Ideas, insights and inspirations.

First in a three-part blog series on a concept that author R. Todd Erkel calls “the battle for meaning.” We will look at the evolution of cause marketing and its relationship to code, content, Google’s algorithm, and page one organic search results. Organizations and companies once believed that possessing knowledge was enough to win hearts and minds. Later, they believed that communicating knowledge – through traditional media and conventional cause marketing methods – would suffice. More recently, causes and companies have acknowledged the need for deep and sustained digital content campaigns – blogs, microsites, video – to engage customers and advance a cause. The next frontier requires even more intentionality so that all content efforts converge to produce a renewable source of organic traffic and an ever-expanding, loyal and engaged audience. The battle for meaning around a pandemic virus and the human response traces back more than two centuries, long before we associated a phrase like “vaccine confidence” to a … Continue reading

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Experienced non profit fundraisers will tell you there are many steps in planning a successful philanthropy campaign. For a large comprehensive or capital campaign, one of the more critical phases is the development of the case statement. The case statement plays a key role in articulating the rationale for fundraising and energizing gift officers and volunteers while laying a foundation for future donor conversations. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) lists the first three questions for making the case as: • Who is the organization and what does it do? • Why does it exist? • What is distinctive about the organization? Interestingly, these are very same questions marketers ask when defining the brand of a non profit institution or other organization. So, it stands to reason that if your organization’s brand has not been clearly articulated or crystallized prior to the planning of your next campaign, it may be difficult to outline the case for giving. Even more important … Continue reading

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