You should all know by now that I love the shorter and more visual nonprofit annual reports as opposed to skimming through 20+ pages of boring financials. I recently received an email from Katie Bryan, communications director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement on how their annual report has changed over the years based on the training she’s taken…
I continue to be so impressed with the way Charity: Water handles its online communications to donors. I highly recommend you give them $10 (or more!), as I have in the past with the Humane Society of the United States and The Nature Conservancy, just so you can watch how they do their online fundraising…
Is the classic nonprofit newsletter still relevant? If yes, why? If not, why not? What changes have you made, or what changes are you seeing or recommending, in nonprofit newsletters — in print and online? Those and any other questions or issues related to producing nonprofit newsletters in 2012 and beyond are the focus of the…
One of the questions Tom Ahern always asks during our Direct Mail for Small Nonprofits E-Clinic is, “Are you treating your donors like your organization’s superhero?” He’s not just talking about being grateful for their gift. He’s talking about shifting the responsibility of your cause onto the donor’s shoulders. The donor is the answer to your…
Last week, I talked about what evergreen content is, why you need it, and where to use it. Evergreen content is great for search engine optimization and for helping you think about how you are organizing your website. But my favorite benefit of producing evergreen content is how perfect it is for repurposing, which saves…
Evergreen content is information that stays fresh from season to season, much like an evergreen tree. You may not need to change it all, or to only make minor tweaks from time to time. Evergreen content often takes these forms: How to articles or tutorials Top ten or “best of” lists Core principals, ideas or…
I spent the first two weeks of July on Ocracoke Island, part vacation and part book writing retreat. I always read a ton when I’m on vacation and this trip was no different. I love my job, so I always read a mix of nonfiction that is at least tangentially related to nonprofit marketing, along…
I’m friends with many nonprofit program and research directors who confide in me about their various scuffles with communications or fundraising staff in their organizations. Nothing strange there. But what I do find a little surprising is how often I will meet a program or policy director, or even an executive director, for the first…
Have you shared your nonprofit communications story with me yet? I’m writing the follow-up to my first book, The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause (Amazon) this year, and my goal is to include the nonprofit communications stories of 100 different nonprofits. I’m collecting stories via a series…
I love Tom Ahern to bits. He’s so smart and so practical, and he tells it like it is, all while still being a nice, supportive guy — which makes him a perfect partner for our Nonprofit Marketing Guide e-clinics on print fundraising for small nonprofits. Tom doesn’t hold back when he sees a nonprofit…
Derek Hurwitch, the senior director of marketing and communications for Jewish Family Service in Palm Beach County, is wrestling with a challenge common to many nonprofits: find some younger donors. Listen to how Derek proposes to take on this challenge by paying attention to what that target audience cares about most– you may be surprised…
Do you follow the 50-50 rule for content creation? (OK, it’s not a real rule, it’s just a starting point I made up.) The idea is that about half of what you share in your communications is original content that you created recently and that hasn’t been published anywhere else yet. The other half is…
