Charities rely on communities to help support their causes and, as social creatures, humans need interpersonal contact to survive. These connections range from your inner circle of family and close friends to the outer rungs of your social network — other pet parents at the dog park, for example — and it’s important to have … Continue reading How to find your community as an adult — and why it matters
How Jargon Destroys Nonprofit Fundraising & Marketing
Why would you ever use jargon if you wanted to truly communicate with someone? Just check out the definition: “language used by a particular group of people, especially in their work, and which most other people do not understand” — Cambridge dictionary. When you talk to people in words they don’t understand, really, what’s the … Continue reading How Jargon Destroys Nonprofit Fundraising & Marketing
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Development Content: Five ways to reframe your donor stories
Higher education and nonprofit communications teams tend to turn their noses up at donor profiles. Their reaction isn’t unfounded; college alumni magazine readership surveys, for one, consistently show that donor profiles and gift announcements rank last in interest among types of content in these publications. After working for more than a decade on both sides … Continue reading How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Development Content: Five ways to reframe your donor stories
#GivingTuesday tweets that got noticed vs those that didn’t
Go on Twitter and search up the #GivingTuesday hashtag and you’ll find a never-ending torrent of tweets by non-profits trying to get the attention of digital passersby. Given how jam-packed the market is, and how short peoples’ attention spans are on Twitter, if there’s anything a non-profit can do to get even ONE like, or … Continue reading #GivingTuesday tweets that got noticed vs those that didn’t
The Importance of Having a Multichannel Fundraising Campaign
Year-end fundraising season is starting to gear up. However, if you just send one fundraising letter and wait for the donations to come in, prepare to be disappointed. Your donors have a lot going on and may put your letter aside to handle later, and then never get to it. Of course, you can also … Continue reading The Importance of Having a Multichannel Fundraising Campaign
The Pixar Pitch! Telling your Story Crisply and with Clarity in order to Compel Action
In order to move others, we need to become much better at clearly stating what it is we want and where it is we want people to go. Daniel Pink presents the Pixar Pitch as a prime tool in thinking about this. Pixar Animation Studios, starting with Toy Story, is one of the most successful … Continue reading The Pixar Pitch! Telling your Story Crisply and with Clarity in order to Compel Action
60% of charities now have a digital strategy
Now in its fifth year, the Charity Digital Skills Report is an annual barometer of digital skills, attitudes and support needs across the sector. The report tracks how these have changed year on year and analyses how other key building blocks for digital change are progressing, including understanding user needs, leadership, strategy and governance. The … Continue reading 60% of charities now have a digital strategy
15 Most Valuable Emotional Intelligence TED Talks on Youtube
Emotional intelligence gets a lot of attention in the field of leadership research, and it is drawing increasing attention from many other fields as well. By increasing empathy and compassion through accurate awareness and acceptance of emotions, real widespread change can be ignited. Daniel Goleman wrote the book Emotional Intelligence and his personal “awakening” into … Continue reading 15 Most Valuable Emotional Intelligence TED Talks on Youtube
How to design kick-ass pages and products by simply asking some questions
Every organisation wants to design digital solutions with a rich user experience. To do this, they need a thorough understanding of how people interact with technology and experience these solutions. As humans we are hardwired to spot certain patterns and responses in our surroundings. We use these responses and patterns when we are solving problems … Continue reading How to design kick-ass pages and products by simply asking some questions
Most public sector messages are not direct marketing
The ICO says public sector organisations can send ‘promotional’ messages which would not be classed as direct marketing, if they are necessary for a public task or function. This is significant. ‘Promotional’ messages have always been considered as ‘direct marketing’ before, regardless of whether they are sent by commercial companies, not-for-profits or the public sector. It … Continue reading Most public sector messages are not direct marketing
Propper Fundraising 