This blog is all about do-it-yourself nonprofit communications and marketing. I love helping small and medium-sized nonprofits communicate more effectively with their members, donors, volunteers and other supporters, so that together, we can all make the world a better place. I do that as a blogger, trainer, coach and consultant.
I believe that even the smallest nonprofit staffs with the most modest budgets can achieve tremendous results through savvy marketing and communications. I hope this blog and my online marketing training and other resources encourage you to do just that, while helping you grow personally as a nonprofit marketer and communications professional.
If it didn’t, let’s look at the serious point behind this graph . . . Your website design should focus on your visitors. Making your logo bigger is usually not the best way to improve your visitor experience. Seen any websites with logos that are waaaay too big? Share by leaving a comment.
If it didn’t, let’s look at the serious point behind the graph . . . Do you let your board members have too much influence over certain decisions, even when you have better data at your finger tips? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
Writing is a really tough chore for a lot of nonprofit staff, which is one reason why I’m teaching a webinar called “Nonprofit Writing Stinks: How to Bring Your Writing Back to Life” on Wednesday of this week. I want to share some fairly easy tricks that I’ve learned over the years that will take some of the mystery out of good nonprofit copywriting.
As part of the webinar, I’ll poke fun at the buzzwords we use in the nonprofit sector. I’ve added a Nonprofit Buzzword Bingo game to Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com as a webinar bonus and you can play along too! I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to using the words in the game, so let it be a fun reminder for all of us, professional writers or not!
You can also add tech terms to the nonprofit buzzwords (select “Nonprofit and Tech Buzzwords” from the drop-down menu), creating an nptech version, and you can customize your cards by adding your own words and deleting others from the list. If you feel certain buzzwords are worthy of permanent listing in the game, feel free to leave a comment on this post and I’ll consider adding them.
Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on May 6, 2008 in Just for Fun
It’s been quite some time since I was tagged with a meme, and since this one is from Jeff Brooks, and he just did a webinar for me last week, I am compelled to cooperate.
Here is what I am supposed to do:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
Now, nothing is ever as easy as it seems in my life, or maybe I just prefer to break the rules more often than I should.
The closest book is “Inside Dreamweaver MX” which is three inches thick and therefore under my monitor to raise it to a more ergonomic level on my desk. It’s staying put, for which I’m sure you are eternally grateful.
The second closest book is a hot new marketing book I’m really interested in starting: “Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get It Back” by Rohit Bhargava. When I follow the directions above, I get to a passage about Kiva.org! This is great, because it’s about a nonprofit, but as much as I love Kiva, I’m sick of everyone (including me) using them as a great example of seemingly every nonprofit online marketing tactic out there, so I’m moving on to book #3.
It’s a reference book called “Metaphors Dictionary” and the listings on page 123 are about “Difficulties.” Here’s your passage:
“These questions are nuts beyond my ability to crack.” — Robert Louis Stevenson, Dedication letter, Kidnapped, 1886. This is a common metaphor, usually expressed as “a tough nut to crack.”
“Life is thick sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy but to pass quickly through them.” — Voltaire. Voltaire also referred to life as “a war.”
Now, whom to tag next? I’m going with five people who I’ve been following and enjoying on Twitter lately:
Is it possible to do all of your nonprofit marketing online and avoid printing costs entirely? Many nonprofits are dumping their boring print newsletters in favor of email versions, and some are forgoing the printed annual report in favor of a pdf download or basic web pages instead.
The extent to which you can eliminate your print budget depends on your audience and what you are trying to communicate. If the people you are trying to reach all check their email regularly or login to the same websites or check their RSS readers frequently, you might be able to pull it off. But for many nonprofits with audiences who are not tethered to the Internet, print will always be a necessity.
The best approach is to evaluate your options each time you decide you need to communicate with your audience. Don’t assume ahead of time — actually think it through. Is that message best delivered to them in print or online, or in some other way, like over the phone or in person? You have to match the audience, the message, and the delivery.
Of course, the printing industry will argue that print will never die. Check out this very clever video called Printing’s Alive (warning to sensitive ears: it contains bleeped cussing).
Watcha gonna do when the design police come for you?
If you fancy yourself a member of the Design Police, here’s a fun site where you can download your own template of red-ink messages to plaster all over bad graphic designs in your office or out in public. http://www.design-police.org/Â
Not a designer, but forced to do it anyway? This kit will give you a sense for what tees off the professional design world.
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Writing is a really tough chore for a lot of nonprofit staff, which is one reason why I’m teaching a webinar called “
