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Are you the victim of "accidental" branding? That is what happens when a nonprofit or business leaves its branding to chance. It results in confusion about what the organization is and does.
Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications, by Sarah Durham, is the clearest blueprint I've seen lately to rationally building your brand and implementing it. It is "branding in a box." If you do one thing about your organization's brand this year, make it reading this book. Once you do that, you'll be so excited to have a step-by-step plan that you're bound to start creating a better brand...More...
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Just Say No to Accidental Branding originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 01:00:47.
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It's that time of year when we learn who gave how much and to what. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a list of the top 50 philanthropists of 2009, and Slate Magazine profiles the top 60 philanthropists.
In a Wall Street Journal article, Robert Frank notes some trends in philanthropy after studying the lists. They include:
Philanthropy is down. That's not much of a surprise given the state of the economy in 2009. But the percentage is large at 75% down. In 2008, the top 50 philanthropists gave $15.5 billion. That fell to $4.1 billion in 2009. That hurts. The median gift of these philanthropists fell to $41.4 million from $69.3 million in 2008.
Philanthropy is going private. Rather than write checks to their favorite causes, many large donors are setting up their own foundations dedicated to solving some big global problems. Wealthy donors increasingly want to see concrete, measurable results from their giving. They also want to create large scale change, rather than a piecemeal solutions.
The top 10 American philanthropists for 2009 are:
Stanley and Fiona Drukenmiller, $705 million to the Drukenmiller Foundation.
John M. Templeton (Bequest), $573 million to Templeton Foundation
Bill and Melinda Gates, $350 million to the Gates Foundation
Michael R. Bloomberg, $254 million to 1,358 groups.
Louis Nippert, $185 million to Greenacres Foundation
George Soros, $150 million ($100 million to establish Fund for Policy Reform and $50 million to Central European University)
Eli and Edyth L. Broad, $105.2-million to the Broad Foundations
J. Ronald and Frances Terwilliger, $102 million ($100 million to Habitat for Humanity International and $2 million to other groups)
William P. Clements Jr., $100 million to Southwestern Medical Foundation
Pierre and Pam Omidyar, $92 million ($50 million to Hawaii Community Foundation; $41 million to HopeLab and Humanity United; $1 million to U. of Hawaii)
Photo by Don Bishop/Getty Images
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Largest Philanthropists Gave Less, Follow Their Own Drummer in 2009 originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 21:06:00.
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The recession has changed us all in many ways. Not least among them, the return to some budgeting habits of yesteryear. We are saving more, spending less, and reviving old-fashioned techniques such as putting things on layaway so we can save up the money to buy them or pay them off in installments.
We are also giving to charity in more ways, but in smaller amounts. Nicole Wallace, writing on one of the The Chronicle of Philanthropy blogs, has pointed out that although charities raised millions of dollars in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, more than after the 2004 Asian tsunamis, the average gift was smaller - $109 for the earthquake compared with $208 for the tsunamis.
Micro-giving was already on the rise, in tandem with an explosion of online giving and the number of channels by which one can give. The interest in doing good that seems very strong in the younger generation, especially the Millennials, is a powerful force behind micro-giving, as is the perfecting of mobile giving which limits individual gifts to only small amounts such as $5 and $10. Many donors are also finding it's easier on the wallet to set up month-by-month giving plans or payroll deduction through their employers.
In a recent issue of AdvertisingAge, Christine Huang and Ozlioma Egwuonwu, of GlobalHue, a multicultural marketing firm, list five ways "culture" will become crucial for success in reaching consumers in 2010 and beyond. They list the diversity that will soon be uncovered in the Census; the multicultural sensibilities that corporations will have to show; the spread of "social gameplay" represented by Foursquare, CauseWorld, Twitter, and Facebook; and a return to humanism which shows up as increased interest in happiness, joy, and self-definition.
The fifth reason culture will become crucial the authors call "Micro Goes Mass," citing the outpouring of help for Haiti. They tie the reaction to Haiti with the "aftermath of the economic collapse," saying:
...the optimism that often accompanies the arrival of a new year is running thin in 2010. And yet, we're coming together to offer hope in smaller pieces, in the form of simple micro-actions....And beyond these times of need, micro-support is gaining traction as a straightforward, accessible way for everyday people to support the causes they believe in, finance promising new businesses, and make their creative visions a reality in small, easy steps.
I like the idea of framing micro-giving within the context of broad social change. We've already talked a great deal about micro-giving as the democratization of philanthropy where anyone can participate, no matter what their means. Now the picture widens and we can see that micro-giving may be intertwined with new economic realities and cultural shifts.
Whether we call micro-giving the new layaway or democratization, it does seem to coincide with a general feeling that smaller is better, slow is at least steady, and there are many ways to care for ourselves and others within a culture that is anything but ordinary or culturally monotonous.
Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
Related:
Text-to-Give Fundraising Campaigns Take Off
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Is Micro-Giving the New Layaway? originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 06:00:01.
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Buddy, can you spare a dime? So far the recession has not much improved for nonprofits. Philantopic discusses the outlook for this year and provides some excellent tips for where best to put your resources while we wait for the upturn.
If not now, when? Tony Martignetti, in an article at GuideStar, says Make 2010 the Year You Start Planned Giving. Martignetti outlines how to do it and where to find prospects. This is the first of three articles on the topic, so you'll want to stay tuned.
Haiti Is a Marketing Lesson. Dan Palotta, in his blog at the Harvard Business Review, uses the example of Haiti and the outpouring of help to further the argument that nonprofits should market/advertise and not be punished for doing so.
Going, going, gone! Sherry Truhlar, a charity auction specialist, guest posts at StepByStep Fundraising with some great tips about how to use social media to leverage your auction. I would not have thought of these.
Social Media for the Trainer. Maddie Grant, of SocialFish, attended Beth Kanter's recent webinar on how to incorporate social media into your training sessions. Maddie guides us to the best links to learn these techniques, from blog posts to resources, to the webinar notes.
What's in, what's out, who's doing what? This Fast Company article sorts the most recent numbers from a Pew survey about who's doing what online. Hint: the younger set is not blogging and tweeting.
Just in case you need more reasons to start a blog. Nonprofit Tech 2.0 has five more reasons for a nonprofit to blog and how that blog fits into a well-rounded social media strategy. Keywords here are traffic and content.
Photo by Getty Images
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Best Links: Social Media, Planned Giving, and Recession Tips originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 13:48:49.
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No, I don't mean to literally kiss for good. I'm referring to "Keep It Simple Stupid" for good.
It's a mantra among writers, but still too many communicators in the nonprofit world don't keep it in mind.
I think that all nonprofit writers should have to write a blog at some point in their careers. The short format is demanding, calling on the skill of brevity, and the tone is conversational, forcing polysyllabic writers to consult a thesaurus.
I can remember a time, before blogs, when I and many others greeted the new USA Today as a sign that civilization was going off a cliff. We thought that short articles, factoids, and simple graphs represented "dumbing down," and we didn't like it at all. Thankfully, we've all matured and no longer equate simple, clear, easy-to-read prose with "dumb."
My salvation came when I had to write copy for marketing materials, newsletters, fundraising appeals, and, finally, for an online audience. Everyday I learn once again how to be readable. And, as they say, "it may be simple, but it ain't easy."
Here are three tips that might help you K.I.S.S.:
Pick one thought and elaborate on it.
A K.I.S.S. message sticks to one idea. An example is the Clinton slogan when he first ran for office: "It's the economy, stupid." In contrast, consider recent health care reform. Can you state the main idea in a Twitter-like 140 characters? I thought not.
The Red Cross owes much of the success of its recent text-to-give campaign to a laser-simple call to action: "Send a Message & Save a Life, Donate $10 To Red Cross Haiti Relief, Text Haiti To 90999."
Use simple language.
Winston Churchill said, "Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all." Now, Churchill was not advocating talking down to anyone, and he was certainly not a simple man. Using simple language is a way to be considerate. To put your audience above your own need to sound erudite. A way to be transparent when you could obscure.
For some non-simple words that nonprofits need to abandon, see this list at Network for Good.
Try writing like you'd talk to your next-door neighbor. What is that like? Listen to Garrison Keillor as often as possible.
Format to reinforce simplicity.
A K.I.S.S. message is a beautiful thing on the page or computer screen.
Consider the clarity of Harvard Business Review's daily management tip; one of Martin Zwilling's blog posts, where he shows off his mastery of the list; or the exquisite pacing of a post at The Agitator.
Use spacing, bullets, bolding, boxes, sidebars, easy-to-read fonts, and short sentences and paragraphs. There are a multitude of formatting options. How many of them do you use?
There are probably a lot more K.I.S.S. rules, but I wanted to keep this message clear, concise, conversational, and, well, just K.I.S.S.
P.S. Leave examples of good nonprofit K.I.S.S. in the comments.
Related:
Content Ideas for Your Nonprofit Website
'Curation' Will Cure Your Nonprofit Blog
Photo by Christine Balderas/Getty Images
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K.I.S.S. for Good: Improving Nonprofit Messages Through Simplicity originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 01:05:38.
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Philanthropy Info
from Business Week
As baby boomers celebrate their 60th birthday and prepare for retirement, a growing number of them are choosing to leave wealth to their children in the form of a family foundation. Philanthropy offers an important and meaningful legacy to generations that follow, and it's critical that younger folks find their own footing in the world of giving. BusinessWeek staff editor Jessi Hempel talks with Sharna Goldseker -- a vice-president at the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies -- about next-generation givers. Goldseker works with Grand Street, a group for Jewish people ages 18 to 28 who are inheriting a family giving legacy. She herself also came into a role in her family's foundation
The spirit of giving back is upon us: Young people are replacing summer camp with service trips, and baby boomers approaching retirement age are searching for ways to give back to their communities. With the number of new groups in the nonprofit sector growing by 70,000 a year, it will need more support than ever. BusinessWeek's Jessi Hempel talks with Dr. Tim Seiler, director of public service and the Fund Raising School at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, about how to attract volunteers and why they are so crucial to keeping the sector vibrant
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Eli Broad dominates the arts in Los Angeles with a force that has no parallel in any major city.
The tiny charity founded by the performer Wyclef Jean 11 years ago has drawn more donations and attention since an earthquake struck Haiti last month.
The publisher and main benefactor raises concerns that the magazine, a nonprofit supported by his foundation, is becoming irrelevant.
Yanina Karlinsky and Irina Golub, business partners and friends from Belarus, have been soliciting clients of their accounting firm to raise money for the Ivker Fund.
At a place where most students are Haitian-American, the earthquake is being felt in an intense way.