The Ultimate Guide for Nonprofit Data Collection

The Ultimate Nonprofit Lingo Guide

No one has time for jargon. We’ve thoughtfully compiled a list of words and acronyms used within the nonprofit industry that you probably hear often. The Ultimate Nonprofit Lingo Guide is excellent for newcomers and experienced nonprofit pros who are looking to avoid embarrassment or save time during meetings.

This guide has over 100+ terms and acronyms to add to your nonprofit toolbox!

Tired of nodding your head in agreement or rushing to Google a quick search of what you just heard? (We’re not here to judge.) Give your search bar a break, download our guide. You can stay up-to-date on the terms, jargon, and nonprofit lingo that will make your life a lot easier to understand.

We listed some of the most common nonprofit words and phrases and defined them for you. This resource will now become your ultimate cheat sheet to refer to when encountering unfamiliar words in the nonprofit space. Download and bookmark this PDF, and check out the definitions.

Looking for something else? You may need to know how to start a nonprofit organization. Or perhaps you’re looking for tips on nonprofit marketing or strategic planning. Whatever issue or question you might have, there’s a nonprofit resource waiting to help you and your organization succeed. Nonprofit Hub gives you the latest tools and advice in one spot so you can use your time to focus on your mission.

The Ultimate Donor Acquisition Guide

Donor acquisition is the lifeline of nonprofit fundraising. Not only do new donors help you grow and expand your nonprofit’s efforts and programs, but low donor retention rates mean you have to keep acquiring new donors just to maintain. This is where donor marketing comes in. While there are plenty of “best practice” blogs and guides on donor marketing, this guide is going to show you how to build a sustainable donor acquisition program that is cost-effective, digital-first, and proven to work.

Learn eight experiments on your donation page and find which works best for your organization. Experiments include:

• Experiments for finding new donors through your email
• 13 ways to improve your donation landing page 
• 5 methods for online donor acquisition

As a bonus, this guide also includes a Facebook Nonprofit ad template with tips such as:

Utilize your Facebook ad copy to fully explain why the free resource you are offering is valuable to your ideal donor. Remember that a Facebook reader is inundated with lots of other offers and advertising. Clearly articulate what your offer is, why it is valuable, and why someone should take advantage of your offer rather than keep scrolling through their Facebook feed.

A Guide to Donor Retention

On average, about 2 in 10 donors who gave to an organization last year will give to that organization again this year. While it’s great to have some donors become repeat donors, several nonprofits are missing out on an opportunity to boost their revenue by engaging the remaining 80%. Donor retention is about winning your donors’ trust over time, so they can be motivated to give again. One key reason first-time donors may not give again is the lack of an emotional connection with the nonprofit. If you don’t stay engaged with first-time donors, show your credibility and highlight the continued impact of your organization’s work, it’s only a matter of time before you lose them.

The “Guide to Donor Retention” from Fundraising Kit discusses:

Here’s What You’ll Learn

How to boost end-of-year fundraising through digital marketing 

To expand your mission and your reach, it’s important to get in front of the right audience at the right time. And can you guess where many Americans spend much of their time? That’s right — online! 

The average adult in the U.S. spends about eight hours on digital media every day. Targeted digital advertising provides a cost-efficient way for nonprofits to reach potential donors, promote programs, and raise awareness. 

Read this guide for proven digital marketing tactics to exceed your organization’s end-of-year giving targets.

You’ll learn how to:

• Reach net new donors with targeted digital ads.
• Recapture people who visited your donation page but didn’t donate.
• Leverage your CRM data in new ways via marketing automation and email mapping.
• And more!

9 Proven Strategies to Write More Effective Fundraising Emails

This email template will be your solution.

Writing emails is difficult. That’s why it’s crucial to lean into the data to tell you what’s going to work better in your email appeals to bring more donations in for your organization and to build lasting donor relationships. This email template will walk you through the 9-step strategy – supported by real online fundraising experiments – to create more effective email appeals.

This guide will demonstrate the 9 steps necessary to craft a highly effective email appeal based on learnings from our library of 3,000+ online fundraising experiments.

Template examples include:

• Sending from a real person
• Adding value and mystery to your subject line
• Why you shouldn’t customize preview text
• Greeting donors and addressing them by name
• Explaining the problem at hand
• Proposing a solution
• Articulating the donors impact
• Adding an incentive to give now
• Providing a clear call to action