I’ve never been bootlegged before. I’m not even sure that’s the correct phrase! But Elaine Fogel recorded this from my Who’s Telling YOUR Nonprofit’s Story? session at the American Marketing Association’s 2011 Nonprofit Marketing Conference last week in Washington, DC. The wider context for this segment is I’m illustrating how diverse our communication options are [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier this week, I read Mark Phillips post Who should influence fundraisers? Make your vote count. In the spirit of his post, I’ll list the names of the 10 people I voted for. First, please choose to not be offended if your name isn’t on this list. I have the privilege of knowing many very [...]

[Read more →]

With this guest post, I’m pleased to introduce Katya Andresen. Katya is the COO of Network for Good and the author of Robin Hood Marketing. I love Katya’s ability to help nonprofits focus their marketing and I talk about her in most of my trainings! Folks, please vaccinate yourself – especially this time of year, [...]

[Read more →]

Last week Good Day New York invited me to talk about career stress in light of Steven Slater’s quitting his job by jumping out of a JetBlue plane. The interview is below. But there was so much more that I sent to Good Day New York. The entire 5-page article is available here: Changing Careers [...]

[Read more →]

I’m surprised by how many nonprofit professionals see “marketing” as a bad word, a practice that is somehow beneath them. If that’s your attitude, a new book called Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits will help you move beyond that and become excellent at communicating your message. This book is packed with useful ideas, detailed strategies, and [...]

[Read more →]

Waterville’s amazing librarian, Sarah Sugden passed on this terrific article from the New York Times, How to Market Your Business With Facebook. It’s well worth reading for nonprofits too. For instance, take this great advice: Some basic rules: Buy-buy-buy messages won’t fly. The best practitioners make Facebook less about selling and more about interacting. Engage [...]

[Read more →]

For many readers of this blog, today is the end of the fiscal year. Congratulations! You’ve made it! What are you doing to celebrate? We live in a fast paced world. And our organization’s financial needs are insatiable. All too often, our year end is merely punctuated by a flurry of direct mail and phone [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve been through a flurry of bad powerpoint presentations recently. At the last one, the speakers turned their backs to the audience and read the slides word-for-word. I kid you not. Perhaps it was because the words were so tiny none of us could see them. If you’re using Powerpoint or a similar slide-style program [...]

[Read more →]

In Secrets of Closing the Sale, Zig Ziglar says: Each year over 5 million quarter-inch drills are sold, yet it’s safe to say that nobody wants a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole. Isn’t that great? We do that in fundraising too. Donations are our “drill.” We spend lots of time talking about donations [...]

[Read more →]

Anyone that’s attended any of my fundraising seminars knows I’m a big fan of storytelling. The NY Times offers a great article called 5 Tips for Telling Better Stories. In short, they are: Keep it simple Openings and closings are very important Be mindful of your story’s spine Make sure not to alienate your audience [...]

[Read more →]