Category Archives: ephilanthropy

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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If you’ve been wondering when you can build your nonprofit page on Google+, now’s the time.  Heather Mansfield offers help on How to Create a Google+ Page For Your Nonprofit. Also view this video by John Haydon.  Here’s Beth Kanter’s take.  But the jury is still out on whether Google+ pages will prove to be as popular as Facebook pages.

Frustrated trying to keep up to date with Facebook?  Get help in John’s Tactical Guide to Recent Facebook Changes and sign up for next month’s bi-monthly Facebook features update from Common Knowledge.

Planning to roll out a new website with Drupal?  Have you already launched, but finding it difficult to manage how to manage content edits and approvals?  Join Michelle Misner and I on Nov. 29 to learn How the NYPL Successfully Project Managed a New Drupal Website.  (It’s free if you’re a Nten member!).

Speaking of Nten, I’ve just signed up for next spring’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  Please register now to lock in the lowest rate.  It’s always the premier event of the year for the #nptech community.

It’s year-end fundraising season again.  Get a jump start by reviewing Farra Trompeter’s online fundraising tips, Convio’s How to Get Your Holiday Appeals Opened and Jeff Brooks’ reminder to Avoid Common Fundraising Mistakes, e.g. remembering that you are not your donor.  And of course, don’t forget to plan a multi-channel campaign.

If you’re in NYC, join us at next week’s 501 Tech NYC event;  this month we’ll chat about Google for Nonprofits.  Also if you manage a nonprofit website, sign up for the next quarterly gathering of the Not-for-Profit Webmaster Round Table, planned for mid-December.

Thoughts on Managing an Online Strategy

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I’ve always felt that many nonprofits’ tendency to work in silos gets in the way of having an effective online strategy, and interestingly this was the first item mentioned in Five Dysfunctions of a Digital Team, blogged recently by the Stanford Social Innovation Review.  In this follow up post Four Models for Managing Digital at Your Organization, a hybrid structure was recommended as combining the benefits of a centralized group with decentralized digital gurus throughout the organization, but with reminder that this is very challenging to implement.

I blogged about this issue a few years ago, commenting on a Convio report on Why Organization Structure Matters.  Now almost all nonprofits are online (especially with the continued buzz about social media), but few seem to have figured out the best formula for success.

My take – there is no magic solution.  What works in one organization may fail miserably in others.  Perhaps the best advice I can offer is to be clear about what you want to achieve online, and then encourage departments to work together to develop an integrated approach for online communications, marketing and fundraising.  A dedicated digital group can’t succeed if it operates in a silo.

Updated 10-27-11
The final installment of the Stanford Social Innovation Review series on digital strategy, 7 Patterns of Nonprofit Digital Teams is now available.  Also, the Nonprofit Benchmark Digital Teams Report can be downloaded free from Communicopia.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Most nonprofits are on Facebook now, but fewer are using Twitter well.  Read these 24 Twitter best practices, and 8 nonprofit Twitter superstars who especially do it well, led by Charity:Water, which I highlighted in a recent post.  Also, don’t make these seven Twitter mistakes.

If you’re trying to figure out how to use content curation to benefit your cause, Beth Kanter offers this great primer as well as Content and Curation for Nonprofits on Scoop.It!  New tools such as Storify and Paper.li also offer interesting ways to consolidate great content.  (But make sure you take the time to digest content you are curating.)

Not hearing as much lately about Google Plus even though it’s now open to the public, yet I keep receiving connection notices from people I don’t recognize.  Strange.

There’s no magic bullet for how to succeed in the nonprofit sector, but thanks to Big Duck and the Taproot Foundation for offering these suggestions.

Were you able to attend the recent Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits or the Convio Summit?  Here’s some ways on how to live tweet from an event from M&R (but make sure you participate in the live discussion – some of my best insights are from Q&A that takes place at events)  Also, Frogloop offers these takeaways on What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know.

If you missed last week’s chat with Andy Goodman on story telling, you can still get the recording from Nten.  Unfortunately, Andy reminded us that many nonprofits are ‘great at what we do, but not good in talking about it.’

Finally, if you’re spending a bit too much time on social media, here’s an important reminder from Jocelyn Harmon – put your most important relationships first.

Getting the Most from Nonprofit Events

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Whether in person or online, attending a nonprofit event is a great way to learn from others about the latest strategies in online technology, communications and fundraising.  Based on what I’ve observed at some events I’ve participated in lately, here’s my suggestions on how you can really benefit from attending nonprofit gatherings:

  1. Ask a question.  Not only is this the best way to get specific feedback for your needs, but it gives you an opportunity to introduce yourself to the group and share a current work challenge you are facing.
  2. Prepare in advance by researching the speakers, reviewing the agenda, and coming up with some specific issues you’d like to address
  3. While it’s great to reconnect with those you already know, take the time to get to know people you don’t.  (This is easier if you attend an event alone rather than with many of our work colleagues.)
  4. Find out the session hashtag and tweet out major points to those in your network who weren’t able to attend the event
  5. Thank the speakers for their time and for sharing their knowledge
  6. Follow up with those you met after the event;  don’t just take business cards.  Instead, arrange to speak or meet at a later time.
  7. Summarize what you learned from the event in writing for your boss and for others at your organization who might be interested in the topic
  8. Make sure you offer to help others, not just to get ideas about ‘your’ problem at work.
  9. Return to your office with a few strategies that you can apply quickly (if you wait too long, you’ll forget)
  10. Give back by arranging to speak about your expertise at a future event.

Fortunately the nonprofit community is a very sharing group, so take advantage of every opportunity to learn – and to share what you know about succeeding with ephilanthropy. (If you’d like an opportunity to apply some of these tips, please join me at the NYC 501 Tech Club meeting Monday night, Sep. 19 to learn how to innovate and thrive in the digital age.

Addedum 10-3-11 – great tips from my friend Ben Lichtenwalner on 25 Ways to Prepare for Conferences, which is helpful even if you’re attending only a one day event.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Among the many tips offered at Friday’s session on Facebook Tactics That Get Results offered by M&R Strategic Services and Nten was the reminder that very few Facebook fans will visit your page – they will mostly see your posts in their newsfeed.  (So why invest in expensive custom Facebook tabs?)  Surprisingly, you are penalized for posting from third party services such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite (read more on why these posts are less likely to appear in your newsfeed then if you post directly on Facebook).

How do you get more engagement – i.e. likes and comments, which will give your posts more visibility?  Use different types of content, including photos and videos, and ask constituents to take a specific action – especially those that will result in providing their email address so you can build your list.  (Did you know that you lose 18% of your list each year through unsubscribes and email addresses that no longer work?).

Idealware offers help on measuring your results on social media and Frogloop advises on how well as how you can manage data across multiple channels.  Jocelyn Harmon offers some simple advice on why constituents don’t donate.

Many nonprofits rely heavily on volunteers, yet their importance has often been overshadowed by those of lucky to have ‘paid’ work.  LinkedIn now offers a section to highlight volunteer experience and causes, which will help nonprofits to find its most loyal supporters.

Sept. 11 was a sad day, marking a decade since we lost almost three thousand people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  What can nonprofits learn when the unthinkable happens?  Here are some lessons and another view of the effect on nonprofits as we recover from a very emotional day yesterday.  Ten years ago, I worked for Cross-Cultural Solutions, which was able to help to coordinate recovery efforts in NYC after the horrible event.

7 Tips to Implement a Successful Fall ePhilanthropy Campaign

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Sadly, Labor Day is followed by fall with shorter days and cooler weather.  But it also provides an opportunity to reconnect with your constituents, climaxed by the important year-end fundraising campaign.  Here are some ways to hit the ground running when you return to the office tomorrow:

  1. Prepare an integrated communications / fundraising calendar describing how you will engage with your supporters across channels.  Balance appeals with messages showing how your organization has helped your target audience and be specific about you’ve utilized past donations.
  2. Start planning content for email campaigns well in advance, using these 7 tips for better fundraising emails and applying these best practices for enewsletters - they apply just as much for nonprofits as for small businesses (More ideas here)
  3. Take the time to analyze data on email subscribers, website traffic, Facebook ‘likers,’ Twitter followers etc. so you better understand what platforms your constituents are engaging with you
  4. Is your website consistently providing fresh content that is in synch with your other communication media?  If not, have you provided ongoing training to staff on how to utilize your content management software?  (What?  You don’t have a CMS.  Read Idealware’s Five Tips for A Successful Open Source CMS Project on a Budget)
  5. Find a few simple ways to start thinking multi-channel, even if it means changing the way your nonprofit usually works.  Get ideas from Frogloop’s  Multichannel Magic, then read about others’ successes in this month’s upcoming nonprofit blog carnival hosted by Big Duck featuring this topic
  6. Get out of your office.  If you’re in NYC, for example, you can learn how to innovate and thrive in the digital age at this month’s 501 Tech NYC event and discuss what makes successful websites at the Not-for-Profit Webmaster Round Table.  (You can also learn from your desk by taking a webinar during you lunch hour.)
  7. Optimize your online giving forms, paying particular attention to whether they work as well on mobile and tablet platforms, where more of your constituents are seeing them.
Congratulations once again to Charity:Water, which has kicked off its September campaign as another example of how to do ephilanthropy right with stirring video and constantly providing feedback on how it uses donations towards its mission of providing clean water worldwide .

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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If you missed this week’s Social Media for Nonprofits NYC event, you can get a great summary from Big Duck’s Farra Trompeter, who presented a great step by step tutorial on implementing Multi-Channel Campaigns.  (More session slides from this and past events are available here.)  See also Kivi Leroux Miller’s post highlighting Convio’s recently released Multi-Channel Marketing Report.

Coming up with strong content is the key behind any online strategy.  As I and many of my nonprofit colleagues around the country do, I try to find the most worthwhile posts to share with my followers.  Beth Kanter explains that Content Creation is Listening and Engaging, then followed up with this look at Scoop.It as a way to organize your content.

How can you make your website more ‘social’?  Debra Askanase explains how and gives several examples of nonprofits that are doing this well, and will follow up with a Nten webinar next month.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen says you must focus on essential content when writing for mobile platforms.  If you’re new to email marketing, learn about Email Marketing 2.0, then learn how segmentation can help you to get better results.

Finally, if you’re trying to find a format to send to your management to summarize social media and results of other online activity, Beth offers this guest post highlighting the Smithsonian Institution’s in-house dashboard, then suggests using a small pilot project to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media.

 

Who Will Take Care of You When You’re 64?

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Although I wasn’t lucky enough to see Paul McCartney in concert this weekend at Yankee Stadium, I did see him in Citi Field two years ago.  As a lifelong Beatles fan, I found his performance amazing, especially since he was 67 at the time.  From what I’ve heard about this weekend’s shows, he hasn’t slowed down much: 35 songs for nearly three hours without a break!

Interestingly, when the Beatles were together (and much younger), they did a song entitled When I’m 64, which asked the question of who would be there to take care of us when we reach retirement age.  This seemed a long time away at the time, so I found the song amusing but didn’t give it much more thought.

It’s great that Paul continues to perform as he approaches his 70th birthday next year, but most of us won’t be as lucky to have his talent – or his financial cushion – to insure a happy retirement.  Even if we’re fortunate enough to have a loving partner, there’s no assurance that he or she will be around to take care of us – or will be able to do so – for the rest of our lives.

Through my work at Jewish Funds for Justice, I recently became aware of a new initiative, Caring Across Generations, which seeks to call attention to long-term care workers who care for the elderly and those with disabilities.  These people often work for little money, yet put in long hours and deal with very difficult work situations.   Here’s what you can do now to call attention to this very important issue:

  • Watch or attend a Care Congress in your area
  • Sign the petition to protect what we have (e.g. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) and to create better working conditions for those who care for the elderly
  • Join the Caring Across Generations movement
  • Write to your local paper that you want to protect rights of long-term care workers
  • View presentation of this month’s kickoff conference in Washington DC

As an only child with a small family, I often cared for many elderly relatives, including my wonderful Aunt Minnie, who lived until 98 despite dementia which afflicted her in her later years.  She was able to live at home until the end thanks to the devotion of her two aides, Hazel and Lena, who worked 24×7 for many years to insure that she would continue to have a good quality of life.  I can never thank them enough for what they did.  By participating in this new Caring Across Generations initiative, you can help insure that you and your family will be cared for when you’re 64 (and beyond).

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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For best results in ephilanthropy initiatives, I’ve always advocated for an active partnership between Communications and Development.   Here’s more reasons why from Kivi Leroux Miller,  If you’re not getting the type of response you want from your nonprofit e-newsletters, Kivi also offers a free 15 day e-newsletter course at her Nonprofit Marketing Guide website. which offers many simple tips you can easily implement.

The debate continues on the new Google Plus.  Beth Kanter offers her take, as does Frogloop and TNW Social Media.  I believe there may be a benefit to adding your contacts manually, as it forces us to give some thought of who should be in each ‘circle.’  According to the Huffington Post, nonprofits are wasting no time in kicking the tires of Google’s answer to Facebook.

If your organization is undergoing a major change (as most of us do sooner or later), Peter De Jager provides many great resources on change management at Technobility.  See also Chaos is the New Normal.

Learn about fundraising and emarketing in Blackbaud’s Summer School webinar series which starts this week and, if you’re in NYC, attend next week’s 501 Tech Club meeting featuring how to get started with WordPress (which this blog uses).

As a follow-up to last week’s post on How to Make Your Projects Successful, Ben Lichtenwalner offers his Inverted Pyramid of Project Success.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Social media expert Beth Kanter summarizes recent studies on how to increase Facebook engagement – it’s also a great way to find out what issues your constituents are most interested in.  Beth also outlines how to set SMART social media objectives.

To better understand how multichannel marketing works, read the recent DonorCentrics report and these write-ups from Frogloop, NonprofitTimes, The Agitator and Katya Andresen.  One step in the right direction – make sure your marketing/communications and fundraising are planning campaigns together.

How much resources should your nonprofit devote to a Twitter strategy?  Here’s Pew Internet‘s latest update on who’s using Twitter.  And in addition to having a Facebook like button on your website, you can add a Twitter follow button also.  Here’s also advice on the best days/times to tweet.

If you’re using integrated software like Convio, what stops you from using the tool most effectively?  Recent options like @ConvioHelp and live chat can be helpful, but my experience shows that issues with product usability often get in the way also.  My suggestion – make sure you take the time to train your staff on an ongoing basis.

Idealware also offers its own guideline on how to allocate your time between website, email and online outreach.

Attending Fundraising Day in New York this week?  If so, please look for me there.