Running a small nonprofit isn’t easy. You are continuously trying to create a positive impact while trying to convince people to give you money to support your cause. And I know that it’s difficult managing that while being pulled in 500 different directions with a small team due to restricted funding. Here are my five tips to help you stay on your toes and reduce that feeling of being overwhelmed.
Drift – Customer Service
Being a small nonprofit, conveying your programming can be difficult. Drift is here to help. It’s a messaging platform that can be added to your website as a widget in the lower right-hand corner, so that you can answer any questions visitors might have. Drift has been an absolute game changer for us. We’ve been able to talk to donors who might be confused about parts of our impact model. After answering their questions and clearing their concerns, we’ve received donations immediately afterwards. One time, we were able to convert a viewer to a donor who gave over $1,000 by answering his questions first. It’s free for the first 100 contacts so go ahead and give it try!
Google Adwords Grant – Marketing
Funding is a problem many small nonprofits face. Lucky for us, companies like Google are here to help us out. Google Adwords has a grant that all registered nonprofits can apply to giving you access to $10,000 on a monthly basis for AdWords. This service will allow you to get more visibility in search engines when people type keywords that you select. While Google does have some restrictions, this is an incredible way to drive more people to your website.
Canva – Design
If you’re like us, you desperately need creative content to build a strong social media presence but don’t want to pay for expensive software or don’t know how to use them. You just need a simple and free tool. Meet Canva! It’s a free online tool with many templates already built in that allow you to create eye-catching designs in a simple manner. You can even add team members to your creations to share among multiple accounts.
Mixmax – Email Management
While you’ve been running around attending events, being in meetings, you’ve forgotten to follow up with that important person who might have written you a check. We’ve all been there. MixMax is a crucial email management tool that is a chrome ad-in that allows you to schedule emails to bounce back to the top of your inbox, schedule emails, see when people have opened your emails, and more! It’ll help you stay on top of your email with less effort.
Slack – Team Communication
Finding ways to effectively communicate with your whole team isn’t easy (especially when they are remote), but Slack definitely helps. Not only does Slack allow you to categorize your messages with various channels, but it also has a wide number of integrations with other services. For example, you can add a Drift integration or “bot” to Slack, which allows you to reply directly to Drift messages in Slack. Another nifty integration is Arc, which syncs with Google Analytics and sends you updates every day on website traffic and engagement. The ease of messaging paired with integrations makes Slack not only a collaboration tool, but also a central dashboard for your organization. And did I mention it’s free?
These are my five personal tips for any small nonprofit to become more effective. From team communication to email management, it’s all tasks that sometimes fall through the cracks. Hopefully these will help you out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at prabha@womenutm.io.
Prabha Dublish is founder of Womentum, a crowdfunding platform for women entrepreneurs in developing countries. Prabha is known for finding innovative solutions for the world’s biggest problems. Read her interview on LadyBossBlogger to learn more about her.
Susan Skrypka-Bassett
This was very helpful. Sue