Category Archives: communications

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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For best results in ephilanthropy initiatives, I’ve always advocated for an active partnership between Communications and Development.   Here’s more reasons why from Kivi Leroux Miller,  If you’re not getting the type of response you want from your nonprofit e-newsletters, Kivi also offers a free 15 day e-newsletter course at her Nonprofit Marketing Guide website. which offers many simple tips you can easily implement.

The debate continues on the new Google Plus.  Beth Kanter offers her take, as does Frogloop and TNW Social Media.  I believe there may be a benefit to adding your contacts manually, as it forces us to give some thought of who should be in each ‘circle.’  According to the Huffington Post, nonprofits are wasting no time in kicking the tires of Google’s answer to Facebook.

If your organization is undergoing a major change (as most of us do sooner or later), Peter De Jager provides many great resources on change management at Technobility.  See also Chaos is the New Normal.

Learn about fundraising and emarketing in Blackbaud’s Summer School webinar series which starts this week and, if you’re in NYC, attend next week’s 501 Tech Club meeting featuring how to get started with WordPress (which this blog uses).

As a follow-up to last week’s post on How to Make Your Projects Successful, Ben Lichtenwalner offers his Inverted Pyramid of Project Success.

Why Everyone is in Communications

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If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you’re probably familiar with my theme that if you work for a nonprofit, you should be involved with fundraising, even if you don’t work in Development.  In my work with nonprofits for over ten years, I’ve helped to raise money online by project managing online campaigns and have worked directly with many fundraisers.  Although I’ve usually focused on technology, in my latest gig I’ve been part of a Communications group.

This week’s post by Big Duck on Embedding Communicators in Your Nonprofit explains how the role of Communications has changed as many more staff members are now speaking publicly about their organizations in blogs and in social media platforms.  So while Communications may still be considered the ‘official’ voice for channels such as the organization’s main web site, press releases, enewsletters, annual reports etc., there are many more opportunities for staff to spread the word about their nonprofit’s work. Rather than something that needs to be ‘controlled,’ this should be viewed as an opportunity to increase an organization’s outreach.

This trend also points to the importance of developing a social media policy, which I mentioned in this post earlier this year, so nonprofit staff have guidelines on how to talk about their nonprofit both online and off.

I’ve noticed that the most successful nonprofits often have environments where staff routinely collaborate, regardless of what department they work in.  This is especially important when implementing online initiatives, which require the participation of technology, communications and development staff.  It’s no surprise that this is most easily done in smaller nonprofits, such as Charity:Water, which I recently profiled, and Harlem Academy, which this week won the main prize at the New York Times Company 2011 Nonprofit Excellence Awards.   (Congrats also to City Harvest and Sanctuary for Families who were also recognized, as well as semi-finalists City Parks Foundation, Heart of Brooklyn and NYC Outward Bound.)

Recommendation – don’t think that only Development raises funds and only Communications represents your organization to the public.  It may have been that way in the past, but not today.

Lessons From Charity:Water

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At Friday’s Fundraising Day in NYC, I had the pleasure of learning online strategy from the nonprofit that has probably done it best in recent years.  In only five years of existence, Charity:Water has used a combination of compelling content and innovative outreach strategies to build a dedicated constituent base.  Digital Director Paull Young described their approach:

  • ask supporters to ‘give up their birthdays,’ offering a great ‘experience’ in return
  • focus on ‘sharing great content,’ not on asking for money
  • ‘uncomfortable transparency’ about exactly how donations are used
  • we ‘make the campaigner the hero,’ not the organization
  • goal is to have a ten year relationship with constituents
  • 100% reliance on social media / online – no direct mail
  • exceptional video – take a look at Water Changes Everything

After his session, I congratulated Paull on his success and asked whether some of Charity:Water’s techniques could work in a larger, less nimble nonprofit.  He pointed out that he had worked primarily with larger organizations before joining Charity:Water, then added that any nonprofit could do well by paying close attention to its culture and by ‘getting people with the right skills on staff.’  In our country where the availability of clean drinking water is usually taken for granted, it’s also impressive how this organization has developed such a huge following in such a short time.

As I also heard from several speakers during the event, you get the best results by developing the relationship with constituents first before making any ask.  And as Charity:Water has demonstrated, it’s critical to stay in touch to show supporters specifically how their contributions have helped the cause.

If you weren’t able to attend the event, several session handouts are available here.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Social media expert Beth Kanter summarizes recent studies on how to increase Facebook engagement – it’s also a great way to find out what issues your constituents are most interested in.  Beth also outlines how to set SMART social media objectives.

To better understand how multichannel marketing works, read the recent DonorCentrics report and these write-ups from Frogloop, NonprofitTimes, The Agitator and Katya Andresen.  One step in the right direction – make sure your marketing/communications and fundraising are planning campaigns together.

How much resources should your nonprofit devote to a Twitter strategy?  Here’s Pew Internet‘s latest update on who’s using Twitter.  And in addition to having a Facebook like button on your website, you can add a Twitter follow button also.  Here’s also advice on the best days/times to tweet.

If you’re using integrated software like Convio, what stops you from using the tool most effectively?  Recent options like @ConvioHelp and live chat can be helpful, but my experience shows that issues with product usability often get in the way also.  My suggestion – make sure you take the time to train your staff on an ongoing basis.

Idealware also offers its own guideline on how to allocate your time between website, email and online outreach.

Attending Fundraising Day in New York this week?  If so, please look for me there.

Taking a Look at Website Usability

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In his latest book Rocket Surgery Made Easy, Steve Krug debunks the misconception that it takes a lot of money and resources to test your website for usability.  You can actually accomplish a lot in one morning a month by offering three users a relatively small amount to do basic tasks while you watch and listen.  So if this is so simple, why do so many sites suffer from what seem to be obvious usability problems?

  1. Testing is done, but with staff from your organization (to save money).  For the best results, you need to recruit users who are not already familiar with your company, product or services and who don’t have any vested interests in how to respond
  2. Testing occurs too late in website development process, when it is too late to address the issues that come up
  3. Management isn’t involved in the usability testing process, and as a result they don’t understand why its findings are so valuable
  4. Organization decides not to make changes until the next major site redesign;  as Steve mentions, often a minor tweak is enough to solve a problem
  5. There is confusion about what your major site objectives are;  this often causes your home page to have too much information and satisfies your internal departments but not your intended user audience
  6. Trying to do too much;  it’s best to focus on those issues which are causing confusion for the most users and are the most serious (not simply an inconvenience)
  7. Site design requires too many steps to complete most common objectives or provides too many distractions which take user off task

Many of us have looked at our website so often that we know how everything works, and where in the menu we need to go to find certain tasks.  But we are not our audience. Take the time to do some website usability testing, and you will be surprised how frustrated your users get trying to do simple things, like complete a financial transaction.  To learn more, read Steve Krug’s earlier book Don’t Make Me Think, and subscribe to updates from Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt.com site.

Is your website still relevant?

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Not too long ago, the main website was the centerpiece of an nonprofit’s communications strategy.  This is where your multiple audiences (constituents – both current and prospective, partners, job seekers, other nonprofits) went first to learn about your organization.  Now most nonprofits have a Facebook page, twitter stream and blogs to maintain in addition to the website.  Since we don’t know where someone may read about us, how can we effectively utilize all these platforms?

In my view, the website still must come first.  Maintaining a current, informative web presence which truly meets the needs of your visitors is an ongoing process which requires contributions from multiple departments.  It’s useful to view your website from the perspective of someone who has never seen it before.  Can they quickly understand the mission of your organization?  Does your home page offer multiple pathways which correspond to the different parts of your constituent base?  (Having a site search function is helpful, but this shouldn’t be the main way that visitors find information.)

Most of us have been through a website redesign process during our career, and it’s usually not an easy process.  By the time we’ve finally launched our new site after many rounds of internal debate about what issues / areas should be highlighted, it’s no wonder that many organizations then ignore the website until the next major redesign, by which time it’s badly out of date.  Tip – make sure that staff understand the nonprofit’s major priorities, especially when they shift during times of change.  If the website isn’t clear, this may indicate that all staff are confused about your focus .

Why are social media tools like Facebook and Twitter often the first stop for information about a nonprofit?  Because by their nature, these channels have more current information and often contain details that haven’t yet made it on the organization’s website.   Social media posts also include links to news about your cause and other nonprofits who are doing similar work;  website pages often talk only about your organization.

It’s always been difficult to maintain an engaging website, especially now when there’s so many other online platforms.  Don’t wait for the next redesign to look for ways to improve your site, both in making sure your content is kept up to date and striving for a navigation which meets your visitors’ needs.

P.S. Don’t forget to check your website versus your social media channels for consistency, i.e. one shouldn’t conflict the other.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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When developing a Facebook strategy, remember that your constituents don’t just want to hear about your organization.  Andrea Barry explains how she adapted Idealware’s strategy to appeal to supporters’ desire to ‘be social.’

Planning a new website?  Beaconfire reminds us to pay attention to content early, and to incorporate content into the wireframes.  Techsoup also provides this overview into the redesign process. Big Duck suggests we put someone in charge of content creation.  (Here’s my recent post on developing a content strategy.)

This week, I launched a new campaign for my organization through a combination of email marketing, website and social media strategies.  It takes a lot of coordination, but you can’t just rely on one channel to get the word out.  Read more tips on integrated marketing from Convio and EMC.

How often are you sending bulk emails?  Hopefully you have some type of communications calendar.   And don’t forget to review the statistics after your email goes out.  Is your audience actually taking the action you are encouraging them to do?  See also these ideas for email marketing to seniors.

Today is Mother’s Day.  In addition to showing your mother how much you love her, also post her picture to support a new campaign to demonstrate that our parents want to protect Medicare benefits not only for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren.

Social Media for Social Good

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This week I had the pleasure of listening to a panel of social media experts at the Foundation Center’s Social Media for Social Good event.  Speakers included Renee Alexander from US Fund for Unicef, Julia C. Smith from Idealist, Farra Trompeter from Big Duck and Nten‘s Amy Sample Ward, preceded by a presentation by Small Act‘s Casey Golden.

As might be expected during an event on social media, there was an active stream on Twitter, which you can review with the #SM4SG hashtag.  Below are some highlights:

  • Mentioned several times this week and also by Danielle Brigida who recently spoke at the NYC 501 Tech Club, social media involves a lot of trial and error and experimentation.  Often you will have to try different tactics before you find what will work best with your audience.   Don’t be afraid to fail.
  • Engagement = stimulating a conversation and encouraging constituents to take action on issues.
  • Developing a social media policy for your organization will help guide your staff how to speak about your nonprofit online – look at the social media governance policy database and the social media policy generator for help.
  • Your social media policy should be a fluid, living document that is reviewed with staff and updated regularly, not in a book that is stored on a shelf.
  • On Twitter, in addition to sharing ideas from others you find worthwhile, make sure to include your own ideas too – the best Twitter streams have a mix of links, no links and original content.  See this example of a Twitter engagement formula.
  • If your management is still uncertain whether social media is worth the effort, show what your competitors are doing online to engage and build their constituent base.

Want more resources?  For a step by step process on how to use social media, download Idealware’s Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide.  For more guidance on developing a social media policy – Big Duck’s Measuring Your Impact and Creating Policies for Social Media.  And for general tips on Twitter, read Mashable’s Twitter Guide Book

Social media is sexy, but don’t forget the online basics: make sure your website and email marketing program is in place.  Social media works best when part of an overall communications strategy that includes any way you connect with your constituents, whether online or offline.  Focus not only on your organization’s programs, but on the issues which your organization (and constituents) is most focused on.

Thanks to the Foundation Center’s Vanessa Schnaidt for moderating the discussion and to social media guru Jereme Bivins (who manages the Foundation Center’s Twitter stream) for planning this event.

The New World of Mobile – Smartphones and Tablets

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For a long time, I resisted getting a smartphone, preferring to stay with my trusty desktop computer.  I didn’t want to have to work with a small screen and keyboard, and also balked at having to add a data plan to my cell phone bill.  I did have an Itouch, but was limited to using it online when wi-fi access was available.  When I was given a netbook for work, I enjoyed the convenience, but still spent most of my time online at my desktop connection.

Late last year, I got my first Android, and was able to sign up for a plan which included phone, texting and data at a fixed price which was less than what I had been paying for voice only.  Now I use it mostly for social networking, still preferring to use my desktop at home and at work when possible.  But as shown in A Mobile Word: How Your Supporters are Using Smartphones and Why You Should Care, many of our organizations’ constituents have taken the plunge to mobile, yet we often develop websites and sending emails as if everyone was still primarily using a desktop computer.

In Walt Mossberg’s recent laptop buying guide,  he suggests not buying a laptop now, which was the device that was supposed to be the replacement for desktops, and to consider whether a tablet may fit your needs.  I haven’t used a tablet yet, but my boss does and he takes it everywhere he goes and ‘loves’ the device.

Recently I received an email newsletter that had this link on top: view on mobile device, reminiscent of when we were told that every email should have a ‘print friendly’ link. Now, fewer people regularly using printers, but practically everyone has a smartphone and possibly a tablet as well.  So it’s critical that we design our online communications to be brief, viewable in narrow columns, and that we test on the most common platforms that our constituents are using (you can find this out through your web analytics or by surveying your audience).

There’s also the additional questions of whether to develop a mobile friendly website or a mobile application, or possibly a tablet specific or Facebook application.  As a first step, however, make sure your website and email blasts can be viewed well on smartphones.  Even if you have mostly ‘older’ constituents, this is a change that you must start preparing for now.  If you need help, look towards Nten or firms that specifically work on mobile strategies such as MobileActive or consulting firms such as Common Knowledge.  Also review Five Must-Have Characteristics of Nonprofit Mobile Websites.

Developing a Content Strategy

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Do you use an editorial calendar to plan what content you will post on your website and other online platforms, or do you mostly create content on the fly?   In Deciding What the American Red Cross Tweets, social media guru Wendy Harman says that it’s a combination of both, and that her organization encourages staff to learn by using social media but also provides training.  At certain times of year or when disaster strikes, the Red Cross uses much more planned content.

At a recent webinar on Content Strategy on a Shoestring Budget, Balance Interactive suggested these books: the Web Content Strategist’s Bible, and Content Strategy for the Web.  Here’s my additional tips:

  • Encourage staff to participate in the content creation process by writing up feedback received from the constituents you’re helping – proactively ask for feedback by phone, email or through surveys.
  • Spend some time organizing your network directories so content is stored in a logical way – and make sure staff know where to find and post data
  • Don’t forget to add photos, videos or podcasts – this is especially effective to quickly post content from organization events
  • Categorize your Facebook and Twitter posts to make sure you’re not overly highlighting one aspect of your work while neglecting other programs
  • Look for ways to tie in current events with your work
  • Decide how many platforms you can realistically post on – better to do a few well than to try to be everywhere
  • When tweeting, make your post worthwhile for someone to read even if they don’t have the time to click through on the link

For more ideas on content creation, view Managing Content on the National Wildlife Federation’s Website.  If you’re in NYC, learn from social media expert Danielle Brigida at this week’s NYC 501 Tech Club meeting.  Finally, sign up for Kivi Leroux Miller’s upcoming webinar, Taming Your Editorial Calendar and Content Creation Process on May 18.

Wishing everyone a healthy and joyous Passover and Easter holiday.