You’ll learn how to partner effectively with your client or agency for breakthrough direct mail results and hear real examples of improving upon tried-and-true control packages. Along with Jenny Allen of Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey and Vivianne Potter of Amnesty International USA, Cathy will share her expertise about using creativity and analytics to improve the percent return and average gift.

We are also thrilled that our sister company, SankyNet, will be represented at the conference by Executive Vice President Paul Habig. To learn more about his talk, visit the SankyNet blog.

Register today!

Title: I Think I Can… I Know I Can: Beating a Long-Standing Control Package

Date: March 2, 8:45-9:45 AM

Location: Renaissance Washington DC Downtown

Speakers: Catherine Carley, Vice President, Sanky Communications
Jenny Allen, Principal & Senior Vice President, Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey
Vivianne Potter, Managing Director for Direct Response, Amnesty International USA

Whether you’re new to fundraising or a seasoned professional, we guarantee you’ll come away with a few new ideas on how to develop your organization’s online fundraising and traditional direct marketing programs. You’ll also find out which techniques have been working for others and have the opportunity to ask questions during this fast-paced session.

Joining Harry for the panel are the following speakers:

Lane Brooks, COO, Food & Water Watch
Suzanne Cole Nowers, Chief Executive Officer, Nexus Direct
Liz Murphy, Principal & Co-Founder, RedEngine Digital
Shannon Murphy, Vice President of Production, Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey

Moderator:
Elise Buck, Director of Sales & Marketing, Mail Bag / Barton Cotton

The 2011 New York Nonprofit Conference takes place August 17 – 18 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in New York City. We hope to see you there! Register today.

• Key trends underway in institutional, annual fund, major gift and technology-driven fundraising
• Techniques, print and media top professionals use to spot and act on these trends
• How national and regional data can be used as context for local development planning

Joining Harry are speakers Margaret M. Holman, President of Holman Consulting, Inc., and Kathryn Slocum, Fundraising Consultant. The panel will be moderated by Marilyn Hoyt, NonProfit Consultant.

To take part in this insightful session and a full day of networking and fundraising education, visit the Fund Raising Day website.

Our sister company SankyNet is also getting involved in 2011 Fund Raising Day. In addition to sponsoring FRDNY, SN’s Executive Vice President Paul Habig will be moderating two sessions for the Web, Tech, and Social Media track.

Please join us for all these FRDNY events, and don’t forget to check out the SankyNet table!

Register here.

The 48th annual conference, which is being held in Chicago, Illinois, promises to be an engaging, must-attend event. From March 20-22, 2011, professionals from around the world will join together to attend sessions from highly qualified speakers in the fields of fundraising and philanthropy.

Harry and Paul have been frequent speakers at AFP conferences, last attending the 2010 AFP conference in Baltimore to give a presentation on email fundraising best practices. Together, they bring more than 40 years of experience to share with other fundraising professionals at next year’s AFP conference.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals represents more than 30,000 members in 213 chapters throughout the world, working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education and certification programs. AFP fosters development and growth of fundraising professionals and promotes high ethical standards in the fundraising profession.

We look forward to updating you with more details on Harry and Paul’s presentation as the conference approaches. For more information on how you can register for the 2011 AFP International Conference on Fundraising, please visit the AFP Conference homepage.

This year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference promises the opportunity to make connections and gain insight through Communications, IT Staff, Program, Fundraising, and Leadership sessions. The 2011 Plenary speakers are Dan Heath, co-author of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, and Dr. Moira Gunn, host of NPR’s Tech Nation and BioTech Nation.

Richard Castera, our technology director and lead web developer, had this to say about last year’s conference: “NTEN was a fantastic opportunity to meet with people interested in helping one another by sharing knowledge and success stories. It also helped us spark innovative ideas in fundraising and technology for our clients and future projects. I’ll attend every year!”

Our team has benefited greatly from attending the Nonprofit Technology Conference over the years, and now we’re taking our involvement one step further by sponsoring NTC 2011. We hope to see you in Washington, DC from March 17-19. You can also attend NTC online! Find out how to register here.

Check out our ad for the event by clicking on the thumbnail – do you know what a Sanky is?

Our client Freedom from Hunger, which has reached out to over 14 million people through its proven combination of microfinance and education, is one of those organizations. You can read Freedom from Hunger President Chris Dunford’s take on microfinance in India and around the world at his Hunger Blog.

First let’s dispel some common misconceptions about the service itself. Some believe it to be another social networking platform such as Facebook but that’s not entirely true. Twitter is actually generally used as an informational tool and less as a social networking service, but that’s widely up for debate and not what this article is about. Twitter is a hybrid between a blog and a social network, and while it does have some of those components, it was originally intended to be a micro-blogging service. It has evolved from its inception to much more.

Recently, uses of the service range from posting updates about what’s going on in one’s personal life to using it as a customer service portal. The blog aspect is what allows users to chronicle 140 character “tweets” that are publicly viewable on their profile and shared among followers. One of the social networking features of Twitter is allowing people to “follow” each other and become part of each other’s Twitter conversations. Your followers can then also “retweet” your messages to their own followers.

So why use it?

CULTIVATION AND ENGAGEMENT
As an organization, it’s your duty to engage and cultivate your constituents. Communication allows you to achieve this. Sure email and direct mail work great as communication tools, but remember, social media is about conversation as well and not just about sharing. You’ll get much better results if you take the time to actually engage and garner constituents using several mediums.

IT’S IN THE NUMBERS
According to an ExactTarget study, U.S. Twitter users in April 2010 were far more likely than general Internet users to post to forums (75% vs. 25%), post to blogs (72% vs. 14%), comment on blogs (70% vs. 23%) and post ratings/reviews (61% vs. 20%). Those are some big numbers to ignore. Sharing a compelling message, and having it spread virally across several networks of websites to reach existing and potential constituents, is a powerful tool to have in your fundraising arsenal.

Twitter’s growth has been phenomenal! It now has 175 million registered users, which is up from 145 million users in September. That means the startup added around 30 million users in less than two months; Twitter has added 70 million users since April (Techcrunch). It should be no surprise that people now spend more time on social networking sites than email.

INCREASED VISIBILITY
Search engines index your tweets since they are publicly viewable and accessible by anyone on the Internet. If you post tweets containing keywords about your mission or the great things that your organization is doing, there’s a good chance search engines will display them in search results when your keywords are contained within them. So not only are you reaching a wide array of audiences, but you’re making great strides in your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts as well!

So how do I use it?

CREATING AN ACCOUNT
Well the first thing you’ll want to do is create an account, and did I mention it’s free? You’ll need an email address and a username. Remember to pick a name that closely matches your organization, and if that’s not available, try something that’s close enough to your mission. This will help in your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts as well.

Once logged in, you’ll see that Twitter has a very easy to use interface. There is nothing intimidating about it at all. You’ll see there’s a nice big text box to post updates similar to Facebook. The difference is in the methods which Twitter provides you to post updates. You’re limited to 140 characters of text to share with your followers. This is great because it allows you to post concise, digestible messages.

TWEETING
You’ll want to moderately post quality updates every day. There isn’t an exact science to this yet, but, they should be unique, provide information and include links in the form of calls to action when necessary. The velocity and quantity of your tweets is something that you’ll want to pay special attention to as posting too often could be considered as spam, so it’s not encouraged as followers may decide to “un-follow” you. The end goal is not to just broadcast information but to consume it as well. That means getting your followers involved in your campaigns by asking them questions and providing feedback.

RETWEETING
Retweeting is how Twitter users re-post and share interesting tweets from people they are following. When you retweet someone’s tweet, it’s posted on your profile to be seen by your followers. One usually does this to give credit to the author for sharing an interesting post or link.

TWEETING AND SHARING LINKS
When tweeting and including a link, it’s standard to use a URL shortening service such as http://bit.ly to shorten your URLs since you’re limited to the amount of characters that you can post. There are several URL shortening services on the internet today but, Bit.ly seems to be the most favored because of its wide use and statistics it provides on links clicked.

USE OF HASH TAGS (#)
Twitter hash tags are a great tool for finding, following and participating in topical discussions. This is kind of like tagging your post or tweet. You can create a hash tag by simply adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword as you write your tweet (for example, if I were an organization working with hunger, I would post something like, “You can help end world #hunger by participating in this poll http://bit.ly/df3Rs.”

BUILDING FOLLOWERS
Building steady followers is something that fluctuates. It can be analogous to real life and how we establish friendships with real people. It can be a slow process as people are getting to know you and your tweets. Followers can grow exponentially as well when your message, a blog post or campaign becomes viral. Here are some tips to help you build your relationships.

• Use http://search.twitter.com to find industry leaders or other organizations that are involved in the same causes as you and follow them. This will let them know that you’re on Twitter and they could potentially retweet a post to their followers that can garner more followers for you. This is usually done on Fridays on what’s called Follow Fridays. If you see a post with the hash tag ‘#FF’ that’s what it means. This will also provide you some insight as to what they are posting and doing as an organization.
• Twitter has ‘Direct Messages’ that are similar to an email inbox. Prepare a predefined direct message thanking people for following your organization and including links to find additional information about your mission as well. This is good Twitter etiquette.
• Retweet for Good Karma. When you retweet a post, you’re re-posting someone else’s status to your followers, and it can make a Twitter user’s day!
• Always make sure to thank people who retweet your posts; your “@mentions” as it’s called, and reply to everyone who addresses a tweet to you.

Engaging your Audience

TURNING FOLLOWERS INTO RELATIONSHIPS
One of the hardest things to do as a fundraiser is to maintain relationships. In Twitter, you’ll want to keep the flow of communication open. Don’t treat your constituents like constituents. Get involved and present yourself as real person. Interact with them, and let them know what your organization is doing. You need to provide a human experience behind this communication spectrum.

KEEPING UP WITH UPDATES
Keeping the communication lines open can require a full-time staff person. That’s why we encourage our clients to use some of the tools that are recommended in this article and some that we’ve developed in-house at SankyNet. For instance, one of our many tools is a program that will automatically submit posts to Social Networks when you add a new page, news article or blog post to your website. This is great for organizations with smaller staffs but should not be completely substituted; rather, it should be used in conjunction with hands-on tweeting.

WHAT SHOULD I TWEET?
Thinking about what to tweet about can be challenging at times. You’ll want to tweet about topics of substance or things that you would find useful if you were reading them. I recommend you start tweeting a combination of the following to help:

• Links to your presentations or videos;
• Mentions of attending or speaking at events;
• Announcing the publication of your newsletter’s latest issue, along with a brief description and a link to the online version;
• Reporting industry and company related interests;
• The impact your organization is making (everyone likes a happy story);
• A contest to increase the viral effect of your fundraising efforts.

In addition to the tools listed in the table at right, there are also several tools that provide additional functionality compared to Twitter’s native platform that you might be interested in using. They include additional features such as multiple accounts, managing other social networking accounts, scheduled posts, etc., all under one dashboard. Some are better than others. I’ve listed some of them below for you to try and find which works best for your organization.

Richard Castera, our talented Web Technology Director, recently wrote an article for the Journal of the DMA Nonprofit Federation entitled “Twitter: Fundraising, Engagement & Tools.” Richard makes a great case for why more organizations should learn how to use Twitter to share information, engage with their audience and fundraise – and gives an easy, step-by-step guide on how to get started.

The 48th annual conference, which is being held in Chicago, Illinois, promises to be an engaging, must-attend event. From March 20-22, 2011, professionals from around the world will join together to attend sessions from highly qualified speakers in the fields of fundraising and philanthropy.

Harry and Paul have been frequent speakers at AFP conferences, last attending the 2010 AFP conference in Baltimore to give a presentation on email fundraising best practices. Together, they bring more than 40 years of experience to share with other fundraising professionals at next year’s AFP conference.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals represents more than 30,000 members in 213 chapters throughout the world, working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education and certification programs. AFP fosters development and growth of fundraising professionals and promotes high ethical standards in the fundraising profession.

We look forward to updating you with more details on Harry and Paul’s presentation as the conference approaches. For more information on how you can register for the 2011 AFP International Conference on Fundraising, please visit the AFP Conference homepage.

SankyNet will develop fundraising goals and strategy for NYPL that will be implemented through new online campaigns. In addition, we will provide consulting services to the NYPL Development Office and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to help engage Friends of the Library, NYPL’s members, with special appeal emails and renewal appeals. SankyNet will also provide technical support for all online campaign aspects as well as further optimizing the website’s fundraising software performance.

We are looking forward to developing some exciting new campaigns for NYPL as well as building upon existing appeals that have kept supporters dedicated to the advancement of knowledge. The New York Public Library was founded in 1895 and currently serves 16 million patrons annually.

To learn more about the New York Public Library’s history and mission, visit nypl.org.

Join Paul and the panel on Wednesday, September 29th for an interactive discussion about optimizing your organization’s use of online technology in order to reach out and sustain relationships with previous and prospective donors.

This session will explore the following topics:

• Promoting your organization online: use email campaigns and E-newsletters to reach new and existing supporters of your organization
• Electronic prospect research: use the internet to uncover rich data sources and build profiles of top prospects
• Online donor recruitment: use website appeals to create donor interest
• Online donor renewal: use online renewals to lower costs and increase response rates
• Volunteer mobilization: use the web to build strong relationships with your volunteers
• Donor management systems: use donor management systems to keep in touch with, and reach out to, record numbers of donors
• Online event management: use software to plan, market, and coordinate your events

The need to connect with donors in new ways is becoming increasingly apparent with the explosion of online technology, and visitors to the panel will be encouraged to apply the expert strategies discussed to their own organizations.

Paul has been involved in fundraising for 12 years and is an expert in integrating offline and online communications for nonprofits. He has developed Internet marketing and fundraising strategies and multi-faceted integrated campaigns for more than 50 non-profit organizations.

“Online Fundraising: Harnessing Technology to Build and Maintain Relationships” will take place on Wednesday, September 29th from 9:15 AM-12:30 PM at the John Hancock Hotel & Conference Center in Boston. Visit the Center for Nonprofit Success website for more information on how you can attend this and other Fundraising Summit panels.