Are you starting to think about your annual report? It’s time! Next week, I’m presenting my webinar on How to Write an Annual Report People Will Actually Read, and throwing in our e-book too, all for a “happy holidays” price of just $20, instead of the usual $99. One important decision we’ll discuss is how…
Time and money — we never seem to have enough of either in the nonprofit sector. In theory, you can raise an unlimited amount of money with the right skills and dedication to the job. But time is finite — we all get the same 24 hours each day. Right? While that is technically true,…
We’ve heard from nearly 1,300 nonprofit staff via our 2016 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey. Please take it now if you haven’t already. In one of the new questions, we ask you to fill in the blank: Our communications/marketing would be more successful if _________________. Here’s a quick word cloud with the answers to date: More…
As you know, our annual Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey is open, and will be through November 30. (Take it now). Even though we’ll collect data for another 10 days, I can’t help but take little peeks into the early results. Here are two stats that I find encouraging: Almost half of nonprofit communications staff say…
Think about it: Out of all of the hours you work each week, how many are really awesome, where you feel like you are working on the most important, super strategic things and completely in the zone, loving every minute of it? Maybe 5? 1? None? What if you could set up the way you…
We’ve added several new questions to the 2016 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey (take it now!), including: How big of a problem are these situations in preventing you from getting your best work done at your nonprofit? We presented 10 choices, and asked for relative rankings from “no problem” through “serious problem.” While these results are just…
Did you know that the quality of your thank you letters can determine whether your donor gives again? Thank-you letters are incredibly important in turning a first-time donor into a life-long giver. Donors want much more than an acknowledgement and receipt. They want to know how you used the gift and that they are a genuine…
Back in August, I offered a new mantra for nonprofit communications pros: Get CALM. Being CALM means being Collaborative, Agile, Logical, and Methodical. C is for Collaborative. Build listening into your ongoing routine. Help others in your organization see the big picture and how their parts fit into it. Create a clear process for working…
I’ve been talking to many of my nonprofit marketing friends over the last few months about what my next book should cover. The consensus is helping communications directors deal with the hard and often very unpleasant situations that they find themselves in on a regular basis, as well as the people who fuel those situations.…
#NpCommPix is back in November! We co-host this fun photo-a-day challenge with BC/DC Ideas and encourage anyone who works in nonprofit communications (nonprofit staff, volunteers, consultants, whoever!) to play along. We play mostly on Instagram and Twitter, but you can post wherever you’d like. Just let the word of the day inspire you, post…
At Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we love talking about marketing strategies and tactics (obviously). But as you try to implement the ideas you learn here, we often hear back about problems you encounter that have very little to do with marketing. Instead, what gets in the way of getting the work done are relationships with other…
In the next week, I’ll be finalizing the questions for the 2016 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey, so we can start taking your responses on Monday, November 2. We’ve heard some great ideas, and I’m leaning towards adding sections that get more at life on the job, in addition to which marketing tactics you plan to…
