Got a good cause? Need donations? Stop talking and start marketing.
Katya Andresen, vice president of marketing for Network for Good, an e-philanthropy site, says nonprofits need
to think less like evangelizing missionaries and more like marketers.
"Stopping and listening to your audience and developing a benefit exchange, what's in it for them that's
a principle that holds wherever you are," says Andresen, who has promoted causes on three continents. She put her years of experience into a book published last spring, Robin Hood Marketing:
Stealing Corporate Savvy To Sell Just Causes.
Andresen cites successful social campaigns like "Don't Mess With Texas," an anti-littering campaign that spoke to young men's
machismo. The "Truth" campaign gave young people something to rebel against: tobacco companies. Andresen also created a slogan targeting young people in Ukraine: "Vote for your future,
or your grandmother will do it for you."