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…
I’m working on a new template for this blog, so for the next few days, I’ll be switching back and forth between the old one (the green) and the new one (the brown with the photos across the top) as I get it the way I want it. If the template switches on you mid-blog…
Do you want to know how to create behavior change using commercial marketing tools? How to develop and implement an effective social marketing campaign? How to design effective messages and materials? If so, you should consider attending Nedra Kline Weinreich’s Social Marketing University on March 28-30, 2007 in Washington, DC. For all the details about…
I’m interested in knowing what nonprofit professionals and the consultants who serve them prefer to call what it is we discuss on this blog and others like it. Nonprofit Communications? Nonprofit Marketing? Nonprofit PR or Public Relations (abbreviated or spelled out)? Or something else? Knowing the terminology that people use is important for a variety…
This week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is back at its birthplace here at Nonprofit Communications. Our topic this week is Nonprofit Newsletters and we have lots of opinions to share about what works and what doesn’t. If you are responsible for your newsletter, read on. If someone else in the office does it, forward this…
Including personal profiles in your newsletter is great way to tell an important story about your organization, while also recognizing the contributions of a single person. I write a lot of donor profiles, for example, that tell nice stories about the individuals and acknowledge their generosity, while highlighting the organization’s accomplishments — i.e. “Jane Donor…
Nedra at Spare Change has posted this week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants with the week’s best posts on social marketing. It includes several posts on creative ways to get your audience’s attention and to make your messages more lasting. I’m hosting the Carnival here next week and the theme is “Newsletters.” What…
This week’s edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants was about getting your message through the clutter. I just came upon another creative example of how a nonprofit is getting its issue in front off its audience – in this case, state legislators. The Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina distributed a 2007 wall calendar…
This week’s edition of the Carnival is up at Getting Attention and Nancy has compiled a fabulous list of posts that address these questions: How do nonprofit communicators engage audiences who are saturated by marketing messages and images? And how do we compete with for-profits who bring more resources to the table? She’s got more…
There is no such thing as the “general public” in nonprofit communications, and especially in fundraising. From the core of your message to how you deliver it, your communications need to target specific people or at least specific groups of people. But if developing a targeted communications plan is a new concept for you, knowing…
