ONDEMAND - Brandraising: Raising Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications
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Title: Brandraising; Raising Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications
Presenter: Sarah Durham, the author of “Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications”
Duration: 90 Minutes
Summary
As you expand the tools you use to communicate online and off and staff’s roles change, how do you ensure you’re all speaking with one voice? Based on Sarah Durham’s book “Brandraising: How to Raise Money and Increase Visibility through Smart Communications”, (Jossey-Bass, 2010) this session will link vision, mission, branding and beyond, with a particular focus on websites, social media, and other online channels. Sarah will discuss the relationship between a strategic plan and branding, how to brand strategically, what messaging means, and how to express more clearly your organizations mission in day-to-day communication.
For further reading about the implementation of “brandraising” techniques, check out Sarah’s new Green Room article - “Using Brandraising Principles to Hire Better Candidates”.Participants will learn
- An understanding of how online communications connect to other channels (on air, in print, in person, mobile)
- How to use positioning and personality to help keep all your work on track
- How to speak with a unified organizational voice across all channels, in all tools
Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Development Directors, or one with an influential role in his/her organization’s communications
Skill Level: Intermediate; Advanced
Cost: “>$99 - Click here to purchase OK Online Training + Book if you are an Employer
(you must login to your employer account to purchase)
$99 - Click here to purchase OK Online Training + Book if you are a job seeker
(you must login to your jobseeker account to purchase)
- Books are fulfilled and shipped (UPS Ground) by publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- For orders placed more than ten business days in advance of webinar, recipients should receive book prior to webinar event date
- For orders placed less than ten business days prior to webinar, recipients should receive book within 5-7 business days after webinar event date.
Faculty Bio
In 1994, Sarah Durham escaped from the advertising, design and marketing world(s) she’d grown up in and started Big Duck. While she’d learned a lot, it was time to put communications best-practices to work for a better reason: to help nonprofits increase their visibility, raise money, and move the needle on their missions. Today, Big Duck is the leading communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits. Their clients include local, regional, national and international organizations such as The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, American Jewish World Service, and the New York City Charter School Center.
Sarah is a total nonprofit communications nerd. She was named a top fundraiser under 40 by Fundraising Success Magazine in 2006, and one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company magazine in 2010. She’s a regular speaker at Association of Fundraising Professionals and Nonprofit Technology Network conferences.
The author of “Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications” (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2009), Sarah teaches aspiring nonprofit communications nerds at NYU’s Wagner School and at the Athena Center for Women’s Leadership at Barnard College. She regularly gives workshops and webinars to anyone who’ll listen. Sarah Tweets @BigDuckSarah; please join her in conversation there.
About the book
In my book, “Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Money and Increase Visibility through Smart Communications” (Jossey-Bass 2010), I outline two tried-and-true marketing concepts most nonprofit staff people have never heard of: positioning and personality, and explain how they can help your fundraising, advocacy, and outreach. But these concepts are useful in other areas beyond external relations, too. For instance, they can help hiring managers and job seekers alike make better matches, thus reducing job dissatisfaction and high turnover rates.
“Positioning” is the big idea you want people to think of when they think of your organization. A day after I’ve read the newsletter or visited the website, attended an event or connected with your organization in some other way, what am I really going to remember? Chances are, it won’t be the names of all your programs- it’ll be something very high-level. Maybe I’ll remember that you do great work helping green up poor neighborhoods. Or that you run a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.
“Personality” is the tone and style with which your organization communicates. Is your organization credible, academic, research-based, and visible, or are you more grassroots, friendly, accessible, local? Both personalities are valid- and there are thousands of attributes you might select to describe your organization besides these. The personality of your organization might, if you managed it deliberately, impact the words you choose as you write communications pieces like newsletters or direct mail, decide if and how to use social media, and more.
But what about using positioning and personality in an HR function? Chances are, if you read the Green Room, you’re either hiring or looking- so let’s look at how these concepts apply to both of those scenarios.
Positioning It’s a given if you’re hiring that you’re looking for the best possible candidate. But how can you tell if someone’s truly serious about and right for the job they’re applying for?
The most serious applicants will distinguish themselves by communicating the big idea of why they’re the right candidate for the job in several ways. They’re likely to:
If you’re job hunting, give some serious thought to what makes you stand out while remaining authentic. Don’t be afraid to put your career objectives out there- and make a case for why you’re the best candidate that’s specific. Often times, outlining what you aren’t is as distinguishing as saying what you are: why waste time interviewing if the job’s not going to be what you’re looking for anyway?
Personality
Every hiring manager considers how well a job candidate will fit in or work with others. But few consider how the personality of a job candidate might reflect the organization’s personality more broadly or publically.
For instance, if your nonprofit aims to be diverse, warm, friendly, inclusive, and local, it’d make sense to hire staff who are at least some of those things too. I’ve walked into community-based organizations that pride themselves on serving their communities with kindness and dignity only to be scowled at by a gruff receptionist who doesn’t make eye contact. That’s a good example of a personality disconnect between the organization and the individual in the job.
Similarly, if you’re a job seeker, consider how your personality might relate to or reflect that of the nonprofit you’re interviewing with. If you’re a free spirit who likes to dress casually, and keep flexible hours, perhaps a more corporate culture won’t be the best fit? Look for an organization that feels like home and your odds of being happy there in the long term are probably greater.
For more on positioning and personality, check out “Brandraising” , or join me in conversation in Twitter by using #brandraising or reaching me @BigDuckSarah.
