Archive for March, 2010
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.
Click. Buy. Help. Gains International Attention with a U.K. Guest Post
Mar 22nd
Guest Post - A Passion to Understand
In the blogging world, it is thrilling to think that someone is actually reading your written word. In the film, Julie & Julia
Given the excitement a blogger (yours truly included) gets when someone reads and actually comments, you can imagine the exhilaration I felt when I received an offer to write my first guest post. A Passion To Understand is a blog that chronicles the author’s interest in world affairs and explores her passion to understand why certain events occur.
Based in the U.K., the blog’s author, Emm, manages Emm in London (The Adventures of An Eternal Tourist in London) and Addicted to Media (Music, television, film and book reviews by Emm) as well. After commenting on her post called Running for Autism, she asked if I would share more about Click. Buy. Help. on A Passion to Understand.
Naturally, I obliged!
Expanding on my original comment on Running for Autism, I focused my Guest Post on “Donor Fatigue” as a growing challenge for all non-profit organizations.
I’ve made references to Donor Fatigue on Click. Buy. Help. before, but it bears closer scrutiny. The site, Donor Fatigue, defines donor fatigue as, “a general weariness and diminished public response to requests for aid to needy people or donations to charitable causes.” In my opinion, a very appropriate definition. Simply, the more times one exercises one’s arm, the more fatigued it gets.
The worldwide financial crisis was a significant factor in slowing, and subsequently holding back the global economy from growing. Only recently has the U.S. begun seeing some dim glimmers of hope. As the economy contracted, so did the philanthropic gifts made to needy organizations. However, in spite of the economic challenges, the earthquake in Haiti on January 12 saw record-setting donations through the American Red Cross. Donors can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10. The campaign has been very successful due to its simplicity – your donation just appears on your phone bill.
On the heels of the Haitian disaster was the earthquake in Chile on February 27. The American Red Cross and many other humanitarian organizations around the world continue to plead for support, but as you can imagine, donors are beginning to tire. They are continuing with their texting campaign. Supporters can direct a $10 donation to Chilean support by texting “CHILE” to 90999.
The American Red Cross can be reached at http://newsroom.redcross.org/.
There is plenty of rhetoric in the media about the ever-growing “donor fatigue” syndrome. As the climate and socio-political temperatures both heat up (yes, I believe the world is warming), strife in all parts of the world continues to grow and the need for assistance with it. Donors’ fatigue also continues to grow as the requests for financial assistance from humanitarian organizations continues unabated.
Click. Buy. Help. is positioned as an alternative to asking supporters to “dig deeper.”
One of the many challenges non-profit organizations face is in growing its revenue. Similar to the basic rule of investing, organizations must also diversify. They must grow not only the number of donors, but also the type of donors. The thinking is that when the economy deals a blow to one group, maybe another is doing better. But donors are only one revenue source. Ultimately, it is the revenue sources that must be diversified. Click. Buy. Help. simply offers a new, additional, and more diversified source of revenue.
For the complete Guest Post, please visit Emm’s blog, A Passion to Understand.
Thank you, Emm for this opportunity. I hope you and your readers found it valuable and look forward to future discussion and debate.
Dave
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.
Email Signature as Viral Tool
Mar 9th
Spreading the word about your non-profit’s work never stops. You advertise, partner, promote, discuss, pitch, and hundreds of other verbs that describe the evangelizing you do each day. It’s hard work, but necessary to sustain consistently. Does your email program work as hard for you as you do for your organization?
Consider a carefully designed email signature. Here’s a sample used by Click. Buy. Help.:
There are many ways to craft an email signature, but regardless how you do it… DO IT! Every email you send, or to which you respond, becomes a reminder. Let’s look at some of those components.
- Name. Be sure to cite your organization’s name. As a volunteer, you may have a GMAIL or YAHOO account. If you have an email account with your organization’s domain, all the better. Buy you can’t depend on the person at the other end to decipher the domain to remember your organization. Tell them.
- Slogan. Many groups have a slogan, or another manner to describe their operation. Include it. A slogan not only tells more about the company than the company name, it can also be another way to remember you. Any time you can associate something to your organization, you’ve made progress in keeping you in their thoughts.
- URL. Including your web address – and making it a clickable link – gives the recipient yet another way to get in touch with you.
- Badge. Many organizations use the 125 x 125 pixel “badge” as a way to identify themselves. The badge became popular in blogs as a way to link to favorite locations. The size has become so common that many advertising networks actually rely on it for common recognition.
Most email systems have features where you can establish the signature block one time and the system will automatically add it at the bottom of each email or reply. Sometimes the system opens a new email with it showing at the bottom, while others add it at the time you send. Be sure to test it to make sure you are getting the exact look you want.
Here’s a few suggested tag lines to consider when promoting your page on Click. Buy. Help. Note that any link you can include to your page makes it that much easier to click through to your page to being earning revenue:
- You can help [organization name] raise funds by making your online purchases from our page on ClickBuyHelp.org
- Purchase online – earn commissions for [organization name] at our page on ClickBuyHelp.org
- Do you buy online? Start your next purchase from our page on ClickBuyHelp.org and earn a commission for [organization name]
Be sure to make your signature a “call to action.” It is important that the reader know what to do. This is not email marketing – although that’s another topic for another time. This is simply using every tool at your disposal to get the word out about the good work that your organization does. Take advantage of every opportunity to promote your work. It only takes one new supporter to make a difference.
Let us know if you need help creating an effective email signature block.
Click. Buy. Help.
Haiti’s Refoundation – Not Reconstruction
Mar 25th
Posted by Click. Buy. Help. in Organizations
1 comment
In Episode 160 on March 16, podcasters Adam Davidson and Chana Joffe-Walt discuss their recent visit and their time with Haitian Primer Minister Jean Max Bellerive. It is interesting to note the Prime Minister’s unique situation as being able to cause a “Refoundation” as opposed to a “Reconstruction.”
The difference between these two terms is profound.
Prime Minister Bellerive does not favor the term “Reconstruction” since it implies the restoring of Haiti to the condition it was before the earthquake. His belief is substantially more visionary – he believes that a “Refoundation” is needed, or stated another way, pursuing a path of building the foundation of a country the way it should be – not the way it was. Naturally, there is considerable discussion along with the actual interview and I won’t attempt to recap it here. Anyone interested would be hard pressed to more wisely invest just under 19 minutes listening to the podcast. The important aspect is this unique, one time chance to fundamentally change the country.
Of course, a “Refoundation” will be expensive. Roads, infrastructure, schools, government, health care – the list goes on and on – will take billions of dollars. But it is not just the sheer volume of funds, but the enormous and varied sources of those funds. A seemingly overwhelming challenge will be in how to manage the sources of support continuing to pour in – and making the best “foundational” use of those funds – from all over the world.
Yes, there is a connection to Click. Buy. Help.
Thank you for your willingness to change a habit when shopping online. Please continue to support the American Red Cross through the Red Cross for Haiti page. If you are a part of a U.S.-based non-profit organization and want to join us, please get in touch. If you simply want to help, click through to your favorite retailer and make a regular purchase – the commission on that sale will generate a donation – and you will have helped Haiti along its path to a “Refoundation.”
Many thanks,
Dave