Fundraising, Resources

August 10, 2023 | 5 min read By: Matthew Nash

The Blackbaud Giving Fund is a donor-advised fund that aims to power generosity by connecting donors and nonprofits.  Through a partnership with YourCause from Blackbaud, nonprofits have access to NPOconnect—a free platform that provides valuable resources and increases visibility to over 8 million prospective donors. When a nonprofit signs up for NPOconnect, they are encouraged to build their profile to showcase their mission, values, and impact to help encourage prospective donors to support their cause. When donors sign up for CSRconnect with their workplace giving program or GrantsConnect, they have direct access to the database of nonprofits and can select a nonprofit or specific cause they want to support. 

Here are six NPOconnect features that will help support your fundraising efforts:

Get donations faster 

When you sign up for NPOconnect, you can enroll in ACH to receive automatic payments directly to your bank account. These payments make money available up to three weeks sooner than receiving a check in the mail. We understand the importance of receiving donations as quickly as possible, so the money can be put to good use immediately and encourage all nonprofits to enroll. Additionally, automatic bank transfers eliminate time spent depositing checks, allowing you to focus on fundraising. Automatic deposits eliminates the complexities of check processing so funds go straight to your bank account, and the money is available immediately upon disbursement.

Access donor data

NPOconnect houses data specific to your donors and volunteers that will help you determine engagement tactics to help encourage ongoing support. With several ways to view information, from dashboard insights to a breakdown of each donor, nonprofits have tools to identify how people are giving, how much they’re giving, their donation pattern, and more. This powerful data can help inform future campaign efforts, identify previous efforts’ success, and determine the best way to engage and build relationships with donors. Nonprofits can also view the companies that matched their employee’s donations. Workplace giving is a powerful tool for nonprofits and, when the data is leveraged properly, can be a game-changer for a fundraiser’s goals. 

Be searchable

When you build out your profile to include your mission, vision, goals, and impact, potential donors can learn more about your work and are more inclined to support your mission. Donors can search the NPOconnect database by nonprofit’s name, mission, location, and more, so building a robust profile can help pull at donors’ heartstrings and encourage their monetary support. These profiles offer space to share stories to further showcase your impact on the community you serve. Including storytelling, impact results, pictures, and videos can show potential donors the hard work you’re dedicated to your mission, showcase that there is still work to be done, and highlight how their donations will make a difference. 

Receive notifications

The number of daily incoming emails can get overwhelming, but when it’s an email requesting verification so your nonprofit can receive a donation match from a company, that’s one you want to see and address. Some companies with donation matching programs require nonprofits to agree to terms unique to their CSR programs. Without agreeing to these terms, you may be leaving money on the table that was otherwise yours for the taking. Signing up for NPOconnect and having an active admin will help ensure you don’t miss important notifications that can help support your fundraising efforts.

Manage volunteer events

Within NPOconnect, nonprofits can create, publish, and manage volunteer events. You can create events from within the platform and invite key partners, individuals, or organizations. Additionally, you can track and manage volunteers, the number of hours they dedicated to the event, and even attribute a monetary value to the time a person spent volunteering. This valuable data can be used to measure impact and help drive your mission forward to identify your progress toward reaching your goals. Having simple ways to create, manage, and track events may help inspire you to develop more events and draw in more volunteers to become regularly involved with future events or donate to your cause. 

Align your mission

Often, companies identify goals or initiatives they want to support. When nonprofits showcase their mission and goals, companies with an affinity to that mission are more likely to find them and engage with the nonprofit, whether that be through volunteer initiatives, grants, or workplace giving initiatives. One way a company can identify if nonprofits are working toward the mission they want to support is by the tags on a nonprofit’s NPOconnect profile. Nonprofits can easily show potential donors they are working towards one or more of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals with tags. Using these tags, nonprofits can quickly and effectively communicate their goals, and companies can easily identify them. 

NPOconnect offers simple and manageable fundraising experiences for nonprofits to advance their mission and connect with donors. With simple solutions for powerful results, The Blackbaud Giving Fund hopes to advance the state of giving and support nonprofits in their mission to expand global good.

For more information about NPOconnect or to sign up, visit https://nonprofit.yourcause.com/login/create-account. 

To learn more about The Blackbaud Giving Fund, visit blackbaudgivingfund.org, or follow the organization on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram for updates, news, and more.