Soapbox Engage Blog

Issue 40

Happy Fundraising Weekly Tuesday, and to all the Star Wars fans, May the Fourth be with you! It’s been an excellent start to the month over here at Soapbox Engage, and I hope all of you can say the same. This week’s newsletter has loads of amazing content to help you upgrade your fundraising game. Read on for advice on donor needs, key website features, and even incorporating TikTok into your giving strategy. Hope there’s a Gen Z on your team!

By the way! If you’re eager for more fundraising goodness, we wanted to take a moment to plug this free resource we created to help nonprofits navigate the online fundraising world. You can get the Definitive Guide to Online Fundraising here. Happy fundraising!

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Great Fundraising Posts

7 Tips to Boost Your #GivingTuesday Social Media Strategy

Tim Forbes (Soapbox Engage)

Giving days are only growing in popularity and effectiveness--Giving Tuesday being the most popular international giving day. By now, most nonprofits and charities have some kind of Giving Tuesday plan and strategy, but there’s always room for improvement! This blog offers tips, tricks, and best practices to help you boost your Giving Tuesday social media campaigns so you can enjoy better engagement with your audience and more donations overall.

How to Critique Fundraising so You Help Make it Better

Jeff Brooks (Moceanic)

Giving truly helpful critiques is one of the most difficult things to give (and receive) in nonprofit and fundraising writing. If you’d like to give honest, helpful critiques that can empower an individual or nonprofit to create better fundraising material, this blog offers some mexcellent tips and insights to keep in mind.

How to Up Your Nonprofit Game on TikTok

Kristy Fontelera (NonProfitPRO)

Is your nonprofit on Tik Tok? Evidently, the new social media platform isn’t going anywhere and it’s where all the “cool kids” are hanging out. That means savvy nonprofits should be on Tik Tok, too. This blog unpacks how you can leverage Tik Tok to expand your fundraising audience and improve your connection with current donors.

The Hybrid Fundraising Event

Kiersi Burkhart (Greater Giving)

Most nonprofits were forced to shift away from traditional fundraising strategies in 2020 and try a lot of new ways to connect with donors. Many nonprofits bravely shifted to some kind of virtual fundraising strategy and online giving plan. Now, more than half of nonprofits reported that virtual events were an important fundraising strategy for them in 2020. Furthermore, the nonprofit world discovered the many advantages that come with hosting virtual events. This blog explores how to move forward with a hybrid model of fundraising--taking advantage of the strengths of both in-person and virtual fundraising strategies.

Personalize Your Fundraising Emails for Maximum Conversion

Samantha Jasnos (Heroic Fundraising)

Email marketing remains a reliable, effective, and affordable way to communicate with current donors and solicit new supporters. It’s tempting to use the “one-size-fits-all” approach to your emails… and that can work. However, strategic personalization has gotten a lot easier and more robust in recent years. Now more than ever, people want to be seen and treated as individuals, not one of the masses. It’s an easy way to boost your donor care and add value to their experience. Head over to this blog to grab some insights into the best ways to personalize your email communications to boost results and care for your donors.

Three Things Every Donor Needs From You

Jeff Brooks (Future Fundraising Now)

We like to make donor care into a really complicated thing and philosophize about what our donors want from us. Hopefully, it comes as good news to you that every donor needs just three things from nonprofits to help them be as involved in supporting your organization as they can be. Read this blog to learn about those three things your donors are waiting to receive from you.

5 Website Features All New Nonprofits Should Know and Use

Guest Author (Get Fully Funded)

Websites are almost non-negotiable necessities for nonprofits these days. But not all websites are equal and it can be very challenging to figure out exactly what features to include. This blog is a helpful tool for mature nonprofits to do an audit of their existing website and for new nonprofits to know what to include in their new website.

Let’s Try to Stop Using Jargon so Much

Ann Green (Ann Green)

The reason we’re working in the nonprofit sector is because there are real problems affecting real people in the world. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in the habit of using jargon in our communications and conversations with donors instead of speaking more authentically and realistically. But our donors need to understand us if we want them to connect with us and our organization. Head over to this blog to read more about how to avoid using jargon in your communications and donor interactions.

Write a Killer Raffle Prize Donation Letter

Sara Bender (Online Fundraising Today)

Are you trying to solicit donated items for prizes and raffles at your upcoming fundraising events? Sending a good raffle prize donation letter is an important part of the solicitation process and companies who participate will likely keep the letter on file to claim their donations at the end of their tax year. Head over to this blog for a quick guide on how to ask for donations for a raffle and a template for your next letter.

Why You Shouldn’t Use the Word “Vulnerable” in Your Appeals

Steven Screen (The Better Fundraising Company)

Most people know that word choice matters a great deal. One word that seems to be a favorite in fundraising appeals is “vulnerable.” In this blog post, Steven shares why he strongly discourages development professionals from using this word. Describing your beneficiaries as “vulnerable” implies that there’s not a problem yet. Rather than focusing on what might happen, it’s more effective to highlight facts about what are happening right now in your fundraising appeals.