The apology that Susan G. Komen for the Cure issued on Friday was the first step. The obligatory resignations are next. But if Komen is going to repair the damage done by its behavior last week, they have quite a few more steps in the process.

“What should Komen do next?” That’s the question many of you have asked me, and it was certainly the top question asked of me in my role as nonprofit marketing pundit last week.

Here’s what I think they need to do next:

Diversify the staff and board

The decision to defund Planned Parenthood ended up being extremely political — the topic itself is highly politically charged, not to mention the actual individuals involved. Even though Komen has apologized, supporters have little reason to trust that the current leadership team won’t make another political decision down the road, whether it involves Planned Parenthood or not (stem cell research, anyone?).

One way to help rebuild that trust, and to keep the promise about keeping politics out of it, is to openly and publicly diversify the board and senior staff so that politically progressive voices are represented, and supporters see those right-leaning and left-leaning people working together to find a cure. Except for a few leaks here and there, the Komen board has been conspicuously silent. Adding a well-known progressive (or two, or three) with some name recognition to the board (the real board, not all those advisory boards), would be a smart move.

Same goes for senior staff. This has largely been the Nancy Brinker Show, and I don’t think people are particularly fond of it right now. Might be time to switch up some of the voices, and maybe people will tune back in.

Listen to the substance of the backlash and “change your evil ways”

This isn’t Komen’s first brouhaha. If you look at all those social media comments (and Komen should be paying someone to read and categorize it all), you will see that was simply the last straw for a lot of people. They are tired of Komen bullying smaller charities and making every consumer product available pink (the pink handgun deal wasn’t sanctioned, apparently, but the fact that everyone believed it could be tells you all you need to know).

This ended up being about much more than just Planned Parenthood. And going back to the “old” Komen isn’t an option. So why not really learn from the substance of the backlash, and use it to create the “new” Komen — one that demonstrates that it can really listen to and learn from its supporters? That’s what good marketers do — they listen to supporters and critics alike, and bringing that knowledge back into the organization to make the services it provides even more valuable.

Learn how to use social media, especially Twitter

Whoever is managing the official @komenforthecure Twitter account doesn’t really get it. They keep doing these run-on tweets where they take a longer statement and break into a bunch of tweets that they send out all at once. If you read some of them independently, they don’t really make sense. Tweets need to stand on their own.

The majority of Komen’s tweets over the last week have been versions of the above, or @replies with corrections of what others are saying (No, we didn’t endorse the handgun. No, she doesn’t make that much.)  It’s a very old-school PR approach to Twitter, and it doesn’t really work. Get conversational, Komen! And make a clear point in 140 characters without requiring surrounding tweets to be read.

One of my biggest criticisms of Komen at the height of the controversy was their complete silence on social media for almost 24 hours (longer on Twitter), followed by official statements only. Even if they had simply posted something like, “We are listening. We hear you. We are talking internally about our next steps, and will get back to you soon” it would have been infinitely better than the nothing, followed by official-speak, that we got.

Twitter and Facebook aren’t just fun and games anymore. I think that should be pretty obvious given what happened the past week. We all need to know how to use social media in various situations, including a crisis.

What else should Komen do?

What else should Komen be doing now, especially on the marketing/communications side, to rebuild trust with supporters?

Would love to hear your comments!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

(Updates to this post can be found at the bottom.)

Yesterday afternoon, and continuing into today, I believe we are witnessing the accidental rebranding of what is surely one of America’s biggest and most well-known, and even well-loved, nonprofit brands.

Komen for the Cure, it seems, is no longer a breast cancer charity, but a pro-life breast cancer charity.

Let me stop right here and say this post is not about abortion per se, one way or the other, other than the fact that it is the single most divisive issue in American politics today. My personal beliefs are very clear and public. But how you feel about abortion is really irrelevant to this communications debacle unfolding before us.

This post is about what happens when a leading nonprofit jumps into a highly controversial area of public debate without a communications strategy, stays silent, and therefore lets others take over the public dialogue, perhaps permanently redefining the organization and its brand. Watch and learn, so you don’t make the same mistake on whatever hot button issues your organization might be wading into.

Here’s what happened yesterday afternoon:

The AP reported that Komen for the Cure has decided to halt grants to Planned Parenthood that were used for breast cancer screening for low-income women. According to the reports, this decision was made in December and communicated to Planned Parenthood, which urged Komen to reconsider. Komen, citing a new policy that prevents grants to organizations under investigation, said because Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-FL, is investigating whether government money was improperly spent on abortions, the  decision to pull the funding was final.

The AP story broke yesterday, and within hours, Planned Parenthood sent a fundraising email out to its network, asking supporters to replace the money that Komen had pulled for breast cancer screenings for low-income women.

Within minutes, both Facebook and Twitter were swamped with pro-Planned Parenthood, anti-Komen comments.  At one point last night, I did a quick count and found the ratio of anti-Komen’s decision to pro-Komen’s decision to be about 80 to 1 on Twitter.

Some typical anti-Komen tweets:

Some typical pro-Komen tweets:

Adding another twist to the story, it seems that Karen Handel, Komen’s senior vice president for public policy, who was hired in April 2011, is a pro-life advocate who, when running for the Republican nomination for governor in Georgia, made her opposition to Planned Parenthood quite clear.

Now let’s look at Komen’s response . . .  which is no response (until about 90 minutes ago). As one person on Twitter put it, just crickets.

Komen didn’t post on its Twitter or Facebook feeds last night, or first thing this morning. The only Komen action on their Facebook page had been to delete anti-Komen comments, so the ratio of negative to positive looks more like 10 – 1 instead of the 80 – 1 (and even higher this morning) on Twitter.

Komen’s most recent tweet was about prostate cancer in a mummy.

On Facebook, the most recent update was about a new sponsor, Energizer.

Take a quick look at the wall posts on Energizer’s page, and I suspect Komen has one unhappy sponsor right now (how unfortunate for Energizer to be the last update on the Komen page — it would have happened to any company in that position when the news broke):

Then around 10 am Eastern today, Komen finally updated its Facebook page. As of this moment (11:30 am ET), still no update on Twitter:

So What the Heck is Going on Here?

Let’s give Komen the benefit of the doubt and assume that they made this decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood very thoughtfully and deliberately. In that case, they would surely have realized that the likelihood of the story going public was high. They may not have counted on Planned Parenthood being so aggressive in turning the Komen decision into a fundraising campaign, but even without that, it’s still a big news story because of how high-profile Planned Parenthood funding of any kind is right now. And that’s all about abortion, which is about as divisive an issue as you can get in American politics right now.

The “Try to Rise Above It and Pretend This Decision Isn’t about the Most Divisive Social Issue in America” Strategy

Yet it appears that Komen wants to desperately pretend that this decision is being made in some completely different context. By not responding at all to the overwhelming negativity being thrown their way, and continuing to pretend that this has nothing to do with a red-hot social issue, they are alienating a big part of their constituency.

It seems like they are hoping this will just blow over. It won’t. This isn’t Komen’s first branding debacle: See the Kentucky Fried Chicken incident and suing smaller charities for using “for the cure” but I’d say it’s the biggest one yet.

What Should Komen Do Next?

Earlier this month, I urged nonprofits to decide how they are different, to embrace that, and forget the rest. Previously Komen stood out as a tremendous organizer and mobilizer of women across the political spectrum who would raise money like crazy for them. They kept it nice and simple, and non-controversial. Wear that pink ribbon and raise money to fight breast cancer.   The abortion debate was nowhere in sight. It was all about the breasts, and not about the uterus. And I think that’s one thing that made them different — Komen was an organization that dealt with women’s health issues without getting caught up in the abortion debate, like most women’s organizations end up doing.

No more. They took a deep dive into the hot swirling waters head first (but apparently eyes shut). No matter what they do from here on out, they will be forced to pick sides, and that’s just awful for the Komen brand.

If they stick by their decision, they will endear themselves to pro-life women, and lose the pro-choice. If they give in to the pressure and petitions, they will win back the pro-choice women, but anger the pro-life. It’s a no-win situation that could have been avoided had they developed a communications strategy on this decision at the start. Sure, they would have still angered many of their supporters, but I believe they could have avoided this huge rift had they communicated upfront, and honestly, about the decision. They should have released it, instead of letting Planned Parenthood own the messaging.

The Branding Challenge, Part II

Now that they are full on into the abortion debate, Komen (I think) must now come out and say whether they think abortion causes breast cancer. If you look through the comment stream now, that particular question is what pro-life and pro-choice commenters are arguing with each other about. And as an organization with a mission to prevent breast cancer, I think it’s reasonable for supporters to expect Komen to make a statement about various theories on what causes it, including this one.

Let’s see how they handle that question, and whether they use it as a second chance to mend their brand, or if they fall deeper into the non-communicative abyss.

Can Komen Heal the Rift?

Regardless of how you feel about abortion, what do you think Komen could do to bring pro-choice and pro-life women back together to fight breast cancer hand in hand?

Or do you think this will all blow over with little long-term affect on Komen?

Share your ideas, and your thoughts on these communications questions in the comments.

UPDATE at 5:30 pm Eastern, 2/1/2012:

I’m quoted in this Politico story on the Komen mess.  As the day went on, and Komen continued to say nothing, I got even more annoyed with how awful they are handling all this. They still haven’t tweeted anything (and that stupid mummy prostate tweet is what people see when they check their profile). So my criticism got a bit harsher . . .   ~Kivi

UPDATE at 6:30 pm Eastern, 2/1/2012

Check out this analysis of the social media commentary by PoliPulse:

UPDATE at 9:00 am Eastern, 2/2/2012

Last night around 10 pm, after declining interviews with network news and major newspapers, Komen finally started tweeting and released this video response:

Contrast this response to what Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards did: interviews with all the major networks and this MSNBC interview:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This morning, Beth Kanter published a post including a description of my process for creating this post (if you are interested in how content gets developed and the concept of newsjacking).

UPDATE at 5:30 pm Eastern, 2/2/2012

Nancy Brinker, founder of Komen, is interviewed by Andrea Mitchell.  Do you think it helped or hurt?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE at 8:00 am Eastern, 2/3/12

Komen board member speaks to the New York Times in Outcry Grows Fiercer After Funding Cut by Cancer Group. He says this really was specifically about Planned Parenthood and not overall “grant excellence” as Brinker has claimed. The article states, “John D. Raffaelli said Komen had become increasingly worried that an investigation of Planned Parenthood by Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, would damage Komen’s credibility with donors.”

UPDATE at 1:23 pm Eastern, 2/3/12

Komen releases an apology and states they have amended their policy that the investigation must be “criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”

Planned Parenthood’s response to the policy reversal.

Do you think this changes anything or is the damage done to the Komen brand irreversible?

UPDATE at 9:15 pm Eastern, 2/6/2012

THANK YOU everyone for such a lively conversation in the comments! But since the majority of new comments on this post are about religious arguments instead of nonprofit communications and management, I am closing comments. I will blog more about the Komen communications issues later this week and invite you to comment on that post.

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Nancy Schwartz asked, “What are your dreams for nonprofits?”

My dream for your nonprofit is that you decide what you are really all about — what makes you different — and that you be that organization, and forget the rest.

Consider this excerpt from Peter Bregman’s  book, 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, which I blogged about earlier this week. The inline editing is mine:

“In any highly competitive field—and these days every field is highly competitive—being different is the only way to win. Nobody wants to sell a commodity, and nobody wants to be a commodity. Yet even though we all know that, most of us spend a tremendous amount of effort trying not to be different.

We model ourselves and our businesses nonprofits after other successful people and businesses nonprofits spending considerable money and energy discovering and replicating best practices, looking for that one recipe for success. Here’s the thing: If you look like other people, and if your business nonprofit looks like other businesses nonprofits, then all you’ve done is increase your pool of competition.

Face it: You’re different. And the sooner you appreciate it, the sooner you embrace and assert it, the more successful you’ll be. The same goes for your business nonprofit.”

Yes, I share a lot of “better” practices with you at Nonprofit Marketing Guide. But I don’t do that so you can try to make your nonprofit look like someone else’s. I do that to get you going in the right direction when you are totally directionless, and when you do know where you are going, to inspire you to think more creatively about what you do along that path.

But everything you learn here is ultimately useless if your organization isn’t any different from those around you.

Let me give you two examples of nonprofits with fairly plain Jane missions that could have done things the same old way. But they choose to be different, to own those differences, and to be wildly successful as a result of being different.

What’s Different about Charity: Water

Wanting poor people to have access to clean water isn’t new or different. Organizations have been working on it forever. But what’s different about Charity: Water is how they have focused on connecting donations to a specific well, showing that well under construction, and showing the actual human beings who benefit from that well.

Here’s what founder Scott Harrison advises other nonprofits to do:

“Simplicity is key. Be able to tell your story simply. I can’t tell you how many nonprofits I meet and after three minutes talking to them, I still have no idea what they do. Show. Don’t tell. And do it visually. Use the Web to tell people where their money has gone and let them see what it has done.”

Charity: Water uses the technology available today to broadcast real images and stories, often in real-time, creating a direct connection between supporters and the people around the world drilling the wells and drinking from them. It’s the showing that is so different. Like Scott said, it’s so simple, and yet so brilliant, because no one else did it this way before.  It’s different, and that’s why they are raising a ton of new money for what’s really an old cause.

What’s Different about PETA

Lots of organizations want to protect animals, and are passionate about it. Nothing particularly new or different about that. But everyone knows PETA, right? You may love them, you may hate them, but when you say “animal rights activists,”  most people think PETA.

How did they do that? By being different, and specifically by using sex and celebrity like no other nonprofit I can think of in order to make headlines, gaining millions of dollars worth of publicity.

Sure, they get complaints about nudity. But they explain clearly and convincingly why it works for them, and why controversial tactics are part of who they are. They know what makes them different, they own it like no one else, and they put it to work. They do mainstream “family friendly” stuff too, but they don’t shy away from what makes them different, even if it bothers some people.

Tactical Decisions Can Help You Find Your Voice

Not ready to deal with your overall “brand” or “personality” as an organization? Sometimes it’s easier to let your tactical decisions get you there. Charity: Water wanted to use online tools to show people the impact they have, and the personality of the organization grew from there. Same thing with PETA. It didn’t start with naked celebrities; it started with the need to make headlines in major newspapers.

Be willing to experiment and play with your own communications tactics and you might find yourself stumbling upon what really makes you special.

How Are You Different?

What’s different about your nonprofit? How do you stand out? Share your thoughts here, and make my dream come true!

P.S. Here’s what’s coming up next in the Webinar Series . . .

Jan 26: Nonprofit Writing Stinks! How to Bring Your Writing Back to Life

Feb 8: Help! My Logo Sucks! (featuring Julia Reich)

Feb 16: Helping Your Staff and Board Become Great Nonprofit Marketers

Feb 23: Building Your Credibility as an Expert

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.

As I’ve said before, presidential campaigns are great for nonprofit marketers and fundraisers because they give us a sneak peek into how we’ll be engaging our supporters and motivating them to volunteer and donate in the years to come. The current edition of Newsweek has a very interesting description of what the Obama campaign is cooking up, including these especially noteworthy observations.

It’s All About Hyper-personalization and Targeting

If you don’t have some kind of system in place to keep track of what your individual supporters care about, this is the year to figure that out. You are going to want that information. Look at what the Obama campaign is doing (I added the bold):

“The campaign can do a much better job of “treating people like people,” according to Michael Slaby, Obama’s chief integration and innovation officer—provided it harvests the right data. Don’t ask a disenchanted Ohioan for money; woo him first. Don’t reach out to a supporter who donates $5 during the State of the Union the same way you’d reach out to a supporter who donates $5 during a Republican debate; they respond to different incentives. To figure out who each of us is, and what each of us wants, Slaby and his team are constructing a “microlistening” and computer modeling program that will comb online and off-line behavior patterns for voter information, then use it to personalize every interaction we have with the campaign: fundraising, volunteering, persuasion, mobilization.”

“In 2012 the Obama campaign won’t send its backers a video and say, “Share this with everyone you know”; it will say, “Share this with your four Facebook friends in Pennsylvania’s crucial Lehigh Valley swing district who are worried about the president’s tax policies.”

Need help with this? Start with Idealware’s constituent management recommendations and case studies.

Go Where Your Supporters Already Are

Rather than investing in creating its own social network, the campaign is going where everyone already is — Facebook — and leveraging all it offers for their own purposes.

“In 2008, the campaign encouraged supporters to create profiles on a social networking site called MyBarackObama.com. But while MyBO was advanced for the times, it was also weirdly detached from the actual field structure—and from Facebook, which has since become the world’s default social network. So for 2012 Slaby decided to ditch the site and start from scratch. “We’re not building a social network,” one insider told me. “You don’t need to create an account. You don’t need to upload a photo.” Instead, by logging in with their Facebook ID, volunteers get immediate access to “any tool that you can get in a field office.”

Need help with this? We are offering our “Social Media Starter Kit: Facebook for Nonprofits” webinar next Thursday, January 19 for All-Access Pass Holders. CharityHowTo also offers good Facebook training.

Make It Work in Mobile

You can’t ignore it . . . people are looking at your website and reading your email on something that’s often smaller than a business card.

“Last November, the campaign redesigned its website so that it would look and work the same on every platform: PC, mobile, tablet. The motivation wasn’t merely aesthetic; a site that renders properly on a smartphone makes it easier for volunteers to register new voters and call undecideds on the go, and that kind of efficiency translates into extra votes.”

Need help with this? Stay tuned! I’m excited that Tonia and Susan from TheMGen will be joining us this spring with blog posts, a free webinar, and an e-book on mobile.  Also check out Google’s How to Go Mobile initiative.

It may be many years off before your nonprofit reaches the level of sophistication described here, but it will get there eventually. Start doing what you can now, by understanding what’s happening and taking baby steps in those directions.

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.

Every good report these days must have an infographic, so here’s ours for the 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report! Feel free to repost and otherwise share far and wide.  Nearly 1,300 nonprofits participated in the survey for the report.

We’ve also made separate graphics for each of the five chunks of data below, if you are interested in only a portion of this full graphic.

How Nonprofit Marketers Plan for 2012

The Big Six Most Important Communications Channels for Nonprofits

How Often Nonprofits Will Email and Direct Mail Their Supporters

The Importance of Social Media to Nonprofits

What Nonprofits Find Exciting and Scary about 2012

You can find all the report graphics here.

Thanks to Julia Reich Design for producing the infographics for us!

P.S. Join us this Thursday for a free webinar: Ten Nonprofit Marketing Changes to Make in 2012.

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.

What are your biggest nonprofit content marketing challenges?

Marketing Profs and the Content Marketing Institute recently released a survey of business-to-business communicators, and found that producing the kind of content that engages prospects/customers was the top challenge, followed by producing enough content, and having a budget to produce content.

I’d love to know what you think is hard about content marketing in the nonprofit world, so I created a quick poll:

(Don’t see the poll? Click here)

I’ll share the results soon, and use them when I produce the next edition of The Nonprofit Content Marketing Cookbook: Your Guide to Creating and Curating Content that Educates, Motivates, and Inspires.

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’ll be sharing nonprofit marketing trends for 2012 next week when we release the 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends report to those who have requested it, but what about those really big marketing trends that are going to influence our work for years to come?

I’ve identified three of them in this short (10 slide) presentation for you (I sent this to the subscribers of our Weekly Tips e-newsletter last week).  To help you understand these trends, and take advantage of them, I recommend three fast-read books. They’ll make great gifts for your nonprofit marketing and fundraising friends — or yourself!

• Register to Receive a Copy of the 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report (releasing to the mailing list next week)
• Register for the Free Webinar on January 5: Ten Changes to Make in 2012 (about 150 people registered so far)
• Get We Are All Weird by Seth Godin (Amazon link)
• Get Little Bets by Peter Sims (Amazon link)
• Get Newsjacking by David Meerman Scott (Amazon link)

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.

Later this afternoon, I’ll be sending an email to everyone who has registered so far for Wednesday’s free webinar on How to Write a Quick and Dirty Nonprofit Marketing Plan, looking for three volunteers. During the webinar, I’ll walk those three people through the creation of their plans on the spot.

Register now if you want to get that email invitation to volunteer, and a shot at being selected as one of the three featured organizations.

During the webinar, on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 (1:00 p.m. Eastern, 10:00 a.m. Pacific), you’ll

• Learn the three essential questions that every marketing plan — no matter how short — must answer.
• See how the questions can be applied to three very different situations.
• Listen as I create a quick and dirty strategy on the spot for those three volunteers.
• Understand when “quick and dirty” isn’t enough and when you really do need to embark on a more intensive planning process.

The lessons you will learn on this webinar can be applied to creating a marketing strategy for your nonprofit organization as a whole or for one specific campaign or program.

I’m really looking forward to this webinar, not just because I like quick-and-dirty marketing planning, but because I’m raising funds to fight HIV disease in the rural part of NC where I live, and I can’t wait to say thank you to everyone who has given!

I am requesting a $10 donation to Positive Wellness Alliance to attend this webinar, with a goal of raising $1,200. But, if you prefer, you can register for free.

Last year, the Nonprofit Marketing Guide community raised almost $1,200 to fight HIV disease during a single webinar, and we are on track to meet that goal this time too. As of this very moment, we’ve raised $830!

Whether you donate or register for free, you are welcome to join us!

But REGISTER NOW if you want to throw your name in the hat as a volunteer.

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.

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.

Spending time and money trying to market your nonprofit or its programs without a strategy in place is a big waste of both precious resources.

Yesterday I taught the Total Focus Nonprofit Marketing Plan Workshop with Nancy Schwartz in NYC. But I realize that many of you simply don’t have the time for a full-day workshop, let alone weeks or months to dwell on the finer points of an in-depth, well-researched strategy.

That’s why I’m hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 (1:00 p.m. Eastern, 10:00 a.m. Pacific) where you’ll learn how to create a “quick and dirty” marketing strategy. You will

• Learn the three essential questions that every marketing plan — no matter how short — must answer.
• See how the questions can be applied to three very different situations.
• Listen as I create a quick and dirty strategy on the spot for participants on the webinar.
• Understand when “quick and dirty” isn’t enough and when you really do need to embark on a more intensive planning process.

The lessons you will learn on this webinar can be applied to creating a marketing strategy for your nonprofit organization as a whole or for one specific campaign or program.

If you don’t have a marketing plan for 2012, you need one. Attending this webinar can be your first step.

Even if you only spend a couple of hours drafting your strategy, you’ll greatly increase the likelihood that your efforts will work. Stop letting a random to-do list drive your decision making and start focusing on a strategy that works. Register Now.

I am requesting a $10 donation to Positive Wellness Alliance to attend this webinar, with a goal of raising $1,200. But, if you prefer, you can register for free.

Once a year, I host a free webinar where we collect a $10 free-will donation for Positive Wellness Alliance (PWA), an organization that helps low-income people with HIV/AIDS in the rural part of North Carolina where I live.

Last year, the Nonprofit Marketing Guide community raised almost $1,200 to fight HIV disease during a single webinar!

[11/4 Update: We've raised $420 so far . . .  thank you!]

I serve on PWA’s board, and pass 100% of the donations made via the webinar on to PWA (I cover the processing fees). Julie Meyer, the executive director of PWA, will join us live on the webinar. However, if you want to register for free, you can do so by filling out the “register without donating” web form in the registration process.

I hope you’ll join us on November 16!

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.