It’s that time of year again, Cause Camp 2021 is just around the corner! On May 11th, 2021 join us for a virtual conference unlike any other. Cause Camp, presented by Nonprofit Hub and Do More Good, has been nationally recognized by Forbes as a “must-attend” for the nonprofit sector. We are excited to announce the Cause Camp 2021 speaker line-up!

Being a nonprofit professional isn’t easy. But this is your chance to learn tips and tricks from some of the best minds in the sector. Cause Camp’s goal is to leave you informed and inspired, ready to take on any challenge. We will be using an all-in-one platform for virtual events and a networking space. That means you’ll be able to chat with our speakers, sponsors, and other attendees, including our amazing host, Julia Campbell!

Cause Camp 2021 Speaker Line-Up

JULIA CAMPBELL: Cause Camp 2021 Host

Julia Campbell is on a mission to make the digital world a better place. Through speaking, training, and consulting, she shows social purpose organizations how to use social media and storytelling to build communities, showcase impact, and advance their causes. Julia is the author of Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits and has a new book coming out this fall on nonprofit social media strategies. She was recently named one of the top 25 Nonprofit IT Influencers to Follow in 2019 by BizTech Magazine.

“In times of disruption and upheaval, it’s more important than ever for nonprofits to come together and learn how to best move forward. Cause Camp combines some of the most innovative thinking in the sector with tactical action steps you can take back to your organization and hit the ground running!”

MARYANNE DERSCH: Make It Stick: How to Get New Ideas into Action

Maryanne Dersch specializes in helping nonprofit leaders increase their influence and be the change agents they have always wanted to be without feeling rejected, ineffective, or pushy. She has spent almost thirty years working in the nonprofit world helping organizations communicate more effectively internally and externally. She is leading a movement to change “nonprofit” to “human investment company” to accurately reflect the contributions of the sector. She’s known for her love of ultrahigh heels, extra-large Diet Cokes, and short karaoke rotations.

“You are going to learn so much at Cause Camp that you will want to take back to your organization and make stick. I will show you just how to introduce these awesome new ideas in a way that will have anyone in your organization excited to implement them!”

PETER ROSS: How to Measure the ROI of your Marketing Strategies

Peter has defined the vision, strategy, and culture of 829 Studios since its founding in 2007. It is his mission to help clients transform their data into strategy and provide an integrated approach that blends creativity with technological sophistication. He is constantly searching for new opportunities clients can leverage to achieve differentiation, develop competitive advantages, and better communicate their brand story. Peter received his Executive MBA from Imperial College London and primarily focuses his time on business consulting, marketing strategy, site architecture, frontend/backend development, SEO/SEM, and interactive media.

“If you’re not already preparing for the changes coming to advertising attribution (particularly on Facebook) then you need to get started. It’s fundamentally changed the landscape.”

CIERRA SELBY: Kickstart Your Organization’s Internal Communication Strategy

Cierra believes effective internal communications are essential to nonprofit success. Her experience includes 8+ years of Marketing, Communication, and Program Management for organizations working on issues such as poverty, financial literacy, voter engagement, health research, and the public arts. Over the last few years, she has served as a conduit for making these best practices accessible to organizations seeking to enhance their efficiency and workplace culture.

“Internal communications can be your organization’s greatest asset or greatest liability,” said Selby. “I believe Cause Camp is going to be incredibly impactful this year. It’s an ideal experience for nonprofits seeking to both thrive and innovate in a post-covid world.”

BILL MCKENDRY: Doing More with Less

A veteran marketer, speaker, and messaging expert for nonprofit causes, Bill is the founder and chairman of DO MORE GOOD as well as the founder and chief creative officer of HAVEN | a creative hub. Recognized in 1999 when he headed Hanon McKendry as the top professional nationally doing cause marketing work by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and inducted into AAF’s Hall of Achievement, Bill has cultivated a reputation as an expert in key success principles for nonprofit marketing and communications.

“It’s important for every nonprofit to understand that it is a conduit and not the cause. Cause Camp helps give attendees the tools and confidence to manage that reality.”

TAMMY CHARLES: How to Create Winning Corporate Partnerships

Tammy Charles, MBA is the Founder and Chief Strategist at Inovo Strategic Consulting. Inovo is a global consulting firm that helps purpose-driven leaders with innovative and profitable business models to pursue social change. Her passion for community impact and development has allowed her to train, consult, and coach more than 30 nonprofits and social enterprises. Also, she has raised over $10 million in financial and non-financial support in her career to support impact areas such as economic empowerment, social justice, poverty alleviation, health equity, racial justice, social innovation, and more.

“The pandemic has presented an opportunity for us to reimagine social change. Now more than ever, the cross-sector collaboration between nonprofits and corporations will be critical to scaling, innovating, and ensuring sustainable impact for generations to come. I’m excited to talk at this year’s Cause Camp to share some important tools and strategies nonprofits can leverage to create winning partnerships with corporations through innovative funding models and strategic alliances.”

Are you excited yet?

We have quite the lineup this year and we can’t wait to share it with you. Registration is open now! You can get an individual ticket or learn alongside your amazing team with a Team Stream ticket. 

With a Team Stream ticket, you not only get to participate in Cause Camp 2021, but it also includes a Do More Good Organization Membership! The membership includes access to discounted or free training and events, weekly fundraising tips, and so much more.

Don’t miss out on this one-stop-shop to up your nonprofit game. See you there!

My path to #nonprofitlife was winding at best. My parents instilled in me a strong work ethic and a servant leader mindset from a young age. No matter what job I had or role I played, I constantly looked for ways to make things better. In my late 20s, after working for small and large companies and the government, I longed for a career with real purpose ― a career that would make a difference. So, I gave the nonprofit sector a shot and served as a nonprofit executive for two different organizations from 2009 to 2013. 

The Great Recession was technically coming to an end when I got my first nonprofit gig, but as many of you remember the effects of that economic downturn reverberated in the nonprofit world for several years afterward. As a newbie to the sector, I was (naively) surprised at the persistent financial pressure our organizations were under. 

The constant grind of cash flow concerns, a board with a scarcity mindset and very real fundraising challenges due to internal and external circumstances quickly wore me down. Networking and commiserating with colleagues and friends in the nonprofit space revealed that I was not alone. We were all on pins and needles, and most of us were constantly stressed about finance. 

Foundations and institutional funders were talking about sustainability and capacity building, but what we really needed was operating funds. Overhead dread set in with each grant or ask. It was all just too much for me. In 2013, I retreated to the private sector to save my sanity (and my health) with holes in my heart and a heavy soul. 

For the next two years, I continued to reflect on my nonprofit experience and talk with colleagues still in the sector. Sometime in 2015, it occurred to me that if nonprofit finance was more strategically approached, and if boards and staff alike were more educated and open about money, the space could be radically different. Sustainability, then, would not just be a word we toss out to make a funder happy – it would be a real possibility. Stewardship of every dollar, of every gift, would be a team sport for board and staff, reducing or even eliminating unhealthy power dynamics. 

I was so excited by this idea that I was compelled to do the one thing I swore I would never do: start my own company. Blue Fox was born in 2015 with a singular mission ― to disrupt the traditional accounting model through technology, innovation and a radically client-centered approach to finance. I put a stake in the ground to only serve nonprofits and social enterprises, and we developed services that were uniquely tailored to those two types of organizations. 

We’re not your average accountants. We’re strategic partners, we’re numbers nerds who care about our clients’ missions, and we’re the team looking at the financial big picture with an eye towards sustainability and true stewardship. And we’re actually fun to be around ― imagine that!

After four years of serving nonprofits all over the country, it’s my vision for 2020 and beyond that Blue Fox lead the sector to revolutionize its approach to finance. Our clients excepted, nonprofit leaders spend 90% of their time chasing funding, and 10% of their time analyzing how they leverage those hard-fought dollars ― if that! If we were for-profit companies operating this way, we’d be out of business in a matter of months.

We must shift our habits and mindsets. Financial stability and sustainability depend on it. I look forward to talking with you all at Cause Camp 2020 about your fiscal experiences as nonprofit leaders and managers, and having some fun (yes, FUN!) together as we talk about all the money things ― including how to change your organization’s approach to finance from reactive to proactive and how to get your board on board.

Get your tickets today! Early bird pricing available now, register HERE.

*Early Bird pricing available until January 31, 2020.

How to Get the Most from Your 2020 Giving Tuesday Campaign

Yep, you read that right. If you’re thinking about planning your Giving Tuesday campaign this week (it’s December 1, 2019), you’re about a year too late.

Listen, I know you’re busy and dates have a way of sneaking up on you. By reading this now, you’ll give yourself plenty of time to take my advice, reap the benefits and launch a successful Giving Tuesday campaign. Next year. In 2020.

The most important thing in this article is a single idea: For most nonprofits, especially small ones, a person’s relationship with your organization will determine how much they give when asked.

Fundraising professionals know that everything hinges on relationships. Who introduced you? How much time have you spent with them? What kind of rapport do you have? Do you know their dog’s name? If you get that right, you bring in the big bucks.  

Yet when it comes to digital fundraising, relationships are forgotten and left to fall by the wayside. Instead there’s just a stranger’s hand, outstretched, saying, “We don’t know each other, but click here to donate now!”

To get great outcomes for your Giving Tuesday campaign, you need to spend the entire year building great relationships.

To set you up for success, let’s look at some common qualities in great interpersonal relationships and understand how they manifest in digital communications between an organization and its audience.

Imagine a good friend. Someone that you trust, that you like, and that you would inconvenience yourself for if they asked you to. My bet is that your relationship with them feels:

1. Relevant
2. Respectful
3. Consistent
4. Meaningful

If you want to nail Giving Tuesday, you have to nail these four qualities with the people you’re talking to. Now, let’s dig in.

Relevance may feel like a weird way to think about a relationship, but hear me out. The people you are close to now had to become relevant in some way in order to allow the relationship to grow. Maybe they are family. Maybe they sat next to you in fourth grade. Maybe they share a hobby, a neighborhood watering hole, or another close friend. It’s not about how you met, it’s about how your life and theirs are connected in some way. In the same way, these people can move out of your life and lose relevance. You lose touch, you move on, you change, and having sat next to them in Mr. Ross’ class isn’t enough to keep them relevant.

When it comes to translating that to an organization, it’s actually pretty easy. Why is your work relevant to your audience? Maybe it’s a cause they care about, or it’s geographically related to where they are, or maybe you were introduced to them by a good friend. It works the same. Your job is to communicate that relevance, over and over again, all year long so that they feel connected to you.

If I accused you of being disrespectful to your online audiences, you’d probably get a bit defensive, but take a second and imagine yourself on a first date. After a few minutes of small talk, your date asks what you’re doing next Saturday because they are moving and could really use an extra set of hands.

How would that feel? There’s nothing really rude about the request, but it still feels disrespectful, right? If it were me, I’d be like, woah, dude, who are you? I’m over here with a whole life full of hobbies and people, and you think buying me a few pieces of raw fish makes you relevant?

I see nonprofits do this ALL THE TIME, especially on Giving Tuesday. If you are asking people for first-time donations in a social media ad, you are guilty. If you are asking people who have never given you money to tell their friends to give you money, you are guilty. If you are expecting people to read many paragraphs to understand your work on their first visit to your website, you are guilty.

Sure your language may always be appropriate, and you’re probably the most polite nonprofit on the block. You answer emails in a timely manner and you’re always the first to say thank you. But let me ask you this: Have you ever asked for a larger commitment from your audience than is appropriate based on your relationship history?

Rule: To be respectful, your ask of time or money should directly correlate to the time or money your audience has ALREADY given you. 

The longer the relationship, and the more they have engaged with you, the more you can ask of them. If you have literally never done anything but interrupt their social media feed, you have not established a strong enough relationship to respectfully ask them for money. You’re being the person who takes them to sushi and then wants hours of their precious weekend for manual labor. What can you give to them before you ask them to give to you?

Nothing builds great relationships like consistency. I hope you’ve had the sweet stability of a good friend. I’m talking about someone who exercises with you twice a week for months or years in a row, or who always picks up when you call. I hope you have friends who are steadfast and reliable, because they can be a tremendous source of strength, comfort, and service when you need it. 

Of course, we all have those friends who disappear for months at a time, then come around and need a favor. Hopefully, we’ve all outgrown those friends who are truly unpredictable and dramatic. Regardless of the source of inconsistency, we should be honest that our connection to those people is weaker and our willingness to make sacrifices for them is less than those we know we can count on.

And yet… our organizations do the same thing all the time. We let months and months pass in between updates. Our poor donors never know if the email they are going to open will have great news, a party invitation, or some tragic and moving tale designed to open their wallets. Inconsistency breeds mistrust. Even if it’s small and subconscious, you can be sure it is enough to impact the success of an annual fundraising campaign.

Only when a relationship is relevant, respectful and consistent can it become meaningful, and meaningful is where it’s at.

To help you understand what I mean, picture your dental hygienist. I’m sure he or she is a lovely person, and if you can picture them, then it’s likely that they are relevant, respectful, and consistent, so good for you! A healthy mouth is a happy mouth!

But, you probably wouldn’t call that relationship meaningful. To be meaningful, there has to be a deeper connection borne out of mutual concern. Wonderfully, this is the easy part! If you’re talking to the right people, then you know that they care about the problem you are trying to solve. The mutual concern that connects you is the one certain thing you have going for you in a fundraising campaign!

It’s so tempting for organizations to focus only on the meaningful part of their communications and relationship building with donors. It’s easy to think that your people care about your cause, so you can leverage that and turn it into dollars. In the end, you may not have overflowing budgets or sold-out events, but your Giving Tuesday campaigns do okay.

If you want to really see your people show up on Giving Tuesday, see what happens when you show up for them all year long. Consistently and respectfully remind them of your relevance so that they are confident in the meaningful work you are doing and the importance of their contribution to support it.

So how do you start building relevant, respectful, consistent, and meaningful relationships with your people?  If you’re already planning to attend Cause Camp, sign up for my strategic marketing workshop on April 22, 2020, and we’ll hatch a plan together. If you’re interested in learning more about my workshops or agency services, connect with me on LinkedIn. I promise to do my best to stay relevant, respectful, consistent and meaningful!

Get your tickets today! Early bird pricing available now, register HERE.

*Early Bird pricing available until January 31, 2020.

Inspiration is one of the most humbling feelings we humans can experience. And it was everywhere with the inaugural class of the Find Your Pajamas Nonprofit Business Intensive & Pitch Contest. We assembled on Saturday, September 14th at the beautiful New York City, SOHO offices of our host, Scholastic, Inc.

Almost 20 years ago, a little girl asked me what pajamas were. She inspired me to quit my successful job and start a nonprofit I called the Pajama Program. For 18 of those 20 years, I have led teams of volunteers, leaders, successful boards and executives who fundraise and operate award-winning nonprofits and shared my story. I have to attribute a majority of the success of Pajama Program to the power of the “Human Connection.” Through connecting with my employees and leadership teams on personal human levels, they, in turn, learned how to better connect with the communities we are serving and have been able to grow Pajama Program to 60 chapters throughout the country.

As the founder of the Pajama Program, over the years I was often asked to mentor other entrepreneurs or nonprofit founders, and I found the mentorships to be my most favorite roles. My mentees inspired me! I have met and mentored hundreds of people with unique and heartfelt ideas for nonprofits. Some were inspired to jump off the corporate ladder as I did, and others found ways to help while continuing in their day jobs. Sharing my knowledge with them and seeing their passions kept me inspired just as my story inspired them.

Over time, I realized that there was a need for others like me looking to connect with like-minded nonprofit founders to share frustrations, challenges, build comradery and learn new technology and business skills to take their nonprofits to the next level.

So, we brought founders of 18 nonprofits together with 16 veteran nonprofit founders and leaders for an intimate workshop in September. The biggest takeaway from the event was not how to condense an elevator speech into two minutes or how to send a better marketing email, it was the bold, passionate and unbridled INSPIRATION that the group as a whole gave to each other. This unexpected, fresh and authentic feeling told me that in addition to business tools, nonprofit founders need confidence-boosting skills to help them battle the self-doubt that all entrepreneurs come up against. They needed ways to stay inspired.

Below are my five takeaways from our nonprofit event on how social entrepreneurs and nonprofit founders can create their own INSPIRATION on those days when you are questioning yourself and your mission. It begins with the I. It’s important to remind yourself of these every day to maintain the confidence and strength in pursuing your passions!

• I have a purpose
• I can connect with others to share my mission
• I will see my efforts through to the next step
• I envision the recipients and community benefiting from my organization
• I believe that there is a solution to every challenge

By embracing these five sayings― writing them down, posting them on your mirror, reciting them on the commute to the office ―you will regain your sense of purpose and stay the course.

I knew I’d be emotional meeting all of our new nonprofits, but I never imagined how deep my feelings would go. After spending the day together, I could barely find the words to say when I was wrapping up the day and announcing the winner of our pitch contest. What was to be an educational, supportive, encouraging, and yes, fun day too…turned into a WOW event! We took it to levels I never dreamed we’d go. The camaraderie, kinship and spirit of togetherness that started the minute each of the participants walked into the event was immediately palpable.

The words I wanted to say at the end of the day were Thank You. Every nonprofit inspired and motivated me to believe in humanity’s enduring goodness and I am in awe of every single one of them.

Get your tickets today! Early bird pricing available now, register HERE.

*Early Bird pricing available until January 31, 2020.