Posts by Deborah Spector

Ahavath Achim Synagogue Sisterhood Centennial Celebration

March 10, 2020 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector
Ahavath Achim Synagogue Centennial Logo

On April 19, 2020, the Ahavath Achim Sisterhood will commemorate its 100th Anniversary from 4 to 7 in the afternoon with a celebration of our past, present and future at our synagogue on Peachtree Battle Avenue.

The symbol of our Sisterhood is of the Four Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. They symbolize strength and grace, open to new challenges, new paths and opportunities, while embracing Jewish heritage and tradition and encompassing the total synagogue community. We are an active part of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, an international organization.

The first mention of a Sisterhood at Ahavath Achim Synagogue was in 1920 when the synagogue was located on Washington Street. The minutes of the first meeting were taken in Yiddish and recorded in a black spiral notebook. Dues were $2 per member, paid semi-annually. It was the roaring twenties, and the population of Atlanta was approximately 200,000 people. Atlanta and the Sisterhood have grown up together!

For 100 years, the focus of the Sisterhood has always been the education of the children of our synagogue. Our focus has expanded to include adult education, community involvement and social action. Sisterhood has offered hospitality to soldiers during WWII, collected furniture for Holocaust survivors, recorded readings for the blind, translated books into Braille and helped settle Russian immigrants to our area. We are active participants in Habitat for Humanity builds, the Hunger Walk, Backpack Buddies for elementary school children, Back to School supplies for victims of sex trafficking, education of recent immigrants, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

The Sisterhood has embraced the technology of the 21st Century and adapted its programming to meet current needs. We sponsor annual educational programs for our congregation about cancer and other health related issues. We provide scholarships for summer camping experiences and leadership training for our students. Sisterhood Shabbat, a service lead entirely by our women, is a highlight of the year. Monthly book group discussions and study sessions with the rabbis are enjoyed by our members, and our younger members have special interest meetings three times a year.

Ahavath Achim Sisterhood is the heart and soul of the Ahavath Achim Congregation!

For more information on Ahavath Achim Sisterhood Centennial Celebration please contact: Betty Behr – behr.betty@gmail.com or Susan Hart Sandler – susanhsandler@gmail.com.

    Written by Sisterhood Member Donna Newman

    Nonprofit Communication
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    The art of listening!

    October 2, 2017 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    Communication is as basic as the air you breathe because I don’t think you can do squat without communicating.” Judy Belk California Wellness Foundation.

    Dear Readers:

    Yesterday I wrote My quiet reflection lead to action, the first post in more than a year! I had no intention of writing another so soon.

    But, the terrifying shooting at a Las Vegas concert sent shock waves up my spine.

    Perhaps the person committing such a horrific act felt like he wasn’t heard. Maybe he felt that conversations he had were critical instead of supportive.

    Then I thought about the work of Creating the Future. The organization’s focus is on a grand experiment that tests how we can bring out the best in each other, how we can create a world that works for everyone.

    I participated in an online project on Catalytic Thinking. During those discussions, I rediscovered my passion for the art of active listening!

    Good communication always begins with listening. As a nonprofit practitioner, there’s no better way to improve your listening skills than through active listening.

     

    MindTools identified five key active listening techniques:

    1. Pay Attention. Whether it’s a donor, client or staff member, give the speaker your undivided attention. Always acknowledge her message. Don’t forget your non-verbal communication also “speaks” very loudly.
    2. Show that you’re Listening. Use body language to show attention. Keep your eyes focused on the speaker. Smile and nod to show that you’re attending to what is said.
    3. Provide Feedback. Be careful that you don’t let your personal filters and assumptions distort what is being said. Reflect on what the speaker is saying, periodically summarize her comments and ask questions to clarify.
    4. Defer Judgment. Allow the speaker to finish her thoughts before you interrupt. Keep an open mind and ask positive questions that support the speaker and lead to more engaging answers.
    5. Respond Appropriately. Active listening shows respect and understanding. You are gaining information and insights. When you respond be mindful to be positive, open and honest.

    Would truly being heard have made a difference to the perpetrator of this horrific act?

    We’ll never know.

    Deborah

    postscript: Creative Solutions & Innovations is committed to empowering nonprofits to make a difference! Practicing active listening will enrich your life and all those your organization serves. 

    Deborah's Musings
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    My quiet reflection lead to action!

    October 1, 2017 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    True reflection leads to action.

    “Keep your eye on the task, not on yourself. The task matters, and you are a servant.”
    ― Peter F. Drucker, Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practices

    I was on a roll.

    Then I went quiet. The enormity of family issues overwhelmed me.

    I realized as Jack Mezirow, the founder of transformative learning stated, that a defining condition of being human is our ability to understand the meaning of our experiences.

    My quiet reflection lead to action!

    So I dove into reading and scribbling handwritten notes. I started to become active in organizations and online communities.

    The desire to ride Pascha and Black Olive lured me to the stables. And, I upped my power walks with Kiwi and Keno.

    I reached out to friends whom I had ignored for quite a while.

    A coffee date with close friend and social media guru Toby Bloomberg helped me focus on the path I wanted to take.

    Roadmap to turn reflection into action!

    A major shoutout to Cathleen Schaad for helping me move forward with a  dynamic new logo and a redesigned website.

    My commitment continues to be empowering nonprofits to make a difference!

    I hope you will join me on this exciting journey.

    Deborah

    Deborah's Musings
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    Strategic advocacy communication is key to my journey!

    August 28, 2016 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    Social Change Communication is key to Advocacy

    Strategic advocacy communication is key to my journey!

     “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” ― William Faulkner

    I am not afraid to raise my voice for honesty, truth, and compassion. I am committed, passionate and motivated when I advocate for change. Strategic advocacy communication is key to my journey!

    What is advocacy?

    According to Joyce Johnson, writing for Learning to Give, advocacy means to speak up, to plead the case of another, or to fight for a cause. Advocacy, she writes, describes a wide range of expressions, actions, and activities that seek to influence outcomes directly affecting the lives of the people served by the organization. Johnson further states:

    “Reduced to its most basic level, effective nonprofit advocacy is about communication and relationships.“

    An effective advocate influences key decision makers. This happens by moving them from understanding and empathy to action. Relationships and strategic advocacy communication underlie this movement.

    Strategic advocacy communication is key to my journey!

    “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which way you go!” The Cheshire cat in alice in Wonderland

    A plan integrates all an organization’s programs, public education, and advocacy efforts. A long-term strategy positions an organization to be more proactive and strategic, rather than consistently reacting to the existing environment.

    I am a firm believer in creating a strategic marketing communications plan. Your plan ensures your organization communicates effectively and meets your organizational goals and objectives.

    Elements of an effective strategic marketing communications plan:

    • Goals and Objectives
    • Target Audience
    • Strategies
    • Tactics to Engage Target Audiences
    • Create targeted messages
    • Choose channels to deliver messages
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Work plan
    • Budget
    • Evaluation

    Communications Matters created a model designed to help communication practitioners and their colleagues build a common language and a shared understanding of the role that social change communication plays in advancing lasting social change. This communications model is built around four central pillars: brand, culture, strategy, and action.

    • Brand – Every social change organization, no matter its size or purpose, has three key assets that shape its identity: resources, reputation, and relationships.
    • Culture – Communicating organizations cultivate certain qualities that make their work compelling to others. You may not have all in equal measure, but you need a minimum supply of each to succeed.
    • Strategy – Successful organizations are consistently strategic (deliberate and intentional) about their communication choices, weighing several distinct, yet related, variables before they act.
    • Action – Communicating should never be a one-way activity. Success demands a continuous, virtuous, self-correcting cycle of sending and receiving, plus the ability to cede control.

    Social Media for advocacy:

    AAUW, empowering women since 1881, suggests these 6 steps to social media for advocacy:

    1. Set your goals. Is your goal narrow (publicizing an event) or broad (building and engaging with a community or coalition)?
    2. Identify your target audiences.
    3. Select the social media platforms you plan to use. Make your choice based on your goals and target audiences. The most well-known are Facebook and Twitter.
    4. Gather resources and materials to create content and share.
    5. Find volunteers to help manage social platforms.
    6. Be sure and integrate into your marketing communications plan.

    Blending traditional and new media for advocacy:

    The POST Method, developed by Forrester Research, provides a framework for blending traditional and new media. It is really simple, yet profound in that it provides a user-friendly system for using traditional and emerging communications channels. The acronym refers to the four-step approach:

    P is People

    Don’t start a social strategy until you know the capabilities of your audience. If you’re targeting college students, use social networks. If you’re reaching out to business travelers, consider ratings and reviews. Forrester has great data to help with this, but you can make some estimates on your own. Just don’t start without thinking about it.

    O is Objectives

    Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? Decide on your objective   before  you decide on a technology. Then figure out how you will measure it.

    S is Strategy

    Strategy means figuring out what will be different after you’re done. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best customers? Do you want to get people talking about your products? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing product ideas and generating new ones? Imagine you succeed. How will things be different afterward? Imagine the endpoint and you’ll know where to begin.

    T is Technology

    A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can decide with confidence.

    Strategic advocacy communication is key to my journey with  The Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta. We expand opportunities in the lives of Jewish women and girls via effective grant-making, advocacy, and education through a gender lens. As co-chair of the education and advocacy committee, strategic advocacy communication is the framework I use to move decision makers from understanding and empathy to action.

    Do you engage in advocacy? I’d love to know if you have any suggestions for best practices with strategic advocacy communications.

    Please let us hear from you!

    Social Change Communication
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    Social Change Communication Connects Us!

    August 24, 2016 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    Not about technology

    “Communications seeks to connect and move us, to make complex problems seem intuitive and solvable.” Alfred Ironside, Vice President for Global Communications Ford Foundation

    Social change communication connects us!

    I was introduced to the transformative effect of social change communication when I started working on social change initiatives.

    Social change is a process focused on altering the social order of society. It takes place on a local community level or becomes social movements on a grander scale.

    In an earlier post, I described the 5 Indicators of Social Change:

    1. Make New Meaning
    • Shift definitions – An issue or idea is given new meaning. A community or society sees the issue differently. For example, rape is understood as an act of violence with legal and civil consequences, not as an act of sexual transgression.
    1. Empower Different Behavior
    • Shift behavior – An individual and/or community does things differently and for the better. This creates empowerment. For example, women seek appropriate healthcare for themselves and their families.
    1. Life Up Collective Power
    • Shift engagement – More people are engaged in an idea of action. When enough people get involved they are noticed, their voices are heard and they create impact.
    1. Ensure Just Policy
    • Shift policy – Policies and practices change to better serve social change ideas.
    1. Hold the Line
    • Maintain gains – Work to not lose ground from previous endeavors. For example, funding for breast cancer research is saved from budget cuts.

    Transformative communication is a process whereby people are challenged and empowered to change belief systems and behaviors.

    Social Change Communication Tools

    • Social Change Communication is critical at every stage. This begins from the moment someone shares her passion and connects with others, through the exchange of ideas. Communication provides the frame for advocacy and activism. It is central to sustaining the social movement itself, as well as in shaping how the movement influences social change. “We are one but we are many.” (Panos London)
    • Narrative communication recount stories, express opinions or give information about past events from the perspective of the storyteller. Narratives provide an experience people can understand and share.

    “I know from experience that when two people sit down to tell stories from their lives and to listen, something happens. Together maybe they learn, they forgive, they cry, they remember. Something in them moves, even if it’s just a tiny bit. Storytelling and Social Change offers valuable guidance for people who want to use the practice of telling and listening to stories to make a positive difference in their communities.” —Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps

     

    • The rise of social media holds promise for increased social change communication. Social network websites such as Facebook provide easy ways to find and connect with people who have similar feelings.
    • New media platforms are used to launch viral campaign and create digital waves.

    Jennifer Aaka and Andy Smith, authors of The Dragonfly Effect, show how social media technology can support social missions. Nonprofit consultant Beth Kanter has shown how social media tools have been used to create social change, including helping children in Cambodian orphanages.

    • The POST Method, developed by Forrester Research, provides a framework for blending traditional and new media. It is really simple, yet profound in that it provides a user-friendly system for using traditional and emerging communications channels. The acronym refers to the four-step approach:

    P is People

    Don’t start a social strategy until you know the capabilities of your audience. If you’re targeting college students, use social networks. If you’re reaching out to business travelers, consider ratings and reviews. Forrester has great data to help with this, but you can make some estimates on your own. Just don’t start without thinking about it.

    O is Objectives

    Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? Decide on your objective   before  you decide on a technology. Then figure out how you will measure it.

    S is Strategy

    Strategy here means figuring out what will be different after you’re done. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best customers? Do you want to get people talking about your products? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing product ideas and generating new ones? Imagine you succeed. How will things be different afterward? Imagine the endpoint and you’ll know where to begin.

    T is Technology

    A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can decide with confidence.

    • Social marketing, not to be confused with social media marketing,  is the systematic application of marketing to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing is said to have “two parents”—a “social parent,” created from social sciences and social policy, and a “marketing parent,”  developed from commercial and public sector marketing approaches.

    Social change communication brings people together to work collectively for the betterment of their lives and communities. It provides opportunities for engagement and inclusion like never before!

    How does social change communication influence your work? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

    The basis of this post is an article I wrote for CharityChannel Press entitled Importance of Communication to Social Movements and Social Change.

    My next post focuses on the importance of communication to successful advocacy.

     

    Nonprofit Communication
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    Lessons learned honoring First Lady Nancy Reagan

    March 15, 2016 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    Honoring First Lady Nancy Reagan - photo credit Reis Birdwhistell

    Lessons Learned honoring First Lady Nancy Reagan – photo credit Reis Birdwhistell

    I had the news on in the background while I was reading. My pups Kiwi and Keno were asleep on the sofa.

    Then I heard a news report about First Lady Nancy Reagan’s links to Atlanta. Ms. Reagan was honored at a PRIDE (National Parents’ Resource Institute for Drug Education) conference.

    I sat straight up and yelled “Wow, that was my event!”

    The conference had programs for young people and adults. Highlights included workshops with internationally recognized drug abuse experts, community leaders and law enforcement officers. Celebrity participants included wives of world leaders and well-known actors committed to Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say No project.’

    Included within the 2-day conference was a fundraising luncheon featuring Mrs. Reagan hosted by then Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta. How fortunate I was to learn how to manage the luncheon from Ms. Be Haas, a founding partner, Haas, Cox, Alexander.

    I want to share event management lessons learned from honoring First Lady Nancy Reagan:

    Event management is like a high wire act without a net!

    Plan ahead:

    1. Start with robust brainstorming – Bring your board members, volunteers and new voices to the table.
    2. Set clear objectives – You’ll know what is important during the event and you’ll be prepared to gauge your effectiveness.
    3. Create a timeline – A comprehensive timeline will guide you from start to finish!

    Promote, promote, promote. Although there are a lot more channels to use to create buzz, the fundamentals of matching your choices with your target audience preferences and goals still stands. Now you want to create a Digital Ripple to promote your event.

    Brand Your event – Special event branding creates an experience and/or memory that participants will not forget. And, done properly, the event will carry the brand promise of an organization and add to the public knowledge of its mission, vision and values.

    Don’t forget to evaluate your event – Evaluation is critical to your success.

    Protocol is of utmost importance! – The lessons I learned working with First Lady Nancy Reagan and the wives of world leaders continue to position my success when managing special events.

    Most importantly, I always learn as much as I can about an honoree or guest speaker, from their favorite foods to their favorite color.

    I discovered Nancy Regean’s favorite color was red.

    Can you see the red streaks in my hair?!

    Do you have any event management tips you’d like to share?

    As always would love to hear from you!

    Nonprofit Event Planning
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    Learning 5 Indicators of Social Change

    October 8, 2015 2 Comments Written by Deborah Spector

    Learning the Importance of Social Change Indicators

    Learning 5 Indicators of Social Change

    Social change is more than a buzz word! Social change alters the social order of a society through changes in the nature of its social institutions, social behaviors and social relations.

    Proponents of social change focus on underlying causes of critical social problems such as homelessness, discrimination and poverty. Organizations develop processes to address the causes of these issues to foster justice and equality.

    Social justice initiatives take place on a local community level or become social movements on a grander scale such as Women’s suffrage and the Civil Rights Movement. A specific social movement is usually composed of many social movement organizations – formal organizations that share movement’s goals.

    Social change philanthropy focuses on the root causes of problems, working to improve conditions that lead to inequality. This approach is unlike traditional charity, which works to ameliorate the symptoms of societal problems.

    Social indicators  provide evidence that helps us assess whether or not an organization is focused on social change. These indicators may be material, such as numbers related to economic growth and/or immaterial, such as values or goals. They are forms of evidence that help us assess a present position and future directions.

    I am a trustee with the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta. We expand opportunities in the lives of Jewish women and girls via effective grant-making, advocacy, and education through a gender lens. Our grants provide sustainable benefits to those we serve. We look to our grantees to focus on solutions to underlying critical social problems that effect Jewish women and girls.

    We were introduced to the importance of five indicators for Social Change, developed by the Women’s Funding Network. They help us discern if our grants are going toward social change. In turn these five social change indicators help organizations substantiate their efforts to create awareness and transform community through social change.

    Learning 5 Indicators of Social Change:

    1. Make New Meaning
    • Shift definitions – An issue or idea is given new meaning. A community or society sees the issue differently. For example, rape is understood as an act of violence with legal and civil consequences, not as an act of sexual transgression.
    1. Empower Different Behavior
    • Shift behavior – An individual and/or community does things differently and for the better. This creates empowerment. For example, women seek appropriate healthcare for themselves and their families.
    1. Life Up Collective Power
    • Shift engagement – More people are engaged in an idea of action. When enough people get involved they are noticed, their voices are heard and they create impact.
    1. Ensure Just Policy
    • Shift policy – Policies and practices change to better serve social change ideas.
    1. Hold the Line
    • Maintain gains – Work to not lose ground from previous endeavors. For example, funding for breast cancer research is saved from budget cuts.

    Learning 5 indicators of social change guide donors as they work to create significant changes in social order. And, they provide guidelines for organizations to identify and explain their significant social change work.

    I would love to hear your thoughts!

     

     

     

    Social Change Communication
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    Add Twitter to your Nonprofit MarComm Toolbox!

    July 29, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    Add #Twitter to your #NPO MarComm Toolbox!

    Add #Twitter to your #NPO MarComm Toolbox!

    “Of all the social channels, for a nonprofit, Twitter may be the most effective in terms of the biggest return for limited time and resources. Through consistent tweets that inspire and inform you reinforce your mission to your network of followers. The bonus is if you get it right your followers will share to their followers’, amplifying and extending your work.”  Toby Bloomberg @TobyDiva

    Add Twitter to your Nonprofit MarComm Toolbox! Twitter is a must have tool for listening and monitoring. It successfully engages others in your stories, inspires action and builds effective awareness and fundraising campaigns.

    Here’re my favorite ways to add Twitter to your Nonprofit MarComm Toolbox:

    • Fundraising via Twitter:

    Fundraising Coach Marc A. Pitman @marcapitman suggests Twitter is an amazing way to engage donors and potential donors. Maintaining relationships is one of the hardest things that a fundraiser must do. And, Twitter helps us do that!

    1. You get to meet people all over the world that might be interested in your cause.
    2. You get to hear what people are really thinking about a wide variety of issues.
    3. You can follow other fundraisers and get great real-time advice.
    4. You can even promote traffic to your website or those of your friends.
    • Twitter and #GivingTuesday:

    New York’s 92 Street Y (@92Y) in partnerships including the United Nations Foundation (@unfoundation) incorporated Twitter into its 2013 #GivingTuesday (@GivingTues). The Dec. 13th event produced a 90% increase in online giving compared to 2012. There were 269,000 Tweets with the #GivingTuesday hashtag on December 3, an average of 186 times per minute!

    • Matching Fund Drive with Promoted Tweets:

    The Red Cross (@RedCross) partnered with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (@craignewmark) to launch a Promoted Tweets matching fund drive for the holiday season. Both organizations used Promoted Tweets to ask Twitter users to respond with their idea of the “perfect gift,” & used the hashtag #PerfectGift with a link to the donation website. Newmark matched each @reply or Retweet with a $1 donation, up to $10,000.

    • Micro-funding via Twitter:

    Janet Fouts (@jfouts) saw a post on Twitter that drew her to click on the link and then follow through with a donation almost immediately. It was from Small Can be Big, a group which works with local shelters to identify people in need and then posts their stories on-line seeking donations to help. The Tweet was a day old and by the time she got to the site they had raised the needed capital. She browsed around to learn more and made a couple of small donations right then and there.

    • Crisis Management with Twitter:

    The power of Twitter’s real-time platform to inform and connect is never more evident than in the face of a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. Over the past few years, organizations, government agencies, news outlets and individuals use Twitter to provide information and relief in times of need.

    1. On the ground
    2. Be an eyewitness
    3. Be a lifeline
    4. Become a conduit for critical information
    • Twitter and Media Relations

    According to the 2015 Cision Social Journalism Study only 6% of PR pros only post press releases on the wires.

    Journalists are very active on Twitter. Most journalists see Twitter as an extension of their own reporting these days and 75% say that they use Twitter to build their own brand. So Twitter is a marvelous opportunity to connect and discover what they’re writing about or looking for. How do journalists use twitter?

    1. Story Creation
    2. Finding Sources
    3. Self promotion

     Add Twitter to your nonprofit MarComm toolbox extra resources:

    1. 10 Twitter Tips for Nonprofits
    2. 6 Creative Ways to Use Twitter for your nonprofit marketing campaigns 
    3. How to get more people to your events with social media
    4. 10 Twitter Best Practices for Nonprofits 
    5. Top 10 nonprofit hastags to spark social good 
    6. Best Twitter Practices for Media
    7.  Twitter Nonprofits (@Nonprofits) highlights great uses of Twitter in the nonprofit community.
    8. Create a Digital Ripple to Promote Your Special Events

    We’d love to hear from you! Do you have any Twitter favorites to add to your nonprofit MarComm toolbox?

    Nonprofit Strategic Marketing
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    P2P fundraising empowers others to ask on your behalf!

    April 3, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    The peer-to-peer family tree breaks down the different kinds of P2P fundraising and shows how big the P2P family is becoming.

    The P2P family tree breaks down the different kinds of P2P fundraising and shows how big the P2P family is becoming.

    P2P fundraising empowers others to ask on your behalf! Also known as Peer-to-peer fundraising, P2P uses the power of your constituents to engage their friends and family.

    It’s one of the major driving forces in successful nonprofit fundraising. The peer-to-peer family tree breaks down the different kinds of P2P fundraising and shows how big the P2P family is becoming.

    So imagine my delight when Tate Handy at Digital Third Coast  asked if I would be interested in sharing the P2P family tree developed with Plenty Consulting.

    Then Tate offered an introduction by Plenty Consulting CEO Jeff Shuck. I was thrilled!

    I’ve been a big fan of Jeff Shuck since 2007 when I first learned of his new paradigm incorporating special events to the classic development pyramid. For me it was a gateway to P2P fundraising and empowering others to ask on your behalf!

    Jeff Shuck introduction to the P2P family tree:

    • Did you buy Girl Scout cookies this year?
    • Did you participate in a Tough Mudder as a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project?
    • Did you attend Penn State’s annual Dance Marathon, or purchase lemonade from one of Alex’s Lemonade Stand?

    If you did any one of these things, I’ve got news for you- you were participating in an act of peer-to-peer fundraising, whether or not you knew it at the time.

    Peer-to-peer fundraising, also known as P2P, is one of the most thrilling nonprofit fundraising channels being used today, and it’s growing at a fast pace. Yet despite its growing fan base, many people aren’t quite sure how to explain P2P to others. Here’s what you need to know.

    First of all, in traditional fundraising, organizations reach out to their network to donate. In P2P, meanwhile, organizations ask their constituents to reach out to people connected to them on behalf of your cause. Instead of only having access to their donors, organizations can connect with their constituents plus their constituents’ networks, creating an unending collection of potential new donors. Your audience expands exponentially, and with it, so does your ability to do more to fulfill your mission.

    Abundance is out there and peer-to-peer fundraising helps you unlock that abundance to be distributed to those who need it. What can your network do for your cause?

    Deborah’s Comments –

    P2P fundraising empowers others to ask on your behalf! P2P engages your network in a number of ways:

    1. Ensures successful events
    2. Integral part of cause marketing initiatives
    3. Fuels the engine for digital campaigns

    We’d love to hear examples of how your nonprofit engages and empowers your network by involving constituents in P2P initiatives.

    Nonprofit Fundraising
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    Keys to building film festival audiences!

    March 2, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by Deborah Spector

    Film festivals need a lot of promotions & marketing to be successful!

    Keys to building film festival audiences!

    Keys to building film festival audiences! Film festivals need a lot of promotions & marketing to be successful!

    Here are my favorite keys to building film festival audiences:

    • Email: Email is one of the most important marketing tools you have to promote your film festival. According to a recent McKinsey & Company study, email is still 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined.The Austin Film Festival uses email for direct communication to their audience. They see most of their returns from dedicated email subscribers, and use an email marketing platform to compare and report email performance.
    • Social Media: Visual storytelling comes to us naturally. Humans process visuals faster than they process text. Considering our attention span is about 3.9 seconds long, presenting information as visuals just makes sense.
    1. Facebook and Twitter are the two most useful social media channels for growing your audience. Facebook is more conducive to marketing with information, whereas Twitter is best for shoutouts, retweets and community engagement.
    2. Instagram is good for brand building and photo sharing, but it’s still a relatively small platform.
    3. YouTube is great to post behind-the-scenes video content on festival events throughout the year to keep people engaged.
    4. Pinterest drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube & LinkedIn combined. Mainly, the site now attracts women in the age range 25-44 who love fashion, home decorating and family related products. As it gains more of a following, this is bound to change.
    • Sponsorships and Partnerships: Sponsorships can be a huge gateway to growing recognition and audience. Partnerships with institutions, brands, and businesses can bring additional value to your festival through in-kind donations and exposure. Getting businesses and influencers to back your festival where there’s a mutual exchange will build the momentum and your reputation. Use this social currency to expand your reach.
    • One-on-one promotions: We’re bombarded by messages every day. Community Engagement Committees are a great way to engage with people directly, and bring your value to them.
    • Press-kits: I’m a big fan of press-kits. They ensure that reporters, bloggers your audience and sponsors have what they need. Key to success is an easy-to-find contact link and phone number.
    • Off-line promotions: Don’t forget newspapers, flyers, flags, posters, presentations at community meetings and events, cross-promotions with other festivals, etc.

    I’d love to hear your suggestions for building film festival audiences! If you’re interested in our CS&I Film Festival PR/Marketing Template? Contact deborah@creative-si.com.

     

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