Do you struggle to find time in your workday to actually sit and think? To plan for what are strategically the best new moves for your organization? Is it a badge of honor to NOT use vacation days, or to work late into the night, every night? To respond to emails as soon as they…
I hear it all the time from nonprofits: Our e-newsletter doesn’t work. Direct mail doesn’t work for us. Social media doesn’t work for us. When I probe a little deeper, what people often mean is that their communications don’t seem to be motivating people to do what the nonprofit wants, whether that’s donating money, signing…
Having a Facebook Page is pretty much a must these days. Whether anyone sees what you post there is a completely different story. They also aren’t the best for coordinating activities or sharing ideas with a specific group of people. If you need to have a dialogue with a number of people related to your cause, you might want to…
Greetings from Texas, Y’all! Kristina and I are currently in Austin, TX at this year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference. This morning, Stephanie Bowen, Leili Khalessi, Kerala Taylor and I led a session called Paradox but Possible: Hardcore on Work AND Life. After the session, we heard this statement from about 20 people who were NOT in…
Do you break out in a sweat trying to write the first line of your email appeal or advocacy alert? And do you struggle with connecting ideas in your donor communications? You’re not alone. Even professional copywriters struggle with these all-important lines. If the first thing you say is confusing or dense or boring, chances are very high that…
At the start of each month, we send at least 10 writing prompts to the subscribers of our Monthly Nonprofit Writing Prompts E-Newsletter to get them thinking about articles, stories, press releases, blog posts, Facebook updates, letters, and other content for the following month. We send them a month ahead so you’ll have time to think about the ideas…
In case you are brand spanking new to social media, hashtags are words or phrases with the hash symbol (#) in front of them. The hash symbol creates a link and clicking on that hashtag will bring up other posts with that tag. Can you spot the hashtags in this tweet: Fillable Or Simple Button:…
Happy Friday! Let’s dive right into some Mixed Links… Third Space Studio and BC/DC Ideas are looking for smaller nonprofits with budgets under $2 million to round out survey data for their 4th annual Individual Donor Benchmark Survey. If you are headed to Austin in a couple of weeks for the Nonprofit Technology Conference, NTEN has Top…
Whether they are focused on your clients, donors or volunteers, profiles — or stories about people — should be a integral part of your content marketing plan. Letting your other program participants, supporters, and influencers in your world see what goes on behind the scenes or the reasons why real people get involved with your organization…
When someone new donates to your cause, do they get any kind of welcome kit beyond a receipt? How about e-newsletter subscribers? Do they get something special beyond a subscription confirmation? These “extras” are often called Welcome Kits and they can include several different kinds of items. What you include will depend on the kind…
Not getting buy-in for ideas you know can work from your higher ups is a major frustration among nonprofit marketers and fundraisers alike. How can you convince them to say “yes” to your new plans? Tom Ahern was gracious enough to let us reprint this article that originally appeared in his January newsletter. ~Kivi Guest…
How was your week? Join me for some Valentine’s Mixed Links, won’t you… Tis the season to show some love! Here are 21 Ways to Make Donors Your Valentine. Nonprofit Hub also has How to Show Your Donors You Care. And Pam Grow shares the Valentine’s Day Card she got in her latest edition of…
