Don't Forget to Ask for Money

This is very important: don't forget to ask for money.

Elisa Ortiz wrote a nice piece called "Forgetting what’s important"
(which was recently featured in a Nonprofit Blog Carnival).

Here is the meat:

"For a nonprofit, invariably the first thing to go is professional development and travel money followed closely by marketing/PR budgets...

"Here’s the deal: you may not have to try and attract more clients, but you sure as hell need to attract more donors and more people that can advocate for you to their friends and connections. How is a nonprofit supposed to do that when it has locked down and shut out marketing, outreach and PR efforts entirely?"

An excellent point.

This is obviously a difficult time for nonprofits. Spending a dollar on an advertising campaign is a dollar not being spent on feeding a hungry child, healing a diabetic mother, training an illiterate adult, or more.

But if you don't invest in the future of your organization, there may not be such a future. And the hungry kids, sick moms and illiterate masses depend on you to be there.

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Why is Social Media Important to a Brand?

Anna Farmery wants to engage your brand...

Thus asks Anna Farmery, Speaker/Social Media Coach and author of The Engaging Brand Blog (which was recently featured in a Nonprofit Blog Carnival).

She offers 5 main reasons why social media should be part of your organization's brand strategy:

1. Social media can help bridge the gap inside a consumer's mindset of where they are now and where they want to be.
2. Social media empower consumers to be advocates for your brand.
3. Social media enable brands to communicate at all levels and to all emotions
4. Social media engage consumers in a conversation that can help brands evolve.
5. Social media -- particularly those with RSS (Really Simply Syndication) -- keep brands in their consumers lives.

Those are just summaries. Read her complete thoughts here:

http://theengagingbrand.typepad.com/the_engaging_brand_/2009/05/why-is-social-media-important-to-a-brand.html

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This Month's Blog Carnival cites Raiser's Razor

May 2009 Nonprofit Blog Carnival includes Raiser's Razor

Thanks to Elizabeth Clawson at the Nonprofit Congress Blog for including my article, "State of the Sector: Welcome to Nonprofit 3.0," in this month's Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

I also encourage you to view the other posts:

• Alan Strand talks about the differences between the funder and the program. 
• Jake Seliger informs us of new grant money available through HUD 
• Peter Grandstaff supplies us with an amazing list of free resources. 
• Anna Farmery explains the importance of social media to branding. 
• Elisa Ortiz kindly reminds us what is important.

Thanks , as always, to Kivi Leroux Miller's Nonprofit Communciations Blog for leading this effort. 

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Why do most nonprofit PSAs suck?

I sometimes wonder how much more effective nonprofit PSAs (Public Service Announcements) would be if they didn't take themselves so seriously.

Here is a nice example of a lo-fi commercial that spends more time laughing at itself than selling its product. The result? Something very viral that already has nearly a quarter-million views.

Sure, it's for a Cuban gynecologist who is now an American autosalesman... but why couldn't the neighborhood food pantry or city animal shelter have a similar tongue-in-cheek approach to fundraising? Why must philanthropy be so serious all the time?

Consider ways that you can help your donors to have a little fun. At a time like this, maybe that would go a lot further with them than the typical heavy-handed nonprofit doomsday message.

I'm just sayin'.

Enjoy:

UnTweetable: Twitter as Borg

Twitter was launched in March 2006 (source: Wikipedia). Within two years, it had over 1,000,000 total users sending approximately 3,000,000 tweets per day (Source: source: TechCrunch).

Shockingly, over the past year, they have blown these numbers away. It is estimated that by the end of this month (April 2009), they will have over 420,000,000 unique visits per week (source: TechCrunch).

This is a mind-boggling speed of adaptation. The same source above estimates that the impact of Oprah's adoption alone brought 1,000,000 additional users to the site.

As I struggle to grasp the impact that Twitter will have on the communications efforts of nonprofit organizations, I draw back on my childhood understanding of rapid cultural sea change:

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

Perhaps the attached photo-essay better explains my thoughts.

What do you think?