Twitter is a great place to interact with your community, both at the local and global levels. As a community member, Twitter helps you keep a finger on the pulse, get involved, and get informed about what nonprofit organizations are up to. If you are a small nonprofit, it also offers a cheap and easy…
We all have stories to tell. You may think that telling your story doesn’t matter, but in the nonprofit/voluntary sector, telling your story is one of the most important things you do. Stories are used to teach us about our communities. Stories inspire us to act. But very often it’s not that easy. How do…
The role of social media in the nonprofit/voluntary sector continues to evolve. Nonprofit organizations can use social media to fundraise, recruit volunteers, promote upcoming events, distribute resources or connect people to available programs. One thing that’s becoming clear is that social media is not simply a tool at the disposal of communications professionals in the…
On December 4, Federal Minister of Industry James Moore announced that Bill C-28, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will come into effect on July 1, 2014. Although Canada’s new anti-spam law comes into effect six months from now, it will face a mandatory review in three years. The legislation is intended to deter spam and electronic…
It is now 2014 and I’m astonished when I continue to hear nonprofit/voluntary sector leaders say the following about building their online brand: “I don’t trust it. It could be damaging” “How do we control what people will say?” “I doubt anyone will listen to what I have to say” “How do we know anyone…
In early August, the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS) had to temporarily close its doors to owner-surrendered animals. For the first time in their 106 year history, they had too many animals to realistically care for. Within hours of the announcement, the EHS website was forced to temporarily shut down due to a huge amount of…
A successful nonprofit organization in today’s competitive economy must conduct itself in a very businesslike manner if it is to meet its mission, balance their budget, and stay solvent. However, Amy Sample Ward co-author of Social Change Anytime Everywhere, suggests that in order to succeed in the increasingly high tech nonprofit/voluntary sector, organizations need to…
If you’re “most people” you haven’t asked yourself this question in a while, or possibly ever. But, affirming, creating, or updating your brand identity is one of the most important things you can do. But, before you start, what is a brand identity? A brand identity is a concise, but holistic, idea of what your…
I just finished reading the brilliant book, The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture by Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant. This was a fantastic book, full of things that remind me why I chose to be a marketer. But, as I finished the book, and remember people’s reactions when I say that I’m…
I had heard great things about WordCamp2011, so I knew WordCamp2012 was a going to be a useful professional development experience. WordCamp is a conference revolving around using the open source web development software, WordPress. I was impressed with how incredibly well organized it was, everything from registration to the final keynote. Startup Edmonton were…