Nonprofit Communications

Here is this week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, albeit a few days late (my business trip was busier than expected-sorry). It’s all about nonprofit how-to’s this week. Sit back, click around, and learn how to do something new!

Cool People Care explains how to tell your story to generation Y.

Cause-Related Marketing shows how to evaluate your cause-related marketing campaign.

Zen & the Art of Nonprofit Technology details how to find out about free and open-source software.

Perspectives from the Pipeline offers ideas on how to kickstart your nonprofit career in seven days.

Dream Think Act explains how to read people and get your point across.

Wild Apricot provides some tips on how to use the web to provide self-service options to your members.

RB Digital Rodeo tells how to get the most out of all those free white papers offered for download.

Why Just Seven Posts This Week?

I received more entries than I’m publishing here this week, because we try to keep the Carnival to the seven best posts of the week. It makes for a more manageable chunk of information for our devoted readers. Some hosts stray from that rule, but that’s their prerogative. For all of you who submitted posts that weren’t included, please keep participating! Some weeks we are swamped with submissions, other weeks, not so much. And faithful readers, if you feel strongly one way or the other about my attempt to keep the Carnival to seven posts a week, let me know by leaving a comment. I made the rules for this baby, so I can change ‘em if I hear that’s what the people want.

Coming Up on Monday . . .

Our next host is Britt Bravo, who will bring you a Carnival of “Have Fun, Do Good” posts on Monday, October 1.

Seeking a Host for T-Day Weekend

The Carnival needs a host for November 26, the Monday after Thanksgiving in U.S. This is a great opportunity for all of you non-U.S. bloggers who have been thinking about hosting to jump in! Let me know if you are interested.

I’ve got a new poll up. Once again, I’ll post advice related to the winning answer.

Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog has posted this week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. He asked what’s good or bad about fundraising and got some interesting perspectives.

Next week, the Carnival comes back home here to Nonprofit Communications and it will be a “How To” edition. If you want to contribute, write a post this week on how to do something related to nonprofit management, marketing, fundraising or whatever — as long as it is related to nonprofits and is a how-to. You can play it straight or sarcastic, funny or philosophical. Send your permalink to me by Friday night at npc.carnival AT yahoo.com or use our blogcarnival form.

Are the copy and images in your nonprofit marketing materials drugging readers into ignoring you and your issue entirely? It’s a process called narcotization.

Here’s how it works. People were shown pictures of gum disease. One group saw photos of a mouth just a little rotten. The second saw photos of moderately rotten gums. The third saw horribly blackened mouths. The impact on dental care? Group one did what they always had. Group two did somewhat more flossing and brushing. Group three gave up entirely and stopped taking care of their gums and teeth. The idea is that if you think a problem is inevitable and overwhelming, you shut down and stop trying to fix it.

I read this example in Chuck Palahniuk’s book of essays called Stranger than Fiction while on vacation recently. In an essay called, “Dear Mr. Levin,” Palahniuk describes narcotization and then goes on to show how author Ira Levin beat the process by charming people into thinking about complex and difficult social problems through his incredible storytelling, way before the issues were a mainstream concern. Rosemary’s Baby, published in 1967, is about abortion rights. The Stepford Wives, published in 1972, is about the backlash against feminism. Sliver, published in 1991, is about electronic voyeurism.

These varying levels of information and our responses to them reminded me of the research that shows a powerful story about one person works better in fundraising than stories about multiple people. I talked about this recently in 10 Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Nonprofit.

Here’s how I see the connection between the two. Using a bunch of statistics about your issue is like showing a mouth that’s just a little rotten. It doesn’t motivate people to change at all. Showing them the suffering of large groups of people is like the blackened mouth. It’s just too much to take and people throw up their hands and don’t see how a donation to you will make a difference. But talking about a single person’s plight is like the moderately rotten gums. It’s bad enough to motivate people to want to help, but not so bad that they feel helpless.

So what can nonprofit communicators learn from Mr. Levin? Palahniuk says he uses metaphors that slowly reveal the issues and solutions without blatantly hitting us over the head with them. He uses humor to charm and worst-case scenarios to scare (Against a woman’s right to choose? Well, what would you do if you were pregnant with the Devil’s baby??) Says Palaniuk of Levin: “You created a fable to get our attention and inoculate us against the fear by creating a metaphor, a character that models the wrong behavior . . . That method gives the reader the moment of realization, the emotional moment of ‘ah-hah!’ And teaching experts say that unless we have that moment of chaos, followed by the emotional release of realization, nothing will be remembered.”

We may not be capable of writing some of the best-selling suspense novels of all time, but we can certainly apply some of these concepts in nonprofit communications. Bring your potential supporters along through your story. Build up to that “ah-hah” moment. Show that one donor what he can do to help, without making him feel helpless. Use anecdotes to let your volunteers learn from the mistakes and successes of others.

Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog is looking for posts on what’s good or bad about fundraising for next week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. Here’s what’s bad about fundraising from my perspective as a nonprofit marketing and communications consultant.

These are the three reasons that I nearly always turn down requests to write grant applications and direct appeal letters (although I gladly do supporting materials like case statements and donor newsletters).

1) Nonprofits blame you, the grant writer, if they don’t get the funding, even if their project is really weak or they are applying to the wrong funding source. Even a beautifully written grant application can’t turn a lousy project into a winner, nor can it convince a project officer to fund you if the project is outside her area of interest.

2) It’s boring. I find writing grant applications, especially those for government agency grants, really boring. You usually have to follow a specific format and play to certain buzzwords and criteria, which can force you to talk about the project in unnatural ways, while also draining the really interesting points and creative storytelling out of the package.

3) I don’t want to keep up with the latest and greatest in direct mail marketing. With all the various metrics out there for direct mail these days, and the mix of art and science that direct mail marketing has become, it’s now a really specialized segment of the field, and it’s not one I’m interested in keeping up with. Maybe this is just a perception perpetuated by fundraising consultants who don’t want to share clients with those of us who focus more on general communications and marketing, but it’s working on me.

I’m sure there are people who love, love, love writing direct appeal copy and grant applications, but I’m not one of them. If you are, tell me what I’m missing by leaving a comment.

I really enjoyed Marc Sirkin’s recent post on the differences between “radical attention hogs” and “platform players,” which he presents as a take of the difference between causes and organizations. He argues that as a nonprofit becomes more established, it will naturally lose its edge. I agree that this path is true for most organizations, but I’d hate to believe that is entirely inevitable or irreversible.

For example, I’m thinking of the transformation that has taken place at the Humane Society of the United States. HSUS is definitely a platform player - very well-established in the field, big staff, huge membership, etc. But in the last couple of years, since Wayne Pacelle took over, HSUS is now much more cause-driven and is just about as outspoken on several issues as PETA, which most people would classify as the “radical attention hog” in the humane/animal rights field.

I was freelance writing for HSUS around the time that this transition was taking place, and I can tell you that it was not without a fair amount of grumbling among the staff whose programs were not selected for “campaign” status. Nevertheless, I think HSUS has done a great job pulling it off. While they still provide a ton of non-confrontational information and advocacy on a wide variety of humane issues, a few areas of focus have an entirely new edge to them, especially the factory farming campaign and the fur free campaign, where they call out bad behavior by name all over the place. They also give lots of credit to companies that choose to do the right thing. If you examine these campaign mini-sites, you’ll see quite a bit of difference between them and the main HSUS site.

What are your favorite examples of edgy, cause-driven communications by well-established, mainstream organizations?

This week’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher featured Cornel West and Mos Def, and it was one of the most entertaining and interesting episodes this year. At one point, they talked about the complacency of the media and how many mainstream reporters want to fit in with and be liked by the people they cover and to be seen as well-adjusted people, which makes their reporting on tough issues go soft. West said something like “We need a maladjusted media, with courage, vision, and sacrifice.”

That’s also the role that many nonprofits should play. If you are trying to bring important, difficult issues to light in your community, it often takes courage, vision, and sacrifice to do so. In your quest to obtain funding from large institutions like government agencies and foundations or even from individual donors, it can be tempting to soften your voice so as not to offend.

But always keep your real mission in focus and speak the truth. It pays to be somewhat maladjusted, because that’s what makes your perspectives interesting and voice loud in the crowd. That’s how you get people’s attention and create real change. Don’t water down your message for the sake of fitting in with the power players. Always hold on to some of your maladjusted edge and let it shine through in your communications and marketing.

Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention has posted another stellar edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, this time on how nonprofits can use online video to strengthen their marketing impact. It’s loaded with great examples, how-tos, and pitfalls — a must-read for anyone considering how to use video to promote a nonprofit cause.

Next week the Carnival heads over to Donor Power Blog, where Jeff is sure to entertain and educate us all!