Madera Group

To Buzz or Not to Buzz… That is the question! (for nonprofits)

Posted by Manny Hernandez on February 25, 2010

If you have heard the buzz, so have million 

Do Facebook, Twitter and Ning compete? They do… for our time

Posted by Manny Hernandez on February 6, 2010

This weekend, I was reading the interview of Techcrunch with Gina Bianchini (CEO of Ning) in Davos. In it, Gina argues that that she doesn’t see Nign as a competitor of Facebook or Twitter.

Social Media for Nonprofits (presentation)

Posted by Manny Hernandez on February 4, 2010

Recently, I had the great opportunity to deliver a couple of sessions of a workshop titled Social Media for Nonprofits to approximately 20 small nonprofit groups in the Bay Area.

These are the slides from the presentation (with a few enhancements I made to them thanks to the feedback I got from participants). You can download the presentation if you prefer watching it offline.

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner Represents California at Climate Conference in Copenhagen

Posted by Amy Wachler, Communications Associate on December 10, 2009

The Madera Group partnered with Strategen Consulting to co-host a special fundraiser celebrating Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner’s first year in the California State Assembly and to support her re-election in 2010.  More than 100 friends and supporters gathered at the David Brower Center last Friday evening to honor Nancy’s hard work and success in passing several key bills through the legislature.

Using mobile technology to influence health reform

Posted by Michael Stein, Senior Internet Strategist on October 14, 2009

Mobile Commons reported in mid-August on an article in Mobile Marketer that looked at how mobile technology was being used to help pass health care reform legislation. Labor unions, large national advocacy groups, small local non-profits, and faith-based community organizations are using mobile to reach out to their supporters around the issue of health care reform.

Diabetes Hands Foundation Launches Video Fundraising Campaign

Posted by Michael Stein, Senior Internet Strategist on September 14, 2009

As the year-end fundraising seasons kicks off, Madera Group client Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF) has launched a video campaign to raise $15,000 by the end of September. The videos feature the voices of those affected by the disease, while at the same time demonstrate the creative appeal and effect that personalized narratives provide to help raise awareness about diabetes.

10 tools and strategies to market your nonprofit on a shoe-string budget

Posted by Michael Stein, Senior Internet Strategist on August 26, 2009

Allyson Kapin has a great post on Frogloop, Care2’s nonprofit online marketing blog on 10 Tools and Strategies to Market Your Nonprofit on a Shoe-String Budget.  She writes: “If your nonprofit is not taking advantage of free tools like Add This, a widget that encourages users to share your organizations articles or web pages on the most popular social networks or branded toolbars like FreeCause, then your nonprofit is missing out on some big marketing opportunities.”

On the state of mobile advocacy

Posted by Michael Stein, Senior Internet Strategist on

I liked Matt Wilson’s article in the July edition of the NTEN e-newsletter on the State of Mobile Advocacy, having written on this subject myself. Matt works for Mobile Commons, one of the vendors innovating with mobile advocacy. He writes: “There are now several vendors working in the nonprofit sector who have built target-matching applications for voice calls, similar to the district-matching features in the online advocacy arena. This is allowing organizations to connect their constituents directly to the phone lines of Congressional offices, skipping the Capitol Switchboard. This leads to longer average call times, as advocates are more likely to abandon the call when they are connected to the switchboard.”

Happy Birthday President Clinton!

Posted by Andre Carothers, Senior Strategist, Madera Group on August 21, 2009

Success in social marketing and fundraising means making our clients visible in a crowded online marketplace. Our agency works with clients to develop a strategy that not only uses social networks, but also persuades others to pass the word on. That means creating inspiring and thoughtful messages that work for both email inboxes and social networking sites. It means telling a story that communicates the meaning of the work we are describing, and showing the results that come from it.

New “Engaging Volunteers” Blog Targets the Volunteer World

Posted by Michael Stein, Senior Internet Strategist on July 30, 2009

VolunteerMatch has launched its first ever blog for the nonprofit community called Engaging Volunteers: The VolunteerMatch Blog for Organizations, which is targeted at the VolunteerMatch membership of more than 75,000 nonprofit professionals and the greater community of organizations that work with volunteers.