The Alzheimer’s Association of the US has just published a sobering report on the growing presence of Alzheimer’s among the growing number of retirees and older Baby Boomers. Those who suffer from the disease require, in the early stages, expensive drug therapies and constant care throughout their later lives. The report discusses the economic, social, […]
#Interview: Cass Naugle, Executive Director of The Alzheimer’s Association Greater Maryland Chapter
Alzheimer’s is a word most of us have heard, but how many of us know much about the disease itself? Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks of daily living. In most people with AD, symptoms […]
#PR: Astroturfing Politics And Marketing – It Can Be Disasterous For Both
With only a few months to go before the new administration takes office, we examine the notion of ‘grass-roots‘ as associated with popular movements or opinions came into the American lexicon at the turn of the twentieth century. The, er, ‘grass roots’ of the term, according to Answers.com came a generation earlier and specific to […]
#VIDEO: Recounting America’s Greatest Stories – A Conversation with Ken Burns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-hlRcH_1zk[/embed]
Educators! Bring history to life in your classroom with this PBS LearningMedia webinar featuring documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, live-streamed last year. Read more about the webinar and watch a recording of it here.
#EDUCATION: Why Computer Literacy Is Crucial
Why Computer Literacy is Key to Winning the 21st Century Let’s not make ourselves obsolete … “Upending our notions of what it means to interface with computers could help democratize the biggest engine of wealth since the Industrial Revolution.” A 2014 Mother Jones‘ article from explores the challenges faced by communities nationwide, as funds for computational […]
#FUNDRAISING: Trickle-Down Lives On at Nonprofits
If you haven’t yet seen Dan Pallotta’s 18-minute TED talk, the viral video of the month (April 2013) with more than 1.2 million views, here’s your chance. Pallotta, who founded AIDS Ride and raised $581 million for AIDS and breast cancer research over nine years, argues that philanthropy is being undermined by our beliefs about […]
#DOCUMENTARY: The Brainwashing of My Dad Premiere
Brainwashing comes in many forms…even talk radio and right-wing media. THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD is going to have its film festival world premiere at the prestigious Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA. If you live in California, we hope you’ll make the trek out to support Jen Senko’s film and see it on […]
#BOOKREVIEW: Blink –The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
#BOOKREVIEW: I read Blink on a plane to London last year and was thoroughly taken with Gladwell’s thesis: that the brain works very quickly to analyse information and come to a conclusion that informs us through the medium of “a feeling” or a “gut instinct” — all of this taking place in a few seconds […]
#FUNDRAISING: Paul Jolly Inspires The Big Ask To Raise Big Money
We welcome back Paul Jolly, Director of Jump Start Growth, Inc., a nonprofit fundraising and consultancy in Washington DC. Today, Paul tells about the importance of breaking the donor-donation barrier. Many good therapists will tell you your achievements are limited only by your attitude. Organizations, as well as individuals, may have a mindset that limits what they […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Is Pinterest Of Value For Nonprofits? You Bet!
Pinterest can seem like an upmarket yard sale at first glance… One of the hottest discussions about social-networking platforms concerns Pinterest, whose membership and engagement have exploded in 2014. From January to February of this year alone, Pinterest drew over 100 million new visitors to its site. The simplicity of setting up ‘boards’ and […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: What Makes Pinterest So Engaging? It’s So Simple.
Pinterest was released as a private beta in March 2010, which makes it something of a late-comer (or the ‘second generation?) of social networking platforms. Its mission was “to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting,” and its modus operandi was to encourage people to ‘pin’ whatever they found interesting online […]
#VIDEO: Compass Academy Promo Videos
The Challenge: Compass Academy is a community of students, educators, and families dedicated to serving children of average to above average cognitive ability with a wide range of learning challenges including autism spectrum, ADHD, speech, language, and/or motor delays. A lack of funds to plough into marketing the school meant that outreach and engagement has […]
#FILMFESTIVAL: Green Guerillas Film Festival (2013)
The Challenge: Green Guerillas asked us to act as creative and marketing consultants and be co-producers of an environmental film festival in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image, We had limited time and resources in which to both market the event and to produce it. Our Solution: MKCREATIVE co-developed a strategic […]
#NONPROFIT: The 501(c)4 Conundrum & The IRS’s Challenges To Tea Party Groups
The scuttlebutt over the IRS’s double-standards concerning political nonprofits associated with the Tea Party and those associated with other center-right causes is likely well known to our readers. What underlies the conflict has less to do with politics, though, and much more to do with semantics. If the case forces the issue of tax reform […]
#FUNDRAISING: Outreach Tactics & Technologies Need To Adjust To Demographics
With the texts and tweets and the touchscreens and with those crazy(-cool) Google goggles and whatnot, a nonprofit would be daft to send those old-fashioned appeals by mail. The cost of printing and stamps, the hassle of upkeep of a database of address, the imposition of making potential donors find their checkbooks buried ever-farther into […]
#ADVOCACY: Google Does Harm To Privacy & Suffers An Hour’s Income For Infractions
What you think about Google’s (and Facebook’s. And Twitter’s…) efforts to collect personal information of its users probably says quite a bit about what you think about human nature: If you don’t mind a database of your online activities being used by social networks and search engines, then you are likely comfortable with the fact […]
#FUNDRAISING: Crowdfunding Response To Boston Bombing Raises Hope & Caution
One of the wonderful qualities of Americans is the way we respond with our time and our money when a terrible shock or natural disaster hits our fellow countrypeople. The bombings in Boston on the 15th were certainly ‘terrible shocks’ and as homemade and smartphone videos make clear, volunteers and fellow marathon watchers ran in […]
#FUNDRAISING: Mobile Platforms For Donations Have Pros & Cons
That mobile communications devices like smart phones and tablets are the platform-of-choice for most people around the globe is a truism. Ever more business is being conducted over such devices as well, especially over tablets − and by ‘business’ we mean logistics, orders, and purchases, not just business calls. Nonprofits have appreciated the impact of […]
#MKCPARTNER: Dittmar Design Creates and Launches Client Website
MKCREATIVEpartner, Dittmar Design, recently developed and launched a website for a Northern Virginia mid-sized business, WJD Management.Their website wjdpm.com is a mobile responsive design built on the WordPress content management system and using the latest Genesis framework. “From tenant placement and rent collection to maintenance and repairs, the WJD Management team makes life easier for […]
#OPINION: Ken Stern’s Book Offers Tough Love To Nonprofit Economy
Ken Stern has served as CEO of National Public Radio, arguably one of the best-known nonprofits in the country. He supports The American Red Cross, and has served on the boards of a number of charities. So when his book, And Charity for All argues that the nonprofit sector is a huge part of the […]
#URBANFARMING: 2013 NYC Youth Internship Applications Now Available
The folks at East New York Farms are now taking applications for the 2013 Youth Internship program. ENYF are looking for youth ages 13-15 who live or go to school in East New York and are interested in making a difference in their community.
#VIDEOINTERVIEW: Paul Jolly of Jump Start Growth Helps Us Plan for the 2013 ‘Ask’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRW7kzj2ySo[/embed]
This past December, Paul Jolly, President of Jump Start Growth, Inc., talked about the spiritual side of fundraising, and how he works with nonprofits to help them appreciate the motives and desires of big donors. Paul’s company has many years of experience to bring to organizations that are trying to improve their success rates with […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: Postal Service Rates To Rise on 27 January
We have managed to put off the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ for a couple of months, but we can’t avoid the changes in postal rates coming in a couple of weeks. Thanks to our fine business partners at Ecoprint in Silver Spring, Maryland, for the heads-up! The US Postal Service (USPS) has been on hard times […]
#FUNDRAISING: Resources To Find Grants For Your Nonprofit’s 2013 Budget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTueYeGruKk[/youtube]
Maybe the federal government won’t ever work up or agree to a budget to cover an entire fiscal year, but your nonprofit has to. The 2012-2013 fiscal year is already on many organizations’ calendars, and certainly the final sprint to the holiday donation-giving season is upon us. But along with the money, time, and goodwill […]
#FUNDRAISING: Presidential Candidates Ramp Up Mobile Giving
With the (delayed) start of the Republican Convention in Tampa earlier this week, the really officially serious campaign season starts. For the next 10-odd weeks, most American start to focus on the candidates, their platforms, and their messages. There has been much talk about the low level of discourse that has driven the campaign thus […]
#FUNDRAISING: Facebook Gives Pages & Apps To Nonprofits (Zuckerberg Gives Cash)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vHp-NCDwSc[/youtube]
Facebook’s power on the social-networks scene need hardly be introduced, and thousands of nonprofits and charities have tapped into that power to expand and support their good work. But has the company offered any of its billions to those nonprofits and charities? Facebook, like Apple, does not have a philanthropic foundation like some other corporations, […]
#GRANTS: Dell Computers & Dell Foundation Offer Resources For Youth & Environment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnJom7my0J4[/youtube]
Dell Computers was founded in 1984 in Austin Texas and it became a worldwide leader in online sales of MSDOS/Windows/x86 computers within a decade. Michael and Susan Dell established their foundation in 1999 in an effort to present their booming company as a corporate citizen. The efforts of the foundation are to multiply the work […]
#CIVICS: Apple’s Billions In Tax Dodges Come Under Scrutiny
Apple Inc. is making it difficult to feel sympathy for Apple Inc. When the blogosphere challenged Apple the business and Steve Jobs the CEO to act like a good corporate citizen by offering some philanthropic goodwill, we took a fairly conciliatory position that Apple’s job is innovative technology and Apple’s innovative technology has been a […]
#VIDEOJOBS: Freelance Producers & Reporters Wanted for Brooklyn Independent Television
Brooklyn Independent Television (a division of the Community Media initiative of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn), makes TV programs for and about Brooklyn, NYC, covering news, arts, culture, sports, health, business, and what’s happening in Brooklyn’s diverse neighborhoods. Marco Kathuria, Creative Director and Social Media Strategist at MKCREATIVE happens to be one of their […]
#FUNDRAISING: Impact Of Mobile Donations To Haiti Two Years On?
Two years ago this month, Haitians endured a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of the infrastructure in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed over 300,000 people. The outpouring of support from numerous nations inspired faith that rebuilding after the tragedy would bring notable improvements to the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Unfortunately, two years […]
#interview: Simone Joyaux, Nonprofit Consultant, Author, and Columnist
Simone Joyaux is an internationally recognized consultant to the nonprofit sector on fund development, board development, and strategic planning and management. She writes a column, “Unraveling Development,” for the Nonprofit Quarterly. She is the author of Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, now in its third edition, and is co-author, with Tom Ahern, […]
#Tech: SOPA Inspiring Blackouts & Lobbyists – Should Nonprofits Care?
On the surface, not much seems to be of relevance in the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ (SOPA, H.R. 3261) because nonprofits aren’t really in the business of selling digitized content, much less pirated content. Nevertheless, nonprofit organizations and consumer protection groups are decrying the bill and calling for an internet ‘blackout’ on 18 January as […]