A well-placed op-ed can help your nonprofit call attention to an important issue or change minds about a controversial topic. Unlike reported news stories, op-eds are opinion pieces that are written by those who aren’t on the staff of a newspaper, magazine or website. They offer outside voices the opportunity to express opinions and share…
It’s a common frustration for nonprofit communications directors who are trying to work collaboratively with staff: getting people to meet their deadlines. This is a hard first step, but one that’s essential: If you want someone to meet your deadlines, they have to believe it’s important to do so. And that means that they understand…
Are all your email subscribers the same? Of course not! Some donate. Some volunteer. Some do both. And some have no CLUE how they got on your email list! If you send all your email subscribers the exact same fundraising emails for every campaign — year-end or any other time — you’ll never unlock their…
Getting great results from your communications work is often contingent on timing. It needs to get out the door or online quickly to be relevant. But a painful review and approval process can cripple your creative work, no matter how good it is. We’ve all been there . . . You missed a great opportunity…
Hope you had a great week! Today is my birthday so let’s celebrate with some Mixed Links (among other things)… If you want to create compelling content people will read, you need to let go of these 7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School. Hubspot shared an infographic on What Successful Marketing Looks Like Today.…
The Presidential election has become — quite unfortunately — a daily case study in crisis communications. Nearly every day this fall — and sometimes more than once a day — one or both of the major candidates has been forced to respond to a crisis, whether it’s negative news about his or her past with the…
In a few short weeks, we will open up the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey . . . But before that happens, I have to put this year’s questions together, and I need your help. Think about your own work challenges, and where having some data about what other nonprofits are doing could help you…
A creative brief is a quick worksheet that you fill out before you get started on any significant piece of communications work. You can also use a creative brief as a mini-strategy for how you’ll use a particular social media channel (e.g. how is what we do on Facebook different from Twitter?). Using a creative…
A few weeks ago, in preparation for my Nonprofit Marketing Guide Tweet Like a Boss Pass Holder webinar, I had a wonderful conversation with Kids Are Heroes founder Gabe O’Neill. We chatted about how he became a big fan of Twitter, and then he asked me to look at this section on his website called Share…
Earlier this summer, we started tracking the communications of pairs of national nonprofits working in the same space. Where are the organizations’ strategies in sync? Where do they diverge? What can you learn from their approaches? We are calling the comparisons The Showdown. We will often declare “winners,” but that part is just for fun.…
Ready to cap off this week with some Mixed Links? While normally everyone is telling you how awesome it is to be on social media, Nonprofit Tech for Good shares 12 Not-So-Great Realities About Nonprofits and Social Media. Joe Garecht at the Fundraising Authority hosted this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival on The Best Tips for Amazing…
The other day my daughter and I were walking down an aisle in a department store and she noticed a huge Halloween products display. “Oh come on!” she said. TOO SOON. I agreed, and we had a laugh about how I forbid holiday music until after Thanksgiving. Ah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the…
