Last week, I encouraged you to think about two very short formats for nonprofit annual reports: a six-word annual report and a postcard annual report. (You have until Thursday morning, 6/23/11, to comment on those posts to be entered into the book drawings.) The postcard annual report is a legitimate format — I have two…
I’m always urging you to give something new a try, and to mix it up a bit. Here’s a great example: A Groundhog Day campaign from House of Charity in Minneapolis. Melissa Musliner, House of Charity’s Marketing & Development Director, is a Nonprofit Marketing Guide All-Access Pass holder. “Many people give to the hungry and homeless…
On Monday, I asked if you could boil down your annual report to just six words. We are getting some great examples: check them out in the post comments! But of course, I realize six words is probably not enough for most of you. What about a postcard? That’s more room, but still very short…
[Update: We’ve released a free e-book based on this post, including graphics of alternatives to thermometers.] I’m not fan of those fundraising thermometers. Yes, they are an easy way to show progress, but they are so overused. And when you think about it, what does a thermometer and temperature rising have to do with 99%…
All this week, I’m celebrating the one year anniversary of the release of my first book, The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause. Daily Prizes for Blog Commenting With each blog post this week, I’ll ask you a question, and you can reply in the comments. Then I…
If you work in the nonprofit world and have been on Facebook for awhile, you’ve probably received a request from a friend to donate to their Causes Birthday Wish. The idea is that when your birthday comes along, you use Causes (with or without Facebook — but ideally with) to raise money for your favorite…
I just love this photo and status update that Carolina Tiger Rescue posted on Facebook last week: The boring approach would have been to show us a picture of the old bald tires on the van, or to just simply whine about it. Not very interesting. But instead, they posed this great shot of keeper…
You don’t have much time or money to waste in marketing your nonprofit. That means you need to focus on two ways of doing business: little bets and best practices. You can put both concepts to work for you with your direct mail appeals. You can take a chance and do something a little different…
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…
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…
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…
I’m a sucker for a good metaphor, and I love the one that Marc Pitman uses to describe fundraising: “I like to think of the fundraiser as holding an electrical cord (the donor’s interests) and facing a wall of outlets (various aspects of the fundraiser’s organization). The fundraiser’s job is to get to know the…
