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April, 2007
Welcome
to "Karen's Fundraising Tips." April's newsletter
(which you can read in 3-5 minutes . . . tops) includes even more tips for strengthening your nonprofit website and driving more traffic to it.
With regard to my newsletter in general - on the second Tuesday of
each month I share tips, news items, and resources all tailored for
the nonprofit world and folks directly responsible for raising funds.
My goal is to make your job a little easier and to help you increase
your donor contributions.
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What's your biggest challenge? What would you like to see in my newsletter? How can I help you?
Send me a short note with one or two
of your biggest challenges. I'll share suggestions on making them less
of a challenge in a future issue. Just send an email to
info@pkscribe.com and I'll take it from there.
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“Sell” With Your Nonprofit Website - Part 2
[477 words]
Always, always, always make it extremely easy for your visitors and donors. Easy to find information, easy to read (e.g. colors, minimal moving graphics - if any, avoid reverse font); and easy to navigate.
And remember, people get lost if there's too much information on any page of your web site. Plus it looks cluttered and confusing. And the confused mind says "no." Here are a few examples, in my humble opinion, of how NOT to do it:
A web site that's easy to use is critical to "selling" your mission. Now what are some tips and ideas for driving more free "organic" traffic (a.k.a...potential donors) to your web site?
- Inbound links. Search engines love 'em. Returning to last month's example (March 2007 issue) what inbound links could Sotterley Plantation - a nonprofit organization - have on their site?
- State and national historic organizations
- Tourism bureaus and Chamber of Commerce organizations
- Anyone they have a business "partnership" with; who do they team with?
- Education is part of their mission with programs for students so they could include links from area schools and colleges.
- Have a link from a construction/maintenance contractor's site to Sotterley Plantation. Ideal for a contractor who's done a great job on your historical facilities to showcase their work. (And you can have reciprocal links to their site.)
- Article marketing. I talked about this in the January 2007 issue. Submit articles to online databases such as EzineArticles.com. Sotterley Plantation, for example, could write about any part of the region’s history for the same time period their historic site is focused on. You’ll have a link to your site in the author’s resource box and quality articles get picked up, resulting in inbound links to your site plus more exposure.
- Post an archive of the articles you’ve written and encourage other web sites to re-publish them.
- SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Briefly, begin with keyword research. Then gently populate your site content by smoothly incorporating keywords into the copy with your copywriting wizardry. Remember, you’ll hurt your ratings if you over do it! Then also edit your “meta” tags and wisely incorporate keywords into them.
- Update your site with fresh quality content at least weekly.
And if you're not extremely confident you're thinking like a donor, then get them involved as you evaluate and edit your site. As a fundraising professional part of your job is to "sell" your mission. A great web site is a valuable tool worthy of your attention.
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Just for fun - a quote for you
"Seek joy in what you give; not in what you get." (Source Unknown)
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Hot Tip of the Month - 2007 Bridge Conference
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I’m going to the 2007 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference again this year. And I strongly recommend you make room in your calendar to attend it as well.
To quote the organizers:
"The Association of Fundraising Professionals/DC is again joining with the Direct Marketing Association of Washington for one MEGA CONFERENCE! We continue to Merge for Strength!
www.bridgeconf.org
You’ll be glad you invested your resources to attend. Any beginning, intermediate and advanced fundraising and direct marketing professional will get tons of tips, resources, and "how to" information to make your life easier.
The three-day Bridge Conference features over 75 exciting sessions covering cutting-edge direct marketing and fundraising strategies.
- Learn the latest trends and techniques in fundraising and direct marketing.
- Hear from national and international speakers on a wide-range of topics from direct response to major gifts fundraising, multi-channel media to sustainer campaigns.
- Reconnect with industry colleagues.
If you’re fundraiser, direct marketer or association professional, this is one conference you can't afford to miss!"
See you there.
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Feel free to forward my newsletter to a colleague. Plus, here's how they can sign-up to receive it directly:
1. Just click on this link,
info@pkscribe.com. In the email message
to me, please include the first name and email address of your
colleague. I'll take care of signing them up.
Or ...
2. You can sign them up directly on my website by following this link:
"Karen's Fundraising
Tips"
Thanks for joining me and until next time . . . sell your nonprofit mission on your website by driving lots of organic traffic to it, and also by making it very easy for your donors to read and use.
All the best,
Karen Zapp, Fundraising & Sales Copywriter
Perceptive Karen
P.S. Have a project coming up soon? I’d love to explore the possibilities with you.
Call or send me an email today. I look forward to helping your mission prosper!
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