 A key aspect of fundraising faced by nonprofits is to establish and maintain a connection with potential donors. At a recent workshop here at CTN, three experts, a marketing expert, a photographer and a web designer joined me to show the audience eight simple ways to establish that connection and get results. This year's CTN breakfast for its nonprofit members featured four speakers on using media effectively to reach potential donors. The speakers were Paula Mahoney, marketing strategist for Words at Work, Kathleen Kelly of Kathleen Kelly Photography, Becky McKinnell, president of iBeck Creative and myself Tom Handel from CTN. Paula emphasized the importance of showing the emotional side of an organization's mission in all its marketing material. I'm often struck when I meet with the executive directors and development directors and managers of nonprofits by the passion that I see in them for the cause of their mission. And then I'm conversely struck or underawed by the lack of passion in the marketing materials that I see. If you look at the materials that you are putting out in your annual appeal or on your website or in your frequent marketing materials, is the passion that you feel for your mission, is it really evident in those materials? Kathleen spoke about a photographic project in New Jersey that she was involved with initiated by a colleague who thought that professional photographers could help get foster children adopted. When she approached DIFAS, the Division of Youth and Family Services, they at first didn't understand what it was that she wanted to do. They said that they took their own photos of foster children that accompanied their dossiers and they didn't really need her to take pictures. Natch discovered that these photos looked worse than what you get at the DMV. A group of about 100 professional photographers created a collection of portraits of over 300 foster children called the Heart Gallery. Our photos captured the children's beauty, their individuality and their spirit. Before the Heart Gallery opened, there had only been 81 inquiries a month for adopting children. Following the opening of the Heart Gallery exhibition, DIFAS received 460 adoptive inquiries. Two thirds of them said that they were inquiring specifically about a Heart Gallery child. Within 10 weeks of its launch, the Heart Gallery of New Jersey had found prospective adoptive families for 75 of the state's hardest-to-place children. My presentation focused on the importance of pocket-sized storytelling to describe the accomplishments of nonprofits. Every story has a three-act structure. You tell somebody what you're going to do, you do it, and then you tell them you've done it. Or in another way, there's some problem-issue situation that has to be resolved. There are complications or an intervention, as in the case of maybe nonprofits think of the intervention you have. And then there's the solution or the desired result. This kind of story is probably familiar to you because things like this happen with your agencies all the time. Becky emphasized the importance of making it easy to donate on nonprofit websites. This one for the Muscular Dystrophy Association really utilizes the top right-hand corner of your screen. So typically, website users look for the upper right-hand corner to find out that really important information, and having a donate button is the perfect place for that. So they have big letters, strong call to action, and using the color red so it really pops off the screen. Frances Birkins, a marketing consultant for friends of the Eastern Promenade, found the presentation very useful. The presentation was incredibly helpful. The presenters all have very concise things to say, tips that will definitely help nonprofits. I particularly appreciated the presentation by I Bet Creative, talking about how to simplify your website, reduce distractions, and really promote your donation aspect of your website for nonprofits. Eric Knutson explained why he attended the breakfast. I'm a volunteer board member for Carrying Resources for Living, and we're a small grassroots nonprofit organization, totally volunteer-driven, and it was really beneficial for us to see some of the different methods that we can connect to our donors and our supporters to help share the important work that we do. Paula Mulhoney feels it's important for nonprofits to let the community know all about what they do. Nonprofits are having a tough time raising money they share, and I know they've had a few tough years. So there are some things that they can do in order to improve their results, and more than that, to help the people in the Greater Portland area understand the value that they bring to our community, and that will make, in turn, people want to reach out and help them in various ways. Kathleen Kelly sees a great need for nonprofits to make their stories visual. With the rise of social media and with websites where people are coming all the time for information that there's a great need for visual content that's storytelling that keeps people engaged and interested, and I thought some of my background in photo journalism could be something useful. This is Tom Handel for Community Update.