Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Learn Social Media from these Nonprofit Pros

by Leave a Comment

Nonprofit social media

 

 

 

A guest post by Terri Williams

When your supporters look at your social media, what do they see?

According to Pew Research Center data, at least 69% of the public uses some sort of social media. While young adults use social media platforms at higher levels, usage among older adults has increased significantly.

For your nonprofit organization, it’s important to tap into the potential that social media can provide. Here are two ways nonprofits have achieved success using social media platforms.

How Your Nonprofit Succeeds on Twitter

There’s a model you can adopt if you want to reach your supporters on Twitter.

A report by Chao Guo, associate professor of nonprofit management at the University of Pennsylvania, and Gregory D. Saxton, associate professor of communication (with an emphasis on nonprofit communications) at the University of Buffalo, analyzed the social media efforts of 188 Civil Rights and Advocacy nonprofits. These organizations achieved success building social media outreach using a three-step process that includes:

  1. Reaching out to people,
  2. Keeping the flame alive, and
  3. Stepping up to action.

In the first step, reaching out to people, the organization makes its social media community aware of its causes. The second step is to keep engaging those constituents and build passion among them. The final step is to rally the supporters to action for any given event.

Although you should continue to email and call your existing contacts, you can reach out to people in a number of ways outside the contacts that already live in your customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Try these ideas to increase your Twitter reach:

  • All of the employees of a nonprofit organization should follow it on Twitter (that’s a given)
  • Other stakeholders should be encouraged to become followers, as people are more likely to follow an organization if their friends and family members do so.
  • Employees should also like and retweet the nonprofit’s posts so the messages show up in the timeline of their friends.

 

Organizations can post various types of information, such as upcoming events, mentions in the media, annual reports, etc. Sharing volunteer events and photos can pique interest in others who are looking for a way to donate their time. In addition, cross-promoting or sharing information about similar organizations can help you build solidarity. If they return the favor, you benefit from having your posts shared with their followers. Twitter is also a favorite platform among reporters, so the information you share could also lead to interviews and feature stories.

However, it’s also important to have other types of content besides announcements, such as blog posts or newsletters that are informative and well-written. In addition, the nonprofit organization should engage in conversations with followers – and always respond quickly to questions or concerns.

FACEBOOK: Learn from People for Development

Facebook is the most popular social media network in the world. While Twitter allows nonprofit organizations to share information, aside from the equivalent of 2 or 3 sentences, the medium limits users to photos, infographics, and links (which can be to articles or the company’s website). This is fine for sharing new information. However, as a nonprofit, you also want to be able to include static information about your organization, and Facebook lets you do this.

Facebook allows nonprofit organizations to include various tabs on the home page. One study of a Portuguese nonprofit organization reveals that this type of descriptive information can lead to people speaking positively about the information and sharing the existence or the nonprofit with others.

The profiled NGO, “Leigos para o Desenvolvimento” (People for Development), created a robust presence on Facebook. Below are some of the components and tabs included on the NGO’s Facebook page:

  • Description of the organization’s programs and services
  • Organizational history
  • Mission statement
  • News links
  • Campaign disclosure
  • Event calendar
  • Information on how to make donations
  • Information about organization projects

The organization also engaged in other types of activities similar to what you would find on Twitter, such as posting videos, photos, and audio files, engaging in discussions, testimonials from volunteers, and sharing initiatives of other social organizations.

According to the report’s authors, the combination of these factors can assist your nonprofit organization to establish a reputation for being open and trustworthy. And, when people are happy with the presentation, professionalism, and level of engagement, they speak well about the organization – and also share your content.

Other social media platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube can also increase awareness and engagement. As a whole, social media is an invaluable tool for interacting with supports, and expanding your base. The key is to be purposeful, professional, and engaging.

Terri Williams is a writer for TechnologyAdvice.com. She has covered business and tech topics for a variety of clients, including The Economist Careers Network, Intuit Small Business Blog, Investopedia, The Houston Chronicle, Daily News Energy, and Homeland Preparedness News. Follow her on Twitter: @Territoryone.

Fundraising Tuesday: Great Photos Make Great Appeal Letters

by Leave a Comment

stand out

Photos make your appeal stand out

Recently, I went through all the end-of-year appeal letters that 72 nonprofits sent me in 2017. (Yes, your letter too!)

I wanted to find out something very specific. How are nonprofits using photos in their fundraising letters?

Here’s what I can tell you: most of us are not using them well enough. That gives your group an opportunity to stand out from the pack–which is what you need to do to raise more  money.

How Nonprofits Use (and Don’t Use) Photos

No photo

wall of textAlmost half the organizations that asked me for money in November and December 2017 used no photo at all. Their letters were text-only.

They might have broken up the wall of text with frequent paragraph breaks, or bullet points, or bold, italic, or underlined phrases (all of which are a favor to the reader, because they make a letter easier to read). But no photos.

I would like to think that these organizations had A/B tested their lists, sending out letters to some people with a photo and some without, and determined that their list liked text only. Or, I’d like to think they took Alan Sharpe’s advice and made their letters so personal and so compelling that a photo would diminish the message.

But mostly, I don’t believe that. Instead, I think most of these organizations didn’t take the time to find or create effective photos all year round. So, when it was time to send out the appeal letters, they took the easy way out.

You can do better.

Some use of photos…

About a quarter of the nonprofits did send me appeal letters that included photos. Automatically, they had a better chance of grabbing my attention. And I am a “words person” by trade!

Words matter–but only if people read them.

When a donor receives your letter, she takes about three seconds to decide whether to read it or throw it in the recycling. In three seconds, what can she see? Possibly:

invite meBut more than any of these, a photo with a caption invites the donor in.

<–See what I mean?

 

 

 Photos Included, but Used in an Unfocused Way

The problem with many of these photos is lack of focus. And no, I don’t mean the image is blurry!  I mean that the nonprofit hasn’t thought about the main purpose for including photos: moving the donor to give.

In my mail, I saw many photos that failed to speak to the donor. They showed:

  • Staff members of the organization. (No offense, but you are not the ones the donors care about helping!)
  • Audiences listening to a speaker.
  • Crowds marching or rallying.
  • Multiple clients in different settings.

These photos may document what you do. They don’t tell the story of who, how, or why it matters. Therefore, they don’t move the donor.

You can do better.

Photos Used for High-Quality Storytelling

SCC appeal photo

Here’s what nonprofits did to use photos really well in their appeal letters.

  1. Featured one, at most two, people in each picture.
  2. Showed them doing something–not just head shots.
  3. Focused on the same person whose story the nonprofit told in the text of the letter.
  4. Reinforced the message about the problem.
  5. Reinforced the message about the urgency.
  6. Made an emotional connection between the person in the photo and the donor viewing the photo and reading the letter.

I’m happy to show you an example from a local organization my wife and I support, Somerville Community Corporation. The photo above is actually from a special end-of-year mailing to ask for donations of $1,000 or more to the Social Equity Campaign, which multiplies the value of each donation through a special tax credit in Massachusetts.

Notice how Somerville Community Corporation poses a question (“Why invest in our community?”) and uses BOTH the text and the photo to answer it.

Notice how SCC picked one of the problems it is asking you to solve–worker training–and with the photo, gave you hope you could do something about it right away.

Notice how SCC managed to express the idea of diversity with only two people in the photo. (They could have added more people, or more photos…but they knew you would care more about these people than about a crowd.)

Before you write your next fundraising appeal, think about how you  use photos. Chances are, you can learn from this example…and do better!

 

 

 

TY Thursday: Nonprofits, Time to do a Thank-a-thon?

by Leave a Comment

gratitudeIt’s vital for your nonprofit to thank donors, and one of the very best ways to do it is to pick up the phone and call them. If you’re lucky, though, you have so many donors that the Executive Director and Development Director both put together would consider thanking donors a full-time job! What’s the solution? Hold a thank-a-thon.

What’s a Thank-a-thon?

A thank-a-thon is like a phone-a-thon. Only instead of dialing for dollars, you have a room full of people calling people who have already given…just to say thanks.

Abigail Harmon gives us the portrait of the classic thank-a-thon.

Armed with a list of donors – big and small alike – and a script, each board member makes calls to thank donors for their support over the past year…Historically, a phone bank was required so that everyone could sit in a room and make the calls…but it is often more feasible to have board members bring their cell phones and chargers (just in case) to a house where they can sit around and make the calls.

You will need a staff member to hand out the lists and scripts and answer questions that might arise. And you will want to provide some food and drink. Your callers will be friendlier if they are fed!

4 Reasons a Thank-a-thon is Worth It

Why would you spend the time and energy of your board members and volunteers for an activity that’s not going to raise any more money right away?

  1. To raise more money next year. If a donor gave you money in 2017 and you send a perfunctory thank-you letter, the chances you’ll see another gift in 2018 are less than 30%. You can double that with a hearty thank-you in a real human voice.
  2. To make your Board members proud. Do you have a Board member who says, “I’ll do anything for this organization–except ask for money”? Turn their fear of asking into their joy at saying thank-you to a person who cares about the same organization they do!
  3. To give non-Board members a way to get more involved. There is no rule that says only directors of the organization can call and say thanks. A call from a fellow donor may be equally meaningful…both to the caller and donor on the other end.
  4. To make it fun. Yes, you can farm out the calls for people to do on their own time, in the privacy of their own homes. But there’s a certain infectious energy that spreads around the room during a thank-a-thon. Try it and see!

Yes, I’d like weekly email from Communicate!

Get more advice

Yes! Please send me tips from Communicate! Consulting.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.