2006's Best Resources for Nonprofit and Foundation Communicators
Readers' Favorites – Best Getting Attention Articles of 2006
- How to Do Grand Plan Marketing 90 Days at a Time
This guide to effective planning is the hands-down winner
of the "most useful article" award. You sent me lots of
great feedback on this realistic, easy-to-put-to-use
tutorial on a unique, and much more feasible, planning
approach.
http://www.nancyschwartz.com/90_day_marketing_planning.html
- How a Small Nonprofit Shaped a Memorable Brand – Five
Steps to Low-Budget Branding for Big Results (Case Study)
This in-depth case study details the multiple-phase
branding process designed and undertaken by Women's Edge
Coalition(WEC) to refine and launch its new name and key
messages that engage its diverse target audiences.
The end result has been clearer understanding, broader
reach and increased support for WEC. Find out how at:
http://www.nancyschwartz.com/budget_nonprofit_branding.html
- Everybody's Talking About You – Why Your Nonprofit
Needs to Listen, and Listen Hard
What happens when control of your nonprofit's message
(frankly, always an illusion) passes from your organization,
and the traditional media, to your audiences? Getting
Attention readers found this guide to scouring the online
media for coverage of your nonprofit, and what to do
about it, extremely useful.
http://www.nancyschwartz.com/nonprofits_losing_message_control.html
- This Creative Brief Template Helps Ensure Powerful Copy and Design
Creative briefs, summarizing the goals and specifications
for a communications product, are a core tool in the for-
profit marketing world, but seldom used in the nonprofit
arena. Read this article to find out how to put this
useful tool to work to generate the products you want,
with less effort and less expense.
http://www.nancyschwartz.com/nonprofit_creative_brief_template.html
- The Missing Conversation: Why Communications Advocacy
Should Remain #1 on Your To Do List
You pointed to the lack of leadership support and/or
understanding as one of your greatest challenges
in the spring 2006 Getting Attention reader survey.
And it's true.
Many nonprofit and foundation leaders don't understand,
or simply doubt, the value or seemliness of marketing.
Others do find value in marketing but don't understand
that focus and professionalism is as essential here as
in other fields. It is these organizations that are
frequently eclipsed by competitors in membership,
fundraising and awareness. As a result, their impact
is significantly limited.
This article will help you build leadership support for
marketing your organization the way you think is right:
http://www.nancyschwartz.com/strategic_communications.html
Best of 2006 Nonprofit Communication Resources
- Free High-Quality Photos for Your Communications Work
Photographs are a vital tool for engaging overloaded
audiences. And when you're publishing online – be
it a blog, e-newsletter or Web site – it's easy to
cut and paste in just the right shot. Presentation
skills experts emphasize the impact of photos too –
ideally screen size with text overlaid, rather than
those deadly text bullet points.
Unfortunately, photos can be very expensive, and
rights issues a mess to deal with.
My solution of late is Stock.Xchng for no- or low-cost
photos.
Some photographers restrict usage or want to be
contacted before publication but with those few steps,
there are thousands of great photos here, yours for the
taking.
http://www.sxc.hu/
- New Report on Email Marketing Metrics Shows How to
Reach Your Audiences
This new report from Mailer Mailer summarizes trends
in your audience's email habits and preferences, just
the insight you need to shape format, timing, language
and more to make the greatest possible impact.
http://www.mailermailer.com/metrics/TR-H1-2006.pdf
- The Best Ever How-to Book on Storytelling –
Storytelling: Branding in Practice
What's different about this guide is the anecdotes
and case studies the authors provide to illustrate
their approach. These real-life stories (aha!) make
it easy to understand the power of storytelling. Yes,
only one of the case studies is about nonprofit storytelling
(by GRACE, the Global Resource Center for the
Environment --which used storytelling to boost the
impact of their public education campaign on the health
and environmental risks of factory farming), but the
balance of examples are easy to apply to nonprofit
messaging.
http://tinyurl.com/ygymvh
- Groundbreaking Clearinghouse of Health Communications
Worldwide is Outstanding Resource, and Model
Wow, one-stop shopping in health communications.
Media/Materials Clearinghouse (M/MC) is an international
resource for all those with an interest in health
communication materials: pamphlets, posters, audiotapes,
videos, training materials, job aids, electronic media
and other media/materials designed to promote public
health.
http://www.m-mc.org/
- How to Raise Thousands of Dollars With Email
Online fundraising expert Madeline Stanionis, president
of Donordigital, puts her laser insight to work in this
new guidebook. What's that mean for your nonprofit?
Concrete how-tos, with case studies and samples, on
putting email to use to raise (hundreds of or tens of)
thousands of dollars for your nonprofit.
http://www.donordigital.com/rtde.php
For more articles and case studies, subscribe now to the Getting Attention e-update.
© 2002 - Nancy E. Schwartz. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications. As President of Nancy Schwartz & Company (www.nancyschwartz.com), Nancy and her team provide marketing planning and implementation services to organizations as varied as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, and Wake County (NC) Health Services.
Subscribe to her free Getting Attention e-update (http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_attention.html) and read her blog at http://www.gettingattention.org for more insights, ideas and great tips on attracting the attention your organization deserves.
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the copyright and "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint.
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