Web 2.0 is Hot, but Email is Where It's At, Finds 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

A new study released recently measured 2007 internet fundraising and activism of nonprofits and highlights the continued importance of the Internet to the sector. The 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, co-authored by M+R Strategic Services and Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) adds new depth to 2006 benchmarks findings with additional data on the importance of major donors and 'super activists.'

Here's the essence: Email fatigue is here -- open and click-through rates are down -- but it remains far more effective than Web 2.0 strategies and annual gift size is increasing.
The report includes many benchmarks you can use to gauge the success of your nonprofit's e-marketing and e-fundraising. Other key findings (and related tips) include:

• Finding: The total amount raised online increased by 19 percent from 2006 to 2007
  • Tip: Keep focusing on your online presence and fundraising.
• Finding: The average nonprofit sent over 4 emails per subscriber per month in both 2006 and 2007.
  • Tip: Don't take a break from your email schedule. Keep the schedule you've promised to your readers. Weekly is great; more often if warranted; monthly ok; less than that not advised.
• Finding: Email open rates, click-through rates and response rates have fallen from 21.3 percent to 17.6 percent, and click-through rates have dropped from 4.9 percent to 3.8 percent.
  • Finding: The average advocacy email response rate in 2007 was 7.5%. The average fundraising email response rate was 0.13%.
  • Tip: But more emails are being sent out, for a net:net that's not bad.
• Finding: 'Super activists,' taking six or more online actions in a year, made up just 5 percent of the total email list size but accounted for 42 percent of the organizations' total actions.
  • Tip: Find these folks and make it easy for them to take frequent action. It's likely their great donors, or giving prospects, too.

Put these findings to work in crafting your marketing and fundraising plans.

P.S. The NTEN/M+R team has done a stellar job of marketing the report with its report-focused mini-site, webinar and coverage on both of the org's Web sites. True multi-channel marketing!

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New Research Unmasks the Wired Wealthy -- Connect Better with Middle and Major Donors

What makes people give online, and how can you motivate them to give to your organization?  Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research recently answered these questions via an in-depth study of some 3,400 wired donors who make four-figure or higher gifts to one or more causes. And get this -- "or the nonprofits who shared data, this segment of donors represents just 1% of their active donor file, but 32% of their annual revenue," says Convio founder and Chief Strategy Officer Vinay Bhagat.

The results, available here in full, offer some useful guidance on closing the gap between your org and your donors and here are just a few of the findings you can use to refine your strategies. The wired wealthy are:

• Very generous givers
  • Give an average of $10,896 eachyear to various causes, with a median gift of $4,500
• Notably wealthy
  • More than twenty-five percent (25%) have household incomes above $200,000 per year. More than half have annual household incomes above $100,000.
• Mostly boomers (born between 1946 and 1964)
  • With the center of gravity falling right in the middle of the baby boom cohort.
• Extremely wired
  • Have been using the Internet for an average of 12 years
  • Online an average of 18 hours per week
• Give online and via other channels
  
  • Like the speed, efficiency and instant gratification of online giving
  • Will be shifting more giving to online over next few years.

Clearly, you have to be online in a sophisticated way that engages boomers to succeed in this competitive arena.

Here's another vital finding: There are three main ways in which these donors want to relate to orgs they give to -- all business; relationship seekers; casual connectors.

"The three clusters offer some important clues about what kinds of communications your wired wealthy constituents...value, and might also help temper organizational expectations. Moreover, [the clustering indicates] that most organizations have a long way to go to fully satisfy even the most modest donor demands and expectations. And, it argues strongly for implementing some sort of psychographic segmentation so that you can cultivate relationships with the very different, yet equally valuable...clusters."

You'll find lots more data to guide your marketing and fundraising efforts in the full report.

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LinkedIn Answers Great Source of Nonprofit Marketing Guidance

I recently dove into LinkedIn (a high dive, mind you), and find it to be an absolutely incredible professional networking tool.

You probably know all that, so let me tell you about its much-less-publicized value -- as a strong source of peer insight on the challenges that are plaguing YOU. LinkedIn offers a great Question-and-Answer venue (you can do either, or both), which you can post to your other members in your industry (charity and nonprofit, marketing) and/or to your own network of connections. It's an incredible resource.

Here are the few of the queries recently asked in the marketing and nonprofit venues within LinkedIn (accessible to LinkedIn members only):

• What does communication mean in 2008?
• How can a fundraiser use LInkedIn to engage donors?
• Long copy vs. short copy: which one is better?

I subscribed via a RSS news feed to get new questions in the nonprofit and marketing areas sent to my news reader. Makes it easy for me to share my knowledge to help colleagues, and to learn what others have to say.

Beyond providing great answers, LinkedIn provides an opportunity for nonprofit marketers to ask key questions of colleagues in the field. The community is one of pure sharing, nothing territorial here. So refreshing, and so valuable.

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Here's How Making a Great Chocolate Cake Engages Much Like Good Nonprofit Marketing

Balderdash, you say. What ever is she talking about? Too long a long weekend, perhaps?

Nope, just inspired by my newly-discovered expert on social networking tools -- Chris Brogan. The guy's fantastically insightful, imaginative and (most critically) realistic. I recommend you add his blog to your reading list so you understand the options social networking wise and improve the impact of what your doing and/or get some strong direction on how to start or change course.

Anyway, last week Chris wrote about cake. Baking a cake. Now, I'm not much of a cake eater, but baking my daughter Charlotte's birthday cake is one of my favorite rites of spring. So Chris' analogy about the impact of baking a cake the old fashioned way, vs. just using a mix vs. using a "nothing to add" mix  hit me hard.

Chris reminds us that when cake mixes were "improved" so users no longer had to add two eggs and water, sales plummeted. The experience became too much like buying a cake.

When the makers pulled it back so that people added two eggs and the water, sales rocketed back up. It turned out that adding the eggs made people feel more involved, part of the process.

When your media feels too complete, people don’t feel like they’re participating. [Let them make cake.]

I'd push Chris' conclusion even a bit further -- make sure your organization is having a conversation (most of the time), rather than lecturing. Because interaction is a key ingredient in effective nonprofit marketing, just like a homemade cake is always better than store bought.

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Get Your Free Marketing Wisdom Today -- Marketing Sherpa's 2008 Now Available

Marketing Sherpa's famed Marketing Wisdom Report is now available and can be downloaded for free. For now.  Dawdle and you'll end up paying $127.

I love this annual publication. It's a beautifully simple, attention-getting service on Marketing Sherpa's part. They simply solicit marketing stories from their readers (so you practical, down-to-earth guidance, not pie-in-the-sky theorizing) and weave it into a report.

This years wisdom comprises 101 real-life stories and lessons learned. Mostly for-profit companies but all of their stories are relevant to you (and Network for Good is there too). Jump on it.

PS I'm just diving into my copy and will blog on most useful findings.

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Cause-Focused Conscious Consumers Seek Authenticity, Connection & Satisfaction: Use New Findings to Reach, Inspire & Motivate Them

According to the inaugural BBMG Conscious Consumer Report, the first major study to combine field observations with a national survey on purchasing behavior and social values, increasingly conscious consumers are demanding that companies (and, by extension, nonprofits that they support) be transparent about their practices and accountable for their impact on people and the planet.

Overwhelmingly, conscious consumers demand that organizations put their money where their mouth is; in other words, "back your words with social responsible actions," says Raphael Bemporad, founding partner of BBMG. Although the research focused on how the five core values impact buying decisions, they have equal impact on these folks' choices of nonprofits to give to, volunteer for and participate with.

Here are some of the key findings from the study and a sense of they shape your ability to engage prospective donors, volunteers and participants, and maintain existing supporters:

• Personal issues are most influential in engaging audiences: Nothing engages prospects more than connecting your organization's work with issues they're facing in their own lives. The study points to health and wellness issues -- such as safe drinking water -- as the most important ones.
• Socially-responsible is a tag that appeals; green far less so: Structure your messaging accordingly; matching what you have to say to what's important to your audiences (when you can do so truthfully).
• Honesty counts -- Big time: Nothing is more important to building loyal supporters than honesty about processes and practices, and keeping your word. Do it; don't say it.
• Make it easy: To give, join, register...just make it as easy as possible. We're all faced with ever-increasing time constraints. So make it a pleasure for audiences to learn about your org, and to interact with you.
• Showcase the people you work with and for, rather than focusing on your organization: Organization's aren't interesting; people are. Audiences want more meaningful relationships with the organizations they're involved with, and want to know who you're working with, what they have to say and how your work changes their lives. 

"We see a trend toward 'self-centered consciousness," where consumers want companies to meet their personal needs and positively impact society," says David Libensky, founder of Bagatto, an ethnographic research firm that partnered on the study.

My experience shows conscious consumers want the same from the nonprofit orgs with which they're involved. So make it easy for your supporters to get personal satisfaction from supporting your organization -- keep them up to date on how you do things and why it makes a difference, share your org's stories and thank them, frequently and profusely.

Dig into the report's findings for more insights about how values-driven consumers are changing the marketing landscape. There's a lot of useful information here that will help you shape your nonprofit marketing strategy to today's audiences.

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Nonprofit Success Tied to Looking Out, Not In, including Marketing-Wise

Researchers Leslie R. Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant dug into a dozen high-impact charities to learn what makes them so successful, and have just released their surprising findings in Forces for Good:

What we discovered after closely examining these 12 high-impact nonprofits came as a bit of a surprise. We had assumed that there was something inherent in these organizations that helped them have great impact – and that their success was directly tied to their growth or management approach. Instead, we learned that becoming a high-impact nonprofit is not just about building a great organization and then expanding it to reach more people. Rather, high-impact nonprofits work with and through organizations and individuals outside themselves to create more impact than they ever could have achieved alone.

So, going back to one of my perpetual rants, perspective is everything.

Crutchfield and Grant have shaped the book to serve as a practical guide rather than an abstract treatise, identifying the 11 characteristics common to successful nonprofits. And what's particularly interesting to me is that four of the 11 criteria are squarely marketing focused, which suggests that nonprofits that pay lip service to marketing (or execute traditional us-to-them marketing strategies only) lose out big time.

The four marketing musts are:

1. Convert individuals into evangelists for your organization and for the cause
   
   • They're the most powerful marketing strategy you'll ever see, and when the cause advances, your organization does too.
   • But, to make this strategy work, you have to engage your supporters emotionally, not just intellectually or politically. Are you doing so?
2. Nurture networks of nonprofits; see related orgs as allies, not competitors
   • Forgetting to communicate with existing and prospective partners is one of the most common nonprofit marketing mistakes
   • Building relationships with other orgs in your issue arena is key to raising awareness and moving your issue agenda forward --you get the power, knowledge and complementary perspective of like orgs
   • Ongoing communications -- that's the nurturing -- is a must to building a powerful networks. Don't hit and run.
3. Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner
   • Marketing and capitalism aren't bad words; don't be afraid
   • Building earned income streams and corporate partnerships are the first steps to impact on a greater scale.
4. Focus on impact, and measure progress against results or larger systemic change
   • Too many organizations measure success by their process or outputs, not impact, particularly with marketing activities -- that's all about your org, not about the difference you make in the world.
   • Design a process that makes impact, not just outputs

Read Forces for Good for a clear-eyed look at what will make your organization successful, and detailed case studies on twelve organizations putting these strategies into practice today.

Caveat: The 12 orgs profiled here all have budgets of $13 million or more. Crutchfield and Grant claim that these same principles apply to grassroots organizations, but I'm skeptical. There's just so much less leeway (and fewer resources) for those orgs. What do you think?

Tip of the hat to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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Nonprofits that Keep Their Word Deliver Great Experiences for Supporters, Finds Researcher Scott Deming

Ever had a nonprofit customer experience (as a donor, volunteer or whatever) that left you with a smile on your face? On the other hand, have you ever had an encounter with an organization that left you gnashing your teeth and griping about the event for weeks on end to anyone who'd listen? If you're like most people, you can answer both questions (especially the second one!) with a resounding yes. But did you ever stop to wonder precisely what its was that went so right or, in the second case, so terribly wrong?

Scott Deming, author of The Brand Who Cried Wolf: Deliver on Your Company's Promise and Create Customers for Life has the surprisingly simple answer: Great customer experiences happen when organizations keep their word. Most critical, pronounces Deming, is that what you say your organization stands for (brand) means next to nothing compared to what your stakeholders experience. That experience is your real brand or, as my mother used to say, actions speak louder than words.

What's interesting is that Deming profiles organizations he deems brilliant branders (orgs like Ben & Jerry's and Saturn who consistently provide an ultimate customer experience) and wolf criers (who claim they do but actually don't). And guess what nonprofit leads the wolf criers list....none other than the infamous Red Cross.

I find Deming's perspective a particularly meaningful way to look at the organizations that have really let us down. Others I can name include the United Way and Smithsonian. These are organizations supporters and other audiences trusted to do the right thing; but they didn't. And they lost our trust and support.

The Red Cross is a glaring example of how trust can be instantaneously eroded. In the hours after terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11, record-breaking pledges poured in from around the world. The Red Cross set up The Liberty Fund as a direct response to the attacks and collected more than $564 million. However, by November 2001, CNN and other news agencies reported that only $154 million of that had been distributed. Dr. Bernadine Healy, who was the outgoing Red Cross president at the time, argued in defense of the charitable organization's decision to set aside more than half of the money raised for future needs, including possible terrorist attacks. This news angered many donors. They felt like their money was not reaching the intended recipients. Bad customer experience.

"In other words, though donors were not critical of the charity having money for future disasters, the real question was whether the important agency misled donors into thinking donations were going immediately to 9/11 relief," explains Deming. "I don't think anyone really believes the Red Cross deceived people for some selfish, greedy end. But in a moment when individuals' feelings were of raw helplessness and despair, and the only way they had to connect with and help others was through monetary donations, the Red Cross failed to keep its brand trust."

Here are a couple of Deming's most useful suggestions for staying on track to deliver the right kind of experience for your supporters:

• Be careful what you promise. If you aren't, and don't come through, you've probably ruined a beautiful relationship. So when you tell prospects how their donations will be used, make sure that allocation is correct? If you can't get internal operations right, how could they ever count on your organization to make good use of their monies?
• Get the perspective you need. To really know how things are going at your organization, you'll have to step out of your own shoes and take a walk in those of your supporters and staff. Make sure you have open channels of communications flowing with each group, 24/7.  "When your perspective widens, so does your concern about what's important. The benefits you receive from changing your perspective will far exceed those reaped from a narrower, more traditional focus, " says Deming.
• Use this insight to separate your organization from the pack. So many nonprofits are squeamish about looking at the world in which they work realistically, and accepting the fact that they are in direct competition with many other orgs for donors, volunteers, program participants and more. You have to find what you can do to differentiate your organization from all the others that offer the same services or products. You have to find what you can do to differentiate your
  organization from all the others that offer the same services or products.
  
  • Your most powerful differentiator must be the level of service, the unique experience you offer each of your stakeholders at their moment of engagement with your organization.
  • When you work hard to engender their loyalty, honestly, they'll go out of their way to stay involved with your  organization.

Take a minute to learn how to help your loyal supporters spread the word:
The Most Powerful Marketing Copy in the World -- Testimonials

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Happy Birthday -- Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants

It's been a year now that nonprofit writer Kivi Leroux Miller has run the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants -- giving bloggers in the nonprofit space a bigger megaphone. Even more importantly, the Carnival has brought together some of the most creative minds (and pens) in the sector, and generated some incredibly fresh perspectives in doing so.

To celebrate, Kivi has listed all 93 bloggers who've participated in the Carnival's inaugural year. You won't find a better "to read" list anywhere.

Happy birthday, Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants.

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Find a Job or Hone Your Hiring Job Description with these Job Listings for Nonprofit Communicators

Whether you're interested in making a change, or looking for solid job descriptions to use a model for your own hiring, take a look at these sources:

• True Spin Conference’s Progressive PR Jobs List
• Communications Network Job Bank
• Dot Org Jobs (hit the Communications category)
• Council on Foundations Job Listings
• Community Career Center (select "Communications/Marketing" in the primary skill menu)
• Public Affairs Council
• ExecSearches -- communications and fundraising jobs
• Independent Sector Member Job Postings

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Fresh Takes Goes to Paris

This new bridge is refreshing, delightful and a definite destination for me next time I'm in Paris. The photo alone made me do a double take.

This fantastically imaginative design pushes the envelope -- hard. Pedestrian and auto traffic move up and down, in addition to from one side to the other, creating an absolutely new shape for a bridge.

Your Takeaway -- How can you change what you've been doing the same way forever, to make it absolutely intriguing for your audiences?

Bridge alert thanks to the NY Times.

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Are Your Target Audiences Omnivores, Connectors, Mobile Centrics or...?

These are a few of the categories the Pew Internet and American Life Project uses to group users of technology communications tools, going way beyond the "traditional" categories of early adopters (geeks), followers (most of us); and luddites (still without cell phones). 

For you communicators, understanding where your audiences fit is critical to choosing the right online channels, and using them most powerfully. Pew reports that "85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones – and most use both... Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the connectivity, the capacity for self expression and the interactivity of modern information technology is a modest 8%."

Your takeaway -- think twice before jumping into a presence in Second Life for your nonprofit, and don't give up the print 100%.

The research defines three groups: 31% are elite technology users, 20% are moderate users and the remainder has little or no use of the Internet or cellphones. But Americans are further divided within each group. The high-tech-ers, for instance, are almost evenly split four ways into:

• Omnivores (8%, mostly men) are heavy tech users who communicate creatively via blogs or Web pages
• Connectors (7%) view the Internet and cellphones as communications tools (mostly women in their 30s)
• Productivity enhancers (8%) see technology as a strategy to stay on top of their jobs and personal lives
• Lackluster veterans (8%) use technology tools quite a bit but mostly because they have to. The thrill is gone for these folks.

According to Pew, moderate users are split into:

• Mobile centrics (10%) -- rely on cellphones for talking, texting and games; and
• Connected but hassled (10%) -- who use tech tools but feel burdened by them,and probably like to disconnect once in a while.

Then there are the 49% who are technology lite (or technology non-existent).

I swallowed hard when I read that 60% of adult Americans don't read blogs; but know that a significant percentage of Getting Attention's target audience does so. But how do I reach the others, beyond the Getting Attention e-newsletter?

Dig into Pew's complete analysis to understand where your target audiences fit in. And take this quiz to see where you live.

Pew's paradigm becomes one more angle for your to analyze your audience segments, and one more facet of your audience personas. Remember, the more you know them, the better they'll know you.

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Barnyard Voices Guide Nonprofit Marketing Success

Thanks to fundraising master Jeff Brooks for hosting yet another fantastic Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants.

Rather than the typical open call, Jeff framed his call for posts in a way that definitely got my attention -- the post had to include the word barnyard. Here are a few of Jeff's best picks:

• Don't Tell the Donor presents Not Your Average Barnyard Gala
• Nonprofit Communications advises on how to Track Your Online Marketing (responding to results of the 2007 Getting Attention Marketing Survey)
• Perspectives from the Pipeline ruminates on Why We Don't Want to be Nonprofit Executive Directors when We Grow up, comparing ED work with those undrinkable wines that pundit Robert Parker claims have a "barnyard aroma."

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Introducing Fresh Takes -- Coming to you when they come my way

Welcome to Fresh Takes, my as-available picks of great resources, fresh ideas and inspiring models. I promise you this read will be as nourishing and satisfying as that delicious salad you had last summer.

Here goes --
1) Marketing adventurer Katya Andresen shares two nonprofit case studies on the value of ad hoc, informal focus groups (she calls it "conversational marketing"). With a modest effort and minimal cost, your organization can build a one-time or (even better) ongoing audience advisory group (or two, or three), and get their vital perspective as needed. They've volunteered so it'll reinforce their loyalty, while you get immediate insights from the field. Win, win, score.

I just executed an online survey for members of a client organization, and asked participants to share their contact info if they were interested in serving on an informal advisory board. More than 40% of participants (a self-selected group, of course) said yes!

2) Boston cause marketer Joe Waters gives his take on how to refresh tired marketing and programming, like MS' Jerry Lewis Telethon. Joe's recommendations:

• Intermingle the new with the old -- build from the brand equity (aka bread and butter) of what your audiences know, but innovate from there.
• Go beyond cutting edge to cut to the bone -- show audiences that your vision and passion goes beyond your marketing, and is core to your organization's work. Here's Joe's hard-hitting example:
• "At my own job, I often combine talk about cause marketing with education on some of the the unique, creative things the hospital does to live up to its mission of delivering "exceptional care without exception.Things like a new cancer care facility that consolidates our cancer services in one building so patients have access to the best care without a three-block hike from radiology to their doctor's office.  Things like we're the only hospital in the country to have an on-site food pantry because we found that being sick is only one of the problems affecting our patients."

BTW, I'd love to hear your fresh takes. Email them to me and I'll share them with Getting Attention readers.

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A Few Recommendations on E-Newsletter Tools

Thanks (once again) to Idealware for providing valuable ratings of e-news tools. I can't tell you how frequently clients and Getting Attention workshop attendees and readers ask for recommendations.

But rather than duplicate a great effort, let me add a few comments:

• Forget about sending bulk emails or e-news via Outlook or Mailman, even though you may already have these tools on hand (and they seem cheap). This shouldn't even be listed as an option, since the cost of getting your organization's emails tagged as spam is in the billions. Forget about it.
• Don't use the free e-news tools -- like Topica or Yahoo or Google Groups, if you want to preserve your nonprofit's brand. The ads that fund these "free" services will dilute your message.
• Add IntelliContact to the list of hosted e-news tools to consider. I've used this service for a few years now for the GettingAttention e-news and find it flexible, reliable and well-priced.
• Remember that the tool you select is just one factor in the very large equation that equals e-news impact. Learn how to get there via these e-news tips.

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How I Keep Growing My Nonprofit Marketing Skills, Ideas, and Excitement

As the host of this week's Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, I asked participants to share personal insights or just recommendations on how nonprofit marketers can keep their skills and interest fresh, when we're all fighting against not enough time and money.

Here's my take on this conundrum:

• So-called professional development (and I don't mean just the stuff you have to learn to keep up with your field or to get your CE credits, but how you keep yourself and your organization experimenting (strategically), learning, strengthening and engaged in better and better marketing) is even harder when you're your own boss and don't have the institutional support or funding for exchange with peers or traditional learning opportunities like conference and meetings.
• On the other hand, I crave it. Yep, I need it more than ever because I need to lead my team, and my clients, to marketing success. And to have fun doing it. For me, learning and experimenting is fun. If that stops, the fun stops. Then why am I working so hard to build Getting Attention and Nancy Schwartz & Company?
• So I keep pursuing professional development via several paths, all of which keep me learning, pushed, stretched, sometimes crazy but always, always engaged. I benefit and NS&C clients benefit.
• But it's hard, particularly when there is next to nothing available -- conference or training wise -- for nonprofit communicators.

Here's my strategy (and one I recommend to other nonprofit marketers, in some combination):

Make yourself write about nonprofit communications by setting up a publishing venue for yourself or your nonprofit . When you do, you'll be forced to find and think about key nonprofit marketing issues, and to comment or recommend.

When I began publishing the Getting Attention e-news back in 2002, I found it was much harder work than I realized. Not only did I have to write the bloody thing on a bi-weekly basis, I had to read everything I could get my hands on (online and offline), and talk with everyone I knew, to figure out key issues and how to approach them. When I started blogging nearly two years ago, the challenge grew exponentially. I'm pushing myself more than ever to keep on top of pressing issues for nonprofit communicators, and framing them and responses to them in a useful way for readers. Nothing keeps me sharper.

Develop a community of peers in the field -- other nonprofit marketers; nonprofit  folks who fundraise, organize or run orgs; and marketers in the for profit marketing world -- and serve as a mutual sounding board for them. Even better, swap ideas and challenges.

I've been lucky enough to "meet" a warm, smart, funny, helpful community of bloggers who play this role for me, and there are other folks too -- former and current clients and colleagues -- who jump in. Nothing is more valuable, stimulating and reassuring. BTW, many of the folks in my blogging community participate in the Carnival.

Digest the news and other aspects of your life through the lens of nonprofit marketing (other lenses can be there too, no worry)

When I heard about the recent scramble at the Jimmy Carter Center after President Carter published his book which some claimed was anti-semitic, participated in my committee meeting at the local Jewish Community Center last week and saw the movie The Namesake with my husband, I couldn't help thinking about certain aspects of nonprofit marketing. Really. I'm not obsessed, I promise you. It's just one of the lenses I carry with me, which adds depth to my participation in other aspects of my life.

Get Yourself out of the Office to Relevant Skill- or Relationship-Building Meetings, Trainings, Etc. -- Even if You're Hard Pressed for Time and Money

I'm treating myself this week coming to participation in Nedra Weinreich's Social Marketing University. That's travel, registration, hotel fees, plus three days away from client work and building the business. But that price is nothing compared to the value I'll gain. First of all, I'll get to learn more about a field of nonprofit marketing I find compelling. Even more importantly, I'll get away from my desk and be in an atmosphere of learning, have the opportunity to meet smart folks in the field and get intellectually and creatively refreshed.

Not to mention that I'll really produce on the train ride from NYC to DC and back (my husband says I should take a round trip periodically just to crank it out -- as long as I'm in the phone-free car, no time is more productive for me.

Find a Muse Who Provokes, Challenges and Sometimes Annoys You

I'm lucky enough to have my husband Sean, whom I met through work many years ago, so he has a good understanding of what I do. He's also a learning junkie and is always there to bounce my ideas off of. As a matter of fact, he's a huge reader of so many "idea" books, that he's always forcing me to think about things differently. The only annoying part comes when I'm just plain tired (I have to confess that my bedtime reading is tends to be fiction, rather than futurism or philosophy).

Mostly though, it's great. He brings his work challenges (Sean's editor in chief of Horsesmouth, an online professional development service for financial advisors) home to talk to me about too. And I learn that way as well.

So that's my world. I'm always learning. Not to mention that a real benefit of serving multiple nonprofit organizations (more than 200 over the years) is learning about the issue focus, programmatic strategies, people and idiosyncrasies of each one. That's another great source for me.

Enough about me? Where do you get your inspiration and learning on nonprofit marketing? Please comment below.

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How Can Nonprofit Marketers -- Strapped by Limited Time and $ -- Stay on Top of Marketing Skills, Trends and Best Practices?

I'm hosting next week's Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, and eagerly await your blog posts on the best professional development resources for nonprofit marketers, and your strategy for sustaining your learning, inspiration and information sharing in the field.

There's so much going on in the marketing arena.But it's difficult for nonprofit marketers -- strapped more than most in terms of time and budget -- to keep the professional development coming.Even if time and money weren't issues, there's not that much available -- print-wise, conference-wise, otherwise -- on nonprofit marketing.

Yes, there's lots to learn from "general" marketing content, but still there's the challenge of time and cost. So:

1. How do you keep yourself learning, stimulated and networked?
2. What's the mix of training, online and print content, conferences, networks (in person and/or online), memberships, etc. that you count on now?
3. What are the top three elements you'd like to add -- if time and budget allowed?
4. What's your strategy -- how do you pursue these opportutnities in the middle of everything else?
5. If you could create the professional development source of your dreams, what would it be?  I dream of an online professional development network for nonprofit communicators-- with online community, training, in-person meetings, and more. (Worry not, I have other      dreams too, about   Hawaii, scuba diving, my daughter jumping high in the air and laughing, laughing, laughing...)

Here's what to do:            

1. Some time between now and Saturday noon (EST), March 24th, load your post, or select one from the recent past that fits the bill.

2. Then send me your post's URL (the post permalink, not the blog’s URL) at npc.carnival@yahoo.com

3. On the afternoon of Monday, March 26th, I'll post the carnival.  I’ll comment on, and link to, the most relevant 7 posts submitted. 

Being part of this carnival is a great way to boost traffic and be found by new readers.  In the weeks my posts have been featured, I've seen a modest but persistent increase in traffic. In addition, I’ve found it refreshing to be motivated by colleagues to think and comment.

Thanks in advance for your time and effort,
Nancy

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110 Real-Life Tips from Fellow Marketers -- Free from Marketing Sherpa

I downloaded the new edition (it's free!) of Marketing Sherpa's  Marketing Wisdom for 2007 last month, but it somehow wormed it's way to the bottom of my reading pile. When I finally unearthed it a couple of days ago, I was astonished to find so many great ideas from my peers.

This report is a great promo for Marketing Sherpa -- and requires minimal writing and editing on the staff's part. They simply  ask readers for their best marketing ideas, pick the best and pass them on.  (An idea for another time and another post -- what content do you have in-house, or can get from your volunteer or donor base, that you can re-package for your audiences?)

Let me share a few with you:

• #41 -- Your organization's ability to motivate audiences correlates with your understanding and management of the dynamic tension of complex human behavior. In other words, look beyond the obvious. The Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation took a non-traditional path in its campaign against teen smoking.While most folks targeting teens focus on their individuality (a key teen characteristic, along with self-absorption), the Foundation also responded to the teen values that contradict these behaviors -- altruism and a craving to belong to a larger group. The OTPF campaign (spurring teens to debunk smoking myths). created altruism that satisfied a personal need, and group identification that allowed for individuality.
• #43 -- The personal touch continues to cut through the clutter. A direct mail agency reports that offline marketing is alive and kicking, and that nothing cuts it like the handwritten personal note and signature on a request for donations or membership. Get out those pens!
• #63 -- The power of social networking is in building awareness, then your organization has to bring that lead to the call to action -- the doorway to a successful campaign. BMW leans heavily on YouTube as a secondary (and free) venue for their commercials. They generate a huge number of views, but BMW recognizes that this just builds awareness. They add links and ads to these YouTube pages to move these views towards action (getting information, buying).  that these are just building

And a couple of tactical tips:

• Carefully-crafted HTML e-newsletters frequently look like gobbledygook on BlackBerrys. Test your e-communications in all venues.
• Email recipients click much more frequently on links in sidebars and callouts, than those within body Copy.

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Find (Weak Spots in Your Writing) and Replace (Them)

I always pick up useful tips I can apply to marketing and fundraising copy when I read Daphne Gray-Grant's e-newsletter, The Publication Coach.

Using vibrant action verbs instead of the passive 'to be' was etched on my brain by my high school English teacher, Mrs. Hunter. But I never thought to use Find and Replace (Control key plus F at the same time when in MS Word) as an editing technique.

Here are some ways to put Find and Replace into action:

• Build the sense of action and energy in your writing by going on a search and destroy mission for all forms of the verb "to be:
• I hit "control + F" and type the word "is" in box. Then I hit, "find next"
• The software then takes me methodically through my report or article, highlighting every time I've used the word "is"
• One by one, I then try to replace each "is" with an action verb
• And then, if I'm feeling energetic, I do exactly the same thing with: were, was, are, will be.
• Increase the passion of your copy by replacing conditional tense (could, would) with future tense (will)
• Find "could/can/would" throughout your document via "Control + F" (as above)
• For each instance, replace the conditional with a more powerful, positive future tense - will is my favorite. With your gift, we will be able to provide food for sixty more children on a daily basis.

You can probably identify five or more problem areas editable via "find and replace." Identify (or ask your colleague or boss to do it) your most common writing gaffes and weaknesses, and figure out how to put "find  and replace" to work against them. It's a quick, no cost, little time and fairly painless path to stronger copy.

Make Your Messages Stick -- with Made to Stick

When I read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I quickly became a convert. I learned to watch for, and value, stickiness. But it was harder to understand how to make my nonprofit client's ideas and messages stick.

Now, brothers Chip and Dan Heath, fill in the blanks with their just-released guide, Made to Stick. For the Heath's, stickiness is all about  "ensuring your ideas are understood and remembered, and have a lasting impact — they change your audience's opinions or behavior".

Dan—a consultant at Duke—and his brother Chip—a professor at Stanford Business School— found that messages of all kinds—from the infamous “organ theft ring” hoax and a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a product vision statement from Sony—draw their power from the same six principles of stickiness:

• Simple -- Hone in on the essence of your subject, stripping out the extra. Think core and compact, like a proverb.
• Unexpected -- Break a pattern or routine to get attention. Use unexpected stories, language,  channels. Highlight a gap in knowledge. Create mystery with a teaser.
  
• Concrete -- Abstraction is hard to digest, and to retain. Explain your idea or message in concrete terms to help people understand (with less room for interpretation) and remember.
• Credible -- Help audiences believe. Cite authorities, details and statistics.
• Emotional -- Make people care. Appeal to self-interest. Introduce audiences to others they can relate to, link your messages to what they already care about and their aspirations. The Times Neediest Cases Fund excels here, crafting compelling profiles supported by photos to generate a great deal of empathy, interest and donations among Times readers. I've been reading those profiles since I was a kid, and giving every year.
• Story(telling) -- A story brings ideas to life, placing them in a lifelike framework we can relate to, and remember. The Neediest Cases Fund excels at telling powerful stories. Stories are frequently unexpected, concrete, emotional and credible. The best ones are simple enough to be remembered and re-told.

 But beware the Curse of Knowledge. The Brothers Heath explain that our knowledge is often a  barrier to clear messages, because we can't imagine (and sometimes don't try) the perspective of someone who doesn't know it. The more we know about a subject, the less we’re able to shape it into a message that will stick, but the Heaths offer strategies for defeating the Curse of Knowledge and other roadblocks to sticky success.

Made to Stick is the rare business book that's well-written and absolutely entertaining. And Chip and Dan walk the walk, building their book on a foundation of compelling anecdotes and stories. Made to Stick is a must read for anyone striving to craft messages that are memorable and lasting.

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Word to the Wise -- Read Word Wise

I just started reading Word Wise, an incredibly useful blog for writers and editors. Compiled by Edelman PR's Dan Santow (who started the blog for his Edelman colleagues), Word Wise is a nitty-gritty, hands-on guide to the core elements of successful writing, from tone to effective use of prefixes and commas.

You need this, whether you think you do or not.

To me, Word Wise is The Elements of Style brought to life with real-world examples and a 2007 context. And I find it not only easy, but engaging, to digest these tips on a bite-by-bite basis. I think you will too.

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10 Best Resources for Nonprofit Communicators -- Read Now, Do Not Pass Go

Dive into these top 10 resources for nonprofit communicators. When you do, you'll know:

• How to do grand plan marketing 90 days at a time
• How a small nonprofit can shape a memorable brand (case study)
• The best online source for free photos
• Everybody's talking about you -- Why your nonprofit needs to listen, and listen hard
• Where to find a groundbreaking clearinghouse of worldwide health communications
• How to use metrics to strengthen your email campaigns
• How to use a creative brief template to ensure powerful copy and design
• What's the best-ever how-to book on communicating via stories
• Why communications advocacy should be #1 on your to do list
• How to raise thousands of dollars with email.

10 resources. Thousands of opportunities. Don't miss them.

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What's Next -- Introducing the Getting Attention Trendwatch

Lately, I've found myself intrigued by takes on trends. That's what they are -- just forecasts -- but some trendwatchers seem to be better at it than others.

Frankly, I'm scanning trends as much as I can.  Because although much of this stuff doesn't effect the communications you're getting out the door today, certain trends will impact what's in the works, and strategy now and in the future. So you have to keep on top of those looking ahead.

Of course, some of the ideas that proved to be the best of 2006 reminds us that we need to keep our radar tuned for the things nobody sees coming.  It is also worth noting that some items should be crossed-off the list (or at least moved down in priority) when they jump the shark.

Keep posted. I'm going to start posting on trends you need to be aware of -- those likely to impact nonprofit communications strategies, your targets or related elements in your world.

Let me start by sharing one of my trendwatching top picks:

• I highly recommend the recent article on marketing predictions from the Forbes.com Business Wire.  Their information source, FogHound, has done a fine job of collecting all the basic topics smart communicators will be watching in the coming months, and looking back to analyze hits and misses of 2006 forecasts.
• Trends to watch:
  • Virtual worlds (like MySpace) explode. Don't ignore these channels just because it takes a lot of effort to keep up with what's going on. Track what your nonprofit colleagues are doing, and experiment with at least one virtual channel in 2007.
  • Service innovation trumps program innovation. That means building better relationships with donors, volunteers and other key audiences. More handwritten thank yous to donors, more in-person events, more effort to get to know these folks and get them what they need to maintain their loyalty to your organization. Nothing is a better investment
  • Blogger fatigue builds. It'll be interesting (self-interested, in my case) to see what happens here. I definitely agree that the introduction of a new communications opportunity always generates a lot of excitement and activity, not all of it quality. There's an organic winnowing away once communicators understand how much it takes to be an effective blogger, and readers realize that managing their blog reading is a must.

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Speak and Be Heard like Al Sharpton

As I've listened to eulogies delivered over the past few days at the various memorial services for Former President Gerald Ford, and musician extraordinaire James Brown, I was reminded how slim the line is between making and missing the mark in public speaking.

No one fires up his audience better than Al Sharpton, who delivered an impassioned eulogy  at the renowned singer's funeral in Augusta, Georgia this past Saturday.

"Rap started from James Brown. Hip-hop started from James Brown. Funk started from James Brown. We got on the good foot because of James Brown. And, Peter, if you don't consider it too arrogant, I don't know too much yet about what you do in heaven. But if you have Sunday morning service, you ought to let James Brown sing tomorrow morning," sang Sharpton.

I listened, I remembered and I repeated. Here are some of the reasons Sharpton's words resonated with me:

• Short sentences
• Lots of pauses, to let his words sink in (analogous to white space in hard copy or online); and Sharpton was comfortable with that silence
• Dramatic language
• Repetition of key ideas
• Gestures, not too many but not too wooden.

Although there's lots of guidance out there on improving fundraising letters, annual reports and Web sites, there's far less on high-impact speaking. I frequently rely on the guidance of Patricia Fripp whose free e-newsletter (FrippNews) features a wealth of tips and case studies on effective speaking. Fripp focuses on getting her readers' words remembered and repeated -- every speaker's end goal.

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Crash Course in How Nonprofits Can Use the Web for All Its Worth -- from Seth Godin

You'll find this info-packed cheat sheet here. Don't take a breath before digesting.

Best thing is you can executive all six of Seth's top tips in a day. And if you already know this stuff, pass it on to those who don't -- like your boss or board.

P.S. Before you plunge into these six steps, read these important caveats from Beth Kanter.

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Cause Marketing Secures Brand Trust -- Proofs for Your Cause Marketing Negotiations

Using social-cause marketing techniques -- as opposed to sports/entertainment affinity marketing -- increases consumers' perception of brands' trustworthiness, according to a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article. That said, the research indicates that, when it comes to attributes related to functionality or performance, the type of affinity marketing partner does not sway consumer perception.

The authors use a market-research technique called “conjoint analysis” to help corporate marketers gauge the relative benefits of various types of affinity marketing programs, including sponsorship of social causes, sports or entertainment events. Conjoint analysis involves creating a variety of hypothetical brand profiles that contain combinations of brand attributes; by asking consumers to rank the profiles, researchers can gain insights into how different brand attributes affect consumers’ preferences.

In several experiments, the authors used conjoint analysis to examine how consumers’ responses to a brand of beer, milk or juice would be affected if the brand had a marketing affiliation with a social cause or with a sport or entertainment event. For some of the products studied, affiliations with social causes had more positive effects on consumer rankings than affiliations with sports or entertainment events. However, this was not always true; for example, it was not the case for the milk brands studied, suggesting that the effect of social-cause marketing initiatives may vary by industry.

This research, outlined in detail in the full article, is strong ammunition when you're trying to close a deal with with corporate marketing folks. Assuming you're not dealing with the Milk Council, that is. Put it to use and let me know how it works.

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A Picture Says a Thousand Words -- Free, High-Quality Photos for Your Nonprofit Communications

Photographs are a vital tool for engaging overloaded audiences. And when you're publishing online -- be it a blog, e-newsletter or Web site -- it's easy to cut and paste in just the right shot. Presentation skills experts emphasize the impact of photos too -- ideally screen size with text overlaid, rather than those deadly text bullet points. Unfortunately, photos can be very expensive, and rights issues a mess to deal with.

My solution of late is Stock.xchng for no- or low-cost photos. Some photos have restrictions in terms of type of use (e.g. not in pornography) and requests to contact and/or credit the photographer. But with those few steps, there are thousands of great photos here, yours for the taking.

Flickr is another great resource. Lots of great photos with few restrictions.

Update
Nonprofit tech experts TechSoup has just released its list of free and low-cost photo sources.  I hold with Stock.xchng as my source of choice, but find some of these recommendations great for specialty images. Take a look at the Yellowstone National Park digital photo file for no-charge nature shots (just inlude the "NPS photo" credit) and Mayang's Free Texture Library of over 3,000 images of walls, signage, fabrics, nature, stone, plants and more.

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Online Giving Continues to Grow, Reports Network for Good

Network for Good has just released "The Young and the Generous," its new study about the growth in online charitable giving.

Here are a few of the highlights from the report, and how they impact your nonprofit:

• Online giving is growing exponentially, but represents only 2-3% of total giving by individuals at this time.
  • Impact: Your organization should continue running giving campaigns via traditional and online channels.
• Online givers are young, averaging 39.5 years old, whereas most offline donors are 55+.
  • Impact: Customize your giving messages to your targets. Online givers are likely to have different interests and motivations than your traditional giving base.
• Online giving is the path of choice for disaster relief. Donors want to be able to respond quickly.
  • Impact: Make an extra effort -- energy and budget  wise -- in executing the online components of  disaster reflief campaigns. They're more important than ever. Every time there's a disaster, donors are online looking for a reputable organization to which to donate. Give them the information, and tools, they need to make that decision in your organization's favor.
• Giving online is characterized by the renowned long tail phenomenon. The usual suspects (a few, well-known nonprofits) receive half of all online donations but thousands of smaller or lesser-known organizations collectively receive the other half.
  
  • Impact: This is great  news for your smaller or lesser-known nonprofit. Online giving is working for you.  Its enabling you to broaden and deepen your reach, at a modest cost. Do as much as you can of it.

Read the complete report for several other findings relevant to your nonprofit's giving program.