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I've noticed a pretty big divide in the nonprofit marketing world over the years, and I really think it boils down to the extent to which you as a communications director are responsible for short-term fundraising results. This can have a big impact on the communications choices you make and on your own job satisfaction.…
"Target audience" is a common marketing term for the people you are trying to reach with your communications. I've used it regularly since I started working in this field, but I’m using it much less often now. In fact, I just did a search/replace in the new book I am writing to eliminate it in…
"The customer is always right." – Marshall Fields “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” – Steve Jobs You know that you are supposed to listen to your target audiences and give them what they want to hear from you. But you also have your own…
I just took a quick peek at the early results from our 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey (please take it!) and can you guess what the top challenge for nonprofit communicators is so far? "Lack of time to produce quality content" was selected by half of the people taking the survey to date, from a…
Nonprofit marketing is, without question, a growing field. But it’s still very much a young field too. There is no single job description for a nonprofit marketer. I’m not even sure we’d have it covered if we came up with 10 different job descriptions. While there’s a lot of fun to be had working in…
We spent a lot of time talking about nonprofit newsletters last month (August 2012) on my blog (1) because it's a very common communications channel for nonprofits and (2) because I needed to focus on the topic for the new book I am writing on content strategies for nonprofits. We focused on it so much…
Let me start by saying that I am fully aware that not ALL of my content is awesome. Far, far from it. But, I do know that I do write awesome stuff on a regular basis, because you tell me I do (and you are the judge). I often get emails or tweets that say…
Yesterday I facilitated a board retreat for Gaston Day School. Liz Minor, the director of development, gave me a lot of leeway in structuring the agenda. She told me that she had a great board that was very willing to help with marketing the school, but that they felt like they didn't know how to do…
What is a Nonprofit Communications Director anyway? In the comments on my recent blog post, "My Communications Director is an Idiot," several people mentioned that program staff didn't really understand what the communications director's role was. Maybe some of these substitute titles are better descriptions of your job - not necessarily for your business card, but…
You can’t plan out everything. As a communications director, you shouldn’t want to. Big picture communications timelines and editorial calendars are helpful in many ways, but you can’t pack them full and then expect all of it to play out exactly that way. Instead, plan loosely, leaving plenty of play in the schedule so that…
