nonprofit marketing

Nonprofit Marketing Tip: Explain all 9 ways people can donate

10/28/2011 By Joan 6 Comments

Does your nonprofit tell visitors at your website all the ways they can donate?

During the webinar I hosted yesterday on nonprofit marketing, PR and publicity with nonprofit marketing expert Sandy Rees, one of the participants asked if she should include a “Donate” button on every page of her agency’s website.

Uh, of course, we answered. (No-brainer.)

I wish I had seen the “Ways to Give” page at the Wikimedia Foundation’s website, which I just stumbled across this afternoon. That’s the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, the world’s mammoth online encyclopedia.

It lists these nine ways to give:

Credit card or Paypal
Via regular mail
Monthly recurring giving
Stock donation
Direct deposit
Combined Federal Campaign
Corporate Matching Gift
Moneybookers
Payroll deductions

Especially helpful are the detailed instructions. Brilliant! Nonprofits could link to a list like this from the end of articles they write, from blog posts or from press releases.

What other ways can your donors give? And how do you let them know?

Filed Under: Nonprofits, Press Releases/News Releases, Writing Articles Tagged With: charitable donations, combined federal campaign, corporate matchning gift, donors, nonprofit marketing, nonprofit PR, nonprofit publicity, paypal deduction, stock donation

5 website gems for nonprofit PR, fundraising & marketing

10/24/2011 By Joan Leave a Comment

Nonprofit marketing expert
Sandy Rees

Nonprofits looking for the perfect angle for a publicity or fund-raising campaign might be tempted to use the “woe is us in this bad economy” hook.

Don’t, says Sandy Rees, nonprofit marketing expert.

Not only is it depressing, it doesn’t set your nonprofit apart from all the others that are grousing. If you want ideas for angles galore, and other marketing tips for fundraising and recruiting volunteers, check out these five website gems Sandy and I recommend:

1. Nonprofit Tweets on Twitter

Keep up with valuable nuggets about the world of nonprofit marketing, including those that contain the hashtags #nonprofit, #charity, #causes, #volunteer and #philanthropy.

2. Society of Professional Journalists’ Freelancer Directory

We love this directory because you can search the database of 1,221 freelance journalists inside and outside the U.S. by topic, by state, or both.

Freelancers are valuable during a publicity campaign because you don’t have to pitch your story to a media outlet—the freelancer will! Also, freelancers who use you as a source for one story might return to you again if they’re writing a story on a similar topic and need more material.

3. MicroGiving

Create your own fundraiser with a personal fundraising page. Browse fundraisers, read the fundraising ideas, tips and advice to learn how to raise money online. Microgiving is for anyone, but nonprofits will find this site a goldmine.

4. The Publicity Hound’s Press Release Tutorial

Can’t afford to pay someone to write your press releases? Let me train your PR people and volunteers on how to write and distribute releases, with this free email tutorial. It’s an 11-week program that includes one email lesson a day. Completing it is like earning a master’s degree in writing press releases.

More than 6,000 people have taken this course.

5. Gail Perry’s Free Fundraising Tools

Fundraising expert Gail Perry recommends ”115 Tips to Raise More Money by Email,” an eight-page PDF covering everything from “how to ask,” to what the envelope should like like. Tools also include “Enlist Your Dream Team Board Workbook, a 24-page workbook to help you recruit the right board members, and “41 Major Gift Cultivation Questions to Ask a Donor” to help you listen, listen, listen to that major prospect.

Rees will share more of her very best ideas for nonpr0fit marketing when she joins me Thursday for the webinar “Failproof Publicity Tips for Cash-strapped Nonprofits to Raise Money, Recruit Volunteers & Promote a Worthy Cause.” She will save you time and money communicating your story to the masses—and help you achieve the results you need.

Click here to register.

Filed Under: Nonprofits Tagged With: fundraising, nonprofit marketing, nonprofit PR, nonprofit public relations, public relations for noonprofits

9 ways to use QR codes for PR, publicity & marketing

11/9/2010 By Joan 4 Comments

At first glance, it looks like a crossword puzzle that can appear almost as small as a postage stamp.

It’s a QR code, short for quick response. And it can be one of the most valuable tools in your PR arsenal.

QR codes, similar to bar codes that appear on packaged products, are used widely in Japan but are becoming a popular way for marketers to catch the attention of busy consumers. You can find them on everything from the sides of buses to the backs of business cards.

Mobile phones that have bar code scanning applications installed can “read” the code, which can have URLs and other information embedded. Within seconds, a visitor can arrive at your website to learn more about a product or service. The code you see at left should take you to Google.com. Make sure your phone can scan a QR code with its camera, either with an application that you download or via software that’s already installed on your phone.

How to Use QR Codes

Here are nine ways to use QR codes for publicity, PR and marketing:

Lead reporters to your online pressroom.
Point consumers to a press release.
Authors, use it to lead people to reviews for your books.
Speakers, use it at your website or on printed materials to send people who are considering hiring you to a short video demo.
Restaurants, print the code on your menus and let diners read about the specials of the day so they don’t have to wait for the waiter.
Take consumers to a video that demonstrates tips for using your product or service.
Nonprofits, you can use them to send visitors to a donations page.
Save money on expensive printed fliers or paid ads by taking people to a web page where they can find the same information.
Save money on ads in newspapers and magazines by inserting the QR code instead of a lot of text

Don’t Second-guess Your Customers

If you’re thinking, “But our customers won’t use this,” consider that there are more mobile phones on the planet than personal computers. If most of your customers aren’t using QR codes now, they might within six months. The ship is leaving right now. Hop aboard, or let your competitors stand at the helm.

I’ll share more tips on QR codes, including how to get them and use them, during my webinar “60+ Places Offline to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause, Issue or Event to Build the Buzz and Encourage Others to Promote for You.” It’s at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Nov. 23. The first 20 people who register get the free handout “13 Ways to Involve Journalists and Bloggers in Whatever You’re Promoting.” Those first 20 seats will be gone by the end of today.

Let me know about offline tactics you use to promote, and send a photo if you can. I can work the idea into my presentation and create even more publicity for you!

Promote Your Own QR Code Here

Do you use QR codes? If so, how? And what kind of response have you received?

Where can we find your QR code?

Filed Under: Advertising, Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Media Kits, Nonprofits, Photos & Graphics, Press Releases/News Releases Tagged With: nonprofit marketing, PR, product marketing, promote events, promotion, qr codes

Need a clever tagline? Learn from nonprofits Taggies contest

7/3/2010 By Joan 3 Comments

Taglines, those pithy one-liners that follow the name of an organization, can let people know within two seconds what your organization does and how it helps them.

Yet too many companies don’t have a tagline because they can’t think of something clever.

If that’s you, Nancy Schwartz’s 2010 Tagline Contest for Nonprofits will inspire you. Nancy is a nonprofit marketing expert, and she’s sponsoring the third annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award (a.k.a. The Taggies).

“A strong tagline does double-duty—working to extend your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It’s one of your most basic, and effective, marketing tools, but a GettingAttention.org survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don’t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly.”

You can see a complete list of 2008 and 2009 tagline winners here.

These are some of my favorites:

Montana Historical Society:
Big Sky. Big Land. Big History.

Texas Nonprofits:
Building community deep in the hearts of Texans

The United Negro College Fund:
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste ®

PA Breast Cancer Coalition:
Finding a curenow…so our daughters won’t have to

Nothing But Nets:
Send a net. Save a life.

Homeboy Industries:
Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job

NYC Theatre Spaces:
Where Actors Find Their Space

If you want to enter this year’s competition, turn it into a fun contest for your organization. Ask your employees, volunteers and others to submit ideas for the your tagline, and then award a prize for the best one. Once you’ve chosen it, enter it in the 2010 Taggies contest.

Do you have a clever tagline? If so, share it here.

Filed Under: Contests, Nonprofits Tagged With: homebody industries, montana historical society, nancy schwartz, nonprofit marketing, nothing but nets, nyc theatre spacew, pa breast cancer coalition, tagline contet for nonprofits, texas nonprofits, the united negro college fund

Nonprofit marketing: Contest offers ideas for creative taglines

7/21/2009 By Joan Leave a Comment

newarkmuseumlogo

Last year, nonprofit marketing expert Nancy Schwartz produced the largest collection of nonprofit taglines ever assembled as part of the GettingAttention.org Nonprofit Tagline Award Program.

Her survey showed that most nonprofits either don’t have a tagline or have a tagline that performs poorly.

“That’s a critical marketing and communication problem we’re trying to help solve, because a good tagline is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to any organization,” Nancy says. “A strong tagline does double duty—extending an organization’s name and mission, while delivering a memorable and specific message to its base.

She loves the Newark Museum tagline: “100 years. always new.” At her blog, she mentions the criteria for memorable taglines. She’s trying to improve all nonprofits’ taglines by highlighting the best examples she can find among nonprofits and foundations.

And that’s where she needs your help. If you work in the nonprofit area, enter your organization’s tagline in the 2009 Award program.

Every entrant contributes to the GettingAttention.org tagline database, and will receive a copy of the updated 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report. It will guide any organization through the process of crafting an effective tagline, whether a new one, the first one, or a tagline for one of its programs.

PR consultants, this is a great contest for your nonprofit clients!

Later this fall, once she has processed all the entries—there are more than 1,000 already—Nancy will invite nonprofit and foundation professionals to vote for the best tagline in 13 categories. Deadline for entries is July 31. (While you’re at it, sign up for Nancy’s excellent ezine.)

I promise to announce the winners here.