October, 2009

article thumbnail

Active vs. Passive Cause Marketing

Selfish Giving

As a fan of pinup programs , especially for small nonprofits, I’m frequently asked how important the “ask&# is at the register. The ask happens when you’re checking out and and cashier says, “Would you like to donate a dollar to help ?&#. To understand why the ask is so important to the success of a pinup program, you needn’t look any further than the stores you visit everyday. “Do you need batteries for that?

Activism 245
article thumbnail

10 Tips for Managing Social Media Burnout

Nonprofit Tech for Good

Six months ago I came pretty close to complete social media burnout. I was running over 20 social networking profiles, logging in seven days a week, and at minimum pulling 60-hour work weeks. My brain was completely fried and those around me were getting pretty fed up with the fact that I was never present, only connected… online, all the time.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

3 reasons social media is worth the effort for local nonprofits

Fundraising Coach

This past week, I’ve been privileged to be on a couple panels introducing nonprofit organizations to social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Linked in. While I love these tools, I was quick to express that: They don’t replace all the good fundraising practices we’ve learned over the decades. “Social&# media is just that, social.

article thumbnail

Online Fundraisers – Back To Basics

The Agitator

Last Wednesday, I was pretty hard on nonprofits for not getting the basics right with respect to online fundraising, instead using scarce energy and resources to plow into the hottest new thing, like Twitter. That post generated some interesting comments, which I hope you’ll go back and read. When I wrote that post, I had just spent a week or so browsing about and reviewing a handful of nonprofit websites that I thought might have lessons to teach.

article thumbnail

Top 10 Things Donors Want from Your Nonprofit’s Website

Get Fully Funded

Thanks to my buddy Gail Perry for today’s post. ( www.gailperry.com ). . Did you know that most donors check out your web site before they make a gift? – whether they are giving on line or through the mail. A Kellogg Foundation study found that potentially up to 50% of your donors are going to want to check you out before they give, whether they give online or not.

article thumbnail

Mixed Links: Good Stuff for Nonprofit Communicators

Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

Here are several announcements and links that I think you’ll find helpful. Fundraising. For this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival , Nancy Schwartz shares the path to year-end communications and fundraising success. Network for Good has published a free guide called “ 25 Steps to Fall and Holiday Fundraising Success. &#. America’s Giving Challenge is back on.

article thumbnail

Foursquare: Social Media for Cause Marketing

Selfish Giving

Of all the different social media tools I’ve tried (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc.), a new one I just started using, Foursquare , probably has the most potential for cause marketers. Why? Because the backbone of Foursquare is the businesses at which its members visit, check-in and score points. When you pop into a store, bar or restaurant you can earn points, badges or can even become mayor of your favorite hangout if you “check in&# enough.

Marketing 229

More Trending

article thumbnail

Start your year-end fundraising letter strategy today!

Fundraising Coach

Have you started your year-end fundraising letter yet? Fiscal people can do funny things to the way we measure time. In our organization, our year-end was September 26 this year. Many schools and colleges work on a July-June calendar. Others end their year in February for a March start. But for our donors, year-end will always be December 31. And statistically, people tend to be the most generous leading up to year end.

article thumbnail

Boldly And With Outrageous Hope

The Agitator

Now that most of my fellow copywriters are focusing on year-end and holiday efforts, I want to share an unconventional but extraordinary appeal I received from an unusual source. Margaret Battistelli is the energetic and skilled Editor-in-Chief of Fundraising Success magazine and, probably like you, I hear from her a lot via emails announcing webinars, awards, special events and a variety of other activities of interest to our trade.

article thumbnail

New Study Reveals Nonprofits Still Need to Adapt Online Communications Best Practices

Care2

After studying over 50 international nonprofit organization's email lists and response rates, the 2009 eCampaigning Review Study revealed that 60% of nonprofits present a compelling argument for supporters to take action, yet close to 70% of the organizations did not send a follow up email within one month. 37% of nonprofits did not even bother to send a thank you email.

article thumbnail

You! Up Against the Wall!

Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

Or How NOT to Photograph Your Volunteer of the Month. A Guest Post by Claire Meyerhoff. Photos are the most wonderful (and cheapo) item in our Nonprofit Marketing Bag-O-Tricks. You probably already have a digital camera, so bring it to work and start taking some happy snaps of the fine folks doing great work for your good cause. Then. Send them to your board members.

article thumbnail

Sick of Pink Complainers

Selfish Giving

Sent to the Boston Globe this morning. Dear Editors, The Sick of Pink article in yesterday’s Globe Magazine was unfair to socially responsible companies in general and to New Balance , an outstanding corporate citizen, in particular. The whole story reminded me of another. A winemaker who despite having some of the best casks of wine in his town would nonetheless sample each one until he found a poor vintage for himself.

article thumbnail

Five Essential Apps for Your Nonprofit’s Facebook Page

Nonprofit Tech for Good

There are thousands of Apps in the Facebook App Directory that Nonprofit Admins could experiment with on your organization’s Facebook Page, but below I have highlighted my five favorite Apps to get you started: 1. The Static FBML App. The Static FMBL App is the most important App on Facebook for Nonprofit Admins to master. It allows you to add new boxes to your page that can include text, links, and images as long as you have a basic working knowledge of HTML ( View HTML Tip Sheet for Non

article thumbnail

Fundraising is NOT the “f” word

Fundraising Coach

I’ve been amazed at how afraid people can be of asking for money. Some even seem seem afraid of the very word “fundraising.&#. So I’ve found myself saying “Fundraising is not the ‘f’ word!&#. So, with the help of CafePress.com , I’ve created some t-shirts and tote bags, with that slogan on it. Even some Flip video cameras!

article thumbnail

Want To Start A Nonprofit? Think Again

The Agitator

That’s the advice from Kristin Ivie, writing in the invaluable blog, Social Citizens. Says Kristin: "I googled ‘how to start a nonprofit’ and got 44 million returns. You people have to stop." By "you people" she is referring in the first instance to her generation of Millennials, but her cautionary advice is relevant to anyone thinking of taking the founders leap!

article thumbnail

Email is Dead? Long Live Email

Care2

First there were rumblings that direct mail was dying. Then TechCrunch said Web2.0 was dying. Yea right! What medium is the next victim? Email, according to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Email is not king anymore because Web 2.0 platforms like Twitter and Facebook are the new king in town, said the WSJ. Could email really be fading away?

article thumbnail

E-Newsletter Makeovers: 5 Easy Design Fixes

Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

This Thursday I’m teaching a webinar called “ On-the-Spot E-Newsletter Makeovers: Get Your E-Newsletter into Better Shape.&# You can join us to get plenty of tips on how to makeover your own newsletter. Here are the details on participating — after you register, you’ll get directions on how to volunteer your newsletter for a makeover during the webinar.

article thumbnail

Halloween Town ‘09 by the Numbers

Selfish Giving

Halloween Town was great last weekend! Here’s a quick summary of the event “by the numbers.&# To compare them to last year’s results, click here. We’ll have the results on money in November when the rest of the pinup money comes in. @ashleyzolenski is also working on a social media wrap-up that I think you’ll find informative.

Activism 140
article thumbnail

HOW TO: Launch an iPhone App for Your Nonprofit for $25 a Month

Nonprofit Tech for Good

2010 is going to be the year that the large national and international nonprofits launch iPhone Apps. Many of those Apps are already in development (@ Kiva4iPhone ), but at this early in the game hiring someone to develop an iPhone App for your nonprofit is expensive. Very expensive. Large companies and some nonprofits are spending as much as $50,000 to build and launch an a iPhone App.

article thumbnail

My favorite fundraising tips

Get Fully Funded

I love tips! They’re short, quick, and to-the-point. Here are some of my favorite fundraising tips. 1. Let donors choose when they hear from you. I call this “Donor Choice.&# You have to have the infrastructure in place to make sure you can do this, but it’s worth it. On a survey or a reply card, let donors tell you that they only want to get an appeal during the holidays or just twice a year or whatever choices you want to give them.

article thumbnail

Sharing Is Sexy

The Agitator

Here’s a good NY Times article re the challenge of — and tools for — gettng other netizens to pass along your online content. For nonprofit fundraisers and cause advocates, there’s probably no breakthrough news here … we’ve all heard of viral marketing. Still, the piece is effective in presenting the challenge and its huge importance. "Sharing is sexy" says one blog urging its readers to spread its message.

article thumbnail

How to Write the Best RFP's

Care2

Did you know that there is an art to writing a good Request for Proposal (RFP)? A well written and informative RFP will generate thoughtful proposal responses to your specs and criteria and ultimately help guide you in choosing the right vendor for your nonprofit’s next project. A poorly written RFP on the other hand, which doesn’t provide basic information like Project Scope, Objectives, Target Audiences, Timelines, and Budget or asks the wrong questions can turn the RFP process int

article thumbnail

What Nonprofits Can Learn from Politico’s Success

Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Politico’s managing editor, Bill Nichols , over a dinner hosted by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. (I was there to teach local and state school choice advocates how to develop nonprofit marketing strategies.). Bill gave a fascinating presentation about the start-up of Politico, emphasizing many of the qualities that have turned it into one of the most popular and influential sources of national political news in just a couple of

article thumbnail

Your supporter is a participant, not an audience

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

As a nonprofit marketing person, I often talk to nonprofit groups about their “audience,&# but it’s a bad word. An audience brings to mind a group of people quietly listening while you deliver a message. And in this day and age, there is no such thing as a passive group of people content to simply listen. Everyone from your funders to your donors to your volunteers to your constituents expects participation.

article thumbnail

10 Popular #Hashtags for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Tech for Good

If used correctly, #hashtags can be very useful to nonprofits on Twitter. Hashtags allow your organization to participate and inspire conversations (and in the process get new followers) and organize the Twitterverse around campaigns ( #climatechange ) and events ( #openwebawards ). The problem is that there so many hashtags floating around on Twitter, that’s it tough to keep track of which hashtags work best and reach the most individuals.

article thumbnail

A few quick grant resources

Get Fully Funded

I’m getting my thoughts together for a Grantwriting class I’m helping with tomorrow and I thought I’d share a few resources I’ve collected. Enjoy! Step By Step Fundraising’s list of grant resources [link]. Guidestar www.guidestar.org. Pamela Grow’s Grantwriting Blog www.pamelasgrantwritingblog.com. Don Griesmann’s Grant Opportunities A frequently updated list of grants [link].

article thumbnail

Trust, Social Media And Fundraising

The Agitator

Cone, an agency known for its expertise in cause marketing, has released some findings from its 2009 study of how consumers interact with brands online. The Cone study looks in part at the role of social media in generating awareness and support for causes. Cone notes that 80% of respondents say that social media provide additional ways for them to support their causes.

article thumbnail

Twitter Adds Nonprofits to Suggested Users List

Care2

The New York Times says that a spot on Twitter’s “suggested users&# list guarantees 500,000 additional followers. CNET calls this the “New Socialism: a redistribution of attention, not of material wealth.&# Up until a few days there were less then a handful of nonprofits on Twitter’s “suggested users&# list. But things changed for the nonprofit world on Friday.

article thumbnail

Development and Social Media in a nutshell

Fundraising Coach

In the last three weeks, I’ve given five talks about social media and fundraising to various groups of development officers. Today I was asked to sum up one of the sessions. Summing up social media without slides is challenging but here was my attempt: Social media is real. Social media is “social”—be prepared to dialogue. Social media is about people—completely fill out your profile and prepare to be personable.

article thumbnail

Four essential tweaks to your appeals in a recession

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

The Chronicle of Philanthropy today said the nation’s biggest charities are forecasting a 9 percent decline in giving this year - the biggest drop since the publication started tracking private donations in the early 90s. In an interview with the radio program Marketplace, publisher Stacy Palmer said it’s affecting how nonprofits ask for money: One of the things most nonprofits are very aware of is that some people don’t have jobs and they can’t appeal to them, so they

article thumbnail

Social Media is Going Mobile, and So Should Your Nonprofit

Nonprofit Tech for Good

As the Web goes mobile , so does social media… and so should your nonprofit. If there is one thing I have learned over ten years of using the Internet for fundraising and social change, those nonprofits that can embrace change quickly, empower their visionaries, and adopt new Web trends, reap the benefits of being early adopters. The Web and how people use it is transforming quickly.

article thumbnail

Monday Morning Motivation

Get Fully Funded

I received this from my friend Barb Talisman recently. It’s so good, I wanted to share it with you. In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70-something birthday. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older. And, there on television, she said it was “exciting.”. Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring every day… like her breasts.

50
article thumbnail

Distracting Social Media Stats

The Agitator

Although you know I hate to fan your social media flames, here are the latest social media usage stats from the Pew Internet Project. Some highlights: 46% of online American adults are social network site (SNS) users. This figure was only 8% on February 05. Of these, 73% have Facebook accounts, 48% use MySpace, 14% use LinkedIn. 45% of SNS users have college or advanced degrees (now I’m getting more interested), compared to 35% of the entire online population.

article thumbnail

Measuring Social Media ROI: What Does it Really Mean?

Care2

Everyone has an opinion about social media and the value it adds nonprofits. Your Executive Director wants you have it, and how can you tell a funder you don’t have a social media presence. The Communication Director sees it as another medium to “reach the public&#. The energy and enthusiasm of cutting edge staff is infectious as they tell you about their tweets, Facebook posts, blog posts and goofy, cool videos they watch.

Energy 52
article thumbnail

The Why Behind the Disconnect -- Supporters Embrace Orgs Online, but Don't Give There

Getting Attention

. A new research report just released by cause branding pros at Cone shows that 79% of those online are behind orgs harnessing email, Web sites and social media to build awareness, grow giving and motivate action. Better yet, 60% of this group has engaged with one or more cause -- from forwarding an email to a friend to purchasing a cause-branded product.

article thumbnail

Is philanthropy ready for the new consumer?

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

This is the topic of a recommended new white paper from the marketing agency BBMG. I very much agree with the findings, which assert that consumers are expecting three things of brands: 1. Practical benefits: An understanding of how the brand improves their life in personal and practical ways. 2. Social benefits: Proof of how the brand makes a difference in the world or at least is not contrary to their value set. 3.

article thumbnail

HOW TO: Create Videos for Your Nonprofit Without a Video Camera, a Budget of $0, and Little-to-No Tech Skills

Nonprofit Tech for Good

Animoto is a service that allows you to create videos about your nonprofit using a selection of your organization’s best photos. Within a few minutes and a couple of clicks, your nonprofit could have a new promotional video that you can use on your Web site, your Blog, in your e-mail newsletters, and on social networking sites. An Animoto video created by the American Cancer Society is good example of how photos, music, and simple text can tell a story and convey a message of gratitude to