Do you seminar?

This post will be all about doing seminars and workshops as a means to augment your fundraising income or increasing your ministry's exposure.

A lot of non-profit organizations can already be considered as experts in their field. Some can be called authorities in disaster relief, community transformation, livelihood training, adoption, health care, a host of other things.

So ask yourself, what is your organization's asset that you can make a seminar out of? CBN Asia's humanitarian arm, Operation Blessing Philippines has been invited to disaster management conferences. CBN Asia's missionary training arm, Asian Center for Missions, has been doing conferences on how to take care of missionaries. It provides these organizations with awareness and networking opportunities.

You need to evaluate yourself to find out what your organization's strengths are and you feel that it is unique or not so many are are teaching or sharing it, then you may have something that may be worth selling to other organizations.

Is your non-profit Green?

You hand out your non-profit's flashy annual report to your major partner and then the guy lashes at you for using so much excessiveness in your annual report. And you thought you were giving the partner a favor by making the report look oh so good! Hehehe.

Ther are partners who understand the value of showing your best foot forward in terms of communication. And then, there are those who smack you in the face for not being a good steward of your non-profit's money. So how do we balance it?

In reality, a non-profit should not be using all sorts of flashiness in any communication that partners will misconstrue as a misuse of money. There should always be restraint even if another partner is paying for all the flashy stuff.

So think wisely, and also use your non-profit's money wisely.

What does your newsletter look like? Part 2

Here are a few more insight on making newsletters:

1. Be creative in naming your newsletter. Something unique to your non-profit would surely boost appeal.

2. Use a generous amount of white space. For a definition on what a white space is, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_space_(visual_arts)

3. Size your body text to something like a 10pt. Times New Roman that can be found in almost all computers. Also, use a serif font, e.a. Times New Roman, so that it will be easier to read. Let me remind you, my dear reader, that readability is of utmost importance in a newsletter.

4. If you caption your photos, make captions as if it is a story in itself. This one I learned from my mentor, Gordon Robertson.

5. Use subheads. There are readers that scan your page. Making subheads helps them understand your article.

6. Use multiple columns for your story. A lot of people use only one column for the whole story. Its very hard to read a story in just one column. The readers' eye will get lost going through a loooong, column. They'll just give up reading altogether.

7. Infographics helps. They are also nice eye candy. But use them sparingly.

See you tomorrow! I may have a part 3.

Capitalizing on Holidays

Its a day before the 4th of July weekend in the US. What is your non-profit doing about it? Oh, this is supposed to be Pinoy Fundraising. I apologize. Let me repeat. Its a few days before the Philippine-American Friendship Day (is it still being celebrated??). What is your non-profit doing about it?

Sad to say, maybe a lot of haven't even thought about it. Maybe it does not relate to your organization. But if you thought hard, would you have thought of something. Probably some lame, old excuse to do fundraising. But wait, isn't that what you are supposed to do?

Mother's and Father's Day went by. What did you about it? Did you thank, congratulate, call, write or even SMS the mothers and fathers in your database? (I don't have database, some of you groaned). Oh well...

Events are hyped in this highly commercial world we live in. The Pinoy Fundraiser can use these holidays to grab a share of the fundraising pie. You can write a direct mail package themed from whatever holiday is coming. You can organize special events revolving around a holiday. You give out freemiums (stickers, note cards, pens, etc.) based on a holiday. You can make a holiday a lot more special to people. What you do can make it meaningful to a lot of people.

Now that you read this, do you have something in mind of Christmas?

See you next time!

You need to be on top of your game!

This means you should always be on the lookout for what is new, what is effective, what your "competition is doing." You do this not for the sake of imitating what they are doing and if they are doing it right. You need to be aware so that you can strategize accordingly.

The PinoyFundraiser should be always learning, observing, and taking down notes. You should always on the internet. Look at your "competitors'" website. Buy their products. Experience their service. Does it change your perception? Then they are doing something right.

You should be alert for things that can improve your creativity, your knowledge on development and fundraising. You also need to learn something new that is totally unrelated to your field. A lot of breakthroughs happen because you found that you can apply fundraising something you learned in agriculture for example. Who knows right?

There so many free resources on the internet, your neighborhood, your library or park. Learn to observe. Learn to take it in and stock it in your brain so that you can pull it out when you need it. It also exercises your brain so that you don't get Alzheimers. 8-)

The PF cannot rest easy and rest on his triumphs. You can be obsolete in quickly! See you on Monday!