In this environment, we have all been forced to become more virtual. I recently worked with a nonprofit that did an online gala BC (Before Covid 19). It was very successful. Now more than ever, it may be time to try it something like this at your organization. Mobile Cause has put together a great info-graphic with a ton of wonderful ideas.
Take away: Stay Home, Stay Safe, & Get Virtual
I love the New Year, new ideas, new goals, new events, so much opportunity. Here are 20 ideas/thoughts to help you make 2020 your best year ever.
Tech TIPS:
Check out a how to video on You Tube.
BOARD TIPS:
VOLUNTEER TIPS:
GENERAL:
I hope your 2020 is absolutely amazing! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Thank you Mobile Cause, this is an amazing tool...excited to share with new followers. Enjoy!!!
One of my favorite topics is year end fundraising. It’s easy for this to be my favorite because it is when more money is raised for nonprofits than any other time of year.
In fact, 30% of funds raised are raised in December, and 10% of all annual giving occurs in the last 3 days of the year. Year end fundraising just makes sense.
To that point, I would like to share some helpful tips and resources.
I recently posted this How to Create a Successful Year End Fundraising Campaign presentation on slide share. These slides are from the class I teach, and are packed full of ideas, samples, and best practices.
In addition, this is a great campaign planning tool that I helped create when I was a part of the team at Sage Nonprofit Solutions. This template is a bit dated, but the strategies and suggestions are as classic as a good black jacket!
And before I bid you adieu, I will leave you with one of my favorite blogs about year end fundraising…Top 10 Ways to Kill Your Year-End Fundraising Campaign.
I wish you well on your journey to Year End Success.
Take-away: Don’t wait to get started…the time is now!
My newest presentation will focus on the ever changing landscape that is the Nonprofit of 2020, and the discussions that should be permeating through your board room. One of my first catalytic questions centers around our politically charged landscape. Where are our donations coming from and why are they coming to us? While I was working on the presentation I came across a great article from the New York Times.
Take-away: I would encourage you to read it and discuss this with your board. There are a lot of implications that come with accepting donations today, and I think this read will help open the eyes of some members and maybe even some of your staff.
Social media is an ever changing environment. It is important to remember these basics:
Post-high-quality content regularly. I would recommend using a social media management tool that allows you to keep your social media managers in one place. I really like later.com.
Show your users what their money is doing for your organization. They want to see your clients eating the food they are buying.
Always include a clear action when posting. What do you want people to do?
While it’s impossible to predict how the social media marketing landscape will change over the course of a year, here are a couple of trends to watch out for according to DonorBox.org, and I love them all!
The “ephemeral” video content (content that lasts a short period of time before disappearing) is continuing to grow for social platforms.
Although Instagram rolled out the Stories feature years after Snapchat has been using and developing the feature, Instagram Stories has already accrued more than 250 million daily users compared to the 173 million daily active Snapchat users.
Here’s how CARE used Instagram stories to tell compelling stories of seven women. Their campaign was titled “Stories from the Other Side of the World,” and it follows seven women over seven days, their streams littered with the tropes of Stories narrative—”end of the day #exhausted,” #nevergiveup, “family breakfast,” “back to school.”
Don’t miss out on utilizing Instagram Stories to grow your nonprofit. Instagram Stories are an opportunity for you to post several times throughout a day without spamming your followers’ timelines, and Instagram users are avid users.
Influencer marketing has been big for the past couple of years. Many declare it dead’ since the market got oversaturated at one point, reducing the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
This is because the overwhelming amount of sponsored content started having an opposite effect on users. Millennials are less trusting of influencer these days, since the line between what’s genuine and what’s not became more blurry.
This is not to say that influencer marketing is dead. It still produces results and is evolving.
Influencer marketing grew out of celebrity endorsement. Businesses and organizations have found for many years that their sales/engagement/donations usually rise when a celebrity promotes or endorses them. There are still many cases of businesses, particularly high-end brands, using celebrities as influencers.
However, during the past couple of years especially, influencer marketing has been about partnering with people with a substantial following online (e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc.) who have built a reputation in a particular niche (e.g. fashion, beauty, finance, health etc).
By paying for a sponsored post, your organization can gain access to their following (although some influencers will do it for free for charities).
Influencer marketing in 2018 is all about micro influencers. Micro influencers have between 1k–100k followers on social media. People with 500k–1 million followers and 100k–500k followers fall into the macro influencer and middle influencer categories, respectively.
The engagement rate is usually better with micro influencers, probably since others can relate to them more easily than say Beyonce.
Make sure to choose influencers who speak out or are active in areas related to your nonprofit’s mission. For example, let’s say you run an animal shelter. Preventing animal cruelty is part of your brand’s mission statement.
You shouldn’t work with a micro influencer who bought a puppy from a puppy mill or promotes buying leather jackets. That just doesn’t fit with your mission and brand. You can even work with multiple influencers for each campaign. After that, you should take a look at the analytics for each influencer for valuable information such as:
For those influencers whose posts end up working well for your nonprofit, invest in building meaningful relationships with them.
The power of social video is undeniable. Facebook has around 500 million people watching Facebook videos every day. 82% of Twitter users consistently watch video content on the platform. Snapchat generates 10 billion video views every day. Video consumption on Instagram increased by 150% last year. Even LinkedIn is rolling out a native video to all of their users.
One-third of online activity is spent watching video. Over half a billion people are watching video on Facebook every day.
Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
Video is becoming that social media trend you can’t afford to ignore anymore. That’ll only grow more apparent in 2018.
Live video, the younger brother of video, is especially prominent as a trend in 2018.
Live video is more appealing to brand audiences: 80% would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts. (Livestream and New York Magazine Survey)
Furthermore, 95% of brand execs say live video is key to their 2018 strategies. (Brandlive and IBM Cloud Video).
Viewers respond positively to live video streaming because of the immediacy and engagement it creates, especially since so much of the online content is becoming more curated. Live streaming also allows you to respond to your viewers real time.
If you’d love to give live streaming a go, here are a couple of popular live streaming video “types”:
There are multiple platforms for ‘going live’. Most social media platforms have added on that feature. Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope, Twitter, Snapchat, Twitch, and Instagram Live are all great platforms. Choose one to start with – ideally focusing on one where you have the largest audience on or where your target audience spends most of their time.
Notify your audience in advance that you will be going live (at least one day before, but ideally a week). This ensures more people show up to your live.
If you want to make live streaming an integral part of your marketing strategy, consider setting a schedule and staying consistent.
This will help you maximize your reach and generate new leads for your company. This trend is set to leap in the next few years as 5G becomes standard.
Take-away: Social Media is an important part of every good nonprofit strategy. Make sure you aren’t left in the dark.
Trends courtesy of https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/7-nonprofit-social-media-trends-taking-over-2018/
