My new book is finally out and moving up the charts . . . Yesterday CALM not BUSY: How to Manage Your Nonprofit’s Communications for Great Results became available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions. A big thank you to everyone who purchased it right away — you’ve made it the #1 / #2 Hot…
Editorial calendars work. Our research in this year’s and last year’s Trends Reports makes that clear. But I often hear from nonprofits who say their editorial calendars just don’t work. The urgent always overtakes the important, and the plan gets thrown out and never revisited to make way for all the other things that come…
Earlier this afternoon, I did our second edition of our new Facebook Live show. Let’s just say, I had quite a few technical problems at the beginning and the end. But the middle wasn’t so bad, so I edited out most of the annoying stuff, leaving 15 minutes of solid commentary on Why nonprofits need…
Here’s another little sneak peek at the data we’ll share in the full 2018 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report next week. We asked you what you wanted to do MORE of in 2018 . . . The big theme here is getting more organized and strategic, with planning and analytics. Video and storytelling are the two…
Leadership and productivity guy Michael Hyatt talks about planning your ideal week so that you can schedule your actual work weeks in a way that hopefully approximates what you want your life to look like. I’ve used daily themes — where you group similar work on a particular day — for a few years. But I’ve…
We’ll release the 2018 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report on January 17, but here are a few “Top Three” highlights for now. Top Three Goals Where Nonprofit Communicators Feel Most Effective We asked you rate how effective your work is on a dozen different communications goals. The top three goals with the highest effectiveness…
Year-end is always a good time for me to think through and either confirm or change the way we do business here at Nonprofit Marketing Guide. This year, I’ve been reflecting on our Why (a la Simon Sinek). I’m still working on it, but right now I’d describe my personal why for the work we do…
In the 2018 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, we asked participants to rate their effectiveness on several common nonprofit communications goals. We’ll reveal all the details in the full report in January 2018 (reserve your copy here), but I wanted to share a preview with you now, as you plan for 2018. Of the 12 most…
We asked a new set of questions about professional development for communications staff in the 2018 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey this year. We wanted to know the kinds of training people were participating in. No surprise, webinars were the most popular. But I was also happy to see that local, regional, and national conferences ranked…
In this year’s Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey, we asked participants to rate themselves on some common skills that communications directors need. (The survey closes this Friday, so please take it now if you haven’t already!) According to the preliminary data, nonprofit communications pros overall say they are best at: Creating relevant and engaging messaging Copywriting…
In just a couple of weeks, my new book, CALM not BUSY: How to Manage Your Nonprofit’s Communications for Great Results will be released. What’s equally exciting to me personally is that it will be the first title released by a new publishing company I am launching with my friend and business partner, Antionette Kerr.…
One of the beautiful things about a short annual report (think 2-4 pager, infographic or video) is that you don’t have to spend nearly as much time creating the thing. But there is a catch . . . You have to spend more time planning it. That’s because it’s a lot harder to create something short, where…
