Free Guides for Nonprofits & Fundraising

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Nonprofit Guides

2024 Fundraising Calendar

The 2024 Fundraising Calendar

Enjoy 12 months of free inspiration, courtesy of the fundraising experts at DonorPerfect! The 2024 Fundraising Calendar helps guide you through your fundraising year month-by-month. We’ve included practical fundraising tips, self-care activities, key dates and holidays, and a set of stickers so you can customize and organize your year depending on your unique needs. 


Ai Guide for nonprofits

AI for Nonprofits: The Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Fundraising Communications

Many of today’s nonprofit employees remain stretched thin, struggling to keep up with everything that’s asked of them. Generating fundraising communications with Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides your organization with an extra set of hands – and has been proven to increase return on investment. Our free guide explores how you can use AI tools to support your mission (and beneficiaries) with abundance!


Monthly Giving Success EBook

The Monthly Giving Success Kit

Creating and growing a monthly giving program sets you up for success in donor retention, accurate budget projections, and total annual gifts. DonorPerfect and fundraising consultant Erica Waasdorp joined forces to create the free Monthly Giving Success Kit so you can take the first step toward building or boosting your recurring giving program with confidence.


The Nonprofit Leadership Workbook for Women - Second Edition Image Ad

The Nonprofit Leadership Workbook for Women: Second Edition

Today, women are still at a disadvantage when it comes to career opportunities and support. This interactive guide calls on established women leaders in the nonprofit industry to share their wisdom and experiences. Through self-led exercises, you can forge a career path that is authentically and unapologetically you – no matter where you hope to go.


The clean data checklist for nonprofits document mockup

The Clean Data Checklist for Nonprofits

Messy data causes mistakes that your organization can’t afford. Meet the companion that nonprofit CRM users have been waiting for! Download the Clean Data Checklist to create a framework that keeps your team members on the same page.


Year End Fundraising Cheat Sheet Image Ad

The Year-End Fundraising Cheat Sheet

This interactive guide invites you to plan your year-end strategy around the donor engagement cycle. By thoughtfully planning and engaging with your donors in the months leading up to December, your ask won’t come as a surprise, and your supporters will be primed and ready to give generously before they even see your solicitations.


The Giving Tuesday Cheat Sheet

Start your Q4 journey today! First, break your Giving Tuesday strategy into three bite-sized pieces – goal-setting, communications, and stewardship. Then, start the year-end giving season with new relationships, new insight into your retention strategies, and new ideas to engage your community online! The Giving Tuesday Cheat Sheet makes it that simple.

Your download includes a print version and an online guide.


Crisis Templates pages mockup

Crisis Fundraising Templates: A Nonprofit Guide to Emergency Communications

When your nonprofit is called upon for urgent support, it can feel overwhelming to launch an online fundraising campaign in such little time, especially when you need to reach as many potential donors as possible. First, you will need time to breathe and possibly reach out to your emergency beneficiaries, so we’ve done most of the writing to get you started.


Design Tips for Nonprofits Image Ad

Design Tips for Nonprofits

Jumpstart your nonprofit’s branding and visual appeal – no experience needed!

Gain donors’ trust and attract new supporters with free, practical, DIY design tips from the DonorPerfect team and design expert Abby Guido. With this guide, you can reap the benefits of strategic design and consistent branding, without needing experience, special software, or room in your budget to hire an agency.


Nonprofit Social Media Content Planner Image Ad

The Nonprofit Social Media Content Planner

Julia Campbell, a nonprofit digital consultant, speaker, and author, shares her wisdom on how to create and sustain an effective social media strategy for nonprofits. This free planner is full of tips and exercises to help build and grow your organization’s social media presence, so you can get your mission in front of a wider and more engaged audience.


mockup of Your 2022 Fundraising Planner

Your 2022 Fundraising Planner

The Blueprint for Your Best Year Yet!

Your 2022 Fundraising Planner, written by one of American’s top 25 fundraising experts, Pamela Grow, helps you organize your annual plan by funding source, strategy, cost, and anticipated income – then work the plan.


DonorPerfect Brochure Image Ad

DonorPerfect Brochure

Learn how DonorPerfect’s comprehensive set of features and integrations can help your organization exceed your growth in giving goals and get organized, while saving your team time and reducing errors.


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DonorPerfect Insights Beginner’s Guide

DonorPerfect Insights supplies you with the information you need to find new supporters and relate to your donors on a deeper level – building a relationship that feeds off good feelings and improves their immediate surroundings. This positivity ripples out to recruiting other donors and increasing regular contributions.


Data-Driven Donor Persona Checklist Image Ad

Your Data-Driven Donor Persona Checklist

It’s time to move on from the “Dear Friend” letter. Speaking to who your donors are as people will inspire the close connection to your organization that they crave. With this checklist, you can approach your communications like a marketing professional by creating personas for your donor community.


How to Create a Monthly Giving Donation Form That Converts Image Ad

How to Create a Monthly Giving Donation Form That Converts

These monthly giving donation form tips help you build a strong sense of community, encourage larger donations, show donors their impact, quickly reconcile payments, and promote your monthly giving campaign in style.


The Digital Fundraising Makeover for Nonprofits Image Ad

The Digital Fundraising Makeover for Nonprofits

Give today’s donors the engaging, intuitive experience they crave. With this timely guide, you’ll learn how to “tidy up” your online donor engagement collateral, share impactful stories that highlight your mission, assemble a strong welcome series for new donors, and more.


Your Digital Donor Thank-You Kit

Though online communication can feel a bit impersonal, Your Digital Donor Thank-You Kit is packed with email templates, video scripts, and donor-thanking tools and best practices to help you express your utmost appreciation, even from behind a computer screen.


How to Discover Major Donors in Your Database Today Image Ad

How to Discover Major Donors in Your Database Today

Fundraisers have new barriers to overcome. The in-person networking that lends to finding major donors is no longer, and hyper-personal engagement strategies must adhere to social-distancing measures.


The 2020 DonorPerfect Fundraising Benchmarks Report Image Ad

The 2020 DonorPerfect Fundraising Benchmarks Report

This report traces the decline of giving. Discover how nonprofits of various sectors and sizes fared in a pandemic year, along with the strategies your organization needs to thrive in 2021.


Your Nonprofit Crowdfunding Kit Image Ad

Your Nonprofit Crowdfunding Kit

In this quick-start guide to crowdfunding success, you and your nonprofit team will learn the ins and outs of setting up a crowdfunding campaign. Contents include crowdfunding campaign ideas, promotional templates for your campaign, and templates crowdfunders can use to solicit family and friends.


Your Virtual Auction Planner E-Book

Your Virtual Auction Planner

Put on a polished virtual event and auction that maximizes your nonprofit’s revenue and keeps donors entertained. With guidance on event prep and easy-to-use tech, creative ideas to involve participants in your program, and helpful tips from experienced fundraisers, Your Virtual Auction Planner is sure to set you up for success.


Fundraising in the New Normal

A Guide to Fundraising in the New Normal

This collection of resources is designed to see your mission through. Packed with advice from nonprofit peers and the strategies, tools, and templates to fundraise from home, your team will be equipped to connect with your donors in new ways and feel closer than ever to your community of support, even while you’re apart.


The New Donor Welcome Series Email Template Kit

Give new donors the ultimate first impression with a welcome email series that spotlights your organization’s unique community. From creative ways to share your upcoming events to a timeline that advises when to send, The New Donor Welcome Series Email Template Kit can help you set up a winning engagement strategy in no time!


10 Social Media Templates for Nonprofit Event Planners

The best way to pull off a packed house on the day of your fundraiser? Spread the word on social media! Use these 10 social media templates to craft eye-catching posts that your organization’s staff, friends, and followers can share.


How to Discover and Engage Major Donors

Find out how major donors give and how you can engage them so they choose to fund your next big endeavor in this quick and insightful guide. Uncover data that reveals the latest trends in major giving, learn the 5 markers of philanthropy that predict major giving potential, and adopt tried-and-true best practices for major donor engagement.


TimesUp for Sexual Harassment in Fundraising

Through data, best practices, and a comprehensive sexual harassment policy template that’s tailored to fundraising, this guide is designed to help your organization protect and advocate for the fundraisers who make your mission possible.


4 Strategies to Build Multichannel Donor Relationships

Always giving and engaging with your nonprofit, multichannel donors are interested in all the ways they can support your cause. From can’t-miss fundraising events to inspiring website content, learn what makes these valuable donors tick and how to retain them for the long run in this quick and essential read packed with stats and tips you’ll definitely want to know.


Donor Retention Toolkit E-Book

Your Donor Retention Toolkit

A common misconception is that it’s the quantity of donors that matter when really, it’s that smaller percentage of recurring donors that are your nonprofit’s most reliable source of revenue. Discover the metrics to determine your retention rate and learn from fundraising expert, Pamela Grow, what it takes to turn your one-time donors into lifetime supporters.


Donor Advised Funds Ebook Mockup

5 Ways Philanthropists Use Donor Advised Funds and How Fundraisers Can Benefit

While it may seem like a no-brainer, many nonprofits pass on pursuing grants from donor advised funds (DAF). 5 Ways Philanthropists Use Donor Advised Funds and How Fundraisers Can Benefit is designed to equip you with the information you need to move forward in making donor advised funds a reliable source of revenue for your mission.


Email Best Practices for Fundraising

This action-oriented e-book will help you increase the success of fundraising communications through expert planning, professional presentation, donor-centric copy, and the metrics to help guide your growth.


How to Buy Fundraising Software Ebook

How to Buy Fundraising Software

This comprehensive guide takes you through the steps of evaluating software, determining your opportunities and challenges, and matching your goals with a system to accomplish them.


3 Key Elements to take your nonprofit from surviving to thriving Ebook Mockup

3 Key Elements to Take Your Nonprofit from Surviving to Thriving

By Wayne Elsey

CEO, philanthropist, author, and nonprofit leader Wayne Elsey shares his three key elements for nonprofit success in his new e-book: Leadership, Vision, and Comfort with Money.


How to Use Data to Manage Your Nonprofit

How To Use Data To Manage Your Nonprofit

Learn how data and reporting can help you operate more like a business while staying true to your organization’s mission.


7 ways to grow your nonprofit syndication image

7 Ways to Start Growing Your Nonprofit Today

Learn 7 ways your nonprofit can follow the lead of a rapidly expanding organization to achieve growth of your own!


How to plan a nonprofit event on a budget

How to Plan a Nonprofit Fundraising Event on a Budget

This e-book is packed with expert advice and smart tech recommendations to help you throw a hit fundraiser while staying within your budget.


8 Best Practices For Major Giving E-Book

8 Best Practices for Major Giving

This free e-book delves into best practices that can help you harvest major gifts to fuel your mission.


9 Facts Every Nonprofit Should Know About Donor-Advised Funds

Millions of dollars are currently in donor-advised funds just waiting to be donated to nonprofits like yours. This e-book gives you the facts you need to leverage them.


Better Together: 3 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Needs Fundraising Software and QuickBooks Accounting Image Ad

Better Together: 3 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Needs Fundraising Software and QuickBooks Accounting

When it comes to fundraising and accounting software, some things truly are better in pairs. Find out why the right tools matter in this breakdown of nonprofits’ needs.


Fundraising Fundamentals: Email Success for Nonprofits Image Ad

Fundraising Fundamentals: Email Success for Nonprofits

The email success for nonprofits checklist you can use to maximize the chances your email is read and acted upon!


Virtual Events Checklist Mockup

Your Virtual Fundraising Event Communication Checklist

Communicating with donors about your virtual fundraising event is an ongoing effort to maximize awareness, participation, and donations. DonorPerfect partnered with Givecloud – a leading virtual event platform in the nonprofit space – to provide a free checklist that ensures your event communications are organized, clear, and engaging.

See how DonorPerfect can help your nonprofit grow