Category Archives: Nonprofits

Now Available: New Independent Publishing Resources for Changemakers

ebookLooking for a new way to attract and engage prospective donors, clients, or customers? Today’s audiences often bypass traditional fundraising or advertising. Instead, they want relevant and useful content that they can act on right away. Are you offering them that?

A book or e-book (maybe even a “free-mium”) is a great way to share your experience and insights, bring more visibility to your cause or organization, and establish yourself as a passionate and credible “author”-ity in your field.

Vital components of your overall marketing strategy, books and e-books can be recycled across many communication and fundraising channels (online and offline). You’ll make a winning impression when you can say: “We wrote the book on that topic!”

With e-books and books so easy to create these days, what’s holding you back? And how can you make them work for your organization?

My website now houses lots of great new resources for current and emerging self-publishers—especially leaders of social sector organizations:

Conference call: Independent Publishing for the Changemaker: Advice on how to use this ultimate marketing technique: what’s involved and how to get started (handout plus recording)

Webinar slides:

  • Publishing Your Ebook for Greater Business Impact
  • Thinking About Hiring an Independent Editor? Start Here!

Detailed handouts:

  • The right team for the indie publishing process
  • Where to find an independent editor: professional associations
  • Websites of interest to the indie writer/publisher

Download your copies HERE.

The Loving Tension between Writers and Designers

[Dalya’s Note: This guest post was written by Nadia Khastagir who will be a Special Guest on the 3/5 Writing Wednesdays call. She is a co-owner/graphic designer at Design Action Collective.]

How many times has a copywriter bemoaned that designers always say there’s too much text? How many times does the designer want the editor to cut more text?

How can we come to a perfect harmony?

Graphic design should make your text sing. Good design should enhance the text, it is the supporting actor to the lead star, making sure that the lead role drives the plot and the story. It is the rhythm section to the leader singer. It is the choir to the diva. At the same time, if the story is dominated by the one star always taking the solo, the audience can lose interest, it starts to feel monotonous. This is why design can enhance the copywriting.

Functional graphic design shouldn’t overwhelm the reader to distraction but encourage the reader to read the this brochure, report, flyer, advertisement. Graphic design should show off the stars of the story.

Graphic design can transform your copy into an eyecatching piece:

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Continue reading

Maximize Your Organization’s Collaborations and Reap the Benefits

partnership[Dalya’s Note: This is an excerpt from my award-winning book, Writing to Make a Difference: 25 Powerful Techniques to Boost Your Community Impact.]

Given the astronomical proliferation of values-driven organizations in the last few decades, many of our readers are wondering: “How come you all don’t just combine forces?”

Good question.

No one—investors, customers, clients, etc.—likes to see duplication of effort among barely distinguishable parties. It certainly makes marketing and branding a tougher job as well!

But we are so passionate and concerned about our own sub-issues, services, and products that we can neglect the potential allies out there. In fact, instead of finding ways to cooperate, we often adopt a competitive attitude.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am the first to agree that healthy competition keeps organizations on their toes. What I bemoan is the frequent tendency to allow narrow organizational interests (such as maintaining the status quo or protecting fragile egos) to take precedence over larger community interests. Continue reading

Webinar 2/27: Grant Proposal Feedback Clinic

GPASubmit Your Grant Proposal/Letter of Inquiry for Review – OR – Listen/Watch/Comment Only

Could you use some targeted feedback on your Letter of Intent or brief grant proposal? Have you participated in trainings but find you need some individual feedback to fine-tune your draft (one you’re currently working on or one you recently submitted)?

While your colleagues may be helpful (or maybe just too busy), an outside perspective is often exactly what you need to view your work as a funder might.

That’s the idea behind the Feedback Clinic, a safe online space where you will share drafts with your peers and the instructor (a seasoned grant writer with more than 15 years of experience).  You will receive individual feedback from multiple people in a short time. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to hear from outside reviewers from the comfort of your own office!

OR…Don’t have a proposal draft to submit or not comfortable submitting right now? Join us to learn from the one-on-one, detailed feedback on the 2 submitted proposals and share YOUR feedback and suggestions. Learn from others’ successes and challenges (“case studies”), and practice providing analytical feedback. Your insights will add value to the group discussion and hearing others’ different perspectives will add to your own learning process. Continue reading

Free Webinar 2/26: Numbers and Narrative: How to Construct the Crucial Evaluation Piece of Grant Proposals and Reports

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“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.” –Albert Einstein

Unless you’ve been hiding under that proverbial rock, you know that program evaluation and accountability have been hot topics in the nonprofit sector for quite a while. Funders want to know what’s working, what’s not, how we may or may not be accomplishing our mission, what needs are going unmet, and how we might make improvements in the future.

Evaluation can also be great for strategic planning purposes. It will tell you where you’ve been the most successful, where the challenge areas are, and where to go from here. Evaluation helps your clients reflect on their experiences and share their thoughts.

There are many ways of doing both qualitative and quantitative evaluations. But regardless of how you actually go about the process, you will need to start by writing about your evaluation system and tools in your grant proposal, and using them in your grant report(s). How can you do that?

Takeaways
1.    Find out what funders expect to see concerning program evaluation in proposal and reports
2.    Review some examples of effective evaluation sections of grant proposals
3.    Prepare for collecting the data you need to measure your impact (numbers and narrative)
4.    Learn about resources to help you take the next step

Register for the 2/26 webinar (12 PM PST): HERE.