Orion Grassroots Network

Resources Blog: Communications

Women & Worldchanging: marketing your mission to the fairer sex

posted Feb 5, 2010

Audio of our conference call with Lisa Witter, co-author of "The She Spot" is now available here (mp3). Great conversation! Why focus your communications on women? Consider:

• women vote & volunteer more often than men (and so are more politically active)
• women control more than half of society's wealth
• nearly all issues are also women's issues
• broadening marketing efforts to connect strongly with women as well as men can be very successful

"The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them" is a guide that offers organizations key recommendations for leveraging the untapped power of women for positive change through fundraising, advocacy and the ballot box.

See also the authors' great blog, www.shespotter.com which follows developing trends in this field and discusses the book at greater depth.

New Grassroots Jobsource Poster available

posted Nov 5, 2009

Click here to download, print, and display the latest poster of new internships and jobs available via our Grassroots Jobsource: GrassrootsJobsourcePoster.pdf

Go here to view the Grassroots Jobsource main page.

New Service: discounted PR help

posted Oct 26, 2009

Let It Be Known Public Relations which specializes in nonprofit clients is offering 30% off its services for Orion Grassroots Network members. John can help your group gain increased media exposure to increase name recognition and exposure for causes, fundraising efforts, and more. He's available on full-time or project-by-project basis to groups anywhere. Nonprofit references are available upon request. Services offered:

• Writing press materials including press releases, calendar listings, media pitches, Web site content and bylined articles • Building detailed and targeted media lists • Pitching story ideas to the media and setting up interviews • Pre-interview media training and monitoring of phone and in-person interviews • Speaking opportunity research • Gathering hard copies/tapes of all media placements

Contact: 617-872-1875 (ask for John) or ., and ensure that you mention Orion to get the 30% off.

Nonprofit management webinars: save 30% on sessions via Orion

posted Sep 22, 2009

The Society for Nonprofit Organizations has announced its fall webinar lineup, here. They are solid webinars with top experts, and cost $99 for non-SNPO members, but the Network is sponsoring them this Fall so you can enjoy them for just $69, a 30% savings. Topics include:

• 10/7 Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times, with Kim Klein, Klein & Roth Consulting
• 10/28 Marketing & PR on a Shoestring, with Hannah Brazee Gregory, Shoestring Creative Group
• 11/18 Surviving the Meltdown without Having One, with Katya Andresen, Network for Good
• 12/2 Mobilizing Volunteers in the Face of Budget Cuts, with Susan Ellis, President, Energize Inc.

Use the links above to register for the 30% savings. The first one with grassroots fundraising guru Kim Klein may be the key one, but all are solid. Kim founded Grassroots Fundraising Journal, which Network members can subscribe to for $30 via OGN, a 25-50% savings: for more info and to subscribe, go here.

Ad agency scams

posted Sep 16, 2009

A recent WWF ad features a thousand airliners crashing into New York City, to make a point about the real threats the city faces due to climate change. It was done pro bono by an ad agency who, when they're bored or short of work will approach nonprofits like yours with the ad agency award scam system, wherein agencies approach nonprofits and offer to do free work for them. The work is specifically geared to win awards, not help the nonprofit. They place their ads so they're eligible for awards, but usually in out-of-the-way places. Then they submit the work, win awards, and get more work.

WWF had to denounce the ad, and in fairness probably didn't know anything about it. Don't let it happen to you! Other scams in this vein include:

Our Creatives are Bored Scam. Because all they ever flog is credit cards and phone plans, they offer a nonprofit free work and then go crazy with their brand. When the nonprofit asks why they disfigured their logo, the agencies say 'but we did it for free,' pout, look hurt and say nonprofits don't understand branding.

We Don't Have Enough Work Scam. They'll offer to do some free work for a nonprofit and then use that to leverage more paying work by pointing out what nice chaps they are because they assist 'good causes.' When they become busy the free work will end up at the back of the queue. When the nonprofit asks for a status report they'll tell them they haven't got time to work on the project anymore. When the nonprofit expresses dismay at the time they have invested for no return, the agencies look hurt, pout and say the nonprofit doesn't understand the real world.

What absolutely must go on your home page

posted Sep 3, 2009

Katya Andresen has a handy new list of the 8 things that, as a nonprofit marketing guru, she thinks should be on your site.

To twitter, or not?

posted Jun 24, 2009

Paraphrasing heavily from a useful article by Dorie Clark for MassNonprofit.org, nonprofits focused on advocacy can use Twitter to mobilize constituents and educate followers about their work, send them to their site, etc. And nonprofits are using it much more than business and academia. However, 60% of Twitter users give it up within a month—both nonprofits and people who might follow our nonprofits.

Before setting up an account of your own, consider:

1. Do supporters want to hear from you at least once a day? If your information isn’t time-sensitive or that interesting (“We hired a new bookkeeper!”), then save it for your website or an e-newsletter.

2. Do your supporters actually use Twitter? If your members are tech-savvy advocates, then keeping your street cred intact may necessitate using Twitter. But if they lack access to the Internet or “smart phones,” or many of your supporters aren’t comfortable online, you may be better off waiting to see if this is a fad or a long-term trend.

3. Who will tweet? Setting up your account and gaining followers is great, but only if you’ve designated someone to handle the updates. Make sure you identify a responsible staffer at the outset.

4. What will you say? Tweeting is a commitment. Just as any viable blog should be updated at least two to three times per week, your organization should plan to use Twitter daily. Do you have enough to say?

Full article here.

Mountaintop removal activism resources

posted May 13, 2009

The Network's phone call today with mountaintop removal activists Maria Gunnoe and Judy Bonds referenced several actions to take to help bring this practice to an end. Websites that are particularly helpful and educational are:

ilovemountains.org - where you can learn where the coal which powers your home or office comes from, and whether it's from MTR, and ohvec.org - Ohio Valley Envi Coalition's web site shares suggested actions

Both Maria and Judy also suggested writing letters to President Obama and West Virginia's two Senators (Byrd and Rockefeller) and Rep Rahall, even if you live outside of WV, because they really need to hear that people in places where the MTR coal is used are against this practice.

Storytelling and memes audio

posted Jan 5, 2009

The Network's conference call on using memes and stories to make change, with Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough of smartmeme, is now available here.

Whose media?

posted Nov 13, 2008

Whose Media? Our Media! is a publication from smartMeme & the SPIN Project. Its subtitle is Strategic Communications Tools to Reform, Reclaim, and Revolutionize the Media, and that pretty much says it all. It walks one through the tools of strategic communications – planning, framing, messaging, creative campaign tactics — and offers special spotlights on digital media/Web 2.0 and funding. Download it for free, here.

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