good together

Mobile wallets - what's their role in the future of fundraising? →

This is somewhat related to today’s #fundchat (@fundchat! join!) on equipping your website for successful fundraising.  Know of any orgs with really nice mobile-optimized donation pages?

Proof That Your Klout Score Doesn’t Define You Read More Here: Klout Score - Proof They Don't Know You http://www.johnpaulaguiar.com/klout-score/#ixzz1dtf74Oci →

Today’s PSA re: Klout. My opinion on this site has dropped substantially and this post hits all the points!  It is still useful for some things…but…just read this blog.

Somerville Local First post! @CYCLEkids Fundraiser today

Every ticket supports a fourth- through sixth-grade cycling curriculum paired with nutrition classes that help kids sustain an active, healthy lifestyle.  “My goal is to create an atmosphere that parallels what the CYCLE Kids curriculum does for the kids.  We want people to be curious about where their food comes from!” says Eileen Elliot, CYCLE kids’ event planner and the buyer of Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe, Harvard Square’s beloved specialty foods purveyor.  Who better to select the most delicious local offerings?

» More on SLF Community Blog

slaveryfootprint.com →

Stellar example of nonprofit storytelling - personalized, interactive, conversational, highly visual and useful — you walk away having learned something.  (I didn’t know anything about bonded labor! From 15 years old to 30 years old??)

How many slaves work for you?

What? Slaves don’t work for me.

"Humanitarians are abjectly ineffective at selling their causes. Any brand of toothpaste is peddled with far more sophistication than the life-saving work of aid groups."

— Nicholas Kristof, NY Times

#NPTech: What’s That Unicorn Doing In My Inbound Marketing Pitch?

Most tragically, the inbound marketing experts at Hubspot were giving away free unicorns at Dreamforce and I missed it. If you missed it too and/or have no idea what this is all about, you can at least watch this video comparing pernicious marketing myths to unicorns.  Stats at 0:20.  Also, download their free Marketing Facts vs. Marketing Fantasy e-book!  Also, think about your constituents.  How are you communicating with them?

Put yourself in their shoes: How do you react when someone tries to sell you something you don’t want and were not looking for?

It might be a generational thing, but I routinely wish for an “I Don’t Care” button during Hulu commercial breaks, and tell nonprofit canvassers that they can’t talk to me…even though I used to be one.  I throw away mail from unfamiliar entities.  And I have never seen a billboard that inspired me to contribute immediately to an important, possibly life-changing or life-saving cause. 

These are all examples of outbound marketing. As a constituent, I don’t want to be approached that way.  As a nonprofit professional, I don’t want to pay for marketing that is intrusive, expensive and essentially a cold call.

On the other hand, the whole point of inbound marketing is asking yourself, “What question do you want to be the answer to?”  and then making your (desirable!) content easy to find and easy to share.  To be honest, it does requires time and talent to do blogs, videos, email and social media well. Still, web-based marketing is a major bang for your non-corporate buck when you understand the tools. 

For example, SEO positions your org to be found and discussed by people who already care about your mission.  And social media enables you to build relationships with these people, converting them into long-term supporters who amplify your work.  Now you don’t have to find or build your tribe, you just have to serve them.

I think inbound marketing and the nonprofit sector are a match made in heaven.  But what do you think?  Is it just playing around on Tweetypages and Faceyspaces?

#Video: Anniversary Appeals, Charity:Water Style.

Because our nonprofit turns 60 this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about anniversary-themed branding and its ROI. I’ve decided that while it is a lot of work to roll out an entirely new set of marketing materials for an anniversary, it is a great opportunity for clear and compelling storytelling.

Even if you only did ONE thing - like the video charity:water created for their 5th anniversary, you can cover a lot of ground such as who you are, what you’ve accomplished and where you’re going. You’ll get a lot of mileage (more traveling idioms, sorry!) out of having a good summary of your achievements as well a nice bookmark in the history of your org. Online exposure: your website, your Facebook, and embedding into blogs like this one. Offline exposure: loop it at events and stream it when you meet with donors.

The 2011 September Campaign. Our 5-year-anniversary video from charity: water on Vimeo.

We could all learn from their use of a magnetic champion (their founder, Scott Harrison), effective storyboarding and an engaging donor-centric script by someone who clearly knows development.  I transcribed a bit of it and want to call attention to how many times they use the word “you” in an anniversary video that both celebrates their supporters and inspires them to do more:

Five years ago, we learned that a billion people lived without something they needed. Something basic. Something we took for granted: Water. Clean water.  And while the problem seemed so big, we believed together we could solve it.  We believed we would solve it.  So we started charity: water.  And while women walked hours every day in the hot sun to muddy holes in the ground, while children shared dirty water with cows and wild animals, we asked for YOUR help, and YOU responded.

We promised to be a different kind of charity, a new charity.  We would always use a hundred percent of your money for water projects, finding other ways to pay for our staff and our office, and we would prove each project using photos and GPS so you could see the clean water you made possible for others.  You did incredible things to race money: you biked, you ran, you walked across America, you skated and surfed, you sang, and you danced.  You sold lemonade and recycled.  You gave up thousands of birthdays and asked for donations instead of gifts. 

We sent your money around the world and people started working. Drillers rolled into villages and drillers found clean water underground. Women walked less and got hours of wasted time back each day.  They spent more time with their children, and some started small businesses.  Kids stopped drinking water that made them sick and spent more time in school. Everyone was healthier, happier. Water changed everything

In only five years, you took a simple story, and did more than we ever thought possible. You helped us bring clean water to two million people in nine countries.  So. What’s next?

#Video: Do Something Decade Of Thanks

Here’s an uber-creative and compelling video tribute by Do Something (@dosomething on Twitter) wherein they collected 4,000 messages of thanks to 9/11 emergency service workers and projected them in light across New York City.  It is partly video, but mostly photographs, nicely edited and set to music. Hope it inspires you! 

DoSomething Decade of Thanks from Keri Goff on Vimeo.

#Blogging: Interview With Somerville Local First

Joe Grafton, Executive Director of Somerville Local First, is on top of his game. He excels at marrying serious, sustainable change with desirable, fun and sticky brands.  SLF’s Harvest Fest, their annual fall fundraiser, is a smorgasbord of the finest local eats and treats (why, hello, Pretty Things Beer) set to live music and a decidedly un-stuffy vibe.

Did you know that he’s also Chief Operating Officer of Together Boston, a badass electronic music festival? Even that supports his mission of unifying local businesses and getting people to spend money in our fair city.

Together Boston 2011 Festival Preview from TOGETHER BOSTON on Vimeo.

I take long to get to my point but here it is: He asked me to be a community blogger for SLF (posts coming soon!) and I thought this was a terrific opportunity to pick his brain about what SLF needs and in general, the role bloggers play in advancing a nonprofit’s mission. So here it is, straight from an ED and Huffington Post blogger: 

• Joe, for the uninitiated, please talk about Somerville Local First.  How did you get involved?

Somerville Local First is one many local nonprofit networks of locally owned and independent businesses, nonprofits, artists and community members seeking to build an economy that is local, green and fair.

I’m the founder, along with our founding Board of Directors,so I’ve been with SLF from before our official launch date.  The story is a long one, but I worked successfully in corporate for a number of years, had a crisis of conscience, and started to work for what I believed in instead.  SLF became the genesis of that for me.

• Why should we buy local? 

First and foremost: because it is far more impactful on our local economy, and therefore our community.  Two to three times as much money stays local when someone buys local, via local businesses using other local businesses for products and services.

But also, buying locally gives individuals an opportunity to affect positive change through simple actions.  In our current world, with the frustration with our elected officials, an environmental crisis that is only getting worse, and many other challenges, people can feel paralyzed and powerless.  The reality is that depending on the estimate you trust, consumer spending represents 60-70% of the economy every year.  So we actually have the power in our society. By choosing local businesses, we exercise that power.

Finally, buying locally helps foster and create community, and I believe that we all desire community in our lives.

• How does SLF encourage people to buy local?

We run a number of programs and campaigns to do so.  We do two major events each year, SomerFun (a street festival in Union Square) and Harvest Fest (one of Greater Boston’s best tasting events).  We manage a robust online presence including website, blog and social media.  We also distribute two publications per year, our coupon book which is a collaboration with our sister network in Cambridge, and our annual magazine, “A Local’s Guide to Somerville.”

• You’re looking to add new community bloggers to your roster.  Who are they? What is the most important thing they do for SLF?

We are and we’re PSYCHED you’re gonna be one. We’ve got a number of contributors, you can see them on our Our Bloggers page.  They are a wide-ranging group of individuals, and their most important role is to give our readers, and us, a number of different lenses and opportunities to learn about local economies. 

• How much traffic does the SLF blog drive to its website?

Without getting too deep into analytics (Google Analytics = gold), I’d guess its about 50% of our total traffic.  Our goal is to get three posts per week posted to the blog, so posting frequently is a key driver for our website.

• Who are we writing for? Use three adjectives to describe the SLF blog’s audience.

The audience varies, but I’d use these three adjectives: Engaged, community-minded, and smart.

• Describe SLF’s blogging voice.

Lively and fresh, covering a wide range of expertise and interests so our readers can be educated and engaged by various topics. Our style is to identify and partner with creative professionals, and then let them do what they do best. Placing too many boundaries reduces the quality of the product, so we let them do their thing, which typically means awesomesauce.

• What other opportunities are available for people who want to support SLF?

Here’s a few:

Make the shift to buying local businesses, especially our members, and tell people about it!  The way to create tipping points in my view via Malcolm Gladwell, is to influence numerous social circles and create new social norms and behaviors.

Becoming a community member or making a donation is tremendously helpful. We are even worse off in the current nonprofit environment, because our work isn’t really supported by either government OR foundations.  

Sign up for our email list, read our blog, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Attend our events: SomerFun is FREE, Harvest Fest costs money, but is one of the best deals all year long.

 
 
 

#SocialMedia: 3 Nonprofits, 3 Klout Styles

Do you know your Klout score?  Do you care?

I’m kind of a curmudgeon about the gamification of social media.  For example, I really don’t care if I am the mayor of somewhere on Foursquare.  But I do like Klout.  Klout is a simple but effective tool for tracking the success of a nonprofit organization’s social media strategy, especially if building and managing online communities is your job.  Below, I’ve provided some snapshots of nonprofits and their social media influence on Twitter, via Klout:

1. @friendsofmaiti (Maiti Nepal)

• Klout Score: 40
• Klout Style: Networker. “You know how to connect to the right people and share what’s important to your audience. You generously share your network to help your followers.  You have a high level of engagement and an influential audience.”
• Influential about: Human Trafficking / Human Rights / Nepal

I wholeheartedly support the work of Maiti Nepal.  Anuradha Koirala was CNN’s Hero of the Year in 2010, and if you haven’t seen their documentary “The Day My God Died”, you have to see it now. Their work is brave and important, and they are sitting on a goldmine of original content.  They can easily position themselves as Specialists if they used hashtags (e.g. #trafficking) and wrote shorter, more RT-friendly tweets.

2. @thinkingboston (Boston World Partnerships)

• Klout Score: 47
• Klout Style: Specialist.  ”You may not be a celebrity, but within your area of expertise your opinion is second to none.  Your content is likely focused around a specific topic or industry with a focused, highly engaged audience.”
• Influential About: Boston / Business / Massachusetts

According to Klout, Boston World Partnerships is influential about Boston, business, and Massachusetts.  This means that they are right on target with focus and consistency of their tweets. BWP is Twitter’s go-to source for info about these topics with an audience that hangs on to every word.  They currently have about 315 retweeters. Since they are a network for Boston innovators, they likely have a staff member who is working on amplifying their influence to that of a Thought Leader.

3.  @oxfam (Oxfam International)

• Klout Score: 70
• Klout Style: Thought Leader. “You are a thought leader in your industry. Your followers rely on you, not only to share the relevant news, but to give your opinion on the issues. People look to you to help them understand the day’s developments. You understand what’s important and what your audience values that.”
• Influential about: Social Justice / Human Rights / Haiti.

Most nonprofits want to be Thought Leaders.  Thought Leaders, such as Oxfam, are networked, leading authorities with an exceptionally wide sphere of influence.  These organizations provide the most current, relevant and provocative information to the largest, most engaged audience.  Since they receive (and respond!) to a lot of feedback from their audience, they are well-positioned to put less energy into seeking support and more energy into cultivating support.  Smart, right?  Other nonprofits in this category include @charitywater, @WorldEd, and @DoSomething.