Author Archive: Gina Nykerk
From the forest to the classroom: Emma’s new giving back initiative
We're supporting DonorsChoose as folks join the Emma community
If you follow Emma’s giving back efforts on our blog, you’ve likely noticed that Emma has a thing for trees — and making sure the world stays leafy and green. Since 2007, we’ve planted five trees for every new client we bring on board, and that’s added up to well over 80,000 trees.
After all that leafy goodness, we’re switching up how we give back on behalf of customers. Starting this month, we’re supporting DonorsChoose.org with $5 for each new client who joins Emma. That money goes directly to classroom projects posted by teachers and funds materials that otherwise fall outside of tight public school budgets.
In the past, when we’ve given to DonorsChoose, I’ve spearheaded the classroom selection process. Now, the Emma staff will collectively choose the projects, and, this month, we narrowed the list by choosing classrooms in the cities Emma calls home. We’re helping to bring sculpting supplies to an art teacher in Nashville, chairs to a music class in NYC, books to students in Austin, science supplies to an elementary school in Denver and a classroom computer to a Portland middle school.
This is the beginning of a really cool new chapter in Emma’s giving back story, largely because it casts such a wide net. It’s about you, our Emma community, giving us the chance to make a difference in classrooms across the country. Thank you for joining Emma and doing some good in the world.
+++++
Want to follow along with this project? Visit our DonorsChoose giving back page.
Meet Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute
As Emma’s business developer in Denver, I have a chance to get to know many of our clients in town. One of my favorite organizations is Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute, a nonprofit that provides education and coaching to entrepreneurs. An Emma 25 recipient in 2008, RMMFI utilizes email marketing to grow their audience and keep volunteers, donors and program participants up to speed on their latest events, workshops and more.
Offering programs that help entrepreneurs go from “Business Curious” to “Business Serious” and moving those who’ve demonstrated initiative through a 12-week Business Launch Boot Camp, they help entrepreneurs take a business idea from conception to reality, and even provide microloans to business owners who are ready to launch or expand business in the Greater Denver Area. Much needed services in today’s economy, if you ask me.
How they do it
RMMFI makes it easy to sign up for their emails.
Why we like it
To put it simply, their emails look good. After rebranding their website, they followed suit with an email rebranding — and asked the Emma design team to whip up a special event stationery as well. Their branding is bold and classy, and their content stays fresh. Each email provides new information, and they’ve learned the art of the intriguing subject line. (Recent subject lines include “September = Support & Structure” and “What Happens After Boot Camp?”) I see well over 300 emails in my various inboxes each day, and their campaigns always stand out.
Want to see a few examples? I can’t blame you.
- In this July email to clients and program participants, RMMFI uses a visually appealing balance of images and text to announce their upcoming Business Launch Boot Camp.
- In this May email, RMMFI sends a Save-the-Date email on their Special Event stationery.
- In this targeted email to program participants, RMMFI takes the opportunity to update registrants with time-sensitive, event-day information.
Is there a nonprofit in your community nailing their email marketing efforts and keeping you clicking for more? We’d love to hear about ‘em and see some examples.
Emma sponsors Step Up for Cancer
Fighting cancer, one step at a time in Denver
Emma has been in Denver for just over three years, and I’ve called the city home for the same amount of time. (Has it really been that long? Wow.) Being in a satellite city has its perks, one of which is the opportunity to build relationships with local Emma clients and participate in community events that I’m passionate about.
Two years ago Emma was invited to be the email sponsor for the first annual Step Up for Cancer event, put on by Generous Cancer Foundation. It’s a great cause, and we said yes without hesitation. We’ve continued to be a sponsor ever since.
It’s hard to imagine that I can help fight cancer by literally taking a step upward. You know, as in taking the stairs. But on August 7th, stepping up to help fight cancer is exactly what I’ll be doing, along with my fellow Coloradoans and the supporters and staff of over 40 Colorado nonprofits at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. We’ll run or walk the 1,765 stairs in the stadium, and in doing so, we’ll raise money for a participating non-profit of our choice.
That’s what makes Step Up for Cancer so unique — it was created with the sole purpose of benefiting other nonprofit cancer organizations.
Even though this is Emma’s third year sponsoring, this will be my first year participating. Interested in joining me? There’s stil time to register! Visit Step Up for Cancer’s website to learn more. I would love to see you there.
+++++
Read more about how Emma gives back here.
Emma {hearts} deserving students and inspiring teachers
Our involvement with Donors Choose this spring
As you may know if you’ve kept up with our tree planting efforts or Emma 25 program, we like to be involved in our communities and give back where we can. Each month, we also donate to deserving students and classrooms on www.DonorsChoose.org.
This spring, I coordinated with 10 Emma staffers to fulfill the classroom requests of 27 teachers, reaching 1,705 students in 12 states. I’d love to share them all, but let’s take quick look at a few of my favorite projects:
In It’s A Sign Of The Times, Mrs. H’s classroom in Massachusetts needed sign language materials for her eager learners with autism. Finding that her students were quickly learning to communicate with the few sign language videos she already had, she requested additional videos, alphabet cards, books and peg-it boards to help increase their vocabulary. She expects and hopes that by giving them the tools to communicate non-verbally, they’ll also enhance their verbal skills.
Check out other projects in Massachusetts.
In Practice Makes Perfect: Help Kindergarteners Learn to Read, Ms. G’s young New York City scholars are eager to practice their reading. Short on time to individually assist each student, Ms. G requested reading centers with various games and lessons for the kindergarteners to tackle individually and with each other. Already, the centers have made a huge difference, and her kindergartners are well on their way to achieving their goal of reading like 1st graders by the end of this year.
Check out other kindergarten classes in need of support.
In Volleyball Improves Girls Fitness & Self Esteem, overcrowding has caused Mr. S to teach two physical education classes simultaneously, drastically decreasing activity time for all his middle school girls. Seeing how much these young ladies benefit from participating in team sports and how passionately they enjoy volleyball, Mr. S knew that additional equipment was long overdue and requested an additional volleyball net, knee-pads and balls. The project was fully funded on February 15th, and his girls have been serving up aces since.
Check out other health- and sports-related projects.
I really enjoy coordinating our donations to Donor’s Choose because I get to collaborate with my colleagues in a new way, and we get to see the effects of our donations. (Most of the classrooms follow up with a thank-you note or progress report.) Consider joining Emma in donating to Donor’s Choose, and let us know what causes are near to your heart.
+++++
Not yet an Emma customer? See how we give back, and let us know if you’d like to get started with an account.
You say TEDx, I say amazing
Denver does the first TEDxMileHigh
Just when we thought Denver couldn’t get any better, Annie Parsons and I had the privilege of attending TEDxMileHigh, the first public TEDx event in Denver.
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to ideas worth spreading that started as a four-day conference 26 years ago. TEDx is one of its many initiatives: a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. (Read more on their website.)
“Inspired Citizenship” was the theme of the TEDxMileHigh evening, and I am truly inspired by the citizens and natives of this state. Annie and I live in the company of big thinkers and even bigger doers. Doers like Casey Sheahan, the CEO & President of Patagonia (be still, my outdoor enthusiast heart). Casey spoke about Patagonia’s incredibly successful 1% For The Planet initiative, and their new mission to create every product out of recyclable materials and also make every product recyclable.
Big thinker and doer (and recently elected Colorado Governor), John Hickenlooper, spoke about his gubernatorial campaign and how he was able to win on a positive platform. He also challenged us to volunteer in our schools. He believes that the change needed in our education system — especially given the budget crisis — is going to have to come one resident at a time. Listening to his call-to-action made me proud of Emma’s Donors Choose efforts, but it also made me want to find a way to volunteer at the elementary school two blocks from my house.
From Robyn O’Brien, author of The Unhealthy Truth, to Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers Without Borders, to Libby Birky, co-founder of SAME Café, the list of people who inspired me goes on and on. Among all the inspiration, the one idea that I walked away with, hope not to forget, and believe will inspire me to action is: ”People forget that what’s in it for us is that we’re all in this together.”
Indeed, we are. How can we make a difference in our communities? I’d love to hear how you’re giving back and if you have any inspiring stories to share.
The best bowls in Denver.
Recently, we’ve started featuring pictures and stories of Emma customers in our ads that run in various cities around the countries, showing how they use Emma’s email marketing services to grow their brand in style. Now that I’ve been working at Emma’s satellite office in Denver for 6 months, we wanted to show off an Emma customer that’s particularly well known and loved in the Mile High City. Tokyo Joe’s, a local favorite to many Coloradans, came to mind right away. In my lunches with Linden Mundekis, Joe’s director of digital marketing, I learned that they’ve long been courted to be franchised and shared with the rest of the fast-food loving, Japanese-style, sushi-eating world. Vowing to keep it local and not stretch beyond Colorado’s borders, Joe’s appreciates those returning customers – “addicts,” in Joe’s language – who show almost fanaticism towards the lifestyle and culture this 17-location restaurant establishment creates and encourages. Having gone through 3 Addicts cards myself, I think I safely qualify.
Anyway, here’s the ad that’s started running in the Westword. If you’re in Denver, be sure and take a look, and stop by Joe’s for a bowl! The Yakatori bowl is fabulous, and after ordering it 36 times, I should know.
Emma is a member of the Email Sender & Provider Coalition and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
Copyright © 2003 - 2012 Emma. All rights reserved.