5 Tips For Communicating With The Media

People love to hate the media. Whether it's one of the countless athletes who criticize the press after being "taken out of context," or a politician blasting the "mainstream media" to score political points, journalists are hardly the most popular people in the room.

Yes, you may not want to talk to a reporter, but the media still remains one of the most effective ways of getting your message to the public.

This is especially true for nonprofits that are trying to spread the word about a project or an upcoming special event. In the book “Five Good Ideas,” Carol Goar acknowledged that the media can do a poor job of covering the sector, but that doesn't mean it’s all on them. Goar listed five things nonprofit employees should remember when talking to the media to ensure there are no slip-ups:

• Before you make a phone call or send an email to a member of the press, ask yourself: Why does my message matter to the public?
• Don’t confuse journalists with publicity agents. If your objective is just to sell tickets to one of your events or promote your brand, you aren't going to get a very favorable story.
• Get to know who in the local or national media covers the nonprofit sector. Read the publication or listen to the broadcast you intend to approach.
• When telling your story to the media, talk about the difference you’re making in people’s lives, not about who you are or how your organization functions.
• Remember that reporters ask probing questions, they delve into areas that you might not want to talk about, and they don’t follow anybody’s script.

Building An E-Mail List

One of the most effective ways of communication in this day and age is e-mail. When a nonprofit wants to spread the word about its activities or is beginning a fundraising campaign, it is generally the best choice. There are many ways to create a solid e-mail list, but it all begins with reaching the most people who are genuinely interested in your organization.

If someone is not interested in hearing from you, they are likely to either unsubscribe or just completely ignore your communications. You need to do everything you can to ensure that the people on your list want to be there. Start by looking to the people who already receive your printed newsletters and other mailings. These are the individuals who already have shown they want to receive communications from you. Yet you still can't just send them unsolicited e-mails. You must first send out a message to them asking if they want to opt-in to digital communications from your organization. 

If you do not already have their e-mail addresses, you can send your direct mail subscribers mail promoting your e-mail resources. Make sure the link you give them is easy enough to be typed.

Another way to build up your list is to make promotions for your online presence. Create an easy-to-find link that leads visitors to your e-mail subscription page. You can also post messages on Facebook or Twitter promoting it. People who actively engage your online resources are most likely to be receptive to digital communications, so they are prime candidates to target.

With a little effort, your organization can expand its reach to a broader constituency of people with similar interests and, potentially, its ability to mobilize and fundraise. Growing an email list requires a little strategy and forethought, and retaining the people on that list requires a steady stream of relevant, engaging content. It’s a work in progress, but the rewards can far outweigh the effort.

6 Ways To Use Direct Mail Shops

Many businesses and nonprofits prefer to use e-mail rather than direct mail. The reason for this is simple: It's quicker. When it comes down to it, people would rather adapt to new technology than potentially organizing countless pieces of mail.

Despite this, "snail mail" is far from dead. There are many organizations that still use it, such as St. Joseph's Indian School, which integrates direct mail with e-mail communications. Still, the thought of sorting through individual pieces of mail remains overwhelming. That's where direct mail shops come in handy.

In his book "Direct Mail for Dummies," Richard Goldsmith reminded readers that local mailing shops can make the tedium of mail sorting much more bearable. He listed six ways these shops can work for your organization:

• Addressing the Mail: Mail shops take your files and address your mail by either labeling, ink jetting, or lasering it.
• Bursting Continuous Forms: This technique enables high-speed personalization equipment to be used for the addressing and other personalization.
• Affixing Stickers, Cards, Stamps, and Tabs: Using a machine called a Labelaire, mail shops can apply stickers and labels for you. They can also seal self-mailers and double postcards with tabs.
• Inserting Components Into Envelopes: Machines in the mail shop can insert up to six different items in an envelope.
• Sorting and Traying the Mail for the Postal Service: The mail is bundled according to Postal Service requirements.
• Delivering the Mail to the Post Office: Your mail shop should get a receipt from the Postal Service, proving that your letters were accepted for mailing.

6 Ways To Win At Communications

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; but what do those words actually say? In the world of communications, the answer to this question is crucial to the success of a campaign.

The words you choose in your marketing campaigns can be the difference between success and failure.In his book "The Power of Communication," Helio Fred Garcia, president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group, wrote about a way to improve your chances of choosing the right words: Strategic thinking.

What is strategic thinking? Garcia wrote that it's all about "ordered thinking." For example, a communicator should never start with the question “What do we want to say?” because it skips the essential questions that establish goals, identify audiences and attitudes, and lay out a course of action to influence those attitudes.

In order to get on the path towards strategic thinking, Garcia recommended asking the following questions:

• What do we have? What is the challenge or opportunity we are hoping to address?
• What do we want? What’s our goal? Communication is merely the continuation of business by other means. We shouldn’t communicate unless we know what we’re trying to accomplish.
• What stakeholders matter to us? What do we know about them?
• What do we need them to think, feel, know, or do in order to accomplish our goal?
• What do they need to see us do, hear us say, or hear others say about us to think, feel, know, and do what we want them to accomplish?
• How do we make that happen?

Once you answer these questions, you should be well on your way towards becoming a more effective communicator when it comes to your nonprofit's marketing activities.

Choosing Your Direct Mail Font

All of the talk these days is about high tech communication. Whether it's e-mail or texting, there's very little mention of direct mail when we talk about communicating with supporters. But don't bring out the shovel yet; direct mail isn't dead.

In a story in the February 1, 2012 edition of The NonProfit Times, Kory Christianson, executive director of St. Joseph's Indian School, talked about his organization's use of direct mail. For example, they send a letter with an e-mail follow-up confirming they received it. This is one of the many ways a nonprofit can continue to make use of direct mail.

Appearance is everything when it comes to sending out letters. This all starts with choosing the right font when composing your message. It's all well and good to use the default font in your word processor (usually Times New Roman), but that can be a little bland. It's worth experimenting to see if there are other fonts that can jazz up your message without making it look over the top.

In his book "Direct Mail for Dummies," Richard Goldsmith wrote about four types of fonts that can give your direct mail increased readability:

• Serif Type: These fonts have little tails hanging off the ends of the letters. Serif fonts are easier to read.
• Sans Serif Type: These have no tails and are harder to read in small type. Sans serif fonts are often used for things like headlines.
• Reverse Type: This is white letters in a background color. It’s also more difficult to read depending on size.
• Italic Text: Although good when used to emphasize important words or phrases, italic text is difficult to read when it’s used for long paragraphs.

Goldsmith also urged writers not to mix too many typestyles or sizes. This will make your direct mail message look random and unprofessional. 

Creating A Successful Nonprofit Newsletter

The best way to communicate with donors and supporters before the Internet was to send out newsletters.  These (usually quarterly) communications would keep them up-to-date on the most recent accomplishments of the nonprofit.

Newsletters are still around today, but they usually come in the form of eNewsletters, like the ones that The NonProfit Times sends out weekly and monthly.  With the change in format comes a change in expectations, so the old way of communicating won't cut it anymore.

It all starts with frequency.  In "Nonprofit Management 101,"  Kivi Leroux Miller, president of NonprofitMarketingGuide.com, wrote that the first thing nonprofits have to adapt to is sending out communications more often.  Most eNewsletters are sent out weekly or monthly rather than quarterly, and will contain fewer words than print newsletters (between 500 and 1,000 words).

Even if you are still sending out print newsletters, Leroux Miller recommended changing your style. She listed five techniques to keep your supporters happy and informed:

• Frequency: Send fewer words, more often.
• Look Forward: Preview more, review less.
• Personality: More of them, less of you.
• Next Steps: More action, less FYI.
• Integration: More planning, less improv.

Make sure to sign-up for NPT's free eNewsletters on our website!

E-Newsletter Design Tips

Nonprofits are always looking for new ways to enhance communications with its supporters.  Creating an e-newsletter is a great way to accomplish this goal, but is your design up to snuff?

Most, if not all, nonprofits have weekly or monthly e-newsletters that are sent to its followers.  These will often contain the latest news about the organization, special offers, and other unique items.  But you can't just throw a bunch of code together and expect your newsletter to be a smashing success.  It all comes down to this: Design matters.

When designing your nonprofit's newsletter, make sure the web team keeps the following information in mind:

• Decide which e-mail clients are a priority.  According to CampaignMonitor, Microsoft Outlook was one of the most popular clients as of June 2011.  Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Apple Mail were also near the top of the list.
• Use tables for your layout, not cascading style sheets (CSS).  There are a lot of e-mail clients that are not able to read CSS.
• Since you won't be relying on CSS, your team can use the old-school style of formatting: Putting tags for color, font, decoration, margins, etc., directly on links, paragraphs and images.  You can put styles into the header, but leave them out of the e-mail body.
• Avoid using Javascript, Flash, video, or anything a 1999 web browser couldn't handle.  The message here: Code like it's 1999.

Management Tip: Timing Your Communications With Strategy

Did everyone stay safe during Hurricane Irene this weekend?  We didn't get much damage here at the office, though it looks like there was some flooding. 

Today's weekly nonprofit management tip deals with communications.  Timing your organization's communications plans can be very tricky.  How are you supposed to know how much correspondence is too much?  This tip, bought to you by the good folks at Idealware, will answer this question for you:

Different communications tools work in different time frames. For example, it’s not practical to send out more than a few direct mail pieces during the course of a year, while email is more of a monthly or weekly communication stream.


Facebook or blogs are weekly, or a couple of times a week, but you can easily post to Twitter several times a day. Photo and video sites, on the other hand, are not particularly timing-specific. You could post weekly or more frequently, if you wanted to, but you could also simply post photos or videos when you have them.


According to the nonprofit technology experts at Idealware in Portland, Maine, depending on your campaign, you might want to choose a mix of channels that are relatively similar in timing, or one that uses channels with completely different time frames.


On the other hand, if you’re looking to encourage people to attend your conference in two months, channels with different timing could reinforce each other -- for example, you could send out an introductory direct mail, follow it up with several emails spaced out over that time period, create a blog focusing on all the great content and speakers, and use Twitter to try to get the word out to folks in the topic area (and potentially get some press), according to Idealware.


Remember, however, that the channels that allow you to post frequently generally come with the expectation that you will post frequently. It’s not enough to post to Twitter several times a day in the heat of a campaign, abandon it for months, and then pick it up again the next time you need it. That’s not how people use Twitter, and they may well stop following you. The same is true of Facebook or blogs. It’s important to establish a baseline frequency (close to what people would expect) and stick with it.

Want to read more tips like this?  Head over to our Management Tips page.

The 10 Commandments Of Nonprofit Communication

It's pretty incredible how much can change in a decade.  Back in 1999, the Internet was still a new phenomenon; people still didn't know what to make of it.  In 2011, the thought of doing anything without the it seems absurd.  The rise of social media and mobile technology has allowed us to be plugged in at all times, for better or for worse.  This has made the world of nonprofit communication much simpler, but it's also made it more convoluted.  That's why Herschell Gordon Lewis, author of Hot Appeals or Burnt Offerings and frequent contributor to The NonProfit Times, wrote a new column which we just published on our site.  He outlines "10 Commandments" that all nonprofits should follow if they want to survive in this new era of technology.  Let's take a look at some of them:

The First Commandment: Thou shalt make response simple.


We’re deep in the Internet Era, in which attention spans have shrunk to minuscule size. Don’t ask for more information than you need until you have the prospect at least comfortably secured in your own web. And, avoid the nasty and too-common word “Submit.” Right now, before facing “Submit” head-on, start thinking about a substitute.


The Second Commandment: Thou shalt stay in character.


A peculiar development is what some veteran fundraisers call “The Facebook Effect.” The projected mood bobs, weaves, and shifts as the appeal thinks it progresses but actually generates confusion for what should be the most probable donors.


The Third Commandment: Thou shalt not steal, except from noncompetitive sources.


Yes, yes, all nonprofit appeals are competitive with all other nonprofit appeals. But if you’re a hospital in Albuquerque and see a usable bright idea in an appeal by a college in Pittsburgh (you should be decoying every nonprofit mailing and email you can find), grab it and run with it.


The Fourth Commandment: Thou shalt not fall for fads.


This is back to Facebook and Twitter. If with dollars spent, against dollars returned, these media work for you, stay with them. But if you’re there because you subscribe to the dangerous dictum “That which represents a change automatically represents a profitable change,” be more than observant. Be critically comparative.


The Fifth Commandment: Thou shalt never again start a fundraising letter with the ancient cliché, “Dear Friend.”


If this Commandment puzzles you, you’re in trouble.

Don't stop here, there's still 10 more commandments to go!  Read the rest of them over at The NonProfit Times.

Catch Up on eNewsletters From The NonProfit Times

Did you know you can view all of our past eNewsletters on The NonProfit Times' website?  By visiting our eNewsletter page, you can take a look at all of our past (and current) messages.  This is a handy feature for a number of reasons.  First, if you were ever thinking of subscribing to them, you will now get a better idea of the kind of content you will be receiving.  On the other hand, it allows you to catch up on issues you might have missed if you hadn't been subscribed since the first newsletter came out.

As a reminder, here are the newsletters we currently offer:

-NPTimes Weekly-Get updates on the latest trends in nonprofit management. Sent every Monday.

-NPTimes Jobs-Delivers the latest news on nonprofit jobs, including the latest positions from our job board. Sent every Tuesday.

-Exempt-The companion eNewsletter to The NonProfit Times’ sister publication, Exempt Magazine. Sent  third Tuesday of each month.

-NPTimes TechnoBuzz-The latest trends in nonprofit technology can be found in this eNewsletter. Sent second Tuesday of each month.

-NPTimes Instant Fundraising-Need help with fundraising for your organization? This is the newsletter for you. Sent every Wednesday.

-NPTtv Newsletter-Sent every other Wednesday with the release of the new NonProfit Times TV webcast. Includes links to the individual stories in the new episode.

All of these newsletters are available to view in our archive, so check them out.  Just scroll down past the article categories to the section entitled "eNewsletters" and select the edition of the newsletter you want to view.  And if you are interested in signing up for any of these e-mails, visit our newsletter subscription page.