Marketing with Purpose

A theme can make or break your website. It controls how it looks, functions and limits (or expands) your ability as a web administrator to expand and build your site. In this post, we'll cover Themes VS Templates, What Themes Do, Free vs. Paid Themes, and The Evolution of the MayeCreate Theme. We'll also provide you with your very own Theme Selection Checklist. For a fully-formatted article versio...

I know it's an undertaking, but without a good website, growing your business is hard. Your website should be a bridge between an Internet user and your business. It's the first face of your business they see. If your website’s not good, it's a roadblock to growing your business. If you believe these myths, you’re building roadblocks, not bridges. For a fully-formetted article version of this epis...

How to take donations online is a challenge we solve for clients every day so it’s high time I share that knowledge with you! I will be your guide today and go through ways to take donations on your website. Using a form. Using a simple button connecting to PayPal, Stripe or Square. Using a widget. To view this content as a video or a full-formatted article, visit our website at  https://mayecreat...

The first step to building an awesome website is creating an awesome plan. The first step to planning your website isn’t creating a pinterest board of million dollar kitchens to inspire your peanut butter and jelly budget project.  You need to make some foundational decisions first. Decisions that will ultimately make it easier to plan and build your new site to meet your needs AND stay in your bu...

Here at MayeCreate, being web designers and all, we kinda think almost everyone should have a website. But notice I said “almost everyone” not “absolutely”.  But someone recently asked me, “Do businesses even need websites anymore?” (After which I almost fainted in shock.) But it prompted my wheels turning.  Maybe we need to take a teensy step back.  And instead of all this constant talk about wha...

Writing about your organization can be scary. And asking for money can be even scarier. So it’s not a wonder we develop an unrelenting case of writer's block when it comes time to craft our fundraising asks. They combine both into the perfect cocktail of yuck. In this episode, Kasey Hammock, storyteller and conspirator for good, explains what story-based content is and how to keep it ethical and o...

Around here, we love Halloween, and what’s Spooky Season without a few scary stories? In my over 23 years of website development, I’ve collected several stories that will make your skin crawl. From sites that just won’t die to havoc-wreaking hackers, we’ve seen just about everything. Let’s explore some of the scariest.  To view this content as a fully-formatted blog post, visit https://mayecreate....

If there's one thing we love to do, it is brainstorming. We love to come up with ideas. We don't always love to make them happen, but we love the joy of considering them. I listen to podcasts and read emails, newsletters and blog posts just for the ideas to get my creative juices flowing. So today, we're gonna get your creative juices flowing and talk about creative ways to promote GivingTuesday....

Nick Black isn’t who you would expect to start a nonprofit, or a tech company. Until you talk to him, and all the pieces come together. After serving in the Army in Pakistan, Nick was faced with a problem he knew he had to do something to solve. So he started a nonprofit. Through that, he discovered the giving experience wasn’t the same for all donors, and he knew he had to solve that problem too....

Don’t let your domain name suck.  Your domain name is the navigator for your business's digital footprint. It's important to get a good one, because we've all dealt with bad ones, spelling them on repeat on the phone, giving up and sending an email with a link instead. If you’re currently stuck doing this, it is a sign your domain name sucks. Let’s change that. What makes an awesome domain name? T...

For some of us, even if we’ve been doing it for years, asking people for money never gets easier. In this episode of Nonprofit Marketing with Purpose, we interview Heather Stewart, Director of Development for the Voluntary Action Center (VAC), a pro at the year-end giving ask. Following her advice, even those who are most wary about seeking donations can find a simple recipe for success.  Episode...

We love when our friend Jaime Friedrichs comes on the podcast and shares her fundraising wisdom with us! In this episode, she talks about when and how you can ask for donations for administrative costs or new hires. As a bonus, at the end of the episode, she walks us through a fundraising ask role play you can modify for your own needs.  Episode Highlights Introduction of Jaime Friedrichs - 1:12 W...

When I interviewed Kimberly O’Donnell with Network for Good I thought I’d learn all about donor management software. But you know what? I learned waaaay more. She shares inside knowledge about: Current fundraising trends How organizations can embrace text messaging to communicate with donors Changes in the pipe for Network for Good What Bonterra’s recent purchase of Network for Good means for the...

How did an all-volunteer organization raise $20,000 in one month? We sat down with Michelle Ribaudo and Laura Wakefield from MoDE Foundation to find out. They share things that worked, things they’d do differently, and why planning ahead and training made all the difference to their success.  Highlights Introductions of Michelle, Laura and MoDE Foundation - 2:13 Getting started with CoMoGives - 8:...

We're talking about donor management systems again! In this episode, we welcome Wende Wagner, Director of Philanthropy for the Missouri Symphony, who discusses their system of choice, Bloomerang, how they chose it, and her favorite and not-so-favorite parts of the platform. They converted over from Neon and really like the data management and integration tools Bloomerang offers. Join me as I inter...

We’ve been told Network for Good can be an expensive, but amazingly comprehensive donor management system. So, I reached out to one of our nonprofit friends who uses it to find out if it’s worth the cost. Spoiler Alert - for Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, it totally is. From ticket sales to donor data management to text reminders, Network for Good helps them market with purpose.  Billy Pol...

Fundraising events are back in full swing. While everything is getting back to “normal,” I don't want you to forget the things you learned when you couldn't fundraise the same way you always had.  We shouldn’t leave the skills we developed out of necessity on the table.  Let’s review some tech-easy online fundraising event ideas we talked about way back in 2020. Those events, those activities, can...

Public Service Announcement – Google Analytics is Changing This is the first major change in over a decade. My frenemy Google keeps emailing me about how stuff is changing, and my greatest fear is all those emails get stuck in your junk mail.  Google is trying to create something that will be an equally awesome as the Universal Analtyics tracking system we've enjoyed for so long without making peo...

Organizations find all kinds of ways to manage donor data.  Some use a subscription service. But Enola’s organization is an amazing example of working with what you have. Instead of paying additional fees for another system, Enola found out she could use Square, a point of sale program, as a customer relationship management tool. Let’s find out how she does that — because if you’re not ready to in...

Hackers suck. They’re like the armpit of humanity. They just you feel victimized. It’s like having someone break into your house or your car and steal something. But it’s worse because you’re not just out these physical possessions, you have to figure out how to remedy this really, really yucky situation. So let’s dig in and talk about the number one way that you can protect your website from hack...

Once, somebody broke into my house. We came back from vacation, and we walked into the house. My oldest daughter, who was two at the time, goes, “Mama, where TV go?” I look over, and sure enough, no TV there. You know what else was gone? All the beer in our fridge. Somebody stole our beer, our TV and my husband's Big 12 championship ring, which was a real stinking bummer. We felt gross, violated a...

We have had many, many interns over the last 17 years at MayeCreate. Some of them have been terrible, and others have been amazing. One of them still works for us to this day. They’re good, they’re bad, they’re everything in between… The only thing you can manage is how you manage them. So I’m going to give you 10 intern management tips from my former interns. Yep, that’s right – intern management...

All of us are trying to do our jobs on a budget and accomplish great things with our marketing.  There are always moments in your business where you think to yourself, “man, if I just had another set of hands, I could be much more successful.” This is why we hire interns. I have hired a lot of interns in the 17 years I have operated my company, MayeCreate Design. Some of them have been amazing. So...

I’m pretty excited today because I have my social media guru Elizabeth with me. Today, Elizabeth is going to take us through the 10 social posts that every fundraiser and event needs. This is coming directly out of an online offering that we have available online: https://mayecreate.com/10-social-posts-every-fundraiser-event-needs We tell you what to put in these types of posts, some examples, and...

It’s the biggest change Facebook has made to a core functionality in a really long time, but we don’t need to panic yet.  These changes are a slow and random rollout eventually coming for all Pages. You can hold out for a little while longer, but this change is definitely coming, and it’s not going to be optional for long. Here's what you need to know... For a fully-formatted article version of th...