The state of things and the work ahead Some thoughts in no particular order. Let me know if you want to talk about any of it.+ Create community. Not lists of subscribers, fans, supporters, followers or donors.+ Build collective power. Not individual actions.+ Talk to people about what they need. Don’t tell them what to do.+ Connect people to people, not organizations.+ Show people you love them. Don’t tell them you care.+ Give people tools. And training. And the grace to learn.+ If you...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Build an organization, not a list Hello to every single one of you! Thanks for reading these words and doing the work you do. A couple quick notes: I run Bright+3 where we help leaders navigate content, community and fundraising. We have space for one more year-end project and would be happy to chat about what you need no matter how last minute. The Future Community Jobs list is hopping. I'm glad it's helping people out. Send along roles we can share. And if you're looking for something hit...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Elections, fundraising and community. Sure, American elections are total madness. But you and your organization can help people through this. Right? A few months ago I had a conversation with someone in the UK about their coming elections (held on July 4th this year) and how it impacts online advocacy and fundraising. Ha. Imagine if you will a six week election season. It's manic! And glorious. U.S. elections are constant, loud and generally exhausting for everyone. The ads, texts, emails...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Be delightful. Yes yes...we're all doing VERY SERIOUS WORK but an email program without culture of joy is just boring. A while back I wrote about running a super delightful email program. Let's talk a little bit more about what pretty never gets mentioned at fundraising conferences or LinkedIn posts: enjoying the work we do while giving subscribers something special and useful. We're so obsessed with ROI and the 0.1% drop in benchmark click rates that we lose sight of who we're serving and...
4 months ago • 4 min read
News organizations have been through a LOT and have a thing or five to teach nonprofits about community, revenue, innovation, metrics and more. “What are some unique innovations that nonprofit news could export to the greater nonprofit sector?” Tristan Loper, who runs national programs at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, asked that question on LinkedIn last week. I love this question. It’s the theme of a poster session I successfully pitched to Comnet 2024 back in April. This question...
4 months ago • 3 min read
How a zoom call for white dudes modeled community building and why it matters for democracy and nonprofits. Last Monday night I tuned into the White Dudes for Harris event on YouTube. Organizers reported on Friday that it raised almost $4.5 million for the Harris campaign, over 200,000 people tuned in Monday night and another 200,000+ watched it afterwards. These numbers only surprise me given that organizers only had a few days to put this together. Much has been made of the lineup of...
4 months ago • 5 min read
101 News Donation and Membership Pages What we can learn from looking at how more than 100 news organizations are using donation forms, membership, premiums and user experience to grow reader revenue and build community. Hello! This Future Community is an exciting one. Over the past couple months I've been researching the donation experience of over 100 US news organizations (and a few international ones). I'm thrilled to share findings and full summary, including data and screenshots, with...
6 months ago • 6 min read
Supporters and subscribers want to trust us. Why do we make it so hard for them? Help: If you're here mostly for the job listings (down there ⤵️) could you hit reply and let me know if or how they're useful (or not)? Is there anything that would be more useful? Are you seeking job posts, support, resources, community, ideas, whatever? There are a LOT of job lists out there (too many?). I have some ideas for how make Future Community Jobs more useful but don't want to be wasting anyone's time....
7 months ago • 5 min read
Email is an owned channel but ownership belongs to the audience – Dan Oshinsky Let's try something. Does your organization need a newsletter or are you thinking about launching a new one but not sure what to do? Reply to this email and let me know what organization you work with, your subject area and geography. I'll send you five newsletter ideas with notes on audience, growth and revenue. That's it. Last Friday I joined 402 other folks in New York City for the first Newsletter Conference....
7 months ago • 5 min read