Creative

7 Easy Ways to Repurpose Your Content
May 13, 2013

Repurposing is an essential part of a manageable communications plan, because it allows you to get more mileage out of your writing, while reinforcing your key messages with your readers. Here are seven easy ways to repurpose your content: 1. make short pieces longer; 2. make long pieces shorter; 3. change the lead; 4. round it up; 5. integrate the comments; 6. add your opinion; 7. recast it.

Donor List Kiss of Death: Mr. and Mrs.
May 7, 2013

A nonprofit that my husband and I both love totally screwed up its recent annual report donor list, in at least three ways I saw, and odds are, many more. By insisting on using the too-formal and very outdated Mr. and Mrs. listing, because it supposedly confers more respect on donors, it instead has done two downright awful things: 1. Wrongly guessed the gender of some of its most loyal supporters; 2. Alienated couples who consider themselves a marriage of equals. How respectful is that?

16 Content Marketing Golden Rules for Real Results
May 7, 2013

Every piece of content you create should have a marketing plan to support it. Why invest in something if you don’t have a plan for how you are going to reap benefit from such? Below are 16 golden rules for content marketing. I could write a much longer list of these. However, to keep things simple, we’ll stick to short and simple for now.

A Blast From the Past: Voices Carry (November 2010)
May 1, 2013

In the November 2010 issue, fundraising copywriter and creative consultant Kimberly Seville wrote in her DM Diagnosis article, "If your letter signer has a unique 'voice,' use that to enliven your direct mail."

Engage Conference Spotlight: From Snoring to Soaring
April 30, 2013

No matter the communication channel, donors must be interested in the messages fundraisers send. In July 2008, FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board member Katya Andresen, chief strategy officer at Network for Good, interviewed fellow FS Editorial Advisory Board member Kivi Leroux Miller, president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, on how to take your newsletter "From Snoring to Soaring."

Emotional Shorthand
April 29, 2013

Think of it like juggling rattlesnakes: If done right, a properly chosen cliché can be as good as gold. But done wrong it'll go over like a lead balloon.

Overhead Isn’t the Issue — and It’s Not a Fundraising Tool
April 29, 2013

As a nonprofit staff member, you need to be ready to explain your organization's overhead. High or low, be ready to tell the story. But as you’re talking with donors and prospects, don’t brag about the percentage. You don’t want to be in that conversation. And focusing on percentages cripples your board members’ ability to fundraise. Focusing on percentages and budgets makes it very difficult for board members and others to make solicitations. It stresses them out, like math tests did to so many of us in school. And that stress is unnecessary.

Getting Your 46 Cents Worth
April 25, 2013

I am a firm believer that receipts have an important purpose in our fundraising strategy and should be mailed quickly after (almost) every donation. Here's why.