Nonprofit Ally Podcast

Latest Episodes:

NPA 045: Listener Interview – Turning Inspiration into Action Feb 22, 2016

Show notes

Inspiration can occur most anywhere. For Nicolette Holferty it struck while she was knitting a hat for a friend. But getting over the resistance and self-doubt of pursuing her idea seemed to challenge her around each corner. Note… I said “challenge”, not “stop”.

Armed with passion and “The War of Art” – a book she carries with her everywhere – Nicolette pushed through her resistance and her fear, and made a beautifully inspired nonprofit a reality.

This is her story. It may seem simple in the telling, but it is inspiring in the action.

Resources

Nicolette’s Website: http://xoxohats.org/

XOXO Hats Facebook: facebook.com/XoxoHatsForStrength

Mentioned in this Show

Book: The War of Art

Build your Website: Free Website Course

Get Hosting: 60% of HostGator (limited time)

NP Ally Listener Survey: Take it Now!

The post NPA 045: Listener Interview – Turning Inspiration into Action first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 044: Finding Affordable Software Solutions for your Nonprofit Feb 08, 2016

Show notes

Finding the right software for your nonprofit can be as simple as buying Microsoft Office or as complex as finding a donor management system that integrates with your accounting software. This is where Janna Finch comes in. Janna is a software market research associate at softwareadvice.com. Her job is to measure and track what types of software and features nonprofits are needing and looking to buy.

Janna recently wrote and article for Nonprofit Ally and included links to some key findings about the software needs and want of nonprofits. Here is some of what she revealed:

Buyers’ top software purchase drivers include a need for more functionality (27 percent) and changes to, or the expiration of, an existing contract (22 percent).
Built-in email marketing and outreach tools are a “must-have” for 42 percent of buyers: a 133 percent increase from 18 percent last year.
In a sub-sample of buyers who seek fundraising software that integrates with another application, 57 percent want accounting integration.

Now, for those of you who may be techno-phobes, Janna has some advice for you.

Software can save you time by automating regular processes. So the time it takes to learn something new will save you time in the end.
Delegate the responsibility to staff, volunteer or board member.
Spend time to find the right solution (there are plenty of user friendly solutions).

Resources

Contact Janna at: janna@softwareadvice.com

Visit the website: softwareadvice.com

The software advice, nonprofit software review page (really awesome): softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/

Affordable software for nonprofits: techsoup.com

Call SoftwareAdvice.com: 888-234-5132

The post NPA 044: Finding Affordable Software Solutions for your Nonprofit first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 043: Create a Sustainable Financial Plan for your Nonprofit Jan 25, 2016

Show notes

Getting your nonprofit to a state of financial sustainability is a goal for all of us. But just how do you get there and is there a “quick” way to do it? Patrick Renn, from The Renn Wealth Management Group, joins us to talk about setting up your nonprofits finances so you can naturally attracted long term donors and investors, and reach your sustainable goal.

Patrick talks about the importance of having a financial plan that covers short (one year), medium (three year) and long term (5 or more years) goals.

He also talks about the need to be transparent. People like to donate to success and the best way to show your success is to share it with your current and potential donors. So don’t hide your financial statements – share them. This could be done by sharing your budget, your profit and loss statement, your business plan and/or your annual report with your supporters.

Patrick goes on to tell us how we can best attract and retain investors in our nonprofits. And you may be surprised… but one of the best ways to do this is through story telling. The return on investment (ROI) for a nonprofit donor is knowing their donation is making a difference. So by simply sharing your stories with your donors can help them feel like they are getting a good ROI.

Patrick also wrote the Planned Giving Special Report: The 7 Most Influential Giving Trends which outlines some key points in the planned giving arena.

So, if you want to get on the road to financial sustainability for your nonprofit, then this podcast is the one to listen to.

Resources

Patrick’s website: RennWealth.com

Patrick’s new book:

The post NPA 043: Create a Sustainable Financial Plan for your Nonprofit first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 042: Starting a Religious Based Nonprofit Jan 05, 2016

Show notes

Starting a religious based nonprofit can seem confusing. A church is already considered to be tax deductible, even without becoming a 501.c.3. So why would you want to apply for 501.c.3 status? Is there a benefit? (Hint: the answer is YES).

And what about ministries and religious based after school programs? Are they tax exempt too? If not, what do they need to do to be tax deductible? And what if they want to operate over seas?

These are questions that Nonprofit Ally Podcasts listeners have been asking for a while. And to be honest… I just didn’t know the answers. So, I thought I’d ask someone who knew the answers. So I called Thomas Wrobel. Thom has been on the podcast before (NPA 015: Tips on How to Apply for 501.c.3 Tax Exempt Status). He is the founder of nonprofitlegalcenter.com and specializes in helping new nonprofits get their 501.c.3 charitable status.

Thom answers all the questions above with great detail and clarity. This is a must-listen podcast for any religious organization who is working towards becoming a 501.c.3 charitable nonprofit.

Resources

You can contact Thom on his website at: nonprofitlegalcenter.com
Call them at: 1-800-928-4161

Also mentioned on the podcast: nonprofitebooks.com

The post NPA 042: Starting a Religious Based Nonprofit first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 041: The Accidental Nonprofit – How an Event Turned in to a $3.5M Nonprofit Dec 15, 2015

Show notes

Bobby Gill wanted to have an event to raise money for neurofibromatosis (NF). The criteria for the event was 1) it’d have to be fun 2) it’d have to be something he would want to do himself and 3) it would obviously have to raise money. Enter “Cupid’s Undie Run“. A mile long run, held in the winter time and run in your underwear.

Bobby will be the first to admit that this is not your typical fundraiser. “It’s a very nontraditional idea of what a fundraiser should look like. But to us… it just seemed like a fun idea and something we would want to do ourselves.”

In this podcast, Bobby talks about organizing the first run and how it grew into an international event that has raised over $8M in the past five years. Part of the secret to the events success is simple networking. Bobby explains how, with just five weeks to prepare for the first Cupid’s Undie Run, they were able to get over 600 runners to participate in the event. That is not a typo… 600+ people participated in an event that was planned with barely a months notice.

After a couple years, the run became its own nonprofit. And Bobby is now the COO. This is truly a fun and inspiring story. And lots of lessons to be learned for nonprofits of all sizes.

Resources

Check out the website at: Cupid’s Undie Run

The post NPA 041: The Accidental Nonprofit – How an Event Turned in to a $3.5M Nonprofit first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 040: How to Win Donors with Video Dec 03, 2015

Show notes

When it comes to raising money with crowdfunding, there is one thing all successful campaigns have in common… they all have a compelling video. This video tells the story of their organization. But it is not a historical type video that talks about “why” they do what they do. It is a story of “how” they do what they do.

In the episode, we talk with Mauricio Belgrano, owner of Name Sake Pictures. He shares with us tips and ideas on how to create the best video possible for your nonprofit. He does this by critiquing an already made video (below) and giving suggestions on how to make it better.

So, first, watch this video. Then sit back and enjoy the podcast.

Resources

Mauricio’s Website: NameSakePictures.com

Nonprofit Ally Articles by Maurico

Ebooks Mentions During Podcast

The Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Fundraising with Crowdfunding

Nonprofit Bylaws Made Easy

The post NPA 040: How to Win Donors with Video first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 039: How to Run a Successful Giving Tuesday Fundraiser Nov 17, 2015

Show notes

In just a few years, Giving Tuesday has turn in to a world wide event. In this episode, we talk with Kait Sheridan, from 92y.org and GivingTuesday.org, about how to prepare for and run a successful Giving Tuesday fundraiser.

Kait talks about the importance of reaching your audience and shares a variety of useful ways to accomplish this. This includes:

Phone calls
Using your email list
Writing letters
Using social media
Creating Videos

But finding them is just part of the job. Getting your followers to pay attention, follow your campaign and actually donate is another story. In fact, doing it successfully, involves just that… a story. Kait talks to us about how story telling can help you convert your followers to donors.

And to wrap it up, Kait goes in to detail on how to set up a successful strategic plan for your Giving Tuesday event. It may just be a one-day fundraiser but it can take months to prepare for and dove tail into larger fundraising efforts.

Resource

You can learn more about Giving Tuesday at: givingtuesday.org

To learn more about 92nd Y, go to: 92y.org

Contact Kait at: info@givingtuesday.org | ksheridan@92y.org

The post NPA 039: How to Run a Successful Giving Tuesday Fundraiser first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 038: Create Crowdfunding Content that Converts Visitors to Donors Oct 28, 2015

Show notes

What if I were to tell you that what your nonprofit does — doesn’t matter.

Now, give me a second to clarify: the point here is that “what” is the wrong place to put your focus when it comes to fundraising writing.Potential donors and supporters aren’t really interested in information about your programs or what you hope to do — they need information about the, “Why.”

It’s really important to uncover the people behind what your organization does (Especially when creating content for a crowdfunding campaign): the social impact, the emotional hook, the people who remind you every day why your organization does what it does.

Your nonprofit organization can create this human connectivity by fusing story-telling into your crowdfunding campaign strategy. Here are a few things to consider as you prepare your writing strategy for a crowdfunding campaign.

How will your organization create its content?

Quality content is an essential piece of any successful crowdfunding campaign. This means if you’re putting any effort at all into this type of fundraising campaign, is vital that your organization find the write person to create this content — whether it be a professional writer, an active supporter or volunteer with strong writing experience.

How do you know if someone inside your organization is fit to do the job? You need to be confident that a volunteers’ work is going to be effective for your campaign, so start by considering two factors:

Does the person actually enjoy writing? If not, writing all the content for this campaign will become a chore. And, there’s a lot of writing to be done — the last thing you want to do is slow down the momentum of your campaign because creating great stories seemed like too much work.
Does the person have strong interviewing skills? While you can prepare a standard list of questions to use in interviews about the “why” of your organization, when it comes time to actually do the interview your writer better be able to think on his or her feet and get the real, emotional conversations started.

What are the essential “ingredients” to a successfully written crowdfunding pitch?

While there isn’t a black and white answer for the set number of paragraphs your writing needs, which paragraph should talk about what, and so forth — there are some general guidelines to follow as to the flow of your story-focused campaign pitch.

Start with an emotional hook. Bring your readers to tears, or evoke belly laughs so vigorous they bounce off their chairs and climb back up looking for more. The point is, you want potential donors reading your campaign to be interested from the start — and that starts with an emotionally captivating human story.
Give brief details about how your organization helps. Make the transition natural by explaining, in generic terms, how your nonprofit helped the person in the emotional hook.
Explain that the problem still exists. Just because your organization helped the person in the first example, doesn’t mean your work is done. Use statistics that showcase how many more people are still in need, or other data or information that truly showcases the societal need for your nonprofit.
Call to action/the ask. Tell people what you need them to do, and be specific.

Now, that you have all the right ingredients, it’s time to be sure your mixing it in with the essential characteristics of writing that will truly captivate your audience: here, study up on the 5 essential elements of any successful crowdfunding campaign here.

Resources

The best way to learn more about Lyssa is to visit her website: lyssaschmidt.com

Twitter: TipsOnPurpose

Note: these show notes were written by Lyssa herself. How cool is that?!

Website Hosting Mentioned in Podcast

Make your Nonprofit Website

Get website hosting with HostGator

The post NPA 038: Create Crowdfunding Content that Converts Visitors to Donors first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.

NPA 037 – The Most Important Part of Crowdfunding… the Kick-off Oct 20, 2015

Show notes

Running a crowdfunding campaign takes a lot of preparation, research and maintenance. But one of the most important parts of running a campaign is getting it off to a good start. Kicking off your crowdfunding campaign means having a lot of ducks in a row (read more at: How to Start a Crowdfunding Campaign).

So here is an overview of how I just kicked-off my crowdfunding campaign for the nonprofit I started (Noble Paws). This is the third crowdfunding campaign I have run. Our goal is to reach $10,000.

First Things First

The first thing I did was take all my pre-made content and get it set up to auto-post the morning of the campaign. This included a Facebook post with our video, a YouTube video post (same video), a tweet ready to be launched and two pre-made emails. I also had a volunteer make a new banner for our Facebook page (we will have a new banner each week of our campaign).

So all this was set to go live by 8am the first day of the campaign.

Here is the video we used to kick off our campaign:

The All Important Emails

I sent out two emails. One email went to my support team with instructions on how to help kick-off the event. The second one was an email to all our previous donors, supporters and volunteers (about 180 people). Here is how it worked.

Support Team
The email that went to my support team gave detailed instructions on how to help the campaign, including links to the videos, facebook post and a sample email for them to send to their friends. Here is what I wrote:

Hey all, Today is the big day. We kick off our 2015 Fundraiser. The campaign will last just over six weeks. But it is super important to get started with a bang. This is a major campaign with multiple people helping ensure its success. I appreciate all your support and help with this.

Here are the FOUR THINGS you can do to help.

1. Send Email TODAY (Monday)
Please send an email to your close friends asking them to support Noble Paws. This email should be sent right away (Monday morning). It is really important to get as many donors as possible on the first day. It sets the tone for the campaign and greatly increases our success rate by over 200%. Below is a sample email you can use – just cut and paste it. It’d be great if you could send it to at least 10 people.

2. Share our Video Post TODAY (Monday)
Go to this link and share it on your Facebook page. Put a little note to your friends asking them to support Noble Paws. This link is set to automatically post to the Noble Paws Facebook page at 9am. https://www.facebook.com/noblepawsalaska/videos/905531919532662/

3. Share Every NPaws FB post (Daily)
During the coming weeks we will be posting all sorts of stuff on our Facebook page. Most of it will be fun, entertaining and informative. We will also pepper in some calls to action (donate now posts). It is really important to get the word out about every post. So please, share EVERY post you see on Noble Paws. Awareness is important and on going.

4. Like and Comment when we get donations (Daily)
When someone donates to our campaign, it automatically gets posted to our Facebook page. It is really important we LIKE and COMMENT on these post (no need to share these posts). These people are our supporters. The more we recognize them and thank them the more meaningful their donation will feel and the more others will want to be a part of it.

So, to sum up how you can help the campaign:

Send emails to friends asking for support
Share our video – https://www.facebook.com/noblepawsalaska/videos/905531919532662/
Share ALL our Facebook Posts
Like/comment when someone donates to our campaign

Thanks all – it takes a team to make this happen. I appreciate all your help.

Steve

[SAMPLE LETTER TO FRIENDS]

Hey _____. [START WITH A SHORT FAMILIAR TOPIC – I LIKE THE POST OF YOUR KIDS HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, DO YOU STILL LIKE 4 SHOT COFFEE?, HOW ARE YOUR DOGS DOING… SOMETHING THAT CONNECTS WITH THEM ON A PERSONAL LEVEL. THEN ADD…] So, you may know that I volunteer for a cool organization called Noble Paws. They teach people with disabilities how to run their own dog team. It’s a lot of fun and what they do really makes a difference in many people’s lives. They are holding their annual fundraiser and I am hoping you can help us reach our goal. Noble Paws is a 100% volunteer organization and all donations go directly to their programs. Please take a minute (literally, it is only a minute) and watch this video – https://youtu.be/SJOzcPH57LY. At the end there is a link to donate to the cause. But even if you don’t donate, please consider sharing the video with people you know. You can donate directly at: https://fundly.com/noble-paws-2015. Well, I hope [SOMETHING FAMILIAR HERE…]. And I appreciate you considering helping Noble Paws. Thanks so much.

Mailing List
I then emailed a newsletter to our mailing list (about 180 people). This announced the start of our campaing. I did this using Mailchimp. If you don’t have a mailing list, don’t sweat. Just pull together as many emails as you can (friends, family, co-workers) and have your board members and other volunteers do the same. Then just like that, you have a mailing list.

Ok, so here is a link to the newsletter announcement I sent out to our mailing list.

See Campaign Kick-off Email

Then Wait and then…

After all this was done, I had nothing to do but wait. I tried not to check my Facebook, email and crowdfunding page too much… but it was hard to resist. I really prompted people to “like” and “share” our video. And it paid off. But the end of the day, the video was shared over 50 times and seen by 3,000 people. I did my best to “like” and thank everyone who shared the video as well as thank all who donated.

That is important, so I will say it again. If someone shares your post, or donates to you, be sure to thank them via social media. That keeps the post alive and thus it will show up on more peoples timelines. Share, like, comment. Share, like, comment. Say it with me… share, like, comment.

Ok, that is basically it. The campaign is kicked-off. Now it is time to keep it alive. More about that in a coming post.

The post NPA 037 – The Most Important Part of Crowdfunding… the Kick-off first appeared on Nonprofit Ally.