#FUNDRAISING: Outreach Tactics & Technologies Need To Adjust To Demographics
With the texts and tweets and the touchscreens and with those crazy(-cool) Google goggles and whatnot, a nonprofit would be daft to send those old-fashioned appeals by mail. The cost of printing and stamps, the hassle of upkeep of a database of address, the imposition of making potential donors find their checkbooks buried ever-farther into their desk drawers… who would bother?
But an extensive whitepaper from the folks at Convio makes it quite clear that not only is the traditional through-the-snail-mail appeal still a great way to solicit support for your charity, it is the hands-down winner over all media outreach. As the chart to the left reveals, outreach by mail achieves incredibly high response rates. That said − and unsurprisingly − the impact of mailers fades as one moves down the age groups, as Generations X and (especially) Y choose to respond to other media as well. What media will carry the donation message into the future?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Aging, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Direct Mail, Donor Acquisition, Education: General, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Mobile, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Planned Giving, Public Relations, Publications, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Networks, Study, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#VIDEO: Ken Sterns’s Book Offers Tough Love To Nonprofit Economy
Ken Sterns has served as CEO of National Public Radio, arguably one of the best-known nonprofits in the country. He supports The American Red Cross, and has served on the boards of a number of charities. So when his book, And Charity for All argues that the nonprofit sector is a huge part of the American economy, yet the least productive sector as well, people listen. And they should.
Mr. Sterns was recently interviewed at The Huffington Post, as he joined a roundtable (‘multiscreen’) discussion that included Alexander Berger at GiveWell; Dr. John Brothers, founder of Quidoo Consulting; and Rigo Sabarino, President and CEO of St. Barnabas Senior Services. The interview begins with him throwing down the gauntlet, wondering if the nonprofit community is even worth preserving.
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Book, Book Review, Civics, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Fundraising, Interview, Marketing, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications, Reviews, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Video Interview | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Pew Research Keeps Us Up With Changing Faces of Internet
The latest surveys carried out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project are tracking both the most popular online social-networking platforms and the kinds of people who are using them. We enjoy sharing such findings with our readers because the information the folks at the Pew Internet group can help nonprofits refine their online efforts for the many constituencies that these nonprofits want to reach. The latest study, The Demographics of Social Media Users — 2012, points to a few new developments we’d like to highlight this week.
| Category Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Education: General, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Measurement, Nonprofit, Research, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Study, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Register for Maryland Governor’s Grants Conference
As the calendar year unfolds and the fiscal year 2013-2014 appears over the horizon, so too does registration begin for the Maryland Governor’s Grants Conference. This year’s conference will be held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus on Thursday, February 21st. The one-day conference − sponsored by such organizations as the National Grant Management Association, the Grant Professionals Association, and Deloitte − offers plenary talks by leaders in the grant-providing and grant-winning fields, as well as breakout sessions allowing networking and specific assistance for your organization’s needs.
| Category Advocacy, Civics, Conference/Congress, Cross-Post, Event, Events, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Local/Maryland, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Public Relations, Resource | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNICATIONS: Postal Service Rates To Rise on 27 January
Forever stamps still good after the 27th.
We have managed to put off the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ for a couple of months, but we can’t avoid the changes in postal rates coming in a couple of weeks. Thanks to our fine business partners at Ecoprint in Silver Spring, Maryland, for the heads-up! The US Postal Service (USPS) has been on hard times over the last 5-7 years due to the overwhelming presence of email, social networks, and e-fax services. Moreover, the semi-private/ public service is carrying a striking burden of compensation packages for its executives that, frankly, seem to outweigh the performance of the venerable institution. Be that as it may, be prepared for upticks to many of the services. What’s coming at the end of the month?
| Category Advice, Campaigns, Civics, Communications, Cross-Post, Direct Mail, Education: General, Marketing, Marketing Budget, News and Current Affairs, Newsletter, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Politics, Publications, Resource, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Questions & Answers Can Be Shared On Quora
The Latin term ‘quorum’ (pl.pronoun: ‘of whom’) has almost no connection to what the term means in Anglo-American law, namely: “the minimum number of members of an assembly that must be present to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.” Without digging too deeply into the Oxford English Dictionary, the term evolved from Norman circuit courts in late-medieval England as the scribes noted the names ‘of whom’ appeared as witnesses of and jurors at trials. The term has been appropriated by the social-networking/question-posing site Quora. The site has been around since 2010, but it has really taken off in the last few months, and we wanted to introduce you to it before whenever the next apocalypse is due.
| Category Advice, Civics, Community, Cross-Post, Education: General, How-to, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Mobile, Public Media, Resource, Reviews, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Keep Your Facebook Page Updated While Mobile This Holiday Season
Mobile Facebook for the new year.
As the Christmas Season approaches, most of us will be taking a bit of much-needed downtime from our nonprofits and charities. Many will also be traveling to see family as well. Unfortunately, the concerns of nonprofits and charities do not take holidays, and you might want to keep people updated via Facebook on what your organization is doing in the holiday season. Facebook has been striving to make inroads into the mobile market over the last number of months, and so we wanted to give you a few tips for getting access to your charity’s page via your mobile device. And even if you are stepping away from Facebook to spend more time with the egg nog, having mobile access to your account should be a resolution (and one of the easier ones to achieve) in the new year.
| Category Campaigns, Communications, Crowdfunding, Education: General, Facebook, Facebook, Geo-Location, How-to, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Measurement, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Project Management Tools, Public Media, Public Relations, Resource, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Use Crowdbooster To Marshall Your Social Media Conversations
Let this platform tame your Tweetstream and Timeline
Numerous social-networking monitoring sites are out there by now: Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Klout, Tinker… As programmers develop new tools, and social platforms like Facebook or (even!) MySpace evolve, the staff at a nonprofit can feel overwhelmed with the changes. What is important to remember in this fast-changing communications environment is that you are looking for tools that are beneficial to you and your organization − not (necessarily) the latest platform that is getting some buzz. One of the newer sites meant to aggregate metrics from your social networks is Crowdbooster, and we do believe it is worth a look because it helps your busy staff consider the near future of its social-media outreach as well as lay out the past trends.
| Category Advice, Communications, Dashboards, Education: General, How-to, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Project Management Tools, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Strategic Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: How To Promote Facebook Posts & Why You Might Not Want To
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?
| 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
#FUNDRAISING: Resources To Find Grants For Your Nonprofit’s 2013 Budget
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.
| 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
#DEVELOPMENT: Do You Have Big Plans For Your Big Data? Not So Fast…
The latest buzz concept is ‘Big Data.’ Like most buzz concepts/ words, its definition leaves much up to the mouth of the speaker. Big Data, whatever the specifics, refers to the large amount of information that can be collected from online activity and exchange of information (on social networks, for example). The ability to aggregate such information from posts, streams, and online purchases creates some truly ‘big’ numbers. And they are only further extended with the collection of information from rewards programs and loyalty cards.
But Big Data can also trick us with impressive numbers like our Twitter followers or Facebook friends − but who within that number are encouraging each other to support our causes? Though ‘numbers don’t lie,’ statistics do, so an organization must know how it’s going to parse the data is collecting and what it hopes to achieve with the effort.
| Category Advice, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Fundraising, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Media Review, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Resource, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Strategic Marketing, Thought for the Day, Tools | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#VIDEO: Rob Wu of Causevox Tells Us About Developments In Online Fundraising (Part I)
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.
| 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
#PHILANTHROPY: Evidence Of ‘Emerging Charitable Markets’ & How To Tap Into Them
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?
| 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
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?
| 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: How To Follow The Branding Guidelines Of Twitter
No. No. And no.
Birds of a feather? Not for that poor Twitter bird: perhaps no other icon in modern business is both better known and abused well beyond the company’s style guide. Even more than the Facebook logo that we discussed a couple of weeks ago, the icon for the social-media site Twitter comes in all shapes, sizes, and numbers − almost none of which are official or legal. If you want to have a good relationship between your organization and the folks at Twitter who have done so much to get news of your organization out to their millions of users, you best check out their corporate style guide.
| Category Advice, Branding, Communications, Design, Education: General, Graphic Design, How-to, Marketing, Resource, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter, Twitter, Web and Print, Web Design | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Establish Your Tumblr Account Preferences To Stay Organized
33 million blogs in 8 languages − Where's yours?
We have already presented videos on how to sign on to Tumblr and how to tweak the settings of your new blog − including how to ensure your activity on Tumblr is reflected in your Twitter account and on your Facebook page (though recent developments have limited the interaction between Twitter and Tumblr, alas). We want to continue with more how-tos associated with Tumblr both because we think the platform is an easy and flexible way to communicate with the larger world and because many have reached out with questions and ideas about the series. We appreciate your contacts and questions − thank you!
Today we present a video about Tumblr’s account preferences (to be distinguished from the blog’s settings).
| Category Blogs, Communications, Design, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Public Relations, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PROAGING: Technology Can Encourage Socialization & Longevity
Perhaps the greatest gift of life is the ability to share many its aspects with others. We have communication skills and empathies that can enliven mundane tasks and reinforce the greater joys and tragedies of the human experience. As social beings, we seek out these shared experiences from our earliest infancy to our later golden years. For many aging citizens, though, physical limitations and technological impositions can reduce opportunities for socialization, which in turn has been shown to decrease both life quality and life expectancy.
Most aging Americans want to live in their own homes as they age, but that desire also increases the likelihood of growing isolation and falling life quality. How might recent technological innovations keep seniors connected to their peers and their younger family members?
| Category Advocacy, Aging, Boomers, Civics, Communications, Community, Grandparents, Healthcare, Independent Living, Major Gifts, News and Current Affairs, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Sometimes A Security Breach Is Just A Phonecall Away
First of all, and oft repeated, use secure and unique passwords for all your accounts, be they banking, social networking, email, or to log on to your computer. Far too many people still use such insanely simple passwords like ‘password’ or ‘qwerty’. And if you think using your anniversary date or your cat’s name with the number 1 is a big leap forward, think again. The first rule of password creation: “Make it utterly unrelated to you personally. No names of spouses, pets or old high schools. No birthdays or social security numbers.”
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Blogs, Civics, Education: General, How-to, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Publications, Resource, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#DESIGN: How To Follow The Branding Guidelines Of Facebook
Interesting, but incorrect, logo
Corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, and even some individuals brand themselves with a specific set of colors and a type font or two and a logo. Usually those entities want the general public to use their logo, etc, as such use can mean free publicity. And certainly in the world of blogs and social networks we see the use – and abuse – of organizational branding all over the web. But the fact is, almost any organization that took the time to develop a color scheme, logo, or other materials also worked with their design consultants to develop a style guide. Such style guides usually include a cease-and-desist claim on any one who improperly uses their materials.
Facebook has such a style guide, and many of us stay pretty close to it, probably without realizing it. But what can we do, and not do, with Facebook’s materials when we download or cut-and-paste from the wealth of materials that are online?
| Category Blogs, Branding, Case Study, Communications, Copyrighting, Design, Education: General, Facebook, Facebook, Graphic Design, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Public Media, Publications, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Web and Print, Web Design | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Set Up Your Tumblr Blog’s Settings & Connect To Twitter/Facebook
We continue our video series on setting up your nonprofit’s Tumblr blog account with a look at the two Dashboards within your account. We also explore the blog’s settings and what distinguishes them from your account’s preferences. Tumblr is a free platform and one that can give you an up-and-running blog in about 10 minutes − as well as powerful customization and design tools that can make your blog uniquely branded and connected. We’ll be introducing those more advanced features in future episodes.
What the Blog Settings offer that is worth emphasizing is the opportunity to connect your organization’s Twitter and Facebook accounts to your Tumblr blog. Once done, you can post something on Tumblr and have it announced on the other social-networking sites: three for the price of almost $0.
| Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Design, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Media Review, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Resource, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter, Video, Web Design | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PROAGING: Olympics & Social Media Suggest Shrinking Digital Divide
NBC might have gotten some bad press for giving away results before showing them tape-delayed in the lucrative hours of prime time. These Olympics have both been the ‘first Social Olympics’ and the first to struggle to understand what such instantaneous communication can mean to corporate and sporting interests. And, as it turns out, most of the griping is coming from the world of social networks. According to the Pew Research Center, 76% of Americans find the NBC communications conglomerate’s coverage excellent or good.
What are the numbers when age is taken into consideration?
| Category Advocacy, Aging, Boomers, Civics, Communications, Grants and Funding, Independent Living, Internet, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Report, Seniors Life, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Aging | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Consider Moving Online Donors To Direct Mail Giving
Tap into a steady growth of new online giving
Social networks can be so important for communicating with folks who support (or will support) your cause. The high speed and low cost of such outreach can offer huge dividends, but mostly those dividends are paid in good will and spurring interest. Online donations are certainly growing, but as a recent report from Blackbaud demonstrates, long-term support and larger donations still mostly come from responses to direct mail, even if initial support comes online. The effort for any nonprofit, therefore, should be to develop interests and first donations online, yet also to strive to engage those donors with direct-mail appeals to keep the support coming. What are the numbers to back up this strategy?
| Category Cause Marketing, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Planned Giving, Planned Giving, Report, Resource, Social Marketing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Establish A Tumblr Account & Why You Should Do So
A couple of months ago we talked about the free blogging platform Tumblr, and the series got a great deal of response from you our audience, and we really appreciate your interest and feedback! We want to step up that earlier discussion with a series of video how-tos that will show you a Tumblr account, what can be set within that account, and why we think Tumblr is a great platform to develop a social-networking presence if your organization has not yet done so. Indeed, we find Tumblr such a simple and powerful platform that you even should consider moving your outreach to Tumblr!
Let’s begin by setting up an account, and exploring what you’ll see inside your new Tumblr account.
| Category Blogs, Communications, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Resource, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Web and Print, Web Design | | 5 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PROAGING: Majority Of Senior Citizens Online & Many More Using E-Readers
The fine folks at the Pew Internet and American Life Project marked a notable milestone in the history of electronic communications this past spring: “53% of American adults ages 65 and older use the internet or email. Though these adults are still less likely than all other age groups to use the internet, the latest data represent the first time that half of seniors are going online.” The crossing of the 50% mark means marketers and fundraisers really need to develop strategies to reach our retirees and senior citizens online. The percentages will only increase, of course, as ever more people who used the internet for work and/or play, and then those who grew up knowing few other means of communication, move toward 65. What else does the latest Pew report show us about Boomers and the internet?
| Category Aging, Boomers, Communications, GI Generation, Grandparents, Independent Living, Internet, iPad/Tablet, Marketing, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Social Media, Technology, Technology for Aging | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#GRANTS: The Lawrence Foundation Can Help Your Environmental Or Health Program
In our ongoing periodic series on sources for grants, we have focused on foundations tied to the great tech companies of our day. In this installment we present a foundation not obviously linked to that sector of the economy, though in fact it is intimately entwined. The Lawrence Foundation was established by Jeff Lawrence and Diane Troth (spouses) in 2000 with some of the proceeds received from the acquisition of Trillium Digital Systems, which was a company Jeff started, by Intel Corporation. Over the last decade-plus, the foundation has offered over $3 million to projects concerning education, health, the environment, and disaster relief (local and international). How would your organization benefit from a relationship with the Lawrence Foundation?
| Category Environment, Fundraising, Grants, Health, Healthcare, How-to, Nonprofit, Resource, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD