Category Archives: Clairity Click-it

Clairity Click-it: Marketing ROI, Engage Influencers, Info Overload, Transactional Email

This week’s links, some free stuff, plus last chance for two great learning opportunities that will help you right now.. Check ‘em out!

Clairity Click-it: Events; Mobile; Social Media vs. Social Business; Acknowledgment Plan; Email Appeals; Corporate Sponsors

This week’s links are a real potpourri of pretty darn interesting stuff. Check ‘em out!

Events

Click-It: The Secret of the Five Top. Simply brilliant advice from Seth Godin.  I dare you to try it at your next fundraising event. And if you’ve done it, let us all know how it worked!

Mobile

Click-It: Top 5 Reasons to Use Mobile. This post has all the data you need to

Future of Fundraising Clairity Click-it: Social; Mobile; Listening; Autoresponders; Nonprofit Websites; WIIFM Sponsorships

Wondering about the future of fundraising? Check out this week’s links!

Social and Mobile

Click-It: Nine reasons why social and mobile are the future of fundraising. I bring this to you because there’s been debate going on, instigated by our provocative friends at The Agitator.  Tom Belford wrote a post — Crafting vs. Producing… Writing Songs vs. Jingles — somewhat dissing email appeals in favor of traditional mail appeals. Why? Supposedly a more rewarding, bonding emotional experience to ‘open’ rather than ‘click.’ I don’t buy it.  I’ve seen plenty of moving email appeals. They’ve inspired me to give; I’ve seen others inspired to give. Sure there are too many that are dry as dust. But there are dull, flat snail mail appeals as well. Good email appeals work. Heck, there’s no one right channel for all people anymore. Far from it.

As fundraising professionals it’s up to us

Weekly Clairity Click-it: Year-End Planning; Online Donations; Storytelling; Social Media; Sample Fundraising Letters

Planning your year-end fundraising? Check out this week’s links!

Year-end Planning

Click-It: 5 Things to do now for year-end fundraising success. From Network for Good  comes this checklist of all the stuff you should be thinking about. Now! Here’s my favorite: Now is the time to put yourself in your donor’s shoes and thoroughly test your donation process, website, emails, and any other donor-facing elements. Identify any pain points and fix them now while you have some time. None of the above steps will matter if your supporters get hung up on your donation page, are stymied by your website, or can’t reach a real person when they attempt to contact you.

Online Donations

Weekly Clairity Click-it: Corporate Partnerships, Street Fundraising, Fall Fundraising, Online/Young Donors, Major Gifts, Email Fundraising

Such great links this week. Let’s get started!

Corporate Partnerships

Click-It: Safeway Foundation: 6 Tips on How to “Partner” with a Corporation Thanks to the folks at Third Sector and guest blogger Christy Duncan Anderson, E.D. of The Safeway Foundation for this great insider perspective on the sometimes mysterious business of securing business sponsors.

Weekly Clairity Click-it: Giving Trends, Cause Marketing, Email Marketing, Data Conversion, Donor Retention

Free Webinar alert below…  Now, on to this week’s great links…

Giving Trends

Click-it: ‘Strategic Philanthropy’ Shifts Too Much Power to Donors. This is a provocative Chronicle of Philanthropy article about the way foundations give today. Did you know that 60% of them don’t accept unsolicited proposals? The trend is towards a Madisonian approach where foundations determine which issues are meritorious vs. a more Jeffersonian approach  in which nonprofits, community groups and their constituents determine where resources are most needed. On which side of the debate do you fall?

Click-it: How America Gives. This is a super-awesome interactive guide

Labor Day Week-end Clairity Click-it: Planning/Calendaring, Development Director Mistakes, Time Management, Writing, Psychology, Gratitude

First, some words:

1. Time to say thank you for your labors.  And thank you for reading Clairification. Your work inspires me and truly creates a more caring community and better, more humane world. Your readership makes my days, months and year. Truly, I appreciate you. Please… rest, reflect and recharge this week-end. You deserve it!
2.  Last chance to get your highest ROI fundraising management tool (see below). Yes, I’m charging a bit. But not too much (especially given the fact my prodigal son has returned and is eating me out of house and  home!), and way less than what you’ll get out of it. I promise. Guaranteed.

Now… on to this week’s great links…

Weekly Clairity Click-it: Body Language, Purpose of Social Media, New Tools, Fundraising Basics, Thanking

This week’s Clairity Click-it – your eclectic array of easy to-“click-it” links to posts I’ve found thought provoking. With, of course, a few comments of my own.

Body Language

Click-it: 4 Body Language Cues You Need to Know When Networking. It’s important to remember that first impressions count. A lot. You may be unconsciously giving the wrong one. This article by Ivan Misner in Entrepreneur describes how to avoid this. I myself have to constantly remind myself not to keep my arms folded (signifying boredom or being closed off). If you’re up for the challenge, try this suggestion from Misner:

Weekly Clairity Click-it: Content Creation, Storytelling, Practical Social Media, Asking, Thanking

This week’s Clairity Click-it – your eclectic array of easy to-“click-it” links to posts I’ve found thought provoking. With, of course, a few comments of my own.

Content Creation

Click-it: 25 Brain Lubricants to Generate Content Ideas. This guest post on the Convince and Convert blog comes from creative director Barry Feldman. If you feel like you don’t have enough content to fill a blog (and if you read me at all you know I believe every nonprofit should have a blog!) check out these great ideas for combating writer’s block.  Here’s one I like: Got a bookcase full of dusty old classics? Crack one open. Try poetry. Hit Pinterest for inspirational quotes. There’s something about great thinkers that makes you think.

Weekly Clairity Click-it: Leadership, Staff Retention, Social Business, Funding, Inspiration, Pinterest, Email Welcomes

This week’s Clairity Click-it – your eclectic array of easy to-“click-it” links to posts I’ve found thought provoking. With, of course, a few comments of my own.

Leadership:

Click-it: To Move Ahead You Have to Know What to Leave Behind. I love this article from the Harvard Business Review. It points to the number one reason organizations have difficulty with change: