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Greetings!
 Dateline Paris
I've always wanted to do that. It makes me feel exotic, daring, exciting. And, as we all know, what you feel is
how you act. And how you act-what
you project-is often how people see you. It's not just that image is all, but image does have a lot to do with
how people interact with you.
For example, too many nonprofits are fearful of looking
successful. "If they think we have
money," goes the theory, "then they won't think we need their support."
So nonprofits get into begging mode. "Please help poor pitiful me." And what they get-if they get-is the
same pennies that we tend to throw the way of real beggars. And we will be treated in the same
dismissive way. This is
unfortunate. Most nonprofits do
important work-but if we don't believe that, why would anyone else? What we believe about ourselves, in
other words, is what others will also believe. That is especially true with fundraising.
I tell the students who take my classes, staff where I
consult and Board members everywhere, that asking people to support your
organization becomes a lot easier if you honestly believe that you are simply
offering them an opportunity to be involved with a terrific organization. When you feel that way, you have no
problem talking about the value to the supporter of becoming
involved. When, however, you think
about "hitting on" someone for a gift, well that's how he or she is going to
see it, too.
So image matters. Self-image especially matters. Think of yourself and your organization as something special, important,
worthy of support. And then you and your organization will
definitely be winners.
Speaking of winners, this issue we have the wisdom of two terrific nonprofit professionals. Leslie Birns talks about the issues of teaching an old dog new tricks and
what us "seasoned" nonprofit pros need to learn about social media. Julie Damon , CEO of Branded4Good
has some great advice on how to give your prime internet real estate-your
website-a remodel that will pay off handsomely.
Meanwhile, do you have specific ways that you let donors
know that they are dealing with a winning organization? Share your stories with me at janet@janetlevineconsulting.com Put "Winning Stories" in the subject line.
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Gloom and Doom is Passé....Perhaps
For the past several years, we've all been working under the
impression that the economy was bad and that meant that fundraising was
down. And for the most part, that
impression turned out to be true.
Giving in 2008 was down by 5.7% over 2007 and while major catastrophes
such as Haiti's earthquake brought in an outpouring of support, giving in 2009
was clearly adversely affected by the recession.
A study by GuideStar, an organization that gathers
information on nonprofit groups, found that in the first part of 2009,
nonprofit groups saw a trend of fewer individual gifts and gifts that were smaller
than they had been in 2008 (which,
remember, was down from 2007).
But all that may be old news. On May 26th of this
year, The Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College reported that
individual giving in 2010 is expected to grow to between $222 billion and $227
billion. (READ MORE)
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Social Media or Not...A Survival Issue
Leslie Birns has been a development professional for the past 16 years. Prior
to that, she was an educator, and a writer/editor in New York. For over 25 years, Leslie has also been a
freelance editor and consultant for writers. She can be reached
at lkerr25@gmail.com.
The term "Social Media" has
become not only a daily  topic of conversation, but a conversation that makes
people stop and listen-intently. On one hand, organizations of all sizes are still considering whether to
jump on the social media bandwagon. On the other, you realize that your audience can be unpredictable and if
you open the proverbial can of worms of social media, you could be overwhelmed.
However, with the truly
phenomenal growth of social media, the question has really become: Can your organization afford not to engage
in social media? And to a seasoned
fundraising and development professional, becoming social media savvy is no
longer a choice. Working
with young professionals in an educational setting has certainly changed in the
past 20 years-when simply conducting an annual fundraising campaign on the
internet was a leap of faith.
These days, though respect for credentials and success is appreciated,
working with young professionals who move from social media to social media
with the greatest of ease can make even the most seasoned of fundraisers feel
the technology crunch.
So what's a seasoned novice to
do? First of all, do your
homework. What are the pros for
using social media to raise your organization's awareness, growth, and support?
Consider just some of the
prospects (and there many): -
Social networking can
promote your organization quickly and to a broad base of people and prospects.
-
Rapid speed-to-market messaging
capabilities allow you to announce relevant news about your organization in
record time.
- Interactive tools permit you to participate
in unscripted conversations about your organization, enabling you to gather
information and identify potential areas of new opportunities.
-
Social networking tools can be
relatively simple, requiring an efficient use of time and technology that is
almost always free.
- Social networking allows you to
market yourself more personally with potential customers. It provides the opportunity to "put
things in your own words". You can
communicate directly with your audience and receive honest and frequent
feedback on your programs and services.
-
Through social networking,
positive voices and best ideas rise to the top and negative voices can be addressed.
Perhaps the biggest difference between traditional media (like
television, magazines, newspapers, etc.) and social media is the dynamic and
flexible nature of the latter. (READ MORE)
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The Website Main Page--How To Maximize Your Most Valuable Real Estate
Julie Damon is the CEO & Marketing Director for Branded4Good
an organization that provides marketing services for non-profits. The Company specializes in helping
small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations develop comprehensive marketing
strategies utilizing both website and print marketing materials that promote their
nonprofit brand.
The housing market isn't the only one with prime
real estate laying fallow. The nonprofit industry as a whole is not making
great use of its best real estate - their website's main page. If you're trying
to sell something (like donation and volunteer opportunities or special event
tickets) you've got to pull the weeds out front, reorganize some stuff, then
grab people's attention and make sure you can maintain it regularly. Here are
some tips to do just that:
Trim
the Weeds
-
Get
rid of the President's message, the welcome message, the mission
statement, the vision statement, the list of board members, anything with lots
of text that would be better suited to other pages.
- Get
rid of any cutesy graphics, cheesy animations, scrolling text, weird
colors; backgrounds with repeated graphics.
Grab
Their Attention
-
If you don't have a
tagline or your tagline is more than 10 words, it's time to come up with an appropriate
one that embodies what you do and who you are; keep it simple by boiling it
down to just the essentials so that no Ph.D. is required to read it. We actually
recommend that someone without a Ph.D. writes it (think like a marketer not a
grant writer or thesis writer).
- Rethink the menu structure -
if you have more than 8 or 9 main menu items, your site is probably not
organized as efficiently as it could be. Think how confusing it would be if
there were 15 ways to enter a house - you wouldn't have any idea where to go
first and you'd likely get lost quickly.
- If you have any Flash or other
animations that repeat constantly - MAKE THEM STOP - nothing is more
annoying or distracting than to have constant movement when you are trying to
figure out which of the 15 doors to enter through. Animations should cycle once
and then stop; you can always add Play Again or have it play again once each
time a person lands on that page.
Grab Their
Attention (again)
-
Develop your compelling message aimed at your main target
market, a simple statement that will appeal to them. It can be your tagline, it
can be a compelling statistic and pair it with a photo or multiple photos or
other illustration to get your message across. Make this your largest focal point.
- Think
of the top 3 things you would like to tell your visitors to do or the
top 3 things your visitors are most likely to want to do (however you want to
look at it) on your site and create 3 smaller focus areas for these target
markets. I call this the Power of 3 and you will see it everywhere once you
start looking at professionally-created sites. The 3 items would then be linked
to pages within your site; the pages are all available from your main menu but
you are creating shortcuts on the main page to the most important items as part
of you "attention strategy"on the main page.
- Add an
area for news, updates, events - just text links to draw people into
the site. Make the text links sound appealing with lots of action verbs.
- Add
a Donate Now button (or Join Now if you are a membership organization)
in a bright, pop color in the upper left quadrant of your page or directly on
your main menu as an option that stands out from the other menu items.
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Are your fundraising results down? Janet Levine Consulting can help. Email or give me a call at 310-990-9151 to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.
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