How does your nonprofit typically engage with your supporters? Is your ongoing online communications mainly comprised of action alerts to sign petitions or donation appeals pleading for money? If you answered yes, then your nonprofit is missing out on major opportunities on engaging and developing deeper relationships with your supporters. Here are ten engagement strategies to add to the mix of your online communications starting Monday morning.

1. Connect with Us: Make your presence on social networks easy to find on your website. Don’t bury it. Also make your social networking presence is branded with your organizational identity so your members immediately recognize you.

The 2010 PDF (Personal Democracy Forum) was the place to be for nonprofit and political campaigners last week in NYC. With movers and shakers ranging from Clay Shirky to Arianna Huffington, campaigners heard first-hand what strategies they should be focusing on in their online advocacy, fundraising and social media engagement.  Couldn’t attend the conference or all the sessions you wanted? Check out some of the key take-aways of PDF by some of our favorite nonprofit experts.

“I loved Eli Pariser's presentation and his main theme that we have to be careful about filtering too much, cutting ourselves off from…

This cartoon is by Courtney Gibbons.  

I know. It’s crude. But at least I’ve got your attention. 

At

Thanks to Allyson for inviting me to guest post.  I’ll try to keep it short and just sweet enough to fill you in on everything you need to know about the new 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study from M+R Strategic Services and NTEN.

(This stuff fascinates me – which I guess is good since it’s my job. But I won’t be offended if you just want to skip straight to the report itself!)

If you’ve worked with us before at M+R you know we’re data nerds—and with this year’s…

With healthcare come and gone, today’s legislative buzz is all about financial reform, global warming, and immigration.  Recently, I asked experts in the nonprofit sector to find out how the people who are most vested in these social justice issues are gearing up for battle.

“I sure hope you’re not getting started now,” said Heather Holdridge of Fenton Communications.  After all - climate change and financial reform legislation are already in front of the House. Healthcare for America NOW (HCAN) started organizing in early 2008 by asking people to make pledges before a bill was even in existence.  They knew that they needed time to build a list of people if they wanted to be involved in shaping the bill.

This is a critical strategy.  There’s an invaluable…

We've all heard and lived the 80-20 gospel: 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.  In the consumer products world, it's the 10-50 rule: in any product category, 10% of consumers account for more than 50% of profits.  In the online advocacy and politics world, many of us have internalized the "Power Law" thanks to Clay Shirky and other leading thinkers in our space.  But there's a gap between knowing the Power Law and putting it to use as an engagement ladder to identify and cultivate those superstars that might make up 20% of your list.

We can start to bridge the gap by getting a handle on three things:

1. What's the ideal profile of a superstar for your organization? Is it a monthly donor? Someone who signs up and…

As nonprofits scramble to meet their year-end fundraising goals, this is also a great time of year to reflect on what online fundraising and advocacy strategies worked well in 2009. But what's coming up in 2010?

Frogloop asked some of the best nonprofit experts what should organizations focus on in 2010 to be successful in fundraising, online advocacy, online marketing, and social media? Here's their advice.

Cheryl Contee, Fission Strategy: In 2010, nonprofits need to get serious about mobile outreach. A July 2009 Pew Internet study found there is no digital divide for online when you factor in mobile access. 2010 is the year to make sure your WordPress blog has a plugin…

The nonprofit sector often debates how to calculate the value of social media. While there have been case studies highlighting successes, there aren’t many concrete studies on how social media directly impacts nonprofits' fundraising and advocacy. So when Engagement db released a new study on how well the top brands (Starbucks, Dell, Google, etc.) are using social media, I dived into the study to see what strategies nonprofit’s could adapt.

Start Somewhere. Start…