Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog is looking for posts on what’s good or bad about fundraising for next week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. Here’s what’s bad about fundraising from my perspective as a nonprofit marketing and communications consultant. These are the three reasons that I nearly always turn down requests to write grant applications…
As I was looking over annual reports from environmental groups this week, I noticed that both Environmental Defense (ED) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) claimed that they were largely responsible for getting California’s law on global warming passed. Now, I really have no idea who did what or how much, and I am…
Michele Martin at the Bamboo Project asked about our favorite learning resources and what gets us excited about learning new things. I get tons of great information from reading other people’s blogs, but I saw that Rosetta Thurman wrote a great post about that already, so I’ll go with another favorite learning tool of mine:…
I’ve just released my new e-book, “How to Write a Nonprofit Annual Report” and am offering you, my blog readers, a $5 off coupon, if you download the e-book by August 31, 2007. Here is the coupon code you’ll need: 329855 The e-book is compilation of practically everything I have written to date on nonprofit…
Last week I taught my “Strategies for Successful Nonprofit Newsletters” workshop through Duke University’s certificate program in nonprofit management. The workshop focuses mostly on print newsletters, and here are the top five questions that participants said they wanted answered during the course. You get my bottom-line, three-second answers here. Follow the links to www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com for…
Here are my replies to the five top questions I get about the lists that you find in the back of nonprofit annual reports. DONOR LIST: Do we need to list absolutely everyone who donated any amount of money? No. Many organizations set a minimum dollar amount for inclusion in the annual report to keep…
If you watch any late night TV, you’ve probably seen the American Express commercials with Sheryl Crow, Ellen DeGeneres and others promoting the new Members Project. For every card member who registers at MembersProject.com, American Express will donate $1 toward a $5 million grant to a single project, selected in part by member voting. How…
Searching for some good article ideas for your next nonprofit newsletter, blog post or website update? Here are 15 places you can look for article ideas. 1. At the receptionist’s desk. Ask whoever answers your organization’s main phone number for the top three questions they get from callers and turn the answers into newsletter articles.…
This question came in last week to AskKivi.com: “Should we include articles and photos of our fundraising events over the last year in our annual report? Based on your “Seven Easy Steps to Writing a Great Annual Report“, I would say no since it is an activity, not an accomplishment. What do you say?” —…
A few months ago, I got a bit huffy when I saw that my husband and I were listed in a local nonprofit’s annual report as “Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Miller” for a donation we’d made. I’ve been living in a small town in the South for five years, so I guess I should be…
Whether it’s a board meeting, a seminar, or a conference, the events your organization hosts or attends can provide great fodder for newsletter articles — if you highlight the most important points and forget about the rest.When you start writing an event summary, you may be tempted to regurgitate the agenda with a few extra…
Next week will be “Newsletter Week” at Nonprofit Communications, including a post with tips on writing the hardest kind of newsletter article, as determined by this blog’s readers (you!). Problem is, right now there is a four-way tie between “Donor or Volunteer Profiles,” “Program Updates,” “How-to Articles or Tips” and “Event Summaries.” Vote now and…
