Yesterday I had the opportunity to present a webinar about nonprofit blogging. It was a privilege to connect with 163 registrants on, and to take some time as a community to explore why nonprofits should blog, how we can (1) get started; (2) keep it up, and (3) use our blogs as a hub for…
The #1 reason people don’t give is because they aren’t asked. The #1 reason people aren’t ready to be asked is because they don’t know enough about you, aren’t engaged enough with you, and just don’t keep you top of mind. A blog can help you change all that. Learn why yesterday’s website is today’s…
In Becoming a Futurist Leader, Jill Schumann speaks directly to the reasons I SWOT analyses. They’re all about loing at the present to divine the future. And leaders need their crystal balls to identify trends, anticipate change, and be open to possibilities that will enable them to work effectively and have greater impact. …
Here’s what folks most enjoyed reading over the last month: •10 Things You Can Do on You Haven’t Considered: Don’t Miss the Boats PART 1 – It all starts with determining your goals; then optimizing your use of the site to assure you attain your objectives. •10 Things You Can Do on You…
Make your blog blossom Blogging. This month I’ve talked a lot about it. So, before April showers turn into May flowers, let’s discuss once how we can water our own blogs – either as individuals or businesses – so that they blossom and grow. They’re a great tool, but only if used effectively. Don’t…
Oh, no… don’t get lost! Before we hit “publish” – whether it be a blog post, e-newsletter, on appeal or even a tweet or post – we should have made a list and checked it twice. In other words, we want to make sure we’ve included everything we intended to include. And we want…
has been likened to the shop window of the 21st century when it comes to brand awareness. Just as consumers increasingly research their purchases on to obtain the best deals, so too do prospective donors increasingly research nonprofits on. So how we manage our social networking presence is of prime importance if we want…
Yesterday’s post offered tips one through five, plus 19 steps you can take to work to your business or organization’s advantage. Today we have five tips, plus 11 additional steps. REMEMBER: Before your take your first step determine why you want to use . As with everything else, to paraphrase Lewis Carroll, if…
I was recently asked what I thought of . Is it here to stay? Truthfully, I don’t know. I just started. I do know it’s the fastest growing social medium right now, and it’s easy, it’s popular, it’s visual and it’s pretty powerful. It resonates with the “scrapboing” crowd (i.e., lots of women between the…
celebrated its 6th birthday on the first day of spring, 2012. A year for must be like a “dog year”, because with over 500 million users, it is already the largest one-to-many open communication platform on the web. That’s BIG business. As has matured, it’s a great time to consider ways to…
Of all the killer social media engagement tools out there, none beats the blog. As the song from Disney’s Cinderella claims, it’s “the thingmabob that does the job.” If you’re at all in doubt, check your dubiousness at the door. Businesses that write on their blog regularly receive 55% website visitors and have 437% …
Tried and true fundraising strategies are great. Layering on social media can pump them up and make them better. Think of social media as putting your mother’s fundraising on steroids. Don’t we want to be the best? And it not only makes you stronger; it’s completely legal! Innovation takes us to the next level –…
We must begin to think of our brand as a platform from which all dialogue ensues. It is in this context that content creation and content marketing strategy becomes important. That is, unless you’re Seinfeld, and you think you can succeed in engaging your constituents in a conversation about nothing. It worked brilliantly for him;…
Content curation is one of the new buzz worthy terms you’re hearing a lot about these days. And it’s for good reason. With so much information at the buffet , we need some help figuring out what to select. To pick an ‘object’ and add ‘beauty’ and meaning to it, we need curation from sources…
Is your content pushing up daisies? It should be. That’s the way to grow and blossom. I call it the R.I.P. Content Marketing Strategy: (1) Relevance; (2) Ideas; (3) Plan. [Coincidentally, adhering to these principles should bring peace of mind so that you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re doing the right things (relevance;…
Is your content pushing up daisies? It should be. That’s the way to grow and blossom. I call it the R.I.P. Content Marketing Strategy: (1) Relevance; (2) Ideas; (3) Plan. [Coincidentally, adhering to these principles should bring peace of mind so that you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re doing the right things (relevance; ideas) in the right ways (plan).] So, to mimic Do,Re,Mi from the Sound of Music:
Content is king. What this means is that information is power. A recent webinar by Social Media Today(you may need to register on the site to hear the audio), How Content Marketing is Changing Everything, highlights the challenge for marketers today. We must not only deliver the right information, in the right place, at the…
Successful nonprofit development (both fundraising and marketing) is all about persuasion. One of my favorite bos is Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human. His premise is that we’re all in “sales” on a daily basis. Whether it’s simply trying to get your kids up and out the door in the morning or persuading your boss…
The Case of the Incredibly Shrinking Technology My last post was about e, and how it’s not going away any time soon despite the ascension of social media. We have to do both. In fact, we have to do off as well. Most of us don’t like this fact. We have to work longer…
is still the number one reason people go on. It still commands the highest return on investment of any on media. It’s a much bigger deal than , which has about 860 million users last time I loed. , growing by leaps and bounds, is at about 500 million. has about 3.1 billion…
We’re leaving too much of our audience cold, despite the fact that we now have content plans. Brian Solis of the Altimeter Group bloggedon a new report released by his colleague, Rebecca Lieb, “Content: The New Marketing Equation Why Organizations Must Rebalance.” A principle take-away is that, while we’ve been conscious about creating what…
What do you do when a donor leaves a negative review on , Yelp or ? Do you just chalk it up to one whiny person, ignore it, bury your annoyance and move on? If so, you’re missing an opportunity. You can turn unhappy campers into loyal, repeat campers. Research shows that when customers are…
…and see what tomorrow brings. Sometimes the lights all shinin’ on me; Other times I can barely see Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been. The digital revolution we’re a part of is trippy, for sure. There’s so much we should do, and it’s evolving at the speed of light.…
Listen up. In “No” is not the end of the conversation Chuck English channels the old Dale Carnegie manifesto, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and reminds us of the significance of listening — showing genuine interest in others and encouraging folks to talk about themselves. This has always been the key to success,…
We’re a nation afflicted with remote controlitis. With so many marketing channels from which to choose, we constantly switch from one to the next. We don’t focus as much as we used to, and we’re certainly not loyal to one media over another. First, a moment to define this disease. You suffer from remote controlitis…
Today I have an article in The Bridge discussing the importance of actively embracing strategic donor relationship-building management. Seriously, there is nothing important you can do this year. It’s all about relationships – and it takes some work to build and sustain them. What are you doing to show your donors you know them?…
What is a genius and what does it take to become one in your professional and/or personal life? Let’s toss out the notion that this is about IQ. Thomas Edison famously wrote “Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” Simone de Beauvoir wrote “One is not born a genius, one becomes…
We’re seeing a lot of predictions for how fundraising and nonprofit marketing will play out in 2012. They’re all interesting, and merit some consideration and reflection. Today I’m engrossed by a recently released 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report from Kivi LeRoux Miller. It’s worth downloading a , but here are some highlights with a few…
We’re in the era of ‘Big Data.’ The digital revolution has made it so there’s and information that can be acquired and stored. We’ve gotten really good at collecting data. It’s everywhere. But use of data is not. In fact, at the moment less than 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed and…
I’m pondering the difference between ‘customer service’ and ‘social engagement.’ When we think of the former, we think Marshall Fields and Nordstroms – very early 20th century — the granddaddies of a strong, retail service model where “the customer is always right.” When we think of the latter, we think decidedly 21st century – social…
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Lewis Carroll Communication should have a purpose. We should know where we want to go, and what we hope to get out of all the strategies we’re putting into place. Merely setting a goal for the number of tweets we’ll post…
Beware of a half truth; it may be the wrong half. This has always been a favorite proverb of mine. And a recent blog post of Top 10 Business Trui by Scott Gillum, which I referenced yesterday, caused me to wonder how black and white (or possibly gray) these trui might be – particularly as…
I recently came across a real goody: A blog post by Scott Gillum, contributing author to the Forbes network, offering wisdom collected over 20 years of work with some of the best, and worst, companies in the world. He found certain consistent themes regardless of company, industry or geography. It got me thinking about how…
Are you writing your own fundraising letters? Worse still, is your Executive Director writing them? According to Jeff Bros “insiders” like you and your key staff are simply too close to the organization to write effective, persuasive . Why? Because over time you/they have developed a certain way of thinking, and a certain proprietary knowledge,…
I just read an eye-opening Harvard Business Review blog article about the Six Attitudes Leaders Take to Social Media, demonstrating how business leaders are beginning to embrace the real opportunities social media offers. Most, however, are still on the wrong side of the fence (the article includes an assessment tool link to help you figure…
This morning I opened the newspaper and read about how the Occupy movement can take advice from marketing and branding gurus. They’ve been criticized for being all over the place, and not having a distinct message or rallying cry. Too often, businesses – nonprofit or otherwise – do the same thing. The inevitable result when…
My original title was: Asking the Questions; Doing Something with the Answers. A corollary would be “plan the dive; dive the plan”. In other words, we shouldn’t be diving into things (think about what you’re doing with your brand, website and social media in particular) without first asking some critical questions. I added “clueless” to…
So powerful. So sobering. I just watched “The Girl Effect” video for the “n”th time; it never loses its potency. A simple story. Rapidly told. Presenting examples. Playing to our emotions. Offering a solution. Messaging doesn’t get compelling than this. In cased you’ve never seen it, The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking is…
We’ve all been struck by the lightening fast pace at which technology keeps changing. ’s evolution is the latest case in point. Brian Solis calls this “Digital Darwinism”, and his recent post on the subject is quite provocative. Sometimes it’s difficult to foresee the change is coming, let alone prepare to adapt to the change…
Struck by lightening! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the lightening fast transformation over the past few years of how we communicate. It’s changed the world of fundraising and marketing in ways that are only beginning to be recognized. Social media rules, but most organizations don’t know how to harness the power of…
Fall fundraising season may feel far away, but the organizations that thrive at year-end are usually planning long before September arrives. That’s because strong fundraising results rarely happen by accident. They come from: Clarity about priorities, Discipd use of time, and Realistic understanding of resources needed to grow contributed income. Too many nonprofit professionals operate…
“Philanthropy, at its core, is not a financial system — it’s a behavioral one. Donor trust, like patient trust, is built on consistent signals of safety, empathy, and responsiveness. When those signals break — when follow-ups don’t happen, gratitude feels mechanical, or communication becomes sporadic — relationships weaken.” — Sanjay Bindra Bindra makes a neurochemistry case…
Here comes my occasional “Do’s vs. Don’ts” feature, where I with you something arriving in my box that seems a good ‘teaching opportunity.’ Today we’re going to review a last-day-of-the-campaign on appeal strategy. It arrived as an e. There’s (1) a sender’s address, (2) subject , (3) preview pane, and (4) the e itself.…
This is one of my all-time most popular posts. And since you’ve still got time to sprinkle a little magic into your year-end fundraising, I decided to share it again!
Consider each of these seven words a magic potion unto themselves.
The more of these words you use, the more powerful a spell your appeal will cast.
Each of these packs a bigger persuasive punch than you might imagine.
Let’s take a closer look at how this works.
Let’s say you’ve done everything thus far suggested in this fundraising appeal checklist.
✅ You’ve done the groundwork.
✅ You’ve focused your message.
✅ You’ve made it about the donor—not your organization.
Now it’s time to bring it home.
Because no matter how clear or well-structured your appeal is, it won’t inspire action unless it moves the reader.
Emotion—not logic—is what compels people to give. And that emotion is sparked by how you make your donor feel.
Do they feel seen? Valued? Needed? Inspired? Uplifted?
The final four steps of this 8-step checklist are about speaking to your donor’s best self, inspiring compassion, and stirring urgency.
These are the emotional ingredients that turn intention into action.
Let’s explore them.
In Part 1 we looked at the first four:
Today we continue with four more.
What if part of the reason our sector has so little understanding of our supporters is because we think we’ve done the work of understanding by slapping the activist, volunteer, donor (insert other generic label here) on people?
— Kevin Shulman, Founder, DonorVoice
Trying to categorize them neatly into donor “personas” (e.g., “Wanda Widow,” “Busby Business Man,” “Suzy Soccer Mom,)” doesn’t work nearly as well as helping them express their best self or selves.
In Part 1, we reframed what digital fundraising is really about: not just mastering tools, but learning to connect with heart and humanity — in the places your donors already live: on. Now, it’s time to turn insight into action. Whether you’re launching your first on campaign or refining what you’re already doing, these four…
Eight years ago, I wrote an article asking, “Why Aren’t You Doing More On Fundraising?” It felt urgent at the time. Loing back, it was downright gentle. Today, the question isn’t whether your nonprofit should be fundraising on. It’s whether you’re doing it well enough — and fast enough — to keep up with how…
Every fundraiser knows the tension: You want to lead with a story that stirs hearts. Your CFO wants broad messaging that raises money for the whole organization. They’re not wrong—unrestricted funding is essential. But broad, abstract appeals rarely move donors to act. Most people give to something they care about deeply. A moment. A face.…
The work of philanthropy facilitation is very personal. And, fundamentally, it’s based on trust. Which is why establishing and building trust should be part of your nonprofit and personal mission. “Amid times of change, one truth remains: trust is the foundation of progress” — Edelman Trust Barometer 2025 Alas, I rarely see this in mission…
When you’re not aware you’re making a mistake, it’s hard to avoid it.
So let’s get curious. I’m going to ask you to close your eyes for a minute to imagine a donor you’ve been wanting to ask for a major gift. I’m going to ask you to visualize a space where you’re meeting. Put them in your office, their home, a café or even a Zoom screen. Choose what’s comfortable, and where you think you’d be most likely to meet with this donor within the next month or so.
Okay… do you have your donor and your meeting space in mind? Excellent!
Now, before closing your eyes, commit to visualizing these four things:
SELF-EXERCISE: Okay, are you ready to close your eyes? Even if this feels a little weird, why not give it a try? (1) Pick your donor… (2) your meeting space… (3) your additional person supporting you in the room… and (4) open the conversation. What are you saying to them? What are they saying back? Don’t think in terms of pitching what they can do for you, but in terms of promising what you can do together. Play this scenario out just a bit, until you get to a place of comfort or discomfort. Then open your eyes.
What felt comfortable to you? Uncomfortable? Did it feel more comfortable and pleasant than you may have imagined? Smiling people, committed to the same cause, hanging out in a comfortable space together…. from such a space can come many good things.
REFLECT and JOURNAL: Take a few minutes to quickly journal some answers to the questions posed above. Whatever comes to mind first is great; don’t overthink this. I guarantee this will help you shift the energy for the next time you move into this space – in real time – with a donor.
It’s not fatal; you can correct it. But first you have to recognize it happened!