Ann Green
JANUARY 11, 2017
At the end of November, I made year- end donations to 25 organizations. Because I was worried about people who would be left behind in the new administration, 11 of these were new donations. I wish I could tell you that all these organizations sent glowing thank you letters and have been following up with engaging updates and minimal additional requests for donations, but, alas, that is not the case.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JANUARY 12, 2017
I recently contributed an article to the Communications Network’s biannual journal, Change Agent , called It’s Time to Level Up! In the article, I challenged foundations and other funders to skip the one-off communications projects and invest in building the expertise of nonprofit communications directors. That’s how we’ll level up the marketing maturity of the sector, in my opinion.
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Selfish Giving
JANUARY 10, 2017
Today on CauseTalk Radio , Megan and I talk to Alex Meysman , national event director at Love Your Melon (LYM). The online retailer donates 50% of the profits from each sale made to find a cure for pediatric cancer and to support families impacted by cancer. From LYM’s Cyber Monday sales alone, they donated over $400,000 to Pinky Swear Foundation and CureSearch.
The Agitator
JANUARY 10, 2017
In a year-end post, Please Don’t Eat the Poinsettia , I noted that the field of fundraising is filled with lots of myths, aphorisms and the equivalent of ‘old wives tales’. Some are true, some are not, and many persist for which there’s little proof one way or the other. I promised that in 2017 we’d explore some of these as we intensify our focus on evidence-based fundraising as opposed to myth-based or even experience-based fundraising.
Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage
This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.
Fundraising Coach
JANUARY 10, 2017
Whether your fiscal year starts now or is only part of the way through, January is a good time to evaluate your fundraising progress. To help you're planning, here's an email I sent our Fundraising Kick subscribers yesterday. Good morning, Kickers! Listening to a conversation between Stephen R. Covey and his son Stephen M.R. Covey last week reminded me of the work you do with major donors.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JANUARY 10, 2017
Contributing Writer Antionette Kerr will be blogging this year for us on several topics, including cultural competency in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Working effectively cross-culturally is an especially important topic for people working in nonprofit communications. Many of your co-workers and community members will be looking to you for guidance when they have questions of their own.
Nonprofit Leadership Zone brings together the best content for advertising professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Agitator
JANUARY 8, 2017
In November The Agitator reported on a creative alternative to #GivingTuesday called #ThanksGivingTuesday. Organized by Heather McGinness , VP of Advancement at Concordia College-New York , this all-stakeholder event is testament to the power of genuine gratitude, skillful communication, and a mighty respect for donors. I checked back with Heather last week to find out how the bottom line turned out.
iMarketSmart
JANUARY 11, 2017
A lot of charities tout the fact that they take care of their own. Marines helping marines! Cancer patients helping cancer patients! And so on. But could doing so be a misguided marketing strategy? Research from a study published in December 2014 showed that compassion for distress actually became reduced among people who have “been there.” In other words, according to the study , having ‘been there’ doesn’t necessarily mean you care.
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JANUARY 11, 2017
We’ll release the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report on Tuesday, January 17 and I’m so excited to share it! We’ve uncovered some really interesting trends that I think will go a long way in continuing to build the effectiveness of communications teams. But for today, here’s a little data niblet to hold you over until next week: The level of confidence that nonprofit communications staff have in their skills is going up, but their job satisfaction is down.
NonProfit Hub
JANUARY 10, 2017
I always find it a little funny when I hear someone say, “The future is now.”. My immediate thought tends to be, “ But what does that even mean?” Frankly, it sounds like somebody is trying to be a little too philosophical. I liken it to when someone is sharing “the secret to life,” but really just spewing nonsense. This common phrase should be shifted to, “The future depends on the now.
Speaker: Gareth Webb & Phil Selley, Founding Partners at Intouch Business
For many nonprofit organizations and NGOs, managing grants and monitoring projects with spreadsheets and manual processes feels familiar—but is it holding your organization back? As funding requirements become more complex and stakeholder expectations for transparency grow, relying on outdated methods can lead to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and compliance risks.
The Agitator
JANUARY 12, 2017
Yesterday Tom asked, What Fundraising Skills are You Lacking? , and commenced to offer up his preference for metrics-oriented skills as the ‘most important’ while conceding equal importance to qualitative skills like ‘getting serious about planned giving’, ‘better story telling’, and ‘building a retention culture’ The evening before Tom’s post appeared I received a surprising email and an equally troubling opinion piece.
Concord Leadership
JANUARY 10, 2017
Being a leader means being ever committed to improving your communication skills. And how to deliver a joke so that people laugh with you, not despite you. Thankfully, speaker, comedian, and Second City alum Ron Tite shares a 3-minute master class from a performance at…Sunday’s Golden Globes awards! His post Brain Chatter: A 3-Minute Masterclass […].
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JANUARY 9, 2017
Sadly, I am out of stories to share for our Day in the Life of a Nonprofit Communicator Series. Won’t you send in yours? Communications directors, fundraisers, social media managers – anyone who communicates with supporters of a nonprofit – you are all eligible to participate in our Day in the Life series. We started this popular series over 3 years ago to get a glimpse into the everyday, nitty-gritty things you have to do for your job as a nonprofit communicator.
iMarketSmart
JANUARY 9, 2017
I’ll skip to the end and tell you how: Set some ground rules with whoever you ask to sign your fundraising letter. Usually, a letter signer won’t sign a fundraising letter for the following reasons: a. Because it doesn’t sound like her. b. Because it looks weird (i.e. the letter is long, has too many underlines, funky bold lettering, etc). c.
Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
The Agitator
JANUARY 11, 2017
I just sent a short article to my daughter, a newbie working at Saatchi & Saatchi. She has a very good intuitive sense of how to go about sizing up the ‘market’ for various brands, products and services, but I’ve gently urged her to match her instincts with a deeper capacity for analytics. So this article about customer data, Most marketers consider data analysis skills more important than social media skills , gave me a bit of welcome ammunition.
Getting Attention
JANUARY 10, 2017
This practical, doable marketing plan template takes you from goals to benchmarks, work plan, action, and impact! . Eeesh! Those New Year’s resolutions—including the ones we set for marketing and fundraising work—are so hard to keep. That’s because most resolutions are action items, rather than goals (the real “what we want to get to”).
Nonprofit Marketing Guide
JANUARY 13, 2017
Did y’all have a good week? Let’s cap it off with some Mixed Links… Kivi is quoted in this article by The Chronicle of Philanthropy that shares 10 Ways to Work Smarter in 2017. Care2, hjc, NTEN, and Resource Alliance are asking you to take a survey that will result in the 2017 Digital Outlook Report. CauseVox has put together a new resource for communication and fundraising directors that is a guide, template, and worksheet to help craft fundraising goals and a plan for the
The Agitator
JANUARY 9, 2017
Given that I’m hiding out in New Zealand, I probably received far fewer email fundraising appeals than most Agitator readers during the end-of-the-year bombardment. [In fact, my concealment is working, I can’t recall but one NZ-based charity ‘discovering’ me as an online target (compared to three mail appeals).] Most of what I did receive turned me off … I’m now a dedicated year-end NON-giver.
Speaker: Dave Sackett
Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.
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