Today’s Tips for NGOs 022315

A great deal of outreach nowadays is done via email and social media – even among NGOs, nonprofits and small businesses. However, to reach your stakeholders and audience, you must be familiar with their communication and social media habits.

Earlier, I advised that in order to promote your issues and projects that you must tweet or post often throughout the day because not only do we exist in a global, round-the-clock village, but also because your targets may not be reviewing tweets when you’re attempting to contact them. But if you’re tweeting often the same information you have to use clever wordsmithing to “beat” the Twitter system that rejects re-tweeting.

Kate Prince suggested five ways to increase engagement with your target audience and stakeholders.

“Many marketers busy themselves growing lists, fans and followers, but ignore a metric that creates mobs of raving supporters. It’s called engagement, and it can boost your brand lift by over 300%,” Prince wrote, noting that valuable stakeholder engagement is all about quality and quantity.

1.  Know where stakeholders are – know which social media platform or communication method they favor.

2. Know what they’re looking for – don’t mismatch content and stakeholders.

3. Time is money – be on the money – timing is important so you should be extremely conscious of what you can offer and how best to accommodate the demands of your stakeholders or audience to be up-to-date.

4. Be consistent and reliable – once you’ve got your audience’s attention, it is crucial for you to be consistent. Your message, imagery, brand and even methodology should be consistent with stakeholders’ expectations.

5. Social is a two-way street – If you commit to blogging once a week, posting twice a week and tweeting once a day, don’t forget the importance of sporadic engagement with your stakeholders. You should remember to join their conversations everyday by listening and responding to their conversations.

NGOs and nonprofits need updated, comprehensive lists of individuals and foundations that could be contacted for donations. Fortunately, wealthy people in America, at least, are getting richer and more generous, according to Quentin Fottrell, personal finance reporter for MarketWatch.com.

Citing the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Fottrell wrote that America’s 50 most generous donors made a total of $9.8 billion in charitable donations last year, that’s 27.5% more than the $7.7 billion given in 2013. The 10 most generous contributors (individuals and couples) combined to give the majority of the money—more than $6.2 billion, or 64% of the total amount.

“The boost in charitable donations was partly due to an increase in the number of technology entrepreneurs under 40, three of whom gave more than $500 million each. The median age among the top 50 living donors is 73; the oldest living donor—retired banker David Rockefeller—is 99, and the youngest--Sean Parker, co-founder of file-sharing site Napster—is 35,” Fottrell wrote. “Of the top 50 donors, 12 couples or individuals on the list come from technology, 11 from finance, four inherited their wealth and three made money in real estate. In all, tech donors accounted for 47% of the money donated by the top 50.”

Here are the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s most generous donors in the U.S. last year:

Bill & Melinda Gates

Donation: $1.5 billion.

Ralph C. Wilson Jr.

Donation: $1 billion (bequest).

Ted Stanley

Donation: $652.4 million.

Jan Koum

Donation: $556 million.

Sean Parker

Donation: $550 million.

Nicholas and Jill Woodman

Donation: $500 million.

Michael R. Bloomberg

Donation: $462 million.

Rachel Lambert (Bunny) Mellon

Donation: $411.3 million (bequest).

Sergey M. Brin

Donation: $382.8 million.

Paul G. Allen

Donation: $298 million.

Research these names and prepare fundraising appeals to them. You may succeed in securing additional funds for your NGO or project.

The next UN DPI/NGO Briefing will focus on youth, the backbone of the future of the United Nations.

Titled “Partnerships for Success: NGOs, Youth and the UN,” the Briefing will be held in Conference Room 2 at UN Headquarters in New York City on Thursday, February 26, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (1100-1330).

The session will be moderated by Dr. Bill Hunter, director, International Outreach, Lehigh University. Participants will include: Viktoriia Brezheniuk, World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations; Amanda Nesheiwat, Foundation for Post-Conflict Development; Gabriela Taveras, Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic; and Joy Ukaigwe, ENDA Tiers Monde (Environmental Development Action of the Third World).

The session will be webcast on http://webtv.un.org.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach