Network for Good Learning Center

Let’s Get Personal – How to Write More Conversational Emails

rebecca.higman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:41:47 -0500

Good email writing is friendly and conversational. While there are certainly times where the newsy, facts-only journalistic style can work, most nonprofit newsletters should be much more personal, and even a little chatty.

People give to and support nonprofits for highly subjective reasons. Your supporters get something deeply personal out of their affiliation with your organization as a donor, volunteer, or advocate. So why would your response back to these passionate people be institutional, monolithic, and completely objective?

You need to break out of the "501(c)(3) speaks to the masses" writing mode, if you want your email communications to be successful.

Here are a few ways to make your writing feel more personal to your readers:

Speak directly to your reader by calling them "you" and refer to yourself and your nonprofit as "We" or "I."
Use bylines. Let your readers know who is writing the article.
Make people central to your content. Include your staff, donors, volunteers, clients, and others by name in your articles.
Tell stories. Tell stories in your e-newsletters to engage your donors in your work, to reinforce their giving decisions, to inspire them to do more, and to encourage more word-of-mouth marketing on your behalf.
Include headshots or photos with people. Show your readers who's talking and who you are talking about.

Your supporters give their time, talents and gifts with passion for your cause. They are part of the family. Write to them that way.

Capital One® Card Lab Connect: Campaign Guide and Planning Calendar

rebecca.higman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:39:41 -0500

This article is sponsored by Network for Good's corporate partner, Capital One® Card Lab Connect.

To learn more about what an affinity card program is, start here in the orientation article.

Whether your nonprofit has kicked off its affinity card program or you are looking for a better idea of what to expect, these campaign steps will provide a basic overview for the road ahead.

From personalizing your cards to sending engaging recruitment emails to encouraging folks to use their cards, these six steps will help you launch your program, bring in new sign-ups and cultivate your supporters into a successful fundraising routine:

WEEK 1:
Get started! Once you've been approved for an affinity card for your organization, take the time to get better acquainted with the Card Lab Connect site. Use these initial few days to familiarize yourself with the resources and card benefits, and get those creative juices flowing.
WEEK 2:
Determine your audience(s) and messaging. Thinking you can entice "the general public" to sign up for your affinity card? Not to burst your optimistic bubble, but there is no such thing or group. Instead, brainstorm real target groups: staff, board members, volunteers, high-dollar donors, etc. Develop the messaging and key points you're going to use to encourage sign-ups. How are you going to sell this affinity card idea in a compelling manner? What themes, messages and ideas are you going to take from your arsenal of content to encourage action?
WEEK 3:
Develop the promotion plan. You know who you're going to target. You know what you're going to say to them. Now it's time to determine how you're going to deliver those oh-so-compelling messages effectively. Create your own promotional calendar so all involved parties at your nonprofit know when new communications are going out or kicking off. (Be sure to check out other promotion ideas here.) The best way to get started is to answer this question: What communications channels will you utilize? Here are a few to consider:
1. Online: website (more on that in step 5), search marketing, online PR, paid online advertising, email marketing (see step 6!), social networks
2. Offline: print newsletter, traditional PR, paid advertising, direct mail, events, broadcast programming
WEEKS 4-5:
Create the collateral. Based on the decisions you made and included in your promotion plan, use this time to create any materials associated with your card program. Have an event coming up? Create the fliers or sell sheets that you're going to distribute. Planning to update your website? Write the Web copy. Considering an email campaign? Outline and/or write the associated articles. (And, be sure to consult Capital One's email requirements for marketing your affinity card.) As time progresses and you begin to experiment with contests or promotions, you will most likely have to create new materials. However, take the time now to develop a library of content from which you can draw so you're not consistently reinventing the wheel or scrambling for imagery.
WEEK 6:
Give your website a Card Lab Connect facelift. As part of the launch of your program, you'll want to publicize the card on your website for at least three reasons: tried and true supporters are regularly checking your site for new information; new Web visitors will see that you're providing a number of options your nonprofit; and, your organization will gain some credibility by showing a relationship with Capital One.

Here are a few quick tips to get you started (find the full list here):
1. Make the button or link to your card program's landing really easy to find (think big and bold!). And, to save yourself the time and worry of designing your own graphics, take advantage of the banners that Capital One provides.
2. Give the program some context about how this program aligns with their values and goals for supporting your cause.
3. Consider including the benefits of the card right on your own site, in addition to what's already included in your landing page.
4. Once supporters begin to sign up for the card, integrate content regarding the progress (i.e. "Card users have already raised $1,000 using their affinity cards!).
WEEK 7:
Kick off your email outreach! Now that your website and landing page are waiting with open e-arms, it's time to encourage supporters to get started. Introduce the program and share the benefits of why it is such a convenient and easy fit. Treat your initial contact (and subsequent "asks") like fundraising appeals by proposing a clear call-to-action. Give your organization some personality with these messages; the last thing your subscribers want to feel is that you're advertising and being too "sales-y." In addition to the affinity-card-focused emails, be sure to include information in your regular e-communications, too-your monthly e-newsletter, the footer of the next advocacy update you send, etc. (Read here for more tips for great emails.)
WEEK 8-on:
Keep the program going and encourage card use. Unlike traditional fundraising or event campaigns, your nonprofit's affinity card program will not have a defined end date. After enticing a number of sign-ups, you may find a lull in new registrations; take this time to cultivate your audience. Do this by sending communications that provide progress updates, updating your website and supplying ideas for spending/donating. (Continue reading in the Learning Center for other ideas.)

Interested in learning more? Ready to Get Started?
Visit the Capital One Card Lab Connect site today. There you will find a complete list of program benefits, the application to get started and a document to share with the leadership (your Board of Directors, for example) of your nonprofit.

7 Steps to Better Email Fundraising & Communications

rebecca.higman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:45:29 -0500

Download the free, accompanying email guide here!

Download the audio recording and transcript below Related Documents!

Do you want to grow/build your email list? Do you know if anyone is reading your emails? Does your email outreach need a design or copywriting upgrade?

It's time to boost your email marketing results with proven strategies for success. Join Kivi Leroux Miller -- author of The Nonprofit Email Marketing Guide -- as she covers the basics and answers your questions.

What you can expect:

Tips for building your email list
How to create successful email campaigns, including examples

About our speaker
Kivi Leroux Miller is president of EcoScribe Communications and Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com. As a communications consultant, Kivi has helped dozens of nonprofits across the U.S., both large and small, communicate more effectively in print and online with their donors, volunteers, and others supporters.

She teaches a weekly webinar series and writes a leading blog on nonprofit communications at Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com. She also presents highly rated in-person workshops on a variety of nonprofit marketing topics to audiences around the country and through Duke University's certificate program in nonprofit management.

14 Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List

rebecca.higman — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:28:11 -0500

So you're sold on the idea of email marketing. In fact, you're already polishing off the next stellar edition of your e-newsletter.

But, creating the content is only the first half of the battle--you need a list of people to receive and read it.

How do you build your list? What tools and marketing channels that you're already using can you put to work for you?

Here are 14 of our favorite ways to keep your email list growing:

On Your Website

Put your sign-up form in your website template, so it appears on every single page.
Offer special downloads, like how-to guides. Be clear that when they sign-up for the download, they will also get your e-newsletter.
Sponsor a fun contest or drawing, and be clear that when they enter, they will also receive your e-newsletter.
Let people segment themselves on the sign-up form by which topics they care about.

In Your Email Messages

Offer great content! Nothing will build your list faster.
Encourage supporters to update their email addresses themselves (if your system allows it).
Ask readers to forward your e-newsletter to friends and be sure to include a link to your sign-up form in each edition so those friends can sign-up directly.
Respect all opt-outs. It’s better to lose a subscriber than to have that person tag you as a spammer.
Put a link to your sign-up form in your personal email signature as well.

Face to Face

Audit all of your paper forms and make sure you are also asking for an email address anywhere you would ask for a phone number or mailing address.
When people register for your events, tell them they will receive your e-newsletter, too.
Include a newsletter sign-up form at your reception desk.
Collect business cards when you make presentations.
Get in the habit of regularly entering those hand-collected addresses into your system.

Need an email service that allows subscribers to update their addresses, includes forward-to-a-friend links automatically and takes care of opt-outs for you? Learn more about Network for Good's solution, EmailNow powered by Emma, at a no-commitment, free demo webinar.

A Nonprofit by Any Other Name

jono.smith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:54:38 -0500

...may find sweeter results, as the Children's Health Environmental Coalition discovered after changing its name to Healthy Child Healthy World.

Running a nonprofit with a generic name is like traversing Antarctica dressed entirely in white. Not only are you in for long stretches of tough sledding, after a while you'll begin to believe you're invisible.

In 1992, the Children's Health Environmental Coalition was created to inform parents about toxic substances in the environment that could seriously harm their children. Over more than a decade, the nonprofit chalked up notable accomplishments in pursuit of its mission, but there was always a gnawing sense within that the name wasn't helping. It was a forgettable mouthful, and the acronym CHEC was no better.

When Christopher Gavigan became CEO and executive director in 2005, he inherited a name with plenty of equity but also plenty of detractors inside and outside the organization. Gavigan was inclined to agree with the detractors. "The words children, health, environmental and coalition have clear meanings," he says, "but they don't necessarily add up to something meaningful." And for those who didn't already know the organization, he adds, "the acronym suggested everything from writing a check to the Czech Republic."

The name and acronym feel even more deficient when you know the organization's founding story. In 1991, James and Nancy Chuda lost their four-year old daughter, Colette, to non-hereditary cancer. Besides grieving over such an unthinkable loss, the Chudas had to cope with the fact that nobody could explain why Colette had been struck with the particular form of cancer that took her life.

As part of their search for answers, the couple established the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund (later renamed), and eventually learned that Nancy's exposure to pesticides - even prior to her pregnancy - probably triggered her daughter's cancer. The Chudas dedicated their lives to informing other parents of similar environmental risks and preventing more tragedies like their own. But like the Antarctic explorer with poor fashion sense, they cloaked themselves in a name that would allow a lot of hard work to go unnoticed by a larger audience.

During his first year as CEO, Gavigan worked slowly and carefully to convince his board that the time was right for a refreshed look and feel. Given a name handed down by still active founders and a logo intended to symbolize Colette, Gavigan clearly had to tread lightly. By 2006, though, he'd built a consensus for change, and one donor (who chooses to remain anonymous) stepped forward with the name of a branding firm and the funding to cover its work.

Cronan, a branding and design strategy firm based in Berkeley, California, began working with CHEC in July 2006. Michael Cronan and Karin Hibma, who had already coined TiVo (and would later christen Amazon's e-reader the Kindle) began, as always, by asking a lot of questions. "Cronan didn't tell us we needed a new name or even a new logo," says Gavigan. "They tactfully listened and gathered information and let us see what we had."

What became evident through this process, though, was what CHEC didn't have. "CHEC had no ownership of its own name," Michael Cronan says flatly. Yes, there was only one Children's Health Environmental Coalition, but other nonprofits were using different parts of the name, and several other entities were using the acronym CHEC. So ownership was muddled at best.

"The biggest question about a name," notes Hibma, "is whether or not it communicates the story." CHEC was a nonprofit born from a very powerful story with a name that conveyed almost none of that. "And the logo wasn't as memorable or meaningful as it could be," Hibma adds. "The silhouette didn't connect with the personality of this little person or the larger story."

After interviewing board members and other advisors, Cronan and Hibma came back to CHEC with a list of ninety names to consider. They told Gavigan and his colleagues to look at each name with several questions in mind: Is it unique enough that we can own it? Does it identify who we are? When people hear it, does it sound familiar (which is a good thing) and is it memorable? And perhaps most importantly for an organization that Cronan believed was "on the verge of launching a movement": Is it a name people can rally behind?

These questions helped CHEC winnow the list to six finalists, and at the same time, Cronan began to rework the logo, especially the rendering of Colette. "The previous figure felt like a figurine with no depth or interest," says Gavigan. "Cronan wanted to give that child personality and to represent all children." A smiling freckled face and a color palette with more and brighter hues infused the new logo with life and optimism while also nodding towards diversity.

In March 2007, after six months of discussion, informal research and refining, CHEC became Healthy Child Healthy World, with an entirely new look, starting with its logo. The organization was able to grab the domain healthychild.org, which Cronan calls "a real triumph in the world of naming." And the tagline, "Creating Healthy Environments for Children" was added, playing off the organization's old acronym and providing a link to its past.

In the two years following the rebranding, membership increased 200%, traffic to the website increased 700%, and the organization hasn't had to hold public fundraising events which, prior to the name change, were a necessary source of revenue. There have also been high profile partnerships with WebMD and Whole Foods, which have further expanded awareness of the organization's work.

And how much of this is attributable to the new identity? "That's hard to quantify," says Gavigan, "but it's at least fifty percent. Now, whenever we go out to talk about the organization, the new brand offers a clear sense of what we value and the impact we focus on creating."

This article was reprinted from the June 2009 issue of Free Range Thinking^TM. For more information, visit http://www.agoodmanonline.com/.

Capital One® Card Lab Connect: How to Keep Your Affinity Program Running and Encourage Card Use

jono.smith — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:22:44 -0500

This article is sponsored by Network for Good's corporate partner, Capital One® Card Lab Connect.

There are three important steps to ensuring that your card program thrives over time:

Recruitment
Retention
Continued card use

(See the "Related Articles" below for tips and refresher information for promoting your card program and recruiting new sign-ups.)

Follow these six tips to retain and cultivate your card users:

Send targeted messaging. Your supporters are your champions. Your ardent supporters. Your passionate, purchasing army. Make sure to craft your communications - email, website, direct mail and so on - to recognize them. Encourage continued card use by including reminders about all of the card's benefits. The more personalized the message, the more receptive the recipient.
Supply ideas for spending/donating. In those lovely targeted messages (see tip 1), be sure to encourage card users to, well, use their cards. Remind them to use their affinity card for their normal spending-grocery shopping, a night out at the movies, to pay their electric bill (if they're the online-bill-payment type)-in order to make effortless donations. Let them know they can contribute even more if they donate to your organization through your website using their affinity card.
Create some friendly competition. Campaign-based fundraising drives higher response. The combination of urgency (deadline) and good-hearted spirit (competition) puts supporters in an active state of mind, as opposed to a passive "oh, this is ongoing, I'll think about it later" mindset. Use your imagination! Just keep the call to action quick, easy and simple for your supporters.
Trade out the puppy. If you have been running your affinity card program for awhile, consider updating your card designs. Survey your supporters and ask them which design they chose. If anyone decided to create their own design, ask them about it. Consider creating a competition to "design one of our templates!" to encourage current card holders to become more engaged. If your puppy photo is still scoring a homerun for all of your new sign-ups, by all means keep him front and center; but, be sure to take advantage of the possibilities and flexibility of your design options.
Test, test, test. There's no better way to determine what really works than by testing different options. Monitor your email communications: What links or stories are getting the clicks? What information or incentives do your card members want? Try out your staff, Board and volunteer ideas, and of course ask your supporters. Call them up or send a survey to determine what's working.

America's Giving Challenge: Assessment and Reflection Report

rebecca.higman — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:05:21 -0500

Thousands of individuals competed for donors, donations, and matching awards for their favorite charitable causes as part of the Case Foundation’s first-ever Giving Challenge. The Challenge introduced emerging technologies to millions of people and helped give new significance to the power of individual donors and small donations.

This reflection paper provides an honest assessment of what worked well and what could be improved as more organizations look to adopt similar approaches that engage the public in new ways to raise money and awareness for causes they care about.

Here are a few of the highlights:

The Giving Challenge raised $1.8 million from more than 71,000 donors, benefiting thousands of nonprofits
Four key elements contributed to the success of the 2007-2008 Giving Challenge:

its competitive structure
the limited timeframe
the leaderboard allowing participants to track their progress
the incentive to receive additional award funds.

Personal connections were critical in activating the viral effect of successful cause efforts - by large margins (between 61-74%), cause champions reported reaching out for donations and outreach assistance to people they knew personally, including known supporters, family, friends and colleagues first to spread the word and encourage participation in the Challenge.
Smaller organizations & all-volunteer efforts experienced significant success - 11 of the 16 Giving Challenge award recipients interviewed were for causes with annual organizational budgets of less than $1m
Individuals and nonprofits learned how to use new tools and technologies to encourage participation and give new significance to small donors - while some participants were more comfortable with using social networking and other tools such as microblogging, other more novice users turned to their networks for advice and technical support, and immersed themselves in learning how to use these tools.

Download the full report below Related Documents.

Source: www.casefoundation.org/case-studies/giving-challenge

The Language of Change: 20 Words and Phrases that Impact Attitudes, Actions and Funding

rebecca.higman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:26:25 -0500

Download the presentation handout, transcript and audio below 'Related Documents'!

Learn how to engage board members/stakeholders, simplify your message and jumpstart funding by understanding the lexicon of change and--more importantly--the thinking behind it.

This is the difference between charity and philanthropy, sustainable funding and transformation, a mission statement and a message.

It's the difference between just another ‘not-for-profit begging for money' and a movement to change lives, save lives and impact lives.

Funding veteran Tom Suddes challenges participants to change the way they think while connecting on simple ideas that will help organizations of all types raise more money immediately.

Listeners/readers who download this training will receive:

A new way to talk about (re-frame) concepts ranging from capital campaigns, to annual funds to debt.
Examples used with schools, community service organizations and funding start-ups.
Practical ideas that apply to marketing, funding and leadership.

About our speaker
Tom Suddes is a nonprofit coach, trainer, consultant, speaker and writer with over 33 years of experience in development, strategic visioning, campaign management and major gift solicitation, He began his career in the Development Office at the University of Notre Dame in 1973. He eventually became the Director of Development and headed the Campaign for Notre Dame, which raised $180 Million ($50 Million over the $130 Million Goal). In 1983, he founded The Suddes Group, which managed over 300 campaigns, raised over $1 Billion, and helped generate 3 million new jobs in their work with 125 economic development organizations around the country.

Using Social Media to Decrease E-Mail Unsubscribe Rates

jono.smith — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:05:09 -0500

The direct marketing agency Epsilon just released a new study by ROI Research revealing reasons why people most often unsubscribe from email lists, and the rates at which they unsubscribe. Not surprisingly, the most often-cited reason (67%) is irrelevancy of emails. The second highest reason (64%) was high frequency of emails, and the third most-cited reason (50%) was fear that their email addresses were being sold or shared. Conducted by ROI Research, the study is based on an April 2009 survey of over 4000 consumers in 13 countries.

Image courtesy of emarketer

Image courtesy of Online Media Daily

In essence, the reasons most email list subscribers unsubscribe boils down to:

receiving messaging content that is irrelevant to the reader
not understanding the needs of the customer
mistrust of the company sending the email

If your company or organization uses email lists, then why not use social media to cut down those unsubscribe rates!

Social media platforms (Facebook, twitter, blogs, MySpace) create conversations, which tell you exactly what the readers want. Use the conversations with your customers/fans/clients/donors to inform the content of your email messaging. Are certain blog posts shared frequently online, while others die the fate of the unseen post? Why is that? Do you receive lots of comments on certain topics or videos? Utilize the information you learn from your social media interactions so that email messaging won’t suffer from irrelevant content.

Social media relies on trust because it is incredibly transparent. Due to the nature of the medium, people search for information about you before following your blog, Facebook page, or joining your company’s social network. They’ll “out” you if your company’s activities are not completely transparent, and become your biggest fans if you are. Remember the controversy over the fact that some Twitter users have “ghost twitterers,” who post to Twitter under the actual user’s name? However, if they find value in the engagement, they will pass that value along and bring their friends to you as well.

Use social media to allay the fear, once and for all, that your organization will never, ever sell or share the names of its email list subscribers. Write a blog post about it. Create a conversation about why that isn’t your organization’s policies and how you value the privacy of all your subscribers. Refer to these conversations in your email messages and ask email subscribers to contact you directly online if they want to ask further questions about privacy.

Remember the “golden rules” of social media: Be Yourself. Be Transparent. Listen. Engage.

You can’t listen and engage in an email blast, but you can take the information from listening and engaging on social networks, and use that to make your email messaging relevant and valuable to your stakeholders.

About the author
Debra Askanase is an experienced community organizer, non-profit executive and business consultant. She advises small/medium-sized businesses and non-profits on social media strategy. She holds an MBA in International Business. You can follow her @askdebra on Twitter, too. Visit her blog at www.communityorganizer20.com

Reflections on America's Giving Challenge

jono.smith — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:34:18 -0500

We're excited to share with you today the America's Giving Challenge Assessment and Reflection Report, authored by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine. When the Case Foundation team launched our first online Giving Challenge in December of 2007, to test a new way of giving online, I’ll be the first to admit we didn’t know what to expect with our online “experiment.” It was late in the year. The holiday season was in full swing. We didn’t have much lead time for traditional marketing. And at the time, an online philanthropic competition of this nature was relatively unprecedented.

As the 50 days of the Challenge went by, we would periodically gather around the computer in my office to watch the leaderboard. Would we see the large national nonprofits trump the little guys -- or would the smaller, more nimble organizations do a better job mobilizing their online networks? How were people using social media tools such as blogs and videos to spread the word and reach new audiences? Were the prize levels right, and would they provide enough incentive to drive people to action? In the end, we couldn’t have predicted a more fulfilling outcome. Together with our core partners -- Causes on Facebook, PARADE Magazine, Network for Good, and Global Giving -- we encouraged more than 71,000 individuals to donate. All told, we raised nearly $1.8 million for nonprofits at home and abroad. The participation level and results reflected a diverse set of causes, charities, and champions, with smaller and lesser-known groups actually having the greatest support and success.

Plus, the Challenge introduced emerging technologies to millions of people, and showed how these tools could be leveraged to democratize philanthropy, give new significance to small donors and help organizations – big and small – reach and activate new supporters. Indeed, the Challenge was an opportunity to unite people around causes they cared about, and deepen their civic engagement while increasing opportunities to give.

The research presented in this report reflects the attitudes and experiences of Giving Challenge participants, from cause champions to individual donors to nonprofit leaders. We think it helps paint a picture of what worked particularly well and what could be improved in future challenges -- both here at the Case Foundation and at other organizations experimenting with similar online competitions.

As we consider the possibility of launching another Giving Challenge later this year, we recognize how our world has changed. For one, our economy is in a much different place, and we know this will greatly impact individual giving.

But we’re also in a much different place in terms of technology. Social networking adoption has grown exponentially, tools have matured, and we see greater usage across all generations, not just tech-savvy Millennials. All these changes will impact the next Giving Challenge, and give us a fresh chance to educate and expose more people to online philanthropy.

I hope you will find a way to join us as we continue to experiment and take new risks that will empower more people to find their voice, connect with others, and take action on causes they care about.