Selfish Giving
JULY 21, 2010
Imagine this: you visit your local supermarket and are asked to support a local food pantry. You a buy a pinup for a buck. On your receipt is message that you can learn more about the cause you just supported by scanning this barcode with your smartphone. In your car before you leave the supermarket parking lot you run your iPhone over the barcode and a one minute video airs on a food pantry like no other.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
JULY 20, 2010
There are now over 143 million blogs on the Internet and when I launched Nonprofit Tech 2.0 in September of 2009, I had very low expectations. I wasn’t convinced at all that the world needed another blogger. But within a few months it was clear that blogging was the missing piece in my online communications strategy. 80% of my ROI (Return on Investment = webinar registrations, new clients, speaking engagements) comes from my e-Newsletter, and thanks to blogging my e-Newsletter list has jum
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Fundraising Coach
JULY 6, 2010
Have you ever asked someone trying to sell you a product if they use it themselves? It can be pretty illuminating. After all, if they don’t use the product, perhaps it’s not a good one for you to use either. So too with fundraising. If you’re asking for money, be sure to make your gift first. And make it in a way you’d expect others to give. If you’re asking others to consider a gift 10 times bigger than their annual fund gift (a common practice with capital campaigns), challenge yourself to do
The Agitator
JULY 15, 2010
On Tuesday Tom alerted us to Convio’s Benchmark Report on Online Fundraising for 2009. Today Blackbaud is out with another new Index – The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving. This fundraising index reports revenue trends on a monthly basis for 1,787 nonprofits representing $399 million in 12 month online revenue. The new Index is based on actual revenue stats, not just from Blackbaud customers, but other vendors as well.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
JULY 9, 2010
I can’t tell you how many times in the last year I’ve heard someone explaining to a newbie how to use an RSS reader for online/social media listening, only to quickly follow it with, “But I don’t really use mine anymore, because I subscribed to too many feeds and am overwhelmed.&# Not exactly the greatest endorsement for RSS readers.
Get Fully Funded
JULY 25, 2010
Let’s face it: most nonprofit newsletters are boring. They’re full of jargon and insider news that leave donors feeling less than connected. To make your donors read your newsletter from start to finish, it must include info that donors find interesting. Put yourself in your donor’s shoes: what would they care about? What would make them take time from their busy life to pay attention to what you’ve put in print?
Selfish Giving
JULY 12, 2010
A lot of people come to my blog for cause marketing advice, but Tricia Wilkerson, Senior Marketing Specialists at Conifer Health Solutions, found inspiration. While my posts didn’t uncover exactly what Tricia was looking for, they did get her thinking (she told me afterward) and I’m thankful she took the time to share with me the cause marketing program Conifer created.
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Fundraising Coach
JULY 20, 2010
I’m a fan of Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the most powerful concepts, in a book chock full of powerful concepts, is the idea of weekly planning. Daily planning is important, but that often amounts to no more than prioritizing emergencies. If you’re like most people, you get into your office, listen to voice mail while your computer is booting up and then check your email.
The Agitator
JULY 12, 2010
If you haven’t yet seen Convio’s benchmark report on online fundraising for 2009, founder Vinay Bhagat’s video summary should wet your appetite. Heaps of data here, based on results from some 600 Convio online fundraising clients. Some highlights: Individual giving down only 0.4% compared to 3.6% for all philanthropy; Online fundraising returns up 14% for 2009 over 2008; Even excluding Haiti fundraising, online returns through May 2010 up 20% over the same period in 2009.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
JULY 19, 2010
John Haydon is presenting this Wednesday’s webinar called Twitter for Nonprofits: The Truth about Tweeting for Your Cause (July 21, 2010, 12 pm ET / 9 am PT – One hour earlier than our usual time). If you aren’t sure about the best way for your nonprofit to use Twitter , this webinar will clear that up for you. I asked John to share some of his favorite Twitter tips, and he replied with 13 ways to get retweeted. 1.
Getting Attention
JULY 14, 2010
I want to welcome guest blogger Susie Bowie. As communications manager at the Community Foundation of Sarasota , she is a passionate and talented force helping organizations in the region develop their nonprofit marketing finesse. Today, Susie heralds her call to action to us nonprofit marketers… Recently, I’ve heard a couple of remarks about nonprofits and nonprofit staff that just kill me… First a local business person shared his view that “ most of us drawn to nonprofit le
Selfish Giving
JULY 19, 2010
Whenever I work with a business on a cause marketing program, especially point-of-sale–my bread-and-butter program–they usually ask that after helping a great cause how do they really measure what was gained from the partnership. It’s a good question, to which there is generally no clear answer, especially for a smaller businesses that can’t invest in focus groups or customer research to determine if cause marketing did what it’s suppose to do : enhance favorability
Nonprofit Tech for Good
JULY 7, 2010
I like to think of group text messaging campaigns as the e-newsletter of the Mobile Web – just much shorter. Over the last decade nonprofit communicators have been perfecting e-newsletters to drive traffic to their organization’s website, blog, Facebook Page, etc. and to keep supporters informed and engaged. Now that same concept is emerging in mobile communications.
Get Fully Funded
JULY 5, 2010
Too often, nonprofits get the gift and then move on, forgetting the most important parts of fundraising. Acknowledgement and stewardship are crucial for building relationships with donors. Acknowledgement you probably understand. It’s about thanking donors and recognizing them for their support. But what is stewardship? First, here are some definitions of a steward: ?
The Agitator
JULY 8, 2010
Yesterday I reminisced about the “old days&# when a small handful of “big brand&# media delivered the news that fueled the fire in the belly of donors to many causes. Through their coverage, those same media — NY Times, PBS, CNN, NPR — also provided the credibility that helped build many of the biggest “cause&# brands. Organizations like Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the ACLU.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
JULY 16, 2010
You have to be genuine, generous, and grateful in social media to succeed, which means you have to be a real person. But if you go too far in putting yourself out there — what some people would call building your personal brand — you can overshadow the nonprofit cause that you are representing. Finding this right personal/professional mix is challenging, especially for small nonprofits.
Getting Attention
JULY 28, 2010
Your nonprofit could be a 2010 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award winner! But only if you enter your organizational, fundraising campaign, program/service and/or special event taglines by midnight tonight. And, even if you don’t win this time roun d , all entrants will be invited to join me this fall in a game-changing webinar: How to Build Leadership Support for Critical Marketing Projects.
Selfish Giving
JULY 27, 2010
Hi. My name is Joe and I have Shiny Object Addiction. I naturally reach for the hot tool of the day. The latest devices, the iPad , the iPhone 4G. The cool services like Twitter , Foursquare and now QR codes. The techie productivity tools like Evernote and Dropbox. I do this because of peer pressure, buzz and the desire to be first. I have little regard for need or utility.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
JULY 2, 2010
Peak water is reached when the rate at which water demanded is higher than the rate at which the supply is replenished. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions. The nonprofits below are committed to reversing this trend through education and conservation in hopes of preventing the looming global water crisis: Twitter: Water.org.
Get Fully Funded
JULY 8, 2010
I interviewed Kivi Leroux Miller today about her new book “The Nonprofit Marketing Guide.&# There were several nuggets of wisdom that popped out of our conversation, and I thought I’d share them with you. Tell stories. Learn how to tell a story about a person your organization has helped. A good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
The Agitator
JULY 13, 2010
Pew Internet Research has released survey results indicating that 40% of adult American cell phone owners now use their cell phones to access the internet, email, or instant messaging. 34% (up from 25% in 2009) use their cellphones to access email. With outbound email appeals still the workhorse of online fundraising, I’m wondering what challenges this trend might present.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
JULY 2, 2010
I was going to wait until Tuesday to tell you about our new e-clinic for July , but what the heck. If you are at work today, you deserve a little bonus! (For those of you outside the U.S., this Sunday is Independence Day, which means most of America is slacking off today and Monday.). July 14 – July 30, I’m hosting an Online Marketing Spa for nonprofit communicators.
Getting Attention
JULY 21, 2010
Welcome to guest blogger Allison Van Diest. Allison, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Blackbaud, prides herself on being not only a marketing “artist” but a marketing “scientist” able to measure the marketing impact. She has some terrific guidance to share with you on shaping a tagline that works… What has less than 140 characters and tells the world what you’re up to?
Selfish Giving
JULY 29, 2010
Few users. Mostly male. Educated and influential among friends and family. It’s great, but wait until it becomes more mainstream before jumping in. Those are the findings of a recent Forrester study on location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt. You can check out the executive summary here. Forrester’s “wait and see&# findings on location-based marketing (LBM) are not new.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
JULY 28, 2010
Social networking communities are migrant communities. They move with you to The Next Big Thing i.e., from MySpace to Facebook to Twitter to Foursquare. Social media skeptics often say that it’s a waste of time to utilize social networking sites because they are here today, and then gone tomorrow. While it is definitely true these sites could be here today, and gone tomorrow, your supporters will indeed migrate with you on to The Next Big Thing.
Fundraising Coach
JULY 13, 2010
I was honored to be this week’s guest for 501 Video’s “Movie Mondays&#. My topic was: A Lesson learned from Angry Corporate Sponsors. I’m out here in Seattle filming a couple fundraising training DVDs. One is a DVD of “Ask Without Fear!&# The other is a blueprint for an entire year of fundraising. Both will have video and additional resources.
The Agitator
JULY 29, 2010
The “new and improved&# SOFII website has been launched. Per the website, “The SOFII collection aims to be the most comprehensive, best organised, and most inspiring collection of fundraising related content from around the world.” We think they deserve those bragging rights. The collection consists of three types of content: Exhibits: well-documented examples of fundraising campaigns, organized thematically into “Halls” and “Showcases;”.
Get Fully Funded
JULY 30, 2010
If you’re trying to raise money from donors, you must communicate with them. Donors are people with interests and feelings – not ATM machines or wallets. And to build relationships, we must communicate. Have you ever had a friend who only called you when they wanted something? Not much of a friendship, is it? You might fell taken advantage of or used.
Getting Attention
JULY 13, 2010
Enter your taglines today - organizational, fundraising, special event and/or program taglines – in the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards! I want to welcome guest blogger Jeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing. Jeff has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 20 years and blogging about it since 2005. T oday, he shares some guidance on what NOT to do with your nonprofit tagline… Writing a good tagline for an organization is one of the toughest challenges around.
Selfish Giving
JULY 5, 2010
Anyone who knows me knows how important my iPhone is to me, especially now that I have the super-fast 4G! Except for typing posts like this one, which I’m writing on my iPad , I do just about everything on my iPhone. This means I do a lot of my cause marketing business with my iPhone and the apps I download. Earlier I gave you five apps I use for cause marketing.
Care2
JULY 9, 2010
Make Audio a Vital Medium for Your Non-Profit. Using audio files may be more powerful than you think. The term multimedia brings to mind flashy video presentations. However, going lo-fi with your media can actually suit your needs more directly than video, text or still photography. Jill Foster , a communications consultant in DC, recently spoke to me about the virtues of stand-alone audio.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
JULY 13, 2010
If your online marketing program isn’t quite what it should be, these five webinars over the next three weeks can help! July 14: Integrating Your Website, Email Newsletter, and Social Media Sites. July 20: 10 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans. July 21: Twitter for Nonprofits: The Truth about Tweeting for Your Cause (Featuring John Haydon ). July 28: Building Your Lists of Email Subscribers, Friends, and Followers.
The Agitator
JULY 19, 2010
OK, if you followed the flow of Spectators Or Fans and Spectators or Fans – II , you could see this coming! I’m going out on a limb here and proposing a new set of definitions … A “giver&# is anyone who has made only one contribution to your nonprofit. A “donor&# is anyone who has: 1) given twice; and 2) given at least once in response to an appeal directly from your organization.
Get Fully Funded
JULY 22, 2010
Have you started a blog for your nonprofit organization and then got stuck trying to come up with content? If you don’t consider yourself a writer, it can be daunting to pull something together a couple of times a week. Here are some ideas for content: Tell stories about people you are helping. A story ALWAYS works! Remember to keep it short and compelling.
Getting Attention
JULY 26, 2010
Subject: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Visits HealthRight in Vietnam. Healthright-nonprofit-marketing. I was thrilled last Thursday to receive this timely e-news alert from HealthRight International. It’s nonprofit marketing at it’s finest. This scrappy organization doing fantastic grassroots public health work worldwide had learned just a week prior that it had a fantastic marketing opportunity on its hands: Hillary Clinton had selected its Smile of the Sun center in Hanoi (a
Nonprofit Marketing Blog
JULY 1, 2010
The Impact : Online fundraising studies have repeatedly proven that engaging donors through multiple channels – online and off – yields the best results, with donors giving more, more often. If you’re only relying on offline channels, you’re missing an opportunity to significantly increase giving. The Price : Adding online outreach to your fundraising strategy is a wise budgetary move.
Care2
JULY 26, 2010
Like crime, procrastination doesn’t pay. Literally. For many organizations nearly half of online fundraising revenue comes in during the month of December. But in actuality it takes months of preparation – building and stewarding an online community, inspiring donors, cultivating them, testing in advance of year-end and analyzing your metrics -- to really make the most of your year-end fundraising opportunities.
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