Four Kitchens, a fully distributed web development agency that began in Austin, TX, is combining forces with Advomatic, a digital agency in New York City.
Read more »Sarah Durham
Sarah is an entrepreneur and creative consultant with a passion for helping nonprofits communicate more effectively so they can advance their missions.
She founded Big Duck (www.bigduck.com) in 1994 to help nonprofits increase their visibility, raise money, and communicate more effectively. In 2019, she acquired Advomatic (www.advomatic.com), to help them online. She spends her days guiding these businesses and talking with nonprofit leaders about their communications.
The author of Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2010), Sarah’s expertise has been borrowed by NPR, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Guidestar, and others. She is a sought-after speaker on branding, fundraising, and other nonprofit communications topics. She was named a “top fundraiser under 40” by Fundraising Success magazine in 2006, and one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company magazine in 2010. As an adjunct professor at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Sarah taught strategic communications to other aspiring nonprofit communicators for many years.
Posts by Sarah
Time and materials or fixed fees? What’s the smarter way to tackle your next website?
Website projects are like snowflakes: they have a lot in common, but each is also a little different. And when you’re talking to folks about how to build, upgrade, or migrate your organization’s website, the proposals you receive may outline vastly different approaches, prices, and pricing structures. They, too, are like snowflakes. There are a …
Read more »Who should manage your nonprofit’s website?
Only a few nonprofits had websites before the late 1990s. Those that did were pioneers, hiring “webmasters” to build and maintain them, often using early code bases and proprietary software. Boy, have things changed! Or have they? Many people in an organization should meaningfully contribute to making an organization’s website clear, helpful, and useful. Programs …
Read more »AdvoTalk: Robots make bad fundraisers
Sarah Durham (00:00:01): Hey everybody. Welcome to the webinar today. It is, depending where you are, two o’clock, one o’clock, 11 o’clock and we’re delighted you’re joining us this afternoon. I am Sarah Durham. I am the CEO of Big Duck and also Big Duck’s sister agency, Advomatic. Big Duck is the host of …
Read more »Donate now: 4 ways to ensure your online donors don’t get lost on their way to giving
Nonprofit websites, just like the organizations behind them, vary in mission, size, and complexity. But almost every nonprofit’s website has one goal in common: it aims to make donating online easy. For some organizations, this might even be the website’s most important job. Here are four ways to ensure that your website’s visitors who are …
Read more »How can you make your website friendlier and more accessible?
Sarah Durham and Amanda Luker discuss how to constantly improve your website, create different ways to experience content, and run accessibility audits of your nonprofit’s website. Learn how you can make your website friendlier to all users, including those who are differently-abled. Sarah Durham: Welcome to the smart communications podcast. I’m Sarah Durham and I’m …
Read more »The importance of creating a good experience with your brand online and beyond
That was then. This is now. In 2013, organizations focused on social good began to embrace marketing automation and make the shift to responsive websites (as opposed to separate mobile ones). Staff, board members, donors, program participants, volunteers, advocates, and others spent most of their time on Facebook™, and just as many were on Google™ …
Read more »Facing Drupal 7’s end-of-life like a tech rockstar: a nonprofit’s guide to success
Things aren’t going the way you planned. We’re now in a recession, the pandemic has caused unexpected challenges, and your budgets have been cut. Welcome to the summer of 2020. Still, your website is more important than ever. Your donors, clients, members, and advocates are expecting it to be up-to-date, easy-to-use, and bug-free. To add …
Read more »Advomatic’s pledge to be an antiracist business
An anti-racist is someone who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing antiracist ideas. This includes the expression or ideas that racial groups are equals and do not need developing, and supporting policies that reduce racial inequity. -Ibram X Kendi, How to be an Antiracist, Random House, 2019 Recent killings of …
Read more »AdvoTalk: Inside the ACLU – Digital campaigns with Joe Coakley
Sarah Durham (00:04): Hello, everybody and happy Friday. I am Sarah Durham and I am very excited you are here. You can see I’m joined by Joe Coakley. I’ll be introducing Joe in a second and also Theresa Gutierrez Jacobs who’s a member of the Advomatic team. A couple of pieces of housekeeping before we …
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