“We are Canva, but more,” explains Visme founder Paymen Taei, founder and CEO of Visme, a design platform for non-designers.  He’s right. Visme is Canva. But on steroids.  Like Canva, Visme is a design platform that allows non-designers (like me) the ability to create vibrant presentations, and videos using pre-existing templates, graphics, and pictures. But unlike Canva, Visme allows users to assemble an entire presentation as opposed to a one-off slide. It’s an accessible software that nonprofits can use without having to hire an outside design agency or hire a freelancer.

In Use:

According to Taei, who began his career as a web designer - Visme was a consolidation of many pain points that his clients were facing. They thought their presentations were ugly and needed him to spruce them up; their knowledge on graphic design was limited and therefore their designs were mediocre; or like many nonprofits – they didn’t have the funds to hire an agency to help them with their brand and creative. From there- Visme was born in 2013.

Like Canva, Visme has a free subscription that includes limited charts, widgets, and templates and up to 100 MB of storage. Users are allowed up to five public projects. Want to create private projects? Need more storage space, or want to access more templates, charts and widgets?  Visme has three other subscriptions that nonprofits can choose from with prices starting at $15 per montn if opting for an annual contract. Visme offers the “Business Plan” subscription to nonprofits at a 25% discount. The Business plan which is normally $29 per month (with an annual contract) comes with a Brand Kit, Analytics, Third-Party Integrations, and the ability to collect and store leads.

Ease of Use:

Visme is great for the non-designer because they have a lot of dynamic pre-existing templates that charities can choose from – whether they’re looking to create an infographic, video, or presentation for donors. They also supply charts and widgets that can be placed within a project. Want to excel beyond the pre-existing templates? Visme offers users educational resources that they can access for free. This includes blog posts, webinars, tutorials, and an online course.

Technology Used:

Visme projects live in the cloud and can be accessed anywhere. They can also be downloaded and exported as a Powerpoint, PDF, GIFs, or HTML-5 file. It all depends on what the user is more comfortable with.

Visme also integrates with third party applications such as Jotform, Youtube, Survey Monkey and Wistia. Using software such as Jotform or Survey Monkey, nonprofits can embed a form, survey, or video right into their presentation which allows for a seamless project.

Recap:

Visme is a “cloud-based visual content creation and collaboration platform” aimed at both designers and non-designers. It includes templates, pictures, graphs, and widgets that users can use to create vibrant and professional creative. Whether it’s an infographic, flowchart or animation – nonprofit organizations can skip the freelancer and create content without the expense ultimately saving them time and money.

Advantages:

• Nonprofits receive a 25% off of the “Business Plan” subscription that includes access to a Brand Kit, premium templates and unlimited projects
• Integrates with third parties such as YouTube and Survey Monkey – allowing users to embed a video or survey right into their presentation
• Presentation can be downloaded or live on the cloud
• Numerous pre-made templates to chose from that can be customized

Disadvantages:

• No mobile version yet
• Some users would like to see more pre-existing templates

My Opinion:

As someone who doesn’t have a creative bone in their body I love the fact that Visme has pre-made templates and visuals that nonprofits can use without spending thousands of dollars on an outside agency. Visme works with many nonprofits and I think even the smallest nonprofit can utilize the perks of Visme whether they opt for a free subscription or a Business Plan where they get a 25% discount. To get the most out of Visme, I would take advantage of their offerings whether it’s their blog posts or live webinars.

While Visme does not have a mobile version as of yet – it is in the works so nonprofits can expect to see it soon. It doesn’t mean that they can’t access Visme on their phones or tablets now – it just may be a bit cumbersome for the time being.

Back in 2018, I wrote a review on Virtuous’ new online donation platform. Founded by Gabe Cooper in 2014, Virtuous is a non-profit CRM whose mission is to empower charities to grow generosity. Their multiple platforms aim to make it easier for nonprofits to engage with their donors while taking some of the heavy lifting off of their shoulders.

In Use:

“Giving is deeply personal. Technology should support that and traditional software isn’t designed to do that,” explains Noah Barnett, CMO of Virtuous. Virtuous offers nonprofit organizations the ability to connect with their donors through online fundraising and marketing automation. The CRM’s backend dashboard allows charities to follow their donors giving journey while their analytics component, Signals allows nonprofits to gain much needed insight on who their donors, how they are giving, why they are giving, and how best to engage with them.

The platform can cost as little as $250 a month and is geared towards middle-to-large nonprofits between the $2M- $11M mark although Barnett notes it’s not so much the size of the nonprofit – but what their growth objectives are.

Technology Used:

Like many software companies today, Virtuous is a cloud-based platform. According to Barnett and Director of Customer Experience, Jeffrey Jacobs; being a cloud-based software makes them more accessible for all users. They add that it offers an additional layer of security. 

Virtuous is positioned as a “Best in Breed” software which means their platforms and services are considered best-in-class. Nonprofits shouldn’t solely rely on Virtuous for all of their technology needs – a mindset that many softwares share. According to their website, Virtuous points out that charities should never “feel handcuffed to a single system.” While having an “all-in-one” software may seem like a great idea – many times it’s too good to be true – leaving companies feeling gypped when the software they purchase cannot “do it all.” Because of this, Virtuous offer numerous integrations with companies like Mailchimp, Quickbook, Hubspot, and Eventbrite.

Ease of Use:

As the Director of Customer Experience Jacobs understands that that the task of migrating from one CRM to another can be daunting. That’s why they like to give a white glove approach to onboarding. Each new account is assigned to a data migration project manager, a support specialist and access to documentation that will make their migration easier.

Recap:

When it comes down to it Virtuous is a nonprofit CRM platform. Barnett likes to think that charities initially purchase Virtuous for the CRM, but once they see the value within their automation and integration tools they stick around. Virtuous boasts a 10% increase in donations and a 12% increase in donor retention rate for their customers.

Advantages:

• They are more than just a CRM – they have services and platforms that include analytics, automation, and online fundraising tools
• Integrations with numerous software such as Workday, WordPress, and Google
• Ability to customize the donor experience
• User interface is easy to navigate

Disadvantages:

• Customer service is only online
• The reporting features could be expanded upon to make it easier for customers to understand customer engagement

My Opinion

Barnett told me that one of Virtuous’ goals in 2021 is to focus on “listening really well” to their customers. From comments on G2; a peer-to-peer review site, and Softwareadvice.com; it seems like they’ve already accomplished this goal. Customers appreciate Virtuous’ dedication to their customers and the numerous updates and improvements they’ve made throughout the years. For instance, back in May 2019 a review on Softwareadvice.com stated that while Virtuous is “fantastic” he would love to see an integration with Zapier, an automation platform that lets companies connect their apps and automate workflow. Today, the CRM integrates with Zapier.

Back in 2018, I thought that Virtuous was a great place to start for any medium-to-large nonprofit looking to utilize a CRM. Based on the continued positive feedback – I still believe this.

As Giving Tuesday approaches, many nonprofits are turning to fundraising platforms such as GoFundMe and Crowdfunding.com to seek donations from past and new donors alike. Giving Tuesday occurs the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and encourages holiday shoppers to make donations to charities around the world. Aiding nonprofits to reach their fundraising goals is Snowball (formally @Pay), a fundraising software that makes it easy for nonprofit organizations to collect donations.

In Use:

Snowball has many features that make it easy for a nonprofit to maximize donor contributions. Features include, online donation pages, recurring gifts, Text-to-Give, and dedicated support. Unlike GoFundMe, Snowball is a CRM (customer relationship management) solution so users can update and track gifts while also managing staff and volunteers. Auctions are also available for nonprofits to utilize.

Snowball features four subscriptions plans that range from $0 to $999 per year. The basic subscription gives users access to the CRM dashboard, unlimited accounts, event registration, and reoccurring gifts. The Premium Bundle Tier is $799 per year and includes the ability to host an auction, Text-to-Give, unlimited campaigns, and ability to customize donation pages. Finally, the Enterprise subscription is $999 per year and includes Enterprise support and custom integrations.

Technology Used:

Snowball is web-based and can be used by both iOS and android devices. Their dashboard enables nonprofits to track and manage their donations. The dashboard also gives users the ability to analyze their data to understand who is donating to their charity.

Ease of Use:  

Snowball is known for being very easy and simple to use. The company also employs bi-lingual U.S. support for all subscriptions both online and over the phone.

Recap:

Snowball is a CRM and a fundraising platform that helps nonprofit organizations fundraise. Perks of using Snowball includes Text-To-Give, offline donations, Auctions, event registrations, and customer support. Users are able to use the platform for event ticketing and registration. Because it’s also a CRM, the software offers all users a dashboard where charities can manage their donations and analyze their results.

Advantages:

• Ease to use
• Features such as Text-to-Give and event registration
• Free basic subscription
• Ability to host an Auction

Disadvantages:

• Not very robust when it comes to other CRMs like Bloomerang and DonorPerfect – best used as a fundraising platform
• Auction subscription is pricey as well as the Premium bundle that comes with Text-To-Give and unlimited events and ticketing

My Opinion:

I appreciate that Snowball offers a free version of their tool with the ability to grow as the charity grows. However, I think the really cool features like auctions and unlimited events and ticketing are locked behind a $799 yearly fee – that many nonprofits can’t afford.

With this switch to a more virtual world – having the ability to host an auction will really help nonprofits secure funds. It’s also a fun interactive way to get donations while connecting with the community.

As for being a CRM, they technically are because they offer a dashboard and analytics to their customers – but they have a long way to go before their compete against nonprofit CRMs such as DonorPerfect and NeonCRM. That’s being said – I could see it being perfect for a small nonprofit who are just interested in managing donations.

Fundraising is a critical component of any successful nonprofit organization. While it may be essential, it is also time consuming. Reaching out to donors takes time. Often, the end result falls flat. SimioCloud (owned by Moore, a provider of performance-driven marketing solutions), recently announced their newest solution, SimioAudience in hopes to cut down the time an organization needs to fundraise by providing a list of prospect donors that have given to similar nonprofits in the past.

In Use

Touted as a next-generation cooperative database designed specifically for nonprofit fundraising – SimioAudience aims to deliver real-time insights on donor information. According to Doug Kaczmarek, the Chief Data Officer of Moore, SimioAudience is a co-operative database that is able to identify new perspective donors using machine learning capabilities to develop predictive models. Unlike their competitors who only have access to transactional information – SimioAudience can provide their clients with distinct donor history to get more accurate results. This means a nonprofit more time marketing to those that statistically have a better chance of donating to their cause.

To get the most out of the solution, SimioAudience is geared towards mid-large level nonprofit organizations and they recommend each nonprofit have at least 5 thousand donors with a robust growth plan. Interested parties rent the list from SimioAudience as a “one time” which Kaczmarek states is industry practice. The platform charges nonprofits $65 per 1,000 names.

Ease of Use:

SimioAudience is easy to use because clients receive a report of targeted donors that are highly likely to engage with the charity.  There’s no dashboard or back-end platforms that the clients have to manage. SimioAudience will analyze the data on the backend and send their clients a curated list full of donors that are more than likely to donate.

Technology Needed:

What sets SimioAudience apart from their competition is that they are based in the cloud. Therefore, they have the advantage of having up-to-date donor information where other co-operative databases may only update their database once or twice a month.

SimioAudience also makes it a point to connect billions of data points through their machine learning and AI capabilities. This ensures their predictive models are equipped with making precise recommendations.

Recap:  

In a press release in late September, chief executive officer of Moore, Gretchen Littlefield explained, “SimioAudience identifies new and emerging donors using cloud-based processing, transactional data and machine learning technologies unlike any other data source. It’s truly the next generation co-op.” The platform works by collecting donor data so SimioAudience is able to provide a concise report of potential donors to clients. By using predictive models, SimioAudience is able to predict which donors are most likely to respond and donate and which donors are not. This way nonprofits can spend their time and money marketing to the correct people. 

Advantages:

• SimioAudience is based in the cloud so their database is always updated with the latest donor pool
• They use predictive analytics, and many data points to predict which donors will likely respond and ultimately donate
• There is no dashboard or heavy lifting on the client’s part. They will receive a curated report that they use for their marketing initiatives.

Disadvantages:

• This is geared towards mid-large nonprofits. Nonprofits must have at least 5 thousand donors to participate
• There’s no guarantee that the donors in the report SimioAudience provides will actually donate
• You are expected to give your donor information to SimioAudience to contribute to the database

My Opinion

I think SimioAudience can provide great benefits to large nonprofit organization looking for a list of potential donors. Because they’re based in the cloud their information is constantly being updated. It’s also nice that there is no heavy listing on the nonprofit’s side.

As a data nerd I think it’s really interesting that they’re using predictive analytics and AI to predict potential donors. I think this is something that we’ve been seeing from tech companies and will continue to see more and more.  At the same time, I would still struggle with providing my donor data despite Kaczmarek assurance that all data is anonymized. 

While starting a nonprofit is difficult, running a successful one is hard and requires immense effort, skill and passion. Working with your nonprofit to reach your mission may not be a rosy affair at all, and you may end up failing miserably. The nonprofit sector is not easy to master, and that is perhaps the reason why there are lots of well-intentioned professionals with a noble cause that failed to succeed. The problem boils down to a bad strategy most of them use in their nonprofits.

Here are some of the strategies you should consider when starting up a nonprofit for a given cause:

• Engage stakeholders

Like any other business, the first step before settling in a course for your nonprofit is to gather stakeholder views. Every decision must be based on engagement with the stakeholders. Always test ideas and ask the stakeholders how they feel about certain actions within the organization. Stakeholder engagement allows the nonprofit to connect with donors, employees, leaders, clients and the public, and makes the nonprofit relevant and visible. A multi-faceted approach to stakeholder engagement will help you reach different stakeholder groups and maintain a strong community presence.

• Invest in talent and ideas like a venture capitalist

Like a venture capitalist, every nonprofit must go out there and seek bright talent and new ideas in touch with the surrounding. Invest in research anchored in science and develop a relationship with researchers who will help your nonprofit succeed where possible. Actively monitor the progress of the nonprofit and report back to the donors. Donors play a crucial role in funding causes, and organizations must be as transparent as possible. It would be best if you only funded programs with positive outcomes and do not be afraid to end the ones with little impact. Maintain an oversight and accountability and demonstrate results through regular reporting.

• Network to grow

A nonprofit must always grow to new heights and expand its influence just like the for-profits. To get started, you must network with the potential stakeholders as you scale up. Build a relationship with the public, government agencies and employees.  Reach people through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, among others. You cannot grow as a nonprofit if no one knows you. This means you must do all you can to reach the right people in the right places to help you fund and steer your cause.

• Have a strong presence both offline and online

We are living in a connected world where online presence determines the success of a business. Similarly, nonprofits cannot survive the modern competitive world without a concrete online strategy. Therefore, as a leader of a nonprofit, look for the social media platforms that are likely to be used by your target audience and donors and develop a strategy to make your nonprofit and cause known. While developing an online strategy, always know that you will be measured based on the quality of content you post. At the same time, online strategy alone is not enough. Rather, have a strong offline presence so that what you say online can be seen in reality. Train your team to serve donors and other stakeholders well because they are the ones who are required for a nonprofit to operate as it should. Use your online and offline channels to tell compelling stories and share the work that your organization is doing. With this approach, donors will know what their money is doing. This will give them the morale to raise more cash.

With difficulty in funding and high demand for service, performance tracking has become crucial for nonprofit organizations. Like for-profits, charities have started taking advantage of advanced technologies and methods in making data-driven decisions. While these performance measuring tools can help turn around operations, their place should not be overestimated, even when your organization appears to be gaining significantly from them.

Here are the three key steps that nonprofits can use to know if they are doing well:

• Benchmarking

Before you even think of starting your nonprofit activities, you need to assess yourself and know the current state of your charity. You will achieve this by looking at other organizations and how they do their things. This is called benchmarking. According to the Minnesota State Office of Management and Budget, “benchmarking” entails comparing one organization's practices and performances to those of another.  Doing this allows a nonprofit to identify best practices, which can then be applied to improve performance and achieve the target. As a nonprofit leader, this approach enables you to determine your weaknesses so that you can identify where to correct them. The information from benchmarking can help an organization determine best practices that are useful as it moves on to the next level.

• Set goals

After laying down your strategy and identifying what you want to do, you should set a target. Setting goals makes your desired journey known and clear. This is a critical part of the performance measurement process, which will show what you have attained and what you have not. While setting up your goals, ensure that they are attainable, measurable, and relevant.

Because performance measurement is critical for nonprofits, goals should also be quantifiable to allow the organization to know how far they are from achieving their targets. The benchmarks will help in the identification and setting up of realistic goals and targets. Pick goals that are attainable to avoid stagnation. The goals should also be relevant and aligned to the mission and vision of the organization. Ensure that all your goals move in the same direction as your mission and are in tune with the goals and mission of your funders.

• Come up with a clear implementation plan

After benchmarking and setting goals, the next phase is determining how you will achieve these goals and measure the performance of your organization.  Once you have your plan and goals in place, decide how you will measure them to ensure they are achieving what they were meant to attain. Collect data as you proceed using special software such as Fundraise Up or Effort to Outcomes to enable you to know what you have done right and what needs to be done better. Ensure that the performance measurement is transparent as possible and meets the funders' and other stakeholders' demands. By measuring your nonprofit's performance, you make it easy to find out your weaknesses and the information needed for a grant application.

As a nonprofit, there are many metrics that you can track as you measure your performance. Although we have discussed just three areas, these are only the basic phases or aspects you need to consider when measuring your performance. It is up to you to decide the right metrics or performance measures for your nonprofit. Begin with reviewing your mission, vision, and nonprofit’s strategic plans. Choose the right performance indicator for each of your goals set and put some real thought into it to ensure the goal is achieved for the benefit of your course and operations. Ensure that you are consistent in measuring them regularly, whether once a week or once every month.

For any organization, having a continuous and robust performance tracking system helps in aligning and tracking goals. Sadly, many organizations encounter various management challenges as they attempt to create a good working environment for both the employees and the employer. For nonprofits across the world, proper management is needed to deliver value to the communities they serve. As a manager, you can lead your team members to success and satisfaction by identifying the existing challenges and sorting them out one at a time. Here are some of the key management issues that can be encountered by non-profit organizations:

• Saturated market

The nonprofit industry has grown tremendously over the past few years. In the US alone, there are more than 1.5 million registered nonprofit organizations as per the reports by the National Center for Charitable Statistics. With the increase in competition, there has also been and rising competition for markets and resources. This is making it hard for nonprofits to stand out from the rest. With the rising competition for resources, there is also a problem for organizations to compete for public attention. The high number of nonprofits means that they must appeal to one group or another to get money for their causes.

• Volunteer recruitment

Starting a nonprofit can be easy but getting the right volunteers to steer your cause is something that is totally different. Research indicates that 31 percent of nonprofits find the recruitment of volunteers as a leading challenge. While some may think that this is a problem for new charities alone, the truth is that even the established ones face the same problem. This forces nonprofits to provide volunteers with the resources they need for success and training to enhance their skills. Even with these, there are still low rates of retention in the nonprofit space.

• Retaining the best employees

Skills have become more and more specialized in the nonprofit sector today. As such, with talented employees on your side, you can always offer the best service. However, if you fail to give employees what is worth their skills and effort, someone else will do that. The biggest challenge you can face today is ensuring that the talented employees are supported, learn new skills, and are happy. With the rising popularity of remote work, employees have become more independent and retention is becoming more challenging than ever.

• Getting funds for causes and missions

This is perhaps one of the hardest things for any nonprofit out there. Since a nonprofit is as good as the causes or missions it supports, the ability to get enough funds determines the achievement of goals and objectives. According to A State of the State Sector survey, more than 50 percent of nonprofits in the US are unable to meet their goals and reach their missions due to funding issues. While most of the problems can be linked to the competitive environment, most nonprofits lack adequate fundraising plans and lack enough effort. Those who succeed are nonprofits with the right strategies that include proper enticement of supporters to raise funds and plan on spending donor money.

• Confronting performance issues

Performance issues are always a concern to nonprofits, just like it is for any other business. As such, if your nonprofit is not doing what is needed by donors and other stakeholders, a competitor can easily come in and take your donors. As a manager, you must identify and eliminate problems quickly. As a nonprofit leader, you must always be careful to ensure a balance of getting the results and maintaining the relationship with the volunteers. Although you need to be strict, ensure that you have the trust of all stakeholders.

2020 put the spotlight on your digital presence unlike anything we’ve seen before. With limits on physical gatherings, all organizations were left with was their digital presence. For many, this led to a renewed focus on digital marketing such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a term you might have already been familiar with, if not, now is a great time to learn. If you are trying to market a non-profit, SEO should be a major component. Local SEO tactics are a great way to start reaching audiences at a local-level.

The purpose of SEO is to deliver helpful content to people actively searching for it. SEO can and should be used to reach your target audience locally and nationally. Local SEO, then, is about increasing the search visibility for businesses serving local communities. For a non-profit, local SEO can be leveraged to engage supporters, drive donations and most importantly, share your mission with the world.

So how does SEO work? To start, you need to understand the four key factors impacting your local search engine rankings. The first is how relevant your site is to the search terms people are searching for. If search engines like Google think you are a healthcare related nonprofit, you are more likely to rank for “healthcare nonprofit” than other nonprofits. The second factor to know is distance. How close are you to the searcher? Search results will look different for people based on where they live. Next, you have to be trustworthy. Google uses factors such as the quantity and quality of reviews, how old your website is, what other websites have linked to yours and the quality of the content on your website to determine trustworthiness. Finally, the prominence of your nonprofit across the web will impact your ranking.

With these factors in mind, let’s talk about some actual steps you can take to improve your local SEO.

1 Leverage Google My Business

Google owns 87% of the search engine market. Therefore, you should prioritize your presence on Google. The best way to do this is by creating or claiming a Google My Business (GMB) page, which is free to do. A GMB page can help your non-profit in Google maps and search. To set it up you need to pull together the name, address and phone number (NAP) for any locations you have. Be sure you use your real business name—the same that can be found on your building and marketing collateral. It’s best to use your local phone number rather than a call center helpline. 

2 Use local business listings

Once you take care of your GMB listing, you can turn to other online listing options. There are plenty of places to get your nonprofit in front of people such as social media sites or business directories. Online business listings such as Facebook, Yellow Pages or an NGO directory are a way to help you reach more customers and ultimately help more people discover you online.

3 Gather reviews

One of the key components of a brand’s reputation is their online reviews. Reputation is extremely important for any organization, but especially for a nonprofit. People want to give donations to an organization with a good reputation. More and more people are turning to the internet to find nonprofits and evaluate their reputation. In light of all this, you should put a review strategy in place. Not only do reviews help build your brand reputation, they will increase your online visibility. As I mentioned before, the quantity and quality of reviews is a factor Google looks to when determining the trustworthiness of your site. When seeking reviews remember to make it easy for people to do. Sometimes all you have to do is ask for one. Don’t ask for reviews in bulk or pay for any - these both go against Google’s policies. Finally, be sure you respond to all your reviews, even negative ones.

4 Develop target keywords and start optimizing

A foundational aspect of SEO is keyword research. Determining what keywords you want to target to rank lays the foundation for knowing how to optimize your website. This requires knowing your target audience - what are they searching and what are they expecting to find. Focus on the keywords that have a high search volume and high intent, in other words, make sure you are trying to rank for words people are searching for often and keywords people are searching to act on. The terms should be ones describing your nonprofit.

Be sure to include these in any business listings like the Google My Business page. With your target keywords in mind, you can begin optimizing specific pages on your website for the keywords. You want to develop content showing expertise, authority and trustworthiness. This is the framework Google uses to determine the quality of content, which influences search engine rankings. Include your keyword in the title of a webpage, description, headers and throughout the page’s content.

There are numerous tactics to leverage SEO, but these are a few of the best, most cost-effective ways to get started. As we begin a new year, consider investing in digital marketing efforts to ensure you get in front of the people who need your services most and the people who can best support your mission.

Kelly Cooper is the Director, Growth Marketing at Moz. She uses data based decision making to develop sound strategy, online marketing channels to promote brand enhancement & engage target markets, and analysis of website visitor behavior to optimize for conversions and usability. Teamwork, coffee and headphones are integral parts of the process.

You can now say “Alexa make a donation to_____” and have Alexa use your Amazon pay account to make a donation up to $5,000.  Currently, this program is only available to select charities that have been invited by Amazon. However, it is likely that this program will be a hit with both donors and nonprofits, so it is something that you should have on your radar for the upcoming year. 

Another high tech trend to watch for 2020 is the rise in giving via a blockchain platform. A blockchain platform is  a public ledger relying on globally distributed historical transactions to prevent tampering and fraud. 

Blockchain was designed to offer a higher level of transparency for transactions. Many donors wish to know that their donations are going directly to the charity that they have selected for the express purpose of funding a certain project. A blockchain giving platform can give them that piece of mind. 

BitGive’s GiveTrack is an example of one such platform. BitGive shares detailed real time information about the financial and project status of the charities that they work with that are accepting donations via GiveTrack.

Global Giving is a crowdfunding platform designed to help small nonprofits raise awareness and money. Global Giving is also a nonprofit, which means it understands what nonprofits need to run a successful fundraising campaign. 

Global Giving also understands that small nonprofits don’t have a large budget, so there is no application fee to join the  Global Giving platform. There is no monthly subscription fee, however Global Givings has a 3% transaction fee along with a sliding scale support fee of 5-12% of collected donations. 

The site offers a host of training and support options for nonprofits that join the platform. There are webinars, training libraries, workshops, one on one phone consultations or site visits.  The platform has tools like gamification and incentives to increase donations. 

The platform offers all the standard fundraising campaign tools, including metrics, donor engagement, social media integration. What it also offers is opportunities to partner with large companies for matching grants, or specific giving programs with the company.

know your audience in order to determine if live streaming is right for your nonprofit. The people you want to engage through a live stream have to be savvy enough to access your video feed so that they aren’t overwhelmed or frustrated by the experience. Beyond this point, your decision should come down to value—both to the viewer and to your organization.

If your organization is exploring adding a livestream to your next event there are a few things that you should consider. First, is your event the type of event that makes for a good livestream. 

The purpose of the livestream is to generate enthusiasm and excitement from those who are unable to attend in person. The event you are live streaming has to be visually interesting enough to keep your online viewer engaged. The most successful live streams are based on events that have an element of excitement to them. Is your event a fashion show? Will there be cute animals?--you can never go wrong livestreaming cute animals.  Also, if your event includes a celebrity guest that you know people who were unable to attend in person would love to see, 

After determining if your event is right for a livestream, it’s time to consider if your intended audience is right for a livestream. If your audience is comfortable using Twitch, YouTube or social media, if you chose to livestream via Facebook than live streaming is a good idea. If your audience is not comfortable with those platforms it doesn’t mean that you can’t do a livestream it just means that you may not get a huge return from the event. 

Next, it’s time to plan your livestream events content. Think of your live stream as the modern equivalent to a charity telethon-except instead of broadcasting on TV your using the internet. A telethon doesn’t consist of a single still shot of the action and neither should your livestream. 

Create a content script. If your are doing a fashion show consider doing interviews with the models or designers (or stores that donated the fashion). Have a host roving the audience,anything to spice up the broadcast. Remember you want to keep the excitement going. 

Many livestream apps allow your organization to collect donations directly from the livestream platform, so make sure your call to action is clear. 

EveryAction wants to be everything to every nonprofit. This cloud based platform offers fundraising, advocacy, organizing and digital all in one package. 

For fundraising, you can use the platform to create a simple donation page for your website. You can also use the platform to track major gifts, pledges and other donations. And, you can run an online auction with it as well. 

Get all your advocacy done with social matching and listening which lets you monitor and track influential supporters and it has an advocacy module that makes it easy for you to turn your advocates into donors. 

Organize your supporters with the built in tools to manage your volunteers and coordinate your canvassing or phone bank events. 

The digital portion lets you build multi channel ad campaigns. The platform includes data visualization tools so you can make use of all the various data sets that your organization accumulates. 

Nonprofits can make the most out the remaining giving days in the year, reports The Nonprofit Times. 

You’ve survived Giving Tuesday – and hopefully come out of it with a nice boost of donation revenue for your nonprofit.

Read article on The Nonprofit Times

New Story, a nonprofit that focuses on using tech to build affordable housing, plans on having 50 new homes erected a Mexico community by the end of 2020. 

A giant 3D printer built two houses in an impoverished, rural part of Mexico last week, breaking ground on what will be the first 3D-printed neighborhood in the world.

Read article on Fox 2 Now

According to the Biz Tech Magazine, integrated giving is one of several technology trends that will impact nonprofits in 2020. 

Nonprofits have a lot on their plates. Charitable giving took a hit last year, declining for the first time since the Great Recession, forcing organizations to do more with less.

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Mobile friendly devices help contribute to the success of #GivingTuesday, reports Biz Tech Magazine.  

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are all behind us, but the long Thanksgiving weekend isn’t over yet. Many will be digging deep into their pockets again today, but not for themselves—this time, it’s for Giving Tuesday. 

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