Welcome to Make Waves

We help nonprofit organizations maximize their marketing and communications efforts to achieve genuine social impact.

This fall, MAKE WAVES president Bonnie McEwan will once again be teaching a graduate course in marketing at Milano: The New School for Management and Urban Policy, where she has served on the adjunct faculty for the past 13 years.  The course, titled Marketing in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, provides students with a solid understanding of how the strategic marketing process should work in nonprofit and public contexts and also helps them acquire the analytical skills to apply marketing concepts toward mission fulfillment. 

This time around, Bonnie will be pilot testing a new format for the course, one that we think will interest readers of Ripples & Wipeouts. Rather than relying primarily on text readings and case studies to learn the elements of marketing in nonprofit situations, Bonnie will use a hands-on consulting model wherein class members work as a team to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a single client. 

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I am struck by the large number of “writing” questions that nonprofit executives are asking on a website offering advice about online fundraising (malwarwick.com).  While it’s not surprising that people would seek help in writing strong subject lines for their emails or ask about copy length and other technical questions, I was intrigued that there were many, many questions about message content:

• Should we feature stories of individual clients?
• How direct should we be about “the ask”?
• Must we include a call to action and, if so, what should it be?

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