#COMMUNICATIONS: Visualizing The Impact Of Social Media, Especially Email
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Human beings are wired to pick up visual cues before we pick up textual ones. Social media and the internet love visuals too, because visual communication can travel quickly through networks and beyond the original linguistic group. We did a story on the MKCREATIVEmedia Blog last week about the eBenchmark study of 2012 by NTen and M+R Strategic Services that highlighted the ongoing importance of email outreach. What better way to follow that up than with their infographic showing the power of email.
We call your attention to such metrics as the fact that 35% of all online giving in 2011 came through email, whereas all other platforms together made up the other 65%. Therefore, email remains the single biggest tool in a nonprofit’s outreach toolbox, but it should not be considered the only tool. But how to be successful with email?
Popularity: 1% | Category Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eBook, eNewsletter, Fundraising, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Public Relations, Publications, Resource, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ADVOCACY: Make Sure Pitch Has Call To Action, Not Just High Concept
What happens when you get corporate assistance to launch a new campaign, or pro bono development from a commercial ad agency? You can get some fabulous ideas and some valuable insights on establishing your brand. You can get your materials into some of the best publication and on some of the most visited sites on the web.
But as some of our colleagues at Sofii.org have discovered, you can also get a good deal of expensive nothing. The commercial backer or ad agency might not be sensitive to the constituents who want to be involved with various types of nonprofits. They might encourage outreach through channels that are quite unlikely to reach the people your charity traditionally reaches. They might give you a fabulous product on the design board (Indeed, I think it’s safe to say that they certainly will give you a fabulous design.) that falls flat in the real world. Let’s look at a couple of examples from Sofii.
Popularity: 1% | Category Advertising, Advice, Advocacy, Blogs, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Copyrighting, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Graphic Design, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Media Review, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Publications, Publications Design, Resource, Reviews, Sponsorship, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Study, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Debra Askanase, Socialbrite.org Strategist, Offers Useful Advice To Nonprofits Using Social Media
Debra Askanase, founder of Community Organizer 2.0, is an “engagement strategist” who consults with nonprofit organizations on digital media. She is also a strategist for Socialbrite. Her background includes a decade of community organizing experience, followed by seven years in community economic development. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: How did you get into digital media? Did you reinvent yourself?
DEBRA: Yes, but it also seemed a pretty natural progression. I started off as a relatively traditional community organizer with multi-issue/low-income organizations. I moved into tenant organizing as well, then into economic development. I saw many of the same skills in leadership development that I saw in community and economic development. I worked with low-income immigrant entrepreneurs to start businesses. After doing that for seven years, I became very interested in business, from the perspective of how business can change society. So I went to business school and there seemed to be a confluence at that point. Social media was just gaining traction – this was 2007 and Facebook had just opened up beyond the college crowd – and I made that leap, intuitively, that social media is really community organizing. Here’s an opportunity where I can use my expertise in business strategy that I had been doing for seven years and my understanding of how people come together to change things. And I wanted to bring that interest to nonprofits. My entire experience had been working with nonprofits, so I understood that world from the ground up.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Twitter, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#INTERVIEW: Sean Triner, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of Pareto Fundraising
Sean Triner is co-founder and “chief evangelist” of Pareto Fundraising, a direct marketing firm working in Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand exclusively with nonprofit organizations. Sean is a frequent speaker and consultant at international fundraising events. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a regular contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: How is your direct marketing model different from the U.S. model?
SEAN: The key difference is volumes. The whole population of Australia is about 20 million. Also, the costs of things are extraordinary. Cars are 40%, 50%, even 60% more here. Petrol is 50% more than in the U.S. With such small populations and such extraordinary costs, to get a direct-mail package out costs literally three times as much. The printing is three times as much. The postal stamp is three times as much. The mailing-list purchase prices are up to three times as much.
Popularity: 2% | Category Communications, Community, Copyrighting, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Fundraising, Interview, Major Gifts, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Publications, Storytelling, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#FUNDRAISING: 2011 Was A Good Year For Email Outreach By Nonprofits
With all the excitement about all the social networks and all the purchases that Facebook has been making lately, it’s worth remembering that not only do more ‘traditional’ media exist but they also can be of greater value than the newest platform that has all the media and investor eyeballs. Such should be especially remembered by nonprofits who might not have the resources to establish a presence on the latest Pinterest trend.
According to the latest eNonprofit Benchmark Study by NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network) and M+R Strategic Services, a substantial email list and a well-crafted email campaign remain the most valuable fundraising tools in your charity’s box. Just how valuable?
Popularity: 3% | Category Advertising, Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Donor Acquisition, eBook, eNewsletter, Facebook, Fundraising, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Mobile, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Publications, Report, Resource, Reviews, Social Media, Technology, Web Design | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Paul Jolly Warns Fundraisers To Expect The Unexpected
We are proud to welcome Paul Jolly of Jump Start Growth, Inc. as a new contributor to the MKCREATIVEblog. Paul has spent 25 years as a development professional and consultant to small and mid sized non profits. His focus is helping organizations create transformative relationships with their top donors. You can contact Paul at [email protected].
About twenty years ago, I was walking across the living room and saw something flying across the room just behind my shoulder. As I turned, I saw that my three year old son Travis had leaped off the armrest of the sofa, and landed on the floor behind me and burst into tears. I picked him up to comfort him, and through his sobs, he said, “I forgot to warn you.” (He hadn’t mastered the “r” sound yet, so it sounded like “woan”.) Which got me thinking about how donors sometimes do things that the charities they are supporting didn’t expect. But we still want to catch them!
Popularity: 2% | Category Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Nonprofit, Nonprofit | | 0 Comments
Written by: Paul Jolly
#INTERVIEW with Lori Jacobwith, Communications & Fundraising Coach, & Founder of the Ignited Online Fundraising Community
Lori Jacobwith is a communications and fundraising coach, consultant and blogger. She founded the Ignited Online Fundraising Community and is author of the forthcoming book, Withism’s from Lori: Boldness, Clarity and Wisdom for Fundraising Professionals Making a Difference. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You’ve been a development director, an executive director, a CEO. So why did you shuck off all the power, the glory, the fame, the money and decide to be a trainer or a coach?
LORI: I love affecting change. When I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to help other people. I was able to help people as a development director and as an executive director, but I wanted to be able to help people at a larger scale. I got a taste of seeing what a trainer and a coach does by attending trainings, sitting in the audience, and I realized, I want to help a roomful of people at a time.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Book, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, eNewsletter, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, LinkedIn, Major Gifts, Marketing, Mobile, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Resource, Social Networks, Twitter, Webinar, YouTube | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#INTERVIEW: Jeff Brooks, Nonprofit Blogger, Author, and Creative Director
Jeff Brooks has been working on behalf of nonprofits for more than 20 years and passionately blogging about fundraising since 2005. He writes the Future Fundraising Now blog and is creative director at TrueSense Marketing. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: What do you consider to be the greatest challenge of being a good copywriter?
JEFF: What most people who are not professional copywriters get wrong is they don’t differentiate themselves from their audience. That’s why most fundraising is just bad. It doesn’t succeed the way it ought to because they say, I’m going to make this please me, and then it’ll please the others and then it’ll work. Well, that’s just wrong. That’s not how you create quality fundraising. You have to know your audience, and reach out to them, and 99 percent of the time, you’re going to hate it. You may say, I wouldn’t respond to this! And you’re absolutely correct, and it absolutely doesn’t matter.
Now If you want to talk about professional copywriters, I think what is difficult is taking dry, distilled- down-to-numbers program information and making it sing. Because that’s what you tend to get delivered: We fed this many people, and that’s up x percent from last year. That’s the kind of information you get and you have to say, how do I make somebody care? That’s the minute-by-minute challenge a copywriter faces.
MKC: I’ve been reading your blog for awhile and you’ve been preaching donor-centricity adamantly. Do you get the sense that anybody’s listening?
JEFF: Some people are. The thing is, the people who are reading my blog, or reading blogs at all, are the ones who are curious, who want to grow, and who are willing to change. The ones who need the help, who aren’t donor-centric, aren’t reading anybody’s blog. They’re not curious. So there’s sort of a preaching-to-the-choir quality to blogging.
In the fundraising industry, we are not donor-centric. We are navel gazers, and we expect our donors to gaze at our navels with us. I think that’s why direct mail response rates have been dropping for seven years in a row now. It’s because what we’re doing just doesn’t work like it used to. It’s wearing out. We’ve got a new audience of direct mail donors coming on board and they are more demanding. They want to be communicated with. In their commercial relationships with the companies they buy stuff from, they’re used to service and they’re used to being talked to as who they are. Most fundraising isn’t there. It’s saying, here’s your cancer bill. Pay it. That used to work, for a few reasons. One was, the older generation was more duty-driven: You give because you’re supposed to, you give because your church tells you to, you give because your family has always given. You didn’t have to be skillful at asking a person like that, they would just say, yeah, it’s my time to give. Not only that, but the competition in the mailbox has skyrocketed. There are probably 10 times as many appeals being sent out now as there were 20 years ago. So there’s that overwhelming noise, and the fact that younger donors, and I say younger meaning under 70, are a little more discerning. We actually see a behavior of larger gifts to fewer organizations. In the older donors, 70 and up, there’s just this behavior of sending 15 or 20 bucks to everything that comes across your door. Younger donors are saying, I need to be involved here, I need to know what’s going on, I need to care. So if we don’t get on board with talking to donors, instead of talking to ourselves, we’re in big trouble.
MKC: You also seem to have some strong feelings about nonprofit advertising. Would you like to talk about it?
JEFF: You’re talking about the “Stupid Nonprofit Ads” series. That is really about what I think is a huge scam perpetrated by ad agencies and other brand experts on the nonprofit sector. They bring commercial branding and advertising practices into the nonprofit realm and then misapply them. The reason it keeps happening again and again and again is it’s the glamour of the ad world: these are the big boys, this is where the real money is, they must know what they’re talking about, right? So they come in – and very often its pro bono so the nonprofit thinks, what the hell, I might as well do it, and they get these terrible ads that have no chance of making a dent in the problems of this world and motivating donors to do anything or care, much less give. So I kind of go after it, and I’m pretty mean about it, but it’s because I feel like it’s a big con, and we need it to stop. Plus I just like making fun of stupid stuff.
MKC: Is there anybody who does good advertising for nonprofits?
JEFF: Oh yeah, a lot of people do, and it will never win an award. No one’s ever going to show it anywhere, because it’s “bland,” it’s “ugly,” it’s “old-fashioned,” but it raises money.
MKC: Tom Ahern raves about the Domain Group formula for newsletters and he keeps saluting your role in it.
JEFF: We were doing mostly direct mail at Domain, and sometimes a client would say, could you do a newsletter for us? We don’t have anyone on staff to do it. When we did them, we made money. And at that time, the normal thing was for a newsletter to lose money. We started sharpening the techniques, we did some testing. We found that to be relentlessly donor-focused was critical, that to not be afraid to ask for money was good. I have a lot of clients where you can almost count on a newsletter being a more effective fundraiser than a direct mail appeal is. That’s not true across the board, but I have not lost money on a newsletter in decades. They are an effective fundraiser. The difference is, the old newsletter said, Look at us, aren’t we cool, look at all our great programs. The articles were long and boring, the headlines were dull. We found, just like in direct mail appeals, you had to get your eyes off yourself and on the audience. The reason they’re giving is they want to change the world, so you need to tell them, yes, you are changing the world, instead of, look at us, we’re changing the world. You still tell a story about their cool program, but you turn it a little bit, so it’s, ‘Look, donor, here’s what you made possible.’ You do that in subtle ways and direct, flat-out ways.
MKC: Has anyone attempted to convert the Domain Group formula to email newsletters?
JEFF: I’m trying to. I mean, we try to bring the techniques and the mindset. Email is a little different. I don’t think we’ve quite got it figured out. For now, email newsletters are nothing like as effective as print newsletters as fundraisers, and they’re less effective as fundraisers than e-appeals are.
MKC: You have been blogging since 2005. Have your goals for blogging changed?
JEFF: No, not really. The difference is, when I started, there were maybe three other bloggers in the fundraising space, and way fewer readers. Now I think there are over 100 fundraising-focused bloggers that I know about. I feel like I discover another one every week or so. And there’s just a larger audience. Thousands of people read these blogs now. That’s kind of cool. That means there’s an ongoing professional conversation happening. Before, the national conferences were the only place professional conversation happened, and most people weren’t going to those. So it was way less widespread than it is now. This is good. It means more people are able to get smarter.
Fundraising is a weird medium. A lot of things are counter-intuitive. Things work that you wouldn’t think would work, like longer letters work better than shorter letters. And there’s just a thousand little details like that. Some fundraisers seem to say, ‘We need to throw out everything we know, because it just seems so wrong to me.’ Then they watch their revenue go down the drain. This is very sad, because this isn’t just some stupid shampoo sales campaign. This matters. When you screw up, it matters that you screwed up. It means you can’t serve the way you’re called to serve. There’s a moral dimension to it.
You can follow Jeff on his Future Fundraising Now blog.
Guest blogger Don Akchin writes frequently about marketing and philanthropy at donakchin.com.
This interview series is produced with the generous support of the Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Zone.
Popularity: 5% | Category Blogs, Campaigns, Communications, Copyrighting, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Publications Design, Research, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#SM4MP: Must Nonprofits Redefine ROI When Developing Social Networks?
When most of us, individuals and nonprofit organizations, consider social networks, we first think of Facebook. The 800-pound gorilla is said to be worth billions, and its membership grows close to a billion world-wide. For nonprofits, establishing a Facebook page seems a no-brainer. Features like Timeline, which we have outlined, allow organizations of all kinds to present a story of their development, their milestones, and their goals. The pool of potential Friends is so vast that an hour or two a week could bring in thousands, or millions, of new fans.
But will those hours result in a larger pool of donors or volunteers? Will friends of friends come to your Facebook page ‘cold’ and want to get involved? The numbers are not good. But should we even pay attention to the numbers?
Popularity: 3% | Category Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Social Media, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Sherry Truhlar, President of Red Apple Auctions, Conducts Benefit Auctions for Nonprofit Organizations
Sherry Truhlar, President of Red Apple Auctions, conducts benefit auctions for nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. She founded the company after more than a decade in corporate sales, marketing and event management. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: Did you grow up wanting to be an auctioneer?
SHERRY: No, not at all. I decided, wouldn’t it be fun to do that fast talk, the chant? I took a week of vacation from General Electric, where I was a global marketing manager, went out to auction school, and learned the chant. But I realized very quickly that only a small portion of school is devoted to learning the chant. The rest is teaching someone how to run a business. I thought maybe this was something I could do part-time. So I became a licensed auctioneer.
Popularity: 5% | Category Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Donor Acquisition, Event, Events, Fundraising, Gala, Grants, Interview, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#PHILANTHROPY: Google Can Give Time, Resources, & AdWords To Nonprofits
Google is the great behemoth of web searching and video hosting. Google.com is default homepage in millions of browsers and YouTube has inspired citizen journalists in war-torn Syria and video mashups of cute kittens in suburbia. Google.org is perhaps not as well known, but its philanthropic outreach is huge, and it offers that money and support numerous ways – some of which your organization can surely take advantage of!
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Desktop Apps, Development, Donor Acquisition, eNewsletter, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, How-to, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Sybil Stershic, Consultant, Blogger, & Author of Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most
Sybil Stershic, founder of Quality Service Marketing, is a long-time consultant and blogger on internal marketing and the author of Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care. A former chairperson of the American Marketing Association Board of Directors, she continues to lead workshops fort AMA including its “Nonprofit Marketing Boot Camps.” The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You’ve chosen to specialize in internal marketing. How do you see that different from marketing to the outside world?
Sybil: It’s not that different in the sense that it recognizes that you have a critical audience – only this time they’re your employees and volunteers. Basically you can use marketing to educate them, motivate them and persuade them, just as you use marketing to educate, motivate and persuade consumers from the external side. What’s different, however, is that most organizations don’t recognize employees and volunteers as an internal audience that needs to be addressed. (more…)
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Book, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, eBook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Internal Marketing, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Resource, Strategic Marketing | | 6 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#INTERVIEW: Christopher Davenport, Founder of 501 Videos, A Company That Makes Videos Exclusively For Nonprofit Clients
Christopher Davenport is the founder of 501 Videos, a company that makes videos exclusively for nonprofit clients. His experience includes years in Hollywood working on commercial films and, later, making documentaries. His website is home to Movie Mondays, a weekly series of short films featuring fundraising professionals in action. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: Did you always know you wanted to make movies?
CHRISTOPHER: Not always. When I was 5 I wanted to be a fireman, and then when I was 5 and a half, that’s when I knew I wanted to make movies.
Popularity: 4% | Category Communications, Community, Donor Acquisition, Grants, Interview, Major Gifts, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Sponsorship, Storytelling, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#INTERVIEW: Christina Attard, Philanthropic Advisor, Blogger, and Development Director
Christina Attard writes the “Ask Better-Give Smarter” Blog. As a philanthropic adviser, she helps both nonprofits with their development programming and individuals planning tax-smart donations. She has been a Gift Planning Officer at two Canadian universities and is currently the Development Director for a Christian diocese in Regina, Saskatchewan. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: How did you manage to get to this place of semi-guruhood from a B.A. in mediaeval studies?
CHRISTINA: How it actually happened is that I was starting university and paying my own way. I had some money saved, but not enough. When I went to see my Dean, a Sister of St. Joseph, she said, how do you plan to pay for your year here? I said, I’ve been praying about that and hoping for an answer soon. She said, that’s very nice, do you have a resume? (Yes.) Go get your resume and go to the financial aid office. I’ll call ahead, go see a woman named Pauline and we’ll see if she can get you through with some cash from a bursary. Pauline saw me and said, we have this bursary and you’ll be eligible for it, it’s still not going to be enough, do you have your resume? (Yes.)
Popularity: 3% | Category Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Resource, Storytelling | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#interview: Simone Joyaux, Nonprofit Consultant, Author, and Columnist
Simone Joyaux is an internationally recognized consultant to the nonprofit sector on fund development, board development, and strategic planning and management. She writes a column, “Unraveling Development,” for the Nonprofit Quarterly. She is the author of Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, now in its third edition, and is co-author, with Tom Ahern, of Keep Your Donors: The Guide to Better Communications and Stronger Relationships. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: I have difficulty maintaining one blog. Why do you have three?
SIMONE: I made a decision that I wanted to do not just a professional blog, but I also wanted my website to talk about the world and social justice issues. Because I have always felt that there isn’t enough speaking out. I decided I would take the risk to speak out about my political and social beliefs on my web page, but that if I was going to do that, I had to distinguish between them, hence what I call “Personal Rants.” And then I thought, I have a lot of peeves about professional stuff, so I thought, okay fine, I’ll do professional, pet peeves and personal rants. Now I can do three posts in 30 minutes. I only post once a week, and you will notice, nobody is allowed to respond. You can send me emails, but you can’t comment. I have a job! I can’t possibly maintain comments from people.
Popularity: 6% | Category Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Marketing, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Resource | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Interview: Allison Fine, Author & Analyst — Examines Intersection of Social Media & Social Change
Allison Fine researches and writes about the intersection of social media and social change. She is the co-author (with Beth Kanter) of the bestselling book, The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change, as well as the award-winning Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age. She hosts a monthly podcast for The Chronicle of Philanthropy called “Social Good.” The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You’ve researched and written about social media and how it could impact democracy in the 21st century. Is the Occupy Wall Street movement along the lines of what you were envisioning?
ALLISON: Occupy Wall Street is absolutely part of the same DNA of social protests that we’ve seen for about the last ten years or so. They are widely distributed – meaning there’s no centralized organizing person or organization. They are fueled, but not caused, by social media – the ability to share messages, share photos, share videos, which are very powerful, is part of what’s stirring the pot and helping to organize the events. Occupy Wall Street has some of the drawbacks of this kind of mobilizing as well: the lack of a centralized message and the lack of goals. Whether or not those ultimately stop the momentum for these self-organized efforts locally will be interesting to watch.
Popularity: 4% | Category Blogs, Book Review, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Crowdfunding, Development, Direct Mail, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Resource, Reviews, Social Media, Sponsorship, Strategic Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Tools, Twitter | | 1 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Inteview: Amy Eisenstein, Fundraising Consultant and Author of 50 Asks in 50 Weeks
Amy Eisenstein is a “no nonsense” fundraising consultant for local and national nonprofits. She is the author of 50 Asks in 50 Weeks: A Guide to Better Fundraising for Your Small Development Shop. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: Your book is targeted specifically to small shops. Is that because you have a particular affinity for them, or they need more help?
AMY: The big shops invest in training, in all sorts of specialists and consultants, so even though they’re often struggling as well, they have more resources to put into development. But I have to say that most nonprofits in this country are operating with small shops, with very few exceptions. The universities, hospitals and a few national nonprofits have more than three development staff members, but a large majority of the nonprofits in our country and around the world have sometimes no paid development professionals, and usually one, or maybe two if they’re lucky. So yes, that’s why I targeted small shops. They need a lot of help.
Popularity: 4% | Category Campaigns, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Facebook, Fundraising, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Social Media, Strategic Marketing, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Interview: Gail Perry, Fundraising Consultant, Trainer & Author of Fired-Up Fundraising
Gail Perry is a fundraising consultant and trainer and the author of Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Your Board’s Passion into Action. She is a highly sought speaker and writes a popular blog. Her most recent venture is an online coaching group. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: What are the issues that are keeping your clients awake at night?
GAIL: I think the economy is just a huge issue. People are worried about whether they can raise the money they need or not. But I’m also seeing a really interesting problem. My consulting clients are struggling to learn how to take donors who are identified as potential major prospects and bring them into the major prospect arena by closing a gift. It’s a very delicate, step-by-step, intuitive process to bring a major donor along. That’s a lot of what I’m teaching my clients, all these little subtleties of developing that type of relationship.
Popularity: 31% | Category Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Direct Mail, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Research, SEO, Social Media, Sponsorship, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Twitter, Web Design, Writing | | 1 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#interview: Tom Ahern — Author, Award-Winning Journalist, and Communications Consultant
Tom Ahern is the author of four books on fundraising communications, with a fifth on the way. An award-winning magazine journalist, he has written case statements for numerous campaigns and is a popular communications trainer and consultant. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You’ve written four books. You’ve trained hundreds, maybe thousands of communicators, and by now you’d expect everybody knows what to do. Yet you’re still in high demand! How do you explain this?
TOM: How fast can you actually change the characteristic habitual behavior of communications in an industry as big as the nonprofit industry? At one point there were 1.6 million charities in the United States alone, and we’re not the only mature philanthropic market.) Some of the models that are well entrenched are just, I think, wrong. Yet everybody borrows from each other, they copy each other. And so you’ve got widespread bad practices, not best practices.
Popularity: 5% | Category Communications, Community, Conference/Congress, Cross-Post, Design, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Graphic Design, How-to, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Publications, Publications Design, Social Media, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Interview: Howard Adam Levy, Principal of Red Rooster Group
Howard Adam Levy is Principal of Red Rooster Group, a New York City-based branding, marketing and design agency for nonprofits. Howard, who began working with nonprofits as a graphic designer in 1991, founded the agency 10 years ago. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVEnonprofit blog.
MKC: What is most challenging about branding nonprofits?
HOWARD: Nonprofits face a wide variety of constituents, from clients, referral sources, donors, partner organizations, board members and others. So a lot more is involved in reaching out and developing messages and strategies for each of those audiences.
Businesses, especially small businesses, can make unilateral decisions on their marketing. Nonprofits are typically more consensus oriented. And particularly when it comes to the brand, you really want to get everyone’s input and have a feeling that everyone is contributing to the process of what we’re all about. So you need a process that can build consensus in a politically neutral environment and get everyone feeling really good about the brand and their role as brand ambassadors.
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Written by: Don Akchin