I’ve been working with one of my coaching clients, Children of the Nations, on their fall fundraising campaign, which they call Hope for the Children. In addition to the direct asks for financial support, I suggested that they come up with several “engagement” asks to pair with the ask for money throughout the campaign, which…
Humor is one of the fastest ways to connect with people on a human, emotional level, but so many nonprofits are afraid to even give it a try. “The work we do is no laughing matter,” they say. “What we do is very serious. We can’t possibly make light of our work.” So earnest. So…
[UPDATED DECEMBER, 2018. PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE MORE FULLY DEVELOPED THE MARKETING MATURITY APPROACH. PLEASE REFER TO THIS POST FOR MORE!] We all grow and change as people and as professionals, and so do our organizations. As I’ve been writing my new book on content marketing for nonprofits, I’ve tried to keep in mind the…
A friend recently recalled how I had critiqued her website during a webinar a couple of years ago, and though I don’t remember it exactly, apparently we were both somewhat appalled by how many clicks were required to make an online donation to the organization. Do you know how many clicks it takes from your…
Yesterday I posted Part 1 of my interview with Jonah Sachs, author of Winning the Story Wars by Those Who Tell – and Live – the Best Stories Will Rule the Future. Below is the transcript from the second half of that interview. We pick up with Jonah discussing how nonprofits can play the role of mentor…
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Jonah Sachs, author of Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell – and Live – the Best Stories Will Rule the Future. Below is the transcript from the first part of that interview. You can also listen to the whole interview now- it’s a little over 20 minutes long. We…
I spotted this new report called The Advocacy Gap: Research for Better Advocacy on Frogloop today. If you are asking your supporters to advocate for you with Congress, it’s a definite must-read. Here are a few interesting points, all of which tie directly back to basic marketing lessons (which I’ve added in italics). There is…
If your website is stuck in the past, it may be time for an upgrade. Sounds daunting? Jennifer Doron of the Ohio Environmental Council shares how she approached the process of creating their new site to writing a novel. ~Kivi Guest Post by Jennifer Doron of the Ohio Environmental Council During the day, I serve as the Director of…
Greeting from sunny Florida! Perfect weather for Mixed Links! With less than a month ’til the election, I thought I would round up some posts on how the presidential candidates are communicating and what we as nonprofit communicators can learn from them. Nancy Schwartz breaks down the first debate with Debate Highlights: 9 Communications Lessons.…
Ashlie Hutcherson, Associate Development Director at Almost Home, emailed me yesterday asking if I’d write a blog post on questions to ask during interviews with Development Director candidates. Ashlie says that applicants for the Development Director job at her organization have already completed a prescreening phone interview and a face-to-face interview with the Executive Director. Now…
Here’s a question I get a lot . . . what ideas do you have? What are some good nonprofit communications projects for interns? I like projects that are fairly well-defined and that are self-contained, meaning that they don’t necessarily require much additional work after the intern leaves. It’s OK to have them work on…
Yesterday, I offered some stats about who is using the Internet as a reality check on why you need an online marketing strategy. Here are a few more of my favorites, this time on social media and mobile specifically. Half of Boomers use social media, as do a 1/3 of people over 65. According to…
