Sticking With the Same Old Thing

from Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog: ‘Old’ donors give more – so do we stick to the same ‘old’ fundraising? … focusing only the oldest donors is short-sighted, and we definitely can’t assume what has worked in the past will work in the future. The fact that “older” donors give more does not mean we should do the same old fundraising. Even the crowd here agrees on that: Boomers (who are not so ‘old’ for goodness sake) – and everyone younger – have a whole new set of expectations from their charities, from greater tranparency and accountability to a greater sense of engagement. We have to start changing how we fundraise now or we’re going to be irrelevant very soon – and for generations to come. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Sharing is the New Normal

from Harvard Business Review: How Millennials’ Sharing Habits Can Benefit Organizations The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently asked a large group of experts if they thought Millennials would grow out of their currently strong penchant for online sharing and self-revelation. A strong majority of this group – 67% – said that this would not be the case, and that Generation Y would keep sharing as it aged. I agree, and my favorite explanation for why came from Matt Gallivan, a senior research analyst for NPR, who said “Sharing is not ‘the new black,’ it is the new normal. There are too many benefits to living with a certain degree of openness for Digital Natives to ‘grow out of it.’ Job opportunities, new personal connections, professional collaboration,... Continue Reading

The Shabbat Experiment

from The Shabbat Experiment: What This Is All About As a Hillel professional, I spend my days, nights, and weekends helping students connect to Jewish life. It’s a busy job. While I help students celebrate the day of rest, I myself am working. I and many of my colleagues lose touch with the reasons why we went into this work in the first place. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Is DotOrg a Success?

from Stanford Social Innovation Review Google’s philanthropy, dubbed DotOrg, launched in 2004 with bold ambitions and almost $1 billion in seed funding. But the corporate culture built by engineers proved challenging for the development experts brought in to run DotOrg. Six years later, the philanthropy’s leadership has been replaced and its ambitions have shrunk. Do No Evil … A company of Google’s size was bound to make waves when it stepped into the social change sector. Starting with the founders’ bold promise, there was nothing modest about DotOrg’s goals. Nor was there a guidebook for how to operate a hybrid for-profit, nonprofit philanthropy. Is Google living up to its original pledge? Google says yes, pointing to $170 million in grants and in-kind donations made last year. But... Continue Reading

The Intersection of Followership and Leadership

from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation blog: The Need for Followership Programs The past decade has witnessed the emergence of a new generation of programs in which the primary focus is on those who participate, not on those who lead. While Taglit/Birthright Israel, Moishe House, Hillel and Limmud are among the most obvious examples of this shift, a host of other organizations have also embraced the concept of “followership” by making engagement of the many a higher priority than the empowerment of the few. Unsurprisingly, some of these organizations have had greater success than others. … The best followership programs also recognize that it is their responsibility to sell, rather than the obligation of their potential participants to buy. All too often, we in the Jewish... Continue Reading

Offer or Sell?

by Tamsen McMahon Let me ask you a question: Are you offering what you sell, or selling what you offer? One is about relationships, the other transactions. One is about pull, the other push. One is about permission, the other interruption. One is about engagement, the other broadcast. One is about conviction, the other convincing. One is about giving, the other taking. One is long-term, the other short. One is about value, the other cost. One is about relevance, the other utility. One is about service, the other commodity. One is about finding opportunity, the other filling holes. One is about them, the other…you. Do you see a difference? What are you doing? Tamsen McMahon is the Director of Digital and Strategic Initiatives at Sametz Blackstone Associates. Offer or Sell? first appeared in Brass... Continue Reading

Thanking Donors Properly

from Sharpe Tips: Eight Mistakes to Avoid in Donation Thank You Letters for a Fundraising Gift or Contribution The easiest way to encourage a donor to mail you another donation is to thank her properly for her last gift. There are right ways and wrong ways to thank your donor. Avoid these mistakes when mailing your donation thank-you letters, notes and cards. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Finding the Right Year-End Story

from bigducknyc.com: Your path to storybook year-end fundraising starts here The hottest NYC summer in years isn’t the only reason we’re dreaming of the holidays here at Big Duck (though a cold snap sounds pretty glorious right about now). Many nonprofits receive as much as 40 percent of their annual donations during the month of December, and we know that early planning is key to making the most of your year-end fundraising season. But where do you actually start? More than almost anything, the strength of your campaign will depend on finding the right year-end story to tell your donors – and then telling it through every channel you’ve got. But how do you home in on a year-end story that’s both rooted in emotion and makes an urgent case for giving? Here are a few questions to get you... Continue Reading

A Hierarchy of Failure

from Seth Godin’s blog: A hierarchy of failure worth following Not all failures are the same. Here are five kinds, from frequency = good all the way to please-don’t! FAIL OFTEN FAIL FREQUENTLY FAIL OCCASIONALLY FAIL RARELY FAIL NEVER Continue reading to learn the types of failure that fit each category. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Cut the Fluff

from NetWit’s Think Tank: 23 Simple Tips for Turning Good Web Pages into Great Ones You may have inherited a vast pool of web content written “before your time” … or you frequently receive lengthy “expert” articles and other contributed pieces to add to the web site you now manage. Not every expert who contributes to a web site is also an expert in writing for the web. Fortunately, in most cases it’s easier to “clean up” existing writing than to create the original piece. Here are a few key ways to edit that web copy and turn the material that you have into great web copy. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

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