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Nonprofit Radio for October 28, 2011: Nine Weeks & A Wake Up: 4 Essentials For Year-End Fundraising & Your Mobile Website

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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My Guests:

Mary Allison
Mary Allison: Nine Weeks & A Wake Up: 4 Essentials For Year-End Fundraising

Mary Allison, principal with One Accord, helps you out in the final stretch toward year end. We’ll talk about segmenting and messaging; social media and other online strategies; direct mail; and getting volunteers to pitch in. Her ideas can be executed quickly to get you the help you need before December 31.

 

Scott Koegler
Scott Koegler: Your Mobile Website

Our tech contributor, Scott Koegler, the editor of Nonprofit Technology News, breaks down whether you need a mobile site; how to develop one; and what to include to make yours spiffy and sophisticated.

 

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Here is a link to the podcast: 065: Nine Weeks & A Wake Up: 4 Essentials For Year-End Fundraising & Your Mobile Website
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Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent i’m your aptly named host last week, and i hope you were with me. It was so you want to be a consultant. Hank goldstein, author of so you want to be a consultant and a partner at the orem group, offered insight into the ups and downs the ins and outs of consulting to non-profits when should you start thinking about consulting? What personality type does it take? And how much should you charge? Also, last week next-gen charity two thousand eleven conference co founder jonah helper was with me to talk about this year’s conference on november seventeenth and eighteenth in new york city on a reminder that my show is a media sponsor of next-gen charity will be there doing interviews of speakers in mid november this week. Nine weeks and a wake up four essentials for year end fund-raising mary allison, principal with oneaccord helps you out in the final stretch toward year end, she and i will talk about segmenting and messaging, social media and other online strategies, direct mail and getting volunteers to pitch in all her ideas could be executed quickly to get you the help you need before december thirty first and our regular tech contributor, scott koegler, will be with me. The editor of non-profit technology news. He and i are going to talk about your mobile website. Do you need one? Should you have one? How do you develop one? And what should you include to make yours spiffy and sophisticated between the guests? Tony’s take to my block post this week. Let’s help kelly for pete’s sake. I’m using my blogged this week to answer a common question. Asked by small shop fundraisers, we’re live tweeting the show this week. Use hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us on twitter. Right now, we take a break, and after the break, i’ll be joined by mary allison nine weeks and wake up four essentials for year end fund-raising so stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police crawl are said to want to nine, six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Hey, are you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Welcome back to the show. I’m joined now by mary allison. Mary is a partner with oneaccord she has over twenty five years of senior executive leadership and organizational development experience in the non profit and corporate sectors she’s with us from washington state, and i’m very pleased that her expertise on year end fund-raising brings her to the show. Mary allison, welcome pleasure to have you thank you for joining us from washington state. You bad? Glad to be here. So mary want to think about things that people can do in the next nine weeks and a day before december thirty first, but even though there is a short time left, they still shouldn’t be putting out the same message to everybody. Is that right? Natural that’s, right? Absolutely. You need to tailor a plan of engagement for each of your segments that you’re that you’re talking with and what what are those different segments? How should you look at your constituents? Well, it’s important to know that one size does not fit all. So when you’re talking about your segments, you’re looking really to engage the prospects for the first time givers, those given events, those that are major donors and so on. Each each non-profit has its own database, and they need to be really looking intentionally with who’s in there and how to reach those people at this year in time, because we know that the dear friend letters just don’t do well, that’s, exactly right there, really? Five key to success in the urine strategy. Each of your segment seemed to taylor. You’re looking your materials. Taylor. Your message, taylor. The invitation to give and absolutely taylor the follow-up. You know you need to be thinking about how your donor as well as need be thinking about tailoring the timing, be conscious of the calendar and be intentional with your activity as it relates to that calendar. All right, let’s, look at the different segments in this first we’re going to looking at four essentials, you’re just naming five things that go along with the segmenting and the messaging to those segments, but so just not to confuse people were going to be talking about four essentials. Excuse me overall for your end fund-raising the prospects you mentioned first prospects what? Uh, let’s see? Well, let’s, identify that for people. What do you mean by prospects? First? Those air people that have some interests or alignment with your mission is often that you’ve perhaps purchase a list from a list provider and that you know that they have some affinity to the work that you want to do, and you want to invite them to get to know you better and those for those folks. You want to have a really well prepared case of why baizman teo engage with your organization? Why it makes sense in their life. So it’s really a get to know you and in a welcoming inn and would you approach them with this message? Bye u s mail or e mail? Or or how? Yeah, that’s a great question, tony, in this day and age there’s so many ways to connect every constituency are as using all of the ways of social media and snail mail in different ways, and you’ve really got to be aware of how people want to engage. And right now, many of your long time of donors are givers have been really been using male in the lodge launch fashion, but the female is also really becoming very, very important for our younger givers, and we need to be able teo, meet them where they are and invite them in. But so what are we going to do with this? This pool of prospects as we go down the spectrum from prospects and first time givers and event givers, etcetera, but for the prospects, how do we know how they want to be engaged? They’re just prospects. Well, that’s, your list providers could help you with that knowing where these folks are wanting to be met and there’s also, you know, multiple studies out there right now, you’ve really got to be hitting your creating your public awareness on the motor on many, many levels right now, you’ve really got to the had the capacity to show up where where your donors are are also been engaging, and that means being on the email means being in social media, having a facebook page utilizing your length in it is a lot of work, but it really has to happen because that’s, where we’re all using multiple channels to do our research tto learn about organizations in to determine if we want to engage, all right, and we know that your print and your online should be consistent. We’re going to talk about that shortly when we after we talked about the different segments of constituents, but you mentioned that for approaching prospects need to have your case. Does that mean you have to have ah, four color printed piece that lines that outlines? Why someone who’s a prospect should become a donor? Well, you absolutely have to have meaning. You need to be able to relate to tell. Tell your story in a way, and depending on the organization again, you need to tailor that message as it makes. Sense to who your organization is now, their organizations out there that are very large not-for-profits that absolutely conduce very big and showy pieces, but there are so many other small not-for-profits doing great work where a big showpiece does not make sense to their mission or to their budget still need to do an intentional piece that speaks from the heart, and that really showcases the investment. The return on the investment that donor will make to the mission of that organization and that could be a single letter was just a wonderful picture of either the population that you’re serving or whatever your mission is, but it needs to be warm and inviting and appropriate, and we always want to keep in mind that the audience for for this show is small and midsize non-profit so i appreciate the advice for what small shops khun do and how just a heartfelt message can be very, very meaningful does this doesn’t have to be a four color, you know, blow out brochure, absolutely, and infirmity not-for-profits their donors would be questioning why, where they would have such a showy piece if they are really working from a mission based. Very small financial base. They’re going. They’re going to want to see that. That there, that the enough for-profit are using those dollars appropriately, making sense in trimming costs, wherever they can marry. We’re going to take a break, and when, when we returned, you and i will keep talking about these different prospect pools, our constituent pools, i should say, different constituent pools and the messages to each one, and then we’ll carry on, talk about other ideas for nine weeks and wake up four essentials for year end. Fund-raising i know mary will stay with me, and i hope you will, too e-giving intending to do getting ding, ding, ding, ding, you’re listening to the talking alternate network, you e-giving xero you could are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping huntress people be better business people. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics. Politically expressed buy-in, montgomery, taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. If you have big ideas and an average budget, tune into the way above average. Tony martin. Any non-profit radio ideo. I’m jonah helper from next-gen charity. Dahna welcome back, it’s nine weeks and wake up until december thirty first. So my guest, mary allison and i are talking about four essentials for your year end fund-raising mary let’s, talk a little more about some of these different constituent cools. You mentioned the first time donors, people who have given just once what what should your year end message be to that group? Well, you know, tony, to any of these groups, there needs to be a strong message of appreciation, so you need to make sure that through any correspondence that you have that you recognize that these donors have some interest in your organization, you appreciate that interest for all those that have already given your first time givers, your event givers, your major donors make sure you have an important message embedded in the in the appeal that lets them know how much you appreciate what they’ve done for you in the past and what’s your goal for those first time donors that the one time donors, well, you’re really looking for them to either step up the amount that they’ve given in the past or to really consider becoming a more annual giver, perhaps. You could set up a re occurring opportunity where they make a commitment to provide twenty five dollars a month every month of the year their opportunities like that, what you’re looking for, those donors to really have ah, an ongoing relationship with you that shows up ideally monthly and at least at least more than once a year and let’s say now for these one time donors that you do have an email address because hopefully you’ve you’ve acquired that when when they made their first gift, so should you approach them by email and also by u s mail, you know, for those that have the capacity to ask their donors how they would like to be met. That’s the best way to go ask them what how they would most like to hear from you that and if you don’t have that opportunity or they don’t engage in that way, you need to really be aware of what your mailing both snail mail, if you will and email and then track and see how the how the a donor responds to you, they’ll give you their own tips by their having a check show up in the mail by getting online and perhaps uh, uh, putting making a donation online or perhaps even calling in and and offering up a credit card number there. But you really need to look at those hands that they’re giving you and then come back in the make a conscious decision on how you want to proceed with engagement. How about the people who already our monthly donors, what should your message be to them that they’re already giving very regularly? Yes. And in this day and age, what, you really want to do it again? Offer them the case for support. Let them know how, how meaningful their donut donations have been and how that helped the mission and the work that’s being done and asked him if they can perhaps make it a little bit more this year. Are this time around? If they gave twenty five dollars a month last year, maybe they could step up to fifty dollars, this year. But you need to ask them and let them know again how meaningful those donations are to the important work of the mission. All right. And i suppose the people who are your occasional donors, i guess. You want to make them or try to get them to be regular donors. That’s. Exactly. Right. Hopefully that you could move them to that monthly donor group. And then the last one, major donors, people who are already giving. You know, however, your organization defines major for small and midsize shops that maybe five hundred dollars a year over a thousand dollars a year. If people are already giving at that level, what should your year end message be? Well, again, you need thio show your appreciation for them. Let them know that their investment when your organization has been some great great work. And again, you just you did you have to ask it’s taken to step it up a little bit more and so that you could do even more important work and what’s important there, though, tony, is that you need to have that relationship with that major donor all year. So you really need to be able teo offer them the relationship if you will recapture it for them. Let them know how you how you’ve appreciated them throughout the year and ask them if they can continue and prepped. Step it up a little. Bit more this year for the important work. So if people feel that they have not had a good relationship through the year with their major donors, then that sounds like something too set a cz a priority for two thousand twelve and get a really great point. Tony, yes, our are not for-profit organizations really have tio show the love, if you will, all through the years for all their donors, okay, very consistent message. I mean, you know, i asked you about a number of different constituents, and you were consistent throughout thanking them for what they’ve done and asking them to go really just to the next step, like, as you identified so let’s talk, then about using social media properties and an online way said earlier that your your online messaging really needs to be consistent with your your print messaging. Can you say? Well, more about that? Well, you not-for-profits wherever it shows up, it needs to show up with consistency. So you need to really bundle if you will, all of your outreach levers that you’re pulling so that wherever you are when your brand, when your logo when you’re representation, shows up, it’s consistent for anybody who is tapping into it wherever they’re tapping in, and we’ve had a number of guests on the show talk about branding and messaging on dh howto howto determine what your ideal message should be and then make that consistent, but but your advice obviously is across all media. It needs to be consistent. Absolutely. Now, the way that that’s going to the way that you engage might be a little bit different. Certainly social media allows you more opportunity to encourage a kind of back and forth given take almost dialogue, and i think that not-for-profits really need to be taking advantage of that. I have something on your site where your potential donors those that are interested in you, can learn more. Perhaps it’s a survey, perhaps it’s an opinion piece, perhaps it’s a block, but find a way, tio invite more engagement so that you’re pushing and pulling rather than just pushing information. You also want to show people, perhaps by your blogged, or are other social media properties that you’re you’re relevant to what’s what’s happening in the community or in the larger news that’s exactly right there’s so many things that are going on in our world right now and there’s a lot of ways to be really well relevant in to tap into showing your relevant see to your donor base, and you need to take advantage of that wherever you can and in the same time and taking advantage that you also cannot be disingenuous, you need to be opportunistic, showing your relevancy, but not in a way that doesn’t feel appropriate or that could even cloudgood message that you’re trying to get across that that’s probably a pretty fine line because you do want to take advantage of news that is current in the community on the community might be the nation, but a sze yu said, you know, you don’t want to appear inappropriate and trying to exploit news for your own advantage. That’s, exactly right and there’s multiple examples of that in in the world right now. And do you have a moment? I could give you a quick example. Ifyou’re going? Yeah, well, not too long ago. A young a young girl, rachel, back with a nine year old girl up here in my area in bellevue, washington. Unfortunately died in a horrific car accident on i ninety we’ll just prior to her death, she had set up a fund so that for her ninth birthday, uh she asked her friends to donate to a to a charity that she had created. That was teo, uh, create clean water opportunities in africa. We’ll soon after her death. And while her family was still in mourning, uh came to light that there had been this fundez set up, and people began to contribute in her name. And her parents then had the opportunity, if you will, to take this time of morning, and really make it an opportunity of celebration of their daughter’s life too speak to their daughter, and off off also provide an opportunity for people than to donate to this charity. And within six weeks the charity had grown toe one point two. Six million and was providing yeah, water outlets have fifty thousand people in africa. That’s, that’s an incredible and sad coincidence that she had started a charity on died in the car accident. Exactly. And yet there was a very heartwarming heart felt genuine desire from everybody who heard of her story to give. And now there’s been a positive outcome. For that, my guest is mary allison she’s, a partner with oneaccord, which you’ll find at oneaccord partners dot com and we’re talking about nine weeks and a wake up for essentials for year end fund-raising let’s talk about unifying, though you have some really good advice about unifying or tying together print and email. So for instance, we had talked earlier about you said message people where they want to be hurt when where they want to hear from you. But what if it’s a thanks you we want to do that and as many places as possible if it’s a thank you note, tony, great point abs, absolutely. And there are so many ways to do that many not-for-profits will use their year and to again make a personal thank you along those lines and there’s a great way that we can talk about in a minute about how you can use your board and volunteers also do a greatjob in thanking those those people but throughout the course of the year, you know, again is we’re talking about this is what, uh, nine weeks from the day the account down, but again, a lot of these strategies. That you and i are talking about are really things to take to heart for the entire year, so showing those thanks is not just a year end, but it’s around the year and to your point, you know, we also want to thank our folks not only in the letter but also in the email and it’s really a great idea follow-up immediately with an email to someone who’s made a donation so that you’re getting multiple ways to hit them right away with that. Thanks. And in fact, i just made a donation. Tio my college, my university is an alumni, and i was actually immediately hit with a twitter from them thanking me for my donation, and i thought that was such a unique and energetic way to do it. It really it really was a fun thank you for me to get right away. And, of course, i was also followed up with a major letter from the university as well. You can also just mentioned ah website or social media presence in your printed letters, always absolutely there that needs to become a disciplined great call tony and you mentioned online surveying or pulling what? What types of questions might we be asking in these surveys? You know, it’s all kinds of data, if you’d like, you know that you could be collecting at this time. Some of them have to do with your overall scope of bishan for it. If you are a mission that is helping with the homeless, you might wantto have a survey online for your donors to ask them what’s their opinion of the work. What you’re doing in that arena, how are they? How would they rate you? Um, how would they how would they like, tio? Um, you do more do more work, different kinds of working. You can ask them and start to compile that dad and let it influence are perhaps shape the work that you’ll dio. You can also provide links on your site to somebody else’s surveys so that you’re continuing to offer your donor’s new ways to get deeper information about the type of work that your mission is inspired by, or aligned with. Let’s move to direct mail. The printed piece mail. This also needs to be personalized, right? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And again, really kind of goes back to what we talked about has a lot to do with the donor segmentation, so you need to get have the the right message at the right time from the right person asking for the right thing. And i guess e-giving got kind of a call that the four right? Okay, on, when we’re using volunteers, there are ways you have strategies you have personalizing the actual letter itself. Why don’t you share some of those? Absolutely, for instance, how i often encouraged not-for-profits that i work with to, uh, let the board members get involved with riding some of those letters, and it could be very, very simple, but very, very meaningful and impactful. So on the, uh, on the return address of an envelope itself, there’s often a little space right above the address where your boardmember can actually print their name so you can segment your list out to those friends of the board members. Give each of the board members of stack and ask them to write to hand, write their name in above your organization’s return address so that when somebody received in the mail, not only do they see their not-for-profits address and name, but they also merely see their own personal relationship with that boardmember associate id there. I love that such a simple idea, and you have an idea for also just on the letter itself. Absolutely it’s so easy just to grab a little pile of sticky notes. Really nice if you’ve got the not for profit logo on them as well. And ask your board members to just write a quick note. A quick note of thanks for your contribution hope you’ll consider giving again. Um, and often times, you know you can. You can add to that a really personal audience. Let’s have coffee soon from mary allison at jubilee women’s center. And just stick that little sticky right on top of the letter self-funding as they open it, they see it. They get that quick note from you and it just makes it more meaningful. Something else that i used to see when i was in the air force was that senior officers would cross out the formal greeting where it said, dear, you know, captain or colonel whatever last name and they write the person’s first name. So they scratch it out on the letter and write the person’s first. Name right above it and that’s not to be corrected is to stay that way. So the person sees the the recipient sees the personalization very good. I love it. And this is stuff we could do at a board meeting, right when everybody’s together at the board? Absolutely it takes fifteen minutes, there’s often during that part part of the board meeting where you’re going through the usual agenda items that there’s not too much going on that you could be doing. You could be multitasking absolutely. And in just the minute and a half or so that we have left let’s talk about using the board or other volunteers what’s your advice there, how can these people really be effective in the last nine weeks? In a day? You know, it’s important that the boardmember is your key. Stakeholders and volunteers know what you’re up to make sure that they’re getting information from your organization about the initiatives that you’re working on, invite them to help you also provide them with some uplifting stories of success, of the of return on invest so they can share them, and they’re going out to their holiday parties they’re meeting with so many different people, they have little nuggets that they can drop into conversations about the good work that your organization is doing. It’s also a great idea to create on your internet site or in your appeal letter, a little paragraph about why i volunteer and let one of your stakeholders your boardmember give you a paragraph about why they dio and it’s just so inspirational. And then at the end of the year end, they could be used very effectively to say thank you. Oh, absolutely that khun metoo be done again by a hand written note or even a phone call it’s such a great practice for the board members to kind of do it. What we would call a phone, tree and let’s provide our board members with ten to twelve names of donors that we had a significant impact and let them give them a call and just say thanks identified himself is a boardmember they’re genuine thankfulness and it’s just like a thirty second call, but has such meaning. Mary allison is a partner with oneaccord, which you’ll find at oneaccord partners dot com we’ve been talking about nine weeks and wake up four. Essentials for your year end fund-raising mary allison, thank you very much for being a guest, tony. Thank you, it’s. Been a real pleasure. We take a break after the break. Tony’s, take two, and then scott koegler, our tech contributor, is going to share ideas about your mobile website, so stay with us. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office needs better leadership, customer service sales, or maybe better writing, are speaking skills. Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes, or get your human resource is in touch with us. Website is improving communications, dot com, that’s, improving communications, dot com, improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier, and make more money improving communications. That’s, the hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com dafs metoo dahna welcome back, it’s. Time for tony’s take to my block this week is let’s help kelly for pete’s sake a solo fundraiser named kelly ass. The question in a linked in group that has over forty five thousand members and nobody had an answer shouldn’t get a single comment. But her question is so common and so basic for small shop fundraisers that i wanted to step in. Her question for the solo fundraisers is how should i spend my time? The woman has to deal with grantwriting and prospect research and acquiring new donors, cultivation of existing prospects and donors stewardship you know the saying thank you to donors. Corporate sponsorship work. How should she spend her time? Andi, i was disappointed that none none of the people in that mogul link group had an answer or suggestions for her. So i blogged about it this week, and i hope you will go to my blogged and give your advice to kelly and the probably tens of thousands of similarly situated solo fundraisers in small and midsize non-profits how do you recommend that they spend their money? My blog’s that m p g a d v dot com i hope you’ll go there and and share your advice that is tony’s take two for friday, october twenty eighth with me now is scott koegler we all know he’s, our regular tech contributor we all know. He’s, the editor of non-profit technology news today he’s going to break down whether you need a mobile site, how to develop one, what to include in yours if you if you do, go ahead. Scott koegler welcome back, tony. Good luck. Are you in greenville, south carolina this month? I am actually so you’re are you with us by mobile in your in your rv? Yes, i’m using skype on the computer, but i have pretty much a full set up here. Ok? That’s cool. I love how you i want youto i want you to bring that rv into new york city sometime. That would be an adventure in itself. Mobile websites. Why do why do we first of all, why do we need a special website? Why can’t people just look att our regular website on their mobile device? The short answer is that the screen size is different back-up the longer answer is that typically there’s no keyboard? So you need to accommodate the differences in the way people interact with websites. That is different from what they do when they’re at their laptop or desktop. So just a small version of our website is not going to look so good. There are some utilities and most of the website development systems that will automatically reform at your website to fit in the smaller screens they detect the browser and the type of device, and they’ll somehow we format, but most of the time they end up just squeezing it, which really doesn’t help much now. Okay, if you don’t have that sort of utility, teo, create it and process it automatically for small size. How how do you develop a mobile website? Hyre the developers are let sites have their own special tools that allow them to make more intelligent decisions about how they reform that change the size. A lot of websites, of course, include banner ads, large graphics header and those kind of things are really those were pretty useless on a smaller device, so they get rid of those they concentrate more on content, some, some concentrate more on interactivity, social media interconnection and those kind of things. Okay, we’re going. We’re going to talk about some of those things that that should be on your mobile website, so it sounds like the place to start would be with the person who developed your you’re latto ordinary. Or day to day website. But it sounds like there’s, also a special expertise that might be needed. Teo downsize it for mobile purposes, i would say definitely. On the other hand, that kind of expertise is is becoming a necessity for anybody who’s developing website. So that’s, they probably not going to have a real hard time finding someone to do that. And you mentioned the first people that developed your original website. At this point, they already have the expertise to be able to reconfigure or develop secondary website. Okay, and my guess is it’s not going to be as expensive as like, say something else, that you and i talked about a few shows ago, which was developing an app, a mobile app. You’re not going to be spending that kind of money on your mobile website. It depends really okay, because mobile app so we were talking about, you know, tens of thousands of dollars? I don’t think so. The case for something you look at a lot of the what people call act. Some of them really are just, uh, depends on the purpose and the depth to which you want to develop this, but applications or apse can be either just dedicated websites are provided by a link on your phone or your tablet. Uh, or they can actually be downloaded applications that link to the back and took it all right. So a nap could be less expensive than i just described. And ah, mobile website could be more expensive depending on how sophisticated you want to get. Okay, so let’s, talk about some of the things that you’re really essential for your mobile website. You want to have a platform for giving our imagine write what you want to do is to start at look at what are the most critical thing? Is that you, if i get people to use on your website and, uh, you know, articles are great, but on a mobile website they may be less important. You will make him available by link and typically texts. And those kind of things will automatically reformat much less italy of a difficulty poor, heavy, too kind of redesign them. But, yes, you said be ableto give donations. I mean, that should be pretty much, you know, an easy thing to do. It should be prominent in the application. It should be, you know, donate here kind of button pretty much the same kind of button you would use on your standard website but linking to eh a formatted page that that was pretty much nothing but allowed a person too donate in the amount that they want and so you want to make that is easy to find as possible. It sounds like just like just like on the primary website. Exactly what have those prominent get too pretty much oneclick kind of a thing. One of the tricks is, too, if you already know who these who your donors are, and if they’re members of your website community, i have an automatic sinan so that they don’t have to go back to and identify themselves again. That makes it way more difficult. You want to be ableto automatically. Recognize who they are, provide them the options for making a donation and the options for a payment again, if you know who they are and heather contribution information the way that they like to give you khun going to that make use of what you really got. Uh, it’s not makes things like paypal, easy to get to or or even credit card donation forms, right? All simple as possible so we don’t lose people who want to give right. And they said they don’t have the keyboard of the bill specifically do have keyboards, obviously on phone and tablets with there, you know the rules really not quite as easy to use, so you want to minimize any of the typing? Ok? Eso minimize typing in favor of buttons to select instead to think buttons to select and automatically updated information again, you have there if you know who they are by virtue of the fact that they are members of your community, for maybe the facebook sign and kind of a function where you don’t you don’t have to type anything. You just have to identify themselves one way or another. Okay, good advice for for minimizing. The typing on a on a small keyboard what else do you like to see in a mobile website? Scott, in the mobile environment show, social interaction is really a big thing most people are using, you know, facebook or twitter, linkedin, uh, google plus to an increase in and out, and so they’re already using those facility. So if you have your website there, you want to be ableto allow them toe quickly and easily share the information again. A donation function should be something that they should be able to click on it and say, sure this with my facebook account and allow me to write in a quick update that says, i just don’t need to do this. So i think you should donate to this cause because of whatever again, make it simple allow them to share it on whatever social media their preferences i would say limited, for instance, don’t just limited to twitter, facebook and the other ones that are important for your constituent community, and these connections are very easy to make maybe not by the average person but by a developer. Certainly the social media platforms are all designed to be shared. Widely right, you’re developers know that without you thinking that something that they would add to certainly your main website, and easily enough to any mobile website. Okay, just in a minute or so we have left before a break. What about events non-profits hold events? What advice do you have around putting those in the mobile website? Well, just like the donation, i would say provide the information about the event in a concise manner provide the dates times, whatever any contributions or expenses that are necessary in order to attend and then allow them to sign up for and say, yes, i’m coming. Facebook has a great, um function for that the the invitation, and so it’s easy enoughto leverage off of that, or just to provide your own there’s plenty of services available for your website as well that, uh, allow you to set up on the event and invite people and then accept their participation. We’re going to take a break, and when we return, scott can go to the editor of non-profit technology news will keep telling us about advice for your mobile website, so stay with us. Talking alternative radio, twenty four hours a day. Are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future. You dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven in two, one, eight one eight three the conscious consultant helping huntress people be better business people. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio friday’s one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhance your current marketing effort. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile market. Their motto is, we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy. Contact them today. Admission one one media dot com. Told you. Lively conversation. Top trends. Sound advice, that’s, tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m samantha cohen from the american civil liberties union. Welcome back, scott koegler and i were talking about your mobile website, scott, just to wrap up what we were just talking about before the break events there’s that spiffy little, you know, little mapping applications that i see on lots of websites. Bilich certainly those air are good for events, you know, people don’t know where the location is and be ableto click here and guide me there, get directions. Those bills are great, helpful applications, you know, i just read that tom tom, the maker of gps systems typically for cars, is going out of the hardware business because nobody argue anymore, they got it on their phones in their tablets. Oh, interesting. So the two players in that really are tom, tom and and garment is the big one, right? Right, right and no indication that they’re going out of the hardware business. I didn’t hear any announcement from garment, but i was kind of surprised. Tom tom, they make cem really great physical equipment, and i used both. I used the tom tom and i also used my my cell phone, my smartphone and i still use the tom tom quite a bit, just because it hangs on my yeah, okay, but those those dashboard devices always have the advantage of talking that speaking the directions does your phone do that? It does? Yes, it does. I just used google maps actually on my cell phone and it talks and allows me teo to guide i i don’t talk to it. I don’t even know if it has that some of the town tommy and have the ability to say actually talked the address we’ll get either. Okay. Interesting. So back to the mobile websites i would i would think you’d want to have a way for people to reach you if they want to know if they want to have further interaction further find out, get more information, sure and again, this is something of a typical on a website where you would typically, you know, quicker button that would email or bring up a chat box. I’m on a mobile device course difficult you’re talking about a cellphone or smart phone, so it makes a lot more sense. Maybe just click and talk, so include the phone number there with a click button alittle magically dials phone number and get you directly to to the non-profit that they’re trying to talk to excellent, okay? And and finally, you had some advice about content, news, content. Well, i really believe that content really is important in almost every aspect of communicating and the next newsletter presentation and those kind of things and if you’re doing that anyhow on your website, which i would have to believe that most non-profits air doing there, providing information about who they are, what they do and what they would like to do. So being that mobile devices are things that are used pretty much intermittently, not like a desktop where you sit back and you actually sit there for a while, you want to be able to provide people easy ways to read your content, so either by way of a knee mail update to the cell phone or maybe an rs s feed or there are a whole lot of other feed mechanisms that will bring your content to the cell phone. It is critical because those air, those off moments where, you know, maybe they have time to read two, three, four hundred words with the text as they’re waiting for whatever it is a bus in a cab somewhere, whatever they happen to be doing, and i don’t have something else occupying your time, scott let’s remind people what are ss feed? What does that mean? Uh, really simple syndication, which means almost as much as our ss, right, but it’s, where most people will know it is google reader, google reader i accept those kinds of feeds and present them in a format easy to read me to track what they’re interested in, and we’ve talked in the past about having video on your site. Can you do that on your mobile site? Also, pretty much any smartphone or tablet will accept the video. One exception, of course, is the big exception the iphone, the ios environment with iphone and ipad that don’t have don’t accept flash video, which still is predominant on pretty much frustrating issue for those people, those millions and millions of people using the apple devices. So but you do want to be able to be viewed by users of that kind of device, so they’re always to do it. Your web developer can help you get around them, and when we’ve talked about video, we always make the point that it doesn’t have to be high end video. I mean, it could just be something that somebody pulled out a phone and and put them put in front of themselves when it’s when it’s riel heartfelt and genuine about the charity. Absolutely, but i would add to that the most critical part of the video is actually the audio it’s amazing that people sit through just terrible quality video feed, but they’ll immediately turn it off if they can’t hear. So be sure that you you sound is adequate, that you’ve got the the recording device close enough to the person doing the talking that the sound comes through and then it should be okay. All right. And, scott, just a minute we have left. You mentioned google plus earlier. What are you seeing now that it’s been out on dh public? How are you seeing it used? Are you seeing it used widely? I mean, really, actually people using it. Not just signing up. What are you seeing? Uh, the current number is around forty million users, which is pretty phenomenal, actually short period of time, they’ve been out. They just recently actually yesterday announced that they’re integrating the the blogged the one facility, i think it’s blonde dot com brother dot com, which is google property, so they’re going to be linking google plus with blogger, which makes a whole lot of sense because if you’re now the block near post will be shown in google, plus so little by little google’s, integrating all their properties and other facilities with google plus and it’s really getting traction. One of the comments that i saw just recently was that it’s not so much about your family, it’s more about your other relationships, your business relationships and your professional relationship. So i think google plus is carving out a niche that is not so much directly competitive with facebook, not that they don’t want a lot of that business, but i think they’re going in a little bit different direction, and they’re being successful at it. Scott koegler is the editor of non-profit technology news, which you’ll find at n p tech news. Dot com he’s, our regular tech contributor. We talked to him once a month. Scott a real pleasure. Thanks very much for joining us. Thanks, durney. Take your good to have you want. Thanks, scott. And also mary allison from washington st mary, thank you very much for joining us next week. Assess your asking style author andrea kill stead will be with me for the hour to share her insights into the four asking styles and what each different style needs to be successful. Are you a mission controller or kindred spirit? Find out next week with my guest, andrea kill stead you can keep up with that’s coming up week after week. Sign up for our insider email alerts on the facebook page. If you liked the show, click like on the facebook page become a fan, you can listen live our archive, you’ve been live toe listen archive go to our itunes page all the episodes, all the shows are archived there you’ll find that at non-profit radio dot net download subscribe and then you can listen on the device of your choice, whether that’s a smartphone or a tablet or desktop or laptop, follow me on twitter just use my name and this shows hashtag when you want to follow the show feed use hashtag non-profit radio our creative producer is claire meyerhoff, the line producer for tony martignetti non-profit radio is sam. Liebowitz. On our social media is by regina walton of organic social media. I hope you will be with me next friday one to two p. M eastern on talking alternative broadcasting, which is found at talking alternative dot com. I think the shooting. Good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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