Presentation by Theresa Keller of Go Delta Marketing group at NTEN Vermont Club Tech meeting Nov 15, 2019 organized by Ariel Jensen-Vargas and Julia Vallera at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington Vermont

1. 3 Pillars of Best Practices for
Any Non-Profit
Attainable measures pulled from the for-profit world
Friday, Nov. 15th, 2019

2. Who was Theresa Keller?
● B.A. in Anthropology
● Started professional career at Dealer.com
○ Software & development world
○ Hi-tech
○ Corporate cog
○ Car dealers & salesmen
● Digital world was fast
● Digital world was necessary

3. Who was Theresa Keller?
● Left Corporate America for a job with a cause
○ *15* different systems
○ Vintage-tech
○ IT Steering Committee
○ Bound by budget & risk aversion
● “New” ≠ “Better”

4. Who IS Theresa Keller?
I figured out … I like solving problems.
● Agile Vermont (501c in-the-making)
● Burlington Young Professionals Steering Committee
member
● Support for new South Burlington Food Shelf

5. Would the for-profit world leave the non-profit
behind? Not on my watch.
Close the gap with 3 pillars of best practices:
● Rethink the tech stack: “cheaper” isn’t “better”
○ Invest in technology to help with your donors, volunteers, and processes
● Your website should be a tool
○ Use best practices from popular websites, and utilize tracking to remove guesswork forever
● Social media is a must, but play by the rules
○ Create a code of conduct, and then welcome donors and volunteers to contribute

6. The absolutely necessary
tech stack
What you can skimp on, and what you can’t

7. All non-profits need...
● Donors
● Volunteers
● Community Contacts
● Documentation
● Transparency
● Visibility
● Contact Relationship Manager (CRM)
● Contact Relationship Manager (CRM)
● Website
● Social Media

8. Input doesn’t HAVE to be manual
With a CRM you get:
● Better client relationships with personalized data
● Increased team collaboration with consistent, up to date data
● Improved efficiency in serving volunteers, community OR donors
● Greater staff satisfaction from easy single sign-on, simplified training
○ Tracking for team member usage (who did what)
● Increased revenue and profitability with transparent documentation
○ Required fields lessens human error
● Cost savings
○ Human cost vs. automation cost
● Less attrition Successful Application of a Customer Relationship Management Program in a
Nonprofit Organization
Line Kristoffersen and Sangeeta Singh
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice
Vol. 12, No. 2, The Business of Non-Profits (Spring, 2004), pp. 28-42
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40470135

9. The contact record
Centralized, up-to-date, universal data.
Keela’s platform: https://www.keela.co/
Pricing

10. The contact record
Centralized, up-to-date, universal data.
HubSpot platform: hubspot.com/nonprofits

11. Spreadsheets are dead.
● All-in-one tools
○ CRM
○ Email management
○ Forms
○ Website analytics
● Centralize data for easier management
● Saves time
● Increases tracking & accountability

12. CRM + Website + Traffic = *Magic*
Budget for an upgrade, it will be worth it.
● Invest in your CRM tool to be as robust as your team has the capacity to maintain.
○ Decrease human error + increase donor/volunteer experience = more $$$
Consider investing in traffic-building tools and tactics:
● Google Ads Grants - Google for Nonprofits
● Facebook Ads - $20 / month

13. Your website needs to be
doing the work
The basics to get more donations, more volunteers, and track how

14. Make people pay attention to the *right* thing
Make information easy to find and read
● Be intentional about color and the
user experience (UX)
○ Color psychology
○ Trust = blue
○ Green vs. red
○ Contrast matters most
● Let your site breathe

15. Make people pay attention to the *right* thing
Make information easy to find and read
● Be intentional about color and the
user experience (UX)
○ Color psychology
○ Trust = blue
○ Green vs. red
○ Contrast matters most
● Let your site breathe

16. Make people pay attention to the *right* thing
Make information easy to find and read
● Be intentional about color and the
user experience (UX)
○ Color psychology
○ Trust = blue
○ Green vs. red
○ Contrast matters most
● Let your site breathe

18. Make people engage and react
Limit the “noise” and be clear about the options to engage
on every page.
Give every page a conversion path
● Who’s the page for?
● Clear, defined buttons
A page with no conversion path gets no donations, and no
volunteers.

19. It happened… but HOW or WHY?
Google Analytics is your free* friend
Track how users are actually using your website:
● Which pages get the most views?
● Which pages get the longest average duration
of views?
● Which pages don’t get views?
● Track pages bounce rates and exit rates
● Dig deeper into user flows

20. SEO 101
Search engine optimization is ongoing maintenance. Getting found is imperative.
● Make your mission clear and simple; use layman's terms in website copy
● Pay attention to URL structure
● Standardize Contact information: hours, location, phone, email, company name
● Blog
○ Spotlight an event, volunteer, or donor
○ Answer one FAQ
○ Talk about one particular aspect of your mission

21. How search engine’s choose you
Helpful website? Helpful website?
Yes! Serve up result No, found other related hub resources

22. Example:
“vermont food hungry”
Who can spot the blog that is ranking?

23. Social media principles for
any organization
Do’s don’ts and who’s: what you should or shouldn’t be doing, and WHO should be
posting on your social channels

24. Picture, pictures, pictures
● People want something visually capturing
● Show your story
● Show their place in your story
Make it something they won’t scroll past
● High resolution
● Well-lit
● Purposeful
In the modern world, sexy sells.

25. Link often and wisely
At least 75% of your posts should include a link back to your website.
● Social media uses time spent on links as their gauge of the
quality of a post.
● Facebook prioritizes “meaningful interactions”
Links = engagement = priority = more views

26. Set rules and share more
Create a code of conduct for social media
● Define 3-5 types of posts
● Requirements for a post: link, a photo, etc.
● Exclusion list:
○ “Hungry” vs. “hunger”
○ Emoji usage
○ Last names
Invite 10+ people to participate
● Volunteers
● Event attendees
○ Hashtags
○ Photo tags
● Staff
● Post AND like, share

27. …there’s so much more.
But that’s all the time we have today!