What’s the most important part of any nonprofit brochure? It’s the call to action. That’s the section where you tell the brochure reader what you want them to do next, whether it’s donate, volunteer, sign up for a newsletter, request a consultation, or what have you.

Here are a few tips for using calls to action effectively in your brochures. (more…)

10 Surprisingly Easy and Startlingly Effective Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit E-Newsletter

By Kivi Leroux Miller, Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com

Use these ten tips to increase the likelihood that your supporters will read your nonprofit email newsletter and act on what they see in it.

1. Know your audience, ask what they want, and deliver it.

Even though your newsletter readers may be incredibly generous individuals, it’s helpful to think of them as very self-centered, selfish people when they are reading your email newsletter. Here’s why: if the content isn’t immediately relevant and valuable to them as individual human beings, they’ll delete it in an instant. We know what’s in it for you, but what’s in it for them? (more…)

This article first appeared as a series of five posts on Kivi Leroux Miller’s Nonprofit Communications blog in November 2007. Those posts have been combined into one article here.

The fundraisers at the University of California at Berkeley (Cal), my alma mater, had a problem: they needed to raise more money from alumni to support the diverse education and research programs where Cal excels, but their current direct mail program wasn’t increasing the size of the alumni donor pool. While the standard annual appeal in a letter format did a good job at renewing existing donors, says Virginia Gray, Cal’s associate director of annual giving and regional programs, the letters weren’t bringing in many new donors.

To learn more about these alumni who weren’t currently donating, Cal sponsored some focus groups. “We found that a lot of people felt like going to Cal was a big, impersonal experience and they didn’t have the same emotional connections and bonding experiences that you’d find at a smaller university,” says Virginia. (more…)

Visit the following websites to learn more about writing press releases for your nonprofit organization.

National Education Association

“Writing a News Release” and “Add Style to Your News Release”

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

“So You Want to Write a Press Release”

Center for Participatory Change

“Writing a Press Release”

Green Media Toolshed

“Writing a Press Release Top Ten”

Every nonprofit online press room should have five essential elements:

• Current Press Releases

• Press Release Archive

• Contact Information

• Organizational Media Kit

• Calendar of Upcoming Events (more…)

1. A News Angle. Your press release needs an angle that shouts out why it should be read and followed up on NOW. What’s so special about your release’s topic and why should a reporter care about it TODAY? Linking your press release to current events, the time of year, or hot topics in the news is a good way to add a news angle to your press release.

2. Objectivity. Press releases should be as objective as possible. They are not marketing or advocacy pieces. Try to write them as if you were a reporter yourself, or at least someone not directly affiliated with your organization.

3. Quotes. Quotes bring your press release to life. Watch out for stiff or bureaucratic language. Instead, think of questions a reporter might ask and what your responses would be, in conversational language. Use those as your quotes.

4. A Contact Person Who Can Be Reached Today. Every press release should include information on how a reporter can reach you for more information. Don’t list your office phone number if it will trap a reporter in voicemail limbo. Don’t list yourself as the contact if you’ll be in meetings all day. Reporters are on tight deadlines. Tell them whom they can call and and how they can reach those contacts today.

5. Boilerplate at the Bottom. Always include as the last section of your press release a paragraph with the heading “About (your organization’s name).” It should contain the basic information about your organization (e.g., its mission, major programs, when it was founded, etc.). Don’t include this kind of background in the release itself–it’s not news.

You’ll find lots of samples here:

Writing an annual report for your nonprofit is a great idea. Annual reports can help in many ways. They can communicate not just your activities, but your accomplishments; reinforce your value to existing supporters while attracting new donors; educate influential decisionmakers about your work; recognize special people; and serve as a historical record of your progress. (more…)

Every nonprofit needs a brochure, right? Not necessarily. Creating a generic brochure is usually a waste of resources. Only publish a brochure when you have a specific message for a specific audience that works in a brochure format. (more…)

Interested in what your colleagues are doing with their annual reports? We’ve included links here to annual reports from several senior service organizations. Inclusion in this list does not imply any opinion, positive or negative, on the reports themselves. They are simply linked here as a resource for you. (more…)