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Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits
Based on more than 20 years of experience and 25,000 hours spent utilizing mobile and social media, Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits is a comprehensive 256-page book packed with more than 500 best practices. Written on the premise that all communications and fundraising are now mobile and social, Mobile for Good is a step-by-step how-to guide for writing, implementing, and maintaining a successful mobile and social fundraising strategy for your nonprofit.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2014
12 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 18, 2014
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 5.0 of 5
If you work with or for a non-profit organization, no matter how small or large, you MUST have a copy of Heather Mansfield's Mobile for Good.
I've been working, and serving on boards of directors, for a variety of not-for-profits companies for just over a decade. In that time I've heard (and seen) a lot of talk about using social media more effectively but none have done it well. One organization with a budget (and fund-raising goal) of about $1M annually uses social media a great deal, with much success in attracting attention, but very little effort has been put in to using social media for planned donations. Other, smaller organizations (where $50K annually is a big deal) have spent very little time on social media and none at all for fund-raising. All that is about to change in my little corner of the world!
Heather Mansfield writes intelligently and thoroughly about all the benefits, and all the potential pit-falls and traps of social media and basic internet protocol for non-profit organizations. Her reasoning is sound and well supported by research, and the very fact that many of us will pull out a cell phone to 'google' this book is probably proof enough that we in the non-profit world need to get with the program and get our organizations accessible on all modern internet-surfing devices.
I read and ARC of this book on my Kindle and I have to admit I was using the highlighting feature frequently. So much of what Mansfield says not only make sense, but she writes about it in such a way that I actually was getting excited to start making some changes.
Other books and pamphlets I've read about social media marketing have been rather vague. For instance, a common theme is to use a CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) System. If you're lucky, there might be the mention of what to look for in CRM software, but Mansfield actually lists three or four of the top-rated systems, and she does this consistently throughout the book. A listing of top-ranking available options is incredibly helpful. You could easily spend an entire day just researching only one such system. And if you read the e-book on a web-accessible device, it's very easy to be taken to the site directly from the book, not just for CRM, but for all items, devices, and software that she talks about. This is so incredibly helpful. Mansfield, and McGraw-Hill, make this super easy.
But perhaps the best part of this book is that Mansfield creates a strategy for the non-profit organization. Starting on page one and working through the book, the reader sees how this works and how this can benefit the organization and how to put it all together. It's almost like having Mansfield on your board of directors.
Following the checklist plan in the back of the book, I've already put Mansfield's strategy in motion for one small organization and I've ordered a hard-cover copy of the book to sit in the office, for reference to any of the staff that might work on the strategy. I'm excited and confident that it will work for us. My only complaint? I'm wishing the book were spiral bound to make it easier to highlight and to use the checklists.
Looking for a good book? Mobile For Good by Heather Mansfield is an indispensable guide to fundraising for non-profits in the 21st century. If you want to raise money for your organization, this is the book that others will be quoting from and it's best if get familiar with it now.
If you work with or for a non-profit organization, no matter how small or large, you MUST have a copy of Heather Mansfield's Mobile for Good.
I've been working, and serving on boards of directors, for a variety of not-for-profits companies for just over a decade. In that time I've heard (and seen) a lot of talk about using social media more effectively but none have done it well. One organization with a budget (and fund-raising goal) of about $1M annually uses social media a great deal, with much success in attracting attention, but very little effort has been put in to using social media for planned donations. Other, smaller organizations (where $50K annually is a big deal) have spent very little time on social media and none at all for fund-raising. All that is about to change in my little corner of the world!
Heather Mansfield writes intelligently and thoroughly about all the benefits, and all the potential pit-falls and traps of social media and basic internet protocol for non-profit organizations. Her reasoning is sound and well supported by research, and the very fact that many of us will pull out a cell phone to 'google' this book is probably proof enough that we in the non-profit world need to get with the program and get our organizations accessible on all modern internet-surfing devices.
I read and ARC of this book on my Kindle and I have to admit I was using the highlighting feature frequently. So much of what Mansfield says not only make sense, but she writes about it in such a way that I actually was getting excited to start making some changes.
Other books and pamphlets I've read about social media marketing have been rather vague. For instance, a common theme is to use a CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) System. If you're lucky, there might be the mention of what to look for in CRM software, but Mansfield actually lists three or four of the top-rated systems, and she does this consistently throughout the book. A listing of top-ranking available options is incredibly helpful. You could easily spend an entire day just researching only one such system. And if you read the e-book on a web-accessible device, it's very easy to be taken to the site directly from the book, not just for CRM, but for all items, devices, and software that she talks about. This is so incredibly helpful. Mansfield, and McGraw-Hill, make this super easy.
But perhaps the best part of this book is that Mansfield creates a strategy for the non-profit organization. Starting on page one and working through the book, the reader sees how this works and how this can benefit the organization and how to put it all together. It's almost like having Mansfield on your board of directors.
Following the checklist plan in the back of the book, I've already put Mansfield's strategy in motion for one small organization and I've ordered a hard-cover copy of the book to sit in the office, for reference to any of the staff that might work on the strategy. I'm excited and confident that it will work for us. My only complaint? I'm wishing the book were spiral bound to make it easier to highlight and to use the checklists.
Looking for a good book? Mobile For Good by Heather Mansfield is an indispensable guide to fundraising for non-profits in the 21st century. If you want to raise money for your organization, this is the book that others will be quoting from and it's best if get familiar with it now.
March 19, 2018
A nice general overview with some good tidbits of information, but not as engaging and in-depth as other books on the subject that I've read. The checklist in the back of the book is great, though! I don't know if there are any newer editions of this, but this one was a bit outdated. Since social media culture and strategy is changing all the time, though, it's understandable.
March 20, 2019
Not as detailed as I would have liked... A little surface, at least it is for someone who is already familiar with marketing but wanted to know specifically how it differed for nonprofit marketing and content creation.
December 5, 2017
Life is too short to read this book. Pretty much the opposite of social media.
February 19, 2017
I began reading this book when a couple friends and I began a new nonprofit - Ami's Hope - the 3rd nonprofit I started and the 5th and last in which I had been actively involved. My personal goal was to only use online tools to develop the nonprofit. Unfortunately, personal tragedy pulled me away from Ami's Hope, and just recently I decided to finish the book.
Needless to say, many emotions unrelated to its contents kept me from concentrating. However, after finishing, my overwhelming desire is to get involved with a nonprofit just so I can use this outstanding, organized material. Is that so wrong?!?
Absolutely love this book!
Needless to say, many emotions unrelated to its contents kept me from concentrating. However, after finishing, my overwhelming desire is to get involved with a nonprofit just so I can use this outstanding, organized material. Is that so wrong?!?
Absolutely love this book!
June 14, 2015
Anything Heather Mansfield wants to write, I'll read. She knows her stuff and her books are invaluable to a nonprofit communicator-- and this one is no exception. Great resource!
January 16, 2017
Most comprehensive book on mobile, internet, and social media and its connection to nonprofits, bar none! Get this book!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews