by Hannah Brazee Gregory When a nonprofit does not have a significant internal marketing capacity and doesn't have the budget for outsourced help, a volunteer committee may seem like the answer. And it very well could be. But that decision needs to be carefully thought through, taking into consideration the pros and cons. Before diving in, ask yourself these questions: Who will lead the committee? Do you have a member on your board of directors who is a marketing professional and who can chair the committee and hold its members accountable? Typically, a nonprofit's marketing committee includes one board member who also chairs the committee. This is important to ensure the efforts are lead by someone with a true understanding of your organization and a vested interest in the … Continue Reading
Getting Your Nonprofit in the News
by Hannah Brazee Gregory If you are pitching to a reporter, yet you have never taken the time to read anything he or she has written, you may want to rethink your priorities. While you don't have to be a complete news junkie to have a successful media-relations effort, you do need to know and do a few basic things related to the art of working with journalists. Get and stay in tune with the news. Watch the news. Read the newspaper. If your nonprofit's focus is national, then read and watch the national news. If it is local...well, you get the idea. Set up Google news alerts on key terms related to your organization's mission. The only way to get in the news is to be newsworthy, and the only way to know what is newsworthy is to make news consumption a daily habit. With all of the new … Continue Reading
The Role of PR in Fundraising
from voluntary sector network blog: Why fundraisers need to give more thought to PR PR and fundraising can have an uneasy relationship. Each can have high expectations of the other without really understanding what role they both play and how they would benefit from working more closely. Good communication and planning between PR and fundraising teams or individuals is essential. PR should reinforce and build on the messages that fundraisers are giving to supporters and in challenging times, such as the sector is facing now, the relationship between the two is even more important. Ask a charity what it wants PR to achieve and after 'raise awareness' will often come the answer 'raise money'. Sometimes it's even the other way round. There is often an assumption that the two are directly … Continue Reading
Ask Yourself ‘Who Cares’ Before Pitching Media
If you’re looking for more exposure and publicity in the press for your nonprofit, learn how to think like the media, said Sandra Beckwith of Beckwith Communications in Fairport, N.Y. The trick to getting your name out there is understanding what the media - the editors, producers and reporters you contact - see as newsworthy, she said in her book, “Publicity For Nonprofits: Generating media exposure that leads to awareness, growth and contributions.” A basic tenet of publicity is that your information has to be newsworthy, explained Beckwith. Your job is to send information to the media that is newsworthy; it’s up to them to determine what they think is newsworthy. A good place to start is examining something you think might be newsworthy is by asking yourself, “Who cares?” For … Continue Reading
Facebook’s Impact on Email Campaigns
by Hannah Brazee Gregory Just like video killed the radio star in the 1980s, social media is very rapidly changing how nonprofits need to approach email campaigns and website development. Your nonprofit has been working on growing its Facebook audience, and one of the ways to invite supporters to your befriend your page is with your email list. What is likely to happen next illustrates a growing trend that is changing the "digital PR" game. Now that your audience member has connected with your organization on Facebook, they remove themselves from your email list. Why get email when they can get all the information they want in one handy place? Don't worry. You did the right thing by inviting your email list audience to connect with you on Facebook. You just need to be aware of this … Continue Reading
Introducing Change: Lessons from Branding a Jewish Federation
by Howard Adam Levy Recently, I had the opportunity to work with one of the 157 local Jewish Federations on helping them remain relevant to the changing needs of their community and develop a marketing theme and materials to attract new donors. The lessons learned may be informative for other organizations grappling with change. Here are five steps to consider when changing your brand: 1. Do your homework. Before you can address any issue, you need to know what your audience thinks - and it's not necessarily what you expect. To understand donors, we conducted a Community Opinion Survey asking about people's beliefs and values, giving habits, and awareness of the Federation's programs. The findings were startling. Even long-time donors (who had been giving for 6 years or more), were … Continue Reading
Practicing Celebrity Journalism
Does the byline encourage/discourage you to read a particular article? Are we reading a publication, or a celebrity journalist? According to research by Dr. Zvi Reich (from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and published this month in the academic journal Journalism, the proliferation of bylines characterized the news as an imperfect, all too human account of reality, and opened the way for celebrity journalism. Focusing on The New York Times as the chief case study and The Times of London, Reich explores the phenomenon of bylines in modern journalism and their major impact on the way news is consumed and understood, as well documenting the process through which journalists fought to receive name recognition of their work. "Today, when we open a newspaper or click on a web site, we take it … Continue Reading
Bing, bing … Why You Should be Paying Attention
by Florence Broder You think search engine optimization and no doubt, you think Google, the number one search engine in the world. It was strong enough to put Yahoo’s engine out of business. Since its inception techies and marketers alike have tried to work with its algorithms to optimize sites with meta tags, key words, and more, to improve rankings. However, at the recent SphinnCon Israel Conference on search engine optimization (SEO) I was surprised to hear many of the presenters talk about the importance of paying attention to Microsoft’s third generation search engine, Bing. Believe it or not, Bing now has a 30% market share of the search engine market, despite its deficient algorithm as compared to Google. How did they manage this feat in such a short time? Microsoft … Continue Reading
Coca Cola Bubbles Up an Idea
I happened upon a fun and funny online concept brought to you by the smart and clever people at Coca Cola. The entire MyCoke site is filled with some great marketing ideas, but the one that caught my eye is its Coca Cola Smile-izer interactive experience. If you click on one of the floating Coke bubbles, it bursts open with the sound of laughter created by one of thousands of MyCoke website visitors willing to participate in a little silliness and by doing so, have Coca Cola make a dollar donation to the National Parks Foundation. Each bubble represents one person’s laugh. And, it may surprise and delight you to listen to how unique each person’s laughter is. What really got my interest beyond the simple joy of listening to laughter bursting forth while I was working (I don’t often … Continue Reading
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