Nancy Schwartz at the Getting Attention blog is on a mission to help nonprofit organizations create better taglines in 2008. Having created or rewritten more than a few in my lifetime, I have a great collection of the good, bad, ugly as well as completely nonsensical. Hint: your tagline, the "slogan" that goes with you wherever you dare to go in your communications journey, is not your mission statement. Help Nancy by completing the survey and you'll receive a copy of her report and tips.

The 80-20 rule is not new (if you have heard of this but didn't know the origin, it's an historic economic principle credited to Vilfredo Pareto). Basically it means that 80% of your result comes from 20% of your effort, 80% of your funds raised come from 20% of your donors, and so on.

What if you applied this rule to your communications efforts? What if you focused more on the 20% that has the most impact? Sure signs you're not doing this:

• You spend 80% of each day, day after day, fighting the daily fires and getting sucked into the minutia, and before you know it, the day is over and all you feel is frustration
• Your most important initiatives keep getting moved to the bottom of the list because you don't have enough time to focus on them
• Working on a proactive project, e.g. reviewing your website for improvement, raising your donor cultivation program another notch, is a rare luxury saved for a rainy day
• You spend a lot of your time gathering intelligence, but not actually applying it. This can be said of most email correspondence, periodical reading, and professional development. All those great ideas are also saved for "when you have time."
• Your environment is working against you instead of for you - files you can't locate, information you need from a staff member is inaccessible for whatever reason, or you simply can't stop the interruptions and distraction.

I have news for you - it can get better! Watch for more on how to focus on the higher value activities that will speed up your progress and gain momentum at the same time.  In the meantime, I challenge you to take one hour (which happens to be 20% of the average five productive hours spent in the typical workday) this week and make a list of the activities and communications tools your organization relies upon - which are the ones that give you the biggest bang for your buck?

For some unknown reason, I have recurring dreams about turtles. This started about a year ago, and has generated a lot of interesting conversation among my friends and family. I don't know yet what it means, but it has been fun trying to figure it out (I love this photo by Isado called Turtles in Green Tea).

An obvious parallel in real life could be perseverance, or the moral of the story, slow and steady wins the race. Let me admit I can be impatient -- however in my professional capacity, I frequently find myself coaching others to plod determinedly towards their goals. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that most people are easily diverted to new and shiny over old faithful when it comes to their marketing and communications. The problem is, usually, old faithful is what they really need.

If you catch yourself thinking more, better, faster instead of progress, focus and direction, you may be undermining your own success. More and faster is ok if you are moving in a consistent direction. But if you are frequently changing your messages to the outside world (tweaking your tagline, changing your profile etc.), revising the look of your documents, chasing the latest trends, or constantly feeling the need to say something different, you could actually end up like the proverbial hare at the end of the race.

A good rule of thumb is to stick to a few core messages, and repeat, repeat, repeat. It might seem like same old to you, but to your audience, you are providing comfort, connection and familiarity. Rome, nor your brand, can be built in a day.

If you had to give your organization a personality, what would it be? Are you bitter, caring or cool? Yesterday's post on the Nonprofit Marketing Guide blog compares the experience of gift giving and receiving to organizations communicating with their audiences. Besides being a fun read, it hits home the message that when it comes to conversations with your donors and audiences, whether print, online or in person, it's not about you. Watch for my January enewsletter on how to position your messages for better communications and relationships. Sign up to get it straight to your in box.

We all know the importance of clarity in our communications. This becomes even moreso when recruiting people into your organization. If you've ever tried to explain your job to someone in an entirely removed field, you understand how difficult it can be to eliminate the insider jargon and to be specific. Try it out on your neighbour, hairdresser or grandmother. If you can't explain it passionately and clearly in terms they can understand, you need to sharpen your pencil.

Here's an example lifted from two advertisements appearing in the local career section:

Example 1:

The Specialist implements, leads and executes communications activities to achieve and maintain services standards, sales goals and other key objectives.

Example 2:

The Communications Officer will help refine and implement a marketing and communications strategy to increase community and public understanding of the work of the Foundation and opportunities for donor participation.

The second example does a better job of explaining how the marketing function supports the important work of the organization. You can bet it will also result in better matched applicants.