Blogs

Before yesterday, I'd never considered the idea of a not-for-profit running a business in order to fund a mission. It's just not an idea that had ever crossed my mind. But on February 18th, in the Globe and Mail, Toronto's own Craig and Marc Kielburger (of Free the Children) produced an article on the subject, in answer to the following question:

"We are a small non-profit organization with few funding sources, but recently one of our members developed a marketable product that would help boost our revenue stream. Should we take on this project within the existing organization, or start a second social-enterprise company for it?"

The Kielburgers responded to the latter idea with a resounding yes .

Saw some good news over on the Design Edge Canada web site this week. Two Toronto-based publications have made the five best designed newspapers in the world list in the 33rd annual Best of Newspaper Design Creative Competition from the Society for News Design (SND), which calls itself an international organization for news media professionals and visual communicators.

Annual reports are something Nyman Ink knows a lot about. We've been commissioned to work on annual reports countless times over the past 20 or so years. They're one of our bread-and-butter specialties — one that has survived the big switch over from print to digital with few major changes.

These days, when we work on an annual report for a not-for-profit, we generally don't write original content, but rather edit the content supplied to us. And frankly, that makes perfect sense. You know your organization best, and you have the background information necessary to write a good annual report.

Unfortunately, that's not always what happens.

Using holidays and special occasions to launch special initiatives and fundraisers for your business or not-for-profit is kind of a no-brainer. After all, holidays are a natural way to mark the progression of a year. They come complete with a theme in place, and they're well-known, so if you're trying to market around, for example, St. Patrick's day, half the work is already done for you. (Green? Shamrocks? Luck? These images and ideas are built-in. Not much creative thought involved.) All you have to do is come up with a way to tie your organization into the holiday.

Since today is Valentine's Day, perhaps one of the best possible tie-in holidays for a savvy not-for-profit, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the business-based charity initiatives that are making headlines this year.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Pinterest by now. It's the hottest new(ish) thing in social media.

Earlier this week, Entreprenuer.com ran a piece by Jason Fall entitled "How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business."

Falls writes, "Move over Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Another social media site is stepping up as a valuable marketing tool for businesses. Pinterest, an online bulletin board for your favorite images, launched in 2010 and is already experiencing wild growth. The site registered more than 7 million unique visitors in December, up from 1.6 million in September. And it's driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined, according to a recent report from Cambridge, Mass.-based content-sharing site Shareaholic. Why should small businesses care? To answer that, you first have to understand how consumers are using the site. Pinterest allows you to organize images — maybe pretty sunrises or wines you've tasted — into boards for specific categories. When you ‘pin’ something new, your followers will see it. They can like, comment or re-pin it to their boards. Like Facebook content, your Pinterest pins can go viral … The possibilities are unlimited."

Falls goes on to talk about why business owners should "seriously consider starting a business profile on Pinterest now." But what about not-for-profits? Is there room in the Pinterest boom for you as well?

Absolutely. Pinterest is a great way to build buzz for your not-for-profit, and when it comes to fundraising, we all know that visual appeals can have major impact. Join Pinterest and start by pinning your own photographs — project images, photographs of your community or the people in the communities you serve. (Just be sure to attribute the photographs to your organization and to credit them appropriately. This will help build your online profile. Pinterest will link back to your website and this will help raise your search engine ranking.)

Next, move on to pinning images that are simply related to your interests. Does your organization work to bring clean water to a specific community? Search for and repin the best water images you can find. It's really that simple. You'll quickly get the hang of Pinterest once you start using it.

Falls ended his piece by saying: "One thing is clear whether you're on Pinterest for personal or business reasons: the best images — be they funny, beautiful or thought-provoking — attract the most attention and followers." He's certainly right about that.

I think we'll have to wait and see how Pinterest holds up and how it evolves as a tool, but for the time being, why not try it out? It may prove very useful, and it's always nice to get ahead of the curve. 

_{Header image by Nyman Ink, using the Pinterest logo. Body image by Tibor Fazakas, SXC, also modified by Nyman Ink.}

For the past 37 years, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) has released a List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. I generally agree with the words, especially 2011’s “viral” and “BFF”, though I’m not sure I feel the same about “Facebook and Google as verbs” as “Google it” is a staple in my vocabulary. And the new top terrible word for 2012 is:

Amazing.

If you're like me, you're always looking for new and interesting ways to illustrate your blog posts. This can be a daunting task. If you're not much of a photographer (and personally, I'm not), you can't rely on your own images, and stock photographs, which are often inexpensive, still cost money, and many not-for-profits don't have the money (or the inclination) to spend on online endeavours.

Every January, I start thinking about the Super Bowl. Not because I enjoy American football (I don't), but because I enjoy seeing the commercials that run during the Super Bowl broadcast. In the marketing/advertising world, these commercials make a major impact, and it's always smart for those in our business to keep an eye on what runs, and what works on Super Bowl Sunday.

Newsjacking. Have you heard of it? It's a phrase that has been bouncing around the not-for-profit sector a lot lately, but admittedly, it took me a while to figure out what it means.

As for a former journalist, I was curious. "Newsjacking" doesn't sound good, exactly, but neither does it sound too bad. I assumed it is some sort of guerilla tactic, a term coined to describe a new way for not-for-profits to garner notice in mainstream media. Turns out, I wasn't so far off the mark.

Here at Nyman Ink, we often counsel our clients on the issue of saying thanks. We talk about how important it is to thank your donors and we stress that small personal gestures can make an impact. In fact, ensuring that your organization offers up a simple thank you should be paramount for any not-for-profit wanting to make a difference in the crowded marketplace.