Mixed Links: Free Training, Special Deals, and Fab Info

With freezing rain falling and snow on the ground here in North Carolina, it’s time for some hot mixed links!

Free Training on E-Newsletters

I’m doing another free conference call for Network for Good’s Nonprofit 911 series, this time on Ensuring Your E-Newsletters are Read – Not Dead – On Arrival This Year. Join us next Tuesday, February 9 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

As for our weekly webinar series here at Nonprofit Marketing Guide, here’s what’s coming up next:

February 10: How to Write a Quick and Dirty Nonprofit Marketing Strategy

February 16: 10 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans

February 18: Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories

February Sweetheart Deal on the Pass *Plus*

This month, I’m offering a special deal on our new Pass *Plus*. It includes invitation-only coaching calls with Nancy Schwartz, Sarah Durham, and Gail Perry, plus I’ll buy you a copy of Sarah’s awesome new book, Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications.” Get the details on the Sweetheart Deal here.

Online Outreach on a Budget – Nonprofit Blog Carnival

The first 2010 edition of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival is now online at Issue Lab’s Footnotes and it’s all about doing online outreach on a budget. It connects you to some really great posts, so save a lunch hour this week to read them over.  Joanne Fritz at About.com for nonprofits has taken over management of the Carnival from me. Thanks Joanne for doing such a great job with that baby! Next month’s edition will be hosted by Katya Andresen at the Nonprofit Marketing Blog. The theme will be your best and/or worst moments as a nonprofit professional – and what you learned from them. Submit your blog posts here.

A Nonprofit Messaging Crisis

Nancy Schwartz is sharing the results of her recent survey on nonprofit messaging and has concluded that nonprofit communicators are in a state of crisis. See why she feels that way, and get some solid advice from Nancy on what to do about it. Nancy will be sharing her expert advice on messaging with our Pass *Plus* holders on a February 17 conference call.

Great Storytelling about Giving

I *love* this idea from Triangle Gives Back, a project led by the Triangle Community Foundation here in NC. At the foundation’s holiday party, executive director Andrea Bazán passed out envelopes to attendees that contained $10 and a challenge: Match the $10 with at least $10 of your own, give the money to someone you do not know or an organization doing good in the region, and then share the story.  Check out the creativity that ensued. I heard about this because one of the attendees at the party works with my husband at the Conservation Trust for NC. We collected change to add to the $10 to send a kid to camp.

Affordable National Press Releases

PR Newswire is offering Web News Releases to nonprofits for just $69. This is a great way to get your news into the big national news engines like Yahoo! News and Google News, via PR Newswire. Through my partnership with PR Newswire, your nonprofit can also get a 12- month membership at no charge. Details here.

More Marketing Mixed Links

Think donations to your group will suffer because everyone’s giving to Haiti? Katya says think again.

Allison Fine reflects on what we’ve learned about giving via text message.

From ProBlogger: 13 Types of Posts that Always Get Lots of Comments

From Jeff Brooks in Fundraising Success magazine: Easier Said Than Done: 25 Tips for Better Fundraising Copy

On the Power of Twitter: Got a Gripe? Send a Tweet. I saw this work myself not too long ago when I tweeted that I was having a hard time getting a certain nonprofit to call me back about a quote in my book. Within two minutes, the phone rang, with quote approval from said nonprofit.

Only 5% of websites have a Facebook or Twitter link, reports Care2. Sounds like we need some social media integration! (The recording of our webinar on integrating your website, email newsletter and social media sites is available in the Recording Archive for All-Access Pass holders).

Beth Kanter presented a great webinar on how to incoporate social media into your training programs. If you do any training or even plain ol’ public speaking, check it out. She inspired me to incorporate the Twitter backchannel into all of my webinars and trainings from here on.

Have an idea worth spreading? Check out Seth’s random rules for how to do it.

That’s all for now. I’m off to Toledo this afternoon to teach “Low-Budget, Real-World Nonprofit Marketing: Picking the Right Strategies and Telling the Right Stories” for the Toledo Community Foundation. Enjoy the links, and let me know if you learned something new by leaving a comment.