Monthly Archives: August, 2011
Irene
I am writing at the end of a week that has seen both an earthquake and a hurricane. While my friends in the Carolinas or California might consider one or the other commonplace, they would have to acknowledge that both in the same week is a bit out of the ordinary. That they occurred in [...]
Social Media Consequences
Mark Carpenter, public relations manager for the Council on Foundations, suggests these effective ways to avoid group-think and other unintended consequences of social media: Always make sure you have a strategy in place when it comes to your foundation’s social media plan as whole. This isn’t your personal Facebook page. Always know your organization’s end goal [...]
Time to Plan Your Year-End Appeal
I know. It’s not even Labor Day yet! Nonetheless, it is not too soon to plan your year-end-appeal. Don’t give short shrift to this otherwise perfunctory perennial activity. Your solicitation should be in mailboxes by Thanksgiving. Back into a calendar that anticipates writing, printing, personalization, and mailing. People give to people, not causes. Apply that [...]
How Critical is Philanthropy?
A new study by Moody’s Investors Service cited in the Wall Street Journal reports that nonprofit hospitals are seeing revenue grow at the slowest pace in two decades. The Chronicle of Philanthropy summarizes the findings, “ The review of 401 facilities’ fiscal 2010 results found median growth of 4 percent, the lowest figure since Moody’s [...]
Volatility
For a definition of volatility, one need look no farther than a graph of the Dow’s last five days. It’s been a rollercoaster of a week on Wall Street. While volatility causes concern among investors, the uncertainty it creates may be even worse for fundraisers. It has been said that our donors will give in [...]
What Does Video Do?
Andy Greenspan of Andrew Greenspan & Associates offers nonprofits valuable tips for their fundraising videos: What makes for an effective fundraising or image video? You first need to understand what the medium of video does well and does not do well. 1) The best video takes a big idea and communicates it through a great story. Think of [...]
