2015

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How You Can Share Accomplishments Without Bragging

Ann Green

We all know someone who talks too much about himself or brags about all the wonderful things she’s done. Once this person gets going, it’s enough to make you want to flee the room. Imagine your donors having the same reaction when all your communications sound like one big bragfest. You don’t want to be that guy. Of course, you want to share your accomplishments, and it’s possible do it without bragging.

Medical 276
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50+ Nonprofit Instagram Accounts You Should Follow Right Now

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Looking for some good examples of nonprofits on Instagram? Grab your phone and get inspired. ANIMAL RIGHTS. Talia looks like she’s ready for her woolcut next month. That’s the real start of spring! A photo posted by Catskill Animal Sanctuary (@catskill_animal_sanctuary) on Apr 11, 2015 at 12:06pm PDT. ASPCA https://instagram.com/aspca. Best Friends Animal Society https://instagram.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety.

Food 274
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Cutting the Workaholic Martyr Crap Starts with You

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Do you struggle to find time in your workday to actually sit and think? To plan for what are strategically the best new moves for your organization? Is it a badge of honor to NOT use vacation days, or to work late into the night, every night? To respond to emails as soon as they arrive in your inbox, at all times of day and night? I’ve been hearing stories like these for a long time in the nonprofit world, but as I mentioned last week, we heard many more during the session on work-life ba

Culture 274
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Recent Facebook Algorithm Changes and What They Mean for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Drew Bernard. This Thursday, June 4th, ActionSprout will join us in presenting Beth Becker’s FREE WEBINAR How to Master Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm to Boost Your Content. Here is a little taste of what you’ll learn. ~Kristina. Guest Post by Drew Bernard, Founder and CEO of ActionSprout. Facebook has recently made several changes to the algorithm that determines which content shows up in all of its 1.4 billion monthly users’ News Feeds, including your supporters.

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Navigating Payroll Compliance: Future-Proofing Payroll in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

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.

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Your Year-End Appeal Checklist

Ann Green

This summer is flying by and September will be here before you know it. Fall is a busy time, especially if you’re doing a year-end appeal. Many nonprofits rely on their year-end appeal for a good portion of their revenue. Even though your mind may be focused on going to the beach and eating ice cream, you want to start planning your year-end appeal now.

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Hashtags for Every Day of the Week (Nonprofit Edition)

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Looking for an easy content idea for Instagram and Twitter? Try a day-of-the-week post with one of these hashtags. Some of them, like #ThrowbackThursday and #InspirationMonday, can even be used on Facebook. 3 quick tips for using this tactic: . Do your research. Hashtag meanings change over time. And some hashtags don’t mean what you think they mean.

More Trending

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Why You Need a Thank You Plan

Ann Green

'You probably have a fundraising plan and maybe a donor relations plan, but it’s also important to have a thank you plan since you should spend just as much time thanking your donors as you do raising money. This isn’t happening. Nonprofit organizations spend a lot of time on their fundraising campaigns, but treat thanking donors as an afterthought.

Food 263
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Meet the Scary People Who Are Frightening Your Donors Away!

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Claire Meyerhoff. Next Tuesday, April 28th, Claire Meyerhoff and I are doing a FREE webinar encouraging you to banish boring nonprofit communications forever. How does nonprofit marketing and fundraising content become so boring? Claire explains in today’s post. ~Kivi. Guest Post by Claire Meyerhoff, Editorial Director at Planned Giving Marketing.

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Marketing is Killing Fundraising. Seriously???

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Some fundraising bloggers/consultants have discovered a terrifying new boogeyman – the work of nonprofit marketing directors! Hurry, get the pitchforks and the lighter fluid. We got us some branding hocus pocus witches to burn! Oh, haven’t you heard the hysteria? Yep, nonprofit marketing and branding are apparently killing fundraising. Killing it, they say!

Marketing 255
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CONFESSION: I Stink at Making Graphics. These Tools Make Me Look Like a Genius. 

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Is it me, or can everyone under 30 write, manage, code, photograph, design, analyze, train, present and strategize? Me? I’m not so good with the graphics. I’m getting better, but infographics and photo manipulation aren’t second nature to me. Sometimes, they’re a struggle. But I need visuals to communicate, to tell the story I need to tell, to motivate donors and advocates to act.

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

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.

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Let’s Start a Nonprofit Plain Writing Movement

Ann Green

Did you know there’s a Center for Plain Language? Its mission is to help government and businesses write clearly. There’s even a Plain Writing Act, which “requires that federal agencies use clear government communication that the public can understand and use.” The Center’s tagline says it all – Make it clear. I wish we had a Plain Writing Act for nonprofit organizations because there’s a lot of confusing and cumbersome writing out there.

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9 Content Marketing Tips for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

John Haydon gave me a great challenge: Share 9 content marketing tips. When you’ve written a 100,000-word book about nonprofit content marketing , boiling it down to your favorite 9 tips is a challenge. But I did it, and John captured it wonderfully: 3 tips for email newsletters: Be all about the reader. Quick read, skimmable. One column, clean design. 3 “musts” for better content marketing: Listen and understand your audience.

Marketing 247
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A Great Nonprofit Annual Report in a Fabulous Infographic

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Liesl Manone. We love showcasing what I like to call “New and Improved” annual reports from our readers. I think the time of the 40+ page annual report is over and we should focus on our donors and what they actually want. Bonus: That’s also a lot easier for you to produce! Our recent submission is from Liesl Manone with Don’t Forget to Feed Me Pet Food Bank who has shared their organization’s first ever annual report.

Food 247
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Why You Need to Tell Your Stories

Ann Green

Are you sharing stories with your donors, or are you putting them to sleep with a bunch of facts and statistics? Donors love stories. Stories bring the work you do to life by using everyday language to create a scene. Here’s an example from the Pet Partners newsletter. Pet Partners is an organization that provides therapy animals to people who need them. “Molly is a 12 year-old Boxer who barely survived Hurricane Katrina.

Children 246
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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.

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7 Free Tools to Improve Your Nonprofit Marketing

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Billy Attar. We know you guys love your nonprofit marketing tools – especially when they are free! Billy Attar of Pipl is here today to share some tools we haven’t even heard of. Let us know what you think and share your favorite tools too! ~Kristina. Guest Post by Billy Attar of Pipl. We marketers are always on the lookout for new tools to make our work easier.

Marketing 245
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A Super Effective Online Fundraising Tool: The “Wins” Blog Post

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Photo credit: https://flic.kr/p/7Q2CdQ. Want to get donors all jazzed up before an online fundraising campaign? Try the “wins” blog post, a numbered summary of the good your donors made possible in the recent past. I’ve tried this tactic with three clients over the past 18 months, each with excellent results. Take a look. American Heart Association.

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Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Communicator – Em Hall

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Em Hall. Here’s the latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators, where we ask you to describe your day in your own words. We’d love to hear from you too! Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro. ~Kristina. Em Hall is an award-winning marketer with a knack for digital strategy and social media.

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Don’t Make It Look TOO Nice

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Your reaction when your Executive Director says, “This looks TOO nice.” via GIPHY. Heard this one before? The theory is that donors will think you wasted their money if any of your communications look like they cost you cash money to produce them. This theory holds that all of that money should be going to programs and services. (This is the same theory that keeps your salary so low, your software so old and your desk chair so rickety, but that’s another post.).

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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.

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What Makes a Great Donor Newsletter?

Ann Green

'Most nonprofit organizations produce a newsletter, and many are one big snoozefest. They’re too long and filled with articles that brag about how wonderful the organization is. Newsletters can and should be a great way to stay in touch with your donors and keep them updated on how they are helping you make a difference. I recommend a short e-newsletter once or twice a month and one to four print newsletters a year.

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5 Translation Mistakes to Avoid in Your Multilingual Nonprofit Communications

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Patricia V. Rivera. I am on a roll lately with meeting talented communications professionals who are willing to blog for us on topics we haven’t covered well here in the past. and today’s guest blogger and post are no exception. Let’s hear from Patricia V. Rivera on how to best create multilingual communications for your community.

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5 Super Solid Ways To Engage Your Supporters Online (PLUS 28 Affordable Tools to Help You Do It)

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Are you out of ideas for engaging supporters online? Try one of these tried and true digital engagement tactics to strengthen your relationship, move members to act, and build support for your program and mission. 1) Try a Petition or Pledge. This is a bread and butter tactic for advocacy organizations, but lots of orgs can use this. A pledge to vote, not buy from puppy mills, or to go vegetarian for a day.

Law 237
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Don’t Treat Thanking Your Donors as an Afterthought

Ann Green

Summer is in full swing, but fall is just around the corner. Many of you may be starting to work on your year-end appeal, but have you given any thought to how you will thank your donors? Thanking your donors is just as important as your appeal. Here’s how you can give your donors a great thank you experience. Make a good first impression with your thank you landing page.

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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!

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CASE STUDY: How MomsRising Uses Hashtags to Help Meet Its Mission

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/7HCgw9. Hashtags and advocacy go together like peanut butter and jelly. The hashtag distills an issue into an instant, searchable sound bite that can not only travel far, but fast. MomsRising is a nonprofit that uses hashtags right – consistently, persistently, with focus. I asked MomsRising Director of Social Media Strategy and Blogging Anita Jackson ( @anita_sarah ) to tell me more about MomsRising’s use of hashtags for its two regular weekly Twit

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2015 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'It’s here! We’ve officially released the 2015 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report and infographic. We’ll be sharing more details from the report on the blog in the coming weeks, but wanted you to get access to the goods right away. Share Link: [link]. Full-Size Infographic on Flickr. Infographic on Pinterest. Infographic on Facebook.

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The 3 Worst Mistakes a Nonprofit Can Make When Trying to Acknowledge Online Donors

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

Gretchen Barry. We often talk about how your thank yous may be the most important communication you send. Below you’ll find some of the most common errors you make when thanking donors who gave online. ~Kristina. Guest Post by Gretchen Barry of NonprofitEasy. Online fundraising may no longer be the wild west of the nonprofit community, but it still carries with it the aura of an unsettled frontier.

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Create a Jargon-Free Zone

Ann Green

Are your appeal letters, thank you letters, and newsletter articles laced with terms like at-risk youth, underserved communities, leverage, and impactful? If you think your donors understand you when you use jargon like this, think again. It’s easy enough to use these terms around the office. I think people use jargon because it’s an insider language, and it makes them feel like they’re “in the know” in their professional world.

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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.

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Time For Some #DonorLove

Ann Green

'Valentine’s Day will be here soon, and what a perfect time to thank your donors and show how much you appreciate their support. If you haven’t expressed gratitude since you sent your year-end thank you letters, you need to do that soon. Aim to thank your donors at least once a month. You may not choose to acknowledge Valentine’s Day, but do something fun and creative to show appreciation in February.

Culture 230
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Community Nonprofits, Communicate Like the Experts You Are!

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

When I talk to community-based nonprofits that serve local or regional areas about content marketing or thought leadership, I often hear excuses like, “We aren’t the experts. The national groups are. Why would anyone listen to us about this issue, when we just serve this little corner of the world?” While national groups may have easier access to national data or trends, it doesn’t mean that people trust them more, or what to hear from them rather than you.

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Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Communicator – Jeanine Marlow

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Jeanine Marlow. Here’s the latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators, where we ask you to describe your day in your own words. . Jeanine Marlow is the director of communications & marketing for Cornerstone Preparatory Academy , a University-Model® school. The school is 11 years old, and she’s been blessed to be with them for 5 years.

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Developing a Modern Public Relations Strategy

Nonprofit Marketing Guide

'Peter Panepento. Last month, Peter Panepento challenged nonprofits to Stop Approaching PR Like It’s 2007. This month’s he’s back to share more about how you can best reach your audience and cultivate relationships with the media. ~Kivi. Guest Post by Peter Panepento of Panepento Strategies. You probably wouldn’t expect Bob Dylan to draw inspiration from Frank Sinatra.

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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.