Author: ahcarney
-
Bad News Bears: How to Announce Big Changes at Your Nonprofit
In my last blog post, I outlined the many reasons why I prefer communications systems over plans. Systems keep you flexible and able to adapt and shift your organization to meet the needs of your community. Adaptability is a great strength, but big changes can be jarring for your community. Your organization may have started…
-
Why your nonprofit should stop making plans and start making systems
Like you, I am tired of living in unprecedented times. In addition to the daily onslaught on our civil rights, all of us, and our organizations, are in more precarious positions than before. I’ve been consulting for over a decade now and I’ve made countless communications plans for clients, most of whom are small nonprofits…
-
7 of my favorite marketing tools with nonprofit discounts
As a nonprofit communicator, you’re wearing too many hats. There are emails to send, images to post, stories to collect, with no end in sight. And while no one wants to add a new technology to their life (must I remember yet another password?), an investment up front can save a lot of time in…
-
Why the Generosity Commission is a waste of time.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy published an article this week about the Generosity Commission, a $3.8 million bipartisan commission from the nation’s biggest foundations. The commission’s purpose is simple: to investigate why giving has declined and to spur more generosity among middle- and low-income individuals. If you’re anything like me, you just blinked a few times…
-
No, you can’t be silently anti-racist: how introverts can speak out against racism
It’s no secret that I’m a loud person. I have a boisterous laugh, I yell constantly, and at every performance I have ever attended, I’m always cheering at the top of my lungs, regardless of the format. Sorry, Seattle Symphony. Probably for the good of society, not everyone is like me. There are quiet people…
-
When well-meaning white women refuse to call out white supremacy
I was sheepish when I said it, looking down the table of white faces in our first strategic planning committee meeting, “I think it’s a problem that we’re all white people here, that our leadership is majority white, and we’re making these decisions on behalf of the community, which is mostly people of color.” The board…
-
The Selfish Reasons I Do Anti-Racist Work
As a communications professional, I have a few tenets I keep close to my heart. Simple language is best. Awareness is not a goal. The Oxford comma is a requirement, not a suggestion. And perhaps the most important: self-interests are more effective motivators than altruistic ones. In nonprofit communications, I’m always redirecting people from altruistic…
-
Nonprofits: Stop Using the Passive Voice
Right now, the feeling I hear most about is powerlessness. We feel powerless to end a deadly pandemic. We feel powerless to end police brutality. We feel powerless in comforting or supporting our Black friends and loved ones. The world is big. The problems sometimes seem even bigger. That’s because the issues we’re up against…
-
Marketing Your Nonprofit Event Using Facebook
Facebook is an obvious choice to market your event, with its 1.7 billion users. But with 38 million other Facebook events to compete with, how do you make yours stand out? Here are a few suggestions: Make it look good The best thing you can do to help your event take off on Facebook is to make…
-
5 Ways to Keep your Nonprofit E-mails out of Spam Folders
Everyone hates spam e-mails. We’ve all gotten more cash offers in our inbox that we care to remember and who knows how many Nigerian princes have waited patiently for responses to their carefully-worded e-mails. So when our e-mail servers began filtering out spam messages through junk folders, we all collectively breathed a sigh of relief.…
Allison Carney Consulting 