For nonprofits to be successful at generating money from both fundraising and earned income, they have to be able to communicate effectively. The best way to do it is to start with why you’re doing what you’re doing, not how or what you’re doing or selling.

If you’ve ever read or heard the words of Simon Sinek, you know that he’s all about making life more impactful and people more successful in all facets.

Though I truly believe you should watch all 20 minutes of his speech, I’ll attempt to summarize an awesome talk from a man much smarter than I:

“The most successful communicators understand that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Don’t forget to include why.

The example Sinek gives is Apple. If they were just another computer company, an advertisement from them would ultimately sound something like, “we make computers that work well and look cool. Wanna buy one?” But they’re not just another company, they’re excellent communicators, so their messaging starts with why—followed by the how and finally explaining the what. The actual underlying message in their ads sounds more like, “we challenge the status quo by making beautifully designed products that are user-friendly; we just happen to make computers.” Wanna buy one now?

The first advertisement started with the what, completely flipping the proper order on its head. The problem goes deeper when we not only flipped the order of the messaging—but just like the first example—oftentimes we leave out the why altogether.

Though your organization is probably not selling computers and MP3’s, I couldn’t agree more with professional hustler Gary Vaynerchuk that we need to stop pretending that fundraising is different from sales—but that’s a whole other story.

Now start with why.

Now that we know we need to include why, the positioning is vital. Always start with it. In business, your personal life and the nonprofit sector, remember not to just state it, but start with why. It’s the most effective way to incite action and storytelling.

Oftentimes the statement that answers why your organization is doing what it’s doing includes the words “we believe” and has to do with the foundation of what your staff is passionate about, like Apple proclaiming that they “challenge the status quo.” If we were to take the mission of NonprofitHub.org and break it down into a why > how > what statement, it might look like this:

“We believe there’s a problem in the nonprofit sector. We saw a gap in business leadership who didn’t have adequate formal education, so we promote collaboration, push the envelope and challenge stigmas by producing free resources for nonprofits and startups.” The opposite of this would be something like, “we make great content that you should read to run your organization better.”

Streamline your messaging.

Creating statements like this and using them is less public-facing, but more of a reference for internal use to drive your organization’s messaging and communications. Aligning your values based on why you’re doing what you’re doing will help your organization inspire action like the greatest communicators and the most influential leaders.

The nonprofit sector has a huge opportunity in inspiring action in this way because what we do is mission-driven, not profit-driven—both behind the scenes and publicly—but we forget that our public messaging doesn’t always convey that. We like to explain that we find homes for rescued animals, we feed the hungry, or teach those who need it—but if we don’t convey why we do it, the outcome won’t be as impactful.

 “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” — Simon Sinek

The best example again comes from Sinek’s talk. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t say, “I have a plan,” but rather, “I have a dream.” By explaining what he believed, he got masses of people behind him who supported what he supported. They showed up because he believed what we believe. We didn’t “buy” what he was doing, but why he was doing it.

The post Start With Why: How to Improve your Nonprofit Messaging appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Source Taken From: Nonprofithub.org

Sponsored by iContact

Regardless of whether you work in the nonprofit sector or run a small business, an email newsletter is one of the most important communication channels you have with your customers and supporters. A regularly scheduled email newsletter keeps your audience updated and helps you build a lasting connection with subscribers.

How can you create a newsletter that keeps your audience engaged and delivers the maximum results? Use these six tips to become a newsletter pro.

What are your nonprofit email newsletter objectives?

If you haven’t articulated your newsletter’s goals recently, or you are just starting to plan a new newsletter, it’s important to sit down with your team, establish a list of primary objectives, and prioritize them.

For example, is your main goal to keep your nonprofit’s members, volunteers, and donors updated about your organization’s news and accomplishments? Does your business want to produce a newsletter to focus mainly on product news or updates? Is your newsletter primarily a vehicle to provide relevant internal communications and updates for your employees? Or do you want your newsletter to extend existing marketing efforts and draw subscribers to interact with your brand?

Establishing clear objectives for your newsletter will not only determine scheduling and layout, it also allows you to better target your content.

Whatever the objective (or objectives, there can be more than one), establish a tone or “voice” that complements your other marketing content and is true to your brand identity

Prioritize an attractive design.

The design of your newsletters should be clean, crisp, and easy to read. The reader’s eye should go straight from top to bottom, and it should be scannable for your subscribers who are reading it on a mobile device. Because of this, it’s suggested that you use a single-column layout, which prevents readers from having to scroll horizontally. Also, don’t forget to be responsive so your content will adapt to any screen size.

Whether you are a nonprofit or small business, use visual branding elements like signature colors, fonts, and a unique logo. And be certain these elements are consistent across the board, such as on your website and social channels. Not only does this reinforce your brand’s identity, it also makes you appear more professional and helps readers immediately connect the message to your brand.

Here are a few other essential design tips:

• While you should use different colors for headings, links, and your background, keep the background light to make reading easier.
• Use recognizable fonts like Arial or Times New Roman, but make sure they’re large enough for your mobile audience to read.
• Incorporate negative space into your email design (negative space is the white and blank space between graphics, text, images, and other visual elements on a page) to make it easier on the eyes.
• Break up your content into subheadings and bullet points for clarity.
• Make your call to action stand out by using contrasting colors.
• Be sure to use visual content like pictures and videos; they can tell a story very effectively.
• Include social links.
• Don’t forget to include an email opt out area.

Make your subject lines stand out.

The inboxes of your subscribers are flooded throughout the day. In fact, the Radicati Group expects the average user to receive 140 emails per day by 2018. To help you cut through the clutter, you need to craft a strong and catchy subject line.

The most effective subject lines are short and concise, usually 50 characters or less, and communicate time, urgency, and even a little humor when appropriate.

Personalizing subject lines with a recipient’s first name can also improve open rates. It’s worth testing.

Don’t ever create misleading subject lines. They’ll damage your credibility and eventually lead subscribers to trash your future newsletters because they’ll consider them little better than spam.

Make sure your content is valuable.

Even if your design is incredible and you have an amazing subject line, it won’t be engaging unless the content is valuable to your subscribers. In short, make sure your newsletters are worth subscribing to in the first place.

You can accomplish that by making sure your content is timely, interesting, and informative. For example, you could reward loyal subscribers by letting them be the first to know about new products and sales, or by giving them access to exclusive discounts and special events.

Segment your subscribers.

Segmenting gives you the chance to divide your email subscribers into smaller groups based on factors such as interests, location, activity, and past purchases. When your subscribers are organized, you can send more personalized emails.

In other words, you can send the right message to the right audience. This will not only keep your subscribers engaged, but it increases the likelihood that they’ll read your newsletter regularly.

Send at the right time.

Make no mistake, timing can be important. But in today’s 24/7 mobile world, there are no hard and fast rules. So finding the perfect time to reach your audience might require experimentation and testing.

Use the analytics provided by your email platform (iContact accounts deliver great data) to get to know your audience and better understand when they are more likely to open their emails. Use A/B testing to test sending options and analyze the results to make good data-driven decisions for your particular business or organization.

Happy sending!

The post 6 Tips for Creating Engaging Email Newsletters appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Source Taken From: Nonprofithub.org

The H-1B visa program is “certainly is a tool that is necessary to get foreign nationals into the U.S. to be able to conduct research,” said Wayne Carter, president & CEO of Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute (KCALSI) in Kansas City, Mo. “We hope there is no change. We’re going to be watching the administration to see how things develop.”

Source From Non Profit Times