All Posts

The term “curb cuts” taught me a lesson. I was a young reporter covering the building boom in several suburbs, which sometimes entailed hours of sitting in planning commission meetings. Glamorous, for sure. One commission used “curb cuts” as if it were as common a term as sidewalks or streets. (Spoiler alert: Developers pour, or at least used to pour, continuous concrete curbs in a development, then remove the sections in front of homes or businesses.) I didn’t think much abo

Here’s a short list of things we KNOW we have but can’t ever seem to find: That needle you use to inflate a basketball The tube of Super Glue you swear you bought just last month The other sock That great idea you had for a story, social media post or project I can’t help you with the first three. Some mysteries we cannot solve. But the great idea? Make sure you write it down somewhere, whether it is on a scrap of paper, a Word document or planning app. If you write it, you’l

Why do people read your nonprofit organization’s external newsletter? The reason seems obvious. Donors want to know more about your organization, right? Not really. While some may be seeking organizational enlightenment, most of your supporters already know what you do. Why, then, are they reading? They want to find out if their gift made a difference. Understanding this is critical for those charged with creating outward-facing newsletters, which fall into the “report” step

Nonprofits need style guidelines. They don’t need to create them from scratch. The best practices I’ve seen involve first identifying style or punctuation rules specific to an organization – it might be an acronym, an industry term or capitalization of a word that is normally lower case – while relegating the bulk of the determinations to a popular communications stylebook such as the Associated Press Stylebook used for journalism, PR and marketing. The downside is your staff

Do your nonprofit’s photos accurately represent its work? I’m going to assume your images reflect the demographics of those you serve. Most organizations do a fine job on that front. What I’m focused on here are the types of photos you use in print materials, social media posts and digital newsletters. Do you show people engaged in the work made possible by our donors? Or do you feature a lot of static group shots that aren’t visually interesting? Let’s be honest. The only fo

Let me help dispel a media relations myth. It goes something like this: “We get a lot of news coverage because you know people in the media.”  Or, to me, a former journalist, “You have all these contacts because you used to work in the media.” Hogwash. First, journalists aren’t there to do you a favor because they know you. They want to tell a good story, and I guarantee it is not the 13 th work anniversary of your vice president of finance. You want coverage? Pitch stories

I recently re-listened to two of my favorite albums, The Clash’s sneering, punk-powered ‘London Calling’ and Steely Dan’s jazz-infused, technically flawless ‘Aja.’ Both routinely make lists of the best albums of all time. That’s where the similarities end. While they were released just a couple years apart, the albums couldn’t be more different. Staccato blasts vs. cool piano vibes. Angry lyrics vs. subtle lines. It got me thinking about audiences. In the nonprofit communicat