Nonprofit Fundraising & Finance Best Practices | The ENGAGE Blog by Blackbaud

Change Management

How to Make High-Tech Fundraising Feel More High Touch for Your Donors

As a nonprofit digital strategist and technology coach, I think I have the best job in the world. I get [...]

April 18, 2025| 5 min Read

Cybersecurity

Top Cyber Threats to Educational Institutions in 2025

April 17, 2025| 9 min Read

Funding Uncertainty

How Nonprofits Can Manage Cash Flow During Financial Challenges

March 20, 2025| 5 min Read

Financial Reporting

How to Develop Your Nonprofit Operating Reserves

January 9, 2025| 4 min Read

Donor Management

Is It Time for Your Nonprofit or School to Make a CRM Change?

December 12, 2024| 5 min Read

Latest Posts

Audits

How to Improve Your Internal Controls to Minimize Audit Findings

Navigating the process of preparing for an audit can be a daunting task. The time and resources needed can be [...]

May 13, 2025 | 5 min Read

Budgeting

How to Overcome Common Challenges in Your Nonprofit Budget Approval Process

Navigating the budget approval process in nonprofit organizations can sometimes feel like a maze full of frustrating dead ends. You [...]

May 12, 2025 | 5 min Read

Process Automation

How to Boost Efficiency in Your K–12 Business Office with AP Automation

So much of education is moving digital—textbooks, grade cards, and even field trips. But many business offices rely heavily on [...]

May 8, 2025 | 4 min Read

Artificial Intelligence

How Smaller Nonprofits and Schools Can Use AI to Raise Major Gifts

There is often immense pressure to obtain major gifts when fundraising for nonprofits. While annual and midlevel programs are essential [...]

May 7, 2025 | 4 min Read

Data Insights

Two Must-Know Metrics to Supercharge Your Donation Forms

In the competitive world of online fundraising, your donation form is your gateway to success. With countless nonprofits vying for [...]

May 6, 2025 | 4 min Read

Grantee Partnerships

4 Common Pitfalls in the Grant Review Process (and How to Avoid Them)

Even when your grant review process involves internal staff or people who have reviewed applications before, it can still be [...]

May 5, 2025 | 5 min Read

diversifying your revenue streams

Budgeting

How to Evaluate a New Revenue Stream

January 13, 2025 | 3 min Read

Crisis Management

How to Manage Your Arts and Cultural Nonprofit’s Revenue Streams in Uncertain Times

July 22, 2024 | 3 min Read

Fund Accounting

Building Resilient Funding Models: Essential Tips for Nonprofit Finance Professionals

November 20, 2024 | 5 min Read

Annual Giving

Get Your Grant-Funded Nonprofit Started in Fundraising

Grants are an integral lifeline for many nonprofits, providing the necessary funding to launch new initiatives, sustain critical programs, and [...]

December 5, 2024| 5 min Read

Featured Experts

Heather Hiscox

Founder and CEO of Pause for Change

How Grantmakers Can Turn Uncertainty into Growth and Innovation

Bess Foley

5 Reasons Your Nonprofit Needs an Operating Reserve

Aga Siuda

Nonprofit Strategic Design Expert

How Nonprofits Can Collaborate with a Design Agency on their Website Investment

The Engage Podcast

Tune in to the ENGAGE Podcast to hear experts from across the community share best practices, tips, and must-know trends that will help organizations maximize their impact.
Explore Podcasts

Donor Cultivation

Human-Centric Fundraising

January 28, 2025 |33 min Listen

Employee Volunteering

Revitalizing Volunteer Programs at Jackson: Overcoming Barriers to Participation

January 22, 2025 |40 min Listen

Digital Marketing

Increasing Donor Retention through Engagement

November 26, 2024 |18 min Listen

Hidden Gems

Code and charts projected onto a female executive.

Strategic Planning

3 Imperatives for the Modern Nonprofit CFO in the Digital Age

As nonprofit finance leaders, we are charged with empowering our teams with the technology, skills, and support they need to [...]

November 3, 2022 | 5 min Read

Donor Cultivation

Engaging Your Donor Community: 5 School Fundraising Tips

Fundraising is often a necessity for schools to provide students and teachers with resources that set them up for success. [...]

April 10, 2023 | 5 min Read

A woman overlooking a man using a computer.

Donor Management

How to Use Data to Build Stronger Relationships

Before we discuss how to use data to build stronger relationships for your nonprofit, let’s start with a philosophical question: [...]

December 12, 2022 | 7 min Read

Financial Reporting

A Checklist for a Smooth Fiscal Year-End for Your Nonprofit

There is a shadow lurking behind all the excitement around your next big event. Something is looming behind your next [...]

May 22, 2023 | 4 min Read

What to look for when evaluating a grant proposal

Grants Strategy

10 Things to Look for When Evaluating a Grant Proposal

Making impactful grants to the right nonprofit partners starts with a thorough grant proposal evaluation. Be sure you're looking for these 9 things.

December 1, 2022 | 3 min Read

Grants Strategy

Types of Grants That Every Nonprofit Should Know

Of the many ways a nonprofit organization can get funding, grants often seem like the holy grail. Fill out a [...]

March 21, 2025 | 9 min Read

Giving Tuesday

Stand Out This GivingTuesday: 200 Email Subject Lines

As GivingTuesday approaches, the inboxes of your supporters are bound to be flooded with messages from countless organizations, each with [...]

October 31, 2024 | 7 min Read

Board Management

How to Engage Board Members in Fundraising

Have you noticed your board members avoiding eye contact when the subject of fundraising comes up? Most people are motivated [...]

October 8, 2024 | 4 min Read

Major Gifts

How The Salvation Army Uses Power BI to Boost Major Giving

To help major gift officers focus on donors instead of desk work, The Salvation Army Southern Territory has begun using [...]

October 8, 2024 | 5 min Read

View All Fundraising Posts

Financial Reporting

GAAP for Nonprofits: How to Reconcile GAAP and Non-GAAP Results

Have you ever had your board members scratch their collective heads when the development and finance teams report their results? Do you get questions on why the two never match up?

September 13, 2024 | 3 min Read

Financial Reporting

9 Best Practices for Strong Nonprofit Financial Management

Smart money moves are vital for nonprofits. You’ve got to use funds wisely, aligning with your mission and honoring donor [...]

August 12, 2024 | 11 min Read

Fund Accounting

Nonprofit Accountant vs. Fractional CFO: The Key Differences

Effective nonprofit financial management is a team effort. Having multiple people working on your organization’s finances helps ensure accuracy—not only [...]

July 24, 2024 | 4 min Read

View all Finance & Accounting Posts

Annual Giving

Rethinking Annual Giving Metrics: A New Storyline for Higher Ed

For many years, the overarching narrative for annual giving in higher education fundraising has been the same: We’re getting bigger [...]

October 4, 2024 | 5 min Read

Enrollment and Retention

Reimagining Graduate Student Recruitment: 4 Tips to Get Started

Students pursue advanced degrees with the promise of invaluable research opportunities, specialized skills, and increased earning potential. Accordingly, many college [...]

February 6, 2024 | 3 min Read

Awards and Scholarships

5 Ways to Empower Scholarship Reviewers

Reviewing scholarship applications can be one of the most complicated processes to manage during scholarship season. Reviewers are a critical [...]

December 28, 2023 | 3 min Read

View all Higher Education Posts

Change Management

What It Means to be a Connected K–12 School

The definition of “a connected school” could be many different things. Each description, at its core, stems from the answer [...]

October 29, 2024 | 7 min Read

Data Management

Information: The Better Half of IT

We sometimes forget that IT stands for Information Technology. As a society, we have become obsessed with the “Technology” half—the [...]

April 17, 2024 | 5 min Read

Tuition and Financial Aid

How to Improve On-Time Tuition Payments

Private and independent schools rely on tuition to fund operations. In its 2023–2024 Trendbook, the National Association of Independent Schools [...]

October 20, 2023 | 5 min Read

View All K-12 School Posts

Employee Wellness

Challenges of Establishing an Employee Relief Fund (ERF) and Recommended Solutions

The growth in Employee Relief Funds (ERFs) exploded in the spring of 2020 as Covid-19 began to affect companies and [...]

September 8, 2021 | 4 min Read

Change Management

Responsive Philanthropy: How to Address Community Needs in Time of Crisis

Operations at Headwaters Foundation for Justice, a foundation that invests in grassroots organizations across Minnesota, were humming along well. The [...]

January 13, 2023 | 6 min Read

Volunteer Management

How the Pandemic Has Changed Pro Bono

The pandemic pushed the social sector to make game-changing shifts in community programming, funding models and organizational leadership. Nonprofits that pivoted their programming in [...]

October 18, 2021 | 3 min Read

View All ESG & CSR Posts

Change Management

Questions to Ask If You Are Thinking About Moving to a New GMS

When your grantmaking organization first started, you didn’t need a lot of functionality to manage your single program and a [...]

November 7, 2024 | 4 min Read

Disaster Response

Preparing for the Inevitable: How Grantmakers Can Thrive Amid Climate Events

A huge thank you to Audrey Kidwell, Grants Manager for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, for providing many of the [...]

October 28, 2024 | 4 min Read

Budgeting

Finance Best Practices for Your Grantmaking Organization

As a grantmaker, you expect organizations you support to manage their awards effectively, accurately, and responsibly. Those same expectations should [...]

July 16, 2024 | 4 min Read

View All Grantmaking Posts