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Glossary of Fundraising Terms
Updated over a week ago

Welcome to Bonterra’s Fundraising Glossary for the Fundraising and Engagment Coaching Program. This document includes a variety of terms and references that fundraising professionals commonly use.

If you have questions about any of these terms or references -- or are inspired to incorporate any of these strategies into your fundraising plans – talk to your Coach. They will be happy to further explore these concepts with you.

Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)

  • A professional membership organization for fundraisers with local chapters around the world.

Call to Action (CTA)

  • A specific instruction that asks recipients to do something right away, such as donate, volunteer, or sign a petition. Designed to create a sense of urgency and is brief, clear, and easy to do.

Campaign

  • A fundraising effort that is established with a particular theme, purpose, monetary goal, and time frame (usually shorter than a year) to raise funds.

Capital Campaign

  • A highly structured fundraising initiative typically led by volunteers and supported by staff with consultants to raise funds for specific needs, to be met in a specific time frame (5-7 years).

Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE)

  • A globally recognized certification/credential for fundraisers

Crowdfunding

  • A method of raising capital through the collective effort of friends, family, customers, and individual investors. This approach leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure.

Constituents

  • Commonly used term to describe an organization's contacts, donors or members

Designation

  • A category that represents a particular mission area, fund, or directed use for donations received.

Engagement Plans

  • Seasonal plans uploaded directly into Network for Good customers’ fundraising software that include email and direct mail templates, and sample scripts for personal video messages with suggested language for text messages and social media posts.

Fundraising Plan

  • A document that organizes fundraising activities over a certain time period (usually 1-3 years). Plans typically outline goals, include campaign dates and engagement strategies, special event details, and a targeted communication schedule.

Fundraising Pages

  • The pages available in Network for Good’s fundraising software for organizations to collect donations online. These include general donation pages called Everyday Giving Campaign, event ticketing and registration pages called Event Campaign, and Peer-to-Peer Campaigns, which allow supporters to fundraise for an organization

Gift in Kind

  • A gift of goods and services, instead of cash or stock

Give 8/28

  • Launched in 2017 and led by the Young, Black, and Giving Back Institute, this giving day initiative urges people to financially support black-led and black-benefiting organizations.

Giving Tuesday

  • A global generosity movement that unleashes the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and their world. Created in the U.S. in 2012 and observed annually the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Impact Statement

  • Identifies both the beneficiaries of an organization’s activities and the benefits the organization provides—that is, the change in behavior, knowledge, or status quo it aims to effect.

Major Gift

  • A gift of significant amount (size of gift may vary according to organization's needs and goals); may be repeated periodically and/or presented as a program designation.

Moves Management

  • The process by which a prospective major donor is moved from cultivation to solicitation. “Moves” are the actions an organization takes to engage individuals, establish relationships, increase support and steward donors.

Planned/Legacy Gift

  • A gift provided for legally during the donor’s lifetime, but whose principal benefits do not accrue to the institution until some future time, usually at the death of the donor

Soft Credit

  • Acknowledging the efforts of someone, other than the legal donor, who facilitated a gift by providing ‘soft’ (or associated) credit for that gift.

Supporters

  • Everyone supporting an organization - board members, volunteers, donors

Subscription Giving

  • A method of giving for donors who elect to support an organization on a recurring basis, typically monthly. Subscription donors often receive special and/or exclusive engagement opportunities.

Virtual Fundraiser

  • An event for supporters to convene online, utilizing live-streaming video and/or pre- recorded segments, silent and live auctions as well as peer-to-peer fundraising.

Wealth Screening

  • A method for an organization to assess a supporters' assets and giving patterns to estimate how much they can contribute.

Searching for a term not listed above? Visit CFRE's glossary.

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