Nonprofit PR: Communication with a Purpose

How about focusing on the “bottom 1 percent” !

2011-11-17T05:41:00.000-05:00

If you read my earlier posts, I started with a supportive attitude toward Occupy Wall Street. Then I criticized their PR tactics. Now I am disgusted. And I see the evolution of this so-called movement turning very ugly very soon – violence, rioting. It seems inevitable.

I gave up on this movement when I saw a guy with a sign that said, “$25,000 school loans for $15/hour slave labor.”

Really? Slavery? That’s a slap to any American whose ancestors who suffered through actual slavery.

$15 per hour is more than $30,000 a year. Many household breadwinners who have lost their jobs would love to work for $15 to feed their family and provide them with a place to live. They might take two such jobs if needed to make ends meet, and be glad to have it.

That’s when I became disgusted.

The Occupy “movement” does not deserve to be called a movement. The Civil Rights movement had a purpose and achieved great things. The “women’s movement” similarly changed our culture. What “movement” have these grungy campers achieved?

Answer:
None. No movement at all. I have seen more productive bowel movements.

Yeah, I said it.

I have not seen anyone point out the ironies. Only about 15% of protesters are unemployed. They are not likely to find a job camping in a park marching with a cardboard sign. How about shaving, taking a shower, and knocking on some doors for interviews!

As for the rest, they must be affluent enough to afford spending all their time campaign and marching for….some cause I have still not been able to identify. That affluence comes from the “enemy” – companies. They are protesting companies and corporations, not realizing that ALL money is generated by companies and corporations. Even government money; it all stems from companies producing product, employing people, making profits, paying taxes.

Now that police have busted up the camps, the protesters will grow increasingly restless. Their aimless sense of frustration will percolate. They will increasingly inconvenience innocent citizens, as they did today in marches across the country.

Violence is the next phase of this movement. Confrontation, run-ins with police, rioting. It’s bound to happen. And it’s such a shame, such a wasted opportunity.

What if all these protesters, rather than poking harmless jabs at the top 1 percent, spent their time either working or volunteering to serve the “bottom 1 percent,” to lift them up out of abject poverty. People who don’t sleep in tents for the novelty of it, but who sleep in cardboard boxes because they have no other choice.

How about that? Seems like that could work!

Steve Cebalt

PR lessons from the “Occupy” movement

2011-11-07T04:19:00.003-05:00

I wrote some weeks ago about my interest in the Occupy Wall Street movement. I was interested in it from a communications perspective. I said then that I admired the protesters for their zeal and energy, and I was eager to hear their message.

Chirp. Chirp. Cue the sound of silence interrupted only by the chirping of crickets. Which is pretty much all the Occupiers have done – a bit of harmless chirping.

I am disappointed because they had their 15 minutes of fame; they had the megaphone; the world was listening; but they had nothing to say. Thousands of people taking to the streets with signs of all kinds, achieving: nothing. What a wasted opportunity. Chirp Chirp.

Which brings to mind this quote:

“Never confuse motion with action” – Ben Franklin

And this quote:

“Never confuse camping with communicating.” -- Steve Cebalt

So the PR lessons:

Camping in cities gets you some TV cameras to look at your cardboard signs. But you have to have the fundamentals of any communication:

1. A purpose. What problem are we trying to solve?

2. A target audience: Who can solve this problem for us?

3. A message: What would persuade this audience do solve our problem?

4. A medium: Cardboard signs are fine, if they are supported by intelligent spokespersons with a coherent message (see #3).

5A. A goal: What would success look like? How will we know when we’ve achieved it?

5B. And the goal can’t’ be this: “Can I go home now, this tent is getting cold and stinky and this isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be….”

So we can learn a lot from the Occupiers. Getting attention achieves NOTHING without a clear problem statement; a clear message delivered through the right channels, aimed at people who can address that problem; and a goal that defines success.

I was very supportive of the Occupiers when they started! I wanted to see them succeed at – something! But I’ve never seen such a colossal failure of a “movement.” They can shiver in their tents chirp-chirp-chirping until spring, and unless they address the 5 PR principles listed above, no one will care. Why should we?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Steve Cebalt

The victory in Iraq

2011-10-22T09:58:00.006-04:00

A rebel fighter chillaxing in the bed of their country's ousted leader
Muammar Gadhafi in a palace in Sirte, Libya.
________________________________________________________

This is a communications blog, so it is not splitting hairs to observe that President Obama used the word "success" in announcing that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of this year.

Not to quibble, but "victory" would be the right word.

We went to Iraq because Saddam Hussein was indicating that he held weapons of mass destruction, which he'd used many times before, and he defied U.N. security resolutions that called for inspections to assure that he did not have WMDs. Because he refused, The U.S.-led coalition had to conduct the inspection by force and assure the world that Iraq posed no threat with regard to WMDs. We achieved that. Victory.

Not to be overlooked is the link between the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the dominoes of dictators who are falling now throughout the Middle East. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and likely Yemin and perhaps Syria next.

The fact that a dictator like Saddam Hussein could be toppled provided an important and potent symbol to oppressed people living under dictators. The bravery, blood and treasure invested in the Iraq War has led to a new culture; a new mindset throughout the region. That's what we achieved in Iraq. People inthe Middle East can see hope. They have a future.

They can believe.

U.S. military men and women helped make that possible.

Victory.

Occupy Movement: Don't just do something, STAND THERE!

2011-10-17T05:56:00.001-04:00

I have watched the growth of the "Occupy" movement with great interest. So much energy! It's great to see people engaged.....

I just wish now that they have garnered so much attention, they could say something meaningful!

So far they appear to me a lot of people who enjoy marching and "protesting" and holding up signs. Sounds like good fun, and I'd join them if I didn't have to work so hard to keep a roof over my family's head! "Responsibility stinks! Where's the Fun!" That's what I'd put on my sign.....

Certainly the movement has tapped into a source of great political and societal dissatisfaction. But railing against the rich is not a winning message. It is not news to anyone that some people have lots more money than you, or me.

As Mel Brooks said in The History of the World, Part 1:

"It's good to be the king."

And a math lesson is in order; no matter how society is structured, there will always be a top 1%. And a bottom 1%.

I know this, because I personally helped almost every other kid in my high school class graduate in the top 99% of the class!

I take the Occupy movement very seriously; they have enthusiasm, commitment, energy. The have a chance to make a difference! So I am listening very carefully.

For now.

But I will lose interest quickly. I have not yet heard a coherent message.

It's like they've called me up on the phone. "Hello," I say!! Now it's your turn to speak: Who are you and why are you calling me!

Steve Cebalt

Slow down and get 40% more done!

2011-10-10T06:09:00.000-04:00

"A man's gotta know his limitations"

Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan

I have some news you’re not going to like, but don’t dismiss it just because you’d prefer not to believe it. It’s true.

-- Do you talk on the phone while typing or reading emails?

-- Do you talk on the phone while driving?

-- Do you have numerous windows open on your computer at once, switching rapidly from one task to the next?

-- Do you stop what you are doing to jump on emails as they arrive in your inbasket?

These habits are reducing your productivity by up to 40 percent. But here is the good news; that means that if you are a heavy multitasker, you can increase your productivity up to 40 percent if you can wean yourself from some counterproductive multitasking behaviors.

Most of us engage in some of these forms of multitasking. It seems more stimulating to juggle several topics than to focus on one thing at a time. But guess what; it’s dragging our productivity down – way down – according to a growing body of scientific research.

While it is tantalizing to think we can do more than one thing at a time in order to get more done, more quickly, the fact is that such multitasking or task-switching can rob your work of its quality, reduce your overall output, increase stress, and inhibit your relationships with others. In fact, researchers say, the results can be catastrophic.

I've written extensively on this blog about multitasking and its implications for nonprofit communications professionals. It's a topic that interests me because I know multitasking is very counterproductive, but like you, I have to do it sometimes out of necessity. But many times I can control it and avoid it. It's a matter of disciplining myself to do so, and that is not easy.

Our productivity is the result of how effectively we apply our attention to our goals. Anything that interferes with the ability to focus your attention on your chosen goals will drain productivity.

Multitasking is especially harmful. Here is a good New York Times article summarizing some of the research on the ways that multitasking robs your productivity. A more recent but shorter article appeared in The USA Today Weekend by Laura Hoxworth, citing statistics that multitasking slows you down by up to 40 percent.

And while things like talking on a cellphone while driving may seem efficient, in fact, commuters who talk on their cellphones lose an average of 25 hours a year because they tend to drive more slowly. Twenty-five hours! That's more than half a week of vacation down the drain! Not to mention that cell-phone driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, according to the CDC.

Here's a quote from the New York Times article: “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” said David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

Sometimes multitasking is unavoidable. But more often, many people (me) embrace multitasking either to avoid boredom, or to avoid focusing on their real problems and priorities, or because they feel they are somehow capable of more than is humanly possible. I am guilty of all of those! That's why this topic interests me -- because I find it difficult to practice what I preach. The result is a loss of productivity -- up to 4o percent!

Dirty Harry was right: A man's gotta know his limitations. Multitasking is simply wishful thinking. I wish I could do 5 things at once. I can't; nobody can. Not even you. According to scientists, humans get more done when they do tasks one at a time, consecutively, rather than at the same time.

Don't take my word for it: Here are about 20 research articles that validate what I'm saying.

Click here for links to about 20 research articles on the topic.

Have a productive day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for nonprofits and Foundations

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Steve Jobs: Perspectives

2011-10-06T06:22:00.000-04:00

Where will Steve Jobs fall in the pages of the history books in coming decades?
Where will he rank among other American innovators, like Thomas Edison?

The sad death of Steve jobs Is drawing the world’s attention today, as well it should. He was the foremost innovator of our day. An innovator, primarily, in the art of creating buzz and promoting new-product rollouts.

Some perspective is in order, however, as to where he’ll fall in the pantheon of those who built America.

Thomas Edison gave us electric light bulbs. More importantly, he gave us the infrastructure of the electric grid that powers everything electronic. He also gave us recorded music and motion pictures, to name just a few of his inventions. More important, he created a process of mass-producing intellectual research and innovation at his famous laboratory.

Henry Fort gave us affordable transportation and, just as significantly, the $5 workday, which effectively created the American middle class. Cars led to roads which led to highways which led to suburbs and the American Dream of owning a nice home and a nice car. Also, his innovations in manufacturing provided the muscle for what FDR called the “arsenal of democracy,” converting auto plants into aircraft plants in a matter of months, creating the planes, missiles and other weapons that helping the Allies defeat the Axis powers in WWII.

Let’s not forget the ancient Romans, who have us toilets, plumbing and sewer systems. Which would you give up first, your shower and toilet, or your i-Phone?

Speaking of the i-Phone, for all its hype, more people use phones powered by some other innovators of our era, the folks at Google. Google’s Android platform is used by more people than i-Phone or any other platform. The problem with many of Jobs' innovations is that they were so easily copied.

As for personal computing, the Mac is a superior product to the PC, but still is a minor player in terms of market share. It’s nice to have, but a PC will get you by and it is chosen by most people over the Mac.

I love my i-Pod!!!! But I also loved my MP3 player, a cheap-and-cheerful $19 gadget from Walmart that played the same songs my i-Pod plays! Yes the i-Pod is an improvement.
Perhaps the real breakthrough for Jobs is the way he revolutionized the way music is sold, through i-Tunes. But if he hadn’t done it, Amazon would have. In fact, they already have, just as they’d done many years before with books, which gave Jobs the model for i-Tunes.

The point: If there hadn’t been a Steve Jobs, there’d have been someone like him; there are others like him, in fact; and most of his innovations were too easily imitated by others.

But when I listen to Bob Dylan on my i-Pod, I can’t say the same thing. If there hadn’t been a Bob Dylan, there would not have been anyone else like him.

Steve Jobs helped change the way we get information. Artists like Bob Dylan change the way we think.

Big difference.

George Orwell Saw This Coming!

2011-09-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

George Orwell had it right in his landmark book, "1984."

I think even he would be shocked by the reach of Big Brother today!

I never worried much about privacy, but I am starting to become uneasy.

I never worried about privacy because I live by a creed: 1) mind your own business (like I don’t have enough things to worry about besides other people’s business?) and 2) if someone shares confidential information, put it in a vault and tell no one. And I long ago accepted identity theft and credit card fraud as facts of life that will happen to all of us from time to time, like getting a flat tire.

As a communications professional, clients need to know that if they are planning an announcement on a certain date and need my help planning it, that every word they share goes in the vault. I discuss it with no one – coworkers, my spouse – I just keep my mouth shut! Simple! And if I have confidential business information to discuss, I use the phone, not email. So life was simple.

But things have changed. I can remember when, if you wanted to look at a nonprofit’s 990 tax form, you had to request it from them, and they could make it easy or hard. They could require that you pick it up in person and pay 10 cents per page to copy it. Most of us would not bother with that unless we had a very good need to know the information.

Now, anyone can hop on GuideStar and find the salary of the CEO of any nonprofit in about one minute. It’s all there on the 990 tax form. I know that many people check out the salaries of their nonprofit colleagues this way. Do they need to know? No. They are just nosy, and the info is there at their fingertips. It’s the equivalent of gossip.

Likewise, anyone who wants to could find my house on Google Earth and zoom in to see whether I maintain my yard and pull my weeds. That’s not a good thing!

I had a conversation with clients the other day about privacy, prompted by the much publicized privacy breach uncovered at Facebook and other social networking sites.

Then just today, one of my favorite writers, Peggy Noonan, wrote a very timely opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal:

Here's the first paragraph:

"This column is about privacy, a common enough topic but one to which I don't think we're paying enough attention. As a culture we may be losing it at a greater clip than we're noticing, and that loss will have implications both political and, I think, spiritual. People don't like it when they can't keep their own information, or their sense of dignified apartness. They feel violated when it's taken from them. This adds to the general fraying of things."

The right to privacy is so important that it is reflected in certain aspects of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. The Bill of Rights reflects the concern among our founding framers for protecting specific aspects of privacy, including privacy of the person and possessions as against unreasonable searches (Google Earth), and the 5th Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination, which provides protection for the privacy of personal information (Facebook breach).

I think this poses a cautionary message for nonprofit communicators. Think twice -- no, think 10 times -- before you commit anything to electrons. Email. Facebook. Blogs.

It’s all enough to make one paranoid. I am not paranoid. But as I saw on a T-shirt once, “Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!"

Have a great day. I won't tell anyone.

Steve Cebalt, Author
Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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A brilliant look at communications today

2011-09-10T12:14:00.000-04:00

A client from a local foundation was kind enough to share this video with me. It is a fascinating perspective on the media landscape -- old media, and new. Well worth 4 minutes of your time if you have any role in nonprofit or foundation communications!

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Do Questions Make Good Headlines for Brochures, Web Pages, Newsletters, and Direct Mail Fundraising?

2011-09-10T07:31:00.000-04:00

Do question headlines work?

If you are reading this article, then the answer is a definite “yes.”

I spent several happy years as a copy editor and headline writer at The Journal Gazette. Some people argue vigorously against the use of questions in headlines. But I disagree. I believe that asking a question is one of the most potent attention-getting openers for public relations writers who produce Web sites, fundraising appeals, direct mail, brochures and newsletters. To be effective, the question headline must ask a question that the reader can empathize with or would like to see answered.

Some examples:
-- "Do you make these mistakes in English?"
-- "What do Japanese managers know that American managers sometimes lack?"
-- "Is THIS what your teen will be doing tonight?"
-- "Do you have you any of these decorating problems?"
-- "Do you close the bathroom door even when you're the only one home?" (Psychology Today)

Don't let anyone tell you that questions in headlines are a bad idea.

Shifting gears but still speaking of headlines....

Just for fun, here are some real-world headlines that may have missed the mark.

-- Juvenile court to try shooting defendant
-- Plane too close to ground, crash probe told
-- Miners refuse to work after death
-- Stolen painting found by tree
-- If strike isn't settled quickly, it may last a while
-- Cold wave linked to temperatures
-- Red tape holds up new bridge
-- Typhoon rips through cemetery; hundreds dead
-- New study of obesity looks for larger test group
-- Astronaut takes blame for gas in spacecraft
-- Kids make nutritious snacks.

Enjoy your day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Research and Henry Ford's Faster Horse

2011-09-08T11:46:00.000-04:00

Have you done any research lately? I don't mean a fancy poll, but just a survey, or even some brief interviews with the people you serve.

Most nonprofits could benefit from doing more survey research -- free, of course. I got to thinking about this because I was working on a marketing plan for a very small church daycare center. Some simple analysis of zip code data an a survey completed by parents helped tremendously in shaping the plan.

Here's a link to my free tutorial on Communications Research:

http://highviewhelp.com/Communications_Research.pdf.pdf

Sections 3 and 4 on online survey tools and focus groups may be especially helpful.

If you want to know how to communicate better, just ask! And research is how you do the asking.

Research has its limitations though. One of my historical heroes, Henry Ford, once said that "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." Customers don't envision the future, they inform the present. To understand customer's needs for new innovation, you can simply repeatedly ask one question: Why.

"Why do you want a faster horse?"

"So I can get to town faster to pick up supplies and mail."

"Why do you want to get to town faster?"

"So I can get back and get more done on the farm."

By digging deeper with a series of "Why" questions, you can get at the customer's underlying desire. In this case, the horse was not the real desire -- the desire was being empowered to "get more done."

Anyhow, check out sections 3 and 4 of the tutorial for a refresher on ways you can discover more information to enhance your communications.

Why I Hate Keith Richards

2011-08-21T05:31:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid watching the Jetsons, a futuristic cartoon, I was enthralled by the way technology was used to make life easier. George Jetson commuted to work in a flying saucer with a transparent top. George's workday consists of pressing a single computer button. Despite this, characters would often complain of difficulties of living with the remaining inconveniences.

Fast-forward 40 years, and I drive to work in a car, not a flying saucer, and I am still waiting for my personal robot servant. Like many childhood dreams, the fantasy of a life of leisure afforded by advances in technology just hasn't panned out. (I'm also beginning to lose hope in my dream of playing guitar for The Rolling Stones; all these years later, Keith Richards is still hogging down that role, and I still can't play the guitar, so now that dream has got to be considered a long-shot.)

An article sent to me by one of my clients shows that I am not alone in lamenting the failure of technology to provide us with a life of leisure. In fact, the article says, our generation today works just as much as folks did a generation ago, while some other countries have reduced their work hours by 20 percent. And the number of two-worker households has increased during that same span, because our desires and expectations have risen even as wages have stagnated. So much for progress.

Worst of all, this lack of progress is our own fault. We have chosen multitasking over leisure. Instead of using technology to free up our time, we use it to try to squeeze more out of every moment of life, doing two, three or four things at the same time, and none of them well or deeply. I don't get it. We all get one lifetime, and no matter how we run the race -- at a meaningful pace or in a harried sprint -- it ends the same way.

Check out the article here.

One social media tool that really matters

2011-08-15T04:22:00.000-04:00

Want to know the single most important step you can take today in terms of Social Media on behalf of your nonprofit organization? It has nothing to do with Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Those are all fine, but to have a real impact with people who matter, do this:

Develop your profile on Guidestar. The goal is an important one: to make sure that donors seeking information about your non profit organization find the best information possible when they search for you online. A key – and usually overlooked – component of Social Media is your profile on Guidestar. As you know, Guidestar is a website with the primary purpose of posting the tax forms of nonprofits. Although you may not pay much attention to it, donors and funders do. Guidestar is the leading source of information about U.S. nonprofits, with 8.2 million people a year visiting the site to research nonprofits before making a donation. Unlike other forms of Social Media, people visiting Guidestar do so for one purpose: to research information about nonprofits, and to help them make donation decisions. So this is a crucial audience indeed! Guidestar is an untapped opportunity for the direct comparison of organizations. Your profile is free, and any nonprofit can develop it, but most don't, which makes it all the more important to make yours stand out. A good Guidestar profile will catch the attention of prospective donors.

I’ll bet if you look at your nonprofits profile on Guidestar right now, it’s a blank slate with no information, representing a real opportunity. Guidestar lets your nonprofit provide other information beyond just your IRS forms, including things like your logo, photo(s), mission statement, general description, programs, personnel, specific funding needs, volunteer needs, and photos or videos of your organization. You can also link your Guidestar profile to your website, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. Developing your profile is an easy DIY project. It takes no technical skills person to beef up your Guidestar profile in an hour or two. The process of creating your Guidestar profile is easily found on the homepage at http://www.guidestar.org/.

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Every picture tells a story

2011-08-14T05:17:00.000-04:00

Seeking a Better Life for her Baby

A migrant woman feeds her baby in a concrete tunnel near a railroad during their journey toward the U.S.-Mexican border in this AP photo taken Thursday.

Today's post is off topic, but not really. Many of my readers from nonprofit organizations work in the human services sector, and presumably we all share an interest in "the human condition."

This photo stopped me in my tracks. Every political year, illegal immigration becomes a pitched battle, even though, frankly, we have far more pressing concerns in our country. Maybe that's why politicians like this issue; it sounds important but it means they don't have to grapple with the real issues that affect most of us more deeply every day.

The photo is a reminder that when we discuss illegal immigration, we are not talking about statistics or "aliens." We are talking about people -- mothers and babies -- people who are just like you and me. Unlike most of us, however, they were not lucky enough to be born in a relatively prosperous country. The lottery of life cast them in dire circumstances, in a country with a wretched economy and fraught with increasingly violent and widespread wars over control of the illegal drug market.

Can you blame this mother for wanting something better than that for her baby? Wouldn't you?

People travel incredible, risky journeys to get to the U.S. from Mexico and Latin American countries, often riding on the tops of trains, holding on to racks on top of the train for dear life, crossing treacherous rivers, and more. All for the hopes of having a small slice of what you and I take for granted every day. Today, 29,000 immigrants who are not U.S. citizens are serving in our military, doing our fighting for us. Taking the military oath to protect and defend our nation does not bestow citizenship on an immigrant. It should.

Immigrants are vital to our economy as well. Here in Indiana, migrants work the farms this time of year, putting food on your table. Across the country, factories, farms and some entire industries depend on immigrant labor.

Most of us are descendants of immigrants. Our ancestors came from all over the world. Some were shackled and shipped here as slaves; others came freely but penniless to build a new life, digging ditches, building subways and city infrastructures, and doing work that no one else wanted to do. My ancestors came from Germany (probably to escape the gallows, given my family's spotty history). No, they came here to fulfill their dreams, so they, and their children, and their grandchildren, and eventually Steve Cebalt, could live in a land of freedom and opportunity.

Now that we are here, essentially immigrants ourselves if you take the long view, many want to close the doors and make The Land of the Free a private club, for current members only.

Politics aside, this photo reminds us that the "immigration issue" is about people just like us, including a young mom seeking a better life for her baby.

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Could the Declaration be created today?

2011-07-04T00:38:00.001-04:00

The Declaration of Independence is perhaps our nation's best-known piece of literature. Written by Thomas Jefferson, it actually (like most of the documents you and I write) went through many revisions, with input from the other Founding Fathers, often to the dismay of Jefferson, who took great pride in his wordsmithing.

The document laid the course for the birth of a new nation. It reflects the collective brilliance of all of our Founders, who thought long and deeply about what they were writing and its implications.

Try to imagine them working on the Declaration in today's environment. First, Jefferson would be expected to come to the meeting with his work in the form of a PowerPoint slide deck:

Slide 1: Purpose: Enumerate reasons for declaring our separation from England

Slide 2: Intro: A. dissolve the political bands. B. respect to the opinions of mankind. C. All men created equal.

Slide 3. Delineate tyranny of the Crown.

Final slide: Conclusion: Pledge = lives, fortunes, sacred honor.

Somehow it loses some of the flavor, but this is how things are done in 2010!

And while Jefferson is trying to discuss the future of our new nation, the other Founders are paying little attention; rather, they are distracted by their beeping and vibrating iPhones and Blackberries, checking their Facebook pages ("I forgot how much I love apple cider," gushes Ben Franklin on his wall); or fielding texts from their kids (Father, could I borrow the horse and carriage tonight? I am trying to woo the neighbor girl, and she is only impressed with a fellow with wheels!! Pleeeeeeeeease!!!!!). John Hancock is downloading Lady Gaga from I-tunes.

Jefferson, defeated, turns off the screen and leaves, and the Declaration dies in committee, and we remain under the thumb of the tyrant King George. But no one notices, as they are all Tweeting each other about LeBron James and where he may end up as the world's wealthiest free agent.

So on this Independence Day, lets' all be glad that the deep thinkers and philosophers who charted the course that put you and me here today did so in an environment where deep thinking was possible.

Steve Cebalt

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Why your work matters on Independence Day

2011-07-02T08:52:00.000-04:00

This of course is the weekend we celebrate what is perhaps the most cherished ideal in our nation: independence.

Independence is in our DNA.

And it occurs to me as I think about my nonprofit clients, that you are in the “independence business.”

Most nonprofits exist to help people move from some sort of dependence to a greater degree of independence. And your role in that is significant; to help people enjoy a greater degree of independence is perhaps the greatest gift.

Just going through a mental list of some of the nonprofits I work with, here are some of the ways they foster independence:

 By helping so-called “disabled’ people move about more freely, to engage in life to their utmost potential. Can there be more worthy work than that?

 By helping families care for a dying loved one, on their own terms, through loving hospice care, so that they can make the most of every moment together, on their own terms. Death is a part of life, and helping people share their final days with greater control is a tremendous gift of independence – independence from tubes and ventilators and, most importantly, pain.

 By providing high quality, affordable child care so that working families can earn a sustainable living, knowing that their child is in good hands and is in fact getting a good jumpstart on life and education.

 By giving parents of teen drivers the information they need to help their kids Drive Alive on the road, so that teens can enjoy the freedom of independence more safely.

 By helping children learn to read, which is a key to lifelong independence and self-discovery.

 By providing transportation so that older adults can make it to their doctor’s appointment, or attend their grandchild’s graduation ceremony; in other words, so that they can live their lives despite physical limitations they may face in their advancing years.

 By helping people shake off the shackles of drug and alcohol addiction.

These are just the first examples that came to mind. I looked over my list clients, and I could not find one that does not somehow contribute to the increased independence of the people in our community.

Of course, this is not a new idea; I comment on it today only because it is timely as we celebrate our nation’s independence. One of my foundation clients has “independence” as the core of its mission statement: “the Foundation hopes to help children and their families move from dependence to independence. …”

Of course none of us is independent. We all depend on each other. That is the driving force, the mission statement, for the nonprofit world.

So as a nonprofit communicator, pause this weekend to be grateful that you enjoy the rewards that come from doing work that matters, that you are making a difference.

Happy Independence Day!

Steve Cebalt

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Restoring the magic of summer

2011-06-26T12:07:00.000-04:00

By Steve Cebalt

For The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette

It took me 45 years to come to terms with summer.

In this part of the country, summer is meant to be the season of sun, sand and simple pleasures. Summer is the mythical season of magic and romance, filled with images of watermelon and hammocks and sandals, and the smells of chlorine and sunscreen and freshly-mowed grass. Somewhere along the line, though, I lost the magic.

I started thinking about this after looking at a photo from many summers ago of my daughter Grace. It’s just an ordinary backyard snapshot, blurred by her boundless energy, running barefoot through the grass for the shear thrill of feeling the wind brush her face. When’s the last time you had that feeling?

I recall the thrill as a child of waking up on summer mornings and realizing that I had a full day to spend however I pleased. I might spend four hours collecting tadpoles for no reason, or discovering the tart taste of raw backyard rhubarb, or playing driveway hockey with our dog as the goalie.

Easily influenced by TV, I’d mimic whatever I’d watched – playing cowboys and Indians, or clipping a towel around my neck with a clothespin as a Superman cape.

The notion of summer seemed not seasonal, but permanent; the coming school year was beyond the horizon. Summer was forever.

But that was then.

You see, the magic of summer depends on the illusion that it will last. It’s been said that as you get older, time passes more quickly. A few years ago this phenomenon was explained to me mathematically. For a child of 5, a year represents 20 percent of his or her lifetime. For a man of 50, that same year represents just 2 percent. A child of 5 is experiencing the seasonal changes as if the concept were just invented; a man of 50 has seen this all before, and it becomes routine: Remove the storm windows, spray the dandelions, and go on about your business.

Until very recently, I harbored an uneasy tension each summer. Looking out the window from my office under fluorescent lights, I felt trapped, like I should be doing something more fun outside. And I couldn’t help counting away the days of summer. “June is flying by; it’s almost the Fourth of July, and then the back-to-school sales start and then the cicadas sound the alarm that means that the best of summer has come and gone -- it might as well be over.” The festivals and fireworks that mark the passing of summer in our region didn’t thrill me much. And yet I couldn’t shake the restless feeling that I was missing something, and the “best time of the year” was slipping by.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally realized: Summer is just not my thing. I love the autumn, and I enjoy the winter and spring. But I’d been conditioned to think, as so many people do, that summer is the superior season. It simply had never occurred to me that summer isn’t for everybody, and that I prefer the other seasons. And, oddly enough, I now enjoy the summers more, without the pressure I’d been placing on myself to capture the passing season like catching a firefly in a jar.

The landscape of summer is painted in green. I think that’s one reason it is a favorite time for so many people. It reminds us of the days when we, too, were green -- green and innocent, running barefoot just for joy, oblivious to the coming frost.

Steve Cebalt is a Fort Wayne writer who spends his summers happily enough under the fluorescent lights at Highview LLC. He wrote this for The Journal Gazette.

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A treat for kids at the Allen County Public Library

2011-06-25T07:24:00.000-04:00

Wow! It sure seems like summer is going fast! Everyone has so many things going on – outdoor activities, vacations, maybe even summer school – but one thing I always enjoy all year round, but especially in the summer, is reading. Our friends at the Allen County Public Library have a great way to keep kids reading even when school is out – the Childrens and Young Adult Summer Reading Programs funded by the Foellinger Foundation. Children – babies through high school – can participate in this reading program and there are prizes for participating. The program is running now through Friday, July 29. It’s not too late to get started; just visit any branch of the Allen County Public Library or http://acpl.lib.in.us/ to get started!

Pack a punch, without all the words

2010-10-31T07:37:00.000-04:00

The long way to say, "Paid members only."

The radiant sun cracks into the amber sky and sheds a fresh glow over the dewy grass. The rays dance through your window and glide onto your bed, waking you for a new day of adventure ahead. You breathe deep the crisp morning air and begin your day refreshed and renewed.

How many of you actually read that whole paragraph? How many of you scrolled on down to here? Don’t be shy, you’re not alone. First off, no one’s morning begins like that. Morning always comes too early and we’re more likely to shove a pillow over our heads to block the sun than to feel refreshed by the rays. Second off, none of us has the time to read fluff, no matter how well-written it is.

So what does this have to do with you and your nonprofit? That wasn’t just the ramblings of a frustrated cubicle dweller; it was an attempt to show you just how short your audience’s attention span is. You’re not in the Victorian era with Charles Dickens where you get paid per word; verbosity is gone and she ain’t coming back. Today’s audience needs news short and sweet, something they can skim on their Blackberries on the elevator.

When you’re working on your next project, keep all that in mind. How can you get your message across completely and yet keep it brief? Here are some great ideas that I have seen work quite well.

Never Doubt the Power of a Picture
It’s an old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it’s still true today. Imagine being stuck in morning traffic and you see a billboard above you advertising a Tahitian vacation. It shows nothing more than a picture of white sand, clear blue water, and a laptop left behind in the sand with the word “Escape” in bright colors in the sky. You can feel yourself on that beach just as well with one picture and one word as you could with a full page text heavy ad in the newspaper.

Just Ride the Wave
This wave of new technology can be frustrating to deal with. Not many people actually sit down with a fresh newspaper in the morning to cap off their cup of joe anymore. Most would rather scroll the Internet before work or hop on their Blackberries. Embrace this new technology and investigate MP3 ads or audio newsletters; don’t see that as an obstacle though, but rather an opportunity. In the nonprofit sector, ample funds aren’t exactly knocking at your door, so you have to find low cost alternatives and this new technology might be just what you need. It saves on the printing cost, it could reach a wider audience, and they’re getting cheaper and cheaper to produce. Ride the wave, don’t swim against the current.

There are countless more ways to pack a punch without all the words, but I’ll leave that up to you to figure out. Plus, you’re probably too busy to read any more of this anyway.

“If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.” ~Dennis Roth

I hit a raw nerve with my views on brainstorming. What do you think?

2010-10-27T17:13:00.000-04:00

Want to make some people mad? Tell them that brainstorming is a lousy way to generate ideas. That's what I did, and boy, did I hit a nerve!

I conducted a workshop for nonprofit communicators on how to generate and harness the power of their ideas. The 15 main points of my workshop appear below. There was a surprising amount of vocal dissent and resistance to two of my points, numbered 8 and 9 below. These two pertain to my notion that brainstorming is ineffective, and that most good ideas come from one or two people instead of a large group.

Evidently my lone-wolf approach to idea-generation is not universal, and my criticism of the brainstorming process really touched a raw nerve with some attendees, who were not shy about telling me how wrong I was. The ensuing discussion was insightful, though. The consensus view of the discussion is that brainstorming is not a bad thing in and of itself, but that most teams don't implement it well.

One nonprofit CEO in the session said he does use groups and teams for idea generation, but with a twist that I liked very much. Instead of brainstorming, where the premise is that "we won't judge the ideas, there are no bad ideas, etc.," he creates an agenda and tells people to come to the meeting with one or two specific ideas that will solve the problem or address the issue at hand. That seems like an excellent way to use team resources. People actually have to think deliberately about the situation, and come to the meeting to present a legitimate idea. Because they "own" the idea (unlike in a traditional brainstorming process), they are more likely to come up with good ones.

Another participant shared a good approach as well. Like me, he tends to generate ideas solo, but then he shares it with someone who does not think like he does -- someone likely to have an opposing viewpoint or a "Devil's Advocate" response. I like that. I tend to test my ideas on my colleagues, who are willing to disagree, but who view the world largely the same way I do. In the future, I will seek out people whose opinions I respect, but who do not think the same way I do.

What do you think about brainstorming? Send me an e-mail and I'll share your ideas with others: info@highviewhelp.com.

The 15 points from my workshop appear below my signature block.

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Here are the 15 idea-generating points that I included in the workshop:

1. Idea generation is a process – more like science or engineering than many people might think. It is not an innate skill or an inherent “creativity gene.” Idea generation is a skill like any other; it can be taught, and learned. But many people dismiss their own creative powers. “I’m just not creative.” Bull. Everyone can learn to be more creative. But it takes work. Not much, but some. But once you label yourself as “not creative,” guess what – you’ll never be creative. You’ll have to stoop to calling your intellectually inferior Dad for ideas, and none of us wants that. …

2. The most important part of the process is to capture and save every idea you have. That’s where my daughter and others like her go awry. We all get dozens of ideas every day. But some people don’t recognize them as valuable assets and capture them. I maintain an extensive archive of ideas in a simple word document. If I see something in the paper that might make a good science project for one of my kids, I log it on my idea bank in my computer, even if the science fair is a year away. When one of the kids starts scrambling for an idea, I’ve got one (usually several) captured in my idea bank that I snagged just from reading the paper, watching TV, etc. If I get a great direct-mail piece in the mail with a clever headline, I save in an “inspiration” folder.

3. Keep a notepad and pen with you always. If you have an idea, you have to capture it, because you may not get it back! So whether you are out mowing the lawn, watching a kid’s soccer game, or shopping at the grocery, be sure you have a notepad and pen handy. Keep notepads by your bed, in your car, in your pockets/purse, and all over the house. Collect those ideas on some sort of list, and throw the papers away.

4. Let it go. Don’t struggle for ideas. Ideas that you struggle for are usually bad. I read that Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday” without any effort; he had the tune in his head, and in fact he thought he’d heard it on the radio. He played it on the piano and John Lennon said “What was THAT!” The best ideas just come naturally. That’s why we often get great ideas in the shower – because we are not TRYING – our mind is free to roam, and that opens up space for ideas to pop in. So don’t force it; if you can’t come up with the idea right now, let it simmer until inspiration strikes. It will! That’s why the notepad habit is so crucial. Now, if you can figure out how to keep a notepad in the shower, please e-mail me! That would be a breakthrough.

5. I keep a hand-held recorder in my car. When I hit the road for an out of-town meeting, my mind tends to really run with ideas – again, because I am not trying to force it; they just come. So I record them and capture them that way, safely, while driving. This is especially effective on your way home from a meeting, when you want to capture all the things you discussed that may need follow-ups.

6. Use quotes. Read quote books. This may seem like a lazy approach or “cheating” to rely on a famous quotation, but it almost never fails. For example:

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. " -- John Steinbeck.

7. You don’t have to have a great idea. A mediocre one will do, to get you started. As you progress with your project, more ideas will emerge. Don’t wait for the perfect idea – start with ANY decent idea and get going.

8. Brainstorming is a ridiculous practice. I’ve never seen a good idea emerge from a brainstorming session, because the process is not intentional; the basic premise is that “there are no bad ideas.” The fact is that MOST ideas are bad, and that’s what you get from freewheeling brainstorming sessions. Bad ideas. Can you imagine Picasso or Mozart in a brainstorming session? Me neither.

9. Most great ideas will come from just one person working alone. At some point, it can be helpful to air your thoughts with a colleague, to formulate abstract concepts into concrete ideas.

10. Recycle your ideas. A great idea that worked once will work again. No need to reinvent the wheel!

11. Copy ideas from others and add your own twist.

12. Write an ad. Often, when I am working on a new project, the first thing I do is create an ad for the program, service or project. This forces me to think logically, i.e. “Who is that target audience? What do I want them to do? What do they need to know in order to do that? How can I express that most effectively?” These ads are just exercises, not for publication; but they allow me to organize my thinking and produce good ideas.

13. This one’s important. After you have a killer idea, set it aside. Force yourself to come up with two more – two completely different approaches. While our impulse is to believe that our first idea is the best, in fact your second or third effort is often superior.

14. If you can’t come up with an idea right now, write down on your to-do-list, “Revisit the XYZ problem and generate ideas.” This establishes the task so you don’t forget that you need to generate the idea. Often, as you go about your business in the coming days, you’ll stumble across something in a magazine article or on TV that will inspire you, but the seed has to be planted!

15. Never conclude a professional discussion without asking, “What have we produced a result of this discussion?” Many times we have informal or formal meetings that are inconclusive. The point is to identify what WAS accomplished and the next step, every time. If you have not accomplished ANYTHING, then you just wasted valuable time and energy. Usually, the discussion has accomplished SOMETHING, though -- so take a moment to determine what the product of your conversation was. This is the difference between idle chit-chat and capturing great ideas. Example: “Discussed website overhaul; considered offering credit card payment option and redesigning the home page. Revisit next week and decide action steps.”

I’ll wrap up with another quote, from Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes”:

“If I have an idea, I sit down and start typing. If I don’t have an idea, I sit down and decide to have one.”

That’s more profound that it sounds. ….Deciding to have an idea is the essence of the entire process. Deciding to have an idea means committing to coming up with something. It means recognizing your own innate creative potential, with confidence. Columnists on deadlines know all about this. "I have decided to have and idea" is an affirmative statement that removes all excuses and it eliminates writer’s block. Once you make that commitment to yourself, the 15 steps above should help you achieve your goal, without calling your Dad for help.

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A trend to watch: The use of Professional Benefit Auctioneers for Nonprofit Fundraising

2010-10-25T06:47:00.000-04:00

As nonprofit organizations adapt to fundraising in the new economy, fundraising auctions have become a very effective way to raise money. Benefit auctions have the potential to generate higher revenues than other special events. Even better, they pose little risk for the nonprofit.

To meet this need, auction companies are developing specialized benefit Auction divisions that can take you through the whole process.

Nonprofits hire hire professional benefit Auction specialists for their benefit auction galas to raise more money; raise awareness; and create charity a fun and exciting event for your guests and prospective donors.

If you are not familiar with benefit auctions, do a little Googling and you'll find loads of information.

For my Indiana readers, here are links to two companies with specialized Benefit Auction divisions:

National benefit Auctions, DeKalb County

CM Benefit Auctions, Evansville

As I said, do some Googling to find a specialist near you.

OK, that sums up today's business. Blog readers know that I like to share topical or timely songs, just for fun. The change of seasons (at least in this part of the country!) is as good a time as any to reflect on the meaning of life, and below is a song by one of my favorite singers, Iris Dement, called "Let the Mystery Be." You have to listen to the lyrics to appreciate it! By the way, Iris Dement has a quirky, unusual voice, but you'll find that she's an excellent singer and songwriter.

Have a great day!
Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Charlie's wisdom for communicators

2010-10-15T08:36:00.011-04:00

Charlie can tell you anything

you want to know about Ohio State Football,

and he can tell you one thing you need to know

about nonprofit communications.

I watch politics closely as a laboratory for communications. It is the most perfect laboratory, because a political campaign is nothing more than a communications campaign. There is no better place to study "what works," because there is also a zero-sum scorecard: one wins, one loses.

So I was watching football with my son Charlie when a political ad came on. Charlie, 13, does not take a broad interest in civic or world affairs, unless they involve The Ohio State football team or certain video games. So I was stunned when he said of the ad, "All that guy did was talk about the other guy. Why would he pay for a TV ad just to talk about the other guy?"

I was stunned, for several reasons. One, Charlie had never made a political comment in his life until then. Two, because he said exactly what I was thinking!! We had a brief discussion about it until Ohio State made a big pass play and Charlie went wild, and well, that was that.

The ad was one in exchange between two candidates who have done nothing both label each other -- liberal, right wing, etc. It's gotten very negative, and each side feels compelled to respond to the others' barbs. The cost? Many, many millions of dollars in a statewide race.

Negative advertising has its place, and it can work in certain circumstances. If you discover that your opponent considers himself a Nazi and wears a Nazi uniform on the weekends and belongs to a Facebook group called "Blame the Jews," you should point that out. Even then, though, you'd be best to have an underling or surrogate handle the dirty work!!

But negative advertising, generally, is very old-school, for very out-of-touch candidates who have just not been paying attention. Hey, have you heard that we have a horrible recession? Hey, got anything to say about jobs for Indiana residents? Or improving education? Hey, do you realize I don't care what you think about the other guy -- I want to know what you think about ME!!!! What are you going to do for me and people like me!

They aren't saying. ...

They are violating the first principle of communications: Respect your audience. They can't even respect their opponent! Disrespect; people will forgive a lot of things, but not that. Respect for your audience means, "What is it that this audience needs to hear from me -- what message is most relevant to their lives?"

That principle is as true in nonprofit communications as it is in politics. As a case in point, see the article below about a nonprofit fundraising solicitation that had not one relevant reason for me to donate -- just a generalized generic request for funds. Fundraising is no different from politics, except that votes are cast with dollars. People need a reason to vote -- or donate. A reason vested in their own interests.

Communications 101 begins with answering the audience's one and only question: What's in it for me!

Case in point: We had a candidate in Indiana who lost his first race by the narrowest of margins -- in fact it was too close to call, it went to a recount. Both candidates had run very positive campaigns, engaging each other in important issues in a meaningful dialogue that really helped educate the community. Both candidates had gotten praised for their positivity (because it was so unusual). The same candidate ran again four years later, with different advisers. Very negative. He got stomped; it wasn't even close, he simply got trounced.

This is why I love politics as a laboratory for those of us who engage in nonprofit communications in the public interest -- because you can see what works; it is measurable by vote counts.

So back to Charlie's observation. Why WOULD a candidate pay for TV time just to talk about his opponent!??

Even if you are under attack, let it go!! People want a voice of opportunity, a voice of hope. That's what we need to hear. That's what would get people out to vote.

These two particular candidates are representative of the great majority of races across the country, and it causes me a real problem. I have always voted faithfully, considering it a privilege and duty to do so. But I want to vote FOR SOMETHING. These candidates give me nothing to vote for! The sum of their campaign is that candidate A opposes Candidate B, who hates Candidate A. So what? How does that help be make a decision?

I would love to hear a candidate say, "I'm Jane Doe, and here are 3 things I stand for that would make life better for Indiana residents" and then list 3 specific things. They wouldn't even have to be BIG things. In fact it almost wouldn't matter WHAT they were, or even whether I agreed with all of them; I would just be impressed that a candidate was talking about himself or herself, and what he or she stands for, with a view toward improving life for me and my fellow residents of Indiana. Even if I disagreed with certain policies, I'd vote for such a person based on the message of hope, of opportunity, and of leadership.

Thanks for the lesson in communications, Charlie. I only wish the candidates could hear you.

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Please tell me why I should open this?

2010-10-14T12:50:00.014-04:00

I got this envelope in the mail today from a very worthy nonprofit agency, along with an Office Depot sales flier, an expensive booklet from Verizon trying to persuade me to switch to Verizon (I already use Verizon, now called Frontier), a check from a client, and two utility bills.

Surveys of my nonprofit clients consistently show that direct mail is ranked very highly in their communications toolkit, for donor development, solicitation, donor acknowledgement, annual appeals, and promotion of programs and services.

It is a very flexible medium that can be targeted with pinpoint accuracy to reach just the people you want to reach -- no waste. (Unless, like Verizon, you send a "Switch to Us" booklet to your existing customer; the list has to be accurate!)

This is the time of year when my mailbox will fill up with what used to be called "annual appeals." (Most savvy nonprofits are now making their appeals much more frequently than "annually.")

So here's my point. Would you open the envelope above? Why?

It came in a #10 business envelope with the nonprofit's logo and return address and that sterile, very impersonal bar-code address that screams, "junk -- throw me away." That was all there was!

At least the Verizon booklet was visually appealing with a special offer on the front cover, and if they mail it to the right people they might get some new customers! Same with the Office Depot sales flier -- the cover had lots of the most commonly needed office supplies advertised at sale prices.

The only reason I opened the piece you see above was to use it as an illustration for this blog.

And it got worse once I got inside. A letter telling all about their mission and a sort of ramble, with a generalized request for a donation. I already know their mission, it is self-evident from the name of the organization! What's in it for me? In other words, why is a gift to you at this moment in time relevant to my life and my interests, and what would make me put your reply in my "bills to pay" folder along with the two utility bills so that I'll write you a check? How will my donation make a difference? And why now, rather than later?

But it doesn't matter what's IN the envelope if there is nothing to make me OPEN it. So, back to the envelope.

The plain envelope could be improved very easily in a couple ways.

THE BEST WAY: If they had merely called on their large cadre of dedicated volunteers, they could have addressed the envelopes by hand, in pen. I always open those, because I know it came from a human and was meant for me personally. I assume it is personal correspondence -- which it is! They are asking for my money; I take that personally! I would hope the nonprofit would, too! Even if it is a very large mailing list, many nonprofits (not all) can garner volunteers or a local high school Key Club for this type of work. Giving money is an important decision; make the effort to show that you are directing your communication directly to me! With the bar code, I figure, "10,000 other people with more money me will get this, let them donate, I've got two utility bills bills to pay." Remember when you send your direct mail that you are competing with my utility bills!!

BONUS, but not essential: A real postage stamp would make me likelier to open it. This is only for smaller mailings to larger donors, as at a certain point the cost differential vs. bulk mail is hard to justify.

So it doesn't have to be fancy. A plain envelope addressed to me in a personal way would make a huge difference.

Other ideas:

Some sort of text on the outside of the envelope. Now, if they had done step number 1, there would be no need for this. But if I get a bar-code addressed, bulk mail envelope from a nonprofit, I know it is a fundraiser. What else could it be? So give me a reason to open it and see what you're after! I might be interested! Otherwise, you are asking an awful lot of me to open an obvious fundraising appeal with no reason to do so, when I have two utility bills to pay!

The text could be a million different things, and it need not be creative. "A note from Linda Jones. ..." That would tell me it's a personal message from Linda (fictional name), who presumably is well known and respected around here.

One that never fails is, "You're Invited." Because I want to see what I'm invited to! Inside, it might explain, "You are invited to help stamp out child abuse!" OK, count me in! That's better than most of the chicken-lunch functions I get invited to this time of year!

If you use anything in the nature of a "teaser" line, think twice. Instead of this:

Your gift today will help us stop gun violence.

Try this:

How do you keep a pistol out of the hands of a 12-year-old?

Here's one I saw years ago from a library:

"Why don't woodpeckers get headaches?"

And a classic:

"Do you close the bathroom door even when you're the only one home?"

OK that last one wasn't a nonprofit solicitation, it was a magazine solicitation, from Psychology Today. But the principle is the same!

One more idea: Don't put your organization name or logo on the piece at all; just a P.O. box or street address, in plain text. Then I have no idea WHAT it is, and I am forced to open it!

So a plain #10 envelope is fine, you don't need a fancy-pants direct mail package, but you do need to get me to open it!

So as you think about your next fundraising letter, think about what you are doing; you are asking someone to give you their money for nothing tangible in return. Office Depot will give me manila folders; Verizon will give me faster DSL. You want me to give you money and get nothing. So your sales job is much harder!!!

Make it personal; giving money is a personal thing to do. And make it compelling enough that I will send you a check, despite the fact that the client payment I got in today's mail is less than the two utility bills!!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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"Thank God for Breast Cancer"

2010-10-07T18:03:00.015-04:00

That headline is offensive and sick, I know. It provokes and it shocks and it angers you. But of course those are not my words; they are part of a free-speech case that the Supreme Court is wrestling with -- a case that could have profound implications.

As communicators, we all have an interest in the free exchange of ideas.

But sometimes free speech leads to real problems, such as the minister who planned on burning the Quran, which had dire potential consequences for national security at a time when we are trying to build bridges in Afghanistan and our troops have enemy guns pointed their way.

Some speech is likely to provoke violence, yet such "hate speech" is protected by the First Amendment. Such is the case before the Supreme Court now.

At issue is whether the father of Matthew Snyder, a Marine who was killed fighting for our freedom, can sue a tiny "religious" group (basically one "minister's" family members) that rejoiced in the dead soldier's death with horrendous picket signs at the young man's funeral at St. John's Catholic Church in Maryland.

You've seen these folks before, with their signs that say "Thank God for Breast Cancer," "God Hates Fags," "God Hates You," etc., choosing military funerals as their venue for their "protests." The Westboro church, whose membership largely consists of the founder's family, believes any misfortune America suffers is divine punishment for the nation's failure to follow the sect's doctrine, which condemns gays, Catholics, Jews and others. It is amazing the things that people will do in the name of God.

In this particular case, the Marine's father, Albert Snyder, sued the "church" for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, winning a $5 million award. A federal appeals court threw out the award, ruling that the First Amendment protected the protesters' speech. The case is now before the Supreme Court.

It's a complex issue, no doubt.

It would seem to me that in this case, the remedy could be made without touching the free speech provision. The issue is the venue. The hateful protesters are allowed on public property within 100 feet of a funeral, according to Maryland statute. News reports indicate the protesters were 1,000 feet away and complied with all local laws. One thousand feet is a fraction more than the length of a football field -- not enough! These protesters, acting in the name of God, are infringing on a religious burial rite -- interfering with a family's Constitutionally protected right to freely practice its religion while burying their son.

If these hatemongers want to protest on courthouse steps, fine. Or on the grounds of their own church.

In arguments before the court, Justice Ginsburg said, "Why should the First Amendment tolerate exploiting this Marine's family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message?"

Exactly. There are so many forums available to protesters, that this form of protest is not speech, but harassment. Their physical proximity to people engaged in a religious burial ceremony makes this not so much an issue of speech, but of physical intimidation, persecution and harassment.

My guess is that that is how the Court may decide this case -- not on the issue of whether the "church" has a right to express its stupidity and hatred; but by deciding the case much more narrowly, placing some restriction on the time, manner and place allowed for such "speech," so that it does not cross the line from speech to harassment. Defenders of the protesters -- and there are many, including most major media outlets -- pull out the "slippery slope" argument -- that if we allow this exception or restriction, our entire Constitution will fall like a house of cards. The slippery slope argument has no basis in logic, but people use it illogically to defend the indefensible.

Meantime, young Matthew Snyder, a Marine who took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution, lies in a Maryland cemetery, having given his life to protect the Constitutional rights of these emotional terrorists who dance on his grave.

Steve Cebalt

Spam: The cure is worse than the disease!

2010-10-06T07:30:00.002-04:00

For anyone who wants to improve effectiveness and productivity, I have a suggestion that is stunningly simple. But first a question:

What does it cost you if you miss an important email from a donor? Or a board member? Or a potential volunteer? Or a local foundation with a question about your grant proposal?

Answer: Could be a lot!!! A WHOLE lot!

E-mail is how stuff gets done. But many organizations and individuals are still using spam filters.

Please, STOP THE MADNESS!!

At least once a day somebody says they didn't get an e-mail from me. Then they check their spam filter. There it is! Meantime, we have lost valuable cycle time in the workflow.

And I don't know what I don't know! What I mean is, how many of my e-mails get trapped and never read?

I put nothing in my subjects that should trigger a spam filter. My usual format for the subject line is:

"For John Doe from Steve Cebalt regarding ACME nonprofit."

Your spam filter sometimes costs me money! Delays in production are an expense borne by your vendors. And if my invoice gets filtered, I don't get paid, and then I have to deal with an irate Mrs. Cebalt who doesn't have the money to pay our kids' tuition or our mortgage !!!!! She doesn't want to hear that the invoice got trapped in a spam filter and thus the invoice is two weeks overdue, and I don't blame her! Because the bank or the school won't care!!!

Yesterday I took 5 or 10 minutes to send a man a very nice note about an ad that he submitted for a newspaper that I publish. I really thought his team did a fantastic job, producing a creative ad. So I wanted to share this with him, and have him pass it along to the people who did the work. Please note, there was nothing in it for me, it was just me being a nice guy.

I got a bounceback, saying it was suspended in their spam filter. So he'll never see it, and his staff will never get the "kudos," because I am not messing with it anymore, it annoys me!

The solution: Stop using a spam filter!!!! Now, I know some of you have IT departments that would spit up on themselves at this suggestion. Nonetheless, it pays to take a look once in a while at "what works" and "what gets in the way."

I have no spam filter. I get very little spam, maybe 1 or 2 a day, MAX. Viagra ads, Nigerians wanting me to send them a million dollars, etc.

Solution: delete, delete. Two seconds. Done. How hard is that!!!!

I have a good virus program, so I have never gotten a virus from an e-mail.

I would rather spend 2 seconds a day deleting a couple spams, then miss an important work assignment from a client, or an inquiry from a prospective client!

It takes less time to delete spam than it does to retrieve legitimate emails from a spam filter -- after you have discovered that it's buried in there and lost valuable cycle time.

So, consider eliminating your spam filter, and you can thank me later!

BONUS TIP:

This tip only works for very small workgroups, but as my audience for this blog is small nonprofits and foundations, that may mean a lot of you!

Rather than having a separate e-mail for each person on a 5-person staff, just use one; all of you use the same one. Something like info@acmenonprofit.org.

Why? Because if Susie is sick and someone sends her an important email, you'll all see it and someone can respond and help the person in Susie's absence. Or during her vacation or business trip. This helps the person on the other end, and it helps Susie when she returns from her illness.

And everyone in the office will know what's going on throughout the office, just by being privy to all the email traffic. My staff will know that I am super-busy today by seeing that I've received a load of work requests today; that is valuable for them to know! Today may not be the time for a lot of chit-chat, as much as we love to yak when we do have time!!!!!

If you use part-time staff, job-sharers, etc., this tip is even more useful.

Of course no one sends anything personal through the business account. So e-mails to your accountant or criminal defense attorney are sent privately through your g-mail, hotmail, or AOL account.

This tip works like a charm, in the right circumstances. I do realize there are some instances where confidentiality of information could preclude this suggestion, but as long as your work team has no secrets to hide from each other, this is a MAJOR productivity booster.

For example, I don't need to tell my staff that we got a new job request from ACME nonprofit --they see the e-mail, and they mentally prepare for their role in the task, without me having to say a word!

In our shop we manage without ever having staff meetings to coordinate tasks, mostly because of the charms of this e-mail tactic.

If it suits your circumstances, give it a try!

Have a great and productive day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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See why Angie is so excited about this newsletter strategy

2010-10-05T15:13:00.002-04:00

Your nonprofit or foundation needs to do more with less and cut costs, but you still need to communicate in order to raise awareness, promote programs, raise funds, and attract members, right?

Here's how. You can replace your electronic newsletter and/or your printed newsletter and reduce your costs dramatically, and get better results from your nonprofit communications! This short article will tell you how, by using the "blogletter" concept. ("Blogletter" is not an official term -- just one that suits my purpose.)

Nonprofit newsletters have been a standard tool in our toolkits for decades. Most nonprofits still publish a newsletter in order to communicate with members, donors, volunteers, and prospective donors. Many nonprofits still choose to print and mail their newsletters, and others choose to use electronic newsletters. Some do both.

(FYI, did you know that only 1 out of 5 people open a typical e-newsletter? That's a useful and sobering fact; if you do only an e-newsletter, realize that 4 out of 5 of the people who receive it will never open it).

Here's a nifty strategy that allows you to retain all the benefits of publishing a newsletter, but costs far less in both time and money.

Use a blog as your newsletter! A blog is free. The one that you are reading now is published in Blogger, but there are other good blogging programs, too. I find that laying out articles in a blog is much, much easier than doing an e-newsletter layout. It is as easy as, let's say, sending an e-mail with an attachment. If you can do that, you can publish a blog without any assistance. I can post articles to my blog whenever I want, not according to a newsletter schedule. When things that are timely (event promotions, etc.) have come and gone, I can delete the outdated information with a click. But unlike an e-newsletter, all my "old-but-still-relevant" information remains on the blog indefinitely if I want it to. That's a real benefit.

So it's easier to lay out, it's free, it's EASY, you can do it on your own timetable rather than a fixed schedule, and the information remains available to your readers for as long as you want. All of those are advantages over print and electronic newsletters.

So here are my step-by-step tips for replacing your print and/or electronic newsletter with a blog (or shall we say "blogletter"):

* Create your blog (you can start at blogger.com) and publish whatever would normally go in the next issue of your newsletter.

* Promote your blog periodically with a plain old e-mail. If you have been publishing an e-newsletter, you already have an e-mail list. Or use your e-mail address book as the starting point to build a list. Make the subject line something relevant that people will find on your blog, i.e. "Get Discounts at Target Stores and Support ACME Nonprofit When You Shop!"

* Explain that the e-mail is to "update you on some information you may find useful on our blog." In the body of the e-mail, provide short teasers -- maybe just the headlines -- to the most relevant articles recently added to your blog.

* Place the link to your blog in the body of the e-mail and send it.

By the way, you'll find specific, step-by-step tutorials on all of these steps in my Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations. (Yes, that is a shameless plug for my handbook, because I'd like you to consider buying it!)

As I said, it's easy-peasy. (That's a cornpone expression I learned from our most recent intern. She lives in Yoder, Indiana, and evidently that's how they talk in Yoder. Geez Louise, she has enough of these down-home expressions to fill a turnip truck!)

Now, if you don't have a great e-mail list, and you currently publish your newsletter in print, you can use the same strategy. Just send out a letter on letterhead, or even a postcard, with the same type of info that I indicated for the e-mail above, and include your blog link. Mail and enjoy. Much cheaper than writing, designing, proofing, printing and mailing a newsletter.

The best strategy is to combine e-mail notifications with print notifications: Send e-mails if you have a list; and also mail a letter or postcard. This gives you the greatest likelihood of actually achieving RESULTS.

BONUS TIP: If you use a program called Google Analytics with your blog, you'll be able to track the response much like you would be able to do with an e-newsletter! You'll know how many people visited and read your blog day by day.

Angie says, "O, Mylanta! This is

the best thing I've seen since

they paved the east end of Yoder Road!"

The beautiful thing about this strategy is that you simply post new items to your blog when your time and energy permit. Publishing articles and photos requires no special skills. You won't need a designer or techie to help you. When you have accumulated enough new items to warrant an email/mail notification, then send one out to draw people to your blog.

Good luck with your "blogletter."

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits And Foundations

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Just use the “Get My Updates” e-mail function, which you’ll find on the top right-hand corner of this blog.
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A new publicity outlet for Allen County nonprofits

2010-09-24T09:10:00.005-04:00

Today's post is for my readers from nonprofit organizations in Allen County, Indiana.

There is a new way for you to get your message out; it's a printed newspaper called Community.

Working every day with Allen County nonprofits, one of the complaints I hear most often is that the media can't devote enough space to all the great things happening in our community.

For years, I have had an idea to address this problem. So our team at Highview LLC decided that now is the time.

We are publishing a new newspaper dedicated to nothing but good news. It is called Community, and it will be devoted to good news about nonprofits and schools and their activities that are of public interest. It is edited by Steve Cebalt and published by the team at Highview LLC.

The newspaper will be available for free at locations throughout Allen County, including all Allen County Public Library branches. Nonprofits and school systems can submit their news using our website at highviewhelp.com/community. The pages of Community will include nonprofit activities and a section that we are very excited about, devoted to positive news in our local schools. This section will be called:

"Good Schools, Good Kids, Good News."

Isn't it about time someone reminded the community that the schools are doing fantastic things, despite the challenges that have been thrown at them? School systems, teachers, and of course students are achieving remarkable things that deserve to be celebrated and promoted.

Our local media do a good job of promoting nonprofit and school news, but they have a different and much broader mission than our new Community newspaper. They have to report the negative news as well as the positive; and they have to fit all the world's news into the available space or airtime on any given day.

The Community newspaper is different. Its only mission is to announce good, relevant, interesting news that otherwise would not get the attention it deserves. It promotes fundraising efforts; volunteer opportunities; honors and achievements earned by our local nonprofits, and much more. The editing will be based on this question: Is this information interesting, and does it help an Allen County resident live life to its fullest by recognizing all the nonprofit and educational activities that are going on? Note to nonprofits: The interesting qualifier is important! Not all good news is interesting! Our job, working together, is to make sure we present your message in an engaging and interesting way.

The content will be driven by the nonprofits and schools or school systems that wish to have their news published. Just as with any other media outlet, you'll send us your press releases and photos via our web site (highviewhelp.com/community) under the "Submit an Article" link.

Tip: PHOTOS! Photos will make your article stand out, so think about photos when you send your articles!!

When you send your information to Community, you'll know you are sending it to a receptive media outlet that is published specifically to help you spread your message. Of course you'll want to send us highly relevant articles of interest to the general public; things that they can engage in, participate in or simply appreciate.

This new newspaper gives nonprofits and schools a new way to share their good news with the people who need to know!

For our first issue, we ask that you avoid anything with dated references, since the timing of the first issue is uncertain; so you'll want to send "evergreen" stories about ongoing programs or services. After our first issue has been published, we will be able to provide you with a schedule so that you can send us dated material, such as event promotions, etc.

One more note: Until we can gauge the number of articles we will receive, we are limiting the length to one photo and about 400 words -- the length of a typical press release. We want to be able to accommodate as many nonprofit organizations as possible! We may tweak this in the future, and if you have a need for a longer article now, just give me a call at 471-5870 and I'll let you know whether we can accommodate it!

So, the deadline for articles is September 30. To send your article, just visit highviewhelp.com/community!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt

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Your personal brand and the "JD Effect"

2010-09-21T13:32:00.007-04:00

The other day I wrote an article on this blog about the importance of your nonprofit having a "friendly" brand; just scroll down a bit to find it.

Today I had a few encounters that hammered this point home.

There is a fellow who works the front counter at the gym where I exercise who is always extraordinarily friendly -- even at 5 a.m. when I get there!! In fact all the people there are like that; one of these days I am going to contact the owner and tell him or her how important these people are to his brand; in fact, they ARE his brand; I could work up a sweat anywhere; I don't need to choose this facility. But having hired these perky people, he must already know this!!!!

So today a young fellow named JD was working the front counter. JD has a million ways of greeting you, always by name; and he always takes time to look you in the eye as he does, smiling. When I see JD I always step up my own friendliness a bit, knowing how he is. Today as I left, I said "You have a great day JD." He said, "I can't do anything BUT have a great day Steve," as he stood folding a stack of what looked like 10,000 towels. I stopped. I said, "You have the best attitude I have ever seen. I always feel good when I leave here." He seemed pleased and said, "Well, I DO try to spread the joy."

Well, the JD effect continued as I went through a very ordinary day. I found myself being extra friendly in my meetings, and my efforts were met in kind, and my meetings were spirited, lighthearted, fun, and very productive. Thanks, in no small part, to JD, the friendly staffer at the gym! Think about that!!

OK, now here's the dark side. I stopped between meetings at the supply store for a few office supplies. I said to the cashier,"How YOU doin' !"

In a low monotone and without looking my way, she muttered, "I'm getting by, I guess." Ugh.
I gave it another shot. "It is a BEAUTIFUL day outside!!!" Nothing. Not a peep. Like I wasn't there at all. So I gave up and let her transact my checkout with nothing else said.

To JD, as he fold towels, manages the counter, and tends to his other duties, the world must seem like a very pleasant place, full of people going out of their way to be nice to each other. Because that's what he serves up, that's what he gets in return, in a virtuous cycle.

To the cashier, the world must seem weary and gray, full of uninteresting, unfriendly people who just want their sticky notes and manila folders rung up so they can go on with their day.

I think I may find a different place to buy office supplies, or at least try my luck in a different lane. She was a buzzkill. But I'll recover in about a half hour. I have a tech support guy coming to fix one of our computers. I'll get back on board with the "JD Effect and see if I can spread the joy.

Have a great day, and spread it around!!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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How come nobody told us????

2010-09-21T07:20:00.000-04:00

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." -- Albert Einstein (attributed)

Original caricature by Lori Kaylor for Highview LLC.

Before jumping in to the day, I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to glance at today's Wall Street Journal, and the main Page 1 story says the recession is over!!!!

How come nobody told us?

From the article:

It's official: The 2007-2009 recession, which wiped out 7.3 million jobs, cut 4.1% from economic output and cost Americans 21% of their net worth, marked the longest slump since the Great Depression.

The end of the recession occurred in June 2009, 18 months after the economy began sliding into a downturn in December 2007, said the National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee, a group of academic economists that determines the widely accepted benchmarks for U.S. recessions.

How come nobody told us that out here on Main Street? From here, 2009 looked like the worst economic mess in generations. Foreclosures, layoffs, and suffering -- that's what we were looking at in June 2009, when the recession ended. And while I have data showing that, historically, nonprofits have done OK during recessions, this one was different. This one hurt. But the article points this out:

But while the declaration marks a milestone, the economy still faces stubbornly slow growth and thus persistently high joblessness. That point was driven home by a report Monday from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, which said it doesn't expect the U.S.'s unemployment rate to fall to prerecession levels until at least 2013.

This reminds me of the time President Harry Truman said:

"I want a one-armed economist, so that the guy could never make a statement and then say: "on the other hand."

This was Truman’s way of venting his frustration over economic advisers who offer straightforward recommendations, then hedge their bets by tacking on a slew of caveats, often beginning with the phrase "but, on the other hand..."

OK so here's my point: I have been planning a series of blog posts on measurement for nonprofit communicators. I have some things planned but haven't taken the time to write them. This news today, though, helps make the most fundamental point of all: Are your measurements meaningful? Does it help our jobless friends to know that the recession ended over a year ago? Does it help to tell the nonprofits that are struggling to raise funds that their troubles are over, because the recession is over? It is simply a meaningless measurement for most of us. I have a colleague who consults with some of the same nonprofit and foundation clients that I do; he has a Ph.D. in organizational measurement. He puts it this way: "There is a difference between a stastistical difference and a practical difference. Lots of data is statistically valid but of no utility."

I am a very strong advocate for measuring PR and ad campaigns for my nonprofit clients. It can be done, and with significant precision. But sometimes nonprofits confuse measurement with simply collecting data. Time spent collecting data, writing reports, creating pie charts, all of which tells us nothing meaningful. The fundamental thing about measuring nonprofit public relations, marketing or advertising campaigns is that strategy must come first. For example, unless you have done solid research to make sure you are targeting the right audience and delivering the right message in order to get those people to do what you want them to do, it doesn't matter how effective your media campaign is in terms of reaching people, does it! If you are reaching the wrong people with the wrong message, any numbers about audience reach and penetration are utterly meaningless! So strategy comes first. I would rather wage a campaign based on a well-researched, solid strategy and not measure it at all, than to skip the hard front-end strategy work and create pretty charts and graphs about the number of people we have reached with our unresearched, unstrategic message.

In fact, NOT measuring can be smart! I recently was hired to work on a Best Practices study of the Corporate Social Responsibility practices of some of the nation's best-known brands. In each interview I asked about measurement. I was stunned -- and impressed -- by one answer. A major national retailer -- I can't say the name, but trust me, you shop there -- said, "We used to collect all that data but we stopped. We took a step back and realized that we never did anything with the data; it didn't help us do the right thing. And it took our store managers a lot of time to put it all together. We have more profitable things for them to do than to collect data that we don't use, so we quit doing it. In terms of our charitable affairs and Corporate Responsibility, we just try to do the right thing."

Do the right thing. That is one helluva great measurement, I'd say!

Have a great day, by any measure!! (After all, what's the alternative!)

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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What the tea party means for communicators

2010-09-20T08:32:00.016-04:00

Something fascinating is happening from a communications standpoint in the U.S. political arena: the emergence of a third influence, the tea party.

Setting our political persuasions aside, let's look at the communications implications of the sudden-- very sudden -- power being wielded by an organization that really is not an organization at all -- and therein lies its power. More on that in a moment.

The tea party movement came on the seen so fast, no one is quite sure what to make of it. But anything that gives voters more choices is a good thing. Our two-party system is dysfunctional from a communications standpoint, because it removes all nuance from any argument. It is utterly polarizing -- you're wrong, I'm right -- leading to a general dumbness in our political messaging.

If you are a Democrat and I am a Republican, I must disagree with you. I am defined by your label, and you are defined by mine. Those definitions, those labels, lead most politicians to check their brains at the door. In a polarized two-party system, candidates don't provide the public with a reasoned argument on the issues of the day, i.e. "Well, heath care is complex, let's break it down into its individual components and see where we agree and disagree and identify where we have common ground and work on those issues."

Such discourse would, of course, better educate the public, and would lead to beneficial policies based on what's in the best interest of voters.

But it doesn't work that way. For a Democrat to raise funds, he or she must brand the Republican opponent as an enemy to mankind, to be stopped at all costs, and "please send your donation TODAY to the following address...." The Republican's message is basically the same in reverse. So the public is left with two candidates who identify each other as demons.

Which demon shall I vote for?

This is what I mean when I say the two-party system is dysfunctional from a communications standpoint. All reason and nuance is lost, and with it the opportunity for real progress.

Now, back to the tea party. It emerged as a little blip on the radar a very short time ago, drawing its identity from a mob of vandalous radicals who raised hell at Boston Harbor in 1773. Since today's tea party movement first emerged in 2009, candidates associating themselves with the tea party have become a potent political force, and this is a good thing for all of us, whether we be independent, Democrat or Republican. Because it will broaden our national political debate.

What makes the tea party work right now from a communications standpoint is this: utter anarchy. It has no leader; no organizational structure; no central headquarters; no unifying cause, message or definition. Indeed, within the tent of people who associate themselves with the tea party you will find people whose ideas are diametrically opposed. The unifying force is the need for something different. A political argument other than "I'm right, and you are wrong."

Law professor and commentator Glenn Reynolds said in The New York Post that: "These aren't the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists."

Democrats and Republicans cannot dismiss the tea party force; some have, at their own peril at the polls.

Here's the interesting thing from a communications standpoint: As soon as the tea party tries to organize, to hold a convention, to identify a traditional political platform, and appoint leaders -- as soon as it becomes structured and defined -- I predict it will become politically feckless and impotent and irrelevant and will be buried by the overwhelming resources of the two dominant powers. If the tea party (lowercase) becomes The Tea Party (uppercase, proper noun), I predict Democrats and Republicans will finally agree on something -- that a third party would be their common enemy. They would crush it.

But how can you crush a nascent, undefined network of Americans of all stripes with differing agendas? Without a leader, there is no one for the two major parties to demonize. Without a platform, there is no way for the major-party candidates to easily label and dismiss their tea party opponents with traditional political communication tactics. Instead, they will have to run against tea party candidates as individuals, based on what those individuals think and say and propose. This means our two major-party candidates will have to really engage in meaningful debate instead of the simplified, polarizing, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil dynamic in our current system. Among the two major parties, this new dynamic will befuddle the stupid major-party candidates and bring out the very best in the smart ones. I like that.

But I predict that human beings, who crave structure and leadership, will soon put a shape to the tea party. They will hold a convention and appoint leaders and become The Tea Party, an "official" party. And then the tea party is doomed.

It's power lies is in its very lack of a clearly defined platform or leader. Anyone, with any message, can associate with the tea party to rail against the two-party system that has created such gridlock for so long. Once it trades in anarchy for structure, it is doomed.

I hope that doesn't happen; but I predict that it will.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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What I'm reading -- really! And why you should, too!

2010-09-19T16:37:00.012-04:00

I always love it when politic ans are asked probing questions like, "What books are you reading right now?"

Invariably, they lie. This is a stock question, so their handlers prepare them with a list of books that will make them seem deep and profound. "The Bible" is a favorite. I would follow that up with, "What was the topic of the sermon at yuor church service this past Sunday, and your reflections on it?" But noone ever asks that!!

Or the pols pluck a few titles at random from the Great Books list: "Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason." Or they'll drop in a reference to Plato, Cicero, or Aristotle.

These are lies. Politicians have no time for such reading, because money-grubbing from lobbyists consumes all their time and mental energy. Any reading they do might be from a magazine randomly left in the pocket on an airplane. "Sarah Palin: The New Fashion Trendstetter."

{Insert gratuitous photo of Sarah Palin here}

But that doesn't sound very impressive, does it!

So I am glad no one asks me that question. This time of year it would be "The College Football pages of the weekend edition of USA Today." Again, not impressive!

But I am reading a book -- really! -- that I would recommend to any nonprofit communicator. It's Churchill: By Himself. Anyone in the communications business would do well to study a bit about Churchill, who, after all, helped save the British Empire from the Nazis through the sheer power of his communication skills to rally his country in is darkest hour.

Churchill: By Himself is a vast collection of Churchill's writing and speeches, compressed and cataloged brilliantly. It gives you a deep insight into the mind of an unsurpassed communicator. For example, unlike today's politicians, Churchill was not a puppet to public opinion. Today, speeches are based on words carefully selected from polls and focus groups to appeal to the lowest common denominator among voters. This sort of communication is not only lacking in leadership, it lacks and zest or soul in its style and content. Said Churchill:

"I prefer to accept the guidance of my heart to the calculations of public feeling."

That's pretty much the same political advice from a movie, when Napoleon Dynamite tells his friend Pedro, who is running a long-shot battle for class president: "Just follow your heart -- that's what I do." Good advice from a really good movie!

The Churchill book is exhaustive in its treatment, over 600 pages; but you can pick it up and begin browsing anywhere, a few minutes at a time -- perfect for those of us trying to watch 20 hours a week of college football and get smartened up during commercials! You'll learn a lot about the art of communications, from the master, in his own words.

And it sounds better tha saying that the last thing you read was an article about "Dancing With the Stars" contestant David Hasselhoff in People magazine. Perhaps I shouldn't disrespect "The Hass" -- interestingly, and strangely enough, he is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “The Most Watched TV Star in the World.” I am not making this up!!

So check out "Churchill: By Himself." It will inspire and perhaps enhance your own appreciation for the art of communication that we all practice every day.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Is your nonprofit's brand "friendly"?

2010-09-16T15:08:00.005-04:00

Being nice and friendly is good business!!

A colleague from a local foundation shared a branding article that I just loved. Thanks again, Terry!

It's a great reminder for any nonprofit communicator that your brand is not your logo! Your brand is defined by how your people behave and perform! In my Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations, I have a whole chapter called "Behavioral Branding."

Here is an excerpt from the article, which is posted on the Guidestar website:

Isn't it sad ... how low our expectations have become for receiving good service —and how much we recognize and appreciate it when we are served well.

Fact is, the overwhelming majority of first contacts to most organizations come over the phone. Yet we often overlook the critical impressions those contacts have on callers.

I don't know about you, but in my years of calling hundreds of organizations and dealing with countless "phone receptionists," I've often been given bad information, talked to as if I were an imposition rather than a valued caller, put on interminable hold, felt like I had just woken the person up, or been treated downright rudely. Heck, sometimes I don't even get past the receptionist and I'm already questioning whether or not I want to do business with this group.

The article makes this point: Your brand is defined in large part people simply doing their job in a competent, friendly manner. Nothing more. Nothing less.

It is well worth reading! Here is the link.

I learned this happy lesson just two days ago. I had to hire a tech support firm to fix a complex problem with our workstations. He was a gregarious fellow, which is a bit unusual for the Tech Support field, so I took time from what I was doing to talk as he worked. I asked about his family, found out we had some common interests, and just enjoyed a friendly chat.

When I got the bill, I was expecting to pay about $400 to $500, based on previous experience and the length of time he was on site over two different days. But he said he was giving me a deal because "I enjoy coming here --you guys are fun, and customers like you make MY job fun."

I happily paid $155.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Good for them; good for you

2010-09-15T10:37:00.005-04:00

I have several comments on this ad, which appeared on the cover of today's Wall Street Journal.

First, it is a brilliant concept. The use of a plate as a symbol for this pie chart showing the ratio of children who have enough to eat vs. those who don't is simple, direct, and tells a big story with one simple image and 9 words.

The text of the ad, which is hard to read in the image above, says:

"One out of every four U.S. children struggle to find their next meal. That's why Morgan Stanley is partnering with Feeding America to launch Fill the Plate. ..."

The main point is the fact that the ad is sponsored by a corporation, Morgan Stanley. I deal with many smaller, local nonprofits that have little or no money for marketing. In many instances I encourage them to find a supportive business to underwrite the cost of their advertising. Often a board member may own a business; or the nonprofit may have a vendor or any number of other relationships with local companies. Sometimes a local business has an affinity for a nonprofit because the nonprofit has helped the owner or the owner's family in some way. A local college has ads sponsored by a CPA firm that recruits many of its staff members from that college, and a partner at the CPA firm serves on the Board of the college. Banks, law firms, and other professional services firms are good partners for this type of collaboration.

The company gains the benefit of being associated with a good cause; and the nonprofit gets its message out without diverting funds from its mission.

I think this one is a particularly good example. And, by the way, Morgan Stanley did this right; a color ad on the cover of The Wall Street Journal is no token gesture; it's a major investment.

So if your nonprofit thinks it can't do advertising because you have no marketing money, think again! An advertising partnership with a local business is good for them, and good for you!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Live on purpose!

2010-09-14T15:47:00.004-04:00

Those words grabbed my attention. Live on purpose! I think I may post that on my wall.

The words are the title of the first chapter in a new book called the GET-IT-DONE GUY’S 9 STEPS TO WORK LESS AND DO MORE, by Stever Robbins. (That is not a typo, his name is Stever; first time I've seen that name. ..)

I have read some of the best productivity books, including my favorite, David Allen's Getting Things Done. Robbins' book is a lighthearted look at getting more of what you want out of life. The author is not your typical business consultant. Indeed, he is a successful entrepreneur, Harvard MBA, and MIT grad whose mission is helping people reach their dreams and be happy doing it. But he also has interests in things ranging from comedy improv, swing dancing, singing, interactive theater, Ericksonian hypnosis, and strategy board games. He's learning guitar and says he is very happy to announce he can play "E." The note, not the chord.

So this book may be right up my alley. The heading of the first chapter is Live on Purpose!

Quoting:

"Here’s the number one principle and our first step to working less in your life: Stop doing stuff that doesn’t help you reach your goals. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? It’s a shame almost no one does it. The most common way we work more and do less is by working on the wrong stuff. We spend our time doing, doing, doing, even if the doing has nothing to do with our goals, business, or life. Surely I’m not the only one who has spent five hours a day spewing one-line nonsense “status updates” on my favorite social media Web site, and then wondered why I’m running so hard just to stay in the same place. Of course, it’s much easier to say “work on what’s important” than it is to do it. ...In this chapter you will learn how to identify your ultimate goals for every situation. Then I’ll explain how you can develop a life map so you’ll know when you’re on track and when you’re just fooling yourself with busywork.

You can get hijacked into nonsense-land when you don’t know what you want. ... Moment- by- moment, you can make sure you’re doing things that take you where you want to go. Otherwise, all your activity is nothing more than busyness."

A lot of that resonates with me -- how about you? I just starting reading the book, and I'll write a more complete review soon. But it looks like a new breed of productivity book, with some good humor in addition to practical advice.

You can check it out for yourself at this link:

http://www.steverrobbins.com/

Have a great day -- on purpose!!!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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3.5 things that puzzle me

2010-09-07T14:34:00.011-04:00

THINGS THAT PUZZLE ME TODAY

1. My car, like most these days, has automatic windows. Hold a button, the window goes down. It takes 3 seconds -- yes, I timed it. On the driver's window, it says, "Auto" as in automatic. I could not figure out what this meant. All the windows were automatic -- hold a button, the window goes down; but this one was marked "Auto." Being the curious sort, I looked in the owner's manual. The "Auto" feature on the driver's window is so you simply touch the button and the window goes down -- get this -- without you having to hold the button for three seconds!! Who is the engineer who thought I was so lazy that I could not hold a button for the three seconds that it takes for the window to go down? Who is the engineer who thought that was just too much for me, and so relieved me of this three-second button-holding burden with the technological breakthrough of the "Auto"-automatic window? And he probably won "employee of the month" for this innovation.

2. This feature would save me trouble if I ever went through a drive-through window at a bank or fast food restaurant, which is the second thing that puzzles me. Who decided we are too lazy to get out of our cars and walk 30 feet inside the building to do our banking or grab a bag of carryout food? Long ago some innovator thought, "Let's save them the trouble of ambulating even the slightest bit -- we'll let them do everything without ever leaving their car!!" I can't imaging sitting in a drive-through line. Invariably I go inside to do my banking. There is always a line at the drive-through, but inside -- just me!! I have never had to wait in a line. And I can look the person who is handling my transaction in the eye, count the money, and clarify any questions in the transaction face to face. And have a human encounter. Same for restaurants. Always a line at the drive-through, rarely as long of a line inside. And since the chances that a fast-food place will mess up your order -- forgetting to offer ketchup, or napkins, or whatever -- is nearly 100 percent, I prefer to order face to face and validate my order before leaving the register. As I leave, the other cars are still in line, waiting. ...

Which brings me to puzzlement Number 2A:

2A. I recently joined a gym nearby to swim laps in their pool. The staffers are very friendly; I like going there because they ARE so friendly. So I was surprised when a man was barking at the front-counter staffer because he had to park SO FAR AWAY today!!! It was a beautiful 75-degree sunny day. The man was about 40. He was really grouchy to her about it. As he proceeded into the gym, the counter person and I gave each other a look, and I said, "Sorry you had to put up with that." She said, "The funny thing is, I know him. He comes in every day -- to walk on the treadmill."

3. The third thing that puzzles me is why more nonprofits do not accept donations online using PayPal. There is no reason not to!!! Many people (me) pay for almost everything with a debit or credit card; I don't like to write checks and I don't carry much cash -- I have no cash, I have 4 teenagers instead.

So if I can't donate with my debit card, I can't donate! PayPal is free -- you do pay a transaction fee of 2 or 3 percent, as with any credit-card transaction, but there are no monthly merchant charges and no set-up fees. They have a special set-up just for nonprofits (link below). People don't have to have a PayPal account to donate with their credit card using the PayPal interface. There is just no reason not to have a donate button on your home page, unless you have more money than your nonprofit needs! It takes less than a half hour to set up -- really! You just need to have your organization's bank account info handy -- the info that appears on the bottom of the checks that you write.

Here is the link to get started using PayPal to accept donations for your nonprofit right now.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Get comfortable with that overwhelming feeling!

2010-08-30T05:49:00.002-04:00

Race car legend Mario Andretti once said, "If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." Here is a great little motivational anecdote that is perfect for this time of year, when folks are often looking for the inspiration to take on new challenges as summer fades into fall and our schedules become more hectic.

I was impressed by a story about how the US Women's Olympic Softball team practices: balls are painted with a number inside a colored spot and they are fired at the women from a machine at an ungodly speed. First they train their eyes to see the color of the spot; and eventually they can call out "green six" as the balls go whizzing by.

Some of the pro teams have used similar training techniques.

The story made an impression on me because I've been studying Spanish; I am quite the beginner. When I encounter a new module, the foreign sounds whizz by just like the 150-mph practice balls. But with a little effort and some practice, I begin to recognize the material and eventually become comfortable with it; the foreign sounds slow down until I have a sense of comprehension. But I repeatedly have to get confront that "foreign" feeling at the start of the next module. Hearing how the athletes can train their eyes to identify numbers and colors on balls at 150 mph was just the inspiration I needed. In order to get better at anything, we have to get comfortable with exceeding our abilities -- until our abilities adapt.

Here's the story about the Women's Softball practice technique

Have a great day!!!

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofit Professionals

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Is giving a bad thing for rich people to do?

2010-08-26T13:26:00.009-04:00

In recent months I have been immersed in a Best Practices study of the corporate giving practices of some of the nation's top companies. Maybe it is a coincidence, but I keep running across articles question the entire premise of companies or wealthy individuals diverting their money from business activity to philanthropy.

Kimberly O. Dennis writes and interesting opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 20).

WARNING!! You may not like all of what she has to say!

"Bill Gates and Warren Buffett announced this month that 40 of America's richest people have agreed to sign a "Giving Pledge" to donate at least half of their wealth to charity. Yet some — including Messrs. Gates and Buffett—say it isn't enough. Perhaps it's actually too much: the wealthy may help humanity more as businessmen and women than as philanthropists."

OK, I have seen that argument before, just recently. Scroll down this blog for an article just a few days ago making that same case. And I think that one can make a legitimate argument (debatable, but legitimate) to that extent. Here is where I part ways with the author.

"Businesses may do more for the public good than they're given credit for; philanthropies may do less. Think about it for a moment: Can you point to a single charitable accomplishment that has been as transformative as, say, the cell phone or the birth-control pill? To the contrary, the literature on philanthropy is riddled with examples of failure, including examples where philanthropic efforts have actually left intended beneficiaries worse off."

Ouch.

The article is sound and well-reasoned in many respects, but that paragraph is filled with flawed logic. Philanthropy invests in initiatives that profit-seeking businesses never would or could, so the comparison is a based on a false comparison.

Cell phones and the birth control pill change the way people live; nonprofits change people's lives. There is a difference

Furthermore, the "failures" within philanthropy are often the result of attempted innovations at changing people's lives -- grand, worthwhile, financially risky initiatives that often open new frontiers, and sometimes fall short. Philanthropy exists to invest in things that business cannot or would not invest in. There is not much profit in a food bank or a homeless shelter or Red Cross disaster relief or a halfway house for recovering addicts. But investments in these operations transform people's lives. Consider, too, that not all of the business ventures of Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett succeed, either. For all the successful products Microsoft has launched, for example, there have been many failures, as every computer user knows all too well. Failures, as in the words of the author, that left the indented beneficiaries worse off. If you doubt it, just ask your IT guy.

"Can you point to a single charitable accomplishment that has been as transformative as, say, the cell phone or the birth-control pill?" she asks.

Yes, yes I can. I would much rather live in a world without cell phones than a world without The Salvation Army. Likewise, the thousands of libraries built through the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie helped equalize literacy and education across the country, giving access to the world of knowledge to rich and poor alike, much as the Internet has transformed access to knowledge in more recent times. The foundations of John D. Rockefeller pioneered the development of modern medical research and were instrumental in the eradication of yellow fever. In the 19th century, yellow fever was deemed one of the most dangerous infectious diseases, resulting in millions of deaths worldwide.

Interestingly, the author is the CEO of a private foundation, and presumably the nonprofit Searle Freedom Trust believes it is doing "transformational" work.

A final point. Gates and Buffett are giving away their personal fortunes, not corporate dollars. Gates and Buffett seem to know how money works. If they decide that philanthropy is their most effective investment, I'd certainly give them the benefit of the doubt.

It is an interesting article and well worth reading. Click here.

And for another take on a similar topic, see my post below, "Are corporate do-gooders doing any good?"

Personally, if had $40 billion or so, I would take the pledge. Alas, I am still working on my first billion.

On another personal note, I said I'd rather live in a world without cell phones than a world without The Salvation Army. As I think about it, a world without cell phones sounds like a good idea in and of itself!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Storytelling with photos

2010-08-26T08:58:00.003-04:00

This photo shows troops during a welcome home ceremony after soldiers from the Army's 4th Stryker brigade returned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. on Thursday, Aug. 19. They are part of the last combat unit leaving Iraq.

Look closely at the soldier between the two couples hugging. Look at his face. It appears he has no one to greet him, no one to welcome him home. He looks forlorn and a little lost.

This just shows the power of a picture to tell a story. As a writer by trade, it took me a long time to learn to think visually when producing nonprofit communications. A good picture is more powerful that good words.

I hope this soldier had someone special to greet him and just hadn't found them in the crowd yet. I would hate to think that any soldier returning from Iraq after doing our fighting for us came home unwelcomed.

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Are corporate do-gooders doing any good?

2010-08-23T14:09:00.005-04:00

An article in The Wall Street Journal challenges the conventional thinking about companies and their communities.

Having just completed a major Best Practices study of the Corporate Social Responsibility practices of some of the nation's top brands, I was very interested in an article I read today.

"The idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed"

That is the provocative premise of an excellent article today in The Wall Street Journal by Aneel Karnani.

"Very simply, in cases where private profits and public interests are aligned, the idea of corporate social responsibility is irrelevant: Companies that simply do everything they can to boost profits will end up increasing social welfare. In circumstances in which profits and social welfare are in direct opposition, an appeal to corporate social responsibility will almost always be ineffective, because executives are unlikely to act voluntarily in the public interest and against shareholder interests.

"Irrelevant or ineffective, take your pick. But it's worse than that. The danger is that a focus on social responsibility will delay or discourage more-effective measures to enhance social welfare in those cases where profits and the public good are at odds. As society looks to companies to address these problems, the real solutions may be ignored."

Another comment from the article:

"Managers who sacrifice profit for the common good also are in effect imposing a tax on their shareholders and arbitrarily deciding how that money should be spent. In that sense they are usurping the role of elected government officials, if only on a small scale."

Many have argued that companies can do the most good for society by doing what their mission mandates -- generating profits for shareholders. Creating jobs, paying payrolls, creating wealth -- all of this reduces the strains on society more than philanthropic endeavors undertaken by for-profit ventures. And the profits distributed to shareholders often end up in the nonprofit sector through charitable donations, but the decision-making is left up to thousands of shareholders rather than a company committee -- providing diversity in where dollars are donated and tapping into the "wisdom of the many."

Many, perhaps most, nonprofits generate some of their revenue through their activities. Donated dollars, however, come from one place: business profits. After all, every dollar donated to the nonprofit sector was originally generated by for-profit business activity.

The article is thought-provoking and affirms what I learned from interviewing some of the top companies in the country on their Corporate Social Responsibility practices. Corporate philanthropy only works when a company's for-profit mission and its philanthropic mission are so closely aligned that the company derives a benefit from its giving. Karnani argues that in this instance, the philanthropy is irrelevant. Here I disagree, because the company gains value from a public relations standpoint.

It is a complex but interesting argument that affects all of us. I urge readers to check out the article by clicking here.

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Nonprofit Capacity Assessment for Arts and Culture

2010-08-21T14:05:00.000-04:00

Source: Press Release, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University

BLOOMINGTON, IN -- The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) and the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) announced that the Nonprofit Capacity Assessment for Indiana's Arts and Culture Organizations report, a first of its kind, has been completed and is now available for review.

The report can be downloaded from the Indiana University website at www.indiana.edu/~nonprof/results/npcapacity/artsculturecapacityfinal.html and on the IAC website at www.in.gov/arts/2361.htm.

In 2008, the IAC enlisted SPEA researchers to implement a survey to better understand the capacity building and technical assistance needs of Indiana arts and culture organizations.

“In order to address the growing number of capacity building and technical assistance requests the Arts Commission receives, we needed to collect information directly from our constituents,” said Lewis C. Ricci, executive director of the Indiana Arts Commission. “We surveyed approximately 1,800 organizations that have sought funding from the IAC or our regional arts partners since 2003.”

The original sample included both nonprofit and public/governmental organizations that provide arts and cultural activities, but excluded individual artists and for-profit organizations. Approximately 385 organizations completed the survey in full or in part.

SPEA Project Director Kirsten A. Grønbjerg says that financial resources pose the most challenges, followed by networking and advocacy, marketing, programs and planning, information technology, human resources, and operations and governance. Detailed analysis shows that across-the-board challenges are most severe for organizations whose entire mission is dedicated to arts and culture, those that rely extensively on volunteers, and/or those with board vacancies.

“Based on our analysis of what respondents view as the most helpful types of assistance, we identified four priorities for the Indiana Arts Commission: funding assistance, peer learning, collaborative activities with other arts and culture organizations, and technical assistance support,” said Grønbjerg, who also holds the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

The IAC has begun to address these needs with two seminars: “Fundraising and Constituent Building in the Current Economy,” presented in Lafayette on June 3-4 by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University; and “Leading at the Speed of Change,” presented in Bloomington on June 25-26 by Minneapolis-based ArtsLab. More information can be found at www.in.gov/arts/2659.htm.

Technical assistance seminars will be planned by the Arts Commission on a yearly basis to continue to address the priorities that have come out of the assessment.

About the Indiana Arts Commission
On behalf of the people of Indiana, the Indiana Arts Commission advocates engagement with the arts to enrich the quality of individual and community life. The Arts Commission encourages the presence of the arts in communities of all sizes while promoting artistic quality and expression.

About the Center on Philanthropy
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, a part of the IU School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), is a leading academic center dedicated to increasing the understanding of philanthropy and improving its practice worldwide through research, teaching, training and public affairs programs

What's YOUR problem? For Indiana nonprofits, it's a combination of funding and marketing issues

2010-08-21T07:18:00.000-04:00

Survey: Funding, marketing greatest challenges for Indiana nonprofits
Report provides strategies for meeting organizations' needs

Source: Media release from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University

INDIANAPOLIS -- A statewide survey identifies Indiana nonprofits' greatest challenges in capacity building and technical assistance, along with key strategies for meeting their needs. The survey, led by Kirsten Grønbjerg, Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and professor in IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, found the most prevalent challenges for nonprofits are related to funding, with communications also presenting difficulty for many organizations.

The report, Nonprofit Capacity Assessment: Indiana Charities, 2007, contains information about the most prevalent management challenges for nonprofits, the types of assistance they find most helpful, the organizational components already in place in these charities, and the human and financial resources they currently possess.

The information was obtained from a total of 91 organizations that were either associate members of the Indiana Grantmakers Alliance or Indiana grantees of the Lumina Foundation for Education. Both organizations sponsored the survey along with SPEA and the Center on Philanthropy.

"It is clear that even this group of fairly well established charities face significant challenges across the board," Grønbjerg, said. "It is also clear that addressing these issues will require thoughtful action both by the charities themselves and by Indiana grantmakers and other funders."

Among the survey's findings:

Indiana nonprofits face many organizational challenges. Respondents indicated that securing financial resources presents the most severe and widespread challenge, followed by marketing, and networking and advocacy, with information technology, human resources, planning and programs, and governance and operations following in close succession.

Six of the nine most prevalent major challenges are related to funding. Half or more of all respondents say that expanding the donor base, building an endowment, obtaining funding in general, securing foundation or corporate funding, and enhancing the visibility or reputation of their organization present a major challenge.

Communications presents obstacles for many organizations. At least 40 percent of respondents say that developing targeted communications with the community and clients/members, developing public understanding of issues, securing government grants, and developing capital campaigns present major challenges.

Most types of funding and peer learning are considered very helpful in addressing challenges. Overall, funding support is seen as the most helpful way to address challenges, followed by peer learning support and then technical assistance support. Multi-year funding and general overhead are seen as very helpful by at least half of all respondents, regardless of the type of organizational need being addressed.

Researchers also developed a set of recommendations for funders based on the survey results.
Top priority: Funding assistance. The researchers recommended that Indiana funders give serious consideration to providing multi-year grants and assisting with general overhead. Small grants and challenge grants targeted at particular areas, such as information technology, may also be especially helpful.

Second priority: Peer learning. The opportunity to interact with and learn from peer organizations was seen as very helpful by at least 30 percent of respondents. The researchers recommend that funders look into creating opportunities for peer interactions and information sharing among nonprofit executives and others in key nonprofit management positions, such as volunteer managers, special event coordinators and grant writers.

Third priority: Workshops and off-site training. More than 29 percent indicated that workshops were very helpful, with 75 percent finding it at least somewhat helpful. The researchers recommended that funders support high quality workshops and other off-site training for nonprofits seeking to build capacity of all types.

Fourth priority: Selective support for technical assistance. Outside consultants, student interns and loaned executives are viewed as very helpful by 30 percent or more of respondents and at least somewhat helpful by half or more, particularly in the areas of marketing and information technology. Researchers recommend that funders give particular attention to identifying high quality consultants and loaned executives to help nonprofits build their marketing and information technology capacity.

For more information about the capacity assessment, visit http://www.indiana.edu/~nonprof/results/npcapacity.html.

Is it time to banish the term "nonprofit"?

2010-08-16T08:37:00.000-04:00

"It's not just about being able to write a check.

It's being able to touch somebody's life."

Oprah Winfrey

An article by Claire Gaudiani in the Chronicle of Philanthropy suggests we abandon the term "nonprofit." In a persuasive article, Gaudiani advocates for the term "social profit." It's an important idea.

I've long felt that the term nonprofit does a disservice. For example, Parkview Health is one of the largest employers in the region, and has one of the largest budgets. The health system also generates a vast surplus of cash to reinvest in its own growth. The term nonprofit is relevant in a discussion of the organization's tax status but seems like an otherwise impotent term.

Gaudiani writes that migrating to the term "social profit" is "an opportunity to recognize our great national tradition of philanthropy for what it is and has always been: investment in human, physical, and intellectual capital. All investors rightly expect a return on their investment. Otherwise the very ideas of change, growth, optimism, and progress are meaningless. Social investors are no different. They are profit seekers of the very best kind, those who believe in a better future for the arts, medical research, the environment, and countless other areas of social-profit focus. Like companies, social-profit groups raise and invest money, hire and direct staffs, and achieve specific goals. Their presidents report to boards. Profit flows, not in cash to employees and investors, but to society, which benefits from the work of these organizations. In fact, this kind of profit is so prized that government encourages citizens to invest in social-profit-creating institutions by offering taxpayers a deduction for their investments."

Does it matter what we call the nonprofit sector? Of course it does. Companies spend billions on naming and branding their products, services and companies because the name used to refer to a thing adds or detracts from the value of that thing. Shakespeare had it only partly right when he said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. It might technically smell as good, but if we called it a fartweed, its appeal would be diminshed.

The term "nonprofit" is simply not accurate. Arts, health and human services organizations generate enourmous profits measured in concrete quality-of-life enhancements that are vital to economic development and the proft-making environment of a community. They turn dollars into profits of the highest order.

Adopting a new term is a branding issue that could benefit the entire sector. But as a practical consideration, I cannot see how such a change would happen. The term nonprofit is very entrenched. Also, there is not a consensus on what the "right" name should be. But a new, more effective positioning term for the nonprofit sector could happen, and if it did, it would be a good thing.

Have a great day.

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Nonprofit PR for fundraisers: 5 quick thoughts

2010-08-16T05:24:00.001-04:00

Marketing and fundraising intersect in many ways. Here are thoughts and reminders for your own nonprofit marketing program.

Set your sites low. Don't try to hit a home run every time. A base hit is just fine. And be OK with some trial and error. Even the best hitters in baseball fail about two-thirds of the time. (Babe Ruth, pictured at right, had a lifetime batting average of .342.)

Start small and grow. Get people into your flock with low-threshold gift appeals. Once you have them on your mailing lists, you can educate them throughout the year and prime them for your appeal during the second year, where your costs will be greatly reduced and the revenue you generate will be nearly 100 percent net proceeds.

Sharpen your message. Never lose site of the fact that you are in a competitive arena. People only have a finite number of dollars to give. They will give them to those organizations that appeal to them at the right time and with the right message. You simply must have a stronger message than others in order to succeed. Each time you write an appeal, stop and ask yourself, like your audience will, "Why should I give my money to this cause?" Be sure you have the answer.
A-B-F: Always Be Fundraising. To control the timing, you simply have to be in front of people all the time. If you are thinking in terms of an annual appeal, you are limiting your organization. For each month of the year, there is some theme that you could use to stay in front of people to reach out to them when they have the money and motivation. Many nonprofits make their annual appeals during the compassion season. But what if I'm tapped out then? But what if I sell my house in July and have a few extra bucks at that time? It has to be an all-year-long campaign.

Don't emphasize the media. To succeed in nonprofit marketing, don't focus too much on the broadcast and print media. Use media that you control directly like grassroots outreach efforts through other partners like schools and churches.

Most of these ideas will add a little bit of funding and raise overall awareness at the same time. None of them are home runs. Remember: Don’t look for one big 100 percent solution. It may take 100 “one percent solutions” instead.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Pink branding has Komen folks seeing red

2010-08-05T16:05:00.014-04:00

Note: If you wish to sue me for posting this image on my blog, feel free; contact my attorney, Hugh Lyon Sack, at the law firm of Dewey, Screwem, & Howe.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a cautionary story for every nonprofit: When it comes to guarding their brands, it turns out that charities are not so charitable!

Nonprofits are suing each other over similar names, and even similar color schemes, used in branding.

Problem is, almost any name or color is used by someone, somewhere. So this is going to be a sticky issue for all nonprofit communicators, and big money in litigation and damages is at stake.

Here's a taste from the article, from a nonprofit accused of infringing on the brand of Susan G. Komen For the Cure, which is dedicated to fighting breast cancer -- and brand infringement.

"It is startling to us that Komen thinks they own pink," says Mary Ann Tighe, who tangled with the breast-cancer charity over the color for her "Kites for a Cure" lung-cancer fund-raiser. "We cannot allow ourselves to be bullied to no purpose."

Komen's general counsel, Jonathan Blum, said in an email: "We see it as responsible stewardship of our donor's funds."

I urge you to check out the article about nonprofit branding squabbles gone bad.

Here is the link

Have a Great Day! (TM)*

*Please note: The phrase "Have a Great Day" and the colors, fonts and spaces associated with the phrase are the intellectual property of Steve Cebalt, and copyright or trademark violations of the misappropriation of this phrase will be vigorously prosecuted. Nonetheless, really, have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author

Communication Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Do you make this mistake in your PR materials?

2010-07-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

As a writer, one of the most common questions I get from clients when I create a direct-mail campaign, PR press release, a brochure, a web page or a print ad is, "Will people read all that text? Shouldn't it be shorter?"

No.

Writing is like a bridge over a river — it should be as long as it needs to be. If it is too short by even the smallest margin, it's no good at all. It goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing. A letter or ad that leaves out any important details in the interest of brevity leaves the reader short of his purchasing decision, stranded at the end of a too-short bridge to nowhere.

And yet many times clients will glance at a proof of an ad or a fundraising letter and reflexively say, "That's too long."

Too long for what? Mere brevity does not make an advertisement interesting — any more than mere length makes an advertisement dull.

-- On a Web page, for example, visitors find the page by searching. They go to some trouble to seek out the very information on that page. These visitors are keenly interested in the topic. Of all the vast information on the Internet, they've selected this single page because of its apparent relevance to them. The Web site owner (that's you) has gone through a lot of trouble to build and host the site for this very moment. Why shortchange the visitor in an arbitrary desire to be brief? Why not give the visitor all the information you can? Isn't that in the visitor's best interest — and yours?

-- Similarly, in a print ad, people need enough information to decide whether to take action. Why would you leave out important features or benefits that might persuade a buyer? Let's say you are trying to sell a home pregnancy test kit. Post-menopausal women may not read the ad; but young women in the target market — women who are trying to get pregnant (or those trying not to!) may read every word; they want to know how accurate the test is, how reliable, how fast it provides results, how soon it can be used after pregnancy occurs, how easy it is to use, how much it costs, etc. To them, at this time, this is the most interesting topic in the world. Will the rest of us read all that detail? No, but who cares! We're not in the market. Research and testing has shown that ads with longer copy sell more effectively.

-- Direct-mail solicitations generally are three or more pages, plus a brochure, and often a "lift letter" or other device, as well as a reply card and envelope. Lots of stuff! Why is this format preferred over a short, concise letter? Because it has been tested countless times in real-world campaigns, and longer-text letters sell more effectively. The same is true for fundraising letters - just take a look at some of the solicitations you receive. Sometimes clients will say to me, "I would never read all that stuff — I just throw it away." Perhaps the client is not in the market for the product. Everybody will not read it. But the fact is that the very people you are most interested in will read your ad. These are the prospects who will buy your product or service if you tell them sufficient reasons for doing so.

Let's say you love golf. You play golf every chance you get. You can never get in enough time on the golf course. You think about golf at work, and your screen-saver on your computer has a golf photo. You arrive home one night and start sorting through your mail. Bills. A sweepstakes. More bills. And a letter that has a golf ball on the envelope and the words "Just for Golfers." I bet you'll open it and read it, and if it's well-written, you'll read all of it, because you love golf. This illustration means your marketing material must be well-written and strategically targeted. These two criteria — the quality of the writing and the quality of your strategic targeting — are far more important than brevity for its own sake.

Would you send a sales rep out on an important sales call and say, "When you get there, talk fast and keep it under 30 seconds, then shut up so they don't get impatient." That wouldn't work. So why send a letter that is trivial in its brevity? Why write an ad that leaves key questions unanswered? Don't make that mistake. For most products and services, a picture and a few words are highly unlikely to attain the desired response. Your ad needs to do what a salesman would do when face to face with a prospect and provide a complete presentation of the product or service benefits.

Consider this: A phone book is a very long, large document. No one reads the entire thing. But when you want to look up a number, it is exceedingly useful. Is it too long?

And please observe that if you are still reading this article, then I've proved my point. I've kept your attention for more than 900 words now. And I'm sure you're a busy person! So quit fooling around and get back to work.

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author,

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Tuesday's Hero: the Elderly Stranger

2010-07-27T07:04:00.000-04:00

Are you like me? I need a lot of inspiration to make it through the day, to stay focused on my priorities, and to accomplish everything I am capable of.

I get my inspiration in dozens of ways. Today, I was visiting a local gym where I am doing a one-week tryout to check the place out. I was working out and looking around at the 20-year-old guys admiring themselves in the mirror, and the rail-thin women getting railer and thinner.

Then I saw a much older man (perhaps 70, 80, hard to tell) who I'll call Tuesday's Hero. I have lots of heroes -- clients I admire, historical figures like Winston Churchill. This 80-ish man is today's hero.

In a gym full of buff young people with their designer sportwear, $200 athletic shoes, iPods, and brand-name bottled water, this old man obviously stuck out. And he was not stylish. He wore black shoes, shorts, and long "hose" stockings that I think help people who have poor circulation in their legs, plus a big baggy T-shirt. He was exercising with small handweights and light resitance bands. He struggled even with the smaller weights, but he worked with a grit and determination that I didn't see in anyone else in that gym. He didn't care whether he looked different, or whether he fit in; he was there, fighting the good fight, in his own way. And he seemed to be winning the fight.

So today's inspiration comes courtesy of Tuesday's Hero, an elderly stranger in odd-looking circulatory hose in a gym full of buff "youngbodies," struggling with two-pound weights and resistance bands, achieving his full potential, and evidently enjoying the experience.

I wish I could tell him how he got ME pumped up for today.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Modern Sports Marketing Started with A Hoosier Horse Named Dan Patch

2010-07-26T11:22:00.000-04:00

Nonprofit communicators are responsible for maintaining the "brand" for their organization. Today's post provides a bit of history on the art of branding.

By Steve Cebalt, written for the Fort Wayne (Journal) Gazette

Each year, thousands flock to Indiana for an event that celebrates one of the state's most famous athletes ever. A century after his heyday in sport, he is recognized in the top echelon of historic Hoosiers, both in Indiana and across the country.

Dan Patch is studied by 4th-graders alongside President Benjamin Harrison and other figures that loom large in Indiana history. Railroad lines and highways are named after him. His story transcends sports and has achieved mythic status.

His own biography parallels crucial decades in Indiana's transition from farm life to a more industrial society. In the early 20th Century, Dan Patch was perhaps the nation's best-known sports figure and was among the most widely recognized Hoosiers of all. Every Indiana resident has a stake in his story.

A superstar celebrity

Decades before Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, an Indiana-born horse named Dan Patch was one of America's first superstar celebrity athletes. Thanks to a marketing-savvy owner, Dan Patch's remarkable success as an advertising icon is responsible for many of the marketing and branding techniques still favored today. From chewing tobacco to washing machines to autos, the Dan Patch name was pure gold for companies trying to set themselves apart. His face was everywhere. Many of the advertising tactics we take for granted today can be traced back to Dan Patch. A century ago Dan Patch was the symbol of unbeatable excellence. American businesses and consumers couldn't get enough. Indeed, in the opinion of Frederick Klein of Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, "A case can be made that, adjusted for inflation and population size, he was bigger than anyone around now."

A legacy that endures

Dan Patch's influence on Indiana life -- indeed, on American life - is evident each racing season.
On a Saturday at Hoosier Park in Anderson, thousands will gather to enjoy the Dan Patch Invitational Pace, a race that pits some of the nation's best harness racing horses in a race with a $200,000 purse. It is the biggest race of the season. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will change hands as fans at the track in Anderson and at off-track venues in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Merrillville handicap the field. His birthplace of Oxford, Indiana hosts an annual Dan Patch Days festival that started in 1901. There is a virtual cottage industry in Dan Patch memorabilia. A search of his name on the Internet yields 3,200 pages, and indeed there are many sites devoted exclusively to the lore and legend of Dan Patch. Just as one example, a Dan Patch thermometer sold recently at auction for $3,000.

Dan Patch heralded a new era in consumer marketing

The reason for his enduring influence has as much to do with marketing as it does with his record-smashing success on the racetrack. The rags-to-riches horse and his rags-to-riches owner, Marion Savage, both overcame shaky starts in their careers to achieve phenomenal success.

To understand the Dan Patch phenomenon, you have to appreciate the popularity of harness racing in turn-of-the-century America, including Indiana. Dan Patch was born in 1896, when horses were still a primary means of transportation; at the time of his death in 1916, horseless carriages called automobiles were fast making horses obsolete as a passenger conveyance.
During Dan Patch's lifetime, harness racing was immensely popular, especially in rural America. County fairs across America staged races, which were attended by tens of thousands. One appearance in Muncie toward the end of Dan Patch's career drew a reported 20,000 spectators, at a time when Muncie's population was less than 23,000 total.

It was into this pre-automotive America that Dan Patch was born in Oxford - conceived for a $150 stud fee. The horse at birth did not look at all like a winner. His ankles were very crooked; at first he needed help from a trainer just to stand, and he developed a wildly flailing gait. Some neighbors even suggested "putting him down."

But his original owners saw something in Dan Patch. They worked with him slowly, and he eventually started racing at the age of 4. He immediately outclassed the competition. He never lost a race. In fact, other owners quit running their horses against him, so his owners switched him to racing exhibitions against the clock.

Marketing magic - decades ahead of its time

The Dan Patch legend began to transcend sports when he was purchased by Marion Savage. Savage owned a large livestock feed manufacturing company. Savage had failed in farming and farm-related companies until starting the International Stock Food Company and building it into the largest company of its kind. Along the way he developed a reputation as a marketing genius. Just like Dan Patch, he started poorly but now found his stride.

Dan Patch set records on the track that stood for decades. His reputation went global in 1906 when he broke the world record with an unofficial one-mile pace of 1:55. Savage found any number of creative ways to exploit the horse's popularity. He developed creative contracts to garner gate proceeds at country fairs where the horse appeared, and he promoted these appearances relentlessly. The horse earned thousands more for Savage in stud fees.

In addition to using Dan patch's image to "endorse" his own company, Savage licensed the Dan Patch likeness to other companies. Products ranging from cigars to soft drinks, baking soda, toys, lineament, stoves, clocks, thermometers, watches, sleds, cutlery, china, stoves and washing machines all sported the Dan Patch name or picture. There was even a Dan Patch Automobile.

As "spokesman" for Savage's feed company, the Dan Patch legend was used to suggest performance-enhancing benefits from using International Stock Food products. The company produced pamphlets promoting the farm where Dan Patch lived and sent them to customers. The publications were filled with the exploits of Dan Patch - and ads for International Stock products.

As Dan Patch provided riches for Savage, the owner treated his horse like royalty, with his own private railway car and a barn so luxurious it was called the "Taj Mahal."

Dan Patch and Marion Savage died just days apart in July 1916. Their funerals were held on the same day. The country around them had been changing rapidly, from a nation of farmers to a nation of machine makers and drivers of automobiles. It had also become a nation of consumers. With that shift came a new era in promotion and product branding, brought on through a special horse and his owner's visionary zeal for marketing. Both the horse and the owner were decades ahead of their time. The horse built the brands, and the brands helped build the horse to larger-than-life, mythic status.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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To change people's behavior, first understand what drives them

2010-07-26T07:30:00.000-04:00

Photo: John Brandenberger, MD, County Coroner

and head of the Allen County Drive Alive Campaign

One of the most difficult challenges for PR campaigns is identifying the factors that will really cause people to change their behaviors.

Much PR and advertising is focused on awareness -- making people aware of the dangers of a behavior, and/or aware of the benefits of changing.

But awareness falls far short of affecting people's behavior. Otherwise, no one would smoke, overeat, drink and drive, or drive while talking on a cell phone. We all know the dangers of these behaviors, yet they persist.

The answer to changing behavior lies in understanding the "drivers" of behavior. For example, when we first started working with the Drive Alive campaign, we researched teens and asked them, "When you drive safely, what motivates you to do so?"

Teens could say that they feared death in a crash; or feared hurting others. But overwhelmingly teens said "fear of a ticket" motivated them to drive safely.

That's great information to have; rather than trying to scare teen drivers with doom and death, focus on the more immediate consequences of getting a ticket. Older adults might be more motivated out of safety concerns, but for teens, who see themselves as immortal, safety messages fall on deaf ears. But many teens have gotten a ticket, or know someone who has, and that consequence is a more effective motivational driver. A little additional research showed that the financial consequences for one ticket can add up to $3,000 in fines and, more importantly, increased insurance premiums.

So the key to influencing people’s behavior with PR lies not so much in the creative execution of a campaign, but in the front-end research to identify the true drivers of behavioral change. Better research, better outcomes.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Using fear in PR campaigns can be effective -- or it can backfire

2010-07-26T05:33:00.001-04:00

To use a PR campaign to change people’s behavior requires a magic mixture of motivational messages. Right? Well, it’s not magic, exactly.

Research shows that what’s needed to change behavior is a message that makes people see the downside of their current behavior, balanced by an equal or greater measure of hope that they can change.

If you use hardcore fear-based messages, you may succeed in scaring people; but you also have to give them an equal or greater degree of hope that they can avoid the threat by taking the actions that you prescribe in your campaign.

Fear can either motivate or inhibit productive action, depending on the type of message given to audience members of a campaign.

For example: You might show what an obese person’s heart looks like with graphic images of layers of fat tissue and congested arteries. But then you must give a solution that is within reach. If your solution is to “eat salads and jog three miles a day and watch the fat melt away,” you’ve lost. In fact, you may do more harm than good. A person, rather than accepting the message, will begin to rationalize: “I’m not as fat as so-and-so; some people are just big-boned,” etc. In this case the threat is clear enough, but the counterbalancing message of hope is ineffective because it doesn’t seem attainable.

The "magic" formula for a social marketing PR Campaign:

People must perceive a severe threat with alarming consequences. A minor threat is easily dismissed.
People must believe they are personally susceptible to the threat. If they believe the threat to be remote or that they are somehow immune or inoculated from the threat, they will dismiss the message.
People must have realistic hope that they, personally, can avoid the threat by making changes indicated in the PR campaign, with an attainable action step. The changes must seem realistic and attainable, backed up by examples of other people like them who have succeeded.

Example: Being overweight leads to diabetes, worsens arthritis, and contributes to heart disease (Severe Threat). If you are over the weight indicated on the chart, you are at risk (Clear Personal Susceptibility). The good news: Loosing just 5% of your bodyweight can enhance your health tremendously. You needn’t be a buff, trim swimwear model; the first few pounds you lose will have dramatic benefits on your health and help you avoid diseases and live longer. Taking a 20-minute walk in the evening after dinner is a great way to get healthier, with every step you take; start tonight and you’ll be healthier tomorrow. (Hope; Attainable Action Step).

An example of a local campaign that uses this model is the Everybody Reads literacy campaign. When the campaign was launched, parents were given information on the dire consequences for children who can’t read well, coupled with a simple action step that parents can take: “Read to your child 20 minutes every day.” The campaign took steps to make sure all parents recognized that they were susceptible. For example, one-third of children who can’t read well have college educated parents, meaning the problem crosses social and educational boundaries. But the action step is easy to attain – it’s free, it doesn’t take long, and it’s actually a pleasure to do.

Social scientists call the approach that I have described above the Extended Parallel Process Model. The EPPM specifies how to channel fear into productive, adaptive action.

TIP: If you can’t offer a hopeful, attainable action step, don’t use a fear-based approach to your campaign; it will actually backfire. Use another strategy.

TIP: If you use a fear-based message, make sure people see the threat as severe, and one that they personally are susceptible to. Then counterbalance the fear with a hopeful, motivational, attainable action step. The outcome will be an audience that embraces the message and channels their fear into the action you want them to take.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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One of the most effective nonprofit PSAs I've ever seen

2010-07-22T09:55:00.000-04:00

Here is perhaps the best example of a nonprofit TV ad/PSA designed to support giving that I have ever seen. I won't analyze it here -- I think it speaks for itself. I will just say that at the end, the payoff is that it reminds you of the impact you make when you donate your goods to Salvation Army. The essence of fundraising communications is just that -- to show people how they are part of the solution to a problem that matters to them.

In my Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations, you'll find a chapter called YouTube Your Site, with information on creating your own PSAs using a free program already on your computer!

You can produce PSAs for zero cost AND embed them directly onto your website, just as this PSA is embedded here on this blog page. You can even publish PSAs produced by others that suit your mission and purpose. We do this for clients all the time! For example, ~~you'll~~ find instructions on how to find great PSAs from the Ad Council for just about every nonprofit sector.

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Life Hacking and the Hipster PDA

2010-07-22T09:37:00.000-04:00

Steve Cebalt's Hipster PDA

By Steve Cebalt, written for the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette

I am a nerd. I've been one all my life. The good news is that finally, it's OK to be a nerd. Cool, even.

It wasn't always cool. Before technology and information took over our economy, nerds were seen as, well, nerds. Uncool by definition.

I was never cool. I wasn't fashionable; I wore Keds sneakers and whatever was on sale in the "husky" department at JC Penney's. I wasn't the guy you'd call to come over and work on your hotrod Camaro. You'd call your cool friend for that. You called me when you needed help writing a book report. Then I was your best friend.

Girls didn't like nerds much back then. I wasn't a big hit with the ladies. Now that it's cool to be a nerd, well ... some things never change, but I'm getting off track.

Here's my point: It's cool today to be a nerd, and the nerd subculture has coalesced on a group of Web sites dedicated to something called "life hacking."

A technology writer named Danny O'Brien created the term "life hack" after surveying a group of productive geeks on their work methods. O'Brien discovered a pattern among the most productive programmers: The best of them - the nerdiest of the nerds - all had created odd tricks and shortcuts to get their work done faster or better. O'Brien shared his research in a report called "Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks." The term "life hack" spread through the nerd community like a computer virus. Today there are many books, podcasts and websites on the topic. One of the goals of life hacking is to make life simpler. Life Hackers say it helps people to get more done, quickly and efficiently, with simple solutions. Merlin Mann created a blog called 43 Folders, which is one of the most popular life-hacking sites. Mann suggests having everyone stand during meetings so no one will waste time. Another suggestion from Mann is to check emails on a regular schedule rather than reacting immediately to every email that arrives. (A great many life-hacking ideas relate to managing email more effectively.)

The Hipster PDA is another life-hacking idea. It's an alternative to using "personal digital assistants," or PDAs, such as Blackberries and Palm Pilots. The Hipster PDA is simply a few index cards held together with a paper clip. It's a "system" I've been using for years, since tiring of my Palm Pilot and its annoying stylus, batteries and synchronization hassles; and other electronic gadgetry that I have used since has had similar drawbacks. People laugh at my low-tech notecards, but now the top geeks in the country have endorsed my system! My version of the Hipster PDA costs about a penny per notecard, plus 45 cents for a decent pen. My version is different in one important respect. Many nerds carry multiple index cards clipped together; I carry just one. If my new activities won't fit on one card, that tells me that my life is full and I need to reprioritize. You'll find much more at 43folders.com.

Lifehacker.com is a website that takes a life-hacking approach to saving money. It can tell you how to: have a meal for under $3, extend the life of your laptop battery, and keep cool in the hot weather. It tells you the best days to make major purchases and much more. It's like Hints from Heloise on steroids.

Another site, Lifehack.org, gives daily advice on things such as how to turn around bad experiences and sleep your way to better fitness. It also gives tips for travelers, hints for people who need help beginning conversations (such as nerds), and advice on making the workday more manageable. The website has 101 Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things. Learn how you can use tape to test out nail polish colors, prevent plaster from chipping off walls when hanging pictures, and arrange flowers in a vase.

Most life hackers are focused on speed and how quickly they can finish a task. Life hacking is meant to get things done faster so that you have more time for recreation, not just so that you can get more work done. The key, life hackers say, is learning to squeeze more out of your time.

I'm not convinced. After perusing these sites, I find myself still wasting time, but at a much faster pace.

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Most studies are wrong. Yikes!

2010-07-22T06:47:00.000-04:00

Many nonprofits base their decisions on studies. And studies that are classified as scientific, peer-reviewed studies are considered the gold standard. Most of these, it turns out, are wrong, leading to false conclusions.

We all make mistakes and, if you believe medical scholar John Ioannidis, scientists make more than their fair share. By his calculations, most published research findings are wrong.
Dr. Ioannidis is an epidemiologist who studies research methods at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece and Tufts University in Medford, Mass. In a series of influential analytical reports, he has documented how, in thousands of peer-reviewed research papers published every year, there may be so much less than meets the eye, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal by Robert Lee Hotz.

These flawed findings, for the most part, stem not from fraud or formal misconduct, but from more mundane misbehavior: miscalculation, poor study design or self-serving data analysis. "There is an increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims," Dr. Ioannidis said. "A new claim about a research finding is more likely to be false than true."

The hotter the field of research the more likely its published findings should be viewed skeptically, he determined.

Take the discovery that the risk of disease may vary between men and women, depending on their genes. Studies have prominently reported such sex differences for hypertension, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis, as well as lung cancer and heart attacks. In research published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Ioannidis and his colleagues analyzed 432 published research claims concerning gender and genes.
Upon closer scrutiny, almost none of them held up. Only one was replicated.

Statistically speaking, science suffers from an excess of significance. Overeager researchers often tinker too much with the statistical variables of their analysis to coax any meaningful insight from their data sets. "People are messing around with the data to find anything that seems significant, to show they have found something that is new and unusual," Dr. Ioannidis said.

In the U. S., research is a $55-billion-a-year enterprise that stakes its credibility on the reliability of evidence, and the work of Dr. Ioannidis strikes a raw nerve.

For a limited time (until the Wall Street Journal puts it behind a password wall) you can access the full article here.

So don't believe everything you read, and be ready to challenge people who back up their case with studies -- because now you know, most studies are wrong!

Nonetheless, have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Good News About Allen County!

2010-07-12T16:09:00.012-04:00

Working every day with Allen County nonprofits, one of the complaints I hear most often is that the media can't devote enough space to all the great things happening in our community.

For years, I have had an idea to address this problem. This summer, our team at Highview decided that now is the time. We are working now on a new newspaper dedicated to nothing but good news. It is called Community, and it will be devoted to good news about nonprofits and schools and their activities that are of public interest. It will be edited by Steve Cebalt and published by the team at Highview LLC. The newspaper will be available for free at locations throughout Allen County, supported by community-minded businesses and organizations that want to advertise their services to people who are interested in civic life in Allen County. There will be an online Community portal as well, which will give us the opportunity to publish everything from podcasts, videos and interviews as well as timely information that is subject to frequent change, such as calendar and event information. Nonprofits will also be able to submit their news using the Community website.

The pages of Community will include nonprofit activities and a section that we are very excited about, devoted to positive news in our local schools. This section will be called:

"Good Schools, Good Kids, Good News."

Isn't it about time someone reminded the community that the schools are doing fantastic things, despite the challenges that have been thrown at them? School systems, teachers, and of course students are achieving remarkable things that deserve to be celebrated and promoted.

Our local media do a good job of promoting nonprofit and school news, but they have a different and much broader mission than our new Community newspaper. They have to report the negative news as well as the positive; and they have to fit all the world's news into the available space or airtime on any given day.

The Community newspaper will be different. Its only mission is to announce good, relevant, interesting news that otherwise would not get the attention it deserves. It will promote events of interest; fundraising efforts; volunteer opportunities; honors and achievements earned by our local nonprofits, and much more. The editing will be based on this question: Is this information interesting, and does it help an Allen County resident live life to its fullest by recognizing all the nonprofit and educational activities that are going on? Note to nonprofits: The interesting qualifier is important! Not all good news is interesting! Our job, working together, is to make sure we present your message in an engaging and interesting way.

The content will be driven by the nonprofits and schools or school systems that wish to have their news published. Just as with any other media outlet, you'll send us your press releases. When you send your information to Community, you'll know you are sending it to a receptive media outlet that is published specifically to help you spread your message. Of course you'll want to send us highly relevant articles of interest to the general public; things that they can engage in, participate in or simply appreciate.

I will have updates on the launch of Community in the coming weeks, and local nonprofits and educators will be invited to a publicity meeting to learn how to submit their articles and photos, along with editorial guidelines and deadlines.

If you want information on how YOUR organization can provide information, send me an email at info@highviewhelp.com, and when the times comes I'll be sure you are among the first to get the info as well as an invitation to the meeting.

The launch of Community has us very engaged and excited this summer; this new newspaper and website will give nonprofits and schools a new way to share their good news with the people who need to know!

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to share songs that relate to my blog postings, and today I've chosen a favorite. Since Community is all about the positive, inspirational good news happening here in our hometown, I've chosen a song from gospel singer Mavis Staples called "In Times Like These."

Watch for more on the launch of Community!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt
Highvlew
info@highviewhelp.com

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Get What You Want From The Media!

2010-07-07T15:22:00.004-04:00

Are you getting what you want from the media?

Today I am offering a freebie. For the next three days, you can download a free copy of the Media Relations chapter of my publication, The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations.

I get a lot of questions from nonprofits wanting to get more attention in the traditional media. In fact it is very rare that a nonprofit is ever satisfied with the media attention it receives – the rare exception being a public attraction like our local Children’s Zoo, which has cute animals and draws thousands of visitors a day. But that’s the exception. What about the rest of us?

Let’s face it, Facebook and Twitter are fine, but very limited; they can’t do all our outreach for us, as much as people wish it were so!

The traditional media still have a power like no other. Over the course of a typical week, three out of four adults read their newspaper. The audience is strong across all age levels. Nearly two out of three of younger adults aged 18 through 34 read a daily or Sunday newspaper during the week, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Older age groups read in higher proportions, as has been true for years. Three-quarters of those aged 35 through 54 read their newspaper, as do 84 percent of those age 55 and older.

I am focusing on newspapers here for two reasons. In many (not all) markets, the daily newspaper is still the single most dominant audience-grabber, surpassing TV, radio, etc. which tend to compete for the same audience at the same time and thus fragment the market. Also, a newspaper article has a longer shelf life. It can be studied closely, posted on the fridge, passed along to others, etc. TV and radio news tends to be more superficial and fleeting – it’s just the nature of the different forms of media.

First, some perspective on media relations.

Now, having said all that, it's important to appreciate that media relations is an important asset for a small nonprofit organization, but some perspective is in order.

The news media can only cover your organization periodically and you don't control when the news gets published, or how it's edited. A story may run for a day and provide a boost, but the effect is short-lived. What do you do the next day, and the day after that? Today, more than ever, we have options such as targeted direct mail, newsletters, e-mail, event marketing, etc. People are often surprised to hear a PR person urging a reduced emphasis on the mainstream media. And that may seem a little strange. But in my experience, you can have a great deal of impact by taking control of the timing and content of your message, and targeting your audience yourself. Become your own "media.” Build your own media outlet.

The point: Don't be too dependent on media relations in your outreach strategy. Most organizations have a full toolkit of communications tools that can reach target audiences directly, on your terms, and on your timetable, with no media intermediary. So, as they say, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Now as for media relations, there is much more to it than sending out press releases. The term "Media Relations" emphasizes relationships, and your relationships with media members are some of your most important assets.

In the free PDF download, you’ll find some useful tips and tricks for enhancing your relationships, with the media, getting better results from your press releases, getting results WITHOUT press releases, and much more.

So check out Chapter 7, “Getting What You Want From The Media: Essential Media Relations Skills for Nonprofits.” Click here to download it!

Be sure to check out:

-- The Power of Op-Ed Articles
-- Your Online Newsroom
-- Media Recycling

Those three topics are on Page 119.

You will also find:

-- “PSAs – and how to use them”
-- “News conferences – when and how”

And two of the most proven, successful tactics appear under Advanced Tips on Page 122: the “News Digest” and the “Media Memo.”

The Media Relations chapter ends on Page 127 with a handy checklist that can keep you on track and help you avoid forgetting small details that can make a big difference!

I hope you find something useful that enhances your media relations. But don’t forget my broader point – that depending too much on the media will be an exercise in futility and frustration! You have to consider ways to create your own “media channel,” using all the direct-marketing tools in your toolkit.

Media Relations is just one of the 11 chapters in the Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations. Here is the full table of contents:

CHAPTER 1: Breakthrough Branding
Managing nonprofit programs a full understanding of branding and the 15-minute Branding Plan template.

CHAPTER 2: The 1-Page Nonprofit Organization Marketing Plan
A planning template that you can use every day for your nonprofit marketing and communications

CHAPTER 3: Communications Research
Easy research and survey tools that work the do-it-yourself nonprofit communicators

CHAPTER 4: E-Newsletters I
How to determine whether e-newsletters are right for your nonprofit

CHAPTER 5: E-newsletters II
How to get people to open and read your nonprofit e-newsletter

CHAPTER 6: How to Create a Blog
A step-by-step tutorial on creating your blog in 20 minutes!

CHAPTER 7: Getting What You Want From the Media
Essential Media Relations Skills for Nonprofits

CHAPTER 8: Social Media: Facebook? MySpace? Twitter?
Sorting the good advice from the bad when it comes to online social media marketing

CHAPTER 9: Storytelling Shortcuts
Shortcuts to success for nonprofit communicators

CHAPTER 10: YouTube Your Website!
How to add multimedia to your nonprofit website for free using YouTube technology in 2 simple steps

BONUS CHAPTER: Double Duty E-mails
How to double your communication results with every e-mail you send

You can download the entire 196-page publication for $29.95 by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Steve Cebalt
Highview LLC
HighviewHelp.com

Text messaging and your nonprofit

2010-06-24T15:03:00.011-04:00

If you want to reach young people in large numbers to promote your nonprofit's message, forget the computer; text them. According to a new study, given today's mobile lifestyle, "The computer is being left behind."

One of my favorite writers, Garrison Keillor, recently remarked: "Compulsive texting gives me the willies: it's just another form of butt scratching." I agree with him wholeheartedly, but what he and I think matters not one bit if you want to reach a youth audience.

So I was fascinated by a new study that I ran across during a two-day visit this week to Indiana's Ball State University. Text messaging has overtaken e-mail and instant messaging as the main form of communication among students surveyed, with 97 percent of students sending/receiving text messages as compared to 30 percent for e-mail. Repeating for emphasis: texting = 97 percent; e-mail = 30 percent.

That, my friends, is a lot of butt-scratching!

And of course it is not just college students but anyone who wants to communicate with college students and other young people that rely so heavily on texting. Like parents. Grandparents. You. Me. OK, not me, but my wife!!

Here's the take-away message for nonprofit communicators. If you recruit young people as volunteers or to use your nonprofit's services, texting absolutely must be in your communication mix. An e-newsletter just won't cut it. (However, I did see an awful lot of grassroots communication on campus, such as posters, fliers on bulletin boards and other 20th-century communication tools! These tactics may seem a bit retro, but they are still very effective!)

And here is the great news: There are many programs that you can use to incorporate texting, email, and even social media like Facebook and Twitter into your communications, all delivered from one dashboard. You create your message, and recipients receive it in their preferred format -- a text, a voicemail to their cellphone, an e-mail, etc. I don't want to endorse any particular product, but many of these systems are marketed to schools, so if you do a search for "school communication systems," you'll find many programs that can be used not just by schools but any organization -- a YMCA, a Red Cross Chapter, Boy Scouts, you name it.

I'll leave you with more details on that communications study from Ball State University:

The study was conducted by Michael Hanley, a Ball State journalism professor and director of the university's Institute for Mobile Media Research. He has conducted 11surveys of mobile device usage since 2005 that includes a total of 5,500 college students.

"In the few years since instant messaging leaped from the computer to the cell phone, a new mobile lifestyle has evolved for college students. And except for studying, the computer is quickly being left behind."

OTHER FINDINGS:

These details are from a BSU media release written by Marc Ransford, Media Relations Manager:

Smart phones now account for 49 percent of mobile communication devices on college campuses, up from 38 percent in October 2009 and 27 percent in February 2009.

"College students are increasingly adopting the smart phone as the core mobile communication and entertainment device for their hectic lifestyles," observed Hanley.

The use of cell phones is nearly universal on campus, with 99.8 percent of students having a cell phone.

Nearly nine in 10 students with smart phones access the Internet from the device, versus less than half with a feature phone.

Text messaging has overtaken e-mail and instant messaging (IM) as the main form of communication, with 97 percent of students sending/receiving text messages as compared to 30 percent for e-mail and 25 percent with IM.

Cell phone camera usage has soared, with 97 percent of smart phone owners taking and sending photographs while 87 percent take and send video.

Research into mobile communications is supported by Ball State's Emerging Media Initiative (EMI), a $17.7 million investment focusing the university's historic strengths in this area, accelerating benefits to the state of Indiana with media-savvy human capital.

Hanley's study points out that smart phones have become a game changer for marketers looking to sway young consumers.

"The use of smart phones by college students has nearly doubled in one year, and along with it comes heavier Internet use and an increased desire to use mobile commerce like coupons and incentives," he said. "In nearly all mobile content categories, smart phone ownership is driving increased consumption and usage of mobile technologies."

In 2005, 34 percent of students reported receiving ads on their cell phones. That figure grew to 62 percent earlier this year for basic cell phones, so-called feature phones, and 51 percent for smart phones.

The spike results from ads sent via text messaging, which grew from 28 percent in 2005 to 68 percent in 2010 among students with basic cell phones and to 50 percent for smart phone owners, explained Hanley.

His latest research also found that GPS location-based services likewise are growing based on smart phone ownership. About 77 percent of smart phone owners have GPS location services on their phone. However, only 37 percent use it to find the location of products and services.

"In the next few years, I see smart phones saturating the collegiate market, but at the same time, devices similar to the iPad will become increasingly popular among young people," Hanley said. "College students are the first to adopt new types of communication technologies. I think the iPad and similar devices may change the way they communicate yet again as the technology evolves."

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Get to know your foundations again

2010-06-24T14:36:00.004-04:00

Now is good time to take a fresh look at the foundations that you do business with. During the recession, many foundations made changes in their grantmaking, largely because their investment holdings, like most of our retirement accounts, took a drubbing beginning in 2008. Because grants made in a given year at many foundations are tied to the value of the foundation's investment funds, many were forced to curtail their usual grantmaking practices.

Almost two years later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still well below its level of the spring/summer of 2008, when it reached about 13,000. But it has been clawing its way back from its low of around 6,600 in March 2009. A drop from 13,000 to 6,600 in less than a year is gut-wrenching for all of us, including foundations and the nonprofits they support. Today it is back above 10,000 -- for the moment.

All of this volatility meant that foundations had to make changes. But like the rest of us, they've made adjustments to the new normal we live in today. the good news is that many are making grants. What's important to know, however, is they may be making different types of grants than you have been accustomed to.

So if you rely on foundations to help support your mission, spend a little time researching their current grant opportunities. You might find some pleasant surprises in the way foundations have adapted to the economic whiplash we've endured in the past two years.

Many foundations have responded with very innovative ways to continue supporting nonprofits with new types of grants, new application procedures, and through other forms of non-grant support such as technical assistance.

So as you look ahead to the second half of 2010, which is less than a week away, spend some time getting reacquainted with the grantmaking practices at foundations that may be a good fit for your needs.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Can Single-Tasking improve your work?

2010-06-16T08:04:00.012-04:00

I'll get to my topic in a minute, but first a comment. Are you weary, as I have become, of some of the nonprofit blogs and newsletters from experts telling you what to do? I have followed such blogs for quite a while, and I find the gruel becoming increasingly thin and unsatisfying. I'll continue to share good tips on specific tasks associated with nonprofit communications, but I have found that my readers, like my clients, are very smart, highly experienced professionals, and they don't need Steve Cebalt telling them what to do. So I've been trying to write about bigger, broader issues that can make us all THINK, and perhaps provide insights on the world of the work we do that you won't find elsewhere.

So, today's topic: a continuation of my recent series of articles on the problems we face as nonprofit communicators in dealing with distractions and multitasking. I have provided a body of scientific research reports that show how multitasking reduces both the quality of our work and our productivity -- to be precise, according to several of the studies you'll find in my previous reports, multitasking reduces productivity by about 40 percent!

Now, a confession: I have a bit of trouble practicing what I preach! I have been trying to avoid multitasking, with mixed results. I am a work in progress. But today I had an experience that illustrates the power of what I'll call "single-tasking." (Did I just coin a useful phrase? Maybe I should trademark that. I hereby trademark that term if no one else already owns the mark on it!)

This morning I was exercising at a local high school football stadium, running flights on the stadium steps. My best workout is 100 flights up and down. That's 8400 steps total (4200 up, 4200 down; going down is nearly as hard as going up!).

Well, today, halfway through, that negative voice in my head started barking at me. "There is no way you can do 100 today, and what's the point? 50 flights is good, just stop now and enjoy your coffee!"

You know how you talk yourself into compromising your standards when you get tired or lazy? Yeah, that guy, he was talking to me.

As luck would have it, though, a certain song popped up on my iPod that could not be ignored.

"Keep on Pushing," written by Curtis Mayfield and sung by Mavis Staples, a soul/gospel singer. This was no accident. I have this song in my workout rotation every 20 minutes or so!

Selected lyrics:

I've got to keep on pushing
I can't stop now
Move up a little higher
Some way, somehow

'Cause I've got my strength
And it don't make sense
Not to keep on pushin'

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Keep on pushin'

So how could I stop now??? Had to keep on pushing. But the negative voice said, "Yeah, nice try, but you still have 4200 steps to go, good luck with that!"

Now to my point: It occurred to me that I didn't need to complete 4200 steps in order to "keep on pushing." I only had to complete one. And then another one. And then keep on pushing. I started musing over this. One step at a time is all I can do, so why worry about 4200! Just focus: left foot. Fine. Right foot. Good. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.

A few good Johnny Cash songs later, I was done, having completed my 100 flights and sipping coffee while watching the football players arrive to begin their morning conditioning as the early sun beamed over the flag on the east side of the school. Life is good, very good, at such times.

And now at work, I am applying the same thinking. My voicemail is blinking for me. My e-mails need to be worked through. I have a research report on Corporate Philanthropy to edit before my designer arrives to lay it out. I have a proposal to deliver by 11 a.m. I have to run to the post office. And on and on. But I can only do one of these things at a time, so why fret about all of them? I'll just scan all that's on my list, pluck the most important task, and give it all my focus. Left foot. Then I'll grab the next task. Right foot. One step at a time. Left foot, right foot.

As I confessed, I have had trouble moving from counterproductive multitasking to highly productive single-tasking (TM), but today I feel inspired to stick to it. It's already provided dividends today, and it's only 8:15!

Have a highly focused day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Are you getting smarter -- or dumber?

2010-06-14T12:09:00.003-04:00

Recently I have been writing about multitasking and our collective inability to pay attention in today's hyper-connected environment. It's an issue that confronts every nonprofit communicator, both in our own work and in gaining an understanding of our audiences. So I was very interested in an article June 5 in The Wall Street Journal. Essentially it debates this question: What is the Internet contributing to human intelligence? Is it making us smarter or dumber? I provide the relevant links below, but first some comments.

Two authors give very cogent opposing arguments. Clay Shirkey says that if you look beyond the silly videos and spam online, you'll find "the roots of a new reading and writing culture." He points to Wikipedia as an example of the Internet's power to pool our collective knowledge on a peer-reviewed basis. He makes an excellent argument that the Internet will expand human knowledge exponentially (my words, not his).

Now, on the other hand, Nicholas Carr points to considerable scientific evidence that "we are turning into shallow thinkers" because of all the interruptions in our lives -- especially online, but also from cellphones and other electronic gadgetry that is constantly haranguing us for a piece of our attention. But you knew that already. Here's the chilling part. The Internet is rewiring our brains, and the effects linger long after you've logged off the computer. "It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cellphones. But they don't. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we're not using the technology. The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being ‘massively remodeled’ by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. ... He said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be ‘deadly.’ ”

So are you getting smarter or dumber? That's a provocative question and does make for a great debate. But is portrays the issue as an either/or dichotomy. It is not. Both authors are correct -- I found nothing to disagree with in either article. But both present a point of view, believing that theirs is correct; but neither is saying the other is wrong. Both can be correct. As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, ""The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

I think the Internet, like other media before it, will make smart people smarter, and may indeed make dumb people dumber. TV is no different. If you watch things like the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and Jeopardy, you are on the path to potentially becoming smarter. If you watch Jersey Shore and Pimp My Ride, you are not going to be smarter at the end of the show than you were before it. And if the show features Paris Hilton, you will in fact be dumber. It is a metaphysical certainty.

Same for other media: Read The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or USA Today, and you will learn valuable things. Read the National Enquirer, and you can't tell fact from fiction; it won't make you smarter, and if you believe a fictitious story about aliens, it will indeed make you dumber. And then there is the Victoria's Secret catalog. You'll be exposed to valuable things, but you won't necessarily be smarter, so that one falls somewhere in between.

So just as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the smart tend to make smart choices in their use of knowledge tools, and the dumb, well, their choices are not as smart!

The Internet, cellphones, and other technology are tools. A tool is nothing in and of itself, has no value until utilized by a human for a purpose. Microsoft Word is a great tool for writers, but it won't make you a writer! Shakespeare did OK without it.

Or take the lowly power saw. I have a carpenter friend, Norm, who can fix anything. In his capable hands, a saw is a very useful tool. In my clumsy hands, a saw is useless at best and a good way to earn the nickname "stubs" at worst. I am "dumb" in all things mechanical, and the quality of the tool makes no difference in my ineptitude. With a bigger more powerful saw, I would simply do more damage more quickly, and then call Norm and/or an ambulance for help.

Both articles are well worth reading -- both will make you smarter! Here are the links, for as long as The Wall Street Journal keeps them active online:

The "Smarter" argument.

The "Dummer" argument.

Have a brilliant day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Sign of the Times

2010-06-05T14:28:00.002-04:00

On my way to my office I saw a gray-haired man at a busy intersection whose job it is to stand in the rain holding a sign that says "We Buy Gold."

Several observations:

This is a sign of the times, a reminder of how rough our economy is. Evidently there are people willing to trade in whatever gold they may have in their house (wedding bands?) for a little cash to pay the mortgage.

And then I think of the gray-haired man whose job is to hold up a sign in the rain. And I think, "That's a rough job, I am glad just to work indoors!"

So you won't hear me moaning about my job for a while!!

And THEN it occurred to me that as much as that is a rough job, there is, in all likelihood, one or more other people who applied for that job and didn't get it!

Moral of the story: We all lament our jobs from time to time; nasty boss, boring administrivia, overworked, and there are always others earning more for doing the same work, etc. etc. And there is a time and place for such venting.

But not right now. With unemployment still near 10 percent, those of us who still have a place to go to each day are fortunate. And that 10 percent figure doesn't count all the laid off workers who are now woefully under-employed in part-time or low-wage, no-benefit jobs. Nor does it include people who have been out of work so long they no longer are even counted on the rolls of the unemployed.

So next time you are feeling sorry for yourself on the job, think of the gray haired man hired to hold a sign in the rain as cars whiz by. And think of the guy who wanted that job and didn't get it. And realize that there are many, many people who would love to have the problems you have. And then get back to work and be glad you have something meaningful to do, and a means of earning whatever you earn to get by.

It's rough out there!

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Communicators

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I love the Internet; I hate the Internet

2010-06-04T14:22:00.018-04:00

The last article I wrote on this blog (below) laments my lost ability to pay attention like I used to, due to the myriad distractions we face in today's work environment. I was noting that the Internet can make us more productive, but with it comes the dark side -- multitasking, a horrible habit that can sap your productivity like nothing else. (Studies show that multitasking reduces productivity by 40 percent. Don't believe me? Read this article and the 20 links to research articles that all say the same thing).

So I was having lunch and reading The Wall Street Journal today (is that multitasking? Not really. ...) and ran across a book review by John Horgan that I found remarkable.

The book is "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr.

Here are a few excerpts from Horgan's review that caught my attention:

"While toiling over what you are now reading, I scanned my three email accounts dozens of times and wrote a handful of emails; I responded on my cellphone to a score of text messages from my girlfriend and kids; I checked the balance of my bank account to see if a promised payment had arrived . . . and so on. Yet I'm relatively unwired. I don't do Twitter, Facebook or Skype"

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so too.

"We all joke about how the Internet is turning us, and especially our kids, into fast-twitch airheads incapable of profound cogitation. It's no joke ..."

No it's no joke; I know that I have lost a part of myself that used to be capable of incredible periods of sustained concentration. And it's not just because I'm 49 and have 4 teen-age kids driving me to distraction. ...

"The Internet is a technology of forgetfulness. The average Web page entices us with an array of embedded links to other pages, which countless users pursue even while under constant bombardment from email, RSS, Twitter and Facebook accounts. We lose the ability to transfer knowledge from short-term "working" memory to long-term memory, where it can shape our worldviews in enduring ways."

OK I guess that's about all I can excerpt without ripping off Mr. Hogan's whole review. So I will point you his way: click here to read the article. Sadly for Mr. Carr, even though the book would no doubt interest me greatly, I won't buy it; I don't have the attention span to read a whole book, when I can just read the review! Ironic isn't it?

OK so here is my gratuitous tie-in to some music I enjoy -- another way to distract my blog readers from whatever it is they are SUPPOSED to be doing. Since we are talking about the notion of being scattered, feeling pulled in different directions, and a lack of focus, I chose a song by one of my favorite artisits, Beck, who's been producing songs that convey this feeling for more than 25 years -- since before the Internet ever became mainsream. He's always been 20 years ahead of his time. He mixes random sounds, disconnected lyrics and images in a bizarre way that I find compelling and brilliant.

Have a great day -- if you want to!

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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The lost art of paying attention

2010-06-01T17:49:00.005-04:00

When I find my mind beginning to wander, this mesmerizing collaboration with U2 and Johnny Cash focuses me with its hypnotic pulsing rhythm and brilliant lyrics. It puts me right back on track. No other song has the same effect.

"I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention."

~ Diane Sawyer

Lisa Hanger, who writes the excellent Indiana Nonprofit Resource Center, has a knack for coming up with relevant quotes that I haven't seen before, like the one above.

I used to be very very good at paying attention. In school, I never studied for tests, but I did listen and pay attention and internalize the material in class. I always found it annoying when kids would ask, "Is this going to be on the test" and similar questions. Who cares? Just pay attention in class and you'll do fine.

Whatever happened to that guy!!!!

I was just having a conversation the other day about how hard it is to focus in today's environment, with temptations poking at us from all directions, especially if we work with computers.

But you know what? At least half of the distractions we moan about are self-imposed. Lack of discipline, which becomes a habit.

OK, I really should only speak for myself here, and not make a broad statement. Maybe I am the only one with this trouble.

Somehow I doubt it.

But one day I had a project for a large nonprofit that I'd been dreading. It seemed so overwhelming. Well, just last Friday, the day before a holiday, it was unusually slow in my office. Many people had either actually or mentally signed out for the weekend already. I decided to tackle that job. I closed out all the windows on my computer and dug in and worked for three hours straight.

I haven't done that in years. Running a business means multitasking whether you like it or not. I used to hate that, and then I got used to it, and now I sort of like it, because multitasking is stimulating. More fun to do 5 things that just one! But a very bad habit indeed.

Devoting all my attention to that project felt good. Got in a zone. And enjoyed a sense of completion. All I had to do was pay attention.

At least 20 times during that three-hour span span I was tempted to check e-mail, take a break and look at the newspaper, shoot the breeze with the guys in the office adjacent to mine; but each time I re-dedicated myself to the task. The outcome was a better product, more cohesive, and produced with no stress whatsoever.

And so I've been thinking about it, and it occurs to me that the majority of the problems in my life are from not paying attention. Don't show enough attention to your kid, and he'll act out to GET attention. Neglect that tax form? Ouch. A 10% penalty that your taxman can't make disappear. Money down the drain. Leave the water running to fill the dish sink while you "multitask" for a moment in the other room -- and forget that the water is running? An
inch of water on the floor. (I would be ashamed to admit how many times I have done this. I am a slow learner at some things!!)

Sure, some interruptions are necessary, but these tend to be PRODUCTIVE ones. Your boss pops in an gives you feedback on a project. Great. A colleague wants to talk about a problem she's having at home. Great -- people pay good money for "team building" seminars, and here's a team building opportunity right in front of you. A sales vendor stops in and drops off a print sample. Interruption? Maybe. And maybe the sample is the perfect solution to a project on your plate right this minute! That happens when you embrace the "good" interruptions and pay attention.

So we all have loads of things that demand our attention, and many of these we do not control. That's why we should be kind to ourselves and take control of all the self-imposed distractions that we inflict on ourselves!

So, since we all have other things we should be paying attention to, I'll bring this article to an abrupt end right now!

Happy focusing, and thanks, Lisa, for your newsletter, which I always enjoy and pay attention to -- because it's worth it!

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofit Communicators

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--

The Memorial Moon

2010-05-28T09:27:00.002-04:00

It was dark as I left the house this morning before dawn to head across town to exercise at a local high school. I made a turn to the southwest and suddenly saw a perfect full moon shining like a beacon, a perfect sphere of brilliant radiance like nothing I’ve ever seen in my half-century of roaming this spinning globe. I could see every crater, every feature of the surface of the moon, and it seemed so close I felt like I could reach out the window and cusp it in my hand.

You know, I’ve probably driven by a moon just like this hundreds of times on my way to work and never noticed, too preoccupied with whatever trivial matters awaited me in my inbasket.

Today was different. It was 5 a.m., and I was the only one on the road, nothing to distract me, alone with my thoughts and the everyday miracle of the moon.

I started thinking about the things that connect us. Not Facebook or Twitter, those fleeting electrons of transient trivia, but the things that universally connect us all.

That self-same moon shines on you, and the shepherd in an Arabian desert, and the Eskimo in the farthest reaches of the frozen north. That same moon shines for everyone who lives and breathes, in every nook of this planet that we all share.

It occurred to me that this moon connects me not just to every person living now, but to every person who has ever lived. I imagined someone just like me, eons ago, starting up in awe and thinking the same thoughts. The same moon that shined for me today shined for him, too, so many thousands of years ago.

The moon that has the power to tug at the tides, when it shines so brightly, has the power to tug at one’s spirit.

As I arrived at the high school, the American flag was standing at attention at full salute in the face of a gentle breeze, and just for a split second, as I drove past, the moon aligned itself behind Old Glory, making the flag glow with a beautiful backlight in the predawn darkness.

That’s when it occurred to me that we are entering the Memorial Day weekend, the time we set aside to remember and revere all the brave Americans who gave their lives in the defense of you and me. And the moon made me feel connected to them, from Lexington to Gettysburg, from Europe, Africa, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and to remote Pacific islands we’ve never heard of, where brave men and women have fallen in valor, defending our country.

The quest for peace is a part of the human condition, but so is war. Peace is purchased with bravery, blood, and with the lives of young men and women who fall in battle.

I thought about the moon, shining on their graves wherever they lay, and the connection between their sacrifice and the peace and tranquility I was enjoying on a Friday morning in spring.

As I exercised at the school, the moon retired for the night, turning over its duty to a gorgeous sun rising in the east. Soon the sky was a blaze of orange, and the sun so intense I could barely look at it.

As I left, students were arriving for school, no doubt excited about the end of the year and the thrills of summer that lie ahead. Many are graduating and thinking about their dreams for the future. Some will go to work, some off to college, some will begin raising families, others will put on the uniform and form a new generation of heroes dedicating themselves to the defense of you and me, doing our fighting for us. Looking at some of those kids, perhaps 18 years old, I thought about the hundreds of thousands who gave their lives at that same tender age in some godforsaken field fighting in some godforsaken battle. They had dreams too, but sacrificed them for a cause larger than themselves.

We who enjoy the peace and the opportunity to live and pursue or dreams should share our gratitude for all veterans and servicemen who have raised their hand to take the military oath, in that moment vowing to lay down their lives if duty demands it.

And on this weekend, we commemorate those who gave the ultimate gift. To every fallen fighter, and to every family that has lost a son or daughter or sibling, we owe a debt that simply cannot be repaid by those of us who live to enjoy the peace.

Words are inadequate, but words and thoughts are all we have to recognize that we live the way we do because they died the way they did.

The only words that seem suitable are: “Thank You: We Shall Never Forget.”

So on this Memorial Day weekend, may a brilliant sun shine on their graves, and a full moon illuminate their nights.

Steve Cebalt

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Multitasking wastes your time and reduces the quality of your work, research says

2010-05-20T07:45:00.000-04:00

I have some news you’re not going to like, but don’t dismiss it just because you’d prefer not to believe it. It’s true.

-- Do you talk on the phone while typing or reading emails?

-- Do you talk on the phone while driving?

-- Do you have numerous windows open on your computer at once, switching rapidly from one task to the next?

-- Do you stop what you are doing to jump on emails as they arrive in your inbasket?

These habits are reducing your productivity by up to 40 percent. But here is the good news; that means that if you are a heavy multitasker, you can increase your productivity up to 40 percent if you can wean yourself from some counterproductive multitasking behaviors.

Most of us engage in some of these forms of multitasking. It seems more stimulating to juggle several topics than to focus on one thing at a time. But guess what; it’s dragging our productivity down – way down – according to a growing body of scientific research.

While it is tantalizing to think we can do more than one thing at a time in order to get more done, more quickly, the fact is that such multitasking or task-switching can rob your work of its quality, reduce your overall output, increase stress, and inhibit your relationships with others. In fact, researchers say, the results can be catastrophic.

Technically, multitasking refers to performing two tasks simultaneously, but trouble can also arise when you rapidly switch from performing one task to performing another.

Please, don’t take my word for it. Researchers have shown that people lose time when they switch from one task to another. (One such study is "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching" published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.)

"People in a work setting," says one of the study’s authors, "who are banging away on word processors at the same time they have to answer phones and talk to their co-workers or bosses -- they're doing switches all the time. Not being able to concentrate for, say, tens of minutes at a time, may mean it's costing a company as much as 20 to 40 percent" in terms of potential efficiency lost.

The more productive approach, researchers say, is to focus on one thing at a time. For example, experts suggest that we set aside specific blocks of time to deal with emails rather than responding to them throughout the day. Do what you can to reduce interruptions in your office. Let co-workers know when you need uninterrupted time. Don’t badger each other with questions all day; take notes and follow-up with co-workers on several items at once rather than impulsively interrupting each other as every question arises. Stay off your cell phone while driving. Studies show that this is as risky as drunk driving and makes you four times as likely to cause an accident. Work your most important tasks in priority order one at a time rather than hopping from task to task. Productivity researchers also suggest that we shouldn't read or type emails while talking on the phone; the emails will show your lack of concentration, reflecting poorly on you, and the person you are talking with may resent your background typing and sense your inattention to them.

Multitasking is fool’s gold – it seems like a good way to keep abreast and get more done, while in fact the opposite is true. Would you trust a heart surgeon who checks his Blackberry during your operation, or who wears a telephone headset so he can talk with his stock broker while you’re under the knife? Can you imagine Beethoven, in the middle of composing a masterpiece, stopping to respond to the “ding” of an incoming instant message? Great work requires great focus. Maximum productivity requires maximum concentration.

I think the reason most of us multitask is because it is more stimulating. It seems more interesting to toggle between three or four tasks than to focus on one thing. But evidently it's a very counterproductive indulgence.

If you don’t believe me about the multitasking data, hop on your favorite search engine and key in “multitasking and productivity.”

Or click here for links to 20 articles on the topic.

If The Rolling Stones can do it, so can you!

2010-05-18T12:49:00.009-04:00

The Rolling Stones -- Tumbling Dice, from Exile on Main Street

Groups like The Rolling Stones find new ways to use old material. Your nonprofit can do the same thing!

Do you have a communication assets that can be re-packaged for another purpose?

Example: Perhaps you have an event coming up where you plan to share information with a group of stakeholders: volunteers, donors or grantees.

Let's say you are using a PowerPoint presentation to talk though your information in a 45-minute meeting. It's very easy to take your core message and re-write it, to compress it to the main highlights. Then, with the same visuals from your PowerPoint, you can use Windows Movie Maker (a free program on your computer) to turn that into a short video. You can then embed that video onto your Web page using YouTube.

(If you want details on any of that, e-mail me for a free tutorial, called "YouTube Your Site." Be sure to see Page 8, which discusses Windows Movie Maker.)

I chose this topic today because this is a big day for me and about a zillion other fans of The Rolling Stones. The Stones are re-releasing their album Exile on Main Street. The album received very mixed reviews at the time of its 1972 release, but over the years it became nearly universally revered as a Rock classic. Some things take time to be appreciated! It ranks #7 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the greatest 100 albums of all time. Entertainment Weekly named it #1 on their list of "100 Greatest CDs".

So what's my point? Today hundreds of thousands of fans will pay for this new release of a 38-year-old product. I already have many of the original songs on my iPod, but the new release includes songs not originally released and some other features added to make it worth buying again.

Now, back to our work in nonprofit communications. You can re-package your communication assets the same way!

Perhaps you tried a fundraising event a few years ago and it was a bust. Perhaps, like the Stones, you were ahead of your time! Maybe you tried a low-brow "Jeans and Beans Gala" back when times were good and unemployment was 5 percent. Remember those days? Well, maybe back then people were looking for more lavish affairs. But in the current economy, that might be an ideal approach.

Or perhaps you were an "early adopter" and launched a Facebook group that never gained any traction. With the explosive growth of Facebook among adults just this year alone, it might be time to trot out that idea again!

Maybe you sent out a press release on an important new program or service that you offer, and it so happened that there were two murders, three fires and a bank robbery in your hometown that day. Well, as they say, "if it bleeds, it leads," so the more visual, immediate stories would have crowded out your press release -- sorry! No problem -- just repackage it a bit with a new headline and a new lead-in and try again, hoping for a quieter news day.

One year I was supporting the American Cancer Society. I sent out a press release announcing the annual Daffodil Days fundraiser. We got nothing -- crowded out by the day's news. The next year, we sent out the release again -- pretty much word for word, with just one line added. Guess what? Front page in the newspapers and the lead story on TV. A big part of our "second effort" was adding one sentence: "For many local residents, Daffodil Days is an annual tradition that symbolizes the unofficial First Day of Spring in Fort Wayne." Well, we were blessed with a gorgeous spring day, and little else going on in town that day, so we were the Story of the Day! I was amazed, and I have never again tried to anticipate or predict what the media will do with a press release!

So, as I have said many times before on this blog, it pays to find new ways to use your old material -- just as musicians do. Major artists will release their "Greatest Hits" album, followed by "The Best Of So-and-So," followed by "The Essential So-and-So." The albums have the same core songs with the exception of one or two different songs on each variation of Greatest/Best/Essential. And hard-core fans buy them all.

So if you are looking for some new ideas, look into your archives. You'll find projects you did years ago that you have long forgotten about. It may be time to repackage or re-release that material!

(Take good care of your old ideas and materials. I once saw a comment attributed to Stones guitarist Keith Richards. I don't think it's original to him, but it's fitting):

"If I had known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofit Communicators

Getting People To Do What You Want Them To Do

2010-05-15T10:32:00.006-04:00

The most important skill any nonprofit communicator can possess has nothing to do with Social Media Marketing, fundraising, designing annual reports, producing PowerPoint presentations, updating Facebook pages, conducting research, strategic planning, branding, website design, or any of the other tasks that we may spend our days engaged in, depending on our role.

The most important skill is this: Getting Other People To Do What You Want Them To Do.

That’s it!

Everything else that you do depends on that core skill. None of us works in a vacuum. We all depend on others in order to do our own work. Depending on the type of work you do, you may be dependent on:

Your boss
Your staff
Your peers
Your tech support department
Your webmaster
Your Board of Directors for approval
Your accounting department
Your donors
The guy who plows the snow in your parking lot
Your vendors
Your waiter at your lunch meeting
A customer service representative
A knowledgeable interview subject for an article
Your mailhouse

You get the idea. It would be impossible to get through a single day without the support of others. The problem? For the most part, you have no authority over these people! And even if you do – even if you are the boss, for example -- you still need to get people to do what you want them to do, and over the long term, that requires more than the mere iron fist of authority.

So in this article, let’s set aside the day-to-day tactical discussions of media relations, grantwriting, marketing, Twitter, video production, and all the other specific topics that may relate to our work. Instead, let’s focus on How To Get Other People To Do What You Want Them To Do.

Of course, you can’t ALWAYS Get Other People To Do What You Want Them To Do. Trust me, I an authority on this, because I have four teenagers. So everything has its limitations, and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. (That’s my gratuitous tie-in from the subject matter of today’s article to a song that I enjoy, the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want," performed here by the cast of Glee.)

The key to Getting Other People To Do What You Want Them To Do is very, very simple:

Be nice.

Let’s be more specific. By “nice,” I mean empathetic. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Before a discussion, consider how the other person may receive your request. Consider what’s in it for them.

Here’s an example. Compare these two e-mails:

“Steve. Could you send the ACME file by noon Monday? Sue.

“Hi Steve! Could you please send me the ACME file by noon Monday? I’d appreciate it! Thanks, Steve. Sue.”

There are only a few words added to the second e-mail. “Hi.” A simple salutation that acknowledges that the person is -- a person! The first is blunt and sounds more like a command. The second is cordial and sounds like a request. Subtle difference, yes, but now that I’ve pointed it out, see if you notice the difference yourself in e-mails that you receive. Also, “Please.” Even if you are the boss, it doesn’t hurt you any to say please, does it? And it turns your command into a request that expresses respect. “I’d appreciate it! Thanks, Steve.” Again, simple kind words that grease the wheels of human discourse. The second e-mail sets a tone of mutual respect and cooperation, and this, over time, helps fortify your relationships with the people you depend on for your own success.

But actually I’ve gotten ahead of myself by talking about e-mail. Because the better way to get someone to do what you want is to talk face to face or on the phone. A phone call has 10 times the impact of an e-mail; always use the phone if you can! Why? Because then you can gauge the person’s mood; maybe the person is having a horrible day because she has a sick child at home; if you were about to ask a big favor, you might defer until tomorrow, or at least be empathetic to the person’s plight! E-mail doesn’t give you that type of feedback. Dialogue builds effective working relationships, and the phone is a far more powerful tool than an e-mail.

Just one more point about e-mail. Most of us treat our e-mail in-basket as something to be “gotten through,” a necessary pile of requests and needs (and distractions) that need tending to. We approach it like pulling weeds from a garden – get through it as fast as you can so you can get back to your own agenda. So again, it’s not the best tool to use for getting what you want from people.

Another way to get what you want from people – again, back to the “being nice” theme -- is to be an Energy Giver. There are two types of people in the world; Energy Givers and Energy Vampires. We all have Energy Vampires in our lives, who suck the energy out of us with their downbeat demeanor, self-absorption, petty complaints, mindless gossip and other behaviors. So what do we do? We avoid the vampires! So Energy Vampires have a much harder time getting people to do what they want them to do. Energy Givers, on the other hand, are people you WANT to spend time with. They make you feel better than you did before you talked with them. Energy Givers have far less difficulty securing cooperation from others. Because they are a pleasant presence in your life, you are happy to meet their requests.

So being nice is Rule No. 1, and really the only rule, for Getting People To Do What You Want Them to Do. But what about those times when you get treated unfairly, or you received poor service, or you have some other problem, and you need to voice a complaint?

Start by being nice. Calmly and respectfully explain your complaint and the consequence it has on you. Be polite. AND THIS IS IMPORTANT: Before registering any complaint, have a specific remedy in mind. Don’t just say, “Your cable repair technician was supposed to show up at 10 a.m. and he didn’t arrive until 2 p.m. the next day!” All you’ll get is an apology. What good does that do you? Instead, state the situation and add, “So I’d like to request a month’s free credit, as this cost me a lot of my own valuable time, can you do that for me?” Often the answer is “Yes.” And even if they cannot give you what you ask for, it creates a dialogue where some recompense is in order, and then it’s just a matter of negotiating something mutually satisfactory.

One major problem today with Getting People To Do What You Want Them To Do is that often, you may be speaking with a customer service rep located in India or the Philippines in a massive call center. You have no relationship with this person and will never speak with him or her again. Better be REALLY nice! Here you have no leverage at all!

One tip on dealing with such service calls. I spend a lot of time on the phone with software technical support people. Getting a good tech service rep on the phone is a matter of luck; many are very, very good; others are rude, poorly trained Energy Vampires. Well, the only good thing here is that you can terminate the call and hit “redial,” and you’ll get a different rep (if not, call back at a different time of day). I remember one call where I was dealing with the phone company in a situation where I’d really gotten the shaft on my bill. The rep was like a rock; unsympathetic and unmoving and downright hostile toward my complaint. I don’t think she really heard my frustration, and regardless, she wasn’t going to adjust the bill as I was requesting. I spent 20 minutes trying to explain how clear it was that I had been billed for a service never provided, but no matter, she just didn’t care. So I said good-bye, hung up and hit redial. The next rep was a very pleasant woman; I explained my situation in less than 30 seconds, and without prompting, she said “I’m sorry, I can take care of that for you right now Steve… OK I just sent you an e-mail with a receipt showing the credit, and I do apologize for your trouble.”

Enjoy your day,

Steve Cebalt, Author,
Communications Handbook for Nonprofit Communicators

P.S. Would you please take a moment to click the link above and consider whether my Communications Handbook might be useful for you? I would appreciate it! -- Steve

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The World's Must Useful Quotes for Nonprofit Communicators

2010-05-15T08:41:00.002-04:00

A True Story

I once wrote a newspaper ad for a large client for Black History Month. One line of the text was particularly good, I thought. So did the client.

"That looks like a quote — I really like it. But if we're going to use it you need to attribute it to the author," the client said.

"Oh, I wrote that," I said proudly.

Awkward silence. "It looks like a quotation," the client said.

"Well, you own it, because I wrote it for you," I replied.

"No, we can't run it without attribution. It looks like plagiarism.
See if you can find someone famous who said something like that."

Sigh.

I could have attributed it randomly to Thomas Edison. That's what some writers do (it's true). Instead, I simply put quotation marks around the best text, and attributed it to "Anonymous."

The client was satisfied.

I love quotes. Even as a kid I would read books of quotes such as Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations.” (Yes, I was a nerd.) I still have that massive 1,500-page volume on my desk today. Of course if am looking for a quote on a particular topic, I use Google. But the pleasure of the book is browsing, not looking for anything in particular, and stumbling across a new jewel of wisdom unexpectedly.

Anyway, quotes are useful tool in nonprofit communications. Over the years I have collected particularly useful ones for nonprofit newsletters, PowerPoint presentations, Web pages, executive speeches and other communications. Every few years I print a slim volume of these quotes and share them with clients and others.

Here are just a couple that are particularly useful, as they are universal truths about life and business. Both are from Ben Franklin:

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

“Never confuse motion with action.”

If you would like a copy of my current volume, just send me an e-mail: info@HighviewHelp.com, and I will PDF the booklet to you.

By the way, you'll see some quotes in this booklet with no attribution, such as these:

“Peace is an ideal worth not fighting for.”

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can blow off entirely.”

“Do you want to dream of a life that could be,
or live the life of your dreams?”

I wrote those. If you ever have an occasion to use any of those, just cite "Anonymous." Or Thomas Edison!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Why your nonprofit may not need PR or marketing!

2010-05-14T11:30:00.004-04:00

Does your nonprofit really need public relations, outreach, marketing – whatever you prefer to call it?

Maybe.

Maybe not!

Why would a communications consultant write an article arguing against his very field of endeavor?

Mostly as an intellectual exercise in order to make a point. After all why is PR necessary for a non-profit organization?

I was doing a presentation to a group of college students not long ago when the professor – a PR professor – asked me what he thought was a rhetorical question to prompt our discussion. He said, “Steve would you agree that every nonprofit needs to have a good PR or marketing program?”

Even though I agreed with the professor’s premise, just to make things interesting and to be a bit contrarian, I said “No,” even though I then had no idea where to go with that! So rather than explain my response (because I couldn’t – I had backed myself into a corner), I posed (deflected) the question to the students. I asked them to give me a scenario of a nonprofit that would have no need for public relations or marketing.

Stimulating discussion ensued for about 15 minutes before members of the class did succeed in identifying cases where an organization could very well live without the costs and work associated with a PR and marketing program:

For example, if you are an endowed grantmaking foundation that does not take new donations and makes grants only on an invited basis to organizations that you solicit and select, then you have little need for public relations and marketing. Perhaps you would want to do outreach simply so that your foundation is positioned is a responsible and engaged part of the community, but that may not be important to your mission.

Similarly, if you are a nonprofit that gets its funds from one source, such as the government or a church, and you have no need for fundraising, you may not need PR to the same degree that most nonprofits do, especially if you deliver services to people who come to you as direct referrals, perhaps from the court system.

Now, to be clear, the two previous examples were hard to for the group to come up with. It took some time and discussion and the students had to be quite imaginative to conjure up scenarios of a nonprofit organization that would have little or no need for public relations or marketing.

But there may be others. If your answer is NO to every question on this list, than you can probably live without PR and marketing!

Do you need money? Do you need to raise funds to sustain your mission?
Do you recruit volunteers?
Do you offer programs or services that people need to know about in order to use them?
Do you have competitors of any kind?
Do people ever confuse your organization with another that has a similar name?
Are you a newly launched enterprise that no on knows about?
Do you seek to recruit strong board leaders?
Do you wish to be seen as an employer of choice?
Is it important that your staff understands and is be able to articulate your mission the way you want?
Does everybody know everything they need to know about you?

If you answered No to every question on this list, then your organization can probably cut its PR budget and focus on other things! I do hope you’ll return to this blog from time to time, though, just for the fun of it!

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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What's the dollar value of volunteer time for your nonprofit?

2010-05-08T14:18:00.005-04:00

For most nonprofits, volunteers are crucial to your mission. Your board members volunteer, and countless others volunteer time and talent to drive patients to doctor appointments, stuff envelopes, serve on committees, maintain websites and Social Media sites for you, and countless other tasks.

In fact many nonprofits could not function or meet their mission without volunteers. So their actual value: priceless.

But for accounting purposes, you sometimes need to assign a dollar figure to a volunteer's time.

That's where some useful information from the Independent Sector organization is very useful. Their figure puts the average dollar value of volunteer time for 2009 at $20.85 per hour. The rates vary by state. In my home state of Indiana, the rate is $17.57 per hour. States like California, New York, as well as Washington, D.C., have rates from $23 to $32 per hour.

However, it is very important to understand how these numbers are used, as indicated below.

"The estimate helps acknowledge the millions of individuals who dedicate their time, talents, and energy to making a difference. Charitable organizations can use this estimate to quantify the enormous value volunteers provide," according to the organization's helpful website.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 61.8 million Americans, or 26.4 percent of the adult population, gave 8 billion hours of volunteer service worth $162 billion in 2008, the latest year for which data is available.

Want more information on the impact and trends in nonprofit volunteerism? Here's a link to a very useful report from The Corporation for National and Community Service. Here are just a few of the Key Findings:

In 2008, 61.8 million Americans or 26.4 percent of the adult
population contributed 8 billion hours of volunteer service worth $162
billion, using Independent Sector’s 2008 estimate of the dollar value
of a volunteer hour.

• Despite the challenges of a tough economic situation, the
volunteering rate held steady between 2007 and 2008, while the
number of volunteers slightly increased by about one million.

• Over 441,000 more young adults (age 16-24) volunteered in 2008
than 2007, representing an increase from about 7.8 million to more
than 8.2 million.

Here's another useful site:

http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/

The rates assigned to an hour of a volunteer's time devoted to nonprofit activity varies by state.

How the numbers are calculated and used

The value of volunteer time is based on the average hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls (as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Independent Sector takes this figure and increases it by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits.

Charitable organizations most frequently use the value of volunteer time for recognition events or communications to show the amount of community support an organization receives from its volunteers.

According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the value of volunteer services can also be used on financial statements –- including statements for internal and external purposes, grant proposals, and annual reports –- only if a volunteer is performing a specialized skill for a nonprofit. The general rule to follow when determining if contributed services meet the FASB criteria for financial forms is to determine whether the organization would have purchased the services if they had not been donated.

I hope this information is useful in your communications -- annual reports, newsletters, annual recognition events, financial reports, and other forms of nonprofit communication.

Sincerely

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofit Professionals

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Take control: Build your own media outlet

2010-05-07T04:06:00.001-04:00

Note: The photo above has nothing to do with nonprofit communications, marketing, fundraising, social media, nor anything else relevant to this blog or today's topic.

But I thought it was very funny, and can't we all use a chuckle ??!?!

A recent nonprofit workshop got me thinking again about one of the weaknesses in nonprofit PR: an over-reliance on the media. Peple at the workshop were complaining about lack of coverage in the media for their nonprofit's activities. Often we slave to get our organizations mentioned in the paper or on TV, when we have much more effective tools in our communications toolkit. As one participant said in a recent focus group that I conducted, "Using the media is a very blunt instrument when our audience is often just a few dozen funders or a few hundred individuals."

True! While it's gratifying to see your organization featured in a newspaper article or on TV, such publicity typically only happens periodically. What do you do the next day, and the day after that? Today, more than ever, we have options such as targeted direct mail (a plain old letter on your letterhead!), newsletters, email, e-newsletters, social networking, event marketing, etc.

Often when I make such comments people are surprised to hear a PR person urging a reduced emphasis on the mainstream media. And I suppose that is a little strange. But in my experience you can have more impact by taking control of the timing and content of your message, and targeting your audience yourself. Become your own "media." Build your own media outlet.

Example: You can print an 8-page newspaper for about 25 cents each -- even less (perhaps much less if you do a larger quantity). Eight pages of full color to tell your story as you see fit, with no editors chopping your key messages or adding messages about your competitors, as often happens in news stories.

Or you can add a community bulletin board to your Web site to exchange ideas with your stakeholders and visitors. Very little cost involved. You can publish your own e-newsletter for free. You can buy targeted mailing lists for just about any demographic group imaginable, for 5 to 10 cents per household. You can team up with other allied agencies or companies to share the costs of direct mail or newsletter publication.

And the list goes on.

Next time you have something to communicate, go ahead and send your press release to the mainstream media. Why not? But don't stop there. Don't put yourself at the mercy of the media. Don't be dependent on their decisions and put your PR fate in someone else's hands. Take some time to consider how you can use today's grassroots and high-tech outreach tactics to build your own media outlet.

You can be "the media!"

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

"I'm prepared to be wrong"

2010-05-03T14:49:00.004-04:00

The amazing Calvin Borel proved me wrong on Saturday aboard the under-rated horse Super Saver, winning his third Kentucky Derby in four years -- the first jockey in history to do so.

"I'm prepared to be wrong." These are powerful words for nonprofit communicators to use in your presentations, brainstorming sessions, nonprofit workshops and any other venue where group dialogue is important.

A month before the Kentucky Derby, I made a premature prediction. I wrote:

As I write this, many of this year's contenders are preparing for some of the biggest Derby prep races today, so it is way too early to pick a Derby horse; but I'm going to tell you mine. You heard it here first: Lookin at Lucky will win this year's Derby. But I'm prepared to be wrong. ...

I say this all the time in workshops in order to engage a group -- and to admit a little well-earned humility!!!! People don't like to be told what's what -- they like to think for themselves, to express themselves, and to challenge others' views. This phrase opens the doors to all of those good things. People, I think, expect me as a nonprofit training workshop leader to come to the table with some answers and some ideas. But I like to do it in a way that opens the door for others to express how wrong I am!

Invariably when I use this expression before a given topic, the liveliest exchange of the workshop follows. It disarms the audience by showing that you are not arrogant or rigid in your thinking. So people might ask about Twitter for nonprofit communications or fundraising. Or Facebook, or whatever. I'll weigh in with what I hope is a well-educated view and then say, "But I'm prepared to be wrong." And guess what? Often I AM wrong. I respect my audience, and often a practitioner in the audience will "smarten me up" and point out things I'd never considered. So that's how I learn new things about nonprofit communications!!

So don't be afraid to be wrong and say so up front. It's actually a powerful means of fostering better training, brainstorming sessions and nonprofit workshops. And it helps insulate you from looking like an idiot!!

But I'm prepaid to be wrong. ...

Steve Cebalt, Author

Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

SBAR technique reduces mistakes in the workplace

2010-05-03T07:35:00.002-04:00

If you could reduce the number of serious communications mistakes in your nonprofit with a solution that costs nothing, would you do it? Many hospitals are reducing deaths and injuries from mistakes. Their solution is not more technical training for surgeons, or fancy new equipment. The remedy is much simpler - teaching people to talk to each other in a clear, concise way. And increasingly, nonprofits are adapting this communication technique as well.

"Poor communication in medical practice is one of the most common causes of medical errors," said Richard M. Frankel, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and a research scientist at the Health Services Research and Development Center on Implementing Evidence-Based Practice.

Indeed, 60 percent of death-and-injury events are the direct result of communication errors, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

The most crucial situation is where a patient or task is handed from one person to another. A simple misunderstanding can lead to a patient getting the wrong medicine, or worse.

Now think about communications in your nonprofit organization, and your family. How often are mistakes the result of some miscommunication? If you analyze it, you'll find that a great many mistakes in life come from two or more people suffering a simple "failure to communicate."

One solution is the use of a "communication model." Dr. Frankel said that many health professionals are adopting a very simple conversation technique first developed in the military and aviation, where fast-but-accurate briefings can mean the difference between life and death not just for one person, but for hundreds or thousands. The day I spoke with him, Dr. Frankel was getting on a plane to Kenya, where he is lending his expertise to help administrators who operate a large AIDS treatment center.

There are different models. Most involve a structured way to have a multi-step conversation in just a minute or two. "It's not rocket science," Dr. Frankel said. One example is the S-B-A-R model:

S - Situation. Describe the problem in a simple sentence.

B - Background. Anticipate the listener's questions about the situation and provide those answers.

A - Assessment. Summarize your observations about the situation.

R - Recommendation. Provide a specific recommendation for solving the problem.

The use of such a formula forces both the speaker and the listener to move through a discussion in a predictable, logical flow. It cuts through hierarchy. It allows people with differing communication styles to "get on the same page." It puts more weight on the conversation. It causes the listener to react to the speaker's recommendation, rather than passively taking in the information. And it saves time by cutting through extraneous detail. A SBAR briefing can be done in as little as 60 seconds or less.

A major Illinois hospital implemented the SBAR approach and reduced cases of harm to patients by more than half in the first year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This technique was created in the aviation field, where NASA and other agencies recognized that hierarchy interferes with communication in a crisis, Dr. Frankel said. Surgeons, ship captains and others at the top of a hierarchy often don't receive critical information because underlings are unable or unwilling to speak up in a clear and assertive way. "In medicine we see that certain surgeons who intimidate others have a much higher complication rate, because their style breaks down the communication loop," Dr. Frankel said. The SBAR model provides a tool to overcome hierarchical barriers that can end up killing people.

Just as a conversation model like SBAR can help doctors and nurses reduce deaths, injuries and malpractice claims, improving interpersonal communication can help all of us save money, enhance relationships, and reduce mishaps in our own lives.

"Any kind of manufacturing process, personal service or service organization has tremendous potential to benefit" from the use of SBAR, Dr. Frankel said.

Try the SBAR approach in your work, or even at home. Once you get used to it, it becomes second-nature, and your day-to-day interactions will become much more productive.

In an era where topics like Twitter, Facebook, branding and other buzzwords dominate the discussion among nonprofit communicators, it pays to step back and focus on the most important type of communication of all: person to person.

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Or you could just hit them with a hammer!

2010-05-02T17:36:00.002-04:00

All nonprofit communication begins with writing. Writing a marketing plan. Writing an annual report, a PSA TV script, a PowerPoint speech, a Web page.

It's a challenge to write messages that will stick with people and motivate them. People are bombarded with so many messages, how can you try to make sure your message penetrate through all the clutter? You could hit them over the head with a hammer to get their attention and help them focus. But that's very labor intensive, and who wants to carry a hammer around all the time?

While the hammer technique is no doubt highly effective, nonprofit communications CAN be simplified if you focus on three key questions:

1. Define your audience:

Create a mental picture of one individual. Write personalized language directed at your mental model.

2. Define your purpose. What do you want your audience to DO? How do you want them to RESPOND?

• Call for a free brochure?
• Stop in for an initial consultation?
• Visit your website?
• Mail back a reply card?
• Read to their children 20 minutes a day?

Have a clear action step in mind!

3. Make an offer.

• This step is often neglected.
• This step shapes everything else.
• Offers may include: availability of matching funds to double your donation; acknowledgement in your newsletter; a premium item (mug, tote bag, CD, etc.); an invitation to an event; a link to an informative report on your Web site; dozens of other standard offers.

If you are unsure what you are offering, STOP until you come up with a clear offer.

If you focus on these three things, the ideas will flow and your nonprofit communications materials will be easier to produce and more effective, every time.

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Music: A powerful nonprofit branding tool

2010-04-28T12:34:00.004-04:00

Today's PR Podcast talks about one of the most powerful nonprofit branding tools of all: music jingles.

Here's a link to one of the nonprofit jingles mentioned in today's podcast. Be sure to listen all the way through (60 seconds) for the proper effect!

Allen County Drive Alive Jingle

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Do you have a Message House?

2010-04-28T08:38:00.005-04:00

I ran across a very useful notion on the excellent blog written for the Communications Network by Bruce Trachtenberg, Executive Director of the nationwide network for foundation communications professionals.

The idea is to frame your key messages in a house -- literally, as you see in the example above. The concept is one promoted by Marc Fest from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, who says he learned it from a consultant.

Rather than try to expand or embellish on what Bruce wrote, let me just point you his way: here's a link to the blog article that I found so useful. Note that within Bruce's article he provides a link to a site hosted by Fest, where you can download a template of the Message House as a Word document.

I'm going to give it a try! Thanks, Bruce, for sharing, and thanks, Marc, for being an advocate for good message development and for making this conceptual tool available!

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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Collaboration: Achieving more together than separately

2010-04-23T09:38:00.016-04:00

The clownfish and the sea anemone survive in the hostile world of the sea by means of collaboration -- a symbiotic relationship that provides mutual benefit.

That's the subject of today's article.

Any nonprofit that seeks grants from foundations knows that foundations look for your efforts to collaborate with other nonprofits, to avoid duplication of services or to create valuable synergy.

In a volatile economy, collaboration is more important than ever. To be effective, organizations must do (at least) two things. they must find areas where their missions intersect; and they must find ways to work together to add value -- or, to use a buzzword, to create synergy. Simply put, a good collaboration enables two or more organizations to achieve more together than they could working separately.

So a recent newspaper article is of particular interest. Two of the largest private foundations in my home state are showing leadership by setting an example of collaboration. They are joining forces to put money in the hands of local preschools and daycare centers for classroom improvement.

As the article points out, "It is unusual for private foundations to join forces. That’s because private foundations are committed to the charitable intentions of the people who established the foundations. It can be hard work for foundations to find areas where their missions intersect. But foundations expect such cooperative teamwork from the non-profit organizations we support, so we need to make the same commitment to work together, even when it is challenging to find common ground."

The article appeared in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, written by Thomas Leedy, president of the Dekko Foundation, and Cheryl Taylor, president of the Foellinger Foundation.

Now, as readers of the blog know, I often tie in music to my topics to help tell the story and make a point.

I love musical collaborations. Duets between people who make an old song new again, or who are better together than separately. I have an entire collection of them.

Here's a perfect example of how collaboration empowers to people to achieve more together than they could separately. Kris Kristofferson is a great songwriter -- one of the best -- but he's not a great singer. He's merely OK. Most of his songs have been made famous by others -- Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, and many others. But in the early 1970s he collaborated with Rita Coolige, a marvelous singer. Together, they are better. Here's a song that illustrates the power of collaboration, allowing two people to achieve more together than they could separately.

You'll have to crank up your volume, as the sound on this particular video is a bit weak.

Have a great day,

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

Why do people visit your website? No, really, why!?

2010-04-22T07:10:00.004-04:00

Why does a busy person with a lengthy to-do list take the trouble to enter your web address and visit your site? Have you ever really considered that? There are billions of pages on the Web; why would someone take the time and energy to visit yours? Answer that question, and you're well on your way to a better website design. Hint: I'll bet they're not looking for your mission statement!

Today's 2-minute PR Podcast talks about nonprofit website design with guest Lisa Bruick.

Have a great day!

Steve Cebalt, Author,
Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations

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For Nonprofit Communicators, Creating Co-Op Partnerships Solves Problems

2010-04-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

Are you a not-for-profit looking for ways to reach out to the community with your message? Consider teaming up with a local business in a co-op marketing partnership. The ad above is a good example. It promotes a program at Huntington University, but the school paid nothing for it. It was paid for by an accounting firm that recruits staffers from the university. The ad promotes both parties mutually. As you know, one term used for PR partnerships between businesses and not-for-profits is cause-related marketing. Businesses benefit by associating their brands with the respected names of well-established social service or arts organizations. The not-for-profits benefit by gaining new ways to publicize their mission and recruit board members and volunteers.

How does it work? There are many formats. For example:

-- Some companies pay for magazine ads that highlight their employees' involvement with a not-for-profit. Such an ad promotes the mission of the not-for-profit, and also conveys the fact that the company is a supporter and a good corporate citizen. This strategy can be especially effective for local companies competing against larger companies that are not locally owned; banks, law firms, accounting firms, etc. The ad shows the company's local ties; for some consumers, this is an important attribute in their choice of a vendor.

-- Some not-for-profits team up with companies for special sales, where proceeds are donated to the charity. Obviously, the charity benefits from the money, and the company gains store traffic with potential for repeat business later.

-- Some retailers who advertise regularly devote a portion of their weekly ad to a "plug" for a not-for-profit organization.

-- Some companies will "adopt" a charity for marketing purposes. They may include the charity's PR information in bill stuffers, employee newsletters, etc., while encouraging employees to volunteer for the designated charity.

-- Some companies purchase public service announcements for not-for-profits; for example, you may see a print ad or hear a radio ad that says, "The good folks at Urgi-Care remind you to always use an approved child-safety seat." This is the model of the future.

-- Schools are excellent partners for not-for-profit initiatives. Churches and businesses are other excellent partners. Find common ground and you may find rich rewards in fundraising partnerships. Working with local minor-league sports teams, you could seek to create a night devoted to your charity. If you can bring additional people to the event, the sports franchise may be happy to promote your worthy cause. Co-op marketing programs are most effective when both parties start with clear expectations. A contract of some sort is a good idea, to establish mutual roles and responsibilities. Not-for-profits should work to create tangible marketing value for sponsoring companies, by offering access to databases and creating new direct-marketing channels.

-- To succeed, not-for-profits must approach potential partners not seeking a handout, but with a cooperative business venture that will help both parties. You need to show your partners that you can help them meet their marketing goals while you achieve your important mission.

A key factor for marketing with other people's money is treating your marketing as a business venture, not as a charity. If you can help businesses achieve their goals, you may find that many businesses are very receptive to working with not-for-profits. They are much more receptive to your appeal if you can also show them how it benefits their bottom line in some way. It need not be a dollar-for-dollar return on their investment, but something that they can take away and help justify their expenditure.

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Foundations and Nonprofits

932 ways to waste time more effectively

2010-04-19T07:34:00.000-04:00

Photo: My personal “Hipster PDA,” described below.

Looking for one more thing to drive you crazy? The concept of “life hacking” might do it.

The term “life hacking” was developed by Danny O’Brien, a technology journalist, in 2004. The idea of life hacking has spread a great deal since then. There are many books, podcasts and websites on the topic. Life hacking is all about making yourself a happier, less-stressed person. Or it can drive you crazy.

One of the goals of life hacking is to make life simpler. Life Hackers say it helps people to get more done, quickly and efficiently, with simple solutions. Merlin Mann created a blog called 43 Folders, which is one of the most popular life-hacking sites. In his 43 Folders, Merlin suggests having everyone stand during meetings. This way, no one will try to waste time. He says that by doing this, you should be able to cut the length of your meetings in half. Another suggestion is to check emails no more than once an hour in order to keep your mind on track. (Personally that seems like a lot of email-checking and not enough mind-on-tracking, if you ask me.)

Merlin recommends keeping a list of what to pack taped inside your suitcase. This way, you don’t have to waste time making a new one each time you travel. One of his ideas of how to stay in a good mood is to write down happy events of each day so that you can go over them later.

The Hipster PDA is another idea to keep track of everything, rather than using complicated PDAs. The Hipster PDA is simply a few index cards held together with a paper clip. It’s a system I’ve been using for years, since tiring of my Palm Pilot, Blackberry and other gadgets with their batteries, fussy upkeep, and synchronization hassles. People laugh at my handwritten notecards, but now the top geeks in the country have endorsed the system! My system is different in one important respect. Many geeks carry multiple index cards clipped together; I carry just one. If my new activities won’t fit on one card, that tells me that my life is full and I need to re-establish priorities. For more ideas from 43 Folders, click here.

Merlin Mann promotes a plan that he calls 10+2x5. The idea of this is that you work for ten minutes straight, focusing completely on one subject. After those ten minutes are up, you spend two minutes of your time to day dream, take a break or do whatever you feel like and then begin working again when those two minutes are up. This way, you get in fifty minutes of work in each hour, a number that normally would have been a much smaller number. Again, this seems like an attention-deficit approach to me, but hey, whatever works.

Lifehacker.com is a website that gives examples of how to save money. It has many different ways to make life a little easier. It can tell you how to: have a meal for under $3, extend the life of your laptop battery, keep cool in the hot weather, the best days to make purchases, and much more. The website can also teach you how to easily organize your computer.

Lifehack.org is a website that gives daily advice on things life such as how to turn around bad experiences and sleep your way to better fitness. It also gives tips to anyone who travels, anyone who needs help beginning conversations, and making the workday more manageable. The website has 101 Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things. This tells you how you can use tape to test out nail polish colors, prevent plaster from chipping off walls when hanging pictures, and arrange flowers in a vase. It even has an entire section of meals made simple.

Most life hackers are focused on speed and how quickly they can finish a task. Life hacking is meant to get things done faster so that you have more time for recreation, not just so that you can get more work done. The key is learning to squeeze more out of your time. Whether or not it works depends on how much time you spend noodling around on life hacking sites!

After perusing these sites, I find myself still wasting time, but at a much faster pace.

Regards,

Steve Cebalt, Author

The Communications Handbook for Foundations and Nonprofits

Should your nonprofit publish a blog?

2010-04-17T07:10:00.000-04:00

A great blog for nonprofit communicators is published by an industry colleague named Nancy Schwartz. She addresses this question at this link:

http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2007/08/your-nonprofit-.html

Nancy provides concrete guidance for nonprofits on how to assess the "to-blog-or-not-to-blog" question.

Foundation finds new ways to communicate its grant opportunities

2010-04-08T07:52:00.006-04:00

For foundations looking for new ideas, the Foellinger Foundation has published a case study on an innovative approach to grantmaking that may spark new ideas for your foundation.

ABOUT THE CASE STUDY

There is no substitute for inspiration.

The job of a nonprofit leader – perhaps the most important job – is to inspire others to help fulfill the organization's mission. Staff. Volunteers. Funders. Clients. Leaders must inspire confidence and motivation to help an organization realize its full potential.

But who inspires the leaders? Where do they draw and renew their energy, passion, and innovation? That question led the Foellinger Foundation to invest in a new type of grant, called the Inspire Grant. For the Foellinger Foundation, it was an experiment, but one consistent with the Foundation's tradition of investing in leaders of strong organizations.

What's interesting for nonprofit communicators is that this experiment led to new opportunities for branding and communications for the foundation. You'll find those on Page 6 of the case study.

You can download the case study at foellinger.org. You'll see the cover image on the left side of the home page.

Steve Cebalt, Author
The Communications Handbook for Nonprofits and Foundations