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…
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…
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…
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…
If you find yourself asking your nonprofit’s supporters to . . . Help Support Participate Engage Believe Understand Be proactive Work with you Collaborate Buy in Promote Share Educate Network Connect Partner . . . don’t be shocked when nothing happens. Get five people in a room and ask them to physically do any of…
When Nancy Schwartz and I first put our heads together on how to team up to help nonprofits strengthen their marketing impact, marketing planning was at the top of our list. We want to help you see how, by simply taking a little time to set some clear marketing goals, you can drastically increase your impact and…
When Claire Meyerhoff and I talk about good storytelling, we often talk about honing in on the quirks – those little details that make a story memorable. So I smiled ear to ear when William Neuheisel, communications manager at DC Central Kitchen, talked about how their communications personality is a little quirky. In this latest…
Last week, I talked about creating a graphic design style guide. Along with that, you need an editorial style guide. These are just two of several very important tools that all nonprofit communicators should be using. Your editorial style guide should contain a word list that shows how you will use, format, and spell certain words.…
Ever wonder how national nonprofits with hundreds of staff manage all that content on their websites? Who decides what goes online, and who actually puts it there? I do, so I was excited when Kristin Johnson of the National Wildlife Federation agreed to share how they do it. During this interview, the latest in our…
