Substance and Style

    New classes on Nonprofit Development Coming soon! Read posts about nonprofit development below:

    • Influencer Marketing for Nonprofits and Small Businesses 

      Influencer marketing has become a major trend over the last few years. While a lot of nonprofit organizations and small businesses dismiss it as irrelevant to industries that rely on real world interactions and have very little chance of going viral, there are benefits worth considering: building awareness for your brand or cause, attracting support…

    • Build These Skills To Level Up Your Marketing

      Things are changing fast in marketing. New technologies and new channels are constantly emerging, leaving many marketers feeling overwhelmed. These things that are supposed to make our jobs easier are also things we must learn on top of our regular duties. Meanwhile, the core principles and goals of marketing never change. We still need to…

    • Write Better Newsletters

      When newsletters are entertaining and engaging, they can be an effective marketing tool. They’re a great way to build relationships with your target audience, get people really invested in your mission, and provide content that people actually look forward to receiving. They’re also cheap (or even free). That said, a large number of newsletters never…

    • Marketing Mistakes That Scare Off Donors

      One thing no nonprofit wants to do is discourage donations, but sometimes marketing does just that. Nonprofits typically suffer from a lack of resources and have a harder time creating a cohesive marketing plan. Either one person is juggling all the marketing along with other responsibilities, or marketing is being done by committee. The biggest…

    • Six Steps to A Better Nonprofit Website

    • Communications Strategies for Multiple Audiences

      It can be challenging to devise a communications strategy when you have multiple audiences with their own sets of needs and expectations. Nonprofit organizations struggle with this to an even larger extent than businesses because their communication goals are so varied. Here are some tips to make it easier: Your Goal Audience Segments  Providing services…

    • How Is Nonprofit Marketing Different From Business Marketing?

      While marketing always involves a lot of the same steps and activities, it really should be different everywhere. Every business or organization has its own goals for its own target market and needs to develop its own specific approach. That said, there are several general things that differ when marketing at a nonprofit compared to…

    • Case Studies for Nonprofits

      With one of the highest conversion rates of any type of content, Case Studies are the gold standard of content marketing. Because they provide social proof from the peers of potential customers, they are seen as inherently more trustworthy than other marketing endeavors. They’re almost always a good idea in business, especially in the B2B…

    • Three Non-Fundraising Fundraising Activities for Your Board

      While some nonprofits have engaged Boards that regularly bring in revenue, there are far more that don’t do any fundraising at all. This can be a problem when it comes to finding new grants; many foundations will not even consider funding organizations that don’t have 100% Board contributions. With only slightly over half of nonprofits…

    • Ten Tips For Your Nonprofit’s Website 

      Start with your goal. This is true for any website, and for any piece of marketing. You have to know what you want your website to do before you can figure out how to do it. For most organizations, the overarching goal will be to bring in revenue; everything else will support that goal. Keep…

    • Market Research Surveys for Nonprofits

      Like for profit businesses, nonprofits need to periodically conduct market research. Unfortunately, they usually don’t have the same budget for it. Here’s how you can create a simple survey that will help you learn what you need to know and adjust your processes accordingly.  Know your goal before you start. Everything you do should be…

    • Five First Steps to Developing Your Marketing and Communications Strategy

      Know your target market and audience. It probably goes without say, but you should put as much of your early efforts as possible into researching your customers. You should know about your market as a whole (size, growth, and demographics) and you should know about individual behaviors, wants, and needs. What makes life better for…

    • Branding 101

      Having a consistent brand is one of the most important things you can do to market your business or nonprofit successfully. If what you do and what you represent is not clear, you will either not be remembered or be remembered for the wrong reasons. Branding is not just about having a good logo (though…

    • Fundraising Event Costs 

      Most nonprofit organizations rely on income from fundraising events to some extent. When planning fundraisers, it’s important to have a realistic idea of what the costs will be. Many other funding sources (grant making foundations, for example) will ask for the expense per dollar raised for your fundraising activities, and they will judge your financial…