Monday Mixtape 005: Donor Retention, Annual Reports, & Fundraising Tips

Monday Mixtape 005: Donor Retention, Annual Reports, & Fundraising Tips

Research shows that over 40% of donors who don’t give to a charity again say it’s due to a lack of communication on the impact of their gift.

^ This is preventable donor attrition.

So, this week’s mix is dedicated to helping you rethink and streamline how you update your donors from last year, increasing donor retention and grow your impact. Enjoy!

Here’s the Week’s Mix:

“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.”  —George Bernard Shaw

Track #1 The Annual Report Donor List Is A Stupid Waste Of Time, by Kivi Leroux Miller at Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog

Gotta love a headline like that. Is half of your annual report a list of donor names? Check out Kivi’s rationale for skipping this whole headache, and how to make your annual report donor-centered. This post made so much sense to me, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Track #2 The Anatomy Of A Superb Annual Report, by Tina Jepson at CauseVox

Just what should you include in an annual report, anyway? Tina takes us through the most important parts of an annual report, with this great how-to. If you’re wondering how to make your annual report work harder for you (ie. raise money), Tina’s got you covered.

Weekly Wow!

Casa Congo is a social enterprise born in Nicaragua, Astillero. They’re currently raising funds to build a school of conservation to show communities how to transform natural resources into economic assets.

This team is inspiring. They’ve reached 85% of their goal and have grit, resilience, and a deep passion for their work. They embody the spirit behind #togetherwecan.

Watch this video and show them some love!

Track #3 5 Must-Have Infographic Template To Supercharge Your Nonprofit, by Eugene Woo at Venngage.

Are you thinking about including infographics in your annual report? Good idea! Check out this post to get your visual information wheels turning, and learn about the types of infographics that help nonprofits communicate.

Track #4 Top 7 Nonprofit Annual Reports With Ideas To Steal For 2017, by Laura Clevenger at Whole Whale

If you’re looking for good examples to spark new ideas for your report, this is the post for you. These ideas are just as steal-worthy for 2018, I promise. By the way, if you’re a word-person like me, this post would be useful to explain your likes and dislikes to a graphics-person.

Bonus Tracks

For when the report’s gone to print, and you notice that you left a major donor off your list. (See, Kivi’s right! Donor lists are only trouble!)

For when you feel burnout lurking.

For when you’re compiling your quarterly board reports, like a boss.

By The Way …

Research shows that custom-branded donation pages that are embedded on your website get 6x the donations (not an exaggeration). So, last week we announced that you can now embed CauseVox donation pages on your website.

Here’s how it works on one of our customer’s Squarespace website:

^ Pretty neat, right?

With CauseVox you can now easily create, embed, and manage your one-time and recurring donation pages. Copy and paste your embed codes on any page of your website, and voilà!

Here’s a live example we’ve set up if you’d like to take a closer look.

Thanks for reading!

– Megan

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