. Unlike traditional consulting, where the relationship is typically project-based and advisory, or interim roles which are temporary by design, fractional leadership offers a sustainable partnership that serves both parties. Organizations gain an experienced leader deeply integrated into their team, while executives can be their own boss, often make more money than in-house, and be in control of their time.. Let’s break down the specific benefits for both sides:

For Nonprofits:

Access to experienced executive expertise at a fraction of the costConsistent, long-term strategic leadership without the full-time salary burdenImplementation support, not just recommendationsFlexibility to scale executive support up or down based on organizational needsFresh perspectives from leaders who work across multiple organizations

For Executives:

Opportunity to impact multiple organizationsBetter work-life balance than in-houseHigher earning potentialContinued professional growth and diverse challengesReal Impact in Action

Consider a small environmental nonprofit with a $1.5 million budget raising about $400,000/year. While they can’t afford a full-time Development Director at $120,000 annually (plus benefits), they can invest in a fractional fundraising executive at $5,000/month. This leader brings senior-level expertise, implements sustainable fundraising systems, and drives real revenue growth – all while fitting within budget constraints.

Similarly, an organization with 15 employees can’t afford a full-time HR person, but needs HR support beyond payroll. A fractional HR professional can provide support beyond the basics including performance management, culture development and creating healthy teams.

Looking Ahead

The fractional executive model isn’t just a temporary fix – it’s a sustainable solution for nonprofits seeking to build capacity and impact. As the sector continues to evolve, this approach offers a practical way to access the leadership expertise needed for long-term success.

Remember: In today’s challenging nonprofit environment, innovation isn’t just about programs and services – it’s about finding new ways to build and sustain organizational capacity. The fractional executive model offers exactly that opportunity.

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Recapping & Reflecting: How to Learn from Nonprofit Mistakes

Mistakes are part of being human, and they’re certainly part of nonprofit work. Nevertheless, a large portion of the population is deeply afraid of failing and making mistakes. 

A Linkagoal survey found that 31% of adult respondents feared failure—that’s more than those who feared spiders (30%) or the paranormal (15%).

Mistakes are nothing to fear when you reframe them as opportunities to learn, grow, and, ultimately, better serve your nonprofit’s community. Keep the following tips in mind to leverage your internal culture, software solutions, and training resources to help your team learn from its mistakes and move forward productively. 

Make risk-taking a normal part of your team’s culture. 

Surveys have shown that adults in the U.S. overwhelmingly prefer playing it safe to taking risks. However, a study from Susan R. Fisk of the Kent State University Department of Sociology found that “failed risk-takers are perceived as more likely to be hired and promoted… risk-taking—regardless of outcome—considerably increases perceptions of agency and decreases perceptions of indecisiveness, and these attributions predict positive workplace outcomes.” 

In the for-profit world, the biggest risk-takers are often rewarded for their bold, decisive actions. Why can’t the same be true for your nonprofit? 

We recommend promoting risk-taking within reason as an organizational value. Failures and mistakes are a natural side effect of taking risks, but they don’t have to completely derail your efforts. When risks don’t pan out, don’t retreat to safer grounds—identify what went wrong and work to correct the specific issue. Additionally, encourage your team to continue to be bold and think outside the box. 

Embrace open communication with your nonprofit staff. 

For many nonprofits, the biggest challenge in learning from mistakes is getting staff members to talk about them openly. This is understandable—making mistakes can cause embarrassment or fear of professional penalties. 

However, your team can’t learn from its mistakes if staff members don’t feel comfortable debriefing them as a team. Encourage open communication with your team by taking these steps: 

Establish a culture of transparency, accountability, and communication from the top down. Have your nonprofit’s top leaders promote transparency by addressing their own mistakes and taking accountability in team-wide communications. This practice signals to your employees that mistakes are considered a normal part of the job. Quickly address mistakes without calling out individuals. Provide specific feedback privately and debrief lessons learned as a team. This way, team members won’t feel called out or embarrassed in front of their colleagues, but your team will still understand the valuable lessons learned from the situation. Use team meetings to share challenges and work through mistakes together. Encourage staff members to share roadblocks and collaborate on potential solutions in team-wide meetings. For example, a team member could raise a roadblock they’re facing involving engaging major donors between in-person meetings and events. Other team members could chime in with the strategies and best practices they’ve found most helpful for interacting with major donors year-round. 

The most effective way to encourage transparency among your staff is to have a measured response to mistakes. This approach should focus on understanding what went wrong and moving forward productively rather than chastising team members unnecessarily. 

Investigate root causes. 

Recurring mistakes likely stem from the same root issue. Without addressing the core problem, the mistakes may continue and snowball into larger problems. 

For example, consider a fundraising team that continually encounters the issue of having insufficient or outdated information when meeting with potential major donors. Recently, one team member met with a major donor and invited them to a volunteer event, not realizing that the same donor had just helped out at the organization’s annual 5K the previous weekend. Awkward! 

If similar issues keep arising, you could be facing a deeper issue with data silos. In this case, if your volunteer management system and nonprofit CRM don’t integrate, you may not be able to see the full picture of each donor’s involvement with your organization. 

Understanding this root issue enables you to fix the core problem, giving staff members greater access to each donor’s complete involvement history with your organization. 

Keep stakeholders informed as needed. 

Learning from and moving past mistakes requires your organization to be transparent with external stakeholders and internal staff members. Inform stakeholders of any mistakes that affect them. These may include: 

Data privacy issues, such as a potential breach of your donor databaseEvent cancellations, such as canceling your annual fundraising silent auction event because of an accidental double-booking of the event spaceMiscommunications, like unintentionally sending out a year-end giving reminder email in July

For larger issues like data privacy concerns, send an email and letter immediately notifying stakeholders who may have been affected. For lesser issues like typos or wrong dates in emails or social media posts, issue corrections ASAP to clear up confusion. 

Establish safeguards to prevent future mistakes. 

Whether a mistake involves internal or external stakeholders, put measures in place to prevent the mishap from recurring. Here are a few strategies you can use to mitigate a wide range of issues: 

Leverage software solutions to help prevent future missteps. For example, let’s say you recently faced an issue where your online donation page went down, and it took staff members several hours to notice. You may set up an automated alert system to notify your staff when your online donation page and other important website pages go down, ensuring you can correct these issues as quickly as possible in the future. Ensure your software tools have some level of human oversight, especially if your nonprofit is using AI solutions. AI tools can have issues with bias and misinformation. Carefully review any AI outputs for accuracy and ensure they reflect the diversity of your nonprofit’s community. Integrate your software solutions to reduce data silos. Bloomerang’s nonprofit CRM guide recommends finding a solution that integrates with your most commonly used tools, like your fundraising software, event management platform, marketing solutions, and accounting tool. Improve your internal communications procedures. 86% of employees and executives cite a lack of communication and effective collaboration as the main drivers of workplace mistakes. Enhance your internal communications practices by planning regular check-in meetings with your staff and using an ad-hoc communication platform like email or Slack to keep your employees in the know. 

If a mistake involves external stakeholders, communicate to them how you’re implementing measures to prevent the same issue from happening again. This type of message can reinforce stakeholders’ trust and confidence in your organization, reaffirming their commitment to your cause. 

Train your team. 

Ongoing training is an excellent way to ensure your nonprofit’s team understands the latest fundraising best practices and has the tools and resources it needs to overcome challenges. We recommend the following strategies to keep your team knowledgeable: 

Work with a professional fundraising coach . Whether you need to improve your fundraising solicitation process, major donor asks, storytelling efforts, or board collaboration, consider working with an executive fundraising coach. These professionals can help outline your goals and create a roadmap to achieve those objectives efficiently. They can also provide trainings for a board or team.Follow influencers and thought leaders in the nonprofit sector to stay current on best practices. Encourage team members to follow nonprofit influencers on LinkedIn and social media. Discuss the latest trends and best practices in team-wide weekly or monthly meetings. Collect feedback from your team. Gather input from your team about your efforts to learn from mistakes, pursue continual training, and adopt more effective strategies for the future. Ask for their insights during team meetings or via regularly scheduled surveys. Adjust your efforts based on their feedback to continue providing a positive experience for your team. 

76% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. Offering employee training also ensures your staff members are empowered to push your mission forward with the latest tools, resources, and best practices in their pockets. 

Mistakes are inevitable, but repeated issues don’t have to be. By reflecting, recapping, and learning from your mistakes, your nonprofit’s staff can become more productive and work more effectively toward your mission. Focus on treating core issues and maintaining a positive, forward-thinking workplace environment for your employees.

About the AuthorAnn Fellman

As the Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, Ann is responsible for the company’s overall thought leadership, brand, marketing, and community outreach programs that work to strengthen relationships with customers and the broader nonprofit community. Ann brings over 24 years of experience in business-to-business (B2B) marketing in the technology industry, including time spent working at a nonprofit organization.

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We-ed your letters for fundraising success

Fundraising letters are still an important part of your fundraising process. Recently, I’ve been getting lots of questions about fundraising letters – both to me directly and on FundraisingCoach GPT (FRC GPT). So I thought I’d give you a simple challenge to try. But first, a few basics.3 Mistakes Nonprofit Leaders make in their Fundraising LettersDirect mail is one of the most studied forms of marketing. We know what works. And what works is counter-intuitive.In nonprofits, we tend to think that “if people just knew enough about us, they’ll give. Not true. It they know more about us, they’ll just know more about us. For them to give, they need to be asked.We tend to write these letters in a way that would get a impress our high school English teacher so we’ll get a good grade. Good grades are not what these fundraising letters are for. Fundraising letters are sent to raise funds. The teacher is paid to read your writing. Your donors aren’t. It’s up to us to make the letters super easy to understand.Asking is uncomfortable. So we try to show the reader that we’re good at what we do. We share success. We share happy endings. So donors understandably hear “Everything is fine. Things are going great.” But they’re not. If everything were fine, our nonprofit wouldn’t be needed. Things are not fine. It’s our duty to share the problem with the donor. Clearly. And ask the donor to help be part of the solution. The Red Pen Challenge for Fundraising LettersOne of the best ways to help a donor clearly understand what we’re asking is by, what I call, “we-eding” our letters. If you’re like most of us, your nonprofit letters talk a lot about your nonprofit. Lots of references of: “We this”, “Our that”, and some more references to “we.”  Donors aren’t stupid. They know the gift to our nonprofit is to help the nonprofit do the work. But they need to see what the gift will do. What impact will it have?Saying, “Will you help our nonprofit’s staff feed a kid?” isn’t as clear as “Will you feed a kid?” The references to the nonprofit are putting unnecessary friction in the process. An easy way to visibly see what I mean is to take the Red Pen Challenge. Take the fundraising letter you plan on sending next. And grab a red Sharpie and a black Sharpie. With the red Sharpie, circle every reference to your nonprofit, your nonprofit’s name, and the words “we,” “us,” and “our.” Why red? These words put your fundraising in the red.With the black Sharpie, circle every reference to your reader including words “you,” “your,” and “yours.” Why black? These words increase your fundraising results. As you we-ed your letters, you’ll help a donor more clearly see what their gift will actually do. People want to help. So make it easier for them by we-eding your letters. Will you take the challenge? Try the Red Pen Challenge on your next fundraising letter and let me know how it goes in the comments below!

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4 Donor Data Security Tips for Nonprofit Fundraisers

From collecting contact information to processing their payments, your nonprofit has access to much of its donors’ private data. Hackers and data breaches can cost nonprofits time, money, reputation, and even donors. Plus, organizations like yours have a legal obligation to be good stewards of donor data, including financial information. You must ensure compliance with various bodies providing oversight and donor protection.

Most importantly, nonprofits must maintain the trust that has been placed in them by donors—so protecting donor data is a critical mission for nonprofits. Here are four tips any nonprofit can use to safeguard against vulnerabilities.

1. Use a Robust CRM

A robust constituent relationship management (CRM) system will aggregate donor data, making it easy to derive insights that could influence your marketing and fundraising strategies. However, this also means it hosts vast amounts of donor information, including:

Full nameDate of birthDemographic informationPayment detailsContact informationEngagement historyWealth indicators

Because a comprehensive CRM holds so much data, it’s a good place to start understanding basic security protocols and locking down your processes. Safe platforms use data encryption to store information, and your team can implement its own security measures by limiting access to the CRM.

Consider your payment processor, as well. CharityEngine recommends looking for a provider with PCI certification, which means “a third party has evaluated and tested the provider to ensure their security meets the highest standard possible.”

2. Implement Strong Access Controls

Beyond considering what data your nonprofit collects, it’s also important to note who can access that data. Anyone who can use your fundraising platform likely has access to donor data, as well.

Your CRM will allow you to set permissions, so controls can be placed over different sections and types of data. Limiting access to information such as bank account numbers can protect against that data being hacked or used without authorization. Data such as addresses or other demographic information should also be accessed only by those who need it.

Placing controls on data protects your donors, your team, and your nonprofit. There are two primary ways your nonprofit can limit access to sensitive information:

Two-factor authentication (2FA): Two-factor authentication requires two different activities, or factors, to verify identity. It protects against external threats, such as cyberattacks, fraud, and unauthorized access to data.Role-based access controls (RBAC): Role-based access controls restrict access to data based on a person’s role within your team. This makes it easier for administrators to manage access by assigning roles rather than assigning individual access.

Regardless of which security protocols you implement, it’s important to periodically review access to donor data and adjust permissions as necessary. Set a schedule and ensure that access is as limited as possible, making it easy to manage.

3. Keep a Clean Donor Database

Let’s say your nonprofit has a donor named Susan Smith. Last year, Susan got married to Bob Brown and took his last name. Together, they continue donating to your organization.

In your database, how is Susan listed? Is there an entry for Susan Smith, Susan Brown, Mrs. Bob Brown, or all of the above? Furthermore, Susan’s marriage could lead to other changes in her data. Did Susan change her email address to reflect her new last name? If she and Bob moved into a new home after the wedding, her physical address may have changed.

In situations like this, your nonprofit could be working with outdated or incorrect information, leading to emails that bounce, direct mail sent to the wrong address, or even duplicated engagements, including fundraising appeals. Each scenario can compromise data security, waste resources and time, and lower the chance of a successful donation.

To avoid this, focus on data hygiene. Maintaining an accurate and updated donor database will minimize the risk of errors, duplicate records, and outdated information, all of which can compromise data security and lead to less desirable fundraising outcomes.

Best practices include:

Regular data audits: Systematically review and analyze your data to ensure it’s complete and accurate. Audits will help you identify potential security breaches, ensure sensitive information is gated and permissions are appropriate, and maintain data integrity.Data entry standards: Establish guidelines for inputting data to ensure consistency, accuracy, and completeness of information. For example, 360MatchPro explains that this could include requiring phone numbers to be entered with parentheses around the area code or deciding on a uniform approach to abbreviating common words like “Road” to “Rd.” When data entry is standardized, the potential for errors that could cause security vulnerabilities is reduced.Automated tools: Software applications or programs that can perform tasks automatically take human error out of the picture. These help ensure consistency in security processes and allow for real-time monitoring and threat detection.

While the security benefits of a clean database are numerous, it also facilitates closer donor relationships through more accurate data-driven insights. You can use clean data to make informed fundraising decisions that appeal to donors and motivate them to give.

4. Train Staff on Data Security Practices

More team members interact with your donor data than you may think. For example, how many members of your marketing team have access to your CRM? Have you given access to external parties, such as a fundraising consultant?

While you continually monitor access to data, it’s also wise to conduct regular training sessions for your team. Training and preparing your staff is an excellent defense against any vulnerabilities.

For example, your staff should be prepared to:

Identify phishing scams: Fraudulent emails designed to look like they’re coming from a reputable source are considered phishing scams. To avoid falling for the scam, staff should ignore emails asking for sensitive information without verifying it’s legitimate. They can hover over links and inspect email addresses for slight errors. Be sure they don’t click on links or open attachments, and always report phishing scams to the IT experts.Create secure passwords: Using complex, unique passwords for each account will help prevent unauthorized access. Passwords should be at least 10 to 12 characters long and avoid using personal information or common words. Instruct your team to use a phrase or a sentence and mix uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols.Report security issues promptly: Notifying senior staff about any security issue, regardless of how small, will keep the problem from expanding in scope and severity. Have established protocols for reporting security concerns.Regularly update software: Keeping all operating systems and applications up to date means you will always have access to the latest security features. Your staff should enable automatic updates and regularly check for and install updates, on work devices and any personal device used for work.

Incorporate this training into any onboarding sessions or regular workshops your nonprofit hosts for team members. For example, while a team member learns how to navigate nonprofit fundraising software, they’ll need to know proper procedures for inputting, accessing, and analyzing data within the platform.

These security measures can be implemented immediately! But remember, it’s not enough to put measures into place unless you’re continually reviewing your data protection strategies and taking steps to keep data clean and secure. Constant attention will ensure security for your nonprofit as well as improved donor experiences, which will help increase engagement when your constituents see how hard you work to keep their data safe.

About the AuthorPhilip Schmitz

Phil Schmitz is the founder and CEO of CharityEngine, a complete fundraising platform powering some of the nation’s largest nonprofits and associations. Phil has developed patent-pending anti-fraud tools and industry-leading recurring payment technology that allows nonprofits to retain more sustainer revenue than the industry average; clients have raised nearly $5 billion using these tools.  Phil’s passion for leveraging technology to empower nonprofits is supported by more than 20 years of experience in building successful technology and e-commerce companies.

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Why Your K-12 School Should Apply for Grants and 3 Top Tips

As an individual working at a K-12 school, you know just how valuable funding for your organization is. You’re probably tapping into all the fundraising sources you can, from soliciting online donations to hosting fun events to building relationships with major donors. While these are all valuable revenue streams, you may be overlooking others that are just as, if not more, impactful.

School grants are an opportunity that you may not have experience with. Instead of soliciting individual donors to make gifts to your school, you’ll submit a grant application to a grantmaker or grantmaking organization. They’ll review it and then approve or deny your request for their grant.

Though school grants take a lot of effort to pursue, they’re well worth the time. In this guide, we’ll take a look at why your K-12 school should apply for grants and discuss three top tips for your grant application. Let’s dive right in!

Reasons to Apply for School Grants

Although the grant writing process can be long and arduous, there are many reasons why schools across the country apply for them regularly. Some of these reasons include:

Financial support. The biggest benefit of school grants is the increased, reliable financial support you receive from them, allowing you to pursue programs and initiatives you may not have been able to otherwise. Plus, grants allow you to diversify your revenue streams, ensuring your nonprofit has enough support even when times are tough.Credibility. Receiving a grant indicates to your audience and other interested parties that your school is credible and reliable. Not only will this increase trust with your existing audience, but it may also lead to opportunities with other stakeholders, such as other grantmaking organizations.Opportunities for students. Ultimately, more funding and an improved reputation allow your school to offer more opportunities for students, enriching their learning experience. For K-12 schools especially, students are in their formative years, making any additional programs or initiatives extremely impactful for them.

Whether you need the funding to purchase school recreation software, build a new science lab, or fund your theater program, grants can provide key support. As long as you stick to the grant’s rules and regulations, you’ll have a successful partnership with the grantmaking organization that will positively impact your community.

Tips for Applying for School Grants

Now that you understand why it’s valuable for your organization to pursue school grants, let’s take a look at best practices for your application.

1. Choose grants wisely.

The grant application process starts with researching which grants are best suited for your school. Many different types of grants might work for your organization, such as:

Federal grants. These grants are bestowed by the federal government and can provide substantial, multi-year funding to your school. Because of this, the application process for these grants is generally very competitive. They may also be long and complex. Before you attempt a federal grant application, it’s recommended to have successfully applied for smaller grants.State grants. State grants are provided by your state or local government. Much like federal grants, you can receive a substantial amount of funding in exchange for undergoing a rigorous and complicated application process. However, since these are aimed at organizations within your state, you may have less competition.Foundation grants. These grants are provided by foundations set up by corporations, wealthy philanthropists, nonprofits, and more. In terms of the amount of funding they provide, this can vary greatly depending on the specific foundation.Specific education grants. This refers to grants aimed at improving specific educational programs, such as STEM or the humanities. These grants are a great opportunity for schools who want to improve a certain program, rather than those needing support for more general projects.

If you’re uncertain about which type of grant to pursue, you may wish to discuss your options with a fundraising consultant or fundraising coach. These professionals have many years of experience in the industry and may already know of grants that will benefit your school.

Regardless of which type of grant you choose to pursue, check the requirements before you begin applying. Make sure that your school meets these requirements—if not, then you’ll be wasting both your and the grantmaker’s time and resources.

2. Craft a compelling grant proposal.

Much like you want to craft compelling email subject lines to encourage viewers to click, you want to write an interesting and impactful grant proposal that answers the question: Why does your school deserve grant funding more than the other applicants?

Learn Grant Writing recommends following these tips when you’re just getting started with writing grant proposals:

Follow the funding guidelines. These guidelines are instructions from the grantmaker on how to apply for their grant. They’ll include crucial information about eligibility, what they require, and more. Use this to tailor your grant proposal to your funder’s needs.Start with a narrative skeleton. Based on what information the grantmaker needs from your organization, lay out the skeleton of your proposal. Create headers and subheaders for all the sections you need to cover. This gives you a solid foundation for your proposal.Lay out your grant budget. A common requirement of grants is that you lay out exactly what you will do with the funds. Work with your finance team to create a realistic budget and break it down for the grantmaker in your proposal.

As you apply for more and more grants, you’ll get more comfortable with creating proposals. In no time, you’ll be drafting them like a pro.

3. Underscore need with data.

To stand out from the other K-12 schools that also need funding, emphasize your organization’s needs with data. In particular, quantitative data is especially impactful for demonstrating that you meet the grantmaker’s eligibility requirements and that their funds would allow you to provide a better experience for students.

Tracking this information, however, can be difficult for schools that don’t have the right tools. To solve this problem, CommunityPass recommends organizations use dedicated software that helps them stay informed. For example, let’s say you’re applying for a grant that requires you to have at least 1,000 students. With a school registration solution, you can easily access the number of registered students and submit those reports to the grantmaker.

Pair grant applications with other school fundraising ideas to diversify your revenue streams and garner the funds your school needs to improve the student experience. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to getting started with your first grant application!

About the AuthorMary Coyle

Mary Coyle is the Head of Product Management at CommunityPass and has held senior level roles in Program Management and Marketing Operations. She has an MBA from University of Texas at Austin and a Finance degree from University of Illinois.

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Writing more compelling subject lines for nonprofit emails

Imagine you’re a busy donor checking your email on the way to lunch. You’ve just gotten out of a difficult meeting at work, and your personal inbox is crowded with promotional messages from brands you don’t remember signing up to receive emails from. You see a message from your favorite nonprofit and glance at the subject line, “There’s still time to give your gift!” You delete the message without opening it and move on with your day.

Seem realistic? It’s true that your email subject line is often the only part of the email your donors see — 64% of people decide to open or delete emails based on their subject lines.

Fortunately, subject lines can also work in your favor. If your nonprofit is worried about receiving silence from donors and you want to get more supporters’ attention, this guide can help. We’ll explore four tips you can use to improve the quality of your nonprofit’s subject lines and provide examples to get inspired by.

Stay clear and concise.

Your email subject line will be much more effective if you know exactly what you want your email to accomplish and can communicate that clearly. Start by defining your goal for each email so you can write subject lines that get right to the point and hold recipients’ attention.

For example, say that your goal for an email is to acquire new donors from your pool of past event attendees. You might write a subject line that reads “Liked our event? Learn more about supporting our mission!” This subject line quickly communicates that you’d like recipients to consider supporting your nonprofit in more ways than one.

In terms of length, experts recommend keeping your email subject lines limited to 9 words and a total of 60 characters.

Personalize, personalize, personalize.

Another way to capture and retain supporters’ attention with your subject lines is to make them feel personal. “Jamie, the campaign you supported surpassed its goal!” is much more compelling than a generic subject line like “See the results of our fall fundraising campaign” because it’s relevant to the individual recipient.

The easiest way to personalize both your email content and subject lines is to segment the contacts in your database. Segmenting donors by donation level is a good starting point (i.e., major donors, mid-level donors, recurring donors, and minor donors). However, the more granular and specific you can get, the better.

For instance, you might also segment supporters based on their:

Charitable interests, based on the initiatives they’ve donated to or shown interest in along with their stated interests.Donation history, such as the type of campaigns they’ve donated to and their giving methods.Past involvement, including whether they’ve attended fundraising events, volunteered, or participated in your advocacy initiatives.Location, so you can send emails about relevant events and volunteer opportunities in their area.

Make sure that the subject lines you write are hyper-relevant to the supporters in each segment. Additionally, use your fundraising software or email marketing tools to auto-populate email subject lines with each supporter’s first name to address them directly.

Incorporate words that stand out.

To inspire more people to read your emails, put plenty of thought into how to make your marketing stand out with attention-grabbing subject lines. This can be as simple as incorporating certain words or framing your subject lines in specific ways to draw recipients in.

Try to include words that stand out to donors because of their:

Emotional resonance: Use words that evoke positive emotions like empowerment and hope, such as “together” or “thrive.” Pair these with the names and stories of beneficiaries to evoke feelings of connection along with an emotional response. You might use the line, “Together, we can make a difference for children in need,” for example.Ability to pique recipients’ curiosity: Curiosity is a powerful motivator — simply framing your email subject line as a question can lead to 50% higher open rates. You might also incorporate words that evoke curiosity on their own, like “explore” or “discover.”Compelling data: Including statistics, numbers, and other data that speaks to your nonprofit’s impact or the importance of a certain appeal is bound to make your subject lines stand out. For instance, you might write a subject line about legacy giving that reads, “One legacy gift funded 200 scholarships! Explore the story.”

To gauge the impact of using certain words in your subject lines, compare the open and click-through rates (CTR) of different emails. For instance, you might compare the CTR of three emails that included the word “legacy” with a group of emails without any attention-grabbing words.

Keep it genuine.

Your nonprofit relies on lasting relationships with donors, and the best way to cultivate and maintain donor relationships is to be honest and transparent with them about your nonprofit’s work. This sentiment extends to your email subject lines — the more genuine you can make them, the more recipients will trust the email and want to read its contents.

You can imbue your email subject lines with honesty and genuine care by using the following tips:

Avoid false urgency. Urgency can be effective for time-sensitive appeals for occasions like GivingTuesday or the last day of a fundraising campaign, but it isn’t always necessary. To keep recipients engaged and avoid burning them out, save urgent subject lines for when you really need them.Prioritize your nonprofit’s community impact. Even when you’re trying to build relationships with donors or thank them for their support, bring the focus back to the impact that your nonprofit and supporters make together. A subject line like “Thank you for saving Jasper the bulldog’s life ♥️” acknowledges the donor while centering the impact their support has made on beneficiaries.Tell true stories. Storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging supporters, and you can pull recipients into your stories right from the subject line. For example, the subject line “Dante’s story of resilience & how you can help others” piques recipients’ interest and immediately connects them to your nonprofit’s work in a genuine way.

Remember that no matter what your goal for an individual email is, relationship-building is always a secondary goal. Stay genuine and write warm, community-focused subject lines to ensure that your emails contribute to positive supporter relationships.

Examples of compelling email subject lines.

Using the tactics discussed above, we’ve compiled a short list of compelling email subject line examples you can use to inspire your own subject lines:

Fundraising appeal: Daisy, your donations power political change. Join the fightThank-you email: Eloise, the coral reefs you helped rebuild thank you!Event invitation: Change lives with your bids at our June auctionSurvey or feedback request: How was your donation experience? Let us know!New donor welcome email: Welcome to the fight for LGBTQ rights, DiegoFollow-up email: Imani, we still need petition signatures. Will you sign?

These are not the only kinds of emails your nonprofit will send, so take the time to brainstorm a variety of potential email goals now and exercise your subject line-writing muscles. Then, bring your ideas to your team to discuss how you can use these tips to improve your organization’s email marketing strategy for the long term.

 

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Nonprofit Logo Design: 4 Essential Elements to Consider

At the most basic level, the purpose of nonprofit marketing is to spread awareness of your mission and work. However, your public-facing communications should also make your organization recognizable in the community. That way, your marketing will lay a foundation for building trust with audience members, and this confidence will make them more likely to become engaged supporters of your nonprofit.

The best tool you have for making your communications recognizable and trustworthy is your nonprofit’s logo. However, for your logo to have this effect, there are several key elements that you need to keep in mind as you design it, including its:

Brand AlignmentMarketing IncorporationAccessibilityUniversality

According to Loop, “Your logo serves as a powerful visual representation of your organization’s mission and values, weaving them together into a compelling and memorable symbol that demonstrates who you are and why your work is vital to your community.” Let’s dive into how to develop a logo that accomplishes this purpose.

1. Brand Alignment

Especially when it comes to the most popular companies, people often conflate logos with their associated brands. When you think about Apple, for example, you probably picture a neutral-colored graphic apple with a bite taken out of the right-hand side. This logo has become so synonymous with the Apple brand that many of the company’s stores don’t even have the name on the sign—only the symbol!

However, logos are just one part of an organization’s brand kit (the signature elements that communicate its purpose and personality). Before developing your logo, first consider these other essential aspects of your nonprofit’s brand:

Color palette. Most organizations choose one or two main colors to represent their brand, plus a few secondary shades to accent their marketing materials. Color psychology also applies heavily to branding, so consider different colors’ popular associations before finalizing your palette. For example, red is a favorite color among healthcare organizations because it evokes a sense of boldness, urgency, and passion.Typography. Be specific not only about your nonprofit’s one or two primary brand fonts but also about the size and weight of the typefaces you’ll use for headers and copy. For instance, if your main brand font is Poppins, you might specify that headers should be in Poppins Bold and body text should be Poppins Normal, with all headers being at least 6px larger than their corresponding copy.Messaging. Branding extends beyond visuals to the way your nonprofit talks about its work and tells its story in written content. Within your brand guidelines, establish a tone of voice, preferred word choices (e.g., is your organization an animal “rescue” or “shelter”?), and writing style guidelines (e.g., do you spell out the word “percent” or use the % symbol?).

Your nonprofit’s brand colors and fonts should be front and center in your logo design. If you include a tagline in your logo, ensure its format aligns with your messaging standards.

2. Marketing Incorporation

Consistently incorporating your logo across your nonprofit’s various communication channels is critical for audiences to recognize and remember it. Each marketing material will have a different amount of available space to accommodate your logo, so you’ll need to align the logo’s format with the content’s layout to ensure the design remains aesthetically pleasing.

Here are some ways to effectively incorporate your nonprofit’s logo into common marketing channels:

Your organization’s website. As the main information hub for your mission and work, your complete logo should feature prominently on every page. Many organizations add their logo to the top corner of their navigation bar and link it to the site’s homepage. Social media . Setting your logo as your nonprofit’s profile picture on every social media platform will ensure it appears alongside all of your posts. Make sure it fits the circle displays on social media sites (Facebook displays profile pictures at 196 x 196 pixels, and Instagram displays them at 110 x 110 pixels). If your complete logo is a combination mark (a symbol and text), consider only including the symbol since the text likely won’t be readable at that small display size.Print communications. If you’re creating many materials at once, such as presentation handouts for conference attendees or a large batch of direct mail messages, printing everything in full color can be expensive. A black-and-white variation of your logo will come in handy in these situations.

Create samples of each type of content with your nonprofit’s logo featured correctly so you can reference them as you update your website, join new social media sites, or launch future print marketing campaigns.

3. Accessibility

Every member of your nonprofit’s community should be able to gain value from your logo—including individuals with disabilities. Some of the general steps you take to make your communications accessible also apply more specifically to your logo.

If your logo includes text, always check for adequate color contrast between that text and its background. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (the industry standard for digital communications) recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for larger text such as headers. Using dark text on a light background or vice versa will usually allow you to meet this standard, but there are online contrast checker tools you can use if you’re unsure.

Additionally, include alternative text for your logo whenever possible in online content. Alt text, as it’s commonly known, will show up in place of your logo if a website visitor’s internet connection is poor and allows audience members who rely on screen reader technology to interpret images. Make alt text descriptive, and keep it to 140 characters or less to match the processing limits of common screen readers.

4. Universality

No matter when or how community members encounter your nonprofit’s logo, it should stick in their minds. Try these tips to make your logo unforgettable:

Feature it in other spaces besides traditional marketing materials. Reinforce your logo by adding it to event signage, branded merchandise, and appropriate locations around your facility.Don’t overcomplicate the design. As explained in NXUnite’s graphic design guide, simple logos that use white space effectively and are highly relevant to the nonprofit’s mission are the most memorable.Be strategic about rebranding. Although you might update your logo to keep up with current design trends or reflect a shift in your organization’s values, don’t substantially change its look without warning your supporters well in advance. That way, they’ll still recognize your content as belonging to your organization and continue engaging with your nonprofit even after your rebrand.

Most of all, ensure your logo’s symbols align with your organization’s purpose. While adding your name and tagline helps cement the connection between your logo and your mission, the images you include should also allow audiences to visualize key aspects of your work.

To see these strategies in practice, let’s look at one of the most iconic nonprofit logos in history: the WWF Panda.

The World Wildlife Fund has used a version of this logo to represent its purpose of conserving nature and protecting vulnerable species (like giant pandas) since its founding in 1961. The logo’s graphic style has changed throughout the years to align with the organization’s evolving brand and audience. However, the core of this simple black-and-white design has stayed the same and is used consistently across WWF’s communications, which is why it’s so memorable.

Take inspiration from WWF and other strong nonprofit logo designs as you create a unique logo for your organization!

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