OK, commandment #1 (by far): You build your sales’ success (i.e., your fundraising comm’s success) backwards from your target audience. “What the heck does that mean?” might be your challenge. ——So … let’s get basic. You, fundraiser, are trying to sell my brain something. You want my brain to make a purchase decision … a purchase decision that will benefit your charity’s mission-cause-movement-ideal-belief-invention-initiative-program-plans for… Read more »
Tag: communications
Thinking About Cases for Support
Values statements are important.They sort your audience into two piles: (1) people who might share some value(s) with you; and (2) the rest.You don’t raise money from the rest.Move on. Forget about it.
Twitter is now my social medium of choice for professional stuff. I visit it multi-daily. Do I use Facebook? It’s creepy.
Like a certain person I refuse to name (because when I do, my mouth tastes corrupt for at least an hour), I have become addicted to Twitter as my primary social medium
Winning the Small Game
Every word matters. Some words matter more. We or you?
At this time, at this point, in this era: As fundraising needs to transform… Managing Up
The IGNORANCE CEILING is destroying fundraising. Now you know. Meet the frustrated: So MANY fundraisers quit so fast. They learn “best practices” … and then collide with the “Ignorance Ceiling.” I.e., bosses and boards insisting: “I don’t like it. No way.”
Return On Investment – A new age of business-mindedness dawns for nonprofit enterprises
Suddenly it seems like everyone’s talking about it. Or maybe “finally” is better than suddenly. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has gotten weighty on the subject. On June 7, it featured a scathing article by Amanda Pearce, CFRE, under the headline, “Nonprofit is a Tax Status, NOT a Business Model.” Even US charity watchdogs have admitted they got it wrong. In case no one at… Read more »
My Top Eleven and Three-Quarters Bits of Advice for Winning at Donor Communications – Part II
7. Donors aren’t forever. Mostly. Again: Why do you need a donor acquisition program as well as a donor relationship program? Because donors come and go, like pee holes in the snow. A couple of years ago, I polled experts around the world with the question, “How long does the average donor stick with a charity?” There was a gawdly lot of hemming and… Read more »
My Top Eleven and Three-Quarters Bits of Advice for Winning at Donor Communications… part one in a two-part series
1. Why Eleven and Three-Quarters? Be a little less predictable. “10 Top Tips” is predictable. “11 Top Tips” is a little less predictable, but still pretty obvious. I ripped this idea off, as most of you immediately recognized, from Harry Potter’s Track Nine and Three-Quarters at King’s Cross Station. Steal well. And often. But don’t steal from failures. Which means you’ll have to learn… Read more »
“Do you have suggestions about how to write for theaters and vocal singing groups?”
“Humans learn to develop empathy in the first year of life. We not only learn to recognise emotional reactions in others but also to understand what’s causing those reactions. One toddler will try to comfort another who is crying—not just with any toy, but with that child’s favourite toy.
A Message from Joyce Slocum, President & CEO of TPR
My passion for the mission of public radio is what led me to leave a career in children’s entertainment and join NPR in 2008. My desire to return to Texas and still be in public radio is what brought me to TPR in 2014. I couldn’t be happier to be here. It’s particularly rewarding to me when someone from our community shares with me… Read more »
Social Media Audits – Setting Your Social Media Strategy
Are you engaging your followers on social media? Find out how to analyze your performance and strategy at our Social Media Audits: Setting Your Social Media Strategy workshop on Tuesday, May 22. Ever wonder how organizations like yours seem to be generating more attention or whether your new Instagram strategy really works? Learn how to perform a routine social media audit to find out. … Read more »
If you’re an ambitious fundraiser, advice for your next job interview . . .
On the delicate topic of approvals . . . What is the Mt. Everest-sized obstacle which prevents many nonprofits (yours?) from taking advantage of “donor-centricity”?
In Reciprocity We Trust
Newbies, skeptics, the timid (and Ian) DO worry: “So, Tom, where’s the irrefutable research that switching to ‘donor-centered’ communications will raise more money for our org. than the comms crap we now send out?”
