Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 27, 2011

I love zombie films. I can’t get enough of them, especially around Halloween when the shadows from the leafless trees take on ominous shapes. Yikes! While you may not share my love for the semi-dead, you might agree with this: most of us are surrounded by these mute, will-less, dumb, sometimes evil and dangerous brutes everyday. The zombies stalking nonprofits are the people and situations they face daily that threaten their success and risk plunging them into a zombie apocalypse.

Retail 278

Retail Nonprofits Marketing Marketing 278

Nonprofit Tech for Good

OCTOBER 31, 2011

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the newly released book Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits. These best practices serve as a foundation for upgrading your website to be compatible with the Social Web and are then elaborated upon in the upcoming webinar How Nonprofits Can Successfully Utilize Online Fundraising and e-Newsletters.

Nonprofits 105

Nonprofits Technology Values Culture 105

Get Fully Funded

OCTOBER 29, 2011

Many people are being wildly successful in fundraising these days. After working with several, I’ve noticed that share a few things in common. 1. The are passionate about their cause. They believe deeply in the work their nonprofit does and they love seeing loves changed. 2. They are willing to do whatever it takes to see their nonprofit organization succeed.

Fundraising 99

Fundraising Fundraising Nonprofit Organizations Nonprofit Organizations 99

The Agitator

OCTOBER 16, 2011

Two of the biggest technological curses infecting fundraising are Word and Excel. Microsoft might be the archenemy of intelligent fundraising. Word, with its copy and paste function has demeaned and degraded copy to the point where we’ve convinced ourselves that the homogenized gruel we serve our donors is truly good copy. Heaven help us. [I've warned about 'copy & paste' in a broader context before!].

Fundraising 97

Fundraising Fundraising Technology Retention 97

Fundraising Coach

OCTOBER 11, 2011

As the economy continues to falter (or barely grow), we need people’s donations more than ever. But if we operate from a place of “need,” we can start sounding like we think we’re entitled to people’s money. We never are. So it’s more important than ever that you have your donor relations system in hand. Here are some things to be thinking about as you review your plan.

Fundraising 95

Fundraising Fundraising Nonprofits 95

Fundraiser Ideas

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Opening your heart to a child who needs a family to love him or her is a blessing for both you and the child. However, many adoptive-parents-to-be struggle with affording the costs associated with the adoption process. Following are 10 excellent adoption fundraising ideas that can help you bring that new family member home. Host a themed dinner event.

Fundraising 89

Fundraising Fundraising Associations Production 89

Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Selfish Giving and Cone Communications , a leading public relations and marketing agency that specializes in cause marketing, are teaming up to share our top “pinktober” cause marketing promotions. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and companies are partnering with breast cancer charities on a variety of “pink” promotions.

Retail 272

Retail Production Foundations Marketing 272

Get Fully Funded

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Are you fundraising on purpose? That may seem like a silly question. But it’s one that needs to be answered. So I’ll ask it again. Are you fundraising on prpose? Or are you just taking whatever comes along? There’s a big difference. When you’re fundraising on purpose, you have a plan. You’ve put some thought into what you want to do to raies money and which groups of donors and prospects you want to approach, and how you’ll do it.

Fundraising 95

Fundraising Fundraising Activism Nonprofits 95

The Agitator

OCTOBER 4, 2011

Yesterday I pointed readers toward the powerful infographics used by Charity:Water and asked for some additional nominees. Here’s an infographic from Blackbaud that tells it all with respect to the revenue benefits of multi-channel fundraising. You can view the original in larger size here. One thing infographics force you to do is focus on the absolute essentials of your message.

Fundraising 96

Fundraising Fundraising Communication 96

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Cartoon courtesy of Tom Fishburne, Marketoonist. This is just too brilliant not to share. Tom Fishburne is so smart. So what are the 7 deadly sins of fundraising? What would you say? Sloth: Whatever we put in last year’s appeal. Envy: Silicone wristbands! Because it worked for Lance! Greed: Forget the thank-you note - just send another appeal!

Fundraising 87

Fundraising Fundraising Marketing Marketing 87

Fundraiser Ideas

OCTOBER 18, 2011

When people talk about fundraising, we often think of a group of people getting together and raising money for an organization. However, what about the times when it’s just you trying to raise money for a worthy cause that is dear to your heart? Following are 10 simple fundraising ideas that you can implement: Door-to-door. It may sound old fashioned, but there is a reason why big organizations still use door-to-door fundraising as their primary method.

Fundraising 88

Fundraising Fundraising Advertising Non-Profits 88

Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Singing statues at Halloween Town! Click to watch. At nearly $7 billion in sales, Halloween is a frighteningly successful holiday - second only to Christmas in consumer spending. But for fundraisers Jack Skellington ‘s Halloween is #1. Halloween is social. Halloween isn’t the family holiday that Thanksgiving and Christmas are. Parents parade their kids out in neighborhoods, and costume parties for all ages are everywhere.

Fundraising 248

Fundraising Fundraising Homelessness Recruitment 248

Nonprofit Tech for Good

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Defying its name, Tumblr user growth has accelerated dramatically in 2011 ( up 218% over last year ) and the eleven nonprofits listed below are paving the way for early adoption in the nonprofit sector. Part-blogging, part-social networking community, Tumblr makes an interesting choice for blogs that are specific to a campaign or cause – especially if you have a lot photos and videos to share.

Nonprofits 101

Nonprofits Technology 101

Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I’m a nonprofit marketing geek, so I get really, super excited about things like awesome nonprofit thank you emails. That’s why you are here, right? This week I received a thank you email from Stacey Monk of Epic Change. You may know Stacey and her organization as one of the shining examples of using Twitter for fundraising via campaigns like Tweetsgiving/Epic Thanks and To Mama with Love.

Nonprofits 83

Nonprofits Marketing Marketing Fundraising 83

The Agitator

OCTOBER 4, 2011

Yesterday I pointed readers toward the powerful infographics used by Charity:Water and asked for some additional nominees. Here’s an infographic from Blackbaud that tells it all with respect to the revenue benefits of multi-channel fundraising. You can view the original in larger size here. One thing infographics force you to do is focus on the absolute essentials of your message.

Fundraising 96

Fundraising Fundraising Communication 96

Getting Attention

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Mindmap: Jane Genovese. Thanks to my friend and colleague Beth Kanter for sharing her insights in this guest post. Beth is a persistent innovator in guiding nonprofits to power greater change as networked users of social media tools. She recently partnered with Alison Fine to author The Networked Nonprofit , a superb guide to doing so. This morning I learned a new word for information overload – “content fried” from a colleague at the Packard Foundation.

Management 80

Management Foundations Activism Marketing 80

Fundraiser Ideas

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Raising money for a great cause isn’t necessarily hard; raising large amounts of money is, however. One way to raise substantial funds is to offer your stakeholders something unique. The following nine unique fundraising ideas aren’t all huge moneymakers. Instead, I’ve presented a wide array of unique fundraising ideas in order to whet your appetite for atypical fundraising events.

Fundraising 83

Fundraising Fundraising Values Non-Profits 83

Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 3, 2011

October is here and millions will be raised this month with cause marketing for breast cancer organizations. Two of the best known are Komen for the Cure and Breast Cancer Research Foundation. These large organizations with their national partnerships will raise the lion’s share with their “pink” products and promotions, but they won’t be the only ones raise money with cause marketing.

Marketing 244

Marketing Marketing Retail Production 244

Nonprofit Tech for Good

OCTOBER 30, 2011

This holiday season your friends, family, clients, work colleagues, and major donors will likely be deluged with hundreds of tweets, status updates, and emails wishing them “Happy Holidays!” That’s the Web we all now live and work by, but this year a good old-fashioned holiday greeting with a hand-written note sent via snail mail would likely make a very strong impression – especially if the proceeds benefit a nonprofit.

Children 100

Children Associations Education Education 100

Fundraising Coach

OCTOBER 4, 2011

My friend Joe Waters got me to seriously think about cause marketing. Thanks to him, I’ve now been seeing cause marketing everywhere…sort of like when you buy a car and then start seeing them all over the place. Enough already. Today was a bit over the top. I was on a Delta flight back from conducting a board orientation in Chattanooga. As the beverage service was about to start, the stewardess told us that Delta’s annual tradition in October was to sell pink martinis and pink

Marketing 80

Marketing Marketing Food Fundraising 80

The Agitator

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Of all the tributes I’ve read to Steve Jobs, this observation from Seth Godin most struck me … “Steve devoted his professional life to giving us (you, me and a billion other people) the most powerful device ever available to an ordinary person. Everything in our world is different because of the device you’re reading this on.

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Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

OCTOBER 20, 2011

That’s the question that the MetroWest Health Foundation asked today on Twitter. Turns out that the current name of the e-newsletter is . ”E-Newsletter.” Here’s what it looks like. I do have a ton of nonprofit e-newsletters in my inbox called “E-Newsletter” so it’s not like that’s a horrible thing.

Health 77

Health Foundations Values Associations 77

Fundraiser Ideas

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Halloween is a scary time of year, but it can and should be fun! We go trick-or-treating but, it seems, most people forget the trick. The real trick is to have fun. Raising money for your charity is a necessity, but you can have fun at the same time. There’s a really neat way to combine the Halloween holiday with a fundraising activity that you can host year after year without really ever repeating yourself.

Fundraising 81

Fundraising Fundraising Activism Non-Profits 81

Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 25, 2011

It’s something that comes up again and again. Will consumers buy a product or use a service just because it supports a cause? I don’t buy it, and fizzled experiments from Causeon to Edun to CauseWorld to GoodSearch show that while consumers do indeed want a world with causes, a cause world is a different matter. Brand and margin lead (e. g.

Production 243

Production Food Ethics Marketing 243

Nonprofit Tech for Good

OCTOBER 30, 2011

Last week I did a 30-minute interview with Rey Ybarra at the New Media Radio Hour – my first radio interview ever! The topics of discussion ranged from how the Web and its tools have evolved over the 15 years to the importance of early adoption to why your social media campaigns are only as good as the human behind them. You can listen to a podcast of the interview about Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits.

Nonprofits 96

Nonprofits 96

Fundraising Coach

OCTOBER 31, 2011

A couple months ago, I was asked why I thought Google+ is great for job seekers. Here’s what I replied: I am an executive coach and a geek who loves G+. Here are five reasons I think G+ would be fabulous for job seekers. Like Twitter, you can follow anyone without having to have them follow you back or “connect” with you. This is huge for job seekers looking to connect with new people.

Culture 79

Culture Fundraising Fundraising Nonprofits 79

The Agitator

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Of all the tributes I’ve read to Steve Jobs, this observation from Seth Godin most struck me … “Steve devoted his professional life to giving us (you, me and a billion other people) the most powerful device ever available to an ordinary person. Everything in our world is different because of the device you’re reading this on.

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Nonprofit Marketing Blog

OCTOBER 30, 2011

Following yesterday’s post about a new eGuide available free from Idealware ( Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide ), today I have five pieces of advice from the guide. 1. IT TAKES TIME. If you want some success from using a social media channel, count on spending at least two hours a week on it. 2. TWITTER IS A SPECIALIZED STREAM. Twitter skews older and more tech-savvy than other popular social media.

Nonprofits 76

Nonprofits 76

Fundraiser Ideas

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Raffles are an excellent way for your organization or cause to raise money. For a small amount of money, people get a chance to win a much more valuable prize. Following are 10 raffle ideas you can’t afford to miss. Table raffle. In a table raffle, donated items are laid out on tables with jars in front of each. Ticket buyers place their raffle tickets in the jar in front of the prize they’d like to win.

Law 80

Law Fundraising Fundraising Non-Profits 80

Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Last week I was meeting with a friend and talking cause marketing, of course. He explained he had recently seen a cause marketing promotion between the Arthritis Foundation and Massage Envy and thought it was a great partnership. Massage Envy customers, Arthritis sufferers and their supporters would benefit from the therapeutic touch of massage and the Arthritis Foundation would reap a donation.

Marketing 237

Marketing Marketing Children Retail 237

Nonprofit Tech for Good

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Truth be told, I much prefer the anonymity of being “Nonprofit Organizations” online ( Twitter , Facebook , YouTube , etc.) over being “Heather Mansfield,” but writing and promoting Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits has required that I step out of my comfort zone a bit and put a face and voice to human being behind the “Nonprofit Organizations” avatar.

Technology 95

Technology Nonprofits Nonprofit Organizations Nonprofit Organizations 95

Fundraising Coach

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Fundraising is hard. You’re asking people to do something they probably haven’t considered doing yet. So they need to be helped through the process. (After all, they’ve given it far less thought than you have!). And then there’s the news. It can distract and demoralize. If you listen to it, it’s easy to start filling your mind with negative stories about why people can’t give.

Fundraising 78

Fundraising Fundraising 78

The Agitator

OCTOBER 2, 2011

At first glance, this article from the McKinsey Quarterly — We’re all marketers now — might seem too ‘foreign’ to the experience of nonprofits and fundraisers to bother with. But I urge you to read it. Believe me, it does apply. First, it argues that marketers need to adjust to a “new era of deep customer engagement” where ‘push’ advertising and promotion no longer work effectively.

Marketing 93

Marketing Marketing Retail Retention 93

Getting Attention

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Thanks to guest blogger, Kimberlee Roth, one of our team’s valued writers. Kim has written for the Chicago Tribune and The Chronicle of Philanthropy among other publications, and provides writing and editing services to universities, health systems and other nonprofits. Sometimes it just makes sense to hire a professional. I don’t cut my own hair, prescribe my own medications or tile my own shower; when I was offered a book deal several years ago, my agent stepped in to negotiate, and my attorne

Medical 75

Medical Universities Philanthropy Health 75

Nonprofit Marketing Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2011

This is my October column for Fundraising Success magazine. Enjoy! I’ve been working for more than 20 years, and sometimes I wish I could go back to my younger self and share some hard-won wisdom. How lovely it would be to whisper in my young ear the knowledge that would save a lot of mistakes, tears and frustration. The only problem is, I wouldn’t have any of that knowledge without years on the job and life experience spent regularly, sometimes spectacularly, failing.

Energy 75

Energy Activism Values Communication 75

Selfish Giving

OCTOBER 13, 2011

My friend David Neff is a pretty incredible guy. He’s an author. He’s a fright master during the Halloween season. And he starts cool things like Lights. Camera. Help., a nonprofit that helps other nonprofit use film and video to tell their stories. David even hosts an annual film festival in Austin, TX to showcase films-for-a-cause. A big winner in the festival this year was the documentary On Coal River.

Non-Profits 223

Non-Profits Marketing Marketing Children 223

Nonprofit Tech for Good

OCTOBER 5, 2011

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in the newly released Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits. The best practice listed below are result of spending the last three years maintaining and building the Social Media for Nonprofit Organizations LinkedIn Group. These best practices will also be demonstrated live in the upcoming webinar How Nonprofits Can Successfully Use Twitter and LinkedIn. 11 LinkedIn Group Management Best Practices. for Nonprofits.

Management 79

Management Nonprofits Activism Production 79