Give button: Add one more to your non-profit website

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Give button: Add one more to your non-profit website

If you’re a non-profit webmaster, you probably look at your website all the time. After awhile, your eyes may begin to gloss over the details, including your Give button. For example, at a statewide non-profit, we had a Give tab in the main navigation of the website and a Give link in the footer of the page. I decided to review every page of text and include a PBS-style request for donations within the content of each page. For example, “This program is support by donors like you…Please make a gift today.”

But my eyes eventually landed on a strip of white space on the left side of our page templates. It included secondary navigation links, but seemed really underutilized. I wondered what would happen if I put a second Give button (and a third or fourth option to give, depending on the page) in that space.

Here’s what happened:

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Case Study: Inbound Marketing for the Vermont Foodbank

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Case Study: Inbound Marketing for the Vermont Foodbank

Inbound marketing is a technique for bringing more fans into your non-profit engagement funnel by providing them with a product, service, or piece of content for which they give you their name, contact info, and permission to contact them in return. It’s an underutilized marketing tool in the non-profit world, but can reap major rewards for the creative organization.

This is a blog post about an inbound marketing technique I utilized at a statewide non-profit, which expanded our reach in terms of both numbers and types of supporters as well as type and topic of content on the web. It eventually got us recognition from the national Meatless Monday campaign and was a fun project to work on.

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The Beauty of Big Trees: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

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The Beauty of Big Trees: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

I was really pushing it by heading toward Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in late July. Not only was it a busy time of year for the parks, but it was hot. Too hot. So hot that I only stayed for a few days and eventually headed toward the California coast.

But what I saw in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were mesmerizing, large trees and a park administration working very hard to re-preserve (I’ll explain that later) a region that was nearly destroyed by its own popularity. I was impressed and so glad I went.

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Peak Season in Yosemite National Park

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Peak Season in Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is certainly one of the crown jewels of the National Park system. It was also my first experience with the high-season rush of crowds at a national park, which has me thinking about how people interact with our protected spaces.

Yosemite is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, on the eastern side of the state. Within the 1,200 square miles, you’ll find the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Hetch Hetchy, Glacier Point, Half Dome, the Tunnel View, and many beautiful waterfalls.

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Getting the most out of Wanderlust Festivals

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Getting the most out of Wanderlust Festivals

I recently attended two Wanderlust Festivals – in Aspen-Snowmass, Colorado and Squaw Valley (Lake Tahoe), California. They were wonderful experiences, full of yoga, music, food, fun, and new friends.

After my first Wanderlust in Aspen-Snowmass, though, I didn’t feel like I’d taken advantage of the whole experience so I changed my strategy a little bit at Lake Tahoe. If you only have the time or money to attend one Wanderlust, I offer these tips to help you get the most out of the experience.

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Finding a Coffee Oasis off the Loneliest Road in America

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Finding a Coffee Oasis off the Loneliest Road in America

Five long miles off The Loneliest Road in America, US Route 50, in Baker, Nevada, population 68, stands a tiny little coffee cart open six days a week from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm. As I sit down to talk with the owner, Rachel Gale, she waves to every local car that drives by and greets her customers by name. It’s clear that The Magic Bean Coffee Cart is filling more than one need in this small community.

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