Winter Wonderland Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Links, Free Resources
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Outside the box gems today. Thought-provoking stuff to get your juices flowing and help you work smarter. This is the year to get off the treadmill and try something new!
Playing to Strengths
Click-it: Think Marketing Is Just for Extroverts? 4 Things Introverts Bring to the Table. This is a great piece by Annum Munir on the Hubspot blog. It reminds me of Daniel Pink’s “To Sell is Human,” in which he makes the point that the best salespeople are actually ambiverts — folks somewhere in the middle between extrovert and introvert. I’ve found the same to be true of fundraisers. You want folks who are comfortable making a pitch, but you also want folks who listen. An extrovert who just blabs, blabs, blabs will not close the sale as well as someone who listens carefully and intuits the needs and interests and desires of the person to whom they’re speaking. What have you found?
Why Crowd Funding Works
Click-It: What Crowd-funding can teach Fundraisers about Winning. This is a great piece by Matthew Sherrington on the 101 Fundraising blog about what’s so thrilling to donors who participate in crowd funding. And it goes back to a fundraising essential: tell a compelling story. Matthew says: “What provides the excitement is the journey; the tension of the underdog hero battling the villain and facing adversity; the uncertainty of not knowing if they’ll win; the emotional energy of wanting them to succeed. Even better, it’s the knowing that whether they win or not is down to you.” Do you give your potential donors this feeling?
Social or Media?
Click-it: Wake Up – Why It’s Now About the Media not the Social. In this very thought-provoking article by Jay Baer of Convince and Convert we’re asked to consider the evolution of “social” media to platforms concerned primarily with profit. Jay posits that if you want to keep the “social” alive it’s up to you to do so. He says “social and engagement are a means to an end for them now,” and that end is advertising. What end does your social media strategy serve?
Click-It: How to Analyze Your Social Media with Excel. This is super useful for small to medium-size nonprofits who can’t afford analytics software. You can do it with a simple spreadsheet. In Social Media Examiner, Merlin U. Ward describes the many ways you can slice, dice and measure your data to assure you’re meeting your targets. You do have targets, don’t you?
Click-It: 7 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Jelly. It’s not for putting on your peanut butter sandwich! Check it out. This post from Annie Lynsen on the Small Act blog shows it’s a new and intriguing way to build relationships with your constituents. If you like being on the leading edge, this one’s for you.
Perfection
Click-it: The Fine Art of “Satisficing” for Nonprofits by Beth Kanter is a new take on how to live with being imperfect. Inspired by the ‘Lean Start-Up’ model, it’s about why it’s important for nonprofits to speed up – “go lean and fast.” Much better than the term “minimum viable product,” the art of “satisficing” offers a paradigm for action vs. paralysis. I’ve long been a victim of “good enough is NOT okay.” This says it not only is, but it’s better than perfect. I like it!
Speaking of thought provoking…
You may want to get my 7 Clairification Keys to Unlock Your Fundraising Potential. It’s a handy guide with clairifying worksheets and individual and group exercises — plus lots of fresh insights into how fundraising and marketing have changed more in the past 5 years than in the previous 50! If you want to see what that means for you and your organization click here. To your success!
Photo: Flickr, Isaac Torronterra
