#FUNDRAISING: Mobile Platforms For Donations Have Pros & Cons
That mobile communications devices like smart phones and tablets are the platform-of-choice for most people around the globe is a truism. Ever more business is being conducted over such devices as well, especially over tablets − and by ‘business’ we mean logistics, orders, and purchases, not just business calls.
Nonprofits have appreciated the impact of mobile devices for their work as well. The Red Cross’s famed text-to-donate drive after the Haitian earthquake of 2010 stands as one of the best-known early examples of such fundraising. But as the platform grows in scope and matures in form, what are some of the options out there that fit best with your nonprofit’s needs?
| Category Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Cross-Post, Crowdfunding, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing Budget, Measurement, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Technology for Nonprofits, Volunteerism | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Does Your Nonprofit Need Help Keeping Up With Its Growing Donor Base?
OpenPetra’s Client Screen
Just this past week Idealware published its 2013 Field Guide to Software for nonprofits and charities. The staff at Idealware demarcate a number of areas that nonprofits and software developers have been collaborating, such as social-networking management, and gives reviews and how-tos on some of the solutions in the market. The book can be had via Amazon ($25) or directly from Idealware’s site ($20).
As you know, though, MKCREATIVEmedia has been tracking software developments for our clients for a number of years now, and we want to share some recent developments in the field of Customer Relations Management software (CRM). In particular, we have found some open-source and free platforms well worth considering to manage your donors and volunteers.
| Category Campaigns, Client Roster, Communications, Cross-Post, Desktop Apps, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, How-to, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Major Gifts, Measurement, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Project Management Tools, Research, Reviews, Site Administration, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Volunteerism | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: The Holiday Season For Donations Begins Now. Ready?
The pools are open and busy. The grill has cooled down since the July-4th Picnic. The MLB All-Star Game is tonight. It’s July. One of the traditional/old-fashioned ways to disrupt the heat is to hold a “Christmas in July” party, and your nonprofit or charity should be having one. Why? To celebrate the good work you have been doing for the last six months, and to energize yourselves for the critical holiday season of solicitation and fundraising that should hit its peak in mid-November and continue right through the new year. Yep, the groundwork for a successful holiday season needs to start soon, like tomorrow.
| Category Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Major Gifts, Marketing, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Publications, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Strategic Marketing, Volunteerism | | 3 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNICATIONS: Is Your Organization Moving At The Speed Of Mobile?
With the rise of the smartphone and its ability to be the computer for millions of people around the world, mobile technology is becoming more powerful and less expensive every few months. And with those technological changes come changes of habit and expectation. One of the changes we and many others have commented on is the rise of text messaging as a medium not only to spread-the-word but also to raise funds for nonprofits and charities. The response to the American Red Cross’s texting campaign to deal with the horrors of the Haitian earthquake of 2010 is usually seen as the watershed event.
How has the nexus between cell-phone use and fundraising been strengthening over the last couple of years?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Boomers, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Fundraising, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile, Newsletter, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits, Volunteerism, Writing | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#GRANTS: HP Gives Well Above Its Peers Of Similar Revenue
Let’s face it: HP has had some hard times in the printing and computing world. It has gone some time without a CEO over the last few years, and the board has bought some assets that don’t seem much like assets (Anyone seen a Palm Pilot lately?). And in the upcoming year, some 30,000 jobs will be cut by the corporation. Yet I write this post not to bury HP but to praise it, for Hewlett-Packard has been a major corporate donor and socially-engaged company for some time. In 2011 the company brought in about $127 billion in revenues last year, and it gave over $100 million back out through its “Global Innovation” organization. For comparison, Apple drew in $108 billion in the same year, and invested about $0 in corporate philanthropy.
Could your nonprofit benefit from assistance from Hewlett-Packard?
| Category Civics, Community, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Nonprofit, Sustainability, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Volunteerism | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialNetworking: Jumo And Good Join To Create Largest Nonprofit Network
We have followed the development of the Jumo website and network over the last year or so, and that organization has recently announced a development ‘merger’ with Good.is that will make it/them arguably the largest nonprofit socially-conscious network around.
The union will bring together Jumo’s model of searching for and supporting projects by topics with Good.is’s focus on stories, data, and news about a myriad of projects near and dear to the ethically-driven, the socially-engaged, and the community-oriented. What will the merger entail, and what might it mean for nonprofits and social-action groups who want to extend their outreach?
| Category Advocacy, Blogs, Campaigns, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, eNewsletter, Environment, Fundraising, Marketing, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Politics, Public Media, Public Relations, Research, Reviews, Social Media, Volunteerism, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialMedia: Is Social Media Necessary? Sufficient? Myth-Busting Monday
The energies of advertisers, politicians, and fundraisers have been focussed on social media for the last five to seven years. And largely for good reason. According to ComScore.com, computer users have doubled their time on social media sites since the summer of 2007, now spending some 16% of their online time in social media. Facebook unique visitations can be measured in the millions, while unique visitors to Twitter, Flickr, etc., are in the hundreds of thousands (and growing).
But do growing looks and extended times on social-media sites translate into fundraising? Can social media eventually replace not only traditional media but such must-haves (ca.2005) as websites and real offices to meet people? A number of SM thinkers have pored over the statistics and mostly argue ‘No’.
| Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Measurement, Media Review, Nonprofit, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Volunteerism, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Some American Cities Meeting The Challenges Of Boomer Residents
NYC has added 4 seconds to each crosswalk
The vitality of many American cities comes from our perceptions of them as hives of industrial, commercial – youthful – activity reinventing those very cities with each generation. Though such regeneration still goes on, the fact of the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ of aging Baby Boomers means many cities are having to reconsider how to service and accommodate ever growing proportions of older residents.
An Associated Press story carried by NPR discusses the efforts of a few cities to get ahead of the demographic shift, and to ensure that their communities do not become ghettoes of like-aged residents.
| Category Civics, Community, Environment, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Public Media, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Volunteerism, Wellness | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Development: Action Group ‘Do Something’ Grows Huge Through Small Smartphones
The social-media (r)evolution has proven a wonderful challenge for charities and nonprofits. The technology is cheap (not free), and as millions more get comfortable with it, the opportunity to reach a broad spectrum of supporters grows exponentially. And yet, without careful consideration of the stories your organization wants to tell, and how it wants to target constituencies within the various social-media outlets, the effort can seem maddeningly diffuse.
One organization has returned to the relative simplicity of text messaging with stunning success. Last holiday season a text message was sent to about 500 young people in New York City who had been in contact with “Do Something” but had not been much involved. They were told of a local food drive, and in just minutes some twenty percent joined in the effort. DoSomething.org has not looked back.
| Category Communications, Community, Marketing Skills, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Social Media, Technology, Tools, Volunteerism | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialNetworks: VolunteerMatch Leads Way In (Free!) Tech Outreach
The iOS platform for the iPhone and iPad is notoriously closed for apps dedicated to fundraising. Some companies have found ways to use the mobile software to reach volunteers and grow networks of potential donors (or donors via other platforms). One such nonprofit is VolunteerMatch, whose iPhone app offers opportunities to search for local projects looking for volunteers for the day or for the duration of a project.
But the folks at VolunteerMatch are doing more than offering a great mobile app to complement their website and to reach out to constituents and potential funders.
| Category Apple, Communications, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Media Review, Nonprofit, Slide Presentations, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology, Volunteerism, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Sustainability: Corporate Responsibility = Sustainability?
The MKCREATIVE blog welcomes Maria Lilly, principal of MJLilly Associates LLC, to our blog. She is a communications strategist who develops positioning programs that unite corporate, marketing and financial messages to create and support a company’s brand.
As I canvas the business marketplace, I am thrilled to see the ongoing emergence of corporate responsibility and sustainability as a critical piece of the business lexicon.
Ironically though, there appears to be some confusion about the connection between these two terms. Nomenclature issues and old definitions continue to confuse people – even some professionals working in the space. Let me connect these dots.
| Category Advocacy, Banking & Finance, Cross-Post, Environment, Greening, Public Relations, Sustainability, Volunteerism, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Maria Lilly
What is Senior Corps?
Image via Wikipedia
Thinking about making a difference in your community? Want to volunteer but haven’t been able to find the right fit? Over 55? Then maybe Senior Corps is for you.
“Americans over 55 have a lifetime of experience to share, and the desire to make a real difference in their world. They’ve managed households, been business owners and nurses, farmers and salespeople, artists and executives. Now they are ready to put their unique talents and expertise to work in their communities, and enrich their own lives in the process.
Senior Corps connects today’s over 55s with the people and organizations that need them most. The organization helps them become mentors, coaches or companions to people in need, or contribute their job skills and expertise to community projects and organizations.”
Visit the Senior Corps website to find out how (and where) you can volunteer time and expertise.
| Category Aging, Civics, Community, Seniors Life, Volunteerism | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria