SOULUTIONS August 2009
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| in this issue | | Getting Comfortable With Social Media | | Should You Be Thinking About Branding? | | Helping Parents Grow Great Kids | | Changing Your Thinking To Change Your Results | | Quick Wins: Find Your Next Bold Step |
Dear Michelle, Bold Steps! I've been inspired and encouraged this month by the number of people we work with who have chosen to take bold action, even when everyone around them is pulling back. Bold action means different things for different organizations, like setting up a Facebook page, or launching a new program in the middle of an economic downturn. Read how Search Institute is helping parents grow great kids. And if you're looking for a bold action for your organization, check out the Quick Wins for some questions to inspire your own thinking. |
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Getting Comfortable with Social Media ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to all those who participated in our Social Media Webinar, which took place Wednesday, July 29th over the lunch hour. Due to the overwhelming response, we will definitely be looking to revisit this topic again in the near future. Some of the highlights covered in the webinar included why you and your organization should have a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. We discussed how just creating a profile on LinkedIn can increase your visibility with Search Engines and how taking that profile to the next level can serve as a great networking tool. Over 74% of Not-for-Profits have a presence on Facebook. Shouldn't your organization be one of them?
Feedback from the webinar included: "The facilitator was very at ease moving around the screen presentation," and, "it is very frustrating when things don't go well and this presentation seemed flawless." One attendee also thanked us for "offering this very informative and helpful webinar."
If you don't know the difference between a tweet and a twit, call Heather Dorsey, our relationship manager today, at 262-244-6100. She'd be happy to sit down with you over a cup of coffee or tea and explain how the Vesper Service Network can help. Or, better yet, visit us on Facebook!
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Should You Be Thinking About Branding?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join us for a webinar on Branding for Not-for-Profits on Sept 22nd. Space is limited, so please save your spot today! Email us at info@vesperservice.net to reserve your place. |
Helping Parents Grow Great Kids
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The Vesper Service Network has been privileged to work with the Search Institute, an independent nonprofit organization, whose mission is to promote healthy children and help all those who serve youth, including parents, teachers, schools and faith-based organizations. The Search Institute is in the final stages of a major redesign of their MVParents website: a site that has long been recognized as a valuable tool for youth-serving professionals and parents alike. MVParents is loaded with valuable information targeted toward specific age ranges and covers specific issues that affect children from imaginative play for toddlers to how to handle bullying for school-age children. The new MVParents site will be even more user-friendly: providing timely, relevant information in a format that is not only educational, but fun and easy to navigate.
Our role in the project was to conduct interviews, focus groups and webinars to see what information parents, and others who work with children, would want to see on the newly revamped website. Need help with your next research project? Ready to take some bold steps? (Or baby steps?) Call us today or visit our website at www.vesperservice.net.
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Changing Your Thinking To Change Your Results
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Sometimes you might need to do the opposite of what would seem to be the best strategy, as Charles J. Dougherty, president of Duquesne University, found. He - and several other presidents of Catholic colleges - discuss what they've done differently to increase fundraising in these tough economic times. Please click here to read the story.
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Quick Wins: Find Your Next Bold Step When everything around us is changing, it helps to look at what we're doing with fresh eyes, especially if the strategies we have always counted on aren't achieving the same results they have in the past. Success from unexpected places can give us clues about where we could go next.
So this month, pour yourself a glass of iced tea, find your favorite sunny spot, and think about these questions.
- What success has surprised you in the past six months? Look for projects or programs that have succeeded beyond your expectations.
- What went well, seemingly without much input or effort? These effortless wins often represent an alignment of your strengths with a marketplace need.
- What took more work than you expected it to? Every program, service, or activity has a life cycle, and when something takes more effort than we expected, it might be nearing the end of its usefulness to the organization. Is this something you shouldn't be doing anymore?
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