Tips You Need to Know About Fundraising For Nonprofits

Fundraising for your nonprofit can be exciting and rewarding, especially if you have an inside scoop on how to take your fundraising efforts to the next level. We have gathered some simple tips you need to know about fundraising for nonprofits. 

Tips You Need to Know About Fundraising For Nonprofits

Set Goals & Deadlines

The first step you should take when planning a fundraiser is to set your goals and deadlines to reach them more quickly. Before reaching out to potential donors for their support, be sure to determine the amount you are attempting to raise, and when you need it by. Give donors just enough time to donate, but not too much time. Typically, a sense of urgency helps raise more money in a quicker amount of time.

Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience plays a significant part in the success of any fundraising effort. Nonprofits who understand their audience tend to raise more money than those who do not.

Engage With Donors

Forming a good relationship with a donor can benefit your nonprofit organization significantly and allow you to help even more people in your community by engaging with donors. To learn about how to engage with donors, click here.

Host a Fundraiser

Fundraising events are a great opportunity to network with current and potential donors as well as the community face-to-face. With many unique ways to fundraise for your nonprofit, you can easily find the perfect fundraiser that your audience would enjoy.

Provide Convenient Donation Methods

As a nonprofit organization, it is critical to invest in convenient donation methods for your donors. Transitioning from traditional to online fundraising is more straightforward than you might think. It will increase your donor base from just the local community to national.

Thank Your Donors

“Thank You” goes a long way! Be sure to thank your donors for their contribution briefly and compellingly. This can be done via email or letter and should be sent soon after their contribution has been received.

Show The Impact Made

Once you have completed your fundraiser, don’t just move on to the next project. Donors like to see the positive effects of their contributions. Show the impact your nonprofit organization made with the proceeds of the fundraiser and also increase your chances of future donations.

A Helping Hand

Be sure to save those receipts when planning a fundraising event and know that ExpressTaxExempt is always here to be a consistent resource to you and your organization for all things tax exempt!

Visit our website for any tax forms that your tax-exempt organization may need throughout this year and save even more when you e-file with our recently reduced filing rates!

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How To Communicate Fundraising for Nonprofits

The summer is in full force which means it is prime time to start fundraising for nonprofits that will support the financial needs for the year. The support of your nonprofit fundraising depends heavily on how well you communicate your efforts through written, verbal, or visual communication methods. Today we will cover how to communicate fundraising for nonprofits to help your organization reach its goal.

How To Communicate Fundraising for Nonprofits

The message you send to donors can easily affect the decision-making process. Here are some tips that help with communicating fundraising for nonprofits:

1) Know Your Audience

Before you send anything to your potential donors, make sure you have a strong understanding of your audience so you can send the right message. Determine the demographic that you want to reach and find out what your audience responds to best.

Once you learn about your audience, compelling them is much easier. Remember to keep tone, language, jargon, etc. in mind as you start crafting your message(s).

2) Know Your Goal

It’s almost impossible to reach any goal when you don’t know what it is. Set your goal early on in the planning process so you can effectively incorporate it in your communications and strategy.

3) Keep Text Brief

Effective communication does not equate to extensive text. When writing your message, be sure to share enough information to inform the reader, grab their attention, and compel them to support your fundraising efforts. If your message is too long, you could lose the reader’s interest or even their support.

4) Personalize the Message

Always keep your target audience in mind when writing and make a personal connection. Readers that feel connected tend to give more easily! You would never write the same message for a millennial as you would your elderly audience.

5) Be Consistent

Once you have established a tone for your messaging, stick with it! Readers like consistency and will get the message you are trying send. This will not only cut down on the time you spend preparing additional messages but will also save your marketing budget major moola.

6) Avoid using Jargon

Nonprofit organizations and professionals tend to have industry-specific jargon that isn't used in our daily vocabulary. Avoid using this jargon when communicating with your audience, because nine times out of ten they won’t have a clue what you are trying to imply. When your audience doesn’t understand they are more likely to skip the call to action and move on. As much as you wish they would simply ask, this is likely not the case.

7) Prompt Communication  

Give your readers an adequate amount of time to donate towards your fundraising efforts. If you wait until the last-minute to correspond with them, they will be more inclined not to give or simply “catch you next time,” which usually never comes around.

Set deadlines for when you want to send correspondence and stick to them. The more time you give the reader, the more support you may receive!

Next Steps

Once you have communicated your charity fundraising and collected donations to support the mission of your organization, be sure to keep a record of all donations for your annual IRS Form 990 filing.

ExpressTaxExempt is here for your nonprofit with all of its tax filing needs. You are in the business of helping others, now let us help you! Create a free account today and get back to making a difference in the lives of others.

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America's Got Talent....And So Does Your Organization!

If you’re a fan of the hit televised talent showcase “America’s Got Talent,” also known as “AGT,” your eyes may have been glued to the TV Wednesday night during the show’s season finale.

Out of the various stellar performances by the final round of contestants on the summer’s most-watched series, there is one in particular that’s receiving a lot of buzz.

Country superstar Shania Twain joined America’s Got Talent finalist Mandy Harvey for an emotional duet of Twain’s 1998 hit song, “You’re Still the One.” Harvey, who ended the show in fourth place, has been deaf for the last decade but continuously “wowed” the judges and viewers throughout the AGT season.

Although the latest season of AGT has come to an end, that doesn’t mean that talent showcases around the world have to cease too. Besides, there’s probably tons of talent within your nonprofit organization that can be showcased!

Talent Show Fundraiser

An easy way to highlight the talents of your organization’s members, their children, friends, and those in your community, is by hosting a talent show; which can also be a great fundraising event as well!

GIF via GIPHY

Simply form a talent show committee within your organization that will audition contestants, select judges, and plan the format of the event. Once the event is planned, decide on an admission fee (this can be as low or as high as you’d like), have a flyer designed, and promote your event locally and through social media.

Social Media Integration

A neat way to add a special touch to your event is by creating a Snapchat Geofilter. Geofilters are creative overlays that capture where you are or what you’re up to in a Snap. Create your own and surprise Snapchatters in the location you choose.

Also, hashtags can be used for sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well (ex: #PantherIdol #CMHSGotTalent, etc) to inform others of your fundraising initiatives.

GIF via GIPHY

The Grand Finale

Whether it’s a spin-off of America’s Got Talent, American Idol, or even a religiously based version like Sunday’s Best, talent shows are a simple, easy, and fun way to raise funds while having a great time enjoying the various acts. You’d be surprised at how many singers, musicians, dancers, comedians and ventriloquists that are in your area.

When planning and hosting your event, be sure to keep track of any receipts, expenses, and funds collected throughout the process so you have accurate records when you e-file with ExpressTaxExempt to maintain your tax exempt status with the IRS. Visit our website for any tax forms that your tax exempt organization may need throughout this year and save even more when you e-file with our recently reduced filing rates! We’re available to assist you via phone at 704.839.2321 on Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST or reach out to us 24/7 via email at support@ExpressTaxExempt.com.

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Unique Ways to Fundraise for Your Nonprofit

Any leader of a nonprofit organization will tell you that receiving adequate funding for their organization can be somewhat of a challenge. Although charitable nonprofits usually rely on the generosity of donors to support their annual efforts, fundraising initiatives are sometimes necessary to assist with supporting the financial needs of the organization. We’ve provided some fundraising techniques that your organization can utilize for years to come!

FUNDRAISING TECHNIQUES

Collaborate with other Organizations

Reach out to other organizations in your area to host events and support each other’s endeavors.

Supporting each other can assist with finances by cutting the cost in half as well as unique ideas, planning, and execution and follow through.

Have Fun Activities Become Fundraisers

Find out what your community enjoys doing during their free time and turn it into an enjoyable fundraiser. People don’t mind giving or setting aside a few dollars to do what they enjoy.  Let’s take a Talent Show/Competition for example -- the cost of hosting a local talent show can be very inexpensive and if you have a few members of your organization that like to bake, you could sell light refreshments during the intermission of the event to make an extra few dollars. Other events such as a cook-off, charity tournament, scholarship banquet, or even the latest current trend, an escape room puzzle event.

Be Involved in Your Community

Giving back to your community is always beneficial in more ways than one. It pays to educate the community about what your organization does. By making donors aware of your community service initiatives, many will feel comfortable supporting your various endeavors and fundraising efforts. People tend to not give to groups that they know nothing about. The more exposure your organization receives, the better.

Crowdfunding

This is considered to be peer-to-peer fundraising by way of members asking their friends, family members, and coworkers for donations prior to an event and then having them participate in the event.

This type of fundraising is ideal for a marathon, walkathon, pageant, etc., and is a great way to directly involve donors.

FUNDRAISERS

When conducting planning for your organization annually, it can be a challenge to find different ways to raise money. Here are some various fundraising ideas that can be done:

FUNDRAISERS	FUNDRAISING EVENTS
50/50 Raffle or Basket Raffle Bingo	Silent Auction
Sip and Paint	Talent Show / Lip Sync Competition
Recipe Books	Battle of the Bands
T-Shirt Sales	Comedy Night / Karaoke Night
Polar Plunge	Gala
Engraved Bricks	Marathon / Walkathon
Wrapping Paper Sale (Holiday Seasons)	Rainbow Tea
Car Wash	Classic Car Show
Baby Photo Contest	Cooking Class
Penny Drive	Trivia Night
Appreciation Grams	Dinner Theatre
Pie Throwing Contest or Dunk Tank	Date Auction

For more neat fundraising ideas, click here.

Be sure to save those receipts when planning a fundraising event and know that ExpressTaxExempt is always here to be a consistent resource to you and your organization for all things tax exempt! Visit our website for any tax forms that your tax-exempt organization may need throughout this year and save even more when you e-file with our recently reduced filing rates! We’re available to assist you via phone at 704.839.2321 on Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST or reach out to us 24/7 via email at support@ExpressTaxExempt.com.

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Fundraising Events: What You Need to Know

We know many tax-exempt organizations rely on fundraising to accomplish their mission, but how many utilize fundraising events?

We’re bringing you information about fundraising events for your nonprofit to consider.

What Is a Fundraising Event?

A fundraising event is one of the most popular forms of fundraising. While these events can make plenty of money for an organization, they are also time consuming and can be expensive. With careful planning, you can have a very successful fundraising event.

How Can I Balance Income and Expenses of a Fundraiser?

Well, for starters, all proceeds and costs related to hosting fundraising events are included as fundraising in your records.

Donors want to know how much of their contribution is being used and what it is going towards. They do not want to find that their contribution is just being used for more fundraising.

So it is important for an organization to monitor how much is being spent on fundraising compared to what it brings in and what it spends on programs.

A general guideline to follow is for 75% of collected revenue to be used towards the cost of programs.

Can I Fundraise Without Feeling Pushy?

It’s better to let donors realize they care than it is to force them to care.

Know your donors, read their minds. Practice, communicate, and don’t surprise them!

Also, asking for a specific amount can simplify the process. Leaving it open might overwhelm your donors.

Are There Professional Fundraising Services?

There are professional fundraising services you can seek out, but they do collect fees, often from the money collected.

Professional fundraising services are not the same as an employee or partner in charge of fundraising within the organization.

What Schedule Needs to Be Attached for Fundraising?

Schedule G is used to report fundraising services, events, and gaming.

An organization that answered “Yes” to Form 990, Part IV, Checklist of Required Schedules, line 17, 18, or 19, or meets the criteria for Form 990-EZ filers described below, must complete the appropriate parts of Schedule G (Form 990 or 990-EZ) and attach Schedule G to Form 990 or Form 990-EZ.

As always, ExpressTaxExempt will be here to offer you any assistance. Shoot us an email at Support@ExpressTaxExempt.com if you need any questions answered.

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