Branding is more fundamental than ever for non-profit organisations

At the recent International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands, Ingrid Srinath, secretary general of civil society network Civicus, warned that the fundraising climate would be hard-hitting in 2010, and even more so in 2011. Given the number of organisations and praiseworthy causes already battling for contributions and funding, along with the challenges already presented by the downturn, this is bad news for the non-profit sector.

Non-profit organisations need to be proactive in adapting to endure and prosper in these harsh times. If they don’t they will be left behind by more switched-on competitors, and securing funding will soon become all but impossible. So, how can organisations stand out in a saturated marketplace? What makes individuals, and other organisations, decide to donate to or fund a certain cause? A strong brand has the answer. Think about some of the top UK charities for example: Cancer Research, Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, Barnardos. These are all key names with big notable brands that are easily recognised, and that are designed to clearly communicate the culture of each organisation in order to engage their audience. All of these brands possess significant positive brand equity. Brand equity is measured against factors such as brand loyalty, awareness, association, and perception of quality.

Today donors expect more. They want to interact with a brand and to feel that they belong to a ‘brand community’. Successful brands today are not merely lifeless ‘things’ but are thriving entities. They have identities and personalities that allow customers to express themselves through their engagement with that brand. In order to attract customers and encourage them to actively engage, brands must have and clearly communicate a strong story and/ or set of values which customers can easily identify and relate to.

The value of a superior brand to businesses should not be underestimated. Speaking also at the International Fundraising Congress recently Paul Farthing, high-value relationships director at Cancer Research UK, stated that research showed 83 per cent of consumers in the UK would prefer to purchase products that were associated with a charitable cause. “Companies spend millions persuading the public to switch brands, so charities need to be telling them that they are a way of achieving that,” he said. Needless to say there are huge partnership opportunities for strong non-profit brands.

Developing the right brand for an organisation is certainly no easy task and is usually achieved as the result of a rigorous and all-encompassing audit process. This process is made easier, however, if an organisation chooses to work with a branding specialist with experience in the non-profit sector. New Revolution is a young, dynamic creative studio with a passion for working with non-profit organisations. Over the past 5-years New Revolution has worked with organisations such as LifeLine and Taitt Dance Academy in Essex, and on projects like the Urban Arts initiative – an education programme intended to get young people back into education through offering a range of non-traditional courses, including street dance and graffiti art.

New Revolution has accumulated a wealth of experience over the years, combining graphic design and motion graphics to create striking and original solutions for various non-profit clients. Owner James Ratnarajah believes that New Revolution can help third sector organisations to find their voice in these difficult times; “We’re really passionate about this sector and we fully recognise that it’s not sufficient for a brand and marketing materials to just look ‘good’ anymore. We also understand the non-profit marketplace well. We can help our clients stand out and make the very best of the limited opportunities that are out there.”

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The Budget – The Ultimate Financial Management Tool

A carpenter uses a set of house plans to build a house. If he didn’t the bathroom might get overlooked altogether.

Rocket Scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications. Yet most of us go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan at all.

Not very smart of us, is it?

A money plan is called a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals.

Without a plan we will drift without direction and end up marooned on a distant financial reef.

If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term.

Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with.

A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.

Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms”.

You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.

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How to Make Money with Neobux

Hello newbie money makers online! Here is my first of many tutorials on how to make money online. Today I will teach you how to make money with neobux. Before that, let’s check first if you are qualified in this job.

Qualifications:

  • You need an alertpay and paypal account – if you don’t have one, you need to register by clicking the links. This is where neobux will pay you. Don’t worry it’s free to register an account.
  • You need to be a member at neobux.com – obviously you should be a member to get paid. It’s also free to be a member. If you are not a member yet, click here to register at neobux.com
  • You need to dedicate at least 5 minutes daily on this job – if not, you are either not interested in this job or just plain lazy.
  • You want to earn extra $300-$1000 or more per month!!!

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Pros and Cons of Flash-based Sites

Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macromedia compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here’s a simple breakdown.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash’s Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real “movie files” that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You’ll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn’t have the player installed.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn’t be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.

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Tips on Optimizing Job Listings

Finding a job and looking for somebody to fill a position are no longer difficult. Thanks to the innovations that technology has introduced, people are now adept with job searches. Both the job seekers and employers have more choices when it comes to finding jobs, whether online or offline research.

In fact, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics asserted that there is a probable increase of 21.3 million jobs in the coming years. This is because job seekers are finding more ways to search for the right jobs.

One of the most commonly used methods for job searches is the job listing. In fact, most employers contend that job listing is the most effective way of landing a job. Surveys show that 47% of inactive people looking for jobs rely so much on job listings as a means of getting some information about job openings.

This concept is based on studies and surveys that job seekers are more inclined to search for jobs in terms of the available positions and not on the possible employers or companies.

Hence, it is important for the employers to know how to get the most out of job listings in order to maximize their hiring endeavor.

Here’s how:

1. Employers should learn how to concentrate on rewards that they can give to the people rather than what the company’s mission and vision are.

In most cases, job seekers are more interested on what they can get from the position that they are applying for rather than the history of the company itself. Hence, it would be better if the employers emphasize more on their job listing the benefits that people can get once they are hired.

2. Employers should present job openings in their job listings in a simple manner.

The key point in making job listings is not to expound more on the highly technical business terms. It would be better to emphasize what their company can do and how the employees can benefit from them.

3. It is important for the employers to be straight to the point when describing job positions in job listings.

There are instances wherein employers tend to make the position more technically conceptualized wherein the job description is mainly different from what the position entails.

Hence, it is important for the employer to tell the exact position and job description as it is in the simplest terms.

Indeed, job listings can be very beneficial to everybody. It just needs the right principle in order to be successful in job hunting and employee searches.

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Forex trading, where do customers go?

Forex trading uses currency and stock markets from a variety of countries to create a trading market where millions and millions are traded and exchanged daily. This market is similar to the stock market, as people buy and sell, but the market and the over all results are much much larger. Those involved in the forex trading markets include the Deutsche bank, UBS, Citigroup, and others such as HSBC, Braclays, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, and still others such as Goldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Morgan Stanley, and so on.

To get involved in the forex trading markets, contacting any of these large broker assistance firms is going to be in your best interest. Sure, anyone can get involved in the forex market, but it does take time to learn about what is hot, what is not, and just where you should place your money at this time.

International banks are the markets biggest users on the forex markets, as they have millions of dollars to invest daily, to earn interest and this is just one method of how banks make money on the money you save in their bank. Think about the bank that you deal with all the time. Do you know if you can go there, and obtain money from ‘another’ country if you are heading out on vacation? If not, that bank is most likely not involved in forex trading. If you have to know if your bank is involved in forex trading, you can ask any manager or you can look at the financial information sheets that banks are to report to the public on a quarterly baiss.

If you are new to the forex market, it is important to realize there is no one person or one bank that controls all the trades that occur in the forex markets. Various currencies are traded, and will originate from anywhere in the world. The currencies that are most often traded in the forex markets include those of the US dollar, the Eurozone euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound sterling and the Swiss franc as well as the Australian dollar. These are just a few of the currencies that are traded on the forex markets, with many other counties currencies to be included as well. The main trading centers for the forex trading markets are located in Tokyo, New York and in London but with other smaller trading centers located thought out the world as well.

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When windows look attractive and are kept immaculately, you make a huge impression on your clients and visitors. Windows are a direct reflection of your business culture at the office.

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