NCTech4Good

where tech meets social change

where tech meets social change

Powerful Listening: Stories and Strategies

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Speakers: Liza Hoos & Rachel Healy – There’s plenty of marketing advice on targeting ideal donors, creating a consistent message, and telling your organization’s story. But what about listening to your audience? Active listening can be transformative, strengthening your relationship with donors, galvanizing your supporters, and energizing your team. In this interactive presentation, we’ll draw on what we’ve learned from our time interviewing 100+ people over the years to help you develop powerful listening skills.

Liza Hoos and Rachel Healy
Liza Hoos and Rachel Healy believe in the power of video to change the world. They run Open Eye Creative, a Durham-based marketing firm that helps organizations increase donations, gain visibility, and connect with their community through video. Together they have more than 15 years' experience in video production and have completed documentary projects all over the world, from coastal communities in Mexico to the island of Palau.

Creative Crowdfunding

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Rebekah Miel, otherwise known as Durham’s Lunch Lady, has successfully crowdfunded almost $100k in less than a year for various causes including Durham’s School Lunch Debt Pay Down. Come find out some of her tips and tricks about how to run a successful campaign, how to keep donors engaged, and which tools help make the process go more smoothly. There will be practical tips, a handout of resources, and she’ll walk you through a successful case study. You’ll also learn how she translated her skills as a graphic designer and marketer into her role as a fundraiser.

Rebekah Miel
Rebekah Miel is that lone pair of headlights driving in the opposite direction during a hurricane evacuation. You’ll no longer find her sweating through a Tyvek suit in the lower 9th or eating curry in a refugee camp in Unawatuna, but that doesn’t mean she’s any less risk adverse. These days she’s balancing the death defying feat of raising twins with the act of listening hard for how to be a good citizen in her adopted hometown of Durham, NC. Her current job title is Creative Director of her own shop, Miel Design Studio where she spends most of her time trying to make beautiful sense out of a complex world. Ask her what that means, but don’t be surprised if the answer has something to do with books or school lunch.

Captivate, Communicate, Convince: How an Impact Video Can Transform Your Next Fundraising Event

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For many nonprofits, hosting a fundraising dinner, gala, or auction is a key way to generate income. Because organizing special events can be costly, getting a healthy return on investment is critical. Showing a video at your event is a way to engage your audience and convey your organization’s impact in an emotional way. During this session, we’ll share how we worked with the nonprofit Families Moving Forward to create videos for their 2017 dinner series—and how these videos helped quadruple donations. We’ll share the most important things we learned, from finding the best stories to how and when to make the ask. You’ll learn how to apply these lessons to your next fundraising event to help raise your profile, cultivate relationships, and increase donations.

Liza Hoos and Rachel Healy
Liza Hoos and Rachel Healy believe in the power of video to change the world. They run Open Eye Creative, a Durham-based marketing firm that helps organizations increase donations, gain visibility, and connect with their community through video. Together they have more than 15 years' experience in video production and have completed documentary projects all over the world, from coastal communities in Mexico to the island of Palau.

Growth Hacking Strategies for Nonprofits

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Ever hear the terms “growth hacking” or “marketing funnel”? These are terms popular technology companies use to describe their growth strategies. What if you could apply those same strategies to grow your non-profit. This bootcamp will outline strategies and tactics high-growth companies use to build awareness, engagement and revenue, then apply them directly to your organization to grow your audience and donors. These are the exact strategies I applied as Director of Marketing Communications at UNC-TV, one of the largest nonprofit member organizations in North Carolina. Leave knowing how to combine digital marketing and growth hacking strategies to create an army of supporters for your business.

Tivi Jones
Tivi - rhymes with 'privy' - has been a professional marketer since 2004. She currently serves as a marketing, branding and communications consultant and has worked with a wide array of brands including Carolina Parent magazine, Cisco, UNC-TV, NC State and more. Her work for her clients has gained the attention of Publisher's Weekly, PBS Blog, NBC17, ABC11 and more. She loves the brand and community building opportunities marketing presents. While she enjoys working with big brands, she also likes helping small companies and non-profits use effective media, awesome marketing and contagious moxie to create sustainable businesses.

Corporate Life to Nonprofit Communications – Lessons Learned from Making the Jump

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The most successful PR practitioners are known for being a jack-of-all-trades. With greater demand for photography, design, strategy, advocacy, and exceptional writing skills, nonprofit communicators are often expected to have it all. In this session, you’ll hear from a PR practitioner turned nonprofit communicator – who’s 10-year career has spanned from corporate account service and political campaigning to leading the communications and marketing efforts for a statewide nonprofit. Mary Alice will share lessons learned while making the jump to nonprofit life, as well as tips that can help other nonprofit pros succeed in your new role within an organization.

Mary Alice Holley, Twitter: @maryalice_pr, Instagram: @maryalicewonderland
Conservation Trust for North Carolina
Concurrent Session

Speaker Bio
Mary Alice joined the Conservation Trust for North Carolina in December 2016 as the Communications and Marketing Director where she leads promotion of CTNC’s programs, and provides assistance to 23 local land trusts across the state. Before joining CTNC, Mary Alice was Media Relations Director for nonprofit consulting agency BC/DC Ideas, leading promotional campaigns for numerous conservation clients including Audubon North Carolina and the North Carolina Coastal Federation. Mary Alice holds a B.A. degree in Mass Communications and Rhetorical Writing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In her spare time, Mary Alice enjoys hiking with her dog, Hazel, and exploring North Carolina’s hidden treasures from her kayak.

Using Video to Increase Your Donor Base

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Nonprofits that have successful content marketing plans share many qualities, but perhaps the most important one is a commitment to building a relationship with their audience. One of the most effective ways to do this is through video, which holds enormous potential for creating trust, engagement, and emotional connection. This lays the groundwork for a strong, sustained community of donors and advocates. But how can you effectively integrate video into your content marketing plan, especially when you’re short on resources? In this presentation, we’ll share practical strategies and examples for creating engaging video that builds your donor base — no matter what your budget is.

Liza Hoos and Rachel Healy, Instagram: @openeyecreative
Open Eye Creative
Concurrent Session

Speaker Bios
Liza Hoos and Rachel Healy believe in the power of video to change the world. They run Open Eye Creative, a Durham-based marketing firm that helps organizations increase donations, gain visibility, and connect with their community through video. Together they have more than 15 years’ experience in video production and have completed documentary projects all over the world, from coastal communities in Mexico to the island of Palau.

Communication Planning & Implementation for Small Non-Profits

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Are you the only person running your non-profit? Do you have a small staff? Do you have lots of volunteers and need to get information out quickly? Do you find it really hard to find time to communicate with all of your stakeholders regularly?

If you answered “Yes!” to any of these questions, then this session is for you!

This session will overview various technologies that you can use to maximize communication with your constituents, convert social media likes to supporters or donors, strengthen your board, and raise monies. These web-based tools can be easily used, set up, shared, integrated, and maintained. It will also focus on the need for a social media plan which can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet.

This session will focus on the real-life implementation of various online tools to support non-profits and will include a portion for sharing ideas with the other participants.
Some of the tools which may be discussed will be: Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, E-Newsletters, YouTube, PayPal, Square, Crowdrise, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Volunteer Sign-Up Programs, Surveys, and more. We will also talk about mobile devices and how to maximize their usage!

Speaker: Kathy McCullough-Testa

Organization: Beach Food Pantry & KMT Consultants

Speaker Bio: Kathy McCullough-Testa is the President & CEO of KMT Consultants, Inc., and serves as part-time Executive Director of the Beach Food Pantry in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Kathy helps her clients “Transform Visionary Ideas Into Reality” on a daily basis.

She is a motivated, personable business professional with experience in multiple industries including health care, government, financial, real estate, non-profit, retail, and education.

Kathy is the first executive director of the Beach Food Pantry. In her nearly two-year tenure, she has helped increase fundraising goals by 50%, increased volunteer participation, and strengthened and expanded community support through outreach events, fundraisers, and social media.

Session Tags: social media, communication, beginner, intermediate, blogs, marketing

NCTech4Good, an affiliate of NTEN and TechSoup’s NetSquared, is the local resource for nonprofit technology information. Join the sharing and networking at monthly meetings on the third Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:30 p.m. usually at UNC-TV, and our annual conference, https://www.nct4g.org/. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @nctech4good, and with the hashtag #nct4g.