Creative

Do you spend a lot of time revising fundraising copy? Many CEOs have complained to me privately about this. I’m talking about drafts of grant proposals, letters of intent, donor appeal letters, fundraising reports, cases for support, newsletters, even donor emails—documents like that...

Do you have a successful nonprofit content marketing strategy? Running a successful nonprofit requires budgeting effectively and justifying every expense. This reality makes it even more surprising that in a recent survey of nonprofit marketers approximately 49 percent said they could not demonstrate how content marketing has improved fundraising efforts and 35 percent couldn’t say whether content initiatives have increased donations or sales...

We’ll highlight how the Appalachian Train Conservancy created a strategic plan for increasing online giving.

We recently had the pleasure of having lunch with Alan Siegel, a well-known New York City-based brand expert. We had contacted him after reading an article in The New York Times about nonprofits turning to pros, like Alan, to craft marketing campaigns to sell their causes to donors...

I don’t write copy for clients. It’s just not the most strategic use of my time. If you’re the CEO or chief development officer at a nonprofit, chances are this is true for you, too. I have yet to work with a CEO or chief development officer who is fulfilling his or her potential or responsibility in fundraising by re-writing (vs. brief edits) a document...

In this brilliant campaign,  The Gabriel Group dug deep into its vault to find a goldmine idea and brought it back to life. Its Alphabet Postcard Campaign featuring not 26 … but 27 separate postcards aimed at showing executives and development directors at food banks how they could benefit from a partnership with the Gabriel Group...

We’ve all heard the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Nonprofits routinely use pictures to communicate their messages to their constituents. Usually, the photos are selected to represent the people who will be helped by supporting the mission of the nonprofit...

Let’s say you’ve been asked to write the year-end appeal for your organization. Now you’re staring at that proverbial blank sheet of paper or more likely, the new (and wordless) document you’ve opened on your computer. You feel the pressure mounting …And now what do you do?...

The baby is growing up. After more than a decade, modern crowdfunding is fast becoming an effective and dynamic method to raise funds—and rally the masses. And while it is still some years away from total global domination, we can’t deny it...

If there is one question that many nonprofits, especially smaller, younger and generally underfunded organizations forget to answer, it’s this simple question: What makes your organization great? It amazes me how many nonprofits skip right over a value proposition that explains why someone should give them any money...