I’ve closed the 2011 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey . . . thanks to the 785 people who participated!

We are analyzing all the data and preparing the report this week. It’s full of really interesting information about the nonprofit sector’s communications plans for 2011, as well as what excites and scares nonprofit marketing professionals about the new year. The full report, which will also include tips on how to respond to the trends I see, will be pre-released on Monday to everyone who requested an advance copy, and released to the public on Tuesday.

To get a big-picture sense of how nonprofits are feeling about 2011, I created two word clouds with the answers to the questions “What Excites You About Your Work in 2011?” and “What Scares You About Your Work in 2011?”

I think it’s clear that nonprofits are very excited about the new ways they can communicate with their supporters, especially online. But those new tools are also scary, particularly for nonprofit staff who don’t feel like they have enough time or funding to use the tools well.

Stay tuned for more from the 2011 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report next week!

P.S. If you want to blog about the report next week or later, you can visit the report home page and the graphics page. You won’t find much there now, but those pages will be updated on Tuesday.

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I’ll share my three predictions for nonprofit marketing in 2010 with you in just a second, but here’s one prediction that I know for a fact will come true: I’ll keep referring you to Beth Kanter for all questions social media that are too difficult for me to answer. You all have a lot of great questions, so it feels like not a week goes by where I don’t send someone off to Beth’s Blog for answers. She will continue to reign supreme in 2010 and beyond.

Today is Beth’s 53rd birthday and with this post, I’m joining 53+ other bloggers in thanking Beth for all that she has given us, and will continue to give us. Thank you, Beth, for your great wisdom, insight, inspiration, prolific blogging, and most of all, your generosity to the nonprofit community! If you want to say thanks, Beth is asking friends to help her send 53 students to school in Cambodia, which is where she adopted her two kids. I’m making a donation right after I post this, and I hope you will too.

Now on to my other predictions . . .

1. Social Media is Real Life so “IRL” Should Die

Everyone agrees: Social media is here to stay in one form or another. It’s changed forever the expectations people have about sharing information and opinion with others. People use “IRL” online as an abbreviation for “in real life.” In 2010, IRL is obsolete, because we all realize by now that when we communicate with each other online it’s just as real as when we do it in print or even face-to-face.

Social media isn’t a monologue, or even a dialogue, but a trialogue. Rather than isolating people, the use of social media and other online technologies increases how well-connected people feel to each other and to the causes they love. In 2009, we saw many examples of how online tools are bringing people together offline (Tweetup anyone?). Friends are the new filter for information overload.

If you still think of your online strategy as something wholly apart and different from your “IRL” communications strategy, you are doing it wrong. Stop, and learn to merge.

2. More Nonprofits will Experiment with Real-Time Communications

We expect current information and answers to our questions instantaneously. Mobile Internet access (e.g. smartphones) is narrowing the digital divide. We can get and give info/opinion anywhere, anytime, and now with a geographic overlay. New apps allow people not only to share, but to self-organize (e.g. FourSquare.com, GroundCrew.us, Plancast.com) Guess where I learned about two of these sites.

Can I read your e-newsletter on my Blackberry? What’s the most useful, timely, interesting or exclusive stuff you do? What would your supporters like to know in real time (is there something they’d like to track or be alerted about)? Can you deliver it via text messages or Twitter? Think about ways to share the here and now with your supporters, as it is happening.

3. To Succeed Online, You Have to Think Like a Media Mogul

You aren’t just a communications director. You are a content creator, a publisher, a broadcaster. Heck, you are your nonprofit’s resident media mogul. Instead of sending a press release to your newspaper, TV station, and radio station, you are producing your own e-newsletter, podcast, and YouTube channel. You even have your own versions of the 24-hour cable news networks — they are your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Your blog is your nonprofit’s reality TV show.

It’s a lot to manage, but try to manage it you must, if you want your supporters to really connect with what you are doing, and to make it a part of their own lives. This is communications in 2010 . . . it’s multi-channel, real time, transparent, and personal. It’s what people are getting in all other aspects of their lives and I bet the nonprofits that do it well will be rewarded with more attention from their supporters.

So what do you do with these trends and how do they affect your 2010 marketing strategy? That was the topic of last week’s interactive conference call. If you missed it, you can listen to the mp3 recording and download the two-page handout when you purchase an All-Access Pass. The handout includes basic, intermediate and advanced steps for addressing each of these trends.

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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!

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Last Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking at the National Capital Gift Planning Council’s Annual “Planned Giving Days” conference in Washington DC. Planned giving refers to philanthropy in estate planning, like leaving money to a charity in your will or setting up a charitable gift annuity.

My friend Rob Blizard, who was coordinating the Marketing Track, asked me to speak about improving the newsletters that planned giving departments send out. And boy do most of them need some improvement! So, I took three hot trends in nonprofit marketing and applied them specifically to these kinds of newsletters. The presentation was very well received — thanks to everyone in the room for participating in the exercises and asking lots of great questions.

Since these trends can be applied to any nonprofit newsletter, I thought you might be interested in the slides:

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(Go to the blog if you don’t see the slideshare window.)

I’d also like to give a special shout-out to J. Erik Potter, who I met at the conference. He reads this blog and writes his own called A Blog on Giving. Thanks for introducing yourself!

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