Meet Dorokasi Nizigimana, a Senior at Cornerstone University majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing. Dorokasi just wrapped up a two-semester internship with Kennari. My experience with Kennari Consulting has taught me many valuable concepts,...
A few key takeaways from this year’s Giving USA report
The Giving USA Report is the longest running annual report on U.S. charitable giving, and is published by the Giving USA Foundation. It is researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. In 2020, $471.44 billion was contributed,...
Read Muskegon keeps the big picture in view with fundraising pivots
Over the past two years of the pandemic, one of the messages Kennari has championed most ardently is that this is the time to prioritize new approaches and innovation in fundraising. Nonprofits have faced numerous and varied challenges over this period so it is...
Campaign Phase Communication
When your organization decides to take the exciting step of launching a campaign, it’s hard not to talk about it! After all, campaigns aren’t a regular occurrence at organizations, and they can be totally transformative. In order to maximize the support around the...
Planning Your Annual Donor Communications
The subtitle for this month’s roundtable could be “Building Stronger Relationships with Your Donors,” because your communications strategy is a critical piece of donor relationship development. To maximize your communications for the greatest impact, you need a plan...
Website Best Practices That Will Make Your Donation Forms More Effective
Guest Blog: Abby Jarvis, Nonprofit Education Manager, Qgiv Many nonprofits raise up to 50% of their annual revenue during the month of December. The end-of-year fundraising season is a whirlwind for fundraisers; there’s so much to do! That’s why we recommend planning...
With Matching Gifts, Everybody Wins!
Nothing gives your fundraising a boost like a great matching or challenge gift to inspire donors. As fundraising consultants, Kennari regularly suggests adding a match or challenge to clients’ fundraising design and the reason is simple: everyone wins! The lead donor...
Maximizing the Impact of Your Year-end Appeal
We learned a lot of lessons in 2020, especially in how we communicate with donors. We became more reliant on technology than ever, and online giving grew the most it has ever grown. But this also means we lost some personal connection with our donors. Gaining that...
Getting Back to In Person Events
Many nonprofits are making plans for in person fundraising events - and there are great resources out there for making the shift back. Mobile Cause recently came out with "8 Strategies to give donors confidence attending in-person events" and the list is full of good...
Solving Four Challenges with Recurring Giving Programs
We love a great recurring giving program! Why? They are easy for donors to set up. Donors rarely cancel their recurring gifts. In fact, donor retention is higher for recurring donors. According to The Nonprofit Recurring Giving Benchmark study, recurring donors have...
Is Your Organization Fundraising Legally?
Nonprofits need a "license to solicit funds" in many states. Soliciting is very broadly defined. Basically, if the organization is communicating with anyone directly (mail, email, peer-to-peer campaign, social media, etc.) and there is any kind of opportunity to...
Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids Receives Grant to Help Students “Be Ready” for High School
Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids Youth Commonwealth has provided quality after-school programming to children and youth in the Grand Rapids community since 1938. A crucial part of their mission is to support youth in graduating from high school and one of the best...
Intern Spotlight – Rebecca Rowland
Meet Rebecca Rowland! Rebecca is a senior at Western Michigan University, graduating this summer. Rebecca is majoring in Organizational Communication and minoring in Event Management and Psychology. My expectations coming into this internship were pretty high....
Engaging your Board and Fundraising Volunteers
Connecting your volunteers to your organizational needs and goals is important work; volunteers, including the board, are a key to significantly increasing your fundraising outcomes. However, keeping your volunteers engaged and feeling like they are making a...
Mobile and Text Giving
In today’s fundraising landscape, mobile or text giving is no longer avoidable. In 2020, mid-size nonprofits saw a 25% increase in online giving, and 28% of contributions were made through a mobile device, so it’s time provide your donors with the proper tools to make...
Tracking Fundraising Outcomes
For a variety of reasons, many organizations do not have a good, consistent fundraising reports that they regularly pull and use. There are also not one-size-fits-all reports that work perfectly at every organization. Identifying what is important to share, making...
Innovation, Flexibilty and Strength: Creative solutions in 2020 and encouragement for 2021
Last year, we urged our friends and partners in the nonprofit community to Keep Calm and Keep Moving. While we are not completely past the challenges we faced in 2020, we wanted to take a moment to recognize the incredible tenacity shown during this unprecedented...
Intern Spotlight – D’onna King
Meet D'onna King! D'onna is a senior at Grand Valley State University, graduating in April with a Bachelor's degree in Public and Nonprofit Administration, with an emphasis in Budget and Finance. My time with Kennari Consulting was more than just an...
Making Your Website Donor-Centric
Are you missing a critical step in your donor engagement strategy? Your website is a key way that your donors – current and prospective – interact with your organization, and yet it can be one of the last places we focus our effort. To maximize your website for donor...
Events – Different Look, New Potential
Here at Kennari, the question we have been hearing the most is, “How can we shift an in-person event to virtual and still gain the projected revenue we need?” It is true that fundraising events look different lately, and this shift is changing the way philanthropic...