Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

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If you’ve been waiting for me to make the recordings from the Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar series available, wait no more. The following titles are now all available when you purchase an All-Access Pass.

For $97, you’ll get to view all of these webinars and any I add in the next twelve weeks. You also get to attend any and all live webinars I host for the next twelve weeks, at no additional charge.

Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories
Recorded May 14, 2008.

How to Connect with Generation Y
Recorded May 7, 2008. Featuring Sam Davidson.

What Do Baby Boomer Donors Want from Your Nonprofit?
Recorded May 1, 2008. Featuring Jeff Brooks.

Online Writing: Dos and Don’ts of Writing for the Web and Email
Recorded April 24, 2008.

How to Write a Press Release Reporters Will Love
Recorded April 17, 2008. Featuring Claire Meyerhoff.

Branding for Nonprofits: What Is It and Should You Do It?
Recorded April 10, 2008. Audio only, featuring Nancy Schwartz.

Converting Your Print Newsletter into an Email Newsletter
Recorded March 20, 2008.

How to Write a Four-Page Nonprofit Annual Report
Recorded March 13, 2008.

Can We Find You on Google? Keywords and Search Engine Optimization for Nonprofits
Featuring David Westbrook. Recorded March 6, 2008.

How to Make Your Nonprofit Brochures Pop! - The Crash Course
Recorded February 27, 2008.

What Should We Write About? Storytelling Ideas for Nonprofits
Recorded February 13, 2008.

Getting Reporters to Cover Your Nonprofit: Tell Your Story So They’ll Tell It Too
Recorded February 6, 2008. Audio only, featuring Claire Meyerhoff.

Yes, it’s a ton of great training at a very reasonable price. Ready to get your pass? Register now.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a conference in Nashville for Neighborhood Networks, a HUD program that supports nonprofits who run technology centers in and around public housing projects. The session was on nonprofit marketing, and I gave my talk on nonprofit website basics. On the panel with me was David Zermeno, executive director of Operation P.E.A.C.E., a Neighborhood Network center in Boston.

David shared several great stories about how simply being nice to people and providing really good customer service had created wonderful opportunities for his organization - perhaps more so than any other traditional marketing tricks. I asked David if he’d be willing to share one of his stories here and he agreed.

Here’s David’s story in his own words:

One day Gloria, a senior citizen, came into my center saying, “What’s this email thing all all about? My daughter-in-law keeps asking me to take a computer class and get an email account so we can communicate throughout the day. She won’t get off my back, but I hate computers. I’m so afraid of them. Do you think you can help me?”

The first thing I did was make sure she felt welcome the minute she walked in the door. “Thank you so much for coming in, Gloria,” I said. “Don’t be afraid,” said the other seniors in my computer class for seniors. “We all had the same fear when we started.” “You see that?” I said. “I’ve never met anyone who I couldn’t help. So have a seat; I’ll have you up and running with email in no time.” As I starting teaching her, I just tapped her on the shoulder and focused on her quick progress.

With her new email account, she became a regular in my computer class for senior citizens every Monday morning where they listen to jazz music and use my class as a community of hip seniors who have access to technology.

Shortly afterwards, Gloria told me her daughter-in-law was very happy and impressed with my computer program for senior citizens. Having an ability to communicate as a family throughout the day, their emails had brought them closer together and had clearly strengthened their relationship.

One day her daughter-in-law called to personally thank and inform me of a grant that was intended to serve community programs like my program for seniors. She strongly encouraged me to apply and gave me a lot of important information. She also informed me that she was also on the panel and would make sure that the trustees knew what a difference my programs were making for families like hers. I couldn’t have a better person as an advocate for my proposal. It was valuable marketing that money could not buy.

That experience taught me some important lessons when it comes to marketing:

1. Treat everyone well and make sure that each person feels welcome.

2. We are all connected, so never underestimate anyone. This senior citizen was the best connection I could have asked for.

3. People are going to talk about you. This is direct marketing. So make sure that you treat people well and give them a reason to promote you with a positive image.

It’s Kivi talking again . . .  this is just one of the stories David shared. He has many more just like it. Be nice. It works.

Volunteering is a significant part of the identity of Generation Y - people in their 20s - because they grew up doing it. Service learning has been fully integrated into many high schools and college-bound teens know that admissions officers love community service.

Volunteering is so well ingrained in the Gen Y culture that a recent Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT survey found that more than half of workers in their 20s prefer employment at companies that provide volunteer opportunities and 70% believe that companies should use volunteering as a professional development tool.

If you are interested in recruiting people in this age group as volunteers for your nonprofit, keep in mind a few tips from Sam Davidson of CoolPeopleCare. Sam will be the guest speaker during the May 7 Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar on “How to Connect with Generation Y.”

Don’t ask for long-term commitments. For most of Gen Y, life is usually about trying lots of things and then committing to those things that really knock your socks off. “If I want to learn more about your organization and how I can help, and the only option for me is to commit to 8 hours next weekend or an hour a week for the next 12 weeks, I may just skip it,” says Sam. Instead, offer quick but meaningful opportunities to lend a hand.

Let friends volunteer together. Gen Y is a very social set that prefers to shop, eat, date, and hang out in groups of friends. Volunteering is no different. “We’re not afraid to tackle a big project, as long as we can do it together,” say Sam, who notes that his is the first generation to grow up in schools that required working collectively in groups in nearly every subject. (We would have HATED that, wouldn’t we have, my independent Gen X brothers and sisters?)

Spread the word through friends. When reaching out to 20-something volunteers, forget direct mail, and for email to work, it has to be really good. “Tell me quickly why it’s important, because I’ll be scanning/listening to/reading your pitch while I do six other things, so it needs to stick out,” advises Sam. Instead, Sam says to play your local equivalent of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game: If you want to reach a group of 20-somethings, talk to their friends and friends of friends and have them spread the word.

“If you’re soliciting me directly, let me know the connection to the opportunity, whether it’s because my friend volunteers there or the issue affects me in some way,” says Sam. ” Or, better yet, if you’ve created a low-commitment, team-friendly experience, I’ll hear about it naturally from one of my friends anyway, so by offering something I’ll actually think about coming to, it should market itself.”

Learn more about marketing your nonprofit to people in their 20s during next week’s webinar, How to Connect with Generation Y on May 7, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Registration is $35 per connection. Get the details.

I just got a sneak peek at the slides that Jeff Brooks of Donor Power Blog will be sharing during this Thursday’s (5/1/08, 3:00 ET) webinar: What Do Baby Boomer Donors Want from Your Nonprofit?

Jeff says the good news is that Baby Boomers are the wealthiest and largest generation in U.S. history. The bad news is they are much more demanding than their parents’ generation. So what do they want from you? Control over their relationship with your nonprofit, for one thing.

And what does that really mean and what do you do about it? What impact does it have on the way you communicate with your donors? You’ll have to get those answers straight from Jeff. Register for the webinar ($35 for whoever can fit around the monitor and speaker phone) and you can ask all the questions you want about Baby Boomers and your nonprofit. Jeff will answer as many as he can during the hour.

I’ve been doing some research on the differences between the generations and how those differences may affect nonprofit marketing for some blog posts I’m planning for the coming weeks. I’ve bookmarked the articles I’ve read so far, if you are interested in doing some reading of your own.

I’m also really excited about two upcoming webinars, because I’ll be doing the learning instead of the teaching!

On Thursday, May 1 at 3:00 p.m. ET, Jeff Brooks will share what he’s learned so far about the philanthropic habits of Baby Boomers in “What Do Baby Boomers Want from Your Nonprofit?”

The following week on Wednesday, May 7 at 2:00 p.m., Sam Davidson will discuss “How to Connect with Generation Y.”

Registration for each webinar is $35 and includes as many people from your organization as you can fit around the speaker phone and computer monitor.

I’d also love to host a webinar on Generation X, especially since I’m a member, but I haven’t found a good guest speaker yet. Any ideas?

New donors, volunteers and other potential supporters have questions that they want answered before taking the next step with your organization. These five simple but universal questions that people will have about your organization are best answered not with statistics or wonky program statements, but with stories. Your website is the perfect place to answer these questions.

1) What Do Other People Think About This Group?

Answer with Testimonials. When someone is learning about you for the first time, they’ll be curious what other people think about your organization, your staff and your effectiveness. You can talk about how great you are, but that’s not nearly as convincing as testimonials from other people who aren’t on your payroll (or even on your board). Testimonials are short quotes — little mini-stories — that offer insight into why someone is happy to be associated with your organization in one or two sentences. Gilda’s Club Seattle includes testimonials and photos at the top of nearly every page on its site that instantly convey how important the group is to its supporters.

2) Are People Here Like Me?

Answer with Profiles. When someone donates time or money to your organization, they are joining a virtual community of people who believe in the same cause. If someone is not quite sure if your nonprofit is a good fit for them, showing them that they fit in with other supporters can help overcome that barrier. Profiles of clients, donors, volunteers, members, and other supporters are a good way to show the different kinds of people who are involved with your group, making a newcomer feel more comfortable that they are in the right place. Iraq Veterans Against the War lets members write their own profiles as part of the open, online membership directory.

3) Does This Work?

Answer with Success Stories. Do you get the job done? Are you going to make a difference with the money I give you? Success stories show donors (and potential new donors) exactly what it is you do and how you do it. They can be full-length articles or shorter vignettes like those on the National CASA website. The multimedia stories on the home page show the children they serve and their adult court-appointed advocates speaking about the benefits of the CASA program. These stories end with this simple statement: “Children with a CASA volunteer are less likely to reenter Child Protective Services.” Does it work? Yes, it does.

4) What Difference Can a Single Person Make?

Answer with Personalized Giving Options. Big problems are overwhelming. If you swamp people with the enormity of the need, they are likely to tune you out and move on to something that feels more manageable. One way to overcome this problem is to focus on the difference that a single person can make and clearly demonstrate through storytelling that a new donor, as a single individual, can bring about change by supporting your organization. Tying donor actions or gift levels to specific results is a great way to do that.

Kiva and Donors Choose are the shining stars in this category. CARE’s “I Am Powerful” campaign also makes a clear yet less direct connection between individual donors and the people they are helping.

5) Can I Come Along?

Answer with Personal Chronicles. For your supporters to fully engage with your nonprofit, you have to be willing to share what’s really going on. A small but important segment of your donor base won’t be happy with the level of detail they get in your newsletters. They’ll want more and you should give it to them. Blogs are a natural way to provide this kind of ongoing, detailed, behind-the-scenes narrative about your work.

The Humane Society of the United States’ dispatches from the Canadian seal hunt are riveting (although brutally graphic). It’s one thing to ask supporters to put a “Save the Baby Seals!” bumper sticker on their car — it’s another to invite them to tag along virtually with the HSUS’s Rebecca Aldworth as she chronicles the bloody devastation on the ice floes day in and day out. A more heart-warming example can be found on the Interplast blog, where doctors chronicle their efforts around the globe to repair birth defects like cleft lip.

In both cases, these nonprofits are taking their supporters to places they would likely never physically go themselves, showing them in detail both the need for their support and what can be done with their donations and advocacy. By bringing your supporters along day in and day out, you can make them feel like they really are part of your team.

While storytelling is a wonderful tool for nonprofit marketing, it only works with a specific goal in mind. What point are you trying to make? Or in these cases, what question are you trying to answer? Without a goal behind your story, the words may be interesting or amusing, but the point will be lost on your supporters. Know what question you are answering before you start telling your story for maximum impact.

Learn More Here: Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories

How many of these situations sound familiar to you?

•    People call your nonprofit all the time asking for assistance on issues you don’t really work on, because they are confusing your organization with another one in town.
•    You don’t have an “elevator speech” because it’s just too hard to explain what it is you do in 30 seconds.
•    You have trouble finding your own organization’s table at a community festival, because your banner and materials blend in with everyone else’s.
•    When your board members talk to potential new donors about the work you do, it sounds as though they are describing a completely different organization than the one you work for.

In all of these cases, your organization is being confused with others, overlooked or misunderstood.  Why?  It’s often because you have no real “brand” — no clear organizational identity, reputation, or single thing that you are best known for.

On the other hand, when you do have a strong brand, people can immediately explain who you are and what you do and can pick you out of the crowd. They are more willing to donate to you and volunteer, because they “get it” — and can easily explain it to their friends and family. Wouldn’t you rather be in that situation than the ones above?

I’m hosting a conference call this Thursday (April 10) at 3:00 p.m. Eastern (Noon Pacific) with nonprofit branding expert Nancy Schwartz, who many of you know from her fabulous blog at GettingAttention.org.  Nancy is going to share all kinds of great tips on nonprofit branding and explain exactly what you need to do to get your nonprofit’s brand in shape, so you can put the confusion and obscurity behind you.

Registration for the call is only $20, and includes as many people as you can gather around the speakerphone in your office. This would be a great time to bring in a few board members for lunch, listen to the call together, and then discuss the state of your brand!

Get the details and register here.

The days when your nonprofit could get away with not having an online marketing strategy are over. Even the smallest or most locally based organizations are expected to use email and have some kind of website (or at a minimum, a web page on another organization’s umbrella site). And most nonprofits should be doing much, much more than that.

If you’ve been approaching online marketing in a piecemeal fashion, I recommend the following five-step approach to start pulling together a real nonprofit marketing strategy. (You can learn more about online marketing and this strategy for nonprofits during this week’s “Online Marketing Basics” webinar.)

1. If Your Website Sucks, Fix It. Here’s my 10-Point Basic Website Checklist for Nonprofits. Make sure your website passes on all ten points before worrying about anything else. Don’t have your own domain? They are dirt cheap. Get one now. No excuses.

2. Build Your Email & RSS Lists Everywhere, All the Time. The two best ways right now to communicate directly with your supporters online are through email and through RSS feeds. Learn more about RSS at TechSoup. Yes, there are other ways to reach people online, such as through social networking sites, discussion lists, and text messaging. But email and rss are going to reach the overwhelming majority of people. These lists are easy to manage and easy for your supporters to join and leave (if you have them set up correctly).

3. Create Tools and Great Content for Your Biggest Fans. The beauty of online marketing and Web 2.0 is that it is so easy for friends to pass info on to other friends. You can build your network of friends of friends of supporters of your organization incredibly fast online. But that means you have to identify the “influencers” or “patrons” in your network — your biggest fans — and give them the tools they need and the information that excites them, so they’ll pass it on. This is what Seth Godin calls “Flipping the Funnel.”

4. Dip into Social Media, But Dive into One Tool. Yes, social media is all the rage. You’ve got everything from Facebook Causes and Care2 to Digg and Flickr. It’s impossible to be everywhere in any kind of meaningful way. At the same time, social media is the new web, and you need to be a part of it in some way, if only to understand what others are doing. Pick one or two social media or social networking sites and dive into those. Learn how to use them and become a part of those communities.

5. Measure, Learn, and Adjust. Return on Investment (ROI) for social media is a hot topic right now and the best ways to measure success are still to come. But one of the great aspects of online marketing is that measurement is built right into most of the tools. You can tell how many people are subscribed to your e-newsletter and RSS feeds. You can tell how long people are staying on your website. Keep track of what you can, learn from both your successes and your failures, and adjust your strategy over time.

Learn more during the Online Marketing Basics webinar.