I’ve updated the list of speaking topics on our website to better reflect the work I am doing these days. Here are few of the newer topics.
For a complete list, see the keynotes and workshops sections. If you’d like me to present at your next event, here are some additional details.
How to Stay Mission, Brand AND Donor-Centered in Your Communications
(An Alternative Version: When Fundraisers and Marketers Fight: How to Bring Harmony Back to Your Communications)
Many nonprofits are experiencing a three-way tug of war around their communications.
- The program staff expect everything to be about the good work they do.
- The marketing staff want to build the brand through community engagement.
- The development staff want everything to be donor-centered.
Can all of this get done within a unified communications strategy? From the looks of many nonprofits, the answer is “No.” From passive-aggressive power plays to side-stepping hard questions about priorities, many nonprofits are avoiding the challenging work needed to create a winning communications strategy.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. With some serious leadership and shared goal setting, you can meet multiple communications needs, even when they appear to be in conflict. During the presentation, Kivi Leroux Miller will share what it takes to create a truly strategic organizational communications plan and how to build an internal culture of communications that makes it happen.
Be CALM, Not BUSY: Rethinking Your Nonprofit’s Approach to Communications
Nonprofit communications staff have too much content to create, too many channels to manage and too little time for any of it. The urgent overtakes the important, your priorities get lost in the chaos, and you barely have time to think.
What are you going to do about it? No one will save you from your to-do list. It’s up to you to rethink your approach.
Kivi Leroux Miller will show you how. She’s learned what separates effective, happy-at-work nonprofit communicators from the lousy, miserable ones.
Your first step is recognizing BUSY for what it really is: Work habits and office cultures that are Bogus, Unrealistic, Sidestepping, and Yoked.
Enough with BUSY. It’s time to get CALM.
Be more Collaborative, Agile, Logical, and Methodical. Your communications work will become more simple, strategic, and successful. And then you’ll really love your job.
Accidental and Newbie Communications Directors: What You Need to Know to Be Effective Fast
Are you the first communications director at your nonprofit? Or were you hired or promoted into the job, even though communications is not your primary area of experience or training?
No fear, you aren’t alone! The Communications Director title is still a relatively new one in the sector, the job is constantly evolving, and just about everyone is making it up as they go.
During this workshop, we’ll discuss communications strategy and planning basics and some internal ground rules and workflows to build early, so you avoid big problems later. We’ll also talk about how to “manage from the middle” and build a culture inside your nonprofit that supports great communications with those outside the organization.
What the Most Effective Communications Teams Do Right (and What Everyone Else Gets Wrong)
Nonprofit Marketing Guide has been researching the secret sauce behind the most effective, strategic, and fun to work for nonprofit communications teams. During this workshop, you’ll do a quick self-assessment of your communications team (even if you are team of 1!).
Then we’ll take a look at what the most successful and effective teams do well compared to those who don’t. We’ll also examine several different ways to think about communication effectiveness, from your implementation of best practices, to how you manage day-to-day communications challenges, to the job satisfaction and confidence of your staff. You’ll leave with some great insights into how to make your own team much more effective in both the short-term and long-term.
The Communicator’s Guide to Repurposing Content
Ever wonder how some nonprofits seem to produce so much great content, even with a small staff? They aren’t miracle workers, but they have mastered one very special skill: It’s content repurposing. In fact, skillful content repurposing is what separates professional communicators from the novices.
During this workshop, you’ll learn savvy ways to reuse content without it looking like you are just copying and pasting all the time. From designing a content creation process with repurposing built right in to knowing which content to repurpose and how, you’ll learn how to be as efficient as possible with your communications.
Thought Leadership for Nonprofits: Marketing to Build Authority and Share Expertise
Is your organization or are some of your staff the “go to” people in your field? Do others look to you for insights, trends, and guidance in a rapidly changing world? Are you frequently called by the media, and asked to contribute to publications or to speak at events? Or do you wish you were?
Thought leaders are experts whose work, knowledge and experience are actively sought out by others – because those people have been introduced to the expert via good marketing. During this workshop, you’ll learn how to take your nonprofit from being an expert to being a well-respected and well-known thought leader.
