Enjoy the Mixed Links!

Happy Friday from hot Texas! Would you like to join us for some Mixed Links?

If you are having trouble getting your supporters to talk to others about your organization, Nancy Schwartz has some ideas on what you can do to Make It Easy to Spread the Word.

How do you track engagement? NTEN shares Avectra’s recent survey results in The 2013 Nonprofit Engagement Data Management Study: A Graphic Report.

Lori Halley from Wild Apricot shares a New Infographics Resource from Idealware.

Social media users are starting to be more selective about who they like or follow. MarketingProfs shows how social media has lost its way [Infographic].

John Haydon shares ten tips for creating photos that tell stories.

Erik Anderson of DonorDreams  is hosting this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival and he invites you to tell your board exactly what’s on your mind. He’s asking that submissions be anonymous so this should be a good one! Send your submissions to Erik before May 27th.

Dealing with Your Board

Lori Jacobwith has 5 Questions Every Board Should Ask.

Gail Perry says Board Members’ #1 Job: How to Be A Personal Advocate For Your Cause.

Joanne Fritz shares A Love Letter to My First Board of Directors.

Nonprofit Training

Special Webinar:

June 6: Marketing Bequests: The Delicate Art of Asking for That Final Gift.  Learn how to tactfully ask for bequests from your current donors with fundraising expert, Tom Ahern. Registration for this webinar is $75. (Free for All-Access Pass Holders)

For All-Access Pass Holders:

May 28: Taming Your Communications Calendar Six Months at a Time

June 4: Writing Short: How to Write Subject Lines, Tweets, Headlines, Facebook Updates and More

June 5: Feedback and Fine-Tuning Session: Twitter

June 11 and 18: How To Do Your Own Nonprofit Communications Audit

See you next week!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

I recently presented a webinar for GuideStar called Taming Your Communications Calendar Six Months a Time. It was sold out, so I couldn’t get to all of the questions. Guidestar asked me to do a couple of follow-up blog posts answering two questions that tended to pop up most frequently. One was “How often should we send email publicity to our audience?” and the other was about repurposing content.  This question comes up quite a bit, so I’m sharing my answer with you as well. ~Kivi

Email is an essential communications tool for nonprofits because it’s fast and affordable. Best of all, emails can include links that take your readers directly to pages on your website, where they can take actions, like donating, registering for events, following through on an advocacy action, and more.

So, how often should we email? What’s too much, what’s not enough?

It’s a complicated question with lots of variables. For example, the more relevant and valuable your content is to those on the receiving end, the more you can email them. You can make your content more valuable and relevant in a few different ways, one of which is by sending the articles on the right topics to the right people. That requires you to track information about people so that you can segment your mailing list.

To give this question a little context, let’s look at what we found in the 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report.

Monthly emailing to a typical person on an email list is the most popular frequency expected by nonprofits in 2013 at 42%, followed by every other week at 17%, quarterly at 15%, and weekly at 14%. This changed only slightly from 2011 and 2012. More than three-quarters of nonprofits (76%) plan to email their typical supporters at least monthly, which is down slightly from 78% in 2012 and up from 75% in 2011.

Not surprisingly, the more important a nonprofit believes email to be as a communications tool, the more frequently they will email. The more likely they are to say they will spend most of their time on email fundraising or advocacy appeals or email newsletters, the more frequently they expect to email supporters.

Of the nonprofits that ranked email as a “very important” tool for 2013, 84% will email at least monthly, with 39% emailing every other week or more. On the other hand, of those ranking email as only “somewhat important,” 70% will email at least monthly (up from 66% in 2012) and 29% will email every other week or more (up from 22% in 2012).

Of the nonprofits that said they would spend most of their time on email newsletters, 83% said they would email at least monthly. Of the nonprofits that said they would spend most of their time on email fundraising or advocacy appeals, 77% will email at least monthly.

You need to customize your email schedule for your organization, and more importantly, to the people on your mailing list. But if you email at least monthly, you’ll be doing what most other nonprofits do.

This post originally appeared on GuideStar.com.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Imtiaz Haiyoom

We met Imtiaz Haiyoom by accident our first night at the Nonprofit Technology Conference (#13NTC) in Minneapolis a few weeks ago. He was sitting approximately where we wanted to host a little meet and greet, so we basically commandeered his table and forced him join us.

He got a free drink out of the ordeal, but I think we got the better deal after hearing him talk about how nonprofit communications and marketing staff need to involve their IT departments earlier in the decisionmaking process – an idea that his boss, Keith Ackerman, the chief operations officer, and he, the IT director, both said has worked well for their nonprofit, CitySquare, which “feeds the hungry, heals the sick, houses the homeless and renews hope” in Dallas.

Imtiaz was originally just going to do a recap for us of his favorite session, but we thought his response deserved its own post once we realized his favorite session was the one Peter Campbell did, and we discussed Peter’s post in Mixed Links on April 26th.

During the session, Peter, the panel and attendees discussed what IT needs to do to get to the executive table in nonprofit organizations. According to Imtiaz, the panel was of the opinion that IT needs to be at the management level and needs to have a say in major decisions — an opinion Imtiaz and Keith agree with.

Here’s what Imtiaz says in his own words:

“I’ve been in the nonprofit world for more than 10 years, and in general, this is what IT is to a majority of staff: call the IT guys/gals to fix your computer and printer and that’s about it. We (IT) are still considered as someone who helps with buying and installing and troubleshooting computers and printers and anything that has an on/off switch. Very few managers or directors consider IT to be an integral part of a organization’s road map.

We need and want to be aligning ourselves with the mission of the org and to help it do the good work that needs to be done more efficiently.

IT seems to be the last people who are thought of when a program is launched. Why are we not brought in from the beginning so we can ask questions that others aren’t thinking of? We are brought to the table towards the end, and then when we start asking questions, we are oftentimes viewed as troublemakers. We then have to spend more time and effort  than if we had been there from the beginning.

I’ve been lucky to have a boss who has included me in his projects right from the beginning, but that’s not always the case with other program directors. Yes, they are thinking of the clients and how best to help them, but they are not thinking of how technology could help them even more. IT needs to be more aggressive in finding out what’s going on within the org and getting ourselves to the table and having our voices heard. It’s a tough job, but the rewards are great!”

Keith Ackerman

Imtiaz works in IT now, but has a communications background. We asked Keith how having the IT department — and especially someone who understands communications — involved at the upper level of strategic planning has helped CitySquare:

“Having Imtiaz as a member of our Executive Leadership has proven to be a game changer for us as a nonprofit organization. When issues and/or needs are identified, he has assisted by coming in from a different analytical angle to identify solutions, which often times has resulted in improved process efficiency. In addition, having him involved from Day 1 of a new endeavor has become an absolute necessity to ensure that IT functions and systems are included in strategic planning, which ensures that we are maximizing all of our resources and processes. In the past, when Imtiaz was not part of Executive Leadership decisions, we found ourselves having to make system corrections later that cost time and money. His contributions have definitely moved us into being on the leading edge of technology users in our market sector and that has contributed significantly to our organizational impact on the community we serve.”

If you are wondering what any of this has to do with nonprofit marketing and fundraising, you aren’t thinking hard enough. It has everything to do with nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Granted, not all IT directors have a communications background like Imtiaz, but if, like most nonprofit staff, your IT staff are there because they want to help change the world, what can you do as a communications or development director to empower them?

How does your organization view the IT staff? Are they simply there to help when your computer or printer is broken? Or are you working with them closely  to evaluate the best technology choices and to make decisions to support your marketing and fundraising goals?

Can you bring IT in earlier to your decisionmaking and strategic planning processes? Can you talk about not just implementing your communications strategy, but how they can help you create it?

Let’s hear your stories — good, bad, or otherwise — about how communications and IT staff can work together at the leadership level to make decisions for your nonprofit. 

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

A couple of weeks ago, we asked on Facebook and Twitter what you would do if you had a whole free day to yourself at work, no meetings and no interruptions.

The top answer by far was some version of cleaning your office and getting your files organized. Seems nonprofit communicators are ready for some Spring cleaning! Other frequent answers include taking time to plan strategies and editorial calendars, to read, and to write.

Here are just a few sample responses  . . . 

Then we asked what day of the week would be best, if you were going to block out a Nonprofit Communicators Free Day for yourself.

Friday was the winner.

So here’s my new question to you: When are you scheduling your Nonprofit Communicators Free Day?

I’m doing it too. I’ve blocked out Friday, June 14 and Friday, July 5 as my Nonprofit Communicators Free Days and I will accept no meetings that day, won’t answer my phone, and will stay out of my inbox so I can focus on my personal top priorities, which usually involve planning and writing.

Will you join me on these two days, or any others that work for you?

Share when you’ve scheduled your #npcommfreeday in the comments or on Twitter!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

I recently presented a webinar for GuideStar called Taming Your Communications Calendar Six Months a Time (which I am now teaching for CharityHowTo). Due to the large number of people who attended, I just couldn’t answer everyone’s questions live. Guidestar asked me to do a couple of follow-up blog posts answering two questions that tended to pop up most frequently. The first question was “How can I repurpose my content in a fresh way?” I get asked this a lot so I thought I would share with you too! (See what I did there – repurposing!). I’ll share the other question and answer later this week.  ~Kivi

Repurposing is an essential part of a manageable communications plan, because it allows you to get more mileage out of your writing, while reinforcing your key messages with your readers.

Here are seven easy ways to repurpose your content:

• Make short pieces longer. If you started with a 200 word blog post or even a quick tweet or Facebook update, flesh that out into a newsletter article by adding some examples. Add more descriptive details, get quotes from people, or share opposing points of view.
• Make long pieces shorter. Pull the headline and use it as a status update. Reduce your paragraphs to bullet points. Publish a teaser and link back to the longer piece.
• Change the lead. Simply start the article in a whole new way. Move something that was lower down in the article to the top. If you didn’t use a quote in the first paragraph before, use one now. Open with a trend or other big-picture explanation.
• Round it up. Group several like items together into a new piece with a theme that you can use in a new headline and lead paragraph. This is great way to use “left over” content like quotes from an interview that didn’t make it into the main article you wrote about the person you interviewed.
• Integrate the comments. This works great on content that was originally posted in social way, such as a blog post or Facebook update, where people could add comments. As you repurpose the article, fully integrate some of what you heard in the comments into the newer version.
• Add your opinion. Much of what you publish is likely “just the facts, ma’am.” Repurpose a newsy article by adding your commentary to it, or opinions or reactions from others.
• Recast it.  Take something completely unrelated and tie it into your content. Tabloid magazines are great inspiration for this method. Can you tie the latest hot superstar, scandal, or headline to your content in some unexpected way that gives you a fresh new lead paragraph or more interesting headline?

Embrace content repurposing, and you’ll save time and energy while still sharing content that your readers will enjoy and appreciate.

This post originally appeared on GuideStar.com.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

We've got the good stuff on the web for you.

It’s finally starting to feel a little more like spring here in NC. Let’s celebrate with some Mixed Links!

I’ve reopened the application process for our Nonprofit Marketing Guide Mentoring Program for communications directors and executive directors who do it all. The new six-month session begins July 1 and we have 10 slots open. We’ve already heard from some great candidates, so let us know if you are interested in the program.

Nancy Schwartz shares a guest post by Chapin Cole who implores nonprofits to do more innovative communications in I Won’t Support My Grandma’s Nonprofit.

Speaking of changing the way you do things, Blackbaud has 10 Ways Nonprofits Can Send Mobile-Friendlier Email.

Lori Jacobwith also has more on mobile and if your nonprofit could handle a world with only smartphones and tablets.

If you are thinking about moving to the cloud, NTEN has a post by Cynthia Adams, CEO of GrantStation, who shares their experience in Moving to the Cloud: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

If “inbox zero” is only a pipe dream, this Email Charter may help out a little bit. (Hat tip - John Haydon)

Debra Askanase talks about Social Media Convergence.

Frustrated with the leadership of your organization? Jamie Notter shares some ideas of What to Do When the Leaders Don’t “Get It”.

Nonprofit Training

May 13: Writing Nonprofit Thank You Letters That Inspire Future Gifts

May 16: Building a Storytelling Culture in Your Organization

May 28: Taming Your Communications Calendar Six Months at a Time

See you next week, and Happy Mother’s Day to you moms and motherly types!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Your readers aren't dunces. Respect their abilities to skim and decide.

I presented a webinar on email newsletter strategy for CharityHowTo last week, and one of the key messages was to make the email itself very skimmable, with links to your website where the bulk of the content would be. In the email itself, you can include short teaser content. This is especially important for newsletters that include more than one or two articles. That way your readers can quickly see if there is anything relevant and interesting to them, and click for more when they find something intriguing.

I used the Daily Grist email newsletter as an example of how you can quickly share content on many different stories at once in a very skimmable way.

In response to this advice, someone asked, “But isn’t giving just a headline and a teaser dumbing down your content?”

I understand where this concern comes from. It’s based in what’s called the “curse of knowledge.” Because you work in your field, you are consumed by the details — so consumed that you end up believing that everyone else needs the same level of detail as you have in order to understand anything about your issue. Wrong!

I believe that writing for skimmers — providing strong headlines and teaser text —  is actually more respectful and gives your readers more credit for their intelligence than trying to dump all of that content on them at once in the body of your email. Giving people a clear and concise taste of your content with an easy-to-see link to click for more says you respect their time in their inbox and trust them to decide whether your article is right for them or not.

I’m not saying that you should never put a full article in your email newsletter. I do that often, and it works well. But I don’t put five full-length articles in an email newsletter, and neither should you.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Raise More Money with Tom Ahern

It costs much less to keep the donors you have than it does to acquire new ones, plain and simple. Of course, knowing that and implementing a fundraising program built on it are two different things.

Between our 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends report and the recent email newsletter survey I conducted, nonprofit communicators still think “getting the word out” about their organizations should be their focus as opposed to doing what they can to inspire their current donors to keep giving. Let’s put some focus on those current donors!

So what can you do to keep your donors giving? Fundraising expert Tom Ahern is extremely good at this and he will be sharing with us two different ways you can get your donors to give more in some upcoming training at Nonprofit Marketing Guide:

1. Overhauling your print donor newsletter
2. Asking for bequests

Donor Newsletters That Raise More Money

I’m a bit of a nonprofit newsletter snob. I love ‘em when they are good, and despise ‘em when they are not. Luckily, we have people like Tom Ahern around – Tom knows good donor newsletters. Next week, he will lead our Donor Newsletters That Raise More Money e-clinic and will share the same tactics he used to makeover a client’s print newsletter that now raises $500,000 annually from just 10,000 donors.

We have only six seats left.

This two week e-clinic begins next week and features 5+ hours of coaching and training including the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Tom as he provides feedback on your print donor newsletter.

Here is what Allison Grierson of Friends of Honduran Children said after she participated in the e-clinic last fall:

“Thanks Tom and Kivi! Our fall newsletter was our best result yet. Highest response rate and most raised per newsletter. I would say this e-clinic is a must for any organization that wants to improve its newsletter.”

Due to the personalized nature of this e-clinic, we can only allow 24 nonprofits to participate. Learn more and claim your spot now.

Marketing Bequests: The Delicate Art of Asking for That Final Gift

Why do organizations in the UK, Canada, and Australia raise more money with bequests than we do in the US? Tom knows the answer to that too and will teach you a proven way to elicit bequests from your current donors using strategies from the UK’s Richard Radcliffe, the world’s leading researcher into legacy giving, and Canada’s bequest guru, David Love.

This brisk, no-nonsense, 90-minute webinar will take place on Thursday, June 6th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific) and is open to everyone. Registration is $75 (All-Access Pass Holders can attend free, of course). This webinar will be recorded if you can’t make it live, but the recording will only be available to those who register before the live event and to All-Access Pass Holders in the Webinar Archive.

This will be your only chance to attend this webinar this year. Learn more and register now.

Tom Ahern is often described as “one of the world’s leading authorities” on how to speak properly — and profitably — to donors. He’s authored four well-received how-to books on donor communications, and delivers dozens of workshops internationally on the techniques of successful fundraising communications. A constant practitioner, Tom writes fundraising materials for some of America’s leading nonprofits, constantly honing his specialties of donor newsletters, direct mail, and case statements. We are thrilled to offer Tom’s training to you at NonprofitMarketingGuide.com.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

In my new book, Content Marketing for Nonprofits (coming out in late August), I talk about the power of becoming a favorite nonprofit and how you can use your content strategy to become the favorite.

I just came across this video, which makes the same point, but about business “Love Brands.” Bob Kupbens, Delta’s VP for marketing and digital commerce, talks about the difference between working for Target, a love brand, and for Delta, which is definitely not.

What if supporting your nonprofit was such a part of a person’s values system or daily experience, or made her feel so good every time she helped you, that she just couldn’t stop?

Don’t see video player?

What would it take for your nonprofit to become a favorite? What would you need to do differently?

If you have taken my “new and improved” annual reports webinar, you know that I am not a fan of those long lists of donor names. I think they take way too much time and effort to get right, and do not produce the value that nonprofits think they do. You have many more opportunities to spell someone’s name wrong or otherwise screw it up than you do opportunities to get current donors even more excited about your cause because they see their names in 8-point type next to some other person’s name they admire.

Case in point: A nonprofit that my husband and I both love — and therefore will not be named in this post — totally screwed up their recent annual report donor list, in at least three ways I saw, and odds are, many more.

By insisting on using the too-formal and very outdated Mr. and Mrs. listing, because it supposedly confers more respect on donors, they have instead done two downright awful things:

1. Wrongly guessed the gender of some of their most loyal supporters

2. Alienated couples who consider themselves a marriage of equals.

How respectful is that?

Can we please move on from the 1950s?

What makes this all even more laughable is that at the top of the list it says that “every effort has been made to ensure these names are correct.”  You betcha.

Don’t do a donor list unless you are going to get it 100% right. Otherwise, you are actually doing great harm to your cause by including the list.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.