FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

The Value of a Salutation

blogheader_0723

As many of the letters being sent transition from paper to digital and even email is being replaced by text messages and push notifications on apps, it’s important to think about whether we still have a place for formal salutations. While politeness and courtesy will never go out of style, too often when we call someone Mr. or Ms., such titles are eschewed for the person’s first name. When appealing to donors, what salutation should you use?

Continue reading
2490 Hits

Creating Value with Non-Ask Events

ask_events_header

Most of the time organizations offer donors reciprocated value. They send thank you notes in response to donations, preprinted labels in the hopes of receiving a donation, tickets when purchased, or other tangible things received either in response to or in anticipation of a donation. This isn’t bad, but it’s very reactive. It assumes the organization has a quid pro quo relationship with its donors.

To start thinking proactively, it’s important to work on non-reciprocated value. This is something that you can offer to your donors for free without asking for a donation or any other consideration. When it holds real value for them, it becomes memorable.

Continue reading
2087 Hits

Three Tips for Managing Your FundRaiser Codes

PrintCodeListin_20181023-195919_1

When you’ve used a database for any length of time it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of codes you have. The power of codes is that they’re what the system uses to show you data. Too many, and you won’t know what information you can obtain or how you’ve coded your donors to get it. Just like we do “spring cleaning” at home, it’s a good idea once or twice a year, usually spring and fall, to do a review of the codes in your database. These three tips can help.

1.  Use the Code Listing Report (Reports > Code Listing) to see what you have

When running this report, check the box that says “show inactive codes” so you can see every code in your system. Then review the report to see what codes can be marked as inactive (or hidden) so that you don’t see them during day-to-day data input or if you have duplicate codes which need to be merged.

Continue reading
2180 Hits

Short take: Making Event Participants into Regular Donors

Even_20181016-171706_1

 Your event was a smashing success and you raised a lot of money. After entering the participants into FundRaser, you might be wondering what the next steps are. How do you convert them to prospective, and hopefully future, donors?

First, make sure you’ve coded them as having been a participant at the event. This could be using the motivation code from their gift or ticket purchase to attend or even just a category code. If you have FundRaiser Professional, our Campaign Management Module is a great way to keep track of complex events and their participants.

Continue reading
2130 Hits

What's THE Best Fundraising Strategy?

Best

Dear Kim,

I only want to use the most successful fundraising strategy. Which is it?

Continue reading
2749 Hits

Short take: Event Managment

Short take: Event Managment

FundRaiser Software provides many tools for managing event participation and donation. Users of FundRaiser Pro have access to the Campaigns and Events Module, which will track participation, donations, sponsorships, and provides detailed reporting. If you’re interested in the Campaigns and Events Module, you’re encouraged to sign up for the next training class.

However, even without the Campaigns and Events Module, you can keep track of campaign participation several ways. The Motivation Code records what motivated someone to give, and that’s usually because they attended an event or received a mailer. Using a unique motivation code will allow you to run reports as well as create groupings based off of event donations.

Continue reading
5040 Hits

Successful Closure to My First Fundraising Campaign

Successful Closure to My First Fundraising Campaign

As mentioned in earlier blog posts, I tried my own hand this year at fundraising for an organization I support. From creating my first fundraising campaign, to doing a little extra donor outreach with FundRaiser to reach our campaign goal, I enjoyed the experience and look forward to more. 

One of the very satisfying things was not just reaching the fundraising goal, but also an additional and important side benefit that I had not foreseen:  Based in part on the work our fundraising committee did, we had a wonderful turn out for the event in spite of some challenges that hit just before the event took place. Here's what happened...

Continue reading
5029 Hits

Organizing Your Letters

Organizing Your Letters

My family is big on writing letters, and I think there’s no more powerful form of written communication than a letter in the mail. It shows that someone took the time to write, print, sign, and mail a letter. The organization (or the individual) cared enough to use a stamp and make sure the letter got to the carrier or the post office. It’s a personal way to communicate.

FundRaiser has many features for helping you with this fine mode of communication. One feature that I'd like to highlight here is that of being able to mark letters active or inactive as necessary. This comes in very handy for events which occur on a regular basis. How does this work?

Continue reading
4475 Hits

New Year, New Codes

New Year, New Codes

For organizations with annual events or campaigns, there are many ways to track the donations that come in each year. From fund and motivation codes to more general category codes, there are a multitude of ways to make sure you know exactly how and why your donors gave to your organization.

Keeping your coding system understandable plays a big role in the effective use of your donor management software. Therefore, when it comes to your annual events, think about using one main code and append then year to it. For example, a gala would be GALA14, GALA15, and so on. This way you would know that all codes that start with “GALA” would be for your annual event. (Or whatever prefix you choose to use for your event.)

Continue reading
5273 Hits

Organizing a charity golf tournament

Organizing a charity golf tournament

by Tom King

Far too often, if we'll be honest, the motivation for organizing a special event, like golf, is to avoid having to do basic fund-raising. We hate making the calls. We hate asking for money.  So, to avoid having to do things we don't like, we have a golf tournament because we do like that!

Continue reading
8088 Hits
Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
moves management entering auction gifts repeat donors gift acceptance policy Reporting to IRS correspondance Cloud Task List SYBUNTS community supported gardens motivation code End of Year Letters membership benefits letter capital campaign charity golf tournaments board members general motivation community broadcasting transparency pictures alumni pledges online donations Donor Portal updates legacy giving premiums community arts nonprofits raffle mode code relationship tracking segmenting donors FundRaiser Basic GivingTuesday Constant Contact animal rescue direct mail donor recognition anonymous donors change of address updating data conversion large donations monthly giving user spotlights merge notes annual maintenance plan small donations publicity materials Groupings campaign management Tickles donor prospects technical support happiness thank you letters Personalizing ticket sales FundRaiser Hosted follow up importing csv donor retention rate giving history Facebook in honor of donations tech tip NCOA processing LYBUNTS solicitors spreadsheets how-to videos role of nonprofits training tip nonprofit fundraising donor advised funds phoning donors Excel new features donor profile announcements case study accounting software disaster relief Volunteer module gift entry operational costs holiday giving membership programs giving levels planning development director Alternative Addresses grants appeal correspondence Reminders planned giving corporate sponsors volunteering Company culture new version office holiday letters look and feel Network for Good data analysis endowment campaign In-Kind gifts membersip benefits new leadership GoFundMe project appeal letters budget building donor relationships upgrading donors on site training New Year adding personal notes to letters gift notes field data entry arts donation history major gift prospects #GivingTuesday how to handle auction gifts Thank You grassroots campaign the Ask donor contact information donor source fundraising donor preferences support product news Congratulations campaign reports training donor relations donor targeting fundraising letters security customer service foundations event management social media upgrade volunteers customer portal donor slip lapsed donor word processor major donors PayPal features auction donor retention Snow Birds passwords Thanksgiving mission driven banquet increasing giving amounts memorial giving flash sales merge fields annual campaign advanced tab donor donor engagement donor attrition new nonprofit FundRaiser Spark backing up data personalizing letters new donors letter templates vacation Resiliency prospects donor attrition rate ticketsales online donations add ons ROI tax summary letters salutation tribute gifts government grants targeted mailings user interface spare fields overview texting donors Crowdfunding Campaign understanding giving trends mailing Codes holiday brick campaign operating systems Importing Data National Change of Address email communications donor loyalty password protection welcome packet recurring gifts Facebook campaign custom page

Connect With Us

  800-880-3454 ext 3
  Email Us
  Request More Information
  Monday-Friday
      8:30AM-5:30PM CST

Customer Portal Login Form

User Name:
Password:

If you are not sure about your Customer User Name, please call 800-543-4131 and we will be able to help you.

Or you have lost your password, Request Password