The Send

[av_social_share title='Share this entry' style='' buttons='' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Episode Summary When it comes to gaining visibility for your organization or cause, you can take advice from David Meerman Scott, a fellow DeadHead and founder of the newsjacking movement.We'll also discuss how to piggyback off of news stories and leverage trending topics. In this podcast, David explains how you can use the news cycle to your advantage and boost the reach and impact of your message. Through hashtag searches, news alerts, and some self-awareness, you and your organization can build a formidable system for drawing attention to your message and creating conversations around it. The key is to focus on speed, accuracy, and credibility to add value to the stories. Controversial topics are fair game, but be sure to think how your comments can be construed by people with different points of view in order to avoid offending others. Basically, creating content that's related to breaking stories is a great way to put your organization and your cause under the spotlight. But one important thing to take note of is to make sure that everyone on your team is on the same page. The ability to create a dedicated website related to the event is key to a successful fundraising campaign. This goes in line with some of the topics discussed in "Brick by Brick" where we explore the importance of having a streamlined, up-to-date website that funnels visitors through various calls to action helps increase the number of donors to our cause. Another chapter also touches on the importance of effective storytelling by sharing a brief concept that suggests that storytelling helps people nurture relationships with one another and how, like all stories, they can be shared with one another in many ways through blogs, down to word of mouth. Listen in as we discuss community engagement, social identity theory, the best ways to get started and how to avoid stepping over the line when it comes to your brand, along with a bit of Grateful Dead and current events like the Olympics and the #MeToo movement. About David Meerman Scott David Meerman Scott is an internationally acclaimed strategist, whose books and blog are must-reads for professionals seeking to generate attention in ways that grow their business. Scott's advice and insights help people, products and organizations stand out, get noticed and capture hearts and minds. He is author or co-author of ten books – three are international bestsellers. The New Rules of Marketing & PR, now in its 6th edition, has been translated into 29 languages and is used as a text in hundreds of universities and business schools worldwide. Scott also authored Real-Time Marketing & PR, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, Newsjacking,World Wide Rave, and the new hit book The New Rules of Sales & Service. He co-authored Marketing the Moon (now in production as a feature-length film) and Marketing Lessons from The Grateful Dead. He serves as an advisor to select emerging companies who are working to transform their industries by delivering disruptive products and services. His advisory clients include HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS), where he also serves as Marketer in Residence. In past advisory work, he contributed to successful companies as a member of the board of directors of NewsWatch KK (sale to Yahoo Japan) and Kadient (merged with Sant) and served on the board of advisors of Eloqua (IPO in mid-2012 and sale to Oracle in early 2013) and GrabCAD (sale to Stratasys in 2014). [av_button_big label='Join the Grow Your Non-Profit Facebook Group!' description_pos='above' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/groups/growyournonprofit/' link_target='' icon_select='yes-left-icon' icon='ue8f5' font='entypo-fontello' custom_font='#ffffff' color='theme-color' custom_bg='#444444' color_hover='theme-color-subtle' custom_bg_hover='#444444' custom_font_hover='#421c52!important' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Click here to join a community of non-profit professionals leveraging digital marketing and technology to grow their communities and improve their fundraising systems. [/av_button_big]

[av_social_share title='Share this entry' style='' buttons='' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Episode Summary When it comes to the world of modern fundraising, the rise of search engine optimization and digital marketing cannot be understated. The importance of SEO is that it helps match users with relevant content. When your website is properly-optimized, you are increasing the chances of coming up in the top search results for people who are specifically looking for an organization such as yours. This means that because you are relevant to what they're looking for, you are bound to get increased traffic from people who are also more likely to respond to calls to action. SEO professionals are experts in increasing the online exposure of your nonprofit. They increase the visibility that your website has amongst the internet. The way they do this is by ensuring that it is accessible by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Pinterest (to name a few). They do a thorough keyword search in order to increase the chances of your site appearing at the top page of search engines. They also optimize the internal linking strategy so that links that are related to a possible blog post or other phrases within your website can be related to other information available to people on the site. SEO professionals suggest things like taking advantage of your location and making sure that your organization is present on review sites such as Yelp. Being listed in directories allows the search engine to see your website and associate it with the organization's address and contact information. One important thing to constantly keep in mind is that Google is focused on providing its end-users with the best possible experience. - This includes ensuring that your website is also optimized for mobile devices. Posting content consistently gets search engines excited. Making sure each site has its own metadata and each page has internal pages that link to each other creates a high rating when the search engine is performing its search. Link outreach is a positive way to bring attention back to your site. This can be done by writing guest posts within another blog as a guest blogger (just remember to include a backlink to your site). Our book echoes the importance of having a proper website. A proper website is search engine-optimized, mobile friendly, and loads efficiently. This is discussed within the book by using Amazon.com as a prime example. Its relevance to modern fundraisers is that a website that ranks high in search results is almost guaranteed to attract a vast number of visitors. This easily translates to a substantial increase in potential followers and donors. Your organization MUST have a professional website that is designed with its users in mind. In this podcast episode, we are joined by David Deitrich, who is set to discuss the many ways that we can properly perform SEO. Listen in to learn how you can improve your website's exposure on the internet. About David Deitrich David Dietrich is the founder of Fair Angle, which demonstrates sone of the many best-practice online marketing strategies that non-profits can benefit from. David is committed to providing the very best in optimized strategic development for non-profits, helping them grow their online audience rapidly and organically. From there, he can help them engage and activate these followers to spread the word and donate. [av_button_big label='Join the Grow Your Non-Profit Facebook Group!' description_pos='above' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/groups/growyournonprofit/' link_target='' icon_select='yes-left-icon' icon='ue8f5' font='entypo-fontello' custom_font='#ffffff' color='theme-color' custom_bg='#444444' color_hover='theme-color-subtle' custom_bg_hover='#444444' custom_font_hover='#421c52!important' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Click here to join a community of non-profit professionals leveraging digital marketing and technology to grow their communities and improve their fundraising systems. [/av_button_big]

[av_social_share title='Share this entry' style='' buttons='' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Episode Summary Your online fundraising strategy can always improve and become more innovative. Gaining new knowledge and keeping up with an evolving industry places your organization on the path to growth and this ultimately allows you to accomplish bigger and greater goals. You can do these by employing some of these strategies to help you attract new donors, increase engagement, and make better use of technology. Fundraising starts in-house. Your staff is going to be the start of the fundraising movement. They are going to begin the search for lucrative prospects and may even turn them into donors. Why not reward your staff for successfully bringing in these donors? An incentive program not only motivates your staff but it also ensures that they are going to be working with high standards to earn these incentives. This strategy is commonly used among organizations whether they are for-profit or non-profit. Before you begin this process though, you should decide if the organization has the ambition. You need to have have a strong mission that's enough to motivate your employees to want to make change. You need to determine if yearly incentives for every employee is enough to motivate them to perform their tasks properly and with dedication. You also need to determine if your investment in the employee incentive program would lead to a reasonable return of investment and if this incentive program is enough to attract and retain talent in the future. These are all factors that you should be discussing with your board of directors. You can also think about surveying your employees to get their thoughts and opinions on the matter. Understand WHY donors give Use a donor management system to track activity and preferences for your donors. Not only to track the amount of money each donor contributes, but to also track steps in outreach, participation, and relationship building. You may wish to segment donors who have similar reasons for giving. Then, you can provide means for your donors to further build on and fulfill these reasons. Giving is a personal decision. Consider how you'll recognize each person. This can be based on the amount of the contribution, how many times a year they contribute, or just an overall thank you to everyone who donates. Afterall, feedback is one form of motivation in itself. Incentives can be developed for moving up through contribution levels. This can be exclusive events, gifting suites, or even a huge raffle. Go Mobile! In the modern scenario, almost every adult has a smartphone. You have to take this into consideration as people tend to use their mobile devices over their computers. In accordance with this principle, you have to analyze how much of your web traffic is coming from mobile devices. This is going to tell you if going mobile is a great choice for your nonprofit (though having the option is always nice). From here, you can discover how many people are utilizing the donation form from a mobile device. Watch the trends change in your analytics and see how it worked and how it can be improved. Simplify Giving Capabilities on Your Website When people want to donate, they want it to be simple and easy (same goes for people who don't yet know they want to donate). Add the donation button to the top of your website. Include video footage sharing what you do and why a person should contribute. Keep your forms manageable and not overwhelming. The flow of your form should be logical and is should sense. Make your call-to-action as clear as can be. This will make receiving donations easy and simple. Use Your Resources Wisely Not utilizing technology for your business is like not putting gas in your vehicle. Without using technology and resources wisely, marketing campaigns and community engagement projects would be quite challenging. Furthermore, collecting data from your community members regarding what they like and don't like would be a hassle. Customer service depends on your effective use of technology. By making good use of your resources, you'll be able to answer questions from your community members right away. All of this has led to a new generation where technology matters. Technology is the epicenter of the business world along with the way that we are able to increase the amount of customer satisfaction, reach, and overall happiness through its effective use. Nonprofits are able to improve the ways in which they share a message significantly. The tone, voice, and emotion tied to their message can be conveyed in such an honest and captivating manner. People are able to actually see the reason why a nonprofit is fighting for certain people and doing anything they can to spread the word and show people the magnitude in which others are struggling. In this regard, we can refer to a chapter in our book, "Brick by Brick", where we state that developing your brand is one of the first important steps to take when fundraising. This principle is further emphasized in the book as we try to analyze how Abraham Lincoln was able to gather as much support as he did when he sought to eliminate slavery. The ability to influence the greatest good for the greatest number has increased through technology. Because of this, nonprofits are now able to take advantage of available resources to affect substantial change in the world. In this podcast, Marjorie Moore of 501Crossroads talks about how she got started with nonprofits and how she has seen fundraising change over time. She tells us about some of her favorite ways to create engagement within a community, the roadblocks she has faced, and her predictions for how nonprofits will adapt to changes in technology over the next 5 years. May the tips in this podcast give you insight on the ways that you can use fundraising to attract new donors and some creative thought for you and your organization. We would love to hear what you are currently doing and if any of this information was helpful to you. About Marjorie Moore Marjorie Moore co-founded the 501 Crossroads Podcast. She has a background in radio and television broadcasting and loves to grow agencies into first class organizations that can share their vision and build consensus amongst the board, staff, volunteers, donors, clients and other constituents. Marjorie has experience working on international boards and, in the for profit sector, bringing insight to budget building and organizational financial planning. [av_button_big label='Join the Grow Your Non-Profit Facebook Group!' description_pos='above' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/groups/growyournonprofit/' link_target='' icon_select='yes-left-icon' icon='ue8f5' font='entypo-fontello' custom_font='#ffffff' color='theme-color' custom_bg='#444444' color_hover='theme-color-subtle' custom_bg_hover='#444444' custom_font_hover='#421c52!important' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Click here to join a community of non-profit professionals leveraging digital marketing and technology to grow their communities and improve their fundraising systems. [/av_button_big]

What's all the buzz about Blockchain?

All over, you're hearing how it will affect every industry. Yes, you heard it right! EVERY INDUSTRY!

So, maybe you're wondering how it will affect nonprofits? Well, we're here to talk about that.

Here's the thing, for a lot of the Blockchains, we're seeing a lot of hype because of the buzzword attached to it. There's a lot of misinformation out there and with so many people trying to find out about so many different projects, there's overlaps and misunderstandings between different projects. But, fortunately, from what we're seeing, it's a lot more simple than it seems.

For non-profits, there are two ways to look at it…

1) From a marketing perspective accepting crypto-currency shows that you're progressive and high tech.

2) From a more practical standpoint, there are people who have currency that they'd like to spend and give to a cause. Your organization can set up a wallet to be able to accept crypto-donations and be ready for the donors when they are ready to give.

This is what we encourage you to start thinking about….

• Set up an account and open a wallet to accept cryto-donations (i.e. Bitcoin)
• Get familiar with the process to be able to accept smoothly
• Choose a trustworthy person to manage the crypto-accounting
• Consider your donation process and how to handle any paperwork

Right now, many companies are already accepting crypto-currency, but there is an accounting nightmare for many. This is because you can't see who sent the actual transactions!

So, what should you do right now? Keep learning and preparing. We recommend if you're looking to begin accepting crypto-currency, start by including a sentence on your website letting people know you accept it and to call you. That way, you know who is giving the donation and also track it.

Listen to this podcast with learnwith lots of advice for nonprofits about Blockchain. Crypto-currency expert Scott Silverstone gives the low-down on how to accept Bitcoin, immediately mitigate your risk and avoid getting burned!

One key takeaway which Scott discusses in depth: "Organizations should be open to accepting Bitcoin, but have policies in place that mitigate risk."

You change people by how you make them feel. - Nahdya Weathers Influencers have the power to attract new audiences and impact existing ones. While organizations send out thousands of email campaigns to thousand of people, each of those email addresses belongs to one person with a relatively small network. Influencers are equipped with an audience in the hundreds of thousands.

They have the power to cultivate a movement or structure an opinion with thousands of heads nodding in agreement. By tapping into an already fulfilled audience allows an organization to reach potential supporters.

When putting together a campaign for influencer relations, organizations need to consider the amount of people they are trying to reach an analyze the possible accounts that could be a match.

How do you decide which influencers are best to work with? Discovering how often they share relevant content , how many connections they have, identify their discussion topics, and finally what prior interactions have they had with other brands. This information is going to help identify which influencers are going to work best with your campaigns.

Keep in mind when working with influencers your main goal isn't just about link clicks, likes, or donations. It's about the nonprofits authenticity and sharing the message to as many people as possible. You want to give the audience a reason to care about the message.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about The Power of the Influencer. We share detailed information on obtaining an influencer, developing a campaign with them and more. You're not going to want to miss this one!

[av_social_share title='Share this entry' style='' buttons='' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Episode Summary There are ways that you can raise money, save money, and receive grants to improve your nonprofit's operations. Google Grants is one of these ways that can help organizations earn up to $10,000 per month in grants. All you have to do is:

1. Select words that are related to your cause.
2. Write short text ads using Google's online system and choose landing page for each ad.
3. Pay attention to the ad as it shows up in the search results that are related to the keywords you selected before.
4. Encourage people click the ads to donate to your cause. Make sure the ad is compelling.

One tool that fundraisers can utilize to improve their campaign is a funnel. A funnel is a marketing tool that allows organizations to direct their leads toward a call to action, this call to action usually asks for a donation or volunteers (as is the case for nonprofits) and sales (for businesses). If you provide a subscription page for people in your community to sign up and support your organization, and then provide a confirmation page that thanks your new subscriber, then you would have created an email opt-in funnel. Take that email opt-in funnel and add an option to donate to a special campaign on the confirmation page, and then you're well on your way to creating fundraising funnels that convert website visitors into donors. But, if only it was just that simple… Because here's the truth… It's not. In order to convert visitors into donors, we need to nurture them and create trust in your relationship. We need to create a strong connection with our audience through discovering what messaging immediately resonates with them. And, we need to consistently build on their preferences to provide ways to enable them to deepen their involvement and support. One chapter in our book discusses the use of marketing funnels in detail, along with the importance of having an updated website. The principle behind this to make it easy for your supporters to give their support, to guide them at their own pace, so that when they're ready to give, they do so freely and whole-heartedly. There is no need for subliminal influence, deception, or any of the sort of underhanded trickery. A genuine, honest campaign is what truly gets you support. Our book follows the example of one of history's most loved figures, Abraham Lincoln, in his quest to eliminate slavery and to ultimately save the soul of the nation. You can build a community that takes action. Remove ANY distractions. Have a clear purpose and no more than ONE call to action… Use messaging that stands out… Create content that is clear, direct and easy to relate to from the reader's point-of-view. Structure your steps. Organize smaller steps in a logical way that teaches your community members to interact and engage with your content that calls to action… Find what readers identify with… Focus on WHAT matters to YOUR audience and what they base parts of their identity on. For example: create connection, provide ways for your readers to connect by visiting your website, joining your mailing list or following you on social media. All of these strategies will bring YOU and YOUR readers closer… Remember to check out the podcast as we are joined by Jackie Posada-Hess who's going to help us learn more about raising money, saving money and receiving grants for Your Non-Profit. About Jackie Posada-Hess GEMZ founding member Jackie Posada's career has been in the marketing, business development and sales for over 25 years with the last 15 years being an online/offline entrepreneur Small business, Nonprofit Consultant. She has been heavily involved with helping the Latino, minority community start and grow businesses and nonprofits as well. She has facilitated marketing bilingual trainings for Building Contractors, local small businesses as well as nonprofit organizations. [av_button_big label='Join the Grow Your Non-Profit Facebook Group!' description_pos='above' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/groups/growyournonprofit/' link_target='' icon_select='yes-left-icon' icon='ue8f5' font='entypo-fontello' custom_font='#ffffff' color='theme-color' custom_bg='#444444' color_hover='theme-color-subtle' custom_bg_hover='#444444' custom_font_hover='#421c52!important' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Click here to join a community of non-profit professionals leveraging digital marketing and technology to grow their communities and improve their fundraising systems. [/av_button_big]

[av_social_share title='Share this entry' style='' buttons='' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Episode Summary What compels someone to want to support your cause? Your story? Your brand? People join movements because they desire a sense of belonging. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They can create movements that start at a higher level. Movements demand action; and the way to create action is through developing your messaging and your brand. A prime example of the proper use of an effective message and brand is mentioned in our book, "Brick by Brick" wherein we try to delve into what makes superheroes so popular. Think about it, superheroes are so ingrained into our culture to the point that entire franchises are built upon them. These are some of the most lucrative ventures that one can pursue. Superheroes are brands in themselves. Comic book releases that contain the stories of these superheroes are almost the same as, if not exactly the same, compelling copy. Your community gives support because they value the social and emotional good done by the organization. Depending on the supporter, he or she may donate more from the heart or more from the head. This means people can be compelled by a message that tells a story or by seeing statistical information that shows how large of an impact donating can have. Sometimes you'll even encounter situations where potential donors, depending on their personality, are influenced by both. Information such as the organization's track record, credibility, story, and visuals are all important when it comes to connecting to your supporters and empowering to take action through your cause. Engagement in a community, donating to a cause, and joining a larger movement is borne from many reasons. However, the key lies in understanding the motivation of the giver and providing the type of messaging that builds on what they respond to. Ask them what they want to get out of giving. Determining their motivation will help you to better serve your donors. Doing this will ultimately help you raise more money. Listen in as we are joined by Leanna Johnson, of Lost Lass, as she speaks about 360-degree branding, where she encourages organizations to look at their brand from a holistic perspective and to develop content that is fully aligned with the brand. This way, the organization can leverage its messaging through its marketing in a clear and consistent manner; while forming a community that's based upon a strong foundation. About Leanna Johnson Leanna Johnson is the founder of Lost Lass, a freelance journalism brand. Her mission is to discover and create multimedia stories for businesses and media outlets. She has interviewed Bollywood actresses, famous journalists and human trafficking activists, contributed to a national campaign against police brutality, and written a column on growing up around the world. A passionate advocate and storyteller, she uses photography, video and radio, as well as her first love, writing, to investigative controversial issues. Lost Lass is an international brand based in the Chicago area. [av_button_big label='Join the Grow Your Non-Profit Facebook Group!' description_pos='above' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/groups/growyournonprofit/' link_target='' icon_select='yes-left-icon' icon='ue8f5' font='entypo-fontello' custom_font='#ffffff' color='theme-color' custom_bg='#444444' color_hover='theme-color-subtle' custom_bg_hover='#444444' custom_font_hover='#421c52!important' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Click here to join a community of non-profit professionals leveraging digital marketing and technology to grow their communities and improve their fundraising systems. [/av_button_big]

[av_social_share title='Share this entry' style='' buttons='' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Episode Summary In order for your organization to improve its online fundraising chances, it must understand how to align its Mission, Marketing, and People. Marketing campaigns are all about the who, what, and where. Who are you reaching, what are their interests, and where are they located? Becoming very well-versed in the answers to these questions as it relates to your campaign will ultimately result in greater key performance indicator results. Knowing this information also helps you to stay true to who you are and to be more productive, as well as "Mission-Driven". A chapter in our book, "Brick by Brick", shines the light on the paramount importance of having a definite mission and how it gives your organization an identity and a purpose that resonates with the people who you want to ask support from. This idea is discussed in detail by analyzing how Abraham Lincoln was able to garner such immense support from the people. And let me tell you, it was not through deception, coercion, or even any form of marketing. It was his honesty and his passion for his cause that enabled him to move the number of people that he did. In other words, a clear, honest organizational mission helps you stay your course and work with your particular audience. This will always be more effective than using trickery, gimmicks, and a campaign that isn't structured, planned, or regulated. A common mistake that many organizations do is to focus on small pieces of one thing, and small pieces of another put-together campaign, with no true direction. And in the end, they wonder why their results aren't improving. Marketing campaigns are similar to entering the dating scene. You can go on several dates and have different experiences will multiple people. You're not going to fall in love if you don't understand the qualities you want your significant other to have. The real question is how do you attract partners that have the qualities you want? Understanding how your campaign fits with the who, what, and where of your targeted audience is imperative. Generally, in every case, you plan before you implement. Therefore, creating the marketing campaign plan is essential. It provides a big picture of the outcome that you are aiming for, as well as the steps that should be taken to achieve your set goals. In this podcast, we are joined by Matisyahu Goren, who is a platform director and podcast host, to delve into the importance of defining what your organizational goals are to create a clear picture of the results that you want to achieve. About Matisyahu Goren Matisyahu Goren is the director of Mission Driven, a platform for Jews to define their unique mission, develop the tools they need for success, and make the world a home for God. Author of "The Long Short Way: How To Succeed After Yeshiva". Host of the hit Podcast "Mission Driven: The Long Short Way", which has interviewed Matisyahu is a professional basketball coach of NBA and international players. He and Coach Steve Campbell co-founded The Scholarship Makeover Foundation, which provided physical training, life coaching, test preparation, and academic consultation to 42 players who obtained college scholarships all while a student at Cal State Northridge. He left it behind to attend Mayanot of Jerusalem for two years. [av_button_big label='Join the Grow Your Non-Profit Facebook Group!' description_pos='above' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/groups/growyournonprofit/' link_target='' icon_select='yes-left-icon' icon='ue8f5' font='entypo-fontello' custom_font='#ffffff' color='theme-color' custom_bg='#444444' color_hover='theme-color-subtle' custom_bg_hover='#444444' custom_font_hover='#421c52!important' custom_class='' admin_preview_bg=''] Click here to join a community of non-profit professionals leveraging digital marketing and technology to grow their communities and improve their fundraising systems. [/av_button_big]