Nonprofit News

For the past few months, it’s been tougher to get ahold of Goodwill organizations, Salvation Army branches, and other nonprofits with resale shops. While it’s not uncommon for one organization to go radio silent during a busy period, seeing so many organizations in such a specific area all go quiet at once was a surprise.

As it turns out, they’ve all had their hands full because of one person: Marie Kondo.

Marie Kondo’s Netflix show Tidying Up launched in January and inspired a tidal wave of decluttering, leaving resale shops filled with things that don’t spark joy. Given that Tidying Up speaks to so many people, we wondered if its lessons could be applied to another place notorious for clutter—nonprofit organizations’ donor databases.

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Imagine: you have a donor with mega-capacity who’s been giving modestly over several years. Your prior personal outreach hasn’t yielded anything substantial, but they pick up the phone when you contact them for a routine qualification call. Through that one conversation, you learn that your organization is their top philanthropic priority, and they’re interested in meeting with your CEO.

I’m not speaking in hypotheticals—this was the recent experience of a Campbell & Company partner. Without persistent outreach and a structured qualification call program, that donor would not be in active cultivation right now.

I’ve previously written about the importance of identifying and qualifying major donors. In this article, I’m zeroing in on the qualification piece, introducing a sample structure for your qualification call program.

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Sometimes the best way to answer a question is to look at it from another perspective. Our Campbell Chats bring together our diverse team to talk about the toughest questions facing nonprofits today. By looking at these questions from several points of view, we share our expertise with each other—and with the nonprofit world!

Duncan Reilly, Marketing and Business Development Associate: Hello everyone, and welcome back to our Campbell Chats series! Today we’re going to be talking about all things campaign public phase—going through some of the big questions that institutions face when they take their campaigns public.

First question: Going public with a campaign can be a communications decision, a strategy decision, and a marketing decision as well as a fundraising decision. How do you decide when it’s time to go for it?

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What’s on the horizon in 2019 for philanthropy and the nonprofit sector? We took a moment to discuss emerging trends with our executive team as the year gets going.   

Peter, Julia, and Kate shared their insights and predictions on tax reform, broad-based giving, online fundraising, and beyond. Read on for their perspective and advice for the year ahead.  

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In today’s digital landscape, web design that enhances customer—and donor—experience has become increasingly important. Internet users expect convenience, speed, and lots of options when browsing online or making any kind of purchase or donation.

For nonprofits and for-profits alike, that means focusing on the end user’s experience and making sure everything serves a purpose. Reducing points of friction, being concise, and creating user-friendly navigation are some key points to focus on.

To get you started, we analyzed the websites of 16 prominent nonprofits and compiled a list of five design features they have in common. We selected a mix of nonprofits from Forbes 100 Largest U.S. Charities and Top Nonprofits’ 20 Best Nonprofit Websites.

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The longest government shutdown in the nation’s history officially ended on January 25, 2019. During the 35-day partial shutdown, approximately 420,000 federal workers worked without pay, and another 380,000 were furloughed (TIME, 2019).

Government shutdowns can have heavy impacts for many nonprofit organizations that often work to fill gaps left by suspended federal services.

Many human services organizations see a spike in demand for necessities, such as food and shelter, while simultaneously struggling with a lack of government funding. Other nonprofits, such as environmental and disaster relief organizations, see a less immediate impact.

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Nonprofits have wrapped up their #GivingTuesday campaigns and end-of-the-year fundraising pushes and are hitting the ground running in 2019. But before you move ahead, take a beat to examine your digital fundraising strategy.

Practically every organization has some sort of online presence, but small tweaks and additions to your digital approach could produce substantial returns in both engagement and fundraising capacity.

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As nonprofit fundraisers look at the year ahead, it’s clear that rapid changes in technology show no signs of slowing. As technology moves forward, your donors’ expectations for their online giving experiences and their behavior online change too.

While nobody can fully predict where online fundraising is going, it’s likely that these four noteworthy online fundraising trends will shape the success of your operation this year. I’d love to hear what other online trends you’re seeing. Drop a note below or send an email to me at sarah.barnes@campbellcompany.

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