Clairity Click-it: List Building, Calls to Action, Nonprofit Management, Silos, Change

Click it!

This week I’ve a potpourri of links on a variety of fundraising, nonprofit management and nonprofit marketing topics. It’s still summer, so I figure it’s a good time for a varied reading list. Some practical stuff, and a little food for thought. Why not?

List Building

Click-It: How to Build Your Email List from LinkedIn and Twitter. This post by Amy Hall on the Maximize Social Business blog offers some great practical tips for converting your social media contacts into supporters. After all, isn’t that one of the major reasons you’re trying to generate more connections and followers?

Calls to Action

Click-It: 12 Nonprofit Call-to-Action Twitter Images to Study and Learn From. This is a great collection of examples from Nonprofit Tech for Good.

Click-It: Tips for Creating a Compelling Call to Action. Some practical advice from Kat Kuehl on the Cause Vox blog. Learn about action language, appealing to emotions, creating a sense of urgency and focusing on a single goal.

Nonprofit Management

Click-It: The Three Legs of the Non-Profit Stool comes from the always-worth-reading Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels of Veritus Group. It’s written from the perspective of how leadership’s failure to equally balance these three legs impacts the job of the major gifts officer. But what’s written applies equally to grant writers, annual giving coordinators, marketing communications and all development staff. Development serves the organization’s mission – which doesn’t exist without vital programs and administration. Read this post to see how all three legs – Programs, Administration and Development/Marketing rely upon each other.

Silos

Click-it: What Can Starbucks Teach Us About Fundraising? This is a terrific guest post by Rory Green on Maeve Strathy’s What Gives Philanthropy blog. It speaks to how competitive many fundraisers become, thinking of folks as “my donors” and not sharing information with colleagues in their own organization. Time to eliminate the silos! Thanks Rory and Maeve for the important reminder.

Change

Click-it: Lazy Fundraisers comes from Roger Craver on The Agitator blog. It’s available by subscription only, so if you don’t subscribe you won’t be able to read the full article. But you can read Seth Godin’s post, The other kinds of laziness, from which it was inspired. I found a lot of important food for thought in Roger’s piece, especially as we strive valiantly to move forward and make sense of our fast-paced, digitally revolutionized world. We have to change, as individuals, as organizations and as a sector. Not to do so is just plain lazy. As Roger warns:

• “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to blindly accept conventional practices and old wives tales firm in their belief that ‘since so many others do it, so should I.”
• “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to ignore the voices, needs and feedback of their donors while blithely focusing on wringing the most out of their ‘target audiences’ campaign after campaign.
• “Lazy” fundraisers will stunt their own growth and therefore the growth of their own organizations by ignoring the latest findings of the behavior sciences and what they can teach us about our practice.
• “Lazy” fundraisers will roll over and play dead by working for CEOs who don’t care about donors and staff and Boards who either don’t care about or ignore all of the above.
• “Lazy” fundraisers will continue to blindly join associations that have too-low standard and quality and attend too many conferences where the content, and thoughtful originality remain dismally primitive.

As Seth Godin notes, “When we find ourselves looking for a shortcut, an excuse or an easy way out, we’re actually indulging our laziness.”

As the summer draws to a close, begin to think about where you may simply be going through the motions. Begin to consider how you might work smarter next year. Begin to think about ways to refuel and reinvigorate the way to approach your work.

Commit to growth, both for your organization and yourself. The world – and you – deserve your very best.

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Photo: Flickr, Isaac Torronterra