- Starbucks uses its “passion panel,” a group of its best customers who answer questions online in return for special perks, to help develop new products. Charities could adopt the practice by asking questions of a group of donors and using the responses to improve their fund raising, Tom Belford, a veteran fund raiser, suggests on The Agitator.
- Thinking of joining the board of a nonprofit group? Alice Korngold, a consultant who works with charities, says regardless of how passionate you may be about an organization’s mission, it is important to make sure you and the board are a good match. To help determine compatibility, she offers tips on the 10 things you should know before you join a nonprofit board. Her views appear on Fast Company magazine’s FC Expert Blog.
- On the blog, Neuromarketing, Roger Dooley, a consultant, discusses an experiment in Edinburgh, Scotland, that revealed how adorable images, such as baby photographs, can result in altruistic behavior. Mr. Dooley says that nonprofit groups could use a similar approach to encourage generosity from their donors.
- While it’s easy to ridicule “slacktivism” — advocacy actions that require very little effort, such as sending a text message or wearing a rubber wristband — activism should be judged only on its results, not the medium in which it takes place or the amount of toil involved, writes Nancy Lublin, chief executive of Do Something, on Fast Company’s Ethonomics blog.
- Jeff Brooks, creative director of TrueSense marketing, discusses the elements of today’s fund-raising copy in the first segment of a three-part podcast series on writing fund-raising letters and other communications.
