Since 2020, 35% of people in the world have read more books, and the number of streaming service subscriptions from companies like Netflix and Hulu passed 1 billion worldwide for the first time.

What does this tell us? That, more than ever, people love reading and/or watching a great story. And, sure, it also reminds us that we were all trapped inside waiting out a pandemic. Still, I think it’s telling that in times of crisis, when comfort and certainty were in short supply, we turned to stories. 

Consumer brands long ago discovered that the desire to read a good story and connect with characters drew customers to certain initiatives and even contributed to selling more products. But does this success in the consumer world translate to nonprofit storytelling?

The challenge of nonprofit storytelling

This question has been asked by many in the nonprofit sector, and for a while, it seems like there was some skepticism. I think that it’s because, if done poorly, using storytelling to further a brand, a product or a mission can feel inauthentic. And association and nonprofit members seem to sniff out the fake and phony more than other types of audiences. 

But over the past five years or so, nonprofits have realized that they actually have some of the best stories to tell! We’ve seen a growing interest in nonprofit storytelling, and we’ve seen really helpful blogs like the one from our Wild Apricot colleagues that help associations and nonprofits know where to start telling great stories about their people and their mission. 

3 Tips for Creating Memorable Nonprofit Stories 

1. Let people tell their own stories

User-generated content provides huge benefits. It’s inspiring, it’s credible and it shows that the organization values supporters and members. User-generated content also eases the burden of creating original content from the organization itself, while at the same opening up ample opportunities for increased engagement and participation. Ensure the content you get is what you’re looking for by soliciting content around a key theme, in support of answering a specific question or to support a unique campaign.

2. Tell your story in different formats based on your audience

These days, people like to consume their stories in a variety of ways. Some audiences prefer to read a story, others like a visual guide like an infographic and increasingly more people like to watch stories via a video. Some even like a combination of mediums to enjoy the same story. I’m, personally, guilty of listening to a true crime story on a podcast, then spending the next week reading every article and watching every video that I can about it. 

The point is that the digital world has not made storytelling obsolete. Instead, it has made storytelling come to life and more accessible through visual tools. 

And even though the idea of visual storytelling can be intimidating due to a nonprofit’s lack of resources, consider these facts as you start to plan for which tools to invest in for the future:

• Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. (Cisco)
• 70% of YouTube viewers watch videos for “help with a problem” they’re having in their hobby, studies, or job. (Think With Google)
• Globally, YouTube is consumers’ leading source of video content, at 83% (Facebook is second, at 67%). (HubSpot)

Visual storytelling has proven to be a highly-effective storytelling tool. Visuals allow you to quickly get messages across in high-impact ways that viewers can digest quickly. When people see your story, when they hear videos you’ve put together it creates the opportunity for a more memorable experience. Thoughtful and strategic introduction of multimedia will capture your viewers’ attention and spark meaningful engagement.

3. End with a call to action

Many of us learned early on that stories have a beginning, middle and end. For nonprofits, there’s an opportunity to share an overview of the problem and how the organization’s mission works to solve the problem. That’s the end, right?

It shouldn’t be. The stories that nonprofits and their supporters tell invest heavily in building an emotional connection but sometimes miss the opportunity to capitalize on it with a powerful call to action. Ensure each story your organization tells ends with a call to action—an opportunity for someone interested to become more involved. Join us, share your story, learn how to get involved all provide great ways for people to harness the positive energy from your story and turn warm feelings into next steps.

What does nonprofit storytelling look like to you?

Every association and nonprofit has a story to tell. But what that story is and the best ways to tell are up to you. If you’re stuck wondering where to start, we recommend doing things like interviewing members and volunteers and understanding the characters of your story doing persona work. 

For nonprofits, storytelling is changing the way members and partners find, engage and build relationships — and for the better. Both member- and donor-focused organizations have a clear advantage as their missions naturally create outcomes that are worthy of a great narrative.

The post 3 Tips for Getting Started with Nonprofit Storytelling appeared first on Personify.

3.8 million.

That’s how many students are expected to graduate from college in the 2019-2020 academic year and become early career professionals. When I think about it, it’s rather daunting that all of these students making decisions on their first jobs, which will help shape their career path and their future. How can a 22-year old be expected to confidently grasp the ideal role for them when so many different possibilities exist, even within a single company?

Enter the Exceptional-Professionals-early-In-their-Career (EPiC) Program at Personify where new career professionals are given the opportunity to do just that—learn. The EPiC program consists of three rotations into various departments throughout the year, allowing the EPiC Specialist a chance to see where they are passionate and where they shine brightest. After graduating college from Texas A&M University in 2018 with a degree in Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, I was unsure of the direction I wanted to take, and that is why the EPiC program is exactly what I needed.

First Stop: People Operations

My first rotation began on the People Operations team, which has been a perfect start! Not only because it has given me insight into the intricacies of Personify’s staffing needs, internal operations and culture but also because it has enabled my passion for helping others. The core focus of the People Ops team is the employees—making sure that staff are happy, fulfilled and doing their best work in addition to building a strong culture along with managing benefits, compliance, facilities and much more. An important skill that goes into a successful People Ops team is being a team player. Everyone on the team may own separate projects, but at the end of the day they all tie into one another. I am fortunate to be on a team that has put a lot of emphasis on collaboration and aiding one another to ensure the job gets done in a timely manner.

I think the most challenging aspect of being a part of the People Ops team is the fact that every day is unpredictable. I may have my day fully planned out, but there is always that chance that something more pressing is going to require my attention, so flexibility and adaptability are key. At times, it might feel as though the to-do list continues to grow without ever getting shorter, but a healthy workload means that organization and prioritization of projects are incredibly important.

From the outside looking in, one might not realize all that goes into creating and maintaining a strong foundation for the company. In this rotation, I have gained an increased understanding of the importance of the People Operations department. This department is such an integral part to any company and its success.

Future Rotations and Next Steps

Before my time at Personify, I worked in the health insurance industry and I have been able to leverage this experience in managing employee benefits on the People Ops team. As I look forward to my next possible rotations, such as finance or sales operations, I am certain I have attained much knowledge from my first rotation that will be transferable into other departments to help me succeed. I am excited to discover more about Personify and gather more insight into all the components that makes this company successful!

Although the EPiC program is fairly new to Personify, we’ve already had eight people participate in the program and new classes will join in 2020. As an EPiC Specialist, you have an opportunity to showcase your skills and contributions to your team and the organization as a whole. I feel fortunate to not have only found a great company to work for, but also a great program that will serve as a launching pad for my career. I think that more companies need to adopt a program like this one because it not only allows program to gain knowledge and increase their skill sets, but it also helps provide a pipeline of new talent and develop future leaders.

Interested in the EPiC Program or a career with Personify? Check out our open positions.

The post Early career professionals: Have you heard of Personify’s EPiC Program? appeared first on Personify.

Let’s put last week’s approach into practice. Here are four tangible ways to think about and evolve your Sense of Community:

Create a Safe Space and Provide Emotional Safety

One of the main elements of a Sense of Community is membership or spirit. And one of the main attributes of membership is emotional safety.

Imagine heading over to your friend’s house for a casual get together to watch the big game. You may be wearing your laundry-day clothes and bringing a 6-pack of beer to share with friends. But, when you walk through the door, instead you find a black-tie event. That type of experience doesn’t feel comfortable and safe. If I found myself in such a situation, I would turn around and go home.

This reminds me of a similar story with a community that shall remain nameless. The community manager had crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is, and she couldn’t figure out why members weren’t posting and engaging in the community. It wasn’t until she took a look at the community through her members’ eyes that she realized what was happening. All her posts were these well-crafted, incredibly researched, detailed and long posts that ended up intimidating her members…to the point where they didn’t want to contribute. Many of them felt there was nothing left to contribute. The community manager didn’t realize that the tone of her posts negatively impacted this sense of safe space for her members.

What your members might not be telling you is that they may not feel safe enough to open up and be vulnerable in the community. They may not feel comfortable enough to ask their colleagues questions for fear of being humiliated or looking dumb.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) asks members to share their story in the community. But instead of a new member walking through the door and seeing these beautifully written, well crafted, high-quality posts from their members and then being intimidated from writing their own, EDF proactively created a safe space for their members by breaking the writing process up into digestible chunks. In fact, members don’t see the next step in the story building process until they’ve completed the previous step. And members only see the progress of other member stories as they progress themselves. It’s an ingenious way of turning a potentially intimidating experience into an opportunity for members to emotionally connect and build a safe space together as they go through this process of creating their advocacy stories.

Another community that is proactively creating a safe space for their members is the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). The engineers in the community post regularly, but a high number of posts does not necessarily mean that the members have that emotional safety in order to feel vulnerable and self-disclose. It’s one thing to ask your colleagues about wiring and regulations, it’s another thing entirely to ask a colleague if they also feel out of their depth. So IET created an option for members to submit anonymous questions. They also created a persona called ‘Calvin the Engineer’ as a community mascot to share these anonymous questions in the forum for other members to respond.

Create and Define Boundaries.

Another important attribute of membership is boundaries.

There’s a speakeasy in downtown Austin called the Floppy Disk Repair. The door is locked and only those with the code can get it. The code changes weekly and you must know someone who knows someone to get it. It’s difficult. But once you walk through the front door, there’s the most amazing feeling of validation and exclusivity. This is the feeling you want to inspire in members of your community.

On the opposite spectrum of that is Who’s Who American High School Students. Getting into Who’s Who was touted as an exclusive honor… until you flipped through the pages and saw everyone in your class listed. Then you realized that the threshold to get into the book is negligible because the goal of the company was to sell books to proud parents.

What your members aren’t telling you is that having a low barrier to enter the community does not inspire feelings of exclusivity and validation. The higher the barrier, the higher the feeling of belonging. If the barrier is low, then you’ve already removed one ingredient to forming a sense of community right off the bat.

Now, sometimes those barriers are out of our hands. If an organization makes member acquisition a higher priority than developing a sense of community, then that probably means the community has a monetary boundary. In other words—if you pay a membership fee, you’re in!

A community with a monetary boundary might therefore supplement a secondary barrier by creating a nested community – one that weaves in intersectionality and is based on demographics.

For example, consider the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). Everyone that walks through that front door is a safety professional. They are immediately part of a homogenous group, and homogeneity is vitally important for group cohesion. But once you’re through the door, members need to be able to differentiate themselves from the group in order to develop their identity within the community and truly feel like they belong. For that purpose, ASSP created a nested community for women in that profession called WISE (Women in Safety Excellence).

Create a Sense of Belonging and Identification

Next, let’s consider the attributes of belonging and identification that is inherent to membership.

Say you walk through the front door into a house and see people milling about. Except, everyone is wearing the same blank grey mask on their face. And they’re all staring at you. That does not make me feel safe. I’m just going to turn around and walk out. Well, that’s what it feels like for a new member who walks into a community and everyone has that default grey avatar, you know which one I’m talking about. For myself, this does not inspire feelings of belonging and of identification.

What your members might not be telling you is that in a very literal, visual way, they don’t feel that they have anything in common with other members. They don’t recognize themselves in the constituency. They don’t see anyone that looks like them.

The National Wildlife Federation’ EcoLeaders program decided that they want to make their community feel lived in, warm and inviting, so they encourage members to upload profile pictures. And to overcome any issues with emotional safety, they created an avatar menu that members could choose from that aligned with their specific passion if they weren’t quite ready to upload a picture of themselves.

Similarly, the American Diabetes Association encourages belonging and identification in its members by creating a self-selection of badges for illness type, and then displays those badges with the member’s profile throughout the community. So, if you walk into ADA with type 1, you can quickly see others like you interacting in a safe space.

Show That You’re Invested

My final example of this practice is Investment, which is another element of sense of community.

Imagine walking into a house for a party. You look to your left and see a table displayed with rotting food. Perhaps, there are some 25-cent bags of chips that you could have easily gotten at a gas station down the street.

What your members aren’t telling you is that walking into a community and seeing stock photos, static content and announcements of a community relaunch that haven’t been updated in a year creates a sense that the community is not invested in the member. The community does not value the member. So why should I invest in the community? It’s a common practice with communities to place the onus on the community manager to continually update content in order to keep the space lively and fresh. That is not sustainable.

What is a sustainable option? Let’s take a look at the Climate Reality Project, which has successfully created an environment where community members contribute the majority of the content. They did this by turning the act of contribution into a challenge for the entire community to reach a certain number of contributions in the year 2019. In fact, they’ve inspired members to act by making their contributions visible in a challenge or leaderboard format.

Know What Works For Your Community

There is no standard, ‘out of the box’ platform or configuration that consistently creates a sense of community in your members. Each community is different. Being able to take a step back and see your unique community from a member’s perspective is a mix of art and science: of understanding of the psychology behind a sense of community while using tactical imagination and a background knowledge of what your platform can do.

While there is plenty of research and study behind the intricate psychology, there isn’t much in the way instruction on how to build a community that hits on all four elements to improve your community’s Sense of Community index. By using targeted conceptualization, you can see your community through the members’ perspective and stimulate ideas on the practice, configuration and process to encourage connection to these elements.

If you’re ready to take the next steps of improving your sense of community, I recommend thinking about this from an approach of “Who + Why = How.”

If we know the who (member goals) and we know the why (sense of community), then we can use this practice to determine and become architects of the How.

The post What Your Members Aren’t Telling You: 4 Ways to Improve Your Sense of Community appeared first on Personify.

As someone who has worked in marketing and membership longer than I’ll ever admit publicly, ASAE’s Marketing, Membership & Communications Conference, kicking off later this week in Washington D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center is among my favorite events of the year.

In addition to having the opportunity to connect with association professionals the topics discussed are always top-notch. Each session is uniquely targeted to address the needs of marketing, membership and communications professionals as they look to optimize their efforts across the various stages of the membership lifecycle, from acquisition to retention.

There are no shortage of amazing opportunities for learning but here are the five sessions I’m looking forward to the most this year:

Thursday, June 6^th:

Viral Business Starts at Home

9:00AM – 10:00AM

We know both from our research into young members and anecdotal feedback from clients that few things are as effective in building buzz and in the acquisition of new members than word-of-mouth endorsements from peers. In his keynote, entrepreneur Johnny Cupcakes will share what he learned from the launch and success of his own business but also the implications for associations who need to ensure their staff will engage with their brand on a deep-level for an exceptional member experience.

How Issue Advocacy Can Increase Member Engagement

2:45PM – 3:15PM

We’ve seen in our own Personify Community how advocacy can only drive an organization’s mission forward by mobilizing members in support of a specific cause but also serve as an important opportunity for engagement. I’m looking forward this session, which will dive into issue advocacy and how associations can leverage social media and digital tools to further the reach of their advocacy campaigns and engage members.

Bringing Member Personas to Life – Hollywood Style

3:30PM – 4:15PM

What kind of marketing person would I be if I didn’t use this opportunity to plug my own session? Personas have become a critical component in the success of marketing teams, but often they’re authored in response to a single situation or in the context of a specific need. How can we take our understanding of personas to the next level and given them new life? I’ll be taking a trip to the TV stages, writer’s rooms and Hollywood studios for this exciting session. You don’t want to miss it!

Friday, June 7^th

Making a Splash With an Integrated Campaign

10:15AM – 11:00AM

At Personify, we’re big fans of the integrated campaign. This session will share a real-world example of how one organization leveraged an integrated campaign to stand out among brands with flashy booths and global name recognition to make themselves not only relevant, but cool!

How to Capture the Attention of the Generation Z Constituent

2:45PM – 3:30PM

Another Personify-led workshop that you don’t want to miss! Our young member research looked not only at Millennials but also the emerging Gen Z audience. While Gen Z may bring new energy, ideas, and opportunities, they also bring the NOW Effect: information must be mobile, transparent, and delivered in real-time. Personify’s VP of Marketing, Teresa Zimmerman will dive into the art and science behind creating compelling campaigns that resonate with Gen Z. With a focus on content, social media, analytics, and more, we’ll share the necessity of using the right and left side of your brain when marketing to younger generations.

We look forward to seeing you in our sessions and on the show floor! If you’re attending ASAE MMCC please stop by booth 121 on the show floor. We’d love to hear what you’re learning and what’s resonating!

The post 5 Sessions to Check Out at ASAE MMCC appeared first on Personify.

Game Changer Spotlight: The Climate Reality Project

Speaking of global change… Let us introduce you to one of our newest Game Changers: The Climate Reality Project! The Climate Reality Project was founded in 2006 by former US Vice President Al Gore after the release of the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth. While the film’s goal was to get the world talking about climate change, the creation of the Climate Reality Project helped move the conversation forward to inspire activists, organizers and scientists alike.   

The Climate Reality Leadership Corps, Climate Reality’s flagship program, set out to empower everyday people to become activists. Technology, or the lack thereof, was a key challenge as Climate Reality set out to build a foundation of tools, resources and training for their Leaders. Reality Hub powered by Personify Community became their one-stop-shop for delivering training tools, hosting presentations, planning and promoting local events, and more. Not only did the Community allow Climate Reality to empower and support their Leaders and activists, it also allowed the community members to interact and engage with each other. Read more about how Climate Reality continues to grow their reach with a network of more than 19,000 Leaders in 152 countries using Personify Community.  

And the award goes to…  

Along with being a Personify Game Changer, the Climate Reality Project was recently awarded a 2019 PERSI Award in the “Impact” category for their use of Personify technology to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis. Each year, the Climate Reality Project’s constituents commit to completing Acts of Leadership, such as organizing or speaking at events, writing articles or participating in campaigns. Since the community launched, the number of annual Acts of Leadership has grown an astonishing 270 percent from about 11,000 to 30,000. 

See the full list of PERSI Award winners.  

The post The Climate Reality Project: Reality Hub appeared first on Personify.

Our Young Members 2.0 report, published in February, laid out what’s proven a surprising statistic for many readers. Millennials will represent half of the global workforce by 2020 and Gen Z will make up an additional 20 percent by 2021. That’s right, young members will make up 70 percent of the global workforce in less than two years.

Yet according to Marketing General’s recently released 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking report, despite being a growing majority of the workforce, Gen Z and Millennials together still only represent only a quarter of association membership.

We apparently still have a lot to learn.

Thus far we’ve been lucky enough to host a number of webinars and conversations on the topic of young members. We’ve done a walk-through of the report and last month spent some dedicated time doing a deep dive on topic of young members and affordability.

But we’ve continued to receive interesting questions from association professionals like you around different pieces of our research and were recently asked about connection. How can we position the relationship and in-person connections that have always served as the cornerstone of membership with this emerging demographic?

What is Connection?

Connection, per social science, generally refers to the feeling that you belong to a group and feel close to other people.

I like to think of it as both the driving need behind and the outcome of engagement. The interactions young members have with you – whether in person or online – are done out of a need for, and a want to, connection. At the same time, the culmination of these interactions – their level of engagement – creates connection.

This connection is what will position organizations for long-term success with young members, ensuring they have a fulfilling experience and that you keep your retention numbers high.

IRL and the Value of In-Person Interactions

Think connecting with young members is all about digital? Think again.

Our Young Members study found one-on-one conversations with real people matter and remain essential in demonstrating value and creating a meaningful experience.  When asked how important it was that an association facilitates connections with authentic people who understand their unique needs within the initial part of their journey, 94 percent of young members identified this as important, with almost two thirds suggesting it’s very important.

81 percent report attending an in-person event in the last 24 months. Top events from our respondents include:

• Workshop
• Networking
• Community Service
• A gala/party

Young members are significantly less likely to attend an annual conference. There are a number of reasons why – early career young members may not be in a position to request travel budget and Millennials with small children may have to balance demands of work and a young family. But this is concerning for those of you looking for young members to not only support growth in your dues revenue but also your non-dues revenue.

The Telephone…Friend or Foe?

In 1979 Philadelphia ad agency NW Ayer & Son came up with a new ad campaign for AT&T. The jingle encouraged consumers to reach out and touch someone. The full line was actually To communicate is the beginning of understanding. Reach out and touch someone.

40 years later the telephone – whatever its shape or form – continues to be an invaluable tool in building a connection with young members. Not just texting either, be real conversations between actual people.

According to our study:

• Only one third of young members report receiving phone calls from their association yet a larger percentage of young members report phone calls work, with 78 percent of all members saying phone calls are either somewhat or very effective in engaging them.
• Almost half of Generation Z found these phone calls very effective.

When was the last time your organization called a young member to check in and talk about something other than a dues renewal?

Driving Digital Results

According to Forbes, Gen Z uses an average of 5 different screens – smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop and tablet – to peruse information media, compared to millennials who typically switch back and forth between 3 screens.

With all the interconnectivity and information available you would think it would be easy to engage young members, right? Or does the seemingly endless collection of platforms and channels make engagement harder?

I’d argue it provides more opportunity to connect with young members, but in different ways. Email is a critical components of your communications strategy. It is the way members stay informed about your organization and about the various opportunities you provide to help them build those connections.

According to Adobe’s fourth annual Consumer Email Survey, workers between ages 25 and 34 spend 6.4 hours a day checking their email and our report found almost three-quarters of young members report receiving email from their association often, either in the form of a newsletter (72%) or a more personalized message (73%).

But when it comes to young members, email seems quaint, old-fashioned especially in an environment where social media seems to reign supreme. According to Marketing General’s benchmarking report, 70 percent of associations report an increase in member engagement and participation on their public social network within the last 12 months

Which channels are associations using in their social media outreach?

• Facebook used by 93% of associations
• Twitter used by 89% of associations
• LinkedIn used by 69%
• YouTube used by 60%
• Instagram used by 40%

We know that young members are engaging via social medi

a and that associations have picked up on it – using a number of channels to engage members there. But which channels are young members using to create connections? And what’s working? Facebook tops the list at 80 percent, followed by Twitter (74%), Instagram (76%) and Snapchat (68%).

Personify has a number of tools designed to help you understand young members and optimize your efforts to help them form a connection to your organization, and with one another.

Get started with our on-demand webinar and eBook. When you’re ready, check out our other young member-related resources!

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