Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
I love Twitter. There’s a certain magic to Twitter. So interesting. So fast. So current. So informative… So short, just 140 characters. I’ve learned a lot about cause marketing on Twitter, and now I want to my fantastic teachers with you! My criteria for picking them. I chose real people as much as possible. For me, Twitter is all about talking to people, not logos or brands or billboards.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Claire and Kivi at the Book Party. I have some really smart friends. I get the most amazing stuff in my email box from them. Take this email I got this morning from Claire Meyerhoff, who many of you know as our media relations expert at Nonprofit Marketing Guide. She spent many years in the broadcast news business, including writing news copy for anchors at CNN.
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Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
People are often surprised when I say that if given the choice, I would choose 10,000 e-Newsletter subscribers over 10,000 Followers on Twitter, 10,000 Fans on Facebook, or 10,000 Friends on Foursquare… combined. Any day of the week and without hesitation. And though some reports claim that email use is dropping , others claim its use is steady and even on the rise.
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
In writing up a project for a client, I drafted this short reminder on how to write effective fundraising letters. What else would you add? The letter is personalized. “Dear Friend” doesn’t cut it. Studies show the first thing people look for is their address is at the top of the page and their name(s) in the salutation. Not having those increases the chances the letter will be tossed without being read.
Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA
Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
Here’s an important exercise every nonprofit should go through periodically. Some fundraisers are content to play with the hand they are dealt. If that’s working, count your blessings. Others, upon finding the ’same old’ has lost its relevance, push to re-shuffle the deck. Remember, marketing your nonprofit is not merely about the packaging and the pitch and the sales tactics, it starts with the product.
Getting Attention
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
An amazing opportunity came my way recently! I was invited to New Zealand to keynote a first-time conference for charities and associations, focused solely on marketing. So off I went — along with my husband and almost-8-year-old daughter Charlotte — to inspire and guide Kiwis striving to meet many of the same marketing goals as we are in the U.S.
Nonprofit Leadership Zone brings together the best content for advertising professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
During the Writing to Raise More Money webinar last week (recording available to All-Access Pass holders), I talked about four ways to improve your fundraising copy: 1. Cue an Emotional Response. 2. Make the Request Feel Personal. 3. Convey Urgency. 4. Ask Clearly. At the end of the webinar, I asked participants which of the four they thought would be hardest for them to do, and promised a blog post with some additional advice.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
First impressions are very important online, and the four nonprofits listed below have gone out of their way to make a strong one upon potential new Facebook Fans. Beyond the obvious graphic design work, what’s exceptionally clever is that they have created long vertical profile pics that when cropped in Status Updates produce a solid, square avatar that’s seen by their Fans in their News Feeds.
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 19, 2011
Last week, my friend Susan Murphy ( @suzemuse ) tweeted a blog post by V3 called “ How not to be invisible on the new Facebook newsfeed.&# The title was a bit misleading, but the post was very helpful. Apparently, our friends at Facebook have automatically changed our permissions. Now the only people and organizations we see in our newsfeed are those we’ve recently interacted with.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
In response to our Lazy or Careless Fundraising? article last week, Gail Meltzer of CoreStrategies for Nonprofits sent us an article she wrote describing her own experience as a lifelong under-cultivated donor. Her article, Acknowledging Cumulative Giving , was published last November/December in Advancing Philanthropy , the pub of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (available online to members only).
Speaker: Radhika Samant and Todd Wuestenberg
Employee recognition has often been deemed a "feel-good" initiative, tied closely to rewards. While we understand its importance, we tend to associate recognition with intangible outcomes like engagement and sentiment, rather than direct impacts on retention and high performance. In today’s workplace, the true ROI of recognition lies in its ability to regenerate tangible, business-driven results.
Get Fully Funded
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
I had the privilege of attending the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Think Tank a couple of weeks ago. It was so cool to be among a group of great thinkers to talk and brainstorm. One of the things that came up was the number of people who are entering the profession without a solid understanding of our principles and ethics. Lots of people take jobs in nonprofit fundraising and assume their sales or other corporate skills will transfer.
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
How would you like to be in my book Cause Marketing for Dummies ? Here’s what I’m looking for. I have a whole chapter devoted to online cause marketing. Within it, I want a section for etailers and other online businesses that want to partner with and raise money for causes online. When I first outlined the section, I had a couple good ideas in mind.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
FEBRUARY 2, 2011
Tomorrow (Thursday, 2/3/11) I’m presenting a webinar I call “ Writing Thank You Notes That Inspire Future Gifts. &# I firmly believe that the thank-you note after the first gift is the first step in getting the second gift. The standard, boring, impersonal form letter or email receipt doesn’t cut it. During the webinar, I’ll share lots of tips and examples about how to do it right.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Nonprofits have been utilizing social media for five years now (beginning with Myspace and YouTube in 2006), and while most at this point have invested the time and resources into designing a solid, visually distinct, social media-compatible avatar, many nonprofits still make the very common (yet completely obvious) mistake of using a cropped logo as their avatar in their social media campaigns.
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Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 3, 2011
A few weeks ago, a Twitter hashtag, #lessambitiousmovies, caught my attention. It was around 10:30 p.m. after a hard day and I had a blast coming up with appropriate movie titles. Apparently I tweeted alot in 30 minutes! @jonaha sent me this screenshot. I’d totally dominated her stream! The next day, I got an email from someone letting me know that, despite 3 years of informative and valuable tweets, those 30 minutes overwhelmed him so much he was unfollowing me.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Here’s an interesting — but perhaps, DUH! — item from Neuromarketing about ‘ choice fatigue ‘ People get tired of making choices … and this shows up in a variety of ways if they’re asked to keep on choosing. In one study, researchers found that items placed farther down voting ballots drew less votes (i.e., more abstentions).
Care2
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
One of the biggest concerns nonprofits express to me about launching or maintaining their blog, is lack of staff time to update their blog with compelling posts. (Note, please don’t confuse “compelling posts&# with long articles that take hours or days to write, a simple photo and caption that illustrates a good point around your issue is compelling).
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Enough people have registered their opinion to confirm this deal-breaker for everyone: Groupon’s Superbowl ads Sunday night were ill-conceived and offensive. Goodwill earned from this promotion: 0%. As of this printing, Groupon should have apologized (they haven’t), pulled the ads (saw one last night), fired their agency (standing shoulder to shoulder) and donated a boatload of money to the causes they offended (Umm…nope).
Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson
Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
I came across 17 Email Marketing Terms Every Business Should Know last week and it’s a nice summary written in plain English. We included a plain English glossary of online marketing terms at the back of The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause (Amazon). If you’ve been afraid to ask what something really is, or even more likely, been unable to explain in plain English what you mean when talking to board members or others new to on
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Many nonprofits are experimenting with text-to-give fundraising, but thus far results have been mixed. Nonprofits that have the resources or connections to tap into media, celebrity or large e-mail lists have done well, but many others are simply breaking even (or not). One reason may be that the online promotions of text-to-give campaigns have been mostly limited to text-only KEYWORD and SHORTCODE pitches, such as “Text TIGER to 20222 to donate $10!
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Today I’m pleased to introduce David Hazeltine. David and I met at an NEAHP conference a couple years back and immediately hit it off. Since he works with DMW Direct Fundraising , I’ve asked if he’d share his insights into direct mail fundraising. Check out his blog at No Green Bananas. The higher education arena is one of our primary vertical markets and, for a number of years now, we have engrained ourselves in the fundraising programs of a variety of institutions nationally.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 23, 2011
Any decent fundraiser (and copywriter) knows that the best way to capture attention, engage a donor and touch their emotional side is through stories. Stories trigger emotions and are memorable. They enable vicarious experience on the part of the listener … enabling the storyteller to communicate on a deeper level. So where might your stories come from?
Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand
Is your organization ready to build a recurring giving program that not only sustains but also propels your mission forward? 🚀 In this new webinar with industry visionary Tim Sarrantonio, we’ll guide you through the critical steps to establishing and scaling a successful recurring giving program. Whether you’re starting fresh or enhancing an existing program, this session will provide the strategies you need to deepen donor relationships and secure long-term support!
Care2
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
When startups and corporations do good in the world, everyone loves them. But when their campaigns offend, watch out for the mobs. Two recent viral campaign failures demonstrate the dangers of appearing callous to your target audiences and how quickly things can spin out of control if you don’t listen and respond quickly. First up Kenneth Cole - As the protests in Egypt were escalating, and #Egypt and #Cairo began trending on Twitter, Kenneth Cole tweeted: “Millions are in uproar in
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Frank Barry had a wonderful post last week over at Mashable on seven group buying sites using daily deals to give back. It’s a must read for cause marketers because this is a new area of opportunity for win-win partnerships between causes and companies. But all daily deal sites are not ideal for your cause marketing business plan. Here’s my pick for the best and my thoughts on the rest.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
During my recent webinar on new and improved nonprofit annual reports (recording available to All-Access Pass Holders ), I said that I would love to see a nonprofit do its annual report as an oversized postcard (think that big size popular with political candidates). This format has lots of advantages: The small space forces you to think about what’s most important to say.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
Odds are your nonprofit has a “Company Page” on LinkedIn. If any of your past staff, interns, or volunteers have a personal profile on LinkedIn and they have added their position at your nonprofit to their work “Experience,&# then your nonprofit does indeed have a LinkedIn Company Page. If not, then you can easily create one. Either way, LinkedIn is now the 12th most visited website in the United States and with almost 100 million active users, you should claim, enhance, and monitor your nonprof
Speaker: Radhika Samant and Adri Glover
The world of work has fundamentally changed. The series of waves that the pandemic began have rippled through the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, the Great Regret, and other eloquent phrases that boil down to the same thing: people aren’t engaged at work or enabled to perform at their best. The truth is that engagement and enablement is more important than ever, but how we do it is the critical differentiator for many organizations.
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
People are benefiting from the new Fundraising Kick weekly emails. [If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, Fundraising Kick's are brief, simple weekly emails that quickly give you the added kick to do what you already know you need to do: ask for money.]. One subscriber said: I like that they’re simple things that can be done right now to bring in some income and re-engage with donors, Simple things that I kind of know to do, but don’t always make time to do…I think Fundraisin
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 27, 2011
OK, nothing and nobody is perfect. But this comes pretty close. Last week The Agitator wrote back-to-back articles on Finding Stories for Fundraising and Nonprofit KPIs.Think of these as addressing the right and left side of the brain respectively — emotion and reasoning. In the latter piece, I suggested that the “winning combination&# for fundraisers was marrying stories and results.
Care2
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
The worst kind of expert doesn’t share the whole story or truth. Since the rise of social media many “experts&# have claimed that email is dying and won’t exist in 10 years. In fact, email is not fading, it’s evolving. According to a new comScore study on U.S. consumers', the number of users accessing email via their mobile devices has been growing ever year.
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 2, 2011
The last time I talked about cause marketing for businesses I looked at how to pick a cause partner. Once you have partner, the question becomes what should you do for a cause marketing program that will best serve the cause and your business (remembering, of course, that cause marketing is win-win). You can review the different types of cause marketing programs here.
Speaker: Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader
In today’s competitive market, pricing is more than just a number — it’s the cornerstone of profitability. The right pricing strategy ensures that you capture the true value of your offering, paving the way for sustainable growth and long-term success. Join Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader, in this exclusive session where he will explore how a well-crafted pricing approach balances customer perception with business objectives, creating a powerful tool for securing both competitive advantage a
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