Letter From: The Experts - Edition 1

We’re excited to bring you this new resource created just for nonprofits, offering a direct line to expert insights and guidance tailored to the unique challenges and needs of nonprofit organizations. In each edition, we’ll be sharing knowledge from seasoned professionals in the nonprofit space, diving into common questions, and offering practical tips to help you navigate everything from financial management to strategic planning. Our goal is to keep you informed and empowered, providing you with timely, helpful information that can make a real difference in your mission-driven work.

Capital Campaigns Boost Annual Funds, New Study Reveals?

The long-held fear that capital campaigns cannibalize annual funds has been decisively debunked by new research from Capital Campaign Pro. Our 2024 State of Capital Campaigns Benchmark Report, analyzing data from over 500 nonprofits, reveals that capital campaigns actually strengthen overall fundraising efforts.?

More than three-quarters of organizations reported their annual fund either remained stable or increased during their capital campaign. Even more striking, 74% of organizations saw their annual fund increase in the years following their campaign.?

This positive impact stems from campaigns' ability to transform donor relationships. The study found that 73% of organizations strengthened relationships with major donors during their campaigns, while many became more effective at soliciting large gifts. These enhanced relationships create a lasting positive effect on annual giving.?

"Campaigns change everything," the report notes. "They bring an influx of new donors to the table, which increases the annual fund pool long term, and they bring existing donors closer, which can lead to significant annual fund upgrades in the years immediately after campaigns end."?

With a remarkable 96% campaign success rate reported in the study, organizations can confidently pursue capital campaigns knowing they're likely to strengthen, not diminish, their annual fundraising efforts.?

You can download the full report at https://capitalcampaignpro.com/research-2023/

Measuring Impact Data is Challenging for Many Nonprofits: 5 Key Actions Steps to Overcome this Obstacle?

Measuring tangible change is challenging for many nonprofits. Often operating with limited resources, it is difficult to invest in personnel, effective software, and necessary systems. The technical expertise required to develop comprehensive monitoring and evaluation frameworks can also be a barrier.????

Many organizations serve diverse populations with varying needs, making it challenging to standardize impact metrics across different programs and services. Additionally, the impact of many nonprofit programs is long-term and difficult to quantify in the short term. For instance, social change, community development, or behavioral health outcomes may not show immediate results, complicating measurement efforts over the course of several years.?

Inconsistent funding and donor expectations can also shift focus away from long-term impact evaluation to short-term outputs and outcomes that are easier to measure. To address these challenges, nonprofits must prioritize partnerships, capacity-building, and adopt adaptable evaluation models that align with their unique missions and contexts.???

Here are a few key steps to keep in mind as your nonprofit aims to measure impact metrics in 2025 and beyond ???

1. Conduct a Needs Assessment?
2. Create a Theory of Change?
3. Implement Validated Assessment Tools?
4. Capture Meaningful Stories of Change?
5. Clearly Communicate Your Impact Results to Stakeholders???

To kickstart your journey toward measuring and marketing your nonprofit’s impact, take a look at this recent blog from Social Impact Solutions? ?? Nonprofit Needs Assessments.

Worried about fraud??Need to save money??Skip the audit and do this instead.?

Too many nonprofit leaders mistakenly believe that a clean audit means their organization is free of fraud.?

The truth:? Less than 4% of fraud cases come to light thanks to an external audit.? Your standard, external audit is not even designed to detect or prevent fraud.? ?

If you are worried about fraud, or just want to confirm that your accounting is getting run well, by all means engage a professional to review your bookkeeping, policies, procedures, and look for mischief.? But this is a totally different kind of engagement.?

Similarly, I keep running into nonprofits that waste thousands of dollars each year because they believe that they must get an external audit as part of their due diligence and fiduciary responsibility.? ?

The truth:? in many states, there is no legal requirement for a nonprofit to get an audit.???

So why do nonprofits even get external audit?? An external audit is simply designed to present financial reports in a highly standardized manner.? Originally designed with publicly-traded businesses in mind, some funders use external audit reports to have a standardized way to compare grant applicants’ financial situation.? Funders sometimes also want this standardized format when as part of the grant reports.?

So, what are the most effective ways a small nonprofit can detect and prevent fraud??

• Strong internal controls?
• A strong whistle-blower policy?
• An internal audit committee?
• Getting an independent nonprofit accounting specialist to carefully examine their accounting ?

If you do these things, it will protect you better than an external audit and cost you significantly less.? In fact, the first three don’t have to cost you a dime (except for a little of your time).?

Additional resources: ?

• Fraud prevention at your nonprofit?

Event and auction fundraising technology to raise more money &?raise more awareness?

Organizations use event and auction software to plan and run successful fundraisers, collectively raising significant funds to support their missions. By leveraging these tools, they can simplify every aspect of their fundraising process and maximize results. One of the most impactful recommendations for organizers is to embrace technology to streamline planning and operations, making it easier to focus on their goals and engage with donors. With the right tools, fundraiser planning becomes more efficient, allowing organizers to keep their attention on the big picture. Here are some tips:

• Create a custom website for your event. This website should be linked to your main website for easy access but having a second, event-specific site gives you greater control over adding helpful tools like bidding automation, selling tickets, hosting online raffles, collecting donation payments, and more.?
• Use smart ticketing to elevate your event. Smart ticketing makes it easy to offer versatile ticketing options, keeps payment transactions secure, and gives you real-time sales data. Attendees can even add their tickets to their Apple or Google wallets for the ultimate convenience.?
• Use a mobile admin app. This allows you to quickly check in attendees, scan e-ticket QR codes, put cards on file, process payments, and more. You could also use a bidding app to support fast, easy bidding during your event.?

Looking for more tips? Check out the comprehensive article library for more!