In this episode of Nonprofit Answers, you will learn how to write a great fundraising appeal. Though there isn't a perfect formula for a charity fundraising appeal, Jeremy walks through a proven formula that will get you results. Writing great fundraising direct marketing is part science and part art, but with this step by step process, you'll be writing fundraising letters that will raise more money for your organization.

In this fifth episode of a special podcast series teaching the fundamentals of fundraising, you'll learn how to build and maintain donor relationships. Building and maintaining donor relationships is the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. This is a crucial point to understand and to communicate into your organization. You will learn why building relationships with donors is important, how your current definition of donor relationship may be wrong, and how different donor audiences need...

In this fourth episode of a special podcast series teaching the fundamentals of fundraising, you'll learn how to pursue nonprofit startup funding. Whether you're at a brand new nonprofit, are revamping a fundraising program, or need creative ideas for fundraising for a new campaign or project, this episode will give you actionable fundraising ideas. My teenage daughter is interested in nonprofit fundraising, so I've created a special series in Nonprofit Answers to help her learn fundraising....

In this second part of a two part series on donor psychology, you will learn the reasons why people give. Jeremy has identified 15 different psychological triggers that moves someone to donate to your nonprofit. In this episode, Jeremy explains the second 7 motivations, or donor psychological triggers, that help someone make a decision to give to your nonprofit. This is a fascinating look at why people give and how you can change your messaging or produce events that create more donors. For...

In this second episode of a special series of fundraising education, you will learn donor psychology and the reasons why people give. Jeremy has identified 15 different psychological triggers that moves someone to donate to your nonprofit. In this episode, Jeremy explains the first 8 motivations, or donor psychological triggers, that help someone make a decision to give to your nonprofit. This is a fascinating look at why people give and how you can change your messaging or produce events...

Recently, my 15 year old daughter Emily has shown interest in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. In this special series of Nonprofit Answers episodes, you'll learn all aspects of the fundraising process. In this episode, you will learn donor motivations and how your nonprofit presents an appeal or campaign to specific types of donors. You'll start learning the foundations of donor psychology and how to motivate donors to give.

When I joined Food for the Hungry just over 6 years ago, there was a lot I needed to learn about fundraising. In this special episode, I reflect on the lessons I've learn over these years and share the five secrets successful fundraisers know. You'll learn how to demonstrate urgency, how to be more direct with your ask, a mistake you're likely making in how you talk to donors, a lesson on using facts to motivate donors, and key insights into showing gratitude. These lessons, learned over the...

Storytelling is the foundation of excellent nonprofit marketing. Jeremy is frequently asked, "how do I effectively tell our story?" In this special episode, Jeremy Reis explores effective nonprofit storytelling that produces results. You'll learn the tips and tricks to writing great nonprofit stories that raise funds and builds relationships with your donors and stakeholders.

In this episode, Gary asks what, if anything, should we email major donors? This isn't an either/or answer, it isn't whether or not you send major and midlevel donors emails, but which emails and how often. Jeremy teaches you how to define a major partner email communication strategy and recommends which emails to send based on which segment the donor is in. This is a "can't miss" episode for major donor teams.

Growing your email list is an essential part of digital marketing for your nonprofit. You will be able to create a new source of donors through adding people who have an affinity for your cause. In this episode, Jeremy explores several ways you can add new names to your email list.

Your donor is the hero. This is one of the hardest concepts for nonprofit staff to accept. They want their frontline staff to be the heros. They want to recognize the beneficiaries as the heros. Both are true, but in the context of fundraising, your donor is the hero. In this episode, Jeremy answers a question about how to position the donor as the hero in your nonprofit communications. Using examples, Jeremy teaches you how to write active copy that presents an appeal from the point of view...

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a technology to show ads to a warm audience. In this episode, Jeremy discusses what retargeting is, how it works, two different types of retargeting, and how your nonprofit organization can use retargeting to get more supporters and deepen your relationship with existing donors. Read the full transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode12 Do you have a question about digital advertising or how to convert more warm contacts into donors? Ask your...

Blogging is not dead. Far from it. In today's episode, Jeremy answers a question from a nonprofit executive about how much blogging is right for his organization. This executive is being told by his team to blog every day, but doesn't understand why. Jeremy explores the types of posts we should write, how to measure the effectiveness of each one, and addresses the frequency of blogging. How do you decide how many times to blog a week or a month? For a full transcript of this episode, visit...

In this special edition of Nonprofit Answers, Jeremy is live at the Christian Leadership Alliance with a timely question. At the conference, a nonprofit leader asked Jeremy how to properly give internal credit for income without causing problems with attribution and to reduce internal fighting over "credit" for donations. Jeremy explains the problem with internal sourcing of income and how they resolved the problem at Food for the Hungry. Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing?...

Do you have a lot of email addresses on your file that aren't responding? Speaking from personal experience, Jeremy explains to Grant the steps to re-engage email subscribers and what to do if they continue to be unresponsive. For the health of your email file, you need to listen to this episode! Read the full transcript: http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode9 Do you have questions about email marketing or how to grow your email list? Submit your question today! Visit...

Creating a sense of urgency in your appeal messaging will help move readers to become donors. What if you have a difficult time creating a sense of urgency? In episode 8 of Nonprofit Answers, Rob asks a question about how to create urgency in his appeals for a women's shelter. Jeremy explores why you want to create urgency and how to do it. Read the full transcript at: http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode8 Do you have a question about nonprofit marketing or fundraising? Ask now at...

Ever have someone who isn't a fundraising professional edit-out fundraising best practices? Have someone question your expertise and direct you to do something that lessens the impact of your appeal? On this episode of Nonprofit Answers, Julia asks a question about her Executive Director editing her appeals. How should she give feedback to him to help him understand why she is doing the things she does? Read the transcript at http://nonprofitdonor.com/episode7 Have a question about...

Direct mail is not dead. Far from it, direct mail still performs well if you have a good strategy behind it. Many nonprofits are transitioning more investment into digital but aren't seeing the return in email that they've seen in direct mail. The lessons we've learned in direct mail still apply to email: you need a good story, you need to have a strong ask, and you need urgency. Today, we're going to talk through the five Cs of successful email appeals, then we have a question from Marcy...

Karen's organization has a partner who offered them a list of 25,000 email addresses. Her boss wants to just add them to their email service provider, but Karen doesn't agree. In episode 5, Jeremy gives Karen advice as to how to answer her boss and what to do with the opportunity.

How does email design impact response in your emails? Often there are conflicting answers on blogs as different organizations experience different results when they change factors in their email marketing. In episode 4, Jeremy explores a question about graphics vs text emails and how you can test to determine the right factors to improve response for your nonprofit emails.

Have you ever hired a consultant to help you with a project, but when it comes time to execute, they disappear? This happened to Holly when she brought in a consultant to look at her email fundraising program. The consultant told Holly she should improve her segmentation and then disappeared before sharing with her a direction to go. In episode 3 of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy teaches Holly about different ways to segment her email file to maximize response.

In episode two of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy Reis takes a question from Ryan who's frustrated with their turnaround time on disaster response fundraising appeals. This is a topic that really hits home: how do we decide if we're going to respond to a disaster and then get our appeals out the door quickly in email and direct mail? Jeremy shares how Food for the Hungry decides when to respond and how they send out emergency response fundraising appeals quickly.

In episode 1 of the Nonprofit Answers Podcast, Jeremy Reis answers a question from Helen, a nonprofit marketing manager in Nashville. Helen is concerned about the recent algorithm changes with Facebook and wants to know what she should do. Should she continue to invest time and resources into Facebook? What changes should she make to her social media strategy? Learn what changed in the Meaningful Interactions update and how it impacts your nonprofit organization. Learn what you should do...