Don Akchin

The books about nonprofit market are suddenly popping up like mushrooms. Here is the latest crop:   Nonprofit Management 101, edited by Darian Rodriquez Heyman, contains 50 essays by 50 experts and practitioners that cover both traditional and cutting-edge tools and lay down a lot of solid advice, according to onereviewer.   Cause Marketing for Dummies, by Joe Waters and Joanna McDonald, takes the position that nonprofits of any size can link up with for-profit companies to promote their cause well. Reviewer Joanne Fritz gives it high marks.   Finally, in the popular Free category, Hubspot has produced a downloaded e-book on integrating email and social media, a topic that resonates with many nonprofit marketers this season.

If you’re replacing your printed annual report with an online version, there’s one huge obstacle: how to make it readable not only on desktop computers, but on smartphones and iPads. One promising answer is Treesaver, an open source web platform for publishing that does the reformatting automatically. On the other hand, the printed report has not outlived its usefulness, asserts writer Kimberlee Roth. When done well, the annual report delivers “authenticity, effective storytelling and a connection to your organizational strategies – in a welcoming tone that conveys both passion and competence.”  

I just learned that I am a “content curator.” I read all these blogs and articles about nonprofit marketing and fundraising and “curate” the best selections for you each month. You, too,can perform a valued service for your constituents as a content curator. In an age of Too Much Information, it’s truly appreciated.

Would it be better to give up your printed annual report and post it online instead? Or if you do print the report, how hard should you work to make the online version dazzling? Two experts in online media make a case for keeping the online version simple – because it can’t compete with the effectiveness of holding the print report. you put into the online version?

Nonprofit consultant Kivi Leroux Miller has a creative suggestion for increasing your communications to your audiences: instead of two newsletters a year, why not spend the same money on six postcards?

Trying to cut back on your printing budget with more email publications? Blogger Kivi Miller has sound advice on what print features do not compute online.

Nothing summons up feelings of inadequacy quite as fast as the contents of marketing publications. I opened an email newsletter from the AMA this week and almost took to my sickbed as my eyes ricocheted around these phrases: Web analytics solution Measuring Web 2.0 Technologies Applying Consumer Segmentation for Maximum Impact 10-Step Road Map to Data Optimization Management of high-volume B2C customer acquisition and B2B lead generation campaign But after a few seconds, I got a grip, reassuring myself that:a) I did have a vague idea what most of those expressions meant, and anyway,b) 95 percent of it was irrelevant to me and my clients. If you’re the sort of acccidental marketer who wants to learn every conceivable thing about the field, by all means subscribe to as many marketing trade journals as you can stomach. But when you feel your head is about to explode, THROW THEM AWAY. There

Nothing summons up feelings of inadequacy quite as fast as the contents of marketing publications. I opened an email newsletter from the AMA this week and almost took to my sickbed as my eyes ricocheted around these phrases: Web analytics solution Measuring Web 2.0 Technologies Applying Consumer Segmentation for Maximum Impact 10-Step Road Map to Data Optimization Management of high-volume B2C customer acquisition and B2B lead generation campaign But after a few seconds, I got a grip, reassuring myself that:a) I did have a vague idea what most of those expressions meant, and anyway,b) 95 percent of it was irrelevant to me and my clients. If you’re the sort of acccidental marketer who wants to learn every conceivable thing about the field, by all means subscribe to as many marketing trade journals as you can stomach. But when you feel your head is about to explode, THROW THEM AWAY. There

Nothing summons up feelings of inadequacy quite as fast as the contents of marketing publications. I opened an email newsletter from the AMA this week and almost took to my sickbed as my eyes ricocheted around these phrases: Web analytics solution Measuring Web 2.0 Technologies Applying Consumer Segmentation for Maximum Impact 10-Step Road Map to Data Optimization Management of high-volume B2C customer acquisition and B2B lead generation campaign But after a few seconds, I got a grip, reassuring myself that:a) I did have a vague idea what most of those expressions meant, and anyway,b) 95 percent of it was irrelevant to me and my clients. If you’re the sort of acccidental marketer who wants to learn every conceivable thing about the field, by all means subscribe to as many marketing trade journals as you can stomach. But when you feel your head is about to explode, THROW THEM AWAY. There