Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

After trial runs with both GoToWebinar and ReadyTalk this fall, I’m launching my 2008 webinar series on nonprofit marketing topics using ReadyTalk. And after hearing from a woman in one of my Duke classes that her nonprofit adoption agency paid a ridiculous sum of money (in the several hundreds of dollars) to host a webinar for less than a dozen prospective adoptive parents, I realized that nonprofits are looking for cost-effective, easy ways to deliver training and information too.

Here is my take on these two services.

GoToWebinar

What I Liked:

-The user-interface was very easy to follow and figure out.

-They offer fully integrated tools for promoting your events, tracking registration, sending automated reminders, etc., although not all of the system emails can be customized as much as I would like.

-The fixed monthly fee was very appealing, because it would allow me to budget for the expense regardless of how many webinars I did per month, or how many people attended. I see that as a big bonus for some nonprofits too.

-They have advanced tools to monitor participants during the webinar. For example, you can tell how long your webinar was the top window on someone’s computer and how often they were working on something else.

-I could start the trial immediately through their website.

-GoToWebinar lets you poll the audience live by presenting multiple choice questions on the screen that participants can click on, giving you instant, compiled feedback about what people think about various topics. Several participants in the webinar I did said they really loved the instant polling feature.

What I Didn’t Like:

-While all the data on participants is nice after the fact, for me, all of those monitors and icons were in the way during the live event. I couldn’t present the webinar and monitor all those panels at the same time, so they were distractions more than anything else.

-Other than sending in chat messages, there was no way for me to know which specific participants had questions or would like to participate in exercises with me.

-To record the webinar for later viewing, I had to record the audio on my own hard drive, and then allow GoToWebinar to integrate the files. It worked OK, but seems fraught with potential for problems. I understand that GoToWebinar is fixing this in its latest upgrade.

ReadyTalk

What I Liked:

-The “Raise Hand” feature allows me to see the name of the person who has a question, allowing me to ask that person to unmute their line and ask a question or participate in an exercise.

-The system uses Java, instead of its own program requiring a download (like GotoWebinar), which makes it very easy for everyone to use (although no one complained about the GotoWebinar download).

-The audio and video recordings are fully integrated.

-You can show your presentation slides from your desktop (as GoToWebinar requires), or you can upload your presentation and run the slides through ReadyTalk. Not only does the upload eliminate bandwidth issues, but it also allows me as the presenter to preview slides and skip around much more easily without the audience seeing everything I’m doing. And I can still show my desktop or specific applications when I want to.

What I Didn’t Like:

-I had to wait on a customer service rep to start my trial run. While my rep ended up being very helpful, he insisted on talking to me on the phone and then was out sick, so I had to wait several days before I could really get started. I do a lot of online tinkering after my kids are in bed, so I prefer fully automated trials.

-The ReadyTalk website doesn’t include pricing information and you have to wait for your sales rep to come back to you with pricing packages. That always feels a little bit like used car buying to me. I’m not unhappy with what I’m paying, but I do prefer upfront, fixed rate pricing options, which GoToWebinar offers.

-ReadyTalk offers virtually no support (except for some ugly email invitations) for promoting your webinar and registering participants. I understand that they will be introducing a new module that will take care of many of these tasks later this year. But for now, you have to use another system for everything.

-The user interface is rather sparse. It’s easy enough now that I have figured out where everything is, but it is not as intuitive or rich in features as GoToWebinar.

-Their security system for preventing unregistered people from participating is not as rigorous as GotoWebinar’s.

Why I Ultimately Chose ReadyTalk

I decided that ReadyTalk’s technology works better for my needs than GoToWebinar’s. ReadyTalk has also made significant inroads into the nonprofit community, which means that many of you who will be registering for my webinars will already be familiar with their system. For me, these two reasons outweighed GoToWebinar’s far superior tools for webinar promotion and management. But not by a whole lot, especially given that GoToWebinar is cheaper given how much I plan to use the service.

While ReadyTalk did offer me the NTEN membership enterprise deal for unlimited web connections, no flat rate is available for the audio connections. For me to be a full-blown ReadyTalk evangelist, they need to unveil their new event management system and they need to develop better flat-rate pricing packages that are more competitive with GoToWebinar’s rates.

Using stories in your nonprofit annual report is a great way to bring to life what might otherwise be some stiff writing on your activities and accomplishments. But simply throwing some stories into the text won’t do. You need to be very focused and highly selective about which stories you use and how you tell them in your annual report. Here are my top five tips for using stories in annual reports. For more advice on annual reports, register for my webinar on Thursday, “Writing Your 2007 Nonprofit Annual Report - A Crash Course.”

Make the Story Immediately Relevant. A touching story about a little girl’s struggle to overcome a rare disease is heart-warming, but it’s nothing more than that if I don’t understand how this child is connected to your organization and specifically to the accomplishments. I’m reading your annual report to understand what you achieved last year. That little girl’s story needs to help me understand what your organization did. Ideally by the end of the first paragraph, and definitely by the end of the second, make it clear to me the role your organization played in helping this child. It’s what journalists call the “nut graph.”

Put Stories in Context. Stories about a single person are great for many reasons, but we also need to understand the larger context. How many other children have been helped by your support program, beyond the one you are telling us about in detail?

Cut the Fluffy Details. If you spend an hour interviewing someone, it can be really tough to hone in on which details matter most. But you need to include only the details that support why you are telling this particular story in the first place. We do not need a life history. We don’t need to know about all the other players in the story. Look at every detail and quote you provide and ask yourself if it reinforces or detracts from that nut graph.

Keep It Short. Let’s face it — people are more likely to skim your report than to read it, which means short, tight writing is much better than long essays. It’s also very unlikely that each story you tell is going to connect with all of your readers in the same way. That’s why I would rather spend 200 words on one person, 200 on another, and 100 words pulling it all together in a 500-word section than spending the whole 500 words talking about one person.

Let the Subject Approve the Copy. You are telling someone’s personal story as a way to promote your organization’s accomplishments. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the person agrees that you played the role you say you did. By allowing the story’s subject to approve the final copy, you ensure that both your organization and the individual will stand behind the claims you are making about your successes.

I’ll keep my eyes open for good storytelling in annual reports and let you know when I see some strong examples. If you find some, please share by leaving a comment on this post.

Soha at Wild Apricot has posted this week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants on the best Web 2.0 and social networking tools for nonprofits. It will give you a little taste of who’s doing what and some road signs to heed as you expand your online presence.

I came across this interesting article in the Washington Post (”Hey, Isn’t That. . .“) on how big corporations are poaching photos off of Flickr and private blogs and using them without attribution. When caught, the common reaction seems to be, “Ooops, an intern did it.” Not really an acceptable answer from the likes of the multinational corporations involved in the cases cited in the article, is it?

It reminded me of the similar excuses several nonprofit bloggers heard last fall when a bunch of us were hit with a spate of poached blog postings all around the same time. I wrote about fair use of blog posts and Nancy Schwartz also shared her story about a stolen article. In both of our cases, the perps attributed the problems to mistakes by “junior” staff.

When you hand off tasks like newsletter writing and finding photos for your publications to junior staff or interns, be sure to take five minutes to talk about copyright and proper attribution. Spend a few minutes at Creative Commons. This is definitely a case where a few minutes of prevention can save you hours of grief. Not only will you avoid the embarrassment associated with being publicly called out as a content thief, you’ll also save hours of time defending and/or apologizing for the behavior (and in the case of the corporations in the Post story, lots of legal fees.)

Melissa Eckes, a senior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in Wisconsin, sent me a message this week asking for ideas on how a local public awareness campaign could increase support for funding arts education in public schools. She’s writing her thesis on the importance of art education and wanted my advice, and yours, on how to create a powerful campaign message.

Do have any thoughts you can share with Melissa? Leave a comment on this post if you want to help. You’ll find my suggestion below.

Here’s what Melissa says about the benefits of arts education:

“My idea is creating an public awareness campaign for art education in the Milwaukee school area. A lot of the research I have been doing is finding articles and interesting facts about the benefits of art education. How it helps you be creative and teaches you self-discipline, which is important to many careers today. I understand that when schools are in money troubles, the first thing they cut is art programs. I’ve found that there’s only national advertising for saving art education, and I want to do something local to be more effective.”

One idea I shared with Melissa is to use the power of the unexpected. If you are are talking about art education in schools, use adults instead of kids and more left-brained imagery (less artsy) than right-brained (more artsy). I suggested using images of analytical professionals with tag lines that talk about how arts education helped them get where they are today.

For example, an ad could picture a surgeon with text like “Top brain surgeon. Moves a scalpel with precision. Learned to control his hands that way with a paintbrush in fourth-grade art class.” Then you could include a stat or two about the value of arts education, followed by a strong call to action — whatever the campaign wanted people to do, whether that’s asking the school board to restore funding for the arts or whatever.

What else could Melissa’s arts education campaign try?

One the biggest challenges organizations face when trying to improve their nonprofit marketing programs is to stop thinking about themselves and to focus on their audience instead.

One analogy I use in my nonprofit training courses is gift giving. With the holidays still in our short-term memories, you’ll recognize some of the five types of “gifters” here – but will you recognize your own organization? Think back to when you were a kid – whose gifts did you want to tear open and which ones were guaranteed to be lame?

Cranky Old Grandpa. He doesn’t care what you want, because you probably don’t deserve anything anyway. Kids have it so easy these days and they’re all spoiled brats who have no idea what the real world is like.

These are the nonprofit staff who are bitter that they have to ask for donations and help at all. If people don’t understand their issues and support their work, it’s not the nonprofit’s fault – it’s because the audience is full of selfish idiots. In other words, nonprofit marketing is a waste of precious time they need to spend on real work, so why bother?

Cranky Old Grandma. Unlike Grandpa, she does think you deserve a gift, but like Grandpa, she really doesn’t care what you want, because she knows better. You are going to get an electric toothbrush if you are lucky, and a scarf she kitted if you aren’t. Either way, that present is going to be good for you, and you better like it.

“Cranky Old Grandma” nonprofits write newsletters that are full of articles about the organization, its activities, and its issues, with little regard for who actually reads the newsletter. In fact, they aren’t even sure who’s on the newsletter list, and it really doesn’t matter. They believe that they alone should decide the content of the newsletter, regardless of what the readers may be interested in, and that’s what they are going to provide.

Your Older Brother. He knows he is supposed to get you something, but he doesn’t want to put any thought or effort into it, so he is going to regift something he got for his birthday.

These are the nonprofit communicators who fill their publications with articles from other sources, with little original content, because it’s quick and easy and they want to check the newsletter off of the to-do list. Some of it may be helpful, but it’s a toss-up most of the time.

Mom and Dad. They know what you really want and also what you need. They give you a mix. You’ll get that hot new game you wanted, because they want you to be happy, but you’ll also get something you need, like socks and underwear.

“Mom and Dad” nonprofits are those who are sincerely interested in understanding their audience and try to speak to their interests and values in most of their communications, but they can’t quite let go of all of the organization-centered information – the typical “message from the executive director” column, for example, is still at the front of the newsletter.

The Cool Aunt. She asks what’s on your wish list, or asks others what you are into these days, and she gets it right every time.

These nonprofits know who are they communicating with and are constantly checking in with their audience, whether by talking to them directly or staying on top of larger trends. They regularly adjust the content of their communications to be relevant to their audience and what those people are interested in or concerned about at any given time. Their donors and supporters can tell that the nonprofit cares what they think and is grateful for their participation. And the donors and supporters love the nonprofit in return.

So which kind of gifter is your organization? Are the print and online publications your produce as part of your nonprofit marketing strategy and communication plan a real gift to your donors and supporters, or are they simply what you think they need or what you want to give them for your own selfish reasons?

Start working your way down on the continuum from Cranky Old Grandpa to the Cool Aunt, and by the time we come back around to this year’s holiday season, you’ll be the favorite nonprofit on everyone’s list. Need some help making that transition? Check out my nonprofit marketing training schedule.

Starting next week, I will be offering a weekly webinar/teleseminar series on nonprofit marketing and communications topics. Webinars will have both audio and visuals, teleseminars with have audio only, and e-clinics will include personal coaching.

Here are the first seven events, with much more to come:

Writing Your 2007 Nonprofit Annual Report: A Crash Course Webinar, 1/17/08 ($49)

Ten Easy Fixes for Your Boring Print Newsletter - A Webinar, 1/23/08 ($49)

How to Make Your Nonprofit Brochures Pop - The Crash Course Webinar, 1/29/08 ($49)

How to Make Your Nonprofit Brochures Pop - The Webinar and E-Clinic Combo, 1/29 & 1/31/08 ($139)

Getting Reporters to Cover Your Nonprofit: How to Tell Your Story, So They’ll Tell It Too! - A Teleseminar, 2/6/08 ($20)

What Should We Write About? Storytelling Ideas for Nonprofits - A Webinar, 2/13/08 ($49)

Online Writing: Dos and Don’ts of Writing for the Web and Email - A Webinar, 2/20/08 ($49)

I’m lining up several great speakers for additional events in March and April, along with developing some new courses of my own. Subscribe to this blog (upper left of blog homepage) or to my monthly Nonprofit Marketing Tips e-newsletter (middle left of site homepage) to keep up-to-date with the schedule, special offers, and more.

After much holiday cheer, the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is back for the new year, at a new home (Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com). I’m still putting up the Big Tent and welcoming people inside to host it and read it — it’s just at a new domain. Updated links to the new Carnival homepage are much appreciated!

On to the show . . .

Will Tim Russert ever ask your question on Meet the Press? Colin Delany at e.politics reviews a new campaign by the League of Conservation Voters to get more attention for global warming on the Sunday morning talking-head shows.

If you’ve already busted your New Year’s resolutions about eating better and exercising more, start over and go Britt Bravo’s route at Have Fun, Do Good: list your activist resolutions.

Katya Andresen at Nonprofit Marketing Blog shares four things she wishes she’d known about social media when she got started. I like point #3 best — it cranks “word of mouth” up to 11.

Soha El-Borno at Wild Apricot lists her ten favorite slideshow and photo sharing apps.

What were the best and worst cause-related marketing campaigns of the last year? Paul Jones at Cause-Related Marketing has published his best 8 and worst 9 lists.

Leyla Farah at Cause + Effect looks at how social networking is changing fundraising. Instead of focusing on a few major donors, the distributed funding model used by sites like Razoo and DonorsChoose.org, relies on lots of little donors.

Maya Norton at The New Jew discusses how a famous Jewish philanthropist, Charles Bronfman, is hosting a major contest to find the best “big idea” in Jewish communal innovation.

And my bonus host post: a few tips on writing nonprofit taglines.

This week I received many more posts than I could use, since we try to keep the Carnival to a readable seven posts per edition. To contributors old and new, keep those submissions coming throughout 2008!

The Carnival moves next week to Soha’s Nonprofit Technology Blog at Wild Apricot. She’d like to see posts on how nonprofits are using Web 2.0 and social networking tools, with simple tips. See you there!