There’s “Give Local America” in the spring and “Giving Tuesday” in the fall. Community foundations or other organizers in your area may also be hosting special giving days in your region.

How can you take advantage of special fundraising and PR opportunities like these? During this workshop, we’ll explore how to integrate giving days in your ongoing fundraising campaigns.

What do you say to donors and other supporters of your cause in between asking them for money? During this workshop, you’ll develop an editorial calendar for a donor communications plan that comes full circle: asking for support, thanking supporters, offering additional ways to get engaged, and reporting results before asking again.

Nonprofit communications is so often driven by fundraising appeals, event marketing and other “help us now” messaging. But without content that truly engages your supporters’ hearts and minds, and that taps into their values and their own wants and needs, you risk boring them, alienating them, and losing them altogether.

Independent foundation. A fund or endowment designated by the Internal Revenue Service as a private foundation under the law, the primary function of which is the making of grants. The assets of most independent foundations are derived from the gift of an individual or family. Some function under the foundations.

Fun fact: a board of directors meeting doesn’t actually start when everyone is sitting around a table and it is called to order. Your work actually starts long before then. Prior to the meeting, you need take care of the logistics to make the time run smoothly. You’ll leave the workshop knowing how to start those conversations and what to do next as a team to keep people interested and engaged in your work.

Your nonprofit can’t succeed if you only talk to yourself. You have to communicate with others and get them involved in your work. But if you are like most nonprofits, you are making your communications plan up as you go. And like most nonprofits, you probably feel like your communications, marketing, and fundraising are both overwhelming and underperforming. You can change that.