Tag Archives: cultivation

Nonprofits: look at local election results & prepare to reach out

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image of a panel discussion or a presentation in front of people at a long desk

An election has happened in the USA and, by now, even tight local elections should have been resolved and winners named. And that means, nonprofits, that you have some relationship building and sustaining to do:

Update your lists of elected officials – city councils, county officials, your state legislative representatives and your US congressional representatives. They don’t take office until January, however, so don’t change the lists prematurely if you have information to send out before the end of the year.

Newly-elected officials should get at least a card of introduction from your nonprofit. An invitation to meet face-to-face would be even better. They need to know who you are and why you matter.

For officials who did not choose to run for re-election, or lost the election, especially if they ever attended any of your events or somehow showed support for your nonprofit. Thank them for their support and consider offering an invitation to continue to be involved with your nonprofit in some way – at least signing up to continue to receive your newsletter. 

Relationship building with elected officials has never been more critical for nonprofits’ to survive. You ignore doing all of the above at great risk to your nonprofits’ future.

Call for papers on Marketing to Cultivate & Retain Donors, Members & Volunteers

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Call for papers: special issue of International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing on marketing to cultivate and retain donors, members and volunteers. Submission deadline: June 15, 2020.

From the marketing blurb:

Charities and other nonprofit organizations rely upon marketing to cultivate and maintain relationships with supporters, without which most nonprofit organizations would not have resources to fulfill their missions.  Given the mission-critical need for effective marketing strategies and tactics in order to attract and retain supporters such as donors, members, and volunteers; this special issue is especially timely. 

Manuscripts that further our knowledge on cultivating and retaining support from donors, members, and volunteers are encouraged.  A wide variety of related topics are desired beginning with identifying prospects to deepening the commitment of supporters.  Theoretical, empirical, and literature review articles (including meta-analyses) are welcome.

Manuscripts should be prepared following the normal guidelines for the journal and should be submitted through the journal’s online system.  Please be sure to submit your manuscript for this special issue when submitting through the online system.

The guest editor is Professor Walter Wymer, University of Lethbridge, Canada and he can be reached at walter.wymer@uleth.ca – for more information, refer to the journal’s website at https://www.springer.com/journal/12208

Relationships take time, even via social media

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Stop looking for the magic social media management tool, the one that allows you to send one message to “all” the social media platforms and magically get lots of likes and followers. The one that keeps you from ever having to actually log in to Twitter, Facebook, Instragram, etc.

Stop it NOW.

That approach to social media is like walking into a room full of people, making an announcement, even a powerpoint presentation, never taking questions or looking to see if anyone is listening, walking out when you’re done, and then wondering why no one gave your nonprofit money, came to your next event, provided input on your programs, joined as a volunteer, etc. – and using that same experience to say, “Well, I guess everyone likes us or they don’t care, because no one said anything to me!”

Timo Lüge blogs at Social Media for Good and in a recent blog: says this:

“Social media is about building and sustaining relationships. It is not a one-time interaction. In other words: you need to stop thinking about how you can get people to ‘like’ a post and instead develop a long-term strategy for how you want to interact with the community. You and your management need to accept that that will take time. Focus on the quality of the interactions instead of the quantity.”

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use a social media management tool to schedule tweets or Facebook status updates or anything else in advance, or to create analytics – I use Hootsuite to schedule my daily tweets in the morning and afternoons, as well as bi-weekly posts to Googleplus and, sometimes, to Facebook. But I still take the time log into each of those platforms, individually, and to read messages by people and organizations I follow, like those messages, comment on them, share posts by others, reply to comments that have been made to me, etc. I also make sure I tag people and organizations related to what I’m posting on social media, so they know they are being talked about, and might be encouraged to reply. In other words, I spend time with the audience, just like I would in a room full of people, to hear their feedback, to hear what they are doing and thinking, to acknowledge their points of view and to get a sense as to whether or not I’m really connecting with people. That’s what building and sustaining relationships look like, online or off. And that’s what it takes to make social media worthwhile for any nonprofit (or for-profit, for that matter).

Also see:

vvbooklittleFor more about building relationships online, see The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, by Susan J. Ellis and myself. The community engagement principles offered here work with the very latest digital engagement initiatives and “hot” new technologies meant to help people volunteer, advocate for causes they care about, connect with communities and make a difference. Tools come and go – but certain community engagement fundamentals never change.