May, 2012

article thumbnail

Beer for a Cause Aids Family of Fallen Firefighter

Selfish Giving

For Watch City Brewing Company’s owner Jocelyn Hughes and brewers Aaron Mateychuk and Kelly McKnight, it all started with a desire to help a family that had lost its husband, father and provider in a terrible fire. It was December 8, 2011, when firefighter Jon Davies ran into a burning building in Worcester, Massachusetts to search for a missing tenant.

Poverty 269
article thumbnail

Should Your Nonprofit Use Pinterest?

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Should your nonprofit be using Pinterest? Surely someone in your organization has brought that question up by now, and you, like Andria below, may be wondering just how to use Pinterest effectively, if you use it all. Here’s Andria’s specific question. Hi Kivi, Thank you for all your helpful tools – webinars , blog posts , mixed links , etc.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

2 phrases to use when asking for money

Fundraising Coach

I normally speak to large groups at conferences or to entire development teams, but I’ve been privileged to do a lot of one-on-one major gift fundraising training this year. One of the most common questions I am getting from nonprofit employees and board members alike is, “Ok, the ‘ Get R.E.A.L. ‘ formula is nice, but when it comes tom making the ask, what do I say?

article thumbnail

Five Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make in Their Online Fundraising Campaigns

Nonprofit Tech for Good

Last month I donated online to 25 of my 32 Favorite Nonprofits in celebration of reaching the benchmark of following 100,000 nonprofits, nonprofit staff, and nonprofit service providers on Twitter. Usually I donate to one or two nonprofits at a time, but to go through a list of 25 nonprofits in less than 90 minutes made it abundantly clear that many nonprofits still need to tweak their “Donate Now” process to maximize online donations and their social media ROI.

article thumbnail

Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

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.

article thumbnail

What are millennials really like? This research provides a good glimpse.

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

The Boston Consulting Group has some interesting new research on millennials, including who they are, what they want and how to talk to them. The highlights? Among the most interesting findings is that millennials - who were taught to recycle in kindergarten - are more likely to take certain socially conscious actions during their daily life. They are apt to buy products that support their principles and more likely than other generations to spread the word about a cause campaign or participate

article thumbnail

5 Simple Ways to Motivate Your Fundraising Team

Fundraiser Ideas

When I think about how I came up with the skills to motivate my fundraising team, I remember a team I was on years ago. The fundraising leader knew exactly what to do to make us excited, which ended up exciting our contributors. I never felt so inspired and motivated to sell as I did in that fundraising team. Looking back now, there were five reasons why that particular fundraising team motived me more than any others did.

More Trending

article thumbnail

Infographics & Data Visualization: Not Your Grandmother’s Pie Chart – Part 1

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Infographics are all the rage, so I asked graphic designer Julia Reich to tell us all she knows about producing them. She’s written a four-part series we’ll share this week on the whys and hows of nonprofit infographics. ~Kivi. Guest Post by Julia Reich of Julia Reich Design. Introduction. Charts. Graphs. Spreadsheets. Most organizations have important data to present to their clients, members, boards of directors, and other audiences.

article thumbnail

Don’t Just Thank Them

The Agitator

I’ve said some irreverent things about thanking donors in the past few weeks. So I had mixed feelings about this recent post by Katya Andresen. I agree with her main point 1000%: “The single most powerful thing you can do as a fundraiser is to take great care of the donors you have.” Amen … Amen … Amen! However Katya then focused almost exclusively on the ‘thank you’ process, providing an excellent checklist on what makes for effective thank you’s.

article thumbnail

Must-Read Reports for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Tech for Good

The eight reports listed below are just a small sampling of the research available to nonprofits about online communications and fundraising, social media, and mobile technology. These reports are, however, some of the most valuable in terms of insight, useful and practical data, and how-to advice. Many of these reports are published on an annual basis, so please be sure to bookmark this post and I’ll keep the the list updated as new reports are released.

article thumbnail

3 lessons in storytelling from Ken Burns

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

My colleague Caryn Stein sent me this great interview with documentary filmmaker and master storyteller Ken Burns. It has three fascinating insights on one of the most critical parts of our jobs in nonprofit marketing, fundraising, or just about any form of selling and persuasion: telling stories. 1. All stories are manipulation. People tell Ken Burns his work moves them to tears.

article thumbnail

Recognition Powers High-Performance — If You Do it Right

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.

article thumbnail

Do You Make Any of These 10 Fundraising Mistakes?

Fundraiser Ideas

With over a decade of fundraising experience, I have stumbled over many fundraising mistakes. The great thing about mistakes is that you learn from them, which makes the coming years much more successful. To help you avoid the mistakes I’ve made over the years, I’m identifying some of them here with tips on how avoid them. This way, you can achieve the same success I have in my fundraising without having to deal with the mistakes first.

article thumbnail

Share Our Strength, Shake Shack Team Up for Pinup Program

Selfish Giving

If I’m The Pinup King , this program between Share Our Strength and Shake Shack is fit for one! The two have teamed up for a cause marketing pinup program called the Great American Shake Sale at ten Shake Shack locations on the East coast. This modern roadside burger stand is committed to raising at least $25,000. I love the pinup SOS and Shake Shack created for this program.

Marketing 201
article thumbnail

Seven Steps to Overcoming the Fear of Calling Potential Funders

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Wendy Baird. Earlier this month I commented in my newsletter and wrote a blog post about how nonprofits should not be afraid of the “what ifs” out there, prompted by a recent Virginia ruling that liking a Facebook page did not count as protected free speech. The newsletter article and blog post sparked some discussion about what else nonprofits are afraid of.

article thumbnail

Thank You For Real Data On Thank You’s

The Agitator

Hallelujah! Actual test data on the efficacy of thank you’s. In case you’ve haven’t noticed, here’s is a bit of testing information just posted on The Agitator website by Angel Aloma at Food For The Poor … “Thank you letters have been very effective fundraisers for our organization. On average, we get more than one fifth of our net income from direct mail from our thank you letters.

Food 89
article thumbnail

Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

article thumbnail

11 Blog Content Ideas for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Tech for Good

Initially a reluctant blogger, I launched Nonprofit Tech 2.0 in August 2009 and within a few months came to the conclusion that blogging had been the missing piece in my social media campaigns. That first month Nonprofit Tech 2.0 received 13,000 visitors. It was much more traffic than I would have ever thought possible, but thanks to the burgeoning “Nonprofit Organizations” communities that I had built on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, launching a blog was much easier in 2009 than it

article thumbnail

Two truths you should be telling

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

Last week, I asked Rohit Bhargava what two pieces of advice he’d give nonprofits about earning trust and inspiring action. He has a new book out called Likeonomics: The unexpected truth behind earning trust, influencing behavior and inspiring action. Here are his tips on telling the truth for good. 1. Tell the truth about yourself : “Help connect donors and supporters with the REAL PEOPLE behind the work that the organization does.

article thumbnail

10 Ways to Creatively Ask Friends and Family for Money

Fundraiser Ideas

“Oh no, here she comes with another solicitation for money for a fundraiser.”. Do you often feel as though your friends and family think that when you approach them? If so, you are not alone. I always felt like my friends and family felt obligated to give me money when I was doing a fundraiser. I hated to make them feel that way. I would have rather them be excited to see me coming because of the great products I had for them, or the opportunity for them to support a good cause.

article thumbnail

CauseTalk Radio Ep10: Atlantic BT Talks Mobile, Nonprofit and $25k Contest

Selfish Giving

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]. In this episode of CauseTalk Radio , Megan and I talk to Tonia Zampieri , Mobile Strategist, Atlantic BT about how mobile technology is changing nonprofit communications and cause marketing partnerships. We discuss having separate mobile strategies for smartphones and tablets, and some interesting new research on the connection between emotion and mobile ads.

article thumbnail

Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

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.

article thumbnail

Six Different Kinds of Nonprofit Blogs

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

I first published these six categories of nonprofit blogs way back in 2008. But I think they still work today, four years later. As I said back then, I certainly think you can mix and match blog types, and I bet most successful blogs do. But I also think that it’s helpful to have one primary direction in mind and to categorize nonprofit blogs based on what your organization hopes to achieve by blogging and how you want your nonprofit to be perceived by your blog’s readers.

article thumbnail

Our Accomplishments Together

The Agitator

Debra Richmond commends this email Annual Report from Be The Match , a bone marrow registry helping patients get transplants from non-related donors. I agree. Using simple infographics, the email (subject line: Our Accomplishments Together ) effectively delivers the bottom line results (how could you not scroll through?), emphasizing that you — the donor — made this life-saving help possible.

article thumbnail

11 Excellent Examples of Nonprofit Avatars

Nonprofit Tech for Good

Every second of every day nonprofits around the world are posting status updates, tweets, and messages on social networks attached to avatars with cropped art work and/or unreadable text. Would you ever send out a print or e-mail newsletter, or sign off on a business card with a cropped or visually-defective logo and text so small that it was indecipherable?

article thumbnail

Are you taking care of your donors? Take this quiz.

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

Are you taking care of your donors? What kind of experience do they have after they give? Here’s a quick checklist to answer that question. If you can’t check all the boxes, work on doing better. The single most powerful thing you can do as a fundraiser is to take great care of the donors you have. Timeliness: _ All donors thanked promptly. _ All donors thanked throughout the year.

article thumbnail

How to Scale Recurring Giving for Sustainable Growth

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!

article thumbnail

10 Good Fundraising Ideas for the Novice Fundraiser

Fundraiser Ideas

You don’t have to be a professional to be successful at fundraising. In fact, some of the best fundraisers are so easy anyone can organize them! The following are 10 good fundraising ideas for the novice fundraiser. 50/50 Raffle – This is number one on our list of 10 good fundraising ideas for novice fundraisers for several reasons, but chief among them is its ease; the only material you really need to get this fundraiser going is a roll of raffle tickets.

article thumbnail

Carol Cone, “Mother of Cause Marketing,” Talks Power of Purpose

Selfish Giving

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]. In this episode of CauseTalk Radio , Megan and I talk with Carol “The Mother of Cause Marketing” Cone about a new study Edelman has just released on the state of cause and social purpose in the world. We also ask Carol the question we all want the answer to: How did she get the title Mother of Cause Marketing?

Marketing 185
article thumbnail

Online Fundraising Stats and Trends for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Last month, I highlighted some benchmarks in both social media and email marketing that were released in recent reports so that you could see how your nonprofit stacked up. Today, we are going to look at online fundraising. Using the 2012 Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study by Convio and the 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study published by M+R and NTEN, we see that online fundraising continues to grow in importance, especially to smaller nonprofits.

article thumbnail

Premiums Make Me Cringe

The Agitator

Probably no direct mail fundraising practice makes me cringe more than the use of premiums in prospecting. My instinctive reaction is to regard them as pure hucksterism — evidence that the sending organization regards its prospects as mindless. More interested in the stamps or coffee mug or plush toy than the real issue or cause. But that’s just my personal reaction, and over the years I’ve disciplined myself to simply grind my teeth when the subject arises … then test an

Values 85
article thumbnail

Engage, Empower, Excel: Transforming Performance in the New Era of Work

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.

article thumbnail

[Question Marc] Striking out with grants

Fundraising Coach

I am working for a non-profit and recently have begun writing agency grants as well. This organization in the past has never relied on grants, but instead on funding from two fundraisers and the state and federal monies. However, it seems that all of the foundations we are writing to are coming back and saying that they are not funding in the state or we fall outside their parameters or no reason at all.

article thumbnail

How to spend your day, today

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

I believe there is time for every one of your dreams. That big project, that bold test, that long-tabled idea—there is time for each if you consciously pick them over the endless office filler of email, politics and drama. Check out this pie from Scott Belsky and Behance - it reinforces to me a very important concept. We have far more control over how we spend our time than we actually exercise.

Energy 80
article thumbnail

Building a Fundraising Website: Here are 10 Things You Need to Include

Fundraiser Ideas

Thanks to the power of the Internet, you can now raise funds 24 hours a day. For this reason, a fundraising website is a powerful tool all nonprofits should consider. Following are 10 things you need to include when you build your fundraising website. Make donation buttons or links easy to find. Make it as easy as possible for people to give you their money.

article thumbnail

CauseTalk Radio Ep12: Phil McCarty, Godfather of Cause, Talks Nonprofit Branding, Corporate Alliances

Selfish Giving

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]. In this episode of CauseTalk Radio , Megan and I talk with Phil “The Godfather of Cause Marketing” McCarty about the signature cause marketing program he helped create, St. Jude’s Thanks and Giving. Phil also offers some great advice and insights for nonprofits that want to realize their own Thanks and Giving aspirations.

article thumbnail

Pricing for Profit: How to Set, Negotiate, and Succeed

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