3 Strategies to Boost Donations

Let’s face it—you are probably always in a state of fundraising.

Which makes sense, as an exempt organization, the money you earn usually comes from donors. Which also means the inevitable. You run the risk of burning out donors and losing their interest over time.

If you find yourself in that situation, you need to reevaluate what you can do for your nonprofit marketing plan.

Take these 3 marketing strategies and see how you can implement them.

Tailor Your Message

You want to get more donations? Pay attention to how you craft your messages. If you’re planning on a quick, one weekend only push—your marketing strategy will be simple. For a long term campaign, be prepared to plan, test, and implement all the time.

Make sure you tailor your message to the right audience, too.

Melissa Kushner of goods for good says, “Some people can’t make it through the elevator pitch, while others want to know every detail.”

Most of all, be prepared to switch things around and do testing—it all depends on your audience’s level of engagement.

Share the Right Stories

Whether it’s your nonprofit leader or newest volunteer, your organization has someone with a story to tell. But could that harm your fundraising mission?

If you want to really spur donations, share the story of where the money is going. If a donor sees how far a donation goes inside your organization, they’ll ready to donate more.

With transparency, you can keep your core audience engaged and eager to participate.

Of course, every now and then you can share the stories of your staff, just don’t always lead with that.

Pair Your Brand

So you want to stick to your mission, but you have some opportunities to partner with other organizations and companies. If their brand and ideal match your brand and ideal, it’s a good path to go.

How can this help you? By pairing with an organization that has similar values, you’ll introduce your nonprofit to a new donor cohort and believers in your mission.

This could be a church, a green tech startup, or even a similar nonprofit.

With the bulk upload feature of ExpressTaxExempt, reporting your donations is easier than ever. Simply download and fill out our spreadsheet, then upload it back into our system.

As always, if you run into any issues reporting and e-filing your Form 990 return, reach out to us at Support@ExpressTaxExempt.com.

Do you have any lesser known strategies for boosting donations? Join the conversation on Twitter!

Read More »

Marketing with Photography: Telling Your Story

When it comes to marketing, photography is an often overlooked key factor.

How is that? Well, the human eye is naturally attracted to visual imagery.

While we’ve talked to you about social media, email, and video marketing—there’s a key factor we may have overlooked.

Want to engage with your audience on social media? Tell your stories with photographs!

How Can Photography Help?

Look for photogenic moments in your organization and at your events, and use these on social media.

Don’t post photos that have no story to them. If you’re gonna photograph people, make sure they’re standing in front of whatever your organization has accomplished (a habitat house, a food drive).

Don’t post every photograph you take. If you take 100 photos, a handful of them will be amazing photos. The rest can be saved for your archives, but less is definitely more.

As for pictures of your staff doing nothing—sure, your social media fans may know your staff, but if they’re not captivating your audience, don’t use them.

Telling Stories with Photography

So how can you tell stories with visuals?

According to John Haydon, the best way to tell stories is by using the very concept of storytelling: every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

A classic story will show progression, action, or change.

Haydon says there are four ways to select share-worthy images:

1. Show Action: Photographs that show action are storytelling images. 
2. Show Relationships: Photos with relationships are great at telling stories. If you’re photographing a dog adoption, and you see a happy dog with their happy owner—the story tells itself.
3. Show Problems: When you show a problem, you’re telling a story. And this story inspires viewers to take part and become the happy ending. 
4. Show Results: Photos that show the attainment of a goal tell the story from the finish line. Sometimes that's simply showing someone with a before and after of a medical procedure.

While you’re planning your storytelling photographs, start planning your Form 990 return. With the fast and easy e-filing at ExpressTaxExempt, you’ll never have to worry about confusing tax forms. If you have any questions about e-filing, call our support experts at 704.839.2321.

So ask yourself, what are your best photographable moments? How can you use these to share your stories?

Read More »

Are You Making These 5 Crowdfunding Mistakes?

Back in the day, fundraising was usually a face-to-face, spoken word kind of venture. But in the digital age, things have changed.

In order to maintain competitive fundraising, you need to look towards the Internet! But with great crowdfunding comes great responsibility.

I mean, there are certain rules, drawbacks, and benefits to Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and GoFundMe. But no matter what, there are mistakes you can make on every crowdfunding site.

Your Campaign Is Not Clearly Defined

Don’t use a crowdfunding campaign for general fundraising.

Instead, focus your crowdfunding to a specific project, and how it will inspire donors to be a part of it.

Also, a specific project will have a smaller goal ($10k is a lot more palatable than $100k).

You Have No Mass-Market Appeal

Be realistic. You’re a big supporter of your cause, but the Average Joe isn’t.

If you do your market research, you can find the broadest appeal for your project. Research allows you to target your fundraising efforts.

You Have No Dedicated Resources

After you research, you need to make sure you have the capabilities to manage a big campaign.

If you don’t have a dedicated marketing professional on your team, you need to split the duties of a marketer between your current staff.

Also, you need to spend a little to earn a little in most situations, so make sure you have a budget that accounts for marketing.

You Don't Have a Plan

With proper resources, a real plan comes together.

Every plan has a before, a during, and an after. Start by setting goals you plan to meet, metrics you will measure with, and a time frame for all of this to occur.

With prepared content and continuous outreach, you can build relationships with your new donors even after your campaign ends.

You Have No Existing Donor Network

In order for your campaign to succeed, you need a relationship with your existing donors. First of all, they’re passionate about your cause.

Second, they have friends and family to share your project with. New donors are more likely to give if their loved ones have vetted the cause already.

Once you have your crowdfunding road-map in order, you can implement your plan!

With a solid crowdfunding campaign, your project is sure to be successful.

And it’s never too early to start planning your tax exempt return—once all these donations roll in, use the awesome recordkeeping features of ExpressTaxExempt to import donations. If you have any issues e-filing your 990 form, contact our support team at 704.839.2321.

Are you making these crowdfunding mistakes?

Read More »

How Can You Take Donations to the Next Level?

Let’s face it, fundraising isn’t easy. Simply getting your audience to the donate can be a struggle for many nonprofit and tax exempt organizations.

So how can you optimize your approach to fundraising? Well, come up with a plan to take your donations to the next level!

You Need Online Donations

First up, you need to start accepting donations online. Even if you feel better with the old school methods, you need to consider online donations. Why? Because the whole world is mobile—and the easier it is, the more people are eager to give. And nothing is easier than using your phone or laptop to donate.

So make sure you have a website, and use social media, email, and video production to bring your donors to your website! It all works together, really.

Communication for Donations

After you have your page designed, implement your email marketing strategy to direct donors to your site. We’ve told you about email before, and stand by those marketing basics.

Mixed together with social media, you’ll be able to direct increased traffic towards and hopefully donations to your site.

But don’t abandon all of your traditional methods—a direct mail campaign that advertises your web presence is a good mix of traditional and cutting edge. It’s best to use both to reach your audience!

Advanced Tip: Landing Pages

Your website might be awesome, but if you utilize a landing page, you can customize the experience even more for your donors. So what should you do? Customize a single page with a short donation form and passionate copy with a call to action. REMEMBER—Minimalism is best, so avoid heavy graphics, web videos, or any other distractions.

Let’s face it, some things will work and some won’t. Instead of doubling down on one strategy, you should implement A/B testing to make sure that your fundraising efforts aren’t wasted!

Test your landing page by creating two pages that are near identical, but with different calls to action. Monitor which CTA produces better conversion rates, and then you know that is the right direction. Take the foundations of the more successful page, and then create another page expanding that idea. Keep testing and watch your conversion rates increase!

Once you have your donations coming in, head over to ExpressTaxExempt and create a free account. While Form 990 might not be due for a few more months, it’s never too early to work on your recordkeeping, e-file last year’s 990, or even just keep track of donors.

If you have any questions, our dedicated customer support team is here and ready to help, by phone at 704.839.2321 and by email at Support@ExpressTaxExempt.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

What are your advanced marketing tips?

Read More »

3 Email Marketing Questions Every Nonprofit Should Ask

So you’ve set up a social media empire, and you’re producing stellar video content to impress your donors and board. What’s next for your nonprofit marketing campaign?

Have you thought about email?

Think about it—just about everyone you know has an email address. There has to be a way your nonprofit can tap into that market. So let’s break down some email marketing tips your tax exempt organization can use.

Why Should We Use Email Marketing?

The affordability of email marketing is reason enough! With an email marketing campaign, you have a lower price point since you avoid the costs of printing paper flyers. Not only that, your nonprofit keeps responsible outlook by reducing your paper footprint.

Email is a great option because of its ease of use and widespread use. These days, almost everybody has an email address, and they know how to check their email. There’s little confusion with a well crafted email that says “click here to donate.”

Because of the low price point, your organization can get a higher return on investment. Of course, you want to approach your emails in different ways depending on the kind they are.

How Should We Approach Email Marketing?

First things first, sign up for an email marketing service, and work the cost into your marketing budget. With your email marketing service, you can catalog and sort user email addresses by demographics. With each new donation you receive, you can obtain and build a bigger database to send future emails.

Once you’re ready to hit send, make sure you reach out to your donors with effective messaging. Try telling a story! Use your organization, your volunteers, or even those you help to get the message across. You can even update your audience with the comings and goings of your organization, while working in a plug for donations with subtlety.

Aim to keep it short and simple. Email marketing is for hundreds of words, not thousands. If you have a source of long form content you want your readers to see, include a link with a short synopsis instead. Remember, less is more – you want people to read and digest the email as fast as possible.

And most importantly, create a call to action - start and end with a call to action: donate now. click here, read this - don’t leave the email hanging.

How Do We Start?

There are quite a few options out there, and you’ll have to see what works best for you. For a more detailed approach, check out some of the email marketing guides provided by the services themselves.

Here are 3 guides to email marketing for nonprofits you should check out:

• The Nonprofit Email Marketing Guide (PDF)
• MailChimp for Nonprofits
• Basics of Email Marketing for Nonprofits (PDF)

Bonus Question: What Other Tips Do You Have?

First off, keep a calendar and a schedule for any of your campaigns. You can make a master calendar that includes your social media, video, and email efforts. After that, stay scheduled! With your email blasts, find organic opportunities to link back to your blogs, social media, and donation landing pages. Most of all, as you design your emails, ask yourself – would I read this email? Would I click that link?

With a strong email campaign, you can work wonders for your tax exempt organization. And when it’s time to file Form 990, we’ll be here to help you. If you have any questions, reach us by email, live chat, and 704.839.2321.

Read More »

Boost Donations with Video

You’ve been running your social media campaign for a few weeks, and you’ve noticed a rise in donations. But you want to take your nonprofit to the next level. What can you do? Have you considered boosting donations with video?

By producing videos, you have a unique opportunity to give potential and current donors more insight than the average tax exempt organization. Videos let your marketing team cover local fundraising events, capture personal stories, and inspire people to donate. These days, decent video cameras are affordable (plenty of photo cameras double as video cameras, too). And since most people have smart phones, capturing video is even easier than ever! So we suggest grabbing a camera, finding your subject, and yelling ACTION!

“Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.” - Jean-Luc Godard

Does your nonprofit produce videos to gather the support of donors and keep people informed? Did you know you can boost your donations with videos?

Why Should I Make Videos?

Well, if you’re willing to run social media marketing campaigns, share photos, and status updates with your donors, the next logical step would be video. Now, we’re not expecting you to be the next Steven Spielberg, but with some effort you can at least produce enough content for a steady YouTube channel.

• Interviews - Whether you’re interviewing your organization founder or one of the people your nonprofit helped, capturing an interview gives your viewers the inside scoop on your mission. Best practices would be to let your interviewee preview and prepare answers to the questions, and then edit their responses into a video one to two minutes long. Less is more with interviews!
• Events - Spent two months planning a fundraiser and you want to immortalize it before it’s all said and done? By documenting your event turnout, you can show potential donors that people care about your cause. Also, if your event is fun and successful, you will inspire viewers to catch the next one.
• Results - Want to show how your fundraiser helped build a house, save an animal shelter, or pay for a medical treatment? Show the results with a video update! When viewers know their efforts contributed to success, they’ll be more willing to click that donate button!
• All of the Above - Of course, for the most effective strategy, your nonprofit should use a combination of these efforts to produce a constant stream of updates. Sure, you may need a video guru to make that happen, but the results would benefit you more than you know.

Donation Cards

Once your videos are ready, the easiest distribution model is to share them on YouTube. With YouTube, you can also use the donation card system to inspire action. What is a donation card? They are clickable “Donate Now” buttons that appear on your videos, and make use of Google Payments. Best of all, YouTube has a specific program to help nonprofits become YouTube creators.

What sets donation cards apart? Well, they allow viewers to contribute from the video from both desktop and mobile. When viewers donate, the nonprofit gets 100% of the donation! That’s right, Google currently covers the processing fees. If making your own videos is just out of the question, you can always team up with a current YouTube creator and have them use donation cards to support your cause!

Once the donations come rolling in, use our bulk upload feature to e-file Form 990 come tax exempt deadline day. If you have any questions, reach us by live chat, phone at 704.839.2321, or by email.

Have you captured your events with video? How’d it go?

Read More »

Increase Donations with Social Media

So you started a nonprofit organization, and now it's time to earn those donations. What do you do? The traditional route of holding fundraisers, networking with local businesses, and using postal mail to communicate with your potential donors are time-tested strategies that work. But marketing through social media is now a serious contender for nonprofits.

Just in the last few years, large scale nonprofit and tax exempt organizations have had successful campaigns through social media. Remember #GivingTuesday? Events like that are near impossible without the social aspect. 

With the ever-growing popularity of Twitter and Facebook, your tax exempt organization needs to have a social game plan. Follow these tips and tricks to boost donations to your nonprofit.

Inform Your Donors

Openness can take you far! Want to keep your donors interested in your mission? Update your followers on how you allocate donations. By tweeting your numbers or posting a photo to Facebook, you create an informed audience. When followers see their donations going to the mission, they’ll know your organization is trustworthy. What better way to inspire more donations than to show your donors with the fruits of their labor? You can also tweet out promotional images, keeping your followers informed of upcoming events.

When you update your donors on your mission, you keep things conversational. This is why for-profit businesses have such a strong presence on social. Best of all, social media is free, but it does have both organic and paid methods of boosting your reach.

Improve Interactivity and Engagement

Want to mobilize action fast? The high speed reaction time over social media lets donors know when you need funds, goods, or volunteers. Of course, for this you need engagement. With engagement and interactivity, your organization will take a campaign to the next level.

There are major benefits from social media for your organization, too. Not only can you interact with your audience, you can measure engagement and see what works best for messaging. When you engage your supporters, you create a conversation that you can use to refine your mission.

Improve your Fundraising and Crowdfund

When it comes down to it, you need to establish a relationship of communication with your donors so you don’t come off as another bill. By building a community, your donors will feel more inclined to give. With multiple channels, you can promote your fundraiser and crowdfund across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even LinkedIn. This increased reach will boost your fundraising without question.

Have questions about e-filing Form 990? Contact our US-based customer support team at 704.839.2321, or email us anytime at support@expresstaxexempt.com. And be sure to check out our social media footprint on Facebook and Twitter!

Read More »