I asked whether this blog’s readers find that they write too much, too little, or the right amount in their first drafts, and about 60% answered “too much.” Here are six tips for editing your first drafts when they are too long. 1. Drop the first few sentences. Lots of people (including me) need to…
This week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is up at Solidariti. The highlighted posts cover topics ranging from marketing to online fundraising to activism in Second Life. Next week, the carnival swings back by the Nonprofit Consultant Blog. What’s the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, you ask? It’s a weekly roundup of the best…
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.…
Only a handful of 2007 dates are open to host the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, and I’d love to give those slots to some new hosts. Would you like to try hosting this Carnival? It’s really easy: simply pick seven posts to highlight on your blog on your day in a round-up post. The posts…
Here is your ticket to this week’s ride through the blogosphere, with stops at some great posts for nonprofits. Ah, the joys of nonprofit accounting. Ken Goldstein at the Nonprofit Consultant Blog shares some ideas on how to allocate overhead costs by dollars, time, or space. Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention explains how nonprofits can…
Here is a Friday afternoon cocktail of mixed links I think you’ll find interesting or insightful or both. Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog gives an example of a good donor thank you letter and says you should say thank you at least three times more often than you ask for money. Emily has posted the Nonprofit…
The gals at Fix Your Marketing tagged me with the “Guide to Productivity” meme, so I’ll put my spin on it as a communications professional. Here are my tips: 1. Invest in speed. I don’t know how much time I’ve lost waiting for web pages to download, for email to send, and for various computer…
ProBlogger ran a “Top 5 List” group writing project last week and has published links to a whopping 893 lists. Here are a few that I think might be of particular interest to nonprofit communicators. Five Tips for Running a Successful Online Giveaway Top Five Ways to Connect Online with the 50+ Marketing Demographic Top…
Michelle Murrain at Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology has posted this week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. You’ll find it especially helpful if you are writing a tagline for your organization trying to figure out Web 2.0 tools thinking about using IM for marketing questioning how to get people to respond to your survey…
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…
This week’s host of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog, issued a challenge to our contributors: Use the word “barnyard” in a post of interest to nonprofits. You’ll find insightful commentary and advice on nonprofit marketing, fundraising and management — all with barnyard references! Here’s the Carnival link. Want to…
