Best Practices for Fundraising: Free Tools, Guides, and Trainings for Nonprofits
- Nonprofit Learning Lab
- Jul 29
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 4
Table of Contents
Activity Sheets: Donor Management & Planning
Fundraising Blogs
At the Nonprofit Learning Lab, we offer daily online nonprofit training on training, facilitation, fundraising, strategic planning, communications, volunteer management, and free resources to help you lead your organization. These resources are designed to help executive directors, c-suite staff, development directors, program directors, volunteer managers, operation directors, and board members.
We offer a variety of free nonprofit resources from downloadable guidebooks to webinars to blogs!
We’ve compiled a list of all our internal resources relating to fundraising along with highlighting some of our favorite external resources. Keep reading to learn about fundraising strategies, best practices for fundraising, and more.
Guidebooks
We offer many free downloadable guidebooks to get ideas for fundraising plans, budgeting, board development and more. View our volunteer and board-focused guidebooks below.
A comprehensive guide to creating a case statement, this resource includes activities and worksheets designed to help leadership and staff define an organization’s mission and fundraising goals. Perfect for staff meetings, training sessions, and retreats.
This guidebook outlines the process of developing a fundraising plan, with fundraising strategies and sample fundraising plan to help organizations set and achieve their fundraising goals effectively.
This guidebook offers insights into building a sustainable major gifts program, from identifying prospects to stewarding donors. Major gift strategies and fundraising ideas to support nonprofit leaders in building relationships with major donors.
A detailed guide to planned giving, legacy societies, how to talk to donors about planned gifts and donor cultivation strategies to find unanticipated planned giving donors.
Essential guide for donor retention, offering strategies to strengthen relationships and maintain long-term contributions for nonprofits.
Free Webinars & Past Free Webinar Downloads
Join us for live free webinars, covering topics from data analytics to fundraising & our diversity, equity and inclusion webinar series. Participate live to ask questions and learn from our expert speakers!
In addition to our live, upcoming free webinars, we provide access to all our previous free webinars! You can download both the recording and slides for our free webinars.
10 Free Fundraising Webinars You Can Access Today
How to Improve your Fundraising and Communications with Better Donor Data
Annual Report: Is it a Burden or a Call to Action for Donors
Fundraising Event Marketing Tips to Bridge the Generational Divide
Leveraging Corporate Matching Gifts to Reach Your Fundraising Goals
Fundraising Made Simple: Simplified Donation Management to Amplified Donation Results
How to Start a Major Donor Program
The Art and Science of Major Gift Fundraising
Fundraise Smarter, Not Harder- How to Identify High Value Fundraising Tasks
How to Cultivate and Manage Donors Remotely
Crafting Year-End Donor Engagement Surveys
To gain access, just fill out our short form and you’ll receive an email to browse them all!
Workshops
We offer online nonprofit training on supervision, facilitation, fundraising, strategic planning, communications, volunteer management, board management, and more! Check out our trainings related to fundraising below.
Wealth is not in cash - it is in appreciated non-cash assets. We'll review some easy steps that a nonprofit can take to begin planned giving to get those appreciated assets. We'll then move into a breakdown of the variety of non-cash assets, whether a nonprofit wants to include them in their Gift Acceptance Policy, and how to talk with professional advisors and donors about those appreciated assets that can become major income for nonprofits.
Has figuring out your cash flow been on your to-do list but always getting pushed aside by more urgent matters? If so, you're not alone. It’s easy to deprioritize financial clarity when other fires keep popping up. If you're finally ready to bring this conversation to the forefront, this workshop is for you. I’m here to help you navigate the process with clarity and support.
To secure funding, nonprofits must clearly communicate their impact and competitive advantage. This interactive workshop will guide participants through developing a compelling Theory of Change, refining their value proposition, and differentiating their organization in the funding landscape. By the end, participants will have a stronger positioning strategy to attract funders who align with their mission.
Corporate sponsors can play a vital role in helping nonprofits grow. Join us to learn how to secure and sustain strong corporate sponsorships. We’ll explore what sponsors look for, how to meet their expectations, and the impact these partnerships can have—from raising funds to expanding your reach and reputation. Walk away with practical tips and proven strategies to land and maintain meaningful corporate support.
MVPPP stands for Messaging, Vehicles, Prospects, Partners, and Plan—key elements for successful fundraising. This session will guide attendees in crafting a compelling case for giving, choosing communication channels, identifying prospects and partners, and building a data-driven fundraising plan. Participants will also learn essential metrics like participation rate, average gift, and cost to raise a dollar.
With federal funding freezes and shifting donor behaviors, nonprofits must diversify their revenue streams to maintain financial stability. This session provides actionable strategies for identifying, cultivating, and securing major gifts – even in small shops with limited resources. Participants will leave with a customized roadmap to grow their major gifts portfolio and a deeper understanding of how to engage major donors in uncertain times.
Are you struggling with how to capture and translate data to help effectively tell your story and secure additional funding? In this workshop, you will acquire practical tips and easily applied strategies for effectively collecting and using data to strengthen your fundraising and communications efforts. Gain insight into how to create an organizational culture of growth and learning that supports data collection and usage, low cost-effective ways to systematically track and manage data, and common pitfalls faced when collecting, reporting, and using data. Armed with practical tools and strategies for effectively incorporating data into your efforts, you will be equipped to up your fundraising and storytelling game.
Nonprofit Learning Library
Our nonprofit library contains hundreds of recordings and slides for nonprofit professionals on a variety of topics from marketing, fundraising, program management, diversity equity and inclusion, volunteer management and more.
Membership provides you with access to our previous nonprofit workshops. Interested in seeing what's in the resource library but not a member? Click here to see an abbreviated list of resources in our library.
Working on your continuing education credits and looking to get CFRE or CVA credits? Our library is filled with hundreds of sessions pre-approved for CFRE and CCVA credit! Additionally, as a CAE registered provider, many of our workshops qualify for ASAE credit as well!
Activity Sheets: Donor Management & Planning
We offer free downloadable, printable worksheets to help you brainstorm on nonprofit topics such as strategy & planning, fundraising, and volunteer management.
This worksheet focuses on several guiding questions, fundraising challenges, and organizational goals, which is important to the process of developing a fundraising plan. Staff members and fundraising committee members should be able to answer most of these questions prior to developing a yearly fundraising plan.
This worksheet focuses on determining strategies for donor cultivation and stewardship. These strategies provide an opportunity for organizational leaders to determine cultivation and stewardship methods that they would like to implement or improve upon.
This worksheet helps staff members and board members prepare for donor solicitations. Understanding where donors are, in terms of affinity and capacity to an organization, is essential before a direct solicitation.
Tip Sheets: Direct Mail & Annual Reports
Download tip sheets on topics from nonprofit fundraising, board development, nonprofit marketing & volunteer management.
This tip sheet offers guidance on crafting effective direct mail appeals by being clear, specific, and action-oriented. Use the included checklist to ensure your message resonates with donors and makes giving easy.
This tip sheet provides guidance on creating clear, visually engaging annual reports that highlight your nonprofit’s impact. Use the checklist to plan content, design, and format decisions that best connect with your audience.
Blogs
Weekly blog posts on fundraising, nonprofit marketing, donor management software, nonprofit storytelling, volunteer management, social media and more!
Quick Link to all Fundraising Blogs
10 of our favorite blogs for fundraising:
Diversify Your Nonprofit Funding Streams: Fundraising Strategies for 2025
Technology Tools to Support Fundraising, Donor Management & Donor Stewardship
Maximizing Giving Tuesday: A 5-Step Guide for Nonprofit Success
How to Secure In-Kind Donations for Your Nonprofit's Auction
How to Build a Legacy Society to Cultivate Planned Giving Donors
5 Essential Grant Writing Tips to Secure Funding for Nonprofits
Using Technology to Transform Your Nonprofit’s Next Fundraising Event
External Resources
The CFRE certification is a globally recognized credential awarded by the CFRE International organization. It signifies that a fundraiser has met high standards of professional achievement and possesses the knowledge, experience, and ethical grounding necessary for successful fundraising. This certification is designed for professionals in a variety of roles across the nonprofit sector, including development officers, major gift officers, planned giving professionals, and even fundraising consultants.
If you are working on becoming CFRE certified, the Nonprofit Learning Lab is an approved provider and most of our workshops qualify towards your education!
Other Helpful Resources
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