What Can Your Nonprofit Do With Just $1?
A few months ago, I went to a conference where they had an actual bookstore. It was great and fortunately I had a big suitcase in which to carry some books home.
There, I found a little book called “What Can You Do With Just $1?” written by Teresa Vasilopoulos, the executive director of the WoodGreen Foundation, a Canadian nonprofit that proceeds of the book support.
It’s a wonderful book filled with great illustrations to share with your kids and grandkids. It will help them not just realize the value of money, but also it will start teaching them how they can make a difference with just a small amount.
Several pages in the book talk about how combining those dollars will help make the giver stand tall.
That’s what rounding up your purchases to support a nonprofit does. That’s what microdonations do. And that’s also what recurring gifts do. If combined with other dollars, $1 will make a huge difference.
If you look at monthly giving as finding those small donors, who give a single dollar or just a few bucks a month, you’re on the right track. If you look at monthly giving as a way to give your donor the feeling that they can help with an amount they can afford, you’ll never go wrong. Especially now, many small donors together can still make a huge splash. Not everybody is able to write the big checks. And especially for older donors, the value of a dollar can be larger than you might think.
What can $1 do for your organization if combined with a few other donors? How about $1 a child? A dollar per animal? A dollar to help fill in the blank for your nonprofit.
How will you teach your kids and/or grandkids to spend their dollar next? And how will you spend it?
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- Recurring Donations
Erica Waasdorp is one of the leading experts on monthly giving. She is the president of A Direct Solution, a company serving nonprofit organizations with fundraising and direct marketing needs, with a focus on monthly giving and appeals. She authored "Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant" and "Monthly Giving Made Easy." She regularly blogs and presents on fundraising, appeals and monthly giving — in person and through webinars. She is happy to answer any questions you may have about this great way of improving retention rates for your donors.
Erica has over 30 years of experience in nonprofits and direct response. She helped the nonprofits she works with raise millions of dollars through monthly giving programs. She is also very actively supports organizations with annual fund planning and execution, ranging from copywriting, creative, lists, print and mail execution.
When she’s not working or writing, Erica can be found on the golf course (she’s a straight shooter) or quietly reading a book. And if there’s an event with a live band, she and her husband, Patrick, can be found on the dance floor. She also loves watching British drama on PBS. Erica and Patrick have two step sons and a cat, Mientje.
