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In 2014, nonprofits will need to move beyond storytelling to win donors. Fundraising has always been a tough beast to tame. Moreover, with new oversight laws and the growing wealth disparity, organizations must convince donors how their services are producing sustainable results.

Yes, crowdfunding and social media have taught nonprofit staffs how to convey great stories to pull donors’ heartstrings to open wallets and purses. However, the information age also yields more vigilant contributors who want to be reassured that their money is making an impact.

In October, FundRaising Success held its fourth annual Virtual Conference & Expo, a daylong, online gathering that allowed fundraisers to listen to and interact with some of the industry’s most respected and innovative fundraisers. Our closing session was a panel discussion focusing on things nonprofits need to think about and do to grow and thrive in 2014 and beyond.

Giving Tuesday 2013 was even more successful than in 2012, raising 90 percent more in 2013 than in 2012. So, want to know what Giving Tuesday did so well in 2013 and how you can use the lessons learned from the event to better your own online campaign? Here are five lessons from this year: 1. Create campaign ambassadors. 2. Develop tool kits for fans to grab and use. 3. Prioritize logo and image sharing. 4. Create a comprehensive learning center. 5. Take part in Google Hangouts.

At Artez Interactive, we wanted to know more about the impact of mobile devices on peer-to-peer, or “crowd-sourced,” fundraising campaigns. When individuals are motivated to ask their friends and social networks to donate to a cause, are those supporters using smartphones and tablets to help them fundraise? Similarly, are donors in peer-driven events giving through mobile-Web-enabled devices?

Nineteen nonprofits, including the American Red Cross, Livestrong Foundation and UNICEF, now have the ability to receive donations through their Facebook pages with a donation feature that Facebook made available to them last week.

When supporters land on a charity’s Facebook page, they can select the “donate now” button (on the top right of the page), enter the amount they want to give and their payment information, and share the fact that they gave through their news feeds. Facebook says 100 percent of the online contributions will go directly to charity.

Is SEO now irrelevant? Definitely not. But it behooves us as fundraisers to take a long, hard look at how much it’s helping us expand our reach.

While it might not be possible for other nonprofits to perfectly emulate charity: water's marketing strategy — in fact, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for them to try given that each nonprofit has a distinct mission, target audience and way of operating — all would benefit from applying even just a few of the lessons we can learn from its incredible marketing. With that in mind, here are nine marketing lessons other nonprofits can take away from charity: water.

Recent tweets from folks you should be following.

Your nonprofit is only as successful as its reach, and in today’s Internet-focused marketplace your reach is driven by your online presence. Accepting donations, tracking volunteers and promoting events are all done online. Without a formal search engine optimization (SEO) plan, your nonprofit could be left out of a lot of online searches.

Here are a few tips from iATS Payments to help your nonprofit get more attention and clicks online.

You should not eschew small-gift fundraising, even if the lion’s share of your funding comes from major donors. So let’s take a mini-break from thinking about major-gift fundraising (of which I’m a huge proponent). Whenever you can get a donor in the door, one with affinity for your cause, you should. Let’s look at 10 ways to succeed with small gift fundraising: …