Clever Ideas for Nonprofits

Who Owns Your Nonprofit's Marketing? For many nonprofits, “marketing” is something everyone touches. A Board Member shares a content idea. A staff member pulls the photos or videos. A volunteer posts on social media or sends the newsletter. Factor in AI tools and how quickly they can create seemingly endless content, and you’ve got an organization-wide, “all hands on deck” approach to your marketing. That might be an efficient approach to churning out content… but is it effective? Not so...

How to Lean on Your Board for Support This Fall This time of year is incredibly busy for nonprofits. Summer initiatives are wrapping up. Fall events are just getting going. End-of-year appeals are being prepared. And 2027 budgets are being tidied up and finalized. So, this may be a loaded question… but how are you feeling? When your plate is this full, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, like you have so much to do that you don’t know the first place to start. I hear you! But at the same time,...

What Stories Haven't You Told Yet? I often talk about telling stories in marketing. Why telling stories is valuable. Why your audience needs to hear your stories. And how you can start sharing those stories in your marketing. But how do you actually find the stories you want to tell? At my last networking event, Ashley Pfund, Director of Public Relations at Lenawee Intermediate School District, shared a presentation titled “When Information Isn’t Enough: Why Storytelling Is the Most Powerful...

Your Guide to Making a Good First Impression Online No matter how strong your nonprofit’s reputation is, there will always be people who don’t know who you are or what you do. Reaching and connecting with these new audience members is exciting, but it also brings another important question into play: When someone finds your nonprofit online, what kind of first impression are you making? The truth is that first impressions really do matter, and they only take a few seconds to make (or break),...

Everyone tells you that you need to be strategic with your marketing efforts… But what does that really mean? The way I describe “being strategic” to my clients is like this: Anyone can post something on social media or send an email. But investing your time and effort to make sure every post you make and email you send is effectively reaches your organization’s goal? That’s the strategy part. Ultimately, being strategic with your marketing means deciding where (and how) to promote your...

How Successful Executive Directors See Marketing (And Why It Matters) Are your nonprofit’s marketing efforts truly moving you forward? Or are they just something that gets checked off the daily “To-Do” list? The most successful nonprofit organizations I’ve worked with see their marketing (and brand) as part of the bigger picture… but that perspective doesn’t just stop with the marketing team. It goes all the way up to the Executive Director. EDs with a marketing mindset understand that a...

Does Your Nonprofit Have a Crisis Communications Plan? Imagine this scenario... You spend a few weeks working on a new social media campaign for your nonprofit. The content has gone through all the proper channels and been approved by your entire team. You get everything ready, finally hit “post,” and your organization is excited to see how it performs. But then you see a negative comment come in. And then a few more. And then, before you know it, the entire post is flooded with them. What do...

Struggling To Keep Up With Email Marketing? Read This! Email is one of the most powerful marketing channels out there. It’s an incredible way for nonprofits to stay connected with their communities, whether that’s through a monthly newsletter, a “week in review” email, or just event updates. And yet, despite how impactful email marketing is… lots of nonprofits still aren’t sending and testing emails consistently (and some aren’t even sending emails at all!). Luckily, you don’t have to stay...

How Strong Messaging Can Deliver (or Prevent) the Results You Want You’re sending out email campaigns but not getting any responses. You’re paying for social media ads but not seeing an increase in event sign-ups. You’re constantly updating your website but not getting the qualified leads you want. Giving your 100% but not seeing the payoff is one of the most frustrating parts of marketing, no matter how long you’ve been doing it. But, in the years I’ve worked with nonprofits, I’ve often...