Back in April, we started a weekly "Monday Motivation Series." Over the years, we've worked with a lot of great nonprofits, and we thought that going back to the archives to pull out short excerpts from their videos would be a neat way to highlight the good work they do. One very obvious example is The International Institute of New England, which works to resettle immigrants and refugees....

 Reflection Films has had a lot of wonderful nonprofit partners over the years. While in quarantine, we decided that we wanted to use some of our time to give them a shout-out. To do that, we thought we'd start a Monday Motivation video series. The goal is to share a video clip that: 1. highlights the work of the nonprofit 2. is no more than 60 seconds long 3. hopefully inspires! This first...

  Building nonprofit board diversity presents challenges. Last month, The Boston Foundation hosted its fourth forum on the subject of nonprofit diversity, equity and inclusion. This forum focused on the Leading with Intent report that was published by BoardSource. While the report addresses a wide range of issues related to the functioning of nonprofit boards, the TBF event was mostly examining...

Silent Spring is an organization that researches the causes of cancer (versus the cure), with a particular focus on breast cancer. The founding of the organization was inspired by Rachel Carson and her book, Silent Spring. Carson was one of the first scientists to study the environmental causes of cancer, especially the chemicals we are exposed to in our everyday lives that are carcinogenic. (Think:...

Several years ago we produced a series of videos for Communities for Restorative Justice (C4RJ).  The idea behind restorative justice is that addressing certain crimes outside of the courtroom can have beneficial outcomes for all those who are affected by the crime - the victim, the perpetrator, their respective families, and the community at large. Frequently, a case is referred to C4RJ by a police...

Recently, I attended a webinar hosted by CCS Fundraising about campaigns and how to avoid the dreaded lull period. According to CCS, organizations typically see a 65% increase in fundraising during campaigns. However, the post-campaign period can fall into a lull, which can lead to a bit of a tough time to get through. Through this webinar, CCS identified 4 campaign models that could possibly help...

I attended a great panel presentation at Cape Cod Philanthropy Day entitled, "The View from the Other Side: Corporate Support on Cape Cod."  Rana Murphy from Eastern Bank, Kara Boule from Nauset Disposal and Beth Marcus from Cape Cod Beer shared three common mistakes nonprofits make when approaching companies for support.  I thought I would pass along their feedback in case you or folks in your...

Recently, I attended a session about “Using Google Analytics & Google AdWords” hosted by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. While we have a basic knowledge of Google AdWords and Google Analytics, this presentation was helpful in reminding us how marketing online is changing everyday. Here are a few of my takeaways: 1. Google Dominates the Search Space It’s true. Google has become such...

Source: Clickbidonline.com I attended a great presentation on event planning offered by Women in Development of Greater Boston.  Here are some key takeaways from Brianna Boggs, Director of Development at GLAD and Kelly Lepley, Associate Director of the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.   Event Planning Tips on How To Be Inclusive Around Giving Opportunities...

You may have heard of the app called Snapchat. I have a couple of other blog posts in the works about certain Snapchat features, but we decided to give an overview of this app for those of you who have not been introduced to it. So what is Snapchat? TechTarget provides a short and sweet definition: Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to send and receive "self-destructing" photos and videos....