Personal Brand Archives - FundraisingForce

Stephen Mally Facebook, Fundraising, LinekdIn, Personal Brand, Professional development, Social media

How current is your LinkedIn profile?

How current is your LinkedIn profile? Do you have more than one profile? Are you two employers behind in terms of your employment history? Is all your information up to date, but you do not post routine updates or maintain contact with others via LinkedIn?

Think all this does not matter? It does.

As a small business owner, I can report that approximately 50% of my business comes via LinkedIn. The other half comes from word of mouth, the FundraisingForce Website, Google searches, and other sources.

Do not discount the importance of LinkedIn even as an employee of a non-profit organisation. Think of the ways LinkedIn is important to your charity and to you as a leading fundraiser:

Donors investigate leadership of organisations via LinkedIn. Whether donors are researching staff or board leadership, donors want to know who is involved and what experience those parties bring to your charity.
Prospective employers and executive recruiters are using LinkedIn as one of their top means to find new talent.
Professional and service organisations research committee members and leaders in order to surface leaders.

Encourage your staff and colleagues to maintain a healthy LinkedIn profile. Ask staff to routinely update the profile in order to maintain a high ranking amongst the massive numbers of LinkedIn profiles. Link other social media accounts to update your LinkedIn profile, as well.
Above all, remember LinkedIn is not a casual social media website such as Facebook. Keep your posts processional and ensure your profile mirrors your professional brand. Adopt a social media policy for your employees and ensure staff adhere to the social media policy.

Stephen Mally 2015, BPay, Cause Related Marketing, Challenge gifts, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Donation Tin, Donor care, FundraisingForce, Give Jar, Giving Tuesday, Goal setting, Ice Bucket Challenge, Matching gifts, New Year, Passwords, Personal Brand, PostPay, Professional development, QR codes, thank you notes, Year in Review

FundraisingForce – A Year in Review

For FundraisingForce’s year-end blog, we thought it was appropriate to take a look back at our blog posts over this past year and to do a bit of a year in review. We launched the Website for FundraisingForce in early June and what a year (6 months, actually) it has been! This last year, FundraisingForce…

…challenged you to think about the last time you sent something handwritten to someone, including thank you notes.
…suggested preparations for the end of the financial year on 30 June 2014.
…suggested each charity needed to be prepared to respond to customer service issues via Twitter, just as airlines, hotels, retail stores and others have to be prepared.
…offered an overview of how some organisations handle opt-outs.
…highlighted the fact most organisations in Australia do not offer BPay and PostPay as an option for giving for their donors.
…questioned why charities do not appear to utilise QR Codes in appeals and in other marketing.
…asked whether you have an elevator pitch to describe your charity and what you do for the charity.
…discussed collaborative goal setting.
…suggested customer service is the most import deliverable.
…spotlighted the good donor care provided by Zoos Victoria Foundation.
…discussed the importance of good data hygiene.
…highlighted the importance of matching gifts and how rare they are in Australia.
…offered four steps to donor care.
…gave ideas for professional development.
…asked whether donor welcome packs are a thing of the past.
…offered the opinion that cause related marketing is also rare in Australia.
…applauded the Ice Bucket Challenge.
…also applauded an August telemarketing call.
…suggested your charity test an ask in your donor acknowledgement/thank you letters.
…gave training options for your team.
…highlighted why gifts in honour or memory of someone are really sensitive gifts.
…introduced the DipJar to potentially replace donation tins.
…showed you how to find hot prospects for spring.
…offered advice to prepare for a disaster.
…gave additional suggestions and advice on staff training.
…offered advice to set passwords and not store them on Post-it Notes!
…suggested challenge gifts to motivate your donors to give.
…introduced the concept of personal brand.
…highlighted charities offering holiday cards.
…promoted GivingTuesday and its success a multitude of times.
…and, we highlighted selfless acts on behalf of charities, including those of MaryRose Mazzola of Massachusetts.

FundraisingForce sincerely hopes the various topics we have blogged have been of interest and benefit to you and others in your organisation.

Special thanks to RamtinWorld for designing a terrific Website and a platform for FundraisingForce to be able to communicate with all of you worldwide.

FundraisingForce wishes you all best wishes for 2015. Happy New Year!