So many of you have been asking that I wanted to let you know a.s.a.p.: The Nonprofit Tagline Awards (a.k.a. The Taggies) are coming back this summer. Great Words Promoting Good Causes!
This will be the fourth awards program, and I’m thrilled about it: Because I believe strongly that a strong tagline does double-duty — working to extend your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It’s one of your most effective marketing tools, but a GettingAttention survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don’t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly.
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Nancy Schwartz on March 19, 2012 in Taglines
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Tags:#Taggies, message development, messaging, nonprofit tagline awards, tagline focus project
Directions for use: You know what I’m going to say—that’s why you read this blog. But here’s clear, compelling messaging to use in your discussions with colleagues and/or leadership who just don’t get why marketing matters.
Marketing is how your organization builds and strengthens your relationships with the people whose help you need to move your mission forward, as donors, partners, volunteers or in other roles. Without establishing those relationships and then nurturing them on an ongoing basis, your org will be spinning its wheels.
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Nancy Schwartz on March 1, 2012 in Strategy
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Tags:marketing planning, message development, nonprofit branding, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit marketing
Relationships are built person-to-person, not person-to-organization. So put your people forward! Pithy, punchy staff bios–with photos–to introduce prospects to your organization at a personal, emotional level, motivating them to dig more deeply into the details of what your nonprofit has to offer or how they can get involved.
Here are some well-tested guidelines for crafting bios that will help audiences connect with your organization: (Read the full article for a more in-depth guide to crafting compelling nonprofit staff bios.) READ MORE
Nancy Schwartz on December 7, 2011 in Writing
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Tags:bio, message development, messaging, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit marketing, staff members
I’m always grateful to find a point of view that helps me understand more about what works communications-wise, and why. Today I want to thank nonprofit innovator Dan Pallotta for his guidance to Stop Thinking Outside the Box.
If you’re like me, you’re sick to death of the inside the box/outside the box paradigm. It’s become a cliche, so all too easy to ignore. But don’t…Pallotta makes this vital point:
Thinking outside the box without understanding the box is a petulant exercise in resistance — every idea that comes from the process has the box written all over it. It’s a reaction to the box. It’s fighting the box. It’s a child of the box….It will fail.
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Nancy Schwartz on November 29, 2011 in Branding and Messages
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Tags:Dan Pallotta, message development, messaging, nonprofit marketing
With Thanksgiving upon us, all attention turns to gratitude (or at least the recognition that we should be thankful, for something).
I’m grateful to New York Times columnist John Tierney for cutting through the gratitude flotsam:
Cultivating an attitude of gratitude has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long term satisfaction with life and kinder behavior to others, including romantic partners. One study stated that writing just one sentence of five things you are grateful for once a week made people happier and more optimistic than the control group. They also reported fewer physical problems, slept longer at night and were also less aggressive.
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Nancy Schwartz on November 22, 2011 in Strategy
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Tags:message development, messaging, Nonprofit Blog Carnival, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit marketing, pamela grow
The right messages make all the difference in connecting with your target audiences.
What if you were skilled at the most critical marketing process necessary to engage your target audiences with clarity and purpose?
What if you mastered a proven 11-step message development process so you had a positioning statement, key messages and a sparkling tagline that connected with your supporters and energized your staff, board and volunteers?
And what if you could perform this marketing and communications transformation with expert guidance in just 8 weeks?
Well now you can, starting next Tuesday, November 15. But there’s just one seat left… Learn more here. READ MORE
Nancy Schwartz on November 10, 2011 in Branding and Messages
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Tags:branding, message development, messaging, nonprofit branding, tagline awards, tagline focus project, training
I’d like to invite you to joining me in my new intensive, small group training program on message development, the Tagline Focus Project (TFP).
Just 5 seats left — program starts November 15
You’ll immerse yourself in getting to know your audiences and learning how to craft messages that engage them via small group trainings and one-to-one coaching and critiques—working from the comfort and convenience of your own desk.
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Nancy Schwartz on November 3, 2011 in Branding and Messages
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Tags:Audience Research, message development, messaging, nonprofit branding, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit marketing, tagline, tagline awards
It takes a team to create great messaging.
As I prepare to begin the Tagline Focus Project (TFP) program on November 15, many of you have gotten in touch with questions. And you’ve reminded me how common it is to feel isolated and overwhelmed by the challenge to create messages that connect for our organizations.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
That’s one of the reasons I’m so looking forward to working with a small group of nonprofit communicators (no more than 12) like you this fall, leading them through this immersion program to learn how to develop messages collaboratively—with me, the other program participants, and their colleagues and external audiences. READ MORE
Nancy Schwartz on October 19, 2011 in Branding and Messages
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Tags:message development, message focus project, messaging, nonprofit communications jobs, nonprofit marketing, tagline, tagline focus project
The stresses of the times are dramatically affecting your organization’s relationships, and that’s likely to continue through 2012. But there’s some very good news.
