 |
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT
Blackbaud
NetCommunity Grow includes an easy-to-update content management
system, professional design, sample campaigns, strategic
consulting, community sharing, and individual support for
nonprofits that need to up their online presence, but have
limited resources to work with. Learn
more and download the free white paper: Taking Five Website
Staples to the Next
Level. |
In This Edition:
News Update:
Tips of the
Week:
|
ADVERTISEMENT
WE'LL BE GOOD FOR EACH OTHER OR IT'S
FREE.
We're confident you'll have a great
relationship with eTapestry. In fact, we're
willing to guarantee it. If you don't raise more
money with our donor management software
than you were before, you get it free for a
year. Visit www.etapestry.com/beetle to learn
more.
ADVERTISEMENT
2010 Programs in Social
Enterprise at Columbia Business School Executive Education
Institute for Not-For-Profit Management
Program- For senior nonprofit professionals.
Middle Management Program- For midlevel
nonprofit directors and administrators. Tuition assistance may
be available. For more information and to apply, please
click here or call (212) 854-3395. Application deadlines are
approaching.
Please forward NPT Weekly to
your colleagues so that they can also subscribe.
 Tell-a-friend! |
|
PSAs Can Fuel Organizational
Credibility
Project Fit America (PFA) found itself on
the pages of national magazines several years ago, prompting
calls to the small nonprofit in Boyes Hot Springs, Calif., about
50 miles north of San Francisco. The Public Service Announcement
(PSA) ads certainly raised the nonprofit’s profile but
they didn’t raise much money.
“Being in National Geographic, O
magazine, it’s a credibility statement for a
charity,” said Stacey Cook, PFA’s executive
director. The PSA was a boost to its other awareness campaigns,
Cook said, describing it as “a spoke in a bigger
wheel,” even though the dollars didn’t
follow.
To read
the complete article click here... |
|
ADVERTISEMENT
Looking for a
career opportunity with a nonprofit? Check our the most
comprehensive study of salaries and benefits ever conducted for
nonprofits in the new NonProfit Times 2009
Nonprofit Organizations Compensation & Benefits
Report today! Click here. | |
|
Branding ...
10
essentials to enhancing brand power
A solid brand identity can tell an
important story, setting expectations, gaining attention and
fostering relationships, according to Cone, a Boston-based
strategy and communication agency. Since a brand valuation can
help transform an intangible idea into a concrete asset, Cone
offers 10 essentials to enhancing brand power:
- Engage fresh constituencies:
Creating tailored programs for different demographics,
through relevant connecting of sub-brands, helps define what an
organization offers.
- Adopt new currencies: When financial
resources dwindle, savvy nonprofits recognized the value in more
"creative tender," including skills-based volunteerism, in-kind
gifts of products and services, or diversifying their
fundraising sources.
- Modernize fundraising: Be aware of
the changing dynamics of your donors' needs and where they get
their information. Nonprofits and their corporate partners are
turning to digital fundraising, micro-philanthropy and online
communities to reach their donors.
- Deliver crisp communications: Make
it easy for audiences, on the first impression, to understand
who you are and what you do.
- Establish, and adhere to, brand
guidelines: Ensure consistent use by staff, volunteers,
partners, media and others and make sure everyone in the
organization has a clear understanding of what you stand for and
how to state it accurately and succinctly.
- Build brand stewards: Leading brands
continuously express mission, vision and values through the
actions of staff, volunteers and board members who share the
organization's story. Evangelizing the purpose and brand meaning
is the responsibility of the leader and leadership
team.
- Develop quick reflexes: Give people
opportunities to engage with your brand in relation to events in
the world around them, from natural disasters to economic
realities to the nationwide call to service.
- Build corporate partnerships:
Identify and recruit companies that share your values to become
catalysts to broaden your mission and become
stewards.
- Create a dialogue with brand
ambassadors: External stakeholders hold the brand in their
hands; actively communicate your mission, goals and results and
solicit their feedback.
- Issue a rallying cry: Develop
branded cause-related initiatives that will rally new audiences
and re-energize existing brand
ambassadors.
|
|
Human Resources ...
12 pitfalls to avoid
in executive compensation
Executive compensation is the
most active area of inquiry and enforcement at the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS), according to G. Bliss Jones of Jones and
Kolb, an Atlanta-based CPA firm.
The revised federal Form
990 asks nonprofits if the process for determining compensation
of top management officials and other officers or key employees
included a review and approval by independent board members,
comparability data and substantiation of the deliberation and
decision. It also asks organizations to describe the
process.
Jones, who presented a session
on the revised IRS Form 990 at the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) annual conference in
Washington, D.C., offers a list of recommendations for
nonprofits to follow when it comes to governance policies on
compensation:
-
Adopt a safe harbor
process
-
Form a compensation
committee composed of independent directors
-
Obtain comparability data
from peer organizations or ASAE surveys
-
Use data from
Guidestar.org
Jones also suggested avoiding,
or disclosing, eight specific types of expenses:
- First class or charter travel
- Travel for companions
- Tax indemnification or gross-up
payments
- Discretionary spending account
- Housing allowance/personal use
residence
- Payments for business use of
residence
- Health or social club dues/initiation
fees
- Personal services, such as a maid, chauffer
or chef
To compare your executive's compensation,
check out The NonProfit Times 2009 Nonprofit Organizations
Salary & Benefits Report. |
|
Marketing ...
You need your own slogan
that people understand
Bill Clinton’s 1992 slogan
“It’s the economy, stupid” was a simple
statement that represented a complex problem. Nonprofits should
adopt their own slogan – “It’s the awareness,
stupid.”
People know the issues are out there --
poverty, war, discrimination, natural disasters, abuse. But do
they understand the need? And you can’t build a following
of people volunteering, donating, and advocating if
they’ve never heard of you.
The Alzheimer’s Association faced
those problems – nearly 90 percent of Americans know
someone with Alzheimer’s, but most don’t realize the
disease’s scale, according to Angela Geiger, a vice
president at an American Marketing Association Nonprofit
Marketing Conference. The association garnered 90 million
impressions and was covered by USA Today, U.S. News & World
Report, and CNN when releasing a fact and figures report last
year about the disease. Geiger shares how to bring the attention
to your cause:
- It’s worth their attention. The
Chicago-based organization dropped an informational bomb on the
front cover of its facts and figures report – 10 million
U.S. baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease.
- Make facts available to everyone. That
helped solidify the organization as the expert voice on the
disease.
- Celebrity champions. The organization
worked with celebrities like David Hyde Pierce, Wayne Brady,
Vivica A. Fox and Jean Smart, to speak out about
Alzheimer’s. “Almost all of our celebrities have a
personal connection” to the disease, said
Geiger.
- Provide information. People want to know
more – and might turn to your organization. The
Alzheimer’s Association Web site became a haven for people
and families affected, providing information on the stages,
warning signs, legal issues and more.
- Different strokes for different folks. The
Association segmented some information for children, African
Americans, Latinos, and even providing information in
Chinese.
|
|
Don't Forget Us!
Changing positions? Or have you moved to
another organization? Then, make sure you still get NPT's family
of enewsletters by simply updating your
profile.
Copyright @ 2009 The NonProfit Times.
To read our Privacy Policy click here.
To forward NPT Weekly to your colleagues so
they can also subscribe click
here.
| | |
|
|
