Seven Things a Media Spokesperson Should Be and the Media Are Hungry For Pictures

After a brief break, I thought I'd return with one of my favorite media experts, Bob Crawshaw, of Mainstreet Marketing Australia.  And it's not just one post but two that I thought went well together.  If you are choosing a media spokesperson you need to give thought to how that person  "presents."  And every organization should plan how to present their story in pictures, video and graphics.  I think Bob's bottom line advice is plan and prepare.  Most recently Bob has begun a blog talk radio show Traffic on Maine Street.  Tune in when you get a chance!  Bunnie

 

Bob Crawshaw, Mainstreet Marketing

 

Seven Things a Media Spokesperson Should Be

 

A key part in setting up a media relations program is selecting a spokesperson(s) to be the public face of your organisation when the media calls.  This is a very important job and most agencies, businesses or not for profits identify the CEO, Chairperson or person responsible for communications to fill this role.

Irrespective of the choice, your spokesperson(s) should:

• Know the topic you are presenting to the media.
• Be able to speak with authority about what your organization does and answer general as well as specific questions.
• Be well-groomed and dress suitably.
• Uses plain language and speak clearly and simply.
• Be continually contactable by mobile or cell phone.
• Be reasonably flexible about when and where to be interviewed.
• Be available by phone or email for any follow-up questions after the interview.

 Journalists do not expect not for profits or smaller businesses to have well trained media spokespersons, but they do expect them to be represent your organization, provide information and be able to tell a good story.   

Training in media interview skills is not really necessary unless your issue is controversial, you plan to talk to the media often or your spokespersons are not comfortable performing this important job.  If so consider investing in professional media training for your spokespersons because good media coverage is so important to the future health of your organisation.  

The Media Are Hungry for Pictures

 A picture is worth a thousand words

Today our lives are so busy and time poor we rely on images as short cuts to help us process information and make decisions.

Media organisations have a constant appetite for images for their screens, on-line pages and portals.  Even radio station websites cry out for pictures.  That means a not for profit, business or agency that can offer compelling video or digital imagery to communicate its cause increases the likelihood of getting its story told.

Think about the imagery associated with your story before even approaching journalists  You can supply your own photos and video to the media. This can work well with local papers and other small outlets with limited staff, however it rarely satisfies larger media organizations that need broadcast or print quality imagery.  The best approach with them is to set up deliberate opportunities at your event for their news photographers and TV crews to get good pictures.

Good imagery - whether video or photographs – graphically and emotionally depicts what your organisation does.  It might show a client using a service, staff helping someone or some picture-worthy aspect of your operation.  The more emotion an image sends, the more likely the media will use it and the more likely they will report your story.   

Imagery is so important you need to think through about what you can provide and then how you could describe your imagery over the phone to a TV producer or reporter. If you plan to send imagery to a local outlet regularly it is certainly a good investment in time and money to get a commercial photographer to help you or build up your own in-house skills.

Communicating With Your Constituents

by Bunnie Riedel, Host, Nonprofit Conversation

I do a lot of benchmarking and needs assessment studies focusing on communication.  Whether you manage a nonprofit or a business, effective communication with your constituents (and prospective constituents) is essential.  However, for many, lack of time and resources (both human and financial) are major roadblocks to good communication.

I am fascinated by the results of a recent Focus Group I conducted in Massachusetts.  In the group was a sprinkling of small business people but mostly local nonprofits.  For the Focus Group, which takes about five hours, I go through a series of multiple choice questions and provide opportunities for narrative responses.  We engage in large group discussion and small group discussion.  The session is designed to get them thinking about how they receive information, whether they perceive their communications to be effective, what messages they want to deliver and what vehicles of communication they believe work best for them.

Seventy-two percent of the participants spent less than $5,000 per year on communicating with their constituents or prospective constituents.  In that seventy-two percent were the small community based nonprofits.  Eight percent spent over $25,000 per year, that group included a real estate agency, a tourism agency and a radio station.  Emails, phone calls, word of mouth and website were cited as the vehicles most used for communication.  However, meetings, phone calls, newspapers and word of mouth were rated high for effectiveness, while email and websites were rated low. 

When asked if they thought their communications were effective forty-eight percent answered “Maybe.” 

Again, this group was very local, very micro.  The opportunities to have meetings and word of mouth work for them as communications tools are greater than one would get from a larger organization, such as a national nonprofit.

They had very important, sometimes critical information to convey, such as availability of social services, assistance for problems, solutions for community building and even their own existence.  The group found that obstacles to communicating their messages included an inability to know if the constituent received the message, lack of return phone calls and emails, misunderstanding of what services they provided and competition from too many other messengers (information overload).

Friends, community groups and religious institutions rated quite high as ways they received information about organizations in the community.  While newspaper articles, websites and promotional advertising rated quite low. 

In mulling over these responses it struck me how the “personal touch” worked in this community and it made me wonder how does one take that personal touch and apply it in the larger sense?  Especially if you are talking about a larger regional or national nonprofit.  Could it be that our challenge is to find ways to take the tools we assume have a wide ranging impact, such as our websites, emails, Facebook pages, etc. and personalize them?  Can we make them work and feel like a community meeting or a person to person communication?

In theory, Facebook edges in that direction, it seeks “friends” and “fans,” people who have affirmatively selected to have some sort of an interest in what your organization is doing.  However, Facebook also has a way of de-personalizing messages.  Lost in the clutter that is Facebook, important messages risk becoming just more electronic background noise. 

How do we create websites that provide intimacy and personal interaction rather than simply act as placeholders for information?  Are our websites inviting and friendly?  Do any of us really update them enough that people want to keep coming back to see what’s new?

And those email blasts, like Constant Contact, do they behave more like pop ups intruding on one’s communication experience or can we use them almost like friendly handshakes?

I think smaller communities often have an advantage in communication.  There’s always the chance that you will run into your constituent at the grocery store or on the street corner and be able to pass on the latest information or affirm the personal relationship.  The challenge for all of us is how to create the personal when the geography is so large.

As always, I welcome your thoughts on this article.  Feel free to leave a comment or submit an article for Nonprofit Conversation by contacting me through my website http://www.riedelcommunications.com

Thanks for reading! 

Nonprofit Tagline Awards!

You may have missed it last year...but now is your chance to enter this year...it is the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards!  Nancy Schwartz of "Getting Attention" has kicked off this year's competition.  And if you want to know what the Tagline Report looks like, here's 2009, it is awesome! 2009 Tagline Awards Report  I think it is often difficult for a nonprofit to come up with an effective tagline, especially one that conveys the mission of the organization.  And that may be because we hang on to mission statements or even programming that is no longer relevant.  Read the 2009 report and you will be inspired to look at your tagline with a fresh prespective.  And then...enter the 2010 Tagline Awards!  Bunnie

Three New Categories Launched As Annual Nonprofit Tagline Awards Open

Great Words Promoting Good Causes—Organizations Everywhere Invited to Enter

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program (a.k.a. The Taggies), the world’s largest collection of nonprofit taglines, opens its third award season this week with the addition of three new categories.

Now, nonprofits everywhere will be able to enroll their organizational tagline in the annual program, plus any taglines they’ve created to support programs, fundraising campaigns and special events.

“The tagline is a critical element of any nonprofit’s message platform,” says Nancy E. Schwartz, president of Nancy Schwartz & Company and blogger at Getting Attention (www.gettingattention.org), the award program’s organizer.

“Adding these three new categories gives more organizations a chance to showcase their best efforts to effectively reach and communicate with their target audiences.”

In addition to the new categories, libraries have been added as a section of the organization tagline category.

Organizations can enter their nonprofits’ taglines via an easy-to-complete entry form at http://bit.ly/cQjUsw

Winners will be chosen in 13 organization fields of focus and one each in programs, fundraising and events, says Schwartz.

The deadline for entering an organization’s tagline is July 28.

This year’s award program finalists will be selected by a panel of 16 judges, including representatives from two winning organizations from last year’s program.

In late August, the finalists will be notified before voting for the tagline award winners begins in September.

Award winners will be announced in late October. The 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report and updated database will be released in November.

Schwartz says a strong tagline does double duty – working to extend an organization’s name and mission while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to its base.

All entrants will receive a free copy of the fully-updated 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report. It’s the only complete guide to building an organization’s brand in eight words or less. There are now more than 2,500 taglines compiled and organized in the report, and that number will grow significantly with 2010 award submissions.

Twitter users can follow the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards via the hashtag #taggies.

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program has four generous sponsors this year: Blackbaud, sponsoring the fundraising campaign category; Event360, sponsoring the special event tagline category; and general sponsors Eventbrite and See3 Communications.

THE GETTING ATTENTION NONPROFIT TAGLINE AWARDS

The annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards program came about when so many powerful taglines were submitted to the Getting Attention survey on nonprofit taglines, and is designed to motivate and guide nonprofit organizations to put effective taglines to work.

A list of 2008 and 2009 award winners can be found here: http://gettingattention.org/nonprofit-taglines/award-winners.html

THE NONPROFIT TAGLINE SURVEY

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Survey, implemented in 2008, investigated styles, usage trends, what’s working and what’s not in nonprofit taglines based on data provided by 1,900 nonprofit communicators working in organizations across 11 vertical sectors and countless locations (mostly in the United States).

Survey findings are available in the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Report

http://gettingattention.org/nonprofit-taglines/get-nonprofit-tagline-report-directory.html

ABOUT GETTING ATTENTION/NANCY SCHWARTZ

The Getting Attention blog and e-update http://www.gettingattention.org/ are no-charge, high-value sources of ideas, tactics, and tips for nonprofit communicators focused on helping their organizations succeed through effective marketing.

Nancy E. Schwartz provides marketing services to nonprofit organizations and grantmakers via Nancy Schwartz & Company and is the publisher of Getting Attention.

Social Media IS Effective for Nonprofits and Small Business

I always enjoy the insights of Debra Askanese of Community Organizer 2.0.  And this article is a great one to give the naysayers in your membership or on your board of directors who may not be using social media tools and may not understand why you should be using Twitter or Facebook to market your nonprofit.  One thing Debra points out, which I have heard elsewhere, is that fundraising using social media is not that successful.  However, that being said, I think social media helps you identify potential donors or members and also helps you keep in touch with those potential donors or members.  It's also a great way to educate people about what it is you do. Bunnie

Social Media IS Effective for Nonprofits and Small Business
by Debra Askanese, Community Organizer 2.0

Two new data sets about the value of social media came across my laptop recently: Idealware’s “ Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals” survey of nonprofit staffers using social media, and the State of Small Business report from Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service.


The results are so similar to the nonprofit survey results that the conclusion is hard to ignore: social media actually is an effective tool for customer retention and attraction.

Social media is actually perceived by those doing it to work! In particular, the top benefits are seen as reaching new audiences and enhancing existing customer/audience relationships.

Here are some highlights from the Idealware survey of 459 nonprofit staffers using social media:

1. Nonprofits believe that social media is helping them to enhance relations with their existing audience and reach new audiences through the top platforms.

Most organizations feel that most social media channels are effective for enhancing existing relationships and reaching new supporters. The least effective platforms are MySpace and Linkedin. Blogs, video-sharing, Twitter, and Facebook are felt to be the most effective tools. The surprise to me is that video-sharing is perceived as highly effective for enhancing relationships.

2. Most nonprofits are using a combination of Facebook, Twitter, video-sharing and blogs to reach out and enrich relationships online. The data shows that there isn’t a relationship between the size of the organization and the number of channels it is using. The responses show that, in general, nonprofits are using and regularly updating one to three social media channels.

I’m not surprised that Facebook is the most popular channel used, but I am surprised that 56% of nonprofits are using Twitter and 80% of them update Twitter regularly. Two other points to consider: the blog is not dead (45% of nonprofits have one) and video sharing sites once again prove to be popular (49% have them).

Conclusions: Nonprofits are finding value in Twitter, Facebook is widely adopted and “known to work.” These platforms must be seen as engagement tools to be taken seriously at this point. The blog, though time consuming, is the long form to express your message and enhance relationships with existing supporters. Video-sharing is the crouching tiger. Regularly maintaining one to three platforms is an industry standard.

3. Nonprofits are not yet satisfied with the results of social network fundraising. I don’t think this is any big surprise, as both social network donors and donation strategies are still in their infancy. The survey reveals that, of all the social networks, 41% of respondants believe that Facebook is most effective for raising money. (And that is the highest percentage of approval of any network channel.) I suspect respondents mention Facebook because it has an affiliated fundraising platform, Causes, that is simple to use and easily accessible. Let’s see what next year’s survey results bring: I’m guessing that they will bring higher satisfaction and a stronger sense of nonprofit social network fundraising effectiveness.

This is also the only platform where Linkedin is rated on par with Twitter, video-sharing, and blogging, at 30% effeciveness. The Idealware study remarks that this is surprising, but I don’t find it surprising at all: Linkedin is an incredibly effective channel for targeted donor research and deeper interaction with potential donors and foundations within Linkedin Groups.

Here’s one more set of similar survey results: the performance of social media tactics for US small businesses in December 2009.

According to “The State of Small Business” report, small businesses are also using social media to successfully attract new customers, increase awareness, and stay engaged with existing customers.

Two data sets, two different user groups, same results: social media is effective for reaching new customers and strengthening existing relationships. Irrefutable evidence of the power of engagement.

Read more of Debra's thoughts on all things marketing at http://www.communityorganizer20.com/

Nonprofit Video: 9 Steps to Success, Plus Our Mistakes to Avoid

I really do enjoy Nancy Schwartz's insights for nonprofit marketing.  This is a great read if you are considering producing a video to tell your nonprofit's story and it's an even better read if you haven't considered it, because you should.  In the interest of full disclosure, one part of my business is getting government and nonprofit videos distributed to local Public, Educational and Government access television channels.  We now have the Subtance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's video series "Road to Recovery" on 500 television channels nationwide and Mercy Medical Airlift's video "Compassion Takes Flight" on 230 channels.  One of the advantages of getting your video out to the television channels is they will air the video repeatedly.  We recently found that 48% of the stations have run Compassion Takes Flight over 20 times!  Go to my website at Riedel Communications  to find out more about video distribution.  Bunnie

Nonprofit Video: 9 Steps to Success, Plus Our Mistakes to Avoid
by Nancy Schwartz, Getting Attention

In the age of YouTube, everyone knows there’s nothing like great video to grab someone’s attention. In the past two years, we’ve seen more and more for-profit and nonprofit organizations putting online video to work to reach out and engage their networks to build loyalty and motivate action.

So I thought I should put together a list of key things to think about, if you are considering a video production. I’m putting this together for our clients, but I think it can be useful for anyone thinking about making a video. The more you consider these issues before beginning, the smoother your project will advance.

Three Reasons Why You Should Use Video Now

1. Video production, once complicated and expensive, is now doable by anyone with a video camera and access to the internet. Brief, on-the-fly videos provide authenticity and compelling visuals via a short production cycle. This is great news for nonprofit organizations looking to connect with their networks in a way that’s reaches beyond narrative and photos.

2. There’s a growing expectation that video will be integrated in every communications mix.

3. Video, when done right, contributes immediacy and excitement to your organization’s communications mix, and strengthens overall impact. Well-crafted online videos can emotionally engage your audiences in a way that reading can’t. It’s almost like being there in person and sometimes even better, with the ability to provide the human element (e.g. an online site visit) that’s unmatched for building interest, creating trust and driving action.

Videos are shown to:

• Generate a response that’s both intellectual AND emotional.

• Inspire action. The right combination of storytelling, imagery (through photos and video) and personal appeals can be more effective in moving people to act.

• Significantly expand audience reach through online distribution. An engaging video is easy (and likely) to be passed on by your viewers, representing an exponential growth in reach.

What We Did Wrong, So You Don’t Do It

Our Goal

We wanted to build our video skills and decided to start by producing a video announcement of the 2009 winners of our annual Nonprofit Tagline Awards program. We were confident a video featuring the finalists and winners would be a compelling and complementary addition to the marketing mix (mostly narrative, online and offline) and an effective way to build awareness of award winners and the Nonprofit Tagline Report publication.

Our Mistakes

Eager to get our feet wet in the online video world and with limited video production experience, we dove right in with little more than a concept outline in hand. As a result, our initial end product was a seven-minute video featuring tagline award winners and finalists. It took over 30 hours to produce.

When we shared the video with colleagues, the main response was “it’s too long,” and we agreed. We went back to the drawing board and cut the video to less than two minutes, transforming it into a “trailer” for the Report.

In hindsight, we realized we did not do the proper initial planning for the video. We didn’t ask ourselves the simple questions — “What is the goal of this video?” or “How long should it be”?

In particular, our most significant mistake was that we did not storyboard the movie or concept before beginning the production. We began production before we had a clear vision of what we wanted to produce. Don’t forget the storyboard!

We did do some things right, like beginning with a fairly simple production strategy. Our video movie is a simple slide presentation with text animations, created in Keynote (you can also use PowerPoint) and exported into a movie file format. Once editing was complete, we uploaded the video to Vimeo, a free video-hosting website.

Next Time: The Right Way to Do It

Despite our mistakes, our first experience in producing online video was a valuable one. We flexed our creative muscles and learned useful lessons about planning and production that we can pass on to you. We are excited to get our next production rolling and have a much clearer sense of the right production process.

So, upon further reflection and research, here’s our new, expanded take on how to succeed:

9 Steps to Launching a Successful Video for Your Nonprofit

1. Develop a Simple Plan to Guide Your Project

Whether you’re shooting a 30-second PSA or an hour-long documentary, you must start out by creating a plan that includes the pre-production, production and post-production aspects of your video project. It’s a critical first step.

This is really no different than other nonprofit marketing endeavors you’ve worked on. You don’t start the development of a brochure, annual report, website, fundraising campaign, advocacy campaign, etc., without some upfront planning.

2. Test Your Video Idea Against Your Communications Goals

You’re not going to do a video just for the sake of doing a video. (Though, you certainly may choose to produce a low-risk, low-budget video as your first effort using this medium.)

Review your organization’s communications goals and evaluate if video is a relevant channel. Key questions include:

• What’s the purpose of the video?

• Who is the target audience?

• What actions do we need to motivate?

• Whom do we need to reach to make that happen?

• What are the best channels to reach them?

3. Evaluate Your Resources to Ensure They Match Your Concept

There’s always a connection between the degree of complexity and the size of your resources when shooting a video. However, advances in software and hardware technology and a growing number of people trained to work in video production, means quality video is within reach of the typical nonprofit budget.

No matter the complexity you have in mind, the concept for your video must take into account at least these basic items: the people who work on the video — on camera and off; the location or locations where it will be shot; the equipment needed for the shoot (cameras, lighting, editing suites, etc.); the graphics needed for the video (still photos, logos, other typical artwork you encounter in your marketing materials); other effects including music, props, costumes, etc.

4. Make Sure the Video Has a Clear, Relevant Message

Remember, your video has to be clearly linked to your overall messaging. So, as you head down the path of video production, be sure you first summarize your video’s chief message and goals in one simple paragraph that you can have on-hand and share with everyone involved in its production. When you run into the inevitable twists and editing challenges, you’ll have this clear statement of your video’s goals to guide your decisions.

5. Decide on Your Video’s Format

In general, the format most easily achieved for nonprofits producing a short-message video doesn’t involve live people. Instead, the video’s format includes a series of still images — photos and text artfully arranged with various, subtle movements and transitions on the screen — a zoom, a page turn, a dissolve, etc.— done to the backdrop of a compelling voiceover and music.

Other formats to consider are the ones you’re probably more familiar with through a life-time of seeing video and television: The talking head (generally a simple, tight shot of someone speaking into the camera); the standard interview with two people usually either sitting across from each other or standing up; the documentary (which can involve a wide range of formats); the story approach with a completely written and rehearsed script; and the video magazine approach, which typically includes an in-studio host who introduces the topic and serves up transitions from various “in the field” reports, and then wraps up the program.

6. Choose a Style that Matches Your Goals

This is an easy concept but one you have to get right. Will a silly or serious video be more effective? Formal or informal? Be sure your selection of style matches your goals.

Some web video pros believe a successful video must move at least two emotions (i.e., sympathy, outrage, fear, joy, laughter, awe, wonder, etc.); tell a bit of story (dramatic tension, heroes and villains and victims, etc.); and provide a spectacle (the viewer is wowed in some manner, often in a way that ultimately causes her to respond to the call to action).

Caution: Silly certainly has its place. But you’ll want to be sure that the silliness-factor is properly tempered for your video. It can be done right and make sense — but getting it right can be a real challenge when you consider serious nature of most nonprofits’ messages.

7. Get Feedback from Colleagues and Members of Your Target Audience

Once you’ve got a rough cut of your video — meaning you’ve done all your shooting and most of your editing — be sure to show it to people whose opinions you respect. It’s critical to get some more objective opinions. It’s very common to hear “It’s too long” and you’ll have a good sense of what parts you love but need to go. Collect the feedback, review it and revise.

8. Make Sure It Gets Seen

We’re in the midst of a video-Cambrian explosion. There have never been more outlets for delivering a video to your target audiences, with more appearing every day. So you don’t want to go to the trouble of producing your nonprofit video and just to post it on your website.

Once you have the finished product in hand, be sure to maximize your video’s exposure by:

• Posting it on YouTube

• Linking to it from your org’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages

• Tweeting about it through your Twitter account

• Embedding the video in your blog and website

• Sending out an email (in your e-news, if you have one) to your base with an invitation to view, share and comment.

9. Emphasize the Call to Action and Track Results

Don’t overlook this one. As you map out your video, be sure you set it up with a clear call to action and a trackable URL, email address and/or phone number. This way you’ll get the best measure possible of its success. These results will inform your next video project and other communications strategies

The Importance of the Mission Statement

by Bunnie Riedel, Host

The last two articles, “Mercy Medical Airlift: Keeping the Mission Torch Burning” and “Messaging Crisis for Nonprofits,” fit nicely into what I want to tackle today: mission statements.

Developing a mission statement can be one of the most difficult tasks a nonprofit can face but it is uniquely critical to guiding what the nonprofit will do and how it will convey what it does to the general public or its constituency. Mission statements are the cornerstone of developing programs and certainly key to messaging (or marketing) efforts. Whether your organization is a new start-up or has a long history, re-visiting your mission statement from time to time is a good idea.

That being said, I know of organizations that want to re-write their mission statements constantly. Sometimes mission statements get challenged by new board members or they are challenged when the organization hits a rough patch. Constant tinkering with the mission statement is a bad idea and very unproductive as it can waste valuable time and resources. Therefore the bar is set high to “get it right” the first time.

Mission statements should encompass the work you do and they should be more specific than general. Action verbs should be prevalent and strong: this is what we are doing…this is what we are going to do. As much as possible, try to incorporate the five rubrics of journalism: who, what, where, why and how. Additionally, I am a fan of short, succinct mission statements. Keep it to two or three sentences, any more than that loses the audience and dilutes the message.

The two following mission statements are from similar organizations that provide grants in their communities (the names provided are fictitious but the mission statements are real):

The XYZ Foundation Mission Statement

The XYZ Foundation is a resource for people, businesses, and communities in XYZ Land, working toward prosperity through economic and social justice. Our purpose is to strengthen families, grow a sustainable regional economy, cultivate leadership and philanthropy, and foster respect for all. Through our grants to non-profits, loans to local businesses, and other special programs, the XYZ Foundation is building a strong foundation for the future of our region.

The BFF Foundation Mission Statement

Our mission is to actively serve the people of the BFF area by building permanent charitable capital, making philanthropic grants, and providing services that contribute to the health and vitality of the community.

As I indicated, these two organizations are similar in that they basically provide grants to nonprofits and businesses in the community. The XYZ Foundation has a wordy mission statement that makes a lot of promises and could potentially cause confusion in determining the range of its programming. I am not sure how a foundation goes about fostering “respect for all” nor am I sure which nonprofits or businesses in their region could qualify for grants that would meet that objective. The XYZ Foundation has to ask itself how it will go about cultivating leadership and philanthropy, what programs will it create to do so and is it possible given their funding to achieve all that their mission statement promises?

Conversely, the BFF Foundation mission statement is simple. They promise to: build charitable capital; make grants; and provide services that contribute to the health and vitality of the community.

At every board meeting the directors can ask themselves: “what are we doing to build charitable capital?” “what grants have we made or are we making?” “what programs do we have in place that contribute to the health and vitality of the community?” The mission statement becomes a touchstone for everything they do. It also narrows the scope of what they will do and helps to keep the organization focused.

In researching mission statements I came across this website: http://www.missionstatements.com/nonprofit_mission_statements.html

It’s worth looking at other organizations’ mission statements to see which ones resonate with you and which mission statements are clear and compelling.

There are many ways to go about writing a mission statement but at the core of this must be an exploration of what the organization is; who does the organization serve; how will the organization accomplish its mission. Once you have achieved a mission statement I would recommend having a focus group of people unfamiliar with the organization go through the mission statement and provide feedback. This will help you learn whether or not the mission statement is telling your story.

On a final note, years ago I began the practice of putting the mission statement on the name placards of the board members for their meetings. It can be a tent folded placard with their names on one side and the mission statement on the other, with the mission statement facing the board member. I know of another woman who put the mission statement on laminated placemats. Either way, this practice provides board members with a constant reminder of the mission. Many times I have seen board members pick up the placard and ask if what the board was discussing was conducive to the mission. Try it at your next board meeting, you will be surprised at how having the mission statement in front of board members keeps the board focused.

(post script: The recent events in Haiti show once again that nonprofits are capable of providing services governments cannot provide. They are also a testament to the amazing work nonprofits are doing throughout the world. I know we all have the people of Haiti in our thoughts and prayers)

Messaging Crisis for Nonprofits

In December I published a link to Nancy Schwartz's "2009 Tagline Report." Here it is again: http://nonprofitconversation.blogspot.com/2009/12/freebie-corner.html The Tagline Report is an important publication for nonprofits who so often are laboring under taglines that simply do not convey the heart of who they are.

Now Nancy has completed a survey on nonprofit messaging that you won't want to miss. It is enlightening and somewhat predictable. Marketing often takes a back seat in the nonprofit budget. Business understands that it must spend at least ten percent of its budget to market, but most nonprofits would never dream of allocating that much. Consequently nonprofits often fail to do the research they need to do in order to find out which "messages" connect with their constituency or they fail to spend time making sure each member of their staff is communicating a unified message.

I think this article is fabulous and I know you will too! Bunnie

Messaging Crisis for Nonprofits

by Nancy Schwartz, Nancy Schwartz and Company

The overwhelming response to our recent survey on nonprofit messaging reinforces how vital it is for your organization’s messages to connect with key audiences.

Relevance (i.e., connection) is a prerequisite for conversation and thus, for communications success. If your messages are off, your organization will fail to engage your base. And, without that engagement, there’s no way you’ll motivate them to act – give, volunteer, register or advocate.

So, based on our findings, it’s clear that strengthening messaging is a priority for many of you. I urge you to digest the findings below to learn more about the state of nonprofit messaging today, and how you can shape messages that do connect.

Here’s the survey if you’d like to review questions asked while digesting the findings.

Most Nonprofit Messages Don’t Connect Strongly with Key Audiences

Eighty-four percent of nonprofit communicators say that their messages connect with target audiences only somewhat or not at all. That’s 915 nonprofit communicators working with organizations of all sizes, issue focus and geographies who rate their messaging as failing to generate the conversations they need to.

Looking at the flip side, only 16% of nonprofits rate their messages as connecting well. This is a dismal success rate, especially since it’s not due to lack of effort. Survey respondents report working extremely hard to achieve their marketing goals: huge effort with minimal results.
That’s a very serious problem.

Behind the Disconnect: 86% of Nonprofits Characterize Their Messages as Difficult to Remember
Most nonprofits report that their messaging suffers from lack of inspiration (73%), poor targeting to audience wants and needs (70%), and difficult to remember (86%). Three strikes and you’re out.

Few communicators laud their messaging for its strengths: Only 13% of organizations characterize messaging as cogent while 8% describe their messaging as potent.
These comments from survey participants explain why their messages fail to connect:

“Our messages need to be more succinct to communicate how effective we really are.”
“We don’t move our base to action.”
“We have individual elements that are ok solo, but no unified path.”
“Our messages aren’t hard-hitting or targeted enough. So they fall flat.”
“We need to shape messages that are simple enough for staff to remember and feel comfortable in repeating it to others.”
“Too much jargon. I can’t even understand what we’re saying.”

Inconsistency Reigns Supreme, Leaving Confusion and Annoyance in Its Path

There are numerous tactics to craft more relevant messages. However, when aiming to increase relevance, it’s imperative to go beyond delivering a few relevant messages here and there. The real challenge is to consistently deliver messages that connect.

Here’s the rub: Less than 50% of nonprofits report consistent use of their core messaging (organizational tagline, positioning statement and talking points). That means that even though most organizations have taken the effort to craft messages, those messages aren’t used consistently across channels (website, direct mail, email), audiences or programs.

Inconsistency breeds confusion and annoyance. When your network has to decipher what organization is reaching out to them (because the messages are unfamiliar) and what you’re trying to say (because it’s new to them), you’ve failed. They just won’t do it in the noisy, cluttered message sphere.

Your Checklist for Messaging that Connects

Most nonprofit communicators (78%) see these characteristics as crucial for messaging that connects:

Clear
Focused
Concise
Engaging
Unique
Memorable

What’s Getting in the Way: Effective Messaging Stymied by Lack of Focus and Leadership Support

Survey respondents share many of the same barriers to (and frustrations in) improving messaging. Here are the leading obstacles to doing better:

Lack of leadership support
Too busy
Concerned about expense
Diverse audiences
Complex programming
Blinders, e.g. lack of external perspective
Colleagues, volunteers, members untrained as messengers.

Here are respondent comments about their barriers to creating messaging that connects:

Lack of Leadership Support and/or Understanding

“Funds are prioritized for fundraising, not marketing. Our leadership doesn’t understand how the two are halves of a whole. How can I build that understanding?”

Staff and Leadership

“Too many cooks. Each department and location has their own ideas and frequently don’t check in with marketing to see if it’s ok to use them.”
“Hard to engage, reach and train staff in our 41 locations.”
“Hard to shape a useful message development process, as board members have widely divergent perspectives and are very involved in communications. Help.”
“No time to train/educate/empower staff, board and volunteers to understand and deliver messages.”

Complexity of Issue Focus

“It’s tough to create effective messages for an anti-poverty project that focuses on education and long-term change over time in a foreign country that is not in ‘crisis’ mode (such as Sudan or parts of Africa), yet is still one of the poorest in the Western hemisphere.”

Diversity of Program Work

“How do we find a way to speak for more than 32 programs in a targeted way while maintaining consistent organizational messages?”

Lack of External Perspective (a.k.a. blinders)

“Our messages are typically crafted from the ‘inside out,’rather than shaping them to the wants and needs of specified audiences.”

There’s Huge Potential for Stronger Nonprofit Messaging: Three Steps to Take You There

These survey findings are incredibly useful in showcasing what’s critical in making messages work, and what it takes to get there.

Here are my recommendations for your first three steps to stronger messages.

Ensure that your organization’s strategy and goals are crystal clear

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hired to develop a message platform (tagline, positioning statement, talking points) for an organization but can’t get to ground zero because there’s no agreement on organizational direction and goals.

Without clear organizational goals, marketing goals can’t be defined but without them it’s impossible to define the right audiences to engage. If this is your situation, your problems are bigger than weak messaging. Get on it!

Build understanding and support of leadership and colleagues — You need their insights and reach

The three most-cited barriers to effective messaging (lack of leadership support, too busy, and concern about expense) underscore the degree of messaging crisis. Communications succeed only when it’s built on effective messaging. Refusing to invest the time and money it takes to craft those messages will undermine your entire communications agenda. It’s an investment your leadership can’t afford not to make.

But here’s what you’re up against: Nonprofit staff members most focused on making the most of their messages are communicators (58%), fundraisers (40%) and program staff members (21%) in order of survey participation level.

That’s important because it highlights that communicators have a lot of work to do to develop support for and input in the message development process. Cross-organizational participation is even more vital once your messages are ready to roll. Your colleagues are your primary on-the-ground messengers via their workday conversation and communications.

Start with your tagline — Less is more

It’s always harder to write something shorter than longer, and your tagline is as short as it gets. It is the absolute essence of your messaging.

Moreover, your steps in the tagline development process build the insight you’ll need to craft a potent positioning statement and key messages or talking points (the other two elements in your message platform).

Consistency is the Be All and End All of Messaging Impact

There are a numerous tactics to deliver more relevant messages. However, when we aim to increase relevance, we don’t mean that we simply want to deliver a few relevant messages here and there. Simply developing a compelling welcome email is not enough. The real challenge in email marketing is to consistently deliver relevant messages.

Make it easy for your network to recognize that a communication is coming from your organization by being consistent – in language and tone – in your outreach to each segment.

Tell Me about Your Messaging Hopes, Challenges and Strategies

Please email me on what you’re doing to strengthen your messages (at the organizational or program/campaign level) and what’s getting in your way.

I’ll be drilling down on messaging this year, and would like to share your experiences and guidance with your fellow nonprofit communicators.

General Principles of Nonprofit Fundraising

I kept looking at this article and everytime I would go back over it and read it again, I'd find a tidbit that I thought was spot on. For instance, how many nonprofit board members really don't understand the IRS designations and what they mean for the organization? And the information about organizations that form a 501 (c)(3) arm, like the American Pharmaceutical Association, to make contributions more attractive to donors is excellent. Being in the DC area, there are a lot of nonprofits that are formed as 501 (c)(4), so they can conduct lobbying, but many of those organizations fail to understand the benefits of forming an additional 501 (c)(3). This is another one of those good articles to print off and pass out at your next board meeting. Enjoy. Bunnie

General Principles of Nonprofit Fundraising
by Terry Scott Boykie, CSO, ABS, Inc.

Charitable Nonprofit Organizations

All charities are nonprofits, but not all nonprofits are charities. The Internal Revenue Code defines more than twenty categories of nonprofit organizations under Section 501(c). Examples include labor organizations [501(c)(5)], fraternal societies [501(c)(10)], cemeteries [501(c)(13)], pension trusts [501(c)(18)], veteran's organizations [501(c)(23)], and charities [501(c)(3)].

Colloquially, the terms "nonprofit" and "charity" are often used interchangeably. Technically, a 501(c)(3) organization is a charitable nonprofit organization as opposed to a labor nonprofit, a fraternal nonprofit, a business league nonprofit, etc. To avoid confusion, many charitable nonprofits say, "We are a 501(c)(3)."

Those nonprofit groups that want to raise tax deductible contributions seek classification by the IRS as charities under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. They also register with their respective state governments, and most do not pay sales, real estate, income or capital gains taxes on their investments. Because the tax deduction for a charitable contribution is so attractive to potential donors, nonprofit groups that are classified by the IRS as other than 501(c)(3), often establish ancillary 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organizations as a base from which to raise funds. Example: The American Pharmaceutical Association established The American Pharmaceutical Association Foundation.

The vast majority of charitable nonprofits form a corporation in order to limit their board members' liability in case of litigation. In reality, 501(c)(3) organizations are special business corporations that operate for the benefit of the general public; they have special tax dispensations under the assumption that their work can not be accomplished at a profit by a commercial business corporation.

There are direct parallels between charitable nonprofits and commercial businesses: each has incorporation papers, a board of directors, a vision of what is to be accomplished, products or programs/services, budgets, staff, a physical plant, a public image, and a need to plan long range for programs, personnel, and funding. They are more similar than dissimilar, and their operations are about 80% parallel. (That is not surprising when one realizes that Benjamin Franklin borrowed the business corporation model and modified it for charitable nonprofit use when he established the first charity after the Revolutionary War.)

When a business corporation wants to raise money by obtaining a bank loan or selling more stock, it produces a business plan to prove its management ability to potential investors. Charitable nonprofits generally call their business plan a long range strategic plan; it demonstrates to key donors that the organization can manage well and convinces them that a gift to that particular organization is an "investment" in the betterment of society.

Boards of Directors

A charitable nonprofit's directors are volunteers who govern the organization in the name of the general public. The board approves the work (programs) and the budget of the group, and it is responsible for seeing that the funding is there to achieve that work. Therefore, a key component in successful fundraising is the selection of board members who are willing and able to raise money. During long range planning, a strategy is drawn up to recruit people for the board who have direct connections to funders identified as likely to give support. While some charitable nonprofits hire staff to assist in raising money, the principle underlying charitable fundraising is that it is done by volunteers who first have made their own donations to the group and now are requesting similar contributions from others. A skilled development (fundraising) staff can greatly facilitate board fundraising.

Non-Board Volunteers

Volunteers appear in a variety of places in charitable nonprofit fundraising. Organizing volunteers requires a decision by the board to commit a board or staff member and a budget line to recruiting and training volunteers for fundraising. Well trained volunteers equipped with high quality material about your work can make effective solicitation calls or produce a variety of events. The key to keeping volunteers involved is offering a permanent liaison to the volunteer corps who is knowledgeable about fundraising goals and about the organization and who is available to volunteers when needed. Volunteer fundraisers respond best when they have job descriptions, specific goals and timetables, and know how the money they raise will be spent.

Competition for Funding

Many charitable nonprofits collaborate in program work, public education activities, and legislative liaison. Some even coalesce in united fundraising drives. However, the majority of philanthropic organizations raise money for themselves alone. Competition between charitable nonprofits for financial resources is an integral part of the philanthropic field and will not disappear in the foreseeable future. Only a group which has an endowment large enough to fully generate its annual budget can be classified as a non-competitor for funds.

The Energy Behind Fundraising
Long Range Market Plan

Unless an organization has a "golden goose" to whom it can turn for short range donations or an asset against which it can borrow, there are no "quick fixes" in the charitable nonprofit world. Traditional funders (foundations, corporations, etc.) usually avoid an organization in crisis because, to them, the need for fast cash means that the group has not planned well for its needs and has not developed alternate sources of funding over time to backstop emergencies. Cold as this may seem, it is a reality of the contributions marketplace.

Successful fundraising is based on the fundamental marketing principle that a contribution is part of a satisfying mutual exchange which takes place between the donor and the organization. The charitable nonprofit facilitates that exchange by carefully analyzing the contributions marketplace and planning to build bridges directly to the funding that seems ideal for their programs. Most of those bridges are board members, senior staff, advisors, and special friends of the organization. Their efforts are augmented by clear, logical material that describes the needs of the group's constituents, the organization's work, its cost, and its projected results. When the exchange happens, the philanthropy receives the funds, and the donor receives the satisfaction of knowing that he/she has helped to provide a service or program for the group's primary constituents.

The strategic organizational market plan comprehensively re-defines the organization for a specific term...usually three to five years...and it acts as an operational blueprint. It analyzes the needs of constituents, offers programs to suit those needs, projects costs and reliable income, provides a specific fundraising plan for each program, and provides sub-plans to recruit human resources, communicate effectively to the world about the group, implement itself over time, and continue to evaluate constituents' needs and responses to the organization's current work.

Freebie Corner!

A few weeks ago I announced a couple of great seminars being conducted free. Today the Freebie Corner special is a fabulous report on nonprofit "taglines," the "2009 Getting Attention Tagline Report." Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention, has developed this fascinating report. What taglines work? What taglines lessen your impact? Is it time to change your tagline?

It is a shame that for most nonprofits marketing becomes an afterthought. Worse still, in slow economic times, the marketing budget is often the first to suffer. Nonprofits must think of themselves as a business, nonprofits are "selling" something. Whether that something is services, legislative representation, peer professional networking, continuing education, etc., there is a product to be sold and there are "customers" to be acquired.

This report is worth the download and it's worth sharing with your nonprofit management and board of directors. Bunnie

The 2009 Getting Attention Tagline Report

by Nancy Schwartz, Getting Attention

Nonprofits have a major branding problem in weak taglines. Taglines are the best way to succinctly convey nonprofits' value, but 7 in 10 nonprofits rate their taglines as poor or don't have one at all.

The just-released 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Report, based on 1,700 2009 tagline award entries and recent survey responses from 1,900 nonprofit communicators, shows that most nonprofits don’t have an organizational tagline that works to make their organizations’ value clear, and easy to remember and repeat.

A highly-effective nonprofit tagline model (and one of the 13 winners of the 2009 tagline awards) is "Because the earth needs a good lawyer" from Earthjustice. Earthjustice capitalizes on what people do understand–-that a lawyer protects rights–-and uses that framework to dramatically position its role and impact in the environmental movement. And it does so with humor. If your tagline makes people smile or light up, without stepping on your message, then you’ve made an emotional connection…Bravo.

A strong tagline complements your org's name to convey its unique value or impact with personality, passion and commitment. If you fail to make the most of your tagline, you throw that opportunity away.

Dig into this free updated guide to learn:

Why a Nonprofit’s Name Isn’t Enough

How a Strong Tagline Benefits Your Organization – Useful for developing support among colleagues and leadership

The 10 Have-Tos for Successful Taglines

Using Words that Work

The 7 Deadly Sins, 9 Snores and 5 Best Ways to Antagonize Your Audience – What not to do

Research, Create, Revise, Test, Repeat – The right steps to take to craft a potent tagline

Over 2,500 Nonprofit Tagline Examples to put to work for message brainstorming.

Download the 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report here

You can contact Nancy at http://www.gettingattention.org/nonprofit_tagline_report.html

Do You Have a Media Marketing Plan?

by Bunnie Riedel, Host, Nonprofit Conversation

Whether it’s new media or old media, getting attention for your organization can be a challenge. Remember, there are millions of Nonprofits out there and your organization is in competition with every one of them and the competition gets hotter when you narrow it down to just “like-minded” organizations.

I’ve recently had calls from several start-up Nonprofits wanting basic advise on what they need to do, whether it’s board development or how to incorporate as a Nonprofit or what kinds of grants they might pursue. I have a tool that I’ve developed to help me get to know them better and frankly, to help them focus. I call it a “marketing questionnaire” but it goes beyond simply “marketing” to drilling down on the who, what, and why of the organization.

I’ve found that people who start Nonprofits do so because they have identified a need in their community. Sometimes that need is to help the disadvantaged or to highlight a problem or even to provide peer professional networking. By and large, folks who start Nonprofits are highly altruistic, but that altruism doesn’t necessarily translate into framing a vision that is practical or sustainable. The marketing questionnaire can be daunting because it asks questions that may not have been asked previously. One Nonprofit entrepreneur exclaimed “You’re forcing me to come up with a business plan!”

“Yes,” I said “That’s the idea of the questionnaire.”

Every Nonprofit needs to step back from time to time and ask “Why do we matter?” If you and/or your board doesn’t know why the Nonprofit matters how can you convince anyone else that you matter? Maybe that’s the perfect way to start your next board meeting, spend fifteen minutes answering the question “Why do we matter?” Why you matter leads to being able to pitch media stories that will be picked up, it leads to creating relationships with media that will last over time, it leads to getting noticed.

Answering “Why do we matter?” also leads to finding out what is unique about your Nonprofit. As I said earlier, you are in competition with millions of Nonprofits and you are in heated competition with other Nonprofits who have similar missions. In order to get the 3 M’s (money, membership, media) your Nonprofit has got to stand out in the crowd. Take the case of two fictitious animal shelters:

Shelter One is fairly traditional. It receives stray animals, provides initial medical care, places them up for adoption and if not adopted in 120 days, euthanizes the animals.

Shelter Two not only receives stray animals, provides initial medical care and places them up for adoption; but it has an active foster parent membership, behavior rehabilitation services, web-cam capabilities so prospective animal owners can see the animals live and in real time, hosts adoption fairs at the local pet store, provides spay and neuter clinics to the public for a nominal fee and doesn’t euthanize but has a 100% placement rate (even for those hard to place animals).

Shelter Two is a marketing dream. There are about six stories that can be pitched for Shelter Two. And part of the Shelter Two pitch is how much better Shelter Two is than Shelter One.

Another question I ask is “Who is your target audience?” You can call it audience, constituency, membership, it doesn’t matter, what matters is the need to identify who you are trying to reach. I’ve seen Nonprofits mistakenly identify the entire world as their audience and unless your Nonprofit is the International Space Station, the “world” is not your audience. In identifying your audience you really need to apply some tough love. You may want to serve everyone, but can you? Think of it as “niche marketing.” If you can’t determine who your target audience is, maybe it’s time to pull out that mission statement and give it serious consideration. Figuring this out helps you narrow your pitch and narrow the field where you pitch and helps you be more successful because you are focused.

There’s more that needs to be explored but I’ll leave it for another time. If your Nonprofit doesn’t have a media marketing plan, now is the time to develop one. The competition for attention won’t get easier as time goes by it will only get tougher, especially in light of new media. This is an area that is woefully lacking for most Nonprofits and many simply do not include it as part of their regular programming activities and rarely give it a line item in their budgets. Your Nonprofit can stand out in the crowd if you include media marketing as an important component of your business plan.

Contact Bunnie at info at riedelcommunications dot com

Multi Organization Collaboration

The old saying "two heads are better than one" is most often true. I find collaboration not only stimulating to my own creative thinking but also empowering. Norman Olshansky talks about organizational collaboration. This is a theme I have been hearing more and more of lately. Foundations and grantors are seeking organizations that are leveraging their strengths through collaboration with like-minded organizations. The days of turf wars are gone and each individual organization becomes stronger as they work together. Bunnie

Multi Organization Collaboration

by Norman Olshansky, President of Nonprofit Consulting Resources

For many years, funders of charitable organizations have encouraged nonprofits to address more of their time and resources towards:

A. Articulation and implementation of a clear vision and business plan

B. Capacity Building

C. Achieving a better return on investment on their charitable dollars

D. More focus on long term sustainability

E. Avoidance of unnecessary duplication with what is offered by other similar nonprofits

F. Collaboration with other organizations wherever possible

G. Increase Board/Staff Leadership development

Given today’s grim economic environment, poor investment performance and limited resources, funders are even more focused on ways to maximize the impact of their limited resources.

Nonprofits, have already been impacted by the declining economy and know that the conditions are likely to get worse before they get better. They are looking for ways to address flat or declining campaigns, the need to cut costs, increase efficiencies and find new ways to address total financial resource development.The current environment can be used as a catalyst for funders and nonprofits to work together to address their mutual interests. The following are a few examples of areas of potential collaboration:

Facilities

Management

Accounting, Bookkeeping and Auditing

Investing and money management

Fundraising – especially for capital and endowment

Staff and Leadership Development

Purchasing

EnergyFuel/Transportation

Insurance

Marketing and Public Relations

Human Resources, and staff Recruitment

Safety, Security and Risk Management

Information systems and Technology

Many attempts to bring nonprofits together on collaborative initiatives have failed due to initial lack of trust between and among participants and a feeling that participation could result in a loss of control over their own destinies.How collaboration is developed is the key to success.

Implementation Process

We recommend the following steps and are available to act as consultant/facilitators/project managers to the process. (Hereafter identified as “professional”)

The initial introductory process becomes critical to the creation of collaborative ventures. There needs to be a funding organization or group of funding organizations which agrees to be the initiator of the process and take on this project. They need to be a significant player in the community and be respected by the organizations which will eventually be involved. The funding organization(s) provide initial seed money to retain a professional who will be the point person to work with participants. They provide the umbrella of legitimacy, seriousness and importance to the venture. They oversee the work of the professional.

A “professional” needs to be engaged who has experience working on collaborative ventures with nonprofits and is seen by potential participating organizations as highly professional, empathetic to their needs and impartial.

Initially, a group of organizations, which have shared characteristics, should be identified by the facilitating organization with input from the “consultant”. Those similarities could be mission, size, location, relationship to facilitating group and/or type of service provided.

The first group could be seen as a pilot or test group which, if successful, could expand at a future date. The facilitating organization must be willing to step back and let participants determine if and how they want to proceed.

The “professional” initially meets with recommended organizational Executives individually, to float the general idea that the facilitating organization(s) have proposed to encourage collaboration. Examples of what has been done in other communities is shared and a request is made for them to attend an initial meeting with other agency execs to determine if such an effort makes sense and the best focus area(s) for such a collaboration. It is important that the top professional executive of each organization be the initial contact and participate in the collaborative process with his/her peers from the other organizations. During the initial private meeting, the “professional” answers basic questions about the process and assures the agency director that there will be no requests for commitments from agencies until or unless a plan has been developed by the group that has the approval of each of the participants and their leadership.

An initial group meeting of the organization Executives, who are willing to explore the idea, is convened by the facilitating organization(s) and led by the “professional” with no hidden agendas. Care must be taken that no one organization take over the process or become the “gorilla in the room”.

Patience and time is required to make sure that all questions, concerns and details are addressed and processed with each of the Executives and that they are given the time to review the ideas proposed with their own leadership.

Anything that is proposed must pass the test that it will benefit all participants, will be implemented in a fair manner, that all parties will have a say in the project and that there will be a large enough return on investment on time and resources to warrant going forward.It is critical that whatever is agreed upon also include the need for all of the participating organizations to have “skin in the game”, including financial and human resources commensurate with their size and abilities.

Ultimately, whatever is agreed to must be formalized in memorandum of understandings between the facilitating organization(s), participating organizations and each other. These agreements will need to be approved by each of the participant boards. The initial collaboration should be one that is not too complex/complicated and has a high degree of potential for success. Once organizations have participated in a successful collaboration they are more willing to consider ventures that may contain more risk but which also can provide greater reward.

Contact Norman at http://www.nfpconsulting.com/

Compare and Decide: How to use SEO 2.0 in Marketing

I have a love hate relationship with technology. I love all the things it can do, I hate being tethered to it through endless emails, facebooking, twittering, etc. However, today nonprofits must stay ahead of the curve and learn new terms, like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social networking if they are going to grow their organizational capacity.

Nonprofit Conversation asked Juan Munoz, Executive Director of Open Global Marketing, to share a few tips on nonprofit use of SEO. He wrote "Compare and Decide: How to use SEO 2.0 in Marketing." This is just a peek at the iceberg and certainly compelling. We hope to have him back to share more of his insights. Bunnie.


Juan Munoz

Compare and Decide: How to use SEO 2.0 in Marketing
by Juan Munoz

When people talk about Marketing Strategies, many ad agencies and publicists are switching from the conventional traditional to the online jargon: SEO, PPC, PPA. Printing, radio ads and brochures are becoming out of date.

This article isn’t just about explaining SEO, but also exploring the new techniques to optimize Web sites for Non-profits.

The Difference between SEO and SEO 2.0

Three years ago, you built links, exchanged links, paid for links and manually added them to static directories to generate web traffic. Now, optimizing your content also includes getting links, blogging, writing pillar content, creating link bait and socializing.

Three years ago, you’d concentrate on creating sites or pages with many keywords related to your business. Today, that is wrong. In SEO 2.0 many spiders penalize the excessive us of the same keywords in one page. The next SEO 2.0 uses attention-grabbing post titles and limits the amount of keywords to two or three.

Three years ago, you’d compete with others to be on the first page Google’s search results. Now in SEO 2.0, you build a network and cooperate with peers – creating a neighborhood of web sites around you to generate a steady stream of traffic. This works perfectly for nonprofits who normally think that charities are all about getting money or grants and giving it all away.

Three years ago, you thought that exchanging one-to-one active links would give them value. Now, you can create links in your web site regardless whether you link back because it increases the relevance of your web site.

Three years ago, you’d likely say, “We’re not doing SEO. We can’t show our client list publicly, etc…” Now, transparency is the model. "Welcome our new client xyz. We are proud to work together with them, two-way communication, etc."

In the nonprofit world, you normally are used to keeping your donors or foundations very hidden because you do not want competitors to know where you get your grants. Now, more than ever, you can be proud and show your capacity to raise money with a very interesting list of donors in your website.

You can implement these strategies for the non-profit or for-profit world. Not matter what you do and how you do it, it is important to evolve and innovate by staying in tune with the new market-penetrating technology.

Remember, if you hit first, you will hit hard.

Juan Munoz
Executive Director
http://www.openglobalmarketing.com/
email: jmunoz@openglobaltrading.com
phone: 410-505-5551