Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
I love Twitter. There’s a certain magic to Twitter. So interesting. So fast. So current. So informative… So short, just 140 characters. I’ve learned a lot about cause marketing on Twitter, and now I want to my fantastic teachers with you! My criteria for picking them. I chose real people as much as possible. For me, Twitter is all about talking to people, not logos or brands or billboards.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
People are often surprised when I say that if given the choice, I would choose 10,000 e-Newsletter subscribers over 10,000 Followers on Twitter, 10,000 Fans on Facebook, or 10,000 Friends on Foursquare… combined. Any day of the week and without hesitation. And though some reports claim that email use is dropping , others claim its use is steady and even on the rise.
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
In writing up a project for a client, I drafted this short reminder on how to write effective fundraising letters. What else would you add? The letter is personalized. “Dear Friend” doesn’t cut it. Studies show the first thing people look for is their address is at the top of the page and their name(s) in the salutation. Not having those increases the chances the letter will be tossed without being read.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
Here’s an important exercise every nonprofit should go through periodically. Some fundraisers are content to play with the hand they are dealt. If that’s working, count your blessings. Others, upon finding the ’same old’ has lost its relevance, push to re-shuffle the deck. Remember, marketing your nonprofit is not merely about the packaging and the pitch and the sales tactics, it starts with the product.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Claire and Kivi at the Book Party. I have some really smart friends. I get the most amazing stuff in my email box from them. Take this email I got this morning from Claire Meyerhoff, who many of you know as our media relations expert at Nonprofit Marketing Guide. She spent many years in the broadcast news business, including writing news copy for anchors at CNN.
Getting Attention
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Planned Parenthood faced a communications crisis last week when a clinic manager was videotaped covertly by actors working for an anti-abortion group , while she giving advice on getting medical care for under-age prostitutes. The stunt was designed to power the group’s campaign to cut off public financing for Planned Parenthood. But Planned Parenthood responded to this crisis swiftly and comprehensively, emphasizing its commitment to “stay focused on giving women the health care the
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 24, 2011
I love examples of local cause marketing, especially when they involve social media. Take the recent partnership between Massage Envy and Second Harvest Food Bank in the Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in California. Huh? You might be thinking. Massage Envy has 600 locations nationwide. Second Harvest Food Bank is a member of Feeding America , the largest national hunger relief charity in the U.
Nonprofit Leadership Zone brings together the best content for advertising professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 19, 2011
Last week, my friend Susan Murphy ( @suzemuse ) tweeted a blog post by V3 called “ How not to be invisible on the new Facebook newsfeed.&# The title was a bit misleading, but the post was very helpful. Apparently, our friends at Facebook have automatically changed our permissions. Now the only people and organizations we see in our newsfeed are those we’ve recently interacted with.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
In response to our Lazy or Careless Fundraising? article last week, Gail Meltzer of CoreStrategies for Nonprofits sent us an article she wrote describing her own experience as a lifelong under-cultivated donor. Her article, Acknowledging Cumulative Giving , was published last November/December in Advancing Philanthropy , the pub of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (available online to members only).
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
FEBRUARY 2, 2011
Tomorrow (Thursday, 2/3/11) I’m presenting a webinar I call “ Writing Thank You Notes That Inspire Future Gifts. &# I firmly believe that the thank-you note after the first gift is the first step in getting the second gift. The standard, boring, impersonal form letter or email receipt doesn’t cut it. During the webinar, I’ll share lots of tips and examples about how to do it right.
Getting Attention
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
An amazing opportunity came my way recently! I was invited to New Zealand to keynote a first-time conference for charities and associations, focused solely on marketing. So off I went — along with my husband and almost-8-year-old daughter Charlotte — to inspire and guide Kiwis striving to meet many of the same marketing goals as we are in the U.S.
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
How would you like to be in my book Cause Marketing for Dummies ? Here’s what I’m looking for. I have a whole chapter devoted to online cause marketing. Within it, I want a section for etailers and other online businesses that want to partner with and raise money for causes online. When I first outlined the section, I had a couple good ideas in mind.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Nonprofits have been utilizing social media for five years now (beginning with Myspace and YouTube in 2006), and while most at this point have invested the time and resources into designing a solid, visually distinct, social media-compatible avatar, many nonprofits still make the very common (yet completely obvious) mistake of using a cropped logo as their avatar in their social media campaigns.
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 3, 2011
A few weeks ago, a Twitter hashtag, #lessambitiousmovies, caught my attention. It was around 10:30 p.m. after a hard day and I had a blast coming up with appropriate movie titles. Apparently I tweeted alot in 30 minutes! @jonaha sent me this screenshot. I’d totally dominated her stream! The next day, I got an email from someone letting me know that, despite 3 years of informative and valuable tweets, those 30 minutes overwhelmed him so much he was unfollowing me.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Here’s an interesting — but perhaps, DUH! — item from Neuromarketing about ‘ choice fatigue ‘ People get tired of making choices … and this shows up in a variety of ways if they’re asked to keep on choosing. In one study, researchers found that items placed farther down voting ballots drew less votes (i.e., more abstentions).
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
During my recent webinar on new and improved nonprofit annual reports (recording available to All-Access Pass Holders ), I said that I would love to see a nonprofit do its annual report as an oversized postcard (think that big size popular with political candidates). This format has lots of advantages: The small space forces you to think about what’s most important to say.
Get Fully Funded
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
I had the privilege of attending the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Think Tank a couple of weeks ago. It was so cool to be among a group of great thinkers to talk and brainstorm. One of the things that came up was the number of people who are entering the profession without a solid understanding of our principles and ethics. Lots of people take jobs in nonprofit fundraising and assume their sales or other corporate skills will transfer.
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Enough people have registered their opinion to confirm this deal-breaker for everyone: Groupon’s Superbowl ads Sunday night were ill-conceived and offensive. Goodwill earned from this promotion: 0%. As of this printing, Groupon should have apologized (they haven’t), pulled the ads (saw one last night), fired their agency (standing shoulder to shoulder) and donated a boatload of money to the causes they offended (Umm…nope).
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Many nonprofits are experimenting with text-to-give fundraising, but thus far results have been mixed. Nonprofits that have the resources or connections to tap into media, celebrity or large e-mail lists have done well, but many others are simply breaking even (or not). One reason may be that the online promotions of text-to-give campaigns have been mostly limited to text-only KEYWORD and SHORTCODE pitches, such as “Text TIGER to 20222 to donate $10!
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Today I’m pleased to introduce David Hazeltine. David and I met at an NEAHP conference a couple years back and immediately hit it off. Since he works with DMW Direct Fundraising , I’ve asked if he’d share his insights into direct mail fundraising. Check out his blog at No Green Bananas. The higher education arena is one of our primary vertical markets and, for a number of years now, we have engrained ourselves in the fundraising programs of a variety of institutions nationally.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 23, 2011
Any decent fundraiser (and copywriter) knows that the best way to capture attention, engage a donor and touch their emotional side is through stories. Stories trigger emotions and are memorable. They enable vicarious experience on the part of the listener … enabling the storyteller to communicate on a deeper level. So where might your stories come from?
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
FEBRUARY 23, 2011
During last week’s webinar, Social Media Fear Factor: Getting Over What’s Holding You Back (recording available now to All-Access Pass holders), I asked participants how they felt about the idea that, because of social media, everyone associated with their cause, in any way, is now a potential spokesperson. I asked this same poll question on a webinar about 18 months ago, and the difference between the two polls is encouraging (granted, different nonprofits took the two polls).
Care2
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
One of the biggest concerns nonprofits express to me about launching or maintaining their blog, is lack of staff time to update their blog with compelling posts. (Note, please don’t confuse “compelling posts&# with long articles that take hours or days to write, a simple photo and caption that illustrates a good point around your issue is compelling).
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Frank Barry had a wonderful post last week over at Mashable on seven group buying sites using daily deals to give back. It’s a must read for cause marketers because this is a new area of opportunity for win-win partnerships between causes and companies. But all daily deal sites are not ideal for your cause marketing business plan. Here’s my pick for the best and my thoughts on the rest.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
Odds are your nonprofit has a “Company Page” on LinkedIn. If any of your past staff, interns, or volunteers have a personal profile on LinkedIn and they have added their position at your nonprofit to their work “Experience,&# then your nonprofit does indeed have a LinkedIn Company Page. If not, then you can easily create one. Either way, LinkedIn is now the 12th most visited website in the United States and with almost 100 million active users, you should claim, enhance, and monitor your nonprof
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
People are benefiting from the new Fundraising Kick weekly emails. [If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, Fundraising Kick's are brief, simple weekly emails that quickly give you the added kick to do what you already know you need to do: ask for money.]. One subscriber said: I like that they’re simple things that can be done right now to bring in some income and re-engage with donors, Simple things that I kind of know to do, but don’t always make time to do…I think Fundraisin
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 27, 2011
OK, nothing and nobody is perfect. But this comes pretty close. Last week The Agitator wrote back-to-back articles on Finding Stories for Fundraising and Nonprofit KPIs.Think of these as addressing the right and left side of the brain respectively — emotion and reasoning. In the latter piece, I suggested that the “winning combination&# for fundraisers was marrying stories and results.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Here are five common questions I get about nonprofit annual reports , along with my answers. If you are still trying to figure out how to produce your 2010 nonprofit annual report, join us tomorrow’s webinar (2/8/11 at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 am Pacific), where I’ll explain how to create a “ New and Improved Nonprofit Annual Report.&# When you do, you can also purchase the e-book, How to Write a Nonprofit Annual Report , at half-price.
Care2
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
The worst kind of expert doesn’t share the whole story or truth. Since the rise of social media many “experts&# have claimed that email is dying and won’t exist in 10 years. In fact, email is not fading, it’s evolving. According to a new comScore study on U.S. consumers', the number of users accessing email via their mobile devices has been growing ever year.
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 2, 2011
The last time I talked about cause marketing for businesses I looked at how to pick a cause partner. Once you have partner, the question becomes what should you do for a cause marketing program that will best serve the cause and your business (remembering, of course, that cause marketing is win-win). You can review the different types of cause marketing programs here.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Organization: National Wildlife Federation. Organization Size: 400 employees. Name: Danielle Brigida. Title: Digital Marketing Manager. Website: www.nwf.org. Blog: www.wildlifepromise.org. Facebook: facebook.com/nationalwildlife. Twitter: twitter.com/nwf. YouTube: youtube.com/nationalwildlife. 1. What was the very first social media tool your organization utilized, and when?
Fundraising Coach
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
A client recently asked me an excellent question: I know of an organization that has a large board. It seems they do it so that they can invite potential donors to be on the board. It seems more or less honorary, they don’t get involved much. Should we look at making our board larger so that we can invite large donors on? It’s a great question.
The Agitator
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
New email stats from digital metrics firm comScore indicate a shift is underway, as traffic to web-based email services declined 6%, while the number of consumers accessing their email via mobile devices increased 36%. I’m not sure this increase in mobile access is good news for online fundraisers, because I just can’t see donors making significant gifts standing in a subway car or in a grocery store line scanning (and deleting) their email on their smart phones.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
Nothing seems to elicit deeper sighs from the small nonprofits I talk to these days then how to best use social media. They know they need to “be there&# and they understand the basics. But they are often troubled by the lack of strategy, and the lack of control. What staff, volunteers, and clients might say about the nonprofit on their own personal profiles (let alone the nonprofit’s official page) seems to be a particularly troublesome question.
Care2
FEBRUARY 16, 2011
For the past few years, nonprofits have been raising 40% to 60% of their money online during the month of December. How did the nonprofit community fare in 2010? In a report outlining results from the 2010 year-end fundraising, M&R analyzed thirteen of their clients results and shared some great data. Highlights include: 77% raised more money this year than they did in 2009.
Selfish Giving
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
My team and I have had some luck working with movie theaters here in Boston. But we have yet to find the right partner to execute the large transactional cause marketing program that raises a lot of money. The movie theater cause marketing program of note in my city benefits The Jimmy Fund. It’s been around since the late 1940′s and last year it raised $530,000.
Getting Attention
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
I heard about this fantastic opportunity first thing this morning and wanted to get it out to you asap. It’s an incredibly refreshing take on a stale “holiday.&#. You already did whatever you’re doing in terms of hearts, chocolates and morning kisses. Here’s what matters more-generosity, and changing our mindset on what that is, and simply practicing it.
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