Nonprofit Answers

An email service provider (ESP) is a company that enables organizations to send out mass emails.  If you've ever signed up for a newsletter or clicked "subscribe" to receive updates from a website, chances are you've used an ESP. In the fundraising world, ESPs are commonly used to send out donor communications, like appeals and stewardship reports.  There are a lot of ESPs on the market, which can make it difficult to decide which one is right for your organization. In this podcast, we'll break down what you should look for in an ESP and provide step by step instructions for how to select the right email service provider. By the end, you'll have a good sense of what's available and be armed with the knowledge you need to choose an ESP that's a perfect fit for your organization.  

We've talked at great length about the principles of good fundraising, from timing your appeal right to telling great fundraising stories. This advice will have a significant impact on your fundraising. Unfortunately, we often overlook one sentence in your appeal or on your landing page: your call-to-action. In this episode, Jeremy Reis explores how to write an effective call to action in your appeals, website, anywhere you're asking the reader to do something. You'll learn the secrets of compelling your reader to take action. Craft a great call-to-action in your next appeal!

The holidays are on their way, and it's time to start thinking about the year end fundraising. Whether you want to increase your donations, get new donors involved or create some buzz around your organization with a campaign that will last until the end of the year, there are plenty of ideas that will work for you. Here are five great ones! In this episode of Nonprofit Answers, Jeremy Reis shares five great campaigns to create more success at your year-end. You'll learn: How to create a year end match Using gratitude to increase your revenue Why telling impact stories is important How you should be using video Mobilizing your best supporters to take action beyond giving As you prepare your year-end fundraising strategy, listen to these great tips to amplify your nonprofit's fundraising.

For many nonprofits, the last two months of the year are the most vital time for fundraising. In this episode, Jeremy provides ten tips to make your year end fundraising a huge success! Learn everything from planning to follow up in this episode. Learn how to get a major donor to create a matching challenge fund. Learn a suggested amount of email appeals at year end. If you want to excel with your year end fundraising at your charity or non-profit, this episode is for you.

As we work through this time of crisis, it's vital to be in constant communication with major and mid-level donors. But what do you communicate? Do you ask for money? How to build relationship? How do you work with major donors when you can't visit them in person? In this episode of the Nonprofit Answers podcast, Jeremy Reis is joined by Tim Smith and Mike Meyers. Both have decades of fundraising experience and are considered experts in the field of major and mid-level donors. This episode is a foundation for how to communicate well with major donors.

A key to success for your fundraising efforts is to decrease donor attrition - the percentage of people who give and then stop giving - and get multiple gifts after you acquire a new donor. You need to build relationships with donors, have them feel valued and appreciated for their donations, and demonstrate impact. You can accomplish these things with a new donor email welcome series. In this episode, you will learn a four part email series that will help retain more donors and get that second gift.

The election season is upon us in the US. How will this impact fundraising?  There are a couple of factors to consider during the election season. First, donors will be distracted. There will be uncertainty and likely half the population will be upset about whoever is elected. There will be debates and rallies that will draw the donor's attention away from what we're doing. Second, there is a lot of money that will be given to candidates, parties, and other entities and this will impact nonprofit giving. We have a bit to worry about. Let's explore what to do about the election season.

Digital marketing has been a boon for many nonprofits. Digital communications offers many benefits: easy to communicate with people, reach a massive (and potentially new) audience, testing, quick access to results. There can also be some lack of clarity about the best uses for digital and whether or not you should abandon other channels and move certain communications to digital-only. Learn about which communications make sense for digital and how other channels still have a place in your communications plan.

Your nonprofit organization’s strategy determines the direction of where your organization is headed and the scope of what you’ll do. It is the thing that determines what your limited resources will accomplish for your beneficiaries, donors, and other stakeholders. A simple definition of strategy is “defining how we’re going to win in the period ahead.” In this episode, Kevin asks about how to set his goals and develop a strategy to contribute to the corporate strategy for 2022. We explore creating your goals, what to do if you don't have an organizational strategy, and how to get your team focused on these goals.

Demonstrating gratitude to your donors may be your most important job as a fundraiser. Why? A happy donor gives a second, third, and fourth time. A well thanked donor tells their friends. A donor that feels appreciated happily continues to support your organization, your cause, and the people you serve. If nothing else, say thanks because without your donor, your nonprofit ceases to exist.  Donor acquisition is expensive and thanking donors has shown to increase the chance they stick around. In this episode, you'll learn creative ways to thank your donors.

At Food for the Hungry, we acquire tens of thousands of monthly donors each year from events. In this episode, you'll learn how we structure a sponsored event for the best possible outcome: a new monthly donor. Learn the format for the event, how to do an effective fundraising, and how to integrate volunteers. If you're looking to increase event fundraising at your nonprofit, this is the episode for you

What do you do if the affinity the donor has isn't for your organization but for a staff member? In this really intriguing question, Karen has a long-time staff member who is connected to donors and she'd like to explore ways to move the donors from connecting to the employee to the nonprofit. This can happen with major donor reps, or even a donor connecting to a beneficiary and not to your organization. Learn how to identify donors who have an affinity for your organization or cause instead of the person and how to move them into supporting the organization in this episode of Nonprofit Answers. 

You need healthy donor acquisition to maintain or grow your nonprofit's revenue. In this episode of Nonprofit Answers, Jeremy teaches how to turn social media followers into donors through the A+B+C+D formula for new donor acquisition. You'll learn how to define an audience, develop your lead generation asset (the bribe), capture a lead, and develop the lead into a donor.

The annual fundraising gala. For many nonprofits, this special event is a crucial part of their fundraising plan. If you do fundraising events, you know part of the struggle is getting the right people to show up. In this episode, Jeremy answers a question from a new Christian high school fundraiser. He is worried because only about the half the normal number of people have RSVPed to their annual fundraising dinner. Jeremy discusses how to find out if there is a problem, how you can find new people to attend, what changes you might want to make to the event, and how to ask past attendees for a commitment even if they aren't attending this year.

2019 may be the most impactful year yet for the fundraising industry. Many nonprofits haven't fully embraced technology and marketing techniques that are commonplace in corporate marketing - but that will change in 2019. In this episode, you'll learn 19 predictions Jeremy has for fundraising and nonprofit innovation in 2019.

Julia asks for tips on creating a more engaging annual report. In this episode, Jeremy explains how to create a great nonprofit annual report. You'll learn who the target audience is for the annual report, 5 goals for your annual report, and how to create an annual report your donors will love. Set yourself apart from other charities by creating an engaging annual report.

In this episode of Nonprofit Answers, you will learn how to write a great fundraising appeal. Though there isn't a perfect formula for a charity fundraising appeal, Jeremy walks through a proven formula that will get you results. Writing great fundraising direct marketing is part science and part art, but with this step by step process, you'll be writing fundraising letters that will raise more money for your organization.

In this fifth episode of a special podcast series teaching the fundamentals of fundraising, you'll learn how to build and maintain donor relationships. Building and maintaining donor relationships is the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. This is a crucial point to understand and to communicate into your organization. You will learn why building relationships with donors is important, how your current definition of donor relationship may be wrong, and how different donor audiences need different types of relationship building techniques. My teenage daughter is interested in nonprofit fundraising, so I've created a special series in Nonprofit Answers to help her learn fundraising. I know the information in these episodes can help everyone in nonprofit development.

In this fourth episode of a special podcast series teaching the fundamentals of fundraising, you'll learn how to pursue nonprofit startup funding. Whether you're at a brand new nonprofit, are revamping a fundraising program, or need creative ideas for fundraising for a new campaign or project, this episode will give you actionable fundraising ideas. My teenage daughter is interested in nonprofit fundraising, so I've created a special series in Nonprofit Answers to help her learn fundraising. I know the information in these episodes can help everyone in nonprofit development.

In this second part of a two part series on donor psychology, you will learn the reasons why people give. Jeremy has identified 15 different psychological triggers that moves someone to donate to your nonprofit. In this episode, Jeremy explains the second 7 motivations, or donor psychological triggers, that help someone make a decision to give to your nonprofit. This is a fascinating look at why people give and how you can change your messaging or produce events that create more donors. For major donors, general donors, and monthly donors.

In this second episode of a special series of fundraising education, you will learn donor psychology and the reasons why people give. Jeremy has identified 15 different psychological triggers that moves someone to donate to your nonprofit. In this episode, Jeremy explains the first 8 motivations, or donor psychological triggers, that help someone make a decision to give to your nonprofit. This is a fascinating look at why people give and how you can change your messaging or produce events that create more donors. For major donors, general donors, and monthly donors.

Recently, my 15 year old daughter Emily has shown interest in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. In this special series of Nonprofit Answers episodes, you'll learn all aspects of the fundraising process. In this episode, you will learn donor motivations and how your nonprofit presents an appeal or campaign to specific types of donors. You'll start learning the foundations of donor psychology and how to motivate donors to give.

When I joined Food for the Hungry just over 6 years ago, there was a lot I needed to learn about fundraising. In this special episode, I reflect on the lessons I've learn over these years and share the five secrets successful fundraisers know. You'll learn how to demonstrate urgency, how to be more direct with your ask, a mistake you're likely making in how you talk to donors, a lesson on using facts to motivate donors, and key insights into showing gratitude. These lessons, learned over the course of raising tens of millions of dollars, will help propel you forward as a nonprofit fundraiser.

Storytelling is the foundation of excellent nonprofit marketing. Jeremy is frequently asked, "how do I effectively tell our story?" In this special episode, Jeremy Reis explores effective nonprofit storytelling that produces results. You'll learn the tips and tricks to writing great nonprofit stories that raise funds and builds relationships with your donors and stakeholders. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode16

In this episode, Gary asks what, if anything, should we email major donors? This isn't an either/or answer, it isn't whether or not you send major and midlevel donors emails, but which emails and how often. Jeremy teaches you how to define a major partner email communication strategy and recommends which emails to send based on which segment the donor is in. This is a "can't miss" episode for major donor teams. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode15 Have a major donor fundraising question? Submit it at http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

Growing your email list is an essential part of digital marketing for your nonprofit. You will be able to create a new source of donors through adding people who have an affinity for your cause. Naturally, you're going to lose a percentage of email subscribes to attrition. Adding new emails will help keep your email file fresh. Additionally, it's a great source for new donors. In this episode, Jeremy explores several ways you can add new names to your email list. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode14 Have a nonprofit marketing or fundraising question? Want to hear more episodes? Find us at http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

Your donor is the hero. This is one of the hardest concepts for nonprofit staff to accept. They want their frontline staff to be the heros. They want to recognize the beneficiaries as the heros. Both are true, but in the context of fundraising, your donor is the hero. In this episode, Jeremy answers a question about how to position the donor as the hero in your nonprofit communications. Using examples, Jeremy teaches you how to write active copy that presents an appeal from the point of view of a donor. Read the full transcript: http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode13 Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing and fundraising? Ask here: http://nonprofitanswers.org

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a technology to show ads to a warm audience. In this episode, Jeremy discusses what retargeting is, how it works, two different types of retargeting, and how your nonprofit organization can use retargeting to get more supporters and deepen your relationship with existing donors. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode12 Do you have a question about digital advertising or how to convert more warm contacts into donors? Ask your question at http://nonprofitanswers.org  

Blogging is not dead. Far from it. In today's episode, Jeremy answers a question from a nonprofit executive about how much blogging is right for his organization. This executive is being told by his team to blog every day, but doesn't understand why. Jeremy explores the types of posts we should write, how to measure the effectiveness of each one, and addresses the frequency of blogging. How do you decide how many times to blog a week or a month? For a full transcript of this episode, visit http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode11 Do you have a pressing nonprofit marketing or fundraising question? We'd love to answer them! Please visit http://nonprofitanswers.org to submit your question.

In this special edition of Nonprofit Answers, Jeremy is live at the Christian Leadership Alliance with a timely question. At the conference, a nonprofit leader asked Jeremy how to properly give internal credit for income without causing problems with attribution and to reduce internal fighting over "credit" for donations. Jeremy explains the problem with internal sourcing of income and how they resolved the problem at Food for the Hungry. Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing? Ask your question at http://nonprofitanswers.org.

Do you have a lot of email addresses on your file that aren't responding? Speaking from personal experience, Jeremy explains to Grant the steps to re-engage email subscribers and what to do if they continue to be unresponsive. For the health of your email file, you need to listen to this episode! Read the full transcript: http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode9 Do you have questions about email marketing or how to grow your email list? Submit your question today! Visit http://nonprofitanswers.org to submit your nonprofit marketing question.

Creating a sense of urgency in your appeal messaging will help move readers to become donors. What if you have a difficult time creating a sense of urgency? In episode 8 of Nonprofit Answers, Rob asks a question about how to create urgency in his appeals for a women's shelter. Jeremy explores why you want to create urgency and how to do it. Read the full transcript at: http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode8 Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing or fundraising? Ask now at http://nonprofitanswers.org.

Ever have someone who isn't a fundraising professional edit-out fundraising best practices? Have someone question your expertise and direct you to do something that lessens the impact of your appeal? On this episode of Nonprofit Answers, Julia asks a question about her Executive Director editing her appeals. How should she give feedback to him to help him understand why she is doing the things she does? Read the transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode7 Have a question about fundraising? Ask it to us at http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

Direct mail is not dead. Far from it, direct mail still performs well if you have a good strategy behind it. Many nonprofits are transitioning more investment into digital but aren't seeing the return in email that they've seen in direct mail. The lessons we've learned in direct mail still apply to email: you need a good story, you need to have a strong ask, and you need urgency. Today, we're going to talk through the five Cs of successful email appeals, then we have a question from Marcy about why her emails don't perform as well as her direct mail does. Read the full transcript at: http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode6 Do you want to learn how to have high performing digital fundraising? Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing? Ask your question at http://nonprofitanswers.org.  

Karen's organization has a partner who offered them a list of 25,000 email addresses. Her boss wants to just add them to their email service provider, but Karen doesn't agree. In episode 5, Jeremy gives Karen advice as to how to answer her boss and what to do with the opportunity. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode5 Do you have questions how to use the assets offered by your partners in the digital space? Questions about email marketing or increasing your email list? Submit your question to me at http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

How does email design impact response in your emails? Often there are conflicting answers on blogs as different organizations experience different results when they change factors in their email marketing. In episode 4, Jeremy explores a question about graphics vs text emails and how you can test to determine the right factors to improve response for your nonprofit emails. Read the complete transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode4 Do you have a question about email fundraising campaigns? Want to know how different design decisions in your emails affect income? Have other digital marketing questions? I want to hear from you. Submit your questions to http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

Have you ever hired a consultant to help you with a project, but when it comes time to execute, they disappear? This happened to Holly when she brought in a consultant to look at her email fundraising program. The consultant told Holly she should improve her segmentation and then disappeared before sharing with her a direction to go. In episode 3 of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy teaches Holly about different ways to segment her email file to maximize response. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode3 Are you a nonprofit fundraiser who has questions about growing your donor base? Want to know the secrets of social media? Want to discover how to grow your email marketing? Ask me a question at http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

In episode two of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy Reis takes a question from Ryan who's frustrated with their turnaround time on disaster response fundraising appeals. This is a topic that really hits home: how do we decide if we're going to respond to a disaster and then get our appeals out the door quickly in email and direct mail? Jeremy shares how Food for the Hungry decides when to respond and how they send out emergency response fundraising appeals quickly. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode2 Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing or fundraising? Need to know how to acquire and cultivate digital donors? Want to know how to raise funds in multiple channels? Submit your question at http://nonprofitanswers.org. 

In episode 1 of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy Reis answers a question from Helen, a nonprofit marketing manager in Nashville. Helen is concerned about the recent algorithm changes with Facebook and wants to know what she should do. Should she continue to invest time and resources into Facebook? What changes should she make to her social media strategy? Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode1 Submit your nonprofit marketing and fundraising question at http://nonprofitanswers.org.