📣First, a word on last month’s poll results 🤦♀️ Welp, last month’s poll on your biggest barriers to creating a new welcome series generated lots of interest but zero logged results. The next time you’re trying to convince your boss to ditch the cheap software for something more effective, feel free to use me as a cautionary tale 😅I’d still love to hear your thoughts, especially since this is a topic I can create something helpful on. Feel free to reply to share your welcome series obstacle....
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
📣First, y’all had thoughts: last month’s poll results 📣 Nonprofit phrases you love to hate 22% Be their hero 18% Now more than ever (me too) 18% Transform a life 16% Make an impact 27% Had another pet peeve This poll got the most responses of any so far, so these phrases clearly push some buttons. I still haven’t gotten open-ended responses for “other” to work for this polling tool, so I might try asking for replies again…. Keep reading to participate in this month’s poll. Last November, I...
2 months ago • 2 min read
📣First, let’s hear from you: last month’s poll results 📣 Where you find stories 29% Scramble to find one whenever we need one (no shame, been there) 14% Asked your program team to report back when they hear a good story 19% Have a dedicated email address or Slack channel where staff can send stories 29% Have a story collection form we share with our supporters 2% Use another strategy So if you don’t have a process for collecting stories yet, you’re in good company. But maybe we can all find...
3 months ago • 2 min read
📣Last TWO months’ poll results 📣 Results 1: Email Senders 33% of you say you send emails from Name of Organization, with a generic email address 67% of you do something all your own. (I’d love to know what that is! Shoot me a reply and fill me in) Results 2: Writing to a Person 14% of you use set personas to humanize your readers 29% of you write like you’re writing to a friend 57% of you use your own special tactic (reply to share the details!) Keep reading to participate in this month’s...
4 months ago • 3 min read
📣Last month's poll results 📣 It looks like a lot of you participated in the poll last month, but the responses weren’t recorded. I found a way to change the settings so your vote is recorded as soon as you click in the email, without having to click a submit button on a new page. Hopefully, this will avoid future issues. If you’d like to try sharing your response in the email senders poll again, you can do it here. Welcome to part two of three in a series about writing nonprofit...
5 months ago • 3 min read
📣Last email’s poll results 📣 It’s unanimous, y’all, polls are a go! Look out for this month’s poll after the main article. I shared in my last email that I’m focusing on nonprofit communications that help build stronger relationships between an organization and its supporters. To do that, I try to ground my writing in three simple ideas: Write from a person. Write to a person. Write about a person. This month, I’ll break down the first one: how to write from a person. First of all, I get it....
6 months ago • 2 min read
If you follow award show season, you may have noticed Huntrix—the fictional girl group at the center of the movie K-Pop: Demon Hunters—has been topping the best song nominations and awards. (I promise I am not here to get “Golden” stuck in your head… oops.) As someone who listened to the soundtrack on repeat for months last year, I can tell you that the honor is well-deserved. To quote another parent friend of mine, the soundtrack is, fortunately, "all killer, no filler." But inside one of...
7 months ago • 2 min read
If you’re like me, you got A LOT of nonprofit emails in November and December. And many of them communicated similar things Support our cause Help us reach our goal Your gift will be matched Give before the deadline Don’t get me wrong. These emails came from worthy organizations with missions worth supporting. And many sent stories in addition to cut-and-dried asks, which is great! But if you’re getting a half-dozen or more of these emails every day for two months, it feels almost...
8 months ago • 2 min read
Did your high school English teacher tell you not to use clichés? Mine too. Tropes and platitudes are frowned on in formal writing. They’re unoriginal, even lazy. But while you had plenty of space to express unique analogies in a high school essay, you don’t always have that luxury in nonprofit writing. When you have to grab your supporter’s attention and tap into their emotions quickly, clichés can be a useful shortcut. Especially if you use them to launch a new idea. I saw the Broadway tour...
9 months ago • 2 min read