Blogging Session at 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Last week I led a session at the Nonprofit Technology Conference about blogs.  My presentation is below. You can also read my guest post on NTEN's Blog where I wrote a preview of my session.

2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report

The 2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report was released last month. It was interesting to see that some of the findings were the same from last year.

Here are some of the findings:

• Once again the three most important goals for nonprofit communications strategies are acquiring new donors (53%), engaging our community (49%) and general brand awareness (39%). The percentages are lower, but the order of the three are still the same.
• Once again the three most important tools are websites, social media other than blogging, and email marketing. 
• The three most important social media sites are still Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Nonprofits are most likely to add or experiment with Instagram (30%), Pinterest (29%), YouTube (28%), and LinkedIn (27%) this year.  
• The biggest challenge nonprofits expect to have is still lack of time to produce quality content.
• Nonprofits still expect to spend the most time producing content for Email newsletter articles, Facebook updates, and event marketing.

Articles About Nonprofit Websites

Here are links to articles about nonprofit websites-

5 Things You Should Think About for Your Nonprofit Website  (re: charity)

3 "Hidden" Jobs Your Nonprofit Website Has to Perform (SW Creatives)

Your Nonprofit Website Must Have These 5 Things (about.com)

4 Ways to Improve Volunteer Satisfaction Using Your Website (Wired Impact)

Nonprofit Websites that Work: Showcase Your Personality, Passion & Impact (Getting Attention)

2014 Nonprofit Marketing Report

The 2014 Nonprofit Marketing Report was just released by Blackbaud and The Content Marketing Institute.  Here are some of the findings:

• 92% of nonprofit professionals use content marketing.
• The social media platform used the most to distribute content is Facebook (91%).  Other platforms used are Twitter (69%), YouTube (65%), LinkedIn (53%), Google+ (27%), and Pinterest (25%).
• The top 3 goals for nonprofit content marketing are fundraising (79%), brand awareness (73%), and engagement (65%).  I was surprised to see that website traffic was at 51% and volunteer recruitment was at 43%.
• The top 3 metrics for nonprofit content marketing success are increased fundraising (66%) , website traffic (53%), and social media sharing (49%). It was interesting to see that subscriber growth was at 31%.
• The 7 content marketing challenges that nonprofit professionals face the most are lack of time (69%), lack of budget (67%), producing the kind of content that engages (48%), lack of knowledge and training (45%), inability to measure content effectiveness (36%), producing enough content (35%), and producing a variety of content (31%).

Resources About Donation Pages

There have been some great resources lately about donation pages. Listed below are links to articles and a great infographic.

8 Ways to Wake Up Your Donation Page (Red Rooster Group)

Testing Your Donation Form Part 1: Why do it? (npENGAGE)

Testing Your Donation Form Part 2: Designing Your Test (npENGAGE)

Is your nonprofit website ready for the Giving Season? (First Giving)

Is September the new December? (Sea Change Strategies)

10 Donation Pages We Love (DonationPay)


Architecture of a Donation Page Infographic from CausePopuli-