Important Nonprofit Changes in 2018

We’re only one month into 2018 and yet, there’s been quite a few changes among the nonprofit industry. Take a look:

Tax Reform:

The new tax reform deal is projected to have a severe impact on charitable giving. Multiple sources estimate that about $13.1 to 20 billion in charitable giving will be lost. The loss in giving will even trickle down to nonprofit jobs and services for the nation’s most vulnerable. At least 220,000 nonprofit jobs will be lost, according to a study by George Washington University. Many nonprofits will have to change their fundraising strategies to adopt for such an industry shaking change.

Facebook News Feed: Facebook recently announced changes to its newsfeed, shifting and prioritizing content from family and friends over that from nonprofits and businesses. Of course, nonprofits will have a hand up over businesses because it engages in more meaningful content, but nonprofits will still need to revisit and up their social media strategies. Nonprofits should look to advertise and invest in Facebook ads to up their ranking, but should also create content that shares a story and engages and inspires their followers.

Google Ad-Grants: Google has a $10,000 AdWords grant program for nonprofits, but starting this year they announced some changes to it. Google will eliminate the $2.00 cap on costs per click that has been a burden for nonprofits for years. However, in eliminating one burden, Google created another. Now, click through rates must stay above 5 percent in order to keep a nonprofit’s AdWords grant active. If the click through rates fall below 5 percent, their account will be temporarily suspended. In order to keep their account active, nonprofits should eliminate low-quality keywords and those targeting competitors.