Marc,
I enjoyed reading your ebook…Your website is a great tool for a novice fundraiser like myself.
Adam J. Sandler
Nevada Broadcasters Foundation
Don’t stress out. Fundraising is a wonderful career!
Whether you’re a board member or a nonprofit staff member, you’re entering an exciting field! In fact, I believe fundraising is one of the biggest privileges in the world! And I firmly believe anyone can do it effectively.
The good news is that successful fundraising is built largely on common sense. So once you learn the basic ideas for fundraising, all you need to do is keep on doing them. Fundraisingcoach.com can help!
Free Fundraising Articles
Here are some of the hundreds of free fundraising articles on this site:
- Do It Yourself Fundraising is a greatly distilled presentation of the core methodology in the fundraising book Ask Without Fear!®. It will help you set up a successful foundation for fundraising.
- The current soft economy can be a great time of growth for your nonprofit! But many nonprofits lose this opportunity by making some common mistakes. Read Recession Proof Fundraising to learn how you can avoid them.
- Effective fundraising is based on telling good stories. Read The Rule of Threes (an excerpt from the book Who’s Telling YOUR Story?) to find a simple and incredibly effective way to collect your organization’s stories and keep them alive.
- If your fundraising is for a faith-based organization, check out Fundraising in the Bible. You’ll see the variety of ways people like Moses, David, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, and Paul raised money. Their ideas for fundraising may just surprise you! You will also probably be interested in the recordings of three keynotes I gave in Colorado Springs which are online at https://fundraisingcoach.com/symposium/.
- To keep getting new fundraising tips every other Tuesday, be sure to sign up for my free Ask Without Fear! Email Newsletter.
Other Great Fundraising Tools
Here are more great fundraising and nonprofit marketing tools that will help you be successful.
- The Fundraising Coach blog on this site is free and full of hundreds of ideas for fundraising effectively. New posts are added each week.
- If you’re trying to figure out how much to ask people for, check out GiftRangeCalculator.com. This free tool helps you effectively begin to strategize your fundraising goal (and avoid making one of the most common mistakes as discussed in Ask Without Fear!®. This tool will help give you ideas for how feasible your fundraising goal is and who you might invite to give to your cause.
- Sign up for the free Movie Mondays to get a fundraising training video sent to you every Monday. You’ll love hearing these brief stories from people on all sides of the fundraising table including nonprofit staff, foundation leaders, board members, and philanthropists.
- If you haven’t already, get a copy of the Ask Without Fear!® book or the Ask Without Fear! DVD. These are good for getting you grounded in the basics of major gift fundraising. They’re both designed to teach you and your board how to fully fund your cause.
- I’d encourage you to consider using the MagnetGoals Goal Setting Program. This simple program is an incredibly effective way to set, and reach, your goals—both personal and professional.
- One of the most persistent fallacies in fundraising is that you need to be a pushy talker to be successful. The good news is that you can ask well, whatever your style. You can discover your own style with that free asking style profile at AskingStyleProfile.com.
- If you need to quickly ramp up the number of donors you have, 100 Donors in 90 Days is something you need to check out. A dozen experts share extremely practical ways to gain new donors, even if you’re a small shop.
- If your nonprofit is average, you’re losing 70% of your donors after their first gift. That means if you make a list of 10 new donors from last year, you can get out a Sharpie and draw a line through 7 of them. But you don’t have to be average. To learn how to keep donors giving year after year, look into the The Donor Retention Project.
Audio & Video Tools
If you learn better by audio, here are some additional links to check out:
- The free fundraising and social media training audio recordings here on FundraisingCoach.com. There are hours of information here, including many interviews where I share thoughts and systems for fundraising.
- Most of my on air appearances can be seen at: MarcPitman.tv. Some short fundraising related videos are also available on my Fundraising & Coaching YouTube Channel.
- A few years ago, I ran a radio program called the Ask Without Fear! Radio Show. I interviewed some of the top nonprofit fundraising and marketing leaders in the country. The segments are still available and still free. Even though geared to fundraising professionals with over a decade of experience, each hour-long conversation is packed with great fundraising ideas you’ll be able to use today.
- I’m honored that people are saying of the most impressive training companies for nonprofits is our division, The Nonprofit Academy. Each month, we pull in the best speakers to give incredibly practical webinars on everything from successful use of Facebook to writing fundraising letters that raise lots of money. Members also get access to over 60 trainings, tools, and templates. Members also get monthly coaching calls with NPA members and me and 24/7 support in the Members-only forum. You can see the upcoming webinars and past trainings in The Nonprofit Academy’s Online Vault.
And if you’d love to get your board more engaged with fundraising, be sure to get a free copy of 21 Ways for Board Members to Engage in Their Nonprofit’s Fundraising. Nonprofits all over the world are using this to help their board members…and their fundraising!
Be sure to also check out all the offerings in the Fundraising Coach Store. These tools are specifically created to give you, your board, and your volunteers tools for effectively fundraising today.
Fundraising is the best work anyone can do! I’m here to help you believe that!
To your fundraising success,
P.S. If you have a specific question, please feel free to ask me at Question Marc!.
