Nonprofit Communications

I recently asked this question in a different way on the Nonprofit section of LinkedIn Answers. The sum advice from all the responses was this:

Keep it short.

Focus on accomplishments.

Thank your supporters.

My annual reports e-book tells you everything you need to know to write a traditional nonprofit annual report, whether it’s 8 pages or 20. But it doesn’t help you figure out a way to keep it really short and tight.

That’s why I am hosting a webinar next Thursday (March 13, 2008, 3:00 pm ET) called How to Write a Four-Page Nonprofit Annual Report. I’ll explain exactly how to go about highlighting your accomplishments and thanking your supporters all in an easy-to-read and easy-to-produce four-page format that any nonprofit can pull off.

And yes, for everyone who has ever asked me for a template and have been disappointed when I said, “I don’t do templates” — I’ll give you a template. Everyone registered for the webinar will get two pdfs that block out what can go where. They won’t be filled with text or photos or charts — that’s your job. But they will give you a headstart on figuring out how much you need to write about what and where to put it.

Get the webinar details and register.

What’s your take on how long a nonprofit annual report should be? Leave a comment and share your perspective as either a donor or a nonprofit or both.

P.S. Have you told me which webinar topics you prefer for this summer? Take the short survey now. I’m going to keep bugging you dear blog readers with this reminder until I have at least 100 responses. Right now, I’ve got 40. Thank you!

As you know, I’m hosting a webinar this week with search engine optimization (SEO) expert David Westbrook. It’s going to be full of great tips on how to do your keyword research and search engine optimization, which is really essential if you expect your website to produce new supporters. David will speak in plain English, so even if HTML is Greek to you, you’ll still understand the basics. The webinar is this Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and registration is just $35. Details and Registration Here.

Here’s another free tip from David that was news to me: “Frequently people who have heard anything about search engine optimization, but who don’t follow it closely, have heard that there is a near-magical meta tag called the “keyword meta tag.” This comes from the fact that a few years ago search engines relied on it heavily for indexing Web site pages. Today the importance of the keyword tag is zilch. Most search engine companies have programmed the indexing portion of their engines to ignore the tag altogether.”

And here I was thinking I really needed to go update the keyword tags on several of my sites. I’ll knock that right off the to-do list! Thanks David!

P.S. Take three minutes and tell me what webinar topics you want on the schedule this summer. Just rip through the list, ranking each topic on a scale of 1-5. Five free webinar passes are up for grabs for those who complete the survey. Take the survey now.

Please take this 3-minute survey to determine which webinars should be offered in Nonprofit Marketing Guide’s weekly webinar series this summer.

Take the Survey Now

I promise, it’s painless. Simply run through the list of webinar titles and rank them on a scale of 1-5. Everyone who completes the survey and leaves their contact information at the end will be entered into a drawing for one of five free webinar passes!

Next Thursday’s Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar is on keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) for nonprofits and will feature guest speaker David Westbrook, an SEO expert with lots of nonprofit experience. If you just crinkled your nose and said, “Huh?” or if you are your office’s accidental techie and default webmaster, this webinar is for you. If think you’ve done everything right and your website still doesn’t come up when you put your keywords into search engines like Google and Yahoo!, this webinar is for you too.

I asked David for a sneak peek at some of the insights he’ll share next week and here’s a good one:

“When it comes to esthetics, search engines couldn’t be much more disinterested. This is because every image looks the same to a search engine. Imagine walking through the Louvre and where others see the Mona Lisa all you see is .img and further on where others see Madonna with the Green Cushion, you again see .img. This is the world of a search engine. On the other hand, search engines are voracious readers, and while they can’t interpret a word, they do know how often it appears and they are able to assign a level of importance to it depending on where it appears and what is surrounding it.”

David goes on to talk about the importance of the ALT tag:

“Every image should have what is known as an alt tag (technically an alt attribute). I am sometimes asked if this includes when menu items are images instead of text. As it turns out, they are especially important here. Their importance extends beyond search engines, as they are chiefly important to the blind who use screen readers that have no way of knowing a link exists if it is just an image without an alt tag.”

David will share lots of ways that nonprofits can improve their search engine rankings, whether you have complete control over the design of your website or you can only write articles for it.

Get the details on Can We Find You on Google? Keywords and Search Engine Optimization for Nonprofits, taking place Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern (11:00 a.m. Pacific). Registration is $35 and includes everyone in your office who can fit around a single computer monitor and speaker phone.

NOT your mission statement.

NOT your description of activities.

NOT your photographs.

The most important part of a nonprofit brochure is your call to action.

Once you’ve answered my questions about your organization and inspired me to take the next step, what do I do? Whom do I call (don’t just give me a phone number — tell me who to ask for)? Where do I go on your website? Is there a panel I can tear off and mail in?

Never publish another brochure without a call to action.

I’m doing a webinar on Wednesday (2/27/08) on nonprofit brochures called How to Make Your Brochures Pop! where you’ll get many more tips like these to make your nonprofit brochures as powerful as possible. It’s $35 for as many people from your organization as can fit around a computer monitor and speaker phone.

On Thursday (2/28/08), I’m doing my first online coaching session on brochures. Up to ten people will get personalized, hands-on advice on their nonprofit brochures, including ideas and feedback from me and other participants. That costs $99 and includes Wednesday’s webinar as well.

Email newsletters are great tools for nonprofits because they are so much cheaper to produce and distribute than print newsletters. The only problem is that they can be deleted in an instant or trapped forever in spam filters. And even when they are opened, they are often too *yawn* boring to grab the readers’ attention and move them to action.

I’m the special guest for Network for Good’s “Nonprofit 911″ training series next week and I’ll be talking all about e-mail newsletters — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Come get some great tips for your email newsletter during the free conference call on Tuesday, February 26 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Register here.

Chunking your Web and email text is one of the essential online writing skills I’ll be discussing during “Online Writing: Dos and Don’ts of Writing for the Web and Email,” a webinar on Wednesday, February 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Registration is open until 1:30 p.m. and costs just $35.

When people read on paper, they usually start at the beginning and work their way through in a linear fashion from page one to page two to page three, etc. When people read on the Web, however, they start where Google sent them, and that could be anywhere on your website. Once they get there, your website visitors will quickly skim the page, looking for chunks of text and keywords that tell them they are in the right spot.

What is Chunking?

When you chunk text, you break down what may have started as one really long article into smaller, manageable, more easily understood blocks of text.  Your goal should be to create chunks of information that can stand on their own, but that also fit within the larger context of your website.

How Big is the Ideal Chunk?

So how big or small is the perfect chunk of text on a website? You need to find the sweet spot between too little and too much text. If you put too little information on a page, you force your reader to click around for the details, which is annoying. But if your chunks are too big, you make it difficult for your readers to immediately find the key points they are seeking.

For example, you might break down a 2,000 guide into three web pages of 600-700 words each. On each of the web pages, you could then break those 600 words into three blocks of 200 words each, complete with their own subheadings. Many professional online writers would advocate even shorter pages (no more than 500 words) and paragraphs (no more than 100 words).

Adding bulleted lists, writing in short sentences, highlighting keywords, and linking to related articles and details also contribute to successful chunking.

Which Page Has Better Chunking?

What questions would you have if you were interested in adopting a pet? Take a look at these two pages from two humane societies in Colorado and see who answers your questions more quickly.
Adoption Process Page at Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region

Adoption Process Page at the Dumb Friends League/Denver Humane Society

Both pages discuss the pet adoption process, but one does a much better job at chunking the information.

The Pikes Peak page contains over 1,500 words and only seven subheadings. There are no bulleted lists, highlighted keywords, or links to more details to help visitors skim through the page to find the specific answers they are seeking.

In contrast, the Denver Dumb Friends League page contains about 1,000 words and has ten subheadings. The paragraphs are much shorter and you’ll find several bulleted lists and links to details. Think back to those questions you had about adopting a pet and I bet this page answers them more quickly.

The Pikes Peak page also contains the same kind of information, but in buried form that requires actual reading, rather than skimming.

This article written for teachers at Dartmouth who are putting course materials online provides some additional perspectives on chunking.

I’ve added four new events to the weekly webinar series schedule at Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com:

March 6: Can We Find You on Google? Keywords and Search Engine Optimization for Nonprofits. Can your supporters find you online? It all depends what Yahoo! and Google think your site is about. Featuring David Westbrook.

March 13: How to Write a 4-Page Nonprofit Annual Report - A Crash Course Webinar. Learn how to turn your annual report into a gift your donors and supporters look forward to receiving — all in four pages!

March 20: Converting Your Print Newsletter into an Email Newsletter - A Webinar. No, you can’t just email a PDF and call it an email newsletter. Learn the right way to go from print to pixels.

April 10: Branding for Nonprofits: What Is It and Should You Do It? - A “Hot Seat” Teleseminar Blending in with the crowd? Learn how branding can set your nonprofit apart. Featuring Nancy Schwartz.

Don’t forget, I’m also doing webinars on storytelling ideas for nonprofits next week, followed by dos and don’ts of online writing, and how to make your nonprofit brochures pop.