Blue Trolley Press

PR TIP: FORGET ABOUT NEWS RELEASES. UNLESS …

Jon — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:42:40 +0000

Many organizations fail to realize news releases (sometimes known as media advisories), done right, can help get free publicity. The reality is most major news organizations get literally hundreds of them a week. They read few of them. To stand out, you need to develop personal relationships with major editors, news directors and those who are responsible for public service. It takes time, but it’s worth it. Contact those who are most important to you. Ask for five minutes of their time. Visit them. Let them know that you value their services and how best to contact them with information about your events. Then the next time you have a need, they’ll remember your face, much more than they’ll look at a piece of white paper sent by someone they’ve never met.

2009 America’s Giving Challenge

jeff — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:43:32 +0000

Facebook’s Causes Exchange is helping nonprofits leverage social media to participate in this year’s America’s Giving Challenge.

The competition is sponsored by the Case Foundation and Parade magazine and it launches October 7th.

Nonprofits can compete for awards of up to $50,000. More details can be found on the Case Foundation Blog and in the October 11th issue of Parade.

Causes Exchange has provided several useful tips to help nonprofits be more competitive:

Gather together your best videos, pictures, and links so you can start your Giving Challenge campaign with a clear case for the importance of your work. Since we redesigned the Media Board about six weeks ago, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of daily media views.

Draft milestone and progress reports you’ll send to your cause members: Raised $500? Hit the 100 people donated mark? Highlight the individual contributions of your super cause members when the cause as a whole reaches a goal or milestone.

Think about the kinds of clear and compelling messages you will send to your cause members. Educate them about the nonprofit you support and be specific about how the organization uses the money they donate.

Visit Causes Exchange for their complete list of tips for successful Giving Challenge campaign.

Sometimes It Takes An Outsider

jeff — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:18:12 +0000

I’ve preached this sermon. Over and over again, as I’ve worked for one of the nation’s largest nonprofits, I have pushed us to move into the new millennium. As I have spoken to groups and fundraising professionals, I have hear them lament the same issues. Well, on behalf of all of us, thanks to Seth Godin for his post today.

We’ll blog about it, forward it to our Nonprofit Boards and Executive Directors and hope that this is the time they listen. Sometimes it takes an outsider with the marketing chops and the publishing pedigree for the top decision makers to listen.

Happy Birthday, Internet!

Brent — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:06:15 +0000

It’s official. The Internet is is turning the big 4-0. I cannot think of a single discovery, generation, human or earthly development that has impacted so significantly a majority of the world’s population. And yet many individuals, companies and organizations are not yet taking advantage of the wonderful tool. The World Wide Web–one of the Internet’s children you could say, about 20 years old, is much more than a marketing opportunity. Coupled with the Internet and many of the Internet’s other “children,” we are able to connect, make financial transactions, share files, access satellite imagery, read books, listen to radio and watch TV at our leisure, and even run the mechanical functions of our houses or entire industrial buildings off site! Like many people just turning 40, the Internet’s most productive days are surely ahead of it. If you have a chance in your office this week (Wednesday is the official day), why not teach your co-workers a bit of history by throwing a well-deserved afternoon break Birthday Party for the Internet.

Connecting with Resources through Search

Douglas Karr — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:37:25 +0000

Running a non-profit may be one of the most challenging jobs in the country. Budgets require decisions that impact peoples’ lives and non-profit managers have to make these terrible decisions every day. With the decline of the dollar, the deep recession we’re in, many non-profits are having to close their doors.

You don’t need to.

There are people with money out there right now – looking to donate that money to charities and non-profit managers who need and deserve it. These philanthropists are becoming more intelligent and doing a lot of research using the web in recent years. They are researching via search, looking for local companies that are making the most impact in their own back yard and those who are using resources effectively.

Are you in their search engine results?

Many charities with an online presence don’t realize that having a website isn’t an expense, it’s actually a gateway between donations and you. It’s an investment. Did you know that there are over 1,500 searches every month for indy charity, indianapolis charity, or indianapolis charities?

Spending a lot of money on a website without any search analysis and search engine optimization is like buying a beautiful office and putting it in the middle of the desert. No one knows where you are and no one knows how to find you.

People are looking for companies like you right now to donate money, time and resources. Developing a beautiful web presence and spending $10k+ on a cool website aren’t going to help you… but spending a modest amount on a standard website or even better – a blog, that’s optimized for keywords that will bring you traffic, will result in an incredible return on investment for your organization.

Don’t invest in a web presence without first checking the credentials of your web design company. Find out how their other sites are performing when it comes to search engines… not how many awards they’ve won. Ensure that part of your web marketing package is providing effective keyword research and lays out a web strategy that shoots you to the top of the search engine results page for those terms.

Talk to social media and blogging experts about how they can help you acquire donations through the web. If you don’t know anyone that can help, please contact me and I’ll send you a free e-book on Search Engine Optimization and Blogging.

Utilize social networks to publicize your efforts – right here in Indiana, we have Smaller Indiana, a wonderful social network of Indiana professionals and creatives who pay a lot of attention to non-profits as well as arts and culture. Networks like Smaller Indiana can provide you an inexhaustible supply of donors and volunteers – use them! (Disclosure: I’m a co-founder along with Pat Coyle.)

Managing Your Time and Creating Content

jeff — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:00:19 +0000

Content Creations Strategies for Nonprofits

View more documents from kivilm.

Kivi Leroux Miller posted the above presentation to SlideShare. It contains a lot of useful tips and information to help you generate content efficiently. Check out her website at Nonprofitmarketingblog.com and find more about her webinars on our calendar page.

Online Donation Pay?

Brent — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:20:13 +0000

In 1891, Salvation Army Captain Joseph McFee placed an iron kettle at a corner on Market Street, at the Oakland Ferry Landing across from San Francisco. He had a vision of serving a Christmas meal for the destitute and poverty-stricken in the San Francisco area and need the money to do so. Captain McFee placed this pot at a spot where he knew there would be a lot of foot traffic, and that those feet may have some money to spare for those in need—namely sailors landing at the harbor and heading into town after being paid for their most recent voyage.

Those kettles continue today, raising more money each year, but in today’s so-called cashless society there are many manners by which people carry and spend their money. In addition to credit cards and checks, people are making financial transactions using the Internet to make direct online payments to merchants. But there exists an even smaller niche with potentially big rewards for nonprofits: online bill pay.

Online bill pay is such the norm for consumers today that we don’t hear much about it anymore. It’s been three years since the New York Times reported that the percentage of bills paid online was nearly equal to the percentage paid by check (May 29, 2006, Pay Bills With a Click? More Americans Are Doing It and Banks Are Loving It). Since then, online bill pay has continued to grow. Fisv Inc. reported in August 2008 that ¾ of Americans pay at least some of their bills online. As the Internet becomes more secure and as the usage of the Internet by our more experienced Americans (defined by age) increases, the percentage of bills paid online is going to grow even more. In fact, at one local high school, the Economics class now teaches students how to safely pay bills online before they teach them how to write out a check!

Why is this important for your nonprofit? Smart fund raisers like Captain McFee and you go where the money is. In this case, your donors are making financial transactions using their online bill pay service, and a donation to your organization is a financial transaction. I believe that if you put that idea into your donors’ heads and show them generally how to do it, you will see that avenue of payment vehicle grow for your institution. Last year the caging vendor who takes care of our direct mail donations reported to us that they are seeing a steady growth in checks coming from banks in the form of online bill pay checks.

Making a donation using an online bill pay service is quite easy. The donor simply sets up your nonprofit as one of its Payees and makes a donation in exactly the same fashion as they would pay their utility, cell phone or credit card bill.

Stay ahead of the trend and score big by encouraging your donors to use online bill pay to make one-time or even regular recurring donations using their online bill pay service. They will see how easy it is to do so and you may reap great reward.

Intro to YouTube for Nonprofits (video)

jeff — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:00:44 +0000

YouTube is an inexpensive way to leverage the power of video to reach your audience. Not sure where to start? If you are new to YouTube, watch this video to learn some of the basics. If your nonprofit is already using YouTube, send us a note and we will post your video to Blue Trolley Press.

Twitter Jump Start by John Haydon

jeff — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:11:05 +0000

Twitter Jump Start is a fantastic tool for nonprofits that have been wondering what all that “twitter stuff” is all about. John Haydon, of Corporatedollar.org, lays out a simple to follow plan for setting up your account, customizing your profile, and conducting a campaign.

Particularly useful is a “Twictionary” that helps you understand the language of twitter and “10 Twitter Tips to Increase Online Donations.” You will want to share this free download with your development staff and board. For those who are skeptical about how Twitter can help your organization, Twitter Jump Start will win them over!

Three Steps to Making Your Research Report More Usable

Luise — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:33:01 +0000

Policymakers, journalists, nonprofit practitioners and activists rely on nonprofit research to do their jobs. Are you giving them what they need? To generate the biggest impact from the knowledge shared, your research report should be engaging to the various audiences it will touch, and not simply to a narrow group of analysts or academics. Today, a very wide range of readers engages with nonprofit research, not only because of a growing desire to learn and educate about causes individuals support, but also because Web 2.0 and initiatives like IssueLab have made it increasingly easy to locate, access and share research.

So here are three easy things to keep in mind when you are planning and designing your next research report.

1. Make your research usable, and re-usable. Choosing a restrictive copyright can discourage readers from sharing or using your information – even for a good cause. An easy way to apply non-restrictive but legitimate copyrights to a document is using Creative Commons.

2. Leave Them Asking for More. The research abstract can be a great way to generate further interest in the entire body of work, but really it should tell a journalist on deadline everything they need to know. So, distill valuable information, make the abstract comprehensive and quotable, but don’t just copy and paste the executive summary.

3. Get the facts out there. Once your report is released, go through it and extract short phrases, quotes, and statistics that can easily be shared online. Micro-blogging (sending brief text updates) has become an increasingly important skill and tool for organizations that wish to keep constituents informed. Lastly, always make sure you include a direct link to your report listing page or .pdf – nothing worse than not finding the source of good information!

By Luise Barnikel, IssueLab