Ideas
Facebook is Making Radical Changes to the News Feed. Now What?
Facebook is becoming less and less friendly to publishers who aren’t paying for ads on its platform. This month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the News Feed will start favoring posts by friends and family over publishers and brands. Several BSD staff provide their thoughts on what this could mean for the brands and organizations that rely on Facebook for content distribution — including many of our own clients.
How Did the Weekend Year-End Affect December Fundraising?
In 2017, the tax deadline for charitable donations (December 31) fell on a weekend — we predicted this would present a challenge for nonprofit fundraisers. Now that year-end donations are in, our analysts took a preliminary look at the results and the effect this timing had on funds raised.
Why Year-End Doesn’t End in December
Year-end may be the most critical time of the year for nonprofits, but there’s plenty of work to do in Q1, too. Strategist Kaitlin Juleus lays out how you can follow up your fundraising blitz to welcome your donors into your community and build what you’ve learned into your 2018 calendar.
Download: 2017 Year-End Fundraising Toolkit
‘Tis the season of giving — and we’re presenting to you the 2017 Year-End Fundraising Toolkit. In this pdf, you’ll find practical tools to make last-minute adjustments, perfecting your fundraising program.
Will the GOP Tax Plan Kill Fundraising As We Know It?
The GOP seems intent on making its tax plan law by the end of the year. What does this mean for charitable giving and nonprofits’ year-end fundraising plans?
Living With HOPE: An Interview With Anthony Burrill
This holiday season, longtime BSD partner HOPE not hate is collaborating with acclaimed artist and designer Anthony Burrill to raise money for the fight against right-wing extremism. We interviewed Anthony to find out more about his creative process and what inspired him to participate in this project.
Watch: From Giving Tuesday to Intelligent Content: Your Year-End Fundraising Guide
Check out our recent webinar with Movable Ink, in which we look at fundraising data from 2016 and give tips for countering a potential drop in donations this year due to December 31st falling on a Sunday. From dynamic content to leveraging big moments, fundraising experts Chris Coletta and Brenna Foster cover how nonprofits can prepare for a weekend year-end.
3 Surprising Streams of Year-End Revenue
Ready for year-end fundraising, but feel like you’re missing something? Senior Strategist and email veteran Chris Coletta offers some unexpected ways to make your nonprofit stand out from the crowd during a competitive time of the year.
Can New Legislation Fix Digital Advertising?
This month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation that would drastically increase the transparency required by digital advertisers. Facebook and Twitter announced their own intended reforms. Advocacy & Engagement Director Matt Compton weighs in on what these changes would mean for brands and organizations — and for the consumers and constituents on the receiving end of these ads.
Being The Change We Want to See in the Marketplace
This week, our COO Kate Swann spoke at the Digiday Agency Summit. In this post, Kate gives a taste of her presentation and talks about how Blue State Digital’s values have shaped our policies and our business.
Instagram adds polling to Stories — but what does it all mean?
In the past year, Instagram has added feature after feature to Stories. Creative Director Nathan Maggio goes deep undercover to use Instagram like a teen, with some questionable results. Find out what Nathan thinks these changes mean for the platform — and for the brands and organizations that use it in their social marketing.
Advocating for Ourselves
The news moves fast. This week, the latest Republican effort to repeal the ACA in 2017 gave its death rattle. This time last week, however, the fight was still raging. Our Director of Content Billy Silverman talks about how we used our tool CallOut to join our clients (and Jimmy Kimmel) in battling ACA repeal.
Twitter is Doubling Its Character Limit. Is That a Good Thing?
Hot on the heels of this week’s announcement, a few of BSD’s Twitter fans weigh in on what this big change means for the platform — and for the brands, nonprofits, and organizations that use it on a daily basis. Hear from strategists Chris Coletta and Reece Jackson, as well as our Director of Content Billy Silverman — plus a bonus pearl of wisdom from Associate Creative Director Missy Kurzweil.
In the field with UNICEF USA
Ever wanted to experience your client’s work firsthand? Account Director Justine Nancarrow talks about what it was like to join UNICEF in Mexico to witness their important work supporting child migrants and enhancing child protection policies in Central America.
Does a Year-End Weekend Mean Weak Year-End Fundraising?
The tax deadline (Dec. 31) fell on a Saturday in 2016 and will fall on a Sunday this year. What happens to a fundraising program when the target audience might not be sitting at their desks, ready to click a big, beautiful “donate” button on December 31? Blue State Digital’s Analytics and Communications teams weigh in on how to make the most of the New Year’s weekend.
Be a Better Manbassador
Are equal rights for women guaranteed in the Constitution? No, they’re not. Are we working on that? Yes, we are. Read this post by Creative Director Laura Kunkel on how men can be better allies to women in the workplace and beyond.
Watch: Taking on Extremism in the U.K.
Fast Company’s Co.Design chats with BSD London about fighting extremism and hatred with our U.K. clients in this quick video.
Takeaways From DMA’s 2017 Chicago Nonprofit Conference
A good fundraising professional is always learning! Last week BSD headed to DMA’s 2017 Chicago Nonprofit Conference to hear from (and share with) our peers in the fundraising and advocacy space — click here for some insights and takeaways from our team.
8 Tips for Launching a User-Validated MVP on Time
Yes! I want user feedback on my product before it launches. No! I don’t want to delay the launch. Principal UX Designer Daniel Kalick shares lessons on conducting user testing in parallel to development, drawing from our work with the City of New York on Growing Up NYC.
100RC is Building a More Resilient World
BSD partners with 100 Resilient Cities to help cities around the world survive and thrive despite the shocks and stresses of modern life. We recently helped open up their annual 100RC Summit to resilience practitioners all over the world — no travel required.
