Strategic Communication

Planned giving programs can be a sustainable long-term component of your nonprofit's fundraising strategy. But with a confusing array of jargon – charitable gift annuities (CGAs), charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs), actuarial determination, and so on – knowing where to start is daunting. Below are resources explaining the types of planned giving programs, how to market planned giving, and sample appeal letters to get your organization on the path to fundraising for the long-term.

Start a Planned Giving Program

The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) is a national nonprofit with offices across the US which offers educational materials on nonprofit financial management. Their Fundamentals for Nonprofits offers a wealth of templates, workbooks, and self-assessment tools.

Kathy Ridge, Founder and CEO, LevRidge Resources, LLC

We now know a single vaccine will not instantly obliterate the COVID virus. Instead, we must depend on personal behaviors, along with contact tracing and vaccines, to decrease infection rates. As organizations face an unknown future, how do we plan, prepare, and organize for the ‘lost horizon’ that is 2021 and the post-virus world?

You don’t need a new strategic plan – you need a short-term business plan based on what you do know to get through the next 18 months and develop more resiliency.

Bellwether Education Partners' COVID-19 Strategic Planning Toolkit for Education & Nonprofit Leaders is an easy-to-use resource that aids leaders in making rapid decisions and actionable plans during the global COVID pandemic.

This Nonprofit Learning Lab resource entitled, Creating a Case Statement: Step-by-Step Guidebook, describes the purpose, development and essential elements of a case statement. This guidebook includes activities and worksheets to help executive leadership, board members, key volunteers and staff with developing their case statement's core content. 

How to Succeed at Digital Marketing as a Nonprofit (provided by Mailchimp) discusses why marketing can be challenging for nonprofits; breaks down the steps to create a nonprofit marketing budget; and offers up digital marketing strategies that can be employed along with a list of free marketing tools and marketing grants available for nonprofits.

The pandemic has reshaped your fundraising strategy, whether you have been actively fundraising during the past few months or you need to start getting back up to speed. As North Carolina reopens in phases, nonprofits are taking a similar phased approach to their fundraising activities. Join Mary Moss, Kim Glenn, and Jeanne Murray from moss+ross llc for an interactive discussion with tips and examples that will help you reboot your fundraising in phases.

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COVID-19 has upended all of our carefully constructed strategies and plans for 2020. As nonprofit leaders, the critical and unprecedented task before us is to ensure that we are continuing to fulfill our missions by:

As a nonprofit organization, it's important to connect with people. Investing 30 minutes on two or three days a week, your nonprofit can substantially raise your organization's visibility, build your brand, and use LinkedIn's capabilities to leverage existing connections to reach a wider audience of not only the people you know, but also the people they know. Presented by Michelle Weathersby, CEO & Executive Leadership/Career Coach & Consultant of LENS Consulting Firm, this webinar will explore:

Transparent communication is a value that many nonprofit teams value. In times of prosperity, calm teams have plenty of time to craft thoughtful messages to stakeholders. All bets are off in a crisis: the need to be transparent remains, but time is of the essence. This webinar explores practical tips and strategies to stay on message during a crisis and focus on the most important messages and most effective methods.