Don Akchin

“Every nonprofit’s email list has gold,” asserts Ifdy Perez, a partner in the social marketing collaborative Razoo. Even if your database has only the most basic information, you can still extract precious nuggets of intelligence from it.  She has some interesting ideas for how to go about it.

We haven’t written anything controversial so far this month, so why not. Marketing blogger Chuck English argues that independent schools are misguided when they push the advantages of a “21st Century Education” – that is, one that emphasizes skills and creative thinking over knowledge. Parents just want their kids to get into the right colleges and the right professions. This is not new. Back in the Stone Age, when I was pondering my college major, the choice was between “a liberal education”  and a trade – English or journalism. Unwisely, I chose journalism and was thereafter incapable of appreciating Deconstructionism. But it does suggest a familiar disconnect. Too often, what an organization’s program staff  is proudest of is not at all what attracts the customer – and the marketer’s task is to know the difference. Trying to educate the customer to what they “should” want is a recipe for disaster.

Network for Good’s Katya Andresen notes the importance of bringing your message to your target audience at that precise moment when their minds are open to receiving it. She cites a familiar example: the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s campaign to stencil storm drains with the words,”Do Not Dump – Chesapeake Bay Drainage.”

Saving the world isn’t enough anymore, argues Joe Waters, co-author of Cause Marketing for Dummies. In a post for Nonprofit Quarterly, he argues that nonprofits must publish useful content – whether through blogs, email newsletters, e-books, reports or videos. It’s the way to maintain a strong brand, to stand out from the crowd, and to make sure potential donors know who you are. When you’re ready to put together a content strategy, let’s talk.

This is how we know when a concept has global impact: Letters captured in Osama bin Laden’s compound and released by the CIA last week reveal that the Al-Qaeda CEO worried that the organization’s brand was being compromised by overzealous underlings who were more focused on killing Muslims than on defeating The Great Satan. Be grateful that’s not your branding issue.

T.S. Elliott said April was the cruellest month, and this is especially true for trees. April seems to be launch month for a flotilla of surveys, reports and data dumps on the state of all things online. This year we had the 2012 Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index(TM) Study, the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report,  the Sage Nonprofit Solutions Email Marketing Report, and possibly some also-rans.  Feel free to read them. Or just away these highlights: If your nonprofit does not have a Facebook page, you qualify as a Conscientious Objector; 93% of nonprofits are on Facebook, with an average community size of 8,317 fans. 73% of nonprofits staff their social networking with the equivalent of one  half-time employee. 43% have a social networking budget of zero ($00.00). Online fundraising is growing at a healthy clip. The median growth rate was 15.8%, versus 20% in 2010 – a

CARE, a nonprofit that was looking a little dowdy a decade ago, launched a highly successful makeover in 2003 with a campaign about empowering women internationally. The campaign has rebranded the organization and made it more relevant and timely than every before.  It also increased revenues by nearly $8 million. A fascinating case study of CARE’s communications campaign offers many lessons for smaller nonprofits.

One of the elusive measures of social media success is “engagement,” the point at which the friend or fan of your organization becomes a committed activist, evangelist or donor. The Mashable blog asked a dozen for-profit community managers for their tips on how to get there. The result is a wealth of ideas that your nonprofit might adapt to fit your own needs.

To find out how well your communications are performing, here’s a quick quiz. 1. Does your organization have all the resources it needs? YES     NO If you answered yes, your communication is working just fine. If you answered no, then you’re obviously not communicating your mission, your results and your needs in a way that melts hearts and propels the moving hand to the open checkbook.

Advertising on social media sites is an opportunity that has not gotten much attention. Thanks to the large amounts of personal information that Facebook users cheerfully let fly into the atmosphere, Facebook advertising has astounding capabilities for pinpoint targeting of your audience.  Now there are some guides for novices.  Hubspot offers a free e-book on the ins and outs. You may also enjoy an interview Beth Kanter conducted with leaders of a dance company that has developed a strategy for Facebook ads.

Well-known copywriter and author Tom Ahern delightfully distills the essence of neuroscience, as it applies to motivating people to act (and give). Much of the action takes place in the “reptile brain,” a vestige from the early days of evolution, which constantly notes what’s new in the environment and sizes it up with two questions – Will it kill me? Can I eat it? Ahern’s bottom line is that the latest brain science confirms what direct mail marketers have known for years: people respond to emotional triggers, not reason.

What do you get when you marry social media to event-based fundraising? (Or in other words, when you use social media to encourage your supporters to recruit their own networks on your behalf.) Beth Kanter, social media maven extraordinaire, calls it “social fundraising,” and she has been getting great results with this marriage since 2006.  Her slide presentation on the topic relates several case studies and lays down basic principles to make the marriage work.

Fenton, a D.C.-based communications firm that publishes some of the most useful materials on nonprofit communications, has produced See, Say, Feel Do: Social Media Metrics That Matter. The guide is available as a free download.

The easiest sure-fire way to start a heated discussion among nonprofit development directors is to say, “How’s your database?” This is a proven fact. I’ve proven it several times myself. Before you shop for new database software, take a hard look at this Idealware article on 10 common mistakes to avoid.

Branded Out Loud, a blog about communications design, offers its list of what’s cool and what’s yesterday’s news on nonprofit websites, with plenty of visuals to make the point. What’s in? Simple and clean design, infographics, directing viewers where to go, and more.

One factor separates successful nonprofits from their struggling peers. The winners have freed themselves from the mindset that dominates nonprofit culture: the Cult of Scarcity. It’s the mindset that assumes resources will always be limited, and therefore possibilities will always be limited. It dictates that expenses must remain low – along with salaries. It’s the belief that “poor” and “pure” are related. Fundraising consultant Sandy Rees suggests the “poverty mindset” would be an excellent thing to give up for Lent.  My own thought is to give it up forever.  All the most successful nonprofits already have. As long as an organization sees the world from the bottom of a beggar’s cup, it has little chance of expanding through better fundraising, better communications, better marketing or better management. For those require seeing the world as a place of  abundance and infinite poss ibility.

Gail Perry, author of the “Fired-Up Fundraising” blog, says the perfect companion to your awesome annual appeal letter is an equally awesome letter of thanks to your donors. She offers 16 ideas and a checklist of do’s and don’ts that can inspire and fire-up the donor steward inside you.

When Google+ first appeared on the scene last summer, the conventional wisdom was explore but don’t invest much. Facebook, after all, was the social media platform where all the players were. Well, that was then. A few weeks ago, Google flexed its muscles and added activity on Google+ to the Google search algorhythm which, as we all know, determines not just our place within search rankings but our sense of self-worth.  Geoff Livingston, one of the most respected minds in digital media, makes a very convincing argument that it’s  now time to get on board Google+ because it will have more impact on search than any other platform.

SOFII (The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration) has compiled its list of the best fundraising campaigns of all time.  It’s an international list that includes such icons as the first UNICEF card and the British Red Cross appeal during World War II. With descriptions of each all-star entry, there’s plenty of potential inspiration for 2012.

It’s not easy to keep up with the new digital media, much less understand it. But this provocative article in Ad Age, by Doug Levy and Bob Garfield, offers a look at the big picture. In their eyes, we’re living at the dawn of the Relationship Era, and as a result, everything we used to know about marketing is now wrong. On a similar theme, see for yourself what all the buzz is about regarding the “10 fresh realities of the Digital Age,”  a slide presentation by Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project. In fact, have a look at the slide presentation itself.

In the early 1990s, a direct mail company in Seattle discovered, through relentless testing, a formula that turned routine newsletters to donors into dependable fundraising machines. The writing was donor-centered, the headlines powerful, the articles short – and five more key points.  Copywriter and blogger Jeff Brooks, a member of that Seattle firm at the time, recites the entire formula, then adds a few things he’s learned in the years since then. Could it work for you? Yes, it absolutely could.  And I will be happy to show you how.