Adapting to adversity: How will nonprofits handle this moment?

By Ronnie Richard

How do you react when bad things happen??

It’s certainly a fundamental piece of growth and maturity. As a young child, you typically act out with pure emotion and lose the ability for rational thought. As an adult, you (hopefully) regulate your emotions and learn to control them.?

But that certainly depends on what that bad thing is:?

• My son had a beautiful header for a goal in soccer this weekend, only to have it taken away by a referee who misinterpreted the rules.?

• We’d been preparing for an upcoming family road trip, only to discover that our SUV needs a new transmission ASAP.?

• Many nonprofit organizations were planning out their efforts for the year, only to learn that they are suddenly losing federal funding.?

The scope of each “bad thing” above is very different, but the point is that each one caused an immediate emotional reaction in the people it affected.??

Frustration. Sadness. Anger. Fear. Shock. Numbness.??

The range of emotions is wide and justified. The key is what you do with the next step—how you move from reaction to rational response.??

• My son shook off the “no goal” call and refocused to play hard for the remainder of his match. His team won, 4-3.?

• My wife and I chose to rent a car for our road trip while we decide whether to invest in repairing an 8-year-old vehicle or start looking for a new one.?

What will nonprofits who lost funding do next? How will they pivot to finding new sources of revenue to support their incredible missions??

Time and again we’ve seen our sector rise up and shine brightly during times of adversity. Bad things happen—and we can’t change the past—but how we respond and look to the future makes all the difference.??

Here’s what we have in store for the rest of this month’s newsletter:?

• Navigating life's challenges: A conversation with Kishshana Palmer?

• Moving prospective donors from awareness to engagement??

• How one nonprofit is engaging its supporters online??

• 10 audiences you didn’t know you had??

Navigating nonprofit leadership: Lessons on balance, purpose and growth?

When Justin McCord and I sat down with Kishshana Palmer, CFRE to record our podcast episode, we had no hint of the federal funding challenges mentioned earlier. Yet, in retrospect, our conversation feels very poignant and fitting for this moment.?

Kishshana, CEO of ManageMint Inc. and author of “Busy Is a Four-Letter Word,” walked us through some of the trying times she’s faced in both her personal and professional life, and she provided inspiration for how to push through.??

For her, it’s all rooted in authenticity. She even states, “You're allowed to show up powerfully as who you are.”?

If you need a little boost to get you going on your path forward, you don’t want to miss this episode.?

Listen today: Apple | Spotify | YouTube?

Turn interest in your nonprofit into lasting support?

Charitable giving doesn’t happen in a single experience—with a few rare exceptions.???

Yet far too often, we become so focused on direct response and pushing donors to make a gift that we lose sight of this.?

In this blog post, Jarred Schremmer , RKD's Senior VP of Strategy, reviews how to engage prospective donors as you move toward a gift. He shares some tactics you can use that fit your brand and your mission, including:??

• Facebook lead generation??

• Google Grants and paid search??

• User-generated content??

• Ambassador programs??

• Data-driven personalization??

Don’t miss these tips, along with examples of how we’ve helped clients engage their supporters.???

An innovative microsite that encourages sharing??

One of Jarred’s tips above is about how to engage “micro-influencers” for user-generated content (UGC). People love to see their contributions recognized, and this can be a powerful way to turn followers into advocates.??

For Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), we built an innovative microsite that allowed their members (Lions) to share photos and videos of their acts of kindness. This engagement on the Stories of Pride site led to more donations from members to support the mission.??

Check out LCIF’s microsite?and the incredible participation they’ve seen from their members.???

10 audiences you didn’t know your nonprofit had??

We’ve talked a lot about the move to audience-first fundraising.??

This strategic approach begins by identifying the audiences you want to reach and building different groups (or segments). You can probably think of audience groups within your donor file a few different ways—donor pyramid, donor lifecycle or possibly generational.???

But what about the audiences you don’t know about? The ones you haven’t considered??

In this blog post, Jenn Thompson breaks down 10 key audiences you didn't know you had—or maybe haven’t considered lately.?Check out the list.???

Thanks for taking the time to read this month’s issue. As always, I wish you all the best in your fundraising endeavors.?