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communications

Fundraising Insights

The 8:1 Communications Rule
Catholic Social Media's research shows that nonprofits should be striving for a good communications-to-request ...
Choose See First in Facebook
You’re working hard to expand your parish’s social media presence; the easiest way is to teach your followers to ...
Know Your Social Media Genres
Know your social media genres! It can be a challenge to manage multiple social media accounts. If your Catholic ...
Count Your Blessings at the Parish
When's the last time you took a moment to count your blessings at the parish? We've all heard it before: an ...
Social Media’s 80/20 Rule
Do you know social media's 80/20 rule? It's the same as the 80/20 rule in other areas of Catholic parish life. If ...
Fundraising Letters or Emails?
It's an age-old question: fundraising letters or emails? If you’re responsible for your church's annual ...
Every Knee Shall Bow
We are all called to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. However, we are often at a loss as to how we can do ...
Try Out Ringless Voicemails
There are dozens of ways you can connect to your parishioners these days. These include e-newsletters, emails, ...
Taking Prayer Requests Online
Maybe you take prayer requests at your Catholic parish, but have you ever considered taking prayer requests ...
Use the Newsfeed for Good
Ever wondered how the Facebook newsfeed works? As of 2019, it takes into account millions of factors when ...
Using Listicles to Communicate
One of the most popular types of writing to come out of the Internet age is the listicle, which is a numbered list ...
Selling Tickets to Parish Events
Have you ever experienced headaches while selling tickets to parish events? Most parishes have 5-10 annual events ...
First Impressions and Profile Pictures
First impressions and profile pictures are funny things. We all know by now that first impressions matter just as ...
The General Social Survey and Religion
Do you know about the "General Social Survey" and religion? In the April edition of First Things, Mark L. ...
Claim Your Church’s Vanity URL
In recent years, Facebook has added a "vanity URL" or "username" feature to all Pages, including your parish page. ...
Use Video to Promote Special Events
When it comes to standing out on social media, video is king. The next time you are promoting a special event at ...
Shorten Links Easily with Bit.ly
Your parish website is likely a simple, concise variation of your church name and/or city, and therefore it is ...
Using Facebook Business Manager
Are you using Facebook Business Manager? Most parishes manage their Facebook page from the personal account of a ...
Follow CARA at Georgetown University
Last month we included a post about the number of people entering the Catholic Church in the United States and ...
Scheduling Meetings at Your Parish
Ever had trouble scheduling meetings at your parish? Scheduling parish council meetings, ministry activities or ...
Using Intercessory Prayer Teams
Saint James writes in his epistle that "the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful" (Jsa 5:13). We ...
User Friendly Online Forms
By now, most parishes have transitioned to online forms for event sign-ups, registrations, ticket sales and ...
Implementing Welcome Teams
Hopefully it's easy for new parishioners to register at your parish. What happens after a new household ...
Using Task Management Systems
If you’re having a hard time keeping track of all the daily, weekly and monthly tasks required to keep your parish ...
Responding to Church Scandals
A year after the clergy abuse crisis came to light again, news reports continue to come out that can disturb and ...
Using Personal Testimonials
As the church in North America continues to change, many parishes are moving from organizations focused on ...
The Value of an Email Address
When our team conducted a national research project focused on giving trends in Catholic parishes, we asked ...
Incentivize Your Church Census
Even though it's deep winter, no doubt your calendar is already filling up with all the parish activities you're ...
A Future Without Bulletins?
The Sunday bulletin has been a staple of Catholic life in North America for more than 75 years. But as almost all ...
YouTube is More than Cat Videos
We are all guilty of visiting YouTube to check out a video a friend said we simply "had to see." Perhaps you ...
Publish Your Mass Times Everywhere
What are 95% of the visitors to your parish website looking for? Mass times. That's it. This was brought home to ...
Bishop Barron meets Jordan Peterson
Have you heard the latest - Bishop Barron meets Jordan Peterson? In the last few years, Canadian psychologist ...
Publishing Mass Times on Facebook
Earlier this month I mentioned that 95% of your website visitors are just looking for Mass times. The same is true ...
Financial Transparency at the Parish
For centuries religious institutions were some of the most trusted organizations in most cultures. But in the ...
Your Communications and Your Mission
In a previous post, I discussed the 8:1 communications rule - share eight pieces of good news for every one ...
Protect Your Parish Brand
By now, most Catholic churches have staked out their territory online and claimed a catchy web address and ...
Find Broken Links on Your Website
It's a website admin's worst nightmare: old broken links that frustrate your site's visitors, but that you don't ...
Put Limits on Screen Time
St. Simon Sylites is one of the strangest saints we have. He lived on top of a pillar in the middle of a city for ...
Introduce Parishioners to the Saints
There are just so many saints. Everyone has their patrons, their favorites, and the ones they don't understand. ...
Other Benefits of Facebook Live
Facebook Live is a powerful tool that parishes and schools can use to share live video from events, ceremonies, ...
Stewardship a Disciple’s Response
December 31 is just nine short months away, and with it will come year-end giving decisions for many of your ...
The ColorPick Eyedropper
If you or someone else in the parish office is doing graphic design, you know that matching colors can be ...
Check Out Great Catholic Preaching
Catholicism isn't necessarily known for its rousing homilies (at least in this day and age), but we are blessed ...
Verifying Email Addresses
We all have old email addresses we're not proud of. Sure, there was a time when emailing your friends from ...
Internal Linking
If you've ever wondered why your parish's website isn't getting better search engine results, take a look at your ...
Get Website Alerts
Today I’m going to share some information about a great free tool out there that we use all the time in our ...
Gather Digital Prayer Requests
There is an entire universe of priests who are active on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. In ...
The New Digital Evangelization
Ever since Pope Saint John Paul II coined the phrase, the Church has been laser-focused on the New Evangelization. ...
Writing a Great Email
We use emails for everything. We use email to ask questions, to delegate tasks, to confirm plans and to provide ...
Use Bullets and Numbered Lists
Your pastor is busy. Your committee chairs have day jobs. Your volunteers are being pulled in a million different ...
You Get What You Ask For
The CSM team often works with pastors and staff that say, “We wish parishioners would increase their financial ...
Should Your Parish Offer WiFi?
Every year we are drawing closer to the moment when every man, woman, and child has an internet-enabled device on ...
The Power of Personal Invitation
You're getting bombarded with new programs every week - ministry programs that claim to lead hundreds into RCIA, ...
Get Professional Email Addresses
Did you know the first email was sent 48 years ago? Every year we work with dozens of parishes that appear to be ...
Appeals, campaigns, and events
Not all fundraising activities are created equal. All parish and school fundraising opportunities are unique and ...
Slide shows on Facebook
Facebook is always adding new types of posts that can help you increase your reach and engagement. One type that ...
Running an effective meeting
Do you ever walk out of a meeting and find yourself thinking, “Did we actually accomplish anything in there?” ...
Register as a charity on Facebook
Ever spotted one of those "Birthday Fundraisers" on Facebook? You know, your friend Helen says she'd like people ...
Pray for them now
How many times has a parishioner or visitor asked you to pray for them or someone they love? I bet you get prayer ...
Using Facebook’s Profanity Filter
Every now and again, someone will wander onto your parish's Facebook page, disparaging the Church or people of ...
Audits for your Website
The dream scenario for any parish is that when people type its name into Google, the parish website is the first ...
Social Media Management Tools
Do you find it challenging to keep up with the activity on your parish Facebook page? Has your parish Twitter page ...
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
In the past, I've touched on the importance of bullet points and numbered lists. But even more effective than good ...
Using Parishioner Spotlights
Ever wonder about that new family two pews down from you? They have been attending Mass regularly, but you never ...
Who Should Send the Email?
People receive around 100 emails per day, a mind-bending mix of work-related communications, solicitations from ...
Spring Cleaning Emails
Keeping your organization’s contact information current and clean is a never-ending process. We’ve talked about it ...
Talking About Money at the Parish
Even as I typed the headline, I thought I might lose a few readers. Let’s face it, money is a difficult thing to ...
Post Program Surveys
High school teachers, college professors, and even fitness program instructors have started implementing ...
Getting in Touch
If you're watching the news about the further spread of coronavirus and wondering, "What are some ways we can be ...
Livestreaming Mass Right Now
As we move into month six of the coronavirus pandemic, some parishes are wondering, "Should we just direct people ...
Picture Frames and Pinned Posts
With public Masses suspended across the United States, this past spring charitable contributions were in freefall ...
Facebook Groups and Ministry
If this past spring you were scrambling to move your ministries online for the foreseeable future, there are ...
Growing Your Following
As social distancing and shelter in place orders began to take effect across North America this past spring, our ...
Livestreaming Mass is Essential
With “shelter at home” orders issued around the country this last spring, many parishes are continuing livestream ...
Should We Pray Digitally?
Smartphones have forever changed the way we live, and more than 90% of people in North America are now carrying ...
What Can Continue at the Parish?
What can continue at the parish? In short, most events and meetings on a parish calendar can continue this autumn. ...
Reasons for Hope
The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to do harm to our society in a myriad of ways, but there are some reasons ...
If It’s Free, You’re the Product
Your eyes have likely glazed over at the number of "free offers" you're receiving right now. The pandemic's effect ...
COVID-19 and Parish Communications
You have learned a lot about how parishioners engage with the parish over the last several months. Social ...
Returning to Old Posts
Our director, John, recently had an interesting conversation with a Catholic Social Media subscriber in Nebraska. ...
Honest Questions, Honest Answers
This article by freelance writer Christina Capecchi got my attention a few weeks ago. The lessons Cappechi teaches ...
The Need for Speed
We have all found ourselves frustrated at some point about a web page not loading as fast as we would like. In our ...
Update Your Mass Times
Advent is almost upon us , which means it's time to publish your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Mass ...
Mass times are published elsewhere
A few days ago we shared advice on how and where to update your Christmas Mass times (see here). But did you know ...
Virtual Coffee and Doughnuts
Even several months into the pandemic, some of us can abuse Facebook. After all, it's not a communications tool ...
Publishing Parish Reports
A few weeks ago, this parish report, delivered via YouTube from a pastor in Oklahoma, caught our team's attention. ...
How Spammy Is Your Parish Email?
We are sending more emails than ever, and billions of messages crisscross the globe each day. For every legitimate ...
The Creaster Opportunity
Christmas represents an incredible opportunity to minister to "Creasters," those nominal Catholics that only ...
Archiving Parish Livestreams?
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit America in February 2020, almost every parish in the country has livestreamed ...
Remove Backgrounds with Photo Scissors
If you've ever needed to remove a background from a photo but didn't quite know the best way to do it, we'd ...
Eliminate Role-Based Email Addresses
Some years ago, it was popular to create role-based email addresses at companies and non-profits, addresses like ...
Scan like a Pro
We have all had that moment - you have a pile of paper documents in front of you and you want to scan them, turn ...

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