Software/Technology

Social Listening: For-Profit Strategies for Nonprofit Success
October 28, 2016 at 12:57 pm

In a recent article for Social Media Examiner, author Zoe Summers outlined some ways businesses can use social listening. Many of her ideas can be applied directly to nonprofits. I’ve adapted four of them here...

5 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Donor Relationships
October 26, 2016 at 11:40 am

Whatever nonprofits are doing right now to sustain and grow donor relationships, it’s not working especially well. So, adding an additional relatively inexpensive donor retention strategy into your existing donor development plan makes sense. Here are five strategies you can use to build donor relationships online...

If You Aren’t Targeting Your Social Media You're Wasting Your Money
October 25, 2016 at 9:27 am

Social media marketing and advertising has to be managed like direct marketing. Can you imagine running a direct marketing program with no audience targeting? Fail. If your organization is advertising on Facebook, please treat it like a direct-response marketing channel. Do not just prioritize the creative or copywriting...

Facebook Censors Cancer Charity's Cartoon Breasts
October 24, 2016 at 12:17 pm

Last week, Swedish Cancer Society, a large nonprofit organization based in Stockholm, Sweden, posted to its Facebook page a cancer awareness video on how to perform a breast exam. Facebook quickly removed the video, reinstating it days later. But not before the charity took a shot at the social media giant's censorship policy...

IT on a Budget: 7 Ways to Secure Your Database and Protect Donor Info
October 21, 2016 at 10:42 am

For nonprofit organizations, finding high-quality, low-cost IT resources can be a challenge. You may not have the budget, or the in-house with a deep enough background in technology to know what the best decisions are. This is especially true when it comes to data protection. Your donors are your greatest asset, and the last thing they want is to have to worry about whether or not you are preventing their personal information from being stolen...

How Nonprofits Are Using Mobile to Attract Young Donors
October 21, 2016 at 9:54 am

As the Detroit Zoological Society prepared to build its new penguin center, the zoo's development staff considered whether to place "text to give" signs near the construction area. After talking to other institutions and a handful of tech vendors, the zoo staff decided against the requests. Response rates at other zoos to such signs "was…

Are You Marketing Like a Construction Worker?
October 19, 2016 at 11:44 am

In last week’s blog, I wrote about how automated marketing techniques produce superior results over traditional marketing. Automated marketing is sonar to the megaphone, scalpel to the machete, shouted raucous come-on to the considerate remark. Today, I want to look at one of the psychological mechanisms behind automated marketing’s superior outcomes...

10 Essential Social Media Tools for Nonprofits
October 14, 2016 at 8:59 am

In the fast and highly competitive world of digital marketing, social media tools are essential if you want to stay ahead of the game. The problem is these tools can also be expensive, especially for nonprofits. In a sea of cool tools, all promising you incredible results, how can you find the ones that work…

How Nonprofits Are Using Virtual Reality to Tackle Real-World Issues
October 13, 2016 at 8:25 am

You meander around the supermarket loading a basket with goods—breakfast tea, sugar, milk. Along the way, though, you become befuddled. You struggle to recall the items on the shopping list. When you arrive at check out, you discover several items in the basket that you do not recall picking up. Then it comes time to pay the cashier, and you can’t seem to count out…

Sprint's Tech Giveaway: Philanthropy, Smart Marketing or Both?
October 12, 2016 at 11:44 am

One million high school students across the U.S. who lack internet access will receive a tablet, laptop or smartphone on loan from Sprint to help them complete homework assignments, the network announced on Tuesday. The devices will serve as part of a pilot program Sprint has created to help close the gap on internet inequality.…