Free Guides for Nonprofits & Fundraising

Nonprofit Guides

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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.


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The 2023 Fundraising Calendar

Get 12 months of free fundraising tips, best practices, and industry data to keep you informed and inspired all year long! Monthly themes include: welcoming new donors, building a donor pipeline, spring cleaning your database, creating community through monthly giving, and more fundraising advice you can use throughout the year.


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The Year-End Fundraising Cheat Sheet

The Year-End Fundraising Cheat Sheet 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.


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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.


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Design Tips for Nonprofits

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

Design Tips for Nonprofits is full of 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.


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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.


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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.


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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 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.


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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.


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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.


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The Digital Fundraising Makeover for Nonprofits

We’ve seen significant changes to the way donors engage. 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.


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Your Digital Donor Thank-You Kit

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to digital fundraising. 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.


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How to Discover Major Donors in Your Database Today

As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, 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.


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The 2020 DonorPerfect Fundraising Benchmarks Report

This report traces the decline of giving caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Discover how nonprofits of various sectors and sizes fared in a pandemic year, along with the strategies your organization needs to thrive in 2021.


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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.


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The Monthly Giving Communications Template Kit

This must-read monthly giving guide provides your team with templates to help you launch and promote your monthly giving program and turn your monthly donors into advocates. Inside, you’ll find communication templates for naming, promoting, and spotlighting your monthly giving program, along with tailored thank-yous that show your donors just how big of an impact their continued support can make.


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A Guide to Fundraising in the New Normal

This collection of resources is designed to see your mission through COVID-19. 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.


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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!


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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.


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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.


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Monthly Donor Metrics Every Nonprofit Should Know

Monthly Donor Metrics Every Nonprofit Should Know reveals new data behind the most loyal donors in the nonprofit world, along with steps to measure and grow your organization’s retention rate.


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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.


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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

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.


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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.


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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.


DonorPerfect Workbook for Women, advice for navigating the nonprofit world as a women

The Nonprofit Leadership Workbook for Women

The Nonprofit Leadership Workbook for Women is an actionable guide designed to equip and empower women to seek and obtain leadership positions within their organization. Start on your path to growth today.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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!


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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.


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Monthly Giving Starter Kit

Monthly giving expert Erica Waasdorp takes you step-by-step to start your monthly giving program, providing you with helpful tips, free templates, and and handy tools.


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Monthly Giving Marketing Kit

Learn how to gain and retain monthly donors. Topics include crafting the perfect monthly giving ask, best practices for email marketing, and boosting gift amounts.


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Why Fundraising Software?

Learn how fundraising software can help you manage donors and raise more money, along with how to choose the right software solution for your nonprofit.


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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.


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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.


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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!

See how DonorPerfect can help your nonprofit grow