Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

With the end of summer approaching and a busy fall right around the corner, it’s a good time to look at some of the trends in the nonprofit sector. How does your experience mesh with what these bloggers are seeing? Leave a comment and take part in the conversation.

It’s All About Social Media

The biggest trend (or at least the one people are talking most about) is how nonprofits can use social media. Michelle Murrain at Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology admits she was rather curmudgeonly about social media initially, but now that a broader range of people are using it (not just 20-something and tech geeks), she believes social media will be a major part of online communications, thus nonprofits need to be there.

Just take a look at all the panel titles related to nonprofits and social media being considered for next year’s SXSW conference on Beth’s Blog. Jordan Viator at Connection Cafe highlights several great case studies on how nonprofits are putting social media to work for good and Norman Reiss at Nonprofit Bridge discusses the concept of groundswell - where people use technology like social media to connect directly, rather than going through traditional institutions.

What’s Happening in Fundraising

Jason Dick at A Small Change - Fundraising Blog applauds the trends of multi-year grants and more strategic giving by foundations. Phil Cubeta at Gift Hub also sees some big trends in philanthropy, including the role financial advisers play in gift-making decisions.

Randal Mason at Fundraising Breakthroughs was surprised to learn just how big the giving circles concept has become.

Nonprofits who work with the elderly, disabled, and other groups that have traditionally relied on subsidized housing can expect some big changes in how they are funded as government gets out of the housing business, says Jane at FIO Partners Perspectives.

What’s Not Hot, But Should Be?

Katya Andresen at Nonprofit Marketing Blog says great photos on nonprofit websites should be trend, even thought it’s not yet.

Melanie Guin at Adventures in Good Governance says strategic planning, not good intentions, is what’s needed in the nonprofit sector.

Aaron Hurst at Pro Bono Junkie’s Blog says that the nonprofit sector needs to invest more into getting good data, rather than relying on thin, faux data that creates misleading conclusions.

This is the first edition of the new format for the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. You’ll find the same great roundups as always, but now just twice a month. The September 2 edition will be hosted by A Small Change, with the September 15 edition at FIO Partners Perspectives. See you there!

Writing is a really tough chore for a lot of nonprofit staff, which is one reason why I’m teaching a webinar called “Nonprofit Writing Stinks: How to Bring Your Writing Back to Life” on Wednesday of this week. I want to share some fairly easy tricks that I’ve learned over the years that will take some of the mystery out of good nonprofit copywriting.

As part of the webinar, I’ll poke fun at the buzzwords we use in the nonprofit sector. I’ve added a Nonprofit Buzzword Bingo game to Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com as a webinar bonus and you can play along too! I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to using the words in the game, so let it be a fun reminder for all of us, professional writers or not!

You can also add tech terms to the nonprofit buzzwords (select “Nonprofit and Tech Buzzwords” from the drop-down menu), creating an nptech version, and you can customize your cards by adding your own words and deleting others from the list. If you feel certain buzzwords are worthy of permanent listing in the game, feel free to leave a comment on this post and I’ll consider adding them.

Thanks to Lukertech for the script!

I’ve made a few changes to the schedule for the Nonprofit Marketing Guide weekly webinar series.

This week’s webinar, “Easy and Effective Ways to Grow Your Email List” had to be postponed. The new date is Thursday, June 19 at 2:00 p.m. Thought you missed it? No worries, you still have plenty of time to register.

“How to Create Nonprofit Messages That Motivate,” originally scheduled for June 19, has been canceled. The guest speaker ended up having a scheduling conflict.

So, here’s the quick list of the next four webinars.

June 11 - How to Write a Quick and Dirty Marketing Strategy
June 19 - Easy and Effective Ways to Build Your Email List
June 25 - Must-Have Features for Nonprofit Websites
July 16 - Nonprofit Writing Stinks! How to Bring Your Writing Back to Life

I’ll be adding more topics to fill out the summer and early fall schedule within the next week or so.

Photo by RaeA

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.

In preparation for tomorrow’s webinar on how to write your nonprofit’s stories (registration is open until 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday 5/14/08), I’ve been updating my list of good storytelling examples on nonprofit websites and thought you’d enjoy reading them too.

I mentioned some of these in my earlier post on Five Questions Nonprofits Should Answer with Stories, but if I repeat them here, it’s because they are that good.

National CASA is my current favorite. The video vignettes on the homepage with both children and volunteers are incredibly powerful, in a very short amount of time. The site also features some written stories, and while still good, they aren’t nearly as moving as the videos.

Interplast. Their blog contains wonderful stories about how their teams are repairing cleft lip and other birth defects around the globe. Lots of great before-and-after photos that really take you into the lives of the people they are helping.

Covenant House California, a homeless shelter for youth, features multiple success stories right on the home page. Each story explains the specific challenges the teens faced and how Covenant House helped them regain control over their young lives. Covenant House clearly inserts itself into each story, but leaves the teen as the central character, as it should be.

ONE Northwest, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits with technology needs, shares several client stories. While these don’t fall into the “touching” or “inspirational” category like those above, they do clearly show the difference they are making for the organizations receiving their assistance. If you do capacity building or provide services to other organizations, rather than individuals, you’ll find yourself telling stories like these.

DonorsChoose obviously has great material to work with — who doesn’t like helping little kids learn? — but I especially like the way that this organization offers both short case studies and quickie testimonials.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships website shares stories from a variety of community-based organizations that have received foundation funding. The foundation paid for storytelling training with Andy Goodman, so you’ll find some really well-developed and crafted stories here.

Heifer International uses stories throughout its website. I especially like their founding story.

HSUS also uses lots of stories and is quite skilled at taking the plight of one animal and using it to illuminate greater institutional injustices, whether its factory farming or puppy mills.

Read my other storytelling posts and check out my storytelling training.

I’m reading “Message Matters: Succeeding at the Crossroads of Mission and Market” by Rebecca K. Leet. I’m about halfway through it, and here are some of the tips that I found most interesting.

When creating a message that works, you need to start with the action that you want others to take. Unfortunately, lots of nonprofits take the easy (lazy) way out and say that they want people to “be informed” or “be aware” of their issues. But that’s not really a good goal for your communications. What is it that you want people TO DO after they are aware and informed?

In the book, Rebecca says that Mothers Against Drunk Driving could have had educating people about the dangers of drunk driving as a goal, but that would not have been nearly as effective as asking people not to drink and drive and to pick a designated driver instead. Clear actions make all the difference and add an incredible amount of clarity to the process of creating your messaging.

After you create your core message, you should create a few subset messages that more directly address the specific desires of particular segments of your target audience. For example, if you have one core message about early child education, you might have one subset message for parents, one for pediatricians, and yet another for day care providers.

I know the idea of creating multiple messages has created some heartburn for nonprofits I’ve worked with before (and for me too) — Won’t it be confusing? What if one target audience sees the message intended for a different target audience? How can we figure out who gets what message?

Rebecca says not to worry, because the reality is that people only tune into messages that appeal to them personally and pretty much ignore everything else. So as long as your subset messages don’t contradict each other and support the core message, it’s OK if the day care providers also get the parents’ message. In reality, a day care provider may also be a parent, and may be interested in both perspectives, reinforcing your core message.

I’ll share more tips when I finish the book. But I can say that I definitely recommend it. In fact, I’ve asked Rebecca to speak during an upcoming Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com webinar called “How to Create Nonprofit Messages That Motivate” on June 19. She’s agreed to boil down the best of the book into a one-hour webinar with plenty of time for your specific questions (although you should still buy the book too!) Learn more now.

Sometime very soon, I am going to launch an experiment where I donate to 20-30 nonprofits that I currently have no contact with and then see what kind of communications I get back from them over time. I’d like your help in shaping this project.

I’m especially interested in the frequency and content of the communication. How personalized will it be? Will they attempt to learn more about me? Will they encourage me to do more? What will they highlight in their communications to me? What format will the communications take?

I’m still thinking about the right mix of nonprofits and donation levels and methods and would love to hear your thoughts. I’m not looking for a statistically accurate methodology, just a really interesting one.

– Who should I give to and what should the mix look like? I’d like the list to include some nonprofits that I currently know nothing about (although I won’t give to any group whose mission I completely oppose — let’s save that for another experiment). Should I go for a random mix of sizes, age, and missions? Or should I give to some similar organizations to see how they compare?

– I’ll spend $500 upfront on donations, with more to come later in the year, depending how this all turns out. Should I give $20 to 25 groups? Or should I go with $10 to 20 and $100 to 3 groups? Or some other combination?

– I’d like to give in a variety of ways, e.g. snail mail, online, through Facebook Causes, etc. What other methods should I include? Should I give to the same nonprofit in a couple of different ways to see if I’m treated differently?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this over the next week. Naturally, I’ll let you know what happens over the next several months as the results come in.

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.