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…
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…
