Marc Sirkin's Mindnumbing Thoughts

This blog post is loosely transcribed from a talk I gave as part of a Future of Non-profits meet up hosted by my buddy  David Neff . I was asked to do no more than 5 minutes and came up with the following. I'm also posting my hand scribbled notes I used to plan the talk, may as well show you my doctor like scribble. The notes were written on my iPad mini using Penultimate in case you were wondering. And now... the talk... Hi everyone and good morning (In my head there is awesome music playing!). My name is Marc Sirkin and I'm currently a Director with PwC, focused on helping organizations transform their digital marketing and social media. I spent 10 years in the non-profit sector, with large health charities such as March of Dimes, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Autism Speaks. Most recently, I've been volunteering and doing pro-bono work for much smaller organizations focused on mentoring and youth. Before I jump in, let me warn you, I'm extremely enam...

Fair warning: I'm one of the many judges of this year's program! The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program (a.k.a. The Taggies ) just opened its fourth awards cycle with the addition of an Advocacy Campaign Tagline category. Nonprofits and libraries everywhere are invited to enter their organizational tagline in the program, plus any tagline they’ve created to advance programs, fundraising campaigns, advocacy campaigns and/or special events. The 2,700 taglines entered in the 2010 Awards were a bounty of skillful messages and this year’s entries are expected to be equally powerful. “A relevant tagline does double-duty—working to extend an organization’s name and mission, while delivering a memorable and motivating message to the people whose help it needs,” says awards program organizer Nancy E. Schwartz. “But our recent Nonprofit Messages Survey showed just 29% of organizations have a tagline that connects and spurs action. “The biennial Awards program is...

I read the recent Wired Magazine article on A/B testing websites and like many of you, I wondered to myself if it was actually possible to embrace this sort of design philosophy. After talking with my team , we've redoubled our efforts to design core Key Performance Indicators ("KPIs") in an attempt to actually start using A/B testing as a regular process for updating our site navigation, design choices and whatever else we want to change. It's a disorienting thing, removing subjectivity from the design process. My background as a designer makes me one of those people who can look at a screen and make grand proclamations about where things should be and what they should say. It's something I'm determined to stop doing. I will be honest, it is hard to stop. Either way, we've devised a series of "top level" KPIs designed to measure overall site effectiveness - and we've limited it to 5 measurements. Yes, of course we'll design second...

Just got this from Blackbaud... looks like online giving is up again. We are hanging on through this economy...

I gave a short talk last week at a Blackbaud conference. Here are the slides presented with very little context. Sorry! Turning Supporters into Superstar Fundraisers View more presentations from msirkin

Good numbers to keep an eye on...

Amazing TED video (as per usual). I love, love, love what Katerine Fulton is trying to say. Mass Collaboration - "big things are being done for love" (Shirky) Online Philanthropy Marketplaces - peer to peer philanthropy (check out donorschoose.org) Aggregated Giving - every giver should have his or her own fund and foundation (check out acumenfund.org) Innovation Competitions - maybe my favorite! Social investing - perhaps the biggest of them all - this blows up our assumptions business is business and philanthropy is philanthropy Amazing, amazing talk. Thanks TED.