So many fundraisers have had this terrible experience: a “new brand” was launched and fundraising results immediately tanked.
You might draw the conclusion that “branding” is an evil force, and you should have nothing to do with it.
Some brands are ill-conceived. Those ones are evil. Typically, they are designed by clueless “brand experts” who misapply commercial branding practices and create an abstract, self-focused brand that pretty much guarantees fundraising failure. You should have nothing to do with that type of brand.
But the problem isn’t branding itself.
If your brand is donor-centered, action-oriented, and captures the specific good donors can do by giving to you (rather than a trumpeting of your organizational superiority) it can boost your fundraising.
But you still have to use your brand right, and The Nth Factor blog has an interesting look at what you can do to make your brand help your fundraising: Branding + Direct Response Fundraising = Love, Actually.
Brand guidelines and brand cops often say (or imply) that the secret to success is to slavishly follow the brand and never vary on it in any way. The theory is that consistency is the active ingredient in branding.
It isn’t. Consistency is one of the lesser virtues of brand. Many other things matter much more. And too much consistency is bad for fundraising.
… if you want your direct response fundraising to thrive, begin with a well developed brand. Then break it, but not really.
(Remember, we’re assuming you have the good kind of brand, not the response-killing type!)
Clarity is better than consistency. And surprise does very well in all fundraising media. That’s why you should break your brand.
Filed under Future Fund Raising Now by on Apr 2nd, 2013. Comment. 
Yes, I know you’re educated and sophisticated. And so is your organization.
Just don’t let all that coolness show up in your fundraising.
The Marketsmart blog looks at the need for simple messaging at Why you should simply make your planned giving messages simple:
Supporters of your mission can get sophistication from a bottle of wine or a good book. But when it comes to your letters, they just want to know what the problem is and how they can help. You won’t impress anyone by complicating your appeal. And you won’t insult them if you make it simple.
It’s a lot harder to communicate simply. And a lot of fundraisers make it even harder for themselves because their pride in their own sophistication drives them to show off.
It’s rude. It’s boorish. And it’s not an effective way to raise funds.
Keep it simple!
Filed under Future Fund Raising Now by on Mar 6th, 2013. Comment.
Don’t you love those weird experiments social scientists do? And the often wacky conclusions they draw?
Here’s a study, reported at UK Fundraising, The power of freshly baked bread to stimulate altruism. A volunteer would drop a glove on the sidewalk outside a bakery or a clothing store. They then kept track how often strangers picked it up and returned it to them.
- 77% of the time by people outside the bakery returned it.
- 52% of the time those outside the clothes shop did.
Their conclusion: “spontaneous help is offered more in areas where pleasant ambient smells are spread. This experiment confirms the role of ambient food odours on altruism.”
Okay that’s a little bit silly. A few dozen, or even a few hundred, observed incidents cannot yield statistically significant results. Then there’s the almost incalculable number of potential variables: what else is happening nearby, what the “dropper” looks like, etc. Direct response professionals laugh at this kind of study.
But look for the Shine Object Brigade to spring into action. They’ll look for ways to make direct mail appeals smell good. (Doesn’t work; I’ve tested it.) Or perhaps somebody will invent something called “HTMsmell” so websites can smell good.
Truth is, being kind feels good. Some people know that and benefit from it all the time. Others haven’t yet figured it out. A pleasant smell might put some fence-sitters in an altruistic mood.
But be careful how seriously you take these oddball studies that claim to give us deep insight into human nature.
Filed under Future Fund Raising Now by on Dec 7th, 2012. Comment.
Here are 5 Myths About Social Media for Nonprofit Organizations from the Good Counsel blog:
- Social media is a great way to fundraise.
- Social media will get people to do something for us or drive more traffic to our website.
- A nonprofit’s ‘follower’ numbers directly translates in to memberships, dollars in the door or increased event attendance.
- Social media will fix all the problems, and is a great strategy for nonprofits.
- Social media is a fad, and we can just ignore it until it goes away.
I half-way agree with #5. Actually, for fundraising purposes, social media is largely a fad (actually several rising and falling fads), but it would be foolish to just ignore it. Social media in some form is likely to become much more than a fad, possibly even a great medium for raising funds. Pay attention, because the switch is likely to be subtle and quick.
Filed under Future Fund Raising Now by on Jun 11th, 2012. Comment.
Getting discovered among a lot of websites and getting your content articles read by people yet again thousands can be incredibly tough to understand. That’s why you need to ensure that your content articles have the greatest optimization as well as content. But one does not simply improve and popularize their content articles in a snap. There are numerous actions and tips that you can adhere to to get you recognized by the internet. Here’s how:
Established websites and internet-based newsletters need a certain degree of professionalism in the content articles they publish, just as print publications do. The way to attract and keep viewers is to continuously provide readers with well- composed content articles which are correct, well-timed, and provide useful tips or methods to real life complications associated with the subject matter. So ensure that all of your articles are relevant to the preferred subject.
Also, mixed in with the off- topic that articles are multitude of submissions which are actually white papers or inadequately hidden promotions composed primarily to promote buying a certain product or service from the publisher of the article. Ensure that articles are of genuine and original content. Not just filled with articles that are overloaded with pointless marketing campaigns.
Ensure that the articles are particularly designed to target a certain audience. This is why you need to do careful Niche research. It is very unnecessary to promote a product that you don’t know will effectively sell off to the general public. It is better to know it up front than wondering what they desire. Ask around, perform surveys or explore online boards to see what appears to be trending amongst people today.Social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter are excellent places to look.
Begin thinking about keywords and key phrases to boost your content articles. Much like in niche research, this can be achieved by doing proper keyword research and same thing with
Keyword analysis. Uncover what words and phrases people today use to find what they need over the internet and incorporate them into your articles. After that, you can now start building your website, publish it and sign up with search engines and directories.
Last but not the least; use social networking to promote your articles and websites. Think about such as a link for your social networking accounts or other networking website into your author box. You are able to thrust out articles to audience who have chosen to adhere to you which will give you you an easy jump in getting new people to view your articles. – nicheresearchSel4YDD4tk
Filed under Chris Stoddard by on Mar 13th, 2012. Comment.