fundraising for nonprofits

How to Help Fundraising and Finance Work as a Team

In complex office environments where nonprofits are comprised of specialists, a high value is placed on leaders and systems that can bring departments together to get things done. Oftentimes, the finance and fundraising departments face similar challenges yet act like they are playing for separate teams. Aligning departments starts with a mutual consideration of roles.

Understanding Challenges

There’s an old saying that you don’t know what it’s like to be someone else unless you’ve walked a thousand miles in their shoes. With fundraising and finance teams, there are perspectives and tasks that each wished the other better understood.

Fundraising wishes that finance could…

Understand the challenges and process of fundraising.
Accept that you must spend money to make money (or get donations).
Help us maintain good donor relations.
Offer us some flexibility—things aren’t always black and white in our world.
Respect that fundraising isn’t easy.

And finance wishes that fundraising could…

Understand the fact that finance’s job is complex and time-consuming.
Accept help from experts in finance.
Help us do our jobs better by providing us with information we need.
Offer to sit with us to learn some basic accounting practices.
Respect deadlines.

Coming to a consensus is much easier when you understand and respect one another’s positions in a situation. Knowing what the other ‘team’ wants can help you step closer to a compromise and to supporting each other’s vital roles in an organization.

Different Departments, Similar Needs

Although finance and fundraising reflect different departments with varying needs, both seem to experience similar challenges when it comes to data and information. Ways in which both departments can help each other overcome their shared challenges include:

Collaborate on budgets and tracking
Improve reports and reconciliation of financial information
Have joint planning and goal-setting tasks
Communicate frequently and in a timely manner
Identify ideal processes and procedures
Integrate fundraising and accounting software

One tool that can help both departments communicate, collaborate, and plan together is nonprofit accounting software. Various software packages such as Intaact, work independently or together to provide data sharing among teams, timely updates, and more. Cloud-based solutions enhance communications because they can be accessed anywhere there’s a web connection. It makes it easier for fundraisers who travel to visit important donors to update their accounts, for example, which in turn provides information to finance to help them do their jobs better.

While the right software can’t solve all internal scuffles, it can help fundraising and finance join hands across the net and play for a winning nonprofit. It’s an important step in the right direction.

Intacct Cloud-based ERP Software

Intacct is specifically designed to provide nonprofits with the control needed to simplify financials and fundraising so you can determine where – and how – to allocate your resources and time. Built in the Cloud environment, Intacct provides organizations with true business visibility and flexibility so they always are in the know. Designed to automate your organization’s financial processes and transform your financial department into one that strategically drives your company toward growth, Intacct has been voted one of the best-in-class financial ERP solutions on the market today.

To learn more about Intacct, or how Beck & Company CPAs can help your finance and fundraising teams work together using our nonprofit accounting services, give us a call at 703-834-0776 x 8001.

Tracking Fundraising Metrics: What Should You Measure?

Nonprofits who use fundraising tactics need to measure outcomes just as for-profits do in order to ensure that their marketing efforts achieved their goals. But what should you measure?

Taking a cue from our for-profit friends, we know that specific metrics around marketing campaigns are important: open rates on emails, click-through rates, and so on. Fundraising is no different. We want to measure how many people received fundraising messages, read them, and responded to them.

Here’s an outline of basic metrics to collect, track and review after your fundraising campaigns have ended. How many of these does your nonprofit track? How many should you add to your next campaign?

The Numbers You Need to Know: Fundraising Metrics

Most nonprofits are using email marketing to reach potential donors during fundraising campaigns. Email marketing offers a measurable marketing method that’s relatively easy for newcomers to the world of marketing math and metrics to understand.

Why bother tracking email marketing metrics? When you know your numbers, you know what’s working and what’s not. You can test different elements of the email, like the subject line or the pictures you use, to see which one spurs the most people to open it and donate. You can learn from your campaigns rather than send them out with fingers crossed.

Let’s take a look at three important email metrics, what they mean, and how to track them.

First, a word about email marketing metrics: your metrics are probably sitting somewhere in the system you use to send emails out. This may be a CRM system, or an email provider like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or another company that helps you automate your emails. If you don’t have reports available, the formulas to calculate each rate are included below. They’re easy and can be done using just a calculator—no complicated math.

Open rate: The open rate for an email marketing campaign means how many people clicked and opened the email. This tells you that your emails are interesting enough to read, and that they are getting a reaction from people. The open rate = (emails opened/emails sent out).
Click rate: The click rate for a fundraising email campaign tells you how many people were interested enough to click the link in the email to visit your website. If you’ve asked them to click and donate, you can also compare the number of clicks to the number of donations and see how many people finished by donating to your cause or how many changed their minds after clicking the link and left before donating. The click rate = (emails clicked/emails sent).
Donor retention: Retention means you are keeping donors. It’s important to your organization because it means you’re continuing to both do the good work you intend to do and that you’re keeping your donors engaged and informed. It’s easier to solicit donations from existing donors than to find new ones, so the higher your donor retention rate, the better. You can calculate this number on your own (your email metrics probably won’t include this figure) by using the following formula: Donor retention = (repeat donors)/(previous donors).

Improving Fundraising Campaigns for Success: Register for Our Webinar

At Beck & Company, we want your fundraising campaigns to be successful. We’re offering a free informational webinar on Outcomes Measurement for your nonprofit. It’s more information on measuring outcomes. All outcomes, such as these marketing metrics, are important. Learn which operational outcomes and other metrics you should be tracking and how to harness data to improve your work. Visit our webinar page for more information.

Beck & Company provides consulting and accounting services to nonprofits. Contact us today or call 703-834-0776 ext. 8001 for more information on the services we provide to help your nonprofit thrive.

Nonprofit Fundraising: Do you have a Sufficient Online Presence?

Fundraising. What emotions do you feel when you hear that word? As a nonprofit, does your organization dread and detest fundraising yet see its importance or is it something that you enjoy and feel successful at? For most people, they would say there is more hatred than love for fundraising so they, therefore, view it as a “necessary evil.”

Fundraising for nonprofits can be an essential part of helping acquire the funds needed to fulfill the organization’s mission. With the proper structures in place that are responsive to what donors are desirous to see, there is success to be had in terms of fundraising. Last month, we took a look at how to fundraise in a modern and connected world. In summary, current fundraising is all about focusing on individual giving through web-based tools and online efforts. This month, let’s take it a step further and look at what, exactly, should be included in your online fundraising attempts and some metrics that support the benefits of these efforts.

First, though, it is worth the reminder that all nonprofit fundraising efforts need to be properly recorded and tracked just like any other financial transaction. Although we will leave the fundraising expertise up to you, Beck and Company’s Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors can assist you with your back-office accounting and financial needs so you can focus on your mission. We provide professional advice to help you with financial statements and bookkeeping to make sure your finances are in order. Learn more about our nonprofit services. Now, let’s take a deeper look at what makes nonprofit fundraising successful in our current reality.

What leads to success in fundraising in our current reality?

These days, everything is about the internet. Two of the most powerful ways to fundraise are through online videos and blogs. These venues give you a chance to reach a broad audience with small and meaningful messages that have a personal flare. These short pieces create “ah ha” moments for viewers as to what your cause is and how it is really making a difference. This, in turn, leads them to want to contribute to see these things continue.

Diversifying your efforts to get the word out is essential. Multi-channel fundraising is more effective because with a larger number of communication channels being used, fundraising effectiveness improves. This means that the SAME message is sent out all over the place (website, e-newsletter, videos, advertisements, mailers, etc.). These small snippets add up to a complete picture for people in understanding the mission and need to contribute. Simply put, reinforcement is important.

In summary, successful fundraising today involves needing:

Blog posts with relevant and impactful content
Video clips available online reinforcing this same relevant and impactful content
Multiple channels to communicate the same message to a variety of people in a variety of formats

What metrics support the need for an online presence?

Here are just some examples of the results:

Fundraisers who release blog content reported they were 34% more likely to have increased fundraising revenue last year.
Fundraisers who release video content reported they were 47% more likely to have increased fundraising revenue last year.
Nonprofits who accept online donations were 24% more likely to have increased fundraising revenue last year and 61% more likely to describe their fundraising efforts as “effective.”
One organization that went from a single channel of communication to multiple channels all saying the same message increased their fundraising by 40% in just one season.

For more information about nonprofit fundraising and how to properly record and report what is raised, contact us here at Beck and Company CPAs. We are here to help your organization with its accounting and business system needs.

Nonprofit Fundraising in our Connected and Modern World

In order to prepare for a nonprofit financial audit or to expand fund development, you will need to be sure that past, current, and future funds raised from fundraising efforts are properly tracked and recorded. Even if you are simply doing an internal audit to prepare for a campaign, it is necessary to take a closer look at funds raised in the past and to be sure that the proper infrastructure is in place to handle a campaign. Beck and Company’s Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisors can give you insight into auditing processes and other nonprofit services. To learn more about audits and for assistance in this nonprofit financial audit process, take a look at our auditing services.

We all know that nonprofit fundraising is extremely valuable and important. Without it, it is likely there will be insufficient funds to meet the needs and service the mission of the organization because nonprofits can no longer rely on ever-decreasing government funds nor on select special events or grants. How, then, can we successfully do it? Fundraising is becoming more focused on individual giving. Being successful with fundraising efforts online is no easy task, but using the technology tools of today to reach individuals can be an important source of funds in a world where nearly everything is transitioning to the web. Here are five important tips for helping you achieve success in raising funds online:

1. Use multiple social online tools that others are using, too

Yes, there are indeed dozens of social tools available these days. While you would not want to use everything that is available, you should pick and choose as many as you think will work best for your audiences that you are also capable of managing. For example, different people prefer using Facebook pages over Twitter while others would rather follow Twitter feeds. You’ll want your efforts to be widespread so no one is left in the dark and so no possible opportunity is missed. Therefore, invest in the channels and tools that can really help you reach all of your supporters and donors. Remember, use what those people are using. There is no need to jump on the bandwagon of a new social technology tool until your donors are using it, too.

2. Networking with bloggers that share your organization’s passion is essential

Take time to build a relationship with the MANY bloggers that are out there. You are likely to find numerous blogs and bloggers that will share your nonprofit’s same passion. These connections can translate into easily multiplying efforts by having others with the same passion spread the word through their blogs. They can become your champions and help you raise awareness and donations through their readers and subscribers.

3. Don’t forget the power of face-to-face

Asking for support in person is still the number one way to achieve a donation for your organization. Use every correspondence and each opportunity when meeting with others in person to direct traffic to your social media channels and sites. This provides a way for new audiences to stay engaged with your cause and what your organization is doing about it.

4. Be consistent about informing and educating others

Use every opportunity you have whether it be on social media, over email, or in person to educate people on the impact of their donation. This is most powerful and eye-opening if precise and detailed examples are used that clearly depict how their money can make an impact and what it can fund. Use relevant happenings, events, news, and informational studies as an opportunity to educate others about your cause.

5. Keep it up and don’t lose heart

There is still no guarantee that funds will start pouring in through donations. It can be disheartening to look at your data statistics and wonder why more isn’t coming in. Although all of these online technological advances are powerful, social fundraising still takes time and does not happen immediately. Keep at it, and you’ll see the efforts will pay off over time.

For more information about nonprofit fundraising and the intended outcomes of it through audits, contact us here at Beck and Company CPAs.