If you run a nonprofit or a club in Ely, this one’s for you: two tools I’ve set up for nonprofits again and again, because they work.
Right now I’m setting them up for a snowmobile club and an ATV club. I’ve done the same for other local nonprofits before. Every one of them wanted the same thing: more mileage out of every dollar their supporters contribute.
The first tool is Google for Nonprofits, and it actually covers two things.
If your organization is a registered charity, Google hands you Google Workspace for free: professional email at your own domain, Drive storage, Docs, Calendar, and Google Meet for video calls. That’s every email, storage, and meeting tool a modern nonprofit needs to run, for teams up to 2,000 people. No club in Ely is outgrowing that limit soon.
Google also gives you free advertising on Google Search through what’s called an Ad Grant. That’s not a discount. That’s real search ad space, at no cost, that most small clubs never ask for because nobody told them it existed.
There’s an application. Google verifies your nonprofit status through a partner called Goodstack, so have your paperwork ready. It’s not instant, but it’s not hard, and once approved, you stay approved.
The second tool is DonorBox, and it does more than take onetime gifts.
One local nonprofit runs its active fundraising page on DonorBox right now, with monthly, annual, and one-time gifts side by side. A different local nonprofit uses DonorBox for one specific project instead, flower baskets for downtown beautification, so people can sponsor that project alone rather than giving in general.
DonorBox also handles memberships: unlimited tiers, a self-service portal for renewals, and tracking of who’s active and who’s lapsed. It’s free to start, no monthly fee on the basic plan. You only pay a small percentage when money actually comes in, roughly three to four percent per transaction, and you can let supporters cover that fee themselves at checkout, so the organization keeps the full donation. No donations that month, no fee that month.
This week’s fix has two parts, and the order matters.
First: apply for Google for Nonprofits at google.com/nonprofits and get your official email address set up.
Second: once you have that address, set up your free DonorBox account with it, not someone’s personal email. That way the donation system belongs to the organization, not to whoever happens to be running it this year. Neither takes more than an afternoon. Both are things you’re already eligible for and probably didn’t know it.
If you’re not a nonprofit yourself, forward this one to a board member who is. Every trail club, fire department auxiliary, and youth sports league in this town is leaving free tools on the table.
Richard Stuart builds websites and revenue systems for owner-operated businesses from his home in Ely. Have a question you’d like answered in a future column? Send it to ibuild@richardstuart. me. If something’s quietly costing you customers, let’s talk: richardstuart. me.
