One day while searching through a greeting card section at a local store, I glimpsed at a card that read, “Be the author of your own story.” At that moment, I had recently been asked to tell my own story, once again, to a nonprofit organization looking to share my [...]
As fundraisers, everything we want is on the other side of good communication. Story is one of the most effective forms of communication available – it’s science! Since the beginning of time, human beings have looked to story to learn from other's successes and mistakes. Human beings look to story [...]
Did you know that Spanish is the fourth most spoken language worldwide? With more than 530 million speakers, Spanish is quickly becoming a lingua franca across Latin America and the world. In the United States, 13% of the population speaks Spanish natively, and millions more are learning it every day. [...]
Stories have a unique way of engaging an audience. If you want to learn how to win hearts, change minds, and get your audience to take action, you need to get good at sharing stories. Here are six storytelling tips to win hearts, change minds, and create a real impact: [...]
Over the last month of shelter in place, I’ve been observing the emails coming through my inbox. Though there have been some that were tone deaf or inappropriate for the current environment, there have been many that were well-crafted and memorable. The ones that have stuck with me were short, [...]
Now that we've entered a new decade (by that I mean it's now the 2020s; I know there wasn't a year zero or whatever), an ever-popular theme for fundraising events has renewed life: the 1920s or Great Gatsby-themed gala. Not since 2013 when the Leonardo DiCaprio-led movie adaptation was released [...]
Stop colluding with your donors in the art of procrastination. Give to donors now. If you wait to be a giving friend, they’ll do the same. You don’t want donors who’ve just given to you to wait until next year at this time to give to you again. Do you? [...]
With the demand for content today, everyone is a writer. You can craft a whole sentence using emoticons 😎 and acronyms IMHO (in my humble opinion). But unambiguous writing requires a strong command of language. Good news: nonprofit writing tools can help you, whether you're a best-selling author or just [...]
In Not Using Content Marketing Wisely? Your Nonprofit’s Leaving Money on the Table I defined ‘content marketing’ so you could better understand the centrality of this concept to the success of your overall fundraising and marketing communications strategy. We talked about how to create a nonprofit content marketing plan, and [...]
Let’s begin by defining ‘content marketing’ so you better understand how central this concept is to the success of your overall fundraising and marketing communications strategy. [Emphases below are my own.] Wikipedia says “Content marketing attracts prospects and transforms prospects into customers by creating and sharing valuable free content. Content [...]
Content comes in many forms. Some are more digestible… interesting… inspiring… persuasive than others. Others are a bit hard to take. When you serve up content to your constituents, you want it to go down easily. You want folks to enjoy what’s on your menu. Yummy, not yucky. Here’s what’s [...]
Does your nonprofit have a blog? If not, why not? I happen to be a huge fan of nonprofit blogging, which is why I’ve put together this quick guide touting a ‘Top Ten’ list of benefits. What? You say you have a nonprofit newsletter? They’re not equivalent. Blogs are fresh, [...]