UPDATE 8/20/08: The Chronicle of Philanthropy picked up this post. Please feel free to comment here or there, but do participate in the conversation! I’ll respond to comments in both places. ~ Kivi Advocates for the intellectually disabled, led by Special Olympics, are boycotting the movie Tropic Thunder because of the use of the word…
With the end of summer approaching and a busy fall right around the corner, it’s a good time to look at some of the trends in the nonprofit sector. How does your experience mesh with what these bloggers are seeing? Leave a comment and take part in the conversation. It’s All About Social Media The…
I am hosting the next edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, publishing this Friday and the theme will be “What’s Hot and What’s Not in the Nonprofit Sector.” If you write a blog, share your thoughts on trends in your particular corner of this great big field, and then let me know about the…
Image by CJ Sorg on Flickr Does this belong on our website? What should go on our home page? How can I make our website more user-friendly? How can we grab our website visitors’ attention and keep it? My answers to these very common questions from nonprofits usually include some form of this response: It’s…
When you write your web content, you are writing first for real people and second for search engine spiders. For your website to be as successful as possible, you need to keep both in mind. Prominent keywords are important for both audiences. They help real people skim your page, so they can decide if they…
I’m heading out tomorrow for a week at the beach, but here are some great mixed links for you before I go. And actually, I’ll have a post or two queued up to publish while I’m out (I love that about WordPress) — including one on where to put your keywords so both people and…
Photo by Nataliej on Flickr If you live in the eight states or seven Canadian provinces/territories below (or know someone who works for a nonprofit and does), read on. I’m extending the deal I mentioned last week through the end of August, to give all of you summer vacationers time to get back in the…
The biggest mistake that a nonprofit can make with its website is to use it as an old-fashioned brochure, where you immediately hit the visitor with your long, jargon-filled mission statement, right at the top or smack in the middle of the home page, followed by bulleted lists of “projects” or “services.” Why is this…
Photo by kevindooley on Flickr The nonprofit blogerati have been weighing in lately about how nonprofits are bad, bad, bad for looking at social networking as a way to market their organizations. And “communications” seems to have become a dirty word too. Here are a few samples: Online Social Networks are Not Mailing Lists by…
“Conversation in the Clouds” by Swamibu on Flickr The Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted a live chat earlier this week with Beth Kanter (Beth’s Blog) and Jonathon Coleman (The Nature Conservancy) called “Building Your Online Presence on a Tight Budget.” Beth and Jonathon are two of my favorite social media experts, so I took a few…
Yesterday I wrote about how you can use thank you notes to set yourself apart from the competition, because lots of nonprofits (1) don’t do thank you notes at all, (2) don’t do them very well, or (3) overlook easy opportunities to touch their donors’ hearts. Here’s another story for you about the power of…
After many years of living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington DC, my husband and I moved back to his hometown of Lexington, North Carolina in 2001. Living in a small town in rural county has given me an entirely new appreciation for the complexities involved in nonprofit management, fundraising, and marketing. We…
