The modern media relations lessons we teach at Nonprofit Marketing Guide were reinforced for me personally last week. Even though I wasn’t seeking media attention, I got it, resulting in my quote appearing online and/or in print in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine, and…
You know how I feel about editorial calendars. They are the single most important tool for a communications director. So I get VERY excited when I hear a good nonprofit editorial calendar story. When Sharon Sharp, the marketing and communications associate at the SPCA Tampa Bay, told me the story of how she launched an…
Here’s a conundrum that’s come up in multiple conversations lately. I’d love to hear your perspective and advice, so please share what you think in the comments below (click to the blog if you are reading this via email). Many nonprofits run events where the development department sells sponsorships, and many also accept major-donor sponsorships…
As I shared earlier in the year, we did some research on nonprofit communications teams structures as part of our annual Trends Report. I’m also looking at how comms teams are treated within the different organizational cultures of nonprofits. I’ve found a restaurant analogy to be helpful when talking about the some of the key…
Just about every week, I talk to nonprofit communications directors who have “limiting beliefs” that are holding them back. Limiting beliefs are ideas or assumptions that you have about yourself, your situation, or others that limit your ability to succeed. But limiting beliefs are just that: beliefs. They are not indisputable facts, and they are…
Do you recognize any of these scenarios? Your boss is a perfectionist which makes him nitpicky and hypercritical of your work because he believes it reflects poorly on him if it is not just so. Even though your boss knows you can do the work, she still thinks she can do it better,…
It’s tough to implement methods that keep your nonprofit marketing organized and on track when you can’t effectively manage your own time, attention and energy. Here are 8 productivity practices that have worked for me in some way or another at various times in my career and that I know have worked for other communications…
Making a little progress every day is really important to staying motivated and happy in your work. But when you feel like you are getting pulled in a hundred different directions, as many nonprofit communicators are, that can be tough. Experts recommend that you develop “progress rituals.” Here are 5 I like. Let us know…
I am a big fan of experimenting with your marketing and fundraising communications. I think that’s how you learn what works best and how you make progress, step by step, test by test. In my next book, I want to include a list of 10 experiments that every nonprofit should try with its communications. For…
Repurposing your content is essential to your success. You don’t have enough time to create original content constantly, and your community needs to hear your messages and calls to action in clear and consistent ways over and over anyway. Repurposing content makes sense, and it works! I like simple rules. So I created five of them to…
Another day, another meeting. Or three, or five. When you literally have to schedule time on your calendar to think, that means you are in too many meetings. But meetings aren’t all bad. They are a great tool for collaboration when used well. Here are a few meeting basics, regardless of what you are meeting about:…
On more than a few occasions, I’ve told friends and family that the gift I most want on my birthday or Mother’s Day is to NOT be asked to make a decision. I make what feels like a million decisions in managing work and family, and it’s exhausting. This respite from my “decision fatigue” is…
