by Meg Gammage-Tucker 

Both for-profits and nonprofits alike find blogs a useful way to communicate with their constituencies.  And, while most people gauge the effectiveness and popularity of their blog by the number of readers or comments—the majority are not satisfied with the response they receive.  It’s very easy to become discouraged.

So, how does the average, everyday blogger increase the number of people who read their blogs?  

Here are four easy steps:

Pick a topic to blog about that other people care about. Write what people want to read, not necessarily what you want to write about. You have to have a new angle, a new twist, new information, or a different way of engaging readers (and—note—a good blog should be interesting to all types of people, not just your organization’s faithful).

Use social media to encourage them to become faithful readers of your blog.  Bloggers are media savvy. Use Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote and distribute your blog. After your blog is written, tweet about it, post a summary on Facebook, and—if you really want to be creative—video a discussion about your topic and post it on YouTube.  Use social media to solicit interest, information, and critiques.  Ask for comments and questions.

Find a way to tie your blog topic to a current event. This may mean that you have to tweak the focus of your original blog, but the closer you can relate your topic to a current event the more exposure you can generate for your blog.

Find a topic with lots of connections to other articles.  Link your blog to other articles by simply doing an internet search for the topic. The major news related articles that you find, from CNN for instance, typically have a comment area at the conclusion of the article. Make a relevant comment and direct people to a link to your blog for more information. Your local news websites also have comment areas, do the same here.

What nonprofits do is so important. Everyone needs to know about  your wonderful services and how you make the world a better place.  A blog is a great place to tell your story, your way.

By Dan Schipp

As 2011 gets underway and New Year’s resolutions are still fresh and largely untested, I am reminded of a brief article I read in Seminary Development News several years ago. 

The article, entitled “All I Need to Know about Development,” was written by Karna Burkeen, then associate director of development and seminary relations at Lancaster Theological Seminary.  She began the article with these words:

“Sometimes I think all I need to know about development I learned in my home as a child:

 1) Ask nicely for what you want;

2) Be polite and mannerly; and

3) Say ‘please’  and ‘thank you’.”

Ms. Burkeen then wrote,

“Development, of course, is more than just being polite and asking nicely, and even remembering to write letters and say thank you.  Our work is much more complex than that.  Nevertheless, those skills were foundational in my youth, and they continue to serve me well in my adult life.”

Yes, successful development involves more than just minding our manners. 

It is important that we

• assess performance and benchmark our results with those of similar organizations,
• plan and carry out solid programs in annual giving, special opportunities and planned giving,
• provide for the on-going education of staff and volunteers, and
• actively build relationships with donors and prospective donors. 

But, at times, do we get so caught up in our plans, goals, strategies, and research that we forget about those core insights noted by Ms. Burkeen? 

As we begin a new year, maybe it’s a good time to remind ourselves of these fundamentals and to recommit ourselves to doing well what we learned as youth:  ask nicely, be polite, and say thank you.

By Ted Grossnickle

A wealth of free information is available for download this week from the Center on Philanthropy at IU and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. 

The release of their 2010 Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy provides details of the giving habits of high net worth households in the US including why they give, why they stop giving and how you can get them to give more.

The 75-page report is chock full of valuable information, but the more skimmable 10 page key findings also provides some great insights into the giving of high net worth households, including:

• Average charitable giving dropped 34.9 percent in 2009, after adjusting for inflation.
• Some charitable sectors saw increases in giving, including arts, environment/animal care, and international causes.
• Others saw significant declines, including 63.7 percent for health organizations, education and combined purpose organizations (such as United Way, United Jewish Appeal, or Catholic Charities)
• High Net worth households were more prone to give to general operation funds or a particular program than they were to support capital gifts (such as construction projects or equipment purchase) or endowment giving.

We have heard from donors, and this research study also certainly supports our experience, that high net worth donors are concerned about the uncertainty in the current tax situation. 

The study reports that 67 percent of respondents indicated they would somewhat or dramatically decrease giving if income tax deductions were taken away.  Repeal of the estate tax would induce 43 percent of respondents to somewhat or dramatically increase their charitable bequests.

Wanting to lure more wealthy donors to support your charity? 

When determining where to give, high net worth households look for sound business and operational practices, acknowledgement of contributions, appropriate overhead expenditures, protection of personal information, and full financial disclosure.

Wondering why you may have lost some high net worth supporters last year? 

The most frequent reason donors cited they stopped charitable support for an organization was after being too frequently solicited or asked for an inappropriate gift amount. This begs the question of how strategic you are being in your donor solicitation and if you are doing the appropriate level of research on donation requests.

I encourage you to download the report and put this information to use in your own planning arsenal.

Thank you to the Center on Philanthropy and Bank of America Merrill Lynch for this great addition to the philanthropic industry’s body of knowledge.

by Kris Kindelsperger

In our discussions with donors and clients in recent months, we’ve observed that some donors are, for lack of a better word – paralyzed – by uncertainty. 

Some are looking for more reliability in the markets, some are looking to the November elections for guidance on economic policy, others are looking at January 1, 2011, wondering what the tax structure will be like. 

Adding to this anxious mix is a flood of conflicting advice obtained through personal research or from those that may be advising them about what might happen in the months to come.

The instinctive reaction for some is to preserve personal resources and avoid – or postpone -philanthropy.  For gift officers this often comes with the message “now is not a good time to make a major gift.”

While those who represent our nonprofit organizations are not financial advisors or financial planners, thoughtful discussion with donors can open opportunities to devise strategies that meet donors’ needs and allay concerns.

Philanthropy is frequently a “win-win” financial situation for both the non-profit and the donor if both can have a frank and open discussion about the outcomes. A carefully planned gift can benefit a donor who is worried about their taxes.  Non profits also offer a number of very attractive income producing financial instruments in today’s market.

So, in these uncertain times, now is a perfect time to move beyond the confines of simple gift discussions and to have conversations with donors about how philanthropy might bring a level of certainty to an uncertain world.  Non profits are in a unique position to have these discussions.

Are there ways that your organization is productively engaging donors in an uncertain world?

by Meg Gammage-Tucker

We all get in such a hurry these days that we often forget to take that all important step back and think about how we affect the multitudes of other people whose lives we touch each and every day.  You would think that in this business of philanthropy—which literally means for the love of mankind—that we would take that time and assess our impact a bit more often….but alas, we so very often do not.

Several events of this week have encouraged me to think about the impact that my actions have on the lives of others.  Most are personal and not interesting to many of you.  Two have been very public and deserve a broader audience’s attention. 

The first is a story that was on this morning’s news about an organization named Operation Beautiful, founded by 24-year old blogger Caitlin Boyle.  The organization’s whole purpose is to eliminate “fat-talk” and negative self-imaging.  It’s done one post-it note at a time.  The founder simply asks that you place positive self-image messages in random locations to make others feel better about themselves.  Simple kindness—what a concept!  And all accomplished by writing a random note and leaving it somewhere—for a specific person or for anyone who just passes by and needs to feel better about themselves and this world that we all live in.

The second event was attending the premiere of Rob Reiner’s latest movie, Flipped, in Indianapolis.  The event was coordinated by Heartland Truly Moving Pictures , an Indiana-based nonprofit “dedicated to recognizing and honoring filmmakers whose work explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for positive values of life.”  Flipped certainly deserved an award for its life affirming values as it reminds us that  focusing on negative perceptions only serves to undermine some of what can be life’s most positive and enjoyable moments and opportunities.  Kudos to Heartland (and all its staff and supporters) and Mr. Reiner (and his cast and crew) for holding on to those values and reminding us of their importance. 

Hopefully, as I was this week, a few others have been reminded of the positive impact a few affirming words and/or ideas can have on the lives of others they touch…

Let Meg know how Sharing Affirming Words has helped you or your organization by posting in the JGA comments section below.