I just finished up our two-part webinar series on how to measure the effectiveness of your communications work. (If you missed it, All-Access Pass Holders get access to the recordings). Part of the challenge with answering the “what should we measure” and “what numbers should I pay attention to” questions for nonprofits is that it…
In early November, we’ll open up the survey for the 2019 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report. We’ll repeat a lot of questions from previous surveys to expand our “trends over time” data. For example, we’ll be asking about communication team salaries, sizes, and budgets communications effectiveness how communicators spend their time communications frequency in different channels…
Nonprofits love Canva for creating quick, good-looking graphics. Don’t you wish there was something just as quick and easy for video? I know I do . . . Yes, I have video editing software, but sometimes it’s overkill and takes too long to work through. I thought there had to be something much easier by…
No doubt, you’ve struggled with some of these situations before: Program staff who are supposed to be reviewing for accuracy instead want to argue with your punctuation choices. Your executive director pulls the plug on an appeal letter right before the package is supposed to go to print because “it doesn’t sound like me.” Five…
We just wrapped up our new webinar on managing a healthy email list and re-engaging the unengaged on your list. The unengaged would be people who haven’t opened an email in a certain amount of time, like 6 months or a year. I asked three poll questions and thought I’d share the results with you.…
U.S. nonprofits might think they don’t have to worry about spam and privacy legislation elsewhere, but that’s not true. The reality is that if you are communicating online (and who isn’t?) you should really stay abreast of how the rules in other countries, like Canada and the European Union, are changing best practices everywhere. It may…
It’s no fun when someone unsubscribes from your email list. But let’s face it . . . it’s actually much better for your sender reputation to have them unsubscribe than it is for them to never open another email or even worse, to hit the spam button. That’s why you should make unsubscribing from your…
If you are excited about the prospect of doing more email fundraising around Giving Tuesday and Year End, but don’t normally send a lot of email to your list, you need a ramp-up pre-season strategy. Sudden spikes in your email volume can trigger spam warnings. With lots of nonprofit email already going to spam at year…
For years now, we’ve been urging you to clean up your email lists by deleting those email addresses that don’t engage with your content after several months (or at least suppressing them from future mailings if you don’t have the heart to actually delete them). EveryAction’s 2018 Email Deliverability report says that 24% of fundraising…
I just finished presenting a free webinar with 25 real-world examples from 25 different nonprofits that communications directors can use to inspire their own work. Ever curious about what communications directors need, I asked two poll questions about where they felt they most needed more examples and inspiration for their own work product. Communications and…
Just like with everything else in nonprofit marketing, you need a reason for creating content – a goal. Are you creating content to . . . Attract more program participants? Increase the number of event attendees? Expand your volunteer roster? Grow your mailing list? Diversify your supporters? Encourage donors to give more money? Get reporters…
I’ve noticed something, and I’d like to know if you’ve noticed it too . . . Does it seem like a lot of nonprofit communications and marketing people spend their spare time as makers? Are you a communications director by day, but a baker, gardener, artist, crafter, builder, or other maker of things with…
