We are busy working on the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, but we need your help with photos. In previous years, we’ve used illustrations of people in the report and infographics. This year, we want to use photography of real nonprofit communications professionals. Yes, we need YOU to be a Trends Report Model! It’s super…
“More confidence in my ideas and recommendations.” One of the biggest outcomes of our six-month Mentoring Program for Communications Directors is confidence. That’s a word we hear all the time from people as they finish the program — and over 100 communications directors have so far. The Mentoring Program gives participants a strong foundation on…
I know many of you are working on your 2017 budgets now, so rather than make you wait until mid-January to get the budget information from our 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, I’m sharing it with you today. I hope you can use this data to make the case for increasing your budget! Here’s how…
For the second year in a row, we are asking nonprofit communications directors and coordinators to share their salaries with us, so we can provide some benchmarks for you in your conversations about your own compensation. The salary question is part of the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey, which closes on Friday, December 2. …
If you look at the preliminary results from our 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey, email marketing, print marketing, the website/blog and social media marketing are almost identical in the rankings for how much time nonprofit staff are spending on them. This chart shows a weighted average where 2 is “a limited amount of time” and 3…
In the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey, which is open for you to participate in through December 2, we are asking a new question: How would you rate the overall effectiveness of your nonprofit’s communications in 2016? We give you a five-star scale, from Not At All Effective (1 star) to Extremely Effective (5 stars). The…
I just pulled some preliminary data from our 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey. Staff from about 400 nonprofits have participated so far (add your voice now, please!) About 35% of participants say that the “extent to which strategy drives our communications work” is either somewhat better or much better. That’s the good news! But when we…
If you’ve heard me on an annual reports webinar any time in the last decade, you’ve heard me say some version of this: It’s OK to go short and stop publishing the donor list. Seriously. Now that I am actively advocating for very short annual reports, I’m hearing that the donor list is the last…
Back in September, I told you about our experiment to see who our most loyal newsletter readers were. I thought that was a better measure of email engagement than simply looking at open or click rates. Here’s what we discovered: We used our CRM to help us figure this out, but I knew there…
It’s a common frustration for nonprofit communications directors who are trying to work collaboratively with staff: getting people to meet their deadlines. This is a hard first step, but one that’s essential: If you want someone to meet your deadlines, they have to believe it’s important to do so. And that means that they understand…
Getting great results from your communications work is often contingent on timing. It needs to get out the door or online quickly to be relevant. But a painful review and approval process can cripple your creative work, no matter how good it is. We’ve all been there . . . You missed a great opportunity…
In a few short weeks, we will open up the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey . . . But before that happens, I have to put this year’s questions together, and I need your help. Think about your own work challenges, and where having some data about what other nonprofits are doing could help you…
