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MICHELLE'S
​ MORSELS

How to Get Donations to Support Your Nonprofit Organization

5/24/2022

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​As a nonprofit, your organization relies on your ability (and the ability of your staff) to get donations, but doing so can be easier said than done. Unlike people who sell a product or service, you’re not giving donors something tangible in exchange for their donation. Instead, you’re relying on their goodwill, and while there are plenty of people who want to do good in the world, getting them to donate to your nonprofit requires a slightly different strategy from the ones used by people who work in sales. So, let’s talk about how to get donations to support your nonprofit organization.

​Use a Donation Page to Easily Get Donations

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​The first thing you need to do is set up a donation page for your nonprofit’s website. This makes it easy for people who find your website to donate while they’re already there learning about your organization. It also gives you a page to link to when you’re asking for donations on social media or via email. If you can provide a link to your donation page where they can fill out their information to make a donation, they’ll be much more likely to do so.
Pro tip: Online donations are usually made via credit card, which charges you for each transaction. You can include a checkbox on your donation page that people can check if they’re willing to pay the transaction fee so more of the money they give can go directly to supporting your organization.

Get Donations Automatically by Asking for Recurring Donations

Every time someone gives you a donation, you should always ask if they want to make it a recurring donation. You can make it another checkbox on your donation page, but you also want to make sure it’s part of the script your staff and volunteers use when they get donations in person or over the phone. A recurring donation allows you to charge the same amount on their credit card or take it directly from their bank account every month. Recurring donations are a great way to get consistent income for your nonprofit while automating those donations so you don’t have to go out and ask for them every month.
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​Send Thank-You Cards Every Time You Get Donations

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You’d be surprised how far a traditional thank-you card can get you. If you want to save money on paper and postage, there are websites that let you send and create personalized thank-you cards to the recipient’s email address, but snail mail works, too, especially since it gives them a chance to put it on their desk or their fridge where they’ll be able to see it regularly. That helps keep you top of mind so that, if you did not manage to get a recurring donation from them, the thank-you card will prompt them to donate again. Everyone likes to feel appreciated, and the thank-you card helps continue the warm, fuzzy feeling they naturally get by donating to a good cause.

​Partner with Local Businesses to Get Donations

​Many businesses will match their employee contributions up to a certain dollar amount, so if you have not done so already, reach out to some local businesses to see if they offer this, and if not, if they’d be interested in adding it to their employee benefits.
You can also add a prompt on your donation page to ask donors if their employer offers matching contributions. If they’re not sure, you can ask them to check with their employer, or you can ask who their employer is. If you’ve partnered with local businesses, you might know which ones offer matching contributions, in which case you can check to see if they offer matching contributions. It’s a simple question that has the potential to double the amount of your donation.
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Talk About What You Can Do with the Money

​For-profit businesses have testimonials, case studies, and success stories on their websites and in their marketing materials to demonstrate the benefits they provide their customers, and your nonprofit organization also needs to leverage these assets. Show what your organization has done, the benefits you’ve provided to the community, the impact you’ve had on people’s lives, etc. You’ll be more likely to get donations when people understand exactly what you’ll be doing with their money.
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​It can also help to lay out a vision for what you want your nonprofit organization to do going forward, especially if you’re having a big fundraising campaign. For example, if you want to expand your operations, which includes buying more office space, then in addition to having your monetary goal, you’ll need to explain to people what you’ll be able to achieve once you’ve reached that financial goal.
​I spent years helping nonprofit organizations improve their fundraising efforts and get donations, so if you have any questions about how I can do the same for your nonprofit organization, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can schedule your FREE clarity call now to get started.
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3 Ways to Avoid Productive Procrastination So You Can Grow Your Business

5/17/2022

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​We’ve all engaged in productive procrastination at some point in our business. Yes, the laundry needs to get done, but does it really take priority over that project you’ve been meaning to tackle for your business?
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​Productive procrastination is a very sneaky way for our brains to trick us into avoiding things we need to be doing for our business because it doesn’t feel like procrastination. It feels like work. It feels like we’re doing something that needs to get done. And while it might have been a while since you last cleaned your office, that doesn’t mean doing so is more important than tackling the needle-moving activities in your business.
​Because productive procrastination can be so sneaky, we sometimes need to take extra precautions against going down the rabbit hole of the less-important things on our to-do list. With that in mind, let’s look at some strategies you can use to avoid productive procrastination and start growing your business.

Avoid Productive Procrastination by Prioritizing Your To-Do List

Our to-do list is always a mile long, and no matter how many hours we work, it feels like the list never gets any shorter, and productive procrastination can contribute to that problem. If you spend too much time on low-priority tasks, you don’t feel productive at the end of the day because you didn’t accomplish the things that really needed to get done that day. Then you beat yourself up and call yourself lazy, which makes you feel bad about yourself. When you feel bad about yourself, you’re not very motivated to tackle the big projects in your business, so you focus on the less-important tasks, and the cycle repeats itself. Sound familiar?
You might already know how important it is to write out your to-do list every morning (or the night before), but if you have not considered prioritizing your to-do list, you could be setting yourself up for failure without even realizing it.
​One way to prioritize your to-do list is to write them in order of when each task needs to get done. While that can help you avoid blowing past deadlines, it can still leave your schedule open for that sneaky productive procrastination.
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​Another way to prioritize your to-do list is in order of importance. What tasks can you do today that will help you grow your business? Do those first.
What tasks do you need to do today to keep your business going? This includes client work, making sure bills are paid on time so the lights stay on while you work, etc. These should be the secondary tasks on your to-do list.
Everything else can go after that. This includes administrative tasks, some marketing tasks that are helpful but not necessary, certain household tasks, etc. Anything that can get pushed to another day needs to go at the end of your to-do list regardless of where the deadline lands.

​Reward Yourself for Avoiding Productive Procrastination

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​Most of the time we procrastinate performing a certain task because we don’t want to do it. Just like you can arrange your to-do list to put the most important tasks at the top, you can also arrange it so that you do your favorite task right after performing your least favorite task. If you really don’t want to make those sales calls, but you know they always help you get more business, then put those sales calls at the beginning of the day and follow them up with an easier task you’re looking forward to performing, or even a break. Maybe after you finish your sales calls, you get to eat a snack or watch an episode of your favorite TV show. Whatever reward will encourage you to do the thing you don’t want to do, use that to motivate yourself to complete the needle-moving activities for your business.

Stop Being “Busy”

​Our culture values people who are “busy” because we have a tendency to assume that “busy” means “productive,” but they’re not the same thing. For example, if you’ve been meaning to write a book for your business to establish yourself as an expert in your field, you can spend hours researching your chosen topic without writing a single word or even creating an outline. You’re busy, but you’re not productive. At some point, you have to start writing in order to achieve your goals.
​Take another look at your to-do list. Is it full of busywork, or are they all needle-moving activities that will help you grow your business?

Get Help from a Professional Business Coach

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​Because productive procrastination is so sneaky, it can be hard to catch yourself falling into this trap. This is where it can be helpful to have a coach holding you accountable to your goals and pointing out when you’re focusing on low-priority tasks. If you have big goals you want to accomplish in your business, but you never seem to make progress on them, it might be time to think about hiring a coach. You can schedule your FREE clarity call now so we can talk about how I can help you identify and take action on the needle-moving activities to grow your business.
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Nonprofit Events This Summer

5/10/2022

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Summer can be a tough time for nonprofits. People are on summer break and they’re not necessarily thinking about their favorite charitable causes. If you partner with local businesses, you might have a harder time scheduling nonprofit events with them if their office tends to slow down during the summer.
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The good news is that summer is a great opportunity for hosting outdoor nonprofit events. People tend to look for things to do outside, especially if you’re in a part of the country with harsh winters where people are more likely to look for ways to soak up as much sun as possible while they can. By hosting an outdoor nonprofit event, you can provide that opportunity for them to spend some time in the great outdoors, while also capturing people during the event who might not have heard of it ahead of time, but happen to come across it while they’re out and about. If you’re looking for some fundraising ideas for summer, we have a few tips that will help you get the most out of your outdoor nonprofit events.

​Make Your Nonprofit Events Kid-Friendly

​Most people work less during the summer because their kids are home from school, so if you’re hosting a nonprofit event over the summer, try to make it as kid-friendly as possible so people can bring their kids
​You can have kid-friendly games and competitions. Provide kid-friendly foods that will have kids dragging their parents to your nonprofit event.
​If you do decide to make kids the focus of your event, don’t forget to include pictures of kids in your marketing campaign so parents know it’s a family-friendly nonprofit event. And advertise your event in places where kids and parents are likely to see it, whether that’s the local playground or daycare.
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​Host a “Pub Crawl”

​If you want to keep your nonprofit event kid friendly, you probably won’t want to do a traditional pub crawl, but depending on the types of businesses in your area, you could do a cookie crawl, an ice cream crawl, or a lemonade crawl. You can partner with local businesses in your area to provide treats to your attendees, either for free or at a discount. That way you’ll get people to your nonprofit event and the local businesses will get people in their stores/restaurants, which makes it a win/win for everyone!
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​As nice as it is to take advantage of the great outdoors while we can, the downside to hosting an outdoor nonprofit event is that you run the risk of getting wet, so have a back-up plan. Whether that means having plenty of large tents to provide shelter, or an indoor location you can have on standby, it’s always wise to hope for the best and plan for the worst.

Have a Back-Up Plan for Your Outdoor Nonprofit Events

​Whether your nonprofit needs some fundraising ideas for summer, or you just need help planning your nonprofit events, I can help. I spent years planning nonprofit events and raising money for them all year long, so if you need help coming up with a fundraising strategy for your nonprofit, you can schedule your FREE clarity call now so we can talk about how I can help you achieve all your fundraising goals.
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How to Reach Your Full Potential as An Entrepreneur

5/3/2022

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​There are a lot of reasons people choose to become entrepreneurs rather than stick with (or enter) the corporate world. Sometimes we have to ditch the day job to stay home and take care of young children or aging parents, and so we look for a job that lets us work odd hours.
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​Sometimes it’s just the desire to make our own hours so we can work when we know we’re most focused and productive, which isn’t always from 9 am to 5 pm on certain days of the week. In other cases, the corporate job is not fulfilling and we leave to do something we love – something we know will make a difference in the world.
More often than not, there’s more than one reason entrepreneurs choose to go out on their own, but regardless of the reason, something many entrepreneurs struggle with is how to reach their full potential. When you’re working for yourself, making more money requires you to operate at a 
higher level – to step into more. But that can be easier said than done, so let’s look at some strategies you can use if you’ve been wondering how to reach your full potential as an entrepreneur.

​Focus on Your Why

​One of the biggest reasons people working corporate jobs are so unmotivated is because it doesn’t align with their purpose. By contrast, entrepreneurs who are doing something they love are constantly looking for ways to do more, not just because they love their job, but because they’re aligned with their purpose.
​To be clear, “do more” does not mean working 24/7. It means finding more ways to be of service, whether that means launching a new product or service, or finding an innovative way to serve your audience.

​Delegate to Reach Your Full Potential

​A lot of entrepreneurs are afraid to offload tasks onto other people, but doing so is necessary for anyone to reach their full potential. You can’t reach your full potential if you’re spending hours every day cleaning out your email, doing your own bookkeeping, or running errands someone else could be running for you. To reach your full potential, you need to conserve your time and energy as much as possible so you can spend it on the things only you can do.
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​Automate to Reach Your Full Potential

Today’s technology can do so much for you, and yet too many entrepreneurs are either afraid to take advantage of it, or just don’t know all the advantages technology has to offer. For example, instead of logging the same expense in your bookkeeping software every month, why not make it a recurring expense so the software automatically logs it every month and you can spend that time doing what you do best? ​
​Or scheduling software that lets people schedule a meeting with you with a few clicks, then automatically sends them a follow-up email after the meeting? These are all things that need to get done for your business, but if they can get done automatically, that frees you up to focus on achieving your full potential.

​Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable to Reach Your Full Potential

Reaching your full potential requires you to grow, and growth is never comfortable. If you decide to keep doing the things you’ve always been doing and never try any new strategies for growing your business (or yourself), you’ll never reach your full potential. ​
​There are times when it makes sense to listen to your gut when it tells you not to do something, but sometimes that’s just fear holding you back. One of the keys to reaching your full potential is to learn the difference between a warning you should heed and an indication you’re about to step up to the next level.

​Get Help to Reach Your Full Potential

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​While you can go a long way towards achieving your full potential on your own, a coach can help you go further faster by pointing out old habits and systems that might be holding you back, while directing you to paths around the roadblocks that are currently standing in your way. If you’re tired of being stuck and ready to learn how to reach your full potential, you can start by scheduling your FREE clarity call now so we can talk about the ways in which I can help you achieve more in less time.
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    Why Morsels? 

    Business advice,
    like chocolate chips,
    is best digested
    a handful of morsels at a time.  I think we'd all agree that devouring a lot of either all at once can be too much for the average person to handle..

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  • Services
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  • About
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    • Where's Michelle? >
      • Past Speaking Engagements
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