If you are interested in hiring a consultant to help with your communications or marketing and want to compare a few firms or freelancers, you should put your needs in writing in an RFP (request for proposals). Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention has drafted some great guidelines for marketing RFPs. Here are a few more…
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…
I have long advocated that one way to make your newsletter and other nonprofit marketing materials more interesting is to share your opinions, not just objective reporting on your work and your issues. Jeff at Donor Power Blog says this is a good idea in fundraising too. Why? Because opinions tend to be more entertaining,…
This edition marks the first anniversary of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. When I started this project last summer, I thought I’d be happy if 20 bloggers participated regularly. So I’m pleased to report that our 46 editions have included posts from 93 bloggers and almost half of those have had two or more posts…
Ken Goldstein at Nonprofit Consultant Blog has posted this week’s edition of the Carnival. You’ll find great posts from some regular and new contributors on topics ranging from founder’s syndrome to networking to PR. The Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is your weekly roundup of the seven best posts of the week from consultants and other…
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…
