MKCREATIVE

#SOCIALNETWORK: Are You Prepped For Rollout Of Facebook Graph Search?

Facebook’s latest tool, Graph Search, was announced a couple of weeks ago and it is being rolled out through the Facebook0sphere through February. Though many wondered if Facebook were challenging Google, the fact is Facebook is trying to rejigger how you can access information within Facebook, not how you wend your way through the tubes of the internet.

Facebook’s own introduction emphasizes the concept that the billions of connected bits of information within people’s Facebook accounts can now be viewed along a graph of variables that the user asks for:

The main way we make the world more open and connected is by giving people the tools to map out their relationships with the people and things they care about. We call this map the graph …  There are already more than a billion people, more than 240 billion photos and more than a trillion connections. Today we’re announcing a new way to navigate these connections and make them more useful. We’re calling it Graph Search.

What does the Graph Search mean to the average user or nonprofit on Facebook?

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| Category Advertising, Advice, Cause Marketing, Communications, Cross-Post, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Marketing, Public Media, Public Relations, SEO, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web and Print | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#INTERVIEW: Paul Jolly of Jump Start Growth Helps Us Plan for the 2013 ‘Ask’

January 17th, 2013

Paul Jolly, President of Jump Start Growth, Inc.

This past December, Paul Jolly, President of Jump Start Growth, Inc., talked about the spiritual side of fundraising, and how he works with nonprofits to help them appreciate the motives and desires of big donors. Paul’s company has many years of experience to bring to organizations that are trying to improve their success rates with big donors.

Today we are excited to bring you part two of our interview with Paul. We shift directions just a bit in this conversation to talk about the near future of fundraising. What seems to be the lay-of-the-land for 2013? What technological/communications developments should we keep our eye on? What is developing on the Jump Start Growth website for the new year?

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| Category Advocacy, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Cross-Post, Donor Acquisition, Education: General, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Storytelling, Video, Video Interview | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#INTERVIEW: Paul Jolly of Jump Start Growth Explores The Spiritual Side Of Donors

December 12th, 2012

The soul of fundraising

Raising money for a nonprofit or charity is tough work. With the focus of the organization on fundraising, it is not surprising that outreach tends to focus on the numbers (the thousands who benefit from the nonprofit’s work, the millions required to keep such work going, the hundreds of people asked to give…). In this first part of our video interview with Paul Jolly, Founder and President of Jump Start Growth Incorporated, we learn that the numbers really should be the last concern of a nonprofit or charity, not the first. For Paul and Jump Start Growth, the first concern is the personal, the spiritual, connection between the donor and the cause she or he wants to support. Where is your organization’s focus?

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| Category Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Video Interview | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#GRANTS: Nominations Open For Awards of $5000 From WLR Automotive

December 4th, 2012

Click here to nominate a nonprofit

Have you made a nomination for the “Giveaway For Good”? The giveaway is an initiative of the WLR Automotive Group, who is celebrating twenty-five years of service in the central Maryland/York County PA region. As a part of that celebration, and to give thanks back to the community who have supported the company, its owners have opened up nominations for charitable organizations and nonprofits to win grants of $5000 next January. The nomination process was opened up in mid-November, and anyone can continue to nominate groups through 14 December. Once the nomination process closes (14 December at midnight), the public will vote on the five organizations that they would like to see get a $5000 award from WLR. As of this post, about 25 organizations are up, and your organization certainly can nominate itself.

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| Category Advocacy, Cause Marketing, Civics, Community, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Nonprofit, Press Release, Public Relations, Web Design | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#SOCIALNETWORKS: How To Promote Facebook Posts & Why You Might Not Want To

November 14th, 2012

CecilyK on ‘MomCrunch’ blog says ‘No’

This past summer Facebook launched the opportunity to purchase ‘Promoted Posts’ that − for at least a $5 fee − would be promoted across the Facebookiverse. The more you paid, the more broadly the algorithms (aka ‘magic’) circulated the post. It was hailed by many for- and non-profit organizations as an opportunity to push through the background noise endemic in most people’s timelines to get your words and images out to a larger but (broadly) targeted audience.

We want to show you how to promote a post if you are unfamiliar with the easy process, but we also want to call attention to the fact that many power users are not finding the return on investment that Facebook claims. Is it a case of false advertising, or is Facebook still working out the kinks?

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| Category Advertising, Advice, Advocacy, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Education: General, Facebook, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Measurement, Nonprofit, Public Media, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Study, Technology for Nonprofits, Web and Print | | 4 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#HOWTO: Setup A Pheed Account & Why It Could Prove Valuable For Nonprofits

October 31st, 2012

Alright, I admit that when I first heard about one of the newest social networks out there, Pheed, I was underwhelmed. Are we not overwhelmed with social networks as it is? But both professional engagement and personal curiosity got the better of me, and I signed up. The interface looks rather like Tumblr, whose praises we have often sung on this blog. The screenshot to the left is Pheed’s signup page: clearly it is pitched toward an artistic, and likely younger, audience. Nevertheless, it has a couple of features that nonprofits and charities could find especially useful as they present their own content via their social networks. Here’s how to sign up and see if it could be of use to your organization.

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| Category Advice, Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Copyrighting, Education: General, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Public Media, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Tools, Web and Print, Web Design | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#FUNDRAISING: Resources To Find Grants For Your Nonprofit’s 2013 Budget

October 26th, 2012

Maybe the federal government won’t ever work up or agree to a budget to cover an entire fiscal year, but your nonprofit has to. The 2012-2013 fiscal year is already on many organizations’ calendars, and certainly the final sprint to the holiday donation-giving season is upon us. But along with the money, time, and goodwill of your donors online and otherwise, you should be looking for grants. We’ve culled a few resources and pooled a few clearing houses that will help your nonprofit or charity tailor its search for support from specific organizations passionate to support your kind of work.

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| Category Cause Marketing, Community, Development, Education: General, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, How-to, Major Gifts, Mobile, Nonprofit, Research, Resource | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#COMMUNICATION: Is Your Nonprofit Staff Conversing With Both Audience & Each Other?

October 17th, 2012

As social networks and social marketing have matured over the last two or three years, a debate continues as to how effective social media is to inspire action (be it making a purchase, donating to a cause, or risking one’s life in a revolution). But it seems to me that the argument is both older than modern social media (read any Marshall McLuhan lately?) and more complicated than trying to argue cause-and-effect. Social networks offer wonderfully inexpensive means to expand and magnify conversations, but they also create stunning amounts of ‘noise’ that readers have to learn to tune out without getting distracted (no easy task). But how can a nonprofit leverage the powers of social media to inspire action while also striving not to distort the outreach with too much talk?

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| Category Blogs, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Public Media, Public Relations, Social Marketing, Social Networks, Storytelling | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#VIDEO: Rob Wu of Causevox Tells Us About Developments In Online Fundraising (Part II)

October 10th, 2012

Earlier this month we posted our first interview with Rob Wu, co-founder of the online fundraising and social-media platform Causevox. We wanted to talk with him because Causevox was rolling out the latest version of its platform in late September. Our conversation proved so interesting that we couldn’t contain it in one post, so today we bring you part two of our conversation with Rob.

In particular, he stresses how nonprofits like OneGirl.org in Australia participated in the development and refinements that brought about version 2.o. And why the rollout of 2.0 has proven to be a surer success than having a single big launch. Let’s take a look.

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| Category Advertising, Advice, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Donor Acquisition, Education: General, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Project Management Tools, Public Media, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video Interview, Web Design, Webinar | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#VIDEO: Rob Wu of Causevox Tells Us About Developments In Online Fundraising (Part I)

September 28th, 2012

Causevox moves to version 2

Rob Wu is co-founder of Causevox, an online social-media and donor-acquisition platform, and he and his team have been working hard over the last number of months moving the online system to 2.0. We had the pleasure of talking with Rob a year or so ago, when Causevox first went live. The focus then was to create a ‘turn key’ website/social-media hub for nonprofits, which allowed them to customize the look and feel of the site to fit their ‘brand’ while also enjoying some advanced features like bulk emailing and email subscription captures.

The success of the platform has been phenomenal, as charities working from Africa and to the southwestern US have gotten connected with Causevox and have raised many tens of thousands of dollars over the last year. But the New-York based staff has not been sitting on its laurels. Let’s hear what Rob has to say in this first interview.

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| Category Advocacy, Branding, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Interview, Marketing, Nonprofit, Project Management Tools, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications, Resource, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Video Interview | | 1 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#SOCIALNETWORKS: Can Niche Online Networks Outperform Your Nonprofit’s Facebook Page?

September 24th, 2012

Have you defined your organization’s niche?

Our participation in online social networks seems well beyond the status of a ‘fad.’ In some parts of the world, people risk censure − if not their lives − to post important information on such platforms as Facebook and Twitter. These social networks are the current heavy hitters, of course. But what about developing people’s interests in your nonprofit’s causes? Or engaging a peer group already predisposed to support your charity’s fund drive? The hard fact is, the best-known social platforms might just be too big for that kind of conversation. And we might just be witnessing the start of a tidal shift away from the bigger-is-better mantra of social outreach toward niche conversations among like minds. Could these more concentrated communities really be worth the effort of building a presence on yet another social network?

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| Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, LinkedIn, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Media Review, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Strategic Marketing, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter, Web and Print | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#PHILANTHROPY: Evidence Of ‘Emerging Charitable Markets’ & How To Tap Into Them

September 20th, 2012

An article on yesterday’s E-Jewish Philanthropy caught our eye because the authors did a really interesting bit of research into the top givers in US in this calendar year. The study by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin demonstrates how useful a careful parsing of statistics can be for fundraisers, and how that parsing can uncover shifting trends in the philanthropic world.

The ostensible foundation of their work was to try to explain why some 130 of the wealthiest Americans on the famed Forbes 400 list are Jewish, yet only about thirty of them have given gifts that break into the list of top donors as compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. They have discovered not so much a shift in the habits of giving among Jewish donors but demographic and economic shifts that are opening what they call ‘emerging charitable markets.’ Who is participating in these markets?

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| Category Banking & Finance, Cause Marketing, Civics, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Major Gifts, Measurement, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Report, Resource | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#SOCIALNETWORKS: 4th-Annual Social Media Week Will Educate & Inspire Worldwide

September 13th, 2012

Attendance is just a few clicks away.

The first Social Media Week went live in 2008, as Twitter was just hitting the mainstream and Lehman Brothers announced it was going bankrupt and would take down the economy with it. For better and worse, much has change. And Social Media Week continues to expand. It started to stress connectivity across continents last year, and this year the list of host cities already includes Barcelona, Bogotá, Doha, Hong Kong, Jeddah, LA, Shanghai, and Turin (among others). Individuals can register at any point for this year’s program, and organizations can prepare submissions to offer sessions for next year.  What will the 2012 week bring?

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| Category Advice, Advocacy, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Education: General, Event, Events, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications, Resource, Seminar, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Webinar | | 1 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#DESIGN: Is Your Nonprofit’s Logo Helping Your Cause?

September 11th, 2012

Clarity, scalability, & meaning were much improved in this logo redesign.

Has your nonprofit (re)considered its logo recently? Does it present your organization with the color, the terms, the attitude you want to covey quickly to an audience? For most nonprofits, getting a meaningful and professional logo carries some heavy ambivalence: Of course you want people to recognize your organization, whether they see the logo on a letterhead appeal for support or on a bumper sticker given out at a local festival. But if your logo is ‘too professional,’ might you be suggesting donors’ dollars are going toward a firm on Madison Avenue rather than to the community you want to support?

But a logo can make or break your outreach efforts, so you better err on the side of professional, or your nonprofit will be ignored in what is, alas, a tightly competitive fundraising market.

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| Category Advertising, Advice, Advocacy, Branding, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Design, Graphic Design, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Publications Design, Reviews, Social Marketing, Web and Print | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#SOCIALMEDIA: Politicians & NonProfits Need Agility With Online Outreach

September 7th, 2012

As the Democratic ‘nominee’ Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech last night in Charlotte, NC, a record number of tweets on politics were sent out − some 52,756 tweets-per-minute (tpm) being posted as he wound up. By contrast, Mitt Romney inspired 14,289 tpm, which was about half as many as reactions to Michelle Obama’s presentation two nights ago.

But what both parties know well is the fact that they must be ‘agile’ with their social-media outreach. They have to find ways to steer the narrative while many thousands of other voices also have the opportunity to steer that narrative. True, campaigns for the presidency take up far more online space than most any nonprofit, which is precisely why nonprofits can learn something from watching how the campaigns are trying to use social media.

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| Category Advice, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Events, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Politics, Public Media, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web and Print, Writing | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#TECH: Title Tags Can Make Or Break Your Site’s SEO

August 31st, 2012

SEO success starts here

Oh, the last official weekend of summer, and it’s three-day long one to boot! You might be itching to get out of the office a bit early today and make it a three and a half day weekend. Before you do, please read some salient advice we took from online marketing specialist John Haydon as soon as it hit our Inboxes. The issue is the placement of Title Tags, the snippets of text − usually the title of the blog post or of a website − that is the first thing search engines scour for the keywords that make your site visible on those engines. With an afternoon of work, you could dramatically improve the ranking of your nonprofit’s site. Here’s what he suggests:

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| Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Education: General, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Publications, SEO, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Strategic Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web and Print, Web Design, Writing | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

#FUNDRAISING: Presidential Candidates Ramp Up Mobile Giving

August 30th, 2012

With the (delayed) start of the Republican Convention in Tampa earlier this week, the really officially serious campaign season starts. For the next 10-odd weeks, most American start to focus on the candidates, their platforms, and their messages. There has been much talk about the low level of discourse that has driven the campaign thus far, but − unlike Senate debates in the 19th century − no one has been caned.

This is the first post-’Citizens United’ national election, so the astute political junkies are paying attention to the money flow from corporations and unions that need report their large donations until after the voting has been counted. But what about at the other end of the giving scale? This is also the first national election that offers opportunities for texting donations to candidates. How might that change the fundraising landscape?

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| Category Advocacy, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Events, Fundraising, How-to, iDevice, Marketing Skills, Mobile, Mobile, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Social Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments

Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD

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