As we gear up for another mid-term election season, Spitfire Strategies invites you to check out our free online resources for helping nonprofits put strong communications efforts in place. The Spitfire Strategies Smart Chart for Communications Planning, Discovering the Activation Point and Just Enough Planning Guide are each available on our website and offer guidance for making the important decisions you need to make for effective work.

Need some hands-on guidance to up your communications game? Spitfire offers a variety of options for nonprofits and foundations to build staff skills and create stronger communicating organizations. Our tailored trainings range from individual sessions to half-day to multi-day sessions. Spitfire is also preparing for our 2011 Executive Training Program. This year-long program is designed exclusively for nonprofit executives to help develop skills and strategies for putting effective plans in place, craft strong messaging, deliver compelling stories and presentations, and address other communications capacity needs. Participants attend two in-person training sessions and also receive an individual, tailored consulting package, access to a monthly webinar series and other online resources to help build their communications skills.

The work of a nonprofit is to communicate. The ability to do so loud and clear will enable you to cut through the clutter and support the change your nonprofit is working to create. Spitfire welcomes the opportunity to help you along the way.

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What's Inside

Web 2.What? - Social Networking Sites and Online Fundraising: Do They Mix?

Good to Great - Savvy Nonprofits Use Targeted Newsletters

Great Minds - Start by Changing the Story

Spitfire Recommends - Mathematica Reports Validate Investment in Effective Advocacy

In the Know - Communications Core to Strategy

Sparks Notes - Spitfire Deepens Bench with New Hires 

Web2.What?Cracking the Code on the Latest Trends and Tools

Social Networking Sites and Online

Fundraising: Do They Mix?

by Maura Zehr - Junior Account Executive

When nonprofits began harnessing the power of social media to engage supporters, attract members and raise funds, there was little existing baseline data and many wished they had a crystal ball to predict whether efforts like online contests would be worth their time and resources.

Contest campaigns like America’s Giving Challenge have blazed the trail to measure success and capture best practices and other lessons learned. In the month-long Challenge organized by the Case Foundation, Facebook Causes and PARADE Publications, participants competed for $245,000 in daily and overall awards. Causes that received the highest number of unique daily donations received the funds.

Social media bloggers and authors Beth Kanter and Allison Fine evaluated the 2009 Challenge in an Assessment and Reflection Report, which pulls out best practices and case studies to guide future challenge participants. Research highlights include:

• More than 82,000 individual donors made 105,000 donations to nearly 8,000 causes with an average gift of $17.73;
• Personal connections, compelling use of videos and storytelling, and repeatedly thanking donors for supporting causes proved to be important elements for success;
• 40 percent of the beneficiary organizations were over 10 years old, reflecting the increased comfort level that all nonprofit organizations now have with social media.

For more tips on how to plan a successful campaign, check out Spitfire’s Just Enough Planning Guide tool.

Good to Great - Smart Strategies for Success

 

Savvy Nonprofits Use Targeted

Newsletters

by Piper Kerman, Vice President

A branded e-mail newsletter can be a smart and useful communications tactic to help nonprofits keep in regular communication with important constituents. However, as the rate at which recipients open newsletters and click on the content provided continues to decline, nonprofits need to consider the most effective way to use branded e-mail communications. Here are a few tips from Spitfire for getting the most out of your newsletter.

Know who’s on your mailing list. Many organizations don’t have a clear sense of who they are actually reaching via an e-mail newsletter. If your sense of who has subscribed is fuzzy, take the time to examine your list and consider fielding an online user survey (with a reward for participation) to learn more. Once you have a better idea of who has signed up for regular updates (i.e. clients, partners, funders), tailor your communications – ideally by sending smaller, segmented e-mails that speak directly to the interests of specific audience targets. Be sure to update your subscription process so users can choose only the content that is most relevant to them.

Deliver value. Recipients are hitting either “delete” or “unsubscribe” to newsletters that don’t give them concrete, useful information. Every branded e-mail communication sent should pass the litmus test of usefulness (which you can only determine if you know your audience) and be a “must-read”. While your newsletters and other e-mails are an opportunity to promote your work, be sure to point to other useful resources or news that are beneficial to your readers – even if these items are generated by another organization. If your e-mail communications consistently deliver high value, your target audiences will continue to open and read them.

Use the From and Subject lines. When deciding whether or not to open an e-mail, readers often look at the "from" line first. The "from" line indicates who sent the e-mail and the subject line persuades the recipient to open it. If the "from" line (which should always be consistent) includes your organization’s name, you don't have to repeat it in the subject line. Instead, brand your subject line with the (short) name of the newsletter or other brief description that will stand out in your recipients’ overflowing in-boxes. Subject lines should be descriptive, pique the reader’s interest, and imply a benefit from reading.

Great Minds - Ideas to Make You Think

 

Start by Changing the Story

by Adam Rankin - Junior Account Executive

Professional storyteller Andy Goodman’s recent newsletter reminding readers that starting with a story can be the best way to change behavior or public opinion is a must read for anyone in the nonprofit sector seeking to gin up support for their cause or interest.

The article is a sobering reminder that your audiences may not be listening to what you are saying – no matter how compelling your facts are – if their experiences are different than the message you are trying to convey. Without a clear, focused strategy for shifting the paradigm, your messaging may fall on deaf ears.

When deciding which story to pull from your storybank, it is critical to stay focused on the points that the story will reinforce and what you are trying to persuade your audience to do. Spitfire’s renowned Discovering the Activation Point™ training guide focuses specifically on strategies for mobilizing concerned people to supportive action by identifying and leveraging their activation points. How do you move audiences from passive to concerned? Tell them a story. A story that fits into your overall messaging strategy can be the catalyst to incite your target audience to take action. For more information on the Activation Point check out www.activationpoint.org.

Spitfire Recommends- Latest and Greatest Resources

Mathematica Reports Validate Investment

in Effective Advocacy

by Ed Walz, Vice President

Two new briefs by Mathematica Policy Research provide an important independent validation of what smart nonprofits and foundations have known for years: gains on critical issues happen on a bigger scale when effective advocates educate conscientious policymakers about the need for – and opportunities to – change. These evaluations examined a David and Lucile Packard Foundation investment in capacity-building for children’s health coverage advocates in a politically diverse set of states.

The reports chronicle the progress made in six states. They also highlight the best practices used by these advocates and others funded through the Narrative Project and the Finish Line Project to create climates in their states that encourage progress, including:

• Building coalitions that include unexpected voices;
• Cultivating policymaker champions;
• Effective and consistent messaging; and
• Adapting strategy as new challenges and opportunities emerge.

Spitfire would like to take this opportunity to recognize the Packard Foundation for funding this important work and the independent evaluation and also give a nod to First Focus, which partnered with the Foundation as a funder, and to the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, which leads technical assistance on the Finish Line Project. We’d also like to offer big kudos to the advocates whose hard work has made their investment of time and resources pay off. These must-read briefs document their impressive results and highlight some of the best practices all funders can look for when considering investments in advocacy.

In the Know - News You Can Use

 

Communications Core to Strategy

by Monisha Som  - Senior Account Executive

Think communications is an afterthought of smart strategies? Take a look at the latest report from the Center for Philanthropy and Public Policy at USC, to learn how foundations are increasingly investing in and planning for communications to accomplish their goals. The report, "How Foundations Use Communications to Advance Their Public Policy Work," can give any nonprofit insights into the priorities and values of one of your most critical target audiences – those that fund your work. Take a page from foundations and think about ways to integrate communications into your strategic planning.

Sparks Notes - Happenings at Spitfire

 

 

Spitfire Deepens Bench with New Hires

Spitfire Strategies is pleased to welcome a variety of new players to our team. Beth Kanter and Ketayoun Darvich-Kodjouri are two new vice presidents at Spitfire. Each brings extensive experience in the nonprofit reproductive health field with Beth coming from Planned Parenthood and Ketayoun joining us from the Centre for Development and Population Activities. Mark Shields and Meghan Kissell have also joined the Spitfire team as senior associates. Mark brings experience in media relations and messaging from his previous position at the Human Rights Campaign and most recently the National Park Foundation. Meghan – who joins us from the American Diabetes Association – adds to Spitfire’s campaign planning expertise. Rounding out the new faces at Spitfire are Allyson McMahan who joined us as a senior account executive and Carli Cichocki coming on as an account executive. Our new staff members look forward to working with you to address your latest communications challenges and needs.