Photo Credit: Tracy Young UWATX recently hosted a “Brandraising” workshop for other local nonprofits to learn more about how to best utilize digital marketing to raise brand awareness and increase donations. We brought in Sarah Durham, author of Brandraising: Raise Visibility & Money Using Smart Communications and president of Big Duck, a nonprofit marketing company based in Brooklyn, New York. She was named one of Fast Company’s most influential women in technology in 2010, among other fundraising industry awards. We sat down with Sarah to learn more about her company and how nonprofits of any size can utilize the many communication tools available. Can you tell us a bit about your background? “My parents were right out of Mad Men: both in advertising in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. I grew up in ad agencies and marketing environments. These days, I live in Brooklyn, New York with my husband and my daughters, Abi and Kate, who are identical twins.” Why did you decide for your company to focus on the nonprofit sector? “I started Big Duck in 1994. At first, we worked with a range of businesses and nonprofits in many sectors. The work with nonprofits was the most inspiring and challenging, so in 2000 I made the decision to specialize in work with nonprofits.” What causes do you care most about in your personal life? “I lost both of my parents to brain tumors. Today, I serve on the board of the National Brain Tumor Society, the leading organization funding research and changing the system […]
Read MoreThe Best Of SXSW Interactive 2015
It’s that time of year again–happy SXSW everyone! Whether you fully immerse yourself in the madness, or purposely plan your vacation during the weeklong event each year, there’s no escaping the excitement and innovation that overflows from downtown Austin onto social media. We attended SXSW Interactive this year in hopes of learning better ways to share our mission, finding new supporters and thank existing ones, and learning about the latest tools to better engage the community. Here are some of our favorite things we saw at this year’s event: 1. DoSomething.org As part of our mission, we believe everyone can be a philanthropist and aim to create opportunities for locals to do so. DoSomething.org shares this mission, and offers extremely innovative ways to give back where you are, whether you are 8 or 80 years old. Check out DoSomething.org for easy ways to get inspired, whether it’s creating 5 minute shower playlists for your friends to encourage saving water or hosting a clothing recycling party. 2. The Social Good Hub The Social Good Hub, hosted by United Nations, was our favorite place to relax and mingle with nonprofit representatives from all over the world. We spoke to staff from Libraries Without Boarders about IdeaBox, portable multi-media educational kits to bring fun and learning to refugee and other vulnerable populations. Each box unfolds into a library, complete with its own power sources, internet, 15 tablets and 4 laptops, 5 HD cameras, 200 films and a projector, and more than 5,000 books. 3. The Global Happy Party […]
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