This fresh take (view video here) on the Salvation Army’s decades-old kettle campaign motivated two dozen folks to give in the few minutes I was standing there. That’s far more than I’ve ever seen respond to the traditional Salvation Army holiday bell ringer.
Relevance is the path to your marketing success in 2012. And I urge you to follow the Salvation Army’s lead in keeping in touch with their supporters and prospects, and responding to their wants, needs and preferences.
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This is the beginning of the end…of the year. The time for you to bear down and give birth to the most compelling fundraising campaign you have in you! So get to it.
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Take a look right now at this outstanding example of showing it (not saying it) from a child’s right (acr)! READ MORE
Our daughter Charlotte is a dedicated Brownie and I was wowed by the Girl Scouts’ high-impact fundraising as I tackled her Brownie re-registration forms this weekend.
The Girls Scouts did a great job in ensuring I couldn’t complete the form until I read their moving request for a donation to help other girls join, which was stapled on top of the registration form:
We need YOU — our inner circle of Girl Scout Families — to help us give girls access to life changing experiences that inspire them to do something BIG!
I had the incredible opportunity last month to work with nearly 100 of New Zealand’s charities and associations at the first-time Marketing by Association conference. These folks are working hard and creatively, and were an absolute pleasure to speak with!
In addition, I had the fun of being invited to guest on The Breakfast Show, New Zealand’s equivalent of Good Morning America. The focus (and this was the day before the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand) was how charities can survive in these tough times. Here’s the video clip of my interview!
P.S. Learn how to strengthen your nonprofit’s marketing impact with the new Guide to Nonprofit Marketing Wisdom.
The speed and breadth of the devastation in Japan is astounding. You can follow the story via CNN or Al Jeezera.
Most importantly, please donate to the relief effort now via one or all of these trustworthy, experienced organizations:
Global Giving - Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund (To disburse donations to organizations providing relief and emergency services.)
American Red Cross - Has disaster relief stations in affected regions.
Save the Children – Has worked in Japan for 25 years. Relationships and staff in place to help.
Please help now. Developed countries are frequently overlooked at the time of disaster, but Japan needs our help.
I heard about this fantastic opportunity first thing this morning and wanted to get it out to you asap. It’s an incredibly refreshing take on a stale “holiday.”
You already did whatever you’re doing in terms of hearts, chocolates and morning kisses. Here’s what matters more-generosity, and changing our mindset on what that is, and simply practicing it. Creative thinker Sasha Dichter calls on each one of us to take these steps today:
1) Reboot it as Generosity Day: “One day of sharing love with everyone, of being generous to everyone, to see how it feels and to practice saying “Yes.” Let’s make the day about love, action and human connection.
2) Here’s how:
3) Move from the one or few, to the many – to create connectedness and community by being generous.
Please join me in this powerful day and share it with your own community! Practice makes perfect.
P.S. Generosity has karma-this is the way to move your org’s issues forward.
Dear Nancy,
Our organization is preparing for a new structure in which it’s likely that Communications and Resource Generation (Fundraising) will become one department.
Do you have any advice as to implementing change from separate departments into one that lead to staff buy in as well as growing cooperation? Have you experienced any of these mergers where the department heads became Co-Directors? Some of the staff are very concerned about someone from RG leading the department. They feel it will lead to RG issues trumping the “prophetic voice” role of communications. Or that only stories favoring fund-raising efforts will get attention.
All the best,
Larry Guengerich, Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Central Committee East Coast
Dear Larry,
Your concern is a common one. In fact, the marketing-fundraising divide — whether these teams are joined in a single department or not — is one of the most common challenges nonprofits must tackle.
The real issue that the Committee is facing, no matter which team leader heads the new department, is that your marketing and fundraising teams are not productive partners.
Unfortunately, that’s the situation in most nonprofits where a single person doesn’t wear both hats. As fundraising expert Mal Warwick told me recently, when marketing and fundraising teams stand firm in their respective corners, the disconnect becomes a huge obstacle to building strong relationships with your organization’s community and raising money.
But there are ways to surmount this obstacle. Fairleigh-Dickinson University (FDU) succeeded in doing so via a deliberate, well-articulated re-structuring. I’ll tell you more about its approach in a moment. But first, here is my recommendation for a four-step process to bring marketing and fundraising into a productive partnership, supplemented by insights from some of the best fundraisers and nonprofit marketers I know.
Larry, breaking down the wall between marketing and fundraising is the only path to success on both fronts. I urge you to start today.
As a first step, I suggest you and your colleagues read this guide to a productive marketing-fundraising partnership, including details on the four steps to success and the Fairleigh-Dickinson case study.
Please report back on the outcome of this shift, Larry. Your experience will pave the way to more productive partnerships. Thank you!
Readers, what are your strategies to strengthen the marketing-fundraising partnership in your organization? Please share them here with the Getting Attention.org community.
P.S. Learn how to strengthen your nonprofit’s messaging with the all-new Nonprofit Tagline Database and 2011 Tagline Report.
Happy new year to all of you! I hope it’s a wonderful one for you. But first, please take a moment to look back with me to last week.
I’m someone who uses the past as core data in planning the future. So I was watching closely as all the end-of-year fundraising emails flowed into my in-box last week. And I’m sorry to say that most of them just didn’t make the grade.
However, fundraising asks from two organizations–the Center for Media and Democracy (CCTV) and the Clinton Foundation–stood far above the rest. Both organizations hit me with two emails last week, each one of which featured a clear ask, a definitive motivation to give before year end plus a bit of pizazz. Here are the subject lines that drew me in:
The fact that the Clinton Foundation excels in communications all around is no surprise. But I’m particularly impressed by the marketing savvy of the Center, a small organization fueled by lots of passion and imagination. Great work!
It’s been confirmed time and time again that a huge amount of giving happens in the last two days of the year. So why wasn’t every organization I’ve ever given to, signed a petition with or subscribed to their email list in touch with me to give, more than once? And why did two organizations who did reach out to me use their emails to announce January 2011 events, without even a whisper of an ask? It will be so much harder today, and for the next several months.
You can fix that next December by finalizing your December 2011 fundraising strategy in late Summer. Focus on what prospects are considering at year end (reflecting back, starting new, what’s most important to them, their taxes) and focus there, and reach them more than once. A thank you is always welcome and repetition, when done right, works well!
What are your recommendations for effective year-end fundraising campaigns?
P.S. Learn how to strengthen your nonprofit’s messaging with the all-new Nonprofit Tagline Database and 2011 Tagline Report.
Just as the strength of the donor-charity relationship heavily influences offline giving, the online giving experience has a significant impact on donor loyalty, retention and gift levels.
Giving on social networks is significant, but donor loyalty is highest on charity websites that build strong connections with donors. Personality matters on these websites: The loyalty factor for donors acquired through generic giving pages is 66.7% lower than for donors who give via charity-branded giving pages. Most importantly, websites that makes the user feel she is part of a distinct (branded) and important movement build stronger relationships with members, volunteers and citizen advocates, as well as with donors.
That’s the key finding of The Online Giving Study, just released by Network for Good and True Sense Marketing. The Study is based on $381 million in online giving through Network for Good’s platform, including 3.6 million gifts to 66,470 different nonprofits from 2003-2009.
Here are a few of other findings you need to know about:
Read the complete study to learn more about these game-changing findings, then use them to fine-tune your 2011 marketing and fundraising plans.
P.S. Register now for free access to the all-news Nonprofit Tagline Database and the 2011 Nonprofit Tagline Report. These tools will inspire and guide you to create messages that connect.
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