Author: kaylaholt58

For your nonprofit, donations are what change the world. You need donations and fundraising to make that change. For small nonprofit organizations, it can be intimidating to ask for donations, but with the right understanding and tactics, you can convince investors that your cause is crucial. So let’s say you’re sending out an email, pamphlet, or website to gain donations, what do you say?

Be Compelling

First, you must prove that you are worth the reader or investors’ time, show them that you’re credible, and have set plans for the goal you wish to achieve. Explain what your organization is setting out to do, maybe tell them why this cause is so important. Show them what good things the nonprofit has already done in this world, that you are serious about the cause. Establish current or previous connections to other trustworthy organizations or companies that help the nonprofit.

With this, you can create a compelling backstory for your clients to find character in your story. It helps establish trust with the nonprofit you’re selling.

Get Emotional

When I say this I don’t mean sappy. Use key phrases, photos, and stories to evoke a feeling inside the readers. This creates an emotional tie to your cause and helps them believe why they need to help. You want the reader to feel essential to the cause.

We all remember the Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercials that left us as an emotional ball of sadness and guilt. Now, you don’t want to leave your investors feeling like this, but you do want to leave them feeling impacted and wanting to help. You want them to know how your cause needs them.

Good record keeping is what makes or breaks a small business 

If there’s anything I can recommend to small businesses it is to keep track of everything.

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It will help in the long run, make everything easier. It can help with (and not limited to!) :

•  Watch the progress of your business
• Financial statements
• Track sources of income
• Expenses

Business progress

Record keeping will show how your business is doing, if sales are increasing, what sells best/worst, and even what needs to change. Tracking these factors will ultimately lead to business success. 

Financial statements 

Taxes are a pain, but essential so you can stay out of trouble with the IRS. QuickBooks is a software that can make tax statements a little easier., but some knowledge of accounting. Microsoft spreadsheets can also work while your business is small. Report expenses and income to have accurate statements. 

Sources of income

Keep a file of every client and project, what you are doing for the client, how much it is costing you, and how much you’re charging them.

Expenses 

SAVE YOUR RECIPTS ! Some may be tax deductible like:

• Meals and entertainment: Business meetings at a cafe or restaurant can be nice and an easy way to engage your employees,  just be sure to document it. With the receipt, record who came and the purpose of the meeting. It’s only 50% deductible though, so half on the government and half on you.
• Out of town business travel: If you or an employee travel out of town for business purposes, travel and accommodations are deductible, but it must meet the IRS Publication 463 to claim any travel deduction. Thankfully, your receipts can also provide a paper trail of business activities.
• Vehicle-related expenses: To claim a vehicle as a deductible, you have to prove that it is only being used for business purposes. Keep record where, when, and why you used the vehicle for business, and then apply the percentage of use to vehicle expenses. 
• Home office: Portions of your home office can be deductible if you regularly use it for business purposes. Similar to the vehicle expenses, you need to find the percentage of your home is used. Remember, your home office must be either the location of your business or a place where you meet regularly with customers/clients.

Another inevitable expense is payroll. To keep track of this, at Provide we use Freshbooks, it fits us best. Our employees can log their hours and bill us an invoice at the end of the week, Overall it makes the experience easy and pain-free.