Your organization uses your site to communicate many messages to many audiences. But with so much content, how can you design a site that truly generates results by getting each audience to do what you want them to do? In this webinar, we’ll reveal tricks of the trade to optimize your site for results from your audiences using nonprofit websites as examples. And you just might be surprised what some simple changes can accomplish.
Session Takeaways:
User testing: Critical…and not so scary after all
Effective brand presentation: “What you do” versus the “mission statement”
Creating compelling and contextual calls to action: Refining the “ask”
It’s a common nonprofit complaint: “When we’re dealing with such important issues . . . why aren’t more people listening?”
Everyone today talks about the need for a message, but how do you create one? During this webinar, you’ll learn the five principles that underlie the creation of powerful messages and the five steps to creating one. You’ll hear how you need to be clear about what action you want. How you need to speak to your audiences’ desires more than their needs. And why the less you say, the more you’re heard.
If you are struggling to capture your audience’s attention or aren’t certain how to best guide your conversations with them, this webinar will give you the step-by-step how tos you need to refine or revamp your nonprofit’s messaging.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern
(11:00 a.m. Pacific)
Registration is $35
Guest speaker Rebecca K. Leet is an expert in nonprofit communication and author of the first book on message development: Message Matters: Succeeding at the Crossroads of Mission and Market. She has consulted for nonprofits, foundations, and associations for more than 20 years and, previous to that, had a career in the national news media and politics.
Spending time and money trying to market your nonprofit or its programs without a strategy in place is a big waste of both precious resources. But who has time to create in-depth, well-researched strategies when there is so much “mission” work to do?
During this webinar, you’ll learn how to find the middle ground — to create a “quick and dirty” marketing strategy. You’ll learn the steps that you need to go through to create marketing strategies for your nonprofit organization as a whole or for a specific campaign or program. Even if you only spend a couple of hours drafting your strategy, you’ll greatly increase the likelihood that your efforts will work. You’ll also gain a better understanding for when “quick and dirty” isn’t enough and you do need to embark on a more intensive planning process.
During the webinar, Kivi will walk two participants through the process of creating a quick strategy. You’ll receive details on how to submit your nonprofit or campaign for consideration after you register.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern
(11:00 a.m. Pacific)
Registration is $35
Kivi Leroux Miller, president of EcoScribe Communications and founder of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com, will present this webinar.
A nonprofit’s email list is a lifeline to donors, volunteers and other supporters. It’s an essential part of your online marketing strategy. Many of the people who will turn into your best donors in years to come are the ones who are signing up for your email newsletter today. But buying lists or poaching them from other nonprofits isn’t considered acceptable behavior. So how can you grow your own opt-in email list easily, effectively, and ethically?
During this webinar, you’ll learn the best practices in how to grow your email list, whether you are starting from scratch, rebuilding a list that’s stagnating, or just curious about easy solutions you may be overlooking. We’ll look at incentives you can use on your website to encourage people to give you their email addresses and how to use viral marketing and social media to grow your list. You’ll hear several real-world examples of how nonprofits across the U.S. have successfully expanded their email lists. You’ll also hear about some list-building attempts that flopped. Finally, we’ll cover offline techniques you can also use to build your list.
TechSoup’s free day-long online event is coming up this Wed. May 14th: Online Activism: Social Media Tools for Social Change in the TechSoup online forums.
Dive into the conversation with hosts Heather Mansfield, owner of DIOSA Communications and Online Community Manager for Change.org and Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager for the Humane Society of the United States, as they explore the ins and outs of using social networking sites and strategies for determining how, why, and when to use different applications to broadcast your message. In discussing the dos and don’ts of effectively fundraising and promoting your cause, we’ll also look at lessons learned from successful (and not so successful) online campaigns.
How do social networking sites fit in with other outreach efforts?
Are the benefits worth the time needed to keep up a social networking presence?
How can you translate online activism into on-the-ground action towards change?
Is it ever a good idea for organizations to start their own social networking sites?
Take part in the discussion Wed. May 14th in the TechSoup Emerging Technologies forum. This event is asynchronous (not live). No registration is required, just show up and post! Feel free to spread the word to any of your colleagues that may be interested.
Discover how easy it is to get more items, more bids and raise even more money using the web as we uncover new avenues in which to reach additional donors, constituents and attendees for your events.
We’ll identify the challenges that schools and nonprofits face when planning and executing charitable auctions, and illustrate how fundraisers are now adapting new technologies to overcome inherent limitations of live and silent auctions – ultimately raising more money from these events.
This webinar will show you how to:
Get more items - Use online donating capabilities, dedicated email campaigns, consignment items and barter sponsorship on your auction site to get items
Get more bids - Attract bidders and motivate participants through a series of web-based bidder alerts, email sends and online promotions; and use the Internet to expand your reach beyond your constituency and your community
Raise more money – Use supplemental revenue channels such as online sponsorship, ticket sales and cash donations directly through your auction’s website to raise even more money
PRESENTERS Jon Carson, CEO, cMarket Renea Ferriss - cMarket Customer, Regional Coordinator, Muscular Dystrophy Association – Houston Paul Clolery, Vice President/Editorial Director, The Nonprofit Times Anna Carbonara, Moderator, American Marketing Association
Generation Y, the Millennials, or 20-somethings — no matter what you call them, this generation places a high priority on meaningful experiences, personal growth, and relationships. According to a recent Deloitte survey, more than half of workers in their 20s prefer to work at companies that offer volunteer opportunities as part of the employment package. They are learning-oriented, tech-savvy, multi-taskers. And best of all, this generation, second in size only to the Boomers, is already motivated to support your nonprofit now and in the future — if you are are ready to meet their high expectations. While some would call this generation “High Performance,” they’d also call it “High Maintenance.”
Guest speaker Sam Davidson will share his tips on how your nonprofit can best connect with Generation Y. Sam is a speaker, writer and founder of CoolPeopleCare. He writes regularly on his personal blog and has been syndicated on EthicsDaily and YPCommons. His favorite topics include the potential of the next generation to change the world for the better. His first book, “New Day Revolution: How to Save the World in 24 Hours” was published in November 2007.
Sam will talk about how Generation Y differs from older generations, what communications tactics work best, and what kinds of messages are most likely to resonate (or be ignored). He’ll also provide tips on how to get this generation involved with you now and how to build that relationship long-term.
Thursday, May 8th, 1:00 - 2:30 EST. Presented by Laura Quinn with Ryan Ozimek, David Geilhufe, and Patrick Shaw
Open source content management systems (CMS) are particularly attractive to the nonprofit community because of their cost-efficiency, but what do these systems actually do? And what are the differences between the most common CMSs? We’ll compare Joomla, Drupal, and Plone for typical nonprofit needs, and then experts in each of the systems - Ryan Ozimek, David Geilhufe, and Patrick Shaw – will demo the systems and answer your questions.
Wednesday, May 7th, 1:00 - 2:30 EST.
Presented by Laura Quinn
Cost: $40
If you need a way to update your website, but you’re not sure where to start, this is the session for you. We’ll talk about what content management systems are, and look at various affordable options for updating your website text and images, including using What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get software like DreamWeaver and Contribute, website-in-a-box tools like Homesite, blog tools like WordPress, open source tools like Joomla and Drupal, and more.
It’s a common nonprofit complaint: “When we’re dealing with such important issues . . . why aren’t more people listening?”
Guest speaker Rebecca K. Leet is an expert in nonprofit communication and author of the first book on message development: 
A nonprofit’s email list is a lifeline to donors, volunteers and other supporters. It’s an essential part of your online marketing strategy. Many of the people who will turn into your best donors in years to come are the ones who are signing up for your email newsletter today. But buying lists or poaching them from other nonprofits isn’t considered acceptable behavior. So how can you grow your own opt-in email list easily, effectively, and ethically?
Guest speaker Sam Davidson will share his tips on how your nonprofit can best connect with Generation Y. Sam is a speaker, writer and founder of 
If you need a way to update your website, but you’re not sure where to start, this is the session for you. We’ll talk about what content management systems are, and look at various affordable options for updating your website text and images, including using What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get software like DreamWeaver and Contribute, website-in-a-box tools like Homesite, blog tools like WordPress, open source tools like Joomla and Drupal, and more.