Bright Nonprofit

Getting found in Google doesn’t happen by accident. Your website doesn’t magically appear in the search engines for the right search terms. Well… that isn’t totally accurate. It sorta does. But it may not rank well and the search results may not be accurate or consistent.

But there is a way to get your website ranked for the correct terms and that is by using SEO (search engine optimization). SEO has become a sophisticated field that is separate from your typical web design practices.

In this episode, I talk with Kris Reid from Ardor SEO. Kris talks about what it takes to get your website indexed in the search engines and how to rank higher than your competition.

Kris began doing SEO work after he developed an online game called Mob Warrior. Like many people with new products, he needed to get it found in Google. This is when he started researching and practising SEO. And ultimately lead him to found Ardor SEO.

If you want to learn a bit about the inner workings of search engines and get some tips on how to rank your website better, then this is a great listen.

RESOURCES

Website: https://ardorseo.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ardorseocom/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ardorfactory

In this podcast, I talk with Jenna Benn Shersher. She shares with us her story on overcoming a rare form of cancer and how it inspired her to start a nonprofit.

Jenna is the Founder and Executive Director of Twist Out Cancer, a non-profit organization she founded after surviving Grey Zone Lymphoma in 2011. Jenna saw firsthand how young adults with cancer have a unique set of needs that are not being addressed or talked about. She found that one way of fulfilling this need is through creative arts, which could be used as a mechanism for coping and healing. Twist Out Cancer was founded on the principle that when you share, the world opens up.

Since Twist Out Cancer was founded in 2011, over 100,000 people worldwide have been touched by its programs and events. Over 700 people attended the fifth annual Brushes With Cancer Gala and Exhibition in Chicago on September 9, 2017. Other upcoming events are planned in Philadelphia, Montreal, and Tel Aviv.

Brushes With Cancer is a unique celebration of survivorship and hope that pairs those touched by cancer (previvors, survivors and caregivers) with talented artists working in a variety of mediums. Those touched by cancer share their 'twist on cancer' – their stories, feelings and experiences – with the artist, which serves as the inspiration for a unique piece of artwork created in their honor. The program culminates with a celebratory annual event and fundraiser in which the pairs connect in person and the artwork is revealed for the first time.

RESOURCES

Website: http://twistoutcancer.org/

Have you wondered what is the best way to get information in front of your followers and supporters? Most people think social media is the end-all/be-all of communication. But I want to assure you – it is not.

In this podcast, I talk with Kathryn Calhoun from kathryncalhouncoaching.com. Kathryn discusses some of the myths about social media, what it should be used for and how to maximize its effective reach.

But most importantly, Kathyrn shares with us some of her best tips on using your mailing list to reach your audience.

I, personally, have been very frustrated lately with the number of nonprofits I follow, who rely on Facebook to communicate with their followers. Here is the issue:

So please, STOP using Facebook to communicate important events and information with your followers. Sure, put a post about your upcoming spring Gala on there, but be sure you announce it to your mailing list and have a page on your website about it.

OK, enough of me ranting about Facebook.

Let’s talk about the solution. Grow, nurture and use your mailing list. Listing to this awesome podcast to learn how.

Free Gift: http://kathryncalhouncoaching.com/gift

Have you wondered what is the best way to get information in front of your followers and supporters? Most people think social media is the end-all/be-all of communication. But I want to assure you - it is not.

In this podcast, I talk with Kathryn Calhoun from kathryncalhouncoaching.com. Kathryn discusses some of the myths about social media, what it should be used for and how to maximize its effective reach.

But most importantly, Kathyrn shares with us some of her best tips on using your mailing list to reach your audience.

I, personally, have been very frustrated lately with the number of nonprofits I follow, who rely on Facebook to communicate with their followers. Here is the issue:

• Facebook is not a website and should not replace your website.
• Facebook has limited reach with barely 5% of your followers ever seeing a post.
• Facebook displays post chronologically forcing people to scroll through your timeline to find information.
• Facebook does not - let me repeat - DOES NOT show all your posts.
• Facebook is losing popularity. Not many millennials are using Facebook on a daily basis.

So please, STOP using Facebook to communicate important events and information with your followers. Sure, put a post about your upcoming spring Gala on there, but be sure you announce it in your mailing list and have a page on your website about it.

OK, enough of me ranting about Facebook.

Let's talk about the solution. Grow, nurture and use your mailing list. Listing to this awesome podcast to learn how.

Free Gift: http://kathryncalhouncoaching.com/gift

Risks can be unsettling. It is easier to focus on what’s urgent while ignoring what’s necessary and important. But if you can create ways to make it easier to see and address threats and opportunities, you can:

Knowing your risks can help you increase your awareness of the threats and opportunities faced by your organization. You can identify unnecessary costs and find fixes to unlock additional resources.

“Too much of our knowledge is stuck in the minds of our key personnel. If we lose any of them, we’re sunk.”

Then listen to this podcast and learn how knowing your risks can give you your best insight.

Before founding Risk Alternatives LLC, Ted was a Distinguished Visiting Professor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center. At Georgetown, his research focused on dispute resolution, complex litigation, preventive law, legal training, risk management, governance, and compliance.

Prior to fulltime teaching, Ted served for more than 20 years in the Washington DC office of the international law firm of Jones Day. At Jones Day, Ted represented clients in successful high-profile lawsuits and investigations and worked closely with parties with divergent interests to craft workable settlements involving businesses, consumers, and government agencies. While at Jones Day, Ted taught at Georgetown for many years as an adjunct professor.

Website: risk-alternatives.com

Email Ted: [email protected]

Ted’s Twitter: @tbilich

Risk Alternatives Twitter: @riskalts

Risks can be unsettling. It is easier to focus on what's urgent while ignoring what's necessary and important. But if you can create ways to make it easier to see and address threats and opportunities, you can:

• Increase clarity
• Reduce costs
• Simplify tasks Streamline processes
• Develop new initiatives, and;
• Increase sustainability and resilience

Knowing your risks can help you increase your awareness of the threats and opportunities faced by your organization. You can identify unnecessary costs and find fixes to unlock additional resources.

"Too much of our knowledge is stuck in the minds of our key personnel. If we lose any of them, we're sunk." "If we're honest, we move from crisis to crisis and can't get ahead of the curve." "We want to grow, but we need a repeatable model that doesn't require constant supervision." "We are on the cusp of great things, but we need to make sure we look and act professional to the outside world. More than that, we actually need to be professional."

Then listen to this podcast and learn how knowing your risks can give you your best insight.

Before founding Risk Alternatives LLC, Ted was a Distinguished Visiting Professor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center. At Georgetown, his research focused on dispute resolution, complex litigation, preventive law, legal training, risk management, governance, and compliance.

Prior to fulltime teaching, Ted served for more than 20 years in the Washington DC office of the international law firm of Jones Day. At Jones Day, Ted represented clients in successful high-profile lawsuits and investigations and worked closely with parties with divergent interests to craft workable settlements involving businesses, consumers, and government agencies. While at Jones Day, Ted taught at Georgetown for many years as an adjunct professor.

Ted's website is at, https://risk-alternatives.com

In this episode I talk witth Dr. Froswa' Booker-Drew about building socail capital and developing asset based based community relationships. Let's start with some definitions.

• Social Capital is a network of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.
• Asset Based Community Development is a methodology for the sustainable development of communities based on their strengths and potentials.

In a nutshell, we talk about how to use existing networks within a comminuty that enables that society to function effectively and thus help communities develop based on their strengths and potentials.

Here's more about our guest.

Dr. Froswa' Booker-Drew has an extensive background in nonprofit management, partnership development, training and education. She is currently serving as a catalyst, partnership broker, and capacity builder of an international NGO partners' around the U.S. This entails facilitating the emergence and strengthening of community-led initiatives to improve and sustain the well-being of children and their families. She also assists a number of organizations as a consultant, board member, trainer or adviser. She is the co-host of the web talk show, Social Issues Time. Froswa' earned her PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch University with a focus on relational leadership and social capital.

Froswa's website: froswasrules.com

Froswa's latest book: Rules of Engagement: Making Connections Last

Podcast show notes written by Alexandra Black-Paulick. Thank you Alex!

You'd be surprised at how many people adamantly believe that under no circumstances can nonprofits earn revenue. The reality is that the term "nonprofit" has nothing to do with whether an organization can make a profit and everything to do with what they do with that profit. In the instance of a nonprofit, they cannot distribute profits to shareholders like a for-profit company. Instead, the revenue stays within the organization to be used to achieve the nonprofit's mission.

In truth, there are a lot of different rules and regulations around income. The most important one is whether the income is "related" or "unrelated" to their mission. NOLO dives deeper into the potential tax implications on that here.

But diving into the tax code isn't what today's episode is about.

In today's show, I connect with Alexandra Black-Paulick from Positive Impact Media and co-creator of Nonprofits for the Future on ways that nonprofits are generating revenue. We not only break down some of the ways you can discover opportunities in your organization but we also go through two separate case studies.

Between grants gaining competition and donors starting to disappear after the economic crash of 2008, nonprofits across the nation started funneling their efforts into earned income solutions that aligned with their mission. Below, you'll find a brief synopsis of the two case studies we talk about in the episode as well as tips to help you discover opportunities in your organization.

Our goal with this episode is to help you come up with ideas that align with your mission and opportunities that are viable to implement in your organization.

Enjoy!

Resources Mentioned in the Show

• FREE DOWNLOAD: Three Case Studies on Increasing Nonprofit Funding
• Nonprofits for the Future: Roadmap to New Funding Sources
• NPA 076: Do You Believe these Nonprofit Myths? Let's Bust Them!

Method for Discovering Opportunities in Your Organization

On the episode, Alexandra highlights the strategy that she walks organizations through in her upcoming course. It's really important to use your mission as a metric throughout this process so you develop a related income stream and don't pull resources away from your main goals.

Start with an organizational asset list to find things of value in your organization. This could include everything from curriculum to technology to communities advocating on your behalf. Then you need to look at different needs in the communities you serve or groups near to your cause.

The Denver Food Rescue realized that they had a valuable technology asset with their software running Fresh Food Connect. Additionally, they realized other hubs or organizations running a similar food program would benefit from it.

This led them to license the app. They charge a nominal annual fee, which then covers all the required maintenance costs.

In the episode, we dive in deeper to how you can use a similar thought pattern to make sure the endeavors you're doing add to your mission. Some of the suggestions both Alex and I recommend to expand could fall into mission creep, which we talk about ways to avoid.

Bikes Together needed a way to sustain their incredibly generous bike giveaway programs, which has given away over 6,000 bikes to date. They also had a complete bicycle workshop and ample volunteers ready and willing to work on bikes.

This led them to start refurbishing bikes to sell.

Tune in to hear how we talk about another really innovative way they built in value to create memberships, and how members love it!

If you want a structured approach and a step by step roadmap to develop earned income solutions for your organization, then check out Alex's new course: Roadmap to New Funding Sources.

This four-week course walks you through everything from exploring different business models, discovering opportunities within your organization, how to vet ideas, and mission-driven marketing strategies to take it to market. To ensure that every organization going through the class comes away with tangible ideas to implement, she and her co-creator are hosting office hours twice a week.

You can check out all the details here.

Hurry though - this course closes on January 30th.

If you listened until the end of the episode, you know that we're giving away one FREE course for Nonprofits for the Future: Roadmap to New Funding Sources. To enter, you need to comment on the show notes. To really make this powerful, we'd love to hear what you think about earned income for nonprofits, different takeaways you want to apply to your organization, or potential earned income solutions you want to implement.

Comment by January 28th to enter.

After the giveaway, we can move to a different CTA at the bottom.

Download the Slides from Today's Presentation H-2

Do you want to have the slides from today's presentation? They succinctly go through the two different case studies from mission to asset breakdown to opportunity to earned income solution.

You can snag that presentation here.

In this podcast I talk with Kathleen Kelly-Janus, author of Social Startup Success. In this interview we talk about the different factors involved in building a nonprofit into a sustainable, profitable (yes, you can make money) and affective organization.

Kathleen is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author and lecturer at Stanford University. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Tech Crunch and the San Francisco Chronicle.

In this podcast (and in her book) Kathleen gives real life examples of how successful nonprofits went from start up to sustainable. Examples of this include:

Get the book, Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference

Her website is at, www.kathleenjanus.com

See this podcast on YouTube

In this podcast I talk with Kathleen Kelly-Janus, author of Social Startup Success. In this interview we talk about the different factors involved in building a nonprofit into a sustainable, profitable (yes, you can make money) and affective organization.

Kathleen is an award-winning social entrepreneur, author and lecturer at Stanford University. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Tech Crunch and the San Francisco Chronicle.

In this podcast (and in her book) Kathleen gives real life examples of how successful nonprofits went from start up to sustainable. Examples of this include:

1. Testing ideas by engaging stakeholders and reframing failure as learning, like Aspire Public Schools did to devise a creative solution to ineffective preschool education in low-income communities.
2. Measuring impact as you track the positive outcomes of your organization and maximize that data, like At the Crossroads did to create stages of progress as they reached out to homeless youth in San Francisco.
3. Funding experimentation to find a funding model true to your goals and effective at raising money, like Hot Bread Kitchen did when they both raised money and sold bread to sustain their training program for low-income women to find jobs in the food industry.
4. Leading collaboratively by building a team and creating an environment where people feel empowered and appreciated, like the crowdfunding platform Kiva did by allowing employees to manage their own success metrics.
5. Telling compelling stories to share the work you're doing, like founder of the Center for Youth Wellness Nadine Burke Harris did in a TED talk that's been viewed over 2.5 million times.

Get the book, Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference

Her website is at, www.kathleenjanus.com