Last one out, turn off the lights

If anyone’s keeping a list of dumb things to do in a recession, I’m sure quitting one’s job and moving across the country are pretty near the top. (Turns out I’m right.) Yet that’s exactly what I’m doing. Friday will be my last day at the National Council, and Monday I fly back to Seattle, [...]

Bleeds? Who’s going to bleed?

Flickr: Thomas Hawk

With the fall conference season coming up, it’s printing time at many nonprofits. Here at the National Council, we just received our snazzy new pocket folders for our Member Meeting next week (and now we get to stuff them!).
If you’re a newly-minted communications pro–or the colleague in charge of print ordering is on [...]

There’s no “evil” in “evaluation.”

 
My communications kick of the moment is evaluation. I mean, we need to know what we did well in 2008 to do it even better in 2009. And with a new intern ready to pitch in, I’m getting it off the ground with some research on best practices and current evaluation resources.
I didn’t even know [...]

How tweet it is

Back in July when Holly Ross of NTEN was telling us two useful things a minute, and I was wide awake for all of it, I set a mini-goal. It was mini because it didn’t take much work, and it was a goal because otherwise I wouldn’t do it. My mini-goal was: get on Twitter.
And [...]

Jargonbusters attack!

Nonprofit jargon is dying a loud, public death, and I am dancing on its grave.
Its death has been heralded and hurried along on many blog posts over the past few weeks, and it’s overdue. As a greenhorn to the world of nonprofit communications, I mentally flinch every time I read a phrase like “earned income” and [...]

Note to self: movie rental more fun than PR degree

Everything Scott Ward ever needed to know about PR, he learned from King Kong. 
 
At least that’s what he told a handful of young, eager nonprofit communications staffers the other night at his lively workshop. The place: the Social Action and Leadership School for Activists.
 
The topic: developing a media strategy.
 
The energy: not there. At first.
Thirty people [...]

Lesson 9: Allot nap time.

When I was in high school, I thought I was a narcoleptic. I fell asleep pretty much anywhere, especially in class. Trying to stay awake as teachers talked at me for an hour at a pop was excruciating. Even parasite week in Advanced Biology put me to sleep. I did the head-bobbing thing and bit [...]