The Gifford Newsletter
Spring 2023
Strengthening Your Communications Strategy
5 Action Steps to Improve Your Communications
Communications can all too easily become an afterthought. The amount of resources it takes to keep an organization’s administration and programming running smoothly often leaves little left over when it comes to growing an audience and sparking dialogue.
Through our conversations with our nonprofit partners, we have created a list of accessible, bite-sized best practices to help you create more relevant, professional, and engaging content.
Workshop Series: How to Write Better Grants
The Gifford Foundation is partnering with The Central New York Community Foundation to launch a free two part workshop series on grant writing featuring consultant Babette Baker.
Participants will receive expert guidance on:
- Understanding the nine essential elements of grants.
- How grants should tell a compelling story.
- Learning the most common mistakes made by proposal writers.
Meet The Press: Getting Your Nonprofit in the News
Teri Weaver is the Managing News Producer for The Post-Standard (Syracuse.com) and brings more than 20 years of experience in journalism. Prior to her press career, she worked in public relations and event planning for a Washington D.C. based nonprofit. We discussed how nonprofits can better partner with news agencies to share information and influence public discourse.
ChatGPT: Can it Help My Agency?
AI technology has made some huge advances over the past six months, and one of the most interesting aspects of this evolution is its accessibility. Suddenly, these groundbreaking tools are being rolled out almost right away for public consumption. Some say too quickly, given that competition between tech companies has led to some AI chatbots being released with significant bugs.
So can ChatGPT help your organization? Let’s explore what it is, what to watch out for, and how to safely begin using it as a resource.
Organization Profile: How Helping Hounds Has Adopted Packs of Community Supporters
An outside observer might think that Helping Hounds Dog Rescue has it easy when it comes to marketing and communications. After all, don’t they have an endless array of cute dog pictures to choose from that are guaranteed to get a positive response?
The reality is far more complex: just like other agencies, the relationship they have developed with their audience has required careful planning, diligence, and upkeep. Through trial and error, however, Helping Hounds has developed a consistent and systematized communications program that has grown alongside the rest of their organization to yield strong and impactful results that we can learn from.
Looking for more communication tools?
Tips for a Successful Email Campaign
This guide from Campaign Monitor reviews some helpful strategies for thinking through your next email campaign.
Nonprofit Success Stories
Three real life examples of nonprofit campaigns that achieved success due to their responsive and innovative approach to communications and partnerships.
Want to explore past issues of The Gifford Newsletter?
Stay in touch
We have a lot of stuff in the works - don't be the last to know.
