This is a guest blog post and is posted with permission from Molly Trerotola of Give Lively. This post has been edited for the purposes of Nonprofit Learning Lab.
There are many free digital tools that any nonprofit can use to prepare for the big giving rush. We compiled a list of ten free services that will help your nonprofit spread the word, wow your supporters, collect data, collaborate with your team, and, most importantly, raise more money!
Canva
Want to create beautiful graphics for #GivingTuesday but don’t have a designer on staff? Check out Canva. Create graphs, edit photos, and much more, all for free with Canva. It’s drag-and-drop format is incredibly easy to use whether you’re in marketing, development, or an executive director. If you’ve created something you really love and want to print it, Canva can help with that too, but unfortunately the print service isn’t free.
Give Lively
Give Lively offers nonprofits a powerful fundraising platform for free. The platform includes everything you’ll need for year-end giving and gala season, from fundraising pages to Text-to-Donate, Event Ticketing to Peer-to-Peer fundraising, and a lot more. The entire platform is incredibly easy to use for nonprofits and donors alike, and it’s absolutely free. So how is it all free? The company is fully funded by philanthropists to provide best-in-class tech to all nonprofits for free.
Donorbox
Donorbox helps you track your fundraising with smart donation forms that embed directly into your website or can be enabled as a pop-up form. Choose from multiple currencies, languages, and payment options and customize your form so that it aligns closely with your organization's brand. Options for recurring donations and recurring plans can be easily managed by your donors for the perfect donor experience. Click here for an example of a form Donorbox created.
Facebook, Twitter & Instagram
Ok, so this is a three-in-one, but it’s important. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are quick ways for your nonprofit to spread your message and get donations. Not only that, but they all include built-in tools to measure your reach, engagement, and other key stats. If you want to boost your posts, you’ll have to pay, but if you just want to keep up with your core supporters (and their friends), these social media platforms are the way to go.
Hootsuite
Want to schedule social media posts for #GivingTuesday now to make the day less stressful? Look no further than Hootsuite. It’s an amazing free tool that nonprofits (and thousands of businesses and brands) use to create and maintain a social media calendar. It integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and even if you don’t use it for scheduling, it can be helpful to keep everything social organized in one place.
MailChimp
With MailChimp’s free tier, your nonprofit can send up to 12,000 emails a month to 2,000 subscribers. Plus, you can set up landing pages and Google Remarketing Ads, access guides and tutorials, get instant email and chat support for 30 days, and automate the emails you send. If you’re not using an email client yet, signing up for MailChimp for free is a no brainer.
Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack
Customer relationship management (CRM) software for nonprofits can be prohibitively expensive and difficult to use. But it doesn’t have to be. Any nonprofit looking into CRM software should turn to the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack. It’s free for nonprofits and has all the tools you’ll need to manage programs, donations, volunteers, and supporters all in one convenient location.
Google Drive
Still using Microsoft Office? You may want to consider switching to Google Drive. Drive has all the same features as Office at zero cost. You can write documents, set up spreadsheets, create presentations, and more with Drive. Plus, Drive makes it easy to collaborate with your team. Team members can go into your documents (can anyone say fundraising appeals?) and leave notes, make edits, and share with others. Drive is one of the best collaborative tools out there.
Taproot Foundation
Taproot is a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits get pro bono help on specific projects. Whether you need help with legal work, marketing, strategic planning or something else, Taproot will help you enlist high-skilled volunteers to get the job done. Figure out what you need for #GivingTuesday and year-end giving, then reach out to Taproot.
Flickr Creative Commons
Most nonprofits don’t have access to professional photographers. That’s where Flickr Creative Commons comes in. Use this site to find compelling, high quality imagery that you don’t have to pay for. Every image on the site comes without a copyright, so you can use them, photoshop them, add in your own designs, include them in videos, and much more.
Google Analytics
If you don’t have data on who is visiting your site and how they’re using it, you’re in the dark. Shine some light on your website with Google Analytics. The free version of this powerful software will help you tally your website visitors, figure out their demographics, and track their movements and clicks on your site. Plus, it integrates with Google AdWords and Google Ad Grants.
Get started with these tools today to optimize your #GivingTuesday and year-end giving success. Most of these tools are pretty straightforward, but some have small learning curves, so you’ll want to get started as soon as possible to ensure your organization’s success. Happy fundraising!
RallyUp
RallyUp built a robust platform that allows nonprofits to create unforgettable fundraising experiences. The platform is beautifully designed, simple to use, and abundantly flexible. Users can mix and match fundraising components to create a fundraising experience their donors will love.
RallyUp does it all, from start to finish, so users won’t have to combine multiple platforms or technologies to reach their goals