Rachel Hope Allison of Big Duck presented a great webinar for us last week on multi-channel, integrated marketing and fundraising. (Missed it? All-Access Pass Holders can review the recording now.)

I really like this one recommendation from Rachel: Pair an ask for a donation with a “no-money” ask during a campaign. Let me be clear right up front . . .  you don’t ask for both of these things in the same communications piece, but rather you alternate the asks throughout the campaign.

For example, maybe you ask your supporters to sign a pledge in one email, then ask for a donation in another, then go back to the pledge in the next one. The campaign may last for several weeks or even a couple of months, and you go back and forth between the two different asks depending on the campaign schedule, the various communications channels you are using, etc.

The no-money ask gives your supporters another way to get involved and engaged in your cause whether they want to give financially or not. And it gives you something else to talk about, besides asking for money every time.

Here are some of the different kinds of no-money asks that you could pair in a campaign with an ask for a donation.

• Take a pledge, or make some other promise or commitment
• Watch a video and share it
• Upload of photo (of you with a sign, or doing something in particular)
• Ask a question
• Take a survey
• Download something
• RSVP for a free event

In the example that Rachel shared in the webinar, the National Military Family Association paired an ask for a donation to support a camp for military kids with an ask for supporters to upload a photo of themselves thanking those kids for their service as military family members. The photos would then be compiled into an honor wall the kids would see at the camp. It’s an especially great combo, because the two asks are so closely related to one particular program, the kids’ camp.

What kinds of asks can you pair up with a donation request during your campaigns?

Need More Help with Integrated and End-of-Year Fundraising?

I’m teaching Your End-of-Year Email Fundraising Plan on Wednesday in the Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar series. Register for $35.

The Direct Mail for Small Nonprofits E-Clinic with Tom Ahern starts on November 8. Use goodmail as the coupon code and save $50.

Get an All-Access Pass now, and you can attend the email fundraising webinar on Wednesday, watch the recording of Rachel’s webinar on integrated fundraising, and get a coupon code for $100 off the Direct Mail for Small Nonprofits E-Clinic, all for just $145.

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.

That’s the question that the MetroWest Health Foundation asked today on Twitter.

Turns out that the current name of the e-newsletter is  . . .  ”E-Newsletter.”   Here’s what it looks like.

I do have a ton of nonprofit e-newsletters in my inbox called “E-Newsletter” so it’s not like that’s a horrible thing. But the fact that everyone does it also argues for being a bit more original. Plus I’m just not a fan of being so literal about everything we do. (Side note: Read Katya’s post today on why you should not call your annual appeal letter your “annual appeal letter” in the actual annual appeal letter copy! I agree wholeheartedly.)

I don’t know what MetroWest Health Foundation should call its newsletter, but here is how I would work through the decision.

First: Where’s the Value to Readers?

Why do people want to get the newsletter in the first place? What do they get out of it?  Newsletter names like “Healthy Hearts” or “Faces of Hope” would fit this description. You can also put the category of reader in the name, like “The Memo for Busy Moms.” Conveying that value or that sense of membership in the name reinforces the decision to read it.

Second:  What’s Special about the Content?

What stands out about the content? Is is truly timely,  a la “News Flash,” or is it full of advice and resources a la “News You Can Use”? Or is there a play on words related to what you do? For example, animal shelters often use “Tales” in their titles as a play on cat and dog tails.

Third: Fill in the Blank

If you are still struggling, trying filling in the blanks as a brainstorming exercise:

Your ________ Update

The ____ Post

________ Weekly (or Monthly)

________ Insider (or Inside ______)

______ Tips (or Tips for _________)

_______ Buzz

_______ Times

Other synonyms to play with are Bulletin, Brief, Dispatch, Note, Report, and Digest. Add some adjectives.

Here are some other e-newsletter titles that I discovered in my inbox:

National Parks Conservation Association: Park Lines

Grist: Daily Grist

North Carolina Zoo: Zmail Update

The Land Trust for Tennessee: Today’s On the Ground Update

National Wildlife Foundation: Kids Connection

NC Wildlife Federation: Wildlife Wire

Center for EcoTechnology: EcoBytes

What’s your e-newsletter called? Do you have any suggestions for the MetroWest Health Foundation?

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Melinda McKee

Does your audience understand what you’re telling them? Melinda McKee shares her tips for making sure your message is understood by the people you are trying to reach in today’s guest post.  ~Kivi

Guest Post by Melinda McKee, Public Relations and Communications Director for NCGives

Ever feel like your nonprofit’s communications are playing out like a game of telephone? (Or maybe an episode of Fawlty Towers?) You put out a statement of some sort, and it makes sense to you, but your audience doesn’t seem to be getting it. You realize they’re walking away confused (or worse — thinking that they understood you, but in reality are way off the mark).

In my experience as a nonprofit communicator, I’ve found that one of the biggest barriers to good communication is actually pretty basic: it’s the very words we’re using, and how we use them.

Clear, audience-specific rhetoric is important for any nonprofit with a message to share, regardless of how simple or complex that message may be. And it’s not just important for formal speeches or official documents; it also matters in our everyday communications, from a casual elevator pitch to an individual email.

To help bring consistency and clarity to NCGives’ rhetoric, I led our staff in a training-and-brainstorming session. First, I talked about the role of jargon, going a little more in-depth than the “just don’t do it” rule of thumb. Next, we put our heads together to evaluate the actual words and phrases in our organization’s lexicon.

That session resulted in a “Rhetoric Guidelines” document that is now part of our marketing bank. Each staff member is encouraged to review these guidelines on three types of occasions:

1. Before public speaking engagements
2. Before meetings (especially with new or new-ish contacts)
3. As we write significant emails or other documents

So, what exactly should you be looking for? Here are the six main questions that got to the heart of my organization’s rhetoric issues (represented by six different flip chart pages during our brainstorming session):

• When is it okay for us to use jargon?
• When is it NOT okay to use jargon?
• What are our most frequently used jargon words?
• Which words/phrases should we use MORE?
• Which words/phrases should we use CAREFULLY?
• Which words/phrases do we need to PURGE from our vocabulary altogether?

I’ve elaborated on these six questions in a handy-dandy cheat sheet, taken from our own document: Rhetoric Guidelines. Feel free to adapt this template to fit your own organization (especially the examples).

Quick reality check! If at this point you’re thinking, “our staff would never remember to use this”…you’re probably right. Most likely it will be up to you to offer friendly reminders before important events, during staff meetings, etc. Make it easy for staff to find your Rhetoric Guidelines, and take advantage of opportunities to quickly reiterate why clear, consistent word choice is genuinely important to furthering your nonprofit’s mission.

(This is also why the brainstorming session needs to be a group effort. Getting buy-in at the beginning will, hopefully, help everyone take the words they use more seriously…making your message that much clearer.)

Melinda McKee is the Public Relations & Communications Director for NCGives, a statewide nonprofit on a mission to celebrate and strengthen North Carolina’s culture of giving. As a one-woman department, she oversees the organization’s strategic communications planning, print and new media content creation, brand management and everything in between; she’s also the office [Reluctantly Accidental] Techie. For more marketing and nonprofit geekery, you can follow Melinda on Twitter.

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I’m a nonprofit marketing geek, so I get really, super excited about things like awesome nonprofit thank you emails. That’s why you are here, right?

This week I received a thank you email from Stacey Monk of Epic Change. You may know Stacey and her organization as one of the shining examples of using Twitter for fundraising via campaigns like Tweetsgiving/Epic Thanks and To Mama with Love.

But you may not know her as an awesome nonprofit thank you note writer. Now you do.

Stacey hits all the high notes in this email:

• Personable
• Positive
• Results
• Taking Us There
• Credit to Donors
• Building Anticipation for More Goodness to Come
• A Great Photo
• Reminder about Our Connection
• Integration with Website and Social Media

. . . and does so in a short, very readable email.

Because I was so thrilled with this email, I asked Stacey to share a few thoughts on the results it produced.

She says the open rate was average, about 20% (which is solid, if you aren’t familiar with these metrics).

She reports that it also produced 100 Facebook likes on the linked blog post, which is “way north of normal – more than double, actually” and that “only 9 of those are from people with whom I personally am friends on Facebook”  so it spread far from Stacey’s personal circle.

Stacey also received an email from someone who’d been forwarded the email from someone else who wrote:

“Hello Stacey,
[Friend's name] forwarded me the Epic Change email about Shepherds Junior 7th grade graduation. I loved it. Can you include me in on any emails re: Shepherds Junior?
Thanks so much!”

She also got kudos for the email on Twitter, and here I am blogging about it.

Wonderful job, Stacey, and thanks for sharing such a great example!

P.S. If you are “thank you note challenged,” I am teaching our webinar on Writing Thank You Notes That Inspire Future Gifts on December 7. Can’t wait until then? Here are more of my posts on writing nonprofit thank you letters including more great examples to learn from.

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On Tuesday, September 13, I’m teaching a webinar called “Making the Ask: Getting People to Give, Volunteer, and More” where you’ll learn ways to avoid sabotaging your nonprofit’s communications with wimpy, confusing asks.  Here are five frequent problems with the way nonprofits ask for support, whether it’s donating money or time or some other valuable.

1. Assuming One Size Fits All. There is no such thing as the general public. Know your supporters, donors, participants or whoever you are talking to, and customize the way you ask for support to that group.  You should talk to your long-time volunteers differently than you talk to someone you just met. Your major donors have different expectations of you than someone who just clicked “like” on your Facebook page.

2. Being Too Vague. Don’t ask for “support” or “help” or use any of these other weak calls to action. People don’t know what you are asking for. Be specific.

3. Failing to Make It Relevant. What’s in for them? Why should they care? What good will it do? You have to answer these questions or people won’t follow through.

4. Not Making It Super Easy to Do It. Put yourself in their shoes and walk through the exact process you are asking others to follow. How can you make it easier and faster? Is donating online super easy? Is getting the right person on the phone super easy? (Think nonprofits are pretty good at this? Think again.)

5. Asking Sheepishly. If you seem embarrassed or guilty when asking, that’s a clear sign to your volunteers or donors that they might feel embarrassed or guilty themselves by following through. Remember, asking is about giving people an opportunity, not about taking something away from them.

To learn more about getting past these hurdles and how to structure your calls to action, join us for the webinar on Tuesday!

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It’s almost done . . .  The Nonprofit Content Marketing Cookbook: Your Guide to Creating and Curating Content that Educates, Motivates and Inspires will be released later this month.

I’ve heard from so many of you who are excited about all of the different ways that you can directly reach your participants and supporters now, both offline and online. But in those same conversations, you’ve told me how daunting it is to create all of that content for your website, blog, newsletters, social media, direct mail, and more.

I’ve written this new e-book to help you sort it all out.  This e-book brings together in one place all of the thinking, teaching, and writing I’ve been doing over the last two years on nonprofit content marketing. I’m putting the finishing touches on it this week, and it will be available for you in mid-September. (Pre-order now and you’ll save 33%.)

Here are the chapters you’ll find inside:

• What is Content Marketing for Nonprofits?
• Why Your Nonprofit Should Embrace Content Marketing
• Nourishing Your Community: Content Marketing Strategies for Nonprofits
• Stocking Your Pantry: The Type of Content to Create and Curate
• Celebrity Chefs: How Personality Influences Content
• Reheating and Remixing: Repurposing Your Content
• Serving It Up: The Best Nonprofit Communications Channels
• Planning the Menu: Building Your Editorial Calendar
• Keeping Them Coming Back for More: Your Communications Arcs
• Inviting Others to Dinner: Creating Content Paths for New Supporters
• Who’s Cooking Tonight? Staffing Your Content Strategy
• Equipping Your Kitchen: Tools That Make Content Marketing Easier

It also includes a worksheet that you can complete as you read through the chapters, so you can outline your content marketing plan as you go.

Just like our Nonprofit Annual Reports E-Book, this one will be $37.

If you pre-order a copy now, you’ll not only be the first to receive a copy, but you’ll save 33% too.

Pre-order now and the Nonprofit Content Marketing Cookbook is yours for just $25.

By the way, All-Access Pass Holders will get this new e-book for free, as part of the Pass (just like with all of our e-books).

This is a PDF e-book. When you pre-order, we’ll send you a link in mid-September to download the e-book before it is released to the public.

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.

I originally wrote this article as a guest post on the Nonprofit Technology Network’s blog, but just realized I hadn’t shared it with you, so here it is!

Your website is out there for all to see. You never know who’s going to end up visiting. So how can you create website content that all kinds of potential visitors will find interesting and engaging?

We could get into a traditional marketing discussion about target audiences and personas, but let’s go at this challenge in a different way. Let’s think about the stages that your supporters go through as you build rapport with them over time. To keep it simple, let’s group your website visitors into three categories:

Strangers: People who know nothing about you.
Friends: People who like your organization or cause.
Fans: People who LOVE your organization or cause.

What kind of content does your website need for each of these groups?

Strangers: People Who Know Nothing About You

If someone knows nothing about your organization and lands on your website, what’s the first thing you want them to see?

It’s not your mission statement. Trust me.

What you want them to see is the answer to their question.

If a stranger lands on your website, odds are they are searching for the answer to a specific question about something going on in their lives right now. Maybe it’s a problem they want to solve, or something they heard from a friend or saw on TV that piqued their interest. They went searching, and Google or another website with a link to yours pointed that stranger to you, thinking that you might have the answer.

What three questions are strangers who land on your site most likely to have? For some nonprofits, the answers are obvious. If you run an animal shelter, one question will be “What animals are available for adoption?” If you run a Meals on Wheels program, one question will be “How can a senior get food delivered?” If your organization addresses a particular disease, one question will be “What is the treatment?”

The best way to build rapport with strangers is not to babble on about yourself; it’s to be a good Samaritan who answers their questions. These questions are almost always programmatic in nature, and rarely about donating, volunteering, or otherwise helping you out.

Devote space on your home page and/or within your navigation to answering the three big questions most likely to bring strangers to your site. When you do, they are more likely to become friends, which brings us to our next group of visitors.

Friends: People Who Like Your Organization

Friends know you, at least a little bit. They may have an incomplete picture of you, but the one they do have is favorable. What do they want to see on your website?

No, it’s still not your mission statement.

Tell your friends some good stories.

Stories are the quickest and most memorable way to explain what it is you do, how you do it, for whom, and why. You want these friends to get it.

Tell stories about people like them, so they can see that they belong. If you are trying to get more young families to participate in your program, tell a story about (you guessed it) a young family already in your program.

Tell stories that appeal to their inner guardian angels. Show them how they – through being your friend — can look out for someone else or change someone’s life for the better, even if only in a small way.

Tell stories with a sense of adventure or wonderment. Appeal to that inner child that’s looking for a break from the day-to-day responsibilities of adulthood.

Help them learn more about what you do, but not through long statements of need or bulleted lists of programs and services. Images tell stories too – often better than words – so don’t forget photographs and video as you create your website content. Connect with your friends through good storytelling, and some of them will grow into big fans.

Fans: People Who Love Your Organization

Fans are people who know you well, and they love you. They are ready and willing to help – as long as you make it easy for them. What do they need from your website?

Anyone for the mission statement? Anyone? Of course not!

Give your fans clear calls to action so they know exactly what they can do to help or support you – which means not asking for them for “help” or “support.” That’s too vague. Be specific. Ask them to donate $50 towards a specific campaign. Ask them to volunteer for an hour. Ask them to retweet your event invitation to their followers.

Empower them to help you on their own time and in their own ways. Give them downloads and checklists they can use at home, work, or in their community to advance your cause in their own small way (it will feel big to them). Give them pass-along content like short videos and sample email text that they can share with their friends.

Give your fans the personal touch by encouraging them to connect with you in lots of different ways. When they mention you on Twitter, comment on a Facebook update, or reply to your email newsletter, respond with a thanks or some other kind of encouragement.

Integrate your real-time communications channels into your website, for example, by using Twitter or Facebook widgets or RSS feeds that bring the live conversation to your site. It reinforces for your website visitors that you are “here and now” with your fans if they can see that ongoing conversation.

You Never Know Who’ll Come Clicking

You never know who will stop by your website, so be prepared. Answer questions for strangers. Tell stories to friends. Make it easy for fans to interact with you.

And what about that good ol’ mission statement? If it’s a paragraph full of jargon or otherwise meaningless words to most website visitors, bury it on your About Us page. If it’s short, in plain English, and meaningful to your next door neighbor and your next door neighbor’s mom, then you can put it on your home page. But only after you’ve made room for those answers, stories, and interactions.

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Jubi Headley

I met Jubi Headley via my other website, Writing for Nonprofits. Jubi is direct, witty, and savvy — all qualities I admire in both writers and friends, so I’m happy to introduce him to you as both, and as today’s guest blogger.   ~Kivi

Guest Post by Jubi Headley, WriteNow Communications

Whether you call them clients, customers, consumers, or something entirely different, your organization will benefit if you, dear organizational leader/employee/volunteer, get out of your own way (as Mama loves to say) and let the constituency you serve tell your story for you.  No matter how well you write, no matter how much you know, nothing you as an individual who works for an organization can say will ever be as convincing to the outside world as a testimonial from someone who has benefitted from your product or service.

Case in point:  Recently I attended the open house of an organization run by a friend of mine – an organization that teaches young African-American and Latino youth how to use the Google Android platform to develop “apps,” as they’re called.  A young boy (I’d say he was 8 or nine years old) came up to me – he wanted to show me the app he’d developed.  He pulled out his smart phone (and yes, he actually had a smart phone) and proceeded to show me an app which lets you type in any number from zero to nine – what we think of as European numbers – and converts them to the Arabic equivalent. (I should mention that this young man is Muslim and as such chose to create an app that spoke to his own experience.)

Friends, I was flabbergasted – flabbergasted that an eight-year-old could be so technologically savvy, as well as create something that had such practical applications.  (Whether you’re a technological illiterate like myself, or you’re poised to launch the next Microsoft , Facebook or Google, you gotta be a little impressed by this kid.  Who in ten years will probably develop something that trumps what you’re working on anyhow.  Did I mention that after his “product demo” he asked for my business card?)

Two weeks later, I received an e-mail from this organization, asking for financial support.  The ask was modest – only $25.  I immediately (as in, within ten minutes of receiving the e-mail) gave $50.  I didn’t give simply because I was asked to give, or because I had the means to do so. I gave because I was so impressed by what I saw as the potential of this program, I was compelled to do more than the minimum.  I’m not rich, by any means, but I figured I could at least double the ask.

THAT, dear friends, is how you want your potential supporters to feel.

Though as a writer I am of course assured of the power of the written word, I am going to, at this time, commit a teeny blasphemy and suggest to you that the written word isn’t always the best way to communicate your clients’ experiences.  Hold an open house, like my friend did.  Take clients with you to meetings with media folks, funders, and community leaders.  If you have the resources, get them to tell their story on video and post it on your website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and anywhere else you can think of.  E-mail the video link to your prospective supporters.

Even when you do need to make use of the written word, you can STILL let your clients tell the story.  Be the editor, if it’s needed, not the writer.  Whether they write the piece themselves, or tell it to you for you to transcribe, tread lightly upon their words, I beseech you.  Chances are their authentic voice is what might move someone like me – a potential donor – to give to your cause.

Case in point #2:  I get many, MANY fundraising letters from organizational executive directors, presidents, and worker bees with such esteemed titles.  In the past year, let’s say that, estimating conservatively, I’ve received fifty.  Of those, ONE – exactly one – was from someone who herself was a client of the organization sending the letter.  Did I give to the organization?  No – at least, not yet.  BUT—of all the fundraising letters I’ve received this year, that’s the only one that hasn’t gone into the recycling bin.  I received it months ago and it’s still sitting on my kitchen counter.  I almost feel guilty throwing it away, so intimately did the letter communicate the organization’s need.

THAT, dear friends, is how you want your potential supporters to feel.

Jubi Headley is President of WriteNow Communications, and is also a freelance writer based in Houston, Texas.  You can e-mail Jubi at jubi@write-now.org.

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I flew up and back to DC yesterday, and both times, like always, I requested a window seat. You aisle seat people don’t know what you are missing.

Just about every time I fly during the day, when the weather cooperates and we are up in the blue looking down at the clouds, or the ground below, I’m able to get an entirely new perspective on something that’s been vexing me.

I just sit there and stare out the window, getting this completely fresh and other worldly perspective about the earth below, and about what’s happening in my own life when I’m down there. Sometimes it’s a work quandary and sometimes it’s personal (as was the case yesterday). But it’s almost always some kind of breakthrough.

So much of what I would call bad nonprofit writing is really good nonprofit writing in hiding, obscured by all the day to day chaos and worries and assumptions.  It needs a breakthrough.

If you don’t have an airplane ride in your future, how about . . .

Talking a long walk where you don’t talk to anyone else or listen to music — just your own brain.

Rewriting the article from someone else’s perspective or in someone else’s voice.

Asking yourself “so what?” over and over, until the answers take you to a fresher perspective on why you are writing in the first place.

Let me know what else works for you in the comments.

P.S. Our next webinar is Nonprofit Writing Stinks! Bring Your Writing Back to Life on August 9, 2011.

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The power of humor in nonprofit marketing is vastly under-rated. That’s why I was so happy when Kerri Karvetski agreed to present a webinar on the topic for us last week. (See one of Kerri’s favorite examples).

The recording of that webinar is available now for All-Access Pass holders ($145 for three months — including the archive and upcoming live webinars).

Here are three of my favorite tips from Kerri . . .

1. Start by Sharing Funny Stuff by Others

Coming up with your own humor is a lot harder than just sharing what makes you laugh. When you come across funny things that are related to your work in some way, share them on Facebook and Twitter and see what kind of reaction you get. It’s a quick, easy way to test the waters with your supporters.

2. Customize Funny Stuff by Others

Did you know that you can easily “rent” political cartoons and even have them customized for you? Kerri shared a great resource called CagleCartoons and she says their rates are very reasonable.

3. Don’t Use Your First Idea!

Brainstorming and riffing off of ideas from others until you get it right is really important in humor. Every comedy show on TV has a full staff of writers who do tons of brainstorming together and who are constantly tweaking ideas. So don’t run with your first idea, but give yourself time to play around with it, to get feedback from others, and to build it into something that really does grab people by the funny bone.

Kerri also shared a ton of great examples of how nonprofits are using humor in marketing, advocacy, and fundraising, so if you are interested in connecting with your supporters via a laugh, get the All-Access Pass and check out the recording.

Today’s Book Giveaway

Can humor play a role in your nonprofit marketing or fundraising? Why or why not?

Leave a comment below answering (especially the why or why not part), and you’ll be entered to win a free copy of  “Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals” edited by Darian Rodriguez Heyman. We’ll draw the winner middle of next week, so you have plenty of time to add your ideas.

I’m giving away a book each day this week, in celebration of the one year anniversary of my own book’s release, The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause(on sale for $23.29 at Amazon).

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.