Building community among your donors is absolutely essential to a healthy and stable fundraising process, but the last few days have presented significant challenges to that work for development professionals around the country. Much attention has been given to the fundraising events that have been cancelled, and that will likely be cancelled in the coming days, but let’s not forget that we now must rethink our approach to cultivation events and even smaller donor meetings as well.

Amid the rash of event cancellations and venue closings taking place over the last 48 hours, many nonprofits of all sizes are evaluating whether to move forward with their calendars as planned. Between the health risks involved in convening large groups of people, and the financial impact of ticket cancellations from those in your community who do not want to take the risk of attending events, there are lots of factors to weigh as you make your decision. Luckily, there are steps you can take to mitigate the potential damage of an event cancellation or postponement.

Appropriately acknowledging your donor’s gift is one of the most important parts of the fundraising process, and can go a long way toward cultivating a repeat gift (especially from a first-time donor). It is often too easy, however, to let the processes around thanking and acknowledging donations be haphazard.

Whether you’re feeling scattered and looking to set a process, or you just want to tighten up an existing protocol, we’ve got three recommendations to get you started.

We all know that fundraising is a nuanced blend of art and science, but what we might not realize is how much of our art as fundraisers is informed by our own personal experiences and perspectives. Luckily, with some foresight and planning, you can check your gut decisions and run an A/B test to solve for the areas where you’re not actually sure how to get the best result.

You know as well as we do that “you have to spend money to make money,” is just as true in nonprofit fundraising as it is in a corporate environment. The dollars that you spend in executing your annual fundraising strategy are essential to your ability to generate revenue, and it’s important to be able to advocate for them.

When putting together a proposal for funding, you’re thinking about all the elements that work together to tell the story of your organization or program and the impact that it makes on your community. You’re crafting the right language to describe your goals, finding illuminating quotes, organizing descriptive photos and videos—but are you thinking about how best to format your budget?

So much of fundraising is about creating compelling, emotional appeals that motivate a donor to give. One of the key factors in making those appeals particularly effective is giving them a sense of urgency. People love to put things off, and if you can message a reason why their gift is not only important, but important right now, they are more likely to make a contribution.

When we are looking at a long list of prospective donors and not exactly sure where to prioritize our efforts, often Donorly Consultants recommend one powerful step: Prospect Rankings.

You’ve been working for months and the day of your gala arrives. It goes spectacularly: all your guests arrive as planned, sit in their perfectly assigned seats, enjoy their meal, and everyone gives to the pledge appeal. Congratulations! Hopefully a weight has been lifted from your shoulders and that knot that’s been in your stomach for the last week and a half has started to unwind, but the work is far from over.

Our big announcement last week that we have opened a new Donorly office in Washington, D.C. was the culmination of a long journey and a lot of work—but at the same time, it is also just the beginning. We have loved getting to know the nonprofit landscape in D.C. as we’ve been getting set up locally, and we are looking forward to getting to know the community even better over the coming months and years.

Thinking about the work that we’re doing to build community with nonprofit professionals in D.C. reminds us of the advice that we give time and time again to our consulting clients—it’s all about authentic relationships. When it comes to relationships with prospective donors, it’s all about finding and leveraging your existing connections, and forming new ones that are based around your work.

In honor of Donorly’s 6th Anniversary, and in celebration of last week’s opening of our Washington, D.C. office, we sat down with Founder and President Sandra Davis to talk about where Donorly came from, and where we’ll be going next!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. That’s right, the end of the tax year is fast approaching and most donors are preparing to make their annual charitable gifts. We know you’ve already got the wheels in motion on your Year End Appeal, but are you thinking about how to fold #GivingTuesday into your campaign?