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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 [email protected].

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Nonprofit Voices, How Do You Go on Vacation?

May 22, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

vacation calendarYou’re responsible for all your nonprofit’s social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, the works.

You post–and just as important, you listen–on every platform.

You might be the one who updates the website, too, and the one who answers the messages that come in through the website.

How do you go on vacation?

You could be lucky and have a partner, or staff, to pick up the slack.

You could be super-organized and have all your posts set up in advance.  (But then what do you do when they bomb the Boston Marathon and you’re still tweeting cat videos?)

You could go radio silent.  Will you still have a job when you come back?

Here’s How to Take a Real Vacation

Whatever you choose, let people know about it in advance.  Say, “For the next two weeks, my colleague Pamela will get to read and respond to what you post.  You will love her. See you when I get back!”

Or, “I’m taking a vow of internet silence for the next two weeks. It’s good for the soul.”

You deserve that vacation, so take it and do not look back.  Just let us know.  We’ll miss you…and look forward to your return.

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Listening: the Secret to Success on Social Media

September 26, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

The secret to social media success isn’t in talking – it’s in listening.Image

That’s what Dave Kerpen, the author of Likeable Social Media, wants us to know.  Dave tells the story of the time he arrived in Las Vegas after a six-hour flight only to wait another hour at his hotel, just to check in.

Frustrated, I did what any social media nerd would do – I pulled out my phone, and tweeted the following: “No Vegas hotel could be worth this long wait. Over an hour to check in at the Aria. #fail”

He goes on to  say, “The Rio Las Vegas tweeted the following to me: ‘Sorry about your bad experience, Dave. Hope the rest of your stay in Vegas goes well.’ Guess where I ended up staying the next time I went to Las Vegas?”

Listening for Nonprofits

Now, if you work at a nonprofit organization, you might be thinking: “How does this apply to me?  I don’t run a hotel.  I don’t even have customers.  Why should I spend time listening on social media?”

  • You may not have customers, but do you have donors?  Listen to social media to find out what interests them and what bothers them.  Then , when you’re thinking what to say in your newsletter and your funding appeals–and yes, your social media–you’ll have a much better idea what donors will read.
  • Do you have clients?  Suppose you’re an organization to promote better parenting and prevent child abuse.  On Facebook, a low-income parent agonizes because she must go to work and can’t afford reliable childcare.  You give her a list of childcare providers who will accept state vouchers and offer to help her apply.  Will the word get around that your organization is a great place to go?  What do you think?
  • Do you have programs?  Maybe you’re an art museum (like the Portland Museum of Art) that offers teachers the chance to bring art into the classroom–and students to exhibit their own art at the museum. Wouldn’t it be great to know what the teachers are posting about you on Facebook or Twitter, and see the pictures the students are putting up on Instagram?

If you thank them online, you will be like the Rio Las Vegas in Dave’s story.  You won’t be doing outreach to get people into your programs: they’ll be reaching out to you.

You Have One Mouth and Two Ears. Listen!

Don’t just post, tweet, blog, email, snap photos, or distribute videos.  Make sure someone at your organization is on social media listening.

Then, listen to what they find out.

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