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

Peggy Hoffman wants to get rid of volunteers. Well, she wants to get rid of the emotional baggage attached to the word “volunteer.” Instead, Hoffman, president of Mariner Management, looks at how we can eliminate the pressure of being a volunteer. They explore ways to engage members to become more active with the organization as involvement is the trigger to commitment.

Beth is joined by Gloria Pugliese, director of Development from Delaware County SPCA, this week to talk about connections. Through direct contact as well as social media, the SPCA has been able to keep interest and participation high. Gloria talks about the benefits of putting a name to your cause (especially if it’s a puppy), and how that can rally donors into action.

Beth speaks with Dana Heiman, vice president at the Brandywine Health Foundation, about how adding a personal touch (like a handwritten thank you note) can form an even stronger tie to your organization among volunteers and donors. Dana talks about the incorporation of community for a nonprofit, using her foundation as an example, and how that broadens the population of people your organization can help.

Events are a great way to draw people in to see what your organization is all about, and to hold a successful event you need a strategy. Enter Gail Bower, president of Bower & Co. Consulting, who chats with Beth this week about how to create an effective strategy and start asking the right questions. Gail shares the three key pieces most important for audience engagement and where they come into play.

This week, Beth sits down the alumni engagement department at Widener University to discuss all things communication. Beth is joined by Tina Phillips, executive director for alumni engagement, to talk with Tina and her team about how they can engage current students, the challenge of appealing to the unique groups of alumni Widener serves and what ways they have maximized communication to encourage participation from alumni.

Relationships are changing in membership associations. Elizabeth Weaver Engel, an association veteran and current head of Spark Consulting, challenges the idea of what membership can mean. This week, Beth and Elizabeth discuss how to re-focus attention, services and potentially business models on what a member needs from their association rather than the other way around.

In this session, Beth speaks with Stephanie Cory, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Delaware. Beth and Stephanie discuss new ways to attract volunteers through social media sites you are likely already using and how to really define participation. Where is participation most important? Find out the answer to this question and much more.

Learn to tell stories like a professional filmmaker as Beth chats with Hollywood veteran and author of Nonprofit Storytelling for Board Members, Christopher Davenport in this week’s session. He talks about how his experiences making documentaries can help your nonprofit use video to its fullest potential and ensure you reach your target audience—after you learn who exactly that audience is.

Storytelling is about connecting with emotion. You don't need to hit all the bullet points. You just don't. That's all internal stuff. Beth chats with Pamela Grow from Simple Development Systems and the Grow Report in a session packed with tips and resources for stripping away the stats and getting to the heart of your story.

Kicking off a 3-part series on why stories work, Beth and Vanessa Chase from the Storytelling Non-Profit talk about building emotional buy-in to what's happening. Vanessa shares how story structure builds context for the facts and figures...and much more.