Today's episode is sponsored by Feathr. Feathr provides digital marketing tools and strategies for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, including the Humane Society of North Central Florida. Stick around for the break to hear how Feathr powered their $300 digital ad campaign that raised nearly $6,000 In just one day.
Hey, I'm Jon.
And I'm Becky.
And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
So welcome to the good community, we're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers, and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Yo, Becky, happy Friday.
It's syndication day, I'm dancing over here on the side.
Have we been hyping this enough? This is like rounding out our impact arc series. This is kind of like the crowning jewel if you're kind of working through this. This is what takes all the work that you've been putting in staging and storytelling, syndicating is activating, it is getting it out there it is leading to scaling like this is going to be a fun conversation. But if you've missed the last two Friday episodes, I want to point you to go back to that because we've done a lot of tone setting. And I don't want you to miss that. The bigger thing here is asking bigger questions is asking the right questions to get you on the trajectory to really accomplish whatever you're really trying to do. Because you don't want to be at this stage and realizing man, we played really small when we could have gone really big. And that's what today is about really going big. So let's jump in. Right.
I think that you said something really profound to me when we were first talking about this. And it's like, if you kind of work in this old style of thinking, you're really just putting things out into the universe and hoping for success. So that you understand that if you can, if you infuse the impact arc thinking into your mindset, you're not hoping for success, you're hedging for success because it is going to come and so we love syndication I I don't know that it's the greatest word to talk about what this is, we haven't found a great word.
I think of like Full House is like syndication, right?
I totally am thinking of Friends, like how many times can Friends be used in different countries all around the world in different decades. That is totally what we're teaching you how to do here. Because the things that go on in your mission are deeply important. And there are people in the world who have don't know about it, they haven't been connected to you. They haven't heard your story yet, in the way that we diversify that story, the message where it's placed, who's telling it how we're telling it is going to get more eyeballs, more ears, more hearts, more hands involved in this process. And friends, that's how you build believers, we keep saying this over and over, you can like put a little tally on your sheet, we're saying it again. But we're not here to build donors. We're here to build believers, because we know that donors will come from believers because they are so invested in our passion that they will give up everything to see that we succeed, they will give us their money, they will give us their time, they will give us their network, they're going to give us their volunteer hours. So this is a level of thinking that's going to set all of that on fire. And syndication is where it's at.
I mean such good tone setting of where we're going. So let's start with just like a basic definition of syndication. And so if you are a longtime listener to the podcast, we did an episode on this, I want to say in season one, because this has been core to just how we think. And I want to break it down in a real practical sense. Syndication is taking a strong piece of content. So a signature piece of content. So when we talked about last weekend, storytelling is investing in making a really great story. It's taking that and turning it into micro bursts of content. So a lot of different pieces. And this is not just stuff. This is helping to create touch points that all point back to the bigger mission, vision, value that you're trying to emulate. But those micro pieces of content can be taken to different mediums. So all the different places that donors interact. And so welcome to 2022 when we're recording this, people are everywhere in different places, communities are everywhere. And you can't just play in one lane. If you're really trying to build and engage or enrage a community about something you have to be in a lot of different places. And so it's really this idea of taking those pieces and putting them in different context showing them and storytelling them in different ways. So you can get people excited and get people passionate in all these different places and get them activated. So there's a lot of endless applications here. We do it on a real practical basis with a podcast, how do we produce three episodes a week and show up on social and different places, we syndicate, you know, we think in that mindset. And if you use that, as a mindset, it'll help you accomplish a lot more at scale. And so it's really a fundamental thing. And just a way of thinking that we would love to, you know, share with you today.
And so here's some of the key benefits to having a syndication mindset. One, it's free, you already have the content built, you don't have to pay anybody to create anything else, it's already done. It saves you time, by working smarter, not harder. You know, we use that hashtag all the time, because we feel for you, we've been in the trenches of nonprofit work. And there are a million things to do while you're wearing a tons of different hats. This is going to help you work smarter and save up your time, it's going to allow for audience segmentation, you're going to be able to see who your people are, where they hang out what their interests are, where the age, genders, you know, interest, those kinds of things, you're going to be able to reach more people than ever before. If you can syndicate and syndicate well, you'll be meeting people in the spaces that they hang out, not the places where you're dropping your content. This is really about getting into those spaces, and pushing them back to your hub, which we hope is your website. And it also creates really consistent messaging and it creates this two way communication in different spaces. It could be the physical space, it could be a digital space, it could be in your office. And so you know, getting that consistent messaging, make sure that we're all saying the same thing with one voice. There's never any confusion about who we are, how we're showing up and what we're delivering. It also allows you to slice and dice content to enable multiple engagement points. I mean, have you ever thought of your let's say, your executive director who gave a speech at your annual luncheon? Have you ever thought about syndicating that speech, taking different quotes out, making a graphic out of it, or putting that quote on a photo, or getting a little clip of that executive director speaking and putting it somewhere else, it's really about bringing the messages to anywhere anyone is hanging out. And the last one is, it allows you to focus on specific topics or goals. So if you're really trying to capture email addresses, having a syndication mindset is going to allow you to take something you already have put it out there and push somebody in to come capture whatever it is you're wanting, if it's an email address, if it's a donation, if it's a story, syndication is really going to help you do all of things, tons of endless benefits here.
I mean, there's so many benefits. And so I think the call to action here for all of us is don't fall into the use only once pitfall because that is a pitfall and it exhausts everybody, it burns everybody out
Guilty of this.
Oh, totally. So don't call...actually do call us out. Because we're guilty of this. With us, too. So what this really looks like some hacks is that if your communications timeline is still 1.0, then start to build for a 2.0 model, which is about engagement. And engagement does look different. It's not always going to be long form. Sometimes it's asking questions. And sometimes it's just trying different things to figure out what sticks and what brings people out and what doesn't bring people out kind of the opposite. But it also allows you a chance to really chart out and get in one place this overview of how are we spinning all the plates? Like how are those overlapping? And what are we really trying to accomplish through our publication calendar, our direct mail, calendar, stewardship touchpoints, and campaigns, events, announcements, everything needs to get in step together. Because, again, people are in different places. And so as you kind of look at this from a global perspective, you're ushering a lot of different messages and a lot of people on their own journeys. And so having this mindset is kind of critical these days to even doing that at scale. And data can be your friend, you know, hopefully you have a CRM that you work with. There's a lot of wonderful ones in our industry today. But data is totally our friend, understanding who are your audiences because you understand people as you have more of these conversations, you'll be able to make content that better connects and feels more relevant because it does connect as you get to know people. And the last one, I would say give kudos to Mallory Erickson, she really taught us to switch our framework on this to say, where are your assets? Remember, we are not nonprofits coming with our hands out asking for money. We are coming from a place of empowerment ourselves. You have assets in your mailing list, in your website, in all the ways that you show up, maybe physically or online. And those are assets to your organization. How can you use those to help diversify the tone, these experiences, of where you can put messages? And they do have value. So if you're partnering with outside organizations, understand the value that comes from the platforms that you're building as well.
So we've defined syndication, we've talked about benefits and hacks, I want to talk to you about voice. Because how you speak and share any of this content truly, truly matters. And contouring that voice to your audience, is gonna be the way that you connect more seamlessly, more authentically, and more heartfeltly. I don't know if heartfeltly is a word that I just made up.
I like it.
And I think the thing that I'm most excited about because I think voice is something that is not getting enough attention to particularly thinking about your digital voice, I will tell you that We Are For Good, has a voice style guide. And we literally have, it's probably ridiculous because I wrote it. So it's probably like four or five pages long,
I think it's like six or seven, let's be clear.
Yeah, let's be honest, it's probably 20 pages. Soo, but we really break down at a micro level, how we talk, why we talk, what kind of voice we don't use, how we employ certain styles, and layouts and frameworks to our voice. Because it really does matter. Your voice is a reflection not only of your mission, but of your brand and of its people. And so I want to give you some hacks about voice that can really help you. And I talked about this last week. And I love that I have in my notes that death to the corporate robot speak and then I have the skull and crossbones, I literally put the emoji in there with the voice. Because this is not a place to be incredibly buttoned up. This is not a place to be PC, and to make sure that you have everything run up the chain approved through 12 people to be able to post because people can sniff out a phony and something that's fabricated, and very, very sterile on social. And so we're saying, Hey, bring those adjectives back out, bring those emojis in, feelings are very welcomed to humanize organizations and missions, particularly in the digital space. I would also say that contouring your message to match generational speak is very important. And I'll give an example on this. If you are putting out your impact report. The way that you share your impact report with a boomer who may be getting it in the mail is entirely different than the way that you would unpack it on Instagram, to a millennial. And the way that you talk about it is different, the way that you engage with pieces of it is going to be different. So stay relevant. Hopefully you have some Gen Zers or some Millennials on your staff. I know we look to our unicorn Julie to keep us really, really hip. Use that and just know that that is a humanizing way that creates engagement. And the last piece on voice is make sure when you are engaging, that you're using words that lead to action into engagement. Ask questions, create polls, ask for testimonials, ask for anything that prompts conversation, and once you get it folks, do not just let it sit, get back in there, respond. Talk to these people. This is cultivation 101 on a digital level. You are warming people if they choose to stop what they're doing, and comment, give their voice, give their story to you anywhere in the digital space, on a print space, someone is raising their hand enough to say I care about your mission and I care enough to tell you what I think about it.
Hey, friends, this episode is presented by Virtuous and they just happened to be one of our favorite companies. Let me tell you why. You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see and activate donors at every level. And here's the thing, Virtuous created a fundraising platform to help you do just that. It's much more than a nonprofit CRM. Virtuous is committed to helping charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising, which is simply putting the donor at the center of fundraising, throwing giving through personalized donor journeys, and by helping you respond to the needs of every individual. We love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty through personalized engagement. Sound like Virtuous may be a fit for your organization? Learn more today at virtuous.org or follow the link in our show notes.
Hey, friends! Are you ready to take your digital engagement to the next level, but kind of feel stuck about where to start? Let us introduce you to feather Feathr is an amazing tech startup focused on making nonprofit outreach more impactful by connecting you to your audience wherever they are online, from fundraising to program awareness, they've got you covered. And rather than telling you we just wanted to show you for years the Humane Society of North Central Florida has participated in a local online giving day called The Amazing Give. It's a competitive landscape for donations. So in 2021, the Humane Society knew they needed to stand out in order to maximize donations for $300 in ad spend their retargeting ads brought 119 visitors to their amazing give donation page and generated nearly $6,000 in donations in just one day. With Feathr, a small amount of ad spend can go a long way, learn more about their solutions for nonprofits at feathr.co. That's feather without the last e dot co. Now let's get back to this amazing conversation.
It's so good and so true that a lot of these things that we talked about can even ultimately be automated. And I don't want to miss this opportunity to plug that you should be automating, obviously, what you can automate. But the danger in that also is just thinking that it's done. And what we're saying here, and I realized this is not scalable by design. But that's kind of the secret sauce of it as well, that you have to get in there and actually engage in in the engagement is where you're going to see this take on a different life of its own. And so as contents being syndicated, how is someone responding? How are they engaging? How are they sharing it or forwarding it, or tagging? And I'll say, tagging is one of these things that can be a bullet on this list that I'm giving you.
Tagging is magic.
Our business has been built on tagging. So if you're not tagging in your post of relevant tags, I'm not saying like spamming tagging people, but hey, I thought you would really find this relevant, you know, whether it's your piece of content or not. It's relational building in today's world of tagging people, and it creates this swell, it invites more people into the conversation. It can't just be automated, right? Or some of these actually can probably automate some tagging. But I'm saying, you've got to look at it as more than just I gotta get at my post today. How can this really move the needle in creating community? Because that's my goal is I'm trying to create community. So it's not just posting stuff. Also, just asking questions, getting in comments, and, and, you know, inviting questions or going deeper with Why did you say that? Or what do you think about this? Reflecting and celebrating. And there's a lot of ways to track progress. There's a lot of social media monitoring tools if you're thinking in the social media space. But just at a base level, you know, Becky said earlier that everything should point back to your website. And we've talked a lot about websites on this podcast, because it should be your hub like that is where you can control a lot more of the controllables than you can on any other platform. So we're trying to get that email address, we're trying to get someone to take the next step in this relationship with us. So lean into Google Analytics, it can literally tell you so much about how people are engaging with your content, which guess what, that's data that helps you fuel to make better content, more sticky content, better landing pages, and better optimize every part of this. So there's tools and again, most of them are free to really make this and take this to the next level.
So all of that just leads me to think like who's in charge of this? Who's in charge of syndicating in your organization? And the answer is, anyone and everyone, you know, this is a team effort. And everyone has to have their hands in their eyes and their ears, on looking for greater ways that we can push our messages out. So everyone needs to be well versed on the organization. Everyone who's a part of this has to commit to being honest and vulnerable, and timely in their engagement and posts. It's the worst thing ever to put something out there and get tons of engagement. And the organization is just cricket, cricket, cricket, make sure that this is a team sport, because we can't just put this on the Social Media Manager, it's got to be much bigger than that. And many of you out there may not even have budget, directed specifically to one social media manager. But we are saying that this is a warm, this is a warming unlike you have ever seen in your organization before. And I want to talk about why syndication is absolutely key to stewardship into warming. Because when you capture those stories, when you've set the stage, you've captured those stories, you've syndicated it out, you are telling the ongoing story of your mission, philanthropy and its people, and that by nature is warming people to their next gift. It's setting a constant reminder on their feed of the story that they're seeing play out, and the collective good that they're giving or that they're sharing is powering. And when that happens, people are much more likely and much more ready to give the next time you ask because they want that good feeling and that impact to keep going and going. And this leads to scaling.
Okay, you just teed up scaling. So I'm just saying, it's gonna be good because this is where we're going. But let's talk about a case study and I remember this one coming across our desk that sounds really corporate. This case study came...
We barely have desks
...from the University of Wisconsin, and it was actually somebody that's incredible in our community, Aimee Furrie. And she, you know, was sharing the story of the power of connection in the middle of COVID. So let's all go back in our brains of like, all of this kind of like March 13, 2020, happening, and we're all kind of like, what's the next move? And their next move was, we need to check in on people, we need to create personal connection with people, but we have 10s of 1000s of alumni that we need to touch base with. So how can we do this in a personal way, and so they use the power of tech, thank you ThankView, one of the platforms that we love just making personalized video, they took the power of Thank you, and the power of the student color program that they already had in place. And they said, What would happen if we made 35,000 personal videos, and sent them out, just checking on people and saying, Hey, how's it going, and this is my story. I'm a student here at the university, just to give them a piece of that. And what happened is thing of legends, right?
It is, and I know you're probably getting hot and sweaty like I am around the collar, when I think about trying to organize 35,000 videos, because I want to say they had like, I don't know, 35 callers. And so this is like 1000 videos per person. But I mean, they were two minutes. And so they just spent a month collecting these videos, they personalized them to the donor. And this was such, if you're an annual giving officer, this is such a great case study, because these videos went out, they release them and I'm sure as you can imagine, in the middle of COVID, they struck a chord. And what they didn't expect to happen was what came back to them. They did expect, you know, donations, you know, to go up or engagement to go up. But donors responded to the student. They, they started sharing stories, oh, that's where my wife and I met. And oh, I had such a great experience. And oh, I've had such a, you know, this person, this professor was instrumental in my life, they started collecting all these stories. And then all of a sudden, there became a little bit of a connection point between the student and the donor. They said they saw mentorships come out of these, they saw donors wanting to help the students. And so again, the video is not just a video, they took all of that information, they were able to glean so much story in that moment, that fueled the annual giving program moving forward. But it also fostered this deepening of a relationship between the donor and the organization, between the donor in the student, the donor to the mission, and you could see the mission played out because it was delivered by the recipient, which is the student. Way to go Aimee Furrie, what an aspirational syndication example.
I mean if you want to listen to that, it's episode 199 so it's kind of easy to remember and go back and find that, because it's really just a fascinating story. So friends, you have made it to kind of the end of our three parts of staging, storytelling and syndicating. And Becky teased this, but what does this lead to because at the end of the day these are all things that are going to help you create this swell. For us, we have seen it lead to scaling and I don't think scaling is always the goal you know? But, I think it's an incredible byproduct of this, that you're going to have a lot more people coming together for this, a lot more interest, a lot more people that you can follow up with and have continued conversations. And, if you apply to to something that is on an annual basis like a campaign that we've talked about or an event, you're going to see this swell, year after year, as you do this consistently. And we've watched as the stories go so much deeper
They go on and on...
They do! It becomes this cycle as other people see people be vulnerable and share stories, it encourages them to step into that and the stories now become I was so inspired by that story that it made me do this. And it's this really beautiful thing that grows and swells over time. And so scaling is, you know, some of the byproduct of this, but we talk a lot about on the podcast that at the end of the day sustainability is more of the goal. And as you create a movement that is powered by thousands of people pouring into it that feel connected to it, you're naturally building sustainability for your mission. You're no longer tied to hoping you get that one grant. Man, I hope I write that paragraph really well this year to land this grant because you have thousands of people that are watching your back, that are supporting you, that are rooting you on, that their story has been integral to perpetuating this mission or whatever it is that you're doing. So this is really where we want to leave the impact arc because that's what's possible and we've seen it in our own story, too, today.
I just got to talk about sustainability. That is the goal. I mean, yes, we are - the goal is impact and that we want to keep growing our missions or we want to, you know, put ourselves out of business because these issues no longer need us. But sustainability is going to build pipeline, it's going to provide long term predictable funding, it's going to diversify your revenue. I mean, all the ops directors out there cheering, I feel them. And it is the ultimate flex of playing the long game. That's our second core value is that we play the long game. It's about allowing the stories and lived experience of your base to live on within your ecosystem. And it's about amplifying them. It's about letting go of control, and allowing believers to inspire the next wave of believers. And then the ripple will just continue to travel as long as you're powering that content, and empowering those believers. This is what we think the secret sauces we have baked it in to every crevice of We Are For Good. I hope you feel seen in it. I hope you feel that your voice is important and amplified here. We want to hear your stories. We want to know your frameworks that work well. We want to share it, democratize it, we want more good in the world. If you can I just take that mindset, pour it into your mission. I am just telling you friends, it will be a whole new ballgame in your mission. And that is a ballgame we're here to play in. Jon, do you like my sports analogy I threw in there for you?
Well, I don't understand it so I'm really glad that you're using it because I don't understand sports. But you know, I feel all the warm fuzzies though coming to the end of this because we've seen it to be true. But I also see it to be true in the community. And I wasn't planning on plugging this but it feels like necessary to plug this. Y'all know we have a free community, right? And there is more than 700 people today gathered at WeAreForGoodCommunity.com. It's completely free. If you're looking for like minded people that will help you think through, ask bigger questions, be connected, be authentic. This is literally the place that, we could, you could pour in and you can come there today we're going to be there this summer. Like we're going to be there for you in all the different ways and so don't go with this alone. Like it is a is a lonely path. And there's a lot of ideas here. But find your community and do it in community and so much better.
Zoom in to Becky like dusting off the welcome mat. Here's some of my voice - I'm storytelling here.
Showing you the junk drawer.
Yes, showing you the junk drawer! Opening our arms, big mom hug, and telling you that it's not just Jon, Becky and Julie who are going to warm you and welcome you in here. There is a massive community of people who want to see the world evolve in this way they want to see our sectors evolve in this way. Don't go it alone. Use these resources. Keep listening. I'm so proud of you for being here listening in to this series because we really hope it grows you as an individual, as well as growing your organization.
You got this friends.
Rooting for you.
Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here. Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics? Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community. It's free. And you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. You can sign up today at weareforgood.com/hello. One more thing, if you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find our community. Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is Sunray by Remy Borsboom.
