Marketing with YouTube

I subscribe to a graphic designers monthly newsletter and an interesting article came across. The article is about marketing on YouTube. YouTube can be a great tool for non-profits to utilize. This article goes into detail about setting up your Channel for the most effective networking. view the source

Awards of Excellence

On Thursday, November 12, 2009, the Center for Non-Profit Management held their "A Night of Light" event. This event honors non-profits in the community for their "Awards of Excellence" in non-profit management.

A special congratulations goes out to "Promise House" for their Awards of Excellence in Communication. Promise House was recognized for their use of media, including web design, in promoting their "Sofa Surfing Campaign".

View a complete list of winners »

25 Steps to Fall & Holiday Fundraising Success

Network for Good is offering a free download (actually you do have to provide some basic information) about fall and holiday fundraising. Some of the points are:

• crafting a fundaising campaign
• working with your website
• enhancing your email campaign

Go to source

Pitching Your Cause: Effectively Working with the Media to Spread Your Story

Network for Good is offering a live teleconference on September 1st on getting the media involved with promoting your organization. The insert from the invitation reads:

As your organization works to stay top of mind for supporters and the media, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of public relations, pitches and press releases. You think to yourself:

What grabs a reporter's attention?
How can I increase the chances of my event being covered?
Who's the best person to contact at media outlets when my organization has news?

Join our journalism and communications experts (Zan Dubin Scott, Paul West and Scott Martelle) for a free "Public Relations 202" teleconference. Our experts know the ins and outs of media coverage; they can explain why those assigning editors never called you back and why the sure-hit event you planned drew no free media.

View the source and register today »

Cool Tool Alert: GoingUp!

GoingUp! is an interesting, new and free web statistics and analytics tool. It offers features like many of the other tools but has some additional items like heat maps, inbound link monitoring, Google page rank tracking and much more. What also makes this tool cool is that it can also pull in your other analytics tools as well like Google. GoingUp! also provides some SEO tools that you might find useful as well. In the past, we've talked about the importance of having some type of analytics tool installed on your non profit website. This can help with marketing and analyzing the effect your website has on it's visitors. You can find out what pages are being visited most and even see where people are starting and where they are leaving the website. This is very important to improve the value of your website.

Process Automation and Fundraising Results

OrangeLeap is offering a repeat online webinar August the 25th. The webinar is about understanding business rules and fundraising automation. Here is an insert from the invitation:

Have you ever struggled with timely donor acknowledgement? Ever wished you could easily target cultivation to key donors in a consistent, systematic way? Processes at many organizations can be sporadically implemented and sometimes capricious having evolved organically over years.

If you're interested in the webinar, sign up today.

New and Improved: The Children's Shelter

The Children's Shelter was another winner in the NPower Texas Web Makeover Giveway. After my discussions with them, I realized that they were in desperate need to have their site redesigned. At the time, it had been some years since this had been done. Their existing site consisted of a layout that was all large, blocky images which weighed down the website and didn't allow for them to change it or make updates to. After thinking about it, I designed a fun website that focused on children and the programs CS provides to those in need. The site was put into a Joomla CMS so that it would be easy for them to update and manage. Visit the website

If your organization or business needs a new web site or just an update, contact GoGreenCre8tive

Writing Effectively for the Web

Web Assist offers a series of downloads to help with your web design needs and making it better. What many people forget is that print and web are completely different. In that case, you have to write differently. For a non-profit organization, this is key to get that donor list filled in and to keep potential donors interested. Learn more about how to create great headlines, working with lists and how to properly set up and close your articles. Go to source

Myths and Facts About Targeting and Personalizing Your E-mail Promotions

Target and personalized e-mail promotions are possibly the two most dramatic ways of increasing your e-mail response rates. However the case, a recent report found that only 4 percent of marketers personalize e-mail promotions. As shocking as this statistic may be, there are several myths about targeting and personalizing e-mail promotions that encourage resistance from most businesses. The only way to... Go to Source

Webinar: How an Active System Can Manage the Donor Life-Cycle for You!

Understanding Business Rules and Fundraising Automation: How an Active System Can Manage the Donor Life-Cycle for You.

Date/Time: Thursday, July 23rd at 12:00 p.m. CT.

Duration: 90 minutes.

Register Now

Have you ever struggled with timely donor acknowledgement? Ever wished you could easily target cultivation to key donors in a consistent, systematic way? Processes at many organizations can be sporadically implemented and sometimes capricious having evolved organically over years.

These flawed processes leave the nonprofit highly vulnerable to sub-optimal constituent management because each organization's business rules for this mission-critical function -- the standard operating procedures and routines that have evolved into the group's best practices -- mostly exist in the institutional memories of individuals rather than in the infrastructure of the organization. In addition, the reliance on individuals to consistently remember and properly execute on key processes -- like timely acknowledgements with versioning by gift-level and donor type, new donor welcome series via mail and/email, or cultivation and upgrade appeals based upon a donor action like event attendance -- presents a serious risk that donors and other constituents will have inconsistent treatment, which results in current as well as potential income loss.

This Webinar will look at how implementing business rules in Orange Leap can automate your fundraising cycle and actually manage the donor life-cycle for you, leaving you free to focus on strategy, personal outreach and your mission!

New and Improved - San Antonio Food Bank

The San Antonio Food Bank was part of an extreme web makeover program being offered by NPower Texas for non-profits in San Antonio. Each non-profit that applied was given an opportunity to express why they deserved to have the makeover for their website. Only 3 non-profits from San Antonio were awarded the makeover. Overall SA Food Bank was looking to improve their appearance on the web. Their website was out of date and they wanted a new look. The action center allows visitors to get involved by making a donation, volunteering, conducting a food drive and even to become an advocate. Visit the website

Five Things You Should Never Say to an Online Donor

Picture one of your supporters sitting at her computer. She’s browsing your website. She just finished reading a heart-warming story of success about someone whose life has been transformed by your nonprofit’s program, and there’s a tear in her eye. (There's also a bit of broccoli between her front teeth, but don’t focus on that now.)

Now you watch with bated breath: Will she convert from supporter to donor? What can you say during this open-minded moment of truth? What should you absolutely avoid saying during this crucial time?

go to source

New and Improved - Big Brothers and Big Sisters of South Texas

BBBS of South Texas recently had their website redesigned. They were part of a group of non-profits who won a free web makeover from NPower Texas. They were looking for a simple but clean website to feature their fundraising events. They also wanted to make it easier for the general public to complete online volunteer forms based on a persons region as well as have parents register their children for their programs.

Website: http://www.bigmentor.org/

Before (left) After (right)

Wikispaces for Non-Profits

The following information has been offered by TechSoup. These offers don't last long so check it out. There may be some restrictions so be sure you review those:

Most people have heard of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that the whole world can edit. Wikispaces can allow your nonprofit to create your own wiki to share information, store resources, and collaboratively modify content. Wikispaces is a wiki hosting service that allows you to create a collaborative Web site that is easy to setup and use. You choose who has access to create or modify content, and because each version of a page on Wikispaces is saved, users can compare versions or go back to a previous version for reference. Wikispaces hosts the wiki sites, so setup is easy.

Donated Service to Help You: The admin fee for a Wikispaces subscription is only $10 per year.

Learn More at TechSoup: Read how your organization can create and edit online content quickly and easily using Wikispaces in TechSoup's Mini Guide to Wikispaces.

Or visit http://www.wikispaces.com/ for more information.

Free Google Apps for Non-Profits

Google Docs allows users to share the same online copy of each document, spreadsheet, or presentation. All revisions are saved and recoverable. Presentations can be delivered to remote audiences, and documents and spreadsheets can be published internally for people to view. Import and collaboratively edit or publish from .doc, .xls, .csv, .ppt, .txt, .html, .pdf and other file formats. Best of all, Google Docs is totally free to use!

Short video explaining the concept in plain english http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/collaboration.html

Explore Google Apps and what's available

If you are a registered non-profit, here's how you get hooked up!

Myths and Facts About Targeting and Personalizing Your E-mail Promotions

Target and personalized e-mail promotions are possibly the two most dramatic ways of increasing your e-mail response rates. However the case, a recent report found that only 4 percent of marketers personalize e-mail promotions. As shocking as this statistic may be, there are several myths about targeting and personalizing e-mail promotions that encourage resistance from most businesses. The only way to... go to the source

Cool Tool Alert: Open Office

There are a lot of cool open source tools out there. Open source means for the most part that they are free. So I wanted to tell you about Open Office. This is free productivity software meaning it works like Word, Excel and so on. What makes it great is that it can open most other productivity software items. If all else fails and you are unable to get software through TechSoup, this is a great alternative. Go check it out. Learn more about OpenOffice and download.

Volunteer-Nonprofit Relationship

Making a successful connection can sometimes be difficult. The success of a volunteer program depends on making the right kind of match -- one where both the volunteer and the organization gain something without feeling frustrated or ignored. Motivated, skilled technology volunteers don't want to twiddle their thumbs while trying to figure out what they can and cannot do on the job. Likewise, organizations don't want volunteers to blow through like a whirlwind, upturning systems that already work and criticizing every procedure.

That's not to say that the volunteer-nonprofit relationship is doomed. Many organizations have developed very successful programs that are rewarding for both parties.

Whether an organization hires a volunteer to redesign a database, upgrade hardware, or build a Web site, establishing clear expectations and guidelines will help create a positive environment and ensure a productive experience for all concerned. go to source

Take advantage of the help that's out there

If you've never heard of Techsoup or have not had an opportunity to use them, you need to check them out. As a non-profit, they offer many great services including software. You can register on their website as a non-profit and get all kinds of software donated to your organization for use. They also have a searchable database of services that are available as well as a learning center which covers some information on technology and implementing it in your organization. They make it very easy to register. Go to the website and at the top right it has a link to "register organization." That's all you got to do to get started.

Joomla 1.5.10 Security Release

Joomla has another security release that fixes some bugs and a couple of security issues. Because it's a security release, everyone needs to really update their sites. To view a list of the fixes, visit the Joomla website.

Finding the Right Keywords & Improving Navigation

Choosing the right keywords is perhaps the most important factor in search engine marketing and is essential to its success. There are several things to consider when generating your keyword list, including your own website. If visitors are searching within your site using certain search terms, it may be likely that these same search terms are also being used in major search engines... go to source

Joomla Cool Tool Alert: jxtended's Catalog Component

There are some pretty creative developers in the world of Joomla but I'm a HUGE fan of the jxTENDED network of developers. They have put together some really great components for use with Joomla. I have bought several and have had great success. One of the components is their catalog component. This component can be used in anyway that you'd like to catalog something. You can catalog items or employees or even places. I used this while designing the website for Promise House. They needed a searchable database so that kids or teens could search for a "Safe Place" to go if there was trouble at home or they need help. While in this case I didn't explore the many editable fascits of it, I used the basic elements that came with it and it worked out great. You can go to the jxTENDED website and look at some of their samples or check out the one at Promise House. If you're interested in having your site converted to Joomla and possibly implementing one of these modules, contact Patsy Caldwell via email or visit the website.

Best Practices Associated with Banner Ads

When first introduced on the Internet, banner ads changed the face of advertising. While most marketing companies were thinking in terms of print ads, the concept of banner ads, with their limited space, visibility and size, was revolutionary. There are several tips and best practices on how to utilize them. go to source

Joomla Cool Tool Alert: XMap

As I mentioned at the end of 2008, I wanted to highlight some modules that I use regularly in Joomla. XMap is a tool I use often to create a site map for the Joomla websites I build. Site maps are very important for search engines. Google is big on making sure that you have a site map. XMap is very easy to install because it's a module. If you only have one main menu, you don't have to do anything with it because it automatically creates the site map. Go to the source and download.

Note that most of the modules can also be found on the Joomla website, in their Extensions area.

Placing Keywords in Your Domain Name May Help to Increase Site Traffic

Many non-profits may already have a primary domain name that represents their organization like www.aha.org (American Heart Association) or www.komen.org (Susan G Komen). I've encourage non-profits in the past to register other domains that might pinpoint their organization and their goals. For example, if you were an organization that works toward saving wildlife, you could register names like "www.savethewhales.com" or "www.savethemountainlion.com" and so on. This article from Volusion offers up some information on "keywords" in a domain.
Go to source

Volunteers are very valuable in a recession

February 2009 is an important time to review how you recruit and manage volunteers. In 1995, 48.8% of the US population volunteered (93 million people) and gave a total of 20.3 billion hours.
Go to the source

Joomla 1.5.9 Security Release

For those who have not done so, Joomla has a new security release along with some major bug fixes and changes. It is recommended if you are using Joomla, to please update it. Next week, I plan to share a "Joomla Cool Tool."

We Need Money!

Well we've all heard that. Non-profits are generally at the mercy of others in order to survive. In an email newsletter I get, I received some information on a website called GrantStation. It is an "interactive website that allows grantseekers to identify potential funding sources for their programs or projects, and mentors them through the grantseeking process." While I'm not endorsing this website, it might be worth looking into to see what they offer. My understanding is that it is also primarily used for smaller non-profits. It's reasonable inexpensive ($189 for Quarterly and $599 annual). May be worth trying at $189.

Here is their Features and Benefits page.

2008 Statistics

Ahhh, 2008 is finally over. It's been a tough year for many but now it's time to start the new year with a fresh attitude and ideas. A colleague sent me some statistics from Blackbaud. If you're not familiar with Blackbaud, they provide fundraising software. Here are some notes:

Steady Annual Growth
Organizations had steady growth in their online giving through the first and second quarters of 2008. There was a slight decrease in online giving during the third quarter of the year, specifically the month of August. The final months of the year saw online giving rebound leading up to the typical end-of-year giving spikes. December and June were the two largest months for online giving.

Average Online Gift Growth
Nonprofits in the entire analysis had an average online gift of $152.12 in 2008. Blackbaud customers usually have higher average online gift amounts than nonprofits using other vendors and this trend continued in 2008. Nonprofits in the education, healthcare, faith-based, and foundation sectors typically had much higher average gift amounts. Organizations focused on event-based and peer-to-peer online fundraising had lower average gift amounts, which is consistent with industry trends.

December Giving Trends
Nonprofit online giving in the last month of 2008 quadrupled in size compared to prior months. This is a trend Blackbaud has consistently observed for the past three years. December accounted for about 21% of the year's transaction volume, but 48% of the total dollars raised. The average online gift for the month of December increased to $248.82 for the nonprofits in the entire analysis.

Keys to Success
Nonprofits typically focus on existing or lapsed donors during end of year appeals, and Blackbaud customers tend to use multi-channel campaigns (direct mail, telephone, web, email, etc.) as part of these fundraising efforts. This continues to be a winning approach to building a successful online fundraising program. Organizations using the Internet mostly for donor acquisition and without integrated strategies usually see higher attrition rates than other nonprofits. Moving into 2009, the nonprofits that concentrate their efforts on their existing donor base and leverage integrated marketing efforts will do a better job of weathering the storm.