We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we are constantly inspired by you!  Together, you, the thousands of nonprofit organizations, fundraisers and donors who raise money online with Firstgiving, have raised millions of dollars for causes you care about.

Today is an exceptionally exciting day in Firstgiving history as we count up to the $100,000,000 donation mark!  Check our homepage for the most recent update:

Kudos to you! Who will the $100,000,000 donor be?

Every day, from coast to coast, Firstgiving helps nonprofits find online fundraising solutions, and for the past few months we’ve been out on the road visiting you and listening to your fundraising success stories.  We love having an online platform because it helps us connect to nonprofits all over the place, but we also have a special place in our hearts for the nonprofits here in our own backyard.

That’s one of the reasons we were really impressed when we found out that the 1st Annual Nonprofit Awareness Day is being celebrated today in Boston.  It’s a day set aside to honor the work of nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts, and it’s sponsored by one of our own nonprofit partners, the Massachusetts Audubon Society (who, by the way, raised over $60,000 online with their annual Bird-a-Thon event).

We’re also proud to say that one of our nonprofit partners, Minute Man ARC, is receiving the Nonprofit Governance Award. And more of our nonprofit partners are recognized in the list of nonprofit award nominees.

We salute you for your hard work, and we’re rooting for your fundraising success!

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but these days on the web, it seems that a little knowledge is all you really need.  One of the big challenges for any nonprofit organization, but especially for smaller ones, is managing a good website.  It used to be that a website meant expensive consultants, but more and more nonprofit organizations seem to be making it on their own, with the help of some smart volunteers or interns and a raft of free software and services.  Specifically, we’ve been seeing more and more nonprofit organizations building their website with blogging tools like WordPress.  In fact, we might even be a little behind the times on this one, as the Non-Profit Tech Blog broke the WordPress for NPO story back in December.

Last month, we did a survey of the participants in our webinar, SEO for the NPO, and found that over half are making their website go with staff they already have who also do other jobs.  Add to that the 14% running on intern or volunteer power and you get over two thirds doing it their way.  Additionally, 19% are outsourcing their websites and a mere 13% have dedicated web staff in their organizations.

We’re curious, have you taken the WordPress plunge?  Besides this very blog, Firstgiving is also using WordPress for our new help and support site.  Take our poll below and see the results.

 Loading ...

Summer’s almost here; have you customized your Firstgiving nonprofit page yet?

It’s easy to do and you can edit it anytime you like by logging into your nonprofit account.

We’ve put together an 8-minute video tutorial to guide you through editing and customizing your branded Firstgiving nonprofit page, including uploading your banner image, left image content, right content customization, and your nonprofit page text:

Find this and more tutorials at Firstgiving Help and Resources.

Today we bring you another nonprofit fundraising Best Practice in Action from our weekly series.  Each week, we’ll highlight an organization that has done an incredible job of promoting its online fundraising efforts with Firstgiving and show you how to do the same.  This week’s nonprofit fundraising Best Practice is. . .

Update your fundraisers on progress toward your fundraising goals, and recognize top teams and fundraisers.

Our friends at the Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies were just a few weeks away from their annual fundraising walk.  To give their fundraisers an extra boost of encouragement, they sent out an email update to all of them, with information to inspire some friendly competition:

Notably, this email includes:

•    recognition of top fundraising teams
•    a shout-out to all their fundraisers, congratulating them on their progress toward the fundraising goal
•    encouragement to continue recruiting other fundraisers and donors
•    a reminder of logistical information about the event (registration time, post-walk fun)

Since all this information is displayed clearly on their Firstgiving nonprofit page, it was really easy for the Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies to drop it into an email and send it out.  Result: a successful fundraising walk with over $60,000 raised online.

So, to recap:

Harness the power of friendly competition. As your event date approaches, email your fundraisers with a word of encouragement.  Remind them of your fundraising goals, and get them thinking about challenging their fellow fundraisers.

Happy fundraising, and here’s to raising more money than you ever thought possible!

Share your own success stories of fundraising Best Practices in Action by sending an email to bestpractices@firstgiving.com.

Have you ever had a new person come on board at your nonprofit?  Does he or she need to see your nonprofit’s fundraising and donor reports?  Make your new coworker feel welcome (not to mention really special) by giving him or her a personal username and login for your nonprofit account.

As an administrator of your nonprofit account, you can create as many user logins for your organization as you need.  Here’s a four-minute tutorial to show you how easy it is to do:

Happy fundraising!

Have you ever wondered where you can access donor information so that you can thank your donors? Or been curious about where you can find your nonprofit’s online fundraising totals? Did you know that this and other important information is stored in your nonprofit account?

This video is for you!  It’s a quick (4 minute) tour of the reporting area of your nonprofit account, including fundraiser reports, donor reports, financial reports and registration reports.

3-2-1 Action!