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TY Thursday: Thanks for Noticing My New Year!

September 14, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

shofar

Child blowing the shofar to mark Rosh Hashanah

It’s September. You may be looking ahead to your end-of-year appeal and thank-you letter, and congratulating yourself on getting to it early, long before the new year.

But is it already too late? Is the year over?

Thank God, It’s a New Year

This time next week, many Jews will be celebrating the new year, with the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Wiccans and other pagans celebrate the Autumnal Equinox (Mabon) on Friday, September 22, which Jews outside of Israel consider the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

The Chinese New Year is next year on the Western calendar: February 16, 2018, to be precise. The Persian New Year, Nowruz, will arrive on March 21. The Cambodian New Year? Not until April 14.

And you thought the holiday season was in December!

Yes, You Can Keep Track

Let’s get real. Unless you’re a Jewish organization, you’re probably not sending out an appeal to your supporters timed for Rosh Hashanah. But ignoring the holidays that matter to your donors is not a good idea.

If you notice the new years that your supporters celebrate, they will be grateful. So few people in the majority population pay any attention at all. If you recognize  next week that it’s Rosh Hashanah (or next spring that it’s Nowruz, or Chinese New Year), you will get a lot of credit.

And it’s just not so hard to wrap your mind around the idea that there can be more than one new year. Your nonprofit may already be paying attention to the start of the new year, and the federal government’s budget year, and your own fiscal year. You know how to do this!

Sending Greetings to Your Mailing List

How do you wish people well on their holidays when you may have Christians, Jews, pagans, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists on your list?

Ideally, you keep a record of which holiday each person on your list celebrates. Then, you send personalized email to each one.

(It helps a lot if your email list is in a database instead of a spreadsheet, and if you use an email service provider like Constant Contact or MailChimp and not just Outlook or Gmail.)

If you haven’t kept records of which holidays are meaningful to which of your contacts, now would be a good time to start!

My Holiday Gift to You

While you are putting together those records, I’ll help you send holiday greetings to all. Here’s how: feel free to cut and paste the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of this message into your email and social media. Edit judiciously. Add these words: “To all our friends who celebrate these holidays, we send our warmest greetings.”

That’s it for now. Thanks! Who’s looking forward to Groundhog’s Day?


Top 75 Nonprofit BlogWe’re honored that Feedspot has named the Communicate! blog as one of the top 75 nonprofit blogs to follow in 2017. Read more about nonprofit marketing, fundraising, and thanking donors at www.dennisfischman.com

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Your Nonprofit New Year’s Resolutions

January 2, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

resolutions

10 easy ways to communicate better in 2017

It’s a new year.  Here are ten resolutions that every organization should make to improve their communications in 2017.

  1. Google yourself. What are the first things people see about you? Would you support the group you see on screen?
  2. Take charge of your brand. Create your own reputation through the news you make and the stories you post.
  3. Cultivate local reporters.  They work too hard: if you feed them human interest stories and photos, they’ll be grateful.
  4. Everyone in your organization speaks for you.  What are they saying to their friends? Do they have stories to tell your supporters?
  5. Your website: keystone of all your communications.  Ask an outsider to click through it. Is it easy to navigate? Informative? Fun?
  6. Facebook is a party, not a meeting.  Find ways to get your fans talking with each other.  They’ll come back more often and like you better.
  7. Which social media should your group use?  Depends.  Who do you want to reach?  Where do they go when they’re online?
  8. Horror movie: “I mail to dead people.” In January, take people off your postal and email lists if you haven’t heard from them since 2013.
  9. Photos: not just for breakfast any more. Your readers want to consume photos at every meal, including online posts.
  10. Your good name is your most valuable asset.  What’s it worth to you?  THAT’S the return on investment for your communications.

Resolutions are not made to be broken! You can do #1 right away, as in the moment you finish reading this blog post. The other items will take time, so make a plan. For instance, to put #5 into action, who are you going to ask to review your website, and will you get their feedback in person, or by email, or…?

As your communications consultant, I can help your nonprofit make 2017 the year you communicate better with your donors and raise more money. Let’s talk about how. Email me at [email protected] and let’s start the new year right.

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How to Share the Season’s Greetings

November 30, 2015 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Sending holiday greetings to your customers and community is a great way to let them know you’re thinking of them. But not everyone celebrates the same holidays.

thanksgiving

Yes, in the U.S. most people  celebrated Thanksgiving this past Thursday, November 26. But you may have some Canadians on your mailing list, and their Thanksgiving was was on the second Monday of October. Did you know?

In December, the Jewish holiday of Chanukah begins the night of Sunday, December 6 and continues through December 14. But for Jews, “the holidays” means the Rosh Hashanah–Yom Kippur–Sukkot–Simchat Torah set of holidays, and that happened in September and October this year!

Pagans celebrate Yule beginning December 21. Christians celebrate Christmas beginning with Christmas Eve on December 24 and continuing through the next day. And New Year’s Day is January 1, but for the many religions and cultures that use other calendars, it may be just another day.

They may be hurt if you wish them A happy holiday, but not theirs. Click To Tweet

How do you greet them all?

Ideally, you keep a record of which holiday each person on your list celebrates. Then, you send personalized email to each one.

If you haven’t kept those records, now would be a good time to start! In the meantime, feel free to cut and paste the body of this message into your email and social media. Add, “To all our friends who celebrate these holidays, we send our warmest greetings.”

Who’s looking forward to Groundhog’s Day?

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