Every year, I invest in at least one new service, program, or technology to make my life easier or more effective (preferably both). Last week, I asked everyone who receives my weekly newsletter for suggestions about your favorites.
Top Recommended Tools and Services for 2021
Keep in mind — most of these are not personal endorsements. I lack personal experience with many of these recommendations, and I am simply passing along what was recommended to me by a number of my colleagues and followers.
In no particular order:
Scheduling:
- Calendly
This is my personal addition to the list. That’s because Calendly has made my life so much easier! I was hesitant at first, thinking that automating my scheduling would somehow mess up my calendar and depersonalize my interactions, but it’s simply not true. The fact is, Calendly has saved my hours and hours of time.Their tagline says it all: Calendly helps you schedule meetings without all the back and forth emails.
Project Management and Organization:
- Trello
This is a project management tool recommended by Charli. And, I agree, Charli! I also use Trello for making lists and keeping track of projects. It’s especially useful if you’re working on detailed projects with lots of team members. It really helps me keep organized. - Dubsado
Andrea (one of my readers, not my partner at the Capital Campaign Toolkit) gives a big shout out for Dubsado. She says, “My clients love it and it helps me keep the projects organized so much better than any other system I’ve tried!”
Donor Management and More:
- Flipcause
Fundraising and community engagement platform for small nonprofits. Emily says, “We’ve been enjoying Flipcause. They are great with small nonprofits like us. Very easy to use and super customer service. You can do everything yourself (setting up and managing a campaign) or they can do it for you. It has made our fundraising and donor management a lot easier.”
Fundraising Courses and Programs:
- Work Less, Raise More: Year-End Fundraising Intensive
Lori says, “The best thing this year for me was taking part in the Year-End Fundraising Intensive with Steven Screen and Chris Davenport. I spent 3 intensive days in online sessions, wrote a letter and three e-mails in between sessions, and then worked like crazy for the next two months to implement everything. We have doubled our year-end fundraising income!” - Mastering Major Gifts 2.0
People absolutely gushed this past year about the new and improved Mastering Major Gifts. I reworked the program in response our “new normal” and transformed it from a 7-week course into an ongoing, robust community of fundraisers.Together, we can pivot and quickly adapt to the unpredictability that’s the hallmark of today’s world. It’s like having an insurance policy for your nonprofit.
Health and Fitness:
- TMAC Fitness
Improving your health and fitness sharpens your mind and increases your endorphin levels — two things that can help you raise more money in a more roundabout way. Without any explanation, but several exclamation points, Lisa recommends Tmacfiness. I signed up for a free trial and it looks amazing! Their tagline: 20 Minute workouts. No quipment. No excuses.
What’s Missing from the List?
What’s missing from our list of products and services to help you raise more money in 2021?
Let us know in the comments and share your favorites.
I love these, Amy! Such great recommendations. I should have also mentioned Bonjoro in my recommendations. I love using it to send quick, personalized video messages to donors (I’m a board member so I help with thank you calls) as well as to people who buy products from my shop! So easy to use and there’s a free version, too!
Two services that I cannot live without are:
Legacy Giving Collective with Lori Kranzer. She has helped tremendously with my efforts to build our legacy program and provides an awesome 5-day free workshop on a regular basis for those just starting or wanting to enhance their program.
and
CharityCan — for Canadian donor prospecting. CharityCan provides donation, community & corporate board information and relationship mapping for individuals all in one space. As well as foundation and corporate searches
Project Management and Organization:
I LOVE Microsoft To-do (formerly Wunderlist) for my tasks. It talks to my Outlook so I can set up a task for anything by clicking one button. I also really, really like that I can add files to my tasks. For example, I can set up a task to respond to an email then attach that email right to my task so I don’t have to go searching for it in my inbox. Our company email is set up on an app where I can’t access my Outlook tasks. Therefore, another huge plus for me is that I can install the app on my iPhone! So you know those times when you’re laying in bed and think of something that you need to put on your task list, well, it’s right there on your phone so you don’t have to get up and whip out your laptop.
Fundraising Courses and Programs:
I recently discovered NextAfter – http://www.nextafter.com. They offer a whole menu of fundraising courses online. I also find their case studies and reports super helpful and easy to understand. For example, at the end of 202o they did a 12 days fundraising tips video series to go along with their year end case study. It broke down the report into 12 one-minute video segments that were fun to watch!
We have used Flipcause for a few years because it has a good recurring donation functionality and the campaigns are simple to set up and add to our website. Our prior processor was going to charge for each separate campaign.
We use LittleGreenLight for our donor database. it is cost-effective and is continuously improving. We get donations from multiple sources and each one has a different file format. LGL has a simple, flexible converter to upload the data.
MailChimp is our email and list manager.
I am looking for some new books and resources to recommend to my county-wide Development Director Roundtable. I have added your site to my list- do you have any additional book suggestions?
Thank you,
Alexandra
There are so many good ones. I’ll recommend my book, Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops. And, How to Train Your Board to Raise Money by Andrea Kihlstedt and Andy Robinson.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for sharing these ideas. I have begun to use a service with Google called YAMM for high volume/ personalized emails. Easy to use and can access as an “add-on” from Google.
Here is the link to the YouTube video to learn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89vHrABUEbM
Thanks, Pete! I’ll definitely look into it.
Amy, thanks for putting the list of resources together. I’d like to add one life-changing certificate course that I’ve taken. Offered by the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, the course is: Philanthropic Psychology.. This course helps participants better understand and more effectively communicate with prospects and donors. At this point in my career, it takes a lot to impress me; this intensive, multi-week course did indeed impress me. To learn more: https://www.philanthropy-institute.org.uk/certificate-philpsych
Thanks for sharing, Michael!
Amy I have started an organization for taking care of adopted chicken,,but I lack some finance,so I kindly request you to connect me to one plse thanks