Selfish Giving
OCTOBER 20, 2009
As a fan of pinup programs , especially for small nonprofits, I’m frequently asked how important the “ask&# is at the register. The ask happens when you’re checking out and and cashier says, “Would you like to donate a dollar to help ?&#. To understand why the ask is so important to the success of a pinup program, you needn’t look any further than the stores you visit everyday. “Do you need batteries for that?
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
AUGUST 7, 2009
As you may know, I am in the middle of writing the full-length, printed book version of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, to be published in Spring 2010 by Jossey-Bass. As I was writing various chapters on both strategy and tactics, I realized that I was making choices about what to include and what to leave out based on my own set of assumptions about the world that nonprofit communicators are working in.
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Nonprofit Tech for Good
DECEMBER 13, 2009
Scheduled to occur sometime between late 2009 and early 2010, some major changes are coming to Facebook Fan Pages. My first instinct is that the changes below are going to significantly impact nonprofits, and in some cases, not in a good way. I think those nonprofits with national and international brand recognition, lots of fans, and technical resources will benefit and the changes will hardly affect them.
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 14, 2009
With all the blog posts I’ve done on Twitter for nonprofits , you know I’m having a blast with Twitter. I’m connecting with old friends and new ones. I even used Twitter to rewrite a fundraising appeal! But over the last few weeks, I’ve seen some repeated habits that really annoy me: People asking for followers. I don’t understand why people would send tweets asking, sometimes begging, people to follow them.
Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand
Do you really know your donors? Not just what they give, but who they are? 👥 In this interactive session, we’ll break down how nonprofits can use behavioral indicators (affinity, recency, frequency, and monetary value) to build prospecting segments that go beyond wealth screening and actually align with donor identity. You’ll walk away with practical strategies to move beyond basic demographics and cultivate supporters based on how they already engage with you!
The Agitator
NOVEMBER 23, 2009
Here’s some food for the brain if you have some spare time over the Thanksgiving holiday. Agitator readers outside the US, set it aside for your next long weekend. You won’t raise more money tomorrow from reading this report, but it might help you make better sense of the context in which nonprofit fundraising, organizing and communications will be undertaken during the balance of your career.
Get Fully Funded
AUGUST 11, 2009
This just in from the world of the weird and unbelievable - -. Development Director for a small nonprofit providing housing to families in need speaks to donor who has been supporting annual golf tournament for the past several years. Man wants to give extra money this year, but wants it ALL spent on the tournament , to promote his business, and openly admits this. “Don’t spend any of the money on ‘those’ people.
Nonprofit Leadership Zone brings together the best content for advertising professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Selfish Giving
SEPTEMBER 2, 2009
Renata von Tscharner, President of The Charles River Conservancy (CRC), isn’t sure why Absolut chose her organization to receive the charitable windfall from its new Absolut Boston Vodka. But she’s thrilled they did. Under the agreement, CRC will receive a $50,000 gift from Absolut that the Boston-based environmental group will use for programs that are generally difficult to fund. “Advocacy work is one area,&# said Renata, “and volunteer programs that help repair and be
Selfish Giving
OCTOBER 13, 2009
Of all the different social media tools I’ve tried (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc.), a new one I just started using, Foursquare , probably has the most potential for cause marketers. Why? Because the backbone of Foursquare is the businesses at which its members visit, check-in and score points. When you pop into a store, bar or restaurant you can earn points, badges or can even become mayor of your favorite hangout if you “check in&# enough.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
NOVEMBER 13, 2009
As you get your online fundraising programs in place and start connecting with people through social media, the liklihood that you will raise money not only within your home state, but in multiple states, goes up. Diversifying your pool of donors is great, but it also comes with some additional legal responsibilities. To help explain all of this in plain English, I asked Tony Martignetti, Esq., the author of Charity Registration: State-by-State Guidelines for Compliance , to provide this guest b
Selfish Giving
AUGUST 13, 2009
Powerful presentations are the backbone of most successful cause marketing pitches. Whether you’re talking to one person or a hundred, the ability to speak compellingly, sincerely and briefly can be a deciding factors in earning a company’s cause business. I have no doubt that speaking well has made a huge difference in my success. Representing a small, relatively unknown hospital in Boston requires not only better ideas than our competition, but also the eloquence to make them glow
Speaker: Jennifer Hill
Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Selfish Giving
DECEMBER 17, 2009
Boston’s #1 hip hop station, Jam’n 94.5 , and everyone’s favorite hip retailer, Target , which has a store less than a mile from the hospital, teamed up to reward some very needy kids with a great Christmas and a happy New Year. The partnership was a simple but generous arrangement. Target invited the morning show team from Jam’n 94.5 to the store for the whole day to collect items for BMC’s Pieces of Home Backpack Project.
Selfish Giving
NOVEMBER 18, 2009
One thing I frequently lament about the cause marketing field is that there just aren’t enough practitioners blogging about their work. After Selfishgiving.com , Causerelatedmarketing.biz and the Cone Blog , the pickings get pretty slim. (Although folks like Steve Drake , Olivia Khalili , Scotty Henderson , Brian Powell , Noland Hoshino and Mike Swenson are certainly great contributors.).
Selfish Giving
JULY 30, 2009
Thanks to everyone who commented on my post Help Me Convince My Boss To Use Social Media. Not only did you offer some great support and tips, but the 24 comments I got were real evidence that social media really does work! I owe you all a Starbucks, which I’m happy to buy you when you come to visit me at my home store on 627 Tremont Street, Boston.
Selfish Giving
DECEMBER 28, 2009
It’s hard to believe that this month marks my 5th anniversary blogging. On average I’ve posted 100+ times a year. (Although for a time a good many of those were “Cause Marketing Links&# (short news stories) from my Delicious account–something I don’t do anymore). This year blogging took a back seat to Facebook , Twitter and Linkedin.
Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System
Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, 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.
Selfish Giving
NOVEMBER 24, 2009
I love Starbucks. I love Product (RED). I love cause marketing. If you have a problem with any of these you should probably leave now. Through December 1st when customers spend $15 on any purchase Starbucks will automatically make a $1 donation to The Global Fund on their behalf. Customers also get a copy of the exclusive All You Need Is Love Holiday CD for free.
Selfish Giving
DECEMBER 2, 2009
This week kicks-off the 6th year that Rhode Island-based Ocean State Job Lots will sell cause marketing pinups to benefit cancer care at my hospital. You can read all about how a delivery of 40,000 pounds of frozen chicken in 2003 turned into one of the most successful corporate partnerships in our history here. It’s quite a story! For all the different types of point-of-sale programs my cause marketing team executes this one is perhaps the simplest.
Selfish Giving
SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
My friend Beth Pfeil’s ( @readerbean ) nonprofit is the cause with the big name and the small staff. The Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation has only four employees, but that hasn’t stopped them from raising millions for better treatments and cures for the movement disorders dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. Since Beth joined Bachmann-Strauss three years ago as their Special Events Manager, she’s managed their annual golf tournament, New York City marat
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
APRIL 14, 2009
I included a shorter version of the following article in my Nonprofit Marketing Tips email newsletter that went out earlier today. The newsletter goes out a few times per month. Subscribe by visiting the Nonprofit Marketing Guide home page , in the left sidebar, under the blue bar. I see three trends that mean your nonprofit’s email newsletters should be shorter than they probably are now. 1.
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.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JULY 8, 2009
I’ve received several questions about the Twitter tools I use, so here are my five favorites. Yes, to use Twitter as efficiently as possible, you actually need to do more than what Twitter.com offers! 1. TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop. These tools let you put people you follow into groups, which is essential once you start following more than a couple hundred people.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
AUGUST 18, 2009
If you’ve already started incorporating social media into your communications strategy and have done any research on it at all, you’ve come across the advice to LISTEN FIRST. What you are less likely to have found in your research is a practical list of what you can actually do with all of this new-found knowledge and perspective that you gain from building your listening network.
Selfish Giving
AUGUST 27, 2009
I really don’t unplug on vacation. I don’t like to disconnect from my gadgets or my work. I like to have my two sidearms, my iPhone and cause marketing, on at all times, thank you very much. So it’s not surprising that after spending time in Hyannis on Cape Cod last week I came home with a few cause marketing lessons–captured on my iPhone no less!
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JULY 8, 2009
Thursday’s Webinar: Blogging for Nonprofits: Tips, Traps and Tales. July 9, 2009. 1:00 p.m. Eastern. (10:00 a.m. Pacific). Get the details and register. Missed It? Watch the recording when you. get an All-Access Pass. Does your nonprofit need a blog? That depends on a lot on your overall communications strategy. But to help you think through this question, here are my top five reasons why a nonprofit should have a blog and my top five reasons why a nonprofit shouldn’t. 5 Reasons Why
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Nonprofit Marketing Guide
AUGUST 17, 2009
I read “ Trust Agents &# by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith this weekend. It’s about, as the subtitle says, “Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.&#. I’m talking about these concepts in the book I’m writing on nonprofit marketing, so I wanted to see how what Chris and Julien advocate for the business community might translate to the nonprofit world.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JULY 24, 2009
Yesterday I taught a webinar called “Content Creation Strategies for Nonprofits: Making the Most of Your Writing, Photos, and More.&# More than 650 people registered from 46 U.S. states and 22 other countries. (Pass this on to your nonprofit friends in Alaska, Delaware, Mississippi and South Dakota - we missed them!) Nonprofits are clearly very interested in how they can do a better job creating and managing content.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JULY 13, 2009
The conventional wisdom these days seems to be that nonprofit organizations should not use social media for marketing, communications, promotion or anything like that. Instead, the CW goes, social media is only for listening and learning (call it market research and professional development if you actually want it to survive your work planning process).
Selfish Giving
MARCH 9, 2009
It’s been too long since I posted regularly here at Selfishgiving.com. But I have a good excuse: I’ve been busy creating useful and exciting offline content! Just last week I was in Dallas, TX for the annual Run, Walk, Ride Conference where I delivered a four-hour seminar on Selling Local Sponsorships for Nonprofits. Putting together the program was a lot of work, but the material was well received by a diverse group of fundraising pros.
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!
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
If you ask veterans of hard-fought political campaigns which matters most, what a person feels or what a person thinks about your candidate, without exception, they will tell you that heart overrules head in the voting booth. The same goes for the way we make purchasing decisions, the way people vote on juries, and whether we support charitable causes.
Selfish Giving
JULY 8, 2009
A summer ritual here on the development team is planning for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1st. Part of that planning process involves a half-day retreat for directors at my boss’ house where we discuss our goals for the upcoming year. Before my boss left for vacation last week he said to me: “At the retreat I want you to talk about how we can use social media for prospect research, fundraising and advocacy.&#.
Selfish Giving
JANUARY 21, 2009
A week doesn’t go by that I don’t get a call or email from four or five people looking for work. Most of them come from marketing, advertising and public relations. Some are changing careers. Some just can’t find work in their chosen fields. They all see opportunity in cause marketing, and they’re right. This post is for all of you, because I know I haven’t gotten back to everyone.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
APRIL 28, 2009
Yesterday I attended a workshop organized by one of my favorite bloggers (and NTC roomie) Nancy Schwartz on how you deal with branding issues for your organization within social media. The panel featured Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation; Felicia Carr, National Parks Conservation Association; and Wendy Harman, American Red Cross. Nancy created a wonderful guide to the session (Word doc) that contains even more great stories and tips than came out in the live event, so download that.
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.
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