Why Buyer Personas Can Skyrocket New Customers. I recently attended a San Francisco startup company party where framed, and hanging right on the cafeteria walls were the company's target customer personas.
"Ted the IT technician," "Sally the sophisticated sales exec," and the like. The company-wide display of detailed buyer characteristics the startup goes after was ingrained in the entire culture and producing sales. No wonder they could afford an open bar. It's no secret that businesses who know their key targets to this high level of detail tend to do well. Once a strategy reserved for the Apples of the business world (Apple knew it's iPad buyer persona before the product was ever built), startups and small businesses are finding that they too can leverage personas to use their resources more efficiently, as well. Building Life-Long Customers You Have to Go Deep Recruiting those lifelong customers takes more than general segmentation.
U.S. Regains Top Giving Spot. Americans can once again proudly shout “we’re number one.”
Not only did the United States regain the top spot in the World Giving Index, it did so by posting the highest score in the survey’s history. Published by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in Kent, U.K., the World Giving Index is the largest annual global survey of giving, and is being published this year to coincide with #GivingTuesday, the online day of giving now in its second year. In this year’s edition of the survey, the U.S. sits above Canada, Myanmar (Burma), New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia — which had secured the first spot in last year’s Index. Startup and Career Lessons From The Eagles. Hoarding information. If your project or organization depends on knowing things that other people don't know (but could find out if they wanted to), your days are probably numbered.
Ask a travel agent. Agents and brokers of any kind, in fact. Anyone who thrives when people are in the dark is in ever more danger of working in the bright light of transparent information. Pretending that you offer the lowest price on a commodity, for example, is a lot more difficult when anyone who cares about the price can easily look it up. Fighting to keep the content of your course a secret, to pick another example, isn't sufficient when a similar course is available online. Information is in a hurry to flow, and if someone comes up with a better, more direct, faster and cheaper way for information to get from one place to another, they will eliminate your reason for being. The alternative, while difficult, is obvious: provide enough non-commodity service and customization that it doesn't matter if the ideas spread. The Power of Simplicity. Charities Veer From Record Government Funds to Cutbacks - Government.
When to Think Small for Fundraising. I’ve never met a fundraiser who likes to think small.
Small is bad. It’s inadequate. It’s a waste of time and resources. Big is definitely better. There are no limits to big. The early process in nonprofit fundraising is shrinking. Communicating on the small screen is an animal all its own, stripped down and endlessly vertical. Begin with your identity system. Is the name of your organization short enough to function without editing for display on a mobile device? A Sweeping Plan to Curb Fundraiser Turnover - Ideas & Advice. Development Director Jobs Open For 2 Years. Development director positions are vacant for an average of six months.
For organizations with budgets less than $1 million, the median vacancy jumps to 12 months. Some 16 percent of organizations’ development director positions have remained unfilled for two years or more. Those are some of the results from a study released in January called “Underdeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising.” It was produced by Oakland, Calif., nonprofit CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco, Calif. No, You Can't Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much. UnderDeveloped_CompassPoint_HaasJrFund_January 2013.pdf (application/pdf Object) Half of Fundraisers in the Top Job Would Like to Quit - News. By Jennifer C.
Berkshire One in four nonprofit leaders is so disappointed in fundraising at his or her organization that the last person in the job was fired, according to a new national study to be released this week. And milder frustration is rampant: One in three executives is at best lukewarm about the person now holding the top development job. But chief fundraisers have their own complaints about CEO’s, boards, and the support their organizations have given them. As a result, many of them are looking to leave their jobs—or possibly leave fundraising altogether, the survey found. The study, one of the biggest national surveys of its kind, gathered data from more than 2,700 development directors and charity heads who work at organizations of different sizes and missions.
. • Half of the chief fundraisers plan to leave their jobs within two years or less. Startup Lessons From 17 Hard-Hitting Quotes In "Moneyball" Seth Godin: Purple Cow, Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. 19 Brilliant Business Lessons From Moneyball.