Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

I’m hosting another free webinar: Getting Ready to Write Your 2007 Annual Report.

As the end of 2007 draws near, nonprofits need to begin thinking about their annual reports for the year.

– What information do you need to compile?
– What decisions should you be making right now?
– What can you put off for a few more months?
– Do you really need an annual report?

Get the answers to all of these questions and more during this free webinar on Wednesday, November 28 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (that’s Noon Central, 11:00 a.m. Mountain, and 10:00 a.m. Pacific). Register Now.

If you are a regular reader, you know that I hosted a free webinar on brochures last month using GotoWebinar. This time I’m trying ReadyTalk. I’ll report back a comparison of the two services after this annual reports webinar for any of you who may be considering a cost-effective webinar solution for your organization.

This is the second in a five-post series on a direct mail make-over currently being tested by the University of California at Berkeley (Cal). Read Part 1 | This is Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

The fundraisers at Cal have decided to break away from their standard business letter appeal and try a bold, full-color brochure to convince alumni to become new donors to the university. From their focus groups, they know that Cal alums consider themselves unique and diverse – not like the cookie cutter graduates from rival private schools. They’ve also decided to speak directly to the audience by using the word “You” prominently in the piece. So the creative team went to work.

In early drafts, the simple imagery of the cookie cutter was meshed with too many complex messages about alumni, says Amy Cranch, a principal editor with Cal’s development communications department. It said, “You challenge convention. You have an independent spirit. You think freely.” The whole idea was that your life has been transformed by graduating from Cal, but in a way that left you your own person, explains Amy.

“It just wasn’t working,” she recalls. “There were too many disconnects, and the concept of the cookie cutter itself was a cliché and not very strong. The copy made very strong assumptions about people. It was not an invitation to agree with the ideas. It felt too forced.”

Virginia Gray, Cal’s associate director of annual giving and regional programs, agrees. “The whole thing wasn’t holding together. It wasn’t telling the kind of personal story we wanted.”

This is where many people would have given up and gone back to the standard form letter. When you are creating messages, whether they take the form of a tagline or design theme or epiphany at the end of an essay, you have to keep kneading the bread dough. At this stage, Cal had a nice lump of dough, but it was still a sticky mess. But they kept kneading it, waiting for that smooth, satiny finish to appear that tells you that you are done.

Amy’s boss had a middle-of-the-night brainstorm. Instead of telling Cal alumni what they were and sounding presumptuous – just what Cal grads hate – they would use famous alumni who are often described as innovators, free thinkers, and creators.

Everyone has the ingredients for good bread, but it takes knowing how long to knead it to produce something delicious.

Coming Tomorrow: How Cal designs a piece all about famous alumni without abandoning the “You, the Donor” ideal.

For this week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, let’s take a look at several nonprofit makeovers. You might just discover a few big or little changes you could make on your own to increase your nonprofit’s effectiveness.

Jono Smith at Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog shows a before-and-after of the Network for Good home page — Can you spot the problems with the old page before looking at the new one? Five gold stars to Katya and The Gang for being willing to so publicly point out their own flaws so the rest of us can ogle and learn!

The Washington DC Goodwill has hired a stylist to write a fashionista blog that features great fashion finds from the Goodwill store, complete with Ebay auctions of items she highlights on Tuesdays. Way to make over your “old” product into something fresh and hot, Goodwill! Thanks to Joanne Fritz at nonprofit.about.com for the tip.

Marc Sirkin at npMarketing Blog offers tips on how to make over your career from the corporate world into nonprofit marketing. Britt Bravo at Have Fun - Do Good has tips for new college grads or career changers who want to get into the nonprofit sector.

Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention highlights the effectiveness of the one-pager for nonprofits. Don’t have a single sheet about what your organization does and its recent accomplishments? It’s time to make over what you do have and create one!

Peter Brinckerhoff at Mission-Based Management talks about the makeover of IRS form 990.

Using Microsoft Word as your desktop publisher? Studio 501c recommends some professionally designed templates to make over your too-plain publications.

Benevon Blog explains how to make over your event schedule by eliminating events that no longer work.

The bonus host post from me here at Nonprofit Communications is the first of my five-part series this week on a makeover of an alumni direct mail piece by the University of California at Berkeley, my alma mater. Special thanks for Amy Cranch and Virginia Gray at Cal for their willingness to speak so openly about the behind-the-scenes process.

The Carnival travels to Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology with Michelle Murrain next week, November 19. Michelle is especially interested in posts that include why you are thankful for the work you do, in honor of Thanksgiving that week. Send your permalinks to npc.carnival AT yahoo.com by this Friday night, November 16.

This is the first in a five-post series on a direct mail make-over currently being tested by the University of California at Berkeley (Cal), my alma mater. Read Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

The fundraisers at Cal had a problem: they needed to raise more money from alumni to support the diverse education and research programs where Cal excels, but their current direct mail program wasn’t increasing the size of the alumni donor pool. While the standard annual appeal in a letter format did a good job at renewing existing donors, says Virginia Gray, Cal’s associate director of annual giving and regional programs, the letters weren’t bringing in many new donors.

To learn more about these alumni who weren’t currently donating, Cal sponsored some focus groups. “We found that a lot of people felt like going to Cal was a big, impersonal experience and they didn’t have the same emotional connections and bonding experiences that you’d find at a smaller university,” says Virginia.

Cal must also contend with the misperception that as a state-funded school, it doesn’t really need individual donors. “At private schools,” explains Virginia, “you are educated about how the people before you are funding your education now, and that you need to give back so the school can go on. You don’t get that message at Cal.”

The alumni in the focus group also shared how they viewed themselves as a very diverse group and that the Cal experience enhanced that diversity, unlike other private institutions of similar caliber that churn out cookie-cutter graduates (the staid professionals that graduate from rival Stanford, for example, come to this Golden Bear’s mind).

The cookie-cutter imagery stuck with Virginia and her colleagues as they pulled together a creative brief for a new direct mail campaign centered on a full-color, multi-panel, graphic-laden brochure. While Cal had tried colorful brochures before, it would be the first time they had tried something as bold as they had in mind this time.

Coming Tomorrow: The cookie cutter concept falls apart, but an even better concept comes together.

This week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants focuses on how to reach younger generations. What do people in their teens and twenties care about? What makes them want to get involved with you? If you are curious about the answers, check out this week’s edition of the Carnival.

Get Your Blog Post Highlighted Next Week

Next week I’m hosting the Carnival back here at Nonprofit Communications where the theme will be “before and after makeovers.” I’ve been interviewing staff at UC Berkeley (my alma mater) about a makeover of a direct mail piece they did recently to recruit new donors among alumni. It’s a fascinating story with lots of interesting lessons, which I’ll share over the coming week. I’d love to hear about other make-overs in nonprofit management, communications, marketing, technology, volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and the like. If you write a blog post this week that fits, send the permalink to me by Saturday night to npc.carnival AT yahoo.com or use the Blog Carnival form.