Ann Wylie gives great advice.

(As usual.)

Her most recent?

Graphic storytelling teaches better than text.

>Some of what she talks about:

•  Photos
• Graphic design images
• Cartoons

They all fit the category.

Well I got to thinking.

Punctuation (. . . ! ” ” : etc.)  works in part because of its visual representation.

Text + Graphics = Clear Communications.

Punctuation marks, after all . . . well they’re:

SYMBOLS (*&^%$#+=)

. . . that indicate the structure and organization of written languages.

Tell your story with every tool in your tool kit.

Photos, images, graphic design?

Super-important visually.

And so is punctuation.

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A colleague told me about a client he was about to start working with.

I asked him who their target audience was.

My friend had an answer.

Then I asked him if the client expected to attract -

1) A greater number of similar individuals;

2) An additional group of somewhat similar, yet different, consumers;

3) Or whether, perhaps, his client was trying to interest his current number of loyal customers in an expanded group of related services.

Ralph wasn’t sure, but he got my drift.

A couple of days later Ralph called and told me that, indeed, his client was hoping to attract a greater number of similar individuals. AND, it turns out, also hoping to interest his current customers in expanded services.

The moral of the story: learn whatever you can about your new or potential client.

And don’t be afraid to ask your client exactly who he or she expects you to gear your marketing material towards.

Your client might assume you’re already completely aware of what he or she is trying to accomplish.

Well, you might be making a completely correct assumption.

Then again, you might be completely off-base.

What’s most important is that you take the time and effort to make certain that you and your client are on the exact same page from square one.

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Interested in, ever think about, influenced by computers?

Then you might have considered checking out the new Steve Jobs bio.

Well you might want to look at this helpful review first:

http://christianboyce.blogspot.com/

The reviewer’s recommendation for a good site on Jobs gets a thumbs up as well.

By the way, you don’t have to be a Macophile to be fascinated by the team that changed the world.

Have a look at Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s own site. Great stuff.

http://www.woz.org/

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Got an email from Toni the other day.

We haven’t been in touch for years. Her email began, “I was trying to find u on Facebook . . .”

I think someone’s trying to tell me DAVE, GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

At least when I do get with it, I’ve got a not-so-secret weapon: Facebook (and WordPress) consultant extraordinaire Kim Woodbridge. (She’s the only person who could call her website (Anti) Social Development and have thousands of followers.)

In a new PCWorld article called How to Make a Facebook Page for Your Small Business, Woodbridge tells you everything you need to know about the subject. That includes deciding whether you’re inclined to do it yourself or want to go the pro route.

I could do a lengthy review. But what would be the point? The article is put together the way Woodbridge does everything else: professional, informative, and easy to follow.

Categories covered:

• Establishing Your Profile and Page Admins

• Creating a Facebook Page

• Information to Include

• Building Your Custom Page: DIY or Hire a Pro?

• Building a Custom Page With a Third-Party App

• Build Your Own Custom Page With Iframes

• SSL Requirements

• Other Third-Party Apps for Facebook Pages

• What to Seek in a Professional

• Managing Your Page

• Checking Page Statistics

If you’ve got questions, you’ll get answers.

Until you’ve read Kim, you’re not with the program.

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Are grants for operating expenses the new funding model?

Short answer: not by a longshot.

Long answer: In some instances.

The bottom line is that the funding agency is awarding a grant to the nonprofit that gives strong indications it can do what it says it’s going to do. And what it says it’s going to do had better be in line with the funding agency’s mission.

It doesn’t help anyone if the applicant tries to jump through hoops that have nothing to do with the organization’s purpose for existing.

Of course when a funding agency specifically says it’s granting money for operating expenses only, it means it. But why would foundations who have for so long valued original ways of successfully meeting a pressing need in a community suddenly say, “Sorry, we’re only here for operating expenses these days?”

Well – consider the state of the economy. So many community nonprofits that have for so long been doing good things for a lot of people are having a difficult time surviving. Funding agencies, naturally, want to make sure those experienced community efforts survive before replacing them with untried models.

Still, in these tough economic times, there’s a scenario which highlights original, outside-the-box efforts while keeping as a main objective exactly what the funding agency most highly values: efficient use of funds for real progress.

That type of model is exactly what collaboration, in its best application, is all about.

Where one formerly robust grassroots effort is finding it hard to find the economic support to keep going, isn’t it better to work as a team with a neighbor organization who wants the same good results for their community?

The simple answer is: of course.

The more in depth response is this: of course it’s better to work as a team. What’s absolutely essential, however, is that the collaborators have worked out the the most important details of their project.

The funding agency must be convinced that its financial support is being used in a way that harnesses full community involvement.

Collaborative efforts are in fact more necessary now than ever. But the proposed projects must be logical, well planned, and economically viable.

There is strength in numbers.

Just be certain that the numbers add up correctly.

The goal has to be the right goal. For everyone.

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The other day I was talking with an old friend about the topic of raising money. My friend is a fundraising consultant – and she’s very good at it. Anyway, at one point I  happened to make the supreme verbal boo-boo.

I referred to her work as “funding consultant.”

“It’s never ‘funding consultant’,” she said.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Too commercial sounding,” she said.

As much as my friend knows about the subject – everything – well I still had to wonder: why not say exactly what that subject is?

Nonprofits need money, just as any other form of working concern, to do what they do.

Whether you call it resource development or something else, it all comes down to financing as fuel to keep things rolling.

It doesn’t make whatever that thing is any less worthy of support, or the people working at the nonprofit dedicated to a less than worthy cause.

Arts, education, healthcare – they all need money to do wonderful things.

And a successful grant is going to show why a particular agency is worthy of that money.

It doesn’t matter how coy the party requesting the money is in referring to it.

It’s about how well the agency is going to use the money it receives. There’s got to be a one-to-one connection between the desired funds and the purpose for which the nonprofit says its requesting the money.

That way every interested party can follow that money – on the receiving end – to every last useful result for every single dollar spent.

Could it be any simpler than that?

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A Seattle direct marketing consultant asked me to write her new website. She requested that I review the site of her competitor.

“Glad to, but please look at the Lautman Maska Neill & Company site,” I said.

I called my client a little later.

“What do you remember about your competitor’s site?” I asked.

“It’s very professional,” she said.

“What do you remember about the Lautman Maska Neill & Company site?” I asked.

“They successfully raise money for Ronald McDonald House of New York, the Marines, and the New York Restoration Project, among others,” she said.

Great fundraisers like Lautman Maska Neill & Company are about the client. They attract and strengthen donor commitments for nonprofits.

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Wylie’s writing is like a terrific dresser: consistently great from top to bottom, always with something new that you can’t wait to see. – David Tandet

Wylie Provides “Dos” Writers Can Use

The June 2011 issue of “Wylie’s Writing Tips” is an example of communications consultant Ann Wylie’s great writing and clear teaching. Some of how Ann walks the walk:

1. Start with a terrific quote.

Novelist  Vladimir Nabokov’s words are featured: “Caress the detail, the divine detail.” How appropriate for Ann’s first subject: “Do Sweat the Small Stuff.”

2. Ann provides information you can use right away.

“Find the telling detail” . . . “Outer details reveal inner character”: two subheadings. Continue listing, then Scotch tape all of Ann’s categories to your refrigerator, and you’ll have one terrific checklist. (Of course if you continue reading beyond the categories, you’ll be rewarded with Ann’s deeper perceptions.)

3. Vivid examples from experts help Ann make her points.

For the “Outer details” subheading, Ann introduces novelist Steve Martin. One example from Steve’s writing reveals an inner character through outward appearance: “His skin was mottled red, sanded to a shine by one too many chemical peels.”

4. Ann Wylie always finds a way to make the quoted author’s meaning clear.

Under the “Be There” category of subheading “Find Meaningful Specifics,” Wylie tells us American poet Theodore Roethke said, “I learn by going where I have to go.” That’s a great concept, as Ann helps readers see when she includes three bulleted statements of her own:

• Interview subject matter experts in their natural habitat.

• Take a field trip.

• Go on more tours and demonstrations.

5. Wylie reminds us that there’s a way for any company to incorporate her style of illuminating detail into its own communications: use her services.

It’s what she’s expert at, and she’s simply reminding readers that if they haven’t already decided to contact her to help take advantage of the special magic she provides, the option is available.

6. Wylie’s expertise is flexible, it’s complete, and it’s cutting edge.

No one writes better print headlines than Wylie. And no one understands the special requirements for effective internet headings as well as she does. Fitting form to function, Wylie says: “Sad, but true: When it comes to writing headlines for the Web, it’s more important to be clear than clever.” Under “Get Clicked,” she offers tips for, and examples of, internet headlines that mean business.

7. Wylie cites appropriate sources and provides useful links.

Lest anyone doubt her data, Wylie links to complete articles when it makes sense. She continues to exhibit unparalleled integrity and professionalism to the max, just as she always has.

8. Wylie delivers “from soup to nuts.”

In one paragraph, Wylie describes the best way to write web headlines. In the next, her topic is “boilerplates.” A boilerplate is the “About us” paragraph at the end of a release. Ann gives you everything you need to know right there in her newsletter.

9. Wylie uses testimonials that work.

Advertising genius David Ogilvy didn’t even consider himself expert in that “new medium” called television! Of course many of his ideas continue to resonate through all media. Here’s one of them: “Testimonials increase credibility and sales.” Ogilvy went on to emphasize that it has to be the right kind of testimonial. That’s why a sports star’s endorsement of a family car might not always work.

When Lori Walker, communications manager, Sprint, says that Ann Wylie’s communications newsletter “Rev Up Readership” is “like having your personal communications mentor” – it works because it’s the right kind of testimonial from a sincere and devoted “Rev Up Readership” user.

10. Ann Wylie makes it as easy as possible for her readers, clients, and students.

Ann Wylie’s newsletter is organized, prioritized, and categorized. In addition, an “In This Issue” table of contents is included.

Ann Wylie is one of the few examples of an Area 51 Writer. You want to know how she does it, but some things simply defy explanation.

Well, that’s not entirely true.

Fortunately for the rest of us, Ann’s ability as a communication instructor is on a par with her writing. That’s one of the things  that makes her service so uniquely valuable. Some of her secrets are teachable. That’s why  there are lots of corporate writers, public relations consultants, and marketing scribes who can thank Ann for helping them take their communications to a higher level.

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When a nonprofit positions itself as the best organization to provide the solution to a problem, it means staying the course for the distance. Three elements should be present for the agency to accomplish its goals and achieve mission integrity. These elements are fluid and can quickly disappear. Organizations that make attaining and holding on to them a priority have the greatest chance of success.

(1) A mission has the greatest chance of success if the agency’s board of directors is composed of

- board members who truly understand and believe in the agency’s mission;

- board members who are willing to take the time and expend the energy necessary to see the mission through; and

- board members whose combined life skills, work experience, and community contacts interact synergistically to advance a goal-oriented campaign toward ambitious, achievable objectives.

(2) A mission will have the greatest chance of success if the agency’s staff is headed by

- an administrator who truly understands and believes in the mission;

- an administrator who has respect for the function of the board and the staff, and is honest in evaluating how effectively each contributes to fulfilling the agency’s mission;

- an administrator who understands enough about the role of every staff member to be able to assess how successfully each member, or in the case of a larger organization – each department, is performing the job required.

(3) A mission will have the greatest chance of success if the agency’s staff is composed of

- staff members who truly understand and believe in the mission;

- staff  members who have the work experience to properly perform their jobs, or the ability and enthusiasm to quickly learn how to effectively carry out the required tasks;

- staff members who understand enough about the functions of other staff members to be aware of how those members’ jobs contribute to fulfillment of the agency’s mission.

When all three requirements are met, adjustments that must be made due to funding challenges and evolving community issues can be made. The agency is on its way to effectively fulfilling its mission. Nonprofit mission integrity is achieved.

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“See ya,” Ziggy Void hopped off the ski lift chair he was sharing with Marcia Tomberlin as he continued blabbing away, “at the bottom, slowpoke.”

Ziggy veered to the left and began skiing down the trail without waiting for his partner. Even for Void, it seemed like obnoxiousness to the nth degree.

Was this guy for real? Maybe it was because Void was still ticked-off about not being able to one-up those environmentalists last week the way viewers of his intergalactic broadcast expected him to regularly one-up guests. They’d simply shown in a straightforward manner how much progress nonprofits around the universe were able to make when they applied the techniques outlined in the classic Jonathan O’Brien’s Advanced Storytelling for Advancing Nonprofits.

Then again, Marcia had to ask herself, was she for real? No one had forced her to come to Colorado for the weekend. In fact no one was still making her go out with the guy. Was she really scared that if she stopped she’d lose her job? Maybe she was the joke.

Marcia got off the lift, paused a second, pressed her right edge and skied downhill. She followed Zig through champagne powder to the flat. Even for a sunny winter’s day in the Rockies it felt spectacular. The beauty, and the exhilaration of carving turns through snow, momentarily distracted her from any lunacy.

Ziggy, in his red body suit, recklessly zipped across the mountain. He cut in front of kids and other nobodies. The attention he attracted, good or bad, was all fame. Besides, he was certain that when these mortals found out who’d nearly killed them, they’d feel honored. Any remaining hurt feelings could be handled with airfare to L.A. and backstage passes.

“Right place at the right time, dude,” Mitch called to Daryl as they sat on their surfboards. They waited for a last wave. There was nothing a week off from training camp a week of surfing on the Central California coast couldn’t repair. Some publicity appearances thrown in to satisfy the front office – he’d be back in a few days training clearer-headed than ever.

“Mega-unreal,” Daryl called back as the pike started forming. He gave Mitch the thumbs up and caught it. Now he horsed around the nose of his board a bit. The total Zone took over and he felt like he couldn’t fall if he wanted to. It was a no limit half-minute and it was special.

“Who’s the jerk?” Richie couldn’t believe the destructo unit dressed like Santa Claus. Big Red cut off anyone  skiing on the same trail he was bulldozing down.

“I don’t know Rich,” Elgin said. “And where’s the fashion police when you need’em?”

“Mr. Stupid better not get within 20 yards of my tips.”

“Big Red’s not worth it. Best thing is to stay clear of a butthead like that. Altitude’s probably gotten to him.”

Just then they noticed Marcia coming down.

“Don’t tell me this one’s with Santa.” Richie shook his head in disbelief.

“No accounting for tastes,” Elgin said.

Now Daryl did begin to lose balance. But as his board started slipping Daryl knew falling in the Zone was no problem. He started imagining what the water must have been like one hundred years before. They said it could make surfers sick. That was long before Sun – Surfers for an Unpolluted Nation – began to clean things up – starting with seed money from a Weingart Foundation grant.

Daryl had read their first long-ago letter of inquiry – written after grandmother Rhonda Brideswell had incorporated the best storytelling elements she’d learned in Jonathan O’Brien’s Advanced Storytelling for Advancing Nonprofits class. The LOI predicted SUN would grow into the most productive cleanup project of the century. It had in fact become a shining jewel of Weingart’s ever-increasing portfolio of success stories.

Marcia, skiing like a normal person, watched Ziggy’s lead grow. Not that she’d hopped off the lift to race him. But he could at least let her keep up. She watched him charge through another pass before he stopped beyond the other side of the turn.

“Great outfit,” a young woman with blonde hair that fell to just above the neckline of her white ski jacket complimented Ziggy. Of course it was difficult to ignore the man in the red suit. He’d skidded right in front and almost knocked her over. That was always a good conversation starter.

Marcia came around 10 seconds later. She saw Ziggy chat it up, so she kept going two hundred yards to the other side of the flat. She stopped next to a dozen motionless skiers. Their eyes were locked on a hang glider in takeoff position by the mountain’s edge. He was about to leap. Steady air currents would sweep him into flight.

It was the first time Marcia had seen a live hang glider. She was fascinated. In a moment the man she was looking at would fly like a bird.

Marcia turned away for a moment to survey the trail that would take her the rest of the way down the mountain. Just then Ziggy skied up beside her. He did not have his blonde friend with him. Marcia knew he was waiting for some reaction, but she stayed silent and continued to assess the expert run.

“Second thoughts?” Ziggy said.

Great. The loser asks her to join him on the run, leaves her behind, now comes back and begins to needle her.

“Nah. Just deciding on the best line down,” Marcia said. Lying.

“I’ll call Ski Patrol and they can carry you.”

“What’s the matter Ziggy?” Marcia said. “I’m only on this run because you practically begged me to try. Now I’m coming one run closer to all the ways down the mountain you’ve been. Your male ego scared that might actually happen?”

Ziggy pretended not to pay attention. He turned his head toward the hang glider. He was interested in any person who generated more stares than he did.

Daryl heard Marcia Tomberlin’s voice beside him call his name. He hadn’t thought of her in years. He knew he was imagining it but he couldn’t help turning.

For no apparent reason the hang glider looked back. Directly into Marcia’s eyes. The sun caught his mirrored goggles. The burning image filled her vision and her world, and she knew her life story would now be joined with the stories of the thousand nonprofits she was going to help. Suddenly, storytelling was key. In her mind’s eye, the cover of Advanced Storytelling for Advancing Nonprofits by Jonathan O’Brien appeared before her.

A surge from behind straightened Daryl’s board. The last thing he could remember before gliding into the Zone was almost losing balance. He changed his stance and reminded himself not to force anything as he began to take the wave all the way in.

Before Daryl started to carry his board he looked back. The sun was a gigantic ball of fire level with the horizon. He turned back around and continued up the beach with Mitch. He looked toward Pacific Coast Highway where a bit of a passing car’s side view mirror caught the fiery remains. Sunset meant another sunrise.

Just then he thought about his upcoming interview with Ziggy Void. The front office arranged it for next week. And Daryl gave in to an overwhelming urge to laugh.

“What’s up dude?” Mitch said.

For some reason Daryl was imagining Marcia Tomberlin, the girl from his past, shoving a shaving cream pie squarely into Ziggy Void’s face.

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