You realize that it is time to publish your newsletter or that your website hasn’t been updated in months, and the dread sweeps over you. “What are we going to write about this time?” you wonder. You can take much of the anxiety out of the publishing process by creating an editorial calendar for each…
ALT tags are the bits of text that you can attach to images on webpages and in email messages and e-newsletters. As I explained yesterday, using the ALT tag is essential when including images in email campaigns and e-newsletters, because if the people reading your email have image blocking turned on, they won’t see the…
I always advise nonprofits to include photos in their print newsletters. But what about images in e-newsletters? The answer is not as clear-cut and here’s why: a large portion of your online readers probably won’t see the images automatically. Worse yet, if you don’t watch your design carefully, these readers may see only a big…
This week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, which is a joint edition with the Giving Carnival, is now up at Donor Power Blog and Tactical Philanthropy. You can read it either place. The selected posts are the same, but Jeff and Sean added their own comments to their versions. The posts take a…
I’ve decided to start blogtipping as a way to help build and support the nonprofit blogging community, along with managing the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. If you are also blogtipping in the nonprofit sector, please tag your posts npblogtipping (thanks to Michele for making the call on that one). I didn’t know about these three…
Last week I received an invitation to a fundraiser from a local American Red Cross chapter, and it really turned me off. Here is what part of the invitation said verbatim (except for the italics I added). Fine Art Auction The Auction will showcase 5 artists, and we will have a live auction with a…
I have decided to start blogtipping and I encourage my friends in the blogosphere to join in the fun. Here is what you do. On the first of each month, pick three blogs that you want to give some exposure to on your blog. For each one, list three things you like and provide one…
Two magazines from two nonprofits I belong to came in the mail last week. One fits the image the organization is trying to portray, and the other doesn’t. The Sierra Club’s magazine is printed on recycled paper. This is actually a fairly big deal in the publishing world. Lots of magazines write about environmental issues…
Welcome to the 32nd edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. This carnival is a collection of the best advice and resources that consultants and other support organizations are offering to nonprofits through their blogs each week. We limit the carnival to the seven best posts of the week as determined by the edition’s host…
As of today, “nonprofit communications” is by far the most popular term we use to describe the work discussed on this blog, according to my blog poll. If you are seeing this in email or a reader, click on over the blog and take the poll if you haven’t already. I tried the terms in…
Matthew Monberg at Beyond Giving has posted this week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, with Nonprofit Excellence as the theme. The posts highlight several nonprofits that our bloggers think are doing a particularly excellent job, as well as ways to work toward excellence in your nonprofit communications. Do stop by Matthew’s blog to…
I recently read an interview with Jack Hart, the managing editor of The Oregonian and author of “A Writer’s Coach: An Editor’s Guide to Words that Work.” He talked primarily about the writing process, but he also mentioned several qualities of good writing: -It’s tight, with clean syntax. -It’s forceful. -It’s colorful, with lively verbs…
