Resources
The New Ask: Not for Cash
Jul 3rd
In fundraising circles, “The Ask” is a critical aspect of any traditional campaign. The groundwork laid; the education delivered; the case made – they are all important preparations for an artful and tasteful request for cold hard cash.
One often overlooked, but important ingredient for a successful Ask is first understanding what money means to the asker. In Laura Fredricks’ book, “The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project, or Business Venture,” she says, “It is essential that we explore our own values of what money means to us, and as importantly, why we feel we deserve to get what we ask for.” This realization will properly set our minds to allow us to perform The Ask “artfully.” As it is in many areas of non-profit operations, “The Ask” is as much art as it is science. More >
Q&A Added to How It Works
Jul 1st
As Click. Buy. Help. continues to talk to non-profit organizations about developing a new source of revenue – without asking for more donations from current supporters, a common set of questions keep coming up. The Q&A Page was added to address these questions. As more questions arise and as our operations evolve, the Q&A Page will be updated. Be sure to check back from time to time to see if things have changed.
Here’s what’s there now:
Q: What is Click. Buy. Help.?
A: Click. Buy. Help. helps non-profit organizations develop a new source of revenue, without asking their supporters for additional donations.
Fundraising’s Elusive Silver Bullet
May 8th
Recently, my wife and I attended a friend’s fundraising event. An excellent cause; a fun time; a good use of our entertainment dollars. All is good, right?
Not necessarily.
We all know the level of effort that is required to successfully orchestrate any sort of fundraising event. In this case, it was coordinating the hall and the dinner, the silent auction items, the wine that was donated from it’s members for the raffle, the post card announcements, the Master of Ceremonies for the evening, the… well, you get the idea. Sure, money was raised, but at a significant level of invested effort by many of the group’s members.
My friend shared with me a sentiment from his group that is a common refrain coming from most non-profit organizations: “If we just had that one source of revenue that didn’t take all this effort by all these people.” Of course, there isn’t a “Silver Bullet” that will solve all the revenue issues for a non-profit, but there are ways to improve your position, or better yet, ability to earn revenue from other sources.
Look at diversifying the sources of revenue. More >
Do You Know Your Supporters?
Apr 25th
The key to successfully building valuable, long-term relationships with your supporters and as importantly, potential supporters, is in getting to know them. The better you can track their “characteristics” and use that valuable information to produce relevant and appropriate communications, the better you’ll connect with them. Showing them you have taken the time to get to know them will usually encourage them to do the same. When they do, you will of course benefit.
Here’s some introductory questions you should ask yourself:
Outdated Web Content Impacts Revenue
Apr 2nd
Fight the Calendar - Keep Your Web Site Current
If you do a Google search for “outdated websites” you will get over 1.8 million responses. No, not every hit pertains exactly to the negative impacts of pages that have not been updated for some time. However, there are very compelling reasons for keeping your content fresh and not allow any occurrences of “Last updated May 12, 2004″ to display. You know how you feel when you notice very dated content on a web site. Not tending to this important detail is likely to have financial consequences for your organization.
Companies with a web presence that use the web to sell products, do not instill confidence in their customers when information is shown that is obviously dated. Non-profit organizations usually aren’t selling products, but you all sell your message – a message of the good work that you do. The better you sell your message to your current and potential supporters, the more apt they be to help. If you don’t give them current, relevant and actionable information, they will likely look elsewhere.
There are strategies that you can employ to help you stay nimble with the ever-changing calendar, or better yet, prevent yourself from getting into a situation where the site can look old. Let’s look at five ways you can make sure you maintain an “up to date” presence at all times: More >
Ensure a Next Time with Responsive Customer Service
Mar 29th
Wired's Wired Sections
Podcasts are a wonderful source of ideas for the posts contained in Click. Buy. Help. In “Haiti’s Refoundation – Not Reconstruction” I cited an NPR (National Public Radio) podcast. Today, the inspiration is from Jim Hopkinson of The Hopkinson Report, who is self-described as “Wired’s Marketing Guy with the Marketing Trends that Matter.” Wired Magazine is the ultimate in all things, well, wired (see the graphic with its “wired” sections.) This post is not meant to be a missive on the move to social media to exploit Twitter and Facebook in promoting your non-profit organization (although there are merits!) Instead it will use an example Jim cites about not just pleasing your customer, but the importance of being ultra-responsive to their needs.
Continuous Improvement Not Just For Industry
Mar 18th
Continous Improvement For Everyone
There have been many books written about Continuous Improvement
Does business benefit from these disciplines? Absolutely. Does business have an exclusive hold on these benefits? No way!
Non-profit organizations can also benefit from paying attention to continuously improving operations. Nowhere is it more important to reduce costs and improve quality performance than in the resource-constrained non-profit world. It doesn’t take Kaizen Events, Process Mapping, 5S, or Seven Why analyses to benefit from Continuous Improvement attitudes. However, it does take a certain amount of discipline and a few tools to identify and apply creative solutions.
Let’s look at recurring fundraising events.
Leverage Online Marketing Efforts to Multiply Your Results
Mar 15th
Leverage Your Online Marketing Efforts
Leverage is the ability to realize increased benefit from the careful investment of a moderate amount of effort. For example, moving the handle of a car’s jack a few times can raise the car enough to change a tire. Personally, I could not lift a car by myself, but I can certainly pump a jack handle 20 or 30 times to raise the car. If we want to take this analogy to its extreme, the ultimate leverage is a simple pushing of cell phone buttons to call AAA, but that’s another story.
The point is that using leverage to share the good work of your organization should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. Most non-profit organizations have a built-in base of leverage opportunities, but we sometimes need to be reminded.
Every non-profit organization has some sort of governing board. In many cases, the members of that board (and many core members of the organization, for that matter) are members of the business community. Whether business owner or employee, it seems business is a common participant in the work of non-profits. Focusing on business owners – and their web sites – for a moment, there are mutually beneficial tactics that can be deployed.
New Resources Section
Mar 12th
Click. Buy. Help. continues to add value to our member organizations. Recently, more information was added to the Resources section and it experienced a bit of a redesign in the process. Now, the Resources page is the home base for building a library of important tips, tricks and strategies for our member organizations.
While it was the Customizable Promotional Flier design that was the original offering, the newly added Email Signatures post will provide advice on just one of the many methods for spreading the word about your organization.
Check the Resources section often for more tools to maximize your benefit of being a member of Click. Buy. Help.
Board Member Participation Begins with Careful Selection
May 1st
Posted by Click. Buy. Help. in Resources
No comments
Expect Full Participation
Understanding that the commentary posted on Click. Buy. Help. is intended for everyone at a non-profit organization, this topic may be somewhat “touchy.” A substantial difference in perspectives are brought to bear (rightfully so) between Board Members, Executive Directors, paid staff, volunteers, involved constituents, and loyal supporters. This is not meant to “pick on” Board Members. It is merely intended to bring to light an important and required element for success: Participation. So, for the duration of this post, I will be speaking directly to Executive Directors and Board Chairs.
In the past, I have been exposed to situations where participation and attendance at events by the leaders (sometimes Board Members) of non-profit organizations has been lacking. Other times, leaders from the group directly benefitting from the non-profit’s event have even been absent. While you may or may not be able to relate personally, believe me, those circumstances are awkward at best and divisive or worse at the other end of the spectrum.
More >