Today I’ve got stuff to help you get outside the traditional mail box. It’s a great way to communicate with folks – tried and true – but you have many more options in 2015. If you get stuck in the past you’re going to miss out on a lot of potential donors.
Did you know that when the telephone was invented people thought it would be disruptive and distracting? This is the year to seamlessly integrate strategic social media into all your fundraising and marketing campaigns.
Social Media
Click-It: 6 Strategies to Add to Your Social Media Marketing Plan for 2015 comes from Margot daCunha on the Busisness2Community blog and includes some great tips for charities seeking to build greater awareness and community in the year ahead. One great take-away: “Build a community rather than a number of followers.”
Click-It: How to Start a WordPress Blog in 5 Minutes. Another super useful post from Jeff Bullas. If your nonprofit doesn’t have a blog yet – what, are you nuts? – you owe it to yourself to check out this article.
Click-It: FINALLY! A Checklist for Social Media Marketing that Actually Helps. This is some nice practical stuff from Aaron Lee at PostPlanner. How to (1) define your audience; (2) create shareable content, and (3) get your social on using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube and Slideshare – all the biggies!
Click-It: Click here for a FREE Guide: The 2015 Social Marketing Planning Guide
from the folks at Social Media Examiner. Ten fresh tactics based on 2014 trends they expect to shape this coming year, and ways to refine your brand’s social strategy for success.
Telefundraising
Click-It: TELEFUNDRAISING: It’s different for us. If you’ve never considered hiring a good telemarketing firm, this article from the Hillborn blog may have you thinking again. One big take-away that also applies to other strategies (direct mail?) you may be forgoing: Just because you hate it doesn’t mean everyone else does. Thanks to Jeff Brooks for the heads up on this article.
Online Crowd Fundraising
Click-it: A Few Good Tools for Peer-to-Peer Fundraising from Idealware brings you a nice summary of the pros and cons of online crowd fundraising. The Value of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising for Nonprofits[Infographic] from the folks at Dojiggy lays out the benefits of online software – in visual form — to simplify your crowd fundraising and amplify the reach of your campaigns. Caveat: Just buying software won’t make you successful. You need to plan and manage your campaign as well as provide training and ongoing support to your volunteers. Can you commit these resources?
Click-it: If you missed The Fundraising Summit earlier this month, you can still purchase all of the great webinars in one fell swoop. If you figure out the cost per webinar, it’s a huge deal. And the webinars are yours to keep for whenever you may need them! Why not buy yourself a talking library of experts for a song? You may never find all these folks together in one place again.
Last Day to Register for Major Gifts Strategies
My most-loved course — Winning Major Gift Strategies for small and medium-size shops — is back by popular demand. You still have time to register TODAY. All the materials are yours for life, so even if you’re away for one of the weeks the course is offered, it’s okay. And you can add up to 5 team members – for no additional fee. That’s right; you heard me. It comes out to about $20/person – a crazy bargain. Why? I want you to make a difference in the world! I want your donors to make a difference in the world! Is it worth $20/person to make an outsized impact on the world? Sign up!
Photo: Flickr, Isaac Torronterra
Image courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net