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Big Shifter has partnered with another local Sheridan Wyoming print marketing company, Alphagraphics, to provide a wider portfolio of services. This partnership was announced at the Chamber of Commerce membership luncheon on January 8, 2020. Here is the official press release:

AlphaGraphics Partners with Big Shifter

[Sheridan, WY, January 2020] Sheridan business, AlphaGraphics announces a partnership with Big Shifter and owner Erik Kulvinskas. AlphaGraphics is a visual marketing and print business that has been in Sheridan for many years. “We have many clients that seek web design and web development services but did not have the resources to properly assist those clients. By partnering with Big Shifter we are able to expand our services with another local vendor,” describes Nadine Gale, co-owner of AlphaGraphics. Kulvinskas and his wife Suzy moved to Sheridan in 2017 from Colorado. Kulvinskas stated “Most of my career has been with large companies working on complex enterprise web solutions. Suzy and I have always had a passion to support small businesses and nonprofits and my goal is to be able to offer business owners the tools to be competitive in today’s digital market.” AlphaGraphics and Big Shifter will continue to partner with businesses and organizations to provide the full array of marketing from branding and graphic design to digital marketing and signage. AlphaGraphics is located on North Main Street in Sheridan.

Key Partnerships = Better Customer Care

The reason Big Shifter partnered with Alphagraphics is because we know our limitations and we don’t want to those limitations to stand in the way of service our clients completely. We are not a graphic print shop but in the branding and marketing business, there will inevitably be a need for printed materials and traditional marketing. This is where Alphagraphics comes in to supplement our digital marketing chops. Big Shifter’s mission is to always take care of our clients with the upmost care and digital an traditional print marketing should complement each other.

2020 is starting out with a valuable partnership and we are looking forward to working with the Alphagraphics to bring complete marketing solutions to our clients.

We’ve done it, we’ve moved Big Shifter from the wonderful (or, formerly wonderful) state of Colorado to the adventurous and beautiful state of Wyoming. When I told one of my friends we had moved, he asked with a smile on his face, ‘Why-oming?’ 

We’ve done it, we’ve moved Big Shifter from the beautiful (or, formerly beautiful) state of Colorado to the adventurous and beautiful state of Wyoming. When I told one of my friends we had moved, he asked with a smile on his face, ‘Why-oming?’ 

We moved our business and our family to Wyoming when we had enough of Colorado; it’s politics, it’s out of control growth, cost of living and other issues that continued to degrade our way of life. It was time for a change and my wife and I had been talking about moving for some time, we just didn’t know where we would move to. 

We knew somewhere smaller, somewhere with a greater sense of community, and a place people loved to be. We visited friends in a place called Sheridan Wyoming and fell in love with the area. It was no contest. This move was going to happen.

Three months later, we had prepped our house in Colorado, made necessary improvements and sold our home for over 15 years. We hauled our house and all of our stuff in two uHauls and four cars and were so thankful the weather was good because we are learning that it could have been much different in Wyoming.

I thought that living in Colorado, we had seen extreme weather, but northern Wyoming has its own brand of weather. So yes, things could have been very different moving in December.

What we have experienced during our short time here is a fantastic city and state where the people are genuinely friendly, and they love being here. In talking with many people in Colorado, we have seen their face twists up as they talk about living in the Denver area and the less than positive changes that have been happening in Colorado in general. But, in Wyoming, people love it here, their faces light up as they talk about their community, the lifestyle, the outdoors and the state’s rich history.

So, the Kulvinskas family is now a Wyoming family and Big Shifter is now a Wyoming company. We are excited to be a part of such a lovely State and look forward to growing our faith, family, and relationships in such a place.

Greetings from Wyoming! Here’s to new beginnings and adventures!

It’s All About The Money…

No, it’s not. You didn’t start up your nonprofit to make money. You started up to be a hero for your cause. Your initial drive was to gather momentum behind a movement and educate and convince others that it’s worth supporting. But, there is that big green monster that continues to hound at your heels as you strive to make a difference. Money.

Money, scratch, benjamins, bucks, cabbage, moola, sawbucks, makin’ it rain; whatever you want to call it, money is necessary to fan the fire of a nonprofit’s organizational goals and objectives. It pays for overhead such as website hosting, office support, travel, marketing, and at some point when your organization grows large enough, staffing, and office space. But money doesn’t grow on trees, does it?

Nonprofits rely on donors. Donors make the wheels go round and you have to find how to reach, educate, and tell your story to potential and existing donors. It’s not enough to have a web page and a ‘Give’ button on your website. People need to understand why they are giving and where their money is going.

Storytelling

Most people give money to a cause because they are moved at some emotional level. It may be religion, the environment, social justice issues, or world relief efforts but the emotional hold isn’t enough on its own. People also need to know why a nonprofit needs their money and how they will use that resource.

The most effective way to relay your nonprofit’s needs is through telling stories. Stories are the glue that sticks your nonprofit’s mission to your donor’s frontal lobe. They open a window into your organization to show the inner workings of how you are changing your part of the world. They relay to your donors and potential supporters your passion and your effect on those people/places/things your care about.

Have you ever looked at crowd-sourcing platforms and their most successful projects? You’ll notice that it isn’t just the product/service/benefits people want, it’s also because there has been a compelling story behind that need request. When that story strikes a chord with people, those people feel compelled to donate and will pass on their recommendation to their friends to donate. This is how successful viral campaigns work; a well-crafted story strikes at the heart of an individual and their actions are affected by that story. That is why good stories about your nonprofit are important.

Now, that’s not to mean that you should sensationalize what you do to manipulate people.

1. Just be clear, genuine, truthful, and passionate.
2. Always have someone proofread your story before publishing it.
3. Check with others to see if your story is being received the way you want it to be.
4. Use pictures and video where appropriate.

Let’s say your stories are compelling and you have people starting to donate. Well, your job has just begun! Donor retention is a big challenge for nonprofits. Those people who have given before are more likely to give again and recommend your nonprofit to their friends. One of the ways to have donors stay involved is to tell the story about what their donations have done for your cause. Narratives, videos, pictures, and statistics let people know how their donations are working and how it’s empowering the change your organization stands for.

Millennials and the causes they support

Millennials are causing quite a stir for everyone trying to sell them an idea. Marketing people are trying to find out more about how this sub-group of our society works. We found that finding generational demarcations is not set in stone. The US Census Bureau defines the Baby Boomer generation as 1946-1964 but that is the only generation they classify. All other generations, Generation X, Generation Y, Millennials, are more fluid. There are plenty of researchers out there that pick a span of dates for these groups but that span changes from research group to research group. 

One thing they agree on is that Millennials are people that have grown up with technology. Their lives have been immensely impacted by computers and mobile devices. This group of people has grown up with immense engagement in things they care about. Social Media recommendations, reviews, commentaries, and stories affect what they purchase and what causes they support.

This sub-group will most likely be donating online or using an app rather than sending you a check.  They’ll also let their circle of friends know about it via their social media profiles. This group cares about what they support. They want to be engaged and see the effects of their donations. 

Millennials will expect to have media to share with their friends such as videos or photos. It’s important for your organization to visually document what you do and when you do it so that your donor can share the effect their donation is having in the world.

Needless to say, these efforts benefit your whole target audience so use what millennials need to carry your message to their circle of connections.

Partnerships

Partnering with other organizations is important for nonprofits. Finding other organizations that share your passions and beliefs is vitally important. Many times these partnerships can help spread the word about your organization to those that may not know about you. Through these important partnerships, the word of your message can be spread to other people that have similar interests.

Private organizations and companies may have programs for their employees that encourage volunteering and donating to local nonprofits. Larger corporations have employee grants and other funding programs to help nonprofits.

One program we have heard about is when a company’s employees volunteer for your organization for a target amount of hours. If they hit an hourly target, the corporation they work for will donate a targeted amount of money. So you can see that being creating with partners can have a mutual benefit to both organizations.

Selecting a Donation Platform

We know nonprofits need funds, we know that nonprofits need to effectively tell their story and we know there needs to be some trusted software platform they can use to collect donations. But how do you select the right platform for you?

The Cost of Business

If you want to collect online donations, there is a cost to doing so. Nothing out there is free and it seems that everyone involved in your online fund gathering wants their piece of the action.

The online vendor who collects the money wants their piece of the action and that can be somewhere around $.30 a transaction plus about 3% of the donated amount. So if someone donates $100 to you, your bank account will only see $96.70. The bad news is that $3.30 out of $100 is a good deal. Many times vendors and banks collect more than that and cut much deeper into your bottom line. Some even charge a monthly fee regardless of how much or little you collect for the month.

Sharing the Burden of Transaction Fees

Does your giving platform allow for your donors to cover the transaction fees? Does it give them the option to cover those fees so that 100% of what they wanted to give gets into your hands? Not too many platforms offer this option but it’s a compelling feature that can further benefit your bottom line.

Flexible Giving

Your giving platform should support multiple ways of giving and enticing donors to donate funds. For example, you can have a general online giving button on your homepage. But, let’s say you have a funding goal for a special program where you want to collect $5,000. You should be able to set up a giving campaign that shows your donors how close you are to your end goal. Much like crowdfunding campaigns. Your online giving platform should be able to support these different options.

Does your platform have a mobile app available so that you can collect donations on-site at your events? They should. Remember, many people will be giving using their mobile devices and many times will give on the spot if the opportunity is available. 

There’s Giving and Then There’s Giving

Big Shifter has used several donation platforms for our clients and we are constantly on the lookout for new platforms that best benefit them. We integrate those platforms into our client’s websites so that their visitors find a clear and easy way to donate to their cause. We help our clients write effective stories for their audiences. We love getting to know about our client’s passions and why they started their nonprofit in the first place. Through our client partnerships, we try to help them develop more than just givers to their nonprofits. We try to help them build relationships through the stories they tell.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Erik Kulvinskas has over 2 decades of web development experience that started way back before front-ends, back-ends, ‘dot-coms’, and social media. He loves making things easier to understand and more efficient to use. He loves spending time with his family, cycling, and volunteering. He enjoys empowering others to be their best and leading others by serving them.

Many years ago Saturday Night Live had a recurring skit where “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy” would come up to help solve a problem and try to get one of his users to fix the issue. Very quickly, he would get fed up and yell “MOVE!”, and then sit in their chair to fix the issue himself.  In the process, he would belittle these poor office workers and make fun of their lack of knowledge. In the end, the only thing that was accomplished was frustrating a customer that was still dependent on someone that did not appreciate them.

As a former I.T. guy, I can tell you it used to be that way, we enjoyed our power and the ability to confuse our customers with acronyms and terminology that would make their eyes glaze over. They needed us after all. Back when I.T. dictated business processes, we told folks how to do their work because that’s how the software was created. There was no need to educate the customer concerning how to more effectively use their technology because after all, why would we want to do that? If we educated them, they would call us less and not see as much of a need to have us around. It was advantageous to keep our customers in the dark. Or so it seemed.

Fast forward some decades and we have seen a massive shift; technology is created to support the business customer, period. I.T. shops have changed their focus to provide support to their business clients by collecting the business requirements that the business defines.

Client Education

Big Shifter believes that our clients should feel and be smarter after they complete a project with us. They should feel knowledgeable about the website that we deliver so that they can be self-sufficient if they choose to be. 

This approach makes us spend more time with our clients and forces us to slow down and listen to them. We are constantly updating our tools to ensure that we are asking the right questions of all of our clients and that the knowledge we glean from them is passed to all of our staff.  All of our staff are educators. We have a passion to talk about our craft and teach people about what we do. We hope that this passion comes across in all of our dealings with our clients.

Some people may see this as a waste of time and as a lost opportunity for more work. The old school consulting model is essentially the same story described in my intro paragraph. Keep the client dependent on the consultant.

As a consultant, do I want my clients to return to request more services? Absolutely! However, I would rather have a client to ask my team for more services based on their knowledge of their website and its related technologies rather than calling in desperation and frustration. We strive to be a partner in their business and not a leech that continuously drains valuable resources.

There is a risk that a customer will not return once we educate them about their website and its parts. In fact, we have had customers not return to us for anything after training them on their site. In those cases, we feel that we’ve done our job because that client can support their website themselves. Hopefully, they will call us if they need further services, but if they don’t, that’s O.K. by us. 

Contrary to that risk, we find taking the time to know and educate our clients builds trust and mutual respect. This, in turn, builds stronger relationships between our team and our clients. This is the stickiness that we try to achieve with our clients. We are ‘stuck’ together as a team working towards the same goals.

The “Technical Business User”

What the industry has created over time is what I like to call the Technical Business User. These folks are people that have a role in their business life that intersects with technology. They have taken the time to learn about the technology they use and they leverage that knowledge to accomplish what used to be accomplished by their “Nick Burns-type” support team. The barriers workers used to have in getting their jobs done are being lowered. We hope that Big Shifter can be a part of the movement to get technology out of the way and let people do their jobs. 

Big Shifter wants to have the best-educated clients once we have been a part of their team. We want them to be successful without the requirement of depending on us. We will always do our best to provide client education during our project development and delivery process.

If you want to find out more about how Big Shifter can create a site and make you “website smart”, give us a shout.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Erik Kulvinskas has over 2 decades of web development experience that started way back before front-ends, back-ends, ‘dot-coms’, and social media. He loves making things easier to understand and more efficient to use. He loves spending time with his family, cycling, and volunteering. He enjoys empowering others to be their best and leading others by serving them.