September 1st, 2010 by Elizabeth Ricca
Come one, come all to the nonprofit blog carnival. We Ducks are hosting the September edition, and we know you’re as excited as we are*.
‘Tis the season for freshly-sharpened pencils and year-end appeal strategies, so we invite you to submit your best and brightest blog posts on this month’s theme:
Back to school in nonprofit communications
If you’re a blogger, here’s how it works:
- Write a blog post that relates to this month’s theme, or sift through your recent posts for one that fits the bill.
- Submit your permalink to the Nonprofit Blog Carnival, or just email it to nonprofitcarnival [at] gmail [dot] com) by Tuesday, September 28.
- Visit the Duck Call on Thursday, September 30, and eagerly hit “refresh” until the carnival goes live to find out if we’ve included your post.
If you’re a reader, here’s how it works:
- Visit the Duck Call on Thursday, September 30, and eagerly hit “refresh” until the carnival goes live. Read lots of helpful articles that will make you feel that first-day-of-school excitement all over again.
The nonprofit carnival is a great opportunity to drive traffic back to your own blog, so we hope you’ll submit a post and tell all your friends to do the same. We’re most likely to include posts that are recent, easy to read, and (at least loosely) related to theme.
Check out August’s carnival to see the excitement in action—the topic is “creative ideas you can make your own,” and it’s hosted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog.
See you at the carnival…
* If you’re asking yourself, “what the heck is a blog carnival?”, this is the link for you.
Tags: nonprofit blog carnival
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August 27th, 2010 by Elizabeth Ricca
- In these times of email overload, your nonprofit’s messages have to work hard to separate themselves from the pack. Check out these tips from Brian Clark on Copyblogger to help you write email subject lines so awesome, your recipients can’t help but click.
- Facebook makes my head ache sometimes (okay, most of the time), so it’s nice to be reminded of the ways it helps nonprofits do good in the world—like this interesting post from Inside Facebook, examining how the Red Cross uses Facebook to support disaster relief efforts.
- Does your nonprofit have an official Place on Facebook? Get ready for check-ins with these tips from Nonprofit Tech 2.0.
- Recent research from Pew Internet shows that millenials are eager online sharers, and they’re not likely to grow out of the habit anytime soon. What does this mean for your nonprofit, both in the workplace and as you reach out to younger donors?
- A little online eye candy to sweeten your Friday afternoon: TIME magazine’s 50 best websites of 2010. Commence oohing and aahing.
A weekly roundup of interesting reads from the online world of nonprofit communications. Follow me on Twitter @elizabethricca for more noteworthy links.
Tags: best websites of 2010, facebook, Facebook Places, millenials, nptech, roundup, subject lines
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August 24th, 2010 by Sarah Durham
Just got back from the 2010 New York Nonprofit Conference of the DMA Nonprofit Federation, where I spoke on a panel about blogging with Katya Andresen, Jeff Brooks, Roger Craver and Karen Zapp. I got there in time to hear the keynote by Dan Pallotta, the founder of Pallotta Team Works and author of “Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential” .
Pallotta gives good keynote, and now I’m wishing I’d added his book to my summer reading list. I’ll order it today. His talk emphasized the challenges of working in a sector that plays by different rules than for-profit companies do. In particular, he waxed poetic about the disadvantages of paying nonprofit leaders less than their for-profit counterparts, our obsessive focus on keeping overhead costs low, and the lack of risk-taking. While his ideas might seem controversial to some, it was clearly music to the ears of the fundraisers in this crowd.
I often think that the nonprofit sector’s resistance to branding, or perhaps investing in effective communications in general, is penny-wise and pound foolish. After all, branding is the way you build an effective platform for communicating about your mission. It’s the foundation of the house- a critical starting point. Why start campaigning, eg, raising money for a new roof, when the fundamental structure is flawed?
Kim Klein’s new book, “Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times” raises of few of the same points Pallotta discussed. In particular, Klein worries that an organization that won’t invest in comfortable office space, appropriately paid staff, or other fundamental tools necessary to run a business essentially hamstring themselves.
While I wish Pallotta had spent a bit more time talking about solutions and less time preaching to the converted, I’m with him. And if you work in a nonprofit where you’re trying to convince leadership that investing in your own capacity is a good idea (regardless of how it impacts the percentage of your costs that go to overhead versus programs), I suggest you check these two books out.
Tags: Brandraising, capacity
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August 20th, 2010 by Elizabeth Ricca
- Facebook has jumped into the location game this week with the launch of Places, an application that lets users “check in” to venues and share their real-time location with Facebook friends.
What it means for nonprofits, and whether it will overtake, complement, or prove irrelevant to the success of similar popular applications like foursquare, remains to be seen. For now, a big initial concern is (surprise, surprise) privacy: check out this post from ReadWriteWeb for instructions on how to update your Facebook account privacy settings in light of the new features.
- Should that button say “Donate” or “Give”? When in doubt, look to the data. Elliot Harmon on TechSoup Blog has put together a great post about the ins and outs of A/B testing, and how your nonprofit can use it to improve your communications.
- Whether or not your nonprofit is active in social media, sooner or later, you’ll probably need to respond to a tough or touchy topic raised by a member of your community online. It can’t be avoided, but Chris Tuttle on NetWits Think Tank has put together some strategies and tips for how to approach sensitive situations when they arise.
- Given the speed at which the digital world is changing, the future of online communications is unpredictable at best. How can nonprofits make smart choices about where to invest time and energy online? Brett Meyer on NTEN’s blog reviews some recent prognostications about what’s to come on the Web, and breaks down what they mean for nonprofits.
- Does your web writing need a makeover? Kevin Cesarz offers some helpful tips for structuring your online copy to let the content truly shine.
A weekly roundup of interesting reads from the online world of nonprofit communications. Follow me on Twitter @elizabethricca for more noteworthy links.
Tags: A/B testing, facebook, nptech, privacy, roundup, social media, writing for the web
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August 20th, 2010 by Madeleine Milan
Wednesday night was 501 Tech NYC’s August meetup, so Farra and I headed off to Witness (this month’s kind hosts) to hear Deanna Zandt share her thoughts on social media, organizing and nonprofits from her new book, Share this! Social media organizing for nonprofits.
Rather than get tangled up in nitty-gritty tactics, the discussion stayed on big-picture themes for successful social media organizing – important stuff that’s easy to forget in the day-to-day reality of managing your social media presence.
Highlights included learning what Kermit the Frog can teach us about social media (answer: a lot) from Deanna’s Ignite presentation on the subject. Watch the video here, or take a look at my other key takeaways below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 501technyc, nptech, NTEN, social media, storytelling
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August 13th, 2010 by Elizabeth Ricca
- Do you survey your supporters? On the Emma blog, Carolyn Kopprasch offers tips on how to craft your next survey so that it generates helpful responses and useful insight.
- Email, snail mail, television, websites—name any communications channel, and I’ll bet we can find someone, somewhere, who has declared it “dead”. These pronouncements are generally more sensational than they are accurate, but Steve MacLaughlin has proposed a compelling candidate for an obituary: single-channel communications. It’s a multi-channel world out there, friends.
- Know you need to step it up in social media, but not so tech-savvy? Not to worry. Lindy Dreyer on SocialFishing has compiled a list of easy-to-use tools to get you started listening and responding online.
- Your organization may not have the resources to implement a dedicated PR strategy, but you do have a website (right?). Make good use of your site to communicate with the media with the help of this handy checklist from Hannah Brazee Gregory on Philanthropy Journal.
- Before you invest resources in that new campaign idea, why not make sure it resonates with your audience? Matt Howes on Frogloop suggests some tools and tactics for test driving your marketing concept before you build it out.
A weekly roundup of interesting reads from the online world of nonprofit communications. Follow me on Twitter @elizabethricca for more noteworthy links.
Tags: campaign, multi-channel, nptech, PR, roundup, social media, survey
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August 10th, 2010 by Sarah Durham
Have you seen those great new commercials for Old Spice? If you haven’t, check out the ‘I’m on an internet’ channel on YouTube before you read this- and get ready for a good laugh.
I love these commercials because they’re funny, smart, memorable, and undeniably Old Spice. There are lots of ads that make you laugh but are so loosely tied to what they’re selling that you’ll remember the ad but not the product behind it a day or so later. Entertaining, perhaps. Good for sales? Probably not.
Old Spice did a several really smart things with this campaign that any business–including a nonprofit–can learn from.
- They didn’t ignore their reputation. Old Spice embraced their reputation as an old-school manly cologne/product, and all of the possible clichés that come with it. Then they turned them on their head–making it current, funny and hip. Your organization’s reputation is key to your brand’s success, and it’s hard to control or shape. Why not admit what’s working and what’s not and use it- rather than fight it? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: brand, messaging, old spice, Twitter, YouTube
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August 5th, 2010 by Rachel Hope Allison
The hottest NYC summer in years isn’t the only reason we’re dreaming of the holidays here at Big Duck (though a cold snap sounds pretty glorious right about now). Many nonprofits receive as much as 40 percent of their annual donations during the month of December, and we know that early planning is key to making the most of your year-end fundraising season.
But where do you actually start? More than almost anything, the strength of your campaign will depend on finding the right year-end story to tell your donors—and then telling it through every channel you’ve got. But how do you home in on a year-end story that’s both rooted in emotion and makes an urgent case for giving? Here are a few questions to get you started:
- Are you starting your story with a challenge? Telling your donors all of the amazing things you’ve already accomplished is great, but it doesn’t belong at the beginning of your year-end story. Donors need to know why you need them now, not six months ago. Start your year-end story by telling donors what challenges you’ll be able to successfully tackle in 2011 if enough funds are raised now.
- Are your goals achievable? The eyes of even the most dedicated conservationist will glaze over if you say next year’s goal is to “solve global warming.” Try “getting the clean energy bill passed in the Senate” instead. Focusing on a challenge that donors can wrap their minds around lends credibility—and helps them feel part of a real solution.
- Does your year-end story fit with your organization’s story? Review your organization’s mission and founding story. Does your year-end story reflect the emotion and inspiration of that mission? Wrap up your year-end story by making it clear why December’s goals are a natural and compelling next step in your organization’s path.
Once you decide what story will be at the core of your year-end campaign, here are a few more resources to help you feature that story as effectively as possible through your web, email and social media channels.
- Be sure to check out the whitepaper “The Overachiever’s Guide to Year-End Fundraising” from Sea Change Strategies’ Alia McKee Scott and Care2’s Eric Rardin. One suggestion we especially liked: Give your friend or family member $10 and ask them to donate through your website. Then watch them try to donate and see if they get confused or lost at any point on your webpage or form. A great way to uncover usability road bumps and improve donor page conversion!
- See how four tips for year-end integration can help raise money and awareness across all of your channels.
- Your year-end story is strongest when it responds to the voices of your supporters. Read Elizabeth Ricca’s post on how remaining nimble allowed Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy to take advantage of an amazing (and unexpected!) match opportunity last December.
Have other suggestions for what to include in your year-end story? Share them in the comments section below!
Tags: duck pond, fundraising, storytelling, year end appeals
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Have you warmed up your online voice lately? | Weekly Roundup
August 6th, 2010 by Elizabeth RiccaSpeaking of the Carnival, the September edition will be taking place right here on the Duck Call. So sharpen up your blogging fingers, and stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks.
A weekly roundup of interesting reads from the online world of nonprofit communications. Follow me on Twitter @elizabethricca or check out my Delicious bookmarks for more noteworthy links.
Tags: blog, blog carnival, campaign, comments, mobile, nptech, roundup, social media
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