5 Ways that Charities, 501(c)(3)s, and Nonprofit Organization can Increase Monthly Donations
Accepting cash is still the most cost-effective way to collect donations. However, people don’t carry cash like they once did, and many prefer to donate via a form of electronic payment. Here are 5 simple ways your nonprofit organization can boost its monthly donations.
How to Use SlideShare to Grow, Market & Advertise Your Business
SlideShare bills itself as the “world’s largest community for sharing presentations.” The company, acquired by LinkedIn in May 2012, claims to be one of the 200 most visited websites in the world with 60 million visitors and 130 million monthly pageviews.
SlideShare provides a platform for people to share their presentations, documents and videos with the public or with private groups. Anyone can upload their material, and content includes everything from professional product demonstrations, university lectures, how-to instructions, product reviews, as well as industry research, pedestrian humor, spiritual advice, and sports talk. You can search for presentations on a specific topic, or browse by any combination of category, popularity, media type, and language.
With such a wide range of content and quality, it is easy to dismiss SlideShare as another online waste of time. However, SlideShare gives savvy business owners the ability to learn from their competition, as well as educate themselves in areas of lesser experience. If employed strategically, SlideShare can provide significant knowledge and financial benefits to your small business. Here are four ways to use it to your advantage:
PaySimple small business survey reveals plans for more cloud and mobile in 2013
Of the thousands of PaySimple users surveyed in our latest Small Business Pulse Survey (results hot off the press!), nearly 50% plan to add more cloud-based technologies in 2013, and 53% plan to run more of their business via mobile. Other findings in the survey, shown here in a nifty infographic, include hiring plans, communication strategies and social media behaviors.
[Infographic] Why small business owners struggle with efficiency
We recently found a survey in which business owners provided insight into the many roles they play in a given day when running their businesses. The not-so-surprising part is business owners don’t have enough time in a day to accomplish all of their business management tasks, which means they certainly don’t have time to get out of the weeds and think about their businesses from a strategic standpoint.
Even worse, they are spending hours of their days covering roles they don’t enjoy.
New law says profit isn’t all about the money
If you own a business with interests other than just sheer pecuniary profit – say of social or environmental worth – then you may have a new option available that can not only protect those interests, but also lure customers and employees.
A new corporate charter, available in a handful of states and being introduced in several others, allows businesses to incorporate as “benefit corporations.” Under this organization, businesses can put social or environmental gains ahead of or alongside profit when making decisions.
Critics of the law say that the business decision to move to the new structure is a bad one from the perspective of an investor, as it ultimately creates a lack of accountability for management. If a company’s decisions do not garner profit for its investors, then what investors are going to stick around? And, as one commenter in the WSJ writeup points out, shouldn’t the market speak for itself? Meaning, if a company chooses to be pro-social or environmental in its mission and gains success because of it, then why do we need the interference of legislation?
Assuming that all shareholders understand marketing and customer loyalty, we don’t. But, as the lawsuit brought against Craigslist can exhibit, success with a pro-social business model doesn’t protect you legally.
6 factors to consider when choosing an online credit card processor
Choosing the right online credit card processing service will save you time, diversify your ability to collect payments and ultimately increase your ability to generate revenue.
Choosing the wrong processor will leave you paying higher fees, confuse your customers and put you on hold for hours waiting for a customer service rep.
When you’re a small business, it’s difficult to find the right online credit card processor with so many options available. One Google search will pull up such an endless list of companies, the research could go on for days – unless you know what to look for.
Guest Q&A: Big Small Brands founder Jen Barth shares her secrets to building a nonprofit brand
As part of our Philanthropy February campaign, I immediately thought of a friend and colleague, Jen Barth, who with a husband, two twin daughters, a dog and cat, and running her own business, finds the time to be a leader in grassroots education and children’s health reform.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Jen about what nonprofits, with limited resources and budget, can do to build their brands and connect with their supporters.
4 ways community involvement can grow your business
Reaching out to volunteer for a nonprofit in your community can lead to opportunities and benefits that enhance your company’s long-term reputation while growing your business.
Sure, you’ll be contributing positively to society and spreading your brand awareness across the community. But you’ll probably also have some fun while networking to meet new leads and potential business partners.
Choose a charity you respect and admire that also coincides with your company’s values, and learn the benefits below for how helping others can help grow your business.
How a father-daughter project grew into one of the most influential nonprofits in Social Media
Gabe O’Neill could have never predicted back in March 2008 that a father-daughter project would blossom into one of the most influential nonprofits in social media. Now – with a combined audience of about 50,000 Twitter followers and Facebook fans, and a network of more than 1.4 million followers through tweets donated by supporters – Mashable considers Kids Are Heroes to be the No. 4 must-follow nonprofit making a difference with social media.
It all started when Gabe’s daughter, MaryMargaret, approached him about building a website to help animals. “Why stop at animals?” asked Gabe, a software engineer in Maryland with an entrepreneurial spirit. “Why not help people too?” And that’s when the father-daughter duo came up with the concept for “Kids Are Heroes,” an organization dedicated to encouraging children to become leaders through community involvement.
How to launch an online fundraising campaign for free using only a blog and a Facebook page
If you’re a nonprofit just starting out in social media, you can launch a very effective online fundraising campaign for free using only a blog and Facebook. Mastering these two tools will help you to build the framework for future online fundraising strategies.
According to the 2011 Nonprofit Social Network Report, 92 percent of all nonprofits use at least one commercial social network and 89 percent of them use Facebook. A survey commissioned by Idealware also found that 84 percent of nonprofits were effectively using blogs to enhance existing relationships with donors.
