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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.
Please comment on posts and feel free to contact
me with your questions and comments. You can also learn more about hiring me as a coach or consultant.
Check out my calendar of events for upcoming webinars, live broadcasts of Magic Keys Radio, online office hours, and more.
P.S. Please feel free to connect with me on these social networks: Facebook, Nonprofit Marketing Guide Page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.
Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Feb 12, 2009 in
Messages and Tag Lines,
Nonprofit Communications 
Did you miss this month’s free webinar on how to write a nonprofit elevator pitch? No worries - the recording is now available online and it’s free with registration.
During the webinar, I reveal my five favorite formulas for nonprofit elevator pitches and apply them to real nonprofits who participated in the webinar live, including Working Dogs for Conservation, Community Support Services, Forward Community Investments, and RISE-Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators.
You’ll get access to the video recording (wmv), an audio-only mp3, and a pdf of the slides.
Check it out!
Tags: elevator pitch
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Jan 23, 2009 in
Messages and Tag Lines,
Nonprofit Communications 
Wake Forest University’s business school is holding its 10th Annual Elevator Competition soon. Teams of MBA students have to pitch their business plans to venture capitalist judges during a two-minute elevator ride. The finalists then get to make a 20-minute presentation on their business plans, with the winners getting cash and prizes.
I first mentioned this competition on my blog back in 2006 and I’m still waiting for a foundation to replicate this in the nonprofit world! Hint, hint, those of you with good connections at foundations that care about nonprofit marketing!
While we are waiting, it’s a good idea to get your elevator pitch in fine form. To help you do that, I’m hosting a free webinar on February 4, 2009.
During “How to Write a Great Nonprofit Elevator Pitch,” I’ll share a few different formulas for putting your little spiels together. Then we’ll create a few versions of a pitch for three different participants and everyone will get to vote on which versions they like best. You’ll get instructions on how to submit yours as one of the three examples after you register.
This webinar will be similar to the ones I host every week in the Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar series, so this is your chance to test-drive a webinar for free. You do need to register in advance, however.
FYI, here are a few tips I originally published here on the blog in 2006:
Don’t just repeat your mission statement. Mission statements are often “pie in the sky” or full of buzzwords that don’t actually say what you do.
Tell us what you do and who you do it for. Donors want to know how their support makes a difference on the ground.
Share a quantitative result. How many people did you help last year? How many acres did you save? Whatever it is you measure, throw in a stat about your accomplishments.
Provide some perspective. Put your work in context, in one sentence. Why is what you do so important? What’s the scale of the problem?
Spell out the opportunity. Complete this sentence: “With some additional resources, we could . . . “
Tags: elevator pitch, elevator speech
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Dec 1, 2008 in
Messages and Tag Lines,
Online Courses This Wednesday, Nancy Schwartz of GettingAttention.org and I will be helping several nonprofits revamp their taglines during our webinar, “Short and Sweet: Boiling Down Your Message So Everyone Gets It.” It’s on December 3, 2008 from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific). Join us and we may work on your tagline during the Q & A session!
During the first part of the webinar, Nancy will share some great lessons she learned from analyzing thousands of nonprofit taglines earlier this year. Then I’ll talk about other places where you have fewer than 10 words to get your message across, including e-newsletter subject lines and press release headlines.
With today’s shorter attention spans and smaller spaces for your communications (how many people are reading your group’s emails on a PDA or phone?), you need to learn how to get your message out there in words that are both brief and powerful.
Come learn how with Nancy and me on Wednesday. Registration is just $35 and includes everyone in your office who can fit around one computer screen. Get the details and register.
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We chant it together in my in-person nonprofit marketing trainings: “There is no such thing as the general public. There is no such thing as the general public.”
If you are spending time and money trying to reach the general public with your nonprofit’s message, you are wasting it. All of it. OK, maybe just 95% of it. But don’t you want to do better than 5% success?
I’ll show you how to define, research, and yes, target, the people who matter most to your organization’s success during this week’s webinar:
Forget the General Public! How to Define and Reach Your Target Audience
Thursday, October 23, 2008
1:00-2:00 pm Eastern (10:00-11:00 am Pacific)
$35 per connection (everyone squeezing around the speakerphone and computer monitor is fine with me)
I’ll walk you through several examples and give you plenty of tips and resources during the webinar, but if you can’t make it, here is a quick-and-dirty approach that’s far better than going for the “general public.”
Think about the change you are trying to bring about through your work. Then visualize someone taking an action that helps you bring about that change. What does that person in your mind’s eye look like? Where are they? Who are they with?
Now try to think about demographic characteristics that could help define who this person is, such as gender, age, ethnicity, income level, education, employment, hobbies, family status, religion, affiliations, and geographic location. Where would this person get information? How would she spend her free time? How would he spend his disposable income?
Now think about some of the values that would be important to this person. Values can include everything from time, money, sleep and convenience to adventure, power, status, fun, and more. Add those values to your demographic description.
Next, you need to match your message (what you are trying to communicate and the action you want someone to take) to those values. The way you describe volunteer opportunities to a 17-year-old girl will be quite different from how you describe them to a 65-year-old man. They are different demographically and they value different things. Your messages should be customized accordingly.
Learn more about how to make this work for your nonprofit during Thursday’s webinar. Register now to reserve your spot!
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Calling all of you wonderfully creative, zany, clever, and even snarky nonprofit communicators!
Now is your chance to put to work what you’ve learned from Nancy Schwartz’s Nonprofit Tagline Report on a real fundraising campaign. And you can go wild because it’s not something your boss has to approve. And there are prizes too — good ones — like free webinar passes and an All-Access Pass to Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com for the Grand Prize Winner.
On September 18, I told you how I’m raising money to buy condoms for the Positive Wellness Alliance (PWA) to give away for free to anyone who needs them, including teens who are too afraid to be seen buying them and folks who just don’t have the money to spare.
I’m a new board member for PWA, which helps people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS in rural North Carolina. (Did you know the rate of infection is dramatically increasing in the South while falling everywhere else in the U.S.?)
With your help, I’ve raised $220 of my $500 goal. You can help by donating $10 now.
Here’s the challenge: Come up with a good tagline for this fundraiser!
Now, because this fundraiser deals with topics that make some people uncomfortable (sex, and who’s having it with whom), I’m actually putting the tagline challenge entries on the ChipIn page. You’ve been warned — some of them are rather bold, to put it mildly! This is not for the faint of heart. If this is simply not your cup of tea, don’t click over.
If you are up for a little creative, good-natured fun for a great cause, however, enter the contest by emailing me your taglines at kivi@ecoscribe.com with TAGLINE in the subject line. If you don’t want me to post your real name on the ChipIn list of entries, tell me in the email that you want to be anonymous or give me a pen name to use instead.
This is a fundraiser after all, so you can greatly increase the odds that your tagline will win a prize by donating! $10 qualifies as an adequate incentive for me to give your tagline some special consideration! Prizes will be awarded in several categories yet to be named by me.
Let the tagline challenge begin!
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Sep 17, 2008 in
Magic Keys Radio,
Messages and Tag Lines 
Claire Meyerhoff and I are thrilled to have Nancy Schwartz of Getting Attention as our guest for the Magic Keys Radio Show and Podcast this Friday because she has just released her new Nonprofit Tagline Report. We air live from 1:00 - 1:30 p.m. Eastern (10:00 - 10:30 a.m. Pacific) on Fridays on Blog Talk Radio.
You listen via the ‘net and you can call in your questions live by dialing (347) 996-3142. The recording will be available as a podcast immediately after the live show ends.
Nancy’s report is a definite must-read. During her stop by Magic Keys Radio, Nancy will share her how-tos for successful nonprofit taglines as well as her deadly sins. In this rapid-fire world where you only have seconds to grab someone’s attention, we all need to know how to boil down our messages into just a few words, which is what taglines do.
Don’t miss our interview with Nancy! When you visit our BTR page, you can even set a reminder for yourself so you don’t miss the show. Do it now while you are thinking about it.
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Jul 17, 2008 in
Messages and Tag Lines Nancy Schwartz has just released the list of winners of the 2008 Nonprofit Tagline Award Competition. Watch for her full report on nonprofit taglines, coming in September.
2008 Award Winners
Arts & Culture: Where Actors Find Their Space -NYC Theatre Spaces
This clearinghouse for NYC rehearsal and performance spaces uses a double entendre to go beyond a description of its services and highlight the value of its work.
Civic Benefit: Stand Up for a Child -CASA of Southwest Missouri
CASA’s tagline provokes anger, compassion and a desire to help, in just five words.
Education: Stay Close…Go Far. -East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
This simple yet distinctive tagline from East Stroudsburg cuts through the clutter. Its straightforward character mirrors that of the school.
Environment & Animals: Helping Preserve the Places You Cherish -LandChoices
LandChoices’ tagline thoroughly communicates the value of its work while evoking one’s most precious memories of walks in the woods, wildflower meadows and childhood camping trips. There’s a real emotional connection here.
Grantmaking: Make the most of your giving. -The Greater Cincinnati Foundation
This clear tagline articulates the value of the foundation for donors considering an alternative way to give.
Health & Sciences: Improving Life, One Breath at a Time -American Lung Association
This unexpected focus on the breath-a core element of life-gets attention, and understanding.
Human Services: When You Can’t Do It Alone -Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Sarasota-Manatee, Inc.
This tagline tells the story succinctly and powerfully: It’s all about getting help when life becomes overwhelming. It makes a strong emotional connection.
International, Foreign Affairs & National Security: Whatever it takes to save a child -U.S. Fund for UNICEF
UNICEF engages hearts and minds with its passionate focus on helping children. Who could turn down a request for a donation?
Jobs & Workforce Development: All Building Starts With a Foundation -Building Future Builders
Voters enjoyed the word play here: It adds depth of understanding without being glib.
Religion & Spiritual Development: Grounded in tradition…Open to the Spirit -Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS)
MTS conveys the two equally important halves of its values and curriculum in a way that makes you think about the connection.
Other
• The Art of Active Aging -EngAGE
EngAGE surprises with the imagery of active aging and the use of the term “art” to describe the way it does its work.
• Because facts matter. -Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP)
This tagline introduces the nature of OCPP’s impact in Oregon and entices the reader or listener to find out more. Its value proposition-the truth-is particularly compelling at a time when facts are frequently disregarded in public debate.
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During last week’s webinar on “How to Write a Quick and Dirty Marketing Strategy” (recording now available on-demand for $20), I worked through the three most important questions with three volunteers, while all of the other participants chatted in their suggestions too.
Those three questions are
1) What you you trying to do — specifically, what are trying to get someone else to do?
2) Why should they care?
3) What’s the best way to reach them?
Cindy at the Los Angeles Conservancy wanted to reach everyone in Los Angeles with the historic preservation message. After I pointed out how unrealistic that was (which was a big relief to Cindy), we worked on narrowing down her audience and figuring out why they might care about what she had to say. We talked specifically about low-to-middle-income, Latino homeowners.
Webinar participants suggested several good answers to question #2 — why these homeowners should care about historic preservation. Suggestions included protecting their investment, since their home is likely their single largest asset; increasing the value of their homes through restoration; and improving the way their neighborhoods look for their families. Going through local churches and using radio were two suggestions for the best ways to reach them.
In less than 10 minutes, Cindy went from trying to do way too much and thus probably accomplishing very little to narrowing in on a specific group of people to talk with, crafting her message in a way that’s meaningful to that group, and finding proven ways to deliver those messages to that community.
When you are going the quick-and-dirty route, it’s really that simple. Of course, when you have more than 10 minutes, you can go through a more thoughtful process. I started the webinar by outlining what I consider a full-blown marketing strategy and then explaining how you cut that back to get to the quick and dirty version.
During the webinar, we also worked on how the Watershed Agricultural Council could encourage donations to its new endowment fund and how Hearts Adaptive Riding Program could recruit more young adult volunteers and more senior volunteers — and the different communications tactics that could work with each of those two groups.
If you missed the live webinar, you can still get all of my tips and see how they were applied to these real-world cases by watching the recording on-demand. Registration is $20 for two weeks of access to the recording. Or you can get the All-Access Pass for $97 and get 12 weeks of access to this and a dozen other recordings, plus all of the live webinars coming up for this rest of the summer.
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)
Who is Your Nonprofit’s Target Audience?
