I recently had the opportunity to interview Jen about what nonprofits, with limited resources and budget, can do to build their brands and connect with their supporters.

SJ: Your company, Big Small Brands, is all about building the brands of developing companies. How have you seen brand-building work to the advantage for nonprofits?

Jen:  The challenges faced by nonprofit brands are really no different from those faced by small business owners, corporations, and large-scale global brands:  we’re all working to define our unique position in the marketplace, get our messages across to engage our targets, and create lasting relationships that will drive our organizations forward.

Nonprofits simply need to be a bit more strategic and creative to get the most mileage out of their marketing resources. A few tips:

• Make choices. I encourage nonprofits I work with to consider their brands as a lens through which all behaviors, actions, and resource decisions — time, money and energy — should be filtered. In Becoming a Category of One, Joe Calloway sums up branding well as: “Who you are, what you promise, and your ability and willingness to deliver on that promise.”  Making the promise is an important first step, but how you deliver on it will ultimately define your success.  I firmly believe that the most successful brands get clear and stay focused.  A few examples of nonprofits I have worked with who have clear, focused identities are Healthy Child, Healthy World, The Pixie Project, and the UN Foundations’ new Shot@Life campaign.  The Cone Nonprofit Power Brand Top 10 List is a great resource for more inspiration, too.

• Align Around Your Audience. Honing in on what matters most to key targets is key for nonprofits; there’s no place this matters more than on your website, which is often a brand’s first— and most universal — touchpoint.  I recently interviewed Aimee Craig, Communications Manager for the Chalkboard Project, who shared tips from their recent redesign, which was informed “by imagining our users and building out the navigation based on their needs.”  This is a simple step, but one often overlooked.  I encourage all nonprofits to consider whether their web offerings are framed to address distinct user needs.  Clarity connects!  The recent award-winning rebranding of the YMCA of the USA is another good example.

• Go Social.  Social media is the ideal outlet for nonprofits — and not just because it’s free. There are so many great examples of nonprofits embracing social media platforms to look to.  Creative Cares has a great nonprofit social media guide and other downloadable tools  from a recent Nonprofit Social Media Workshop.  Mashable’s 4 Tips for Nonprofit Social Media Success is also a helpful read, as is 12 Tips for Nonprofits on Social Media.  It’s great to see so many nonprofits joining Pinterest, too; check out 12 Ways to Use Pinterest For Your Nonprofit for starter tips on this rapidly growing community.  And I encourage nonprofits to get a copy of TheSmoBooks series – they are pocket-sized guides that are super helpful in navigating Blogging, Twitter and Linked In.  Love them!

• Listen and Engage. This is a big one, both within and outside the realm of social media.  In recent weeks we saw one of the world’s most esteemed, award-winning “nonprofit power brands,” The Susan G. Komen Foundation, lose considerable credibility — and thousands of loyal supporters.  As a longtime Komen supporter, I was disappointed to see how long it took for them to react when concerned donors and supporters mobilized across social media, instead of seizing the opportunity to create and be part of the dialogue.

SJ:  You also have worked for, and are currently supporting, several nonprofits in your community. Can you talk a little about your community outreach work, and why you’re passionate about it?

Jen:  As a small business owner, it’s important for me to stay close to what inspires me, and to find ways to connect with my community.  I was a relative newcomer to Portland when I launched my business in early 2010; volunteering became a great way for me to get to know my new hometown and collaborate with others, which created a nice balance with my day-to-day client work.

As my client workload increased and my business grew, I was committed to continuing to carve out time for volunteerism, but had to get a bit more creative on how to make the time for it.  I started a bimonthly small business marketing workshop series and created the “Brand-om Acts of Kindness” program to offer free marketing training and support to a few nonprofits at each session.  (Note: you can read recaps of many of the topics we covered in these sessions here.)

Then, taking a page from my own advice, I began to realize that I needed more focus in my activism, as it became a struggle to balance and manage my time; I’m sure many fellow small business owners can relate!  As a preschool parent to two 4½ year old twin daughters, early education and children’s health are two causes close to my heart.  I re-focused on these, started a personal activism blog, 1OregonMom.org, to chronicle my learnings and experiences to date, and applied to represent Oregon in the Mom Congress on Education & Learning in Washington, DC.

Since returning from Mom Congress last Spring, I’ve co-founded Books Make It Better, a grassroots early literacy movement in partnership with Parenting Magazine and Reach Out and Read, and created a parent volunteer pilot with Playworks, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing safe and meaningful play in low-income communities. I recently wrote about some of the lessons I’ve learned in “Adventures of an Accidental Activist.”

SJ:  You’ve been busy!  After being exposed to so many great organizations, if you had one piece of advice for a start-up or developing nonprofit, what would it be?

Jen:  Tell Stories!  “Storytelling” has become a big trend and topic in the Branding/Marketing arena, and for good reason: stories create connections, help us find common ground, establish credibility and humanity, and give emotional context to the information we are sharing.

But there’s an even more important reason why storytelling is critical. Research shows that telling stories actually helps people understand the information you are sharing.  In a recent study, the London School of Business found that 5-10% of people retain information when you simply share a statistic, and 25-30% will retain it if you include a story with your statistic. But if you simply tell a story, 65-70% will retain the information you shared. That’s powerful!

Using creative visuals is a great way for nonprofits to tell their stories and share them socially, too. Many nonprofits have embraced the growing infographic trend;  I love Jumpstart’s infographic of The Early Education Crisis and Reusethisbag.com’s on the Importance of Recycling.  Mashable also has one that really inspires me on how Americans are engaging in Social Change.

SJ:  Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us!  

Jen is founder of Big Small Brands, a small business marketing firm based in Portland, Oregon, where she brings more than 15 years of corporate, agency, and nonprofit experience to her client work.  You can learn more about Jen’s causes on her blog and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter at @JenUnplugged, @1Oregonmom and @booksbetter.  Learn more about Big Small Brands and findings from her branding workshops here.

Sure, you’ll be contributing positively to society and spreading your brand awareness across the community.  But you’ll probably also have some fun while networking to meet new leads and potential business partners.

Choose a charity you respect and admire that also coincides with your company’s values, and learn the benefits below for how helping others can help grow your business.

Grow your relationship within your community

There are a lot of networking events for meeting new people in your city, but few are as engaging as volunteering to help a noble cause.  Most volunteers tend to have a day job, and volunteering to work with them opens the opportunity to trade business cards with all sorts of great business leads.  An activity as simple as wrapping gifts for underprivileged children could lead to sharing scissors with your next business partner.

Grow relationships within your business.

The office can be so busy, it’s sometimes difficult to socialize and strengthen relationships with your coworkers.  Even in our relatively small company, it’s difficult for me to interact with everyone.  People are busy concentrating on their accounting, sales and technology objectives, while I stay busy helping customers on the phone.  But stuffing envelopes for charities and serving food to the homeless have enabled me to connect with coworkers on a deeper level, having conversations that never would have happened by the water cooler.

Grow your brand.

The nice part of helping nonprofits in your community is that you can give yourself props.  You can promote your community outreach programs on your website and blog, where you can even invite visitors (potential leads) to help participate with your organization.  It helps create goodwill with your clients, showcases your company’s true values and can even attract potential customers who support your work.

Grow your karma.

Volunteering to help your community can broadcast positive vibrations into the universe, which can only bring back positive energy to help your organization succeed in the long run.  As Paul McCartney once wrote, “The love you get is equal to the love you give.”

What kind of charity work does your company do?  For ideas on how your company can get more involved, check out VolunteerMatch.org or DoSomething.org!

Check out this infographic that illustrates how chasing down those late payments can be as complicated as orchestrating your own late night show.  Data was gathered from PaySimple’s October 2011 Small Business Pulse Survey.

Facebook provides a number of resources to help you get started. Here are a few worth checking out:

• The Facebook Pages tutorial provides detailed instructions for creating your page and starting to interact on Facebook.
• The Facebook Business Center provides an overview video and links to resources to help you get started.
• The Official Guide to Business Success on Facebook is a free e-book provided on The Facebook Marketing Solutions page, which is run by Facebook employees. You’ll need to provide your name, email, company name and country to get it.

Once you’ve set up your page and collected at least 50 “Likes” it is time to start advertising. To help get small businesses started, Facebook has created the Small Business Boost program. When you sign up you immediately get $50 in free Facebook advertising. If you can use this advertising (and any other promotions you can come up with) to generate an additional 100 “Likes” for 150 or more total “Likes” by April 1, 2012, Facebook will give you an additional $100 in free advertising. And to make things interesting, Facebook will monitor all participating pages. The 10 that generate the most additional “Likes” by April 1, 2012 will each get $10,000 in free advertising.

So whether you have an active Page, a languishing one, or just need a good excuse to finally create a Facebook Page for your business, apply to participate in the Facebook Small Business Boost program today– the sooner you get started, the more time you’ll have to generate those “Likes.”

All your most private information is stored on imaginary clouds that seem to be protected by passwords.  But even as technology evolves, the methods hackers use to break into your personal information continue to advance as well.

The restrictions and requirements meant to protect these passwords can seem overwhelming.  How many characters does my password need?  How many uppercase and lowercase letters must I use?  Should I alternate every third lowercase letter with a special character, followed by two capital letters and then one number – not to exceed 10 characters?  Then, to top it off, we have to change them every 30, 60 or 90 days. I’m exhausted just writing about it.

It’s tempting to try to cheat the system.  Maybe I’ll just rotate a number from the end to the beginning, or just use the same password for everything.  Nobody could possibly guess that my password for my bank account is my dog’s name, followed by my birthday.

Every day, I log in to no less than 15 different secure systems and applications that all require passwords. Is this annoying? Sure.  Is it necessary? Absolutely.

Below are some tips for how to improve the security of your password, and minimize your risk of being hacked.

DO

• Use at least eight characters.
• Use a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.
• Place the number or special character in the middle of the password – not at the beginning or the end.
• Change your password at least every 90 days, if not every 30 days.

DO NOT

• Use a dictionary word or a common name.
• Use personal information, such as birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers or names of people you know (this goes for pets too).
• Use numbers or characters to substitute for letters, such as “P@$$w0rd,” because these are still detectable by password-guessing programs and dictionary-based attacks.
• Write your passwords down or share your passwords with friends, family members or co-workers.

Remember, a simple password is simple to hack. I agree that constantly creating and changing passwords is a pain, but it is 100 percent worth it, especially in the business world.

The next time you are prompted to change your password, take a moment to weigh the temporary annoyance of creating a slightly more complicated password with the importance of ensuring your sensitive information is secure.  It’s like rotating your tires – necessary maintenance for everyone’s safety!

It all started when Gabe’s daughter, MaryMargaret, approached him about building a website to help animals.  “Why stop at animals?” asked Gabe, a software engineer in Maryland with an entrepreneurial spirit.  “Why not help people too?”  And that’s when the father-daughter duo came up with the concept for “Kids Are Heroes,” an organization dedicated to encouraging children to become leaders through community involvement.

The premise was simple: encourage children to get involved in helping their communities by showing how other kids have already helped change the world through selfless acts of giving.

“When children see others taking action, it helps them know that they can join in and make a difference,” said Gabe.  “Our goal is to create a generational shift worldwide, where volunteering becomes a natural part of a child’s development.”

Kids Are Heroes has since grown to more than 275 kids from nine countries, stretching from the United States to England to Kenya to Australia.  The organization has received international media attention, broadcasting examples of kids helping their communities all over the globe.  It even launched an annual “Kids Are Heroes” day, where children traveled from as far away as South Africa to win awards and hang out with celebrities like Levar Fisher, offensive tackle for the St. Louis Cardinals.

So how did a father and daughter build “Kids Are Heroes” into one of the most influential nonprofits in social media?

“Twitter was by far the most effective tool for us,” said Gabe.  “At first, I wasn’t a fan of Twitter, but after forcing myself to use it, the value of it kicked me in the head. We were then off and running.”

Gabe uses only Twitter and Facebook to connect with his combined audience of about 50,000 followers and fans.  He can also reach more than 1.4 million additional followers through a program called JustCoz, in which about 1,600 users have donated their tweets to be used by @KidsAreHeroes.  But the massive following didn’t accumulate overnight.

Gabe started by simply following relevant users who seemed most likely to proactively participate in two-way conversations on Twitter.  One of those users happened to be @JohnHaydon, regarded as one of the most influential nonprofit networkers in the country and whose philanthropy stories can be seen in the Huffington Post. (He helped connect us with Kids Are Heroes.)  John Haydon has since become the biggest individual donor to Kids Are Heroes.

The organization’s first major breakthrough happened in June 2009 when Gabe entered the concept in a contest sponsored by Sir Richard Branson to find the top five business ideas in the world.  Kids Are Heroes was featured first in Branson’s premiere episode of “PitchTV,” an online video series that showcases solid business ideas.

The next breakthrough happened in November 2011, when Mashable named Kids Are Heroes the No. 4 must-follow nonprofit making a difference with social media – ranked just below Sesame Street Workshop and the Brooklyn Museum.   Gabe said @KidsAreHeroes had 35,000 followers at the time, and has since added more than 11,000 new followers in only three-and-a-half months.

Despite the tremendous amount of success Kids Are Heroes has experienced in its four years of existence, Gabe refuses to consider his father-and-daughter venture a success just yet.

“The minute you think you’re successful is the minute you start to fail,” Gabe said.  “It still hasn’t gotten to the point where it’s really taken off, but followers certainly come much quicker these days.”

The next goal for Kids Are Heroes is to expand the organization’s activities to foreign countries by translating the website into different languages.   Gabe said he would also like to sponsor more kids who can’t come to “Kids Are Heroes Day” in Maryland by using donations to fund their travel costs.

If you’re interested in supporting Kids Are Heroes, PaySimple is donating $1 to the organization for every new Facebook fan we acquire through the month of February.  But if you’re really interested in supporting the cause, we recommend you also like Kids Are Heroes on Facebook, and check out how they’re empowering children to become leaders through community involvement.

And if you represent a nonprofit or a small business that’s curious about jumping into social media, but you feel apprehensive about getting started, take a page out of Gabe and MaryMargeret’s book, and just try it.

Technology has also simplified the donation process, making it easier for nonprofits to accept donations online.  Enabling your donors to donate online has not only proven to increase donations;  80 percent of the biggest donors who donate $10,000 or more actually prefer to donate online, according to a report by Convio, Edge Research and the Sea Change Strategies.

But while technology has improved our ability to operate more efficiently, it can also overwhelm us with infinite options and possibilities. Knowing where to begin can stress business decision-makers out to the point that they can neglect opportunities.  Instead, some nonprofits will concentrate on one-off tactics and narrow strategies, without comprehending the full spectrum of operational strategies that can elevate their fundraising to the next level.

Concentrating solely on soliciting donations can be helpful.  But, if you incorporate that with improving donor acquisition, engaging with donors through social media, knowing when and where to cut costs, and understanding how to pull all these operational tasks into one cohesive business strategy, and you will truly maximize your ability to drive revenue and expand your donor outreach.

Kevin Brown, Vice President of Customer Acquisition for PaySimple, will host a webinar this Thursday, Feb. 16, that will teach nonprofits how to increase the number of donors, revenue and cost-efficiency – all while saving time.

Thursday’s webinar will explain:

• How to find and retain new donors
• How to increase current donation levels
• How to identify needless spending and cut costs
• How to improve cash flow by getting donations faster
• How to automate operational tasks to save time

Sign up today, and join Kevin on Thursday to learn how your nonprofit can take advantage of all the tactical opportunities, and incorporate them into one cohesive strategy that will turn your nonprofit into a donation-generating machine.

According to the 2011 Nonprofit Social Network Report, 92 percent of all nonprofits use at least one commercial social network and 89 percent of them use Facebook.  A survey commissioned by Idealware also found that 84 percent of nonprofits were effectively using blogs to enhance existing relationships with donors.

Many people remain skeptical about diving into an industry that is new and foreign to them.  One visit to Mashable, the holy grail of social media news, will overwhelm first-time users with so many different technologies and social websites it can be intimidating for someone who is unsure of where to begin.

Start a blog

A blog is basically a news outlet for your organization, where you can post stories, images and videos for your audience to see and share.  The purpose of a blog is to build an audience of readers who either support your cause or find your content interesting enough to keep coming back (and hopefully share your content with their social networks).  You can start a blog for free at WordPress.com, Blogspot.com or Tumblr.com.

Share your blog content

Once you have your blog up and you’re producing content, the next step is setting up social channels to share your content with people who might find it interesting or relevant.  Countless channels exist for this, and as you begin to venture into the world of social networking, you’ll soon discover the best websites and discussion forums to connect with your most targeted niche.  But before you overwhelm yourself with the endless possibilities, we suggest you start with Facebook.

The idea is to concentrate on sharing your content in channels where your prospective supporters are already participating.   According to the February 2012 eBizMBA Rank, Facebook dominates as the most popular social media website in the world.

Setting up a page is free and fairly simple using Facebook’s comprehensive step-by-step process.  Just remember to provide all the most important information about your organization, including your mission.  And don’t forget to upload a profile picture that either displays your logo or represents your organization’s larger purpose.

Once you’ve created and customized your Facebook page, you can start recruiting Facebook fans and sharing links to your blog every time you publish a new article.  A Facebook “fan” is basically a “subscriber.  People who “like” your page are essentially “subscribing” to your content.  And the more content these fans “like” on your page, the more frequently your future content will appear in their newsfeeds.  That is the most basic way to build and retain Facebook fans.

Turn your visitors into donors

The possibilities for creating fundraising campaigns through these platforms (and more) are as infinite as your imagination.  But, the next critical step is creating a destination where readers can easily donate.  You’re much more likely to reap a higher volume of donations through these online channels with an online payment form.  Instead of trying to encourage donors to mail you a check or show up to a location to give you money, why not let them donate right where you’re proactively attracting them to your content?

By linking people to an online payment form from your blog and your content, you not only present your visitors with a way to donate online, but you can also share a link to your online payment form in every future social campaign you execute.

To maximize the success of this social fundraising strategy, you should regularly produce interesting content that your targeted fans and subscribers will find interesting and, hopefully, share.  Doing this will spread awareness for your organization and attract an audience that may be interested in supporting it, but might not have known about it otherwise.

Remember to continually share your content through your Facebook page and other social channels if you have them.  If not, once you’ve mastered your Facebook page, you can explore all the benefits of using Twitter, LinkedIn, and countless other social technologies to connect with new potential donors.

“No, sorry, you won’t be receiving any tangible product or service, but we can give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside…  Are you interested?”

Soliciting donations is hard work, plain and simple.  I did it for three years while studying at The University of Iowa (Go Hawks!) and it was some of the most grueling, energy-draining, frustrating work I’ve ever done.  We spent hours making phone calls, building relationships with potential donors and trying to convince them why they should give back to us.

But, it was also hands-down the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.  In fact, it’s a lot like being a salesperson, except instead of offering the coolest new widget or service the prospect can’t live without, I was selling the satisfaction that comes with giving to an amazing organization.

Making your non-profit stand out can be difficult, especially when competing with so many other great causes in this tough economic climate.   Here are five surefire sales tips that will make your organization’s conversations stand out in the minds of potential donors:

1) Be authentic.

The most important concept to communicate to your prospect is how much YOU support the cause.  If you’re not excited about your cause, why in the world would your prospect care to support it? The excitement you bring to the table is vital in generating interest.  It bleeds through the phone and your actions – and people will notice.

2) Know your audience

Persuading people can seem like a battle at times, and during those battles, information is your ammunition.  Think about your organization from your donor’s perspective?  Why would they be interested?  What makes your organization worthy? How much will they feel comfortable giving?  Knowing these answers before an appointment with a potential donor will prepare you to handle objections and guide the conversation. 

3) Make it simple to give!

The instant your potential donor decides to give (WOO HOO!) you need to make the process as quick and easy as possible.  They shouldn’t have to search for their checkbooks and dig for an envelope because you’ve only given them one mail-in method to pay.  Whether it’s over the phone, via credit card or through a secure payment page on your website, give them options for how to donate and make those options easy!

4) Little fish will grow into big fish              

Treasure those $5 and $10 donations that you’re receiving from people who can’t afford to give more.  Who’s to say that $5 from John Smith now won’t turn into $100,000 in 10 years when he invents the flying car?  Keep track of your existing donor base; and more importantly, keep track of when they gave, what they gave, and how they gave it.   You never know when that information might come in handy.

5) Prepare for rejection

Sorry, but it’s inevitable.  No matter how silver your tongue might be, people will turn you down – it’s simply the nature of the selling.  But how you handle those rejections will determine your success in this field.  Know that each and every call is only one call, and each and every appointment is only one appointment.  Potential donors will give countless reasons for why they won’t contribute, but never let a sting from the previous rejection carry over into your next.  At The University of Iowa, we had a little saying that helped motivate us: “While this may be your 80^th call of the night, it’s the prospect’s first.”  Because who knows; maybe it is the 80^th call that uncovers a new lifetime donor.

Take these tips to heart, and apply them to your next solicitation.  That warm, fuzzy feeling is one of the greatest gifts anyone can buy – if you know how to create it and sell it.

Many people turn to online reviews from sites such as Expedia and TripAdvisor to help select the best hotels. Typically the first concern is location, and after that you want to find the best experience for your money. The hotels know this, and that’s why these review sites are so important to them. Many will post responses to poor reviews to show that they truly care and are trying to improve and to meet their guests’ needs. Other less scrupulous hotels will post (or pay others to post) glowing reviews to both counteract negative ones, and also to trick unsuspecting potential guests.

So how do you know whether to believe what you read? Common sense is always your best defense. But if you’re in doubt, try the new Review Skeptic site. Simply copy a review and paste it into the text area. Click the submit button to analyze the review text, and get an opinion as to whether the review is truthful or deceptive. You’ll also see typically truthful words and phrases highlighted in blue, and typically deceptive words and phrases highlighted in red—so you can see how the opinion was formed. It isn’t magic, it is actually based on real research conducted on identifying “opinion spam.” Read the research report here.

The beta site is currently designed for hotel reviews written in English. Hopefully it won’t be long until they expand into other areas like product reviews. But for now, before you book your next stay based on an online review, vet the review first at Review Skeptic.