by Robert L. Kern American Jewish and Israel aid/advocacy organizations have their pools of supporters who give annual gifts and often respond with increased or second line “special campaign” donations when solicited for urgent needs. However, demographics and the economy are taking its toll on these populations. Campaigns are down from previous years in agencies throughout the community and instead of employing creative, forward thinking, many boards of directors - usually populated by innovative and successful people who have built businesses or risen to the top of their professions - responding to these crises by slashing spending. Marketing is often the first thing that they cut. Marketing cannot be immediately assessed by “return on investment” (ROI). Because it affects every … Continue Reading
Do-It-Yourself Communications for Nonprofits on a Budget
by Jo-Ann Mort and Julie Sedlis Even if you can’t afford communications staff, there are steps that you can take to effectively run your own communications. They involve planning, structure and a set of best practices. As we’ve written before in eJewishPhilanthropy, the core of any effective communications strategy is a clear concise message that accurately reflects your vision. It is easy to write up a paragraph that you like and call it a day. But that won’t accomplish what you need to accomplish. Take some extra time so that your paragraph is tailored, word-by-word, to reach your target audience with the greatest impact possible. That’s step number one. Make sure that you aren’t the only one who looks at your statement or mission description. When we begin work with a client, … Continue Reading
Why Jewish Organizations Struggle to Build Their Base
by David Marks The question of why Jewish organizations struggle to build their base has been sliced, diced, discussed and debated for years. Root causes such as: the loss of Jewish identity, intermarriage, poor corporate management, and apathy about the need to support Jewish institutions have all been studied and examined thoroughly and are real problems to be solved. But often the most simplistic reason why Jewish organizations have a hard time growing their base and keeping them active gets overlooked and forgotten about - it is the way they communicate their core work to their base through their marketing, messaging and branding. This observation may seem overly simplistic, but have you ever looked around at many Jewish organizations’ websites, brands and marketing materials? Often what … Continue Reading
Branding Jewish NPO’s: No Purim Shpiel
by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin With the thoughts about the Purim holiday, we are reminded of the many “masks” that nonprofit organizations wear and some of the institutional games that we play, and at least one of the messages that we get from reading the Megila. The mandate: rather than hiding one’s identity, be forthcoming about who you are and work diligently to identify your goals and vision. One contemporary lesson from Purim: the more a nonprofit is aware of and framing its image, the more successful it will be in maintaining and attracting financial and passionate support, along with successful brand recognition. Nonprofits of all sizes need to regularly redefine - and reaffirm - their positions within the Jewish marketplace. We acknowledge that the nonprofit arena is … Continue Reading
Rebranding David: Lessons Learned in Transforming a Jewish Organization
by David Bernstein Last week, I received a call from an old acquaintance in the pro-Israel community. “I just want to congratulate you on re-positioning The David Project,” he said. “I was recruited for your job, and decided not to pursue it because I didn’t think it was doable.” Eighteen months into it, my team at The David Project has indeed managed to rebrand the once perceived hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners advocacy organization into a perceived moderate, thoughtful, and strategic advocacy organization operating in the pro-Israel mainstream. No doubt we have a ways to go, but many of the people who matter the most for our purposes are now fully aware of the change in direction. In the course of this past year and a half, we made numerous mistakes, but somehow seemed to have … Continue Reading
Writing a One-page News Release
by Stacy Jones Nonprofit organizations can use a news release to announce their events or newsworthy information. But keeping a news release to one page, with the most relevant, timely information is an important step is seeing the release published. Too often, nonprofit news releases are filled with long summaries about their organizations, written in the wrong style or format and without the critical newsworthy information required to see the release published. Changing a few simple things can help see the release in print - or on the web. Style A journalistic style of writing is different than other forms of writing. In other nonprofit forms of communication, you tend to develop the piece throughout and it leads to a particular point or conclusion. In journalism, getting … Continue Reading
Facebook Timeline for Nonprofit Organizations
by Rebecca Saidlower and Miriam Brosseau The social media revolution means big things for nonprofits. Social media demands a kind of openness and authenticity that can be challenging, but also empowering. Now more than ever our friends, fans, and followers can connect with us (and we with them) immediately and personally. The recent release of Facebook Timeline for Pages provides a new opportunity for your nonprofit to share your story in a rich, engaging way, with both those outside and inside your organization. Here are a few ways you can take advantage of your Page’s new Timeline: Document the history of your organization since way back before Facebook. You can add milestones with short stories, links and photos going back to whenever your organization was founded. Visitors to our … Continue Reading
Telling Your Story When Engaging in Philanthropy
by Jo-Ann Mort and Judith Wineman eJewish Philanthropy featured an article recently by Dan Brown, eJP’s editor, about a donor organization that doesn’t promote its own fundraising through traditional communications outlets. This especially caught our eye because we believe that communications outreach is essential to good philanthropic practice. Philanthropists need a targeted megaphone beyond the act of grant making or financial contributions. Indeed, a solid communications strategy offers a multiplier for the money a funder puts into the field. This is a critical step for a donor moving from checkbook philanthropy to strategic philanthropy. Moreover, funders have an advantage that they don’t often employ. Donors have a unique perspective that their grantees don’t often share. … Continue Reading
English