This is my first post-broken arm Clairity Click-it – especially hand picked (and I mean that quite literally!) for you. I’m still in a sling for at least four more weeks; maybe more. I leave you to enjoy the fruits of my perusing and one-armed pecking.
The Future of Nonprofit Marketing
DetailsOnce upon a time (around about 2008) a big mean recession cast its dark shadow over many a nonprofit. Grantors cut back on funding. Donors zipped up their wallets. Salaries and benefits got cut. Seasoned professionals were laid off, or left voluntarily. Others lasted awhile, but became increasingly discouraged.
Six years out from the biggest stock market crash since 1929, I’m beginning to hear a lot of organizations crying “Uncle!” These are the ones that, for reasons unbeknownst to them, have not rebounded. And they’re desperately trying to beat back the wolf at the door.
Do you know why your dog is not only your best friend, but your exuberantly best friend – a Best Friend Forever on steroids?
Can anything be as joyous and lovingly loyal as a dog? Picture Snoopy doing the ‘Ode to Joy’ dance. Unbridled ecstasy. Happy, happy, happy. What makes Snoopy Charlie Brown’s BFF? My guess is that it’s the same thing that makes your pooch pop with pleasure as you poke yourself across the threshold at the end of the day.
Chances are 9 out of 10 that your doggie is your BFF because you are hers. You treat your pet like royalty. How are you treating your donors?
DetailsTruths: Today, there are two things broken from my perspective: (1) my arm, and (2) the donor pyramid.
Yup! I’m really not much of a camper, but had a momentary lapse in judgement over the week-end. Kaboom!
Luckily, I managed to type up an article about the sad state of the donor pyramid prior to being reduced to a one-handed hunter/pecker (because this method is SLOW, baby)! That article, “R.I.P.Donor Pyramid,“ is gracing the cover of the May/June Fundraising Success Magazine, so I hope you’ll check it out over there and let me know what you think. Here’s my bottom line:
DetailsIn Part 1 I covered how quality trumps quantity when it comes to networking with your supporter base. It’s not so much about counting fans as it is about developing fans you can count on. In this two-parter I’m offering 8 ways to reframe your nonprofit marketing and fundraising stewardship objectives so you actually get…
DetailsCollecting — whether business cards, numbers of followers on Twitter or ‘likes’ on Facebook — is meaningless without a strategy to turn those relatively “blank” connections into meaningful relationships. If your marketing and/or fundraising strategy is based on counting, it’s time to rethink this strategy. Collecting is merely the “on ramp to build new relationships.” In his new book “Power Relationships,” author Andrew Sobel tells us there’s a better approach to networking.
DetailsThis is a special social media edition of the Clairity Click-it, since so many folks tell me they’re not doing as effective a job as they wish they were. Help is at hand! Take a look at these practical, and sometimes thought provoking, tips from some of my favorite nonprofit and for profit marketing gurus.
DetailsWhere do you go to look for new donors to support your nonprofit in 2014?
If you’ve not yet tapped into the power of electronic communication to find new supporters – social, mobile, email, crowd funding, online donating — read my recent post on Maximize Social Business: The Answer to Finding Nonprofit Donors: Social Media.
While this is in no way a slam dunk, neither is any type of lead generation strategy a magic bullet to converting leads into donors. You still have to do the hard work of building relationships with these folks. Yet…
DetailsFun events may bring in hundreds of attendees, but a fundraising event is not an end in and of itself. Often the charity never sees these folks again (or at least not until the next event) because these folks are golfers or ‘thoners, not donors. These events are a waste of your precious resources.
Don’t tell me that you “raised awareness.”
Unless you raised awareness towards a particular end (usually generating greater philanthropic support) – and you have a plan to intentionally build on this awareness — then everything your attendees may have learned about you will go in one ear and out the other. Awareness that isn’t reinforced lasts about two seconds.
Don’t tell me that you “raised good money.”
Did you really? Well, think again.
DetailsAn eclectic mix this week – mostly designed to make you think. We don’t take enough time to think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, do we? In the end, thinking saves us a lot of time, preventing us from doing the wrong things (even if we do them the right way). So… gives yourself some thought space.
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