“Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” –Gloria Steinem
​
Author and feminist activist Gloria Steinem’s quote rings true in a multitude of relationships, from the personal to the professional.

Fresh off my graduation from college and start in the working world, I found myself wanting to engage with the Iowa City community and gain fulfilling volunteer experience. Steinem’s quote guided my search. I asked myself, how can I make a true and meaningful impact in someone’s life?

While updating my LinkedIn profile last summer, I happened upon a post in my news feed calling for local female professionals to apply to become mentors for young women at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. After digging deeper into the mission of Tippie’s Women in Business (WIB) organization, I was hooked.

The WIB External Mentoring Program matches female undergraduate students at the University of Iowa with local female professionals of similar common career goals and professional interests. Mentors and mentees, also known as “gal pals,” are required to meet at least once a month. My mentee and I treat ourselves to sushi and talk about an array of topics, including:

Work-life management
Advanced degrees and higher education
Volunteering opportunities
Community events
Leadership styles and conflict management

As a mentor, I aim to inspire my mentee to achieve her goals and foster trusting relationships with her female classmates and other businesswomen. Being a WIB mentor has many benefits such as:

1. Gain a sense of fulfillment
According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of South Florida, women who are mentored by other women feel more supported and satisfied in their careers. Sharing your professional experiences with your mentee can make a world of difference in her transition from college to her professional life. For me, supporting young women as they chase their dreams helps me feel like I’m making an impact in my community. It fills my heart with joy on a daily basis.

2. Empower the next generation of female business leaders
As recently as 2015, Iowa has ranked last among the 50 states in growth and success of female-owned businesses. Iowa has landed last or at the bottom of this ranking since the annual survey’s initial release in 2011. Results of the survey, conducted by American Express, point to the need to encourage young women prior to their entrance into the working world. Preparing young women for the potential hardships they will face in the workplace as female professionals can increase their prosperity in business and other fields they enter.

3. Add volunteer experience to your resume
Spending just a few hours a week assisting a service or nonprofit organization can boost your job prospects. The Corporation for National and Community Service found in its 10-year study of 70,000 unemployed individuals that those who had volunteer experience were 27 percent more likely to find a job than those who did not. Investing in your community is an investment in your professional well-being.

4. Connect with passionate and like-minded individuals
​Building a strong community of women who genuinely support one another can help those in the group achieve more. According to “shine theory,” a term coined by writers Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman in New York Magazine, spending time with successful women makes you more likely to be successful. Establishing a trusting bond among women can help everyone do more and be more.

Helping to ensure that young female leaders are aware of their worth, value, and abilities is an absolute honor and privilege. For me, becoming a mentor helped me realize that I can be the “right person” in a young woman’s life.

What will you do to assist young women in your community?

Maddie Bro is a project manager at Frank N. Magid Associates, an international research-based strategic consulting firm in Marion, Iowa. She graduated with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and gender studies from the University of Iowa in May 2016, earning highest distinction, university, and departmental honors. In addition to being a WIB mentor, Maddie serves on event planning committees for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and assists with several community projects in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids corridor.

Storytelling is central to cultivating a culture of community between a nonprofit organization, the population(s) it serves, and the volunteers and donors needed to assist in its mission-driven work.

As a development director, storytelling is one of the most important tools I use to inspire donors and volunteers to support Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.

In fact, this tool is used affiliate-wide at PPHeartland. Mission Moments (MMs) are paragraph-long statements that aim to set an inspirational and mission-driven tone at the start of all internal and external meetings. These MMs cover an array of meaningful interactions with donors, volunteers, and patients.

Whether in a one-on-one donor conversation or event planning committee meeting, I always have a printed MM in my bag ready to go.

MMs can invoke a sense of ownership and influence in donors and volunteers, helping to demonstrate impact of their philanthropic work. This in turn can increase the likelihood of them making a monthly, annual, or even transformational gift.

So how does PPHeartland come up with these MMs? Well, Ann Handley in Everybody Writes  describes a process nearly matches ours.

While Handley explains this process from the for-profit perspective, below are key questions that she raises with my insertion of nonprofit language:

1. How do you pull compelling stories out of your own organization?
2. How do you tell your own brand story in an interesting way that relates to your donor, volunteer, or patient?

Handley lists the following must-have characteristics for stories. Please note some overlap between these points:

1. It’s true. PPHeartland’s MMs all contain real people, events, emotions, and facts. For those including patient information, our legal department evaluates MMs for any HIPAA violations to protect patient information and privacy.
2. It’s human. Just like our work in our health centers, all MMs are patient-centered. This MM includes raw emotion and pathos appeals. It demonstrates PPHeartland’s compassionate and non-judgmental approach to patient care.
3. It’s original. MMs seek to bring a new perspective to the forefront of the PPHeartland experience. The example provided highlights the safe haven our health centers serve as for patients.
4. It serves the donor, volunteer, or patient. Relatability is an important component of our MMs. This MM shows that patients who receive discouraging news at a PP appointment are supported in a welcoming, friendly, and community-based environment. Regardless of one’s position in this situation, the patient and PPHeartland staff are in this together.
5. It tells a bigger story that’s aligned with a long-term business strategy. All MMs are also reviewed by our marketing team to ensure the use of consistent messaging that aligns with our mission and goal of creating positive patient experiences. This was the case with the example provided.

To conclude, storytelling is necessary for connecting a nonprofit organization to the communities it serves and the supporters that make its work happen. Handley’s rules are important to remember while composing impactful stories.

Alicia Johnson | SproutSocial
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/nonprofit-social-media-guide/

SproutSocial’s Alicia Johnson maps a strategic guide to social media for nonprofits, providing the following tips below:

• Define Social’s Role in Your Nonprofit’s Communications Strategy
  • Implement consistent messaging across online and offline communications. “Social media shouldn’t be out there alone; it should be integrated and aligned with your strategic goals and target audiences,” said Beth Kanter, Nonprofit Consultant and Author of Beth’s Blog.
• Determine What You Want to Accomplish
  • Be clear. Be specific. Choose one goal that align with your efforts:
    • Community engagement and education
    • Brand building and reputation management
    • Program recruitment
    • Fundraising
• Identify Your Target Audience
  • Is there an echo in here? Bridgett Colling, Director of Content Marketing at See3 Communications, also recommends nonprofits develop audience personas. We know these representations can help to craft your ideal supporters based on demographic data and information about individual members of your target audience.
• Choose the Right Networks
  • Don’t spread your organization too thin. Johnson says, “Do an excellent job on two or three networks with a large potential for reaching your audience instead of a mediocre job on five.”
• Create a Content Strategy
  • This section linked to another article titled “39 Free Tools for Creating Unique Images” including Canva, Piktochart, and others here.
• Put Engagement First
  • Remember, it’s social. “The most powerful thing about social media is something many companies and organizations often forget: It’s social,” Chara Odhner, Senior Copywriter at charity: water. “Instead, many brands use social media as a broadcasting platform.” Be sure to facilitate two-way communication.
• Empower Your Advocates & Cross-Promote Your Content
  • Like in person community partnerships, cultivate online collaborators. Johnson says, “Show them the value of following—the stories, tips and images they can expect to see—and educate them about the best ways to show support. Don’t be afraid to cross-promote your social media content on other channels.”
• Track & Measure Your Results
  • Colling explains that with the use of Google Analytics, you can see how many referrals actually led to someone completing a donation. Check out SproutSocial’s tips on utilizing Google Analytics here.

While several rules are fairly simple, they are good reminders of how transferrable tips learned in this course are across sectors and industries. It doesn’t hurt to go back to the basics.

Questions

• What are the key parallels between this course and SproutSocial's tips?
• As for social engagement goals, how accurate are the following?
  • Community engagement and education
  • Brand building and reputation management
  • Program recruitment
  • Fundraising
• Would you represent these goals differently? Are they consistent with that of your organization's planning methods?

Laura Forer | MarketingProfs
https://m.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2018/39668/2018-digital-advertising-trends-which-predictions-came-true-infographic
 
The people have spoken. In MarketingProfs’ “2018 Digital Advertising Trends: Which Predictions Came True,” author Laura Forer outlines the year’s winners and losers in advertising tactics and methods based on a study conducted by programmatic advertising provider Choozle. The infographic (linked above) reports trends on the following topics:

• Preferred ad platforms/types
• Consumer behavior
• Personal data and privacy

 
Although this study is focused on standard advertising from a for-profit perspective, it should not be forgotten that nonprofit organizations, too, advertise and seek to better spread their message and mission online. My employer is currently exploring digital storytelling methods to better inform others about health center locations, legislative updates, and donation opportunities. Below are key takeaways I found to be most relevant to nonprofit organizations and their mission-driven audiences:

• 72% of consumers do not prefer video ads over other types of online advertisements.
  • Video is expensive and time consuming. Nonprofits are reluctant to pursue this method and have been for quite some time. I find this statistic to be valuable for our limited time and small nonprofit marketing budget.
• The study reaffirmed that consumers are expressing a greater affinity toward connected devices and being served advertisements through services like Spotify.
  • PPFA currently displays banner donation solicitations on Spotify heavily, so this is encouraging.
• One-third of respondents saw a significant (13%) or somewhat significant (21%) increase in the amount of advertisements that aim to break gender stereotypes.
  • Increasing health care accessibility no matter your gender is the heart of Planned Parenthood’s mission. It’s great to see a trend that favors our values.

 
Discussion questions

1. To what extent does your organization or company use video advertising? Did you adopt this method in response to 2018 predictions? How successful have those particular ads been?
2. I hear only great things about Spotify advertising opportunities. Has your organization tapped into this resource?
3. What is GDPR? If you don’t know, you’re not alone. Sixty percent of study respondents aren’t familiar with the term’s meaning either.