PHILANTHROPY AND FUNDRAISING
Four Tips to Simplify Appeal-writing Process
To make the process of drafting an appeal letter easier:
- Think about your audience. What would you tell the recipient if you had to deliver your message face to face?
- Organize your thoughts before writing. What are the key messages you want to deliver? What do you want your message to accomplish?
- Use conversational language. Write the way you talk. Be direct.
- Don’t worry about getting it right the first time. Write now; edit later.
Donor-friendly websites
Blackbaud, Inc. recently announced the launch of BlackbaudTV, a new resource for the nonprofit community, with videos featuring nonprofit news, technology tools and tips, philanthropy in action, Blackbaud customers, partners, and events.
GoodShop.com donates a percentage of every purchase to your organization
Increase your nonprofit’s gift revenue this holiday season by ensuring that a percentage of every purchase people make is going back to your cause.
How? By encouraging your donors, volunteers, alumni and others to use www.GoodShop.com.
GoodShop.com works with more than 1,500 top online retailers including Amazon.com, Target, Best Buy, Apple, Sephora, Macy’s, 1-800 Flowers, PetSmart, and Expedia among others. The shopping experience and prices are the same as going to the retailer directly, but each time you shop at one of these stores via GoodShop, a percentage of what you spend goes back to your favorite charity or school. And, even more exciting, GoodShop.com offers thousands of money saving coupons and free shipping offers so not only are donors helping your cause, but they can save money as well.
Similarly, with every search conducted on Yahoo!-powered GoodSearch.com, approximately one penny is donated to your charity. It’s used exactly like any other search engine and the pennies add up quickly.
VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT
New Online Community Connects Nonprofit Leaders, Volunteers and Organizations
EdBoard.com provides nonprofits with a dedicated social collaboration website
Recognizing a need to connect nonprofit leaders and provide opportunities to collaborate and share best practices and other information, an online community called EdBoard.com was launched earlier this month.
“Most nonprofits are trying to make the world a better place. Yet, after working in the nonprofit sector for many years, it was clear that nonprofit leaders face significant challenges to achieving their goals,” said Ken Krueger, founder and CEO of EdBoard.com. “Despite these challenges, there are some brilliant people doing some amazing things. What the entire sector needed was a more efficient means of sharing these innovations and best practices.”
EdBoard.com members, referred to as “Edvocates,” are able to create personal profiles similar to other social sites. Members then can connect with other nonprofit leaders through shared interests, background similarities or mutual connections. EdBoard.com, however, goes beyond the capabilities of other sites by also enabling members to upload and download documents and files to share substantive, value-added content.
Being an Edvocate is free for nonprofit professionals and volunteer leaders. Organizations have the option to use EdBoard.com as a means to connect and exchange information between their staff through the formation of branded public communities at EdBoard.com. Through a licensing agreement, organizations also can establish branded private communities that are linked to EdBoard.com.
“Such an arrangement enables an organization’s leaders to connect with each other internally in order to share strategic or proprietary information, but also remain connected to the ideas and lessons from others outside their own organization,” said Krueger. “We already are working with one large nonprofit organization to build an EdBoard.com-linked private community in order to connect and exchange information between its national staff, chapter executive directors and chapter board chairs.”
NONPROFIT COMMUNICATION
Three Branding Blunders to Avoid
Here are three branding blunders nonprofits should avoid:
- Brands within brands. Some agencies have specific programs or services that are better known than the organization’s name. By branding these programs as stand-alone groups, you are compromising your overall brand and reputation. When promoting these programs, reflect your overall brand by including your logo and program name.
- Clip art and bubble letters. Avoid creating fliers and PowerPoint presentations that feature clip art and unusual fonts.
- Using up old materials. Because all nonprofits are budget conscious, they try to avoid wasting old materials by distributing them even with a new brand in place. This only confuses your audience. Take the hit and recycle old materials once a new brand is implemented.
MEMBERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Winning Ideas
Membership Booster Idea - Here’s an idea a museum used to increase annual membership by 11 percent as it approached fiscal year end: Officials mailed nonmembers a postcard stating: “Get two years for the price of one by becoming a member now.”
Fee-setting Tip – Just starting a new membership program? Where should you set your minimum fee? To decide, ask yourself what kind of people you want as members. Then determine what those people can afford as a general minimum. Make that amount the base membership fee.
RESOURCES FOR NONPROFIT AND ASSOCIATION PROFESSIONALS
Upcoming Webinars
If you want to learn more about issues surrounding tracking prospects through the entire development cycle, don’t miss out on the two-part Webinar, Key Elements of a Prospect Relationship Management Sytem (2 Day Event), to be held January 26 and 27. Also, if any part of your job includes supervising employees or volunteers, sign up now for the February 7 Webinar, Supervising Nonprofit Employees, led by Kathleen McCleskey. And if you’re out to improve your success rate with foundation grants, you won’t want to miss the 90-minute Webinar, Foundation Relationships That Last, scheduled for February 16.
On-Demand Webinars
You can now purchase on demand access to several of our past webinars. All you need to view a webinar on demand is internet access and speakers. Check out the on-demand webinar topics! (http://www.stevensoninc.com/webod.php)
Nonprofit and Association Jobs
Looking for a position or want to post a job opening? Check out our Jobs Center! Typical job titles include, but are not limited to: Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Director of Development, Executive Director, Director of Volunteer Services, Director of Membership, Director of Annual Giving, Director of Special Events, Director of Planned Giving, Director of Communications, Director of Media Relations, Director of Alumni Relations and the list goes on…
