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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, speaker, 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 to speak at your conference or workshop and to assist you 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.

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P.S. Please feel free to connect with me on these social networks: Nonprofit Marketing Guide Page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (Personal Profile).



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

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Feb 2, 2010 in Mixed Links

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.



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0

Mixed Links: Goodies for Nonprofit Communicators

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Nov 11, 2009 in Mixed Links, Nonprofit Blog Carnival

mixedlinksHere’s some great information — a tasty cocktail of mixed links — that I’ve saved to share with you . . .

Fundraising

I was one of 10 guest speaker’s in Gail Perry’s 2009 Year-End Fundraising Strategy Telesummit. It’s full of advice on what you can be doing right now to make sure that you raise as much money as possible in the next 8 weeks. While it’s focused on year-end giving, most of the advice will apply well beyond December. Well worth the $125 for the complete package of recordings and transcripts.

Gail is also doing a free webinar called Asking for Major Gifts: How to Never, Ever Get Turned Down this Friday, November 13.

End-of-year fundraising was also the topic for last month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival, hosted by Joanne Fritz at About.com. Joanne will be taking over management of the Carnival from me in January.

Idealware has published a nice case study on friend-to-friend fundraising, showing how pre-school staff raised money from friends online rather than hosting yet another fundraising event.

A new study proves that donors give more when they are asked in person, by a friend, for the gift.

Great Marketing Ideas You Should Steal

Nancy Schwartz has updated her already amazing advice on getting and using testimonials from your supporters in your marketing. This is really, really good stuff that every nonprofit should be doing. Read parts one and two.

The Sarasota Community Foundation is running a storytelling contest for local nonprofits.  I love this idea, because it emphasizes the importance of telling your story and gives nonprofits a little incentive to share ($500 cash prize). The foundation, and the nonprofit community as a whole, also get all kinds of wonderful stories to use when raising money and support in the coming year. I’m honored to be the contest judge!

Here are 50 online games for social change. Can you create a fun game that also teaches?

Odds and Ends . . .

If you work for an association (or are on the board of one) and you don’t know about AssociationJam, you are missing out.

Gayle Thorsen shares some great advice on making presentations based on the book, Own the Room.

Studio Orange Design, Subtle Technology and Tiffany Manning Photography will be donating a full year of design and marketing services to one nonprofit organization, located anywhere in the United States, valued up to $75,000. Apply here by January 15.

Nonprofit Marketing Training

Just this morning I opened registration for five new webinars/calls . . .  here is the Nonprofit Marketing Guide training schedule for the rest of the year:

November 12: Getting Media Attention for Your Good Cause

November 18: Quickie Annual Reports: Simple Ways to Share Results with Supporters

December 1: Procrastinator’s Special: Writing Your Year-End Appeal Letter

December 3: Writing for Social Media

December 8: Finding More Supporters Online

December 17: Writing Thank-You Notes That Inspire Future Gifts

Get access to all of these events with your All-Access Pass.

What do you want to see on the 2010 schedule? Take our quick survey now.



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Mixed Links: Good Stuff for Nonprofit Communicators

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Oct 14, 2009 in Mixed Links, Nonprofit Blog Carnival, Nonprofit Communications

Mixed Links on Nonprofit MarketingHere are several announcements and links that I think you’ll find helpful.

Fundraising . . .

For this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival, Nancy Schwartz shares the path to year-end communications and fundraising success.

Network for Good has published a free guide called “25 Steps to Fall and Holiday Fundraising Success.

America’s Giving Challenge is back on. In addition to the big prize, they are also awarding daily prizes, so rallying all of your supporters to give on one particular today could be fruitful. What counts is the number of donors, not the total amount raised. That means small gifts ($10 min) are just as meaningful as big gifts. It’s all being run through Facebook Causes this year, wrapping up November 6. Katya Andresen shares some great tips on doing it right.

Jeff Brooks, formerly of Donor Power Blog, is now blogging at Future Fundraising Now.  Jeff is one of my favorite bloggers and when he left one job for another, the old employer insisted on keeping ownership of what always appeared to be a personal blog, at least to me.  Weird. Anyway, change your blogrolls and your subscriptions to keep up with Jeff’s witty take on fundraising today.

Convio has ranked the most generous small and big cities, based on the $777 million dollars in online donations they processed in 2008.

Blogging . . .

Abny Santicola at Fundraising Success Magazine did a great job summarizing my webinar on nonprofit blogging.

Beth Kanter offers seven tips for measuring the success of your blog. I just signed up for PostRank’s Analytics package based on Beth’s recommendation.

Want to listen to some of the hot young voices in the nonprofit blogosphere? Check out the new Nonprofit Millennial Bloggers Alliance.

More on Social Media and Online Marketing . . .

Nedra Weinreich recently shared this link to a long list of social media policies on the Social Marketing listserv. If you are trying to create a social media policy for your organization, no need to start from scratch.

The Agitator is reviewing nonprofit online marketing strategies. Here is the review of Habitat for Humanity’s website, etc.

Upcoming Webinars & E-Clinics . . .

And finally, a quick reminder about our upcoming webinars and a special e-clinic on online fundraising:

October 15: On-the-Spot E-Newsletter Makeovers: Get Your E-Newsletter into Shape

October 28:  Focusing on Photos: From Cool Composition to Rock the Stock

October 29: Better Ways to Use Statistics in Your Nonprofit Marketing

November 4: Special E-Clinic: Online Fundraising Bootcamp (only 13 spaces left!)

November 12: Getting Media Attention for Your Good Cause

November 18: Quickie Annual Reports: Simple Ways to Share Results with Supporters

Webinars are $35 each or included with your All-Access Pass. The Online Fundraising E-Clinic is $75.



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1

Mixed Links: Good Stuff for Nonprofit Communicators

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Sep 21, 2009 in Mixed Links, Nonprofit Communications

Mixed Links for Nonprofit CommunicatorsThis is what I call Mixed Links – an occasional tasty cocktail of great links for nonprofit communicators.

Upcoming Webinars

September 29: Fear v. Hope: Using Emotions in Your Nonprofit Communications

Join me for this writing workshop via webinar, where we’ll explore how to make your writing more powerful by using emotions, both positive and negative.

October 8: Who’s Talking About You and What Are They Saying? Listening to Online Conversations

Learn how to listen to online conversations about your organization and the issues you care about using free and affordable tools. Great for market research, finding new supporters, developing your expertise and more.

The weekly webinar series schedule for the rest of the year is almost complete and I’ll be opening registration for webinars in October – December later this week.

Nonprofit Taglines

Nancy Schwartz of Getting Attention has culled down 1,700 nonprofit taglines to the 60 best of the year and now she needs you to vote on the very best. She asks you to rank them as good, better, and excellent. Take a minute after you go through the list to see if you can spot trends in your own rankings. I certainly did when I tried it. I seemed to like best the ones that either emphasized both the “how” and the “why” and those that were clever while still clear and meaningful.

Nonprofit Blog Carnival

Nancy is also hosting the next edition of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival and she wants to know what tops your to-do list for the last quarter of the year. Write a blog post about it and share it with Nancy by September 25, and maybe you’ll see yourself in the Carnival. Learn more about participating.

Facebook Fans

Missed today’s webinar on 10 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans? No worries. Get the All-Access Pass and you can watch the recording and download the handouts starting tomorrow (and of course, you can attend the next 12 weeks of webinars too!)

Here are my delicious bookmarks on the best articles about using Facebook.

Online Fundraising

Last week I presented “Your Best Email Campaign Ever: 4 Steps to a Winning Strategy This Fall” as a Nonprofit 911 teleseminar. You can now get my quick outline, a full transcript, and the mp3 recording.

The Case Foundation is providing all kinds of training and resources on using social media as part of their Gear Up for Giving campaign, in anticipation of another America’s Giving Challenge.

Jeff Brooks offers some thoughts on What the Web Changes About Fundraising.

Proof That Being Lazy Makes You Smarter

This article validates what many of us have known for years. Our most creative thinking comes when we are in the shower, sleeping, driving, and otherwise not actually working on work. Give your brain a break if you really want to reach a breakthrough.

Board Fundraising

Gail Perry is hosting a webinar tomorrow (Tuesday) called Create a Fundraising Action Plan for Your Board Members:  Put Them to Work Where You Need Them. I’ll be working with Gail on a series of end-of-year fundraising teleseminars from some of the nation’s leading fundraising experts. More on that soon.

Volunteering

VolunteerMatch now has a widget that you can put on your website, blog, etc. that will allow people to search for volunteer opportunities right from your site.

Some Food for Thought

Sasha Dichter asks, Too Much Nonprofit Marketing?

This Could Be Fun . . .

If your nonprofit were to appear in a sitcom, what would the storyline look like? Share with the Chronicle of Philanthropy in their latest contest.



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4

Nonprofit Blog Carnival, Other Cool Links for You, and a Question

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Aug 4, 2009 in Mixed Links, Nonprofit Blog Carnival, Nonprofit Communications

I need your advice on a question about this blog, which I’ve posted at the end, but first the good stuff . . .

Heather Carpenter at Nonprofit Leadership 601 has posted the current edition of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival on nonprofit leadership issues. Check it out for posts on how nonprofit organizations are dealing with change, turning around their organizations, and more. The next edition of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival will be hosted by A Small Change. If you are interested in having your blog posts included in the Carnival, join our contributors’ email list for reminders about deadlines, etc.

Here are some other links I recently found interesting, insightful or otherwise helpful. I think you’ll enjoy them too . . .

I Gave Your Organization $500 and All I Got Was This . . . (Sea Change Strategies)

Don’t Be Afraid to Tell It Like It Is (Big Duck)

First Step in Strategic Communications Planning: Communications Audit (IMPACTMAX)

Thought Leadership on the Social Web: Six Traits that Draw People to Your Ideas (Public Relations Society of America)

Six Online Fundraising Campaigns That Work (video from the Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Social Media Experts Don’t Understand Social Media (TippingPoint Labs)

You Probably Make These Email Deliverability Mistakes (Chief Marketer)

The Role of Email in Your Communications Mix (Idealware)

Making It Easier for Donors to Give Monthly (Chronicle of Philanthropy Chat Transcript)

And now this question I’m wrestling with. I receive many requests from various people, companies, and nonprofits to pass on information to you on this blog. I ignore most of them because they aren’t related in any way to nonprofit communications programs. But sometimes I get requests that do have a marketing angle. Here are two examples.

The CTK Foundation Philanthropic Fund is running a project called the Heart and Soul Grant Award Program. Nonprofits submit a 4-8 line poem that represents the “heart and soul” of their mission.  The winner will get $10,000 and have their poem put to song by Los Lonely Boys. GreatNonprofits is running Youth Thrive Awards. Youth-focused nonprofits with the most positive reviews in their category will be announced as winners and receive media coverage and promotion on GuideStar.

Do you want to hear about these types of contests and similar opportunities from me? I’ve leaned against posting most of them, but what matters most is what YOU want. Leave a comment on the blog and let me know if you want me to pass this kind of stuff on to you or not.



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Mixed Links: Can’t Miss Goodies for Nonprofit Communicators

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Jun 26, 2009 in Mixed Links, Nonprofit Communications

mixedlinksHere’s a tasty mix of links that I think you’ll find interesting or helpful as you build support for your good cause . . . Happy Friday!

The next edition of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival (founded by yours truly) is coming up and the theme is nonprofit technology. Here’s how to submit your blog post (deadline today!). I’ll send you the link when the Carnival is posted next week.

Have you voted on the topic for the free webinar I’m hosting on July 23? If not, please vote now. Registration will open on July 1. (Just opened registration for five new webinars yesterday with some great guest speakers – check them out!)

Nancy Schwartz has opened up nominations for the 2009 Tagline Awards. A strong tagline does double-duty, extending your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. Enter your tagline and Nancy will send you a free copy of the fully updated 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report later this year. It’s the only complete guide to building your org’s brand in 8 words or less — filled with how-tos, don’t-dos and models. You can now follow Nancy’s tagline award news on Twitter at @orgtaglines.

Katya Andresen provides a nice summary of the report written by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine on the lessons learned about fundraising through social media from the Giving Challenge that the Case Foundation sponsored with Parade Magazine last year. I’m adding the full report to my reading pile.

Katya has also had some great posts lately on how nonprofits can tell better stories. Check out this and this.

The Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100 is the first public ranking in the United States to value nonprofit organizations by more than financial standing alone. Which nonprofit brands top the list? YMCA, Salvation Army, and United Way are the top three.

New to the nonprofit tech world? Heather Carpenter has created a great all-in-one-place intro to the field (and challenged me to do the same for nonprofit marketing! I’m working on it.)

NTEN offers some tips for nonprofits on online communications that don’t suck.

Here’s how to add an email sign-up form to a Facebook page. Haven’t tried it yet, but sounds like a really good way to offer Facebook fans a more direct way to connect with you. Thanks to John Haydon for the tip. Speaking of Facebook, here are 4 reasons why Facebook might not be right for your organization from Jocelyn Harmon. Jocelyn is going to do a webinar for us in August on how to add personality to your marketing mix.

Enjoy your weekend!



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0

Nonprofit Blog Carnival & More Goodies You Don’t Want to Miss

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Jun 10, 2009 in Mixed Links, Nonprofit Blog Carnival

tikimixeddrinksHere’s a roundup of nonprofit marketing items you don’t want to miss, which I affectionately called my Mixed Links.

First, you’ll find this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival at the Nonprofit Congress Blog. The next edition will be hosted by Wild Apricot and they are seeking great blog posts on nonprofit technology. Deadline is June 26.

Next, check out the new Nonprofit Email Marketing Guide from Network for Good. It’s free, and I know it’s an easy read, because I wrote most of it! :)

Nancy Schwartz (Getting Attention), Danielle Brigida (National Wildlife Federation) and Felicia Carr (National Parks Conservation Association) answered questions on how to use online social networks to promote your cause during a Chronicle of Philanthropy chat. These weekly chats are usually really, really good. Join the Chronicle’s group on Facebook and you’ll get regular reminders about them.

Fundraiser extraordinaire Gail Perry has a new free e-book out: Seven New Rules for Fundraising in Changing Times

So you are checking your web analytics, right? But not sure what the heck to do with them? FutureNow offers you some action steps. This is written for a commercial site, but nonprofits can still learn from these suggestions.

In the Cool Tools Department, we have KnowEm, which lets you check the availability of a username on 120 popular social media sites. Once you set up your presence on a few sites, you’ll see the merits of using the same username.

Gayle Thorsen asks you to move beyond the PDF for information sharing and think more creatively about how to get all that good information you are sitting on out to people.

That should hold you for awhile! I’m off to the pool . . .



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Mixed Links: Good Stuff You Can’t Miss

Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Apr 3, 2009 in Mixed Links

tikimixeddrinksHere are some items I’ve bookmarked to share with you.

Shannon, a new director of communications at a nonprofit, has decided to blog the first 100 days of his new job, using “The First 100 Days in Your New Nonprofit Marketing Job” e-book I released in January as a guide.  Naturally, I think this is extremely cool and encourage others to do the same! I’ll add Shannon’s experiences and others I hear about to the e-book next time I revise it.

There’s new research on who leaves bequests to charity in their wills (this was especially interesting since we just did a webinar on starting a planned giving program). Bottom line according to this research: go after people without kids.

Web useability guru Jakob Nielsen has released some research showing how bad nonprofit websites negatively affect online donations. Donors said they wanted to know the organization’s mission, goals, objectives, and work and also how it uses donations and contributions. Nielsen also points out some “donation killers.”

Alison Fine has an interesting take on online fundraising, younger donors, and the implications for how you structure your fundraising campaigns in the future.

In the “know thy audience” department, check out this article on how people in their 20’s and 30’s hate voicemail. (I just turned 40 and I pretty much hate it too).

Convio is releasing the lastest edition of its annual Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index study.

Gordon Barnes runs a blog with communications and PR jobs in the DC area, many with nonprofits, associations, etc.

Finally, those crazy kids at Network for Good have a new video out called Fundraiser v. Donor — do you see your organization here?

You can see the original video that inspired “Katya and the Gang” to make this one on Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

It’s been a long but happy birthday week for me. Thanks to everyone who supported my fundraiser — only $40 needed! Have a great weekend!



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