In conjunction with the launch of Get Donors, our free 7-part video series on the secrets of nonprofit fundraising, we’ll be publishing key take-aways from each of the seven videos.

Our series is taught by Ruthellen Rubin, an NYU Professor of Philanthropy and Certified Fund Raising Executive. She distills over 30 years of professional nonprofit fundraising experience and expertise into Get Donors. Here’s the  tidbit for this week!

Lesson 2: Create real, personal, and urgent appeals

The most effective fundraising appeals are real, personal, and urgent. Use compelling storytelling with images and videos to connect a donor’s donation to a …

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In conjunction with the launch of Get Donors, our free 7-part video series on the secrets of nonprofit fundraising, we’ll be publishing key take-aways from each of the seven videos.

Our series is taught by Ruthellen Rubin, an NYU Professor of Philanthropy and Certified Fund Raising Executive. She distills over 30 years of professional nonprofit fundraising experience and expertise into Get Donors. Here’s the first tidbit.

Lesson 1: In order to get more donors, you need to develop a case for support.

Your prospective donors are asking why they should support your nonprofit. You need to clarify why you’re asking …

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What if you could easily learn the secrets of a professional fundraiser? What if you could learn how to get more donors?

Fundraising is the lifeblood of your nonprofit. It’s what you need to help you make an impact, but it’s what you worry about the most.

For most of us, we’re not professionally trained fundraisers so it doesn’t come naturally to us. We know how to make an impact, yet we had to learn fundraising the hard way, by stumbling around and making mistakes.

There’s good news.

We’re launching a free 7-part web video series on fundraising fundamentals to …

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Donation tipping recommends, to the donor, that an additional percentage be added to their donation to cover transaction fees or other administrative costs. You can make this mandatory or optional for the donor.

80% of donors have opted in to help cover the fees. On average, this has been an additional 3% in donations for nonprofits.

To enabled this option, just follow these easy steps:

1. Login to your CauseVox admin
2. Select your fundraising site
3. Go to “Site Settings” and then “Fundraising Settings”
4. Check the box for “Donation Tipping”

This is free and included in all plans. Get started with donation …

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Your nonprofit’s story is your most valuable asset. Your story can inspire action and create change. In addition, nonprofits that tell compelling stories tend to raise the most funds.

At the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we moderated an incredible session called The Future of Nonprofit Storytelling with JD Lasica (Socialbrite), Jenna Sauber (Case Foundation), and Cara Jones (Storytellers for Good).

In this session, we explored the best practices of nonprofit storytelling, mediums and channels for telling those stories, and where storytelling is headed in the future for nonprofits.

The top 10 insights, in no …

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Stories are powerful. From the beginning of humanity, stories have been how we make sense of the world, share wisdom, and explain our existence.

Storytelling is the most powerful tool nonprofits have at their disposal. All good stories engage audiences, influence their behavior, and inspire them to share the emotion felt from the story. It’s used to start movements and create social change.

The importance of online storytelling for nonprofit fundraising and advocacy is evolving quickly. With the use of social media, sharing good stories have become easier, faster, and cheaper than ever before. Yet for most nonprofits, stories are …

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Storytelling is one hot nonprofit trend. You can use it to reposition and grow your company, champion a cause, or reboot your career.

No matter what great nonprofit practices you have in place, nothing will ever shift unless your audience really identifies with the story you tell.

My friend Michael Margolis over at Get Storied has put together a totally inspiring (and totally practical) 5-part video series on storytelling. And the best part is that it’s completely free!

Go check it out!

This awesome complimentary video series is all part of the run up to Reinvention Summit 2, which is world’s …

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Storytelling is a culture of communication for your nonprofit. It’s how you communicate with donors, supporters, and staff. Storytelling is a driving factor for online fundraising success.

One of the most effective ways to tell stories is through images. Images evoke emotion — the root of what drives your nonprofit or cause.

We found this free guidebook developed by the Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown on how you can use images to create an impact. It walks you through the types of images you should be using and how you can systematically capture them.

Here’s their description:

Images …

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We’re headed off to SXSW on March 9 – 13 and NTC on April 3 – 5 in the next few weeks. If you’re going to be there, we’d love to catch up. Feel free to ping us on Twitter or email.

More info on these conferences below. It’s not too late to register!

SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive is an annual festival in Austin TX focused on emerging technology, a focus which has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. There’s a social good track and hundreds, if not thousands, …

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Video is a powerful way to raise awareness and fundraise. YouTube and Vimeo are the two largest video hosting communities; which is better?

YouTube and Vimeo had approximately 150 million and 7 million unique visitors last month, respectively. With the larger number of users, YouTube allows you to tap into a potentially large community of supporters.

As with any technology, there is a learning curve relative to video sharing. Vimeo provides a free video school packed with entertaining video tutorials; they even have a free online acting school. The YouTube schooling isn’t quite as entertaining, but they do provide free …

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