3 posts tagged “charity”
Nonprofit organizations and charitable causes could learn a lot from the business world. And for too long, too many nonprofits have plied there own way, ignoring some valuable lessons from the business world and internet marketing. This isn't to say that outstanding work, dedication, and passion cannot be found every day all over the world. Because it can. It is simply my opinion that there is more that can be done.
The following are a few suggestions taken from a much larger article that I am working on finishing. And I'll perhaps post some more of it here in the future or on my cause marketing blog that I anticipate launching around the middle of January. So a few of the suggestions that I have for nonprofit organizations in 2007 are:
1. Don't just think about potential donors, think more about building a donor community.
2. Viral marketing. Don't ignore it. Do something with it. This is sometimes labeled word-of-mouth marketing, though it is my opinion that there are some subtle differences that doesn't make them perfectly synonymous.
3. Blogs - If you are reading this, you probably know more than half of what I could say about this topic
4. Your website should not be an "after thought". It says more about you than you may realize.
5. Pay attention to your back channels. This basically means that you need to have a strategy and functionaltiy in place for those who come to your website. Simply put, you simply cannot afford to just have "visitors only" to your website.
A number of the ideas above are actually tied together. And perhaps you have noticed a theme that winds through all of them. For nonprofit organizations, the year 2007 needs to be about Engagement.
To follow-up on a recent post, I wanted to mention a few sites on Cause Marketing that I like thus far:
http://www.thinkpersonality.com/
http://www.gettingattention.org/
Maybe I am just incredibly "picky" when it comes to my expecations for information on the web on any topic of interest to me. Or perhaps there really is a deficiency in the information available on cause-related marketing.
While I hate to sound negative on a topic so close and dear to my heart, I've been rather unimpressed with the information I am led to when Googling this topic. That isn't to say there aren't some interesting sites and helpful articles, but I've hit the "back" button quite often too.
Among the things I've found were a couple of sites that seemed very talented at keyword spamming (and somehow Google still lists them), a site that thinks it has the rights to the concept itself, and even one study from a highly reputable university that didn't even get close to a correct defintion of cause marketing. The latter was truly disconcerting since I had high hopes after reading the first paragraph or two.
This is a topic that is receiving more and more attention. Some good information is out there, just not well presented or noticeable in the search engines. At the same time, I get the impression that a lot of people may still be wondering what to say about cause marketing even though they realize the power that it has.
My disappointment (and irritation with a few of the sites) has led me towards "stepping up" a project I've been working on which is to start my own site about this topic. So I'm planning to launch my Cause Marketing Review site shortly before or after the holidays. I'm not 100% settled on the name. It is my hope that in the future, whenver any of us search on this topic, we'll have some more adequate choices for resources without resorting to page 173 whether or not it is something I produce.
We each do our part to add a little piece for the benefit of humanity. No one needs to be everything for everyone. At least this is how I look at the world.
