Top 5 Blog Posts Of 2019

It’s been quite the year for nonprofits, social enterprises, and other social impact organizations! With every passing day, we see more people supporting causes, both personally and professionally. It’s an exciting time!

Likewise, this was a great year here on the blog and for Signify. There were some tremendous guests posts and contributors, and I’m grateful for all of the words of wisdom and shared advice. I learned a lot, and I know you did, too.

So, before we enter the next decade, let’s take a look back at this year’s five most popular posts. From nonprofit event marketing to utilizing influencers to empathy for social impact organizations to Squarespace tips to public speaking tools, there is a wealth of information below to help you succeed.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season!

1) How to wow your supporters after your event

If your nonprofit has a big fundraising event on the calendar, and it probably does, this is one post you won’t want to miss! Event planning is extremely popular in the nonprofit sphere, but it also takes a lot of effort and time, am I right?

You absolutely want to make the experience top-notch for current and prospective donors. Please do that first. However, there’s a vital piece of event planning that often gets left out: the follow up. It’s not the most exciting thing to talk about, but I can’t stress it enough.

Having a solid follow-up plan is part of what makes an event strategic for your organization, and not just something you do every year.

It’s also what increases your return on investment (ROI), especially considering events may not be as profitable in the long-term as you might think.

You’ve put so much hard work into planning this event, and an excellent follow-up strategy makes it more effective. What you say and how you say it could mean additional donations, recurring donations, and higher attendance at the next event. That’s why this matters.

And it comes to you from my new friend Erin at Funraise, which a super sweet nonprofit fundraising software built by nonprofit people.

Read the full post . . .

2) Why Nonprofits Need Influencers To Grow (And How To Do It Right)

Have you heard the buzzword “influencer” and wondered what the heck it was? Or if it’s a familiar term, have you struggled with how to find one of these elusive creatures to work with your nonprofit organization? Well, never fear—this post is for you.

While influencers have always existed, the Internet Age has given them new meaning, as well as new ways to capitalize on their popularity. (Cue the Wicked soundtrack!) Social media brought with it a whole host of new job possibilities. I mean, 15 years ago, we all would’ve laughed someone out of the room who said people would pay to watch another person play video games. But, here we are…

So, if getting an influencer to spread the word about your cause is on your To Do List, Kayleigh Alexandra of Micro Startups is going to break it down for you. I’ve seen social impact organizations have great success with this tactic, so I’d encourage you to give it a try and see what happens!

Read the full post . . .

3) How to Use Empathy to Make a Social Impact

For a lot of us, when we think of selling, the word “empathy” doesn’t come to mind. In fact, for many in the cause-focused space, particularly nonprofits, selling (just like marketing) is a bit of a bad word. However, it shouldn’t be.

If you have something that someone else needs or wants, isn’t that a good thing? That’s where it all begins.

One of my spring interns, Rima Patel, will tell you how empathy intersects with the sales process, particularly the selling of products. I think this will not only be insightful, but good news for many of you.

You’re already leading a nonprofit, social enterprise, or other for-profit doing good, which means that empathy is at the core of what you do. This info takes it one step further, allowing you to see how empathy can be the glue that holds your triple bottom line together.

Read the full post . . .

4) Squarespace: The Pros and Cons

This post comes from my friend, Madison Beaulieu, who is a graphic designer and half of the dynamic duo, Mad + Dusty. She and her hubby created not only my logo and branding, but my website as well.

Madison and Dusty only design in Squarespace, and because I wanted to work with them, I went with SS as well. It’s been a great decision, and if re-branding or launching a new website is on your list, I’d urge you to take a look at this platform.

And to get you started on your research, I’ve asked Madison to review the pros and cons of Squarespace. No website platform is perfect, but there are a lot of features she and I both love about SS, and maybe you will, too.

Read the full post . . .

5) Want To Do More Speaking? This Is A Must.

Even with all the newfangled technology at our disposal, public speaking is still one of the best ways to get the word out about your cause. It’s an oldie, but a goodie. Plus, with the aid of technology, you now have more options than ever to speak publicly. It could be on a stage, radio, television, podcast, or video interview.

I repeatedly hear from clients and friends how their donations and sales were boosted after a speaking gig. That reason alone makes it a high priority for a lot of social impact organizations. And, if that’s the case for you, I’d like to give you one tip for making every speaking opportunity easier for both you and your host.

Read the full post . . .

Looking for more popular topics? Here are some of my readers’ all-time favorites:

12 Unique Launch Ideas You'll Want to Copy

What Do Successful Launches Have in Common? 

What You Need to Convince Potential Sponsors and Partners

10 Tools to Make Your Small Business Look More Professional (Most Are Free!)

5 Reasons Why Giving Back is Good For Business

PSST: Don't forget that you only have a few more days to enter to win a Communications Audit and Strategy Session, valued at $750! Resolve to have a stronger marketing strategy.

---

---

PIN THIS POST FOR LATER:

---

I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

---

11 Simple Ways to Improve Your Year-End Giving Campaign

We’re headed into the final weeks of the year, which means nonprofit fundraising is in overdrive. About 30% of nonprofit donations occur during the month of December, so yes—it’s go time! And whether you’re late to the party or have been planning for months, I know you’re all about maximizing your time and effort. So, I’ve outlined 11 simple ways to improve your year-end giving campaign.

Notice I said “simple,” not “easy,” because we all know there’s a big difference! Simple is focused, minimal, or straight-forward. Easy is typically done in a short time period and with little work.

Simple is Joanna Gaines decorating a room effortlessly and beautifully because it’s what she does every day. Easy is me picking up her decor at Target rather than me trying to design a room on my own. (Thanks, Jo!)

So, while some of these ideas take more energy and planning than others, all are time-tested and proven to help increase your donations. Think about what you’ve already got planned, and then take a peek below to see what you can include in your upcoming fundraising campaign. It’s likely that at least one of these ideas can enhance your current strategy.

People are feeling charitable (and tax-deductible) this time of year, so let’s make sure your cause gets their attention.

1. Ask For Only One Thing in your year-end giving campaign

Chances are, you’re going to be asking for donations. If that’s the case, ask your tribe to show you the money.

Don’t also ask them to follow you on social media, watch an unrelated video, join your Facebook Group, register for something . . . and, well, you get the point. Keep your emails and communication focused on the one, main thing you want them to do. Any other asks can come later. The exceptions to this rule would be something like a contest where they have to take multiple actions for an entry.

Additionally, you can leave some of these smaller asks such as social media links in secondary spaces like footers. You can also still make some of these requests occasionally on your platforms. Just be sure that you’re creating more content than you are asking for something because it shows that you want to build a relationship.

However, when you are sending an email, posting about your year-end giving campaign, or presenting to a group of people, keep it simple. Ask for only one thing and don’t clutter your message.

Remember, Nonprofits Source says that “30% of annual giving occurs in December.” So, this is no time to confuse people on what you want them to do! Giving them too many options or actions may result in them taking no action at all. Yikes.

2. Evaluate Your NONPROFIT’S Website For Optimal Giving

Even if people typically donate to your nonprofit through social media, text, or an app, you need get your website’s house in order to optimize year-end giving. Many people still give through websites, and if someone is new to you or your cause, they may check out your site before donating through another avenue like texting.

Make sure your campaign is front-and-center on your homepage, your donate button is easy to see and ideally in the top right corner, and evaluate any other pages where giving should be mentioned.

No need to only designate one or two pages for fundraising efforts. Of course, you don’t want to bombard people, but it may be appropriate to create an “event” for your campaign on your calendar page, add a pop up, or even include it on your About page. Additionally, you can create a banner at the top of your site that will display on all pages. (See mine in red at the top?) This is done through the “Hello Bar” plug-in on Wordpress and the “Announcement Bar” in Squarespace.

Want more of an explanation? Take a look at my video on how your website is less like IKEA and more like a mall.

3. Increase Your Promotion Frequency

There’s a tricky balance to this, and I explain it more in this video, but you definitely want to increase your email/social media/video/promotion frequency leading into year-end giving. This practice holds true anytime you launch something new, but especially because you’ll be dealing with a lot of competition during the holidays. Other nonprofits will be combing the interwebs for more donations, too, and lest we forget about all of those unbelievable sales at your favorite retail stores.

The takeaway here is that you shouldn’t send an email in November and December, post the campaign on social media a couple of times, and call it a day. You are going to have to work hard for that money, as the song goes. And you’re going to have to see it through until the end. Give Back Nation states that 12% of annual giving occurs during the last three days of December! So, send those reminders!

The caveat here is for my friends who’ve been so busy working that they let all their marketing and communications efforts fall by the wayside. Is that you? No judgement, but now’s the time to rev up those engines. Start now by sending your audience an email on what’s been happening, posting the latest on social media, and having general update conversations with people. This way you aren’t only going to send them a bunch of requests for money. That’s no bueno.

4. Offer Multiple Ways to Give to your nonprofit

Give your people multiple ways to give. This goes back to the basics of knowing your audience. If you have a younger audience, consider adding the ability to donate via text. Check out these compelling stats from Mobile Cause, including the one that says, “96% of donors use a mobile phone as their primary device.”

If you have an older audience, you might want to consider hopping back on the snail mail wagon. There is no perfect answer here. The right answer is the one that works for your tribe.

Again, you always want to make it easy for them to donate by removing any barriers in their path.

5. Add a Bonus

If you’ve got merchandise on your hands, you may want to give donors a gift in exchange for their contribution. You could even have something created just for this purpose, like a mug, tumbler, t-shirt, or jewelry. What do your people love?

People who are invested in your organization and your cause will be delighted to receive swag for their support. Plus, then they’re carrying your message around with them in public. (<— good marketing!)

6. Get Up Close and Personal with your donors

I don’t need to go in-depth on this one, but a face-to-face interaction will always be your best bet when it comes to fundraising. It works better than any sponsor presentation, email, video, or social media post. Get on the calendar of your biggest donors to date, or potential big givers, and make your case over lunch or coffee. Maybe even pay for it!

Another option here is to at least email people personally and start a conversation. Don’t rely on the mass emails that come from your nonprofit. Write specifically to that one person, and make sure they know it’s coming straight from you. (For the right people, phone calls or video chats are also a good option here.)

Don’t have time? This is potentially the most powerful of all the ideas you’ll read here today, so if you don’t have time, I suggest you make it.

7. Get Everyone on Board

Year-end fundraising is an all hands on deck situation! Make sure your board, employees, volunteers, and any other key stakeholders are carrying the banner.

I talk about this topic a lot on the blog and elsewhere as it relates to launching (<— the creation and promotion of something new), but this is a big deal, so it shouldn’t be left to the development or communications department. Everyone needs to be involved!

(For more on this topic, read this post.)

8. Go Out and network

Yes, it’s getting chilly outside, but this may be the prime time to get out there and start cultivating more donors at events, whether you’re hosting them or not. There’s already plenty happening this season!

It’s easy to leave all of the fundraising to your digital marketing strategy, but shaking hands has a powerful impact on people. In fact, this study shows that “a handshake preceding social interaction enhanced the positive impact of approach and diminished the negative impact of avoidance behavior on the evaluation of social interaction.”

A handshake and a smile can put people at ease, and give you an open door for talking about your cause. Someone may not be ready to donate during that first interaction, but you’re paving the way to a future relationship, which is a big win overall.

9. Participate in #GivingTuesday (At Least to Some Extent)

Some of you probably love #GivingTuesday, and some of you could care less. Some of you may even be new to the “holiday” as a whole, since it’s been around less than a decade.

Now in its eighth year, this unofficial holiday occurs the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and celebrates ways people can contribute to causes, whether monetary, through volunteering, or some other type of involvement.

A few of my clients have participated in #GivingTuesday in the past, but most haven’t. What I suggest to them all, however, is to jump into the mix in some way or another. There are tens of thousands of charities participating each year, so why not be a part of the conversation?

You don’t have to come up with a specific #GivingTuesday campaign, but I think it’s a great idea to send an email on this day or the day before, post on social media about your year-end fundraising campaign, and anything else that keeps you in front of your audience while numerous other nonprofits are out there seeking donations.

Even the most generous of us still only have so much money to go around, so make sure you’re getting a piece of that pie.

10. Ask Partners to Promote your year-end giving campaign

If you are lucky enough to have influencers, partners, sponsors, and the like who rally around your cause, it may be time to call in a favor. You may, of course, need to do something for them in return (or at least offer), but if there’s someone who can help you get your message out in the world, this could be a great time to rally the troops.

Let me sing my song again, though: Make it easy for them. Don’t just say thanks, and leave them to put together their own social media promotions and emails. It’s less likely to get done, or the messaging may not be what you want.

Always offer to create whatever resources they may need to share about your nonprofit. If they don’t need anything, great! But if they do, you’ll be the hero!

11. Recruit Someone to Match Gifts

I’ve left this one for last because it’s potentially the hardest. In fact, because we’re already in November, it may even be too late. But depending on your network and resources, maybe not! I’d certainly give it a try. If it’s an option you need to table for now, make it one of your top priorities for next year.

And let me clarify. This idea could include workplace charitable giving with a matching option, or one of those, “Give by December 15th and all donations will be matched up to $50,000” kind of campaigns that is instigated by one generous donor.

According to Double the Donation, “Mentioning matching gifts in fundraising appeals results in a 71% increase in the response rate and a 51% increase in the average donation amount (and that’s prior to receiving matching gift funds).” That stat makes it a big deal!

So, determine your heavy-hitters as well as your corporate partners, and see what it will take to move the needle in your direction. This could be a huge win for your nonprofit!

What else has helped you haul in those end of year donations?

---

---

PIN THIS POST FOR LATER:

---

I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

---

Learn to Clearly Communicate Your Mission

Quick note: During the summer, we'll only be publishing one blog post per month as we focus on some new activities and allow you some down time without falling behind on content.

Some things get better with time: wine, cheese, your favorite jeans, and your mission. While that last item may not initially come to mind, I believe it’s true.

You see, the more you talk about your social impact mission, the better you get at telling its story. After all, practice makes perfect. You need the time, experience, and feedback to know what points will resonate most with your audience. Plus, you’ll gain confidence the more you explain who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

Learning to tell your story well, and with confidence, is part of what will attract and retain customers and donors.

This, and more, is exactly what I discussed with my friends over at Funraise recently, and I’d love to share it with you, too.

In the post, I’ll show you why it’s important to use every opportunity to talk about your mission, and I’ll also explain what you can do with that feedback.

Your mission may not change, but the way you talk about it might. And I think that’s a good thing.

Because when you repeat your mission over and over again, you’re refining it. You’re not only getting better at saying it, you’re proactively making it better. It becomes more succinct, more focused, and dare I say, more engaging.

So, if you’re wondering how you can get better at communicating your social enterprise or nonprofit’s mission, click the button below.

Now that you’ve read the post, let’s take it a step further . . .

---

---

PIN THIS POST FOR LATER:

---

I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

---

How to Use Empathy to Make a Social Impact

For a lot of us, when we think of selling, the word “empathy” doesn’t come to mind. In fact, for many in the cause-focused space, particularly nonprofits, selling (just like marketing) is a bit of a bad word. However, it shouldn’t be.

If you have something that someone else needs or wants, isn’t that a good thing? That’s where it all begins.

Today, one of my spring interns, Rima Patel, is going to share how empathy intersects with the sales process, particularly the selling of products. I think this will not only be insightful, but good news for many of you.

You’re already leading a nonprofit, social enterprise, or other for-profit doing good, which means that empathy is at the core of what you do. This post will take it one step further, allowing you to see how empathy can be the glue that holds your triple bottom line together.

No one will deny that the key to creating a successful product is by thinking like the consumer. Putting yourself into their shoes and figuring out what they want can help make your great idea even more desirable. This concept is not unfamiliar to us; in fact, it’s something we aim to practice in our day-to-day lives. Whether it’s individuals trying to build strong relationships or cause-focused organizations trying to connect with consumers, empathy is essential.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Empathy is the difference between feeling for someone and feeling with them. Acknowledging feelings from shared experiences connects us as humans, beyond all the ways in which we separate ourselves—and that’s special. So special that it has the power to change lives and make an impact.

Maybe you’re an entrepreneur and you want your consumers to have an emotional connection to your product. Maybe you’re a nonprofit and you are trying to fix a social issue by inspiring others. Or maybe you’re a social enterprise and you just want to do more good. How can you use empathy to make a social impact?

Empathy can push you to create solutions that help others, but it can also push others to help you and your cause.

Empathy in the design process

A human-centered approach to innovation

Design thinking is a popular process that many social enterprises use today to creatively solve problems and make social impacts. This process takes a human-centered approach and involves five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.

This semester, my Intro to Entrepreneurship professor decided to focus her class around the design thinking process, giving us the task of creating a product that would help solve the issue of climate change on campus. After the project was over, in a class with almost 300 students, we all came to the same general consensus: the empathize stage was the most important.

At first, many of us had a lot of great ideas, but the empathize stage made us quickly realize that our ideas could be better.

We all knew the problems associated with climate change and we all knew the different methods to prevent it, but what we didn’t know was how much people were actually willing to do. We found that college students want to help the environment, but don’t want to go out of their way to do it. You’ve probably seen something similar with your audience.

We realized that methods requiring the consumer to take some action like using water refill stations or compost bins don’t go as far as methods that don’t require the consumer to take an action, like putting motion detector lights in dorms. Creating the most value for our consumer requires using empathy to understand the best way to solve the problem.

The empathize stage not only helped us understand the consumer and how they felt about the issue to make the most efficient product, but helped us understand what steps they might actually take. Without empathy, our product might have ended up useless, unrealistic, and ultimately unsuccessful.

So, how do you use empathy in the design process? The first step is to ask questions.

Ask yourself:

• What do you know about the problem?

• What do you not know?

• What are your assumptions?

Then ask others:

• How do they feel about the problem?

• How does it impact their life?

• What are they willing to do about it?

These insights will help you understand the problem, who is involved, and how you might go about solving it in a way that brings others into the process for a more successful solution.

We all have great ideas that we want to see come to life, but if we want to be as successful as we can, it’s necessary that we open our ideas to other perspectives. Using empathy, you can see what would work and what would not, how people react to and feel about your ideas, and how to make them better.

There are many solutions to a problem, but the best solution is the one that begins with empathy.

Consumer empathy

Stop marketing products, start marketing feelings

Today, consumer empathy has become quite popular because companies are starting to realize its impact. If people have an emotional connection to a product, they are far more likely to buy it. If people share the same feelings as an organization, they are far more likely to support it.

Consumer empathy makes people feel less like consumers and more like humans, and that appeal is strong enough to make a positive impact on businesses and on the world.

Consumer empathy involves not only understanding the desires and struggles of the consumer, but also sharing those feelings with them. A great example of consumer empathy is a commercial for Cardstore by American Greetings in 2014. In order to promote their website, American Greetings sparked a common, shared feeling—the love we have for our mothers—and used it to help the audience create an emotional attachment with the brand. With this commercial, American Greetings was marketing a feeling, not a product.

Another great example is TOMS, a shoe company that built its brand on the concept that for every pair of shoes sold, there was also a pair given to a child with no shoes. Growing up, I remember seeing so many TOMS flags hanging up in bedrooms. Why were people so inclined to hang a shoe brand up on their wall?

The flag represented a feeling, an emotional attachment to the product, and a sense of pride for doing something good. TOMS recognized the power of making every person who purchased their shoes feel like they made a significant impact, and were part of a solution to a big problem. Today, TOMS continues to use consumer empathy to discuss other important social issues, like gun violence.

Now, it might seem like empathy is an obvious tool for marketing products. Of course thinking like the consumer is necessary for creating something that is valuable and relevant to them. Unfortunately, many companies still lack this skill.

Pepsi, for example, aired a commercial in 2017 amidst the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The commercial involved Kendall Jenner joining an ambiguous protest and sharing a Pepsi with a police officer, sparking unity and excitement among everyone. Pepsi received severe backlash, taking down the ad several days later, and responses to the commercial gave a clear understanding as to why. A former organizer for BLM said, “No one is finding joy from Pepsi at a protest.” Bernice King, daughter of MLK Jr., tweeted, “If only daddy knew the power of #Pepsi.” To make things worse, the face of the ad was a rich, white supermodel who has no history of being an advocate for BLM, or any other social issue for that matter. Pepsi failed to understand their consumers and how they feel about the issue, which is what made the ad unsuccessful.

So, what did Pepsi do wrong? Pepsi’s commercial was trying to ignore the problem. Its message does not fall far from, “Why can’t we all just get along?” It provides a “solution” without actually acknowledging the existing problem of police brutality that some black people face everyday in America.

Empathy goes beyond just understanding someone's feelings; it requires learning to share them, too. Pepsi attempted to use a current, popular trend in social justice to promote their brand and make more money. Their mistake was leaving out empathy, and it was a mistake they could have avoided had they taken more time to know their consumer.

Using empathy in marketing involves understanding how your consumer feels, but it also involves understanding how your consumer will react. How do they want to feel, and can you make them feel that?

Using empathy to create social change

How feelings can change the world

The beauty of empathy is that it affects all of us.

Whether we are selling or buying the idea, it makes us all feel something. Empathy reminds us that we are all human and that we share experiences and feelings. It has been a tool used around the world to make individual problems feel universal.

Empathy allows consumers to feel like they are being heard and understood, that they are not alone, and that there are people out there trying to solve their problems. It sparks inspiration and motivation for people to work towards the things they care about.

As entrepreneurs and innovators, it is essential that we practice empathy in all aspects and phases of our projects—from idea to design to marketing. So, ask questions and open your ears. Understand who you’re working with and what they’re feeling.

Remember that empathy involves shared experiences, so remind yourself of your feelings and why you got involved with your cause to begin with. Keep in mind that the product or the profit isn’t special, but the feeling it invokes and how those feelings might eventually change the world is.

Developing Your Empathy Muscle

Empathy 101

One question that may have come up in reading this post might be something like, “Is it necessary to have empathy if others around me already do?”

In other words, is access to others with empathic skills just as valuable as learning those skills for yourself? In my opinion, no. Empathy is a skill we want to individually develop because it is a skill we can use in all aspects of our lives, not just work.

Having access to others with empathy is a great way to learn empathy; however, relying on others for empathy to make your ideas better only limits yourself.

Empathy isn’t just meant to benefit your business. It can be the very thing that motivates and inspires you when approached with a challenge or failure. Learning and practicing empathy puts things into perspectives you might never see otherwise, and that’s an important skill everyone should try to have.

If you want to develop more empathy, here are four recommendations:

• As mentioned, hang out with people who have empathy. Surround yourself with people who challenge you to improve.

• When you are around people who are more empathetic than you, ask questions that will help you understand their perspective and how they identify with the emotions of others.

• Read more literature. According to research, fiction can make you more empathic and improve your EQ, or emotional intelligence.

• Travel to new places. Putting yourself in unfamiliar environments and around different cultures is a great way to get out of your comfort zone and develop an appreciation for others.
  

---

I’m Rima Patel, an upcoming senior at North Carolina State University, majoring in Sociology with minors in Business Administration and Nonprofit Studies. My ultimate goal in life is to do good and help people, and right now I’m doing that through marketing for nonprofits.

I hope to make significant impacts on social issues through innovation and social entrepreneurship.

LinkedIn

---

---

PIN THIS POST FOR LATER

---

I’m Kristi Porter, and I help cause-focused organizations understand and execute effective marketing campaigns so they can move from stressed to strategic. Your resources may be limited, but your potential isn’t. Whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise, or small business who wants to give back, I’ll show you how to have a bigger impact.

---