Are You Ready for the End of the Year?

Getting Ready for the End of the Year

With Summer vacation coming to an end, it's time to get back into the Communications Game.  The end of the year is fast approaching. Are you ready for your end-of-year push?  Here are a few tips to help you hone your strategy and tell your story.

 

The Keys to Developing a Winning Strategy

 

1. Define your objectives

• What are your top three goals to reach by December 31?
• How can you activate your base to help you achieve these goals?
• What challenges do you see ahead, and how can you prepare for them now?

2. Set up and follow a calendar

• Create a consistent schedule of communications
• Give yourself ample time to meet your communications deadlines (e.g. dedicate time on your calendar to write a draft and revise materials)
• Keep your contact consistent – frequent enough to be a gentle reminder but infrequent enough to not be a nuisance

3. Create communication that fosters conversation   

• Engage your base through questions and calls to action
• Do what you do best, whether that is to teach, inform, or empower

 

 

SWP: The Bottom Line

 

Make it focused and specific.
Make it consistent and engaging.
Make it relevant and inspiring.

 

Compelling and consistent communication is integral to effective fundraising, board engagement and contributor relations.

 

The SWP Difference

 

 At SWP, we know how difficult it is to stay on task, get organized and dedicate the time necessary to create an effective communications plan.  That's where we come in.  Call us today for a free consultation.  Together, we can move your mission forward!

The Three Steps for Creating Profitable Non-Profits

Passion with Perspective

While my work with each of my clients is tailored and personalized, I use the same approach. I begin with the three steps that I call “The ‘Ize’ Have It.”

Visual-IZE

Strateg-IZE

Real-IZE

Visual-IZE

Visualize you and/or your organization at present time. This is the discovery process to help you: Find Your Story...

• What motivates you? What led you to this place? What are your passions?

• What are your unique strengths? What makes you invaluable and indispensable to your community and the world at large?

• What are your goals? 1 month? 3 months? 1 year? 5 years?

Strateg-IZE

Develop a customized strategy to focus your vision, and expand your reach.

• Develop Communication Strategies to Convey Your Message
• Elevator Pitch, Mission Statement, Case Statement, Email Blast Templates, Rolodex of Services, etc.

• Identify How to Reach and Engage Your Target Audience
• Events, One-on-One Meetings, Email Blasts, Documentary Profiles of Key Players/Board Members/Volunteers, etc.

Real-IZE

Use the discovered information to realize your goals. Through your unique brand identity and your developed strategies, you will engage your audience and empower your organization.

SWP: The Bottom Line

What makes my approach unique is that I have passion with perspective for you and/or your organization.

Personalized strategies = Empowered Organizations

Visualize, Strategize, Realize

A Board Development Success Story

Over the past few months, I have been working with a non-profit on expanding and energizing its Board. Our work together transformed the Board from interested, honored members to effective, dynamic ambassadors to the community. 

 Given the success, I was approached to produce the organization's annual flagship event. In the past, this event has had limited impact. I encouraged the Board and Executive Director to rethink their approach, reframe their vision, and re-engage their audience in a new way. 

Not Just Business As Usual... 

 Despite limited time and resources, we completely revamped the evening. We replaced long boring speeches with relevant programming, including the video linked below. This simple video was shown during the event to praise the honorees, and to educate and inspire the audience. 

The Impact 

The event highlighted the organization’s importance, value and relevance to the community. Long-standing supporters felt, for the first time, a renewed energy and commitment to the organization. The feedback from first-timers was: "How do I get involved?" A success on all fronts. 

SWP: The Bottom Line 

Every event, every communication, every meeting presents an opportunity to tell a story that resonates. Make it passionate; make it relevant; make it impactful.

Exploring and Expanding Your Circles

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from readers about our last blog post, regarding how we break down the process of board engagement. However, we have also gotten a few emails from perplexed readers.

The question:
But what if I’ve run out of warm leads? What if I’ve gone through all my contacts, and I’m just cycling through the same people over and over?

You think you’re tapped out, but you are not! We have an exercise here to help you reframe how you see yourself and your network. We guarantee you’ll walk away thinking, “Wow, I know a lot more people than I thought!”

We present Exploring and Expanding Your Circles!

Above is a partially completed sample, to give you inspiration.

How to play the game:
1. Put your name in the middle square.
2. In the floating circles, list areas of your life, i.e. work, alumni association, children's school/PTA, gym, yoga, art class, etc.
3. Next to each circle, list potential warm leads.

Don't be limited; think creatively about your circles. In doing so, you will be able to better visualize and appreciate the expansiveness of your network. Now, go explore, expand, and engage!

If you have any questions or would like a blank template, please feel free to contact me.

We look forward to your feedback, and can't wait to hear about just how many people you know!

How to Play the Board Development Game

Board Development
This is the process of enhancing your current board. It is really just a means of reaching out to leads and expanding your network.

Warm Leads (vs. Cold Leads)
Approaching a cold lead is like opening the phonebook blindfolded, putting your finger on a name, and making a call. A warm lead, on the other hand, is an individual with whom you already have a relationship or someone whose values you feel would resonate with your organization’s mission. They are already in your phonebook.

How to Engage Warm Leads
There are three strategic parts: The Approach, The Ask, and The Engagement. Think of these as the pre-game, the game, and the post-game, respectively.

The Approach is the work you must do prior to making contact with your warm lead. Don’t approach a warm lead in a cold way. Do your homework; information is gold. You will use this information to craft your Ask.

The Ask is the game; your strategy and homework put into action. It’s a carefully orchestrated dialogue, the purpose of which is to engage and inspire your lead to “buy in.”

The Engagement is the process of deepening the relationship so that your warm lead develops into a true partner (hot lead). You are the motivating source for continued engagement.

Using Video Postards As Marketing Tools

There have been many exciting new developments for SWP!

In my last blogpost, I spoke about tools that engage and enliven a donor relationship.  In today’s marketplace, the key ingredient is passion.  If you are not passionate about your product, your company, or your nonprofit, then your audience won’t be, either.  

My role as a consultant is to connect an organization’s passion to its audience.

One of my clients, Jerusalem-based Thank Israeli Soldiers, recently asked me to come up with a marketing idea for its end-of-year fundraising campaign.  My client is very passionate about its organization and is known for its tremendous commitment to the soldiers of the IDF.  My suggestion to them was to create a “video postcard” (see below).

Today’s consumer lives in “the clouds” and is bombarded with information.  Your job is to stand out.  The “video postcard” for my client is 2 minutes long and packs an emotional punch.  It is strategic in its message and purpose.  Because the message is unique to the organization but not time-bound, this one-time investment will have a long shelf life. 

What was your inspiration for starting your venture?  Who are you talking to?  What is their passion?  What motivates them?  To begin, you must own the answers to these questions.

 

Some tips:

-       Learn as much as you can about your potential donors.  Interview your referrals; ask specific questions.

-       Information is gold.  Research.  Find out about the potential client/donor history, relationships to community, to giving, etc. 

-       Create partners, not donors.  Work on developing a marketing and communications strategy that is consistent and compelling.

  

Overcoming Donor Fatigue

In the past few months, we have begun to expand our reach and our scope of services.  In previous entries, I wrote about a seminar I developed entitled "How to Take Your Fundraising Events from OK to Awesome." This seminar attracted many new opportunities for SWP and allowed me to utilize my skills in many new arenas.

The process necessary for the creation of a compelling event is the same process needed for the development of new and existing relationships. Both need to keep their audiences inspired and motivated.  In an event, the goal is to connect the audience to the message.  In a donor relationship, the goal is to connect a donor’s passion to the organization’s programs. Aligning a message or a passion with an audience or donor has become a specialty of Sarah Weintraub Productions. 

I worked with a client today on how to prevent "donor fatigue," In order to keep donors inspired and connected, it is imperative for organizations to constantly deepen their relationships with them. How can they do that?  Here are a few pointers:

·               Never look at donors as  "cash vending machines.” This is a personal relationship first. 

·               Information is key. Understand who they are as individuals and what their passions are. Doing so provides valuable information about how to keep them inspired, connected and motivated.

·               Stay in contact on a regular basis with updates and exciting news about your programs and plans.  People like to be kept in the loop! Don’t underestimate the power of a personal connection.

If you are interested in learning more about what you can do to make a difference in your organization, feel free to contact me for a free initial consultation.