Nonprofit Fundraising Resources
Fundraising articles, templates and guidelines
Nonprofit Fundraising Made Easy
At Five Maples, our main goal is to make things easier for your nonprofit, so you can save time and raise more money. To do this, we make sure your donor communications are as effective as possible, to improve your annual fund and donor retention and acquire more new donors.
With this purpose in mind, here you can find a collection of resources we have developed that cover different aspects of fundraising communications, including examples and best practices.
General Fundraising Resources
In this section you will find a series of documents, templates and guides developed by Five Maples to help you get the most out of your nonprofit fundraising project. You will also find examples of actions you can take to improve your donor communications and monthly giving, and make the most of your annual fundraising plan.
How Ask Strings Work
Ask strings are designed to move renewing donors up to the next, round number, level. In this document we outline a set of ask string principles to help nonprofits increase the average annual fund gift. We review how ask strings work, the psychology of priming, and include our ask string tables for both timely gifts and monthly giving.
How to Use Ask Sentences
In this document we show you how to combine ask strings with the best ask sentence in your fundraising letters and donation response cards. These help build donor trust and sustain and increase giving. You will find several examples for prospects, LYBUNTS and SYBUNTS.
The Better Letter Checklist
Follow this checklist of best practices to make sure your nonprofit fundraising letter is as effective as possible. The Five Maples Better Letter checklist is designed to guide you to success, and focuses on both the content and the design and typography of your letter.
Fundraising Planning Calendar
This Development Communication & Solicitation Annual Plan will help you build your fundraising plan following the standard 12-month calendar. Use this simple plan as a visual guide to lay out your year of communication and solicitation by channel.
Five Maples Onboarding Package
The documents contained in this section are part of our onboarding package. They will help you better understand how we work and what our core services, processes and policies are. They will also give you an insight into our procedures and strategies for developing compelling copy and design for your fundraising communications, as well as our fundraising data analysis processes.
The Five Maples Project Timeline
What to expect from start to finish when working with Five Maples, including detailed information on the planning, copywriting, design, data work, printing and mailing phases.
Why We Write the Way We Do
You need to involve donors directly, and make it easy to see their role in the call to action—and FAST. Here are some examples strategic ways we develop compelling yet easy-to-digest copy.
Appeal Copywriting Planning
Appeal letters are your way to communicate a call for help, a need for a hero. And you are trying to convince the donor they are your hero.
This document outlines what you need to keep in mind to have successful appeal copywriting planning.
Donor Impact Report Copywriting Planning
Impact Reports are your chance to show off to the donor what has been accomplished thanks to their support! This document outlines what you need to keep in mind to have successful donor impact report copywriting planning.
Why We Design the Way We Do
Because we know direct response fundraising, we design direct mail and email campaigns that bring in more donations.
Here are some examples of the strategic ways we develop compelling and easy-to-digest design for your fundraising project.
Appeal Design Planning
Appeal designs should be simple and easy-to-read. We do not want to distract, but we do want to make it interesting to look at.
This document describes what needs to be considered in order to successfully plan the appeal design.
Donor Impact Report Design Planning
Impact Reporting allows you to show your donors and potential donors what change they are making with their gifts. Designs should be easy to digest, interesting to look at, and present valuable information in a fun way.
This document describes what needs to be considered in order to successfully plan the donor impact report design.
Our Donor-Centric Reply Cards
This document outlines the best features to include on a nonprofit reply card or reply form, including visual examples and detailed explanations.
Five Maples Data Cleaning
Donor lists require careful treatment. The copy, the design, the strategy...none of it matters if the piece doesn’t make it to the mailbox.
Here are some of the basic cleaning tools we use on each of our fundraising mailing projects.
Five Maples Merge and Coding Capabilities
You need an easy way to communicate with different groups according to their interests and relationship with you. We’re experts with variable data printing (VDP) to achieve effective communication with variable data merging. Read more about how it works and our process, including visual examples.
How Ask String Work
Ask strings are designed to move renewing donors up to the next, round number, level.
In this document we outline a set of ask string principles to help nonprofits increase the average annual fund gift.
Analysis for Strategic Fundraising
In order to have a successful annual fund, you have to identify who’s likely to respond, know which message will resonate, and anticipate when they’ll act.
This is how we use your data to boost your fundraising results.
Postal Information
Useful postal information for nonprofits, covering topics such as how to qualify for standard nonprofit rates, how to keep mailing lists up to date, and how to interpret NCOA results
Qualifying for Nonprofit Standard Rates
Just because your organization has IRS 501(3)c nonprofit status does not mean it is entitled to the standard nonprofit rates. This article discusses the USPS definition of a nonprofit organization for mailing purposes and has a downloadable copy of the required PS Form 3624.
USPS Move Update / NCOA
Cleaning your mailing list reduces costs, ensures deliverability and reduces waste. To qualify for discounted postage rates, the USPS requires mailing lists used for a bulk mailing must’ve been corrected within the last 95 days. Learn about the NCOA (National Change of Address) service used by Five Maples.
Five Methods to Meet the Move Update Standard
These are the five best methods for complying with the USPS move update standard.
How to Interpret Your NCOA Return Codes
At the end of the NCOA service on your address list, Five Maples returns three files. Here is how to interpret your NCOA return codes.
Let’s talk about how we can help
Contact Elyse Pleickhardt, Director of Fundraising Communications, at 1-802-387-3081 or elysep@fivemaples.com