Are you always on the hunt for the latest and greatest options to enhance your nonprofit management? If you’re like most nonprofit professionals, you’re too busy doing everything else needed of you — overseeing the financial management of your nonprofit, spreading advocacy, and planning fundraisers.
Consider us your expert guide through the myriad nonprofit resources available. We have you covered with a select group of free and budget-friendly tools.
Resources for Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
Whether your nonprofit runs solely on volunteers or has a full staff, odds are you need more volunteers, and need to care for them well. So how do nonprofit leaders recruit quality volunteers?
VolunteerHub
Price: Plans start at $150 a month
Once you’ve recruited your volunteers, you’ll need an efficient way to coordinate and manage them. VolunteerHub offers the ability to recruit and schedule volunteers. The platform allows you to load in all of your contacts, including prospective and past volunteers. You can then easily recruit for specific events via email or text.
You can even use the platform to manage your nonprofit’s fundraising events. VolunteerHub allows you to update event information like dates and start times as well as locations. Send out automated texts or emails to volunteers alerting them to event changes, making even last-minute developments a breeze to communicate.
There are three different tiers of pricing for this software, so you can select an option that best suits your organization.
Catchafire
Price: Plans start at $167 a month
Catchafire connects skill-based volunteers to the nonprofit sector. You’ll find volunteers for anything from a consultation with an industry-specific expert to a full-length project like a website accessibility audit.
Here’s how it works: You post a project, job board-style, with a wide variety of customizable options within the Catchafire platform. Those looking to give back will apply to your project and you review the portfolios and resumes of interested expert volunteers.
This is a fantastic resource for needs like marketing, website construction, or management coaching for your nonprofit staff. The high-quality services provided through Catchafire could save you far more than the membership fee.
Resources for Increasing Donations
Has your organization run through all the usual tips and tricks to increase donations with no luck? Odds are, without donations, your organization cannot support itself. Even with a strong donation request letter planned or a crowdfunding campaign launching soon, any help increasing donations is probably fine by you!
Check out the two rewarding — and completely free — resources below.
Google Ad Grants
Price: Free
Would your nonprofit be interested in $120,000 a year to be used for advertising on Google? We sure hope so! The Google Ad Grant program is available to qualified nonprofit organizations and they do not limit the number of organizations accepted to the program.
Google provides your nonprofit with $10,000 per month in Google ad spend. Most 501(c)(3) organizations qualify. The most common exclusions are government entities, hospitals, and educational institutions, but you can find all requirements here. Be sure your organization is already signed up for Google for Nonprofits before applying for Google Ad Grants — it’s a requirement.
Habitat for Humanity successfully used Google Ad Grants to schedule 75 donation pickups worth thousands of dollars in just 30 days! Your organization’s Google ad would look just like the ads below that popped up when we searched for “donate to cancer charity.”
YouGiveGoods
Price: Free
Even if your organization relies heavily on cash donations, you may benefit from a goods-based donation platform. YouGiveGoods offers donors who may prefer donating supplies rather than cash a way to send items like pet food or school supplies right to your organization without a trip to the store.
You can set up a custom drive page that lists the items your nonprofit needs. Donors can then browse your list and choose the things they wish to donate. When your drive is finished, YouGiveGoods sends all purchased items directly to your organization.
Resources for Improving Donor Communication
Donor communication is essential to ensuring your donors always feel appreciated. From timely thank-you letters to creative annual appeals, there are lots of strategies you can adopt to improve your communications.
Check out a few of our favorite resources that your organization can use to improve your donor communications and build loyalty.
The Storytelling Non-Profit
Price: Pricing varies per service. Signature program, “The Storytelling Master Class,” is $345
Telling your story can prompt a strong reaction and get your donors to take action. Research has shown that stories can be 22 times more memorable than straight facts alone.
The Storytelling Non-Profit can help — they offer training resources, consulting services, and webinars. Consulting services for fundraising or communications can enhance your current strategies in a way that speaks directly to your stakeholders. Keynote speaking events range in topics from “Empowering Board Members To Fundraise Using Stories” to “The Art of Personal Storytelling.”
The signature program is The Storytelling Master Class, a self-paced online course where you can learn about how telling stories can equate to dollars.
Boomerang
Price: Free
If your organization uses Gmail, you’ll want to check out the Boomerang extension. Boomerang is a free resource (with a paid option available) you can install today to schedule your emails to donors and can even help you write better emails using AI. As you compose your email, Boomerang assesses the likelihood that your email will be responded to using built-in algorithms. It gives you practical suggestions as you type.
For those times you need dedicated time to focus, you can even snooze your inbox, freeing you from the distraction of an incoming message. Boomerang can help remind you to reach back out to donors or volunteers who have not responded to a message sent, so nobody slips through the cracks!
ThankView
Price: Packages start at $99 per month
Want to increase your first-time donor retention by 15%? ThankView can help. ThankView is an innovative donor engagement platform that allows your organization to send video messages via text or email to one to 100,000 supporters — no editing required. The platform allows you to make standout videos that feature your organization’s branding and dynamic personalization.
Use ThankView to segment your audience: Send out personalized thank-you messages after a campaign to make your donors feel appreciated, or wish them a happy birthday so they know you’re thinking of them. You can also send fundraising appeals to more efficiently relay the emotion behind your mission in a way an email newsletter just can’t express.
The types of videos you can send to your donors are endless, and you’ll have one-on-one support to help drive your results. With reporting on metrics available, you can even see who has opened your messages as well as how many times they’ve watched your video.
Resources for Improving Donor Retention Rates
Donor retention is the percentage of donors that continue giving to your organization after the first gift. The average donor retention rate for nonprofits hovers around 45%. Protect your initial investment in acquiring new donors by taking steps to ensure your retention rate climbs as it should. Try the resources below to help improve your retention rate year after year!
Virtuous
Price: Plans start at $300 per month
Virtuous is a customer relationship management platform (CRM) designed specifically for nonprofits. It lets you automate communications based on donor preferences, demographics, and behaviors. As an example, you can arrange for an automated email to be sent when a donor’s normal contribution has lapsed, or adjust suggested donation amounts by utilizing included income and wealth data from DonorSearch. You can send the right communication at the right time based on demographics, giving patterns, and social media behaviors.
QuestionPro
Price: Free
QuestionPro is a free survey software program. To take advantage of the cost-free option, you just need to have a backlink to QuestionPro on your site.
Your organization can send surveys with various question types that include your organization’s personalized branding. With real-time data dashboards to monitor and analyze your results, this free service is definitely worth looking into.
Sending surveys to your stakeholders is a great way to show you value their input, thus creating loyalty. You can also gain insight as to their expectations, likes, and dislikes. Form a longer-term relationship aligned with their preferences. You may be surprised at how excited your donors get when asked about something not related to monetary giving!
Resources for Board Development and Management
While board member roles and responsibilities may vary from organization to organization, a strong board focused on professional development is key. No matter the level of involvement in your day-to-day activities, you’ll want to ensure the professional development of your board members is as much of a priority as your fundraising efforts. Check out a few comprehensive resources below!
BoardSource
Price: Core membership plan begins at $500 per year
BoardSource’s Board Support Program offers leadership guidance, resources, and continual governance guidance. Your board members can use included self-assessment tools to evaluate where they’ve been successful and what areas they may need to focus on going forward.
BoardSource also offers several educational seminars and even certificate programs in the area of leadership. With resources on topics ranging from healthy debate techniques in the boardroom to legal responsibilities of nonprofit boards, there will be resources relevant to your organization’s needs.
Chronicle of Philanthropy
Price: Annual membership is $109.95 per year
The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers a wide selection of content specifically for the nonprofit sector. This is a nice resource to support your board members with daily online articles, fundraising best practices, and other industry-specific information. Board members can check this site daily to stay up-to-date on trends, opinions, and data. This subscription-based resource even offers a job search feature specific to opportunities in the nonprofit sector.
Resources for Nonprofit Technology
Living in a world where technology is always advancing can make it challenging to ensure you have the best systems on hand. Because most nonprofits run on tight budgets, it’s important to shop around and be sure you are investing your technology budget wisely.
So how do you do that? And where can you get tips and tutorials on how to train your staff and make the best of your technology resources? We talk about two great companies below offering varied technology specifically for nonprofits.
TechSoup
Price: Pricing varies per service
TechSoup is an amazing resource your nonprofit can look to for securing heavily discounted pricing on highly desired technology platforms. Your organization can sign up for TechSoup for free, and in addition to discounted pricing, they also offer technical support for your team. Whether you need to upgrade to Windows 10 or invest in QuickBooks, TechSoup can ensure your organization doesn’t pay more than it needs to for technology.
NTEN
Price: $99 per year for an individual membership
The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (NTEN) is an online community full of nonprofit resources. Your team can join online groups dedicated to specific topics to ask questions, support other members, and chat about all things related to nonprofit technology. They offer technical training and support from nonprofit tech professionals. Team members can even earn a Nonprofit Technology Professional Certificate through a course that covers topics from leadership to IT planning.
Choose Your Tools
We hope you find the tools above useful in your nonprofit management. No matter your organization’s budget or needs, there are unlimited resources available to help you put your best foot forward while you’re making the world a better place — without spending more than you need.
If you’re interested in seeing how adding personalized video to your tool kit can help improve your donor and volunteer relationships, book a demo with our team today!