You may have asked yourself any of the following questions, “What is grant writing? Why do I need to worry about a budget? How can my organization build credibility”
As you may know, there are many specifics that are involved within the grant writing process. While a budget is an important part of the grant proposal, there are many other important details that you don’t want to skim through as these relate to your grant writing practices, which impacts the overall success of your not-for-profit.
A Modern Nonprofit Podcast tackles these important considerations, and more, in the latest episode of the highly-successful, informative audio series. Powered by The Charity CFO, Tosha Anderson welcomes Kate West, the CEO of the Fundraising Lab, to discuss how listeners can create a budget for grant writing.
Some questions that Tosha and Kate cover during this episode include:
How to create a grant budget – what does a grant funder want to see? What do they DO with the budget presented?
How to plan for growth and do a time study?
How to quantify / demonstrate the value to volunteers and unpaid staff? Why is this important?
What income categories are most commonly used by nonprofits? Why are these distinctions important?
As a fundraising consultant with more than 25 years of experience, Kate boasts experience with professional instruction of grant writing skills and provides grant writing services for nonprofits in need. For nonprofit leaders interested in grant writing assistance, you need to check out Kate’s Grant Writing 101 course and additional mini courses.
For listeners of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast, use the added discount code to “How to Create a Grant Budget” mini course, which will provide $9 off the regular $29 regular course price. For course access, visit Kate’s website and also make sure to check out her Instagram page.
/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/fileuploads_222926_8055634_252-8e05624973e20b5de823aebdbcfd37df_LogoLeftAligned.png00Paul Cook/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/fileuploads_222926_8055634_252-8e05624973e20b5de823aebdbcfd37df_LogoLeftAligned.pngPaul Cook2021-03-01 15:45:092025-04-30 15:52:06How to Create a Budget for Grant Writing
It is no secret: people drive the mission in a charitable nonprofit.
So, human resources are critical towards the overall success of a nonprofit. Staff are the key to turning your nonprofit into a successful one. But, people providing services to nonprofits can be classified as: employees, independent contractors, or volunteers.
Because employment laws and specifics are complicated, and subject to change, Tosha Anderson, CPA, of The Charity CFO sits down with Moses Balian, an HR Consultant at Justworks, in the latest episode of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast.
Understanding the difference between an employee and an independent contractor
Deciding whether, and how, you should pay interns
Creating lasting relationships with volunteers, and when you should pay them
Per diems
When is it acceptable to pay freelancers or staff a per diem?
What happens to hourly or salary when you initiate per diems with freelancers?
And much more!
Importantly, the conversation and tips on this version of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast is not intended to be legal advice. Rather, it is an opportunity to learn the endeavors that have worked for nonprofits and human resources professionals as a means of guiding your modern nonprofit to achieve greater success.
That said, The Charity CFO utilizes JustWorks to ensure its employees are correctly compensated. As Moses said in this podcast, JustWorks helps entrepreneurs and businesses grow with confidence. Your nonprofit can receive access to big-company benefits, automated payroll, HR tools, and compliance support — all in one place.
You listened to this episode of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast. Now what?
Check out The Charity CFO on social media and on YouTube. As we strive to be a modern resource for modern nonprofits, our community is growing like never before. Follow and subscribe to our content for future episodes releases, nonprofit accounting tips and much more related to helping your organization achieve its best self.
More than 72% of adults in the United States have at least one social media account. These aren’t just people—they’re millions of opportunities for your nonprofit to have an impact on most of the country’s population.
If you’re looking to generate revenue for your nonprofit or spread awareness about a certain issue, you’re in need of nonprofit social media guidance.
We’re here to share exactly how to harness your nonprofit’s ability to make tangible progress using social media.
Nonprofit Social Media: The Basics
Before you even decide which platforms to use, you need to do two things:
Decide your goals (revenue, starting conversation, event attendance, sharing information)
Identify your audience
While your goals might be a combination of the above, and your audience may have a large demographic or age range, it’s important to strategize your social media before diving right in.
Below are a few categories your posts should fall into.
Hot tip: create a content schedule that posts different pieces of content. For example, you don’t want seven days in a row of community building posts. Mix it up by integrating informational posts, too!
Promoting Awareness
At the core of each nonprofit’s mission is education. Without sharing crucial information about the issue you’re combatting, your audience won’t see the value in the work you’re doing.
To get your audience engaged in the purpose of your organization, use statistics and infographics on Twitter or Instagram.
Build Community
Another way to generate a following on social media for nonprofits is to build a virtual community. Your followers want to feel like they’re a part of your movement, so let them in!
Do this by hosting live Q&As on Instagram or virtual forum meetings. Ask your followers to comment with a friend’s name or share their posts for more engagement.
LinkedIn is a great place to cultivate social networking for nonprofits, too, so try posting information there to gain a professional following. The cost of social network marketing is really just your time, so take a leap!
55% of the users who follow nonprofits on social media take action to benefit that organization. Considering some people use social media infrequently or just to share personal information, that’s a pretty great conversion rate!
Share Impact
Lastly, your followers want to know how your work is going. Be transparent and share statistics or stories with them!
Tell them how their donations are making your work possible. People respond well to stories, so get creative in how you share the information. Maybe have a volunteer of your organization or youth participant in your programming share the news!
Ideas for Nonprofit Social Media
Now that you have a sense of your goals and your audience, it’s time to get to it! Here are the top ideas for engaging social media posts that will get your nonprofit some well-deserved attention and donations.
Add Donation Buttons
Especially on Facebook and Instagram, it’s important to make it easy for your followers to donate to your nonprofit. Use Facebook’s charitable giving platform to show that you’re open to donations and encourage users to fundraise for you if they’re able.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are the best way to get an organic following on social media, no matter the platform. Hashtags are like coding your content to get to the right people.
For example, if you’re sharing something for Giving Tuesday, use the #givingtuesday hashtag to show up in the feed. For more niche topics, use specific hashtags to get recognized, like #artmuseum, #omahaarts, or #donatenow.
Share Videos
If the rise of TikTok taught us anything, it’s that people love short-form videos. Some nonprofits have been taking advantage of this, and TikTok has even responded by adding certain features to support nonprofit fundraising.
Even if you’re not on TikTok, your nonprofit can still make short-form videos to educate the public on your mission.
For example, a museum can make a short video going through an exhibition or touring the building. A nonprofit focused on poverty alleviation can share statistics and footage from donation events or services they offer the community.
There are endless opportunities!
Develop a Style Guide
Using social media solidifies your brand. To build trust among your followers and any new communities, you have to have consistency across the board.
Even if you only have a couple of people managing your social media, develop a style guide with all the information someone new would need to create your content.
This could have a list of your researched hashtags, approved colors, and graphics, or resources for posting techniques. This will ensure that your voice and branding is cohesive for your followers.
Pro tip: Use a free design platform like Canva to keep everything branded and stored!
Use Stories
While many people enjoy perfectly curated content, it’s important to shake it up a bit by using stories on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Use stories to show the day in the life of an employee or use engaging stickers like polls. This allows you to learn more about your audience and create fun content!
Keep up With the Times
Even if you use a content calendar to schedule content ahead of time, make sure that you’re keeping up with your platforms in between. Like, comment, and engage with other content and accounts you follow.
This helps the algorithms in these platforms see you as a contributor to the platform in multiple ways, instead of just posting.
As the events of 2020 and early 2021 have proven, it’s crucial that you keep up with what’s happening in the world. You don’t want your content to seem insensitive, so make sure your calendar is easy to adjust and that you’re flexible in what you post.
Going All-In on Social Media
If your nonprofit social media is ready to take off, congratulations! Using social media to get people interested in your work and cultivate new donors is a huge step towards furthering your mission as an organization.
When you’re ready, use these nonprofit social media marketing tips to gain new followers and keep them inspired by your work.
If you’re looking for more information on how to make your nonprofit successful, check out the rest of our blog.
We help nonprofits strategize their operations and services to be as efficient as possible. Check out our services and contact us for more information!
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For many of us working the 9-5/five days a week grind, Fridays are that final push towards the weekend. That said, Fridays can also feel like one of two ways based on your level of work or confidence: you’re stressful, or on cruise control.
That’s why our expert team of certified public accountants at The Charity CFO want you to make the most of your Friday. You should walk out of your nonprofit office knowing you did all that you could to be productive and proactive before the weekend. While we both know our work of helping better our communities never rests, it’s important to have time to better ourselves!
FAQ Fridays Webinar Description for Nonprofit Leaders and Professionals
So for a limited time, The Charity CFO Founder & CEO Tosha Anderson will be joined by the organization’s COO Tim Hudson for FAQ Fridays, a once-a-week morning webinar series to help nonprofit leaders, board members, volunteers and curious learners become more knowledgeable about today’s trending not-for-profit tips and tricks.
Topics Covered in The Charity CFO Free Friday Webinar Series
This webinar series will not just cover accounting, though. Tosha and Tim will cover topics like:
Year-End Compliance
Fundraising
Nonprofit Management Tips
Nonprofit Leaders Most Asked Questions
Best Bookkeeping Tools and Practices
And more!
The best part about this webinar series? It’s completely FREE! But make sure you register, because spots are limited. Mark your calendars as “Busy” on Friday mornings from 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM CST. Trust us, you won’t regret it.
As always, I’m always available to chat if you recognize your nonprofit accounting isn’t where you’d like it to be, or if you know you can do better in respect to your bookkeeping practices. Check out our services and request a free consultation with Tosha to ensure your nonprofit can truly maximize its mission.
There are around 1 million nonprofits in the United States. Many of them struggle creating value-driving metrics.
The vast number of nonprofits shows how difficult it may be to find funding if you are considering a nonprofit. You may realize that in order to succeed as a nonprofit, you need to find resources and people who are interested in contributing to your cause.
Another study stated that around 30% of nonprofits failed after 10 years. With such a high risk of failure, it’s important for nonprofits to figure out how to be successful.
Part of nonprofit success is dependent on reporting metrics. Value-driven metrics are what current and potential funders might be interested in when looking to fund your nonprofit.
Here are some key reporting metrics you need to keep an eye out for if you want to attract funders. Ultimately, this is how you create value-driven reporting metrics.
Return on Investment: Creating Value-Driven Metrics
One of the most critical reporting metrics is the return on investments. This is your ROI and how much you are making from your nonprofit.
It’s one of the metrics you can look at and decide how successful it is and if it’s getting the funding it needs to make a difference.
This is where you compare the cost of raising the event and paying for catering and a place to host the event and then compare it to how much was actually raised. You may have broken even, made a profit, or had a loss.
If you want to calculate your ROI for a nonprofit, you would want to divide total costs by total funds raised. This gives you an idea of how much is making from your nonprofit.
It can also give your investors or funders an idea if your nonprofit is successful and attracting interest.
Average Gift Price: Creating Value-Driven Metrics
Another metric to look at is how much a gift is when someone donates to a nonprofit. You want to see how much each gift on average is worth, which gives you an idea of how much people are giving to your nonprofit.
Metrics are important to help guide your nonprofit and your bookkeeping.
You can also see how many gifts in a specific time frame. You may know the average price per gift, but you still need to know how often you are receiving these gifts.
You can also see how many gifts you are receiving from specific donors. This allows you to segment your donors and see what donors in a specific market donate to your nonprofit.
Conversion Rate: Creating Value-Driven Metrics
The conversion rate is how many people actually gave your cause based on how many you asked.
You want to see how many of your target markets is giving to your nonprofit if you asked them over email or set up a link online.
Another way to look at the conversion rate is to see how many people are giving based on your outreach. You want to see how many people are donating on social media, email, websites, referrals, and more.
You can see how many people actually clicked on your link and committed to donating to your cause. You can then measure your conversion rate and compare it to other nonprofit organizations.
Another valuable way to look at the conversion rate is to see what channels provide you the most donors. If you discover that some channels provide more contributors to your nonprofit, it may be best to focus more on your content and marketing on fewer channels that are more successful.
Website Visits: Creating Value-Driven Metrics
If your nonprofit has a website where people can choose to visit and donate, you need to make sure you have Google Analytics are some other measuring tool to see what’s happening on your website.
Funders who are evaluating your nonprofit may look at website visits and see how many people you are attracting to your nonprofit. They will want to see how many clicks you are generating and how many pageviews there are.
These metrics are important because you want to see if people are engaged with your mission and what you are trying to do in your nonprofit. The better your website is designed and the easier it is to use, the more likely people will hang around longer on your website.
You’ll also want to see if people are specifically clicking on your call to action. Also, you will want to see if they are donating to your cause. This will provide insight on if you need to change the call to action or there’s a general lack of interest in your nonprofit.
Email Marketing Metrics
The final value-driven metric you need in your nonprofit that can give you insight on how to improve any part of your nonprofit is email metrics.
If you have an email list and send emails asking people to donate to your nonprofit, you need to look at the open rate, the click-through rate, and how much you are earning per email.
You want to see if your subscribers are donating based on the emails you are sending. These metrics can give you insight into if you need to make any changes with your emails regarding a subject line or body content.
Now You Know Everything About Reporting Metrics for Nonprofits
Value-driven reporting metrics are a great way to analyze the success of your nonprofit. It can help you determine what changes need to be done. This way, you can attract more investors.
While these metrics can be overwhelming, learning can help you increase funding. You will be able to optimize ways to ensure the success of your nonprofit.
If you want help with your nonprofit, you can contact us here.
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Why is there so much confusion surrounding the term “program outcome?” That’s because nonprofit organizations are often measured by the effectiveness of the work they do.
But, donors, stakeholders, and members of your community may question the processes that not-for-profit organizations implement.
Program Outcomes: Measuring The Effectiveness of the Work You Do Featured in A Modern Nonprofit Podcast
In this episode of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast, Tosha Anderson of The Charity CFO invites Sarah Buek of The IllumiLab to discuss the benefits of measuring success and how mission-minded organizations can foster positive environments. The link to the latest episode is below:
Many nonprofits are afraid to define and measure outcomes because the truth may reveal something a board member or nonprofit leader is afraid to know. While the work your nonprofit may do is hard to define, Sarah suggests many tips and tricks to help your organization find a method to measure your processes.
Some of the tips discussed on this podcast include:
Defining success and understanding failure
How nonprofits can take risk
Knowing how failure can be beneficial
Understanding your not-for-profit’s data
Balancing pressure from donors and from society at large
And more!
Communicating your nonprofit’s value and telling your story is so important in the world we live in. That’s why you must understand how to report and measure your organization’s processes. There is a lot of data at your fingertips, now it is time to learn how to gather, measure, and utilize it to help your non profit maximize its mission. Measuring the effectiveness of your organization is simple if you utilize program outcomes.
You don’t need technical expertise. In fact, you are already probably measuring a lot of the outcome measurement points you might think you are seeking. That’s why you need to listen to this episode and subscribe to future episodes of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast.
To learn more about Sarah’s work in the nonprofit sector and how her organization helps nonprofits increase effectiveness and efficiency, check out this website.
Do you realize one of the ways you can improve your nonprofit accounting is by hiring an expert nonprofit accountant and bookkeeper? Read through the services offered by The Charity CFO and request a FREE CONSULTATION. We can help you define nonprofit bookkeeping success and save you money.
And, did you enjoy this podcast? Keep the conversation moving by joiningA Modern Nonprofit Facebook Group today. Converse with nonprofit leaders and enthusiasts, and get access to exclusive information from throughout the industry.
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Are you looking for new ways to keep up with the hustle and bustle of your nonprofit organization? Have you noticed that the bookkeeping is starting to slip by the wayside? If so, then you need to create a nonprofit operating budget and learn how to manage it effectively.
Doing so can help ensure that you’re staying on task. you’ll find yourself with more financial peace of mind after knowing that there’s a specific purpose for every dollar you raise.
See below for an in-depth guide on how to create a nonprofit operating budget to get yourself back on track. Be sure to consider everything that’s listed.
1. Set Aside Time with Your Team to Manage your Budget.
Perhaps this is the first time that your organization will be addressing the budgetary needs that you have. Maybe it’s been so long since you kept a budget that you need to reassess where you are currently.
No matter the case, it’s important that you set aside time to hash out a new budget with your team. Find a time period where at least one person from each department can offer their input.
For example, if you have an in-house marketing coordinator, be sure to clue them in on your new budget to ensure your marketing needs are being met.
You’ll find that a great deal of this meeting will be compromised. Don’t get discouraged if it feels like you can’t get anywhere at first. It’s all about compromise. Every department will feel like their side of the operations deserves a higher portion of the budget.
If you need assistance with building your budget, then you can also decide to outsource it to a nonprofit accounting and bookkeeping service. If you need help creating a nonprofit operating budget, The Charity CFO is an expert accountant for charities.
2. Gather Data
You might be wondering to yourself “where am I supposed to come up with the numbers? How would I know how much to budget for marketing, events, fundraising, and so on?”. By looking at the previous data.
They say business is all about learning from the past; building a nonprofit operations budget is no exception.
Gather up all your bank statements from the checking account you use for your nonprofit’s finances. This might be overwhelming at first, but take a deep breath and give yourself a few weeks/months to comprise all the data (if necessary).
Decide which expenses fall under the umbrella of the different departments of your business, then add them up on a month by month basis. Did you spend more than you raised in previous months? Are you overspending in one area of your organization?
If need be, sit down with each department chair individually to assess the money you spent and the areas in which you could cut costs. This will give you a better idea of the amount you can set for that department’s monthly budget.
Nonprofits are all about the activities and events that you both attend and organize for your faithful following. It can lead to some tremendous fundraising opportunities.
However, too many nonprofits design their budget without considering those activities first and foremost. They’re then thrown out of whack when they can’t find the financial room to either attend the event or put on an activity that represents their brand in the right light.
Start by scheduling your activities as far out as possible (preferably a year out). How much money needs to be allocated to those activities? Which ones take priority?
As much as it might hurt, this is a great opportunity to cleanse your schedule of any activities that you aren’t seeing great returns from.
4. Properly Estimate Income
Planning income and expenses for a nonprofit can be challenging, but it isn’t impossible.
First, be sure to list your estimated income if different tiers of risk. This should be prioritized from “least trustworthy” to “most risky”.
For example, say you organize 4 groups for your income sources: group 1, group 2, group 3, and group 4. You might decide that people listed in group 1 are “most trustworthy”, meaning they’re most likely to donate generously and often.
Let the data guide you while you estimate this part of the budget. Put your most frequent sources of funding into group 1, the least frequent in group 4, and so on.
5. Put a Job to Every Dollar
Disclaimer: the job of your budget isn’t to primarily track the money that you spend. It’s to assign a job to every dollar that you raise for your cause.
For example, (for the sake of simple math), say that you budget to receive $1,000 in funds for this upcoming month.
You might consider putting $200 towards donations, $500 towards operations for the month, $200 towards activities and events, then have $100 leftover. This is the wrong way to do it.
You need to budget for all $1,000 in funds that you receive, down to the very last penny. If things change (which they often do), then your budget can be adjusted. Your ability to create a nonprofit operating budget also involves some critical thinking!
What You Can Do Today
Now that you have seen several effective steps that you need to take when building a nonprofit operating budget, it’s time for you to do so the right way.
Be sure to read this article to learn more about how to raise money with virtual events for your nonprofit organization.
And for more inquiries on our ability to be an expert accountant for nonprofits, be sure to reach out by requesting a meeting and we will be happy to discuss our bookkeeping services.
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They have to ensure that they meet the desired outcome. They have to manage their time, people and figure out how to manage a budget. There’s a lot that goes into a project manager, especially at nonprofits.
There’s also a need to know the best nonprofit project management tips in order to achieve the most success.
Here’s are 10 project management tips every non-profit should know.
1. Discuss the Scope of the Project
The scope of the project is what goes into it in order to achieve the most success.
As a project manager for a nonprofit, you need to figure out exactly what you are doing. When you have a clear idea of what to do, it’s easier to help a nonprofit that is either just starting out or has been around for years.
Also, a nonprofit may not have a project manager, at least initially, because it’s just starting out. It’s gathering interest from the community. But as nonprofits expand, there’s more of a need for nonprofit project managers.
The scope of the project should include deliverables. These are the outcomes of any project. This is what you need to deliver by a specific time frame.
Another part of the scope is the available resources you have to complete this project. You need to know what kind of tools are at your disposal so you can complete the project.
Communicate with nonprofit leaders to get the deliverables and know your resources, it will help you become more successful as a non-profit manager.
2. Figure Out How to Resolve Any Problems
As a non-profit manager, you also need to figure out how to resolve issues. If there’s an issue between two people on a team, it’s your responsibility to resolve it.
You need to figure out what issues may arise and what can delay the project you are working on for the non-profit.
3. Have Expectations
Another project management tip is to set expectations. You should set expectations with those who work with you at the non-profit.
You want people to know what your goals are and what how successful the non-profit can be if it meets these goals. That’s why it’s important to lay down expectations.
These expectations should be a guide for a non-profit. They should help others understand what they need to accomplish each day.
You can’t ignore this consequence. You have to know where in the project the most risk could happen. You have to assess what could make a project fail. When you assess risk, you better know how to prepare for it.
You know what to do in case something goes wrong. You know how to achieve the goals of a non-profit while considering the risk.
5. Anticipate Any Changes
In addition, to risk, you should also expect changes. A non-profit may have to change venues or something else.
Changes can derail a non-profit project unless you know how to prepare for them. That’s why you should anticipate any changes throughout the
6. Help Others Succeed
Another critical part of having an effective project management system is knowing how to help others succeed.
If you are the non-profit project manager, you are responsible for making sure everything runs smoothly. In order for that to happen, you need to make sure that everyone else has the tools necessary to succeed.
You not only want to be encouraging, but you also want to be communicative about progress and ensure everyone knows what they are trying to achieve.
7. Have Mini-Goals
Mini-goals helps give you something to track. You can track your daily to weekly goals, which are considered smaller than having monthly or yearly goals.
As a project manager for a non-profit, you want to have makes sure you are fulfilling your smaller goals because that will ultimately help you accomplish your major objective.
8. Be Organized
A critical part of project management is staying organized. You not only have to know everyone’s roles and make sure everyone is on task, but you also have to run events. You are responsible for making sure an event is run smoothly.
To help you stay organized as a non-profit project manager, you should consider strategies to help keep you organized. Have an online calendar, a checklist, social media updates, and anything else that helps you be more organized.
9. Have the Right Tools In Place
As a project manager, you also need to have the right tools to help you stay organized and productive.
Consider using apps like Trello, Evernote, and other notetaking apps. Another helpful software is Slack, which can help you communicate with those involved in the non-profit, especially if they are working remotely.
10. Know Your Limit
The final tip is to know your limit as a project manager. Being a project manager of a non-profit or anything requires a lot of work.
You have to manage others and you’re responsible for the success and failures of any events. That’s why it’s important to ask for help. Know how you can help others.
Now You Know the Best Project Management Tips
These are the best project management tips. They can give you insight on what to do for a non-profit when it comes to running events and making sure everyone knows their role.
In addition, these tips can also help with other businesses in addition to non-profits. They can help you develop skills that also work beyond project management.
Are you trying to build a strong foundation for your nonprofit? Well, it all begins with knowing the in and outs of the entire structure. In premise, the difference between a good and a bad nonprofit is the ability to avoid common fundraising mistakes.
In this article, we will cover these 7 mistakes, so that you can build a project that’s truly exquisite. Read on to learn more.
Building a successful project through fundraising is important to your organization’s success.
1. Untailored Messaging
When you’re talking to your supporters, a one-fits-all application does not work. You need to know what works for each target audience and hone your messaging for each segment of your donors.
Segmenting your supporters into separate groups is critical to making sure that the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time. You can accomplish this by breaking down the entire collective into smaller sub-sections, such as big-donors, first-time donors, recurring-donors, event attendees, third-parties, etc.
You might even consider developing donor characteristics to help with driving action on their part. Once you have segmented your audience, it’s much easier to tailor content for each, thus build real relationships.
Stronger bonds = greater number of financial commitments.
2. Not Talking About the “Why?”
Most of the nonprofit organizations spend too much time talking about how they will perform their work, rather than why they will do it.
After all, you’ve adequately enough to create a solution to an important problem with dedication. But to get people to appreciate such efforts, you need them to provide context. Make them care.
This means that you have spoken about the “why” before you even mention the “how. First, speak about the challenges you have addressed, then speak about how you solved them. This will spark genuine connections with you on the empathetic level which will help them to action.
Don’t assume that your supporters know everything about you. Just because they’ve decided to donate, doesn’t mean they have an understanding of your work and its importance.
Make use of the opportunity and give them the full story.
3. Common Fundraising Mistakes: Wrong Relationships
If your relationships with the supporters are purely transactional, they will move on. If they are relational, they will continue to thrive and blossom.
With the use of modern technologies, it can be very easy to bombard your sponsors with asks across all channels. Taking this unthoughtful approach to why and when you ask your sponsors for contributions will result in disconnection and donor fatigue.
4. High Expectations, Poor Outcomes
Do not set high expectations and then deliver poor outcomes. Consistency is critical to reputation. Be realistic, honest, and transparent about all of your efforts and outcomes.
In terms of the marketplace, reach and services, be consistent when articulating their effect. Meet the expectations set by important stakeholders, and deliver exceptional services.
Exceed all expected outcomes.
5. Lack of Financial Competency
A most important faculty of the nonprofit experience is financial competency. Many founders have not anticipated what it will truly cost to start the nonprofit, much less where to get the funds.
Any nonprofit needs a funding plan, which will decide if it will charge fees for services, and an effective records system to micromanage all resources. A nonprofit with poor funding is very unlikely to sustain itself before even implementing a verbose fundraising structure.
And even that’s not enough. Financial competency is vividly important in a nonprofit, so don’t dismiss it.
6. Ineffective Board
If there is one thing that could break or make your project, it might be the quality of your board. Your initial boar members must be your true circle of influence. They should be those who have the influence, resources, and contacts that can help this project grow.
They should believe in the mission of the organization, and be willing to sell that mission to anybody else. They are the gate-keepers who should help to open doors for you.
And where do you find such people? Well, that depends on the mission behind the nonprofit. But it’s all about networking, so visit meetings, conventions, conferences, and anything else that might be pertinent to the problems that you are trying to solve.
7. Failing to Communicate
Using a single channel for communication is shortsighted. All of your supporters are different. They have different genders, ages, capacities, etc. This is why a variety of communication channels is important to appeal to different people.
You need to have multichannel network strategies that will allow you to effectively collaborate and converse with donors regularly.
Many of your supporters and donors will respond best on certain communication channels. Some might be completely blind to invitations, CTAs, or other asks shared on single channels.
In order to avoid this, segment your donors on the basis of their preference for communication. Or simply reach out to them on a platform, if you’ve sent an invitation over email, reach out to them by phone afterward.
Accounting Services for Your Nonprofit
Now that you know about the 7 common fundraising mistakes that will ruin your nonprofit, you are well on your way to build a solid foundation for your endeavors. As long as you avoid the pitfalls of others, and make wise decisions supported by an educated and influential board, there is no reason your mission is any less than the big fish.
If you’re interested in solving one of 7 mistakes, being that of “lack of financial competency”, get in touch with us and we will happily walk you through our accounting services.
https://thecharitycfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Notepad-and-green-plant-on-woo.jpg13332000Paul Cook/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/fileuploads_222926_8055634_252-8e05624973e20b5de823aebdbcfd37df_LogoLeftAligned.pngPaul Cook2020-09-22 14:30:252025-04-30 15:28:057 Common Fundraising Mistakes to Avoid for Nonprofits
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