Strategic Online Communications for Nonprofits

Posts Tagged ‘online marketing and communication strategies’

Full day workshop to be held at the Rawlings Public Library in Pueblo, Colorado from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

This workshop is designed to help participants envision and plan realistic online strategies to increase fundraising and better engage constituencies. The full-day workshop will cover new technologies, lessons learned and best practices in online communication and fundraising, and a series of exercises tailored to the needs of workshop participants. Participants should emerge from the workshop with the foundation for an online communications plan to increase their nonprofit organization’s impact and revenues, grounded in their specific needs and available resources.

Topics to be covered include:

· Website Strategy – Messages that make or break your site

· Constituent Relationship Management Systems – Making the most of your pool of contacts

· Reaching Out – Using social media and online marketing tools to attract and engage constituencies

· Online Fundraising – The strategy that supports your online giving page

Presented by Elizabeth Beachy and Osvaldo Gomez, of Upleaf LLC. Upleaf is an Albuquerque-based consulting firm dedicated to empowering nonprofits to increase their impact through strategic online communications.

Register Now!

I came across an article today with 10 excellent tips and tools for marketing your nonprofit on the web.  The best part is that most tools are free and should take you little time to implement.

The article was written by Allyson Kapin and originally appeared on Beth’s Blog on July 24.  The 10 tools mentioned by Kapin are (in her words):

1. RSS Feeds: Add an RSS feed to your blog and news sections so people visiting your site can subscribe to your feed and stay updated on your nonprofits latest news. I like Google Feedburner because it gives visitors a choice to subscribe via RSS or email.

2. Add This: A widget that allows website visitors to share your content via 50 social networks and bookmark communities.

3. Pick Two Social Networks: My two favorite social networks are Twitter and Facebook (Fanpages). Spend 15 minutes a day talking to the community and cross promoting your campaigns, news, etc. 

4. URL Shorteners: Bit.ly, Tinyurl, and Pagetweet make links more manageable by turning them into short 20 character links. This is a great tool for sharing links and decreases the risk of links breaking after it’s been shared. Also bit.ly tracks data such as click-through rates, geographic locations, etc. Bonus points!

5. Care2’s Petition Site: Start a free petition on the Petition Site to rally support around one of your latest campaigns. You can even list a signature goal and download signatures.

6. Google Grants: Google gives nonprofits $10K in-kind grants for their AdWords program. Check out Robin Reed’s great tips for managing an AdWords grant.

7. YouTube Nonprofit Program: YouTube offers nonprofits some pretty cool benefits like branding, promotion on YouTube’s nonprofits channel and call to action overlays in your videos.

8. Listservs: Participate in listservs that align with your nonprofit’s mission and where your organizations’ issues are being discussed. Listservs provide great opportunities to not only promote your organizations initiatives but to listen to what other people are saying about your issues.

9. Widgets: Create widgets to share content or actions. One of my favorites is the Rock the Vote/Credo widget that helps to register people to vote.

10. FreeCause Toolbar: A nifty toolbar that is customized with your nonprofits branding. Link to your social networks, post current news, stream video and audio clips, etc. Bonus – for every click generated, FreeCause will donate money to your nonprofit.

Click here to view the original article.

Posted by Elizabeth Beachy, Upleaf Co-Founder

The Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100 report recently published by Cone and Intangible Business, analyzes the top 100 nonprofit brands in the U.S.  The most powerful brands were selected based on a combination of overall revenue and brand image, the latter determined by a consumer survey.

While most of us won’t be found among the top 100, the analysis is useful for every nonprofit:  Does your brand image correspond to your mission and institutional objectives?  Is your online presence enhancing your brand image?  Does the general public have mainly positive, negative or indifferent associations with your organization?

To get a feel for how the public perceives your brand, there are a few low-cost steps you can take: 1) conduct a random informal survey at a place your constituents might frequent; 2) do extensive Internet searches of both blogs and news to see where your organization is coming up, who is talking about you and what they are saying; and 3) send out a quick survey to your email list and ask your stakeholders for some honest feedback.

Whether you need to do some serious work to strengthen your brand or simply maintain your current image, the report offers 10 excellent tips on how to enhance your brand power:

1.  Engage fresh constituencies. Segment your communications and activities to appeal to people beyond your traditional constituents, and use sub-brands to tailor your message to new groups.

2.  Adopt new currencies. Expand the scope of sponsorships, volunteer opportunities, merchandise, or other in-kind products and services so that you can continue to engage constituents even as giving power decreases.

3.  Modernize fundraising. Donor behavior is shifting, and younger demographics are increasingly involved in giving online.  Tap into these potential donors, and streamline your fundraising efforts with new tools.

4.  Deliver crisp communications. Clearly state what you do in either your name or a prominent tagline.  This significantly enhances brand recognition.

5.  Establish (and adhere to) brand guidelines. Protect your brand’s equity by establishing clear guidelines for consistent use by staff, volunteers, media partners, and other entities.  All institutional communication (online, print, audiovisual) must adhere to these guidelines.

6.  Build brand stewards. Your employees, volunteers, and board members are all extensions of your brand.  As such you should encourage and empower them to clearly express (in both words and actions) the organization’s mission and values.

7.  Develop quick reflexes. Be fluid, give people an opportunity to engage with your brand around current events or new trends.

8.  Build corporate partnerships. Identify companies who share your values and have appealing relationships and resources, then recruit them to serve as catalysts to broaden your mission and as stewards to your brand.

9.  Create dialogue with brand ambassadors. Participate in social media venues to not only increase visibility, but to connect with a broad base of supporters and engage in a dialogue to let them know you are an active member of their community. Listen to and participate in the conversations where they are happening, don’t just push information.

10.  Issue a rallying cry. Shift your approach from that of a recipient of funds to a driver of engagement, inspiration and action. Move from a focus on giving discrete donations to joining together in pursuit of a bigger purpose, and help evolve your contributors’ perceptions of their role as donors to that of a community of supporters.  Mobilize your constituents around a common cause, which can energize your brand and strengthen loyalty.

Download full report