Lead magnet ideas for nonprofits
A nonprofit’s best lead magnet gives a supporter something to do besides donate: a toolkit for speaking up on your issue, a volunteer’s first-day handbook, a family activity pack, a plain report on where the money went. Here are ten, each a brief that opens in Chapbook as a starting point, using only your own figures and stories told with permission.
A brief to start from
A community advocacy toolkit for a local food bank: how hunger shows up in one county, how to write to a council member, how to speak at a public meeting and how to run a food drive at work, with sample letters and a checklist. Use only the figures I supply, each with its source and date, and invent no story. Reader: a supporter who has given twice and wants to do more than donate. Voice: warm, direct and practical, second person, no guilt.
Start from this brief10 ideas, each a brief to start from
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The advocacy toolkit for your cause
Many supporters want to help and don’t know how beyond a donation. A toolkit with sample letters and a meeting checklist gives them a job, and keeps them involved between appeals.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: The advocacy toolkit for your cause
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A first-day handbook for volunteers
New volunteers quit quietly when no one tells them what to do. A short handbook answers the questions they’re too shy to ask, and gives you a reason to collect their details early.
Illustrated guide Start from this brief: A first-day handbook for volunteers
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Where the money went, in plain words
Donors want to know what their gift did. A clear report on your year, using only your audited numbers and real stories told with permission, can be read in one sitting and forwarded.
Brochure Start from this brief: Where the money went, in plain words
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A family activity pack about your cause
Parents and teachers look for simple ways to talk about a cause with children. A printable pack is easy to share in schools and gives you a list of the parents and teachers who asked for it.
Activity pack Start from this brief: A family activity pack about your cause
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A guide for the people you serve
A plain guide to the help that’s out there may be the most useful thing you publish. It reaches people when they need it, and partners can hand it on to others who need it too.
Illustrated guide Start from this brief: A guide for the people you serve
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A fundraiser’s workbook for supporters
Peer-to-peer fundraising is hard for a first-timer. A workbook on how to ask friends, set a goal and say thanks gives them courage, and it gives you better fundraisers.
Workbook Start from this brief: A fundraiser’s workbook for supporters
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Your history, for the anniversary
An anniversary is a real reason to tell your story. A short book of the people and moments behind the work gives longtime supporters something to keep, and new ones a way to catch up.
Collection Start from this brief: Your history, for the anniversary
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A board member’s orientation
New board members are often passionate and unsure what the role involves. An orientation guide makes for a better first meeting, and helps recruit people who were hesitant to say yes.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: A board member’s orientation
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A quarterly note from the field
Supporters who only hear from you when you need money stop opening your mail. A short issue on what happened this quarter, with no appeal in it, gives them a reason to keep reading.
Newsletter Start from this brief: A quarterly note from the field
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The book on your issue
A book that makes your issue understandable gives a director something to bring to a funder, a council hearing or a journalist. Its long life makes it worth the effort.
Nonfiction book Start from this brief: The book on your issue
How to choose one
Ask what a supporter could do this month that would actually help. If it is to speak up, write the toolkit. If it is to give a Saturday, write the volunteer’s handbook. If it is to understand where their gift went, write the plain report. A family activity pack can suit an education or conservation group, and the page signs up only a parent, guardian or teacher, never the child.
Use only your own figures and real stories, told with permission and with anything identifying left out. An invented beneficiary or a rounded-up number can cost you the trust your work runs on. World Book Day, a sample brochure for a fictional bookshop, shows the shape a one-day event could take if you’re planning an open day.
Every brief here opens in Chapbook
Each idea comes with the paragraph Chapbook needs to start: the topic, the reader and the voice. The brief at the top of this page is a starting point, not a book we have already made from it: open it, put in your own cause and community, and add your reports as sources. Chapbook then proposes titles and an outline for you to approve before anything is drafted.
Questions people ask
What is a good lead magnet for a nonprofit?
Something that gives a supporter a useful job other than giving, such as a toolkit for speaking up, a first-day volunteer handbook or a family activity pack. It starts a relationship that doesn’t begin with an ask.
Can a nonprofit use AI to write about the people it serves?
Only from stories you already have permission to tell, and with care. Tell Chapbook to invent no person, quote or figure, add your own notes as sources, and leave out anything identifying. Have a staff member read every line.
Do we need a paid plan to give the book away?
Yes. Files without the watermark and the public book page start with the Creator plan at $29 a month; the outline, one chapter of up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free.
Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.
The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.