Are you hoping your “donor-centric” approach will create a “targeted impact” for “all stakeholders?”  If so, you may be in the grips of jargon-itis. Here are common symptoms: A large number of words are spoken, but nothing of value is said. A speaker’s main purpose when speaking is to hide the fact that he/she has […]

Sometimes, a stereotype has some truth in it.  In this case, the stereotype that men prefer simple messages over more complicated and detailed ones may have legs. (Don’t attack us just yet!  We’re certainly not saying that men are dumb.  The author of this post is a man, and we wouldn’t allow that kind of […]

Only if you do it incorrectly! Deb Ng’s, author of Online Community Management for Dummies, post over at Kommein about smart ways to engage your community, especially through social media, got us thinking about the best practices for nonprofits.  Many of the same rules apply to nonprofits as to standard businesses.  As Deb noted: First, communication […]

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently released online donation data comparing 2011 to 2012, and the results are quite interesting. In general, giving has increased!  Total gift value was up by 16.7 percent, and the total number of gifts was up 8.1%.  While many areas of the economy are still challenged, charitable giving is robust and […]

No matter what action you want a person to take, AIDA is a time-honored way to take someone from knowing nothing about your cause to becoming a full supporter.  But before you can use it, you have to know what it is, right? AIDA is an acronym from the field of marketing.  The letters stand […]

Reducing the violence in the world, especially terrorist violence, requires a multi-faceted approach, and the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) promotes one of the most important avenues toward that goal: increased interfaith understanding. The CPWR is the world’s largest and oldest global interfaith organization and offers a number of programs and […]

Recently, we had a call with Brice Thomas of United Theological Seminary to chat about UTS’s recent success on a campaign incorporating video.  Let’s get right to the “Wow!”: By incorporating video in the campaign in question, UTS saw an inspiring 30% increase in giving. Wow! More specifically, each year, UTS runs a campaign in […]

“CauseVox’s design was so simple and straightforward … ” -Cris Valerio, Innovator in Residence at IDEO.org Cookstoves in Tanzania, sustainable business plans for selling water in Kenya, and something called TEDx in a box: Welcome to IDEO.org. A Bit of Background IDEO.org is the relatively new philanthropic arm of the innovative design firm IDEO.  For […]

“Using CauseVox, we were able to raise more than twice as much than we usually do offline.”  – Sundance Organizer You might be surprised to hear that the Bay Area has an appetite for Country-Western dance.  You’ll definitely be surprised to hear, however, that this desire has been strong enough to sustain an active Country-Western […]

If you’re looking for a tool to help you manage your social media matters, here are five you might want to consider: 1.    SproutSocial Most of the apps discussed in this post offer similar features. SproutSocial is typical, offering, among other things, a) monitoring of social media channels, b) publishing to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, […]