(This is an email I’d received, with my comments in bold.)
We are a small Historical Society that backed into a Capital Campaign when our current President and her husband donated $1M for a new vault and study center.
A design and build Contractor on our Board did the best he could, without plans and specs, to estimate the cost of the structure. He came in at 1.2M. But apparently a number of things were not included in his estimate and the suspected cost is now 1.7 M. Before overruns.
Our 2nd year of fundraising for this project only yielded $ 156,000 and $100,000 of that is from one donor.
I gather that your organization did not have a Planning Study done to determine if and how a capital campaign could/would be successful.
As there were no plans/specs, I don’t see how you can legitimately ask people to give to support a project the depth of which is unknown.
It is my impression, just from your first paragraph, that the organization saw $1million on the table, and did no thinking or planning.
It is my opinion, based on the above, that you should not have gotten into a capital campaign.
Our Executive Director has told the Board that if we do not build within 2 years we have to start returning the money?? Is that true?
I can’t say if there are any State laws that would required returning the donated funds within a specific time period – I don’t know !! I do know that, at the rate money is being raised, that your organization’s credibility is on shaky ground.
Without a firm capital campaign plan, there is no way to know, to even
have an idea when/if all the needed funds could/would be raised.
Accepting contributions for a specific purpose, without being able to
assure donors of a timeline for the use of those funds for that purpose,
again brings your credibility into question.
And, accepting such contributions and not using those funds for the
intended purpose within a reasonable timeframe could border on fraud.
With what you’ve told me, and if you can’t come up with a solid plan
(based on reality, not wishful thinking) for raising ALL the needed funds
within a reasonable timeframe, my reaction is to tell you to return the
funds that have been contributed.
So, though I don’t know your ED’s thought process, I must agree with the conclusion.
Next Week – Part Two
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks?
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99-$4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program? AskHank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= We’ve been posting these pieces for the last five years,
and we’re now at a point where, to keep this resource alive,
we need your questions/problems to engender further discussion.
Look forward to hearing from you. Comments & Questions
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to social media marketing, a picture could be worth a thousand likes or comments. Adding an image to your blog post or a social media post can instantly catch the attention of your audience and draw them to your posts. Social media networks are increasingly becoming very photo-centric with the rise of networks like Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.
Why do visitors flock to these websites? It’s because they provide a lot of eye-candy and a welcome change from all the textual content that visitors might generally encounter on other networks. However, when you do add images to your posts, be very careful with image licenses and attribution formats. The last thing you want is to run into a legal hassle for using a copyrighted image, and lose a lot of money that you could have instead put to good use.
Finding free-to-use images
If you are searching for free-to-use images using Google Advanced Image Search, you can actually specify the type of image that you require through Google’s advanced search option. When you type in your search, use the drop down menu on the row entitled, “Usage Rights” to choose the kind of image license you would like to look for.
Types of usage rights:
Free to use or share: Allows you to copy or redistribute its content if the content remains unchanged.
Free to use, share, or modify: Allows you to copy, modify, or redistribute in ways specified in the license.
Commercially: If you want content for commercial use, be sure to select an option that includes the word “commercially.”
However, there is a limitation in the way Google recognizes these licensed images. When you do find the right image, you will want to do some research to make sure that the image is, in fact, free to use. Some images may require you to attribute the source when adding it to your post. Google will not be able to warn you of these requirements, so it’s always better to dig a little deeper yourself.
If you use an image with a usage right “free to use or share” you can use the image and share it with others as long as the image is not modified in any way. However, if the image is under the “free to use, share and modify” right, it allows you to modify the image if necessary. If you wish to use the image for commercial purposes, make sure that you pick an image which contains the word “commercially” in the usage rights.
Picking a copyright free image
If you manage a blog and want to add an image to your posts, start your search by looking up websites that offer free-to-use images. You can also use licensed images, however, these images require appropriate permissions and attributions. There are various websites and stockphoto databases where you will be able to find copyright free images.
Before using any of these images, it’s always wise to double-check the image license so that you can avoid any problems later on.
Websites that offer free-to-use images
Here’s a list of websites that offer free-to-use images.
Life of Pix – This is a website owned by a creative agency, and offers free high-resolution images without any kind of copyright restriction. Every week you will be able to see new images.
Picjumbo – offers high-resolution photos from various categories like weddings, technology, food, people and more. New photos are added to the website on a weekly basis. Images from this website can be used for personal as well as commercial needs.
Pixabay – offers vectors, images as well videos that you can use for free. All the free images that you find on Pixabay are also free of any copyrights and have been filed under Creative Commons CC0.
Freepik – similar to Pixabay, this website also offers vectors, images and icons that can be used for free. You can use the image, however, it is required that you attribute the source of the image in your blog post.
Godot Media Gallery – this gallery by Godot Media allows you to download high-resolution images for free. You can find images from several categories like architecture, business, cityscapes, people and more.
Flickr – On Flickr, you get access to a vast library of images that are categorized under a variety of usage licenses like creative commons, commercial allowed, modifications allowed and more. However, use of these images requires attribution.
StockSnap.io – attractive high-resolution stock photos that are free to use under the Creative Commons CC0 license – no attribution necessary.
Canva – if you are having difficulty finding the right image for your post, you can create one using Canva. Once you are happy with the image that you have created, you can download it and use it on your post.
Free Footage – if you are require video footage for your project or posts, this website will give you a range of free video footage from different categories
Free Video Footage – you can download FREE video footage or audio footage from this website, and it also allows you to use the footage without any attributions.
Author Bio:
Apurva Jog is a Content Writer at DrumUp, a social media management tool. She has penned down several articles related to social media management and content marketing. When she is not writing, she is usually catching up with anything that is trending in the social media sphere.
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.
.. _____ ..
About Lisa M. Chapman:
Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals, both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:
Books for Social Media Marketing, Book Marketing, Building a Business Online and MORE!
Do you need a great gift for family or a friend who has a dream to build or grow their online business?
Help ignite that fire with awesome books that take you step-by-step through the process – and cut through the clutter.
We are bombarded online with thousands of messages every day. Confusion reigns. But no more! Any of the books below are terrific, on point, and written by the best in their field. You can confidently choose from any of these and know that you have chosen a gift that hits the bullseye and provides tremendous value.
Just click on the Title Link to go straight to the book’s Amazon information page to learn more about it and place your order!
New 2015 edition of the bestselling social media marketing book
Marketing your business through social media isn’t an option these days—it’s absolutely imperative. Inside this bestselling guide, you’ll find out how to apply the marketing savvy you already have to the social media your prospects are using, helping you to reach and keep more customers, make more sales, and boost your bottom line.
Includes updates on the latest changes to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, blogging, and more
Offers tips for showcasing your company with a customized Facebook business page
Presents step-by-step guidance for setting up a social media marketing campaign
Shows you how to use analytics to assess the success of your social media campaign
If you’re a social media strategist, website manager, marketer, publicist, or other employee who is in charge of implementing and managing an organization’s social media strategy, this comprehensive resource is your one-stop guide to all things social media marketing.
Open the book and find:
How to make the business case for social media
Guidance on plotting your social media marketing strategy
Tips for managing your cybersocial campaign
Strategies for getting your content to your prospects
The best ways to leverage Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites
Ways to profit from your business presence on social media
Techniques for using social media in mobile environments
About Jan Zimmerman & Deborah Ng
Jan Zimmerman is the owner of Watermelon Mountain Web Marketing and has helped businesses of all sizes use online marketing and social media tools for more than 15 years.
Deborah Ng is a professional blogger, freelance writer, community manager, and social media enthusiast.
How you can make serious money from your fiction or non-fiction book
This book shows you step-by-step how you can enjoy writing, publishing and marketing your book so that it becomes an enduring bestseller. Written by an established and successful international #1 bestselling author (Dee’s second book reached position 150 out of 7 million titles on Amazon and all her books are in the top 100 bestselling books in their category on Amazon several years after being published), Dee sells thousands of books worldwide. You’ll find practical, effective and powerful tools and tips on every page. The author shares her award winning templates including press releases, book launch invitations, speaker biographies and more so you can create yours effortlessly. You’ll find out how you can identify your readers so that your content is appealing and relevant and, your marketing hits the spot every time.
You’ll learn how to market your book on a zero or shoestring budget using social media and traditional marketing to get phenomenal results. You’ll also learn the insider secrets of approaching professional reviewers (shared by a highly esteemed professional reviewer of fiction and non-fiction books) and how to get dozens of genuine five-star reviews on Amazon and other review sites to boost your book sales further still. You’ll also find out how to hold a packed out book launch that costs you nothing. With this book, you’ll understand exactly how you can make serious money from your bestselling book on a step-by-step basis whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction.
About Dee Blick
Dee Blick is a Number 1 bestselling author and a multi-award winning Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Dee has 32 years’ marketing experience gained working with talented individuals and small businesses from all sectors. She is an author who definitely walks her talk having penned three bestsellers on a zero or shoestring budget. Dee is also a professional speaker, invited regularly by global brands to speak at their events as well as to more intimate gatherings of authors where she loves sharing her tips and ideas. Dee is an ambassador for AuthorCraft, which enables authors of all genres to gather, share ideas and inspire one another.
Maybe you’re a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you’ve already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel – one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.
Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share – regardless of genre – then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.
You’ll learn to:
establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place
weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story
create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page
explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers
sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish
develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competition
Then, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors – including novelist Anne Perry – Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing.
You’ll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest and lay the foundation for a promising career!
About Donald Maass
Donald Maass is the author of 17 novels. He works as a literary agent, representing dozens of novelists in the fantasy, crime, mystery, romance, and thriller categories. He speaks at writer’s conferences throughout the USA.
“Launch” is the treasure map into that world—an almost secret world of digital entrepreneurs who create cash-on-demand paydays with their product launches and business launches.
Whether you have an existing business, or you have a service-based business and want to develop your own products so you can leverage your time and your impact, or you’re still in the planning phase—this is how you start fast. This formula is how you engineer massive success.
Now the question is this—are you going to start slow, and fade away from there? Or are you ready for a launch that will change the future of your business and your life?
Review
“This is not just a book. It’s a license to print money. (Okay, maybe I’m overstating it a bit, but not by much.) I used Jeff’s Product Launch Formula to create a seven-figure-plus business I absolutely love. And unlike some successful entrepreneurs, he holds nothing back. It’s all here—a proven strategy, real- world examples, and step-by-step instructions—everything you need to create a business you’re crazy about while making an incredible living doing it.” —Michael Hyatt, New York Times Bestselling Author and Founder of PlatformUniversity.com
About Jeff Walker
Jeff Walker has literally transformed the way stuff is sold online. Along the way he’s become one of the top entrepreneurial and marketing trainers in the world. But it didn’t start out that way…
When Jeff started his first online business, he was a stay-at-home dad taking care of two small children. The “business” was launched from the baby’s changing room – and it started with a free email newsletter sent to 19 people. That was in the Internet Dark Ages of 1996.
After that humble start, Jeff quickly developed an underground process for launching new products and businesses with unprecedented success. But the success-train was just getting started – once he started teaching his formula to other entrepreneurs, the results were simply breathtaking. Tiny, home-based businesses started doing launches that sold tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars in sales with their launches.
The proven entrepreneurial model that breaks all the rules:
Build your audience first. Then create your product.
This is the simple but profoundly successful entrepreneurial approach of one of today’s most creative business minds.
A pioneer of content marketing, Joe Pulizzi has cracked the code when it comes to the power of content in a world where marketers still hold fast to traditional models that no longer work. In Content Inc., he breaks down the business-startup process into six steps, making it simple for you to visualize, launch, and monetize your own business.
These steps are:
The “Sweet Spot”: Identify the intersection of your unique competency and your personal passion
Content Tilting: Determine how you can “tilt” your sweet spot to find a place where little or no competition exists
Building the Base: Establish your number-one channel for disseminating content (blog, podcast, YouTube, etc.)
Harvesting Audience: Use social-media and SEO to convert one-time visitors into long-term subscribers
Diversification: Grow your business by expanding into multiple delivery channels
Monetization: Now that your expertise is established, you can begin charging money for your products or services
This model has worked wonders for Pulizzi and countless other examples detailed in the audiobook. Connect these six pieces like a puzzle, and before you know it you’ll be running your own profitable, scalable business.
Pulizzi walks you step by step through the process based on his own success (and failures) and real-world multimillion-dollar examples from multiple industries and countries.
Whether you’re seeking to start a brand-new business or drive innovation in an existing one, Content Inc. provides everything you need to reverse engineer the traditional entrepreneurial model for better, more sustainable success.
About Joe Pulizzi
Joe Pulizzi is founder of Content Marketing Institute, the leading education and training organization for content marketing, which includes the largest in-person content marketing event in the world, Content Marketing World. Joe is the winner of the 2014 John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Content Council. Joe’s third book,Epic Content Marketing was named one of “Five Must Read Business Books of 2013” by Fortune Magazine. If you ever see Joe in person, he’ll be wearing orange.
If you are currently struggling with getting traffic to your website, or converting that traffic when it shows up, you may think you’ve got a traffic or conversion problem. In Russell Brunson’s experience, after working with thousands of businesses, he has found that’s rarely the case. Low traffic and weak conversion numbers are just symptoms of a much greater problem, a problem that’s a little harder to see (that’s the bad news), but a lot easier to fix (that’s the good news). DotComSecrets will give you the marketing funnels and the sales scripts you need to be able to turn on a flood of new leads into your business.
Reviews
“Russell has spent over a decade successfully starting and scaling companies online. This book takes the best of what he’s discovered from over 1,000 unique split tests, tens of millions of visitors online and broken it down into a simple process that ANY company can use to geometrically improve their traffic, conversions and sales online.” — Anthony Robbins
“Russell is not a ‘pretend’ expert, but someone who has actually built one of the most successful businesses I know teaching entrepreneurs how to employ online marketing in their business that achieve exceptional results.” — Bill Glazier
“I sit now, as infrequently as possible, in meetings with young online marketing people demonstrably devoid of any disciplined thinking. They are full of opinion and youthful hubris but very short on facts. I do not want to share a foxhole with them or depend on them. I would risk it with Russell.” — Dan Kennedy
About Russell Brunson
Russell Brunson is a serial entrepreneur who started his first online company while he was wrestling at Boise State University. Within a year of graduating he had sold over a million dollars worth of his own products and services from his basement! For over 10 years now Russell has been starting and scaling companies online. He owns a software company, a supplement company, a coaching company (his successful roster of ‘heavyweight clients’ includes such legends as Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazier). Russell is one of the top super affiliates in the world. DotComSecrets was created to help entrepreneurs around the world to start, promote and grow their companies online.
Didn’t see what you want?
Shop for More:
For your convenience, I’ve set up segmented bookshelves of top books, authored by Subject matter experts and leading trainers for these categories: Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Sales, Marketing, and Web Marketing.Just click on any of the links below to scroll through a diverse selection of books that will ignite any business – and online or offline marketing – for your business or that of a friend:
… with new tools and insights to achieve online business success. Step-by-Step, these are powerful tools.
Happy Holidays!
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.
.. _____ ..
About Lisa M. Chapman:
Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals, both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:
While traditional media does its best to adapt to changing audiences social media continues to grow. The sheer amount of communication happening on social networks in any given day is mind-boggling, but what we found even more incredible was the 60-second breakdown assembled by Social Jumpstart:
——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-
I have been publishing the Wishlist of Books for Nonprofit Folk for seven years at my blog Marion Conway – Consultant to Nonprofits. It is always my most popular post of the year and is visited throughout the year. It is a curated list. I invite nonprofit thought leaders to contribute to it each year and the list is actually made up of recommendations that they have made. This year’s contributors include: Debra Beck, Kathleen Brennan, Heather Carpenter, Pamela Grow, John Haydon, Beth Kanter, Andrea Post, Ash Shepard, Amy Sample Ward and Robert Weiner.
The contributors are not limited to nonprofit titles and so there are always excellent books meant for a larger community that speak to us in the nonprofit community as well. This year’s list is varied – inspirational and practical. There are books with transformational ideas and ones that remind us of the importance of simple things.
I invite you to take a look at this year’s wishlist . Click here to visit the post.
Protecting yourself from an increasingly sophisticated threat
Your credit card information is probably already for sale on the black market, sad to say. But odds are you’ll be hacked in a more insidious way in 2016, sadder to say. Your identity has by now been logged into some vast spy database in a foreign country (probably China), where an intelligence agency is building up a profile around your persona—sourced from personal information available on social media and through breached health insurers, airlines, government offices, and the like. That means these state-sponsored attackers have everything they need to target you with crafty phishing schemes to help them compromise your networks, your data, your contacts. So think twice before opening that next email attachment.
This ominous prediction, from The 2016 Fortune Crystal Ball, should give everyone pause. As the quote explains, it’s not tough for hackers to put together a fairly accurate profile purely from your public presence on the web. Heck, most teenagers could do the same. The widespread availability of of information creates the ideal scenario for attacks in which hackers fool users into submitting personal data via increasingly realistic emails, IMs, and even text messages. In other words, phishing is being taken to a whole new level, and we will be the targets.
As with many other forms of digital attack, education is the best tool to prevent problems. If you (and your employees, family members who share a network, etc.) know how to identify a potential phishing attack and how to react/who to contact when you see something suspcious you’ll avoid all but the most sleek and intelligent attempts.
That said, there will always be those you can’t or fail to steer clear of, and that’s why you also need a plan for when precautions fail. Have messaging in place, stay on top of your backups, and learn how to rapidly regain control of your accounts before you’re attempting to do it while sweating bullets.
As long as they continue to be profitable digital attacks are here to stay. Don’t make yourself an easy target.
——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-
An email noted: “Staff members at my organization seem to believe we will lose our donors if we ask them to give more than once a year. I would appreciate hearing from others on this concern.”
OK. I know I’ve said this before, but the worst, absolutely the worst, thing that has ever happened to nonprofit fundraising is the invention/use of the term “Annual Fund.”
“It” tells/convinces (inexperienced) development staff that they only have to ask constituents to give once each year, or that they only have to get constituents to give once each year.
“It” also suggests to donors/constituents that they should only give once each year.
Boy, is that dumb. Why would any non-profit organization want to do that ??
Fundraising/Development is an ongoing process of cultivation/education, solicitation and stewardship. In case you never heard the expression, “the thank-you is the first step in cultivating for the next gift.”
People who don’t approve of asking more than once each year, are the same people who think that asking for money is basically distasteful; something someone else should do, not them — it’s beneath them.
What that means is that they have no clue what the non-profit sector is all about.
Of course, if the folks at your agency are right, then all the experience and experts are wrong. What do you think the odds are of that ??
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks?
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99-$4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program? AskHank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= We’ve been posting these pieces for the last five years,
and we’re now at a point where, to keep this resource alive,
we need your questions/problems to engender further discussion.
Look forward to hearing from you. Comments & Questions
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.
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out Novel 1st (first) edition Text Only
