Nonprofits have always had many content buckets that needed to be filled regularly, from print newsletters and other direct mail to reports for boards and funders. Then came along your website and email newsletter. And now, with social media, you may be producing content for a blog, video channel, Flickr group, podcast, Twitter feed and…
Yesterday Katya Andresen wrote a very short, but powerful post called What’s Your Progress Bar? It’s so short, I’m going to copy the whole thing here: Katya wrote: “When we download something, we see a progress bar inching toward an outcome. What is your cause’s progress bar? Which events, stories, or experiences can make a…
I had a great conversation with Susan Gordon, director of nonprofit services for Causes, last week. If you aren’t familiar, Causes has built free, customizable fundraising pages that integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and other channels (and the Causes.com site of course). Causes recently overhauled its integration with Facebook, making it much easier for small nonprofits to use…
Is your process for creating and distributing your nonprofit’s content (you know, the stuff you put in your newsletter, on your website, etc.) non-existent or always done on the fly? The ad hoc approach can work, but it only gets you so far. That’s the conclusion that CompassPoint Nonprofit Services reached last year. Nelson Layag, project…
We are doing our best to book out our Weekly Webinar Series schedule several months in advance, so when you buy a quarterly All-Access Pass, you know exactly what you are getting. Our webinars are approved for CFRE credits, for those of you who need them. Here’s the current schedule . . . May 18:…
In our latest interview in our series on Junction C: Where Creating and Curating Meet Content and Conversation, Jereme Bivins, the social media manager for the Foundation Center, discusses his approach to working with five regional offices across the U.S., while maintaining the voice of the national office. Jereme updates the Foundation Center’s main Twitter account and…
I’m in the middle of developing a marketing strategy, including a website revamp, for a local food bank. As part of any strategy process, I like to take a look at what other similar organizations are doing, so I’ve perused the websites of dozens of small food banks across the U.S. What food banks do…
When I ask staff at nonprofits to describe their organization’s public personality, I often get blank stares, or something like “Ummm . . . we don’t have one, so I guess, well, how about ‘boring?’” I admit, it’s a tough question, especially if you’ve never considered that an organization could even have a personality in…
Cygnus Applied Research is releasing its 2011 Donor Survey this week, and the executive summary alone contains some really interesting statistics and trends. This is a major survey by Penelope Burk’s team of over 17,600 American donors (there’s a separate report on Canadians). I’ll report on the full study once I’ve had a chance to…
It’s a big nonprofit world, and it can get a little overwhelming and intense, especially if you work in a small nonprofit. That’s why I was really intrigued when Darian Rodriguez Heyman, former Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation, told me he was bringing together 50 of the sector’s leading experts to create the newly released guide…
Welcome to another edition of Mixed Links, our roundup of recent goodies for nonprofit marketers. With all the royal wedding hoopla, you may have missed what has become our nation’s deadliest natural disaster since Katrina: the tornadoes that came through the South on Wednesday. We were lucky this week in the Carolinas, but Alabama, home…
Why shouldn’t you ask your board members to “fundraise” or “friendraise”? Because as we discussed during today’s webinar on Making the Ask, people don’t know what the heck you are talking about. There are scores of different ways that board members can “fundraise” and “friendraise.” If you don’t make your requests much more clear and…
