Nonprofit Communications

Beth Kanter has a great fictional example on her blog today about a nonprofit called “Seagulls Global Internship International” that works with students. Those students have turned against the nonprofit by creating a Facebook group to criticize the new organizational logo. Beth asks, what would you do if you were the social networking manager? Would you bash the students, ignore them, defend your decision, or explain the design process? What do you tell your colleagues who are skeptical of using Facebook anyway?

Here’s my advice:

1) Respond directly with respectful humor. Acknowledge the comments right away, engage in the conversation at least initially, but make it clear that the decision won’t be reversed. A little self-deprecating humor can go a long way in cases like this. Admit that the students might have a good point or two. I wouldn’t get into the design process much at all, unless a bunch of the students were actually involved in it. In that case, you should ask those students themselves if they’d be willing to defend the logo decisions to their peers.

2) Then immediately try to redirect their energy into something related but new. Maybe one of the signature initiatives of the nonprofit needs its own logo, or maybe they need a logo for their next worldwide seagull fest. Maybe it’s time to update the design of the student recruitment brochure. Explain exactly how the students can participate in the development of that logo or new design. And make sure it’s legit — that they will actually have some say in the process. The students who are genuinely interested in design and logos will jump at the chance to be a part of something real. It also shows that you really do respect their opinions.

3) Tell the rest of your staff to take a deep breath. Remind your colleagues that you should all be overjoyed that the students are so interested in your organization that they are willing to create their own group to bash a logo. Since they are genuinely interested in the program and are not just “bashers du jour,”  this is really a great opportunity to find ways  to make the students feel  like they have  a real voice and role in the organization.

Next Thursday’s Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar is on keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) for nonprofits and will feature guest speaker David Westbrook, an SEO expert with lots of nonprofit experience. If you just crinkled your nose and said, “Huh?” or if you are your office’s accidental techie and default webmaster, this webinar is for you. If think you’ve done everything right and your website still doesn’t come up when you put your keywords into search engines like Google and Yahoo!, this webinar is for you too.

I asked David for a sneak peek at some of the insights he’ll share next week and here’s a good one:

“When it comes to esthetics, search engines couldn’t be much more disinterested. This is because every image looks the same to a search engine. Imagine walking through the Louvre and where others see the Mona Lisa all you see is .img and further on where others see Madonna with the Green Cushion, you again see .img. This is the world of a search engine. On the other hand, search engines are voracious readers, and while they can’t interpret a word, they do know how often it appears and they are able to assign a level of importance to it depending on where it appears and what is surrounding it.”

David goes on to talk about the importance of the ALT tag:

“Every image should have what is known as an alt tag (technically an alt attribute). I am sometimes asked if this includes when menu items are images instead of text. As it turns out, they are especially important here. Their importance extends beyond search engines, as they are chiefly important to the blind who use screen readers that have no way of knowing a link exists if it is just an image without an alt tag.”

David will share lots of ways that nonprofits can improve their search engine rankings, whether you have complete control over the design of your website or you can only write articles for it.

Get the details on Can We Find You on Google? Keywords and Search Engine Optimization for Nonprofits, taking place Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern (11:00 a.m. Pacific). Registration is $35 and includes everyone in your office who can fit around a single computer monitor and speaker phone.

I’m working on a new webinar for later this spring currently titled “Nonprofit Writing Sucks - How to Write Like the Smart, Passionate Human Being You Are Instead of the Wonky, Dead-Inside Droid You Sound Like Now. ” Yes, I agree, the title needs some work, but you get the gist.

I’ve been collecting examples of horrible writing by nonprofits for awhile now, but have faith that you, dear blog reader, can come up with even more wonderfully awful stuff for me to include in the exercises. All bad writing is fair game, no matter why it’s bad, as long as it appears in a nonprofit publication either in print or online. In most cases, I will protect the guilty by changing names, etc.

I promise to honor your confidentiality if you send me something from your own organization!

The person who submits the sample that makes me grimace and/or laugh the most will get a free webinar pass to spend on whichever webinar you like or to re-gift to a friend who needs it more than you do.

Contact me via email or snail mail with links, copies, etc. Or leave a comment directing me to copy.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Please welcome Claire Voyant — a new guest blogger here at Nonprofit Communications. Claire (whose last name is actually Meyerhoff) sees things others don’t! You’ll be able to find all of Claire’s posts in a new category on this blog called Claire Voyant.

~ Kivi

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By Guest Blogger Claire Voyant

Here I am, Claire Voyant, . . . and I see a trend, people! Actually, it’s Kivi who sees things clearly by highlighting the Humane Society’s spin on the meat mess. By focusing on kids, not cows, the Humane Society got great publicity for their organization.

This is a twist on what I like to call “tag-along” publicity – hitching your nonprofit to someone else’s wagon. When I worked for the National Safe Kids Campaign in D.C, we wanted to publicize accidental poisonings. Sure, we did press releases and fact sheets. No coverage. Then a policy person mentioned that D.C.’s “Mr. Yuck,” based at Georgetown Hospital, was about to lose it’s funding – and it’s home.

With just a few phone calls, I learned the details about their money troubles, rounded up a local family that had a good outcome because of a call to Mr. Yuck, and a TV reporter interested in the story. The next evening, the story, including an interview with a Safe Kids expert, led the local ABC’s 11pm newscast.

We also wrote an editorial that landed in the Washington Post that we got some more coverage. Eventually, the National Capitol Poison Center found a new home and affiliation with George Washington University Hospital.

If you think your organization’s mission is a story in itself (“but we do such great work!”), think again. Unless you’re making news, find some news that you can “tag-along,” team-up, and pitch your story that way.

I’ve posted a new article called 10 Surprisingly Easy and Startlingly Effective Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit E-Newsletter on NonprofitMarketingGuide.com.
I used the article as the speaking notes for my presentation today on Network for Good’s Nonprofit 911 call on “bringing your e-newsletter from snoring to soaring.”  You can listen to the free recording after they post it sometime tomorrow on this Fundraising 1-2-3 page.

Thanks to Katya and the Network for Good team for inviting me to speak!

Last week I said that the call to action is the most important part of a nonprofit brochure. Yesterday, in my Nonprofit Marketing Tips e-newsletter (sign up here in the left sidebar) I sent out an article that explains how to write a good call to action for a brochure. That article is now available online at Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com.

We still have space in Wednesday’s brochures webinar and Thursday’s brochures e-clinic if you’d like some help with your nonprofit’s brochures. Registration closes at 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday for both events.

This week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is up at Perspectives from the Pipeline. Rosetta asked bloggers to share their one big idea for making the nonprofit sector better. See what people said here.

Next week the Carnival moves to Donor Power Blog, with host Jeff Brooks on March 3. In honor of it (finally) being March, Jeff will especially honor posts that include “in like a lion.” That can be literally the phrase, or just the idea, or something that metaphorically resonates with the concept of “in like a lion.” You’ve got your Carnival challenge — start blogging!

NOT your mission statement.

NOT your description of activities.

NOT your photographs.

The most important part of a nonprofit brochure is your call to action.

Once you’ve answered my questions about your organization and inspired me to take the next step, what do I do? Whom do I call (don’t just give me a phone number — tell me who to ask for)? Where do I go on your website? Is there a panel I can tear off and mail in?

Never publish another brochure without a call to action.

I’m doing a webinar on Wednesday (2/27/08) on nonprofit brochures called How to Make Your Brochures Pop! where you’ll get many more tips like these to make your nonprofit brochures as powerful as possible. It’s $35 for as many people from your organization as can fit around a computer monitor and speaker phone.

On Thursday (2/28/08), I’m doing my first online coaching session on brochures. Up to ten people will get personalized, hands-on advice on their nonprofit brochures, including ideas and feedback from me and other participants. That costs $99 and includes Wednesday’s webinar as well.