Selfish Giving
MARCH 28, 2011
I’ve admired UNICEF’s Tap Project since it began in 2008. Since then it’s raised $2.5 million. This year’s program wrapped up on Saturday and I’m sure they’ll add generously to this total. Have you visited the Tap Project web site ? There’s a lot cause marketers can learn and borrow from the site. This program is easy, turnkey and completely replicable.
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 8, 2011
This week, I’m pleased to introduce my friend Chris Forbes. Chris is a speaker, a comedian, and the author of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits. You can find him at [link]. By Chris Forbes. People have a physiological ability to ignore your marketing, but there is something you can do about it, try a little guerrilla marketing [amazon affiliate link].
Nonprofit Tech for Good
MARCH 9, 2011
Ninety percent of your nonprofit’s success on Facebook is dependent upon the Admin who manages your Facebook Page. If she or he doesn’t have the personality or passion to elicit Comments and Thumbs Ups in response to their Status Updates, then the ROI from your Facebook Page will be minimal. Community building on Facebook and other social networking sites is an art and finding your Facebook voice takes time and experimentation.
The Agitator
MARCH 16, 2011
Most nonprofits probably don’t think of themselves as providing ‘customer service’ … certainly not on the sense of merchants and retailers. But if you do think — for a moment — of donors and members as customers, your organization most likely does have quite a number of customer-like interactions — everything from address changes to info requests to merchandise and donation transactions.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
MARCH 29, 2011
I’ve run into more than the usual number of nonprofits who have crappy websites built by consultants lately. I’m not talking subjective design preferences here, but flat-out terrible decisionmaking and implementation. When I’ve questioned the nonprofit communications staff about these websites, the answer is always “The website consultant did it that way.&#.
Getting Attention
MARCH 17, 2011
Welcome back to guest blogger, Susie Bowie, Communications Manager at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County … There’s an unexpected stranger standing at the intersection between nonprofit organizations and creative agencies offering “free” website, advertising or marketing services. He has many names, but is most commonly known as “Why did we say yes?
Selfish Giving
MARCH 14, 2011
No sooner had the ground stopped shaking in Japan last week and people were already shaking their fists calling for a moratorium on cause marketing. It happens after every disaster (the last being after the earthquake in Haiti). I’m not saying that these calls for pause weren’t uncalled for. I’m just wondering whether cause marketing is really a disaster after disasters, or are people being overly sensitive or maybe even hurting they want to help.
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Nonprofit Tech for Good
MARCH 24, 2011
Your nonprofit’s social media campaigns are only as good as the social media manager running them. Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare are not miracle-producers. They are simply tools that can result in high ROI for your nonprofit, but only if the person sharing Status Updates, Twittering, and Checking-in on behalf of your nonprofit has the right skills, experience and training to make social media produce results.
The Agitator
MARCH 17, 2011
Especially if you work in a small nonprofit, you’ll find this video presentation by Tim Bete – 19 ways nonprofits can use social media to connect with donors — quite helpful. Tim is the communications guy at St Mary Development Corporation (focused on housing for the disadvantaged) in Dayton, Ohio. He’s the classic one-armed paperhanger small nonprofits know well!
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
MARCH 9, 2011
On Thursday, March 10, I’m presenting the webinar, Three Stories Every Nonprofit Should Be Telling. During the webinar, I’ll walk you through the three plots described below and give you examples and tips for how to tell these stories and how to use them in your marketing and fundraising. (This is also my most popular in-person workshop — I’ll be presenting it in Maryland next week , and in San Francisco on April 19.).
Nonprofit Marketing Blog
MARCH 3, 2011
It’s the question we all really, really want to answer: Why do people give, and how do we get them to give more? Okay, so maybe that’s two questions, but if you’re a fundraiser, the reason you ask the first question is you absolutely must answer the second. It’s your job. I’ve spent much of the past two months blogging about these questions as I chronicled research from 30 different PhDs in the The Science of Giving.
Selfish Giving
MARCH 24, 2011
Here’s a list of ten tech tools companies and causes can use for cause marketing to raise money and awareness. 1. Mobile. It’s hard to overstate the impact mobile will have on our lives and on cause marketing in the years ahead. To truly appreciate the explosion of mobile check out The Mobile Revolution. For cause marketing, mobile will require you to resize your thinking about how consumers use and process information.
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 4, 2011
I love going to Disney World in Florida. Disney has celebrations worked out to a science. Looking at this t-shirt today, I realized three things Disney’s taught me about celebrations and special events: Find excuses to celebrate. Disney seems to celebrate everything. Even a 1 year anniversary merits parades and fanfare. Think about your nonprofit.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
MARCH 14, 2011
A quick browse of nonprofits on YouTube reveals that the vast majority of nonprofits are not taking advantage of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program. Available to most nonprofits in United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, the program is free and only takes a few to minutes to apply. Once approved, which can take weeks and sometimes months (be forewarned), nonprofits are offered: Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity.
The Agitator
MARCH 20, 2011
I’ve been fiddling around with a list of favorite fundraising metrics … the fewest numbers I would most like to know about my/your donors to judge my/your direct marketing fundraising performance. Or the performance of our consultants, for that matter. How about this list … 1. Current net cost per new donor, by acquisition media (Most nonprofits must subsidize prospecting, so it’s OK for this number to be a negative one … but how negative?!).
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
MARCH 10, 2011
We all know how valuable photos are to telling our nonprofit stories. And decent point-and-shoot cameras are so affordable that we can do much of this photography ourselves. But then what? How do you organize your photos so you can actually find what you need? I asked one of my favorite nonprofit photography and storytelling teams, Throwing Light , to share their ideas with you.
Getting Attention
MARCH 29, 2011
Here’s how your nonprofit can win — big-time — with word-of-mouth marketing (w-o-m): Put traditional community organizing strategies to work. Thanks to Michael Silberman of Echo Ditto and Darren Barefoot of Biro Creative for sharing their creative guidance on w-o-m at the recent NTC (NTEN’s conference). I’m so eager to share it with you, as there’s huge potential for your nonprofit marketing impact.
Selfish Giving
MARCH 7, 2011
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the lack of online cause marketing solutions. Since then, a number of people have contacted me saying, “Yes, Joe, there are online cause marketing solutions! Please blog about them.&#. One of these people was David Neff , COO at Help Attack! As David explained, the premise behind Help Attack! is simple. Just as cause marketing was created to allow consumers to donate to good causes via their favorite businesses, Help Attack!
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 30, 2011
Today, I’m super excited to introduce, Sandy Wilder. Sandy is a database whiz and the BEST Raisers’ Edge trainer I’ve ever learned from. I’ve been bugging her for her thoughts on the ED’s role with a fundraising database. A version of this series inside 501MissionPlace.com. I’m honored to be able to share this three part series with you here!
Nonprofit Tech for Good
MARCH 22, 2011
The rise of QR Codes has helped many nonprofits understand the need for mobile websites, or at the very least mobile-optimized web pages. A QR code that launches a desktop-designed web page in a mobile browser just doesn’t make a whole of sense. Neither does linking to desktop sites inside smartphone apps, in group text alerts, or on location-based communities like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places.
The Agitator
MARCH 7, 2011
Usually I agree wholeheartedly with the advice proffered by Canadian fundraiser Fraser Green. But he recently wrote this article — Donors Love 60:40 — with which I beg to differ. Fraser argues that donors care primarily about what you do (i.e., the need you are addressing), and very little about how you do it (which he treats a sort of institutional ‘inside baseball’).
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
MARCH 22, 2011
Dan Heath, co-author of Switch: How to Change When Change Is Hard ( Amazon ) delivered a rousing keynote at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in DC last week. I read the book when it first came out, and was still completely enthralled by the presentation. I’m giving away a free copy of Switch — read on for details on how to enter the drawing.
Getting Attention
MARCH 30, 2011
We’re thrilled to welcome our newest guest blogger, Kimberlee Roth , one of our valued writers for consulting projects, writer for the Chicago Tribune and The Chronicle of Philanthropy among other publications, and author of Surviving a Borderline Parent. Here’s Kim… They waste paper, money, time; they’re a project management bear; besides, no one reads them anyway.
Selfish Giving
MARCH 2, 2011
I talk to more and more people every day who want to use Foursquare and other location-based services for fundraising and cause marketing. I point them to a whole series of posts I’ve written on the subject. But now I think I need to make the whole process just as simple as possible. Fortunately, I have some help as McDonald’s has just launched a Foursquare promotion with its restaurants in Philadelphia to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC).
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 1, 2011
I grew up with a mother working on her Masters in family counseling. So as kids, my sister and I got to read a lot of her homework. Seriously. She’d photocopy articles or chapters in books and have all of us read it. I know. I grew up in a weird house. But it was the 1970s and the 1980s and my parents were intellectuals! One of the systems I remember is “Transactional Analysis.&# We always had books like T.A. for Tots lying around the house.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
MARCH 30, 2011
Gowalla may not get the online buzz that Foursquare does, but where I live it’s more popular than Foursquare. Similar to Myspace and Facebook in 2007 and 2008, there’s seemingly a geographic difference between Foursquare and Gowalla users. In large urban areas Fousquare dominates, but in smaller towns across America (and the globe) there’s a growing number of Gowalla users.
The Agitator
MARCH 2, 2011
Strange are the thoughts that come to mind at fundraising gatherings. Last night I was blessed with the company of a lot of very smart women (and yes, smart men too) at a fundraising forum in southwest Florida. As I watched and listened, it occurred to me that the secret weapon that helps women excel at fundraising is, well, the purse. Let me explain.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
MARCH 15, 2011
Online fundraising will be a huge part of the conferences I’m attending this week. Just in time, Convio has released the latest update from its Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study. The report analyzes a variety of data (from fundraising to email files to web visits) from approximately 600 Convio clients who have collectively raised more than $1.15 billion in 2010.
Care2
MARCH 12, 2011
Looking to help the victims of the Japan earthquake and Tusanmi, but don’t know where to start? Frogloop compiled a list of resources of nonprofits, companies, and do-gooders who are using their tech-savvy and organizing skills to raise money and help locate missing people. By Roberto Maxwell. American Red Cross Text to Donate. The American Red Cross , who made mobile fundraising history after the Haiti earthquake is doing a terrific job in getting the word out about their texting to donat
Selfish Giving
MARCH 9, 2011
For 33 years Papa Gino’s and its sister company D’angelo have been raising money a buck at a time for Easter Seals and The Genesis Fund. What always distinguished this point-of-sale program from any other is that Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo didn’t use a traditional pinup. They chose a coupon book. I’ve been buying the coupon book for years!
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 2, 2011
Last week, I tried giving my “Ask Without Fear!&# Facebook page fans a special offer. Since they were already fans, I simply “updated fans&# with the content of the special offer. That didn’t work. I’m so glad I tweeted and updated my Facebook status. People replied to the tweet and status updates saying they didn’t get the message.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
MARCH 7, 2011
LinkedIn Groups can be very high in ROI as long as you’re patient and willing to invest at least an hour a week promoting and monitoring your LinkedIn Group. Unfortunately, many nonprofits have created LinkedIn Groups over the last few years and when results were not immediate, they abandoned their Group much too soon. It’s at that point that the spammers take over and once a LinkedIn Group becomes overrun with spam, forget it.
The Agitator
MARCH 30, 2011
Jerry Huntsinger is one of the best copywriters ever. So I tremble at the thought of disagreeing with him. But in this recent addition to his growing creative tutorial on SOFII, he applauds the emotional content and impact of a fundraising letter he shows us regarding mentally handicapped children. And indeed, the letter packs a wallop. Then he compares this to another fundraising appeal, this one from an organization that places special needs children for adoption.
Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog
MARCH 30, 2011
I asked for your storytelling questions at the beginning of March on Facebook, and answered a few of them with these posts: Three Stories Every Nonprofit Should Tell. Telling Stories When You Help Indirectly. Storytelling: Behind the Scenes at One Warm Coat. Here are my “lightening round&# answers to the remaining questions. Q: What are the different ways stories can be used and for what purpose?
Care2
MARCH 6, 2011
Will the Millennials be a generation of social activists or slacktivists? That’s a big question on nonprofits’ minds, which are trying to engage with them early in hopes of developing long-term relationships with these future donors. Unfortunately, Millennials have been portrayed as the “me generation&#. They are viewed as techies and quite fickle when it comes to activism.
Selfish Giving
MARCH 15, 2011
NEAHP – Cause Marketing for Health Care Organizations. Thanks to everyone who came out for our presentation yesterday at the New England Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. We had a great time and we hope you did too. Joanna and I think you’ll find these links helpful. What is cause marketing? Be sure to read the post it links to and all the comments. 8 Reasons Healthcare Organizations Should Do Cause Marketing.
Fundraising Coach
MARCH 12, 2011
I’m pleased to be providing fundraising coaching for Twestival organizers around the world. Here are some tips the team has developed over the last couple years. I’ve updated them this year and made sure they fit in 140 characters! Hopefully these will be helpful even if you’re not organizing a Twestival. (Organizers, these are also available in the Huddle workspace.).
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