How To Appeal To Millennials And Get The Best Results

Millennials seem to be the “hot topic” for many of today’s conversations. Society is constantly trying to figure us out and come up with a way to connect with us. As a millennial who is involved in the nonprofit sector, I have noticed that many organizations struggle to attract and maintain millennials on a long-term basis for donating their time and/or money.

Since we aim to help organizations like yours, today we will learn how to appeal to millennials and get the best results.

How To Appeal To Millennials And Get The Best Results

Build Trust...Then Make The Impact

Trust is a MAJOR thing when it comes to millennials! If we don’t trust you, forget about us donating to your cause.

We don’t care for fake news. 👀 It is best, to be honest with us and state the facts because we tend to do our research. Before we donate to an organization, we will run it by our family and friends, see what others have to say about it, and then give our support. Focus your marketing efforts on building trust and use conversational language so we can connect with you.

Tip: Show examples of the awesome work your organization does for the community and/or around the world, so we know where and what the money we donate go towards.

Maintain a Relationship Through Social Media

The social media trend is still alive and well. Millions of millennials stay connected and become aware of organizations through social media outlets. Once you’ve gained our trust, maintain a relationship with us (outside of the typical monthly newsletter or annual report). Make it possible for us to stay up to date with your organization’s social media pages or through your weekly blog(s).

Tip: Focus on only one or two social channels and two to four blog posts per month. It’s better to do less and do it well than to spread yourself too thin.

Update Your Website

Let’s admit it; there is nothing worse than clicking on a website that takes forever to load or looks like it hasn’t been touched since millennials were born. *laughing emoji* Invest in a modern and reliable website and update it frequently with news about to your organization. Also, include an online giving tab that allows potential donors to donate to your cause conveniently.

Tip:  Check out The Best Way To Encourage Online Giving to learn more about attracting more online givers.

Take advantage of simple, yet impactful tips and receive a fresh wind of new volunteers and donors that will help support the great cause your organization makes each day/week/year. As you make a difference in the lives of those you touch, don’t forget to file your annual Form 990 with ExpressTaxExempt and stay compliant with the IRS.

Get Started Today!

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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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Boost Online Donor Retention

How do you boost online donor retention? It’s a big question. Currently, 40.5% of nonprofits surveyed said that less than 10% of their fundraising came from online donations.

So we know there’s quite a swath of exempt organizations out there who aren’t utilizing online donations.

But for those who are, how do you make sure you are following best practices? How do you retain those awesome, web-savvy donors?

Communication

When it comes to communicating with your online donors, you are pretty much tied to both email and social media.

Before you get to those steps, you should probably have a solid online presence. Start by creating a website and a blog! Your blog can range from personal stories about your nonprofit to tips and tricks. Anything goes, as long as you communicate organization updates too!

After that, you simply need to design an email campaign. Let this take form as newsletters, donation emails, or even deals.

Your social media presence is crucial now. With online donation movements like #GivingTuesday, there are just too many opportunities out there. Get social now! It’s low hanging fruit.

There are some special skills you can tap into for your nonprofit marketing, including using video to boost donations.

Every communication channel you open is there for you to retain a relationship with your donors. That should be your top goal.

Appreciation

The most important thing you can do for your retention is to thank your donors. By showing appreciation, your people will feel a swell of gratification that will ask them to keep on.

And don’t just issue blanket thank yous, personalize them to your givers! If you have a database of names and email addresses, this could be easily automated within an email service.

Use your communication channels to feature the philanthropic work people have done for and with your organization.

Connection

Donors aren’t ATMs, they’re people. Don’t bombard them with constant requests for money.

Your best strategy will be to get their voices involved, so that you can establish a connection.

So we suggest using your social media to really spark up discourse. Polls, open ended questions, and contests will involve your followers in a way that gives you insights about them.

And form an emotional connection! If your exempt organization cares deeply, show it. If there’s a funny and comical way to get your message across that matches your tone, do it!

With the exempt organization tax filing deadline soon approaching, it’s a good idea to get those donor records in order.

Head over to ExpressTaxExempt and start your free account today! With multi-user account access, bulk data uploading, and a simplified format, ETE is the premier choice for nonprofit 990 filing.

Have any questions? Give us a call at 704.839.2321.

What are you doing to boost online donor retention?

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Welcome to Volunteer Appreciation Month

Did you know that about 62.6 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2014 and September 2015?

Did you also know that April is Volunteer Appreciation Month?

Good job, volunteers! Keep up the good work. And good job to our dedicated nonprofit and exempt organizations who reach out and organize their volunteers!

While volunteering differs depending on the organization, we offer our appreciation to all of you out there who have taken your time and money to better our world!

How Can You as an Exempt Organization Show Your Appreciation?

Well, communicate with your volunteer base! Send out an email or a social media message that conveys your appreciation.

If you’re already following our guide to email marketing, this should be easy for you.

Reach out to a Local Company as a Partner

Let’s be honest, there are many benefits for businesses when it comes to volunteering. They can market their products and services through events and increase their appeal to the community by helping out.

For Volunteer Month, team up with a local company that could offer your volunteer base some cool perks. This could range from free swag to discounts, depending on what the local business does.

Everyone Loves a Good Meal

It turns out collecting, preparing, distributing, and serving food were the activities volunteers performed the most in 2015. Around 11 percent of volunteers reported this as their main activity, with teaching, fundraising, and general labor following, respectively.

Show your volunteers you appreciate their efforts by throwing them an appreciation banquet, cookout, or even a pizza party!

On top of everything, these events are the perfect opportunity to reconnect with and learn more about your volunteers.

What Makes Volunteers Tick?

Appreciative emails and cookouts aside, April gives you the perfect chance to learn more about your volunteer base.

How? By surveying your base, you can find out why they volunteer, what works as a call to action, and how you can make the process easier for them.

Some people would rather donate canned goods or funds, and some would rather use their time doing hands-on activities to better the organization. Do you know which volunteers are which? This is the time for you to find out!

Of course, we would like to extend our appreciation to both volunteers and nonprofits out there! Without your dedication and philanthropy, the world would be a darker place.

Don’t forget, if you’re an exempt organization running on a calendar year, you have a deadline for your tax return on May 15th. Whether you’re e-filing Form 990-N or the 990 long, we’re here to answer any questions you may come across. Just reach out to us at 704.839.2321 or Support@ExpressTaxExempt.com.

How are you going to appreciate your volunteers this month? Let us know in the comments, or on Facebook and Twitter!

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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?

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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!

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