Driving Participation Podcast: What Is Working in Marketing & Fundraising | Nonprofits | Schools | Associations

John Lepp's priority is to champion donors at every single turn. At Agents of Good, John focuses on the pure fundamentals of direct response and gratitude towards donor action. This week Beth gets to confer with a fellow designer on the role of marketing and the impact of design in donor communications.

If branding is fundamentally about communicating what is truly distinctive, re-branding is about demonstrating change. This week Iris Creative client Beth Anne Miller, former COO and Director of Development for the Histiocytosis Association talks with Beth about the massive changes the organization was going through that made re-branding make sense. Beth Anne shares the inside scoop on what it took to convince the board, get funding, mobilize the staff and launch the new brand.

What is the true purpose of your site? Is it to inform? To enroll volunteers? Inspire donations? Advocate? Web Developer Julie Friedman Bacchini from Neptune Moon joins Beth today to talk about the different goals of a website and how to focus the action you want people to take. Julie shares ideas for getting people to recognize themselves and know what to do when they get to your site.

The Recording Academy is a professional association that you may better know as The Grammys. The big-time music award show is actually a product of a chapter-based national member association. With a huge televised production funding much of the organization's activity, the chapters have a unique opportunity to run without the primary focus being to keep the chapter alive. Today Beth speaks with Philadelphia Chapter Executive Director Mark Schulz about how the organization develops programing that aligns with its purpose.

Your brand, your marketing, people's opinions of you certainly live in your community's hearts and minds. If you want to mirror that image, you've got to know how to connect with your people. This week Beth talks with Amanda Kaiser about the kind of questions you need to be asking today to grow for tomorrow. If you're wondering about positioning for the future and telling that story that people want to hear, surveys can't answer those questions. Listen in as Amanda shares her experience in what really works.

Today Beth connects with Boston-based blogger and founder of Selfishgiving.com Joe Waters. Learn how struggling KMart can raise 22 million for St. Jude's Hospital in just months as Joe shares the most important factor of any register program. In fact, Joe is on a mission to help small and midsize nonprofits connect with small and midsize companies to form rewarding partnerships. Listen in to learn how other organizations found their perfect match and you can, too.

New marketing methods, tools and tech seem to appear every day. This week, Beth looks back at resources that launched or added new features that were amazingly helpful in 2014. Nonprofits need to make the most of the marketing time available, so Beth gathered her favorites that save time and provided a huge return on the time spent. They are easy to use and free or low cost solutions to every day struggles. What tool helped you the most in 2014?

The new year brings 365 fresh new days to play with. Kick off 2015 with a plan to constantly be learning. This week Beth shares her favorite podcasts, books and courses she used last year learn new things, inspire herself, set goals, and stay focused. Its a constant challenge to do the work of today while developing new projects. Use the early weeks of the year to keep pushing forward! And as a bonus - this week Beth launches a contest for listeners who write an iTunes review of the podcast. Win a Donor Love Toolkit, and if you share your biggest marketing frustration you'll also get a chance to win a book AND have your question featured on a show. Just write your review at bit.ly/DPpodcast and send it with the problem that plagues you on over to [email protected].

Creating a compelling story is not easy, and Matt Hugg joins Beth this week to teach you how. You've identified what kind of story you want to tell, found the right subjects, scheduled the interviews...now what? Matt helps pinpoint where to begin and the process behind taking an interview and turning into compelling material from which your audience will truly benefit.

The year is coming to an end, which means it’s the perfect time for you to make the most of your year-end campaign. Sandy Rees of Get Fully Funded joins Beth this week to talk about what you should be doing from today to Dec. 31 to really push your annual giving campaign. Sandy shares invaluable tips and ideas for the days leading up the end of the year, including emails, phone calls and social media.