Nonprofit Basics
There’s a lot of jargon used in the nonprofit sector. That’s why we’ve created definitions for common terms and phrases you may have heard in your time as a nonprofit fundraiser or marketer.
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Adoption Fundraising
Adoption fundraisers are special fundraisers that help families that adopt a child cover the costs and fees associated with the adoption process. Concerns about adoption fees are one of the main reasons prospective adoptive parents shy away from adopting. Raising some or all of the funds they need to pay for home inspections, court and legal fees, counseling for the child and their birth parents, social work services, and medical needs help families feel like adopting is attainable.
Amazon Smile
Amazon Smile was a program that allowed shoppers to give back to their favorite charities while making everyday online purchases through Amazon. It was a simple way for shoppers to give to nonprofits through purchases that they were going to make anyway, regardless of whether they were able to make an additional donation. The program will be discontinued in February 2023.
Annual Giving
Annual giving encompasses a nonprofit’s efforts to receive donations and funds received for daily operations, ongoing projects and initiatives, and other activities for which an organization might not have a specific fund set aside. Essentially, annual giving describes the initiatives that a nonprofit or university carries out to raise reliable funding throughout the year.
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Candy Bar Fundraiser
A candy bar fundraiser is a fundraising campaign where a school or organization sells candy bars to the community to raise money. It is a popular choice for sports teams, schools, and even churches due to its convenience. Candy bars can be bought in bulk at a low price from a product fundraising partner, then sold by students or volunteers.
Cause Marketing
Cause marketing or cause-related marketing is marketing that is carried out by a for-profit business to advance a charitable cause or better society. Cause marketing campaigns are conducted similarly to how a nonprofit organization would market its mission.
Charity eCards
Charity eCards are digital greeting cards that supporters can send to loved ones to celebrate special occasions and spread awareness for an organization. Some nonprofits even create virtual greeting cards for staff to show appreciation for committed supporters and corporate partners.
College Website
A college website (also known as a university website or a higher education website) is an online resource that showcases a university and its activities. College websites are often used as a marketing tool to promote a university’s programs, research, and events to prospective and current students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni.
Corporate Giving
Corporate giving refers to the actions a company takes and the investments it makes to support nonprofits. Also known as “corporate philanthropy,” corporate giving includes all of the ways in which companies create positive social impact through generous financial donations, employee time, or their products and services. Common types of corporate giving programs include matching gifts, volunteerism, and in-kind donations.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is a fundraising method that collects small amounts of money from a large group of people. It’s another type of crowdsourcing, which collects goods or services from a large group for individuals or organizations. For nonprofits, crowdfunding can raise money for a project and expand support for a cause.
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Data Append
A data append is the process of adding missing or updating existing data points in an organization’s database. The process involves comparing the existing database to a larger, more comprehensive data source. Data append services use external data sources to fill gaps in data, including contact details, employment information, demographic data, and more.
Donation Matching
Donation matching is a corporate giving initiative in which companies match their employees’ charitable donations. When an employee donates to a nonprofit, they’ll submit a request to their employer. Then, the company will then make its own donation to the same organization.
Donation Request
When a nonprofit organization asks its supporters to make a donation, that’s a donation request. The request can be made in different ways, such as in person or by phone call, and the type of donation can also vary. Having compelling and thoughtful donation requests is crucial for nonprofit organizations to get the funds they need.
Donor Data
Donor data refers to the information that nonprofits collect about their individual donors. The most common types of supporter data organizations store include full names, contact information, employment details, donation history, engagement details, wealth indicators, and preferred communication channels.
Donor Pyramid
The donor pyramid, or gift pyramid, is a graphic that nonprofits create to visualize their donor base that involves arranging donors by giving level. Each level of the pyramid represents a different group of donors, going from prospective donors at the bottom all the way to major donors at the top.
Donor Walls
Donor walls are a great way to show appreciation to donors and demonstrate the impact of their contributions, which can aid in donor retention and acquisition. They provide a tangible way to thank and recognize donors for their support, while also creating a sense of community and allowing donors to show off their commitment to the organization.
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Education Management Solution
Education management solutions are software programs that help school administrators and teachers manage the day-to-day of running a school. All of the top education management solutions on the market today are cloud-based. Education software should include robust data gathering and management tools that allow students and families to input, edit, and access their information as well as provide a database for you to filter, search, and run reports for you and your team.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is how mentally and emotionally connected employees feel with their work. Engaged employees feel a personal investment in completing their day-to-day responsibilities actively seek to help their organization succeed.
Employee Engagement Ideas
Employee engagement refers to how your employees feel about their jobs and how invested they are in your organization’s larger goals. Engaged employees are passionate about their work, enjoy their jobs, and feel satisfied with how they are valued and compensated for their efforts. They’re also very loyal to the organizations they work for and are more likely to stay retained in their roles.
Employee Engagement Programs
Employee engagement programs are deliberate efforts your organization takes to connect with employees and encourage them to take part in building a positive work environment.
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Feasibility Study
A feasibility study helps your nonprofit assess its current capacity and readiness for conducting a large-scale campaign, like a capital campaign. The study tests your preliminary plans and goals by gathering input from the stakeholders who will later help make the campaign a reality, including board members, major donors, and other funders and partners in the community.
Foundation
A foundation is a charitable trust or nonprofit organization typically formed to provide charitable grants to other organizations or institutions. Foundations can support a variety of different causes such as those related to science, religion, education, or culture. There are two foundation types: public foundations and private foundations. Public foundations are funded by a variety of sources, such as individuals, private foundations, or government entities. Private foundations are typically funded by individuals or families.
Fundraising Strategy
A fundraising strategy is a blueprint made specifically to guide your fundraising approach. To effectively raise money and cultivate donor relationships, it’s essential that you create a comprehensive fundraising strategy. A concrete strategy helps establish a clear direction for the future, improves time management, and drives fundraising success.
Fundraising Thermometer
A fundraising thermometer is a graphic that represents the progress a nonprofit organization has made throughout a fundraising campaign. A fundraising thermometer can be a tangible visual, such as a poster or drawing on a whiteboard, that is updated as the fundraising campaign progresses. It can also be a virtual representation that is automatically updated as new donations come in.
Fundraising Video
A fundraising video is a video created to promote a specific fundraising campaign and inspire viewers to donate. Videos can be a valuable tool for nonprofit marketing or for any organization raising money for a cause. In addition to promoting a specific fundraiser, your video can also increase awareness of your nonprofit’s work.
Fun Run Fundraiser
A fun run fundraiser is a type of peer-to-peer fundraiser in which participants sign up to run, collect pledges, and earn donations for each mile (or other specified unit of distance) they run. Fun runs are very adaptable and cost-effective. You can choose a theme, such as a color run or glow run. These fundraisers also build community, making them a popular way to bring people together around the holiday season.
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Graphic Design for Nonprofits
Nonprofit graphic design refers to the artwork a nonprofit uses to market its cause. It’s the practice of composing and arranging words, shapes, colors, and other artistic components to communicate a message. Nonprofits use graphic designs in a variety of digital and print materials, from their official logo to printed flyers and solicitation letters.
Grassroots Advocacy
On a large scale, the term “advocacy” refers to speaking up on behalf of another group that is directly affected by an issue. Grassroots advocacy is advocacy work that takes place in local communities. Your community might mobilize to advocate for a local initiative, or your work might involve contacting elected officials to share your perspective on a more wide-reaching issue.
Google Ad Grants
The Google Ad Grants program awards organizations $10,000 worth of Google Ads credits each month. Eligible organizations use these credits to bid on keywords and promote their web content. With free access to Google’s keyword research tools, nonprofits can place compelling ads in prominent locations on Google Search results pages, connecting them with likely supporters for their cause.
Google for Nonprofits
Google for Nonprofits is a program that gives eligible organizations free access to premium Google products, like Ad Grants and Workspace. Through the program, Google empowers nonprofits to increase internal productivity and connect with new supporters. Currently available in 65+ countries, Google for Nonprofits is a powerful resource that enables nonprofits everywhere to use valuable tools without having to bear the brunt of the cost.
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Live Auction
A live auction is the sale of items or experiences that guests at your in-person fundraising event can bid on. At a live auction, a host or auctioneer sells items to attendees. Guests bid until the highest offer is made and someone wins the item.
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Microsoft Ad Grants
Also known as Ads for Social Impact, the Microsoft Ad Grants program awards eligible nonprofits $3,000 each month to spend on promoting web content across Microsoft’s digital search and native advertising network. Ads are shown across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, outlook.com, MSN, and Microsoft Edge.
Moves Management
Moves are efforts a nonprofit makes to earn support by pushing a supporter along in their donation journey. Moves management is the act of tracking and recording those moves to understand where each supporter is in their journey. This intentionality allows nonprofits to take specific and more successful actions based on the status of each supporter.
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Nonprofit Accounting
Nonprofit accounting is the process by which organizations plan, record, and report their finances on a regular basis. This process helps you make smart financial decisions so you can remain accountable to donors and meet your organization’s financial goals.
Nonprofit Annual Report
A nonprofit annual report is a document compiling all of an organization’s activities, projects, and initiatives for a year. These documents are made publicly available for transparency reasons, allowing all stakeholders and supporters to understand what your organization has done throughout the year.
Nonprofit Event
Nonprofit events are in-person or virtual activities hosted by nonprofits in order to connect with existing and potential supporters. To run a successful event, you’ll need a robust volunteer team, a strong event plan in place, and essential elements like a venue and catering if you’re hosting it in person.
Nonprofit Jobs
Nonprofit jobs are jobs in the nonprofit industry. These include major gifts officers, volunteer manager, event planners, and more.
Nonprofit Marketing Plan
A nonprofit marketing plan is a document that denotes your nonprofit’s marketing and outreach strategies. Your nonprofit marketing plan can encompass a specific campaign or general initiatives to promote your organization and its programs. Whenever you have an idea for a marketing campaign in mind, you should thoroughly plan it out with a nonprofit marketing plan.
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Read-a-thon Fundraiser
A read-a-thon is an educational fundraiser where schools raise money by encouraging students to read. With minimal effort and setup needed from the school itself, read-a-thons simply require that sponsors donate money to your school for every increment (every 30 minutes, for example) that a student reads. These fundraisers not only encourage literacy but also are a great way for donors to encourage learning.
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School Management System
A school management system refers to the technology designed to help schools conduct their operations, administrative duties, and activities in a streamlined and efficient manner.
Sponsorship Levels
Sponsorship levels are tiered options for businesses to contribute funds and resources for a nonprofit event. To cultivate productive nonprofit-corporation relationships, both parties must work in sync toward collective and individual goals.
Strategic Philanthropy
Strategic philanthropy is a philanthropic model that involves allocating funding to charitable work according to a concrete, overarching strategy in pursuit of a definable mission. For individual donors, charitable foundations, corporations, and governments, this model can serve as an effective basis for determining where to direct their financial support.
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Volunteer Management
Volunteer management encapsulates the entire process of getting volunteers involved in your mission, supervising their experience with your nonprofit, and thanking them for their efforts. Some organizations may have more or less hands-on volunteer programs, but the need for effective management to create positive engagement remains the same.
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