Seth Godin, a new-media guru, argues that the century-old model for nonprofit fundraising has stopped working. Instead of bombarding prospects and loyal donors with mail and email pleas, he argues, nonprofits should give supporters good reasons to talk up your organization on your behalf.
RESOURCE:Finally! Search Engine Optimization in Plain English
Grassroots.Org has produced a free, downloadable guide to SEO for nonprofits, and what is even more amazing, it makes sense! Now you don’t have to pay a consultant to make your web page place higher in online searches; you can figure out how all by yourself. Plus, you’ll amaze your friends when you drop words like“optimization” and “analytics” into conversation.
HA!:Will Shakespeare’s Facebook Page
See how a writer and his friends keep up through the miracles of social networking.
TIP: Five Ways to Promote Your Organization
Blogger Joanne Fritz offers an overview of five categories of promotion: marketing, branding, online, media relations, and fundraising. She also offers lots of links for more info on each category.
NEWS: Colleges Try Online Networks to Build Alumni Community
The “news” element is that even my own alma mater, LSU, is trying to strengthen its alumni support by going online.By the time a trend gets to Louisiana, you can be sure it’s mainstream everywhere else. What’s yet to be seen is whether universities know what to do with these networks: do they use them as one more way to “push” their own messages out, or do they let alums connect with one another and become self-empowered advocates for their schools? Your homework assignment: Could this model work for networking your own constituents?
TIP:How To Write Like a Human
Matthew Stibbe at “Bad Language” offers some wise ideas for injecting the human touch into stiff, wooden prose. Bonus: a great Bill Gates anecdote.
