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Fundraising Tuesday: Home-Cook Your Fundraising

May 12, 2020 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Are you cooking at home a lot more at home since the pandemic began? I know I have been. I’ve been doing some basic recipes that are not a lot of work, but both tasty and filling, like this beer bread.

Beer bread

And I’ve also been taking ingredients I had on the shelf and in the freezer and combining them in new ways. Dried chickpeas and frozen spinach = chana masala.

Chana masala

Right now, your nonprofit should be home- cooking its fundraising.

Now is not the time for anything fancy. Go to the basics: the stuff you didn’t have time to do before the pandemic but that are on every nonprofit’s shelf.

  • Call your donors.
  • Write posts for your blog.
  • Update your website.
  • Listen to conversations on social media, and when you can add s0mething, chime in.

Those are your “beer bread” recipes. You know how to do them, and it’s been way too long since you baked them fresh.

Combine your ingredients in different ways.

  • You already have a database. Put together segments of supporters who care about the same thing, and write to them about what they care about.
  • You already have stories. Re-purpose the same content and use it ten different ways.
  • You already have ways donors can give online. Add ways they can give monthly, on the same site.

Those are your “chana masala” recipes. They look different from what you have been doing before, but they use the same ingredients you already have on hand.

Serve up some beer bread one day, some chana masala another day, and pretty soon your donors will be talking up your organization to their friends! Because let’s face it, nothing tastes as good as somebody else’s home cooking.

P.S. If you want some tips for tasty fundraising–or the recipes for these two dishes!–email me at dennis@twofisch.com.

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Fundraising Tuesday: Goldilocks & the 3 Nonprofits

July 18, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

just right

When are your communications just right?

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks.  She liked to give away money.

One day Goldilocks went exploring the forest of letters, email, and online posts she received.  She found herself in the house of three nonprofits.  She sat down at their table and sampled what they were offering.

She tasted the first nonprofit.  “Oh, this is too hot!” she exclaimed.  The nonprofit was sending her something every day, and all of it was peppered with funding appeals.

She tasted the second nonprofit.  “This is far too cold,” she realized.  The nonprofit was communicating with her only when it was asking for money.  And by the time she received a thank-you letter, she’d reached the bottom of the bowl.  She had no appetite for any more donations.

Goldilocks tasted the third nonprofit.  “Ahhh,” she breathed.  “This is just right!” Here was the porridge she’d been looking for.  The main ingredient was content that pleased her palate, spiced with a healthy dash of humor and with nuggets of information to chew on.  The funding appeals had absorbed the flavor of the dish and went down smoothly.

“Someone’s been eating my porridge,” Goldilocks heard a voice say.  There was the Communications Director of the third nonprofit, smiling.  And behind her was the Development Director, asking “Would someone like to sit in my chair at my next event?”

 

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Nonprofits, Reuse and Recycle your Communications

April 18, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

reduce, reuse, recycleNonprofits make communications hard.

We think that every time we write a blog entry, or send direct mail, or post to social media, we have to come up with a new idea.

Instead, remember the old mantra, “Reduce, reuse, recycle.”

REDUCE the time and effort it takes to communicate with your donors. It’s not a bad thing for your donors to hear the same message again and again: it’s a good thing! As Marc A. Pitman has said on a post about the myth of donor fatigue:

The ad guru David Ogilvy is supposed to have said that it takes a person hearing the same message seven times before they take action. So make sure to tell the stories seven times.

REUSE content in the same communication channel. Yes, you can use the same content with only minor tweaks.

  • You wrote a great blog entry for Mother’s Day 2015? Update it and republish it for Mother’s Day 2016.
  • You posted a link on Facebook that got a lot of attention?
    • Post the photo from the linked article, with a caption.
    • Post a quote from the article and ask for comments.
    • Take the idea of the article and turn it into a poll.
  • You tweeted a message? Tweet it at different times, every day, for a week. Different people are going to see it each time.

RECYCLE content in different channels. That blog entry could be an article in your newsletter, or a great op-ed in the local paper. The video clip on your website could be included in your thank-you email.

This Friday, April 22, 2016 is Earth Day. Use your older content in new ways and you’ll have time to celebrate!

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