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 reply let me know how it's going.
Let's talk about building a list with love. Seriously.
π€ It's an organization, not a list. The word organization describes an entity that is made up of many parts. A body is only healthy when every organ is working right.
Somehow, we started thinking of our list, supporters and community as external to the organization. Their experience becomes disconnected from our success.
But every person is a potential extra muscle, kidney, heart, foot or brain -- with all the potential power every extra organ can bring.
Practically speaking: start by getting to know people. Use surveys and ask questions on all your pages and forms. Consider using site registration - or registration for various areas of content - with which you can not just track what people are doing or reading but engage people with questions and content tied to their interests and needs.
Call people (and not just for money). Invite people to low stakes meetings, zoom calls and other events where people can ask questions, get answers, work together, learn about who you are, what you do and why other people get involved.
Use - and always be updating - automations like an onboarding series and personalized and conditional content based on first party data like location, interests, actions, giving history. Show people you're listening, hear them and can respond to their interests and needs.
β
π Find people who will love you. Or at least like you. How we build email lists is a broken. Too much list building is based on thinly veiled trickery. Sign a petition, download a report, buy a thing and maybe you won't realize there's a note and checkbox that just opted you into a list.
And maybe you see the checkbox and opt in anyway.
Either way, in most cases this is the most tenuous of relationships. And you, the organization, just paid someone a few bucks (or much more) to get this email address.
Turning weak into strong(ish) ties is a project supported by everything above. Show you care, invite people in, ask questions.
But this is also about leading with value and marketing the heck out of that value.
This is where content strategy is misunderstood in most nonprofits. Sure, you should have current content with optimized headlines and rich inbound linking. And content should use heading tags well, have nice white space, be accessible and found in multiple web, email and social channels.
Look, you don't need to create content that appeals to everyone. But you do need to make valuable content available that answers questions, solves problems, maybe even entertains. And then provide that in ways and places people can find.
This is largely done today using TikTok and Instagram reels. I'm not sure how this is building email donor lists but at least it's entertaining content. It's a step in a direction.
If you're already crafting content - blog posts, articles, case studies, reports, maps, charts, etc. - then repurpose that into an email newsletter or email training course. And advertise to people who would be interested in that content. Supply the content to bloggers and influencers who can get it to their audiences and tell people about you.
But work this from an email angle. Sure, there are other channels to use, but email is the only one that you "own" and that you can more or less control.
β
π€ Go to your people. Your people are out there. They just don't always look like your current audience. Use your surveys and other first person data (see above) to test messages to more targeted audiences. Send people to events. Train staff and volunteers to be organizers.
β
π Let your people go. I can't emphasize this enough. Sometimes the vibes aren't there and the kindest thing to do is say goodbye. In other words, clean your damn list. Your email stats will reward you, you'll better understand who cares about what and why, and your deliverability will get a boost!
What weβre reading
Just the sort of conversation and training we need: Build better supporter relationships from Julius Honnor at Contentious and Rebecca Turner at Root Cause Collective.
βAn ecosystem view of local news health is a smart recognition that local news, and its impact on community engagement and democracy, is a continuum and even places where local news seems to be (relatively) healthy there can be threats to press freedom, revenue sustainability and more.
βCollabs between local media and influencers can benefit communities says American Press Institute (via Liz Kelly Nelson's Project C). Holistic thinking about the role of influencer relationships is good for nonprofit folks out there, too.
βDigital Divinity from Rest of World documents how religious believers around the world are using technology in their daily practices. The presentation is wildly creative and the huge range of tech mods in everyday religion might inspire some ideas for communicators and organizers.
βThe Star Tribune in Minneapolis was twice as likely to retain subscribers who wanted to cancel once it began offering online self-service options, Lenfest Institute shares in its Beyond Print Toolkit. Good customer service, including online self-service tools, is a revenue source for news and nonprofit orgs.
βBecoming Futures Ready: How Philanthropy Can Leverage Strategic Foresight For Democracy via Suzette Brooks Masters. An essential new guide to deploying and leveraging foresight and futures thinking practices.
βA guide to creating, running and sustaining a thriving local digital public space from New Public. Brilliant and needed.
βReaders don't differentiate between nonprofit and other news sources according to recent research from the University of Florida. I get why readers don't differentiate. But community leaders - and community journalists - should emphasize the value that local, often non-profit, news delivers.
βInteresting piece on salary transparency impacts from GlassDoor. Many states now require salary transparency. This is good. But wide salary ranges, employer size, incentive pay and more make it tough to evaluate their impact.
Future Community Jobs
Here are a few of the latest sightings. Dozens of new roles are over on the full Future Community jobs list. Connect on LinkedIn for in-between updates.
Nonprofit organizations β‘
Audience, content and news organizations ποΈ
Communications π£οΈ
Fundraising and Development π°
Foundations and Philanthropy πΈ
Politics, products, projects, agency roles and more π»
Thanks for being part of Future Community. Hit reply with questions, project ideas, or jobs to share. Please forward, read more or subscribe.
β