empathy Archives - Transcend Ideas

Creating a Fundraising Game Plan For Your Non-Profit

Posted on April 19, 2024 - 11:26 am by Heather DeVine

Fundraising for nonprofits is exciting when the money is rolling in, but more often than not, it can feel like a tireless and thankless job. To aid the campaign process, we appreciate the content that Donorbox, a fundraising platform, presented in a recent webinar, helping to simplify the steps for nonprofit employees to regain joy in community work.

Send Tax Donation Receipts

The end of the year often ends in a blur of business tasking to wrap up the quarter’s work. One crucial addition to that list is remembering to send tax donation receipts. Remember a short thank you note, as well, to every donor who supported your organization via mail or email goes a very long way.

Goal Setting for Your Non-Profit

Non-profit work can feel like it pulls your attention and time in a hundred different places. Goal-setting can help determine the direction and impact you hope to make. Does your organization tune everything back to the mission statement?

Here are some goal related questions you should be asking:

What kind of impact does your organization hope to make?
Are you working on a small scale or large scale?
Do you hope to increase donor retention or start generating donations this year?

After determining the organization’s goals, the types of fundraising needed and the tactics to be used will become apparent. This can help save time in the long-run as you can make decisions clearly and efficiently regarding budgets and tasking. Outline a budget and financial items that need to be accomplished within a given timeframe and follow through with delegating tasks to volunteers or board members of your non-profit to find the success you are looking for.

Organizational Goal Planning For Non-Profit

Fundraising

There are a variety of ways that a non-profit can receive funding. Fundraising tactics include peer-to-peer, crowdfunding, events, corporate donations, and more. Always keep track of all the moving parts when running non-profit operations and managing donation money. Start with what are the steps when dealing with fundraising for a non-profit.

Donorbox has 5 key steps they call the 5 A’s of Ask:
attract, ask, acknowledge, account, again.

It’s important to put effort into attracting donors, but equally crucial to continually seek donations, publicly acknowledge donors, account for funds in financial records, and consistently maintain these practices to nurture meaningful donor relationships.

In your fundraising efforts, creating fundraising goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) helps to focus on real ways planning can make a difference with your organization. These smart goals can also be called KPIs or key performance indicators. KPI’s are quantitative measurements of donor retention, average money raised from a donor, monthly donors, new donors, etc.

Volunteer getting fundraising signatures

Communication Touch Points With Donors

Fundraising Trends:

Maintaining a positive relationship with donors is crucial for maximizing your non-profit’s impact. Achieve this by consistently demonstrating the value your organization offers in stewardship and the lives it impacts. This will attract more individuals whose personal values align with your mission.

Some of the trends that are emerging in the non-profit fundraising world include a focus on donor trust and experience. CharityWater had a brilliant idea to use VR headsets to allow donors to be immersed in a virtual reality showing African women walking buckets of water to the river and back, showcasing what the value a monetary donation would hold.

As we delve into a new generation of digital technology, using AI for fundraising will prove to be a smart pivot in your organization strategy. Other smart trends include cashless giving, alternative currencies, and experience-based fundraising.

Community Fundraisers in Jackson Hole

Locally in the Jackson Hole region, there are two events that bring non-profit fundraising to the next level with community engagement and involvement that makes for memorable experiences.

Transcend Ideas is a proud challenger of The Tin Cup Challenge, a local philanthropic fundraising event in Teton Valley, Idaho. Join us on July 20, 2024 to participate in the local fun run and donate to a favorite community non-profit!

The Community Foundation of Teton Valley works to elevate lives through the power of generosity by championing the nonprofit sector, empowering donors, promoting a culture of giving, and serving as a catalyst in addressing critical community needs. The Tin Cup Challenge is a proud sponsor of community programming by sponsoring matching donations from local businesses, giving grant awards, leadership training, and more.

We also proudly support Old Bill’s Fun Run, another community and philanthropic race event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Old Bill’s is one of the most successful fundraisers in the nation. The race brings the community of Jackson together over a shared goal of altruism. Kindness for others and community and a singular drive to make a difference. Since Old Bill’s has started, it has brought more than $256 million dollars to Jackson.

We hope you’ll join us on September 7, 2024 as we’ll be out supporting this event that celebrates the local nonprofits that support our community!

Thank you for reading our summary of the great content put out by Donorbox! Can Transcend Ideas support your work to increase your non-profit fundraising and strategy? We’d love to support your work and enhance your digital marketing strategy.

Watch the Donorbox webinar in full here:

Non-Profit Storytelling as a Catalyst For Change

Posted on December 12, 2023 - 5:46 pm by Heather DeVine

Non-profits ignite transformation in our communities. From championing and overcoming food insecurity and poverty to resolving inequality, protecting women’s and minority rights, to creating endless innovative solutions to help curtail these and other social problems that isolate our communities and us from each other. How does storytelling play a pivotal piece in the puzzle of social issues?

Complex problems require a lot of resources and a lot of brainpower to overcome. How is it possible to create enough of a wave of excitement to generate action from viewers or your community? How do you pierce someone emotionally to the point where they feel they have to support your brand by volunteering or donating to your cause?

Storytelling. The power of the underdog and the tale-as-old-as-time triumph of the Cinderella story is what motivates viewers to send money your way. If they connect with your brand emotionally – you could have a recurring donor long-term. If you can replicate this type of reaction on a large scale, you could have the funding to make a difference with your organization.

Here are a Few Tips for Effective Storytelling with your Non-profit

Build a community

Building a community that everyone relates to requires empathy, curiosity, research, and patience. Take the time to lean into what the true goals of your nonprofit are and find a consistent way to share this message in a way that will rally others to join your cause.

Start a Conversation

Why should people be passionate about your organization? What is the problem? Can you back up your position with statistics and numbers? These are all questions you have to approach as you look at your non-profit marketing plan. Take to social media and introduce people to the social problem your non-profit is approaching and ask them their thoughts. Conversations get people curious. Starting a conversation in an interesting and creative way is a great way to get peak engagement.

Transcend Ideas - nonprofit image of food and medicine labelled boxes

Stay Curious and Strengthen Your Non-profit Messaging

Gather the Stories and Impact of Your Organization on a Blog

Gathering resources, funding, and volunteers is no small task. A great way to maintain a consistent stream of content that reaches the public and aligns with your brand values is to create blog content. Your blog can empower viewers to stand up and take action with you. How do you write in a way that moves people? Blogging is a powerful way to bring new eyes to your website and introduce your mission consistently. Google website crawlers are constantly looking over your site for new content that can be indexed. Do you have the chops to cut through with a message that resonates?

Hit their Pain Points

Make me feel something. That’s what every internet and social media user is looking for in less than 10 seconds. How do you relate to and make someone feel involved with your mission so quickly?

Polish your Writing Tone

Find ways to use messaging in a succinct way that hits on the base instincts of self-preservation and security, creating connections, generating social change, and harnessing creativity. Utilizing these types of call-to-action messages will be most effective in getting the engagement and attention you need.

Tell the Truth

Nothing makes an impact quite like a true story. Whether it be a testimonial from someone who benefitted from your organization or a harrowing story that encourages viewers to stand up and take action. Always protect the privacy of those you receive stories from and be mindful of how to use their stories to enlist help and create an impact with your non-profits.

According to Non-profit Source, non-profits that effectively use storytelling in their fundraising efforts have a donor retention rate of 45% compared to 27% for organizations that do not focus on storytelling. Storytelling fosters a stronger emotional connection with donors and encourages them to stay committed to the cause.

Effective and powerful storytelling, additionally, brings increased donor retention, higher fundraising success, greater engagement on social media, enhanced volunteer participation, improved email response rates, building trust and transparency, humanizing the organization, and more.

Non-Profit Tech for Good Resources

Non-Profit Tech for Good is one of our favorite resources for learning about the best tools for non-profits. These help make a big difference with their webinar series. These tools and organization tips allow your non-profit message to penetrate through the distracting messages of other organizations. These same organizations are vying for the time, attention, and money of other potential donors.

Non-profit messaging appeals to the compassionate nature of our communities. Taking the time to dig deep and harness the message you want to send out to the community will come back to your nonprofit in leaps and bounds. We hope we’ve shared some ideas on how you can make some small adjustments to your nonprofit to make a big impact in attracting others to your cause.

Transcend Ideas is passionate about supporting our local non-profits. Let’s get coffee and discuss how we can promote your mission in an effective and engaging way!

Master CTA’s (Call to Actions) with Empathy Marketing

Posted on April 20, 2023 - 2:34 pm by Heather DeVine

How can you master CTA’s (Call to Actions) with empathy marketing? What are CTAs you ask?

It’s the acronym for call-to-action, like:

Donate Now

Learn More

Buy Now

… and so on!

CTA is giving the audience direction and an actionable to take

When we market to our audience we are looking to add value and we are asking them to engage with us with curiosity. With my approach to empathy marketing I empathize with my audience and where they are. Here are some things to think about when you are generating your content and your CTAs when you write a newsletter, blog post, or a social media post.

When using empathy marketing, ask these questions:

What does the consumer feel?
What is the consumer facing right now?
How can we connect as a business?

Our content can shape the relationship

Our content can shape the relationship we have with our consumers. We use tone and personality and the consumer then responds to it. It’s important to:

stay relavant, stay informed (webinars, workshops, networking events, speak to your audience)
humanize your business
ask questions (use surveys – this will eliminate assumptions)
answer questions (use real Q&A here to share with the community)
share how you can help meet a need – *** Keep your content digestable info, bullet points will help led the reader, if they are curious about more they can contact you (DM or E-mail)
use clean graphics and nice photography to help compliment your message – this anchors those topics into your website and your social media feed
try an A/B testing to see what’s the most effective approach – look at the data and compare and try it again, see if it still works

Consider These Shifted Verbal Cues to Master CTA’s (Call to Actions) with Empathy Marketing:

Let’s Try Something New

Say YES!

Let’s Get Curious

Join the Conversation

Share Your Story

Are you interested to learn more?

let’s get coffee

When Tragedy Strikes How to Respond as a Business

Posted on May 26, 2022 - 1:15 am by Heather DeVine

When tragedy strikes, we collectively feel it. So many of us feel sadness when something dreadful comes to the surface. A mass shooting, a natural disaster, a pandemic, a war, hate crimes, or any kind of suffering of any form collectively wounds all of us. It’s natural for an individual and a business to have the urge to respond, make a statement, or say something because behind every business are people. Our goal is to help you navigate what to do when tragedy strikes, how to respond as a business.

Uvalde, Texas Mass shooting

Yesterday I cried as I saw what unfolded in Uvalde, Texas where an 18-year-old walked into Robb Elementary School and murdered 18 children and 2 teachers. I am a mother of a 4.5-year-old and immediately my heart shattered scrolling through social media. I felt despair with the news that children were gunned down in their classrooms. Shaking and weeping overwhelmed me as I heard what happened. There are still many feelings around the events of the day. Reaching out to other mothers to find comfort in this shared grief provided the only reprieve amid the news and social media.

I spoke with a friend today and we both agreed there are so many sad feelings even if you aren’t a parent. When we say statements like “I can’t imagine..” well I truly believe you can imagine and we ought to sit in that empathy and compassion together even if the tragedy is not happening in your town or country. When tragedy strikes we all feel it and for years we have experienced so much — too much. I mentioned to my friend that I was frankly tired of seeing statements being released from politicians. It often feels like the bare minimum of what we can do to stand up and take action.

As a mother first I am angered and I feel helpless that change will not take place in response to yet again another mass shooting where innocent children are murdered in their classroom. As a business, I am angered and I feel helpless because I can’t and shouldn’t detach my humanity away from tragedy. This issue in America is a moral one and not a political one.

when tragedy strikes, how to respond as a business

When things feel THIS heavy, I like to take a breath and give the moment breathing space. Holding space. Honoring the loss. Process. Feel the feelings.

What you DON’T want to motivate you to put out a statement:

To make you or your business look a certain way
To just “check it off your list” of things to acknowledge
To profit from tragedy

What you DO want to motivate you to put out a statement:

To be authentic to you and your brand
To share your humanity
To build awareness around an issue you and your business care about
To help support your community

When tragedy strikes, here’s how to respond as a business — be authentic. Be exactly as you are, give yourself grace, don’t rush to make a statement, and allow for your humanness to shine through even and especially in the dark.

In response to the Uvalde, Texas Mass Shooting..

As a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, a community member and human being what occurred at Robb Elementary School was a nightmare. My heart is with all the parents/caregivers that are aching in their grief especially the families of all the little children that were taken away by senseless gun violence. We urge our lawmakers to do the right thing and pass legislation to tighten up gun laws so irresponsible and violent people can not obtain firearms that replicates horrible events such as this.

Take care of yourself. Hold your loved ones tightly. Demand more, demand better for our children that deserve a safe place to learn and to grow.

Empathic Marketing

Posted on July 23, 2021 - 3:25 pm by Heather DeVine

The definition of empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. What does empathic marketing mean to you? How does it affect your decisions or emotions as a consumer?

Empathic Marketing Transcend Ideas
graphic
-identify your audience
- align with what's important to them
- listen and be curious about your audience
- revisit to make sure you're still reaching them

The Role of Empathy in Marketing

Have you ever felt your heartstrings pulled during a commercial, felt nostalgic or hopeful when glancing through a magazine and an ad gave you pause? These are the moments we, as marketers, are hoping to generate for our end users. We want to create moments that allow individuals to transcend their circumstances and become whatever their heart desires. We want your business to soar in much the same way. There are some key strategy components that come with utilizing a marketing campaign that is empathic. Utilizing the power of empathy in marketing stirs up a drive in consumers and a call to action, whether that be through product, travel, or service promotion.

The marketing campaigns that speak the most to us encourage us to step up and be more or to discover more for our lives, and to realize the status quo need not remain indefinitely. To cause an emotional moment of reflection for any population requires coming to know who you are marketing to.

When communicating your message to your customers it’s important to practice curiosity and compassion with empathy. Your customers want to feel they are understood and that the products and services they utilize are in alignment with them. With that being said empathy is a vital component of your messaging. Interested in learning more about Transcend Ideas and our approach to marketing with every client? Let’s chat!