Author Archives: Dalya Massachi

Musings on the 50th Anniversary of MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail

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 This month marks the 50th Anniversary of the Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963) written by Martin Luther King, Jr. In it he responded to 8 white clergymen who expressed their objections to recent nonviolent protests. As one of King’s most well-known pieces, the letter served as a turning point for the civil rights movement as it defended the strategy of nonviolent resistance in response to racism.

King wrote the letter in the margins of newspapers (the only paper he had at his disposal) and eventually pieced it together for publication in the New York Post, Christian Century, and Atlantic Monthly. It then became part of huge changes that year and beyond.

King used his writing to make a difference; he clearly understood the immense power of writing and used it to express his passion and inspire huge numbers of people the world over. You can take a cue from him.

On this website, in my presentations and coaching session, and in my editing work, I offer a slew of tools to use when sharpening your writing to inspire change and engage hearts and minds. While we may not find ourselves at King’s level of making sweeping changes at the end of our pens (or keyboards), we can strive to maximize our written words.

Here’s an excerpt from King’s letter, where I highlighted the most famous quote:

“… I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”

Read the full letter HERE.

Are You a Marketer Looking for a Cause? A Cause Looking for a Marketer? Read This!

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 [Dalya’s Note] This original blog post was written by writer Anna Mullenneaux.
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Pimp My Cause connects charities and social ventures with top marketers who can provide transformational input pro bono through a free, online matching platform.

“At Pimp My Cause we believe that marketers and causes have a lot to offer each other,” explains Paul Skinner, founder of Pimp My Cause. ”On the one hand, causes need marketing capabilities more than ever, as they seek to maintain relevance in a digital age and diversify their funding streams in the light of the global economic context for example through the adoption of social enterprise models.”

“On the other hand,” he says, “marketers are becoming increasingly keen to develop their credentials in terms of sustainable business, corporate citizenship and ethical marketing, and have a lot to learn from working with causes in terms of how to create the kinds of social and environmental benefits that are becoming increasingly relevant to their day jobs.”

The Pimp My Cause platform has options for anyone to search and browse listings of profiles to find their own best match – in terms of the type of cause they are interested in, or the marketing skills they have to offer, and where they are based.In the year and a half since the site launched membership has quickly grown to over 750 professional marketers and 650 causes, with around 60 streams of pro bono marketing in progress at any time. There are members in over 40 countries but the majority of activity is in the UK. Marketers have opportunities to support everything from big name charities like the RSPCA and Cancer Research down to tiny social venture start-ups, often with first-in-kind business models or ideas like Wheelchair Laser Tag.

Recent member stories that have been featured in the Pimp My Cause news section include:

  • marketers creating an animated video that helped Foodcycle gain £120,000 in funding
  • identifying ways to fund sustainable farming through the application of new business models at farmhopping
  • providing a design make-over and business model review for a Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary
  • developing the first strategic marketing plan for European Disaster Volunteers to help them build primary schools in disaster afflicted communities.

By exploring the website it is easy to see the openness and ease of use for both marketers looking to find a project to support and causes in need of marketing expertise. If anyone has questions they can email Anna Mullenneaux, Chief Match Maker of Pimp My Cause, to learn more.

 

Happy Earth Day! Are You Greenwashing?

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[Dalya’s Note] This blog post was written by my Assistant, Leslie Rivera.

In honor of Earth Day, I thought we would talk about an important topic for anyone involved in socially and environmentally responsible copywriting (that’s us): greenwashing. It’s a new concept for me; maybe it is for you too! Greenwashing is the unethical practice of portraying a product or service as significantly more environmentally sound than it actually is. I wanted to do some research around this topic to learn more about what it is and how to avoid it.

You’re probably very familiar with words that are often used to greenwash, such as: 100% natural, biodegradable, eco-friendly, green, non-toxic, and sustainable. But do you ever stop to think about what they really mean?

Some writers intentionally apply their own spin to popular terms or buzzwords in ways that sound good, but may be less than completely ethical or accurate. I encourage you to be honest and transparent with the words you use. Deliberately masking your meaning by using deceitful framing or speaking in code may call into question your organization’s integrity.

Here are some resources I found helpful as I learned more about greenwashing:

  1. This article talks about the 6 sins of greenwashing, which include hidden tradeoffs, lack of proof, vague claims, irrelevant claims, the lesser of two evils, and outright lies.
  2. Perhaps you’re wondering how to spot greenwashing and the answer lies in this article. “It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush.”
  3. Several large companies, such as Nestle, are guilty of greenwashing and have to pay the consequences, as evidenced in this excerpt. Look at what happened to Nestle when promoting its bottled water. This is an excerpt from the book Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shel Horowitz.
  4. More examples of greenwashing can be found on this blog, which looks at McDonalds, Google, and others.

Now that you know what greenwashing is, my guess is that you’ll start recognizing it everywhere. I hope that you learned more about the concept and will be take a second look at how YOU are using green buzzwords. They’re fine to use as long as the claims you’re making are honest, not misleading, and supportive of genuinely environmentally friendly efforts. Happy Earth Day!

7 content ideas for nonprofit blogs, tweets, posts and pins

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[Dalya’s Note] This guest blog originally appeared on the GiftWorks blog. It was written by Julia Campbell, President/CEO of J Campbell Social Marketing.

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Is your Facebook Page abandoned?

Have you neglected to tweet in days (or, heaven forbid, weeks)?

Does your Pinterest account have a slew of half empty boards?

Does your organization suffer from “blogger’s block”?

Shake off the cobwebs, clear off the dust and take control of your social media presence!

Try these 7 fresh content ideas out on your social media profiles.

1) Share photos of your organization in action.

  • Take photos of your office, volunteers, clients, playground/outdoor area, garden, hallway, waiting room. (With permission, of course!)
  • Make sure you use descriptive, creative captions and a link to your website
  • Photos are the most shared and most commented on content in social media (beat only by videos)
  • Pinterest is now the #3 social network. People LOVE visual, so get on it!

2) Get topical.

  • Read about trending topics in the national, regional and local news and tie the day’s hot topic to your organization and your constituents.
  • If you are a local nonprofit, make sure to monitor local news every single day for appropriate content to share. People love local and will often engage with this type of content more frequently than national or international news.

3) Ask questions.

  • People love to talk about themselves. Questions that encourage your fans and followers to share personal stories related to your organization can be effective.
  • Try posting fill-in-the-blank questions: “My favorite volunteer experience was when_______”, “I give back to the community by__________.”

4) Be funny!

  • Every single post, tweet and blog does not have to be about the seemingly insurmountable problems of hunger, homelessness, poverty and violence. It goes without saying that the issues you tackle every day are serious and do have significant implications on the world.
  • However, most people do not use social media to learn about the world’s problems. They log on to see photos of their grandchildren, to check out what’s going on with their friends and to share thoughts with others.
  • Spreading your critical message is important, but being authentic, human and having a sense of humor is also vital to engaging with your following.

5) Share others’ content, frequently and with attribution.

  • If you are at a serious loss as to what to post, look at other Facebook Pages for inspiration and for items to share.
  • Sharing content does several things. If its quality stuff, you are positioning yourself as a “thought leader” in your industry. People will then look to you for interesting, relevant and timely information on a specific topic – a time-saver for them! You also create good karma for your organization.

6) Acknowledge your donors.

  • A simple thank you post to a specific donor, or even a generalized thank you to your supporters, will always be much appreciated.

7) Repurpose content.

  • You know all those thoughtfully crafted print newsletters, annual reports and appeal letters sitting in the back room collecting dust? How about re-purposing that content into bite size pieces to share on your social media sites?
  • Newsletter articles could be transformed and updated into blog posts.
  • Annual Report statistics can be incorporated into infographics or other small graphics to share.
  • Appeal letters will hopefully have compelling stories of your organization’s impact, and those stories never get old. Use them everywhere!

These are just a few ideas to get you started on your way to social media success. Good luck!

What are your ideas for quality content that gets posts, tweets, blogs and pins? Let me know what you think in the Comments section. Thanks for reading!

 

What’s in a Name? Why Good Titles Are Important

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Ellen Bristol will be a Special Guest on the 4/17 Writing Wednesdays call and has written the below blog post. She developed the Leaky Bucket Assessment for Effective Fundraising, and the methodology Fundraising the SMART Way. Enjoy the post, and we hope you can make the conference call!

I’m a fundraising consultant. I’ve been a fundraising consultant for 18 years, but my practice really took off in April 2011, when I launched the Leaky Bucket Assessment for Effective Fundraising. Since then, I’ve collected over 300 surveys, co-authored a book inspired by the Assessment (with a fundraising rock star, which didn’t hurt), presented dozens of webinars based on Leaky Bucket results, written I don’t know how many articles and blog postings about the Leaky Bucket, and gotten I don’t know how many audiences to laugh out loud when I am introduced as the creator of the Leaky Bucket Assessment (even if they have no clue what the Leaky Bucket Assessment is all about).

So why has this five-word phrase had such an impact? To tell you the truth, it was a total surprise, but it also taught me something I should have known years ago. Good titles are important.  And in the twitterized universe, they are supremely important.  Titles work best when they capture a mood, when they’re understandable but with a twist, and when they’re easy to remember.

I always thought I had trouble with titles because I tend to think (and write) in longer phrases. It was easy for me to call my first book “What’s Wrong with Your Fundraising – and How You Can Fix It” (eleven words!) even though our publisher really, really wanted us to call it something like “How to Improve Your Fundraising” (five words). Fortunately, my co-author Linda and I talked him into the longer title; the short one gave us hives.

Titles are important because they’re kind of like mission statements. They can tell you the whole story, or the purpose, or the impact, in a few words. Titles sell books. They also sell other things you can publish, like webinars, surveys, white papers, interviews, and videos.  If they’re catchy, they go viral. Remember the Dancing Baby?

Oh, by the way, the Leaky Bucket itself has led to a big fat increase in lucrative consulting engagements, the publishing of a game used in teaching fundraising skills, a contract with a big mainstream publisher to write another book (on the methodology that inspired the creation of Leaky Bucket), and a few other income-producing things.  It’s also on its way to launching a new service for my company: benchmarking.

The success of the Leaky Bucket title has given me a couple of important insights, beyond the fact that titles are important. One is that it’s okay to let your personal voice show in a title. I came up with the leaky bucket image when I found myself trying to describe productivity in fundraising to a friend; I said “productivity leaks out of fundraising shops in ways you don’t notice.” Well, what leaks, people?  Buckets do! That one was just too easy.  So now, everything I write gets put to the Leaky Bucket test: is the title memorable? Does it go with my admittedly off-kilter personality? (I mean, if I don’t like the title, nobody’s gonna like it, right?) Can people remember it? Can I re-use it, or a version of it, as a metaphor or jumping-off point in the article/white paper/book/video/blog posting that it honors?  For example, you can get one of four scores when you take the Leaky Bucket; the lowest score is “Leaking Like a Sieve!”  Get it?

Think about your own titles.  As useful as the “Seven Steps…” or the “Fourteen Fundamentals…” might be, can you challenge yourself to find phrases that reflect your point of view, represent your uniqueness, and yet are still accessible to others?  If the title meets the “like me, unique, catchy” test, it still needs to be easy for a search engine to locate.

You may have spent tons of time working on the content of your writing but it pays to remember that your titles are just as important. And they just might be more important. Especially if they can launch your writing career into the stratosphere.