By: Big Buzz Idea Group Staff This month, we turn to our helpful hive-full of Big Buzz team members for some insider insights and tips that they’ve honed and compiled over years of working with nonprofits. These simple but powerful methodologies have helped numerous clients along the way, so we know they’re tried and true and can work for anyone in the business of running a nonprofit like a business. Prepare For “The Ask” When soliciting new Board Members, Nicole Harris advises to go in prepared for the big meeting: A strong organization will have a solid plan when it...
By: Melissa Lagowski CEO/Founder/Queen Bee Big Buzz Idea Group In “Promotion Ideas to Benefit Your Nonprofit – Part I” we covered ideas for you to utilize relative to email marketing, leveraging your community and capitalizing on some basic public relations tactics. Part II will advance the promotional discussions and cover more ideas for digital exposure. Online Marketing Marketing online via social media remains an important part of overall promotions for nonprofits and associations so we encourage our clients to include online promotions to achieve maximum exposure. Social media options can be a bit overwhelming, so it’s best to compare the various...
By: Melissa Lagowski CEO/Founder/Queen Bee Big Buzz Idea Group Nonprofits are constantly looking for new ways to grow their revenues and create additional reliable revenue streams. Sponsorship is often overlooked or deemed to be difficult and time-consuming, but it is a great way to secure additional funding. To date, we have helped clients secure more than $6 million in sponsorship, so we know it works when done properly – and we can help you find ways to generate more dollars. We have previously shared tips on how to organically find sponsors, and we want to share five additional ways to generate...
By: Melissa Lagowski CEO/Founder/Queen Bee Big Buzz Idea Group When clients come to us wanting to start a sponsorship program, they often start rattling off the national and/or international companies that they want to target for sponsorships. Of course, it is natural for people to immediately think of the companies that have multi-billion dollar budgets and presume that all of these large benefactors will want to support the cause. But the reality is that thousands and thousands of other nonprofits are also thinking the same thing, so the sheer volume of asks going into that particular company each day...
By: Melissa Lagowski Founder, CEO and Queen Bee, Big Buzz Idea Group With Thanksgiving upon us, it seems like everyone is talking about gratitude. (To be fair, it’s always top of mind around here-gratitude is one of our core values at Big Buzz!) Is there anything better than feeling appreciated? For nonprofits, acknowledging the contributions of those people directly tied to your organization is important. A simple, inspirational gesture of appreciation cultivates a sense of community, generosity and support for your mission. WHO to Thank Think about all of the people who are a part of your organization. They keep...
Part Two of a Two-Part Series (Click here to read Part One) By: Melissa Lagowski CEO, Founder and Queen Bee, Big Buzz Idea Group Now that you have learned the value of a sponsorship program and outlined the assets that your organization can offer to a sponsor, let’s look at the next phase of program development. To Package or Not to Package There are different schools of thought when it comes to sponsorships and sponsorship packages. One involves creating a menu of levels of deliverables and pricing, while the other requires a bit more effort in customizing a sponsorship based...
